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| Orazio |
II lezione pp. 6-9
Graecia capta ferum
victorem cepit Greece
conquered by Romans conquered the rude conqueror
Several
authors recognized the supremacy of greek arts.
Orazio (65-8 b. C.) writes in Epistula II, 1: "Graecia
capta ferum victorem cepit et artes/intulit agresti Latio: sic horridus
ille/defluxit numerus Saturnius et grave virus/munditiae pepulere; sed in
longum tamen aevum/manserunt hodieque manent vestigia ruris",(156-160)
, Greece was before conquered and after conquered the rude conqueror, and
brought the arts in rural, rustic , Latio. So disappeared that rude metre
saturnio[1]
and elegance expelled the heavy taste; but in a long time remained and today
remains trails, rustic imprints.
The historic task and the origin of roman
empire. Virgilio and Orazio
Virgilio (70-19 b. C.), a poet augusteus, as Orazio, indicates the arts congenials with romans: “tu regere imperio populos romane, memento./
haec tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem,/parcere subiectis et debellare
superbos”(Eneide, VI, 851-853),
you, Roman remember to lead peoples with your command. These will be your arts:
to establish the custom of peace, to spare subject people and to defeat prouds.
In a
similar way, in the first book of his opus
maximum, Virgilio introduces Iuppiter,
Jupiter, who speaks to Venus and says with regard to descendants of Enea, the
Romans: “imperium sine fine dedi. Quin
aspera Iuno (…) mecum fovebit Romanos rerum dominos
gentemque togatam (Eneide, vv
279ss.), I gave an empyre without end. Rather, later Iuno, Juno, now hard, will favour with me the Romans masters of
the world and people togated. The toga, garment of white wool, is the uniform of roman citizenship.
On the
other hand Enea, son of Venus, is an exile fugitive from Ilio, Troy, his
burning town, as points out Seneca (4
b. C. -65 a. C.) in Consolatio ad Helviam
matrem (VII. 7) written from
banishment in Corsica (about 42 a. C.). “Romanum
imperium nempe auctorem exsulem respicit, quem profugum capta patria, exiguas
reliquias trahentem, necessitas et victoris metus longiqua quaerentem in
Italiam detulit”, roman empire clearly regards as its author, maker, an
exile, refugee, a man run away far from the native country occupied, a man
bringing only scant, little relics, a man whom the necessity and the fear of
the winner, dragged to Italy while he was looking for far earths.
Orazio,
as Virgilio, is a poet augusteus “orthodox”: they recognize the debt of latin
literature to greek culture and in the same time, they celebrate the emperor
and the roman imperialism: Orazio writes that Augustus is clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis (Carmen saeculare, in sapphic strophes, 17 b. C., line 50), eminent
blood of Anchise and Venus, bellante
prior, iacentem lenis in hostem (51-52), winning on the enemy in war,
clement to the enemy dejected. Such man, of cours emperor Augustus, is also a
winner cultural and moral: he re-establish the golden age: “iam Fides et Pax et Honor Pudorque/priscus
et neglecta redire Virtus/audet, apparetque beata pleno/Copia cornu”
(57-60), the ancient values dare already to come back: Faithfulness and Peace
and Honour and the old Decency and Virtue before neglected, and appears also
Plenty with cornucopia (horn of plenty).
The function and the defects of autocracy. Tacito
Tacito (55-120 a. C.) is a harsh critic against some emperors (especially Tiberio 14-37,
Claudio 41-54, Nerone 54-68, Domiziano 81-96) but anyway he thinks that after
100 years of civil wars omnem
potentiam ad unum conferri pacis interfuit (Hist. I, 1), suited peace that all the power was gathered,
assembled, in the hands of one man.
The peace was furthered, favoured,
by this autocracy, but culture, truth, art and freedom became disadvantaged: “posqtuam bellatum apud Actium atque ad unum
conferre pacis interfuit, magna illa ingenia cessere; simul veritas pluribus
modis infracta, primum inscitia rei publicae ut alienae, mox libidine
adsentandi aut rursus odio adversus dominantis” (Hist. I, 1) after the war in Azio (31 b. C.) and the victory of
Ottaviano, suited peace that all the power was assembled, in the hands of one
man, (but) the famous great genius disappeared: in the same time, the truth in
many ways adulterated, before by the ignorance of politic life that became
extraneous, outside, then by the lust for flattery, adulation, or on the
contrary by the hate against the commanders.
Also in the Annales his last work, his opus
maximum, Tacito denounces the total subjection of society “At Romae ruere in servitium consules,
patres, eques. Quanto quis inlustrior, tanto magis falsi et festinantes” (Ann. I, 7), but in Rome ran to submit,
to become slave, the consuls, the senators, the businessman. As more a man was high-ranking,
important, as more false and zealous, prompt
This first emperor , differently
from dictator Caesar, succeded anyhow in getting an almost general consent: “ubi militem donis, populum annona, cunctos
dulcedine otii pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus magistratuum legum
in se trahere, nullo adversante” (Annales,
I, 2), when he had seduced the soldiers with presents, the crowd with a low price
of corn, all the romans with the sweetness of peace, little by little became
more powerful, and centralized in his hands the prerogatives, privileges of
senate, of offices, of laws.
Caesar was killed (44 b. C.) by a
plot of high class, but he had already seduced the crowd with the low prices or
the gifts of provisions. Lucano (39-65), nephew of Seneca, writes that Caesar
was “gnarus et irarum causas et summa
favoris-annona momenta trahi” (Pharsalia,
III, 55-56) conscious that the causes of rages and the strongest impulses of
favour are drawn by prices.
Annales
begin with the death of Augustus (14 a. C.) and the succession of Tiberio who
ordered to kill the nephew of Augustus, Agrippa Postumus. After the execution,
when Agrippa was murdered by the hired killer, a centurion, this soldier went
to the new emperor ut mos militiae (Annales, I, 7) as is in military use, to
announce factum esse quod imperasset,
that the order received had been executed, but the new emperor neque imperasse sese et rationem facti
reddendam apud senatum respondit, replied that he did not give the order
and that was necessary to account to senate for the deed.
Arcana imperii
In this occasion one fiduciary of
Tiberio, Sallustio Crispo, warned Livia, the mother of emperor ne arcana domus vulgarentur , not to
reveal the secrets of the palace (royal palace) to anybody: eam condicionem esse imperandi ut non aliter
ratio constet quam si uni reddatur (I, 6), the condition of absolute command
is that the account is correct if it is gave back to only one person, just the
emperor himself.
Another arcanum, secret, is discovered when in summer of 68 a. C. the sixth
legion in Spain proclaimed emperor Galba:
evulgato imperii arcano posse principem alibi quam Romae fieri (Hist.
I, 4), was disclosed a secret of empire: the emperator may be created far from
Rome.
CONTINUA
Giovanna Tocco
RispondiElimina