In Praise of a Fly

Suetonius tells us that the emperor Domitian, at the beginning of his reign, would “spend hours in seclusion every day, doing nothing but catch flies and stab them with a keenly-sharpened stylus.” When the emperor’s advisor was asked whether anyone was inside the room with Caesar, he wittily replied, “Not even a fly.” The anecdote offers insight into Domitian’s character: the young tyrant’s ruthless acts of insecticide anticipate the many subsequent cruelties he inflicted on men. The fly has always been an emblem of human helplessness before the Fates. “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods,” laments the blind Gloucester in King Lear, “They kill us for their sport.”