Wednesday, October 03, 2012

The Debate: President Obama ( played by Cab Calloway) and Mitt Romney ( presented by Austrian-born John Wengraf)


 "Scio opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum"   "I know your works ... that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name." (Apocalypse 3.8)

Got us a debate to night.Pass.

Made my mind up in 2007 and I am voting for the guy with the funny name.

I'm gonna read me some Tacitus (translated by Michael Grant) - Tiberius's trap of Sejanus seem fit.

TACITUS ON IMPERIAL ROME A NEW TRANSLATION WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL GRANT (PENGUIN CLASSICS. NO. L. 60.)
Juvenal,
Satire X
Sermones XAnd now the flames are hissing, and amid the roar of furnace and of bellows the head of the mighty Sejanus, the darling of the mob, is burning and crackling, and from that face, which was but lately second in the entire world, are being fashioned pipelines, basins, frying-pans and slip-pails!  Up with the laurel-wreaths over your doors!  Lead forth a grand chalked bull to the Capitol!  Sejanus is being dragged along by a hook, as a show and joy to all!  "What a lip the fellow had!  What a face!" - "Believe me, I never liked the man!" - " but on what charge was he condemned?  Who informed against him?  What was the evidence, who the witnesses, who made good the case?" - "Nothing of the sort; a great and wordy letter came from Capri." - "Good; I ask no more."
    And what does the mob of Remus say?  It follows fortune, as it always does, and rails against the condemned.  That same rabble, if Nortia had smiled upon the Etruscan, if the aged Emperor had been struck down unaware, would in that very hour have conferred upon Sejanus the title of Augustus.  Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two thing - Bread and Games!
    "I hear that many are to perish." - "No doubt of it; there is a big furnace ready." - "My friend Brutidius looked a trifle pale when I met him at the Altar of Mars.  I tremble lest the defeated Ajax should take vengeance for having been so ill defenced."- "Let us rush headlong and trample on Caesar's enemy, while he lies upon the bank!" - "Ay, and let our slaves see that none bear witness against us, and drag their trembling master into court with a halter round his neck."
    Such was the talk at the moment about Sejanus; such were the mutterings of the crowd.  

translation by G. G. Ramsay

No comments: