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| Roberto Bompiani – A Roman Feast [c.1887] |
29-41
The simplicity
The classic
literatur teaches to solve the complexity in simplicity that is just solved
complexity. The character of Pericle in the work of Tucidide (455-404) says:"filokalou'mevn te ga;r
met j eujteleiva"[1] kai; filosofou'men
a[neu malakiva""
(Storie, II, 40, 1), we love the
beauty with simplicity and the culture without weakness. It means that the
culture of the mind must not neglect the body, and who observes the sky must
turn the eyes also to the earth. "orandum
est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano"( Satire, X, 356, ) we must pray to have a healthy mind in a healthy
body exhorts the poet Giovenale
(60-140 a. C.), another italic traditionalist, in one of his 16 satires in
which he condemns with anger and indignation the decline of the morality in the
Rome of the end of I century and the first part of II century a. C.
He writes: facit indignatio versum (I, 79), it is
indignation that makes lines.
And “difficile est saturam non scribere” (I,
30), it is difficult not to write a satire.
As regards
simplicity, Seneca writes: “veritatis
simplex oratio est” Ep. 50), the language of truth is simple by nature.
Cf.
Euripide, Fenicie, where Polinice
says: “ajplou'ς oJ mu'qoς th'ς ajlhqeivaς e[fu” (v. 469), the speech of truth is simple.
As regards
the link between the health of soul and body, Seneca in Epistula 77 connect them with the studies: “quidquid animum erexit etiam corpori prodest. Studia mihi nostra saluti
fuerunt; philosophiae acceptum fero quod surrexi, quod convalui; illi vitam
debeo”, all that elevated the soul it is good also for the body. My studies
saved me. I drew myself up, I am feeling better, thanks to philosophy, I owe my
life to philosophy.
Neglegentia. The sovereign nonchalance
The simplicity
may be radicalized in neglegentia (ajmevleia in greek), sovereign nonchalance, apparent
carelessness of himself, of the clothing and so on.
It is a
kind of elegant gentlemanly confidence that is adopted by many characters of
aristocracy in literature latin, italian, english, german, russian and so on. I
could present several exemples from these literature but we have no space
today. May be the next time.
Petronio elegantiae arbiter , teacher
of taste in Nerone’s court, is described with these words by Tacito “habebaturque
non ganeo et profligator, ut plerique sua haurientium, sed erudito luxu. Ac dicta factaque eius quanto solutiora
et quandam sui neglegentiam praeferentia, tanto gratius in speciem
simplicitatis accipiebantur" (Annales , XVI, 18), he was
considered not a dissolute or a squanderer as most wasters, but a man of
refined dissoluteness. His words and acts the more were free and revealed some
carelessness of himself, the more agreeably were consĭdered as marks , signs of
simplicity, naturalness
Affectatio. The snobbishness, the pose, the bad
manners. Trimalchio
The
opposite of neglegentia-nonchalance is affectatio,
snobbishness.
This kind
of bad manners is shown by Trimalchio the vulgar new rich of Satyricon. He was been a slave who inherited
the wealth of his master and also increased it. He continually shows off, with
words and gestures, the symbols of his great richness.
Let us read
some words of Satyricon that regard
this vulgar ostentation.
Trimalchio enters his banqueting room where other ex slaves (liberti) his guests, wait for him. He is
decorated with pallio coccineo (32,
2) a cloak, mantle scarlet and shows off several rings: habebat etiam in minimo digito sinistrae manus anulum grandem
subauratum (32, 3), he had in the smallest finger of left hand a great ring
gilded, and in the last phalanx of middle finger another ring totum aureum,
sed plane ferreis veluti stellis ferruminatum, all of gold but all
covered with little pieces of iron in the form of stars.
The golden rings were symbol of belonging to the class of Equites (Riders, i.e. businessman),
while Trimalchio was a libertus, a
slave set free. These rings were not enough for his exhibition, so dextrum nudavit lacertum armilla
aurea cultum et eboreo circulo lamina splendente conexo (32, 4), then
stripped the right arm adorned with a golden bracelet interlaced with a shining
thin sheet of metal, and at last pinna argentea dentes perfōdit (33)
picked his teeth with a silver toothpick.
Then he
boasts his enormous properties, his latifundia:"deorum
beneficio non emo, sed nunc quicquid ad salivam facit, in suburbano nascitur
eo, quod ego adhuc non novi. dicitur confine esse Tarraciniensibus et
Tarentinis. nunc coniungere agellis Siciliam volo, ut cum Africam libuerit ire,
per meos fines navigem" (48, 2), thank God, I don't buy, but all that
now makes our mouth water was born in a suburban farm that I still don't know.
They say that forms the border between the territory of Terracina (in Lazio)
and that of Taranto (in Puglia). Now I want to unite Sicily with some little
fields, so that, when may be I like go to Africa, I can sail along my lands.
His speech is full of vulgarities and nonsense. He orders to put on the
table a wine very precious and old one hundred years, then he says: Falernum
Opimianum[2] annorum
centum", wine falernum more than one hundred years old.
Aftewords Trimalchio clapped and cried:"eheu…ergo diutius vivit
vinum quam homuncio. quare tangomenas faciamus. vita vinum est. verum Opimianum
praesto. heri non tam bonum posui, et multo honestiores cenabant"
(34), alas, so lives more years a wine than a poor man. Therefore let us drink
as sponges. Wine is life. What’s more, I offer you Opinianum. Yesterday I put
on the table a wine less good, and yet I had guests of dinner more eminent by
far.
A character of a book of satyric writer Luciano (120-185), the philosopher
Nigrino eponymous of this work, reveals the vulgarity of romans grew richer:
they make themselves ridiculous showing off wealth and disclosing their bad
taste:"pw'" ga;r
ouj geloi'oi me;n oiJ ploutou'nte" aujtoi; ta;" porfurivda"
profaivnonte" kai; tou;" daktuvlou" proteivnonte" kai; pollh;n
kathgorou'nte" ajpeirokalivan;(Nigrino , 21), how the rich men can be not ridiculous person they
who show off clothes of purple and stretch out the fingers of the hands
revealing their bad taste?
Trimalchio
shows off also his false learning with his absurd quotations of fictitious
literature: :"ego autem si causas non ago, in domusionem tamen
litteras didici. et ne me putes studia fastiditum, tres bybliothecas habeo,
unam Graecam, alteram Latinam. dic ergo, si me amas, peristasim declamationis
tuae". Cum
dixisset Agamemnon: "pauper et dives inimici erant", ait
Trimalchio:"quid est pauper?" "Urbane" inquit Agamemnon, et
nescio quam controversiam exposuit. Statim Trimalchio:"hoc" inquit
"si factum est, controversia non est; si factum non est, nihil est".
Haec aliaque cum effusissimis prosequeremur laudationibus::"rogo"
inquit "Agamemnon mihi carissime, numquid duodecim aerumnas Herculis
tenes, aut de Ulixe fabulam, quemadmodum illi Cyclops pollicem poricino
extorsit? solebam haec puer apud Homerum legere. nam Sybillam quidem Cumis ego
ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: "Sivbulla tiv
qevlei" ;"
respondebat illa: " jApoqanei'n qevlw" (48, 8), also if I do not handle criminal
cases, I am not a lawyer, nevertheless I have studied letters for domestic use.
And in order that you do not think that I am disgusted by studies, I have three
libraries, one greek and the other latin. So tell me, please, the topic of your
rhetorical speech. Agamennon (the rhetorician guess in the dinner) said
« a poor man and a rich were enemies », and Trimalchio :
« what is a poor ? » Agamennon said: «fine!», and
immediately Trimalchio said: «if this is a fact, a deed, is not a
controversy, a dispute, if is non a deed, it is nothing. While we[3]
were following these and other nonsense with excessive praises, Trimalchio
said: «please, dearest Agamennon, do you remember the twelve labours of
Hercules or the tale of Ulixes, how the Cyclops wrung his thumb with
tongs ? When I was a boy I was used to read this and other tales in Homer.
In fact I myself with my eyes have seen Sibilla in Cuma hanging in a small
bottle, ampulla, and when the boys asked : Sibilla, what do you
want ?, she replied «to die I want».
These last words
have been put as epigraph of The waste
land (1922) by T. S. Eliot
Liberti Freedmen
It is worth
to use some words for the explanation of the condition of these liberti (freedmen).
Tacito
writes that in 68, after the reigns of Claudio and Nerone: “Venalia cuncta,
praepotentes liberti, servorum manus subitis avidae" (Historiae
, I, 7), all was for sale, very mighty the freedmen, crowds of slaves avid,
greedy, for sudden changes. Their “ideology”, their vision of life and world
can be synthetically expressed by this sentence of Trimalchio : “ credite
mihi: assem habeas, assem valeas; habes, habeberis" (Petronio, Satyricon, 77), you must believe in me:
if you have one as, you are worth one as: you will be reputed on the grounds of
your money.
The money
is the only, the sole standard, criterion of judgement.
During the dinner of
Trimalchio some of these enriched liberti
speek in their sermo plebeius, a
plebeian language, probabily that one spoken by the common people in some graeca urbs greek town in the south of Italy,
as is possible understand from graffiti of Pompei.
The cena-dinner- of
Trimalchio
In the meantime on
the table of guests of Trimalchio arrive over and over again new dishes,
prepared and arranged in order to amaze. Apicio (I century a. C.) wrote a book,
De re coquinaria, about the cooking,
where he suggests: "Ad mensam nemo agnoscet quid manducet ” (IV, 2), at table nobody must recognize what he
eats.
In fact at this table are brought many trays with food
much sophisticated, affected (while also in food the simplicity is the best),
dozens of courses until is presented un
fericulum longe monstrosius ( Sat. 69, 7), a course much more
perverted than the previous: it seemed a goose made fat (anser altĭlis) with a side dish of fishes and birds of every sort, but Trimalchio
amazed the guests saying de uno
corpore est factum(…) ista cocus meus de porco fecit " (Satyricon, 70), this is made
from only one body (…) my cook made all with a pig.
This food and all this
banquet has something of unnatural and irrational.
But what is ratio?
According to Seneca, the mivmhsi" imitation of the nature: “sequitur
autem ratio naturam. “quid est ergo ratio?” Naturae imitatio”. Quod est summum
hominis bonum?” Ex naturae voluntate se gerere” (Ep. 66, 39), well,
the reason folllows the nature. What is then reason? Imitation of nature. Which
is the highest good of men? To behave according to the will of nature.
“Cum rerum natura
delibera: illa dicet tibi et diem fecisse et noctem” (Ep. 3), consult
nature: she will say that she made the day and the night.
“In homine quid est
optimum? Ratio: hac antecedit animalia, deos sequitur. Ratio ergo perfecta
proprium bonum est, cetera illi cum animalibus satisque communia sunt. Valet:
et leones. Formonsus est: et pavones. Velox est: et equi (…) Corpus habet: et
arbores” (Ep. 76), Which is in the man, the best? The reason: with reason
precedes the animals, follows the gods. The perfect reason is the good
distinctive of man, other things are common with animals. He is strong: also
the lions. He is beautiful: also the peacocks. He is fast: also the horses (…)
he has a body: also the trees.
“Quid excolis formam?
Cum omnia feceris, a mutis animalibus decore vinceris” (Ep. 123, 22) Why do
you take care of your look? Even though you did everything you will be won by
dumb beasts, the brutes. Rationale animal es. Quid ergo in te bonum est?
perfecta ratio, you are a rational animal and the good in you is a perfect
reason. Such man is aemulator dei, an emulator of God
Platone advises to become similar to God (oJmoivwsiς qew' , Teeteto
176b).
Ratio (the reason) is also magna pars, great part of virtus
(the value of vir, man). “Nihil enim aliud est virtus quam recta
ratio” (Ep. 66, 32) the value of man is nothing else but right reason.
Often the natural is
equivalent to a happy medium: “non splendeat toga, ne sordeat quidem”
(Ep. 5, 3), the toga, the clothing must neither shine nor be dirty.
And Cicero: “in
plerisque rebus, mediocritas optima est” (De officiis, I, 130), in
the most of things the middle way, condition, is the best.
Cfr. Also Orazio: "est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,/quos ultra
citraque nequit consistere rectum " (Satire , I, 1, vv.
106-107).
there is a measure, a proportion in the
things, there are limits defined over and under that may not subsist the right.
According
to Seneca modus (measure) and virtus
(value) live toghether : "cum sit ubique virtus modus " (De
Beneficiis , II, 16, 2). In greek this middle course is called mesovth" by Peripatetics, metriovth" by Academics and by stoic Panezio
who had a great influence upon the cultured class of Romans
In the Pharsalia by Lucano the wise stoic is
Catone who died suicide in Utica (46 b. C.): he had the virtus of servare modum (II, 381) to keep the
measure.
Seneca blames the sumptuous,
huge banquets as apparatuses against the nature:”ambitiosa non est fames,
contenta desinere est” (Ep. 119, 14), the hunger is not pretentious:
it is glad to stop.
The philosopher shoots
arrows of criticism against the vulgar enriched as Trimalchio: “pecunia in
quosdam homines quomodo denarius in cloacam cadit”(Ep. 87, 16), the
money falls in some men as a silver coin into a drain.
“Ergo in homine quoque
nihil ad rem pertinet quantum aret (…) quam perlucido poculo bibat, sed
quam bonus sit” (Ep. 76, 15), So in the men too doesn’t count how
much he ploughs (…) how much shines the cup where he drinks, but how much he is
good.
“Neminem pecunia divitem
fecit (Ep. 119, 9), the money never did rich anybody.
CONTINUA
[1] eujtevleia is frugality, parsimony, is the
price easy to pay (eu\, tevloς) for
the necessaries things, is the beauty preferred by real gentlemen, nobles and
ancient, the beauty incomprehensible by the enriched men who show off the
expensive and ugly things that make their identity
Augusto gave examples of frugality eating secundarium
panem et pisciculos minutos et caseum bubulum manu pressum et ficos virides
( Svetonio, Augusti Vita, 76),
ordinary bread, little fishes, cheese vaccine, pressed with hand, green figs.
[2] L. Opimio was consul in 121 b. C. The age of
the wine is certainly false as the literary quotations of Trimalchio
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