History is full of powerful people. We are constantly told of the energetic exploits of princes, generals, and conquerors.
When you read the biography of a Caesar or Napoleon, the question inevitably arises as to where they found the time to lead a more or less ‘normal’ life in addition to their feverish military and political activities. Yet both found the opportunity to start a family, reproduce and even write books.
Admittedly, Napoleon wrote his unreadable sentimental novels in his youth, and did not dictate his memoirs until after his defeat, when, exiled to Saint Helena, he was at a loss for time. Caesar’s self-aggrandizing history of the Gallic War is still the best-selling volume of the legendary Loeb’s Classical Library series, although it is rumored that it is good for his reputation that his poems have been lost.
Napoleon said that one should get up when one feels the need to turn around again. One wonders whether it would have been so bad for humanity if he had slept in a little now and then; that would easily have saved a few hundred thousand casualties on the battlefields of Egypt and Europe.
The majority of the historical figures we read about would today have to answer before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, especially those who bear the epithet ‘the Great’, an epithet commonly acquired through tireless bloodshed (blood from third parties, that goes without saying; a diehard is a man who likes to be hard, but prefers to leave the dying to others someone whose name escapes me said aptly).
Also in the Bible, at least in the Old Testament, the diligent murder of entire peoples does honor to several heroes of the faith. The sixth commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ pales in comparison. Only since the appearance of Christ has the concept of ‘love’ been associated with God, and have we been advised to turn the other cheek in the face of aggression.
Occasionally someone has become famous precisely because of his lack of decisiveness; best known is the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus (ca 280-203 BC), who lost his initial nickname Verrucosus (the Warty) was allowed to trade for Cunctator (the Delayer) because of the evasion tactics he used against the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War. However, his procrastination was by no means intended to be peaceful.
My entire life I have put things off and left them until the last minute, a trait that proved to be disastrous, especially during my successive studies. It is not without reason that one of my favorite poems is Milton’s sonnet that ends with the line They also serve who only stand and wait .
After the foregoing, it will not surprise you that I have a soft spot for the lazier fellow human beings. There is a saying in Dutch: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. The Italians, on the other hand, and that is partly why I think they are such great people, say when an unpleasant task presents itself È proprio una cosa per domani : that’s really something for tomorrow.