Perry 370: The Trumpeter

Today's fable is Perry 370, the story of the trumpeter captured during the war. At del.icio.us, you can see a complete list of the versions of this fable type that I have collected. This is one of those fables that is interesting on a literal level - is the trumpeter really culpable? It's kind of like thinking about those civilian contractors in Iraq, who are not carrying weapons but are part of the American occupation. Like all good fables, though, the story of the trumpeter gets its real significance from being able to be applied metaphorically to all kinds of situations, to people who "aid and abet" in any kind of endeavor which is likely to result in negative consequences, just as the trumpeter here did not kill any of the enemy, but roused the men of his army to do so.

Here is a version of the story from the Jacobs & Doering Latin reader:

Tubicen ab hostibus captus, Ne me, inquit, interficite; nam inermis sum, neque quidquam habeo praeter hanc tubam. At propter hoc ipsum, inquiunt, te interimemus; quod, cum ipse pugnandi sis imperitus, alios ad pugnam incitare soles. Fabula docet, non solum maleficos esse puniendos, sed etiam eos, qui alios ad male faciendum irritent.

Here it is written out in segmented style to make it easier to follow, while respecting the Latin word order:

Tubicen
ab hostibus captus,
Ne me, inquit, interficite;
nam inermis sum,
neque quidquam habeo
praeter hanc tubam.
At propter hoc ipsum,
inquiunt,
te interimemus;
quod,
cum ipse
pugnandi sis imperitus,
alios
ad pugnam incitare soles.
Fabula docet,
non solum maleficos
esse puniendos,
sed etiam eos,
qui
alios
ad male faciendum irritent.

I've created a slideshow of images for this story. You can visit the album, or view a full-screen version of the slideshow. Here is a small version of the slideshow; to hide the captions, just click on the caption icon in the lower left-hand corner.

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