Re: VIRGIL: Re: "requitur"

[Martin Hughes]

I suppose that in the later medieval period Latin was finally ceasing to be
a living language in any sense.  Perhaps some syllables died before the
whole language did. - Martin Hughes
- Original Message -
From: George Heidekat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2002 12:13 AM
Subject: VIRGIL: Re: "requitur"


>
> ...
> Agnew Moyer Smith Inc.
> p: 412.322.6333
> f: 412.322.6350
> w: http://www.amsite.com
> e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > From: Leofranc Holford-Strevens <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Thanks for your gracious reply.
>
> > Where did you find it?
>
> Long story, but I think it was the name of a sword in a long-lost
historical
> novel. I've seen "non requitur" in a legal context, perhaps somehow
> connected with or contrasted with "non seq."
>
> Also, "Et sicut non requitur tanta deliberatio ad simplicem loquelam,
sicut
> ad iuramentum (quia saepe est loquendum et raro iurandum) ita non
requiritur
> tanta ..."
> ---William of Ockham, Dialogus, pars 1, lib. 7, cap. 34-38
>
>
> I should have listened more carefully to the Christian Brothers in 9th
> grade.
>
> Highest regards,
>
> Geo. H.
>
>
> >>
> > Best wishes
> >
> > Leofranc Holford-Strevens
> >
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> >
> > Leofranc Holford-Strevens
> > 67 St Bernard's Road usque
adeone
> > Oxford   scire MEVM nihil est, nisi ME scire hoc sciat
alter?
> > OX2 6EJ
> >
> > tel. +44 (0)1865 552808(home)/353865(work)  fax +44 (0)1865
512237
> > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(work)
> >
> >
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VIRGIL: False dreams of Roman glory?

[Chris Miller]

Between a mere wink and a Roman nightmare lies a
possible middle ground: Aeneas emerging from the ivory
gate may suggest Virgil's ambivalence toward his own
literary task of founding Rome on the myth of divinely
sanctioned empire.

"And when father Anchises/ has shown his son each
scene and fired his soul/ with love of coming glory,
then he tells/ Aeneas of the wars he must still
wage...   (Mandelbaum trans. VI.1185-1188) 

Then Anchises sends the Sibyl and his son "through
that way the Spirits send false dreams/into the world
above."

Clearly, as has been established, Aeneas is associated
with false dreams. It's not a big leap to see the text
as suggesting that love of glory is good, i.e.
necessary for Roman victory, but at the same time a
false dream in the sense that it is based on a
myth--Aeneas' faith is renewed through a vision of the
underworld, which is ultimately fiction, the fiction
Virgil was writing--and will inevitably lead to
suffering.

Later Nisus, the guardian of another gate, raises a 
question to his comrade: "Euryalus, is it/ the gods
who put this fire in our minds,/ or is it that each
man's relentless longing/ becomes a god to him?  Long
has my heart/ been keen for battle or some mighty
act..." (Mandelbaum IX.243-247)

Again the text suggests that divine inspiration
("fire") may be an illusion, sparking courageous and
sometimes foolhardy acts that are nonetheless heroic
and necessary to the glory of Rome. Perhaps Virgil was
ambivalent because he knew the Aeneid would inspire
Roman heroes--to their deaths, and the deaths of
others.

Virgil may have been patriotic enough to write the
foundation myth of the Roman Empire, but here and
there he raised a few questions, subtle enough to slip
under  Augustan radar. Far from being a sign of
inconsistency or incompletion, this complexity
enhances the poem. 

Chris Miller
Saint Mary's College of California

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