Marco Tulio Cicero lived in Rome, Robert Graves made us live in Rome. The two shared the Eternal City as inspiration and also they passed away the same day, on December 7. The first, and in a very bad way, in the 43 B.C. c., the second in 1985. Both of them, teachers of the word and writing with two thousand years in between. Today, in his eternal memory, I share some of his phrases and snippets Of his works.
Marco Tulio Cicero
Little to say about a figure as well known as this juristRoman politician, philosopher, writer and orator. Considered the greatest rhetorician and stylist of prose in Latin of the Roman Republic, lived in one of the most fascinating times of antiquity and when power was distributed in the world names like Caesar or Pompey. Those of us who also had to translate it in our university days also remember its Catilinaries, For example.
His life and work were marked by both his insecure and impressionable character, his defense of the republic and his fight against the dictatorship of Caesar. That character also made him vary his positions depending on the political climate and led him to the tragic end he had. A fictionalized portrait of his history, as well as that of his time, can be seen in Rome, the magnificent HBO series from a few years ago.
Snippets and phrases
Catilinaries
How long, Catilina, will you abuse our patience? How long must we still be the plaything of your fury? Where will the outbursts of your unbridled daring stop? What! Have not your audacity restrained neither the guard that watches all night on the Palatine Hill, nor those that protect the city, nor the terror of the people, nor the concurrence of all good citizens, nor the fortified temple in which the Senate stands? meets today, nor the august and indignant faces of the senators? Have you not understood, are you not seeing that the conspiracy has been discovered? Don't you see that your conspiracy is not a secret for anyone and that everyone already considers it chained?
The Republic
«Given my situation, I have been able to enjoy leisure and obtain more benefits from it than others, because of the variety of studies that have been my delight since childhood (…) But with everything, I did not hesitate for a moment to to expose myself to the harshest storms, and I would say even to lightning, to save my fellow citizens and assure everyone else, without sparing any danger, a peaceful life.
On rhetoric
«The intermediate speaker, whom I call moderate and temperate, by only equipping his forces sufficiently, will not fear the ambiguous and uncertain hazards of eloquence; Even if you are not very successful, as is often the case, you will not be in great danger, however; for it cannot fall from very high. But this speaker of ours, to whom we accord the primacy, who is serious, impetuous, ardent, if he was born for this alone, or in this he has only exercised, or to this only has he applied, without tempering his abundance with the other two styles , deserves the utmost contempt. Well, the simple speaker, because he speaks with precision and seniority, is already sensible, the average speaker, pleasant; but this other very abundant, if it is nothing more than that, usually seems hardly sane. "
- "In the hours of danger is when the country knows the carat of its children."
- "Friendship begins where it ends or when interest ends."
- "I do not know if with the exception of wisdom, the gods have given man something better than friendship."
Robert Graves
This Briton born in Wimbledon, poet of the First World War converted into novelist, has to his credit a title that elevated him to glory: I, Claudio. Impossible to forget your adaptation in one of the most remembered series from the television. But it was many more historical works that he wrote under the sky of Mallorca who saw him pass away at the age of 90.
His life was also marked by personal scandals that were hidden for a long time. But he left his legacy poetry of war and historical titles like The white goddess, The food of the centaurs, belisarius, The Trojan War, King jesus o The Golden Fleece.
I, Claudio
And maybe I survived because the diseases could not agree on which of them would have the honor of finishing me off. To begin with, I was born prematurely, at seven months' gestation, and then my nurse's milk did not sit well with me, so a terrible rash broke out all over my skin, and then I had malaria, and measles, which left me slightly deaf. of one ear, and erysipelas, and colitis, and finally infantile paralysis, which shortened my left leg so much that I was condemned to a permanent limp.
The white goddess
«Today is a civilization in which the main emblems of poetry are disgraced. In which the serpent, the lion and the eagle correspond to the circus tent, the ox, the salmon and the wild boar to the canning factory; the horse and the greyhound to the betting arena and the sacred grove to the sawmill. In which the Moon is despised as an off satellite of the Earth and the woman considered as “auxiliary personnel of the State”. In which money can buy almost everything except the truth and almost everyone except the poet possessed by the truth.
Claudius the god and his wife Messalina
- "There is nothing that makes a man so hateful and unpleasant in the eyes of a woman as jealousy."
- “Most men are neither virtuous nor rascal, neither good nor bad. They are a little of one thing and a little of another, and, for a long time, nothing: ignoble mediocrities.
- Never remind people of the services you have done for them in the past. If they are grateful and honorable men, they will need no reminder, and if they are ungrateful and dishonest, the reminder will be useless. '