de scribendo

I've been reading Love in the Time of Cholera recently, and the other day I came across a passage which reminded me of something Ovid wrote. Firstly here's the passage from the book:

The worst years were the early ones, when he was appointed clerk to the Board of Directors... Florentino Ariza wrote everything with such passion that even official documents seemed to be about love. His bills of lading were rhymed no matter how he tried to avoid it, and routine business letters had a lyrical spirit that diminished their authority. His uncle came to his office one day with a packet of correspondance he had not dared put his name to, and gave him the last chance to save his soul.

"If you you cannot write a business letter you will pick up the trash on the dock," he said.

Florentino Ariza made a supreme effort to learn the mundane simplicity of mercantile prose, imitating models from notarial files with the same diligence he had once used for popular poets... But at the end of six months, no matter how hard he twisted he could not wring the neck of his die-hard swan.[His uncle] kept his threat to have him pick up trash on the dock, but he gave him his wod that he would promote him, step by step, up the ladder of faithful service until he found his place. And he did. No work could defeat him, no matter how hard or humiliating it was, no salary no matter how miserable, could demoralize him, and he never lost his essential fearlessness when faced with the insolence of his superiors... Florentino Ariza moved through every post during thirty years of dedication and tenacity in the face of every trial. He fulfilled all his duties with admirable skill... but he never won the honor he most desired, which was to write one, just one, acceptable business letter.

Late in life, in exile far from Rome, Ovid wrote of his own experience as a young boy, when he was first drawn to poetry:

frater ad eloquium viridi tendebat ab aevo,
fortia verbosi natus ad arma fori;
at mihi iam puero caelestia sacra placebant,
inque suum furtim Musa trahebat opus.
saepe pater dixit 'studium quid inutile temptas?
Maeonides nullas ipse reliquit opes.'
motus eram dictis, totoque Helicone relicto
scribere temptabam verba soluta modis.
sponte sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos,
et quod temptabam scribere versus erat.

(Ovid, Tristia IV X.17-26)

My brother tended towards oratory from a young age,
he was born for the bold weapons of the noisy forum;
but the holy rites of heaven pleased me more, even as a boy,
and the Muse was drawing me secretly to her service.
Often my father would say 'Why try such a useless pursuit?'
Even Maeonian Homer left no wealth behind.'
I was moved by what he said, and left Helicon behind completely
and tried to write words set free from rhythm.
But of its own accord, a poem came, in a suitable meter
and whatever I tried to write was poetry.

Congratulations

Congratulations to my (former) year 12 class (pictured) who sat their Latin Continuers exam the other day. It was (in my opinion) not a bad exam- there were a couple of questions slightly out of left field, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you're well prepared and able to think on your feet it gives you a chance to stand out from the other candidates. The unseens were alright too, and the exam committee was very generous with the amount of vocab they supplied.

Here are a couple of the questions, in case anyone is interested:

Ibi oratio habita nequaquam eius pectoris ingeniique quod simulatum ad eam diem fuerat, de vi ac libidine Sex. Tarquini, de stupro infando Lucretiae et miserabili caede, de orbitate Tricipitini cui morte filiae causa mortis indignior ac miserabilior esset. Addita superbia ipsius regis miseriaeque et labores plebis in fossas cloacasque exhauriendas demersae; Romanos homines, victores omnium circa populorum, opifices ac lapicidas pro bellatoribus factos. Indigna Ser. Tulli regis memorata caedes et inuecta corpori patris nefando vehiculo filia, invocatique ultores parentum di.

(Livy I.59, 8-10)

(i) Explain the connection implied in this extract between the fate of Lucretia and the current condition of the Roman people. (3 marks)

(ii) Explain how Livy uses language in this extract to make the speech moving and persuasive. (5 marks)

Iam res Romana adeo erat ualida ut cuilibet finitimarum civitatum bello par esset; sed penuria mulierum hominis aetatem duratura magnitudo erat, quippe quibus nec domi spes prolis nec cum finitimis conubia essent. Tum ex consilio patrum Romulus legatos circa vicinas gentes misit qui societatem conubiumque novo populo peterent: urbes quoque, ut cetera, ex infimo nasci; dein, quas sua virtus ac di iuvent, magnas opes sibi magnumque nomen facere; satis scire, origini Romanae et deos adfuisse et non defuturam virtutem; proinde ne gravarentur homines cum hominibus sanguinem ac genus miscere. Nusquam benigne legatio audita est:

(Livy I.9, 1-5)

(i) Analyse how Livy presents Romulus as a moral exemplar. Support your answer with specific examples from this extract. (7 marks)

haud procul inde citae Mettum in diversa quadrigae
distulerant (at tu dictis, Albane, maneres!),
raptabatque viri mendacis viscera Tullus
per silvam, et sparsi rorabant sanguine vepres.
nec non Tarquinium eiectum Porsenna iubebat
accipere ingentique urbem obsidione premebat;
Aeneadae in ferrum pro libertate ruebant.
illum indignanti similem similemque minanti
aspiceres, pontem auderet quia vellere Cocles
et fluvium vinclis innaret Cloelia ruptis.
in summo custos Tarpeiae Manlius arcis
stabat pro templo et Capitolia celsa tenebat,
Romuleoque recens horrebat regia culmo.

(Virgil, Aeneid VIII.642-54)

(i) Describe the narrative technique Virgil has used to include the events mentioned in this extract in his story of Aeneas. (2 marks)

(ii) What is Virgil's purpose in including the individuals mentioned in this extract? (7 marks)

Cicero in Sicily

Preparing to teach Cicero's In Verrem V for next year, I came across a passage where Cicero reflects upon the time he spent in Sicily as a quaestor. Cicero is deservedly known for his arrogance and high opinion of himself, but in this passage we get to glimpse a rare side of his character; a less serious, and more self deprecatory side.

non vereor ne mihi aliquid, iudices, videar adrogare, si de quaestura mea dixero... vere me hercule hoc dicam: sic tum existimabam, nihil homines aliud Romae nisi de quaestura mea loqui. frumenti in summa caritate maximum numerum miseram; negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus iustus, mancipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus; excogitati quidam erant a Siculis honores in me inauditi. itaque hac spe decedebam ut mihi populum Romanum ultro omnia delaturum putarem.

I’m not of afraid of appearing to boast, gentlemen, if I speak about my quaestorship… Indeed, by Hercules, I will say this; at that time I imagined that people at Rome were talking about nothing else, apart from my quaestorship. I had sent a huge amount of grain when prices were high; I was friendly with the businessmen, fair to the merchants, generous to the contractors, honest with the allies, I appeared to be most diligent in every job for everyone; certain unheard of honours were devised for me by the Sicilians. And so I left Sicily with such hope that I thought that the Roman people would confer upon me everything of their own accord.

Cicero starts true to form- he's not afraid tell people about all the things he achieved in Sicily, and his high opinion of himself is clear from the reception he expected when he arrived home in Rome. But things weren't quite as he imagined, as an encounter in Puteoli proved:

at ego cum casu diebus eis itineris faciendi causa decedens e provincia Puteolos forte venissem, cum plurimi et lautissimi in eis locis solent esse, concidi paene, iudices, cum ex me quidam quaesisset quo die Roma exissem et num quidnam esset novi. cui cum respondissem me e provincia decedere: 'etiam me hercule,' inquit, 'ut opinor, ex Africa.' huic ego iam stomachans fastidiose: 'immo ex Sicilia,' inquam. tum quidam, quasi qui omnia sciret: 'quid? tu nescis,' inquit, 'hunc quaestorem Syracusis fuisse?' quid multa? destiti stomachari et me unum ex eis feci qui ad aquas venissent.

But in those days when, as I was leaving the province, I happened by chance to come to Puteoli for the sake of making a journey, when a lot of fashionable people were accustomed to be there, I almost died, gentlemen, when someone asked me on what day I had left Rome and whether there was any news. I replied to him that I had come from the provinces: ‘Of course, by Hercules!’ he said, ‘from Africa, if I remember rightly.’ Getting annoyed now, I said pedantically to him: ‘No, from Sicily.’ Then someone else, like some kind of know-it-all, said ‘What? Didn’t you know he’d been quaestor at Syracuse?’ What else could I do? I stopped getting annoyed, and pretended that I was one of those who’d come to enjoy the waters.

(Pro Plancio 64-5)

There were two quaestors assigned to the province of Sicily, one based at Syracuse, the other at Lilybaeum- Cicero had been at Lilybaeum. Despite what Cicero had imagined, people at Rome were oblivious to his achievements.

The word Cicero uses for 'getting annoyed' is a great one- stomachor. Obviously it's related to the word 'stomach' and reflects how Cicero felt physically as well as emotionally. I suppose we mean a similar thing when we say that we find something 'hard to stomach'.

Verres

One of next year's HSC set texts is Cicero's fifth Verrine oration, one of a series of speeches (which were never actually delivered) prosecuting the corrupt former governor of Sicily, Verres. Here's a bit about Verres, taken from the Oxford Campanion to Classical Literature.

Verres, GAIUS, propraetor in Sicily 73-71 B.C., where he showed himself a cruel and rapacious governor. He was impeached by Cicero on behalf of the Sicilians in 70, threw up his case, and retired into exile. He kept some of his stolen treasures, and these, twenty-seven years later, attracted the cupidity of Antony. Verres was accordingly included in a proscription list and was murdered.

Verres was charged with having embezzled 40, 000, 000 sesterces during his time in office. I'm not sure how much that would be in today's money, but it's obviously a lot. Corruption was quite common, and a political job in the provinces was a good way for unscrupulous politicians to make a lot money. Governors would expect to be prosecuted on their return to Rome, though it was not hard to avoid conviction. Verres himself said (according to Cicero) that an aspiring governor should keep the money he makes in the first year of office for himself. What he makes in the second year will be needed to pay for a good lawyer, and what makes in the third year can be used for bribing the jury.