![]() ![]() ![]() All else is false and doubtful, ephemeral and changeful: only virtus stands firmly fixed, its roots run deep, it can never be shaken by any violence, never moved from its place. Cling fast to it, I beg you men of Rome, as a heritage that your ancestors bequeathed to you. hac maiores vestri primum universam Italiam devicerunt, deinde Carthaginem exciderunt, Numantiam everterunt, potentissimos reges, bellicosissimas gentis in dicionem huius imperi redegerunt.īut virtus usually wards off a cruel and dishonorable death, and virtus is the badge of the Roman race and breed. alia omnia falsa, incerta sunt, caduca, mobilia: virtus est una altissimis defixa radicibus, quae numquam vi ulla labefactari potest, numquam demoveri loco. hanc retinete, quaeso, Quirites, quam vobis tamquam hereditatem maiores vestri reliquerunt. The place of virtus in ancient Roman values is well expressed by Cicero in a speech he gave before the Roman populace in 43:Ĭrudelitatem mortis et dedecus virtus propulsare solet, quae propria est Romani generis et seminis. Virtus was regarded as nothing less than the quality associated with, and responsible for Roman greatness, and was central to the construction of the ancient Roman self-image. So close was the identification of virtus with Rome that when virtus was honored with a state cult, the image chosen for the cult statue was the same as that of the goddess Roma herself: an armed amazon. In all accounts of ancient Roman values virtus holds a high place as a traditional quality that played a central part in war, politics, and religion. The Latin word for manliness is virtus, from vir, meaning man, 6 and virtus designates the activity and quality associated with the noun from which it is derived virtus characterizes the ideal behavior of a man. 5 “Manliness” – what it was and how it had been perverted – was, in a real sense, what the debate and the crisis were about. 4 Given that some of the men charged with planning to slaughter their peers had held the highest offices of the Roman state, and were the descendants of men who had made Rome great, this is not surprising. 3 A central concern of Cicero’s speech, and of the words Sallust placed in the mouths of Caesar and Cato, was the decline of ancestral standards of manliness. 2 Even more celebrated were the speeches delivered by Caesar and the younger Cato, which were immortalized by the historian Sallust, writing some twenty years after the event. Cicero’s Fourth Catilinarian became a classic of Latin oratory, mined for examples of urbane wit. In the debate to decide the fate of the accused senators, three of Rome’s leading figures gave speeches that would become famous. Over the previous seventy years, the old and aching Republic had suffered terrible violence, but seldom if ever had men from the inner circles of power been accused of such crimes. 1 Senators and a sitting praetor had been accused of conspiring to murder the chief magistrates and overthrow the state. On the fifth of December in 63 the Roman senate met to discuss a grave crisis. ![]() ![]() 0521827884 - Roman manliness - virtus and the Roman Republic - by Myles McDonnell ![]()
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