After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.
Ver. 14. After a dead dog, after a flea.] Egregiam vero laudem, a great praise, a great purchase sure, to kill a dead dog, to fight with a flea! Is this an employment fit for a king? an exploit worthy of such an army? a Caligula took his army to the ocean, as if he would have passed over into Brittany, and done great matters there: but he only caused his soldiers to pick up cockle shells that lay on the shore, and so returned to Rome: Magnifie glorians quasi oceano subacto. Ridiculum caput! b Domitian spent his time in catching flies: and Artaxerxes in making knife handles. Was this handsome? Aquila non captat muscas, as saith the proverb of the ancients.
a Facis quod est tanto rege indignum, dum me tenuissimum, infimum, et infirmissimum tanto comitatu persequeris. - Jun.
b Dio, in Calig.