Charles entered Florence on the 17th of November 1494, and the citizens' fears evaporated in jests on the puny exterior of the "threatened scourge."
In Plutarch's Symposium of the Seven Sages, at which Aesop is a guest, there are many jests on his original servile condition, but nothing derogatory is said about his personal appearance.
His jests, which were used by his enemies as a charge against him, seem to have originated in religious indifference, or perhaps in a spirit of inquiry which anticipated the ideas of a later age.
From politeness and to start conversation, they asked him a few questions about the army and the battle, and then the talk went off into merry jests and gossip.
Jests fell flat, news was not interesting, and the animation was evidently forced.