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The Satyr A Parable from Plutarch By ALUN LLEWELLYN (Sulla was a Roman and Dictator of Rome. Plutarch, in the life of the Dictator which he wrote, says that when engaged upon the conquest of Greece, the soldiers of the Dictator found a strange beast in the forests which they brought and showed to their leader.) So, after having wondered at him a while and laughed one to another, they took him and bound his arms with twisted vines, gently, and forced him to go with them, prodding him with the butt of a spear now when he made as if to stand or run from them, and now wantonly, for no reason save to make mirth at his rage and at length they brought him before Sulla. What is this thing ? asked Sulla of his soldiers. We found it sleeping in a wood," said they, and it seems to be a satyr." Let me talk with it," said Sulla, for so strange a chance will not come to me again." Then they unbound the satyr's arms, for he seemed more querulous than dangerous, and went out from the tent leaving Sulla alone with the satyr save for Hyperbolus, a slave who was the scribe of Sulla. And the talk they made together, Hyperbolus wrote down, and I write it here after him, believing Hyperbolus to speak truth of this matter, although he was a slave and at times wrote verses. Sulla What thing are you ? Satyr "lama satyr; I am something other than man." Sulla So am I. I am a Dictator." Satyr But you are still a man and therefore an inferior breed." Sulla Yet you and I have the same birth; each of us is made from man's imagination. When men say Sulla' among themselves, they do not mean the man I know, who has doubts and is divided in his thoughts, is sometimes afraid and many times indifferent to the grave matters that concern the nations. I do not rule fortune fortune has ruled me but men do not know this. To them I am Sulla the general, certain of victory, stern in the matter and the enforcement of my laws and therefore, wise, as much master of the present and moulder of the future as a god. Sulla the conqueror, the inflexible, the sure, the strong this is a dream men have made, a thing created of their faith and shaped in my image. It is not I, it is fancy. And so are you. I