The story of Manius Papirius Lentulus & Massimo has been totally rewritten (as a draft, of course.) You can read it here.
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The Samnite: “What are you talking about?”
Giorgio: “Well, you know that novel we were discussing here in our living room a couple of months ago.”
The Samnite: “You mean the story on both Ancient Britannia & today’s Rome?”
Giorgio: “Exactly. It foresees at least two universes, but I would say infinite ones, as Giordano Bruno had imagined – the one burned by the Catholic Church in the late Counter Reformation Renaissance – & as modern physicists imagine today too.”
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Ok, readers, words are enough.
All the best,
MoR
[*enjoying Brazil- Germany on TV, and feeling sorry for the humiliation of a great soccer team. They have to react, damn! Massimo, soccer ex promising star: “Their defence is too weak, although it has always been like that …” Giorgio: Brazil 1-7 Germany. Astonishing. Not that I am not glad for Germany, although I am thinking of those favelas where soccer is the salt of life …*]
“Le patron de la Banque centrale européenne, Mario Draghi, a convaincu les investisseurs que les taux directeurs resteraient très bas longtemps, et que les liquidités seraient abondantes pour les banques”. Crédit Photo : Sébastien SORIANO/Le Figaro. Source
Here is the EU / Euro / Europe debate I had promised to some friends. We will start with personal dialogues from our slice of the blogosphere.
You will however notice how ideas & feelings (passionate, at times) will soon go beyond the sphere of the particolare and reach the wider area of an equally passionate debate a. within the EU etc.; b. on the other side of the Atlantic; c.much beyond that, since all economies – China, India, Japan, the gas & oil states etc.) are interwoven.
[last minute update: France & Germany, who will win? In the world cup, I mean. 🙂 I don’t know whom to cheer, folks ]
Cheri (original post & discussion): “I remember visiting my grandparent’s home […] On the wall […] a framed cross-stitched message in blue which read, ” To Have a Friend, Be One.”
The souls I am privileged to call friends […] would say that I have always been too busy […]
[My sister Cindy] and I have a give and take friendship. I ask about her. She asks about me […]
This week, I have been in deep contemplation and as usually happens in times like these, my friends enter my consciousness like ethereal butterflies …
Were my grandmother […] still alive and were she to ask me whether I have […] followed the imperative on the cross-stitch, I would have to say “No, Nana. I have not.” I have simply been too busy.”
Kaytisweetlandrasmussen: “I am a retired fine arts teacher, sculptor/painter, writer, and a native Californian. I love my family, dogs, horses, movies, reading and music, probably in that order. I have been married forever to a very nice man who is nice to old ladies, dogs and children.”
kaytisweetlandrasmussen83: “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ” Marcel Proust
Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun. You make my life more fun.
Loved the photo of Obexers! AK.”
Cherie Ladybugg: “You know, I was just up at Tahoe for one night. What a place that engenders so many memories. I slept in my parent’s room and on the wall is that large black and white picture of you and Dr. Advice, Ron’s parents, and mom and dad. You all looked so young and happy.
kaytis…83: “Weren’t we all dashing? We thought we already knew it all. Oh how wrong we were!”
MoR: “Dear Cheri, your post has hit my heart, I find it one of the most beautiful you’ve ever written. I did not have a brother, unfortunately … I do feel the same.
Our relationship, friendship, with you, Richard, Christopher, Cyberquill, Jenny, Andreas, Thomas, Douglas, Geraldine, Paul Sunstone and others from the Web it’s been non face to face, ok, but profound (of souls, as you say) and I have neglected you since I was too busy to achieve goals in my universus introversus […]
[I btw didn’t mention those met face to face: The Commentator Italo-Canadese, Paul or Pavlos le canadien du Quebec half Greek btw, Ashish the GeekWrestler (met by my daughter in Mumbai) Devinder the Sikh from Montreal, Nomad Anju from the Bangla culture, Nita from Mumbai, one of the best journalists ever etc. etc. etc.]
Id est 3 objectives that are inter alia impossible which I’m determined none the less to attain at the cost of croaking […]
So now objective num 3 [num 1 & 2 being performing 2 of Bach’s sublime masterpieces, ndr] is of course the ‘Manius Papirius Lentulus soldier trapped in Albion’ series (I’m thinking about a sequence of smaller books being published – feuiletton-like? – one after the other, like ‘Desperate Roman Soldiers’ LOL.)
So the writing has being restarted since a while (a 3-4 hundreds draft pages in both Italian and English: 3 perhaps draft small books) and […] no less hard than the previous two Bach goals, it being a neo-Platonic-Pythagorean Dante […] these three objectives making me live like in a closed bell – with some old school mates around and other friends, who are patient – as you say, Cherie – since I none the less neglect them […]
And for that I have neglected you, Chaeri Faerie, who have been so warm, fanciful, crystal clear as only an Hyperborean Ladybugg can be […]
As for Londoner Richard, a soul I love as much as I love yours, I have not even told him my youngest daughter is working in London as an architect / civil engineer […] hired by an English engineering company busy building a skyscraper […]
Remember my friends that I love you so much, and to me, you ALL are important [those not mentioned because too many, of course, too], and perhaps you souls from the WWW are even more important, being like Platonic souls deprived of a body, you all having a place in a heart that doesn’t forget though neglects.”
Chaerie Ladybugg: “Well Giovanni, I don’t know what to make of this long emotional comment. […] Life is a journey that we are all on, most of us doing the best we can with what we have and with who are parents were. We meet the “other,” our spouse and we engage in a relationship, often times forgetting that they, indeed, are not an extension of ourselves, but an individual, at times very different from us on their own journey too. That is the magic of the “other”.
We have friends, whether in the WWW or face to face, friends with whom we connect and at times for myriad reasons, disconnect.
I’d like to believe that both fate and free will entwine in these dances that we do […]
Cheri
Richard:“Dear Roma,
I am not so naïve as to imagine that the feelings you express are for me personally. I know that you speak of the brotherhood of man generally and specifically of your love for my country and its people. That you do so despite their widespread rejection of the European Union in the recent elections to the Parliament is a measure of your sincerity.
Yes, the British do feel neglected by Europe. We feel treated unfairly, as a caricature of ourselves, that our pioneering contributions to European culture, democracy, justice, law, science, industry and peace are sidelined, misunderstood or even ridiculed. Our expectations, despite our massive sacrifices and investment in Europe over the last 300 years, and particularly over the last 100 years, bear hardly a consideration, as evidenced by the fact that the recent vote will make hardly any difference to our voice in Europe.
I myself have not lost hope in the European project, but believe that nations require their identity to be returned to enable them to be heard and to retain what is familiar to them so they may prosper together. Rightly or wrongly, there are those who reckon that some in Europe hope to win some sort of long-term cultural war through the medium of the EU, when there need be no war at all. This fear is behind the current crisis in the Ukraine.
Adaptability of form and purpose is the key to a united Europe, no less in its central organisation than in its constituent parts, and a willingness to abandon obsolete “visions” and obsessive “principle”. That headlong idée fixe has acquired a separate existence detrimental to the ideal. Real lessons can be learned from the UK and how it maintained many of the practical traditions of the constituent nations. In many ways the UK can be seen as a Scottish take-over as well as an English one. I know that we face the real possibility of Scotland’s severance, but it is a union that has lasted for 300 years, not without its difficulties, for sure, but of great mutual benefit, not only to ourselves but also to Europe and the whole world, by and large. It is significant that many true Scots who play such a large part in the running of the UK have no vote in the forthcoming referendum because they live in England. Our cultures are closely intertwined and most of us in England feel as one. I myself have Scottish antecedents on both parents’ sides and I am a Presbyterian – of a most liberal and broad-minded kind, I hasten to suggest.
Bigger is not necessarily better and if an organisation is unwieldy it is more likely to lead to unfairness, authoritarianism, disruption, rejection and, in the worst analysis, bitter conflict, than it is to peace.
MoR:[writing his novel, he needs:]
“An Invocation, before a mind journey
To my belovéd Anglo Saxon friends,
And to Chaerie dearest Faerie,
Queene of the Greatest Isle, Américà.
O Goddess, Thou, so heauenly and so bright!
Shed pls thy faire beams into our feeble eyne,
And raise, our thoughts being humble and too vile,
The argument of our afflicted style.
“Via Torpignattara, anni ’50. Veduta del mercato e dell’incrocio con Via Casilina. Sullo sfondo Piazza della Marranella con l’abbeveratoio dei cavalli”. Cliccare per i credits, per altre immagini e accedere a un bel sito sul quartiere
Listen to this: (by MoR, wait a few seconds)
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Lello, er romanaccio Depardieu (always with us in spirit?) says:
“Un po’ contemporanea, ‘sta litania.”
Mario:
“What is this sh** …”
Experimenting (with
the Romanesco dialect)
[To the English-speaking: This post being partly written in the Romanesco dialect Google translations might be unpredictable]
[Al lettore italiano: parlare il romanesco, ok, ma scriverlo – e studiarlo come lingua – è un’altra cosa. 1° sperimento]
‘Nnamo (let’s start.)
Il Depardieu del Casilino
Gérard Depardieu au Film Festival de Berlin (2010.) Click for credits
Incontro Lello a un bar di Torpignattara. Sta ordinando una Ceres.
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Ogni tanto ci capito, a Torpignattara, perché se hai fortuna incontri i romani veri – magari non del tempo di Tito (come gli ebrei del rione S. Angelo) – ma veri in ogni caso, di 7 generazioni.
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Corpulento, sui 40 anni, i braccioni tatuati che se t’agguantano ti stritolano, Lello ha i tratti marcati e sarebbe il perfetto Gérard Depardieu del Casilino se fosse un po’ più gallico e un po’ meno scuro nei capelli e negli occhi.
Saltuariamente – al Pantheon, a piazza Navona, al centro, in definitiva – Lello compare e scompare come un fantasma suonando percussioni esotiche assieme a un contrabbassista emaciato, a un sassofonista colla panza tonda, e a un chitarrista eccezionale – il cappello calato e gli occhi quasi nascosti dalle rughe – che pare sia di Birmingham
[Lello dice che è di Birmingham e io gli credo]
Sorseggia la Ceres, guardandosi lentamente attorno. E’ il suo mondo, il suo ambiente.
Lello è un capo.
A ‘sto punto, dico, la ordino pure io, sta Danese perché è così particolare sto Lello che voglio che mi si sciolga la lingua (che me s’è come ingufita coll’età).
Sorrentino ce sta affa’ neri
Toni Servillo as Jep Gambardella in ‘La Grande Bellezza’ by Paolo Sorrentino
Dico:
“Lello, a fijo de ‘na mignotta, vviè cqua!”
Si avvicina. Sempre pronto allo scambio umano, in realtà parla pochissimo. Annuisce.
“Ahó, possin’ammazzatte – dico – co’ sta Grande Bellezza Sorrentino ce sta affa’ neri. Tutto il mondo parla di metafora: metafora qua, metafora là… mo’ pure gli Americani sur Nu York Times …”
Lello è impassibile. Un minuto, forse due.
Poi guardandosi le unghie, ‘na finissima ironia nello sguardo, comincia un bofonchio che cresce man mano e si fa cavernoso.
Capisco solo le ultime tre parole:
“[…] […] […] M-e-t-a-f-o-r-a de che”.
Una voce dall’antro. A sentirla di notte al buio. Depardieu mi fa impazzì.
Gran bucio de c… profumato
Cerco di provocarlo (sono teso, ho bisogno di fa’ casino).
Provo – un’imitazione ok – a crescere piano piano pure io per poi dargli dentro dopo 20 esatte parole:
“Beh, metafora dell’Italia – dico ‘n sordina, preciso -, d’un paese destinato al declino, con Roma – girata bellissima, per carità (sennò perché il titolo), – che poi in verità è ‘na pattumiera, è solo ‘na cloaca pure un po’ fine ma inzomma, lo vogliamo dire CAZZO, è come ‘N GRAN BEL BUCIO DE CULO TUTTO PROFUMATO – so’ cavernosissimo – co’ tanto de mignotte, ruffiani, pretacci (e nani!!) CHE CE CAMMINAMO TUTTI S-O-P-R-A !!!!”
[Ok, non sarò Augusto o Lello ecc, ma il romanesco lo mastico, mia nonna era di via Garibaldi]
Altra pausa. Si beve. Il calore de ste Ceres comincia a impregnacce.
Lello, lo vedo, è un poco ‘allertato’.
Poi, una lievissima sfumatura di complicità (divertita?), Lello dice:
“Tutti sopra ‘sto bucio de culo”
“Tutti sopra ‘sto bucio de culo. Confermo” (mi guardo le unghie pure io)
“Che poi è profumato”
[non capisco se mi piglia per il culo; Lello è tosto, niente da dire]
“Che è profumato, riconfermo”.
C’è qualcosa che non va. Però, provocato, sbotto come Augosto (quello a piazza de’ Renzi 15, che si incazzava continuamente – un’arrabbiatura bonaria – e Sandro il figlio – l’ho visto piccolo – è spiccicato).
“Ma dimmi un po’, a Lello, a te te piace? Vojo dì, a te te piace che Sorrentinos mostri ste zozzerie al mondo??”
Credo d’averlo beccato ‘n pieno. Errore. Ridiventa una statua.
Che soggetto, minchia, e potrebbe esse mio figlio … :?
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A ripensarci, ora che scrivo, mi salta in quel boccino (la testa) il solito carme:
[no in buzzurro ora [così tedeschi e anglosassoni erano chiamati a Roma; poi, dopo il 70, è stata la volta dei poveri piemontesi), ma carme nella lingua delle madri che la sera passeggiavano , passegg … lasciamo perdere]
Gigante immobile e paonazzo (e sanguigno, diciamolo, come sto pezzo di …. Bacco).
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Lello, dalle infinite risorse, trasfigura, la pelle gli si chiazza, l’occhio sinistro mosso da un lieve tremito.
Allora t’ho colpito, stronzo – penso. Ma … ti sarai ‘ncazzato?
Via di Tor Pignattara anni ’40 circa. Courtesy di Silvestro Gentile. Cliccare per i credits
Seconda Ceres. Lo seguo a ruota. Comincia, si direbbe, a approfondirsi una certa atmosfera che è solo de ‘ste parti … discorso lungo, da non fare ora.
[Anche perché credo che ‘n ce porti a un cazzo]
Mario, homo novus
(e pallonaro)
Mario m’accompagna un bel giorno a Torpignattara.
E’ il classico chiacchierone fanfarone – niente a che vedere con gli Augusti, i Lelli -, al punto che la tragica diffusione a Roma di questo ‘tipo psicologico’ è uno dei motivi per cui molti italiani sparlano della Capitale.
Al bar, Mario mi parla di calcio, della sua vecchia Lancia vintage, delle ultime 10 partite (10!) di 4 squadre diverse. Non ci capisco molto.
Poi arriva Lello, e Mario commenta:
“Ma quello sta sempre zitto. Me sembra n’imbecille”.
[Ok, Lello-Depardieu è tranquillo – Mario non capisce un cavolo – ma già co gli occhi ti dice mille cose. Gli occhi di Mario, invece, esprimono il vuoto. Assoluto).
Dico:
“Imbecille? Errore grave, Mario mio, perché Lello, a te, te s-e m-a-g-n-a“.
Nonostante calchi la voce Mario se ne fotte e scrolla le spalle (co gli occhi – quasi punizione divina – riflettenti il nulla dell’anima sua).
[Che è l’anima? Non lo so, ma che Mario l’anima non ce l’abbia è l’unica cosa scientifica della storia della teologia]
Lello, antico,
laconico (e non cazzaro)
Lello invece è intelligentissimo, e, a differenza di Mario il cazzaro, ha un retroterra.
Sterminato.
Per darvi un’idea.
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Da 20 anni frequenta il centro storico (“la mia famiglia è de llì: coi genitori, i nonni, i bisnonni e i trisnonni via cantando – arrivi fino a Adamo”).
Detto come una cantilena – difficile da spiegare – che è ritmata dalla ‘o’ di nonni.
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Lo vedo una volta al mese, anche meno, oramai, ma so che c’è (e mi basta).
Lello è un capo, ripeto.
Mi dà la fiducia di pensare che qui in Italia tanta gente nonostante la crisi (qualcuno sta al palo purtroppo) se la cava, ai vari livelli della gradinata sociale.
Nell’arte della sopravvivenza, romani e italiani, sono professionisti, la storia è lì a dirlo.
E Lello, che il frescone Mario non capisce, Lello in realtà fa.
Un piccolo
ma fiorente commercio
Depardieu lavora, s’ingegna.
Buon marito e buon padre di due figli (non so le scappatelle), ha raggiunto la sua modesta prosperità con il commercio a costo bassissimo di cellulari e tablet, che la gente compra perché non gira più una lira.
Da qualche anno s’è fatto 2 o 3 esercizietti (stanzine, in definitiva) che visita più volte al giorno, la faccia del boss autorevole ma pensoso, quasi pensasse ad altro (e però tutto nota, tutto sa).
Esercizietti che gli so’ gestiti da 3 marocchini svegli che gli fanno da bassa manco tanto bassa manovalanza, che lo rispettano – e che soprattutto gli vogliono bene.
Lello dunque incede nel quartiere, coi tatuaggioni il nasone la faccia (e la stazza) del Depardieu zigano.
Una figura caratteristica come non ce ne saranno più in futuro (oppure no?) Ho sentito in giro a Roma giovanissimi di altri paesi che già parlano romanesco meglio di me.
Il tradizionale tuffo di Capodanno nel Tevere dal ponte Cavour di Roma. Tanti sono stati i personaggi famosi in questo ‘sport’, almeno dal 1870 a oggi. Click for credits
Poi insomma cazzo (la terza Ceres, inesorabile … :twisted: ), ma a vedé sti romani che si tuffano ancora dai ponti (no Lello), con mezza falange in meno ar medio (sì Lello cqui: na sforbiciata a 16 anni).
A vedé cioè sti tosti che s’industriano, che non aspettano tutto dallo stato – ognuno col suo stile, qui e in altre regioni del paese, spina dorsale che impedisce al corpaccione italiano d’afflosciarsi.
In altre parole, a vedé una Roma e un’Italia positive nonostante le sofferenze, che non s’avvoltolano nella nevrosi, che non si prostituiscono, che non ballano nelle terrazze chic vista Colosseo con le narici incipriate, che non scopano le minorenni ai Parioli e nemmeno le minorenni slave sulla Salaria … cazzo!
A vedé questi giovani che lottano, che imparano le lingue straniere, che vanno ‘n culo al mondo dovunque ci sia uno stracciaccio de lavoro, e così facendo – poverini poverini, si dice! – non diventano più deboli ma più forti fanghala, che si aprono la mente e il futuro … (Mario – che mi sta vicino, compagno di scuola a cui in fondo voglio bene, me dice: eh dai, famo notte).
Sorrentinoooos!
Neapolitan Paolo Sorrentino. His success at the Academy Awards granted him a Roman honorary citizenship. Click or credits and to enlarge
Ok, ok, a Mario, ma la domanda, scusate, che spontanea sorge a ‘sto punto fangulo, è la seguente:
A’ Sorrentinoooos! Sarai pure Napoletano talentuoso (lo sei) ma la conosci veramente Roma? O se la conosci – non credo – non te sarai mica ‘mbo’ incazzato perché l’ambiente del cinema romano – che è poi quello italiano – è ‘na Grande Zozzeria, cogli outsider che so outsider semper, tanto che Villaggio (pure Pupi Avati?) s’è addirittura inbestialiddoooo?
Dice Fantozzi, ineffabile, a Mediaset:
“Sordi è il simbolo della ‘Grande Cattiveria’, la cattiveria dei Romani ‘che sono veramente, e profondamente, cattivi’ “
[detto poi con lo sguardo cattivo … chi vuole prendere per il culo]
Pianoforte romano
Ora, a me il film de Sorrentinos piace, ma me fa pure ‘ncazzare.
Pertanto, in onore dei Lelli semper tosti e viventi (in periferia: l’hanno cacciati cogli sventramenti), residuo piccolo e coriaceo di una forza grande e suprema (la Roma grande, oramai passata).
In loro onore, dicevo, questa musica di pianoforte dedico, da romano – più fortunato e sfortunato insieme – ad altro romano.
[Mario: “Sei un cazzone“. Giovanni: “pure tu, stronzo, ma ti voglio bene”]
Riproposta pure qui (Mario: “per puro narcisismo, cojone” “Sei un fregnone – ma ciai ragione?” “Sì” “No” “Sta minchia”) :
Per te, e per tutti voi – (Gino, Sergio, Spartaco, Gianni e Samanta), oltre che pe sti napoletani a cui vojamo bene, no Mario, so nostri cugini (compagno di scuola di origine napoletana, Mario) – butto là sto pezzo de … pianoforte non decadente (me lo si permetta, Sorrentinos).
Lello, romanaccio Depardieu, always with us in his a spirit, exclaims:
“Un po’ contemporanea sta litania.
Certo, stronzo (no, scusa, Lello, scusa) ma nello spirito almeno, e nell’anima (che abbiamo simili), ci metterà in qualche modo d’accordo …
Ecco un clip de La Grande Bellezza, in tutta la sua struggente, in all its aching … beauty.
Dulcis in fundo, il napoletano Pino Daniele, cantautore e chitarrista di vena raffinata, che canta Anna Magnani e il cinema romano.
[Così ricomponemo er tutto e famo pace 🙂
“Stronzi” “Frocioni” “So ‘frocio ma me ne vanto” “Hai proprio ragione!”
Ma il partenopeo: “ste nutizie su A Grande Bellezza nu ssierve”
Depaardieu mostra i braccioni “a fijo de ‘na mignotta, vviè cqua” ma viene travolto da ‘na stilettata partenopea colta: “ta’ soreta è latrina, e m-a-t-r-e, a te, na pumpinare jamme jamme JAAAMME!”]
Web site di dialetto partenopeo
[Wiki francese: “Dans la mythologie grecque, Parthénope (en grec ancienΠαρθενόπης / Parthenópês, « celle qui a un visage de jeune fille », de παρθένος / parthénos, « jeune fille », en particulier « vierge ») est une des sirènes…Strabon mentionne que son temple se situait dans la ville de Néapolis (actuelle Naples), où les habitants célébraient des jeux gymniques en son honneur.]
Poi, in tema di composizioni pianistiche (di resilience e– Mario – “de fanfaroni”) :
Turin, capital of Piedmont, with Mole Antonelliana and the Alps in the background. Wikipedia. Click for credits and to enlarge
I have already talked about my mother’s side of the family by posting, among the rest, excerpts from the memoirs of Carlo Calcagni.
Today, back from a short visit to Turin, I feel like speaking of my father’s family, who is from Piedmont.
Piedmont means “at the foot of the mountains ” (Latin ‘ad pedem montium‘.)
Which mountains by the way? The North-West Alps bordering Switzerland and France.
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Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour (1810–1861), also called Cavour, was a leading figure in the Italian unification process and first Prime Minister of Italy. Painting by Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891). Click for credits and to enlarge
Grandfather Mario was from Cavour, while grandmother Carolina was from Turin although her family was originally from Susa, in the Alpes Cottiae.
Grandpa, of whom I have knowledge only from parents’ and relatives’ narrations, I’ve already mentioned here. He is one positive male role model I had, together with my father a bit and my mother’s brothers who however belonged to a totally different, central-Italy, culture.
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I experienced some friction with my dad. A family tradition since he too had problems with his father while he was totally captivated by his mother Carolina.
Dad always told me that grandpa was ‘a scientist’ while grandma ‘was an artist who grasped nuances’. She was by the way a painter.
I never quite understood this nuances thing. Grandpa perhaps grasped other nuances that grandma and my dad – who seemingly ‘grasped nuances’ too – could not perceive.
Grandpa Mario in his last years before he passed away in 1946
At any rate nonna Carolina though not personally cooking ruled the kitchen (and the house) with an iron hand in a velvet glove. Only when she fell ill my mother could take over in some way.
The food served at our childhood table, in our house in Rome, was almost always very good thanks to the more-than-average cooking skills of Nerina, the cook, and to grandma’s recipes and firm guidance.
When nonna Carolina, after a good dish that perhaps had cost some efforts, asked her husband whether he had enjoyed the pietanza, or dish, Mario invariably replied:
“Ben cotto” (‘well cooked’.)
In truth – my father’s humorous comment – nonno had absolutely no interest in food and perhaps when asked for an appreciation he had even forgotten the dish just eaten: culinary art had apparently no place among his interests.
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In any case grandpa, like many Piedmontese, had a sweet tooth.
My Alpine female cousins (my dad’s sister’s daughters) once told me that nonno took them occasionally to a bar (a café) and bought them una pasta (a small pastry.)
This thing of la pasta al bar I have experienced myself via papà who, being Mario’s son, took me in his turn to Bar Cigno – the once elegant café in Viale Parioli (Parioli‘s main street) – where I too was offered una pasta.
Bignè, the typical ‘pasta’ or pastry one can eat in an Italian bar (café)
Now that almost 60 years have elapsed, thinking about it with affection, this rite of ‘la pasta’ was nonetheless curious.
At a good Italian bar – back then and today – one can consume a bunch of things.
Had my father been a Roman he would have bought us, depending on the occasion, cornetti (croissants) with chocolate or cream, maritozzi con la panna (Roman sweet buns with whipped cream and currants), pie slices of any kind (as is the habit in Germany or in the US,) carnival cakes (frappe, castagnole etc.), Sicilian cassata with ricotta and candied fruit, Neapolitan pastiera, a good selection of ice-creams plus pizza, pizzettine, pizzette, various sandwiches and the legendary Parioli’s American club sandwiches of the 60s.
[‘Wicked‘ – a young English friend would comment]
We were instead taken by dad to the bar and bought la pasta.
Now, even limiting ourselves to pastry, due to pastries’ large variety, the rite was nonetheless sober since we were usually served just a small bignè (a cream puff: see above.)
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A sober, simple rite, ‘la pasta al bar’. But we liked it that way.
Vercingetorix before Caesar (by Henri Paul Motte, 1886)
As regards Julius Caesar‘s conquest of Gaul (and other actions of his) we will here just scratch the surface of a debate (among admirers mostly) on Caesar’s conduct, motives and achievements.
The debate among Caesar’s detractors will be the subject of the two upcoming posts (a list of all installments is at the foot of the page.)
Imperialism by ‘historical necessity’
We are dealing here with imperialism, it is clear, justified by some as ‘historical necessity’ (not the time now to get into philosophy of history.)
Luciano Canfora‘s judgement on Caesar is in truth multifaceted (Giulio Cesare, il dittatore democratico, Mondadori 2010, XV, pp. 137-8; English translation):
“Gaul was thus inserted by violence and genocide into the circuit of the Roman ‘civilization’ … Naturally, the romanization of Gaul is a phenomenon of such a historical amplitude as to impose the question of whether the accounting of the dead proposed with extreme clarity by Pliny the Elder (together with the harsh accusation that Caesar hid his figures) should not however give way, on the plane of historical assessment, to what can be considered the crucial event in the formation of medieval and later modern Europe.”
Gaul at the time of Caesar. Click for attribution
Mere ambition
or conquest with a big vision?
As for “whether Caesar’s conquest was motivated by mere ambition” rather than by the design of opening a ‘new frontier’, Canfora observes:
“As if the two things could really be distinguished in the work of a great statesman.”
“It is more than an error, it is an outrage upon the sacred spirit dominant in history, to regard Gaul solely as the parade ground on which Caesar exercised himself and his legions for the impending civil war.”
“Though the subjugation of the West was for Caesar so far a means to an end that he laid the foundations of his later height of power in the Transalpine wars, it is the especial privilege of a statesman of genius that his means themselves are ends in their turn. Caesar needed no doubt for his party aims a military power, but he did not conquer Gaul as a partisan.”
“There was a direct political necessity for Rome to meet the perpetually threatened invasion of the Germans thus early beyond the Alps, and to construct a rampart there which should secure the peace of the Roman world.”
Hermann Monument erected in New Ulm (Minnesota), a town founded by German immigrants in 1854. Wikimedia
Were German migrations
Rome’s big problem?
According to 19th century Mommsen, one of Caesar’s main merits was that of understanding who the big enemy of Rome actually was:
“Inasmuch as [Caesar] with sure glance perceived in the German tribes the rival antagonists of the Romano-Greek world; inasmuch as with firm hand he established the new system of aggressive defense down even to its details, and taught men to protect the frontiers of the empire by rivers or artificial ramparts, to colonize the nearest barbarian tribes along the frontier with the view of warding off the more remote, and to recruit the Roman army by enlistment from the enemy’s country; he gained for the Hellenico-Italian culture the interval necessary to civilize the West …”
Hermann chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci. His victory over a Roman army in the Teutoburg forest (9 AD) made him a symbol of German patriotism
Today’s views by historians are more complex. A number of factors (not only German mass migrations, seen mostly as gradual integration) are seen as causes of Rome’s fall (see a list of theories about why Rome fell).
Furthermore, Germania at the time of Caesar (1rst cent. BC; or of Augustus and Hermann, 1rst cent. AD) was backward compared to Germania in the 4th-5th centuries AD.
“It could hardily be clearer that 19th-century visions of an ancient German nation were way off target … the inhabitants of first century Germania [Germans, Celts and another unidentified group, according to Heather] had no capacity to formulate and put into practice a sustained and unifying political agenda (p.55.)”
It was therefore not German military prowess – Heather continues, p.58 – to scare the Romans off Germania, but its poverty [different was the case of richer Gaul, MoR.]
The issue of Parthia
The Parthian (Persian) empire a few years after Caesar’s time. According to many historians Persia was Rome’s main antagonist. Wikipedia
Getting back to Caesar’s motives for conquering Gaul, he was surely aware of the German danger (L. Canfora). That he wrote this in the Commentariias justification for his wars doesn’t though prove much.
Caesar’s literary work was political. Caesar’s bloody conquest had outraged many of his adversaries. The roman general needed to indicate his conquest as preemptive.
The Cimbri‘s and Teutones‘ dreadful raids in Gaul and Italy – occurred 50 years earlier – could have nonetheless brought serious problems to Rome had Gaius Marius, Caesar’s uncle, not stopped them.
Caesar was therefore aware of the danger even before facing Ariovistus. That Germani were considered by him Rome’s big problem is doubtful though. It is more likely that the Romans, in the various phases of their empire, feared more the much stronger and civilized power of the Parthians in the East [Heather, p.48 et. al.; see also Roman-Parthian wars.]
Parthian horseman. Palazzo Madama, Torino, Italy. Wikipedia
Some evidence shows this may have also been Caesar’s view.
Crassus, Caesar’s amicus, had been defeated in 55 BC at Carrhae by the Parthians of his time (Crassus had been killed and 7 legions annihilated). All this had happened during Caesar’s Gallic wars.
So Caesar, as Mommsen wrote, “taught men to protect the frontiers of the empire” toward Germania but did not plan any conquest of Germania beyond the Rhine. In the last period of his life he was instead preparing a military expedition against the Parthians which he could not carry out because he was murdered in 44 BC.
[the two paragraphs above reflect MoR‘s opinion]
“Reorganization of the State,
more than Gaul, was crucial”
“It hardly admits of a doubt – he argued – that if the rule of the senate had prolonged its semblance of life … the Italian civilization would not have become naturalized either in Gaul, or on the Danube, or in Africa and Spain.”
Irish Ciarán Hinds as Julius Caesar in ‘Rome’, a British-American-Italian historical drama TV series
The British historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889 – 1975; Julius Caesar current Britannica’s entry) downplays the importance of the conquest of Gaul by Caesar. To him the reorganization of the state and the removal of an oligarchy no longer à la hauteur was more crucial.
“Great though this achievement was, its relative importance in Caesar’s career and in Roman history has been overestimated … In Caesar’s mind his conquest of Gaul was probably carried out only as a means to his ultimate end. He was acquiring the military manpower, the plunder, and the prestige that he needed to secure a free hand for the prosecution of the task of reorganizing the Roman state and the rest of the Greco-Roman world. This final achievement of Caesar’s looms much larger than his conquest of Gaul, when it is viewed in the wider setting of world history.”
Caesar vs Shih Huang Ti
A.J. Toynbee here sings praises to Caesar’s overall achievements.
“This cool-headed man of genius with an erratic vein of sexual exuberance undoubtedly changed the course of history at the Western end of the Old World.”
“By liquidating the scandalous and bankrupt rule of the Roman nobility, he gave the Roman state —and with it the Greco-Roman civilization— a reprieve that lasted for more than 600 years in the East and for more than 400 years in the relatively backward West. […] The prolongation of the life of the Greco-Roman civilization had important historical effects.”
“Caesar’s political achievement was limited. Its effects were confined to the Western end of the Old World and were comparatively short-lived by Chinese or ancient Egyptian standards. The Chinese state founded by Shih Huang Ti in the 3rd century BC still stands, and its future may be still greater than its past.
Yet, even if Caesar were to prove to have been of lesser stature than this Chinese colossus, he would still remain a giant by comparison with the common run of human beings.”
Helmet found in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England (6th cent. AD) One of the images that enrich our soap on Ancient Britannia: maniuslentulus.blogspot.com
Hi, a new Manius chapter has been written and posted. The English version links to the Italian original.
I hope all is well with you all.
Too late to say anything else. See you tomorrow.
MoR
ψ
Update. What I had to say I have posted over at the Manius Papirius Lentulus blog dialogue section. Here it is.
Latin Poets of the Golden Age
'A favourite poet' by the Victorian painter Alma Tadema (1888). Detail. Click to enlarge
Regarding this painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) Jenny had asked :
“I need to know which (favorite) poet the Roman women are reading in that painting. I just ordered Slavitt’s translation of Ovid’s Love Poems, Letters and Remedies. Looks great.”
MoR: “According to Rosemary J. Barrow (*L. Alma-Tadema*, Phaidon 2001) the poet is divine *Horace* – I add links for the sake of new readers, and basically am a pedantic teacher to the marrow -, who was from *Venusia*, South Italy, today’s Venosa in Mezzogiorno’s Lucania also called Basilicata.
[Incidentally, Rosaria’s personal account on his town, with Orazio’s statue in the main piazza, and the bay-leaves crown the best school students received, similar to the one Orazio’s statue wears, is so compelling]
The bronze wall panel behind the 2 Roman women in Tadema’s gorgeous painting has inscribed a few words by Horace. The title of my Manius soap (Misce stultitiam consiliis: Add Folly to Wisdom) is taken from Horace (4 Odes, xii. 28), and the ‘act’ the buddies in the plot perform in the taberna (read Chanting in an Ænglisc taberna) is one of Horace most perfect choral songs from the *Carmen Saeculare* (Song of the Ages!), probably his most perfect (and classical in the real-deal sense of the term) poem.
Horace (together with Vergil) is Rome’s bard and his poems were sacred to the Romans – no easy stuff, Horace; Lord Byron confessed he couldn’t understand Horatius Flaccus; but I believe every minute spent on Horace’s lines is worthwhile – although sacred, I don’t mean it in the sense of the Judeo-Christian ‘Revealed Writ’ of course. For that – revealed-by-god(s) words – you have to turn, outside the Jewish tradition, to the amazing Orphic Greek literature, for example, which I’m sipping here and there and find terribly inspiring.
Tibullus visiting his beloved Clelia. Click to watch it in full resolution
True Romans & Celts.
A different temperament?
Horace was the most loved ancient poet in 19th century England. His tone befitted the Victorians who kinda felt like the spirituals heirs of the Romans. He was also fun like most Roman writers (he for ex. preferred the liberty of loving slaves or unintelligent women, since Roman matrons were a headache to him, a tad too matriarchal perhaps, but basically I think he didn’t find a long-for-life love (Vergil did, probably, but I guess it was a man) and most of all Horace is the real classical thing more than Vergil in some way, while Tibullus and Catullus (and Vergil) were a bit more … romantic since – so darn interesting for the Manius’ blog – they were Italian Celts from North Italy, id est continental Celts, id est cousins to insular, British-Isles, Celts.
I absolutely adoreTibullus and his elegies, so beautiful & melancholic, and Clelia (Tibullus’ true love – see a painting below- : differently from Horace he was more or less monogamous: Clelia not by chance is Manius’s lost love too.
[Tadema painted Tibullus at Clelia’s, and Catullus at Lesbia’s – see above and below. How could he not 😉 ]
But Manius is not monogamous. Massimo, the positive hero, is.
Ovid is a sparkling choice Jenny. His verses are peculiar, naturally flowing, and possibly much more fun than all the poets I’ve mentioned.
Catullus at Lesbia's by Sir Laurence Alma Tadema (1836-1912). Click to enlarge
All the best Rome could give
ALL these poets are the best Rome could give and were much deeper than the coeval Greek literature, that was extremely refined but void and spineless. Catullus was another first class Italian Celtic poet, very romantic as well. He was in love with the sluttish Clodia he calls Lesbia.
True Romans from Rome were – and still are – not much romantic (in both the arts and common sense of the term); Manius, Massimo, Giorgio (and myself) are partly true Romans, partly North Italian Celtic, so they are a tad romantic too (I guess it takes also bad weather to be ‘romantic’ lol).
I mean, it all fits together perhaps – or so it seems to the Man of Roma (now Manius) 😉
“Now, Manius, I have a throwing dagger but what tells you how I will use it the only time I will be able to throw it because retrieving it once thrown is rather problematic.
Not being a Roman and being a merchant why would I hurt potential costumers?
Of course you are my friend and that could cause me some scruples and those guys do seem to be cutthroats so they could also be out to cut mine, they seem to be somewhat xenophobic.
All considered, I will side with you after all.”
MoR: ” Being a merchant why would I hurt potential costumers?
Right Paul, you got into the Pavlos character as I see it at least, probably because it’s part of you despite what you may think who knows.
Ulysses and the Sirens by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917). Detail. Via Wikimedia. Click for a bigger image and a higher resolution view of it
Ulysses, ie the Mediterranean Man
To me Pavols is a symbol par excellence of the Mediterranean Man ready to survive in every circumstance and to exchange knowledge goods symbols experiences with a wonderful good nature – given to him by Helios ok – but with an admirable life balance reached tho thru horrible toil it must be said:
the Med, one often forgets, is a ruthless stepmother and no fertile area as the Nordic European lands.
One reason why the Germans are so big compared to the Greco-Romans and successive Mediterranean people: their climate may be horrible but they got BEEFY in the course of the centuries from the beefy cattle that got (and still gets) BIG – as them – from the fat-and-so-green-from-rain darn grass)
« La rareté en Mediterranée – Fernand Braudel écrit – des vrais pâturage. Elle entraîne le petit nombre des bovin … pour l’homme du Nord le bétail de la Méditerranée semble déficient. La Méditerranée, II, pp. 290-291, Livre de Poche »
You add, Paul:
Now, Manius, I have a throwing dagger but what tells you how I will use it the only time I will be able to throw it because retrieving it once thrown is rather problematic.
Well well, I don’t think this to be a problem. I had added the following italic text (but had to prune this and other stuff, it was too verbose:
“Pavlos pulled out an inlaid-with-gold throwing dagger that he always carried with him (even in bed?). He had already shown his ability to use it with deadly precision..
If you have even a colossus before you – Ulysses had one-eyed Polyphemus – you can dispatch him in a second by throwing dagger hurled into the left or right eye (your choice).
But, true, both the Romans & their Greek copain then would all be slaughtered by the rest of the Angles. So yes, Pavols waits for the events to unfold.
Nikos Kazantzakis: Odyssey, a Sequel
Nikos Kazantzakis, a modern Greek genius. Click for attribution & additional infos
MoR: “A side note à propos de Ulysess. In the winter of 1938, at the age of 45, your father’s countryman Nikos Kazantzakis from Crete (1883 – 1957) published his “Odyssey” (a modern Sequel) in Athens. A huge tome of 835 pages in 24 books with 33,333 verses!
There’s a good English translation by a Greek American, Kimon Friar (Simon & Schuster, NY 1958).
The two worked together for a long time in order to achieve a good translation. I, being a book maniac, have it on my shelves but have sipped only here and there.
Il duomo di Milano. Click for attribution and a larger view
Leaving in a couple of hours for Milan, Lombardia, Italia. I will be back to Rome next Monday evening.
I confess I don’t quite understand the Milanese language (also called Meneghìn).
Milanese and Italian are distinct Romance languages and are not mutually intelligible (wikipedia).
Milanese is part of Gallo- (ie Celtic-) Italic languages, which are a subset of the Gallo-Romance languages that also include French, Occitan (langue d’oc) and Franco-Provençal.
By the way, a new Manius chapter has been written in Italian. All I need is to translate it into English and post tutti e due, ie tous les deux.
Ciao
O mia bela Madunina
The most popular canzone or song in the Milanese language:
O mia bela Madunina
A disen la cansun la nass a Napuli
e certament g’han minga tutti i tort.
Surriento, Mergellina, tutt’i popoli
i avran cantà almen un miliun de volt.
Mi speri che se offendera nissun
se parlom un cicin anca de num.
O mia bela Madunina
che te brilet de luntan,
tuta dora e piscinina
ti te dominet Milan.
Sota ti se viv la vita,
se sta mai cuj man in man.
Canten tüti “Lontan de Napoli se moeur”
ma po vegnen chi a Milan.
Ades ghè la cansun de Roma magica,
de Nina, er Cupolone e Rugantin,
se sbaten in del Tever, roba tragica,
esageren, me par, un cicinin.
Sperem che vegna minga la mania
de metes a cantà “Melano mia”
O mia bela Madunina
che te brilet de luntan,
tuta dora e piscinina
ti te dominet Milan.
Si, vegnii senza paura,
num ve slungaremm la man. Tut el mund a l’è paes, a semm d’accord, ma Milan l’è un gran Milan!
ψ
I like this video also because for each song word – Napuli (Naples), Madunina (little Madonna), Milan, Roma etc. – it provides images or a movie illustrating it.
Man of Roma 