1G0xxeB

Ancients and Moderns under the Empire of Circe: Machiavelli’s The Ass, Translation2 6 9and as Hannibal 15 on an elephant,he seemed triumphant, and his dresswas of a serious man, famous and handsome.115 A laurel garland was on his head;his face was very joyous and happy;all around, were people celebrating him.“He is the great abbot of Gaeta,” 16said the lady, “as you must know,120 who was already crowned as a poet.His likeness by supernal gods,as you see, in this place was put,with others that are around his feet,so that each one that comes near to him,125 certainly without further thought, could judgewhich are the people locked up beyond it.But let us do so without delay, such that we not loseso much time looking at him,that the time to return overtakes us.130 Come, then, with me, and if ever I wascourteous, I will appear so to you at this time,in revealing these dark places,if such grace is not by heaven taken from me.”Chapter SevenWe already were setting foot on the thresholdof that door, and the lady had madethe desire to pass through it come to me;and with that wish I remained content,5 because the door immediately opened,and revealed the crowded cloister.And so that it could be seen better,the light that she had covered under herclothes, in the entrance there she uncovered all.15Son of Hamilcar Barca, considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. Famousfor taking a land route to Italy from Iberia and crossing the Pyrenees and Alps with an army thatincluded thirty-eight war elephants. Appears in Dante’s Inferno, Canto 31 and Paradiso, Canto 6. SeeLivy’s History and Machiavelli’s Prince and Discourses.16A poetaster given a satirical triumph in Rome by Pope Leo X in 1515.