Ciao a tutti:  

As we celebrated our independence day, it is well to remember that our form of republic government has its roots in ancient Roman Law. Many of the freedoms that we enjoy today as Americans are by-products of our ancestral Italic heritage and their desire to be free.  May we always be appreciative of this gift given to mankind.  

VIVA AMERICA!  

Fraternally,
Robert Necci

WORTH REPEATING

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”  ~ Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, AD 121-180

IN THE NEWS

June 15, 2006 – United Press International (Palermo, Italy) - Graffiti Found at Ancient Italian Prison

Graffiti left by prisoners held by the Inquisition in Sicily more than 200 years ago have been found on the walls of an ancient prison. The Steri, the Inquisition’s headquarters, is being converted into a museum, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Between 1601 and 1782, hundreds of people the Catholic Church suspected of heresy or witchcraft were held there for questioning and torture, few of them emerging alive. Historians have been able to identify some of the prisoners from information they left behind on the wall. Archaeologists have also discovered elaborate artwork, including an entire wall depicting the Battle of Lepanto. “Many of the victims were simply intellectuals or artists whom the church considered a threat to its power,” Domenico Policarpi, who heads the project, told ANSA. The graffiti provide a window into a world that is little-known because the viceroy in Palermo in 1782 ordered Inquisition documents burned.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060615-112846-7420r

June 16, 2006 – Reuters (Formello, Italy) - Tomb Raider Leads Italy Police to Ancient Paintings

Italy unveiled a new archaeological site that some experts say houses the oldest paintings in the history of Western civilization. Italy’s culture minister took reporters to an unremarkable field outside Rome under which they were shown a room carved into the hillside, decorated with colorful frescoes which archaeologists said were 2,700 years old. “It’s a prince’s tomb that is unique, and I would say is at the origins of Western art,” said Minister Francesco Rutelli, standing on what, until two weeks ago when the site was found, was just a field of barley. Authorities were led to the spot -- in an area known for its remains from the Etruscan civilization that thrived in Italy before the Roman Empire -- by an 82-year-old Austrian tour guide who police were questioning for looting ancient artifacts. Archaeologists were amazed at what they found once the earth was removed -- a large, square room, with niches that would once have stored cremated remains, remnants of a bright red painted ceiling and colored frescoes of birds and roaring lions. “There are thousands of tombs here,” said Francesca Boitani, a culture ministry archaeologist, pointing to the rolling hills north of Rome which were once home to the Etruscan city of Veia. “But this one, it’s the pictures that are stunning. They give a sense of the primitive.”

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/16/AR2006061601063.html

June 21, 2006 – New York Times (Rome, Italy) - Getty Trust Agrees to Return Art Objects to Italy

The J. Paul Getty Trust has agreed to return some “significant objects” to Italy from its collection of Etruscan and Roman art, including “several masterpieces,” the institution announced today in a joint statement with the Italian government. Though few details were provided, the announced breakthrough seems to pave the way for a settlement to Italy’s claims to dozens of antiquities in the Getty Museum’s collection. Italy has long argued that those objects were looted from Italian soil in recent decades and sold to the Getty by unscrupulous dealers. Neither side would say how many artifacts or which ones were being returned. In exchange for the artifacts, the two sides said, Italy is prepared to “provide loans of objects of comparable visual beauty and historical importance.”  That tradeoff seems similar to one negotiated by Italy and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY, which agreed to cede title to 21 objects in exchange for important loans.

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/arts/design/21cnd-getty.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1150948800&en=edd5f7e6313e32e9&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

June 22, 2006 – United Press International (Rome, Italy) – Italian Robot Maid Wins Prize

An Italian domestic robot that reminds people when to eat, sleep and even when to take medicine, has won a top prize at the RoboCup tournament in Germany. Lucia, a robotic home helper, was created by a team from the Italian National Research Council. The entry won over hundreds of rivals and came in third in the RoboCup finals this week in Bemen. “We’re really pleased with this result” said Amedeo Cesta of the Institute of Cognition Sciences and Technologies, who led Italy’s RoboCup project. He told the Italian news service ANSA: “The domestic section of the competition is much harder than the other two -- sports-playing machines and rescue devices. Our robots have to recognize voices and interact with humans in a pleasing and natural way.” He also said the robot, Lucia, is “nice to look at.” First place in the competition was taken by a U.S. team from Carnegie Mellon University, with second place going to a German team.

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1174998.php/Italian_robot_maid_wins_prize

June 23, 2006 – Garden City News (Garden City, NY) - Learning the Dance of the Spider

In April and May seventh and eighth-grade students in Mrs. Hoelzli’s, Mrs. Reilly’s and Mrs. Sorace’s Italian classes had the unique opportunity to learn a southern Italian folkdance call the tarantella. Mr. Mazarese and the students in the High School Italian Club were invited to perform and teach the steps of this beautiful and traditional Italian dance to the middle school students. It is a dance whose origin can be traced back to the Middle Ages. According to legend, the tarantella was thought to have been an early remedy for a tarantula bite. An epidemic of tarantula poisoning spread through the city of Taranto, in the region of Puglia in southern Italy. The victims (tarantata) were usually women who worked on the farms or whose daily life might bring them into contact with the kinds of spiders that run in the fields. These women would dance while villagers played mandolins and tambourines. They thought they could sweat the poison out of their system by dancing. Various rhythms were used until one worked. Vigorous dancing ensued, and eventually the tarantata was cured.

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://www.gcnews.com/news/2006/0623/School/064.html

June 25, 2006 – United Press International (Milan, Italy) Study Finds Educated Migrants in Italy

A new Italian study says the country’s illegal immigrants are generally well educated, and tend to be overqualified for the menial jobs they hold. The ANSA news agency reported the study found 41 percent of Italy’s illegal immigrants between the ages of 25 and 64 had a high school diploma, while 12 percent held a university degree. The latest statistics from Italy’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicated only 33 percent of Italians in the same age group have a high school diploma and just 10 percent have a degree. The study was based on information gathered from more than 10,000 migrants illegally living in Italy. Critics of the study say that the numbers should be taken with caution due to the varying education systems in different countries.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060625-045014-3028r

June 26, 2006 – Agenzia Giornalistica Italia (Rome, Italy) – Holidays: 12-14 Million Italians in July, 10 Days Average

There will be between 12 and 14 million holidaymakers in July, according to Telefono Blu, who will spend their time off in Italy in the month of July. The holidays will last an average of 10 days (1 more than last year) and there will be numerous weekend travelers (5-6 million). According to the outlook by the consumers’ association, over a third of these commuters will make at least two trips in the month of July, and will change destination every weekend. Overall, there will be 38 million Italians who will go on holiday for at least 9 days, while 21 million will stay home. The most important factors in the choice of location will be climate conditions and price trends. According to forecasts, 76 Italians out of 100 will spend their vacation in Italy in July. Large-scale success will be seen by places with moderate costs: the Romagna seaside, Versilia/Maremma and the Veneto region. A slight recovery will be seen by the Ligurian seaside, which still has quite high prices. Sardinia is all too expensive, with 3 points less in July and August than in 2005. Among the most preferred destinations is Sicily, which continues in the trend of the past 5 years. Also in Italy, there will be a slight increase in the Salento region, and the good results in the Marches will continue. And, finally, over 3 million Italians will choose to go abroad: the favorite destinations are Spain and Greece (islands), and also Ireland, Turkey, Portugal and the Red Sea.

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200606261247-1068-RT1-CRO-0-NF30&page=0&id=agionline-eng.bnessitaly

June 27, 2006 – The Independent (Rome, Italy) - Creeping Chinese Seaweed Threatens to Choke Venice

The waterways of Venice have been invaded by a fast-breeding giant Chinese seaweed. “The killer seaweed has almond eyes,” said La Repubblica newspaper. “It’s brown, tall, flexible, invading and a bully….No one expected that after glassware, lace and bags, the Chinese would invade the Gulf of Venice.” The weed, Undaria pinnatifida, grows up to three meters long, dwarfing the somewhat smelly but far smaller weed native to the Venice lagoon. It grows quickly, at a rate of up to one centimeter per day, matures after 40 to 60 days, produces millions of spores and can wipe out smaller, local weeds with ease. It also has a great talent for hitch-hiking on the hulls of boats; the only sure way of preventing it spreading, experts say, is to keep the undersides of boats immaculately clean. According to Venice’s Museum of Natural History, the weed apparently arrived from France in the ballast of a ship - the weed’s other preferred way of getting around.

For the complete story visit the following link:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1099162.ece

COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR

For a listing of many Italian and Italian American programs, updated regularly, visit the John D Calandra Italian American Institute’s Community Events Calendar at the following link:

http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/calandra/community/commcal.html

ARTS GUIDE: EXHIBITS IN ITALY

ANSA (Rome, Italy)

Following is a city-by-city calendar of some of Italy’s top art exhibitions.
BOLOGNA - Archaeological Museum: Un Diavolo Per Capello; the show features over 300 exhibits that reconstruct the history of hairstyles from ancient times to the present day; the works on display include statues, archaeological finds, coins, medals, paintings, photos and even bathroom accessories; until July 2.
COMO - Villa Olmo: Magritte; this major show on one of the masters of Surrealism features 60 oil paintings and 20 drawings, on loan from Belgium’s Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts; until July 16.
FLORENCE - Uffizi Gallery: The Mind of Leonardo, The Universal Genius at Work; the show features numerous paintings and drawings as well as a series of faithful models of the most innovative machines conceived by the Renaissance giant; until January 7.
MILAN - Ambrosiana: Titian’s Supper at Emmaus; one of the most famous paintings by Titian is back in Italy for the first time in nearly four centuries. Supper At Emmaus, usually on display at the Louvre, is on loan to the Ambrosiana as part of a three-painting exhibit focusing on Christ’s Resurrection. The other two works on display are Noli Me Tangere by Bernardini Luini and Marco Basaiti’s Risen Christ; until November 30.
- Triennnale Museum: Comic Book Art: the exhibition aims to show how the increasingly inter-cultural nature of the comics business has helped it move into the realm of serious art; until September 3.
NAPLES - Capodimonte Museum: The Italian 16^th Century Between the Renaissance and Mannerism; the exhibition is dominated by the 16^th-century portrait artist supreme, Titian, but also features works by Pontormo, Bronzino, Parmigiano, Perugino and Raphael; until September 13.
ROME - Galleria Borghese: Raphael, From Florence To Rome, biggest-ever Rome show on the Renaissance great with major foreign loans focusing on 1505-1508 masterpieces that lead up to his arrival in the capital; 24 paintings and 26 drawings; until September 10.
- Vittoriano: Amedeo Modigliani; the show, which has been organized to mark the 100^th anniversary of the Tuscan painter’s arrival in Paris, presents some 100 works, including 17 paintings never before exhibited in Italy, watercolors and drawings; until June 25.
- Scuderie del Quirinale: Antonello da Messina; the show features 39 of the 45 surviving masterpieces attributed to the 15^th-century Sicilian artist. The exhibit confirms Antonello’s status as one of the most innovative and influential artists of his time; until June 25.
- Hadrian's Villa: Egyptian Suggestions; the exhibit shows how Hadrian peppered his villa with Egyptian-style divine representations of his lover Antinoos after he drowned in the Nile in 130 A.D. Visitors will also get their first look at a monumental staircase that recently came to light and is now believed to be the main entrance to the site; the staircase bears Egyptian-style crocodile motifs; until October 15.
- Auditorium: Magnum Agency Photographs of Film Stars; over 50 shots snapped by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith and other legendary Magnum photographers; until July 30.
- Palazzo Braschi: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Homage to Rome and Portraits; the show features 94 portraits and a collection of photographs of Rome taken by the legendary French photographer from 1933 to the late 50s. This is the first time that Paris’ Cartier-Bresson Foundation has loaned part of its collection; until October 30.
- Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna: Galileo Chini. The first major retrospective on the early 20^th century Tuscan painter, ceramist and decorator who was commissioned by the king of Siam (now Thailand) to decorate his palace in 1911; until September 10.
- Castel Sant’Angelo: Perin del Vaga’s fresco of Love and Psyche was unveiled this week after a months-long restoration project. The fresco, in a long-closed papal apartment inside famed Rome monument Castel Sant’Angelo, was commissioned by Pope Paul III (1534-1549), a member of the powerful Farnese family who lived a wild life and sired four children before and after a marriage he renounced to become pope.
ROVERETO - MART: Cinema and Comics: Comics characters on the big screen; the show features over 350 original movie posters, set photographs, comic strips, costumes and video clips, until September 17.
SIENA - Santa Maria della Scala: Igiene e bellezza nell’antico Egitto (Hygiene and Beauty in Ancient Egypt); some 70 finds loaned from Florence’s National Archaeological Museum are on display, including mirrors, make-up palettes and mortar-and-pestle sets, jewelry and funeral masks; until September 17.
SIRACUSA - Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea : a recently rediscovered book in which Renaissance great Piero Della Francesca shows his debt to Archimedes is on show for the first time in the ancient Greek genius’s home town Siracusa. The manuscript had languished in the archives of Florence’s Riccardiana library for centuries before it was authenticated last year as the hand of Piero, the artist who brought the rigor of perspective studies into his masterpieces; until July 20.
VENICE - La Fenice Theatre: ‘The Color of Miles Davis - paintings, drawings, videos’; the paintings were produced in the 1980s, during a spell in which Davis temporarily used the brush as his main form of artistic expression, rather than the trumpet. The show features dozens of his works, which are spread around different parts of the historic theatre; until July 20.

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-06-23_1236481.html

ROME’S DARK NIGHT OF TYRANNY
When the republic fell, Rome entered the dark decline of empire. Only after centuries of misery under predominantly tyrannical emperors did Rome finally meet its end.  
By Steve Bonta, The New American – February 7, 2005

This is the ninth installment in a series of articles on the rise and fall of the Roman Republic.

In the fourth century of our era, the Danube River marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. To the north and east of the Danube, fierce Germanic and Scythian tribes roamed to the edges of the known world. Beyond them - according to the uncertain traditions of the ancients - lay a savage, frozen wilderness populated by the likes of the Geloni, who dressed in the skins of their slain enemies, and the Melanchlaenae, who fed on human flesh.

Immediately to the north of the eastern Danube were vast settlements of Goths, who by the mid-370s found themselves threatened by invading Huns and Alans from the east. To escape the ravaging barbarians from the hinterlands, the Goths fled en masse to the banks of the Danube and sent envoys to the Roman emperor Valens, begging for permission to cross into Roman territory to escape the marauding hordes, and to settle in the province of Thrace. Valens, persuaded of the need for a mercenary and labor force to fortify and protect the northern boundaries of the empire, and anxious to expand his tax base, made one of the most fateful decisions in all of history: he opened the borders of the empire and invited the Goths to immigrate to Roman territory.

With the help of boats furnished by the Romans, the Goths poured across the Danube into Roman territory – “like lava from Etna,” in the words of Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus - and set up encampments in Thrace. The occupying population was estimated by Edward Gibbon to have numbered at least 200,000 fighting men and up to a million total immigrants. The Romans immediately took advantage of the situation by bartering food and other necessaries (including, supposedly, spoiled dog meat) to the desperate Goths, in exchange for slaves. The Goths resented such treatment and soon rebelled against the Roman authorities. Before too many months, the Goths, led by their crafty general, Fritigern, were pillaging and laying waste to cities all across Thrace.

Disaster at Hadrianople

After several bloody and indecisive battles, the Roman emperor Valens himself decided to intervene. He marched north at the head of an enormous army that represented much of the military might of Rome and encountered the Gothic army - which by now was  strengthened by Alan and Hun auxiliaries - outside the city of Hadrianople. Hadrianople, the “city of Hadrian,” was named for the emperor best remembered for his efforts to fortify another Roman frontier, the boundary between Roman and Celtic Britain known as “Hadrian's Wall.” But on August 9, 378 A.D., the plains outside the city of Hadrian witnessed the battle that brought the Roman Empire to her knees.

Valens and his forces advanced confidently against the howling barbarian host, only to be outflanked and outfought by the furious Goths, who had cleverly postponed the engagement until the heat of the day, when the Romans were weakened and dehydrated. Crushed together by the furious onslaught, the Romans, unable to maneuver or even use their swords and javelins, were slaughtered like cattle. By the end of that terrible day, the flower of the Roman military had been cut down, including 35 tribunes, many distinguished generals, and Valens himself, whose body was never recovered. With them fell somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 Roman soldiers, or up to 80 percent of the entire existing Roman military force.

Not since Cannae in the Second Punic War had Rome suffered such a disaster. But unlike Cannae, which became a rallying point for republican Rome, Hadrianople shattered the empire beyond repair. Over the next few decades, the empire was swept away by successive invasions of barbarians eager to take advantage of Rome’s undefended borders.

Within 30 years of the disaster in Thrace, Alaric and his Gothic horde were besieging the Eternal City. By 429 A.D., the Vandals were pouring into Roman North Africa, and in 455 they sacked Rome itself. Attila and his Huns, most formidable of all, overran much of Greece, Italy, and Gaul in the early decades of the fifth century, leaving desolation in their wake. Well could Romans, by the mid-fifth century, lament the fateful decision of a weak and foolish emperor, and what Ammianus mournfully called the “tumultuous eagerness of those who urged on the proceedings [that] led to the destruction of the Roman world.”

The disaster at Hadrianople was, however, a symptom, not a cause, of Roman imperial decline. In historical hindsight, the longevity of the Roman Empire was extraordinary, given the centuries of almost unrelenting tyranny, warfare, economic decay, and even natural disasters that ravaged the once-proud Roman dominions. That the weary denizens of the empire could have endured so many generations of grinding tyranny is a testimony to human endurance. But more than a few may have felt a sense of relief at the collapse of their imperial oppressors.

The Roman Empire proper began with Octavian, better known as Caesar Augustus who initially, after the assassination of Julius Caesar, allied himself with Mark Antony and Lepidus to defeat the last republican army at Philippi, led by Cassius and Brutus. After 10 years of rivalry, he forced Lepidus retirement and defeated Mark Antony his Egyptian allies led by Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium.

After Actium, Augustus’ subsequent reign of more than 40 years was a comparatively tranquil one, in spite of atrocities committed by certain of his imperial subordinates, like the Judean tetrarch Herod. But with the death of Augustus in 14 A.D., a new type of monarch assumed the scepter in Rome, embodied in Augustus’ adopted son Tiberius.

Darkness Falls

Tiberius, like nearly all of his imperial successors, was a monster. “If we were to draw a picture of his life,” wrote the Abbé Millot, a historian held in high esteem by the American Founding Fathers, “we might say that he knew what was good, and often commanded it, but the general tenor of his conduct was to do evil with cool deliberate malevolence.” One of Tiberius’ first acts in office was to order the assassination of Agrippa, the son of Augustus’ most famous adviser of the same name. “He was also accused of ordering the murder of Germanius, a Roman military leader of great integrity who had successfully put down sedition in the military aiming to set him up as emperor in Tiberius’ stead. But instead of the emperor’s gratitude, Germanicus’ popularity with the Roman people earned him only Tiberius’ bitter envy.

Tiberius set up a massive network - of informers, and passed laws making writings or utterances critical of his regime high treason, and punishable by death. If Julius Caesar and Octavian had transformed the Roman Republic into a military dictatorship, Tiberius now changed it into a police state.

In addition to his political cruelty, Tiberius, if the frank testimony of Suetonius is to testimony of Suetonius is to be believed, was a depraved monster in his private life. A recitation of the details of Tiberius’ private life would appall and sicken the reader; it is enough to record that Tiberius was an enthusiastic and insatiable practitioner of every base sexual depravity known, and even kept vast numbers of captive children to gratify his twisted whims.

Tiberius, like most of Rome’s emperors, met a violent end. Having fallen severely ill, he was suffocated by certain of his attendants after partly recovering from a bout of illness that had been expected to claim his evil life. He was succeeded by Gaius Germanicus, also known as Caligula, a man whose perversions and despotic behavior have always taxed the credulity of modern historians. Caligula carried on incestuous relationships with his three sisters. He had numerous homosexual partners and forced adulterous liaisons with many of Rome’s most illustrious women.

Caligula took full advantage of the police-state apparatus founded by his predecessor to unleash a reign of terror unsurpassed (though often matched) in imperial Roman history. A brief excerpt from Suetonius’ lengthy and horrifying description of Caligula’s reign will give the reader an idea of Rome under Caligula’s administration: Gaius made parents attend their sons executions, and when one father excused himself on the ground of ill health, provided a litter for him….A knight, on the point of being thrown to the wild beasts, shouted that he was innocent; Gaius brought him back, removed his tongue, and then ordered the sentence to be carried out The method of execution he preferred was to inflict numerous small wounds; and his familiar order: “Make him feel that he is dying!” soon became proverbial.

“Let them hate me, so long as they fear me,” Caligula is alleged to have often said. On one well-known occasion, Caligula, angry at crowds cheering a team he opposed, publicly wished that all Romans had but one neck to sever. He terrorized Romans of every social class, delighting in mass executions of senators and in having prisoners tortured in his presence during mealtime. His erratic behavior suggests what Suetonius and others have concluded, that Caligula was clinically insane. Caligula was assassinated after terrorizing Rome for nearly four years.

He was succeeded by Claudius, another monster, somewhat less bloodthirsty, but fickle and depraved nonetheless. Claudius appears to have been of subnormal intelligence, which made him susceptible to manipulation by amoral power-mongers like his appalling wife Messalina.

Dean of Depravity

Claudius, who was finally poisoned by assassins, was followed by another bestial personage whose name, like that of Adolf Hitler, has become virtually synonymous with wanton dictatorial cruelty: Nero. Nero was a man of many gifts. He had an aptitude for the arts and was an accomplished musician. He was a man of considerable charisma and had a photographic memory for names and faces. His reign started promisingly; he pledged to restore the practices of civilized rule that had characterized the Augustan period, and he lowered taxes dramatically. However, he soon began spending extravagant sums on lavish games and other public entertainment extravaganzas.

His penchant for monstrous personal vices gradually gained the upper hand. All of the perversions of his predecessors were Nero’s stock in trade. Suetonius accuses him of committing frequent incest with his mother Agrippina, of raping a vestal virgin, and of attempting to convert one of his young male consorts into a woman by mutilating him and forcing him to undergo a wedding in bridal attire. And these, if Suetonius is given credibility, were among his milder vices.

His bloodlust turned Rome into a horror show for 14 awful years. In addition to murdering many members of his own family, including his mother and aunt, Nero continued the reign of terror of his predecessors in emphatic style. The best-known episode in his misbegotten rule, the great conflagration that destroyed Rome, was quite possibly his own doing, although the historical evidence for that is inconclusive. What seems beyond dispute was that he reveled in the destruction and played his lyre as the Eternal City went up in flames.

Persecutions and Power Factions

In the aftermath, Nero encouraged the belief that members of a new religion, Christians, were to blame, and launched the most horrific large-scale persecutions that Christianity had yet seen. In the words of Tacitus, “an immense multitude [of Christians] was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of wild beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to the crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.”

Nero’s behavior finally brought about armed revolt, led by Galba, who marched on Rome in 68 A.D. Nero committed suicide as Galba’s forces closed in. Rome for the next several years was the scene of unending slaughter and civil war, as three more bloodthirsty tyrants - Galba, Otho, and Vitellius - succeeded to the purple by violent overthrow. Tacitus gives vivid descriptions of Rome ravaged by fire and the sword again and again, and of thousands of terrified citizens cut down by successive power factions. Suetonius, never one to mince words, complements Tacitus’ account with his usual revolting personal portraits of these men.

It was during this period that the Roman military acquired a habit it was seldom to relinquish for the remainder of the empire: proclaiming emperors solely on the authority and whim of the soldiers. Unlike later European monarchies, imperial Rome (as well as its successor regime in the east, Byzantium) never developed a system of orderly succession, with the result that almost all emperors were enthroned by armed revolt culminating in the murder of their predecessor and of any potential rivals.

If the Christians had endured unspeakable persecution under Nero, it was the turn of the Jews to do the same under Vespasian and Titus, the latter of whom finally destroyed Jerusalem in a horrific campaign that resulted in the destruction of the temple and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jews.

By the end of the first century A.D., Rome and her dominions had endured several generations of horror and bloodshed on a scale and duration never before seen in human history. Even the architectural remnants of republican Rome had been swept away by the fires that had scoured the city, and every last vestige of republican virtue and manners had been eradicated. The Senate still existed in name, and would persist as a feeble institution for several centuries, but old Rome had been consumed in the holocaust of empire.

Beginning with the emperor Nerva and continuing with Trajan, Badrian, Antoninus, and Marcus Aurelius, imperial Rome from the late first century until the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180 A.D. enjoyed a brief sunlit interlude that saw the flowering of Christianity and the production of many great works of literature, including the writings of Plutarch and Tacitus. It was this period that Gibbon chose as his point of departure in his famous History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - a misleading starting point to support his mistaken premise that the early empire represented the pinnacle of Roman achievement. Calling the empire “the most civilized portion of mankind,” Gibbon went on to extol Rome's “disciplined valor,” “peaceful inhabitants,” “free constitution,” and “gentle, but powerful, influence of laws and manners.” However, Rome during this comparatively placid interval was still a decrepit civilization of unending foreign wars and conquests, of palace intrigue, and of the debased morals that had incubated the likes of Caligula and Nero. The virtues of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines appear magnified by the faults of their predecessors. But with the death of Marcus Aurelius, Rome’s lucky streak ended.

Empire’s End

Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his son Commodus, another bestial ruler cast from the same mold as Nero, with the same vices and insatiable appetite for cruelty. He was eventually strangled by a gladiator in the employ of a palace conspiracy.

And so it went. For the next several hundred years, the Roman Empire was strained to the breaking point by civil wars, foreign adventures, heavy taxation, and constant political turmoil. Emperor succeeded emperor, usually by violence. For each tolerable ruler - a Diocletian, Pertinax, Constantine, or Julian - there were a dozen monsters, such as Caracalla, Elagabalus, Maximin, Valens, and others far too numerous to merit mention. Most of them slashed their way to the top, only to be deposed in bloody coups within weeks or months of accession to the purple. And even the best were deeply flawed or committed unpardonable atrocities.

Constantine the Great, despite establishing Christianity as the official religion of Rome, was capable of remarkable acts of cruelty, which included having his own wife and son put to death. Julian, nicknamed “the Apostate,” was a brilliant and able leader, but chose to persecute Christians and to wage unprovoked war on the Persian empire, where he died of battle wounds during the retreat from Ctesiphon, the Persian capital. Pertinax, who followed Commodus, seems to have been a genuinely virtuous man. He attempted to restore Senate authority, transferred all his personal property to his wife and son to avoid the reproach of personal enrichment, and overturned the unjust decrees of his predecessor. Unfortunately, this decent man was murdered by his own Praetorian guards after less than three months as emperor. Imperial Rome was beyond repair and no longer suited to virtuous leadership.

Diocletian, who reigned for 20 years, divided the empire for the first time, a division that became permanent in the mid-fourth century in the time of Valentinian I and Valens. At about this same time, in July 365 A.D., the Roman world was literally shaken by an unprecedented catastrophe. An immense earthquake struck the greater part of the Mediterranean basin and was followed by gigantic tsunamis that wiped out much of coastal Sicily, Dalmatia, Greece, and Egypt. The great city of Alexandria was nearly wiped out, losing 50,000 inhabitants. This event filled the Roman world, pagans and Christians alike, with consternation, as the very powers of nature now seemed to be unleashed against the dying Roman world. Thirteen years later came the calamitous battle of Hadrianople, the event that traditionally marks the beginning of the Dark Ages.

After Hadrianople, predatory barbarian tribes were quick to pounce on the enfeebled Roman world, and by the late fifth century, the last remnant of the Western Roman Empire was conquered by the Goths and other tribes. Many of the Germanic tribes, most conspicuously the Goths, did possess a certain rustic virtue, enhanced by their Arian Christian beliefs. Gothic rulers of former Roman dominions, like Theodoric and Totila, were fairly just and humane rulers compared to the morally bankrupt Romans, and many former imperial citizens were happy to submit to these gentler masters.  Meanwhile, the eastern empire lived on, with its capital at Constantinople and its distinctly Greek and Asiatic character, for another thousand years.

Thus did Rome die, more than 1,300 years after the founding of the city by Romulus and his band of followers. Following Gibbon, much has been made of the decline and fall of the empire, but the real story, which had concluded by the time of Christ, was the decline and fall of the republic. For the fall of empires is a foregone conclusion; they are always built on foundations of sand - despotism, militarism, expansionism, and welfarism - and soon exhaust them - themselves, or are dismembered by other powers. But the causes leading to the decline and fall of republics pose a vexing problem that man has not yet fully fathomed.

FOR THE SERIOUS STUDENT

Direct documentation of the Roman Empire and its decline is surprisingly sparse. The best sources for the first century A.D., Tacitus and Suetonius, both make grim if informative reading. Tacitus, lauded by many as the best Roman historian for his concision, attention to detail, and reliability, is a must-read for anyone wanting a dispassionate account of Roman culture and politics at the beginning of the Christian era. The surviving portions of Tacitus’ two magisterial works on Roman history, The Annals and The Histories, are available complete in a Modern Library Classics paperback edition.

Tacitus’ scandalous counterpart, Suetonius, is not for all tastes. Where Tacitus draws a curtain of discretion over the baser acts of his subjects, Suetonius unstintingly describes perversities that would make even some modern pornographers squirm with unease. The reader of Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars, available complete in a Penguin Paperbacks edition, must be prepared for an utterly candid view of diabolical levels of personal corruption. If nothing else, Suetonius is the most devastating testimony ever written of the dangers inherent in unlimited government power.

The last true Roman historian was Ammianus Marcellinus, who chronicled the events of his lifetime, many of which he witnessed. A professional soldier, he participated in Julian’s disastrous Persian campaign. He lived to see the virtual destruction of the Roman Empire, and his history concludes with a vivid description of the Battle of Hadrianople. The Penguin Paperbacks edition of his history is nearly complete, but a few passages have been removed for editorial reasons.

Finally, no discussion of Roman sources would be complete without reference to the venerable Edward Gibbon, whose massive History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remains, more than two centuries after its original publication, the most comprehensive such history, and perhaps the greatest historical treatise on any subject ever written. That said, the authority of Gibbon is often overdrawn. His obvious command of the facts and copious documentation are often overshadowed by his pompous tone, overuse of certain stock words and phrases, and blatant hostility to Christianity. All writers are entitled to their prejudices, of course, but Gibbon attributes the fall of the Roman Empire largely to the rise of Christianity. There is ample reason to suppose instead that Christianity artificially prolonged the life of an otherwise moribund state. It was certainly the case that Byzantium, the heir of the Eastern Empire, lacked any semblance of good government, and was preserved mostly by the vitality of her faith.

Nor was Gibbon any great champion of republican virtue and liberty. He, like many elites of his age, was awed by empire and cared little for the bucolic virtues of early Rome. As a consequence Gibbon, despite the canonical status he now enjoys, was very controversial both in America and in Europe when his work was first published. Many early Americans preferred the now-forgotten world history of the Frenchman Abbé Millot, a less monumental work but infinitely friendlier to republican values than Gibbon. In sum, Gibbon is without parallel as a source of raw information, but less reliable as an interpreter of the events he chronicled.  ~ Steve Bonta

A HISTORY OF ANCIENT ROME
by Lt. Cmdr. Youssef Aboul-Enein, MSC, USN
Review

A History of Ancient Rome. Seven CDs by Professor Frances Titchener of Utah State University. Part of The Modern Scholars Series published by Recorded Books, 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Frederick, Maryland at www.moderscholar.com .

The Modern Scholars Series provides CDs of the most noted professors on topics such as literature, history and political science. Titchener’s 14 lectures cover the history of ancient Rome from its founding in 1200 B.C. to its conclusion in 476 A.D.

Why dabble in the history of ancient Rome? Understanding the major empires of antiquity will illuminate your knowledge of how great empires rose, and what factors contributed to their demise. On a military tactical level, you cannot understand the development of such operations as the World War I German encirclement from Belgium and Holland into France without understanding the Battle of Cannae of the third century B.C. This battle was an obsession of the German General Staff and is considered by some to be the perfect tactical battle with Hannibal being perhaps the greatest general after Alexander the Great. The Battle of Cannae is covered in this CD. The battle changed the way Romans thought wars were fought.

Listeners will begin with two foundation myths of Rome. The first is that Rome was founded by Aeneas, who fled the burning city of Troy to found “New Troy,” at the command of the God Jupiter. Suffering a shipwreck, Aeneas washed onto the Italian shore and founded Alba Longa, a village that would evolve into Rome. Romans tended to admire the agrarian way of life. Romans were conservative in the sense that they opposed changes and new ideas and were also hierarchical. These themes are important in understanding conflict and triumph in ancient Rome.

The first period of Roman history (753-810 B.C.) was a series of seven kings beginning with Romulus who slew his brother Remus. This is a second foundation myth for Rome, and these myths tell listeners much about the Roman character. Of the seven kings, the final one, Tarquin, would become such a tyrant that Romans evicted kings and in their place ushered in the res publica (the people’s thing). Traquinius Priscus committed such tyrannies and coercions that the word rex (king) was hateful to the Romans. Keep in mind these precedents when Caesar would be assassinated in 42 B.C.

Lessons continued, such as the evolution of republican Rome, with Plebeians and Patricians vying for more power and authority. The Patricians were those from noble families and the Plebeians were the common Romans who demanded more rights. It is in this environment (510-287 B.C.) that the Twelve Tablets of legal code were formulated. That legal code was Lex Hortensia, a law that stipulated that laws passed by the plebian assembly was binding on the senate and patricians. Listeners will come to understand how the Senate became more distant from the realities of power. They will understand how a patrician with an army simply ignored the Senate, purged it and bullied it into submission, a technique favored by the Roman general Sulla.

When laws were ignored, the power of might ruled Rome, and this would start with the murder of the Gracci Brothers, Tribunes whose person was inviolable as long as they held office. Tribunes were liaisons between the plebian assembly and the patrician senate, the senate simply plotted to murder the Gracci brothers for their reforms. Three major figures denied a claim from the Roman senate would come together to form a triumvirate and ultimately destroy the republic. These persons were Julius Caesar, Pompeii Magnus and Crassus.

Listeners will learn some interesting anecdotes such as the origin of the word coliseum. The word came from the fact that Emperor Trajan built the structure on what used to be Nero’s colossal statue or colossus. Romans referred to the stadium as “the structure near the colossus” or Coloss-eum or is it coliseum? I shall leave this for the listener to judge. Also the origin of the world solider comes from Emperor Hadrian’s currency the soldi (a unit of gold coin that was unified throughout the empire) and carried by Roman troops.

Spend time with Professor Titchener and learn about the rise and fall of Rome. This is highly recommended if you have PCS or TAD orders to Italy as an orientation for what you will be seeing should you decide to take advantage of liberty in Rome and its surrounding cities.

http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/seaservices/11_14/commentary/42097-1.html

IN TRIBUTE TO MEMORIAL

By Silvia Montemurro

It is an undeniable fact; we are creatures of habit by our very nature who relegate our life events according to the markers of celebration better known as holidays. We sanction our social calendars around whatever designated festivity is timely, and we feel deprived if we do not partake of the regional hoopla for the varied soirees. On Long Island, the kick-off for the vacationing mecca is not the summer solstice; instead, we initiate the seasonal rite of passage with the venerated Memorial Day, we heighten its embrace with Fourth of July fanfare, and we bid farewell with the sedateness of Labor Day. Therefore, I commenced this Memorial Day 2006 with the classic regimentation of neighborhood barbecuing as well as with one other major revered activity. Every

Memorial Day a beautiful commemorative Mass is served by the Archbishop of the Diocese outdoors on the grounds of a local cemetery, and I always feel that my patriotic attendance is duty bound. However, something very uncanny evolved at this year’s service which left a lasting impression about the symbolism of my Italian-American lineage.

As I emerged from my car on a glorious radiant day filled with the impending sheen of summer, I ambled towards the incredibly massive white tent elegantly erected on the manicured cemetery lawn with hundreds of the other faithful who sanctified the day with worship. The eloquent Mass proceeded with a somber mellowness befitting the occasion and was finalized with a very dramatic blessing. One of the attending priests blessed the congregation by rendering a very significant thought. He stated that death can never be the instrument that physically ends any relationship; instead, the relationship at this stage assumes a new birthing, for it is perpetuated into memory and grows more fully and completely over time. As I contemplated over the profoundness of this insight, the Mass ended with two resounding hymns: “God Bless America” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Suddenly and surprisingly as we bellowed the Glory, Glory Alleluia refrain, our voices were totally drowned by the deafening sound of six World War II B-52 bombers which were synchronized for take-off as part of a military air show from the airport which is directly adjacent to the outskirts of the cemetery. These huge awkward looking planes with encapsuled round red noses provided us with an eeriness, for they were tangible connectives into a by-gone era and afforded us a regurgitation into a bit of history .Everyone immediately left the tent to watch this very special event and to rally in the irony of the symbolic timing of this airborne demonstration and the spirituality of the service. I personally was stunned by the amazing coincidence and continued to reflect upon the importance of resurrecting the past as a precursor to a better future.

During the remainder of the day, I thought about our order and the very special quality it renders to every OSIA member, for our union as fraternal brothers and sisters augmented by heritage traverses through time and slices the barriers of the past just like those planes of yesteryear. We are enlightened with a very special interactiveness as Italian-Americans which could easily have been drowned in a sea of mundane activities of everyday life. However, we through our membership strengthen the fibers of the tapestry of our own lives by bonding together to our worthy cause – the virtue, prominence, and honor of our ancestral recognition. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, let us host the memorial created by our OSIA service organization by partaking more fully of the diversified components of our order by actively engaging and supporting our lodge, state, and national events through personal participation. Let your voice, your contribution in any way – membership drives, committee work, holding office, financial support - any activity keep the memory of relationships with our culture reborn and kindled for the future generations of Italian Americans. Happy summer to all!

UPCOMING EVENTS

• July 12-16, 2006 — Annual Lady of Mt. Carmel Feast. Constantino Brumidi Lodge #2211. Contact: Roy Perticone, (631) 242-5492.
• July 16, 2006 — Grand Lodge presents Italian Day with the Long Island Ducks. Picnic at 3:30 PM. Game at 5:05 PM. Adults $40, Children (3-9) $30; 2 years and under free. Contact: Kathy Vitzthum, (516) 932-1178.
• July 21-22, 2006 — Summer Italian Festival at the Geneva Lodge #2397 Pavilion. 2 PM. $2 per person. Contact: Dan Chelenza, (315) 781-2203.
• July 23, 2006 — Gino Di Napoli presents the best Italian/American music. 1 PM. Sit down luncheon at the “Bavarian Inn,” Lake Ronkonkoma. $30 per person. Limited seating. Advance tickets required. Contact: Gino DiNapoli, (631) 242-5808, dinapoli1@aol.com or website: www.ginodinapoli.com
• July 23, 2006 — A Special Event Presented by Stony Brook University Center for Wine, Food, and Culture - Sapore d’Italia: A tasting of Italian and Italian American wines and foods. 5:30 PM. Wang Center. $30 per person. Note: age 21 and over, please. The Center has a 48-hour cancellation policy. Contact: Ginny Clancy, (631) 632-9404.
• July 29, 2006 — Summer Plenary Session. Hosted by Rockland Lodge #2176, Blauvelt, NY. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.
• August 5, 2006 — Bocce Tournament at the Geneva Lodge #2397 Pavilion. 12 Noon. $20 per person. Contact: Jamie Kaim, (315) 781-2242.
• September 16, 2006 — Districts I, II, & III CSJ – A Day at the Races at Belmont Park. 11:30 AM. $42 includes admission, program & clubhouse buffet lunch. Contacts: Tony Corsello, (516) 766-5518; Lee Cerullo, (516) 671-1693; or Rick Annichiarico, (631) 757-1439.
• September 24, 2006 — Garibaldi Meucci Museum Annual Brunch at LaGrange Inn, West Islip. 10:30 AM. Contact: Michelina Cangemi, (516) 933-7317 or Janet Rodgers, (631) 277-6101.
• October 1, 2006 — Italian Feast by Columbus Lodge #2143 at North Broadway, Massapequa. 11 AM. Contact: Tony Ventiera, (516) 797-4992.
• October 6, 2006 — Empire Lighting Ceremony. More information to follow.
• October 28, 2006 — Fall Plenary Session. More information to follow. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.
• October 29, 2006 — “The Giglio Feast of Brooklyn” by Prof. Salvatore Primeggio for the Loggia Glen Cove #1016. Held at the Glen Cove Library, Glen Cove. 2:30 PM. Contact: Kathryn Grande, (516) 676-7436.
• November 5, 2006 — Gift of Sight Annual Luncheon at Immaculate Conception Center, 7200 Douglaston Parkway, Douglaston, 1-5 p.m. More information to follow.

2007

• January 26, 2007 — 14^th Annual Winter Charity Ball at the Chateau Briand, Carle Place. More information to follow. Contact: Annette Lankewish, (516) 933-7393 or Madeline Matteucci, (631) 654-2578.
• January 27, 2007 — Winter Plenary Session. More information to follow. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.
• April 27, 2007 — 25^th Anniversary Golden Lion Awards Dinner at the Garden City Hotel. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.
• April 28, 2007 – Spring Plenary Session. More information to follow. Contact: Marianne Principe O’Neil, (516) 785-4623.    

Nota del Redattore:

• The Italian Heritage & Culture Committee Chair will send out a weekly news synopsis of articles and announcements of interest which compliment the Italian and Italian American Experience in America. Our sister and brother members are urged to submit items of interest.
• This report is available online at: http://www.nysosia.org/heritage.asp

Respectfully submitted:
Robert Necci
Coordinator - Italian Education, Culture & Language Committee
Chair – Italian Heritage & Culture Committee
2101 Bellmore Avenue
Bellmore, NY 11710-5605
HeritageandCultureReport@nysosia.org

STATE PRESIDENT CARLO MATTEUCCI

Goals & Objectives: 2005-2007 Administration

ITALIAN CULTURE, HERITAGE and EDUCATION

To promote, preserve, and support our Italian culture, heritage, and language by implementing this element of the Order in our parades, functions, meetings, and conventions.