[71] Why do they tie hay to one horn of vicious bulls to warn anyone who meets them to be on guard?
Is it because bulls, horses, asses, men, all wax wanton through stuffing and gorging? So Sophocles[163] has somewhere written,
You prance, as does a colt, from glut of food,
For both your belly and your cheeks are full.
Wherefore also the Romans used to say that Marcus Crassus[164] had hay on his horn: for those who heckled the other chief men in the State were on their guard against assailing him, since they knew that he was vindictive and hard to cope with. Later, however, another saying was bandied about, that Caesar had pulled the hay from Crassus: for Caesar was the first to oppose Crassus in public policy and to treat him with contumely.