Quote of the Day (Tacitus, on Roman Servility and Hypocrisy Under the Emperors)

“Meanwhile at Rome people plunged into slavery—consuls, senators, knights. The higher a man’s rank, the more eager his hypocrisy, and his looks the more carefully studied, so as neither to betray joy at the decease of one emperor nor sorrow at the rise of another, while he mingled delight and lamentations with his flattery.”—Ancient Roman historian Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 AD), “The Annals” and “The Histories,” translated by Alfred Church and William Brodribb

This passage, on virtually the first page I opened to in this volume by Tacitus, transfixed me. You can sense the barely contained anger at the opportunism, cravenness, and cowardice of his time.

Many of us will find such behavior all too familiar in contemporary Washington, particularly among GOP politicians, as they weigh, tremblingly, just how much distance they should put between themselves and a certain former President without incurring his wrath, or how much they can continue to do the bidding of the National Rifle Association without losing their self-respect.

(The image accompanying this post comes from the 1964 film, The Fall of the Roman Empire. Many would say that the empire’s collapse was presaged by its widespread corruption.)

Quote of the Day (Terence, on a Playwright’s Disasters in Ancient Rome)

“Now for my sake give a fair hearing to my plea. Once more I am presenting The Mother-in-Law, a play for which I have never been able to gain a hearing uninterrupted, so much has misfortune dogged its progress….When I tried to produce it the first time, the report of boxers (joined to the belief that a tight-rope walker would appear), the throng of their admirers, the shouting, and women’s screaming forced me off stage before the end. I then decided to employ my usual approach on the new play and try it out again; I put it on a second time. The first act was going well when news arrived that there was to be a gladiator’s show. In surged the people, pushing, shouting, jostling for a place, leaving me powerless to hold my own.”—Ancient Roman playwright Terence (c. 186-159 BC), “The Mother-in-Law,” in The Comedies, translated by Betty Radice (1965)

And the creators of modern theater—an anxious crew depicted in the Michael Frayn farce Noises Off—think they have it bad!

(The image accompanying this post, a Roman mosaic, depicts actors and a musician. It comes from “The House of the Tragic Poet” in Pompeii.)

Quote of the Day (Juvenal, on Rome’s Corruption—and Ours)

“Dare something worthy of imprisonment and small Gyara,

If you wish to be anything. Virtue is praised and freezes;

Gardens, mansions, tables are owed to the criminal,

Ancient silver and a goat stand in relief on the cup.

Whom does the corrupter of the covetous daughter-in-law allow

To sleep, whom do turpid fiancees and teenage adulterer allow?

If nature objects, indignation makes whatever verse

It is able, just as do I or Cluvienus….

“Whatever men do–desire, fear, ire, excess,

Joys, discourses–is food for my little book.”—Roman poet Juvenal (ca.55–127 AD), Satires I

The image accompanying this post comes from the PBS mini-series of the mid-‘70s, I, Claudius, based on two novels by British poet Robert Graves. This scene features Messalina (played by Susan White), the beautiful but promiscuous third wife of Emperor Claudius—a symbol of the corruption and double-dealing at the heart of imperial Rome.