The History of Monsters, page 221

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS

Many things regarding the human race that evoke great wonder ought, we believe, to be categorized under the heading of Historical Accounts. First, we shall record some instances concerning vision. According to Tertullian, Democritus blinded himself because he could not look upon women without desire. The poet Stesichorus, as Poliziano notes, was struck blind after publishing verses disparaging Helen; however, it is said he regained his sight after singing a retraction. No one doubts that the poet Homer was blind—named so, as some believe, because he required the shoulders of others to guide his path—though the cause of his blindness remains uncertain. Some argue it stemmed from a chronic illness, others from old age. Ovid, in his *Ibis*, suggests Homer was blinded by the stings of bees. Procopius records that Belisarius, Emperor Justinian's commander, fell under the Emperor's suspicion despite his triumphs over the Vandals and Persians and his repeated liberation of Italy from barbarians. Consequently, he was blinded. He built himself a hut by the public road, where he begged for sustenance from passersby with the words: "Traveler, give a penny to Belisarius, whom virtue raised up and envy blinded."

History records many instances of diverse human afflictions. Pliny writes that King Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt suffered from an abscess, but found a cure when he was wounded in the chest while seeking death in battle; once the corruption was cleared and drained, he was healed. Similarly, the Roman knight Servius Clodius suffered from gout. Tormented by its considerable pain, he rubbed his feet with poison and, as Suetonius relates, immediately lost all sensation in those parts. According to Caelius, an old woman named Accon was seized by a kind of madness; she would converse with her own reflection in a mirror as if it were a living woman. No less foolish was the Emperor Claudius, who, according to Sabellicus, adopted Domitius Hermes even though he had a legitimate son, Britannicus. To these we should add the foolishness of Cippius, who used to pretend to snore and sleep so his wife could more easily commit adultery; this seems to be the origin of the adage mentioned by Cicero: "I do not sleep for everyone." Hundreds of such examples could be cited, but we omit them for the sake of brevity.

Since we have touched upon sleep, we shall likewise record some noteworthy accounts of both sleeping and wakefulness. Pliny mentions a young boy who, exhausted from a journey, entered a cave and slept there for fifty-seven years; upon finally waking, he was astonished by the changed state of the world. Conversely, Gaius Maecenas spent the last three years of his life without any sleep at all. This is perhaps less surprising when we consider the reports of Nizolius, the famous Ciceronian scholar, who supposedly endured a decade of insomnia, only recovering his former sleep patterns after convalescing from a serious illness.

There are also accounts of parricide, fratricide, and other forms of death that are quite remarkable to hear, though we shall recount only a few. Ozias struck the prophet Amos, his father, with a lever because Amos had preached the Word of the Lord in defiance of King Jeroboam’s command. Telegonus killed his father Ulysses upon his return from Troy, treating him as a stranger. Nicomedes, driven by a lust for power, murdered his father Prusias, the King of Bithynia. Nero attempted to destroy his mother Agrippina—who investigated his deeds too curiously—by various means, primarily poison, before finally ordering her execution. Orestes also killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge his father Agamemnon. According to Caelius, Mithridates was so full of impiety that he murdered his mother, his brother, three sons, and as many daughters. Giovanni Maria, son of Gian Galeazzo and once Duke of Milan, shut his mother Catherine in a tower and forced her to die because she rebuked his actions too harshly.

On the other hand, there have been fathers who brought death upon their own children. Macrobius testifies that King Herod of Judea, in addition to the Massacre of the Innocents, deprived three of his own children of life. Hippomenes, a prince of the Athenians, having caught his daughter in adultery