Servasius: Dragons, Insults, and Filthy Lucre

As you can tell, I am cheating a bit in beginning this reading project by going through authors that do not have a large catalog. There are two poems attributed to Servasius (or Serbastus as he is called in the codex Leidensis Vossianus of Ausonius). The second is a diatribe against greed in elegiac couplets with echoes of Juvenal. Three couplets caught my eye:

First, I could not help but thing of dragons in his description of the miser:

quamlibet immenso dives vigil incubet auro,
aestuat augendae dira cupido rei. 

No matter how vast the hoard sleepless Dives lies upon,
He seethes with relentless desire of increasing his wealth.

But perhaps that is because I am reading The Hobbit aloud to my wife. Here is a choice insult for students who do poorly on their Latin:

Romani sermonis egent, ridendaque verba
frangit ad horrificos turbida lingua sonos.

They lack Latin, and their swollen tongue breaks
laughable vocabulary upon terrifying sounds.

His description of the ugliness of the miser somehow aptly describes current beauty trends:

perplexi crines, frons improba, tempora pressa,
exstantes malae deficiente gena

Mussed up locks, impudent brow, indented temples,
mouth always open with hardly any cheek.

Lies and Rhetoric

From First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea by Paul Woodruff:

Lies in politics are an old story, but do not blame them on rhetoric. Blame them on human credulity, on our tendency to believe authority. But counter them whenever possible by campaigning for open discussion. Lies act on the market of ideas as subsidies do on commodities–they undermine our ability to choose on a rational basis. (p. 189)

Free Books!

The only thing better than free books are free books that are new, hardbound, and something that you want to read. Liberty Fund recently sent these my way:

Pictured above are:

The 2 vol. collected works of Fisher Ames

Christianity and Classical Culture by Charles Cochrane

Observations upon Liberal Education by George Turnbull

Constitutionalism: Ancient and Modern by Charles McIlwain

Roman Multiculturalism

While the toddler was watching his morning alphabet-indoctrination program, I read through the small amount of Latin that remains of Florus' carmina.

Sperne mores transmarinos, mille habent offucia. 

cive Romano per orbem nemo vivit rectius: 

quippe malim unum Catonem quam trecentos Socratas.

 

Shun the morals brought across seas; they've a thousand trickeries. 

None in all the world lives straighter than a citizen of Rome. 

Why, I prize one Cato more than fifteen score like Socrates.                                             (trans. Duff & Duff)

To make use of my mornings with the toddler while the wife sleeps in with the newborn, I think I shall continue this program of reading through all of select authors.

The Quest for Community

From The Quest for Community by Robert Nisbet:

A sense of the past is far more basic to the maintenance of freedom than hope for the future. (p.184)

A succinct justification of my profession.

Catching up (again)

Since the last post, the following have been read:

1776 by David McCullough
The Fall of the Berlin Wall by William F. Buckley Jr.
Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon
Only the Lover Sings by Josef Pieper