Week 7: Mentioned by Pasquino

So last week the UofA was on spring break so I didn't have class. Not having class left lots of time for sleep among other productive things such as reading and trying to write an introduction.

Pasquino and Marfario are two of the "talking statues" that are placed around Rome. Individuals would post short snippets of verse criticizing the pope on the statues for everyone else to see. Due to this, Pasquino was put under surveillance so then other statues like Marfario appeared and continued the practice. It's like an early Twitter in a way. "Marfario mentioned Pasquino in a tweet" or something would be a normal notification, and anonymous individuals had conversations as these statues. These statues remain today as well as records of some of their interactions. I can see it now...@Marfario replied to your tweet...


Marforio:- Dimmi: che fai Pasquino? (Pasquino, tell me: what are you doing?)
Pasquino:- Eh, guardo Roma, chè non vada a Urbino. (I watch over Rome, to make sure it's not moved to Urbino)

Reading and writing about them as well as reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy made up my break. Hope everyone's break was relaxing and enjoyable!

Week 6: Pen to Paper

The major event that happened this week is that I've further refined my project's topic. Professor Kendall and I went over an outline and brainstormed topics to write upon, and I'm going to compare the following:

• Roman gravestone inscriptions to modern gravestone inscriptions
• Twitter to Roman epigraphy in general 
• Yes this will get narrowed and refined because it's a general comparison. 
• Roman building dedications to modern building dedications

The morning class is learning about Trajan right now with his military excursions everywhere. On Friday, Professor Kendall was going to talk about the bath complex he built, but it was the Friday before spring break. A long lecture would not have been welcome. 

The afternoon class is reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy, and it seems like a satire. He may or may not be serious, but as I read it I feel like he's thumbing his nose at everyone. 

The morning class studied Titus a week or two ago, and I'm going to use the inscriptions on his arch in order to look at memory. The arch was put up by his younger brother Domitian after Titus' death. This is the inscription Domitian put on the arch when he built it. 

SENATVS

POPVLVSQUE ROMANVS

DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F

VESPASIANO AUGUSTO

The Senate and People of Rome

To the divine Titus Vespasian Augustus son on the divine Vespasian

On the other side of the arch, a pope put up an inscription of his own. 

INSIGNE RELIGIONES ATQUE ARTIS MONVMENTVM 

VETUSTATE FATISCENS

PIVS SEPTIMIVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS

MOVIS OPERIBUS PRISCVM EXEMPLAR IMITANTIBUS

FVLCIRI SERVARIQUE IVSSIT

ANNO SACRI PRINCIPATVS EIVS XXIIII

(This) monument, remarkable in terms of both religion and art, had weakened from age: 

Pius the Seventh, Supreme Pontiff,

by new works on the model of the ancient exemplar ordered it reinforced and preserved.

In the year of his sacred rule the 24th.

Looking at gravestones, I found that we remember people by the same markers as the Romans did: family relations, age(to an extent), other associations the deceased belonged to. For buildings, I'm going to look at the same thing. 

Week 5: AP Euro and Gravestones

Managed to remember the "k" this time. All is well.
Boccaccio and Botticelli AND Beccaria...too much too much. Seriously, trying to remember what each of these guys did can cause a minor headache.

The afternoon class is getting more into the Renaissance and how it connects back to Rome which is important for my topic of memory. Speaking of memory, I went to a cemetery this week to see how we memorialize people today as opposed to when the Romans were putting up funerary inscriptions.

The grave inscriptions I saw and Roman funerary monuments are strikingly similar. Grave markers from both the modern and ancient world included the name of the deceased(duh) and often some sort of familial relation. The Roman gravestones often didn't record the exact day of death, and if the deceased age was included it was often approximate.

Take 2 since it didn't save last time...
At the outset of my project, I thought I was going to look at literacy and language in public writing to see what it says about society as a whole, but attending classes and reading books has changed the focus of my project. Now I'm looking at memory in the form of twitter and gravestones, and I've found that graffiti doesn't fit in so much anymore. It's been a refinement process because I didn't realize just how huge my topic was.

Here's an example of a funerary inscription.
AE 1962.70 – Merida, Spain – probably 2nd

D M S
LUTATIA LUPATA ANN XVI
LUTATIA SEVERA ALUMNAE
H S E S T T L

Edited:
D(is) M(anibus) S(acrum)
LUTATIA LUPATA ANN(os) XVI
LUTATIA SEVERA ALUMNAE
H(aec) S(ita) E(st) S(it) T(ibi) T(erra) L(evis)

Translated:
To the Underworld Gods,
Lutatia Lupata 16 years
Foster child of Lutatia Severa
She lies here. May the earth rest lightly on you.

Here's a modern one.

Hope everyone's well! 

Week 4: Death by Pollen

Allergies are killing me. I don't have time to feel sick, but sick I feel. Also, sneezing in a library feels like an unforgivable sin. 

Anyways, Rome has fallen...in the afternoon class at least. Now we're moving onto looking at how Rome was viewed in the Renaissance. I'm looking forward to this because this gets into the idea of Rome and memory which is what my project might be kind of about. 

The morning class is moving onto Trajan next who built a bath complex! I might love Roman baths a little too much. 

Both classes discussed Domitian and Tacitus' Agricola which was Tacitus' eulogy of sorts for his father. In it he talks about all of Agricola's finest moments as governor while mentioning Domitian as a way to show just how bad Domitian was as an emperor. It was a bit of a deja vu moment in the afternoon class, and honestly, Domitian wasn't that bad. Treason trials were never good, but he wasn't as bad as Tacitus made him out to be. 

Publication: AE 1940     EDCS-ID: EDCS-15300223

Province: Roma         Place: Roma

Therm(ae) Traian(i)

Translation: Baths of Trajan

That's the inscription on the complex which in his time would've been a form of propaganda to promote his image. Now, it remains on a feature of Roman society that was distinctly Roman. 

Here's another picture of public writing that I've collected. What everyone assumes to be graffiti is actually dipinti because graffiti has to be carved into its medium. Anyways, the above picture is taken from a bathroom in BASIS, and the message is written on the stall wall with silver sharpie.
For these epigraphs, I'm considering questions about who wrote it and why did they write it as well as the deeper meaning behind a simple phrase. In the way that Latin inscriptions are a window into Roman society, I'm looking at the modern ones I find for what insight they offer about our modern society.

Who wrote this? Seeing as it was found in a girl's bathroom, I think we're safe in assuming that it was not written by an 8th grade boy. Then again, his shenanigans are his own. 

Why was it written? Notice the grammar structure of this particular epigraph. The command to "be happy" is imploring whomever is in the stall to, very simply, be happy. The why was it written connects to deeper meanings behind this public writing. While on the surface it seems rather inane, it could relate to deeper issues such as depression. 

And the hashtag, oh the hashtag, "You only live once." The abbreviated hashtag is a reason for the reader to be happy. Personally, I find YOLO to be used to often as a means of justifying blatant stupidity. The phrase is thrown around because...yolo. The idea is the same as carpe diem which was at the end of one of Horace's odes. Although the words have changed, the idea of living in the moment connects this scrawled bathroom message to Horace and the Romans. 

BkI:XI Carpe Diem

Leuconoë, don’t ask, we never know, what fate the gods grant us,

whether your fate or mine, don’t waste your time on Babylonian,

futile, calculations. How much better to suffer what happens,

whether Jupiter gives us more winters or this is the last one,

one debilitating the Tyrrhenian Sea on opposing cliffs.

Be wise, and mix the wine, since time is short: limit that far-reaching hope.

The envious moment is flying now, now, while we’re speaking:

Seize the day, place in the hours that come as little faith as you can.

Ita, carpe diem, amici.