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  • He speaks in a stentorian voice

    Nouns often have the potentiality to generate adjectives that express a particular attribute of the character of the person designated by that name.

    So for example we speak about a "platonic love" with an adjective derived from the name of the famous Greek philosopher Plato, to describe a love that moves it self in the plane of the ideas but not on the physical plane of pure matter and corporeality.

    See this blog article referred to the terms "Apollonian" and "Dionysian" , adjectives derived  respectively from  Apollo and Dionysus https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/apollonian-dionysian-nietzsche-apollo .

    Modernly an adjective that has had remarkable fortune has been "Kafkaesque" to describe situations, especially administrative, in which, by absurd, there is a lack of logic.

    "Stentorian" is an adjective that applies only to the noun "voice" or synonyms. The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española, RAE) defines it  as "applied to the voice or accent: Very strong, loud or boomy" and the “Spanish use Dictionary” of Maria Moliner defines it as "Applied to voice, shout or very powerful sound emitted by a person or an animal. "

    It comes from the Latin Stentoreus  and this from Greek adjective Στεντόρειος  and this one from  Στέντωρ 'Stentor',  one of the Greeks   in the Iliad known for his strong voice. The Latin dictionaries usually define it as "that belonging to Stentor or  to very loud voice."

    Certainly Stentor is a character in the Iliad. Homer says in Iliad V 784-786:

    “there Hera stood still and raised a shout like that of brazen-voiced Stentor,                                             whose cry was as loud as that of fifty men together”.

    ἔνθα στᾶσ᾽ ἤϋσε θεὰ λευκώλενος Ἥρη
    Στέντορι εἰσαμένη μεγαλήτορι χαλκεοφώνωι,
    ὃς τόσον αὐδήσασχ᾽ ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα·

    The term or figure of Stentor became proverbial already  in ancient times. Aristotle, in his "Politics",  offers a city of such size that citizens can meet face each other, because if the city was very large would be very difficult for someone could be the boss;  and says in Book VII, 1326b:

    “for who will command its over-swollen multitude in  war?                                                                             or who will serve as its herald, unless he have the lungs of a Stentor?”

    τίς γὰρ στρατηγὸς ἔσται τοῦ λίαν ὑπερβάλλοντος πλήθους, ἢ τίς κῆρυξ μὴ Στεντόρειος;

    In Latin, for example, Juvenal  refers to him  in Satire XIII, v.112

    “but you, poor wretch, may shout so as to out-do Stentor,
    or rather as loudly as the Mars of Homer”,

    tu miser exclamas, ut Stentora uincere possis,
    uel potius quantum Gradiuus Homericus:

    The name “Stentor”seems to come from the Indo-European root * (s) ten-which means “to scream”;  in Greek στένω, steno, means "moan, complain, sigh, whine".
     

  • The Roman Regulus heroically keeps his word and pays with death

    In the civic education of the ancient Romans, an important role was played by the memory and knowledge of the virtuous deeds of ancestors, roles to imitate by young people

    Marcus Atilius Regulus, although from a plebeian origin, was consul twice, the second in 256 BC, in the ninth year of the First Punic War between Rome and Carthage.

    According to tradition but without historical evidence (many historians, some old ones, doubt it or silence it), a tale is told that we can make an example out of it. After some military successes, Regulus was taken prisoner by the Carthaginians and held him captive until the year 250 BC, in which allow him to go to Rome to negotiate peace or an exchange of prisoners, and make him promise that he would return to Carthage if unsuccessful.

    When Regulus reached Rome behaves as a rigid man of honor: he refuses to enter the city as a slave that he is, refuses to talk to the Senate because his enslavement incapacitates him for it, not even admit the kiss of his faithful wife since that marriage is an exclusive right of free citizens and he was no longer a citizen.

    When he finally agrees to go to the Senate he does precisely the opposite of that expected; he convinces them not to agree with the Carthaginian and reach any agreement with who is an avowed enemy. As a man of honor returned to Carthage, where he expected a horrible death at the hands of his executioners.

    Latin chroniclers and poets that make him the prototype and example of heroic citizen who loves his city for future generations, complaining about the current neglect the ancient principles and civic values. So does Livius, Gellius, Diodorus, Apianus, Dio Cassius, Zonaras, Valerius Maximus, Aurelius Victor, Florus, Cicero, Horace,  Silius Italicus, etc.

    Such idealized anecdotes are an essential element in the education of the Roman citizen. It's what the Romans themselves called the "mos maiorum", customs and behavior of the ancestors, as a beacon, ideal for young people.

    Obviously older people were more valued than now, when the experience can be even a demerit.

  • The days of the week are pagan

    Christ was born in the time of Emperor Augustus, although a probable error of four years in relation to the official chronology. In early, Christianity was unnoticed in Rome, confused with Judaism and its various sects, but it had then a remarkable success for expansion to become the official religion and finish the traditional pagan religion off.

    Christianity,  in reality  a syncretism (gr. συγκρητισμός,  the combining of different  beliefsis), collects beliefs, moral principles, rituals, iconography, of the various parts of the Roman Empire, where  it is introduced, and integrates them  into a more or less coherent unit. It is known, for example, how everywhere, on the ruins of pagan temples are built Christian churches or natural places such as forests, caves, mountains, with high religious value, continue the tradition under the support  of an Christian image or  symbol.

    Therefore it is still curious that the names of the days of the week remain “pagans” throughout the West, bearing the name of the stars that the ancients knew.

    In Latin Monday is the day of the Moon (dies lunae), Tuesday the day of the god Mars (dies Martis), Wednesday day of Mercury (Mercurii dies), Thursday  day of Jupiter (Dies Iovis), Friday the day of Venus (Veneris dies ). Just got changed and not everywhere Saturni Dies (Saturn day),Saturday,  replaced by Jewish Sabbaht  and Dies Solis, the day of the Sun, changed or Dominicum or  Dies Dominica, Sunday (Lord's Day). But as I said, not everywhere, in English remain still Saturday (Saturn's day)  and Sunday (day of the Sun). With the remaining days in English or German with them were also unsuccessful in converting task, Montag is the day of the moon and Sontag is the day of the sun.

    This process is even more curious when we remember that in early  the Romans did not know the "week" or seven-day as time unit like us. This is shown by its month distribution iinto three periods called Kalends (the 1st of each month), Nones (the 5th in a few months and 7th  others) e Ides (the 13th day in a few months and 15th  in others).

    The week is originally  a Babylonian creation later adopted by the Jews. There was widespread in Rome in imperial times and imposed  in the year 321 by the Emperor Constantine. Naturally the rest day was not the Jewish Sabbath but "Solis dies = day of the Sun" Christianized "Domenica Dies = Sunday or day of the Sun", as stated.

  • Celtiberian Wars of Hispania forced the Roman people to change their calendar

    The history of the Roman calendar and its permanence until today is a very difficult issue to be explained.

    The history of the Roman calendar and its  permanence until today is a very difficult issue to be explained. We must remember how at first the calendar, closely related to the agricultural works, was lunar, began in March and had only ten months.

    So on the Ides of this month, on the fifteenth of March, the consular year began, and since the consuls were the commanding generals, the military campaigns also began at the same time.

    Although the mythical tradition attributes it to king Numa, there was an important  reform or change by the middle of the V century BC and two more months were added to the calendar, consisting now of 12. 

    When the military campaigns took place in the part of the Empire comprising the Lazio or in Italy, their beginning in mid-March made sense, but when the war was taking place far from Rome, the consuls, whose term lasted a year, barely had time to move out to the fields where the military maneuvers or operations were taking place and end the war and go home before winter.

    This was evident due to the Celtiberian wars in Hispania. Therefore, the Senate agreed in the year 154 B.C. that next year, the year 153 B.C., the consular year was going to begin on the first of January. So did the consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, who went to Segeda, near the modern-day city of Calatayud, in the current Community of Aragon, Spain, to war with its inhabitants, the Belli, who had fortified the city breaking the treaties they had previously signed. Anyway, in this campaign  Nobilior, who was an all powerful Roman consul, was beaten by the Belli, Titii and Arevaci, pre-Roman Celtic people settled in Hispania at the time.

    As is well known, the History of Rome is the story of a continuous war at one point or another of their  large Empire. Rarely the "pax romana", the "Roman peace" or period of time without war could be declared.

    So, since the year 153 B.C., the beginning of the consular year was established or set on the first of January, the day when the Kalends of January (Kalendis Ianuariis) start.

    It is interesting the unexpected influx that those from Segeda, small Celtic population placed in the center of the far Hispania, were going to have with regard to the setting of the Roman calendar, by making them change it, by forcing the Romans to change their calendar, which is now the more widespread calendar throughout the world.

  • The naptime (the siesta)

    The “siesta” is a widespread custom in Spain and increasingly copied abroad

    Today every person carries a watch or digital gadget that tells us the time to the nearest second and even more. Punctuality required today in our usual lives is not of hours, but usually of minutes or seconds, which is matched to the exact step of the sun by a given meridian.

    In the Ancient World in general and in particular in the Roman world times were less accurate. Say things happened or “ante meridiem”, a.m. (before noon) or "de meridie" or post meridiem, p.m. (after noon), "mane" (in the morning), "vespere" (in the evening), without much more precision.

    Romans should not be very interested in accuracy because when the first sundial was brought from Sicily in the year 263 BC, it marked the time wrongly, because it was built for a different latitude. It took them 99 years to correct the mistake, when in 164 BC they built a sundial matched to the latitude of Rome.

    The clepsydra or Geek water clock (horologium ex aqua) was not introduced until the end of the Republic.

    In these moments the day or light time was divided from sunrise to sunset in twelve hours and the night or dark time in four vigils. Depending on the season, the duration of hours or vigils was rather long and not very accurate.

    Hours were called or referred to the ordinal Latin adjective. So they talked about prima hora, secunda hora, tertia hora … (first hour, second hour, third hour…).

    Precisely the sixth hour (sexta hora) marked the noon time, when some lucky ones took a nap or slept for a while. Among these fortunate ones was the emperor Augustus, as Suetonius tells us in his “Lives of the Twelve Caesars”, II, 78:

    “After his midday meal he used to rest for a while just as he was, without taking off his clothes or his shoes, with his feet covered and his hand to his eyes”

    “Post cibum meridianum, ita ut vestitus calciatusque erat, retectis pedibus
    paulisper conquiescebat opposita ad oculos manu    ”

    From this expression "sixth hour" derives the Spanish word "siesta", that the “Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy"  defines as "a dream that is taken after eating or lunchtime", widespread custom in Spain and increasingly copied abroad, to the point that the word "siesta" has been assumed by the British and American people that accurately used it instead of their own word "the nap".

  • Wines with denomination of origin.

    The wheat, the wine and the oil are the three characteristic products of Mediterranean cultures from the Neolithic.

    These products are always present, essential for feeding people and also essential in many religious rites and in different moments of social life, including specially the banquet.

    We can say that in the Ancient World there are a whole wine culture in many ways similar to the current times. So then, as now,  there were some renowned ,but other less appreciated or common, wines.

    Then, as now, these wines received the name of their place of origin or provenance. So the "Rioja" or "Ribera”" or "Burgundy" or "Bourdeaux"  of the Antiquity  were then the "Caecubus”, the "Caelenus" the "Falernus" or "Formianus", natives of Caecubum, Cales,  Falernum or Formiae .

    The poet Horace  summarizes perfectly these data, for example, in an ode   (Odes 1.20) in which, wanting to regale their protector, the wealthy Maecenas, accustomed to fine  and high price wines, invites him to a common "Sabinus" , albeit it was of  the crop year in which the patron of the poet overcame a serious illness and  Horace  reaped it and now offers it to remember that happy time.


    You will drink with me this Sabine common wine in not large cups
    You  will drink then a "Caecuban" wine  and this  one pressed of Calenian grapes,
    Falernas vines or  vines of Formias hills do not   fill my cups

    Vile potabis modicis Sabinum cantharis….
       ……….

      Caecubum et prelo domitam Caleno
       tu bibes uvam: mea nec Falernae
       temperant vites neque Formiani
       pocula colles.

    Obviously, these wines were not affordable by the poet. Rarely   poetry and a good economic situation  formed  a couple.

  • Greeks and Romans did not have a prophet who will dictate their dogmas

    The Greek and Roman religions have no prophets, no dogmatic books, and have no hierarchy priestly class.

    Almost all religions have a holy book, a dogma and doctrine generally transmitted by a prophet or messenger of God. Christianity with his Bible and Jesus, Judaism with their holy books and prophets, and Islam with his Koran and Mohammed are known precisely as "religions of the book". In such cases the words inside the book are the word of God, and therefore its contents are dogmas that can not be questioned.

    In Ancient Greece and Rome there is not a prophet or theologian who has communicated a similar doctrine, religious rules of conduct. And therefore religion is a field in which you can act much more freely. There is no holy book like the Bible or the Koran, at most there are books of prophecies, called "Sibylline Books" that the Romans, very superstitious people, consulted in any circumstance of particular importance to the republic, for the State.

    Nor is there a group or priestly caste monopolizing the relationship with the divine, though some families may have a special relationship with a particular deity.

    The ones who set many of the different characteristics of the Greek gods were Homer, talking about them in his Iliad and Odyssey in the eighth century B.C., and then Hesiod in his Theogony briefly after. They set their names (Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Apollo, etc..), their figures, their skills and arts.

    It should be distinguish the gods whom the Greeks worship in their temples and their cities from the gods of mythology, created mainly by poets precisely thanks to a religion without prophets and without dogmas. And even more, we must differentiate "the gods of the philosophers", the result of reflection on religion that produces all kinds of thought towards religion, from atheism to deism or animism…

  • Apollonian and Dionysian

    Apollonian” is self-controlled person. In contrast, “dionysian” is an impulsive person.

    “Apollonian” is an adjective that we use to describe a person,  who has a perfect body and also to refer to a calm, quiet and self-controlled person, according to the definition that the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language provides us. In contrast, “dionysian” is an impulsive, instinctive and orgiastic person.

    With a more specialized philosophical and cultural meaning, we will say that they are two terms coined by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), inspired by the Greek mythology and used by him to expose his personal aesthetic conception and refer to two opposite attitudes towards life.

    Apollonian (derived from Apollo, the Greek god of reason, intelligence and light) refers to human cultural facts when they are bright, rational, balanced, content, subject to standard and individual. Dionysian (derived from Dionysus, the Greek god of Nature, life and wine) refers to what is instinctive and irrational in our behaviors, to the affirmation of the wish to live without restrictions, and also to how the group affects, influences or acts in human cultural facts.

  • Tyranny is the opposite of freedom

    Tyranny denies freedom, even when it is set in the name of freedom itself.

    Few words have a more pejorative meaning than the terms "tyranny and tyrant." The word derives from Latin word “tyrannus”, and this last one derives in turn from the Greek word “τύραννος”. The Royal Spanish Academy  defines it as:

    "Person who gets the government of a State by breaking the law, especially if he rules it without justice and imposing his will" and also: "person who abuses of his power, superiority or strength in any issue or subject”, and also “who imposes that power and superiority to an extraordinary degree" simply.

    But these are modern meanings that do not exactly match with the original meaning of the Greek word. In the long history of Greece there was a time when the primitive monarchical structures were disappearing because of the social and economic changes in the cities. In this development, the "democracy" or government of the people was their most remarkable creation, term that comes from the Greek people δῆμος  (demos = people) and κράτος (kratos = power). Fifth century BC Athens is the best example of "democracy."

    Sometimes, as the former royalty disappears, an individual person, a man, who comes out among the aristocratic families, gets the personal power and favors the social changes that are taking place at that moment, giving freedom to the people.

    But also, in the struggles of the working classes against the aristocratic groups were very usual, since the sixth century, revolts in which an individual, often supported by the people or the army, took possession of the power and established a personal and absolutist rule system. Many of these "tyrants" were loved by the citizens due to their good policy which also favored the working classes and not just the aristocratic classes.

    Thucydides is undoubtedly the most modern of the ancient historians for his critical sense and his strong commitment by telling us always the proved truth with objectivity. Speaking of tyranny, he tells us that at the beginning they had the royalty and that tyranny happened then as a result of the development of the power and wealthy of the Greek cities when they started to dominate the seas and set a lot of colonies (I, 13, 1). But he also says that tyrants only care about their personal situation, their own wealthy and their own person (I, 17).

    As every absolutist and one-person power, tyranny tends and makes easy all kinds of excesses, so it is easy to understand the evolution of the meaning of the term, which was getting a negative meaning until the current one, which is absolutely pejorative.

    From this point of view, it has a synonymous or very close meaning to other current terms such as dictator (originally Roman magistracy with exceptional powers), despot (also Greek word which means master, owner, headmaster and whose pejorative meaning is quite recent), satrap (head of a province of the Persian Empire) (see https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/satrap-persia-charlemagne-missi-dominici), totalitarian, authoritarian, etc.

    Unfortunately the examples of tyrannies and dictatorships throughout the History of mankind are endless, even in the present times, in which there’s no doubt that the primary good of men and fundamental human right, after life, is freedom.

    Neither is impossible nor absolutely uncommon to find that cruel tyrannies are established in the name of "freedom"; look how every tyrant always presents himself as a liberator and still nowadays they sometimes have the support of large groups of tyrannized citizens.

  • World Book and Copyright Day 2013. “Don Quixote” translated into Latin.

    The Day April 23 marks the “World Book and Copyright Day” by UNESCO declaration.

    As itself says UNESCO:

    “ 23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.”

    Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, said on the occasion of the celebration of the year 2013:

    "All forms of books make a valuable contribution to education and the dissemination of culture and information. The diversity of books and editorial content is a source of enrichment that we must support through appropriate public policies and protect from uniformity. "

    The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia (Spain) where it has become a tradition to give a rose and a book as a gift.

    Well, a tradition in Spain  in some public and private institutions these days is to proceed to a continuous reading of "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha". There is certainly a good initiative.

    “Don Quixote”  was printed for the first time January 16, 1605. Since then he has published countless times in Spanish  and has been translated into more than 50 languages and is one of the most translated books in the world.

    It has also been translated into Latin, and this allows us to include it in this blog dedicated to the classical world "Greco-Roman". It has been translated into Latín at least twice.

    One of them is due to Antonio Peral, born April 14, 1922 in Elche,(Spain), a multilingual and expert teacher in Semitic languages, died in 2000, with the satisfaction of having realized his whim,  to publish his “Historia domini Quixoti a Manica”, a good translation of Don Quixote into Latin.

    The other is actually more curious. Is the “macaronic”  Latin translation (kitchen  Latin or atrocious or pidgin translation)  of Ignacio Calvo,  priest, born  at  Horche (Guadalajara); in his seminary days was punished to translate during the summer  "Don Quixote" into Latin. When he presented the translation of the first chapter, he received the blessing of his teacher with "sufficit, Calve, jam habes aseguratum garbanzum."

    Well, Calvo continued the translation, which is a summary of the work of Cervantes. Was published in 1922 and recently, in 1999, has been reissued by Editorial Aache of Guadalajara.

    Note: “macaronic”  is said of a Latin wrong, burlesque and humorous which mixed and confused correct terms and structures with other Latin  incorrect terms or terms of other Romance languages, such as Spanish, Latinized in form. The term appears in the scrupulous humanists Latin scholars to refer to a kind of burlesque poems that appear in northern Italy. The authors form a group of revelers and freeloaders "macaroni eaters", so she called them and caricatured as macaronei and his poetry "macaronic". It attributes the first poem of this type to Tifi Odassi (circa 1450-1492), after  his death was published   the poem  Maccharonea or Carmen Macaronicum. In another time  we will address the issue in more detail.

    We reproduce in the first place a small piece of “macaronic”  Latin version, then a correct Latin and finally an English translation; so that the reader can compare:

    CAPITULUM PRIMERUM

    In isto capítulo tratatur de qua casta pajarorum erat dóminus Quijotus et de cosis in quibus matabat tempus–

    In uno lugare manchego, pro cujus nómine non volo calentare cascos, vivebat facit paucum tempus. Quidam fidalgus de his qui habent lanzam in astillerum, adargam antiquam, rocinum flacum et perrum galgum, qui currebat sicut ánima quae llevatur a diábolo. Manducatoria sua consistebat in unam ollam cum pizca más ex vaca quam ex carnero, et in  unum ágilis-mógilis qui llamabatur salpiconem, qui erat cena ordinaria, exceptis diebus de viernes quae cambiabatur in lentéjibus et diebus dominguis in quibus talis homo chupabatur unum palominum. In isto consumebat tertiam partem suae haciendae, et restum consumebatur in trajis decorosis sicut sayus de velarte, calzae de velludo, pantufli et alia vestimenta que non veniut ad cassum.

    Talis fidalgus non vivebat descalzum, id est solum: nam habebat in domo sua unam amam quae tenebat encimam annos quadraginta, unam sobrinam quae nesciebat quod pasatur ab hembris quae perveniunt ad vigésimum, et unum mozum campi, qui tan prontum ensillabat caballum et tan prontum agarrabat podaderam. Quidam dicunt quod apellidábatur Quijada aut Quesada, álteri opinant quod llamabatur otram cosam, sed quod sacatur in limpio, est quod suum verum apellidum erat Quijano: sed hoc non importat tria caracolia ad nostrum relatum, quia quod interest est dícere veritatem pelatam et escuetam.

                                                                        =============

    Capitulum 1. Ubi agitur de condiione et indole illustris fidalgi domini Quixoti a Manica

    In quodam loco Manicae regionis, cuis nominis solo memenisse, nuper vivebat quidam fidalgus ex eis de quibus fertur eos habere lanceam in repositorio, scutum antiquum, equum macrum canemque venaticum cursorem. Etiam erat ei olla potius ex carne bovina quam ovina, pluries in coena condimentum coquebatur, sabbato autem angores et afflictiones ut dicitur, die Veneris pulmentum de lentibus, dominico die vero ad haec omnia addebatur quaedam columba quibus et hoc modo tres partes boaroum eius consumebantur. Quod ei supererat serviebat ad vestes emendas tamquam femoralia ex serico praetexto pro diebus festivis cum tibialibus eiusdem generis, tamen per hebdomadam induebat vestem praestantem.

    Domi autem erat ei hera domus plus quam quadraginta annos nata et neptis, quae viginti annos nondum adimpleverat, et etiam famulus agri, qui eodem modo cingebat sellam equo vel utebatur forfice ad arbores putandas. Aetas huius fidalgi erat circa quinquagita annos. Complexio eius erat fortis, sed  macillentus corpore et gracilis vultu, promptus ad surgendum mane ex lecto atque aliquando fruebatur venatione. Dicebatur nomen eius esse Quixada sive Quesada, in quo est aliqua diversitas apud auctores qui hoc tractant, quamvis per veras oiniones eorum reperiatur eum Quexanam fuisse. Tamen hoc non est prorsus tam magni momenti ad nostram fabulan: satis est nobis ut narratio omnem veritatem ostendat.

      (Historia domini Quixoti a Manica .  Michael A Cervantes Saavedra ; versio latina ab Antonio Peral       Torres)


    DON QUIXOTE. CHAPTER I
    WHICH TREATS OF THE CHARACTER AND PURSUITS OF THE FAMOUS GENTLEMAN
    DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA

    In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook.

    The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was called Quexana. This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; it will be enough not to stray a hair's breadth from the truth in the telling of it.

    (DON QUIXOTE, by Miguel de Cervantes. Translated by John Ormsby (1829-1895))