The Pig War (poem)


The Pig War is a Latin poem written by :la:Iohannes_Placentius|John Placentius, a Flemish Dominican monk, under the pseudonym Publius Porcius. The text was first printed in Antwerp in 1530.
The poem consists of 248 dactylic hexameters, every single word of them beginning with the letter p. As such, the poem is a tautogram. The poem is a satirical epic telling of an intergenerational conflict between the corrupt hogs, who are hogging all the privileges, and the piglets, who want in on them. Their conflict devolves into open war, and the poet uses pigs to allegorize human corruption, conflict, and revolutionary violence in a simple and transparent way.
Paraclesis pro Potore
Perlege porcorum pulcherrima proelia, Potor,
Potando poteris placidam proferre poesin.
A Summons to the Drinker
Peruse the pigs' glorious battles, my drinker!
Drinking lets you produce placid poetry.
— John Placentius, epigraph to The Pig War

Publication and reception history

The Pig War started out as a satire of student life in Leuven and was initially meant for a local audience in Catholic Belgium but, soon after being published, it also achieved popularity in Germany and elsewhere.
Placentius revised and reissued his book in 1533. In the late 19th century, English literary journals periodically rediscovered The Pig War, and it is possible that, in the 20th century, George Orwell knew or knew of it when he set out to write Animal Farm, a satirical epic with many similarities with The Pig War.
A new edition of The Pig War by Michael Fontaine appeared in 2019, published by the Paideia Institute Press.