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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: like Moloch, several altars to whom he had passed upon his route; and
he recalled the stories he had heard of the mysterious Jew who
fattened small children and offered them as a sacrifice. His Latin
nature was filled with disgust at their intolerance, their
iconoclastic rage, their brutal, stumbling bearing. The proconsul
wished to depart, but Aulus refused to accompany him.
The exaltation of the people increased. They abandoned themselves to
dreams of independence. They recalled the glory of Israel, and a
Syrian spoke of all the great conquerors they had vanquished,--
Antigone, Crassus, Varus.
"Miserable creatures!" cried the enraged proconsul, who had overheard
Herodias |
