Callimachus and Plautus

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Alexandria and Rome
Presentation 2 of 14

Callimachus and Plautus
Alexandrine Literature, Roman Drama and Greek Synthesis and Imitation
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, July 8, 1982

Transcript:
Are you ready for Rome? [inaudible] Is Rome ready for us?

I know many of us who are used to the sparkling grandeur of Greece. So, I look the other way when Rome comes around. [inaudible]

Rome is difficult. Rome is very [inaudible] small hill here. time wrong. Here [inaudible] one like Palatine. And here is another hill. [inaudible] and along here is [inaudible]. Over here it’s kind of long. [inaudible] has all kinds of [inaudible] here. And [inaudible] is the best line. And [inaudible].

This hill, the Palatine Hill is actually the beginnings of Rome. And there is a tradition that Rome was built as a square, four-square, perfect square on the Palatine Hill. And this image of the squared off, mythical origins of Rome around 753 is an interesting archetypical image, which once posited and reinforced throughout the centuries formed the dominant matrix focus in the Roman psyche.

And within this psychological squared matrix was the figure of a man named Romulus. And it's interesting that the bad people in Star Trek are Romulans. Romulus really a very shady character in many ways.

The traditional Roman story about the birth of Romulus is as follows. There was and old Arcadian temple in roughly this area and rebuilt later in circular shape. Circular shape. Which was at the temple for the Vestal Virgin to of course keep the sacred flame and tend the incense. And at the time the name of the vestal Virgin was Ilia. I-l-i-a. And of course, the vestal Virgin has taken a vow of sanctity. The God Mars, incarnated his shape and began habituating the temple of the Virgin. And finally, deduced Ilia who became pregnant and bore twin sons, whom she named Romulus and Remus. And when they were born, the sacrilegious was considered so great that she was buried alive. And the two children were set up in the wilderness, exposed to be killed by the proper course of events. A pregnant she wolf that had lost her cubs, her breasts swollen with milk, heard the cries of the babies, in the myth, and suckled these children for several days. These babes. And a shepherd discovered the two baby boys and took them in and raised them in the hills. And all through their youth as they grew up, they exhibited just for human characteristics. But also, a great lack of toleration for other human beings. They began lead marauding bands of robbers together. Sort of like the James brothers at the Dalton brothers. And they decided that they would use this natural fortress of the Palatine Hill as the robbers’ roost. And having laid out the four-square walls of this retreat fell into a heated argument over what to name this place. And Romulus killed his brother. And so, the name of the place became Rome.

Romulus became the first King of Rome. And as a King he could, of course, legitimize all of his robbing tactics. And the population would be dovetailed into a growing city retreat, which we became like a small city state. As the first King of Rome Romulus increasingly became hated by the people, his own people, who were presumably successful economically. And one day, as the myth goes, there was a tremendous eclipse at the thumb at mid-day and all the Romans. Early Romans by this time were gathered in this valley between the Capitoline and Palatine, which became the area of the Forum Romano, the Roman Forum, just in between those two hills. And during the eclipse in the darkness at noon, all of the leading citizens of Rome together killed Romulus and cut his body up into so many little pieces that they could hide it in their togas. And when the eclipse passed and the light return, they told the populace that Romulus had ascended to divinity during the eclipse. And each in his own way disposed of this piece of Romulus that they'd had.

And so, an archetypal pattern within the Roman psyche had spun its way out into a classic conundrum. The God that Romulus was supposed to have become, was named Quirinus. And Quirinal Hill [inaudible]. And Quirinus and because of Romulus’ parentage from Mars. And because Mars’ father was Jupiter, became a divine triad in Roman religion. And the great Roman temple, the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill was dedicated to this triad of Gods, the father, the son of another son, the man who ascended and became the God again.

But in fact, the way through the tradition of Rome, it was like a semisecret innuendo that it was the peers of the population of Rome that had done away with this tyrant and had taken upon themselves their own leadership. So that hundreds of years later, when the banner of Rome went up instead of say Jupiter O.M. or Jupiter Mars Remus, it said SPQR, which means Senatus Populusque Romanus. The senate and the people of Rome. The Q is [inaudible]. It’s not a populist.

It set the pattern for Romans to take extraordinary discipline, extraordinary sacrifices. But after a certain point to simply step outside all of these frames of references, take matters into their own hands and in sudden vigilante clean-out change the entire nature of the game. And this pattern was to repeat itself again and again and again, in Roman history.

After Romulus, there were three other Roman Kings. So that there were four Roman Kings. One of them was Newman. And then the neighbors to the North of Rome, just across the Tiber and up maybe 30, 40 miles. The Etruscans who had populated that area of North central Italy for quite some time. Many, many centuries before Rome. They were indigenous persons who had had [inaudible] contacts. They had become great sailors and pirates. They were used to becoming wealthy through piracy against Greek shipping. They always stayed in the Northern part of Italy, but they would send ships down around the coastline. Tarentum and so forth, the Greek colonies down there and in Sicily and so forth.

The Etruscans came into the Palatine settlement and for three generations Etruscans Kings ruled Rome, the Tarquinii’s. And the last of them was Tarquinius Superbus. And Tarquinius Superbus was suddenly and violently ousted by peers of Rome. And this is course signaled the initiation of the Roman Republic. And by now a pattern of the senate and the people of Rome had acquired more veneration than the monarchy. And for the first time, what had just been a council of elders as advisers became officially the feeling of a Senate of about 300 persons. Whose advice was to be sought in all matters of transition and change. Any important matter. It was the Senate whose agreement was the confirmation that this transaction could take place. So, that the Senate became the joint of the structure of Roman mobility on the pages of history. So, that the senate loomed very, very large. Because of its size and because it wished to become really a body of advisors whose judgment and sagacity were to be consulted, but who were not to be involved with specific day-to-day actions. The compliment out of the senate became the councils. And there were generally two councils who were elected. And they were elected each year. And they could come back for several terms. And later on, of course, near the end of the Republic, councils were elected again and again.

This set up of the Republic allowed the Romans to extend until they began to take over this whole area of the hills, seven [inaudible]. And because all of their neighbors were various tribes like themselves, one group down along the coast of Latina and Pannonia coastal plains had a league called the Latin league in several cities. Rome had a chance to make certain kinds of [inaudible], which with each of the individuals in the leagues, and then the league itself. And various other neighboring tribes. Rome set a pattern that instead of just simply fighting to conquer a people and take their goods from them, that they would try to link up by giving the tribes that they came into contact with special privileges to participate in the great power and spoils that was developing here in the Roman [inaudible].

So that as they began to expand and add to their territory and their population, it was not an arithmetical adding of aggregate numbers, but it was an unfolding and blossoming of a geometrically building power-based whose complexity kept growing as it expanded. And there were more and more levels of citizenship in Rome. One could be a half-citizen in certain ways. And if one behaved themselves and participated later on one could become a full citizen etc.

So that Rome began to expand rather as a plasma which coagulates, rather than just a block aggregative adding up. And so, the complexity of Roman law and Roman constitutionality and the relationships between the Senate and the population and between the population as human beings and the divinities, which they worshiped in their religion, all began to resemble a fantastically complex puzzle. This pattern continues until roughly 387 B.C. So, for several centuries, this pattern of the Republic continued and grew.

And then a tremendous invasion of Celtic tribes poured over the Alps. Later poured over the Balkan. Poured across the River Po. And poured down to Rome itself. And laid waste to all of Rome, except the originals were fortress on the Palatine Hill, which held out miraculously. But the entire several centuries of development of Rome were completely negated and effaced. Rome lost faith with its companion tribes, with its friendly cities and enemy cities. It became in effect the weakling in the image of its neighbors.

So that Livy, the great Roman historian, wrote in book six of his History [The History of Rome],
In the five proceeding books, I have exhibited a view of the affairs of the Romans from the building of the city of Rome until its capture under the government first of Kings, then of councils or dictators, [inaudible], councilors, tribunes. Their foreign wars and domestic detentions. Matters involved in great obscurity, not only by reason that their great antiquity like objects placed at such a distance as to be barely discernible by the eye. But also, because in those times the use the letters, the only faithful guardian of the memory of events was very rare.

And he goes down to recount the sack of Rome. And it's interesting that after the sack, he writes,
It was judged in proper that the tribunes during whose administration the city had been taken should preside at the elections of the year ensuing and an interregnum was resolved. While the public were kept diligently employed in repairing the city Quintus Fabius, as soon as he went out of office, had a prosecution instituted against him.
So that the leader who was in charge of Rome during the sac was prosecuted for having failed the people. Two new figures entered in. The interregnum commenced and Publius Cornelius Scipio was [inaudible]. And after him, Marcus Furius Camillus a second tone.

So, Camillus and Scipio in 387 B.C. began to work on the second founding of Rome. Now this is called [inaudible] and the other is called [inaudible]. The name Scipio is worth noting because this is the first time that Scipio appears in The Annals of Rome [The Annals of Imperial Rome] when it will be one of the most distinguished families of Rome. And in fact, we will see that three or four generations down the line when the second founding of Rome comes into a great horrendous series of Wars with the Carthaginian empire, who will come to the rescue. But a descendent of this very Scipio and who will consider himself in fact, not only a descendant of the savior of Rome, but a reincarnation of Alexander the Great. And the only man who ever really beat Hannibal on the battlefield and his name Scipio Africanus. And we'll see that next week because Hannibal and Scipio are the great players on the stage, which divided the [inaudible] of the world really at that time.

But the great ancestor of Scipio Africanus was this Publius Cornelius Scipio. And they considered that in the rebuilding of Rome at 387 B.C. was the second founding of the city. And this time they would be on a military might, which would go on indefinitely. The Roman population were great farmers. They were tremendously capable at raising wheat and flax and the various crops, like olives and so forth. They had assured themselves of being on the great trade routes and so, they were economically very viable. But for about 50 years, they were precariously able to just barely win wars against neighboring tribes. And even other the leadership of people like Marcus Furius Camillus who was a real fine military General. And Scipio of course a great individual. They were just barely for two generations after the sack of Rome to hold on.

And when we get to the close of the 300’s B.C. we find that Rome is barely as large as it was 150 years before. About the same sort of extent in size. It was then that the Roman population began to seriously gear themselves up into letting neighboring peoples join Rome as full citizens and come under the protection of Rome. And be able them to raise troops and armies on their own, to fight under their own commanders but under the general egis of Roman councilor units. All of this development took several more generations. And in the period from the sack of Rome to about 280 B.C., there was hardly a year that went by in the annals of Rome, where are they were not at war with one tribe or another. Constantly extending themselves.

Until 295 B.C. Rome had a severe test. It was one of those battles where everything seemed to be at stake and more and more troops were brought into play. And the location of the battle was in South of Rome some distance, at a place called Sentinum. And this is the way Livy described. I had three short excerpts here. This is the battle in 295 B.C. that taxed Rome to its ultimate. It was probably the greatest battle that Rome ever fought in terms of actual men employed and loss of life.

The councils, according to Livy, having crossed the [inaudible] came up with the combined forces in the territory of Sentinum, Sentinum and pitched their camp distant from them, about four miles. Several councils were then held by the enemy and their plan of operations was thus settled. That they should not encamp together. Nor go out together to battle. The Gauls were united to the Samnites, the Umbrians and the Turians. The day of battle was fixed.

So, all of these great enemies of Rome down through its history had at last combined together on the field of battle. This plan was frustrated by three [inaudible] deserters who came over by night to Flavius. [inaudible]. And after disclosing the above designs were sent back with [inaudible] in order that they might discover and bring intelligence of any new scheme, which should be formed. The councils then wrote to Flavius and [inaudible] to move their armies. The one from the Palustrine area, the other from the Vatican country towards [inaudible] and to ruin the enemy's territory by every means in their power. The news of these dark rotations drew the [inaudible] from Sentinum to protect their own region. The councils in their absence practice every means to bring on an engagement for two days the endeavor by several attacks to provoke the enemy to fight, in which time however nothing worth mentioning was performed. But then the battle began to take on ominous tones.

The great council at that time, a man named Demetrius, Publius Demetrius was killed in the line of battle. And Livy then writes, “After uttering these execrations on himself to the foe, he spurred forward on his horse where he saw the line of Gauls thickest and [inaudible] upon the enemies’ weapons met his death.” In other words, his death was met in a moment of high triumphal courage and charge. And this seemed to kick in to the Romans all down the line and through the day as they discovered the news. The image of the ultimate courage the sons of Mars and Carinus.

Livy writes,
Thence fourth, the battle seemed to be fought with the degree of force which could scarcely be deemed human. The Romans on the loss of their General, a circumstance which on other occasions is want to inspire terror, stop their flight and reassume spirit to begin the combat afresh. The Gauls, and especially those who encircled the council body as if deprived of reason, cast their javelins at random without execution. Some became so stupid as not to think of either fighting or flying. While on the other side, Livius the Pontifex to whom Demetrius had transferred his lictors,
That's the signals of authority,
with orders to act as proprietor, cried out loud that the Romans were victorious being exempted from misfortune by the death of their council in that fashion. That the Gauls and Samnites were now the victims of Earth and the eternal Gods. That Decius was summoning and dragging to himself the army devoted along with him. And that among the enemy was full of demay…dismay and the vengeance of the furies. So, the battle began to take on unhuman proportions.

Livy describes the sum total casualties at Sentinum. And he writes. “There were slain the enemy on that day, 25,000. 8000 were taken prisoners. Nor was the victory gained without loss of blood for the army of [inaudible] lost, killed 7,000. From the army of Flavius 1,200.” And he goes down like that.

So that on the field of battle that day at Sentinum, some close to 30,000 soldiers were killed. This battle of 295 B.C., which one would have thought would have simply exhausted Rome just brought them into further contact with whole new echelons of power. They had at that battle managed to at last conquer all of the traditional enemies or proto-allied enemies that they had had for centuries. But when they took the last part of central Italy, far enough South, it brought them into conflict for the very first time with some of the larger empires that meanwhile had been building up.

The first one that came into conflict with was the Macedonian part of the Hellenistic Empire under a young, one of Alexander's youngest Generals. A man named [inaudible]. And [inaudible] had headquarters in the very far South of Italy at Tarentum. Within 15 years, the Romans not only had driven [inaudible] back and taken Tarentum, but they had begun to absorb almost systematically all of the ancient Greek colonies along the Southern part of Italy.

And as they did this throughout the 280’s down to about 270-260 B.C., Rome became more and more aware that they had simply cleared out all of the underbrush between them and the only real competitor that they had in the Mediterranean. And with the underbrush cleared out, they were able to see quite clearly that the power that they were now to face, and we're destined almost by the pattern of conquests, which they had been on for centuries, was the great Phoenician Empire of Carthage. And Carthage at that time, of course, was not just North Africa. They held the Island to Sicily. They held Sardinia. They held Corsica. They had colonies all up and down the Mediterranean. They were a great sea faring nation. And in fact, they were unbeatable on the Mediterranean Sea in their area. They would simply ram any foreign vessel that they could find and sink it.

The Romans at this time made a decision, they had always been a land-based army people. And they realized that in fighting the Carthaginians with the Carthaginian Navy, that they would have to have some new tactic of Naval warfare in order to participate militarily with Carthage. The military of genius of Rome came up with the idea of putting the equivalent of a land fighting force in the middle of the ships, so that the rowers would not be doing the fighting but would simply bring the ship into proximity to a Carthaginian vessel. And then with grappling hooks, these pirate grappling hooks that they learned from the Etruscan raiders. They would bring the ships together and the fighting forces, the infantry, who were on the ships would storm the other ship. And of course this was an incredible strategy. It had not been seen in Naval warfare up to that point.

The Carthaginians who were used to two movements, either coming alongside and shearing the oars off of vessel or in coming and budding into it and causing a great gashing hole, were overwhelmed. And for the very first time, at the first battle off the Northern coast of Sicily. The Romans were able to beat the Carthaginians by this use of infantry aboard the ships. They'd become floating fortresses rather than just fighting vessels. So that mobility was no longer the key issue just simply to get in proximity. And the other side, of course, the Carthaginians were rushing in to get into proximity, and they were not expecting the Roman tactic at all.

The Romans suffered losses more due to storms than the Carthaginians. And its index to the fantastic Roth of Rome that they were able to muster three large Navies within a period of maybe five or six years. 140 ships, I think was the compliment the first time. And when that was used up, they raised another one. And when that was used up, they raised another one. So that this war that had been entered in, in the mid 260’s with Carthage finally had ground the Carthaginians down to the point to where they were literally economically and militarily, unable to compete in Sicily. And so, they subdued for peace, and they agreed to withdraw completely from the Island of Sicily. And to pay an enormous indemnity to Rome, send 3,000 to 4,000 talents indemnity. And while they were busy signing the papers for this Rome preemptively sent a fleet over to the Island of Sardinia and very quickly subdued that entire island of Corsica. So that the Carthaginians found themselves pushed back to the coast of Africa.

This whole development is referred to in history as the first Punic War. The Punics, the Phoenicians, the first Punic War. And when it was over, it was over in a bitter, sullen way for the Carthaginians. And a [inaudible] triumphal, psychological explosion for the Romans. The Carthaginians on their part seeking to re-establish some economic base, that is food stuffs and crops and manpower from which to read the grow, began fighting and taking control of Spain under a General whose name was Hamilcar Barca who was the father of Hannibal.

So that at the close of the first Punic war, it was really like the lull after the first world war. It was just a lull in which both sides began to maneuver again for a renewed outbreak. And next week is this sorry of the second Punic war and the third Punic war, which takes the history of Roma a hundred years and raises it up to the level of a universal state. By the end of the third Punic war Rome was simply literally unbeatable.

This entire development is interesting for a process that had become initially a matter of small change with the Roman mind, but by the first Punic War became culturally the most important element of their lives. They had always remembered when they had assimilated other people had done it in sort of a way of inviting them to participate with the grandeur of Rome. Take your share. Bring what you can do. And when they began to include the great old ancient Greek colonies of South Italy and the venerable fine Greek city states of Sicily for the first time really the Romans began to see themselves as pedestrian. Almost barbarian peasants compared to these quick minded, clever Greeks who had wonderful were still with beautiful architecture. Amphitheaters in every city where great plays were put on. An incredible sophistication and religious outlook. So that the Roman psyche began at this time to take in over innumerable cultural bridges the culture of Hellenistic Greece.

And I think it is probably always singled out as the watermark of the change of the Roman mind, when in 240 B.C., the next year after the close of the first Punic war, we find the very first production of it play in Rome. In Latin by a Roman playwright. And the very beginnings of Roman drama happen the year after the close of the first Punic war. That playwright's name is Plautus. And Plautus begins in 240 B.C. And his first plays are based on Greek originals. And he redoes them in Latin and adds a lot of his own slapstick humor. And it's interesting that Rome would choose comedy. Not the old comedy of Aristophanes, but really the new comedy of [inaudible], plot complications. Slaves who plot against their masters to try and get their share of life. Mistaken identities. Twins involved in complicated plots.

One of the most famous of Plautus’ plays, really an odd play named Amphitryon. Amphitryon is a Greek who has a beautiful wife named Alcmena. And Zeus, or Jupiter has fallen in love with her. Jupiter being captivated by all the young ladies able to change form and appears Amphitryon to his wife Alcmena. And his fellow companion is the God Mercury who appears, as luck would have it, as Amphitryon’s slave. So, in the whole first part of the play is this tremendous monologue of Mercury, who is the God Mercury, Hermes, and also is the slave Sosia. And he's talking to himself back and forth between the two personas of him. Back and forth between a man who's a slave and a chump at that. And the God who is the messenger of the Gods. And this tremendous interplay of [inaudible], the human and divine brought together in an incredible juxtaposition.

And not only that, but there is always a prologue in Roman drama in which the plot is completely told so you know exactly what's coming. And yet you're not ready for the incredible twists and surprises that come out. The, in the prologue of Amphitryon in fact, Mercury comes out and he says every member of this crowd is eager for me to prosper all his business ventures and bring him luck in every trade and sail. Since all of you would have me guarantee your lease investment, your [inaudible] in profit and flourishing returns in all transactions. Those you've embarked on. Those you have planned forever. And since the only news you'll have me bring, whether a public or private enterprise, you choose to have encouraging and tone. You know, of course Olympus has assigned to me control of messages and money. Let me adjure you then to the degree you think my favorite to settle down and shut up and give this play we are acting a fair chance.

This was Plautus to almost a Mark Twain type of a humor where he leads you on and you're following the story very delicately and all of a sudden you realize that like a tall tale, he's got your way out on the [inaudible] and something ridiculous will come out. This is the style of Plautus. But it's interesting in here, he described a plot, which seems to be very complicated. It seems to be very depressing. And so, he says, I can hear the audience groaning at the prospect of a serious play, but God can change it surely and I shall. Let it become and no line changed. What would you call that? But what a stupid question as if I didn't know being a God. I understand your feelings perfectly. Well, we'll mix it up. Half tragedy and half comedy. Straight comedy can't deal with Kings and Gods. That I shan’t do. It's not correct. What then? Well since it has a [inaudible] of his character. Let's call it as I said, a tragic comedy.

And so, the world’s first tragic comedy, halfway in between, surfaces on the stage. And just as in Samuel Beckett, of course, and most of the modern tragic comedies, there's this period of pianissimo and inuendo at the beginning of the play. Where it's seems uncertain as to how this is going to go off. And that uncertainty is in the personage of Mercury, being both the God and the messenger of the Gods and the slave [inaudible] serpent.

Plautus and he has companion Terence which was quite a fine individual and lived many years. Terence was a young slave who had earned his freedom and took the name of his master P Terentius Afer was his name. Only lived to be 36 years old and wrote really just a half a dozen or so plays. Of Plautus it says that he wrote 130 plays, but we have about 20 of them that have survived, which is quite a few really. I think other than Euripides this is the most surviving [inaudible] of classical drama.

All of Plautus is the slapstick humor. And it's interesting to note that it would be comedy, new comedy, which Rome would choose after a whole career of war-like building of [inaudible] century after century, their first flowering culture should come in comedy. This development, I think, is probably a balance out of the desire for the Romans to try with their great [inaudible] triad of Jupiter, Mars, and [inaudible]. Who really, when you look at them, it's weighted very heavily towards the aggressive masculine side of experience. There’s a wonderful study of this, and I think I'll give you a quotation here. The plays of Plautus are sort of a triumph. The triumphal springing of the Roman mind and experience after centuries of warfare. And they had reached some plateau of achievement. They had all of Italy. They had Sicily and Sardinia and Corsica. Everything's [inaudible] of the Poe River in Northern Italy was held by the Romans quite secure. This pattern of triumph was repeated in miniature every time a General would come back to Rome with his conquering troops. And he would arrive into the center of Rome. By now, this was an enormous city area. And he would arrive here at the circus Maximus between the [inaudible] and the Palatine. And the Senate, the Roman Senate would be ready to accord him a triumph. This was the description then of the procession of the triumph. A very short description of it.

“The triumph when the Senate accords it to a victorious General is the most striking manifestation of the undertaking between the God and the people. By his success it [inaudible] the fruit of his vow.” In other words, before any General went out on an excursion with legions he would take a vow before the statue of Mars in has compartment up on the Catiline. Take a vow to serve faithfully in hope that the God would fill him with his presence. He could be assured of this because he was of the descendants in ledge of Romulus who had ascended back to is this divine level. And was one of the triad of the Gods. So that it was for the continuance of Rome that all this was being done. So that he had taken this vow. Now buy his success it sells the fruit of this vow; the General had become Jupiter's debtor. He discharges his obligation as the head of his army. Leaving the field of Mars, the procession reaches the circus, the circus Maximus in between the [inaudible] and Palatine Hill. And going around the Palatine enters at the bottom of the forum upon the [inaudible], sacred way, which leads to the front of the Capitol. For several hours the triumphal general is the human double of Jupiter. That is this is a ritual drama, which is being reenacted again and again, by triumphant councilors coming back to Rome.

Following the classic arrangement of the ceremony in which Greek elements were super imposed on an archaic Roman setting. He advances in a chariot crowned with laurel and in the apparel of the God. His face tinged with red like that of the statue, which awaits him in the sanctuary. He holds in his right hand, a laurel branch. And in his left ivory scepter topped with a figure of an Eagle. Behind the [inaudible] forming a [inaudible] the right animals destined for sacrifice.
Always a bull to sacrifice to ancient Rome, to Mars.

“The spoils and the distinguished prisoners precede him while his soldiers follow him singing songs of mixed praise and satire with the outmost freedom.” In other words, the triumphal procession of a council coming back to Rome was in itself, a religious ceremony, perhaps the most important one, for the people of Rome. “At the foot of the Capitol, he steps down then climbs the slope and entering the temple presents to the God which he has brought for the whole Roman people. This day is an extraordinary experience from which as from a spring, they draw new reasons for hope and pride” And of course, continued success. And one can see that as they were able by the end of the first Punic war to look back upon their career of centuries of steady and evitable triumph, they began to assume that the ancient mythos of being favored descendants of a man to send it to God, that they were literally unbeatable. And that the Pax Romana was a divine manifestation upon the Earth.

And Plutarch’s account of the most famous triumphs, that of Aemilius Paullus after the victory of Pydna gives an idea of the splendor and the spectacular height to power to which this liturgy enriched by the example of the Hellenistic pageant might obtain. And then there's a long quotation from Plutarch. And then you're interested in it then The Biography of Aemilius Paullus [Life of Aemilius]. But just a few sentences at the beginning to give you the flavor.
“The people erected scaffoldings in the theaters for an equestrian contest”, which they call circuses, “and round the forum occupied the other parts of the city, which afforded the view of the procession. And witnessed the spectacle arrayed in white garments.” Notice the white garments. The white sacrificial animals. And what is conspicuous in always the moving figure in Royal purple of the council, who is Jupiter. Jupiter, especially in his final ultimate form, Jupiter Optimis Maximus.
And with this the spectacle arranged in white garments. Every temple was open, filled with garlands and incents, while numerous [inaudible] and lictors restrained the thronging and scurrying crowds and kept the streets open and clear. Three days were assigned for the triumphal procession. The first barely to sufficed for the exhibition of captured statues, paintings, colossal figures and so on. On the second, the finest and richest of the Macedonian arms of this particular triumph were born along in many wagons.
In other words, the prize, the physical booty, was shown as like the cornucopia of their rightful process to conquest.

[inaudible] was brought enmasse each time to Rome. And in this ritual present around the Palatine Hill, from the circus Maximus by the sacred way to the Capitoline Temple, all of this was displayed. Then on the third day as soon as it was morning trumpeters led the way sounding out. No marching or processional strain, but such a one as the Romans used to arouse themselves to battle. After these there were led along 120 stall fed ox with gilded horns bedecked with [inaudible] and garlands. Those who led these victims to the sacrifice were young men wearing aprons with handsome borders. [inaudible] attended them carrying gold and silver vessels of libation.
And there were just, Plutarch gives us huge descriptions of this tremendous procession of individuals. All ritually specified.

And finally, at the very end he writes,
And thus, the Capitoline God was truly Jupiter among his people. Throughout Roman history this temple remained the political and religious citadel. As the other summit of the hill was the military citadel, Rome knew itself to be safe for as long as the temple should exist or when it should be reborn from its ashes.

This is [inaudible]. And we're going to take a break now.

This is the view of Greek simplicity on my part of extracting from a history of 500 years. Tremendous resources and so forth. But I hope that you get an idea that the patternings that were a clarion call for the responsiveness of the Roman people appear in such clear repetitions and basic universal patterns again and again and again. And the three heads of Cerberus actually represent the past, the present and the future. Time tenses that come from a single body and the body is wrapped around a serpent. So that the understanding of time is that it has this kind of a nature of a lion, a wolf, a dog wrapped by a serpent.

And of course, Pluto being the God of afterlife, of the underworld, is the portal of being freed from time. The past, the present and the future no longer have any effect. So, it’s the perfect metaphor for understanding that the spirit can step outside of the temporal frames of reference and are not changed by the vicissitudes of time at all. This, of course, if you just turn that around in your mind for half a minute, produces a mystical view of reality. And this of course was the attribute that was there.

I guess this is the time to talk, or is this the time for a break? Is it time for a break? It's not the time to talk. It’s the time for tea. Come back in a few minutes.

I am forever true to my own education and encouraging you, if you can, to take the time and look at the PRS library. Review some of the volumes. Take a thread of an image or an idea or something that appeals to you and feel free to course through the PRS library. All of these are beginnings that can open out into indefinite growth for you.

In Mr. Hall's book on page 26 and 7, you'll find his description of the cult of Serapis. And having our Thursday chat, we found in an old set [inaudible] by Kirschner, first of four volumes. A wonderful presentation of Serapis, which you can look at it later on. And on the following page two designated [inaudible] in connection with the [inaudible] the religious purification going back into timeless antiquity is to eliminate all excesses. To par down to the essential structure and shape. And so, the, the [inaudible] were not fat, but they were as trim as could be. And they were kept in the temple Priest [inaudible] and they were fed a special diet. Just as the devotee, the Priests and Priestesses also.

And if you get interested in the Greek tack on these purification rights, one has to go back to Orpheus and the Orphic religion back to the time when the old Minoan civilization was still operative before its demise. Back to about the 15th or 16th century B.C. And there you will find some of the origins of the Greek understanding of these rites of purification, of the progressive making transparent of the physical realms so that the light of the spirit shines through and is free. Finally free.

One of the best books translated from the French, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism Franz Cumont. I think there's a Dover paper edition. Absolutely a wonderful treatment, even though it's about 70 years old now. Cumont wrote, for instance,
By what virtue did the Egyptian religion exercise, this irresistible influence over the Roman world? What new elements did those priests who made proselytists in every province of the Roman world? Did the success of their preaching mean progress or retrogression from the standard of the ancient Roman faith. These are complex and delicate questions that would require minuet analysis and cautious treatment with a constant and exact observation of shades. I'm compelled to limit myself to a rapid sketch, which I fear will appear rather dry and arbitrary, like every generalization. The particular doctrines of the mysteries of Isis and Serapis in regard to the nature and power of the Gods were not, or were but incidentally, the reasons for the triumph of these mysteries. It has been said that the Egyptian theology always remained in a quote fluid state.
It's a very telling phrase, fluid state.

Or better in a state of apparent chaos. It consisted out an amalgamation of disparate legends of an aggregate of particular cults. As Egypt, herself was an aggregate of a number of districts or knowns as they were called. This religion never formulated a coherent [inaudible] of generally accepted dogmas. It permitted the coexistence of conflicting conceptions and traditions. And all of the subtlety of its clergy never accomplished, or rather never began the task of fusing those irreconcilable elements into one harmonious synthesis. For the Egyptians there was no principle of contradiction. All the heterogeneous beliefs that ever obtained that the various districts during the different periods of a very long history were maintained concurrently and formed an inextricable confusion in the sacred books about the theme state of affairs of prevailed in the occidental worship of the Alexandrian divinities.

But this does not actually the full case because there was an integration and perhaps this will bring us closer. This is from The Cambridge Ancient History. We don't yet have a set here at P.R.S. but we will. From the section on Ptolemaic Egypt, the following interesting statements,
The chief question, which faces the historian who inquires into this life is that out the mutual relations between the two strata of population in Egypt. The newcomers and the natives, of their influence upon one another. The Hellenizing of the native and the Egyptianizing of the Greeks. There is no doubt that at first the newcomers kept themselves to themselves. Putting a barrier between themselves as masters and the natives. The Greeks brought with them their religion, their cult, their habit, and mode of life. Their language, their law, education, and mental outlook. There were a few towns in Egypt in which these peculiarities of their life lasted long. Alexandria was really an Island, a Greek Island in Egyptian ocean.

But I am going to interrupt the quotation here. The focus on the transformation that man always alert and [inaudible] in terms of [inaudible]. The poet is going to have to become [inaudible]. There is going to have to be a [inaudible]. And of course, this [inaudible] line [inaudible]. And we finally manifest the whole thing in terms of a comprehensive statement in Augustine’s great work The City of God, that manages a cosmopolitan [inaudible] when he gives up [inaudible] with the is machinations that are called the [inaudible] have to become a universal [inaudible] truth. And not [inaudible] that the integration has to take place at the deeper love. And that in order to [inaudible] to be engendered [inaudible] we have to begin by creating what seems on the outside of the chaos. One cannot create a new [inaudible] with an existing order. One has to begin from a [inaudible].

And the favorite [inaudible] which Isis held in her hand, called a [inaudible] was an Egyptian Hermetic version of a Chinese rabbit. And these are the [inaudible] in the system [inaudible]. And they were shaken [inaudible] almost like a [inaudible] or [inaudible] rattle or somebody’s tambourine. And what it was, was to produce the [inaudible] that chaos is not a [inaudible] everything in flow. Nothing is rooted. Nothing is [inaudible]. Nothing is [inaudible]. Everything is flowing so that the ever-flowing quality [inaudible] mythically by the [inaudible]. And on one side of the system down below is Isis and her twin Nephthys. Nephthys [inaudible]. Nephthys is always protecting against the [inaudible]. Protecting the sarcophagus. Why? Because the dead are not [inaudible] to the other world. They have to [inaudible] a human face, looking up.
[inaudible] because changing up the order. The image was [inaudible].

So that the old [inaudible] had been shook up by Alexandria so the entire world was up for grabs. And out of that chaos comes this new revolution, this new interpretation. [inaudible]. It was very possible that [inaudible] Ptolemy [inaudible] to get a special [inaudible] more and more [inaudible]. This new aspect marks everything that [inaudible] specifically [inaudible] the influence of Egypt resulting of the transformation of the Greek [inaudible] in a new environment. And under new conditions it creates [inaudible] very [inaudible]. We do not know much about this. But someone made it clear that [inaudible]. And it goes on from there.

We don't know. And the reason that we can’t tell is that [inaudible] Alexandria did not survive. The [inaudible] Alexandria [inaudible] and then finally completed, [inaudible] and redone. [inaudible] the vicissitude of history and man but [inaudible]. That area of land has [inaudible] so that half of Alexandria is under water and covered by [inaudible].
When my friend was [inaudible] activation in the harbor of Alexandria [inaudible] it was under 60 feet of water itself. [inaudible] because that was going on various generations of builders, beginning during the Middle Ages and [inaudible] in the 19th century [inaudible] scooped up great gobs of land and covered over all the old [inaudible].

So, then Alexandria literally had been [inaudible] so much by [inaudible] that it no longer exists as physical phenomena [inaudible] spiritual [inaudible] civilization [inaudible]. Which is why we go back to [inaudible] because [inaudible] who rose up and was there and saw it. He says, about [inaudible], her name is not a [inaudible] but they all have that one [inaudible] in common [inaudible], which means running and the other one means [inaudible]. So that this very [inaudible] we have a quality of movement and manifestation. Those two together produce [inaudible] because the [inaudible] ever flowing [inaudible]. And [inaudible] intersection with the ordering [inaudible], something that can perceived and [inaudible]. So that [inaudible] and knowledge are related. [inaudible].

[inaudible] to us that all things ought to be [inaudible] but to be, as it were, [inaudible]. The cry is always awake. Wake up. [inaudible]. And it is a religious [inaudible] not a cynical [inaudible] pointing fingers but a clarion call to [inaudible] the spirit of man by wrapping itself around and around and around like a coiling serpent [inaudible] you mustn’t have realized that [inaudible] time ordered by [inaudible].

So, the [inaudible] that Isis carries in her hand is dropped and the fragments scattered. [inaudible] that was forever rectified [inaudible]. [inaudible] of Saint George but with the Goddess of his life [inaudible]. A solution to a deeper problem [inaudible]. [inaudible] nearby [inaudible] by limited emotion. [inaudible] which is why a generation [inaudible] became [inaudible]. [inaudible] what I’m trying to describe in [inaudible].

[inaudible] I think the clearest way to [inaudible] is the description of [inaudible]. [inaudible] is that of Isis [inaudible] and a different [inaudible] she wears the great [inaudible]. For her power is about [inaudible] as light and dark, [inaudible], life and death. [inaudible]. I don't have [inaudible].

[inaudible] Osiris [inaudible] of Isis and its notion that [inaudible]. For the first principle to [inaudible] and that would be first [inaudible]. Which is the reason why after they [inaudible] invisible and not to be touched. But those of [inaudible] are [inaudible] more sensible [inaudible] and familiar to us. [inaudible] but the apprehension of what good intelligence can [inaudible] and hold comes to [inaudible] like a flash of light. Akin to like some one fatal [inaudible]. [inaudible] by the name of [inaudible] that those who have [inaudible] have gone beyond [inaudible]. And when they have [inaudible] values, they believe that they have [inaudible] to complete [inaudible].

And one last [inaudible] time Isis [inaudible] particular [inaudible] that was used and likely [inaudible] description of the ingredients of [inaudible]. But you will be able to see in [inaudible]



So that sound now. Yeah. I never, this sort of thing. I felt somebody then, and the first time like [inaudible] and they will respond. Why have a integrated [inaudible] response? And it was visible, and they were integrated. And so that one see that there was, they were tribal with the world. And one of the participation, one out of publicity that circulate is all one, all one-part motive. And the body didn't move with the breath. [inaudible] according to where are you going to have this on the ground? And what would it do that you will have a drink and a rainbow from the God with getting her ready, a new deal, a lot. You can read all of this [inaudible] and ordered ground themselves in the background so that we don't speculate the ones [inaudible] and [inaudible].

Moreover, [inaudible] made out of 15 ingredients [inaudible] of honey, wine, [inaudible] to which they add [inaudible]. And also, [inaudible] and cardamom. Imagine when they put them together it’s like [inaudible]. And with the number of ingredients, 15, although [inaudible]. [inaudible] that this [inaudible] would go here [inaudible] and agreeable [inaudible]. Prepared with [inaudible] cravings that you have. [inaudible] just like that.

I remember [inaudible] until somebody brought me some incense from Cairo. And the first time that I smelled them I was actually [inaudible]. [inaudible] similar response one had a [inaudible] a two [inaudible] response. There was a [inaudible] and [inaudible]. They were [inaudible].

And so that one could see that [inaudible] on participation. [inaudible] and that circulation [inaudible] all one [inaudible]. So that one [inaudible]. And the mind being [inaudible]. And of course, where are you going to have this [inaudible]. Wait you don’t have a [inaudible] the Goddess. You are giving her [inaudible] restructure everything. [inaudible] so all of this is [inaudible] sacred [inaudible].

These, these elements of course [inaudible]. And in order to ground oneself [inaudible] so that you don’t grow [inaudible] speculation [inaudible]. The one that the Ptolemy’s used. The one that [inaudible] and many others [inaudible]. If you go back into the tradition and learn [inaudible]. Learn [inaudible]. [inaudible] we have the beautiful [inaudible] and Egyptian [inaudible]. And [inaudible] Egyptian [inaudible].

[inaudible] a two-volume set, and both can give you some basic background [inaudible] papyrus. [inaudible]. And we have the original papyrus. It’s on display here in the P.R.S. library.

These three sets, there’s [inaudible] some basic background. You need to [inaudible] them all. [inaudible] you become acquainted with it. And you can see that it is in fact rooted into a tradition and overlaps with [inaudible]. And this comes to a point where [inaudible] and collected together and [inaudible] out as if the leaves of [inaudible]. [inaudible] patterns in one generation. [inaudible] and [inaudible] be developed [inaudible]. So, in fact the very [inaudible] when added together by a [inaudible] and display them as [inaudible]. And it is in this case that we [inaudible] the links between them. We find the same quality that [inaudible] mystical insight into the [inaudible]. And there are religious [inaudible] and his [inaudible].

Well, we’ll see next week with [inaudible]. And after that we take a look at [inaudible] Rome finally brought itself up literally by its bootstraps. [inaudible] the only competition for the rest of the world [inaudible]. And that that point of [inaudible] that they had their [inaudible] and of course was [inaudible] old classical play, a man and a woman [inaudible] Cleopatra are embodying the whole universal tenant [inaudible].

We hope that if you enjoy it we have all the cassettes available [inaudible] video clips so [inaudible]. I think we have something like 167. [inaudible].

Well next week we’ll look at [inaudible].


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