Cordova: A city of the Moors

by Albert Frederick Calvert; Walter M. Gallichan

The genius of Seneca was soon recognised by the rulers in Cordova, and his fame reached Rome, whither he went, and where he was received with the respect that his deep learning merited. His career was, however, checked by his unfortunate intrigue with Julia, the married sister of the Emperor Caligula. As a punishment for his adultery he was sent to Corsica, where he lived in banishment for eight years.

During this long spell of solitude Seneca mused and studied, and found the period of exile one of fruitfulness to the mind. Yet when he was recalled to Rome, at the intercession of Agrippina, the philosopher exhibited a keen desire for wealth, which is scarcely reconcilable with his affirmations concerning the life of simplicity and self-denial. In order to make money, he did not hesitate to lend sums at an exorbitant interest. He became a courtier, and was the confidential tutor of Nero; but at the height of his fortune he conspired against the emperor. His condonation of Nero’s murder of his mother was an elaborate piece of casuistry, devised for no other reason than the desire to retain the royal patronage. In this and in other episodes, the career of Seneca bewilders us, and provides matter for reflection upon the inconsistency of human nature and the fallibility of even the greatest ethicists.

The last pages in the life of the philosopher are sad. He was condemned to death as a traitor, and he had married a young wife. When he heard that the guards were on their way to arrest him, Seneca resolved to open one of his veins and to bleed to death. His loyal and loving wife begged to share his fate, and at her request he cut one of her veins. But Seneca was old, seventy years of age, and his blood flowed so slowly that he could not die. In his desperation he drank a cup of hemlock, hoping to poison himself, and by that means put an end to his anguish. Yet even the hemlock potion failed. Asphyxiation in a heated chamber at last brought death to the aged sage, and by timely attention the life of his young wife was saved.

Marcus Annæus Lucanus, or Lucan, was born in Cordova in the year A.D. 38 or 39. He was the nephew of Seneca, and his father was a public servant held in esteem in the city. Our data for a biography of Lucanus are very scanty. He wrote poems before he left Cordova, and encouraged the writing of Latin verse among the Spanish residents. His great work, the Pharsalia, was left unfinished.

Lucan was lauded by Tacitus as a poet. He went to Rome, and it is recorded that he vanquished Nero in one of the poetical tournaments in which that monarch delighted. The egotistic emperor never forgave Lucan for beating him in this literary contest. He vindictively forbade the poet to write any more poems or to recite to audiences. We need not be surprised that the aggrieved poet rebelled against this attempt to utterly silence his song, to deprive him of the exercise of his art, and to crush him. Lucan was aroused. He became one of the conspirators of Piso, and plotted against the power of Nero.

When he was arrested, and offered pardon if he would name his accomplices in the plot, Lucan falsely accused his mother Atilia of complicity. This cowardly resort was, however, of no avail. He was not spared by the vengeful Nero, who gave the poet his choice of death. Lucan chose the usual Roman mode of opening a vein in a bath. He is said to have recited one of his poems as he died.

Ibn-Roshid Averroes, the most renowned of the Arabian philosophers, was born in Cordova in A.D. 1120. He came of a high-born family held in honour in the city. His grandfather was a Kadi of Cordova. In his youth Averroes learned law, mathematics, theology, and the practice of medicine. His reputation as a man of erudition and of force of intellect caused Almanzor to grant him privileges. He was appointed Kadi of the city of Seville.

The story of the life of Averroes is an example of the eternal conflict between the reformer of thought and morals and the mass of the people of his age. Averroes was misunderstood, impeached as a dangerous heretic, and condemned as an enemy of humanity. The Moors, in spite of their culture, could manifest rank fanaticism when they encountered any teaching that seemed to contradict the writings of the Koran, or the traditional piety. Averroes was a follower of Aristotle, although he remained a Mohammedan, and as the Greek philosophy did not accord completely with the dogmas of Mohammed, the teacher was arraigned as an assailant of religion and a foe to morality. His ostracism was thorough. The noble man was pelted with stones by boys in the street, and scorned by the whole city.

Shrinking from this terrible spectacle of the humiliation and cruelty heaped upon the innocent head of his revered tutor, the young Maimonides, a diligent pupil of Averroes, fled from Cordova. Averroes soon after left the city, and wandered in Morocco. But he was not allowed to roam unmolested. At Fez the populace treated him with gross inhumanity. He was forced to stand on the step of the mosque, and every one who passed into the House of Allah spat in the philosopher’s face. Hunted, despised, and bereft of the opportunity for using his learning for the good of humanity, Averroes dissembled and professed to repent of his heresies. We can hardly experience surprise at this. His humiliation and his trials had been such that few men could endure without a loss of reason or a total paralysis of aspiration.

Averroes returned to Cordova. But he was still avoided and looked upon as a felon, and his poverty and miserable state continued. Eventually he was reinstated. There was a reaction of feeling; bigotry was wearing out, and the virtues and attainments of the great thinker were recognised at their worth. The chief work of Averroes was his philosophy, compounded of Aristotle and the teaching of Neo-Platonism. His writings upon Aristotle are not of the highest value, for he was unversed in the Greek language.