The Essays of Montaigne Ch. 82: The Power of

Summary

Tacitus reports that amongst certain barbarian kings, when they would make a firm obligation, they join their right hands close to one another and intertwist their thumbs. When, by force of straining, the blood appears in the ends, they lightly prick them with some sharp instrument and mutually suck them. Physicians say that the thumbs are the master fingers of the hand, and that their Latin etymology is derived from pollere. The Greeks called them another hand, and the Latins sometimes take the word in this sense for the whole hand.

It was at Rome a signification of favour to depress and turn in the thumbs, and of disfavour to elevate and thrust them outward. The populace, with inverted thumbs, kill all that come before them. The Romans exempted from war all such as were maimed in the thumbs, as having no more sufficient strength to hold their weapons. Augustus confiscated the estate of a Roman knight who had maliciously cut off the thumbs of two young children he had, to excuse them from going into the armies. Before him, the Senate, in the time of the Italic war, condemned Caius Vatienus to perpetual imprisonment and confiscated all his goods for having purposely cut off the thumb of his left hand to exempt himself from that expedition.

Someone Montaigne has forgotten, having won a naval battle, cut off the thumbs of all his vanquished enemies to render them incapable of fighting and of handling the oar. The Athenians also caused the thumbs of the Aeginatans to be cut off, to deprive them of the superiority in the art of navigation. In Lacedaemon, pedagogues chastised their scholars by biting their thumbs.

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Why This Matters

Write the Local Signal Rule

A tiny sign at work can still decide who stays late, who gets cut, and who never hears why. At Rome the populace killed gladiators with inverted thumbs, while favour meant turning thumbs in, and Augustus seized a knight's estate for cutting his sons' thumbs to keep them from the armies.

This week, before you guess what a small gesture means in your room, write the local rule for that signal and who it can still finish.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: The Roman knight

The knight does not dispute the army's ranking: he cuts the thumbs that would read as fitness for war, as if a missing finger could finish two sons into civilians. Physicians call the thumbs "the master fingers of the hand," almost "another hand". Custom has already dressed that scrap of flesh as a whole fate, so the remaining lives are edited at the joint.

Continue this thoughtCustom Dresses Habit as Nature

Coming Up in Chapter 83

Montaigne has often heard that cowardice is the mother of cruelty, and the fiercest people he has seen are apt to cry on frivolous occasions. Alexander, tyrant of Pheres, will not watch Hecuba on stage lest his citizens see him weep, yet he murders people every day without pity.

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Chapter 82

The Power of Thumbs

OF THUMBS Tacitus reports, that amongst certain barbarian kings their manner was, when they would make a firm obligation, to join their right hands close to one another, and intertwist their thumbs; and when, by force of straining the blood, it appeared in the ends, they lightly pricked them with some sharp instrument, and mutually sucked them. Physicians say that the thumbs are the master fingers of the hand, and that their Latin etymology is derived from “pollere.” The Greeks called them ‘Avtixeip’, as who should say, another hand. And it seems that the Latins also sometimes take it in…

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The Power of Thumbs

Summary

Why This Matters