The Island of Magicians — Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver leaves Lagado for Europe by way of Luggnagg, reaches the port of Maldonada, and waits a month because no ship is ready. A gentleman suggests a side trip to Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, governed by a necromancer prince whose domestics are dead servants summoned for twenty, four hours at a time. The palace guards make Gulliver's flesh creep until routine sets in. The governor dismisses his attendants with a turn of his finger and offers Gulliver the same power: call any figure from the dead, ask questions confined to their own era, and expect truth because lying is a talent of no use in the lower world. Gulliver asks first for pomp: Alexander at Arbela, then Alexander in the room, who swears on his honour he was not poisoned but died of a bad fever from excessive drinking. Hannibal crossing the Alps admits he had not a drop of vinegar in his camp. Caesar and Pompey appear ready to engage; the senate of Rome looks like heroes and demigods while a later assembly looks like pedlars and pickpockets. Caesar and Brutus advance together in good intelligence; Caesar confesses that the greatest actions of his life were not equal by many degrees to the glory of taking it away. Brutus places himself in a sextumvirate with Junius, Socrates, Epaminondas, Cato, More, and says no seventh age could be added. Gulliver spends ten days calling destroyers of tyrants and restorers of liberty, feeding his eyes until satisfaction outruns what he can tell the reader. The legends shrink; the dead speak plainly.