Praetors Lunch

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Praetor?s Lunch, by Dom
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Title: Praetor?s Lunch
Author: Dom
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5766]
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year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on July 1, 2002]
Edition: 10
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PRAETOR?S
LUNCH ***
Copyright (C) 2002 by L.M. Wong
PRAETOR?S LUNCH
By DOM
The ancient magistrate is having lunch at noon and these are our
attempts at capturing his thoughts in the midst of dining. Thoughts are
expressed in both verse and prose form.
Take this morsel by morsel.
FIRST MORSEL
We wish an end to war with promises and hopes
of peace. We wish for peace ,we prepare for war. We threaten peace of
others with war. We rouse ourselves with the cry to arms. In peace or
war we are restless. In peace we amuse ourselves by sparring and
wargames .In war we sing our lamentations of peace.
What are we ?
A warlike race intent on keeping an empire with abundance .At the
same time advance in all directions with our might.
The horns of
bulls are never far from another warring bull?s tips. When reins are
loosened, gates thrown wide ,beasts lunge forth and lock horns again.
Mars. Venus. Ares. Aphrodite. Their temples are extremes. We invoke
their benison at various stages of life.
Nature. Choice. Reason. They
hatch outcome. We?re capable of breathing life force and personify the
two exorbitant passions. There is another passion but its sedateness
hardly qualifies it for that intense term. It is more an affliction. We are
within range of it too. This frigid indifference.
SECOND MORSEL
All will have their day. The thwarted,
triumphant. The Gods ,their final say. All will be, whatever they may
be. What soothsayers are privy to ,what the oracle withholds. The gods
intervene, they alter destinies. It all rests on the will of the Being who
wields the armoury of Nature and reins of the universe.
Miltiades and
Alexander crushed the might of armed Persian pride. Marathon and
Salamis undid Darius and Xerxes.
Patroclus wasn?t meant to sack
Troy. Struck by Apollo, slain by Hector. Menelaus could have slain
Paris but his sword broke. Paris though defeated was spared by

Aphrodite who returned him to Trojan lines.
Pandarus? arrow injured
Agamemnon . That one arrow aggravated the wounds of Greeks. Troy
was meant to fall .
Poseidon shielded Aeneas from the furious sword
of Achilles. Rome was meant to be.
THIRD MORSEL
View of evening and morning are crowning
achievements of nature?s light and shadow play. The rest of the day is a
hiatus between splendour. We need to live through and endure the rest
of it like life. Between glory and triumph, there are those simple times
which we seldom note or cherish. Times of neither sadness or gladness.
Existential. Not piquant vividness of acute alertness.
FOURTH MORSEL
To bear the fruits of victory and to have the
muscle of vanquished people, the state has to continually nurture a
nation of courageous loyal citizens. Conquest has to be maintained,
watched by ever vigilant sentries and keepers. The state neither needs
nor reveres idlers whose business is to indulge themselves in
Bacchanalian excesses on account of their ancestry to heroes of
preceding generations.
Lawmakers duel with wit, logic and words while the war machine duels
with tools of the army .Laws made or repealed as fearless scions fight
for aspirations of a greater state.
To safeguard the abundance of far
flung regions brought for the enjoyment of the homeland. Have the
names of conquerors venerated by the conquered people. Have kings,
queens and chieftains of unknown lands pay tribute to the imperial
standard.
FIFTH MORSEL
Two friends. They talk of things past, of bets
against each other. They laud things, condemn a few and lampoon
absurdities.
They try things out , chalk up mutual experiences .Argue
in good humour. They are both the core of their world. All else
backdrops. There are friendships which rival or surpass the