FEARFUL FAMINES OF THE PAST 



71 



bereft sojourner decided to return to her 

 own people, the literature of the world 

 was enriched for all time by Ruth's 

 matchless expression of woman's loyalty 

 and devotion to woman in her "Entreat 

 me not to leave thee, or to return from 

 following after thee." 



Two other biblical famines are note- 

 worthy as preludes to the depravity to 

 which' hunger brought mankind in suc- 

 ceeding generations. The first authentic 

 record of cannibalism as a result of fam- 

 ine is found in the sacred recital of the 

 siege of Samaria by Ben-hadad, King of 

 Syria, in the ninth century before the 

 dawn of the Christian era: 



"And as the King of Israel was walk- 

 ing upon the wall," so runs the account 

 in the Second Book of Kings, "there 

 cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, 

 my lord, O King. . . . This woman 

 said unto me, Give thy son, that we may 

 eat him today, and we will eat my son 

 tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and 

 did eat him ; and I said unto her the next 

 day, Give thy son that we may eat him ; 

 and she hath hid her son." 



It was in this same famine that it is 

 recorded an ass's head was sold for four- 

 score pieces of silver (probably about 

 $50) and "the fourth part of a cab of 

 dove's dung [a pint] for five pieces of 

 silver." 



A hundred years after the Samarian 

 famine Rome's dawn upon the horizon 

 of history was signalized, according to 

 Plutarch, by a frightful pestilence and 

 famine. Blood or crimson-colored in- 

 sects fell from the clouds ; disease, star- 

 vation, and the sword ravaged all Cam- 

 pania. 



From this baleful, beginning Rome's 

 early history was punctuated by a succes- 

 sion of famines, pestilences, and wars ; 

 but none marked by any outstanding 

 severity or event which focuses human 

 interest until the middle of the fifth cen- 

 tury before the Christian era. Beginning 

 450 B. C, however, there was a series of 

 famines extending over a period of nearly 

 twenty years. 



In one season of particular severity 

 thousands of desperate people flung 

 themselves into the Tiber to escape the 

 terrible suffering of hunger. 



It was to such distress that the ple- 

 beian knight, Spurius Maelius, minis- 

 tered, importing corn and selling it at 

 low rates or giving it away to the starv- 

 ing. This charity made him the idol of 

 the common people and therefore an ob- 

 ject of suspicion to the patrician class. 

 The latter professed to see in such 

 bounty an attempt on the part of the 

 public benefactor to make himself king. 



THK ROMAN JOSEPH SL,AIN 



In this supposed extremity an appeal 

 was made to Cincinnatus, who had re- 

 cently returned to his farm and his plow 

 after his brief dictatorship, during which 

 he had saved Rome. Maelius refused to 

 appear before the dictator ; whereupon 

 Servilius Ahala, Cincinnatus' master of 

 horse, discovering the knight in the 

 crowd in front of the forum, struck him 

 dead. 



Thus perished the Roman counterpart 

 of Joseph, with the difference that Mae- 

 lius was perhaps a self-seeking philan- 

 thropist, whereas the Israelite in the land 

 of the Pharaohs sought no personal ag- 

 grandizement, but profit for his king. 



Some fifty years after the death of 

 Maelius, the Gauls, led by Brennus, 

 brought all three of the great scourges of 

 mankind — war, pestilence, and famine — 

 within the very walls of Rome. Con- 

 cerning this period the historians of a 

 later era wove a series of heroic legends 

 as picturesque as the Arthurian tales. 



It was at this time that the Roman 

 senators, after the defeat of their army 

 at Allia, put on their robes of office and 

 seated themselves in their accustomed 

 places to await in silence the arrival of 

 the barbarians and their own death. The 

 imposing austerity of the city fathers for 

 a moment struck the invaders with awe ; 

 but when one of the soldiers plucked the 

 beard of a senator and was smitten by 

 the outraged patrician, all the inhabitants 

 were put to the sword and the city re- 

 duced to ashes. 



Marcus Manlius and a faithful band 

 still occupied the citadel, however, and 

 for seven months they held it in the face 

 of dire famine. The ranks of the in- 

 vaders in the meantime were ravaged by 

 pestilence, caused by their failure to bury 



