For many millennia man uses all his energy to replenish the energy spent foraging and food. He was able to accumulate wealth when he was able to cultivate the land and control the domesticating animals using their multiplication. He must to keep the accumulated wealth safe from various enemies; so kings and states created the called “treasures”. Some smaller or personal amounts were kept in protected “arks” or “safe boxes”. Even smaller and easier to transport amounts were kept in smaller boxes also, in bags or “piggy banks”.
Annum novum faustum felicem A good, happy, prosperous and fortunate New Year
The ancient Romans celebrated the beginning of a new year with very special holidays, as it couldn’t be otherwise: not for nothing is very important in the ancient classical world is a mistaken idea of cyclical time just constantly reborn. See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/what-is-century
Is the “poet” born or does he make himself? is poetry a godsend or an emery board, “limae labor”?
The weighted response to the question if whether the poet is born or he is made claim that the poet must come into this world endowed with special qualities that constant daily exercise will develop and consolidate. Probably that’s the way but the matter admits some thought.
Homo homini lupus (Man to man is an arrant wolf) / Homo homini deus (Man to man is a kind of God)
Usually the phrase “homo homini lupus” is attributed to the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679), author among other works of Leviathan, essential work on the development of political philosophy in the modern age and of liberal thought.
Nero inaugurates a great gym and Demetrius will ruin the opening ceremony. (Intellectuals against the power III)
One of the greatest contributions of Roma to Western civilization was the urbanization of the territory that was conquered with its legions. Rome built cities (urbs) and implemented a modern system of citizen life (civitas).
Demetrius the Cynic and his relationship with Emperors Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus and …., Domitian? (Intellectuals against the power)
One of the many intellectuals, who suffered the wrath of power, was Demetrius of Corinth (ca.7 / 10 AD -ca.90), Greek prestigious intellectual and cynic philosopher, who lived a long life of 80 years in Roman imperial era, full of disappointments. There are many ideas from him, cited by many authors, and he had a significant influence on many Roman authors, like Seneca.
All roads lead to Rome (Omnes viae Romam ducunt)
Not today, but two thousand years ago certainly all roads led to Rome, which was the capital of a vast empire. More than 380 major roads or highways with more than 80,000 kms., allowed its legions, its officials, its citizens to go out and go easily to the capital, Rome. It is curious to note how the direction of all the roads marked to Rome as final destination, like rays or spokes of a huge circle. They range from the Pillars of Hercules in Hispania or from the “Hadrian’s Wall” in Scotland to the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, from northern Germany to the North African desert.
The Nymph Callisto
Who enjoys reading or listening to the colorful stories of the Greco-Roman mythology he has an essential work for this: Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this work the prolific poet tells us many cases of transformation or metamorphosis of men, women or mythological characters in other beings.
Ecphrasis, ekphrasis. Ut pictura poesis (Horace). Poetry is like painting
“Ekphrasis” o “ephrasis” is a Greek word ἔκφρασις (ek and phrasis, ‘out’ and ‘to talk’), (from the verb ἐκφράζο, ekphraso, from ek, out, and phraso, to explain with signs and words) that therefore means “exhibition in detail, explanation, description from outside or from the beginning or till the end,” to make intelligible, discover, uncover, …. It is a vivid description placing the object or event before the eyes.
Mundus (World) / cosmos: the creation of a new scientific language in Latin
The legendary and mythical foundation of Rome is dated 753 BC; then the Greeks recited the two great epics of the West, the Iliad and the Odyssey. One hundred and fifty years after the death of Alexander the Romans conquered Greece and declared it a Roman province, although a hundred years earlier they had already made contact with the Greeks of Sicily, the Magna Graecia, the Great Greece. Among the cultural contributions of Greece to the Romans highlights the Filososfía. But Latin lacks sufficient scientific terminology.