>>23852781 pb

>>23852826 pb

>>23852881 pb

He had them for dinner first; perfect.

He's not a despot but nevertheless likes to be (metaphorically) the "last man standing"! ?

They sure underestimate him. kekke

In Crowds and Power, Elias Canetti describes a chilling historical banquet hosted by the Roman Emperor Domitian, designed to instill terror in his guests and affirm his absolute power as the ultimate "survivor." This event, known as the "Funeral Banquet," exemplifies the paranoiac ruler's manipulation of fear during a seemingly convivial gathering. The following is the verbatim excerpt from pages 233–234:The Emperor Domitian is reported to have contrived a macabre game of this kind. The banquet he arranged, which has certainly never been repeated in the same form, gives a clear picture of the inmost nature of the paranoiac ruler. The description of it by Dio Cassius runs as follows: 'On another occasion he entertained the foremost men among the senators and knights in the following fashion. He prepared a room that was pitch black on every side, ceiling, walls and floor, and had made ready bare couches of the same colour resting on the uncovered floor; then he invited in his guests, alone at night, without their attendants. And first he set beside each of them a slab shaped like a gravestone, bearing the guest's name, and also a small lamp, such as hangs in tombs. Next comely naked boys, likewise painted black, entered like phantoms, and after encircling the guests in an awe-inspiring dance took up their stations at their feet. After this all the things that are commonly offered at the sacrifices to departed spirits were likewise set before the guests, all of them black and in dishes of similar colour. Consequently, every single one of the guests feared and trembled and was kept in constant expectation of having his throat cut the next moment, the more so as on the part of everybody except Domitian there was dead silence, as if they were already in the realms of the dead, and the emperor himself conversed only upon topics relating to death and slaughter. Finally he dismissed them; but he first removed their slaves, who had stood in the vestibule, and now gave his guests in charge of other slaves whom they did not know, to be conveyed either in carriages or litters; and by this procedure he filled them with far greater fear. And scarcely had each guest reached his home and was beginning to get his breath again, as one might say, when word was brought him that a messenger from the Augustus had come. While they were accordingly expecting to perish this time in any case, one person brought in the slab, which was of silver, and the others in turn brought in various articles, including the dishes which had been set before them at the dinner, which were constructed of very costly material; and last of all came that particular boy who had been each guest's familiar spirit, now washed and adorned. Thus, after having passed the entire night in terror, they received the gifts.' Such was the Funeral Banquet of Domitian, as people called it. The continuous state of terror in which Domitian kept his guests rendered them speechless. He alone spoke, and he spoke of death and killing. It was as though they were all dead and he alone lived. He had gathered together at this banquet all his victims—for victims they must have seemed to themselves—and as such, though disguised as guests, he addressed them. He himself was disguised as host, but in reality was the survivor. His situation as survivor was not only reaffirmed in relation to each guest, but was also subtly enhanced. The guests are as if dead, but he is still in a position to kill them. Thus the very process of survival is caught. In releasing them, he pardons them; but they tremble again when he hands them over to unknown slaves. They reach their homes and he again sends messengers of death to them; but these bring gifts and, amongst them, the greatest of all—the gift of life. He is able, as it were, to despatch them from life to death and then to bring them back to life again. It was a game which gave him the most intense sensation of power imaginable and he enjoyed it to the full.

https://asounder.org/resources/canetti_crowdsandpower.pdf