The Roman Sense Of Humor

[Viggen]

..relevant to this discussion;

 

 

One evening at a palace dinner party, in about 40AD, a couple of nervous aristocrats asked the emperor Caligula why he was laughing so heartily. “Just at the thought that I’d only have to click my fingers and I could have both your heads off!” It was, actually, a favourite gag of the emperor (he had been known to come out with it when fondling the lovely white neck of his mistress).

 

Mary Beard: humour in ancient Rome was a matter of life and death

[Ovidius Naso]

Another from Suetonius, The Life of Claudius. Seems his family liked to play tricks on him when he'd nap after meals:

 

They used also to put slippers on his hands as he lay snoring, so that when he was suddenly aroused he might rub his face with them.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html

 

I was also reminded of certain trompe l'oeil style floor murals designed to give the illusion of an uneven floor. Or the graffiti found at Pompeii and Herculaneum where people accuse each other of being eunuchs, pedophiles, and joke about their bowel movements. http://www.kashgar.com.au/articles/The-Bawdy-Graffiti-of-Pompeii-and-Herculaneum

[Onasander]

Easy solution to the Roman Commissioner, all the Philosophers adopt Cratylus' s stance on language, and question and answers would only be via finger pointing. 

 

If the Roman doesn't like it, the Philosophers can in unison give him the finger. 

Edited June 13, 2014 by Onasander