Historia de Grecia y Roma

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  • Cave canem

    The eruption of the Vesuvius in the afternoon of the 24th of August of the year 79 (such an accurate date is in dispute) destroyed the lively and jovial city of Pompeii, near Naples (Neapolis = new city) and paradoxically preserved its ruins for centuries, until the year 1748.

    The city tour impresses millions of visitors who have the opportunity to walk through an authentic Roman city that is remarkably well preserved.

    Among the many things that can impress us specially stands out the realistic picture of a dog, buried by the ash, which could not escape because he was tied with a chain at the entrance of the house of his owner, Marcus Veronius Primus.  He was found on the 20th of November, in 1874. We can imagine the struggle of the poor animal trying to escape the ashes as they were gradually covering him. Probably he died before asphyxiated by the volcanic gases or the lack of oxygen. His body, like that of other human and organic beings, by decomposing left his mold which filled with plaster has left us this dramatic figure.

    The dog is the first animal that has been domesticated by men, the first that lives with men as it is attested by archaeological sites from the Paleolithic. Indeed, in these fields or deposits never appear dog bones eaten by man.

    The dog is present in every culture of the Antiquity. It is the faithful friend of man, the only one who recognized Odysseus, Ulysses, when he returned to his palace in Ithaca.

    The Romans had dogs at home. The image above evidence it but no less than this other image that shows a mosaic at the entrance (fauces in Latin) with the figure of a dog and the inscription cave canem (beware of the dog). The mosaic is part of the called "House of the Tragic Poet", so called because in it there is a mosaic showing a theatrical scene.

    Nowadays, nearly two thousand years later, we continue to practice the same habit and there are many homes or detached houses whose doors show the same admonishing inscription: take care of the dog.

    Otherwise, the dog was such a good keeper of the property, that in Greco-Roman mythology it was made guardian of Hell, of the underworld, of the next life world. It is the famous Canis Cerberus, Canceberus (from “canis” = dog, and “cerberus”, from the Greek Κέρβερος  Kérberos = demon of the abyss), three-headed dog that prevents the departure of the Hades to those who have already finished or completed their earthly life. It´s also called the dog of Hell.

    The word "canis" in educated or technical Spanish terms remains as “can, canino, cánido” and “canícula”= (summer) (heat up period, related to the emergence of Sirius, a star of the constellation Canis Maior).

    "Perro" (in English “dog”) instead is an exclusively Spanish word of obscure source. Corominas thinks it is an onomatopoeia (term that imitates the sound of its own meaning) that reproduces the sound of the dog´s growl perrr perrr which herdsmen called his faithful assistant with.

    Canis itself has passed to the French as “chien”, to the Italian as “cane”, to the Galician as “can” and to the Portuguese cão.

  • Learning to count was not easy

    The study of the language sometimes has to face questions or issues of difficult explanation that are lost in the mists of time.

    With the term "calculation" (from the Latin "calculus”, diminutive of calx,-cis = pebble, small stone; probably Greek loan χάλιξ = limestone) we refer to stones that are formed in the kidney and other organs of the body such as the gallbladder and that must be eliminated as soon as possible to avoid discomfort or bigger problems.

    But "calculus, calculation, computation, counting" also refers to the arithmetic action "to calculate, to estimate", precisely because children learn to count with pebbles, piling them or handling them on the abacus.

    At least this is the system that Greek and Roman children used to pick up counting, as shows the etymological meaning of "calculus, calculation" and also the Greek word ψῆφος, pséphos, that means stone and number; for example the Greek expression ψήφους τιθέναι, pséphous tithénai, means to throw the pebbles, to add accounts, to make an account.

    Counting or estimating is one of the hardest tasks that human beings learn during their childhood. Humans find some difficulties to count. At first we are only able to identify with a single glance sets of no more than one, two, three or four objects, but from five onwards we are forced to count to know the number.

    In the beginning we learn to count using the fingers of our hand and also with pebbles as we have already mentioned or with other systems of such primitive features like, for example, the rope with knots in which each of these are equivalent to the unit.

    Curiously this limitation of only immediately identify up to four units is reflected in the languages and so evident in Latin, the language of the Romans from which derive, among others, the Castilian or Spanish language.

    This limitation is reflected, for example, in the use of the figures or the writing of the different numbers: The Romans represented the numbers with letters and contrary to what some believe they could only be replicated four times and not more (other day we will discuss the way or system to represent the numbers in Latin and Greek). That is, the "4" was represented with four sticks or four letters "i" ("IIII") precisely because they can be appreciated with a single glance; but for the "5" they used "V".

    The indicated limitation is also reflected in the fact that the first three numbers (unus (one), duo (two), tres (three); because quattuor (four) had a special phonetic evolution), are declined, i.e. they have different endings, which do not exist from 5 anymore.

    It´s also reflected in the names of the months. The Roman year originally had ten months and it began in March; the first four months had special names: martius, aprilis, maius, iunius; the following were called with the numeral quinctilis, sextilis, september, october, november and december.

    Still more curious is this reflection in the name of the people. Only male members of a family had a praenomen and nomen, equivalent to our first and surname or family name; women only carried the last name or family name, so that every woman of the Julia family were called "Iulia".

    Well, in a Roman family there were children who were called "Quintus" (Fifth), as Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the famous poet; and "Sextus" (Sixth), as Sextus Julius Frontinus, who wrote a treatise on water and aqueducts; and “Septimius” (Seventh), as the emperor Lucius Septimius Severus who was in power during the years 193-211; and “Octavius” (Eighth) as Caius Octavius Turinus, named after Octavius Caesar Augustus; and “Decimus” (Tenth) as the famous satirist Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis; one was even named "Numerous" as Numerius Iulius Caesar, senator from the Julia family who lived between the third and second centuries BC.

    But there were no children who were called "Primus” (First), and they were really few those who were called “Secundus” (Second), Tertius (Third), Quartus (Fourth); these had their own name; so it is from the next when it was necessary to count, so that they were left with the number as their name.

    Very curious, indeed; it seems as if in the Latin language had fossilized a primitive limitation in the counting thing, limitation otherwise that had already been completely superseded or forgotten a long time ago.

  • The couvade

    “Couvade” is a word derived from the French “couvade”; “couver” means “incubate” “brood.” This ethnographic term designates a rite of sympathetic magic or formula for newborn recognition of newborn, practiced in some villages at the time of the birth of a son; that is a kind of simulation of birth by the father, who lies in the bed with the baby.

    This rite or act of sympathetic pregnancy, that today seems to us strange and incomprehensible, is attested with some slight variations in Ancient and Modern  world in Lapland, Melanesia (from Grec.  μέλαν=black and   νῆσος = island; islands inhabited by black ), Borneo, Malaysia, England, France, Brasil (Amazon …), Germany, etc..

    With regard to Antiquity, the first written evidence of which we have knowledge is provided by Apollonius of Rhodes in the third century BC, director of the Library of Alexandría, who in his "Voyage of the Argonauts", referring to the "Tibareni" people of the eastern shore at the Black Sea, "rich in sheep,"  says in the book  II, verses 1012 and ff;:

    Here when wives bring forth children to their husbands, the men lie in bed and groan with their heads close bound; but the women tend them with food, and prepare child-birth baths for them.

    In Century I.A.C. the historian Diodorus of Sicily  also tells us in his book "Historical Library", Book V, Chapter 14, how Corsicans husbands

    Husbands are not careful of their women when they are in childbirth , and when they give birth is the husband who lies in bed.

    and then the father receives congratulations  and  compliments from family and friends while his wife was engaged in the tasks of their role in the family.

    If these statements are inherently interesting, for Spanish  people is especially important information offered by the Greek geographer, on Roman times, a contemporary of Diodorus, Strabo. He wrote about the year 20 AD a famous work, Geography, in which he describes the regions and peoples of the Roman Empire from Asia to the British Isles. Book III is devoted to the Iberian Peninsula and its peoples and in 3.4.17 says about Cantabrian women:

    as well as the valour not only of their men, but likewise of their women. These till the ground,2 and after parturition, having put their husbands instead of themselves to bed, they wait upon them. Frequently in their employment they wash and swathe their infants, sitting down by some stream.

    and adds, do not know if in awe, or stunned by the rudeness of these women, how to continue their usual work.

    Often several authors claim that this custom was preserved until recently in some regions of Spain, such as Galicia, Asturias, Burgos, Leon, Aragon. These to Spain referred  statements   must be subjected to a thorough review and  serious critique because  their lack of sufficient justification.

    In any case we must find a meaning or sense to this custom existing in so different places and regions. The ethnologists, historians, philosophers and psychologists have offered various interesting explanations.

    Traditionally the text of Strabo was considered proof of the existence of matriarchy  in Cantabrian populations. Modern criticism  does not value it so and considers that the text, somewhat inaccurate, reveals the lack of understanding by Strabo of some customs  so different and distant from the civilized Roman and Greek customs and in any case it is insufficient to confirm the existence of a time of matriarchy.

    Strabo  was attracted attention  by the courage and strength of Cantabrian women and by the fact that  they were   who transmitted the inheritance and married their brothers, while a brother, the uncle, Latin avunculus, was who wielded the authority over children . It is curious how the importance of the role played by the Uncle  is  extended and  has remained  to modern times.

    The interpretation until recently most accepted is the one formulated by the Swiss anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen en1861. He related this practice to an alleged existing matriarchy in the Neolithic and the transition to a patriarchal system. The myth of the Amazons and the couvade were to him the evidence of the prior existence of matriarchy.

    The couvade is a rite of acceptance of paternity and legitimation of the newborn. In the matriarchy would women as family head, who legitimizes and decides on the acceptance of the children, now with male couvade or birth simulation is essential  the acceptance by the father, without which the newborn is not incorporates to the family. This is in summary an express public recognition of paternity, the role of the father and of the new being as his son. (Recall how on the Roman  is the  “paterfamilias” who formally accepts newborn.) With these rites would be denied  the matriarchy or “gynecocracy” (from γυνή, gyne- woman and κράτος, kratos, power; women government) as Strabo says using an exact terminology.  Bachofen's theory has been enormously successful.

    For some authors patriarchy have been introduced in villages whit matriarchal culture, but this is a supposition or theory difficult to accept, especially after Malinowski studies.

    The anthropologist Malinowski studied the "matrilineal" societies of New Guinea, in which only is recognized the matrilineal descent, and saw how power is wielded by the man, but in the figure of the maternal uncle or "avunculus" in Latin.

    In a sense absolutely contrary to Freud, the psychoanalyst Walter Georg Groddeck believes that women do not feel the "male penis envy ", but is the man who  feels himself incomplete woman  and therefore has the "envy of the uterus.  The covada not express but the desire to give birth.

    Man describes medical syndrome known as "couvade syndrome" or sympathetic pregnancy, which manifests itself in a state of anxiety empathic father to the birth of the child, which may have to do with the so-called "empathy neurons" and that explain its existence in the past and in the present.

    An interesting insight is one of the Chic Genaro: what  the couvade  would mean is the consideration of women as mere incubator or nest for the child in front of the parent generating position; and with it is so absolutely discredited the theory of the existence of a matriarchy in which  that power was held by the wife.

    Even some relate to this ancient practice the modern custom by which the father accompanies  the mother during birht  and  collaborates with his positive attitude, but this healthy practice has another meaning   when births in hospitals and maternity wards impersonal medical safety guarantee, but separates the so transcendent fact from all family context.

    It appears that this theme of "couvade" and its branches to the "matriarchy" are not sufficiently studied. In any case is once again highlighted the difficulty of interpreting the meaning of the ancient texts, children  of his time and of a particular  context.
     

  • The drunkenness begets deformed creatures

    The philosopher, politician and writer Henri-Benjamin Constant, Swiss-born French (1767-1830) wrote in 1816 a famous speech or treatise entitled ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns’ (1819).

    His thesis is that the the Ancients (naturally  the citizens) had the freedom and obligation to participate in the political life of the polis or state, but instead their freedom in private life was limited by law. The opposite occurs for the Moderns: the law protects the privacy, which is not operated by the government, but hinders their participation in public life, especially because modern societies are very broad and extensive.

    Constant had an important influence on the liberal movements of his time; it is worth reading his speech, the nuances that today we would do to their claims.

    Well, as it is known,  Plato seeks above all in its two dialogues " Republic or Justice" and "Laws  or Legislation" design an ideal city-state in which the rulers are the best citizens, that identifies with philosophers. His proposed laws regulate aspects of privacy, as said Constant. Citizens only ask today that laws and state protect them from interference from others or the state itself.

    Now, some of the rules that Plato proposes, result from his philosophical speculation rather than experience, are now extremely curious for us. For example in “ Laws 774a (Book VI)” indicates that  citizens have to marry enter them 25 and 35 years old;  after, in 735b, says that the age of marriage for girls must be between sixteen and twenty years old and the of the boys between thirty and thirty-five: likewise indicates that  they should be fined in proportion to their social class if they  violate a rule so  interesting  to the survival of the city itself.

    But I will quote verbatim a paragraph referring to the requirement that citizens have to beget healthy children for the good of society. Known is the fans that the Greeks gave the feast or banquet, in which the wine flows abundantly. Well, says Plato in Laws, 775B-775E. (Book VI):

    "Drinking to excess is a practice that is nowhere seemly—save only at the feasts of the God, the Giver of wine,—nor yet safe; and certainly it is not so for those who take marriage seriously; for at such a time above all it behoves both bride and bridegroom to be sober, seeing that the change [775c] in their life is a great one, and in order to ensure, so far as possible, in every case that the child that is begotten may be sprung from the loins of sober parents: for what shall be, with God's help, the night or day of its begetting is quite uncertain. Moreover, it is not right that procreation should be the work of bodies dissolved by excess of wine, but rather that the embryo should be compacted firmly, steadily and quietly in the womb. But the man that is steeped in wine moves and is moved himself in every way, writhing both in body and soul; [775d] consequently, when drunk, a man is clumsy and bad at sowing seed, and is thus likely to beget unstable and untrusty offspring, crooked in form and character. Wherefore he must be very careful throughout all the year and the whole of his life—and most especially during the time he is begetting—to commit no act that involves either bodily ailment or violence and injustice; for these he will inevitably stamp on the souls and bodies of the offspring, [775e] and will generate them in every way inferior. From acts of such a kind he must especially abstain on the day and night of his marriage; for the Beginning that sits enshrined as a goddess among mortals is the Savior of all, provided that she receives the honor due to her from each one who approaches her."  (Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R.G. Bury. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968.)

    This text, these ideas impressed at the time the Ancients, as also impress us today, 2400 years later, and also allow us to imagine again how our society would be today if the old thinking would not have remained hidden in the long medieval night. In any case they are still these tips on drunkenness and alcohol very suitable for today's youth consuming too  at an early age excessive amounts of alcohol and other substances as a means to achieve a certain condition  of “pseudohappiness” or false happiness.

  • Apollonius of Rhodes, Giovanni Papini, Luis Buñuel

    Is it possible to establish a connection between Apollonius of Rhodes, the writer Giovanni Papini and filmmaker Buñuel? Was Buñuel inspired by Papini in a famous sequence of a famous film of his? Had Papini read Apollonius?

    Giovanni Papini (Florence, 1881-1956), Italian writer, first skeptical and then staunch Catholic,  discredited by his fascist affiliation, wrote in 1931 his book "Gog", a series of 70 philosophical and satirical  stories. For many it is their best work. In a chapter entitled "A. A. and WC "tells how he leaves a restaurant  disgusted by the spectacle of the mouths chewing the food, which considered rude brutish and exhibition of insensitivity. He tells to us at  the time:

    There will come a time when our habit of eating in company  – outdoors and in the presence of strangers – will cause  astonishment.  The need to engulf fragments of plants and animals  to stay alive, is one of the worst humiliations of our life, one of the most awkward signs of subordination to the earth and death. And instead of  secretly satisfy itt, we consider it as a party, we make it as a visible ceremony, we  offer it as a daily spectacle, with the  indifference of the beasts .

    In 1974 the Aragonese and international filmmaker Luis Buñuel filmed the movie "The Phantom of Liberty". In this film there is a famous and memorable scene in which the characters represent openly what we usually do in private and in private what we usually do in common: common defecate in the lounge and eat privately in an enclosure for it. Typically becomes taboo and taboo becomes the norm, inverting and  turning inside out the  reality.

    Are Buñuel  inspired by Papini? Probably yes, the Buñuel’s  film is also formed by a series of sequences without connections between them, except for the central theme of freedom expressed in the title.

    The matter  seems quite original, but in this objective  to justify the slogan of this website Nihil novum sub sole, I can only quote a passage from Book II of The Voyage of the Argonauts, of Apollonius of Rhodes, (295 BC-215 BC), Hellenistic writer, librarian of the Library of Alexandria and Ptolemy’s  III Euergetes educator. In the poem, the only work of Greek epic poetry from Homer, narrates the mythical journey of Jason and other Greek heroes to Colchis on the Black Sea in search of the "Golden Fleece" (skin of a ram). Among the many territories and countries that they walk, they arrived to a country  of interest for this occasion:

    Next they reached the sacred mount and the land where the Mossynoeci dwell amid high mountains in wooden huts,[1] from which that people take their name. And strange are their customs and laws. Whatever it is right to do openly before the people or in the market place, all this they do in their homes, but whatever acts we perform at home, these they perform out of doors in the midst of the streets, without blame. And among them is no reverence for the marriage-bed, but, like swine that feed in herds, no whit abashed in others' presence, on the earth they lie with the women. (The Argonautica, II, 1015-1025) ( An English Translation By   R.C. SEATON, M.A.,   Formerly Fellow Of Jesus College, Cambridge)

    Had  Buñuel and Papini read  the poem  by Apollonius of Rhodes? Probably they had read it. In any case, the Greek sources never cease to amaze us.
     

  • Lynceus eyes

    “Lynx eyes” is an Spanish phrase (equivalent to “eagle eyes”) that applies to a person of view particularly acute or especially clever and insightful understanding, ie. a crafty person.

    We might think that the origin of the phrase is in the characteristic eyes of this animal,  of the Felidae family and thus related to cats. The “lynx” has the  bright eyes that appear to have a great insight and vision.

    And yet that is not itself the origin of the phrase, although some connection there.

    In Greek Mythology there are several characters that are called "Lynceus", on Greek Λυγκεὺς (Lynkeus). One of them is the son of Aphareus, king of Messenia and brother of Idas. The two brothers are part of the famous expedition of the Argonauts, that, led by Jason, goes in search of the "Golden Fleece".

    Lynceus  is famous for its extraordinary sight. Apollonius of Rhodes, author of the epic poem “Argonautica” ("The Journey of the Argonauts"), says exactly in the book I,151-155:

    The sons of Aphareus, Lynceus and proud Idas, came from Arene, both exulting in their great strength; and Lynceus too excelled in keenest sight, if the report is true that that hero could easily direct his sight even beneath the earth.

    And to confirm the statement of Apollonius,  Pseudo Apollodorus  says  in his The Library (Bibliotheca) 3,10,3:

    Aphareus and Arene, daughter of Oebalus, had sons Lynceus and Idas and Pisus; but according to many, Idas is said to have been gotten by Poseidon. Lynceus excelled in sharpness of sight, so that he could even see things underground.

    So the  phrase  should really say  " Lynceus eyes". But Lynceus is a little-known mythological character instead lynx is a beautiful animal predator of the feline family and related to cats. They live mainly in the northern regions, although there is a species in Spain, the Iberian lynx, Lynx pardinus, although endangered with a few hundred specimens. There is a major environmental program  to ensure the survival of this animal.

    Forgotten or little known the mythical carácter of the  Argonaut,  and best known  the animal, it is easy to understand how the theft occurred because one of two things: either the bobcat (lynx) is named because it has Lynceus eyes or  Lynceus is named because he has lynx eyes or lynx sight.

    Because in any case, one must know that the  word "Lynx" comes from Latin lynx and this in turn from the Greek λὺγξ.   "Lynx" and "Lynceus" are obviously  two words from the same root. So who really had  Lynx eyes was Lynceus.

    The Indo-European root * leuk is attested in many languages and means "bright". In Latin, for example, "luceo", clarify, clarify and "lux" "light". So probably this animal  is called lynx by the brilliance of her eyes.

    Some linguists relate the name λὺγξ , lynx,  with the verb λεύσσω , archaic verb used only in the epic language meaning "look towards, to see." This relationship is possible and  it would clarify the origin of these terms.

    In any case it would be fair to speak of "Lynceus eyes or sight", but who is able at this point to correct language usage and custom of saying "lynx eyes"?

    We will content ourselves at least advising the reading of the work by Apollonius of Rhodes "The journey of the Argonauts", the only epic poem after Homer to the Hellenistic period. Among other values of the work, it helps us to understand how the novel, literary genre more accepting today , came from the epic.
     

  • Greek masters studied with Egyptian teachers

    The “classical” Greek culture is the result of plentiful and different historical influences.

    Our Western culture is very proud of its classical roots, of its Greco-Roman roots and in fact, although there are contributions of other cultures, we are mostly ancient Greeks and Romans with more than 2500 years of history.

    But where are themselves the roots of classical culture? Classical Philology is today much freer than half a century ago to determine those origins. To a large extent, to find these classical roots, the Philology was conditioned by ideological reasons of that moment, even racist reasons, and was looking for pure and exclusively Aryan roots that archeology and ancient sources themselves constantly denied. They were times when the unscientific and ideological concept of race permeated part of the European thought and science. The claim of a supposed "racial purity" caused enormous damages to mankind, to the whole Humanity.

    But according to ancient sources themselves, important Greek masters of thought, religion and science visited and studied with Egyptians teachers: like for example Herodotus, Pythagoras, Plato, etc and these visits were absolutely transcendental in the respective works and writings of these authors. Egypt, whose magnificent vestiges still amaze us today, had a huge attraction or interest for the Greek people.

    Plato  praises and appreciates admiringly often the  Egyptian culture and society. Serve as  example two references to Plato, one in his dialogue Timaeus, 21e  in which Critias tells us about the dialogue between the sage Solon, "the wisest of the seven sages" in the same Critias expression, and the Egyptian priests, in which these will inform Solon, about the ancient origin of Athens  and its relationship with the Egyptian city of Sais.

    “In the Delta of Egypt,” said Solon, “where, at its head, the stream of the Nile parts in two, there is a certain district called the Saitic. The chief city in this district is Sais—the home of King Amasis,—the founder of which, they say, is a goddess whose Egyptian name is Neith, and in Greek, as they assert, Athena. These people profess to be great lovers of Athens and in a measure akin to our people here. (21e)
    ….
    Many, in truth, and great are the achievements of your State, which are a marvel to men as they are here recorded (24d)

    and continues Solon telling the extensive information that the Egyptian priests provide about ancient Athens and he did not.

    Plato in his dialogue Laws, 656d, also presents  Egypt as a model to educate musically the young Greeks:

    It appears that long ago they determined on the rule of which we are now speaking, that the youth of a State should practise in their rehearsals postures and tunes that are good: these they prescribed in detail and posted up in the temples,…

    It is not therefore surprising  the high concept that Herótodo, Solon, Plato had about  Egypt with whose culture and past are linked  (in this case the city of Athens with the Egyptian Sais, in the Delta) or where they  seek their origins.

    Modern researches fully confirm what the ancient people themselves told us. Naturally, Middle East and North contributions are also very important, due to Greece's strategic location between the east and the west, between the north and the south. The Middle East has been the melting pot in which cultural currents of the East, the Mediterranean, the Northern Eurasian and Africa were melted and mixed for thousands of years.

    Therefore, in the formation of the classical Greek culture have been essential the Mediterranean influence, the Indo-European originality, the Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions….

    As often happens in every society, culture is the result of multiple influences, it is the result of the syncretism, synthesis and fusion of different ways. If this has always been the case throughout history, it is still more evident in our globalization times, in which people also move across the globe so easily.

  • Man is the measure of all things

    The Greek philosophers were concerned to explain the nature of things and also tried to explain human own nature.

    This is the most famous saying of the sophist and rhetorician Greek philosopher Protagoras, born in Abdera, in Thrace, (485 B.C.-411.B.C. approximately).

    This sentence completes the philosophical rationalization process that took place in the ancient Greece. Although this view may is too brief and topical, it’s worthy to remember how they went from a religious-mythical first stage in which the center of thought used the relationship with the gods as an explanation to things, to the philosophical phase as a way to explain the physical nature and its phenomena and finally to the anthropocentric stage concerned to the man himself.

    This saying expresses the change in the study object for the Greek rationalism: Now, without leaving the interest about the natural phenomena, the center is the man and all his complexity. This is what the saying "Homo omnium rerum mesura est" (“Man is the measure of all things”) summarizes.

    Indeed Diogenes Laertius tells us that the whole Greek sentence, of course, was: “πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἔστὶν ἄνθρωπος, τῶν δὲ μὲν οντῶν ὡς ἔστιν, τῶν δὲ οὐκ ὄντων ὠς οὐκ ἔστιν” = "Man is the measure of all things: things which are, that they are, and things which are not, that they are not".

    The exact meaning of the sentence is a matter of discussion, as it could not be otherwise in the case of philosophers: does it refer to the man as an individual being, which would set absolute relativism, or to the man as a group being?; With "all things" it also refers to the essence of intangible things or only to those involving assessments by men?

    Already in Antiquity itself there was criticism of this principle, dissatisfied with the relativism that introduced in the analysis of things. Plato, for example, refers critically in several of his dialogues to Protagoras and his sentence, so in Cratillo 386a or  in  Theaetetus  152a;  he says in Laws 716c::

    In our eyes God will be “the measure of all things” in the highest degree—a degree much higher than is any “man” they talk of

    ὁ δὴ θεὸς ἡμῖν πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον ἂν εἴη μάλιστα, καὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἤ πού τις, ὥς φασιν, ἄνθρωπος:

    As long as we are men ourselves, I invite all of us to reflect about it and find the value and personal meaning for such a historical and successful sentence.

    Obviously the Greek people are at the source of all our culture.
     

  • A body without a name (sine nomine corpus)

    One of the more intensely poetic passages of the Aeneid is one in which Virgil (70-19 BC) tells us the death and the end of Priam , the aged king of Troy, in the Book II.

    The verses 554-558  on this passage, which cause both an emotional and rational impression,  are especially emotive,:

    Such final doom
    fell on him, while his dying eyes surveyed
    Troy  burning, and her altars overthrown,
    though once of many an orient land and tribe
    the boasted lord. In huge dismemberment
    his severed trunk lies tombless on the shore,
    the head from shoulder torn, the corpse unknown.
        (Trans. de John Dryden.)

    haec finis Priami fatorum, hic exitus illum
    sorte tulit Troiam incensam et prolapsa uidentem
    Pergama, tot quondam populis terrisque superbum
    regnatorem Asiae. iacet ingens litore truncus,
    auulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus.

    What is a headless body but a nameless trunk, amorphous body, no identity?

    Well, the reality is often stranger than fiction. Virgil was born in October 70 B.C. and the battle of Pharsalia took place in August 48 BC, and therefore was almost 22 years old. Virgil knew  the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey and certainly knew the chronicle of the battle of Pharsalia and the sad end of Cnaeus Pompeius Magnus, ie Pompey the Great.

    Pompey was a member of one of the most important Italic families; was three times consul and  was a great general and major combat operations entrust to him for the benefit of Rome;  three times won the prize of triumph , who had just given up on a great contest, for his victories in Africa, his victories in Hispania against Sertorius and then against the remnants of the army of Spartacus and the third by his victory over the pirates and victories in Asia.

    The victory great ceremony, the triumph, is  a  military parade of the general with his  troops and booty in the streets of Rome, from the Campus Martius to the Capitol; the general dressed as the god Jupiter in his car amounted to the temple of Jupiter Optimus and Maximux (Iuppiter Optimus Maximus).

    The triumph  was the greatest reward for a Roman general, who was recognized as "imperator".  Imagine, then, Pompey triumphant three times in the streets of Rome.

    Well, Caesar and Pompey kept family relationships (he was married to Julia, daughter of Caesar, who died young in childbirth), true friendship and a balanced political relationship that led them to share power with Crassus, enormously rich, and form the famous triumvirate, or government of the three men (tri = three,  vir = man).

    Crassus, defeated.  died in Carras, in modern Turkey, in the year 53 BC and the relationship between Caesar and Pompey was not only cooling but  impossible to maintain for the ambition and personality of both. Came the war of the Roman legions and allies against the Roman legions and allies. The Battle of Pharsalus was decisive in the year 48. Caesar, with a smaller but well-trained army, defeated the Great Pompey,  Pompeius Magnus, who had a much larger army.

    After the defeat, Pompey did not correspond and behaved as expected of a Roman general. Abandoned his soldiers and fled into Egypt seeking the help of King Tolomeus, still a child. He arrived in Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, received him warmly and asked to appear before the king. A little boat, in which were among others the royal prefect Aquilas and Lucius Septimius, who was centurion of Pompey in the war of the pirates, approached to the ship that carried  Pompey.  Pompey went to the little boat and there was stabbed and killed by these two men in front of his own wife, the day before he would be 59 years old.  They cut and preserved the head of the great general to give it to Caesar. They  left the naked body on the beach.

    Plutarch  (46-120?) says  in Pompey, 80.1

    But they cut off Pompey's head, and threw the rest of his body unclothed out of the boat, and left it for those who craved so pitiful a sight.

    τοῦ δὲ Πομπηΐου τὴν μὲν κεφαλὴν ἀποτέμνουσι, τὸ δὲ ἄλλο σῶμα γυμνὸν ἐκβαλόντες ἀπὸ τῆς ἁλιάδος τοῖς δεομένοις τοιούτου θεάματος ἀπέλιπον.

    That is, it is actually the image of what would later say Virgil poetically:

          iacet ingens litore truncus,
    auulsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus.

    Who so often had saved Rome, who on three occasions, like a god up the Capitoline hill slope celebrating the triumph, the greatest reward for the winners, now lies abandoned on the beach.

    The next day soldiers taken  the trunk "sine capite, sine nomine" and gave him pious grave. This death, which seems to us an enormous cruelty, not detract from another part of the brutal and gratuitous violence that often employed Pompey, whom Valerius Maximus, a writer of the time of Tiberius (14-37) describes in his "Facta et dicta memorabilia, 6,2.8 (Memorable Deeds and Sayings) as "adulescentulus carnifex" (the young butcher).

    Would have Virgil this disturbing picture on his retina when narrates the end of Priam, old and venerable king of Troy?

    Velleiius  Paterculus  (19 BC-31 AD) tells in  Roman History  2.53.3  the end  opposing  his glorious military career to his sad death;  this would be  already a commonplace among historians:

    So died in his fifty-eighth year, on the very eve of his birthday, that upright and illustrious man, after holding three consulships, p169celebrating three triumphs, conquering the whole world, and attaining to a pinnacle of fame beyond which it is impossible to rise. Such was the inconsistency of fortune in his case, that he who but a short time before had found no more lands to conquer now found none for his burial. (Transl. published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1924)

    Hic post tres consulatus et totidem triumphos domitumque terrarum orbem sanctissimi atque praestantissimi viri in id evecti, super quod ascendi non potest, duodesexagesimum annum agentis pridie natalem ipsius vitae fuit exitus, in tantum in illo viro a se discordante fortuna, ut cui modo ad victoriam terra defuerat, deesset ad sepulturam.

    Appian (95? -165?), in his Roman History, in the share of Civil Wars, BC 2, 12, 85-86 also tells this sad end with similar words.

    Pompey's wife and friends who saw this at a distance cried out and, lifting their hands to heaven, invoked the gods, the avengers of violated faith. Then they sailed away in all haste as from an enemy's country. The servants of Pothinus cut off Pompey's head and kept it for Cæsar, in expectation of a large reward, but he visited condign punishment on them for their nefarious deed. The remainder of the body was buried by somebody on the shore, and a small monument was erected over it, on which somebody else wrote this inscription: —
    "What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance."     (Horace White, Ed.)

    Dion Cassius tells us in his Roman History LXIX. 11 that years later  the emperor Hadrian, in the year 122, passed  through Judaea into Egypt, visited the tomb of Pompey, now fallen in ruins,  and recited the verse also cited by Appian:

    “What a pitiful tomb is here for one who had temples in abundance”

    and ordered restore his monument.

  • Spartacus: “Freedom or death”

    Throughout History, the slavery of human beings by others has been an omnipresent reality. The slaves came mainly from wars, which were so usual.

    In the Roman world they were mostly an important source of energy because the slaves were those doing the physical work. But freedom is the necessary requirement or condition to have a real human life and therefore in every slave’s heart was concealed a desire of freedom and rejection to slavery.

    In History there are many episodes and men who fought to get their freedom. Actually the entire History of mankind, of Humanity, can be summarized in the History of the fight for freedom. Freedom is the most precious good (possession) of men.

    Spartacus was one of the most famous men who fought for freedom. He was a Roman slave of Thracian origin, and then he was a gladiator, who lived in the first century BC. He led a rebellion of slaves against their owners. He was a “mirmillón” gladiator (who fought only with a sword and a helmet). He escaped from the gladiator school in Capua and led a struggle of thousands of slaves (according to ancient sources 70,000 men joined him) from year 73 to 71 BC to regain their freedom. He held in check the Roman legions, two consuls, two magistrates, a proconsul … who were beaten by him several times until he was murdered in Lucania, a region in southern Italy, in the year 71 BC.

    We’ve got so little information about Spartacus that makes impossible for us to know many details. We don’t even know his own personal opinion about the "slavery" and we can not make the mistake of interpreting the rebellion itself outside the first century BC when he lived, as does for example the Marxist interpretation of his figure.

    The remembrance of his revolt was kept alive in Roman society for a long time. In more modern times he became a symbol and to evoke Spartacus is to evoke the men’s wish for freedom.

    His motto "Freedom or death", repeated so many times by so many people of heroic behavior, reflects in two words the overwhelming desire of every human being to be  his own owner, to be truly man and master of himself.