Varro, logically, does not resist the temptation to seek an explanation or draw a conclusion, (no matter if it is focused or not,  but it does not appear to be correct), from  the proximity between the two terms: urbem and orbem. He does so it in his De lingua Latina, (On the Latin Language) V, 143:

Many founded towns in Latium by the Etruscan ritual ; that is, with a team of cattle, a bull and a cow on the inside, they ran a furrow around with a plough (for reasons of religion they did this on an auspicious day), that they might be fortified by a ditch and a wall. The place whence they had ploughed up the earth, they called a fossa ‘ ditch,’ and the earth thrown inside it they called the murus ‘ wall.’ The orbis ‘ circle ‘ which was made back of this, was the beginning of the urbs ‘ city ‘ ; because the circle was post murum ‘ back of the wall,’ it was called a postmoerium  ; it sets the limits for the taking of the auspices for the city. Stone markers of the pomerium stand both around Aricia  and around Rome. Therefore towns also which had earlier had the plough drawn around them, were termed urbes ‘ cities,’ from orbis ‘ circle ‘ and urvum ‘ curved ‘ ; therefore also all our colonies are mentioned as urbes in the old writings, because they had been founded in just the same way as Rome ; therefore also colonies and cities conduntur ‘ are founded,’ because they are placed inside the pomerium. (Translation by Roland G.Kent. Ph.D.)

Oppida condebant in Latio Etrusco ritu multi, id est, iunctis bobus, tauro et vacca interiore, aratro circumagebant sulcum (hoc faciebant religionis causa die auspicato), ut fossa et muro essent muniti. Terram unde exculpserant, fossam vocabant et introrsum iactam murum. Post ea qui fiebatorbis, urbis principium; qui quod erat post murum, postmoerium dictum, eo usque auspicia urbana finiuntur. Cippi pomeri stant et cirum Ariciam et circum Romam. Quare et oppida quae prius erant circumducta aratro ab orbe et urvo urbes; et ideo coloniae nostrae omnes in litterid antiquis scribunturt urbes, quod ítem conditae ut Roma; et ideo coloniae et urbes condungtur, quod intra pomerium ponuntur.

I will present some texts that exemplify the use in the Antiquity of this paronomasia.

Cornelius Nepos (c.100 BC – c. 25 BC) in the Life of Atticus puts in touch both words, urbis and orbis:

Nepos, Life of Atticus,  20.5

How strong such  attachment is, he will be easily able to judge, who can understand how much prudence is required to preserve the friendship and favour of those between whom there existed not only emulation in the highest matters, but such a mutual struggle to lessen one another as was sure to happen between Caesar and Antony, when each of them desired to be chief, not merely of the city of Rome, but of the whole world. (Translation by John Selby Watson, MA)

hoc quale sit, facilius existimabit is, qui iudicare poterit, quantae sit sapientiae eorum retinere usum benivolentiamque, inter quos maximarum rerum non solum aemulatio, sed obtrectatio tanta intercedebat, quantam fuit incidere necesse inter Caesarem atque Antonium, cum se uterque principem non solum urbis Romae, sed orbis terrarum esse cuperet.

Thus Ovid, in his Ars Amatoria comments that the public shows, that the women attend, are a good opportunity to establish some kind of relationship. In this passage he makes an interesting integration, a paronomasia, between “urbe” and “orbis“: atque ingens orbis in Urbe fuit.

The Art of love, 1, 171 et seq.

Caesar would represent a naval fight,
For his own honour and for Rome’s delight.
From either sea the youths and maidens come,
And all the world was then contain’d in Rome!
(atque ingens ORBIS in URBE fuit)
In this vast concourse, in this choice of game,
What Roman heart but felt a foreign flame!
Once more our prince prepares to make us glad,
And the remaining east to Rome will add.
Rejoice, ye Roman soldiers, in your urns,
Your ensigns from the Parthians shall return,
And the slain Crassi shall no longer mourn.
A youth is sent those trophies to demand,
Ard bears his father’s thunders in his hand;
Doubt not th’ imperial boy in wars unseen,
In childhood all of Caesar’s race are men.
Celestial seeds shoot out before their day,
Prevent their years, and brook no dull delay.
(Translated by John Dryden (1631–1700).

quid, modo cum belli navalis imagine Caesar
   Persidas induxit Cecropiasque rates?
nempe ab utroque mari iuvenes, ab utroque puellae
   Venere, atque ingens orbis in Urbe fuit.
quis non invenit turba, quod amaret, in illa?      
   eheu, quam multos advena torsit amor!
ecce, parat Caesar domito quod defuit orbi
   addere: nunc, oriens ultime, noster eris.
Parthe, dabis poenas: Crassi gaudete sepulti,
signaque barbaricas non bene passa manus.      
ultor adest, primisque ducem profitetur in annis,
   bellaque non puero tractat agenda puer.

Marcus Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 BC – c. AD 31), Compendium of Roman History, 2,44

But to resume. It was in Caesar’s consulship that there was formed between himself, Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus the partnership in political power which proved so baleful to the city, to the world, and, subsequently at different periods to each of the triumvirs themselves.  Pompey’s motive in the adoption of this policy had been to secure through Caesar as consul the long delayed ratification of his acts in the provinces across the seas, to which, as I have already said, many still raised objections; Caesar agreed to it because he realized that in making this concession to the prestige of Pompey he would increase his own, and that by throwing on Pompey the odium for their joint control he would add to his own power; while Crassus hoped by the influence of Pompey and the power of Caesar he might achieve a place of pre-eminence in the state which he had not been able to reach single-handed.  Furthermore, a tie of marriage was cemented between Caesar and Pompey, in that Pompey now wedded Julia, Caesar’s daughter. (Translated by Frederick W. Shipley)

Hoc igitur consule inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiae societas, quae urbi orbique terrarum nec minus diverso cuique tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit.  Hoc consilium sequendi Pompeius causam habuerat, ut tandem acta in transmarinis provinciis, quibus, ut praediximus, multi obtrectabant, per Caesarem confirmarentur consulem, Caesar autem, quod animadvertebat se cedendo Pompei gloriae aucturum suam et invidia communis potentiae in illum relegata confirmaturum vires suas, Crassus, ut quem principatum solus adsequi non poterat, auctoritate Pompei, viribus teneret Caesaris,  adfinitas etiam inter Caesarem Pompeiumque contracta nuptiis, quippe Iuliam, filiam C. Caesaris, Cn. Magnus duxit uxorem.

Tertullian also in his Apologeticum (ca.160-ca.220), 40,1-4 relates the two words:
quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt!

On the contrary, faction is a name which belongs to those only who conspire in the hatred of the good and virtuous, and remonstratefull cry for innocent blood, sheltering their malice under this vain pretence, that they are of opinion, forsooth, that the Christians are the occasion of all the mischief in the world. If Tiber overflows, and Nile does not; if heaven stands still and withholds its rain, and the earth quakes ; if famine or pestilence take their marches through the country, the word is, Away with these Christians to the lion ! Bless me ! what, so many people to one lion ! Pray tell me what havoc, what a mighty fall of people has been made in the world and Rome (quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt!)  before the reign of Tiberius, that is, before the advent of Christ ? We read of Hierannape, and Delos, and Rhodes, and Co, islands swept away with many thousands of their inhabitants. … (Translated by Jeremy Collier, A.M.)

At e contrario illis nomen factionis accommodandum est, qui in odium bonorum et proborum conspirant, qui adversum sanguinem innocentium conclamant, praetexentes sane ad odii defensionem illam quoque vanitatem, quod existiment omnis publicae cladis, omnis popularis incommodi Christianos esse in causa[m].  Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si caelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim: “Christianos ad leonem!” acclamatur. Tantos ad unum?
Oro vos, ante Tiberium, id est ante Christi adventum, quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt! Legimus Hieran, Anaphen et Delon et Rhodon et Co insulas multis cum milibus hominum pessum abisse.

Sidonius Apollinaris (430-489 AD), bishop of Clermont Ferrand, in Carmina, 7, uses this paronomasia:
captivus, ut aiunt, orbis in urbe iacet (verse 557)

Carmen 7 is a panegyric to his father-in-law Avitus on his inauguration as emperor. In a meeting of the gods Rome complains of its decadence; its history is reviewed and Jupiter takes part. Soon Avitus is proclaimed emperor by the Visigothics and Gallicromans.

Sidonius Apollinaris, Carmina, 7, 550 y ss.

Now the supreme office calls for thee; in time of peril a realm cannot be ruled by a poltroon. All ambitious rivalry gives place when extremity calls for men of renown. After the losses of Ticinum and Trebia the trembling republic came in haste to Fabius. By the election of Livius the disaster of Cannae, famous for Varro’s rout, was undone; undone too was the Carthaginian, still exulting over the deaths of the Scipios. The world, they say, lies captive in the captive city ; the Emperor has perished, and now the Empire has its head here.

Ascend the tribunal, we beseech thee, and raise up the fainting; this time of peril asks not that some other should love Rome more. Nor do thou by any chance deem thyself unequal to sovereignty. When Brennus’ host beset the Tarpeian rock, then, thou knowest, Camillus was himself the whole of our state, and he, the destined avenger of his country, covered the smoking embers of the city with the slaughtered enemy. No gold scattered among the people hath secured for thee the verdict of the centuries ; this time no venal tribes bought with plenteous coin rush to give their votes the suffrages of the world no one can buy. Though a poor man, thou art being chosen; rich art thou in thy deserts, and that suffices in itself. Why dost thou hinder the desires of thy country, when she orders thee to give orders to her? This is the judgment of all: ” if thou becomest the master I shall be free.” (Translated by W.B. Anderson).

nunc iam summa vocant,  dubio sub tempore regnum
non regit ignavus, postponitur ambitus omnis
ultima cum claros quaerunt: post damna Ticini
ac Trebiae trepidans raptim respublica venit
ad Fabium; Cannas celebres Varrone fugato
Scipiadumque etiam turgentem funere Poenum
Livius electus fregit, captivus, ut aiunt,
orbis in urbe iacet; princeps perit, hic caput omne
nunc habet imperium, petimus, conscende tribunal, 
erige collapsos; non hoc modo tempora poscunt,
ut Romam plus alter amet. nec forte reare
te regno non esse parem: cum Brennica signa
Tarpeium premerent, scis, tum respublica nostra
tota Camillus erat, patriae qui debitus ultor
texit fumantes hostili strage favillas.
non tibi centurias aurum populare paravit,
nec modo venales numerosoque asse redemptae
concurrunt ad puncta tribus; suffragia mundi
nullus emit, pauper legeris ; quod sufficit unum,
es meritis dives, patriae cur vota moraris,
quae iubet ut iubeas ? haec est sententia cunctis :
si dominus fis, liber ero.’

Flavius Cresconius Corippus, who lived approximately from the year 500 to 570 AD was probably the last major Latin author of antiquity, on  time of the Byzantine emperors Iustinian I and Iustin II. His two major works are the epic poem Johannis  and the panegyric In laudem Iustini minoris.

It is precisely in this last one that in several occasions he uses the formula “urbis–orbis“; Precisely it is a feature of his style, the repetition of words and concepts and also the use of paronomasias or words very similar in form although different in the meaning. So

Verses I, 173 y ss.

The whole group, prostrate and lying before their feet, while speaking thus, says together: “Have pity, pious,  of those who beg you, holy man, come to help us in adversity. As the day arrives you will see that everything is lost if the people can hear that the throne is empty and the emperor is not there. As much as your affection for your virtuous  father may affect you, let not your  love for your  country  be less than that you have for your father. Your uncle himself, dying, ordered you with his own words to kept the scepter. See how much it was the forecast and request of the old man for our city and the whole world (aspice quanta fuit nostrae simul urbis et orbis). In your behalf God made all that he wanted to happen. Mount your father’s throne, mighty prince,  and rule the world that is submission  to you.

Talia dicentis pedibus prostrata iacensque
omnis turba simul “pius es, miserere” perorat
“supplicibus, vir sancte, tuis: succurre periclis.
Omnia mox veniente die periisse videbis,
si vacuam vulgussine príncipe senserit aulam.
Quantumcumque boni moveat dilectio patris,
non sit amor patriae patrio minor. Ipse tenere
sceptra tuus moriens te iussit avunculus ore.
aspice quanta fuit nostrae simul urbis et orbis
próvida cura seni. pro te deus omnia fecit,
quae fieri voluit. solium conscende paternum
et rege subiectum, prínceps fortissime, mundum

And again in Verses 244 y ss.

And not unjustly, I think, would he, in death, be so happy and with a countenance so full of goodness, if his mind, conscious of the good that he makes, would not have abandoned his  tranquil body members, flying towards heaven and would not have ensured the empire by  the confirmation of an heir. When the noble Justin came here, throwing his loving arms around the lifeless body, he said,  sobbing: “Light of the city and  the universe, Father Justinian, are you leaving your beloved court and are you abandoning  your relatives, your servants and so many subjects? Do you despise your lands? Do not you sail for  the exhausted world? Here you have the Avars and the harsh Franks and the Gepids and  the Getas, and so many other nations who, after raising their ensigns, cause war everywhere. With how much  strength will we overcome so many enemies if you, firmness of Rome, are dead? “

Haud, reor, immerito sic laetus et ore benignus
Ille foret moriens, nisi mens sibi conscia recti
in caelum properans securos linqueret artus
et tutum imperium firmato herede locaret.
Huc ubi magnanimus sacra cum coniuge venit,
cara per exanimum circumdans brachia corpus
cum lacrimis Iustinus ait: “lux urbis et orbis,
Iustiniane pater, dilectam deseris aulam?
Cognatos fámulos et tantos linquis alumnos?
Contemnis terras? Fesso non prospicis orbi?
En Avares Francique truces Gepidesque Getaeque
totque aliae gentes commotis undique ignis
bella movent; qua vi tantos superabimos hostes,
cum virtus Romana iacet?...

And again in  verses III, 72 y ss.:

Organs, plectrums and lyres resounded throughout the city; a thousand kinds of spectacles, a thousand banquets, dances, laughter, conversation, joy and applause were offered. They prayed for long life for the emperors in happy cries. “After its old age,” they say, “the world rejoices its rejuvenation and seeks the principles of its original appearance. The iron age has  now gone, and the  golden age is getting up in your time, Justin, hope of the city and the world, light of the Roman Empire, glory added to all the emperors who preceded you, whose victorious wisdom has gained the highest summit of your father’s kingdom»

Organa, plectra, lyrae totam insonuere per urbem.
Mille voluptatum species, convicia mille,
saltatus, risus, discursus, gaudia, plausus.
Augustis vitam laetis clamoribus optant.
post senium dicunt “sese iuvenescere mundus
gaudet Et antiquae repetit  primordia formae.
Férrea nunc abeunt aurea saecula surgunt
temporibus, Iustine, tuis, spes urbis et orbis,
Romani iubar imperii, decus addite cunctis
retro principibus, cuius sapientia victrix
obtinuit patrii fastigia máxima regni.”

The summary of all this, of the content and the of literary figure, is personified by a happy verse of the fifth century French poet Rutilius Namatianus, from which we retain part of the only poem we know he wrote, entitled “De reditu suo” (On the return ). In it he sings the greatness and ancient splendor of Rome and criticizes Christianity. In the so-called Hymn to Rome, which appears personified, we find the summary verse  which I referred:

             ‘urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat’

“Listen, O fairest queen of thy world, Rome, welcomed amid the starry skies, listen, thou mother of men and mother of gods, thanks to thy temples we are not far from heaven: thee do we chant, and shall, while destiny allows, for ever chant. None can be safe if forgetful of thee. Sooner shall guilty oblivion whelm the sun than the honour due to thee quit my heart; for benefits extend as far as the sun’s rays, where the circling Ocean-flood bounds the world. For thee the very Sun-God who holdeth all together doth revolve: his steeds that rise in thy domains he puts in thy domains to rest. Thee Africa hath not stayed with scorching sands, nor hath the Bear, armed with its native cold, repulsed thee. As far as living nature hath stretched towards the poles, so far hath earth opened a path for thy valour. For nations far apart thou hast made a single fatherland; under thy dominion captivity hath meant profit even for those who knew not justice:and by offering to the vanquished a share in thine own justice, thou hast made a city of what was erstwhile a world.

“As authors of our race we acknowledge Venus and Mars — mother of the sons of Aeneas, father of the scions of Romulus: clemency in victory tempers armed strength: both names befit thy character: hence thy noble pleasure in war and in mercy: it vanquishes the dreaded foe and cherishes the vanquished. (Translated by  J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)

“exaudi, regina tui pulcherrima mundi,
inter sidereos Roma recepta polos,
exaudi, genetrix hominum genetrixque deorum,
non procul a caelo per tua templa sumus:
te canimus semperque, sinent dum fata, canemus:
sospes nemo potest immemor esse tui.
obruerint citius scelerata oblivia solem,
quam tuus ex nostro corde recedat honos.
nam solis radiis aequalia munera tendis,
qua circumfusus fluctuat Oceanus.
volvitur ipse tibi, qui continet omnia, Phoebus
eque tuis ortos in tua condit equos.
te non flammigeris Libye tardavit harenis,
non armata suo reppulit Ursa gelu:
quantum vitalis natura tetendit in axes,
tantum virtuti pervia terrae tuae.
fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam:
profuit iniustis te dominante capi.
dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris,
urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat.
“auctores generis Venerem Martemque fatemur,
Aeneadum matrem Romulidumque patrem:
mitigat armatas victrix clementia vires,
convenit in mores nomen utrumque tuos:
hinc tibi certandi bona parcendique voluptas:
quos timuit superat, quos superavit amat.

The Roman Catholic Church is debtor of Ancient Rome almost everything, in  much of its myths, beliefs and dogmas, in its rites, in its artistic expression, in its administrative and juridical structure, and of course in its official language, which is still Latin. This expression is further evidence of this. If the Catholic Pope today can address “the city and the world”, it is precisely because he is “the bishop of Rome,” the city (urbs) that was the capital of the world (orbis)

The post Urbi et orbi: the city ruling an Empire (III) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

It is that, for example, we can see in Cicero, Rhetorica Ad Herennium, 4,9,13:

Our discourse will belong to the Middle type if, as I have said above,'' we have somewhat relaxed our style, and yet have not escended to the most ordinary prose, as follows :

Men of the jury, you see against whom we are waging war — against allies wlio have been wont to light in our defence, and together with us to preserve our empire by their valour and zeal. Not only must they have known themselves, their resources, and their manpower, but their nearness to us and their alliance with us in all affairs enabled them no less to learn and appraise the power of the Roman people in every sphere. When they had resolved to fight against us, on what, I ask you, did they rely in presuming to undertake the war, since they understood that much the greater part of our allies remained faithful to duty, and since they saw that they had at hand no great supply of soldiers, no competent commanders, and no public money — in short, none of the things needful for carrying on the war ? Even if they were waging war with neighbours on a question of boundaries, even if in their opinion one battle would decide the contest, they would yet come to the task in every way better prepared and equipped than they are now. It is still less credible that with such meagre forces they would attempt to usurp that sovereignty over the whole world which all the civilized peoples, kings, and barbarous nations have accepted, in part compelled by force, in part of their own will, when conquered either by the arms of Rome or by her generosity. Some one will ask :  What of the Fregellans ? Did they not make the attempt on their own initiative ? ' Yes, but these allies would be less ready to make the attempt precisely because they saw how the Fregellans fared." For inexperienced peoples, unable to find in history a precedent for every circumstance, are through imprudence easily led into error; whilst those who know what has befallen others can easily from the fortunes of these others draw profit for their own policies.'' Have they, then, in taking up arms, been impelled by no motive ? Have they relied on no hope ? Who will believe that any one has been so mad as to dare, with no forces to depend on, to challenge the sovereignty of the Roman people ? They must, therefore, have had some motive, and what else can this be but what I say ? "  (Translated by Harry Caplan)

In mediocri figura versabitur oratio, si haec, ut ante dixi, aliquantum demiserimus neque tamen ad infimum descenderimus, sic:

«Quibuscum bellum gerimus, iudices, videtis: cum sociis, qui pro nobis pugnare et imperium nostrum nobiscum simul virtute et industria conservare soliti sunt. Ii cum se et opes suas et copiam necessario norunt, tum vero nihilominus propter propinquitatem et omnium rerum societatem, quid omnibus rebus populus Romanus posset, scire <et> existimare poterant. Ii, cum deliberassent nobiscum bellum gerere, quaeso, quae res erat, qua freti bellum suscipere conarentur, cum multo maximam partem sociorum in officio manere intellegerent? Cum sibi non multitudinem militum, non idoneos imperatores, non pecuniam publicam praesto esse viderent? Non denique ullam rem, quae res pertinet ad bellum administrandum? Si cum finitumis de finibus bellum gererent, si totum certamen in uno proelio positum putarent, tamen omnibus rebus instructiores et apparatiores venirent; nedum illi imperium orbis terrae, cui imperio omnes gentes, reges, nationes partim vi, partim voluntate consenserunt, cum aut armis aut liberalitate a populo Romano superati essent, ad se transferre tantulis viribus conarentur. Quaeret aliquis: Quid? Fregellani non sua sponte conati sunt? Eo quidem isti minus facile conarentur, quod illi quemadmodum discessent videbant. Nam rerum inperiti, qui unius cuiusque rei de rebus ante gestis exempla petere non possunt, ii per inprudentiam facillime deducuntur in fraudem: at ii, qui sciunt, quid aliis acciderit, facile ex aliorum eventis suis rationibus possunt providere. Nulla igitur re inducti, nulla spe freti arma sustulerunt? Quis hoc credet, tantam amentiam quemquam tenuisse, ut imperium populi Romani temptare auderet nullis copiis fretus? Ergo aliquid fuisse necessum est. Quid aliud, nisi id, quod dico, potest esse?»

This is that Ovid says on several occasions. Thus in Fasti, 1, 75 et seq. about the celebrations of January 1 to the god Janus:

Behold how Aether glows with sacred fire,
Where incense and odorous nard aspire ;
How lambent flames all tremulously rolled
Up to thy dome, reflect from burnished gold.
Lo! the procession mounts Tarpeia's height;
The garb and festival are sacred white ;
New fasces lead the way ; in purple dye
New consuls in the chairs of ivory.
The unyoked steers, from the Faliscan plain, 
Proffer their necks consentant to be slain ;
And Jupiter from heaven gazing round
Begardeth nothing else, but Boman ground.
Salve, auspicious morn! for ever aye
Return to Romans an auspicious day. 
Jane biformis, what shall I call thee ?
Greece, has no corresponding deity.
Propound the cause, why of Celestials one
May see behind his back the deed that's done,
And at the same time view events before. 
(By Jonh Benson Rose. 1866)

cernis odoratis ut luceat ignibus aether,              
     et sonet accensis spica Cilissa focis?
flamma nitore suo templorum verberat aurum,
     et tremulum summa spargit in aede iubar.
vestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces,
     et populus festo concolor ipse suo est,              
iamque novi praeeunt fasces, nova purpura fulget,
     et nova conspicuum pondera sentit ebur.
colla rudes operum praebent ferienda iuvenci,
     quos aluit campis herba Falisca suis.
Iuppiter arce sua totum cum spectet in orbem,              
     nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet.
salve, laeta dies, meliorque revertere semper,
     a populo rerum digna potente coli.
Quem tamen esse deum te dicam, Iane biformis?
     nam tibi par nullum Graecia numen habet.              
ede simul causam, cur de caelestibus unus
     sitque quod a tergo sitque quod ante vides.

And then, a little later:

The Orbs is Urbs Romana, and our home.

Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.

Fasti 2, 667 y ss.

What happened when the Capitol was built ?
When all the gods, yielding to Jove, withdrew,
Save Terminus, the ancients tell us, who
Now shares that fane with Jove : therefore its roof
Is pierced that he may see the stars aloof.
Since then, Termine, thou art not free 
To chop and change about in levity :
Where thou art placed remain, lest so it prove
Thou giv'st to man what thou deny'st to Jove.
If plough or harrow hurtle thee, cry out, 
" This land is mine ; friend, mind what you're about."
There is a road on the Laurentian plain
That marked the limits of the Dardan reign ;
The sixth stone from the city marks the way,
And there a sheep to Terminus we slay.
All nations have their termini, save Rome : 
The Orbs is Urbs Romana, and our home.
(By Jonh Benson Rose. 1866)

quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia? nempe deorum
     cuncta Iovi cessit turba locumque dedit;
Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede
     restitit et magno cum Iove templa tenet.              
nunc quoque, se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat,
     exiguum templi tecta foramen habent.
Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
     qua positus fueris in statione, mane;
nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti,              
     ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi:
et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
     clamato "tuus est hic ager, ille tuus".'
est via quae populum Laurentes ducit in agros,
     quondam Dardanio regna petita duci:              
illa lanigeri pecoris tibi, Termine, fibris
     sacra videt fieri sextus ab Urbe lapis.
gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo:
     Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.

Pompey's triumphs from the East to the West confirm to the Romans  they are the masters of the world. Plutarch presents us the triple triumphal parade of Pompey, in which the whole empire, all the land that he had conquered, participates.

Plutarch, Pompey 45:

His triumph had such a magnitude that, although it was distributed over two days, still the time would not suffice, but much of what had been prepared could not find a place in the spectacle, enough to dignify and adorn another triumphal procession. Inscriptions borne in advance of the procession indicated the nations over which he triumphed.  These were: Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Palestine, Judaea, Arabia, and all the power of the pirates by sea and land which had been overthrown. Among these peoples no less than a thousand strongholds had been captured, according to the inscriptions, and cities not much under nine hundred in number, besides eight hundred piratical ships, while thirty-nine cities had been founded.  In addition to all this the inscriptions set forth that whereas the public revenues from taxes had been fifty million drachmas, they were receiving from the additions which Pompey had made to the city's power eighty-five million, and that he was bringing into the public treasury in coined money and vessels of gold and silver twenty thousand talents, apart from the money which had been given to his soldiers, of whom the one whose share was the smallest had received fifteen hundred drachmas.  The captives led in triumph, besides the chief pirates, were the son of Tigranes the Armenian with his wife and daughter, Zosime, a wife of King Tigranes himself, Aristobulus, king of the Jews, a sister and five children of Mithridates, Scythian women, and hostages given by the Iberians, by the Albanians, and by the king of Commagene; there were also very many trophies, equal in number to all the battles in which Pompey had been victorious either in person or in the persons of his lieutenants.  But that which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any Roman before, was that he celebrated his third triumph over the third continent. For others before him had celebrated three triumphs; but he celebrated his first over Libya, his second over Europe, and this his last over Asia, so that he seemed in a way to have included the whole world in his three triumphs. (Translated by by Bernadotte Perrin)

We also have information on the deeds of Pompey in Diodorus Siculus 40, 4

This is a copy of the inscription that Pompeius set up, recording his achievements in Asia.
Pompeius Magnus, son of Gnaeus, imperator, freed the coasts of the world and all the islands within the Ocean from the attacks of pirates. He rescued from siege the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, Galatia and the territories and provinces beyond there, Asia and Bithynia. He protected Paphlagonia, Pontus, Armenia and Achaïa, also Iberia, Colchis, Mesopotamia, Sophene and Gordyene. He subjugated Dareius king of the Medes, Artoles king of the Iberians, Aristobulus king of the Jews, and Aretas king of the Nabataean Arabs, also Syria next to Cilicia, Judaea, Arabia, the province of Cyrenaica, the Achaei, Iozygi, Soani and Heniochi, and the other tribes that inhabit the coast between Colchis and Lake Maeotis, together with the kings of these tribes, nine in number, and all the nations that dwell between the Pontic Sea and the Red Sea. He extended the borders of the empire up to the borders of the world. He maintained the revenues of the Romans, and in some cases he increased them. He removed the statues and other images of the gods, and all the other treasure of the enemies, and dedicated to the goddess {Minerva} 12,060 pieces of gold and 307 talents of silver. (Translation by by Francis R. Walton)

Perhaps he is Pliny the most exaggerated to remind us of the success of Pompey throughout the Roman world:

"The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre".

Let's extend this quote

Naturalis Historia:  7, 95 et seq. (26) (27) et seq.

But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown of the Roman Empire, as to the victorious career of a single individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of all the triumphs and titles of Pompeius Magnus: the splendour of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father Liber even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partizan of Sylla, but in behalf of the republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa, and reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share of the spoil the title of " Great," he was decreed the honours of a triumph; and he, though only of equestrian rank, a thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the triumphal chariot: immediately after which, he hastened to the west, where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised upon the Pyrenees, that he had, by his victories, reduced to subjection eight hundred and seventy-six cities, from the Alps to the borders of Farther Spain; at the same time he most magnanimously said not a word about Sertorius. After having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot, having proved himself a general thus often before having been a soldier. After this, he was dispatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back to his country the following titles of honour, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred games—for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective countries. These honours then did he award to the City, in the temple of Minerva, which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained: "Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred and seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight hundred and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses, and having conquered all the country from the Mæotis to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to Minerva." Such, in few words, is the sum of his exploits in the East. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph which he obtained, the third day before the calends of October, in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Messala; "After having delivered the sea-coast from the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judæa, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes."

The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre. If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Cæsar, who has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may say, without an end.  (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed. )

Verum ad decus imperii Romani, non solum ad viri unius, pertinet victoriarum Pompei Magni titulos omnes triumphosque hoc in loco nuncupari, aequato non modo Alexandri Magni rerum fulgore, sed etiam Herculis prope ac Liberi patris.
igitur Sicilia recuperata, unde primum Sullanus in rei publicae causa exoriens auspicatus est, Africa vero tota subacta et in dicionem redacta Magnique nomine in spolium inde capto, eques Romanus, id quod antea nemo, curru triumphali revectus et statim ad solis occasum transgressus, excitatis in Pyrenaeo tropaeis, oppida DCCCLXXVI ab Alpibus ad fines Hispaniae ulterioris in dicionem redacta victoriae suae adscripsit et maiore animo Sertorium tacuit, belloque civili, quod omnia externa conciebat, extincto iterum triumphales currus eques R. induxit, totiens imperator ante quam miles.
postea ad tota maria et deinde solis ortus missus hos retulit patriae titulos more sacris certaminibus vincentium — neque enim ipsi coronantur, sed patrias suas coronant —, hos ergo honores urbi tribuit in delubro Minervae, quod ex manubiis dicabat:
CN·POMPEIVS MAGNVS IMPERATOR BELLO XXX ANNORVM CONFECTO FVSIS FVGATIS OCCISIS IN DEDITIONEM ACCEPTIS HOMINVM CENTIENS VICIENS SEMEL LXXXIII DEPRESSIS AVT CAPTIS NAVIBVS DCCCXLVI OPPIDIS CASTELLIS MDXXXVIII IN FIDEM RECEPTIS TERRIS A MAEOTIS AD RVBRVM MARE SVBACTIS VOTVM MERITO MINERVAE.
Hoc est breviarium eius ab oriente. triumphi vero, quem duxit a. d. III kal. Oct. M. Pisone M. Messala cos., praefatio haec fuit:
CVM ORAM MARITIMAM PRAEDONIBVS LIBERASSET ET IMPERIVM MARIS POPVLO ROMANO RESTITVISSET EX ASIA PONTO ARMENIA PAPHLAGONIA CAPPADOCIA CILICIA SYRIA SCYTHIS IVDAEIS ALBANIS HIBERIA INSVLA CRETA BASTERNIS ET SVPER HAEC DE REGE MITHRIDATE ATQVE TIGRANE TRIVMPHAVIT.
Summa summarum in illa gloria fuit (ut ipse in conditione dixit, cum de rebus suis disseret) Asiam ultimam provinciarum accepisse eandemque mediam patriae reddidisse. si quis e contrario simili modo velit percensere Caesaris res, qui maior ille apparuit, totum profecto terrarum orbem enumeret, quod infinitum esse conveniet.

In many passages Pliny goes even further and justifies Roman imperialism by its beneficial effects for humanity. In the book 27 of his Natural History tells us about the numerous plants in the world that are collected and transported from anywhere in the world only by effect of the Roman Pax. That is why the Romans are like a second light, as a second sun for humanity, and also as a second nature as he will say in the book 44. I transcribe both passages:

Pliny, 27, 1 y ss:

The further I proceed in this work, the more I am impressed with admiration of the ancients; and the greater the number of plants that remain to be described, the more I am induced to venerate the zeal displayed by the men of former times in their researches, and the kindly spirit manifested by them in transmitting to us the results thereof. Indeed their bounteousness in this respect would almost seem to have surpassed the munificent disposition even of Nature herself, if our knowledge of plants had depended solely upon man's spirit of discovery: but as it is, it is evident beyond all doubt that this knowledge has emanated from the gods themselves, or, at all events, has been the result of divine inspiration, even in those cases where man has been instrumental in communicating it to us. In other words, if we must confess the truth—a marvel surpassed by nothing in our daily experience—Nature herself, that common parent of all things, has at once produced them, and has discovered to us their properties.

Wondrous indeed is it, that a Scythian plant should be brought from the shores of the Palus Mæotis, and the euphorbia from Mount Atlas and the regions beyond the Pillars of Hercules, localities where the operations of Nature have reached their utmost limit! That in another direction, the plant britannica should be conveyed to us from isles of the Ocean situate beyond the confines of the earth! That the æthiopis5 should reach us from a climate scorched by the luminaries of heaven! And then, in addition to all this, that there should be a perpetual interchange going on between all parts of the earth, of productions so instrumental to the welfare of mankind! Results, all of them, ensured to us by the peace that reigns under the majestic sway of the Roman power, a peace which brings in presence of each other, not individuals only, belonging to lands and nations far separate, but mountains even, and heights towering above the clouds, their plants and their various productions! That this great bounteousness of the gods may know no end, is my prayer, a bounteousness which seems to have granted the Roman sway as a second luminary for the benefit of mankind.
(Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A)

Crescit profecto apud me certe tractatu ipso admiratio antiquitatis, quantoque maior copia herbarum dicenda restat, tanto magis adorare priscorum in inveniendo curam, in tradendo benignitatem subit. nec dubie superata hoc modo posset videri etiam rerum naturae ipsius munificentia, si humani operis esset inventio.
nunc vero deorum fuisse eam apparet aut certe divinam, etiam cum homo inveniret, eandemque omnium parentem et genuisse haec et ostendisse, nullo vitae miraculo maiore, si verum fateri volumus. Scythicam herbam a Maeotis paludibus et Euphorbeam e monte Atlante ultraque Herculis columnas ex ipso rerum naturae defectu, parte alia Britannicam ex oceani insulis extra terris positis, itemque Aethiopidem ab exusto sideribus axe, alias praeterea aliunde ultro citroque humanae saluti in toto orbe portari, inmensa Romanae pacis maiestate non homines modo diversis inter se terris gentibusque, verum etiam montes et excedentia in nubes iuga partusque eorum et herbas quoque invicem ostentante! aeternum, quaeso, deorum sit munus istud! adeo Romanos velut alteram lucem dedisse rebus humanis videntur.

Pliny in 37, 77 (200) ss. assimilates Rome to nature itself and Italy is the governor and second mother of the world; the first is, of course, nature itself.

Having now treated of all the works of Nature, it will be as well to take a sort of comparative view of her several productions, as well as the countries which supply them. Through-out the whole earth, then, and wherever the vault of heaven extends, there is no country so beautiful, or which, for the productions of Nature, merits so high a rank as Italy, that ruler and second parent of the world ; recommended as she is by her men, her women, her generals, her soldiers, her slaves, her superiority in the arts, and the illustrious examples of genius which she has produced. Her situation, too, is equally in her favour ; the salubrity and mildness of her climate ; the easy access which she offers to all nations ; her coasts indented with so many harbours ; the propitious breezes, too, that always prevail on her shores ; advantages, all of them, due to her situation, lying, as she does, midway between the East and the West, and extended in the most favourable of all positions. Add to this, the abundant supply of her waters, the salubrity of her groves, the repeated intersections of her mountain ranges, the comparative innocuousness of her wild animals, the fertility of her soil, and the singular richness of lier pastures.  (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H. T. Riley, Esq., B.A.)

Etenim peractis omnibus naturae operibus discrimen quoddam rerum ipsarum atque terrarum facere conveniet.
Ergo in toto orbe, quacumque caeli convexitas vergit, pulcherrima omnium est iis rebus, quae merito principatum naturae optinent, Italia, rectrix parensque mundi altera, viris feminis, ducibus militibus, servitiis, artium praestantia, ingeniorum claritatibus, iam situ ac salubritate caeli atque temperie, accessu cunctarum gentium facili, portuosis litoribus, benigno ventorum adflatu. quod contingit positione procurrentis in partem utilissimam et inter ortus occasusque mediam, aquarum copia, nemorum salubritate, montium articulis, ferorum animalium innocentia, soli fertilitate, pabuli ubertate.

Also Cicero in Catiline Orations: 4, 11 (6) compares  Rome with the lux orbis terrarum.

Wherefore, if you decide on this you give me a companion in my address, dear and acceptable to the Roman people; or if you prefer to adopt the opinion of Silanus, you will easily defend me and yourselves from the reproach of cruelty, and I will prevail that it shall be much lighter. Although, O conscript fathers, what cruelty can there be in chastising the enormity of such excessive wickedness? For I decide from my own feeling. For so may I be allowed; to enjoy the republic in safety in your company, as I am not moved to be somewhat vehement in this cause by any severity of disposition, (for who is more merciful than I am?) but rather by a singular humanity and mercifulness. For I seem to myself to see this city, the light of the world and the citadel of all nations, falling on a sudden by one conflagration. I see in my mind's eye miserable and unburied heaps of cities in my buried country; the sight of Cethegus and his madness raging amid your slaughter is ever present to my sight. (Translatión by C. D. Yonge, 1856)

Quam ob rem, sive hoc statueritis, dederitis mihi comitem ad contionem populo carum atque iucundum, sive Silani sententiam sequi malueritis, facile me atque vos a crudelitatis vituperatione populo Romano purgabo atque obtinebo eam multo leniorem fuisse. Quamquam, patres conscripti, quae potest esse in tanti sceleris inmanitate punienda crudelitas? Ego enim de meo sensu iudico. Nam ita mihi salva re publica vobiscum perfrui liceat, ut ego, quod in hac causa vehementior sum, non atrocitate animi moveor (quis enim est me mitior?), sed singulari quadam humanitate et misericordia. Videor enim mihi videre hanc urbem, lucem orbis terrarum atque arcem omnium gentium, subito uno incendio concidentem, cerno animo sepulta in patria miseros atque insepultos acervos civium, versatur mihi ante oculos aspectus Cethegi et furor in vestra caede bacchantis.

The concentrated and visual expression of the whole empire is represented in the famous "Map of Agrippa".
Agrippa ordered to build a map of the whole known world that was placed in the Porticus that had the name of his sister Vipsania, in the Field of Mars and near the Pantheon, and whose purpose was to show that Rome was the center of the world. We could therefore consider the map of the Orbis Terrarum or representation of the whole known world. There are those who think that it was simply a list of places with their dimension and the distance between them rather than a representation of the world. And it is that we have only some written fragments of the description of the map and and we can get some idea for later ones. We can imagine the Roman citizen, planning  a journey or by mere curiosity, observing this huge map of countries and roads.

It is considered that the measures were of great precision, although Pliny observes some error, for example when he speaks of Hispania and of Baetica:

Pliny, Naturalis Historia, 3, 17(3,2,17)

At the present day the length of Bætica, from the town of Castulo, on its frontier, to Gades is 250 miles, and from Murci, which lies on the sea-coast, twenty-five miles more. The breadth, measured from the coast of Carteia, is 234 miles. Who is there that can entertain the belief that Agrippa, a man of such extraordinary diligence, and one who bestowed so much care on his subject, when he proposed to place before the eyes of the world a survey of that world, could be guilty of such a mistake as this, and that too when seconded by the late emperor the divine Augustus ? For it was that emperor who completed the Portico which had been begun by his sister, and in which the survey was to be kept, in conformity with the plan and descriptions of M. Agrippa. (Translation by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

Baeticae longitudo nunc a Castulonis oppidi fine Gadix CCL et a Murgi maritima ora XXV p. amplior, latitudo a Carteia Anam ora CCXXXIIII p. Agrippam quidem in tanta viri diligentia praeterque in hoc opere cura, cum orbem terrarum orbi spectandum propositurus esset, errasse quis credat et cum eo Divum Augustum? is namque conplexam eum porticum ex destinatione et commentariis M. Agrippae a sorore eius inchoatam peregit.

Vitruvius expresses the same idea from another point of view: there was no better place than Rome to conquer the world:

Vitruvius, VI,1, 10-11

But although southern nations have the keenest wits, and are infinitely clever in forming schemes, yet the moment it comes to displaying valour, they succumb because all manliness of spirit is sucked out of them by the sun. On the other hand, men born in cold countries are indeed readier to meet the shock of arms with great courage and without timidity, but their wits are so slow that they will rush to the charge inconsiderately and inexpertly, thus defeating their own devices. Such being nature's arrangement of the universe, and all these nations being allotted temperaments which are lacking in due moderation, the truly perfect territory, situated under the middle of the heaven, and having on each side the entire extent of the world and its countries, is that which is occupied by the Roman people.

In fact, the races of Italy are the most perfectly constituted in both respects—in bodily form and in mental activity to correspond to their valour. Exactly as the planet Jupiter is itself temperate, its course lying midway between Mars, which is very hot, and Saturn, which is very cold, so Italy, lying between the north and the south, is a combination of what is found on each side, and her preeminence is well regulated and indisputable. And so by her wisdom she breaks the courageous onsets of the barbarians, and by her strength of hand thwarts the devices of the southerners. Hence, it was the divine intelligence that set the city of the Roman people in a peerless and temperate country, in order that it might acquire the right to command the whole world. (Translation by Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914)

Cum sint autem meridiane nationes animis acutissimis infinitaque sollertia consiliorum, simul ut ad fortitudinem ingrediuntur, ibi succumbunt, quod habent exsuctas ab sole animorum virtutes; qui vero refrigeratis nascuntur regionibus, ad armorum vehementiam paratiores sunt magnis virtutibus sine timore, sed tarditate animi sine considerantia inruentes sine sollertia suis consiliis refragantur. cum ergo haec ita sint ab natura rerum in mundo conlocata et omnes nationes inmoderatis mixtionibus disparatae, veros inter spatium totius orbis terrarum regionesque medio mundi populus Romanus possidet fines.

Namque temperatissimae ad utramque partem et corporum membris animorumque vigoribus pro fortitudine sunt in Italia gentes. quemadmodum enim Iovis stella inter Martis ferventissimam et Saturni frigidissimam media currens temperatur, eadem ratione Italia inter septentrionalem meridianamque ab utraque parte mixtionibus temperatas et invictas habet laudes. itaque consiliis refringit barbarorum virtutes, forti manu meridianorum cogitationes. ita divina mens civitatem populi Romani egregia temperataque regione conlocavit, uti orbis terrarum imperii potiretur.

If the "orbis terrarum" is the "orbis romanorum" and Rome is a microcosm, Nero, for example, claims that his Domus Aurea is a microcosm also, a small-scale reproduction of the "Roman empire", including forests, lakes and Masterpieces of the entire empire. Texts of Suetonius or Tacitus and many others confirms it.

Suetonius, Nero’s Life, (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars), VI,31

In nothing was he more prodigal than in his buildings. He completed his palace by continuing it from the Palatine to the Esquiline hill, calling the building at first only "The Passage," but after it was burnt down and rebuilt, "The Golden House.1 Of its dimensions and furniture, it may be sufficient to say thus much: the porch was so high that there stood in it a colossal statue of himself a hundred and twenty feet in height; and the space included in it was so ample, that it had triple porticos a mile in length, and a lake like a sea, surrounded with buildings which had the appearance of a city. Within its area were corn fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, containing a vast number of animals of various kinds, both wild and tame. In other parts it was entirely over-laid with gold, and adorned with jewels and mother of pearl. The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings, inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while they contained pipes which shed unguents upon the guests. The chief banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, in imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies. The baths were supplied with water from the sea and the Albula. Upon the dedication of this magnificent house after it was finished, all he said in approval of it was, "that he had now a dwelling fit for a man." (An English Translation. Publishing Editor. J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)

Non in alia re tamen damnosior quam in aedificando domum a Palatio Esquilias usque fecit, quam primo transitoriam, mox incendio absumptam restitutamque auream nominauit. de cuius spatio atque cultu suffecerit haec rettulisse. uestibulum eius fuit, in quo colossus CXX pedum staret ipsius effigie; tanta laxitas, ut porticus triplices miliarias haberet; item stagnum maris instar, circumsaeptum aedificiis ad urbium speciem; rura insuper aruis atque uinetis et pascuis siluisque uaria, cum multitudine omnis generis pecudum ac ferarum.
in ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmis unionumque conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis uersatilibus, ut flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur; praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus uice mundi circumageretur; balineae marinis et albulis fluentes aquis. eius modi domum cum absolutam dedicaret, hactenus comprobauit, ut se diceret “quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse.”

In a similar way Martial, in his Book "On  the Spectacles", offers us numerous examples of spectacles in Rome with exotic animals, brought from the confines of the empire, of which the Romans  feel themselves owners.

Martial: De spectaculis (On the Spectacles), 2,

Here where, rayed with stars, the Colossus  views heaven anear, and in the middle way tall scaffolds rise, hatefully gleamed the palace of a savage king, and but a single house now stood in all the City. Here, where the far-seen Amphitheatre lifts its mass august, was Nero's mere. Here, where we admire the warm-baths., 1 a gift swiftly wrought, a proud domain had robbed their dwellings from the poor.  Where the Claudian Colonnade extends its outspread shade the Palace ended in its furthest part. Rome has been restored to herself, and under thy governance, Caesar, that is now the delight of a people which was once a master's.
(Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Hic ubi sidereus propius uidet astra colossus
     et crescunt media pegmata celsa uia,
inuidiosa feri radiabant atria regis
     unaque iam tota stabat in urbe domus;
hic ubi conspicui uenerabilis Amphitheatri              
     erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant;
hic ubi miramur uelocia munera thermas,
     abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager;
Claudia diffusas ubi porticus explicat umbras,
    ultima pars aulae deficientis erat.              
Reddita Roma sibi est et sunt te preside, Caesar,
     deliciae populi, quae fuerant domini.

So in  De spectaculis, 5

That Pasiphae was mated to the Dictaean bull, believe : we have seen it, the old-time myth has won its warrant. And let not age-long eld, Caesar, marvel at itself : whatever Fame sings of, that the Arena makes real for thee. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Iunctam Pasiphaen Dictaeo credite tauro:
     uidimus, accepit fabula prisca fidem.
Nec se miretur, Caesar, longaeua uetustas:
     quidquid fama canit, praestat harena tibi.

And in  6,b

Ok the lion laid low in Nemea's vasty vale, a deed renowned and worthy of Hercules, Fame used to sing. Dumb be ancient witness ! for after thy shows, O Caesar, we declare that such things are wrought by woman's prowess now. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Prostratum uasta Nemees in ualle leonem
     nobile et Herculeum fama canebat opus.
Prisca fides taceat: nam post tua munera, Caesar,
     hoc iam femineo Marte fatemur agi.

And in  7

As, fettered on a Scythian crag, Prometheus fed the untiring fowl with his too prolific heart, so Laureolus,  hanging on no unreal cross, gave up his vitals defenceless to a Caledonian bear. His mangled limbs lived, though the parts dripped gore, and in all his body was nowhere a body's shape. A punishment deserved at length he won he in his guilt had with his sword pierced his parent's or his master's throat, or in his madness robbed a temple of its close-hidden gold, or had laid by stealth his savage torch to thee, O Rome. Accursed, he had outdone the crimes told of by ancient lore ; in him that which had been a show before was punishment. (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Qualiter in Scythica religatus rupe Prometheus
     adsiduam nimio pectore pauit auem,
nuda Caledonia sic uiscera praebuit urso
     non falsa pendens in cruce Laureolus.
Viuebant laceri membris stillantibus artus              
     inque omni nusquam corpore corpus erat.
Denique supplicium dignum tulit: ille parentis
     uel domini iugulum foderat ense nocens,
templa uel arcano demens spoliauerat auro,
     subdiderat saeuas uel tibi, Roma, faces.              
Vicerat antiquae sceleratus crimina famae,
     in quo, quae fuerat fabula, poena fuit.

And in  8

Daedalus, now thou art being so mangled by a Lucanian boar, how wouldst thou wish thou hadst now thy wings ! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Daedale, Lucano cum sic lacereris ab urso,
     quam cuperes pinnas nunc habuisse tuas!

And in 9

Shown along thy Arena's floor, O Caesar, a rhinoceros afforded thee an unpromised fray. Oh, into what dreadful rage fired he with lowered head ! How great was the bull ] to which a bull was as a dummy ! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Praestitit exhibitus tota tibi, Caesar, harena
     quae non promisit proelia rhinoceros.
O quam terribilis exarsit pronus in iras!
     Quantus erat taurus, cui pila taurus erat!

And in 17

In that, loyal and suppliant, the elephant adores thee which here but now was so fearful a foe to a bull, this it does unbidden, at the teaching of no master ; believe me, it too feels the presence of our God! (Translation by Waltr C. A. Ker, M.A.)

Quod pius et supplex elephas te, Caesar, adorat
     hic modo qui tauro tam metuendus erat,
non facit hoc iussus, nulloque docente magistro,
     crede mihi, nostrum sentit et ille deum.

Etc. etc.

Up to this point,  some texts document the divine status that Rome acquired by virtue of the force and energy emanating from it. I could add  many more. This explains why the "city" par excellence, par “antonomasia”, is Rome.

Note: antonomasia, Greek word, ἀντονομασία, from the verb ἀντονομάζω ("antonomázo"), composed of anti- / ant- / anta-, with the meaning of "instead of", "in exchange for", and the verb ὀνομάζω "onomázo"), that means “to denominate, to name”, derived from ὄνομα "ónoma", name. It designates a rhetorical figure that consists of naming a noun by the adjective that expresses its quality or vice versa, because there it is given that quality in an outstanding way.

(To be continued…)

The post Urbi et orbi: the city ruling an Empire (II) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

It is its specific and predominant liturgical use that has moved to consider the origin of expression in the blessings of Pope Gregory X in the years 1272 to 1276.

Well, the expression and its genesis has a long history behind it, because in order to make sense we need a city that is different from the rest and a world or an empire that spoke Latin, and that existed many centuries before Pope Gregory X .

First, from the point of view of content, of substance,  the expression "urbi et orbi" refers to a special city, Rome, the "city" par excellence because  it is the head or capital of a huge empire, the orb of the Romans. The famous Vitruvius (ca. 80-70 BC-15 BC) perfectly expressed this idea, shared by the Romans since ancient times:

Vitruvius, De architectura, VI,1,10-11

Hence, it was the divine intelligence that set the city of the Roman people in a peerless and temperate country, in order that it might acquire the right to command the whole world. (Translation by Morris Hicky Morgan, 1914)

ita divina mens civitatem populi Romani egregia temperataque regione conlocavit, uti orbis terrarum imperii potiretur.

From the point of view of linguistic form, the similarity between "urbi" and "orbi" immediately leaps into the ear, they differ only in a phoneme, in this case also in a letter. This is a play on words, a pun. This literary figure is called "paronomasia".

That Rome is "the city par excellence" is a very old concept, proudly shared by the Romans, as I said above. Let us recall how the general story that Livy (59 BC-17 AD) wrote about Rome is precisely called "Ab urbe condita", "Since the founding of the city", and everyone understands that city  can only be Rome.

We will then go into this fact and try to explain briefly how a small village with an origin in the 8th or 7th century BC, beside the Tiber, eventually became the capital of the oldest and most important ancient empire of ancient times by its consequences, and how the "orb" of the known land becomes the "Roman orb." The city also ended up being divinized, like its rulers, and receiving cult directed by priests specialized in it.

Secondly, I will also go a little deeper into the pun, or the literary figure quoted, the paronomasia "urbi et orbi", a figure that we define as "using two or more words, similarly phonetically because only some phoneme is differentiated, but with different meaning ". This paronomasia is also a well-attested literary resource in Roman literature. I will explain some texts later.

I will deal first with the ascension of the little Rome to "urbs" of the Roman "orb",  which is the same as to say "of the world orb".

According to historiography and mythology, Rome was founded in the 8th century BC; With more precision in the year 753, and adjusting more on April 21, the day in which the various foundational legends agree.

Well, with the passage of time it became the capital of a huge empire, to where they led all roads, as the capital city of the world. As a strong and powerful city it is respected and even deified in a long process in which its rulers, the emperors, were also deified.

In the Persian and Egyptian, and then in the Greek, the divinization of kings, of the powerful, was already a tradition. Greece was conquered by the Romans and declared Roman province in the year 197 b.C., and the victorious Rome became  to be considered a powerful and strong city.

This divinization, which was elaborated in the East, was consecrated by the Emperor Hadrian in the first half of the second century AD. Moreover, Rome is identified with the Empire itself, which as a powerful god is articulated in different coordinated members.

On the etymology of the word Rome and Romulus, related to it, not only there is no agreement but diverse proposals, several of them related to the Etruscan world. But for a Greek man, inevitably the word Rome would remind them of their word ῤώμη (rhòme), which means “force”. It would help to deify it as a strong city and inhabited by strong men; strength, force is a property of the gods and assimilated beings; so Rome, which is already strong even in the name, must have something in common with the gods.

Let us see in a few texts how this idea of Rome and its empire is elaborated as a powerful divinity, benefactor of the human race, from its humble origin.

Plutarch refers to the name of Rome at the beginning of the biography of Romulus. I use now to reproduce the detailed account of Plutarch to link with the best known legend about Romulus and Remus:

Plutarch, Parallel Lives, Beginning of the Life of Romulus:

From whom, and for what reason the great name of Rome, so famous among mankind, was given to that city, writers are not agreed. Some say that the Pelasgians, after wandering over most of the habitable earth and subduing most of mankind, settled down on that site, and that from their strength in war they called their city Rome.  Others say that at the taking of Troy some of its people escaped, found sailing vessels, were driven by storms upon the coast of Tuscany, and came to anchor in the river Tiber; that here, while their women were perplexed and distressed at thought of the sea, one of them, who was held to be of superior birth and the greatest understanding, and whose name was Roma, proposed that they should burn the ships;  that when this was done, the men were angry at first, but afterwards, when they had settled of necessity on the Palatine, seeing themselves in a little while more prosperous than they had hoped, since they found the country good and the neighbours made them welcome, they paid high honours to Roma, and actually named the city after her, since she had been the occasion of their founding it.  And from that time on, they say, it has been customary for the women to salute their kinsmen and husbands with a kiss; for those women, after they had burned the ships, made use of such tender salutations as they supplicated their husbands and sought to appease their wrath.

Others again say that the Roma who gave her name to the city was a daughter of Italus and Leucaria, or, in another account, of Telephus the son of Heracles; and that she was married to Aeneas, or, in another version, to Ascanius the son of Aeneas. Some tell us that it was Romanus, a son of Odysseus and Circe, who colonized the city; others that it was Romus, who was sent from Troy by Diomedes the son of Emathion; and others still that it was Romis, tyrant of the Latins, after he had driven out the Tuscans, who passed from Thessaly into Lydia, and from Lydia into Italy. Moreover, even those writers who declare, in accordance with the most authentic tradition, that it was Romulus who gave his name to the city, do not agree about his lineage.  For some say that he was a son of Aeneas and Dexithea the daughter of Phorbas, and was brought to Italy in his infancy, along with his brother Romus; that the rest of the vessels were destroyed in the swollen river, but the one in which the boys were was gently directed to a grassy bank, where they were unexpectedly saved, and the place was called Roma from them.  Others say it was Roma, a daughter of the Trojan woman I have mentioned, who was wedded to Latinus the son of Telemachus and bore him Romulus; others that Aemilia, the daughter of Aeneas and Lavinia, bore him to Mars; and others still rehearse what is altogether fabulous concerning his origin. For instance, they say that Tarchetius, king of the Albans, who was most lawless and cruel, was visited with a strange phantom in his house, namely, a phallus rising out of the hearth and remaining there many days.  Now there was an oracle of Tethys in Tuscany, from which there was brought to Tarchetius a response that a virgin must have intercourse with this phantom, and she should bear a son most illustrious for his valour, and of surpassing good fortune and strength. Tarchetius, accordingly, told the prophecy to one of his daughters, and bade her consort with the phantom; but she disdained to do so, and sent a handmaid in to it.  When Tarchetius learned of this, he was wroth, and seized both the maidens, purposing to put them to death. But the goddess Hestia appeared to him in his sleep and forbade him the murder. He therefore imposed upon the maidens the weaving of a certain web in their imprisonment, assuring them that when they had finished the weaving of it, they should then be given in marriage. By day, then, these maidens wove, but by night other maidens, at the command of Tarchetius, unravelled their web. And when the handmaid became the mother of twin children by the phantom, Tarchetius gave them to a certain Teratius with orders to destroy them.  This man, however, carried them to the river-side and laid them down there. Then a she-wolf visited the babes and gave them suck, while all sorts of birds brought morsels of food and put them into their mouths, until a cow-herd spied them, conquered his amazement, ventured to come to them, and took the children home with him. Thus they were saved, and when they were grown up, they set upon Tarchetius and overcame him. At any rate, this is what a certain Promathion says, who compiled a history of Italy.

But the story which has the widest credence and the greatest number of vouchers was first published among the Greeks, in its principal details, by Diodes of Peparethus, and Fabius Pictor follows him in most points. Here again there are variations in the story, but its general outline is as follows.  The descendants of Aeneas reigned as kings in Alba, and the succession devolved at length upon two brothers, Numitor and Amulius. Amulius divided the whole inheritance into two parts, setting the treasures and the gold which had been brought from Troy over against the kingdom, and Numitor chose the kingdom. Amulius, then, in possession of the treasure, and made more powerful by it than Numitor, easily took the kingdom away from his brother, and fearing lest that brother's daughter should have children, made her a priestess of Vesta, bound to live unwedded and a virgin all her days.  Her name is variously given as Ilia, or Rhea, or Silvia. Not long after this, she was discovered to be with child, contrary to the established law for the Vestals. She did not, however, suffer the capital punishment which was her due, because the king's daughter, Antho, interceded successfully in her behalf, but she was kept in solitary confinement, that she might not be delivered without the knowledge of Amulius. Delivered she was of two boys, and their size and beauty were more than human.  Wherefore Amulius was all the more afraid, and ordered a servant to take the boys and cast them away. This servant's name was Faustulus, according to some, but others give this name to the man who took the boys up. Obeying the king's orders, the servant put the babes into a trough and went down towards the river, purposing to cast them in; but when he saw that the stream was much swollen and violent, he was afraid to go close up to it, and setting his burden down near the bank, went his way.  Then the overflow of the swollen river took and bore up the trough, floating it gently along, and carried it down to a fairly smooth spot which is now called Kermalus, but formerly Germanus, perhaps because brothers are called ‘germani.’ (English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.)

I stop here the story of Plutarch, which goes on beyond.

The power, that this small city reached centuries later, generated in the Greek cities a religious answer, granting cult to Rome and considering it divine in itself or in some specific aspect, because they had not known another city with such power. Generally the cult is to the dea Roma, Godess Rome,but also it can be accompanied of the cult to the town, the demos, to the Roman "benefactors", "evergetes", and of course, to the emperor.

"Evergetes", εὐεργέτης, is a Greek word, from εὐεργετέω, formed by  εύ, eu, ev, meaning "good" and εργετέω, which means "to do" and therefore "to do good" or "to do good works" . It is the title that accompanied some Greek leaders.

At least once the Dionysiac artists of the Isthmus offer sacrifices to the Romans as common benefactors. It is attested in an inscription of Delphi, the one in Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, number 705

SIG3 705B.45f  

They shattered the jurisdiction of he guild of Artists; they gave some of the sacred offices which they held as pledges, they absconded with money, offerings, and sacred crowns, which they have not as yet returned, as they prevented the performance of sacrifices and libations in accordance with the ancient customs of our guild to Dionysos and to the other gods and to the Romans, our common patrons. (The translation is adapted from A.Johnson, P.Coleman-Norton & F.Bourne, "Ancient Roman Statutes", no.49 )

In the archaeological excavations at Delphi it also appeared an interesting inscription in which a historian named Aristotheos of Troizen (all the scholars locate him  in the middle of the second century BC) publicly read in Delphi part of his History and added his praise of the Romans as benefactors .

Praise, eulogy, panegyric, funeral speech (oratio funebris), lauds are kinds  of speeches in which the virtues of exceptional people are extolled and, when it corresponds, the greatness of cities and lands. In the schools of Rhetoric,it is logically taught its creation.

The commemorative inscription of the honors granted to Aristoteos of Troizen says:

Fouilles De Delphes III 3 no. 124 (Syll.3 702)  FGrH 835 T 1
Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum: 702

With good fortune, it was resolved by the city of Delphi in full assembly with votes as prescribed by law; since Aristotheos son of Nikotheos of Troizen, the historiographer, when he stayed in the city conducted himself in a way worthy of the temple and of his fatherland, and made public readings {akroaseis} of his writings over several days, and also read in public {paranegnō} acclamations for the Romans, the common benefactors of the Greeks; therefore he and his descendants shall be granted by the city proxeny, priority in access to the oracle, priority in receiving justice, inviolability, freedom from all taxes, privileged seating at all the games that the city holds, and the other privileges that are given to the other proxenoi and benefactors of the city.  (The translation is adapted from R.Zelnick-Abramovitz, in "Between Orality and Literacy: Communication and Adaptation in Antiquity", page 180) Jacoby, Felix (Berlin)

Note: proxenos (πρόξενος), plural proxenoi or proxeni (πρόξενοι), "instead of or in favor of a foreigner") or proxeinos (πρόξεινος) is the title and function that a state grants to a citizen of another to care for the Citizens of that state; he is a kind of honorary consul.

We also have Plutarch's account of the wars of Titus Quinctius Flamininus in Greece and the honors paid to him, considering him little less than a god since he is associated with Herakles or with the  Apollo Delfinius himself. Julius Caesar and Augustus would also be worshiped, as we shall see later. Titus Quinctius Flamininus was a politician and military of the Roman Republic. In spite of the opposition of the veterans to whom he had given lands, he was elected consul in 198 b. C. and sent to rule the Macedonian wars against Philippus  V of Macedonia.

Plutarch: Flamininus, , 16

But the hardest toils and struggles fell to Titus when he interceded with Manius in behalf of the Chalcidians. They had incurred the consul's wrath because of the marriage which Antiochus had made in their city after the war had already begun, a marriage which was not only unseasonable, but unsuitable for the king's years, since he was an elderly man and had fallen in love with a girl (the girl was a daughter of Cleoptolemus, and is said to have been most beautiful among maidens). This marriage induced the Chalcidians to take the king's side most zealously and allow their city to be his base of operations for the war. Antiochus, therefore, fleeing with all speed after the battle at Thermopylae, came to Chalcis, and taking with him his girl-wife, his treasure, and his friends, sailed back to Asia; but Manius immediately marched against Chalcis in a rage. He was accompanied, however, by Titus, who tried to mollify and intercede with him and at last won him over and calmed him down by entreaties addressed both to him and the other Romans in authority.

Having been thus saved by Titus, the Chalcidians dedicated to him the largest and most beautiful of the votive offerings in their city, and on them such inscriptions as these are still to be seen: "This gymnasium is dedicated by the people to Titus and Heracles," and again in another place, "This Delphinium is dedicated by the people to Titus and Apollo." Moreover, even down to our own day a priest of Titus is duly elected and appointed, and after sacrifice and libations in his honour, a set hymn of praise to him is sung: it is too long to be quoted entire, and so I will give only the closing words of the song:

"And the Roman faith we revere
, which we have solemnly vowed to cherish;
sing, then, ye maidens, to great Zeus, to Rome, to Titus,
and to the Roman faith:
hail, Paean Apollo!
hail, Titus our saviour!"
(Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin)

So, between the deifying tradition of the East and the immense power of the Romans, one arrives at the deification of Rome, the victorious city and its rulers.

We have numerous epigraphic documents, but few literary ones and for that reason the so-called “himn od Melimnos”  to Rome is very valuable; it  surely must be framed in the celebration of an act of cult to the powerful city of Rome.

Melimnos is a poetess of Lesbos, whose poem is generally dated at the beginning of the second century a. C. Stobaeus transmits to us this hymn of Melimnos, in which Rome is presented as a warrior  goddess whose destiny is both eternal and unique, in Stobaeus 3.7.12. (or in Diehl, Anthology Lyrica Graeca, II: 315-316):

Hail, Roma, daughter of Ares,
Golden-crowned warrior queen
You who live on earth on holy Olympus,
For ever indestructible.

To you alone, most revered one, has Fate
Granted royal glory of unbreakable dominion,
So that, with your sovereign power,
You might lead the way.

Under your yoke of strong leather straps,
The chests of earth and grey sea
Are tightly bound together; with firm hand you govern
The cities of your peoples

The longest eternity, which overthrows everything
And shapes the course of life first in this way, then in that,
For you alone does not change the wind
Which fills the sails of empire.

Indeed, out of all, you alone give birth to
Strong men, wielders of spears,
Sending forth a well-aiming crop of men
Like the fruits of Demeter.
(Translated by Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland)

Note: Ioannes Stobaeus (V – 6th century a. C.), neo-Platonic doxographer of the 5th-6th century, made an anthology of literary texts of about five hundred authors, called Anthology of Extracts, Sayings and Precepts.

Soon after, and especially in the Empire, it is frequent the creation of temples dedicated to Rome and to the emperor, such as those of Ancyra (present-day Ankara), Pergamon or Lugdunum in the West, dedicated to Rome and Augustus with their corresponding priests.

Suetonius informs us about  the attitude of Augustus with  the erection of temples and statues in his name:

Suetonius:  Augustus, 52

Although he knew that it had been customary to decree temples in honour of the proconsuls, yet he would not permit them to be erected in any of the provinces, unless in the joint names of himself and Rome. Within the limits of the city, he positively refused any honour of that kind. He melted down all the silver statues which had been erected to him, and converted the whole into tripods, which he consecrated to the Palatine Apollo. And when the people importuned him to accept the dictatorship, he bent down on one knee, with his toga thrown over his shoulders, and his breast exposed to view, begging to be excused. ( English Translation, Publishing Editor. J. Eugene Reed. Alexander Thomson. Philadelphia. Gebbie & Co. 1889.)

Templa, quamuis sciret etiam proconsulibus decerni solere, in nulla tamen prouincia nisi communi suo Romaeque nomine recepit. nam in urbe quidem pertinacissime abstinuit hoc honore; atque etiam argenteas statuas olim sibi positas conflauit omnis exque iis aureas cortinas Apollini Palatino dedicauit. Dictaturam magna ui offerente populo genu nixus deiecta ab umeris toga nudo pectore deprecatus est.

Temple of Rome and Augustus. Pergamon      Altar of Rome and Augustus – Lugdudum

Tacitus introduces Tiberius rejecting such honors, unlike Augustus:

Tacitus, Annales,4,37-38 ;

About the same time Further Spain sent a deputation to the Senate, with a request to be allowed, after the example of Asia, to erect a temple to Tiberius and his mother. On this occasion, the emperor, who had generally a strong contempt for honours, and now thought it right to reply to the rumour which reproached him with having yielded to vanity, delivered the following speech:
"I am aware, Senators, that many deplore my want of firmness in not having opposed a similar recent petition from the cities of Asia. I will therefore both explain the grounds of my previous silence and my intentions for the future. Inasmuch as the Divine Augustus did not forbid the founding of a temple at Pergamos to himself and to the city of Rome, I who respect as law all his actions and sayings, have the more readily followed a precedent once approved, seeing that with the worship of myself was linked an expression of reverence towards the Senate. But though it may be par- donable to have allowed this once, it would be a vain and arrogant thing to receive the sacred honour of images representing the divine throughout all the provinces, and the homage paid to Augustus will disappear if it is vulgarised by indiscriminate flattery.

"For myself, Senators, I am mortal and limited to the functions of humanity, content if I can adequately fill the highest place; of this I solemnly assure you, and would have posterity remember it. They will more than sufficiently honour my memory by believing me to have been worthy of my ancestry, watchful over your interests, courageous in danger, fearless of enmity, when the State required it. These sentiments of your hearts are my temples, these my most glorious and abiding monuments. Those built of stone are despised as mere tombs, if the judgment of posterity passes into hatred. And therefore this is my prayer to our allies, our citizens, and to heaven itself; to the last, that, to my life's close, it grant me a tranquil mind, which can discern alike human and divine claims; to the first, that, when I die, they honour my career and the reputation of my name with praise and kindly remembrance."
Henceforth Tiberius even in private conversations persisted in showing contempt for such homage to himself. Some attributed this to modesty; many to self-distrust; a few to a mean spirit. "The noblest men," it was said, "have the loftiest aspirations, and so Hercules and Bacchus among the Greeks and Quirinus among us were enrolled in the number of the gods. Augustus, did better, seeing that he had aspired. All other things princes have as a matter of course; one thing they ought insatiably to pursue, that their memory may be glorious. For to despise fame is to despise merit."Translation by Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb)

Per idem tempus Hispania ulterior missis ad senatum legatis oravit ut exemplo Asiae delubrum Tiberio matrique eius extrueret. qua occasione Caesar, validus alioqui spernendis honoribus et respondendum ratus iis quorum rumore arguebatur in ambitionem flexisse, huiusce modi orationem coepit: 'scio, patres conscripti, constantiam meam a plerisque desideratam quod Asiae civitatibus nuper idem istud petentibus non sim adversatus. ergo et prioris silentii defensionem et quid in futurum statuerim simul aperiam. cum divus Augustus sibi atque urbi Romae templum apud Pergamum sisti non prohibuisset, qui omnia facta dictaque eius vice legis observem, placitum iam exemplum promptius secutus sum quia cultui meo veneratio senatus adiungebatur. ceterum ut semel recepisse veniam habuerit, ita per omnis provincias effigie numinum sacrari ambitiosum, superbum; et vanescet Augusti honor si promiscis adulationibus vulgatur.

Ego me, patres conscripti, mortalem esse et hominum officia fungi satisque habere si locum principem impleam et vos testor et meminisse posteros volo; qui satis superque memoriae meae tribuent, ut maioribus meis dignum, rerum vestrarum providum, constantem in periculis, offensionum pro utilitate publica non pavidum credant. haec mihi in animis vestris templa, hae pulcherrimae effigies et mansurae. nam quae saxo struuntur, si iudicium posterorum in odium vertit, pro sepulchris spernuntur. proinde socios civis et deos ipsos precor, hos ut mihi ad finem usque vitae quietam et intellegentem humani divinique iuris mentem duint, illos ut, quandoque concessero, cum laude et bonis recordationibus facta atque famam nominis mei prosequantur.' perstititque posthac secretis etiam sermonibus aspernari talem sui cultum. quod alii modestiam, multi, quia diffideret, quidam ut degeneris animi interpretabantur. optumos quippe mortalium altissima cupere: sic Herculem et Liberum apud Graecos, Quirinum apud nos deum numero additos: melius Augustum, qui speraverit. cetera principibus statim adesse: unum insatiabiliter parandum, prosperam sui memoriam; nam contemptu famae contemni virtutes.

They are significant the speeches  made by some Greek historians and speakers to Rome. Thus Aelius Aristides (Αίλιος Αριστείδης, in Latin, Aelius Aristides, 118-180) was an eminent sophist of the Second Sophist and Greek orator of the second century. His most famous orations was  “Regarding Rome," which he gave in front of the imperial palace in Rome and in which Aristides glorifies "the Empire and the theory behind it, particularly the Pax Romana," and paints an impressive picture of the Roman achievements, which stand out when it is compared to any other empire or city in history. I transcribe only a small part of this important work, which otherwise has been unequally valued by the critics who have dedicated works to it.

Aelius Aristides: Regarding Rome, 8 and ff.

It is from this that she gets her name, and strength rome) is the mark of all that is hers. Therefore, if one chose to unfold, as it wvere, and lay flat on the ground the cities which now she carries high in air, and place them side by side, all that part of Italy which intervenes would, I think, be filled and become one continuous city stretching to the Strait of Otranto.
Though she is so vast as perhaps even now I have not sufficiently shown, but as the eye attests more clearly, it is not possible to say of her as of other cities, There she stands. Again it has been said of the capital cities of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians -and may no ill omen attend the comparison- that the first would in size appear twice as great as in its intrinsic power, the second far inferior in size to its intrinsic power. But of this city, great in every respect, no one could say that she has not created power in keeping with her magnitude. No, if one looks at the whole empire and reflects how small a fraction rules the whole world, he may be amazed at the city, but when he has beheld the city herself and the boundaries of the city, he can no longer be amazed that the entire civilized world is ruled by one so great.

Some chronicler, speaking of Asia, asserted that one man ruled as much land as the sun passed, and his  statement was not true because he placed all Africa and Europe outside the limits where the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. It has now however turned out to be true. Your possession is equal to what the sun can pass, and the sun passes over your land. Neither the Chelidonean nor the Cyanean promontories limit your empire, nor does the distance from which a horseman can reach the sea in one day, nor do you reign within fixed boundaries, nor does another dictate to what point your control reaches; but the sea like a girdle lies extended, at once in the middle of the civilized world and your hegemony.

Around it lie the great continents greatly sloping, ever offering to you in full measure something of their own. Whatever the seasons make grow and whatever countries and rivers and lakes and arts of Hellenes and non-Hellenes produce are brought from every land and sea, so that if one would look at all these things, he must needs behold them either by visiting the entire civilized world or by coming to this city. For whatever is grown and made among each people cannot fail to be here at all times and in abundance. And here the merchant vessels come carrying these many products from all regions in every season and even at every equinox, so that the city appears a kind of common emporium of the world. (Translation by James H. Oliver)

Note 1: He plays with the already mentioned meaning of the Greek word “rhome”, strength. 2. Again the city and the world orb put in relation.

This relationship established between "orbis" and "urbis" (the City) is indicating the cultural and political union of a world controlled and appropriate by Rome. Even more,  the greatness of Rome is the greatness of the Empire. Rome is the city and the world; Eeen the world is conceived as a city; both concepts are interchangeable .

The Latin poets of the time of Augustus are well aware of this role that has been played by them and their city by the design of the gods. Thus, Tibulus, Ovid, Virgil, Horace, etc.

P.Ovidius Naso:  Amores 2,9

So many men and maidens without love,
Hence with great laude thou maiest a triumph move.
Rome if her strength the huge world had not fild,
With strawie cabins now her courts should build.
The weary souldiour hath the conquerd fields,
His sword layed by, safe, though rude places yeelds.
The Docke in harbours ships drawne from the flouds,
Horse freed from service range abroad the woods.
And time it was for me to live in quiet,
That have so oft serv'd pretty wenches dyet.
Yet should I curse a God, if he but said,
Live without love, so sweete ill is a maide.
(Translate by Christopher Marlowe, Ed.)

Tot sine amore viri, tot sunt sine amore puellae! 
     Hinc tibi cum magna laude triumphus eat.
Roma, nisi inmensum vires promosset in orbem,
     Stramineis esset nunc quoque tecta casis.
Fessus in acceptos miles deducitur agros;
     Mittitur in saltus carcere liber equus;
Longaque subductam celant navalia pinum,
     Tutaque deposito poscitur ense rudis.
Me quoque, qui totiens merui sub amore puellae,
     Defunctum placide vivere tempus erat.
'Vive' deus 'posito' siquis mihi dicat 'amore!'
     Deprecer — usque adeo dulce puella malum est.

Tibullus relates directly the future of Rome with his prophetic name: "Fatal, oh Rome, your name will be to the world"

Tibullus 2.5.39 et seq.

  The Sibyl:

  "High-souled Aeneas, brother of light-winged Love,
  Thy pilgrim ships Troy's fallen worship bear.
  To thee the Latin lands are given of Jove,
  And thy far-wandering gods are welcome there.
  Thou thyself shalt have a shrine
  By Numicus' holy wave;
  Be thou its genius strong to bless and save,
  By power divine!

  O'er thy ship's storm-beaten prow
  Victory her wings will spread,
  And, glorious, rest at last above a Trojan head.
  I see Rutulia flaming round me now.
  O barbarous Turnus, I behold thee dead!
  Laurentum rushes on my sight,
  And proud Lavinium's castled height,
  And Alba Longa for thy royal heir.
  Now I see a priestess fair
  Close in Mars' divine embrace.
  Daughter of Ilium, she fled away
  From Vesta's fires, and from her virgin face
  The fillet dropped, and quite unheeded lay;
  Nor shield nor corslet then her hero wore,
  Keeping their stolen tryst by Tiber's sacred shore!
  Browse, ye bulls, along the seven green hills!
  For yet a little while ye may,
  E'er the vast city shall confront the day!
  O Rome! thy destined glory fills
  A wide world subject to thy sway,–
  Wide as all the regions given
  To fruitful Ceres, as she looks from heaven
  O'er her fields of golden corn,
  From the opening gates of morn
  To where the Sun in Ocean's billowy stream
  Cools at eve his spent and panting team.
  Troy herself at last shall praise
  Thee and thy far-wandering ways.
  My song is truth. Thus only I endure
  The bitter laurel-leaf divine,
  And keep me at Apollo's shrine
  A virgin ever pure."
So, Phoebus, in thy name the Sibyl sung,
  As o'er her frenzied brow her loosened locks she flung.
(Done in English verse by Theodore C. Williams. 1908)

‘Impiger Aenea, uolitantis frater Amoris,
Troica qui profugis sacra uehis ratibus,
iam tibi Laurentes adsignat Iuppiter agros,
iam uocat errantes hospita terra Lares.
illic sanctus eris cum te ueneranda Numici
unda deum caelo miserit indigetem.
ecce super fessas uolitat Victoria puppes;
tandem ad Troianos diua superba uenit.
ecce mihi lucent Rutulis incendia castris:
iam tibi praedico, barbare Turne, necem.
ante oculos Laurens castrum murusque Lauini est
Albaque ab Ascanio condita Longa duce.
te quoque iam uideo, Marti placitura sacerdos
Ilia, Vestales deseruisse focos,
concubitusque tuos furtim uittasque iacentes
et cupidi ad ripas arma relicta dei.
carpite nunc, tauri, de septem montibus herbas
dum licet: hic magnae iam locus urbis erit.
Roma, tuum nomen terris fatale regendis,
qua sua de caelo prospicit arua Ceres,
quaque patent ortus et qua fluitantibus undis
Solis anhelantes abluit amnis equos.
Troia quidem tunc se mirabitur et sibi dicet
uos bene tam longa consuluisse uia.
uera cano: sic usque sacras innoxia laurus
uescar, et aeternum sit mihi uirginitas.’
haec cecinit uates et te sibi, Phoebe, uocauit,

Virgil expresses in three verses the Roman consciousness of his extraordinary mission in this world. Virgil puts in the mouth of Anchises, the father whom the hero Eneas has gone to look in the Underworld, the hell, the spaces of down,  the extraordinary responsibility of the Romans:

He tells us in Aeneid, 6, verses 847 et seq.

Others, I doubt not, shall with softer mould beast out the breathing bronze, coax from the marble features to life, plead cases with greater eloquence and with a pointer trace heaven’s motions and predict the risings of the stars: you, Roman, be sure to rule the world (be these your arts), to crown peace with justice, to spare the vanquished and to crush the proud.” (Translation by H. R. Fairclough)

Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera,
credo equidem, vivos ducent de marmore voltus,
orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus
describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent:                            
tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento;
hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.”

Propertius also puts  urbs with orbi in relation (septem urbs alta iugis, toto quae praesidet orbi) and sings proud of the power of Rome in an elegy in which he presents the confrontation between Augustus and Cleopatra, that is the same as saying the confrontation between Cultures:

Elegies, 3, 11, 55 and seq.:

“Rome, with such a Citizen, thou hadst no cause to fear me”. So said even that sot’s tongue, swamped in endless debauch. The tall city on the Seven Hills, who thrones paramont over the whole world, felt the alarms of war and trembled at a woman’s menace. Gods preserve these walls or ours even as gods founded them! While Caesar lives Rome shall scarcely tremble at Jove” (Translated by J.S. Phillimore, M.A.)

'Non hoc, Roma, fui tanto tibi cive verenda!'
dixit et assiduo lingua sepulta mero.
septem urbs alta iugis, toto quae praesidet orbi,
femineas timuit territa Marte Minas
(non humana deicienda manu).
haec di condiderunt, haec di quoque moenia servant:
vix timeat salvo Caesare Roma Iovem.

Horace sees in the own fortress of Rome the reason of its own ruin by the continuous civil wars, of which it is horrified. Only Augustus will rescue it from the self destruction implanting the Roman pax. In Epodi 16: 1-14:

Another age worn out in civil wars,
   And Rome sinks weighed down by her own sheer forces,
Whom nor the bordering Marsians could destroy;
   Nor Porsena, threatening with Etruscan armies;
Nor rival Capua. Nor fierce Spartacus,
   Nor Allobroge in all revolts a traitor;
Nor fierce Germania’s blue-eyed giant sons;
   Nor Hannibal, abhorred by Romans mothers,
That is the Rome which we, this race, destroy;
   We, impious victims by ourselves devoted,
And to the wild beast and the wilderness
   Restoring soil which Romans called their country.
Woe! on the ashes of Imperial Rome
   Shall the barbarian halt his march, a  victor;
And the wild horseman with a changing hoof
   Trample the site which was the world’s great city,
And –horrid sight- in scorn to winds and sun
   Scatter the shrouded bones of Rome’s first founder.
(Translated by Lord Lytton. 1869)

Altera iam teritur bellis civilibus aetas,
suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit.
quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi
minacis aut Etrusca Porsenae manus,
aemula nec virtus Capuae nec Spartacus acer
novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox
nec fera caerulea domuit Germania pube
parentibusque abominatus Hannibal:
inpia perdemus devoti sanguinis aetas
ferisque rursus occupabitur solum:
barbarus heu cineres insistet victor et Vrbem
eques sonante verberabit ungula,
quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini,
(nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.

For Cicero it is evident that Rome is the most powerful city and owner of the world.

Cicero Catiline Orations, 1.4.9.

O ye immortal gods, where on earth are we? in what city are we living? what constitution is ours? There are here,—here in our body, O conscript fathers, in this the most holy and dignified assembly of the whole world, men who meditate my death, and the death of all of us, and the destruction of this city, and of the whole world. I, the consul see them; I ask them their opinion about the republic, and I do not yet attack, even by words, those who ought to be put to death by the sword. (Translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A)

O di inmortales! ubinam gentium sumus? in qua urbe vivimus? quam rem publicam habemus? Hic, hic sunt in nostro numero, patres conscripti, in hoc orbis terrae sanctissimo gravissimoque consilio, qui de nostro omnium interitu, qui de huius urbis atque adeo de orbis terrarum exitio cogitent! Hos ego video consul et de re publica sententiam rogo et, quos ferro trucidari oportebat, eos nondum voce volnero!

Pro Murena 9-10 (21-22)

But to say no more of this, and to return to the contest of studies and pursuits; how can it be doubted that the glory of military exploits contributes more dignity to aid in the acquisition of the consulship, than renown for skill in civil law? Do you wake before the night is over in order to give answers to those who consult you? He has done so in order to arrive betimes with his army at the place to which he is marching. The cook-crow wakens you, but the sound of the trumpet rouses him: you conduct an action; he is marshaling an army: you take care lest your clients should be convicted; he lest his cities or camp be taken. He occupies posts, and exercises skill to repel the troops of the enemy, you to keep out the rain; he is practised in extending the boundaries of the empire, you in governing the present territories; and in short, for I must say what I think, preeminence in military skill excels all other virtues.

It is this which has procured its name for the Roman people; it is this which has procured eternal glory for this city; it is this which has compelled the whole world to submit to our dominion; all domestic affairs, all these illustrious pursuits of ours, and our forensic renown, and our industry, are safe under the guardianship and protection of military valour. As soon as the first suspicion of disturbance is heard of, in a moment our arts have not a word to say for themselves. (Translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A.)

Sed ut hoc omisso ad studiorum atque artium contentionem revertamur, qui potest dubitari quin ad consulatum adipiscendum multo plus adferat dignitatis rei militaris quam iuris civilis gloria? Vigilas tu de nocte ut tuis consultoribus respondeas, ille ut eo quo intendit mature cum exercitu perveniat; te gallorum, illum bucinarum cantus exsuscitat; tu actionem instituis, ille aciem instruit; tu caves ne tui consultores, ille ne urbes aut castra capiantur; ille tenet et scit ut hostium copiae, tu ut aquae pluviae arceantur; ille exercitatus est in propagandis finibus, tuque in regendis. Ac nimirum–dicendum est enim quod sentio–rei militaris virtus praestat ceteris omnibus. Haec nomen populo Romano, haec huic urbi aeternam gloriam peperit, haec orbem terrarum parere huic imperio coegit; omnes urbanae res, omnia haec nostra praeclara studia et haec forensis laus et industria latet in tutela ac praesidio bellicae virtutis. Simul atque increpuit suspicio tumultus, artes ilico nostrae conticiscunt. 

Ad Familiares. 4.1.2. / 150 (IV 1)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (AT ROME)
CUMAE, APRIL (TOWARDS THE END)
You see how the matter stands: the whole world is parcelled out among men in military command, and is ablaze with war: the city, without laws, law courts, justice, or credit, has been abandoned to plunder and fire. Accordingly, nothing occurs to me, I don't say to hope, but scarcely even to venture to wish. (Translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh)

Res vides quomodo se habeat: orbem terrarum imperiis distributis ardere bello; urbem sine legibus, sine iudiciis, sine iure, sine fide relictam direptioni et incendiis: itaque mihi venire in mentem nihil potest non modo, quod sperem, sed vix, iam quod audeam optare;

Paradoxa Stoicorum. 2.18

Do you threaten me with death, to make me depart from all men, or with exile to make me depart from the wicked? Death is terrible for those  whom everything ends with life; but not to those whose praise cannot perish: exile is terrible to those who have their place of habitation  as circumscribed and limited; not to those who believe the whole world  is one city.

Mortemne mihi minitaris, ut omnino ab hominibus, an exilium, ut ab inprobis demigrandum sit? Mors terribilis iis, quorum cum vita omnia extinguuntur, non iis, quorum laus emori non potest, exilium autem illis, quibus quasi circumscriptus est habitandi locus, non iis, qui omnem orbem terrarum unam urbem esse ducunt.

And also for Cornelius Nepos. In  Atticus, 3.3:

He also conducted himself in such a way, that he appeared familiar with the lowest, though on a level with the highest. Hence it happened that they publicly bestowed upon him all the honours that they could, and offered to make him a citizen of Athens; an offer which he would not accept, because some are of opinion that the citizenship of Rome is forfeited by taking that of another city. As long as he was among them, he prevented any statue from being erected to him; but when absent, he could not hinder it; and they accordingly raised several statues both to him and Phidias,254 in the most sacred places, for, in their whole management of the state, they took him for their agent and adviser. It was the gift of fortune, then, in the first place, that he was born in that city, above all others, in which was the seat of the empire of the world, and had it not only for his native place but for his home; and, in the next, it was a proof of his wisdom, that when he betook himself to a city which excelled all others in antiquity, politeness, and learning, he became individually dear to it beyond other men. (Translated by Rev. John Selby Watson, M)

Hic autem sic se gerebat, ut communis infimis, par principibus videretur. quo factum est ut huic omnes honores, quos possent, publice haberent civemque facere studerent: quo beneficio ille uti noluit quod nonnulli ita interpretantur, amitti civitatem Romanam alia ascita. quamdiu affuit, ne qua sibi statua poneretur, restitit, absens prohibere non potuit. itaque aliquot ipsi et Phidiae locis sanctissimis posuerunt: hunc enim in omni procuratione rei publicae actorem auctoremque habebant potissimum.  igitur primum illud munus fortunae, quod in ea urbe natus est, in qua domicilium orbis terrarum esset imperii, ut eandem et patriam haberet et domum; hoc specimen prudentiae, quod, cum in eam se civitatem contulisset, quae antiquitate, humanitate doctrinaque praestaret omnes, unus ei fuit carissimus. 

And also  Livy, who wrote a general history of Rome from its origins, which he entitled "Ab urbe condita" (From the foundation of the city), explains why he dares to take  a work of such magnitude: no doubt the most powerful people have ever been and their emperor, at the time Augustus, deserve it. He tells us in the Preface of his work:

Whether I am likely to accomplish anything worthy of the labour, if I record the achievements of the Roman people from the foundation of the city, I do not really know, nor if I knew would I dare to avouch it;  perceiving as I do that the theme is not only old but hackneyed, through the constant succession of new historians, who believe either that in their facts they can produce more authentic information, or that in their style they will prove better than the rude attempts of the ancients.  Yet, however this shall be, it will be a satisfaction to have done myself as much as lies in me to commemorate the deeds of the foremost people of the world; and if in so vast a company of writers my own reputation should be obscure, my consolation would be the fame and greatness of those whose renown will throw mine into the shade.  Moreover, my subject involves infinite labour, seeing that it must be traced back above seven hundred years, and that proceeding from slender beginnings it has so increased as now to be burdened by its own magnitude; and at the same time I doubt not that to most readers the earliest origins and the period immediately succeeding them will give little pleasure, for they will be in haste to reach these modern times, in which the might of a people which has long been very powerful is working its own undoing.  I myself, on the contrary, shall seek in this an additional reward for my toil, that I may avert my gaze from the troubles which our age has been witnessing for so many years, so long at least as I am absorbed in the recollection of the brave days of old, free from every care which, even if it could not divert the historian's mind from the truth, might nevertheless cause it anxiety. (English  by Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)

facturusne operae pretium sim, si a primordio urbis res populi Romani perscripserim, nec satis scio nec,  si sciam, dicere ausim, quippe qui cum veterem tum vulgatam esse rem videam, dum novi semper scriptores aut in rebus certius aliquid allaturos se aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem superaturos credunt. utcumque erit,  iuvabit tamen rerum gestarum memoriae principis terrarum populi pro virili parte et ipsum consuluisse; et si in tanta scriptorum turba mea fama in obscuro sit, nobilitate ac magnitudine eorum me, qui nomini officient meo, consoler.  res est praeterea et inmensi operis, ut quae supra septingentesimum annum repetatur et quae ab exiguis profecta initiis eo creverit, ut iam magnitudine laboret sua; et legentium plerisque haud dubito quin primae origines proximaque originibus minus praebitura voluptatis sint festinantibus ad haec nova, quibus iam pridem praevalentis populi vires se ipsae conficiunt;  ego contra hoc quoque laboris praemium petam, ut me a conspectu malorum, quae nostra tot per annos vidit aetas, tantisper certe, dum prisca illa tota mente repeto, avertam,  omnis expers curae, quae scribentis animum etsi non flectere a vero, sollicitum tamen efficere posset.

And shortly afterwards he informs us that this was predicted, , when he tells us about the disappearance and predictable rise to the heavens of Romulus, and tells us:

Livy, 1,16,6-7

This was Proculus Julius, who, when the people were distracted with the loss of their king and in no friendly mood towards the senate, being, as tradition tells, weighty in council, were the matter never so important, addressed the assembly as follows: “Quirites, the Father of this City, Romulus, descended suddenly from the sky at dawn this morning and appeared to me. Covered with confusion, I stood reverently before him, praying that it might be vouchsafed me to look upon his face without sin. 'Go,' said he, 'and declare to the Romans the will of Heaven that my Rome shall be the capital of the world; so let them cherish the art of war, and let them know and teach their children that no human strength can resist Roman arms.'  So saying,” he concluded, “Romulus departed on high.” It is wonderful what credence the people placed in that man's tale, and how the grief for the loss of Romulus, which the plebeians and the army felt, was quieted by the assurance of his immortality. (Translated by Benjamin Oliver Foster)

manavit enim haec quoque sed perobscura fama; illam alteram admiratio viri et pavor praesens nobilitavit.  et consilio etiam unius hominis addita rei dicitur fides. namque Proculus Iulius, sollicita civitate desiderio regis et infensa patribus, gravis, ut traditur, quamvis magnae rei auctor, in contionem prodit.  “Romulus” inquit, “Quirites, parens urbis huius, prima hodierna luce caelo repente delapsus se mihi obvium dedit. cum perfusus horrore venerabundus adstitissem, petens precibus ut contra intueri fas esset,  'Abi, nuntia,' inquit 'Romanis caelestes ita velle ut mea Roma caput orbis terrarum sit; proinde rem militarem colant, sciantque et ita posteris tradant nullas opes humanas armis Romanis resistere posse.' haec,” inquit, “locutus sublimis abiit.”  mirum quantum illi viro nuntianti haec fides fuerit, quamque desiderium Romuli  apud plebem exercitumque facta fide inmortalitatis lenitum sit.

Lucanus, in his Pharsalia, introduces  Caesar speaking to Rome deified, crowned with the crown of towers:

Lucanus, Pharsalia 1, 183 et seq.

Caesar has crossed the Alps, his mighty soul
Great tumults pondering and the coming shock.
Now on the marge of Rubicon, he saw,
In face most sorrowful and ghostly guise,
His trembling country's image; huge it seemed
Through mists of night obscure; and hoary hair
Streamed from the lofty front with turrets crowned:
Torn were her locks and naked were her arms.
Then thus, with broken sighs the Vision spake:
What seek ye, men of Rome? and whither hence
Bear ye my standards? If by right ye come,
My citizens, stay here; these are the bounds;
No further dare.' But Caesar's hair was stiff
With horror as he gazed, and ghastly dread
Restrained his footsteps on the further bank.
Then spake he, ' Thunderer, who from the rock
Tarpeian seest the wall of mighty Rome;
Gods of my race who watched o'er Troy of old;
Thou Jove of Alba's height, and Vestal fires,
And rites of Romulus erst rapt to heaven,
And God-like Rome; be friendly to my quest.
Not with offence or hostile arms I come,
Thy Caesar, conqueror by land and sea,
Thy soldier here and wheresoe'er thou wilt:
No other's; his, his only be the guilt
Whose acts make me thy foe.' 
(Translated by Sir Edward Ridley)

iam gelidas Caesar cursu superauerat Alpes
ingentisque animo motus bellumque futurum
ceperat. ut uentum est parui Rubiconis ad undas,                 
ingens uisa duci patriae trepidantis imago
clara per obscuram uoltu maestissima noctem
turrigero canos effundens uertice crines
caesarie lacera nudisque adstare lacertis
et gemitu permixta loqui: 'quo tenditis ultra?                 
quo fertis mea signa, uiri? si iure uenitis,
si ciues, huc usque licet.' tum perculit horror
membra ducis, riguere comae gressumque coercens
languor in extrema tenuit uestigia ripa.
mox ait 'o magnae qui moenia prospicis urbis                 
Tarpeia de rupe Tonans Phrygiique penates
gentis Iuleae et rapti secreta Quirini
et residens celsa Latiaris Iuppiter Alba
Vestalesque foci summique o numinis instar
Roma, faue coeptis. non te furialibus armis                 
persequor: en, adsum uictor terraque marique
Caesar, ubique tuus (liceat modo, nunc quoque) miles.
ille erit ille nocens, qui me tibi fecerit hostem.'

And so I could continue to give innumerable examples.
(To be continued…)

The post Urbi et orbi: the city ruling an Empire (I) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

The actions of the images and statues or representations of the divine beings that behave as if they were of flesh and bone and not of stone, wood or metal, also stand out. The statues which speak and send messages to humans, or jump and move from their stand or illuminate the pupil of their eyes with wonderful light, are especially attractive.

This behavior of the images responds to the diffuse and confused character of these statues that on one hand are mere representations of something that is not in this world and on the other hand they are the materialized divinity itself that lives with us. That is to say, the famous chryso-elephantine statue of Athena Parthenos, Virgin, of Athens is not a mere representation, but the materialized goddess herself.

And the same is true today with the images of modern saints and virgins, as it is revealed by the popular behavior that venerates them, touches them, invokes them, sings them, pleads with them, in contradiction to what reason says, even theological theory, which in reality does little to inform the people properly.

Well, these special effects are often used by poets. I will give only two examples of the indisputable Virgil and another of our poet of Hispanic origin Lucan.

Then I will present a famous text of Pliny the Younger on the appearance of a lady of great stature and prestige and of the ghosts,  which also Tacitus refers  in his Annals.

I will also quote a passage from The City of God of Saint Augustine, in which he refers and disqualifies these superstitions.

In this case, it calls powerfully the attention the clairvoyance with which he analyzes the superstitions  of the others and the security with which he accepts the own quack theory. No doubt a reader alien to our culture would not appreciate any difference between the beliefs of pagans and the beliefs of Christians; in fact, historically, the latter feed on the former.

Today as yesterday the statues of the divine beings continue to cry, illuminating their pupils, jumping from the bases, appearing to the shepherds, sending messages, many times encrypted to the mortals. Read carefully the news of the day and you will find that somewhere in the world someone claims to have met with some similar phenomenon. In that struggle between reason and mystery, the confrontation continues.

In Greek and Roman epic poetry, the gods are actors in permanent relationship with mortals, in whose disputes they take sides for one or the other.

I will present first the text of the Hispanic poet Lucanus in which he maximizes the emotion that these prodigies can generate in his credulous readers. The text is a fragment of his poem Bellum Civile, later called "Pharsalia" from  the name of the decisive battle in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey prior to the imposition of a personal and authoritarian regime in Rome, thus ending the long  republican period and giving entrance to the imperial time. In this fragment, among other prodigies, the gods shed tears and the Lares gods sweat.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Bellum Civile 1.1 lines 544 y ss.

The jaws of Aetna were agape with flame
That rose not heavenwards, but headlong fell
In smoking stream upon th’Italian flank.
Then black Charybdis, from her boundless depth,
Threw up a gory sea. In piteous tones
Howled the wild dogs; the Vestal fire was snatched
From off the altar; and the flame that crowned
The Latin festival was split in twain,
As on the Theban pyre,2 in ancient days;
Earth tottered on its base: the mighty Alps
From off their summits shook th' eternal snow.3
In huge upheaval Ocean raised his waves
O'er Calpe's rock and Atlas' hoary head.
The native gods shed tears, and holy sweat
Dropped from the idols; gifts in temples fell:
Foul birds defiled the day; beasts left the woods
And made their lair among the streets of Rome.
All this we hear; nay more: dumb oxen spake;
Monsters were brought to birth and mothers shrieked
At their own offspring; words of dire import
From Cumae's prophetess were noised abroad.
Bellona's priests with bleeding arms, and slaves
Of Cybele's worship, with ensanguined hair,
Howled chants of havoc and of woe to men.
Arms clashed; and sounding in the pathless woods
Were heard strange voices; spirits walked the earth:
And dead men's ashes muttered from the urn.
Those who live near the walls desert their homes,
For lo! with hissing serpents in her hair,
Waving in downward whirl a blazing pine,
A fiend patrols the town, like that which erst
At Thebes urged on Agave,4 or which hurled
Lycurgus' bolts, or that which as he came
From Hades seen, at haughty Juno's word,
Brought terror to the soul of Hercules.
Trumpets like those that summon armies forth
Were heard re-echoing in the silent night:
And from the earth arising Sulla's 5 ghost
Sang gloomy oracles, and by Anio's wave
All fled the homesteads, frighted by the shade
Of Marius waking from his broken tomb.
In such dismay they summon, as of yore,
The Tuscan sages to the nation's aid.
(Translated by Sir Edward Ridley. London. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905.)

ora ferox Siculae laxauit Mulciber Aetnae,                  545
nec tulit in caelum flammas sed uertice prono
ignis in Hesperium cecidit latus. atra Charybdis
sanguineum fundo torsit mare; flebile saeui
latrauere canes. Vestali raptus ab ara
ignis, et ostendens confectas flamma Latinas  
scinditur in partes geminoque cacumine surgit 
Thebanos imitata rogos. tum cardine tellus 
subsedit, ueteremque iugis nutantibus Alpes 
discussere niuem. Tethys maioribus undis 
Hesperiam Calpen summumque inpleuit Atlanta.  
indigetes fleuisse deos, urbisque laborem 
testatos sudore Lares, delapsaque templis 
dona suis, dirasque diem foedasse uolucres 
accipimus, siluisque feras sub nocte relictis 
audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma.  
tum pecudum faciles humana ad murmura linguae, 
monstrosique hominum partus numeroque modoque 
membrorum, matremque suus conterruit infans; 
diraque per populum Cumanae carmina uatis 
uolgantur. tum, quos sectis Bellona lacertis 
saeua mouet, cecinere deos, crinemque rotantes 
sanguineum populis ulularunt tristia Galli. 
conpositis plenae gemuerunt ossibus urnae.
tum fragor armorum magnaeque per auia uoces
auditae nemorum et uenientes comminus umbrae.                
quique colunt iunctos extremis moenibus agros
diffugiunt: ingens urbem cingebat Erinys
excutiens pronam flagranti uertice pinum
stridentisque comas, Thebanam qualis Agauen
inpulit aut saeui contorsit tela Lycurgi                 
Eumenis, aut qualem iussu Iunonis iniquae
horruit Alcides uiso iam Dite Megaeram.
insonuere tubae et, quanto clamore cohortes
miscentur, tantum nox atra silentibus auris
edidit. e medio uisi consurgere Campo                 
tristia Sullani cecinere oracula manes,
tollentemque caput gelidas Anienis ad undas
agricolae fracto Marium fugere sepulchro.
haec propter placuit Tuscos de more uetusto
acciri uates.

It is very interesting the fragment of the Aeneid of Virgil in which he relates the reaction of the image of Pallas, which had been stolen from his temple by Ulysses and the son of Tydeus. The text can also serve to compare the epic tone, elevated, solemn but far from the dramatic and baroque of Lucanus; but this is another matter.
Publius Virgilius Maro:

aeneida, 2, vv. 162 y ss.

Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid 2, v. 162 y ss.

All the hope of the Danaans and their confidence in beginning the war were ever stayed on the help of Pallas. But from the time that the ungodly son of Tydeus and Ulysses, the contriver of crime, dared to tear the fateful Palladium from its hallowed shrine, slew the guards of the citadelheight, and snatching up the sacred image, ventured with bloody hands to touch the fillets of the maiden goddess — from that time the hopes of the Danaans ebbed and, backward stealing, receded; their strength was broken and the heart of the goddess estranged.

And with no doubtful portents did Tritonia give signs thereof. Scarcely was the image placed within the camp, when from the upraised eyes there blazed forth flickering flames, salt sweat coursed over the limbs, and thrice, wonderful to relate, the goddess herself flashed forth  from the ground with shield and quivering spear. Straightway Calchas prophesies that the seas must be essayed in flight, and that Pergamus cannot be uptorn by Argive weapons, unless they seek new omens at Argos, and escort back the deity, whom they have taken away overseas in their curved ships. And now that before the wind they are bound for their native Mycenae, it is but to get them forces and attendant gods; then, recrossing the sea, they will be here unlooked for. So Calchas interprets the omens. (Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough)

Omnis spes Danaum et coepti fiducia belli
Palladis auxiliis semper stetit. impius ex quo 
Tydides sed enim scelerumque inuentor Vlixes, 
fatale adgressi sacrato auellere templo  
Palladium caesis summae custodibus arcis, 
corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis 
uirgineas ausi diuae contingere uittas, 
ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri 
spes Danaum, fractae uires, auersa deae mens. 
nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris. 
uix positum castris simulacrum: arsere coruscae 
luminibus flammae arrectis, salsusque per artus 
sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu) 
emicuit parmamque ferens hastamque trementem. 
extemplo temptanda fuga canit aequora Calchas, 
nec posse Argolicis exscindi Pergama telis 
omina ni repetant Argis numenque reducant 
quod pelago et curuis secum auexere carinis. 
et nunc quod patrias uento petiere Mycenas,  
arma deosque parant comites pelagoque remenso

It is also interesting the end that Virgil offers us in Book I of his Georgics. It reminds us of the signs that announced the dreadful horrors of the civil war and pray to the gods who protect Rome and guarantee its time of peace and splendor.

Virgil, Georgics, 1, v.463 et seq.

Who dare charge the sun
With leasing? He it is who warneth oft
Of hidden broils at hand and treachery,
And secret swelling of the waves of war.
He too it was, when Caesar's light was quenched,
For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled
In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age
Trembled for night eternal; at that time
Howbeit earth also, and the ocean-plains,
And dogs obscene, and birds of evil bode
Gave tokens. Yea, how often have we seen
Etna, her furnace-walls asunder riven,
In billowy floods boil o'er the Cyclops' fields,
And roll down globes of fire and molten rocks!
A clash of arms through all the heaven was heard
By Germany; strange heavings shook the Alps.
Yea, and by many through the breathless groves
A voice was heard with power, and wondrous-pale
Phantoms were seen upon the dusk of night,
And cattle spake, portentous! streams stand still,
And the earth yawns asunder, ivory weeps
For sorrow in the shrines, and bronzes sweat.
Up-twirling forests with his eddying tide,
Madly he bears them down, that lord of floods,
Eridanus, till through all the plain are swept
Beasts and their stalls together. At that time
In gloomy entrails ceased not to appear
Dark-threatening fibres, springs to trickle blood,
And high-built cities night-long to resound
With the wolves' howling. Never more than then
From skies all cloudless fell the thunderbolts,
Nor blazed so oft the comet's fire of bale.
Therefore a second time Philippi saw
The Roman hosts with kindred weapons rush
To battle, nor did the high gods deem it hard
That twice Emathia and the wide champaign
Of Haemus should be fattening with our blood.
Ay, and the time will come when there anigh,
Heaving the earth up with his curved plough,
Some swain will light on javelins by foul rust
Corroded, or with ponderous harrow strike
On empty helmets, while he gapes to see
Bones as of giants from the trench untombed.
Gods of my country, heroes of the soil,
And Romulus, and Mother Vesta, thou
Who Tuscan Tiber and Rome's Palatine
Preservest, this new champion at the least
Our fallen generation to repair
Forbid not. To the full and long ago
Our blood thy Trojan perjuries hath paid,
Laomedon. Long since the courts of heaven
Begrudge us thee, our Caesar, and complain
That thou regard'st the triumphs of mankind,
Here where the wrong is right, the right is wrong,
Where wars abound so many, and myriad-faced
Is crime; where no meet honour hath the plough;
The fields, their husbandmen led far away,
Rot in neglect, and curved pruning-hooks
Into the sword's stiff blade are fused and forged.
Euphrates here, here Germany new strife
Is stirring; neighbouring cities are in arms,
The laws that bound them snapped; and godless war
Rages through all the universe; as when
The four-horse chariots from the barriers poured
Still quicken o'er the course, and, idly now
Grasping the reins, the driver by his team
Is onward borne, nor heeds the car his curb.
(Translation by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. )

…. Solem quis dicere falsum
audeat. Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
saepe monet fraudemque et operta tumescere bella.
Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam,
cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit
inpiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
Tempore quamquam illo tellus quoque et aequora ponti
obscenaeque canes inportunaeque volucres
signa dabant. Quotiens Cyclopum effervere in agros
vidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam
flammarumque globos liquefactaque volvere saxa!
Armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo
audiit, insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes.
Vox quoque per lucos volgo exaudita silentis
ingens et simulacra modis pallentia miris
visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae,
infandum! sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt
et maestum inlacrimat templis ebur aeraque sudant.
Proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas
fluviorum rex Eridanus camposque per omnis
cum stabulis armenta tulit. Nec tempore eodem
tristibus aut extis fibrae adparere minaces
aut puteis manare cruor cessavit et altae
per noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes.
Non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno
fulgura nec diri totiens arsere cometae.
ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis
Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi;
nec fuit indignum superis, bis sanguine nostro
Emathiam et latos Haemi pinguescere campos.
Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
agricola incurvo terram molitus aratro
exesa inveniet scabra robigine pila
aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanis
grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
Di patrii, Indigetes, et Romule Vestaque mater,
quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana Palatia servas,
hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo
ne prohibete! Satis iam pridem sanguine nostro
Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae;
iam pridem nobis caeli te regia, Caesar,
invidet atque hominum queritur curare triumphos;
quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas: tot bella per orbem,
tam multae scelerum facies; non ullus aratro
dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis
et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum;
vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes
arma ferunt; saevit toto Mars inpius orbe;
ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae,
addunt in spatia et frustra retinacula tendens
fertur equis auriga neque audit currus habenas.

Other prodigies of great impact among the ancients are, as I said, the apparitions of the divine beings. As I also said, there is evidence of the appearance of an Egyptian goddess to a shepherd in a story that we have incomplete of only 25 lines; In it the pastor tells his companions the encounter with a woman who did not look like mortal .. This prodigy has not stopped repeating itself periodically until our days. In another moment I will dedicate an article to this subject.

But now I want to refer to another apparition that may remind us of a modern one. Pliny the Younger in a famous letter about the existence or not of the ghosts and the historian Tacitus tell it. I refer to the appearance of "a woman of superhuman stature to Curcius Rufus announcing that he would return to Africa as consul-elect.

I transcribe the whole letter of Pliny the Younger: Epistula 7,27

 To Sura/,

The present recess from business we are now enjoying affords you leisure to give, and me to receive, instruction. I am extremely desirous therefore to know whether you believe in the existence of ghosts, and that they have a real form, and are a sort of divinities, or only the visionary impressions of a terrified imagination ? What particularly inclines me to believe in their existence is a story f which I heard of Curtius Rufus. When he was in low circumstances and unknown in the world, he attended the governor of Africa into that province. One evening, as he was walking in the public portico, there appeared to him the figure of a woman, of unusual size and of beauty more than human. And as he stood there, terrified and astonished, she told him she was the tutelary power that presided over Africa, and was come to inform him of the future events of his life : that he should go back to Rome, to enjoy high honours there, and return to that province invested with the proconsular dignity, and there should die. Every circumstance of this prediction actually came to pass. It is said farther that upon his arrival at Carthage, as he was coming out of the ship, the same figure met him upon the shore. It is certain, at least, that being seized with a tit of illness, though there were no symptoms in his case that led those about him to despair, he instantly gave up all hope of recovery; judging, apparently, of the truth of the future part of the prediction by what had already been fulfilled, and of the approaching misfortune from his former prosperity.  Now the following story, which I am going to tell you just as I heard it, is it not more terrible than the former, while quite as wonderful ? There was at Athens  a large and roomv house, which had a bad name, so that no one could live there. In the dead of the night a noise, resembling the clashing of iron was frequently heard, which, if you listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of chains, distant at first, but approaching nearer by degrees; immediately afterwards a spectre appeared in the form of an old man, of extremely emaciated and squalid appearance, with a long beard and dishevelled hair, rattling the chains on his feet and hands. The distressed occupants meanwhile passed their wakeful nights under the most dreadful terrors imaginable. This, as it broke their rest, ruined their health, and brought on distempers, their terror grew upon them, and death ensued.

Even in the day time, though the spirit did not appear, yet the impression remained so strong upon their imaginations that it still seemed before their eyes, and kept them in perpetual alarm. Consequently the house was at length deserted, as being deemed absolutely uninhabitable ; so that it was now entirely abandoned to the ghost. However, in hopes that some tenant might be found who was ignorant of this very alarming circumstance, a bill was put up, giving notice that it was either to be let or sold. It happened that Athenodorus  the philosopher came to Athens at this time, and, reading the bill, enquired the price. The extraordinary cheapness raised his suspicion ; nevertheless, when he heard the whole Mory, he was so far from being discouraged that he was more strongly inclined to hire it, and, in short, actually did so. When it grew towards evening, he ordered a couch to be prepared for him in the front part of the house, and, after calling for a light, together with his pencil and tablets, directed all his people to retire. But that his inind might not, for want of employment, be open to the vain terrors of imaginary noises and spirits, he applied himself to writing with the utmost attention. The first part of the night passed in entire silence, as usual ; at length a clanking of iron and rattling of chains was heard : however, he neither lifted up his eyes nor laid down his pen, but in order to keep calm and collected tried to pass the sounds off to himself as something else. The noise increased and advanced nearer, till it seemed at the door, and at, last in the chamber. He looked up, saw, and recognised the ghost exactly as it had been described to him : it stood before him, beckoning with the finger, like a person who calls another, Athenodorus in reply made a sign with his hand that it should wait a little, and threw his eyes again upon his papers ; the ghost then rattled its chains over the head of the philosopher, who looked up upon this, and seeing it beckoning as before, immediately arose, and, light in hand, followed it. The ghost slowly stalked along, as if encumbered with its chains, and, turning into the area of the house, suddenly vanished. Athenodorus, being thus deserted, make a mark with nome grass and leaves on the spot where the spirit left him. The next day he gave information to the magistrates, and advised them to order that spot to be dug up. This was accordingly done, and the skeleton of a man in chains was found there ; for the body, having lain a considerable time in the ground, was putrefied and mouldered away from the fetters. The bones being collected together were publicly buried, and thus after the ghost was appeased by the proper ceremonies, the house was haunted no more This story I believe upon the credit of others ; what I am going to mention, I give you upon my own. I have a freedman named Marcus, who is by no means illiterate. One night, as he and his younger brother were lying together, he  fancied he saw somebody upon his bed, who took out a pair of scissors, and cut off the hair from the top part of  his own head, and in the morning, it appeared his hair  was actually cut, and the clippings lay scattered about the floor. A short time after this, an event of a similar nature contributed to give credit to the former story. A young I lad of my family was sleeping in his apartment with the rest of his companions, when two persons clad in white came in, as he says, through the windows, cut off his hair as he lay, and then returned the same way they entered. The next morning it was found that this boy had been served just as the other, and there was the hair agaiu, spread about the room. Nothing remarkable indeed followed these events, unless perhaps that I escaped a prosecution, in which, if Domitian during whose reign this happened had lived some time longer, I should certainly have been involved. For after the death of that emperor, articles of impeachment against me were found in his scrutore, which had been exhibited by Cams. It may therefore be conjectured, since it is customary for persons under any public accusation to let their hair grow. + this cutting off the hair of my servants was a sign I should escape the imminent danger that threatened mo. Let me desire you then to give this question your mature consideration. The subject deserves your examination ; as, I trust, I am not myself altogether unworthy a participation in the abundance of your superior knowledge. And though you should, as usual, balance between two opinions, yet I hope you will lean more on one side than on the other, lest, whilst I consult you in order to have my doubt settled, you should dismiss me in the same suspense and indecision that occasioned you the present application. Farewell.
(Translation by William Melmoth,)

Et mihi discendi et tibi docendi facultatem otium praebet. Igitur perquam velim scire, esse phantasmata et habere propriam figuram numenque aliquod putes an inania et vana ex metu nostro imaginem accipere.  Ego ut esse credam in primis eo ducor, quod audio accidisse Curtio Rufo. Tenuis adhuc et obscurus, obtinenti Africam comes haeserat. Inclinato die spatiabatur in porticu; offertur ei mulieris figura humana grandior pulchriorque. Perterrito Africam se futurorum praenuntiam dixit: iturum enim Romam honoresque gesturum, atque etiam cum summo imperio in eandem provinciam reversurum, ibique moriturum.  Facta sunt omnia. Praeterea accedenti Carthaginem egredientique nave eadem figura in litore occurrisse narratur. Ipse certe implicitus morbo futura praeteritis, adversa secundis auguratus, spem salutis nullo suorum desperante proiecit.  Iam illud nonne et magis terribile et non minus mirum est quod exponam ut accepi?  Erat Athenis spatiosa et capax domus sed infamis et pestilens. Per silentium noctis sonus ferri, et si attenderes acrius, strepitus vinculorum longius primo, deinde e proximo reddebatur: mox apparebat idolon, senex macie et squalore confectus, promissa barba horrenti capillo; cruribus compedes, manibus catenas gerebat quatiebatque.  Inde inhabitantibus tristes diraeque noctes per metum vigilabantur; vigiliam morbus et crescente formidine mors sequebatur. Nam interdiu quoque, quamquam abscesserat imago, memoria imaginis oculis inerrabat, longiorque causis timoris timor erat. Deserta inde et damnata solitudine domus totaque illi monstro relicta; proscribebatur tamen, seu quis emere seu quis conducere ignarus tanti mali vellet.  Venit Athenas philosophus Athenodorus, legit titulum auditoque pretio, quia suspecta vilitas, percunctatus omnia docetur ac nihilo minus, immo tanto magis conducit. Ubi coepit advesperascere, iubet sterni sibi in prima domus parte, poscit pugillares stilum lumen, suos omnes in interiora dimittit; ipse ad scribendum animum oculos manum intendit, ne vacua mens audita simulacra et inanes sibi metus fingeret.  Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis; dein concuti ferrum, vincula moveri. Ille non tollere oculos, non remittere stilum, sed offirmare animum auribusque praetendere. Tum crebrescere fragor, adventare et iam ut in limine, iam ut intra limen audiri. Respicit, videt agnoscitque narratam sibi effigiem.  Stabat innuebatque digito similis vocanti. Hic contra ut paulum exspectaret manu significat rursusque ceris et stilo incumbit. Illa scribentis capiti catenis insonabat. Respicit rursus idem quod prius innuentem, nec moratus tollit lumen et sequitur.  Ibat illa lento gradu quasi gravis vinculis. Postquam deflexit in aream domus, repente dilapsa deserit comitem. Desertus herbas et folia concerpta signum loco ponit.  Postero die adit magistratus, monet ut illum locum effodi iubeant. Inveniuntur ossa inserta catenis et implicita, quae corpus aevo terraque putrefactum nuda et exesa reliquerat vinculis; collecta publice sepeliuntur. Domus postea rite conditis manibus caruit.  Et haec quidem affirmantibus credo; illud affirmare aliis possum. Est libertus mihi non illitteratus. Cum hoc minor frater eodem lecto quiescebat. Is visus est sibi cernere quendam in toro residentem, admoventemque capiti suo cultros, atque etiam ex ipso vertice amputantem capillos. Ubi illuxit, ipse circa verticem tonsus, capilli iacentes reperiuntur.  Exiguum temporis medium, et rursus simile aliud priori fidem fecit. Puer in paedagogio mixtus pluribus dormiebat. Venerunt per fenestras – ita narrat – in tunicis albis duo cubantemque detonderunt et qua venerant recesserunt. Hunc quoque tonsum sparsosque circa capillos dies ostendit.  Nihil notabile secutum, nisi forte quod non fui reus, futurus, si Domitianus sub quo haec acciderunt diutius vixisset. Nam in scrinio eius datus a Caro de me libellus inventus est; ex quo coniectari potest, quia reis moris est summittere capillum, recisos meorum capillos depulsi quod imminebat periculi signum fuisse.  Proinde rogo, eruditionem tuam intendas. Digna res est quam diu multumque consideres; ne ego quidem indignus, cui copiam scientiae tuae facias.  Licet etiam utramque in partem – ut soles – disputes, ex altera tamen fortius, ne me suspensum incertumque dimittas, cum mihi consulendi causa fuerit, ut dubitare desinerem. Vale.

Tacitus: Annals: 11, 21.:

Of the birth of Curtius Rufus, whom some affirm to have been the son of a gladiator, I would not publish a falsehood, while I shrink from telling the truth. On reaching manhood he attached himself to a quæstor to whom Africa had been allotted, and was walking alone at midday in some unfrequented arcade in the town of Adrumetum, when he saw a female figure of more than human stature, and heard a voice, "Thou, Rufus, art the man who will one day come into this province as proconsul." Raised high in hope by such a presage, he returned to Rome, where, through the lavish expenditure of his friends and his own vigorous ability, he obtained the quæstorship, and, subsequently, in competition with well-born candidates, the prætorship, by the vote of the emperor Tiberius, who threw a veil over the discredit of his origin, saying, "Curtius Rufus seems to me to be his own ancestor." Afterwards, throughout a long old age of surly sycophancy to those above him, of arrogance to those beneath him, and of moroseness among his equals, he gained the high office of the consulship, triumphal distinctions, and, at last, the province of Africa. There he died, and so fulfilled the presage of his destiny. (Translation by Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb)

De origine Curtii Rufi, quem gladiatore genitum quidam prodidere, neque falsa prompserim et vera exequi pudet. postquam adolevit, sectator quaestoris, cui Africa obtigerat, dum in oppido Adrumeto vacuis per medium diei porticibus secretus agitat, oblata ei species muliebris ultra modum humanum et audita est vox 'tu es, Rufe, qui in hanc provinciam pro consule venies.' tali omine in spem sublatus degressusque in urbem largitione amicorum, simul acri ingenio quaesturam et mox nobilis inter candidatos praeturam principis suffragio adsequitur, cum hisce verbis Tiberius dedecus natalium eius velavisset: 'Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus.' longa post haec senecta, et adversus superiores tristi adulatione, adrogans minoribus, inter pares difficilis, consulare imperium, triumphi insignia ac postremo Africam obtinuit; atque ibi defunctus fatale praesagium implevit.

St. Augustine, in his City of God, refers  a prodigy well-known in antiquity: the tears shed by the statue of Apollo in Cumae, in Magna Graecia, on the occasion of the war between the Romans and the Greeks, when Publius Crassus died in a battle with Ariston. St. Augustine thinks that these are things of the demons that the poets present to us as true, but from then until today and also much earlier, many statues of gods, virgins and saints have wept frequently, acquiring the errors of men.

Augustine: De civitate Dei (The City of God), III,11

Of the statue of Apollo at Cumæ, whose tears are supposed to have portended disaster to the Greeks, whom the god was unable to succour.

And it is still this weakness of the gods which is confessed in the story of the Cuman Apollo, who is said to have wept for four days during the war with the Achæans and King Aristonicus. And when the augurs were alarmed at the portent, and had determined to cast the statue into the sea, the old men of Cumæ interposed, and related that a similar prodigy had occurred to the same image during the wars against Antiochus and against Perseus, and that by a decree of the senate gifts had been presented to Apollo, because the event had proved favourable to the Romans. Then soothsayers were summoned who were supposed to have greater professional skill, and they pronounced that the weeping of Apollo's image was propitious to the Romans, because Cumæ was a Greek colony, and that Apollo was bewailing (and thereby presaging) the grief and calamity that was about to light upon his own land of Greece, from which he had been brought. Shortly afterwards it was reported that King Aristonicus was defeated and made prisoner,—a defeat certainly opposed to the will of Apollo; and this he indicated by even shedding tears from his marble image. And this shows us that, though the verses of the poets are mythical, they are not altogether devoid of truth, but describe the manners of the demons in a sufficiently fit style. For in Virgil Diana mourned for Camilla, and Hercules wept for Pallas doomed to die. This is perhaps the reason why Numa Pompilius, too, when, enjoying prolonged peace, but without knowing or inquiring from whom he received it, he began in his leisure to consider to what gods he should entrust the safe keeping and conduct of Rome, and not dreaming that the true, almighty, and most high God cares for earthly affairs, but recollecting only that the Trojan gods which Æneas had brought to Italy had been able to preserve neither the Trojan nor Lavinian kingdom founded by Æneas himself, concluded that he must provide other gods as guardians of fugitives and helpers of the weak, and add them to those earlier divinities who had either come over to Rome with Romulus, or when Alba was destroyed. (Translated by the Rev. Marcus Dods, M.A.)

Neque enim aliunde Apollo ille Cumanus, cum adversus Achivos regemque Aristonicum bellaretur, quatriduo flevisse nuntiatus est ; quo prodigio haruspices territi cum id simulacrum in mare putavissent esse proiciendum, Cumani senes intercesserunt atque rettulerunt tale prodigium et Antiochi et Persis bello in eodem apparuisse figmento, et quia Romanis feliciter provenisset, ex senatus consulto eidem Apollini suo dona missa esse testati sunt. Tunc velut peritiores acciti haruspices responderunt simulacri Apollinis fletum ideo prosperum esse Romanis, quoniam Cumana colonia Graeca esset, suisque terris, unde accitus esset, id est ipsi Graeciae, luctum et cladem Apollinem significasse plorantem. Deinde mox regem Aristonicum victum et captum esse nuntiatum est, quem vinci utique Apollo nolebat et dolebat et hoc sui lapidis etiam lacrimis indicabat. Unde non usquequaque incongrue quamvis fabulosis, tamen veritati similibus mores daemonum describuntur carminibus poetarum. Nam Camillam Diana doluit apud Vergilium et Pallantem moriturum Hercules flevit . Hinc fortassis et Numa Pompilius pace abundans, sed quo donante nesciens nec requirens, cum cogitaret otiosus, quibusnam diis tuendam Romanam salutem regnumque committeret, nec verum illum atque omnipotentem summum Deum curare opinaretur ista terrena, atque recoleret Troianos deos, quos Aeneas advexerat, neque Troianum neque Laviniense ab ipso Aenea conditum regnum diu conservare potuisse: alios providendos existimavit, quos illis prioribus, qui sive cum Romulo iam Romam transierant, sive quandoque Alba eversa fuerant transituri, vel tamquam fugitivis custodes adhiberet vel tamquam invalidis adiutores.

I could give you many examples.

The post Prodigies, miracles, wonders, portents, phenomena, monsters (II) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

In a similar way, we believe that the general appearance and especially the dress of a person reveals his inner form of being and thinking. Thus a disheveled aspect is evidence of an unorganized life
Lucius Annaeus Seneca uses in the letter number 114, addressed to his friend Lucilius, the expression "talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita" (for these men his speech was like his life), warning us that this sentence is already a sentence or phrase made coined by the Greeks.

The meaning that this expression has for the Stoics,  Seneca is one of them, is that there is a close relationship between what is said in speech, oral or written, and life; In other words, that the writer or speaker writes or speaks according to his life. Moreover, the convenience of the agreement between "what is said and what is thought" as an essential element of honest and moral life. Then I will go a little deeper in the sense of these sentences.

The truth is that the idea that there is a perfect relationship between a person's way of being and the way of expressing himself is very ancient and widespread in the Greek world. We find it, for example, in Plato, in his dialogue on the Republic, III, 11. 399e et seq. where  he talks us about the importance of music  and of the various rhythms in education, according to the expression of the various themes and in line with the way people are; it can be a little long, but it introduces perfectly the question:

“For upon harmonies would follow the consideration of rhythms: we must not pursue complexity nor great variety in the basic movements, but must observe what are the rhythms of a life that is orderly and brave,…
…For that there are some three forms from which the feet are combined, just as there are four in the notes of the voice whence come all harmonies,… But which are imitations of which sort of life, I am unable to say.”
“Well,” said I, “on this point we will take counsel with Damon, too, as to which are the feet appropriate to illiberality, and insolence or madness or other evils, and what rhythms we must leave for their opposites;
…
And, further, that good rhythm and bad rhythm accompany, the one fair diction, assimilating itself thereto, and the other the opposite, and so of the apt and the unapt, if, as we were just now saying, the rhythm and harmony follow the words and not the words these.” “They certainly must follow the speech,” he said. “And what of the manner of the diction, and the speech?” said I. “Do they not follow and conform to the disposition of the soul?” “Of course.” “And all the rest to the diction?” “Yes.” “Good speech, then, good accord, and good grace,
–
and good rhythm wait upon good disposition, not that weakness of head which we euphemistically style goodness of heart, but the truly good and fair disposition of the character and the mind.” “By all means,” he said. “And must not our youth pursue these everywhere if they are to do what it is truly theirs to do?” “They must indeed.”
……
…And gracelessness and evil rhythm and disharmony are akin to evil speaking and the evil temper but the opposites are the symbols and the kin of the opposites, the sober and good disposition.” “Entirely so,” he said.
“Is it, then, only the poets that we must supervise and compel to embody in their poems the semblance of the good character or else not write poetry among us, or must we keep watch over the other craftsmen, and forbid them to represent the evil disposition, the licentious, the illiberal, the graceless, either in the likeness of living creatures or in buildings or in any other product of their art,….. (Translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.)

In fact, this is the idea used by Virgil when in his Eclogue  VI he indicates the need to adapt the poetic form of bucolic poetry to the themes that are its own:

Viril Eclogues VI 1-12:

first my Thalia stooped in sportive mood
to Syracusan strains, nor blushed within
the woods to house her. When I sought to tell
of battles and of kings, the Cynthian god
plucked at mine ear and warned me: “Tityrus,
beseems a shepherd-wight to feed fat sheep,
but sing a slender song.” Now, Varus, I—
for lack there will not who would laud thy deeds,
and treat of dolorous wars—will rather tune
to the slim oaten reed my silvan lay.
I sing but as vouchsafed me; yet even this
if, if but one with ravished eyes should read,
of thee, O Varus, shall our tamarisks
and all the woodland ring; nor can there be
a page more dear to Phoebus, than the page
where, foremost writ, the name of Varus stands.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

Prima Syracosio dignata est ludere versu,
nostra nec erubuit silvas habitare Thalia.
Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cynthius aurem
vellit, et admonuit: “Pastorem, Tityre, pinguis
pascere oportet ovis, deductum dicere carmen.”
Nunc ego—namque super tibi erunt, qui dicere laudes,
Vare, tuas cupiant, et tristia condere bella—
agrestem tenui meditabor arundine Musam.
Non iniussa cano: si quis tamen haec quoque, si quis
captus amore leget, te nostrae, Vare, myricae,
te nemus omne canet; nec Phoebo gratior ulla est,
quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit pagina nomen.

So there is and must be a perfect relationship between what is said, how it is said and the real life whom says it. It is also perfectly expressed by the very repeated French phrase "Le style, c'est l'homme même". The phrase is taken from the Address of entrance of Buffon in l'Académie française in 1753 in which it tries to justify and to praise the originality of the great writers. The phrase turned against Buffon himself who is criticized for his pompous and bombastic style.

Another testimony, this shorter because it is a fragment, is found in the Greek playwrighter   Menander, Fragment 143K, that is  identified as belonging to the Comedy "The self-tormentor", name that it receives also the adaptation to the Latin that soon Terence did with his Heautontimourumenos:

A man's character discovers itself in his speech.

Terence, a Latin author who uses Menander's theater to write his comedies in Latin, employs, as I said, a similar expression in a work on the same theme which he also calls Heautontimourumenos; this is in II, 4,4 (384 / in others Editions 392):

BACCHIS.
Upon my word, my dear Antiphila, I commend you, and think you fortunate in having made it your study that your manners should be conformable to those good looks of yours: and so may the Gods bless me, I do not at all wonder if every man is in love with you. For your discourse has been a proof to me what kind of disposition you possess. (Translated by Henry Thomas Riley. Ney York. Harper and Brothers. 1874.

Bacchides.

Edepol te, mea Antiphila, laudo et fortunatam iudico,
Id quum studuisti, isti formae ut mores consimiles forent:
Minimeque, ita me Di ament, miror, si te sibi quisque expetit.
Nam mihi quale ingenium haberes fuit indicio oratio.

The idea is also taken up by Cicero in his Brutus, 117:

As I have mentioned the Stoics, I must take some notice of Q. Aelius Tubero, the grandson of L. Paullus, who made his appearance at the time we are speaking of. He was never esteemed an orator, but was a man of the most rigid virtue, and strictly conformable to the doctrine he professed: but, in truth, he was rather too crabbed. When he was triumvir, he declared, contrary to the opinion of P. Africanus his uncle, that the augurs had no right of exemption from sitting in the courts of justice: and as in his temper, so in his manner of speaking, he was harsh, unpolished, and austere; on which account, he could never raise himself to the honourable ports which were enjoyed by his ancestors. But he was a brave and steady citizen, and a warm opposer of Gracchus, as appears from an oration of Gracchus against him: we have likewise some of Tubero's speeches against Gracchus. He was not indeed a shining orator: but he was a learned, and a very skilful disputant." Translated by E.Jones (1776)

Et quoniam Stoicorum est facta mentio, Q. Aelius Tubero fuit illo tempore, L. Pauli nepos; nullo in oratorum numero sed vita severus et congruens cum ea disciplina quam colebat, paulo etiam durior; qui quidem in triumviratu iudicaverit contra P. Africani avunculi sui testimonium vacationem augures quo minus iudiciis operam darent non habere; sed ut vita sic oratione durus incultus horridus; itaque honoribus maiorum respondere non potuit. fuit autem constans civis et fortis et in primis Graccho molestus, quod indicat Gracchi in eum oratio; sunt etiam in Gracchum Tuberonis. is fuit mediocris in dicendo, doctissumus in disputando.

And the same Cicero in Tusculanae Disputationes, V, 47

The Stoics give the name of excellent and choice to what the others call good: They call them so, indeed ; but they do not allow them to complete a happy life. But these others think that there is no life happy without them ;or, admitting it to be happy, they deny it to be the most happy. But our opinión is, that it is the most happy; and we prove it from that conclusión of Socrates. For thus that autor of philosophy argued that as the disposition of a man's mind is, so is the man; such as the man is, such will be his discourse; his actions will correspond with his discourse, and his life with his actions. But the disposition of a good man's mind is laudable ; the life, therefore, of a good Man is laudable ; it is honorable, therefore, because laudable ; the unavoidable conclusión from which is that the life of good men is happy. (Translated by C.D. Yonge)

At enim eadem Stoici1 “praecipua” vel “producta” dicunt, quae “bona” isti. dicunt illi quidem, sed is vitam beatam compleri negant; hi autem sine is esse nullam putant aut, si sit beata, beatissimam certe negant. nos autem volumus beatissimam, idque nobis Socratica illa conclusione confirmatur. sic enim princeps ille philosophiae disserebat: qualis cuiusque animi adfectus esset, talem esse hominem; qualis autem homo ipse esset, talem eius esse orationem; orationi autem facta similia, factis vitam. adfectus autem animi in bono [p. 426] viro laudabilis; et vita igitur laudabilis boni viri; et honesta ergo, quoniam laudabilis. ex quibus bonorum beatam vitam esse concluditur.

And again Cicero, referring to Cato the Elder, tells us in Republic, II, 1:

[When, therefore, he observed all his friends kindled with the de]sire of hearing him, Scipio thus opened the discussion. I will commence, said Scipio, with a sentiment of old Cato, whom, as you know,I singularly loved and exceedingly admired, and to whom, in compliance with the judgment of both my parents, and also by my own desire, I was entirely devoted during my youth; of whose discourse, indeed, I could never have enough, so much experience did he possess as a statesman respecting the republic which he had so long governed, both in peace and war, with so much success. There was also an admirable propriety in his style of conversation, in which wit was tempered with gravity; a wonderful aptitude for acquiring, and at the same time communicating,information; and his life was in perfect correspondence and unison with his language. (Translated by C.C. Yonge)

Cum omnes flagrarent cupiditate audiendi, ingressus est sic loqui Scipio: Catonis hoc senis est, quem, ut scitis, unice dilexi maximeque sum admiratus cuique vel patris utriusque iudicio vel etiam meo studio me totum ab adulescentia dedidi; cuius me numquam satiare potuit oratio; tantus erat in homine usus rei publicae, quam et domi et militiae cum optime, tum etiam diutissime gesserat, et modus in dicendo et gravitate mixtus lepos et summum vel discendi studium vel docendi et orationi vita admodum congruens.

Plutarch also uses the idea when he speaks also about Cato the Elder 7,1 and 2

Much the same traits are revealed in the man's oratory. It was at once graceful and powerful, pleasant and compelling, facetious and severe, sententious and belligerent. So Plato says of Socrates that from the outside he impressed his associates as rude, uncouth, and wanton; but within he was full of earnestness, and of matters that moved his hearers to tears and wrung their hearts.

Wherefore I know not what they can mean who say that Cato's oratory most resembled that of Lysias. However, such questions must be decided by those who are more capable than I am of discerning the traits of Roman oratory, and I shall now record a few of his famous sayings, believing that men's characters are revealed much more by their speech than, as some think, by their looks. (Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.)

And the same Plutarch in his Lives, in the comparison between Demosthenes and Cicero, 1, says:

These, then, are the memorable incidents in the recorded careers of Demosthenes and Cicero which have come to our knowledge. And though I have renounced the comparison of their oratorical styles, yet this, I think, ought not to be left unsaid, namely, that Demosthenes devoted to the rhetorical art all the powers of speech which he possessed by nature or acquired by practice, surpassing in force and effectiveness his rivals in forensic and judicial pleading, in pomp and majesty of utterance the professional declaimers, and in precision and skill the sophists; Cicero, on the other hand, became widely learned and had a variety of interest in the pursuit of letters, and left behind him not a few philosophical treatises of his own conforming to the fashion of the Academy; indeed, even in the speeches which he wrote for the forum and the courts he clearly desires to display by the way a considerable acquaintance with letters.

It is possible, too, to get a glimpse of the character of each in his style of speaking. For that of Demosthenes, which had no prettiness or pleasantry, and was condensed with a view to power and earnestness, did not smell of lamp-wicks, as Pytheas scoffingly said, but of water-drinking and anxious thought, and of what men called the bitterness and sullenness of his disposition; whereas Cicero was often carried away by his love of jesting into scurrility, and when, to gain his ends in his cases, he treated matters worthy of serious attention with ironical mirth and pleasantry, he was careless of propriety. Thus, in his defence of Caelius, he said that his client, surrounded as he was by great luxury and extravagance, did nothing out of the way when indulging in pleasures; for not to enjoy what is in one's possession was madness, he said, particularly when the most eminent philosophers assert that true happiness consists in pleasure.

And we are told that when Cato prosecuted Murena, Cicero, who was then consul, defended him, and because of Cato's beliefs made much fun of the Stoic sect, in view of the absurdities of their so-called paradoxes; and when loud laughter spread from the audience to the jurors, Cato, with a quiet smile, said to those who sat by: ‘What a funny man we have, my friends, for consul!’

And it would seem that Cicero was naturally prone to laughter and fond of jesting; his face, too, was smiling and peaceful. But in that of Demosthenes there was always a certain intense seriousness, and this look of thoughtfulness and anxiety he did not easily lay aside. For this reason his enemies, as he himself says, called him morose and ill-mannered. (Translated by Bernadotte Perrin, 1919)

Seneca is probably the author who more often uses this idea. As I said at the beginning he is the author of the letter in which the initial quoted sentence appears. In that letter he merely establishes in an eloquent way an absolute relation of identity between the form of life of the author and the type of expression and linguistic construction that he uses. And he exemplifies his thesis with the example of Maecenas. I now reproduce the first paragraphs of the letter, in which the phrase quoted appears, and I leave till the end the whole reproduction of the letter 114, worthy of being read, although somewhat long.

On Style as a Mirror of Character
You have been asking me why, during certain periods, a degenerate style of speech comes to the fore, and how it is that men's wits have gone downhill into certain vices – in such a way that exposition at one time has taken on a kind of puffed-up strength, and at another has become mincing and modulated like the music of a concert piece. You wonder why sometimes bold ideas – bolder than one could believe – have been held in favour, and why at other times one meets with phrases that are disconnected and full of innuendo, into which one must read more meaning than was intended to meet the ear. Or why there have been epochs which maintained the right to a shameless use of metaphor. For answer, here is a phrase which you are wont to notice in the popular speech – one which the Greeks have made into a proverb: "Man's speech is just like his life." Exactly as each individual man's actions seem to speak, so people's style of speaking often reproduces the general character of the time, if the morale of the public has relaxed and has given itself over to effeminacy. Wantonness in speech is proof of public luxury, if it is popular and fashionable, and not confined to one or two individual instances.  A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be wholesome, well-ordered, serious, and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is also contaminated. Do you not see that if a man's soul has become sluggish, his limbs drag and his feet move indolently? If it is womanish, that one can detect the effeminacy by his very gait? That a keen and confident soul quickens the step? That madness in the soul, or anger (which resembles madness), hastens our bodily movements from walking to rushing?

And how much more do you think that this affects one's ability, which is entirely interwoven with the soul, – being moulded thereby, obeying its commands, and deriving therefrom its laws! 4. How Maecenas lived is too well-known for present comment. We know how he walked, how effeminate he was, and how he desired to display himself; also, how unwilling he was that his vices should escape notice. What, then? Does not the looseness of his speech match his ungirt attire? Are his habits, his attendants, his house, his wife, any less clearly marked than his words? He would have been a man of great powers, had he set himself to his task by a straight path, had he not shrunk from making himself understood, had he not been so loose in his style of speech also. You will therefore see that his eloquence was that of an intoxicated man – twisting, turning, unlimited in its slackness. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Quare quibusdam temporibus provenerit corrupti generis oratio quaeris, et quomodo in quaedam vitia inclinatio ingeniorum facta sit, ut aliquando inflata explicatio vigeret, aliquando infracta et in morem cantici ducta ? Quare alias sensus audaces et fidem egressi placuerint, alias abruptae sententiae et suspiciosae, in quibus plus intellegendum esset quam audiendum ? Quare aliqua aetas fuerit, quae translationis iure uteretur inverecunde ? Hoc quod audire vulgo soles, quod apud Graecos in proverbium cessit: talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita.

Quemadmodum autem uniuscuiusque actio dicenti similis est, sic genus dicendi aliquando imitatur publicos mores, si 1 disciplina civitatis laboravit et se in delicias dedit. Argumentum est luxuriae publicae orationis lascivia, si modo non in uno aut in altero fuit, sed adprobata est et recepta.

Non potest alius esse ingenio, alius animo color. Si ille sanus est, si compositus, gravis, temperans, ingenium quoque siccum ac sobrium est; illo vitiato hoc quoque adflatur. Non vides, si animus elanguit, trahi membra et pigre moveri pedes ? Si ille effeminatus est, in  ipso incessu adparere mollitiam ? Si ille acer est et ferox, concitari gradum ? Si furit aut, quod furori simile est, irascitur, turbatum esse corporis motum nec ire, sed ferri ?

Quanto hoc magis accidere ingenio putas, quod totum animo permixtum est; ab illo fingitur, illi paret, inde legem petit.

Quomodo Maecenas vixerit notius est, quam ut narrari nunc debeat, quomodo ambulaverit, quam delicatus fuerit, quam cupierit videri, quam vitia sua latere noluerit. Quid ergo ? Non oratio eius aeque soluta est quam ipse discinctus ? Non tam insignita illius verba sunt quam cultus, quam comitatus, quam domus, quam uxor ? Magni vir ingenii fuerat, si illud egisset via rectiore, si non vitasset intellegi, si non etiam in oratione difflueret. videbis itaque eloquentiam ebrii hominis involutam et errantem et licentiae plenam.

Then he uses it, as I said, on numerous occasions. Thus in Letters, 40, 2:

You write me that you heard a lecture by the philosopher Serapio, when he landed at your present place of residence. "He is wont," you say, "to wrench up his words with a mighty rush, and he does not let them flow forth one by one, but makes them crowd and dash upon each other. For the words come in such quantity that a single voice is inadequate to utter them." I do not approve of this in a philosopher; his speech, like his life, should be composed; and nothing that rushes headlong and is hurried is well ordered. That is why, in Homer, the rapid style, which sweeps down without a break like a snow-squall, is assigned to the younger speaker; from the old man eloquence flows gently, sweeter than honey.(Translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Audisse te scribis Serapionem philosophum, cum istuc adplicuisset: " Solet magno cursu verba convellere, quae non effundit una, sed premit et urguet. Plura enim veniunt quam quibus vox una sufficiat." Hoc non probo in philosopho, cuius pronuntiatio quoque, sicut vita, debet esse conposita; nihil autem ordinatum est, quod praecipitatur et properat. Itaque oratio illa apud Homerum concitata et sine intermissione in morem nivis superveniens iuveniori  oratori data est, lenis et melle dulcior seni profluit.

And also in Letters, 40, 6

No; but just as you are well satisfied, in the majority of cases, to have seen through tricks which you did not think could possibly be done, so in the case of these Word-gymnasts, -to have Heard them once in amply sufficient. For what can a man desire to learn or to imitate in them? What is he to think of their souls, when their seech is sent into charge in utter disorder, and cannot be kept in hand? ( translated by Richard Mott Gummere

Sed ut pleraque, quae fieri posse non crederes, cognovisse satis est, ita istos, qui verba exercuerunt, abunde est semel audisse. Quid enim quis discere, quid imitari velit ? Quid de eorum animo iudicet, quorum oratio perturbata et inmissa est nec potest reprimi ?

And in 75, 4:

Let this be the kernel of my idea: let us say what we feel, and feel what we say; let speech harmonize with life. That man has fulfilled his promise who is the same person both when you see him and when you hear him. (Translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Haec sit propositi nostri summa: quod sentimus loquamur, quod loquimur sentiamus; concordet sermo cum vita. Ille promissum suum inplevit, qui, et cum videas illum et cum audias, idem est.

And in 107, 12:

Le tus live thus, and speak thus; let Fate find us ready and alert. Here is your great soul –the man who has given himself over to Fate; on the other hand, that man is a weakling and a degenerate who struggles and maligns the order of the universo and would rather reform the gods tan reform himself. Farewell. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere).

Sic vivamus, sic loquamur; paratos nos inveniat atque inpigros fatum. Hic est magnus animus, qui se ei tradidit; at contra ille pusillus et degener, qui obluctatur et de ordine mundi male existimat et emendare mavult deos quam se. Vale.

And in 115, 1-2:

I wish, my dear Lucilius, that you would not be too particular with revard to words and their arrangemente; I have greater matters tan these to commend to your care. You should seek what to write, rather tan how to write it –and even that not for the purpose of writing but of feeling it, that you may thus make what you have felt more your own and, as it were, set a seal on it. Whenever you notice a style that is too careful and too polished, you may be sure that the mind also is no less absorbed in petty thingss. The really great man speaks informally and easily; whatever he says,  he speaks with assurance rather tan with pains.

You are familiar with the Young dandies, natty as to their beards and locks, fresh from the bandbox; you can never expect from them any strength or any soundness. Style is the garb of thought: if it be trimmed, or dyed, or treagted, it shows that there are defects and a certain amount of flaws in the mind. Elaborate elegance is not a manly garb. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Nimis anxium esse te circa verba et compositionem, mi Lucili, nolo; habeo maiora, quae cures. Quaere, quid scribas, non quemadmodum; et hoc ipsum, non ut scribas, sed ut sentias, ut illa, quae senseris, magis adplices tibi et velut signes. Cuiuscumque orationem videris sollicitam et politam, scito animum quoque non minus esse pusillis occupatum.

Magnus ille remissius loquitur et securius; quaecumque dicit, plus habent fiduciae quam curae.
Nosti comptulos  iuvenes, barba et coma nitidos, de capsula totos; nihil ab illis speraveris forte, nihil solidum. Oratio cultus animi est: si circumtonsa est et  fucata et manu facta, ostendit illum quoque non esse sincerum et habere aliquid fracti. Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas.

This idea and expression is of great usefulness  for the satirical poets who, like Horace, Persius or Juvenal, strongly criticize the vices of Roman society of their time and establish a relation between the decadence of Roman society and its new vices and Decadence of literature; that is why their language is renewing, because they feel responsible Romans who have to recover the old morality, the mos maiorum.

Juvenal in his Satire IV, 81 et seq. speaks about Crispus, and he says that he is "a nice old man whose customs were at the level of his eloquence." I transcribe the full text referred to him:

Next to come in was the aged, genial Crispus, 9 whose gentle soul well matched his style of eloquence. No better adviser than he for the ruler of lands and seas and nations had he been free, under that scourge and plague, to denounce cruelties and proffer honest counsels. But what can be more dangerous than the ear of a tyrant on whose caprice hangs the life of a friend who has come to talk of the rain or the heat or the showery spring weather? So Crispus never struck out against the torrent, nor was he one to speak freely the thoughts of his heart, and stake his life upon the truth. Thus was it that he lived through many winters and saw his eightieth solstice, protected, even in that Court, by weapons such as these. [Translated by G. G. Ramsay].

uenit et Crispi iucunda senectus,
cuius erant mores qualis facundia, mite
ingenium. maria ac terras populosque regenti
quis comes utilior, si clade et peste sub illa
saeuitiam damnare et honestum adferre liceret            
consilium? sed quid uiolentius aure tyranni,
cum quo de pluuiis aut aestibus aut nimboso
uere locuturi fatum pendebat amici?
ille igitur numquam derexit bracchia contra
torrentem, nec ciuis erat qui libera posset          
uerba animi proferre et uitam inpendere uero.
sic multas hiemes atque octogensima uidit
solstitia, his armis illa quoque tutus in aula.

Seneca the Elder insists on these ideas on the decadence of eloquence. The text I offer, perhaps too long, also serves to document the existence, in ancient times, of the so-called "generational struggle".

Seneca, the Elder, Declamations (Controversiae), I, Praefatio, 6 et s.

Then you will be able to think how the good talents  diminishe every day, and, by some sort of disfavour of nature, eloquence has retrogressed: all that Roman eloquence can put beside or above the proud Greece, flourished towards in Cicero’s time; Then all the talents, which brought brilliance to our studies,  were born then. Then things have got worse every day. Perhaps it is due to the excesses of our time, – nothing is as lethal for talent as luxury-; perhaps because, when this noble occupation is less esteemed, every opportunity to compete has become a sordid activity that seeks great prestige and benefits; or perhaps, finally, by a certain fatality whose law, evil, eternal and universal, requires that all that has reached the summit, falls to the bottom, and it falls faster than it had ascended.

Behold, the spirits of this lazy youth become stupid in indleness by not devoting their efforts to the cultivation of the only honorable activity, eloquence. Sleep, indolence, and, that is more shameful than sleep and indolence, a constant depravity has invaded their spirit and indecent passion for singing and dancing has filled the soul of these effeminate young persons. To curl their hair, to speak with a little voice to imitate feminine charm, to compete with women in body graciousness and to dress in the most indecent manner, this is the ideal model that our young people follow.
What young man of your generation can I quote who  is not intelligent enough or hard enough, but man enough? Endurable and annoyed from birth, they continue being it all their lives, corrupt the innocence and modesty of others and they spoil theirs.

May the gods not allow the terrible misfortune, that eloquence falls into the hands of these people; I would not have the eloquence in such high regard, if she did not select the people to whom she is surrendered. You are mistaken, dear boys, if you believe that the famous saying is of M. Cato and not of an oracle.

What is, in fact, an oracle? It is, undoubtedly, the  will of a God spoken by the mouth of a man. And could the divinity, not to advise the human race, but to rebuke him, to choose a priest more respectable than Marcus Cato? What, then, is this great man saying? "The orator, my son Marcus, is a good man, an expert in the art of speaking". *

Go now and look for speakers among those polished men with shaved hair, who are  men only  for their vices. It is natural that they follow some models according to their intelligence.
Is there anyone who is worried about the memory he will leave? Is there anyone who is appreciated, I say not by great qualities, but simply by the qualities which he possesses? In the midst of this generalized neglect, they can easily appropriate the sentences pronounced by the most eloquent orators and, thus, they are continually defiling the divine art of an eloquence which they can not acquire.

* This is the famous definition of Cato the Censor, also quoted by Quintilian, Institution oratory XII 1, 1 and repeated later again and again.

Deinde ut possitis aestimare, in quantum cotidie ingenia decrescant et nescio qua iniquitate naturae eloquentia se retro tulerit: quidquid Romana facundia habet quod insolenti Graeciae aut opponat aut praeferat circa Ciceronem effloruit; omnia ingenia quae lucem studiis nostris adtulerunt tunc nata sunt. In deterius deinde cotidie data res est, siue luxu temporum — nihil enim tam mortiferum ingeniis quam luxuria est — siue, cum praemium pulcherrimae rei cecidisset, translatum est omne certamen ad turpia multo honore quaestuque uigentia, siue fato quodam cuius maligna perpetuaque in rebus omnibus lex est, ut ad summum perducta rursus ad infimum, uelocius quidem quam ascenderant, relabantur. Torpent ecce ingenia desidiosae iuuentutis nec in unius honestae rei labore uigilatur: somnus languorque ac somno et languore turpior malarum rerum industria inuasit animos, cantandi saltandique obscena studia effeminatos tenent, et capillum frangere et ad muliebres blanditias extenuare uocem, mollitia corporis certare cum feminis et immundissimis se expolire munditiis nostrorum adolescentium specimen est. Quis aequalium uestrorum, quid dicam satis ingeniosus, satis studiosus, immo quis satis uir est? emolliti eneruesque quod nati sunt inuiti manent, expugnatores alienae pudicitiae, neglegentes suae. In hos ne dii tantum mali ut cadat eloquentia: quam non mirarer, nisi animos in quos se conferret eligeret. erratis, optimi iuuenes, nisi illam uocem non M. Catonis, sed oraculi creditis. Quid enim est oraculum? nempe uoluntas diuina hominis ore enuntiata; et quem tandem antistitem sanctiorem sibi inuenire diuinitas potuit quam M. Catonem, per quem humano generi non praeciperet, sed conuitium faceret? ille ergo uir quid ait? ‘orator est, Marce fili, uir bonus dicendi peritus.’  Ite nunc et in istis uulsis atque expolitis et nusquam nisi in libidine uiris quaerite oratores. Merito talia habent exempla qualia ingenia. Quis est qui memoriae studeat? quis qui, non dico magnis uirtutibus, sed suis placeat? sententias a disertissimis uiris iactatas facile in tanta hominum desidia pro suis dicunt et sic sacerrimam eloquentiam quam praestare non possunt, uiolare non desinunt

Persius, in his Satire I criticizes the lack of literary taste of the poets of his time, which according to him is but a reflection of his moral degradation. Style is a reflection of life. The Satire is worth reading, especially for those who feel the strength to try the literary creation. Its excessive length prevents me from reproducing it at this time.

Quintilian, as it could not be otherwise, repeats several times the idea in his Institutiones Oratoriae; so in XI, 1,30

For a man's character is generally revealed and the secrets of his heart are laid bare by his manner of speaking, and there is good ground for the Greek aphorism that, “as a man lives, so will he speak.” The following vices are of a meaner type: grovelling flattery, affected buffoonery, immodesty in dealing with things or words which are unseemly or obscene, and disregard of authority on all and every occasion. They are faults which, as a rule, are found in those who are over-anxious either to please or amuse. ((Translation by Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922).)

profert enim mores plerumque oratio et animi secret detegit. nec sine causa Graeci prodiderunt, ut vivat, quemque etiam dicere. humiliora illa vitia: summissa adulatio, adfectata scurrilitas, in rebus ac verbis parum modestis ac pudicis vilis pudor, in omni negotio neglecta auctoritas; quae fere accidunt iis, qui nimium aut blandi esse aut ridiculi volunt.

The dresses can represent a mental state, as we see in Quintilian VIII, Proem, 20:

Again, a tasteful and magnificent dress, as the Greek poet tells us, lends added dignity to its wearer: but effeminate and luxurious apparel fails to adorn the body and merely reveals the foulness of the mind. Similarly, a translucent and iridescent style merely serves to emasculate the subject which it arrays with such pomp of words. Therefore I would have the orator, while careful in his choice of words, be even more concerned about his subject matter. (Translation by Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922).

 Et cultus concessus atque magnificus addit hominibus, ut Graeco versu testatum est, auctoritatem; at muliebris et luxuriosus non corpus exornat, sed detegit mentem. similiter illa translucida et versicolor quorundam elocutio res ipsas effeminat, quae illo verborum habitu vestiantur. curam ergo verborum, rerum volo esse sollicitudinem.

In the same way like the face is the reflection of the thoughts, a phrase already converted into a proverb under the formula "the face is the mirror of the soul", which reminds us, for example, Cicero in his In Pisonem 1:

Do you not see now, do you not feel, O you beast, what complaints men make of your impudence? No one complains that a Syrian, that a man whom nobody knows, that some one of that body of lately emancipated slaves, was made consul. For that complexion, like that of slaves, and those hairy cheeks and discoloured teeth, did not deceive us: your eyes, your eyebrows, your brow, in short your whole countenance, which is, as it were, a sort of silent language of the mind, led men into error, this it was which led those to whom this man was unknown into mistake and error, and blunders. There were but few of us who were acquainted with those foul vices of yours; few of us who knew the deficiency of your abilities, your stolid manner, and your embarrassed way of speaking. Your voice had never been heard in the forum; no one had had any experience of your wisdom in counsel: you had not only never performed any, I will not say illustrious exploit, but any action at all that was known of either in war or at home. You crept into honours through men's blunders, by the recommendation of some old smoke-dried images, though there is nothing in you at all resembling them except your colour. (Translated by. D. Yonge, 1891)

iamne vides, belua, iamne sentis quae sit hominum querela frontis tuae? nemo queritur Syrum nescio quem de grege noviciorum factum esse consulem. non enim nos color iste servilis, non pilosae genae, non dentes putridi deceperunt; oculi, supercilia, frons, voltus denique totus, qui sermo quidam tacitus mentis est, hic in fraudem homines impulit, hic eos quibus erat ignotus decepit, fefellit, induxit. pauci ista tua lutulenta vitia noramus, pauci tarditatem ingeni, stuporem debilitatemque linguae. numquam erat audita vox in foro, numquam periculum factum consili, nullum non modo inlustre sed ne notum quidem factum aut militiae aut domi. obrepsisti ad honores errore hominum, commendatione fumosarum imaginum, quarum simile habes nihil praeter colorem.

Now, having carried these principles to its ultimate consequences, does this mean that the literary work, every literary work, is a reflection of the thought and soul of the writer?

  This also requires us to delve a little into it; but this seems already the subject of another article.
……….
Seneca, Epistulae, 114

On Style as a Mirror of Character

You have been asking me why, during certain periods, a degenerate style of speech comes to the fore, and how it is that men's wits have gone downhill into certain vices – in such a way that exposition at one time has taken on a kind of puffed-up strength, and at another has become mincing and modulated like the music of a concert piece. You wonder why sometimes bold ideas – bolder than one could believe – have been held in favour, and why at other times one meets with phrases that are disconnected and full of innuendo, into which one must read more meaning than was intended to meet the ear. Or why there have been epochs which maintained the right to a shameless use of metaphor. For answer, here is a phrase which you are wont to notice in the popular speech – one which the Greeks have made into a proverb: "Man's speech is just like his life."  Exactly as each individual man's actions seem to speak, so people's style of speaking often reproduces the general character of the time, if the morale of the public has relaxed and has given itself over to effeminacy. Wantonness in speech is proof of public luxury, if it is popular and fashionable, and not confined to one or two individual instances.  A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be wholesome, well-ordered, serious, and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is also contaminated. Do you not see that if a man's soul has become sluggish, his limbs drag and his feet move indolently? If it is womanish, that one can detect the effeminacy by his very gait? That a keen and confident soul quickens the step? That madness in the soul, or anger (which resembles madness), hastens our bodily movements from walking to rushing?

And how much more do you think that this affects one's ability, which is entirely interwoven with the soul, – being moulded thereby, obeying its commands, and deriving therefrom its laws!  How Maecenas lived is too well-known for present comment. We know how he walked, how effeminate he was, and how he desired to display himself; also, how unwilling he was that his vices should escape notice. What, then? Does not the looseness of his speech match his ungirt attire? Are his habits, his attendants, his house, his wife, any less clearly marked than his words? He would have been a man of great powers, had he set himself to his task by a straight path, had he not shrunk from making himself understood, had he not been so loose in his style of speech also. You will therefore see that his eloquence was that of an intoxicated man – twisting, turning, unlimited in its slackness.
What is more unbecoming than the words: "A stream and a bank covered with long-tressed woods"? And see how "men plough the channel with boats and, turning up the shallows, leave gardens behind them." Or, "He curls his lady-locks, and bills and coos, and starts a-sighing, like a forest lord who offers prayers with down-bent neck." Or, "An unregenerate crew, they search out people at feasts, and assail households with the wine-cup, and, by hope, exact death." Or, "A Genius could hardly bear witness to his own festival"; or "threads of tiny tapers and crackling meal"; "mothers or wives clothing the hearth."

Can you not at once imagine, on reading through these words, that this was the man who always paraded through the city with a flowing tunic? For even if he was discharging the absent emperor's duties, he was always in undress when they asked him for the countersign. Or that this was the man who, as judge on the bench, or as an orator, or at any public function, appeared with his cloak wrapped about his head, leaving only the ears exposed,  like the millionaire's runaway slaves in the farce? Or that this was the man who, at the very time when the state was embroiled in civil strife, when the city was in difficulties and under martial law, was attended in public by two eunuchs – both of them more men than himself? Or that this was the man who had but one wife, and yet was married countless times? These words of his, put together so faultily, thrown off so carelessly, and arranged in such marked contrast to the usual practice, declare that the character of their writer was equally unusual, unsound, and eccentric. To be sure, we bestow upon him the highest praise for his humanity; he was sparing with the sword and refrained from bloodshed; and he made a show of his power only in the course of his loose living; but he spoiled, by such preposterous finickiness of style, this genuine praise, which was his due.  For it is evident that he was not really gentle, but effeminate, as is proved by his misleading word-order, his inverted expressions, and the surprising thoughts which frequently contain something great, but in finding expression have become nerveless. One would say that his head was turned by too great success.

This fault is due sometimes to the man, and sometimes to his epoch.  When prosperity has spread luxury far and wide, men begin by paying closer attention to their personal appearance. Then they go crazy over furniture. Next, they devote attention to their houses – how to take up more space with them, as if they were country-houses, how to make the walls glitter with marble that has been imported over seas, how to adorn a roof with gold, so that it may match the brightness of the inlaid floors. After that, they transfer their exquisite taste to the dinner-table, attempting to court approval by novelty and by departures from the customary order of dishes, so that the courses which we are accustomed to serve at the end of the meal may be served first, and so that the departing guests may partake of the kind of food which in former days was set before them on their arrival.
When the mind has acquired the habit of scorning the usual things of life, and regarding as mean that which was once customary, it begins to hunt for novelties in speech also; now it summons and displays obsolete and old-fashioned words; now it coins even unknown words or misshapes them; and now a bold and frequent metaphorical usage is made a special feature of style, according to the fashion which has just become prevalent.  Some cut the thoughts short, hoping to make a good impression by leaving the meaning in doubt and causing the hearer to suspect his own lack of wit. Some dwell upon them and lengthen them out. Others, too, approach just short of a fault – for a man must really do this if he hopes to attain an imposing effect – but actually love the fault for its own sake. In short, whenever you notice that a degenerate style pleases the critics, you may be sure that character also has deviated from the right standard.

Just as luxurious banquets and elaborate dress are indications of disease in the state, similarly a lax style, if it be popular, shows that the mind (which is the source of the word) has lost its balance. Indeed you ought not to wonder that corrupt speech is welcomed not merely by the more squalid mob but also by our more cultured throng; for it is only in their dress and not in their judgments that they differ.  You may rather wonder that not only the effects of vices, but even vices themselves, meet with approval. For it has ever been thus: no man's ability has ever been approved without something being pardoned. Show me any man, however famous; I can tell you what it was that his age forgave in him, and what it was that his age purposely overlooked. I can show you many men whose vices have caused them no harm, and not a few who have been even helped by these vices. Yes, I will show you persons of the highest reputation, set up as models for our admiration; and yet if you seek to correct their errors, you destroy them; for vices are so intertwined with virtues that they drag the virtues along with them.  Moreover, style has no fixed laws; it is changed by the usage of the people, never the same for any length of time. Many orators hark back to earlier epochs for their vocabulary, speaking in the language of the Twelve Tables. Gracchus, Crassus, and Curio, in their eyes, are too refined and too modern; so back to Appius and Coruncanius! Conversely, certain men, in their endeavour to maintain nothing but well-worn and common usages, fall into a humdrum style.  These two classes, each in its own way, are degenerate; and it is no less degenerate to use no words except those which are conspicuous, high-sounding, and poetical, avoiding what is familiar and in ordinary usage. One is, I believe, as faulty as the other: the one class are unreasonably elaborate, the other are unreasonably negligent; the former depilate the leg, the latter not even the armpit.

Let us now turn to the arrangement of words. In this department, what countless varieties of fault I can show you! Some are all for abruptness and unevenness of style, purposely disarranging anything which seems to have a smooth flow of language. They would have jolts in all their transitions; they regard as strong and manly whatever makes an uneven impression on the ear. With some others it is not so much an "arrangement" of words as it is a setting to music; so wheedling and soft is their gliding style.  And what shall I say of that arrangement in which words are put off and, after being long waited for, just manage to come in at the end of a period? Or again of that softly-concluding style, Cicero-fashion, with a gradual and gently poised descent always the same and always with the customary arrangement of the rhythm! Nor is the fault only in the style of the sentences, if they are either petty and childish, or debasing, with more daring than modesty should allow, or if they are flowery and cloying, or if they end in emptiness, accomplishing mere sound and nothing more.
Some individual makes these vices fashionable – some person who controls the eloquence of the day; the rest follow his lead and communicate the habit to each other. Thus when Sallust was in his glory, phrases were lopped off, words came to a close unexpectedly, and obscure conciseness was equivalent to elegance. L. Arruntius, a man of rare simplicity, author of a historical work on the Punic War, was a member and a strong supporter of the Sallust school. There is a phrase in Sallust: exercitum argento fecit, meaning thereby that he recruited an army by means of money. Arruntius began to like this idea; he therefore inserted the verb facio all through his book. Hence, in one passage, fugam nostris fecere; in another, Hiero, rex Syracusanorum, bellum fecit; and in another, quae audita Panhormitanos dedere Romanis fecere.  I merely desired to give you a taste; his whole book is interwoven with such stuff as this. What Sallust reserved for occasional use, Arruntius makes into a frequent and almost continual habit – and there was a reason: for Sallust used the words as they occurred to his mind, while the other writer went afield in search of them. So you see the results of copying another man's vices.  Again, Sallust said: aquis hiemantibus. Arruntius, in his first book on the Punic War, uses the words: repente hiemavit tempestas. And elsewhere, wishing to describe an exceptionally cold year, he says: totus hiemavit annus. And in another passage: inde sexaginta onerarias leves praeter militem et necessarios nautarum hiemante aquilone misit; and he continues to bolster many passages with this metaphor. In a certain place, Sallust gives the words: inter arma civilia aequi bonique famas petit; and Arruntius cannot restrain himself from mentioning at once, in the first book, that there were extensive "reminders" concerning Regulus.

These and similar faults, which imitation stamps upon one's style, are not necessarily indications of loose standards or of debased mind; for they are bound to be personal and peculiar to the writer, enabling one to judge thereby of a particular author's temperament; just as an angry man will talk in an angry way, an excitable man in a flurried way, and an effeminate man in a style that is soft and unresisting.  You note this tendency in those who pluck out, or thin out, their beards, or who closely shear and shave the upper lip while preserving the rest of the hair and allowing it to grow, or in those who wear cloaks of outlandish colours, who wear transparent togas, and who never deign to do anything which will escape general notice; they endeavour to excite and attract men's attention, and they put up even with censure, provided that they can advertise themselves. That is the style of Maecenas and all the others who stray from the path, not by hazard, but consciously and voluntarily.  This is the result of great evil in the soul. As in the case of drink, the tongue does not trip until the mind is overcome beneath its load and gives way or betrays itself; so that intoxication of style – for what else than this can I call it? – never gives trouble to anyone unless the soul begins to totter. Therefore, I say, take care of the soul; for from the soul issue our thoughts, from the soul our words, from the soul our dispositions, our expressions, and our very gait. When the soul is sound and strong, the style too is vigorous, energetic, manly; but if the soul lose its balance, down comes all the rest in ruins.

If but the king be safe, your swarm will live Harmonious; if he die, the bees revolt. The soul is our king. If it be safe, the other functions remain on duty and serve with obedience; but the slightest lack of equilibrium in the soul causes them to waver along with it. And when the soul has yielded to pleasure, its functions and actions grow weak, and any undertaking comes from a nerveless and unsteady source.  To persist in my use of this simile – our soul is at one time a king, at another a tyrant. The king, in that he respects things honourable, watches over the welfare of the body which is entrusted to his charge, and gives that body no base, no ignoble commands. But an uncontrolled, passionate, and effeminate soul changes kingship into that most dread and detestable quality – tyranny; then it becomes a prey to the uncontrolled emotions, which dog its steps, elated at first, to be sure, like a populace idly sated with a largess which will ultimately be its undoing, and spoiling what it cannot consume.  But when the disease has gradually eaten away the strength, and luxurious habits have penetrated the marrow and the sinews, such a soul exults at the sight of limbs which, through its overindulgence, it has made useless; instead of its own pleasures, it views those of others; it becomes the go-between and witness of the passions which, as the result of self-gratification, it can no longer feel. Abundance of delights is not so pleasing a thing to that soul as it is bitter, because it cannot send all the dainties of yore down through the over-worked throat and stomach, because it can no longer whirl in the maze of eunuchs and mistresses, and it is melancholy because a great part of its happiness is shut off, through the limitations of the body.

Now is it not madness, Lucilius, for none of us to reflect that he is mortal? Or frail? Or again that he is but one individual? Look at our kitchens, and the cooks, who bustle about over so many fires; is it, think you, for a single belly that all this bustle and preparation of food takes place? Look at the old brands of wine and store-houses filled with the vintages of many ages; is it, think you, a single belly that is to receive the stored wine, sealed with the names of so many consuls, and gathered from so many vineyards? Look, and mark in how many regions men plough the earth, and how many thousands of farmers are tilling and digging; is it, think you, for a single belly that crops are planted in Sicily and Africa?  We should be sensible, and our wants more reasonable, if each of us were to take stock of himself, and to measure his bodily needs also, and understand how little he can consume, and for how short a time! But nothing will give you so much help toward moderation as the frequent thought that life is short and uncertain here below; whatever you are doing, have regard to death. Farewell. (translated by Richard Mott Gummere)

Quare quibusdam temporibus provenerit corrupti generis oratio quaeris, et quomodo in quaedam vitia inclinatio ingeniorum facta sit, ut aliquando inflata explicatio vigeret, aliquando infracta et in morem cantici ducta ? Quare alias sensus audaces et fidem egressi placuerint, alias abruptae sententiae et suspiciosae, in quibus plus intellegendum esset quam audiendum ? Quare aliqua aetas fuerit, quae translationis iure uteretur inverecunde ? Hoc quod audire vulgo soles, quod apud Graecos in proverbium cessit: talis hominibus fuit oratio qualis vita.

Quemadmodum autem uniuscuiusque actio dicenti similis est, sic genus dicendi aliquando imitatur publicos mores, si  disciplina civitatis laboravit et se in delicias dedit. Argumentum est luxuriae publicae orationis lascivia, si modo non in uno aut in altero fuit, sed adprobata est et recepta.

Non potest alius esse ingenio, alius animo color. Si ille sanus est, si compositus, gravis, temperans, ingenium quoque siccum ac sobrium est; illo vitiato hoc quoque adflatur. Non vides, si animus elanguit, trahi membra et pigre moveri pedes ? Si ille effeminatus est, in  ipso incessu adparere mollitiam ? Si ille acer est et ferox, concitari gradum ? Si furit aut, quod furori simile est, irascitur, turbatum esse corporis motum nec ire, sed ferri ? Quanto hoc magis accidere ingenio putas, quod totum animo permixtum est; ab illo fingitur, illi paret, inde legem petit.

Quomodo Maecenas vixerit notius est, quam ut narrari nunc debeat, quomodo ambulaverit, quam delicatus fuerit, quam cupierit videri, quam vitia sua latere noluerit. Quid ergo ? Non oratio eius aeque soluta est quam ipse discinctus ? Non tam insignita illius verba sunt quam cultus, quam comitatus, quam domus, quam uxor ? Magni vir ingenii fuerat, si illud egisset via rectiore, si non vitasset intellegi, si non etiam in oratione difflueret. videbis itaque eloquentiam ebrii hominis involutam et errantem et licentiae plenam.
Quid turpius " amne silvisque ripa comantibus ? " vide ut " alveum lintribus arent versoque vado  remittant hortos." Quid ? Si quis " feminae cinno crispat et labris columbatur incipitque suspirans, ut cervice lassa fanantur nemoris tyranni." " Inremediabilis factio rimantur epulis lagonaque temptant domos et spe mortem exigunt." " Genium festo vix suo testem. Tenuisve cerei fila et crepacem molam Focum mater aut uxor investiunt."

Non statim, cum haec legeris, hoc tibi occurret, hunc esse, qui solutis tunicis in urbe semper incesserit ? Nam etiam cum absentis Caesaris partibus fungeretur, signum a discincto petebatur. Hunc esse qui in  tribunali, in rostris, in omni publico coetu sic apparuerit, ut pallio velaretur caput exclusis utrimque auribus, non aliter quam in mimo fugitivi divitis solent ? Hunc esse, cui tunc maxime civilibus bellis strepentibus et sollicita urbe et armata comitatus hic fuerit in publico spadones duo, magis tamen viri quam ipse ? Hunc esse, qui uxorem milliens duxi, cum unam habuerit ? Haec verba tam improbe structa, tam neglegenter abiecta, tam contra consuetudinem omnium posita ostendunt mores quoque non minus novos et pravos et singulares fuisse.

Maxima laus illi tribuitur mansuetudinis, pepercit gladio, sanguine abstinuit nec ulla alia re, quid posset, quam licentia ostendit; hanc ipsam laudem suam corrupit istis orationis portentosissimae deliciis.
Apparet enim mollem fuisse, non mitem. Hoc istae ambages compositionis, hoc verba transversa, hoc sensus miri,  magni quidem saepe, sed enervati dum  exeunt, cuivis manifestum facient. Motum illi felicitate nimia caput.

Quod vitium hominis esse interdum, interdum temporis solet. Ubi luxuriam late felicitas fudit, cultus  primum corporum esse diligentior incipit. Deinde supellectili laboratur. Deinde in ipsas domos" inpenditur cura, ut in laxitatem ruris excurrant, ut parietes advectis trans maria marmoribus fulgeant, ut tecta varientur auro, ut lacunaribus pavimentorum respondeat nitor. Deinde ad cenas lautitia transfertur, et illic commendatio ex novitate et soliti ordinis commutatione captatur, ut ea, quae includere solent cenam, prima ponantur, ut quae advenientibus dabantur, exeuntibus dentur.

Cum adsuevit animus fastidire, quae ex more sunt, et illi pro sordidis solita sunt, etiam in oratione, quod novum est, quaerit et modo antiqua verba atque exsoleta revocat ac profert, modo fingit et ignota ac deflectit, modo, id quod nuper increbruit, pro cultu habetur audax translatio ac frequens.
Sunt qui sensus praecidant et hoc gratiam sperent, si sententia pependerit et audienti suspicionem sui fecerit. Sunt qui illos  detineant et porrigant. Sunt qui non usque ad vitium accedant, necesse est enim hoc  facere aliquid grande temptanti, sed qui ipsum vitium ament. Itaque ubicumque videris orationem corruptam placere, ibi mores quoque a recto descivisse non erit dubium.

Quomodo conviviorum luxuria, quomodo vestium aegrae civitatis indicia sunt, sic orationis licentia, si modo frequens est, ostendit animos quoque, a quibus verba exeunt, procidisse. Mirari quidem non debes corrupta excipi non tantum a  corona sordidiore, sed ab hac quoque turba cultiore, togis enim inter se isti, non iudiciis distant. Hoc magis mirari potes, quod non tantum vitiosa, sed vitia laudentur. Nam illud semper factum est: nullum sine venia placuit ingenium. Da mihi quemcumque vis, magni nominis virum  ; dicam, quid illi aetas sua ignoverit, quid in illo sciens dissimulaverit. Multos tibi dabo, quibus vitia non nocuerint, quosdam, quibus profuerint. Dabo, inquam, maximae famae et inter admiranda propositos, quos si quis corrigit, delet; sic enim vitia virtutibus inmissa sunt, ut illas secum fractura sint.

Adice nunc, quod oratio certam regulam non habet; consuetudo illam civitatis, quae numquam in eodem diu stetit, versat. Multi ex alieno saeculo petunt verba, duodecim tabulas loquuntur. Gracchus illis et Crassus et Curio nimis culti et recentes sunt, ad Appium usque et Coruncanium redeunt. Quidam contra, dum nihil nisi tritum et usitatum volunt, in sordes incidunt.

Utrumque diverso genere corruptum est, tam mehercules quam nolle nisi splendidis uti ac sonantibus et poeticis, necessaria atque in usu