The glittering ranks of the armies of the Etruscan city states, Lars Porsenna at their head, stand at the Tiber. Before them lies the narrow way across the bridge to the river gate and into Rome, defiant in its overthrow of Tarquinius Superbus and the king's drab replacement with Republic men.
With the Etruscans are some Romans loyal to Etruscan civilisation and its superior culture, but party to that culture's corruption, in Rome, by self interest and cruelty (symbolized in Lucretia's rape), that has caused the Roman revolt.
The Etruscan forces, gorgeous in their person, culture and achievement, incredulous that they should be called upon to fight, will not be put to flight, nor defeated in a set-piece battle; although their hero, when at last he deigns to step forward across the corpses of lesser men, will be struck down by the power of Horatio's desperation to assert the New Order and impede its distruction by such superiors.
Just as Horatio's fully-armoured survival in the Tiber was applauded by Porsenna as he staggers from the water, so they will accede to the republican's drab demands for recognition of what has been wrong in Rome. And from this fatal courtesy the republicans will spread outwards, assimilating, rewarding fawning (or even acquiesence), punishing with death, torture, exile, exclusion, any local and individual resistance - too little and too late.
For the moment was to force the bridge before it was hacked away, but the Etruscans were taken by the spectacle of individual combat and its rules, when there should have been all the powers of their civilisation and its laws, expressed in their presence and their strength, used against the usurpers of proper rule and the city of Rome.
There's not a lot of time left for us, either.
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16 comments:
So really, the best solution was to put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea.
Always works!
Translation is always the source of surprises, W-B.
Who'd have thought that 'il rientro nel privato' comes out correctly as,
'put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea.'?
No good been gorgeous of person culture and achievement when some healthy peasants have got short pointy swords they keep jabbing at you HG .Amazing isn`t it , to think what the Romans achieved wearing flip flops . They must have scrunched up their toes awfully hard
I have been reading the history of the tax credit debacle BTW. The disfunctional relationship between Brown and the civil service reminded me of your Iraq comments. I `m still not sure sitting on our hands was an option though.
And finally Esther , I`m a teeny bit confused as to who is doing what and with which and to to whom here.( There was an army ditty about that but it concerned a lesbian and an homosexual ....um ..in Khartoum )
They wore yellow socks with their sandals too, N, and I expect they picked their noses...
The Etruscans just stood there, so sure of themselves and their world, they just let it happen to them, slowly but surely.
The Home civil service has been taken apart, from all accounts. I'd be interested to look at an up to date piece on how it's working and recruiting now.
I find it so hard to believe that Brown could think it is OK to stop and question any citizen any time and ask them who they are and what they are doing. They (HMG) must be planning to increase the amount of "terrorist activity" amongst us. We all lived with the IRA without losing our civil liberties. And if, like the IRA, the government are going to decide eventually that Islamists are our friends and invite them into government, what is the fucking point?
So sorry for swearing on your blog HG. I am beside myself this morning.
L, I'm of the never explain, never apologise persuasion.
It is good of you to be beside yourself though, I keep turning to my alter ego and asking 'why does no-one MIND?'
All this yatter yatter about grammar schools, WHAT ABOUT (goodness), what about much lower taxation, an English parliament (I've been won over by N on that),
no more 'independent bodies (zombies?)' preparing a report (to whom one wonders), on the latest outrage to our elected representatives' powerlessness, the laying bare of the truth about the governance of the country.
Blair in where exactly? Prescott (PRESCOTT!) in hospital, who's running the place? The Chancellor of the Exchequer?
We're at war on two and possibly three fronts, and that mentally challenged, emotionally immature, collapsed personality of a vengeful trotskyoid has failed even to come up with the money to arm the soldiers forced into harm's way.
And since when has the Chancellor of the Exchequer been head of the Executive in any known interpretation of the UK constitution?
And since when has the corporatist Labour party and its bully boys been considered a suitable holder of the state power of the UK?
And has the UK Prime Minister ANY IDEA of the contempt in which he is held in the European Union - whatever is he turning up later in June to sign what he hasn't understood for?
I am cooking asparagus topped with grilled porcini mushrooms and lightly poached, new-laid eggs, with grated parmesan for lunch (actually Mr HG is doing it because he's too hungry to wait for me to finish screaming with outrage).
Delicious LUNCH!
I was so exasperated to see that Iain Dale's blog isnt even mentioning this that I emailed him. He replied that au contraire, David Davis is very vocal about our civil liberties..yes indeed, but why not the ENTIRE CONSERVATIVE PARTY? Why would I expect the guy-who-didnt-make-it-as-leader's lonely opinion a basis for voting for them?
I can't vote Conservative L, because of what Christopher Logue warned would happen. And I can't vote Liberal Democrat, because they aren't worth it, and I can't vote for Frank Dobson, because he helped prevent the constituency party members from voting in the Labour leadership by point blank refusing to nominate McDonnell.
I'm converted to ending the UK union; it'll be support for PR soon, at least then I might be able to vote at all.
What did Christopher Logue warn would happen, HG? Are you talking about his poem "I shall vote Labour"? I can't find a complete version on the net. I have to admit it would be damn weird to vote Conservative, but I would do it if they offered representation.
The Etruscans just stood there, so sure of themselves and their world, they just let it happen to them, slowly but surely.
That’s what I disapprove of you appeasing Islam and being vastly more critical of America than of various disgusting Arab and African regimes. It strikes me a species of decadence.
Are you gorgeous of person culture and achievement HG , it seems very likely . On historical and cultural analogies I would have though the Roundheads and Cavaliers have some resonance’s today . I see Boris Johnson as the Cavalier element of the Conservative Party and while I was defending him I was struck by how many Roundheads there were around with an almost year zero ideological confidence.WE are all a mix of these models ….sigh , wish I had time to write a blog .about it .
I continue to be fascinated that you are so clever HG , would you ever appear on 18 Doughty Street ?
"Now who will stand on either hand
and hold the bridge with me?"
"I, said the sparrow, with my bow and arrow
I'll hold the bridge with thee"
Lilith:
I shall vote Labour because
God votes Labour.
I shall vote Labour to protect
the sacred institution of The Family.
I shall vote Labour because
I am a dog.
I shall vote Labour because
upper-class hoorays annoy me in expensive restaurants.
I shall vote Labour because
I am on a diet.
I shall vote Labour because if I don't
somebody else will:
AND
I shall vote Labour because if one person
does it
everybody will be wanting to do it.
I shall vote Labour because if I do not vote Labour
my balls will drop off.
I shall vote Labour because
there are too few cars on the road.
I shall vote Labour because I am
a hopeless drug addict.
I shall vote Labour because
I failed to be a dollar millionaire aged three.
I shall vote Labour because labour will build
more maximum security prisons.
I shall vote Labour because I want to shop
in an all-weather precinct stretching from Yeovil to Glasgow.
I shall vote Labour because
the Queen's stamp collection is the best
in the world.
I shall vote Labour because
deep in my heart
I am a Conservative.
· 'I Shall Vote Labour' from Selected Poems by Christopher Logue published by Faber & Faber. 1966.
Sums it up really, particularly the second half.
I thought it was Spurius Lartius and Herminius, ND, but I have learned to be wary of your pomes; and where is cock robin in this?
'That’s what I disapprove of you appeasing Islam and being vastly more critical of America than of various disgusting Arab and African regimes.'
Look at that remark, N. I don't need to labour on it.
Croydonian calls Brown the Lord Protector, but how could someone Scottish be identified with Cromwell?
The Etruscans are all of us, in all our different modes, joined in amazement at how horrible the brownite Labour party faction 'peasants [who] have got short pointy swords they keep jabbing at you'... are.
Humph
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