This text is the response I sent in mid-December 2007 to the following question asked in the Forum Site Roma Aeterna by Paolo Marenco, president of the cultural History in the Future :
"Domenico you look at our past, I read it in the key of construction of the future. My question is: What role did the Roman history and culture in our day to be Italian (ie, unique, different from all)? And yet creative, friendly, open, humble (open to learning), individual , pioneers .... and great chefs of great cooking?
I put you and your readers that question ... I am very interested in the answers and the reasons that bind this essence of that past and that history. "
I waited a while to submit my opinion to not interfere with any other answers, but I see that I am not yet arrived. I am afraid that the application has created some confusion because of the His reference to the present. It 'is undeniable that the dismal daily news spread in society a sense of frustration and inadequacy that puts a strain on the collective self-esteem.
The argument, in itself, is not relevant with issues specific to this forum for conversation, but it must be briefly touched because you can not if you do not answer the question focuses, first, what it means to be Italian. This doubt, however, is also one of our special features, since it could never touch or citizens of other major European nations, nor were those of children of recent origin. But this oddity has an ancient origin.
How can we then outline our national identity? To give a fair verdict must necessarily clear your mind of all that junk every day we are shaped by our short-sighted, irresponsible and uneducated "opinion makers" , obstinately devoted to inculcate disdain for any expression of genuine Italian Boeotian and awe towards other cultures. Fortunately for us, there are beliefs that still remain firmly rooted in the collective consciousness, such as, for example, the goodness of our cuisine, of course, but also our sense of cleanliness (the individual and in our case), at least when compared standards of some European nations much more conceited, our football glories and many other sports (such as forgetting what our beautiful marathoner Stefano Baldini, who arrived alone in the stadium in Athens?); winning our race cars, such as those with legendary brands Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Ducati, Aprilia, etc. And our and our sparkling wines, certainly not second to those beyond the Alps, the Italian fashion, represented by the great stylists in the world, but also by the natural elegance of our people; style Italian in the world, in industrial design, the bodywork of the cars and the great architecture, like Renzo Piano and Massimiliano Fuksas, the beauty of our women and the skill of our artists from the international celebrities, such as Carla Fracci, the late Pavarotti, Bocelli and Pausini; major conductors such as Abbado and Muti, the great masters of cinema, such as Fellini, Antonioni, Germs, and Visconti Monicelli; repeated of Italian firms, the toughest peaks, up to K2 and Everest, without oxygen, the effective Italian presence in major peacekeeping operations and in locations most advanced scientific research in Antarctica and in space. All of these things - that are part of our heritage, like Toto, Carousel, the old century and the Moka Express - are quite well known and there are more full of the usual spaghetti, cappuccino, pizza, mandolins and the Mafia.
But that's not all, are even more important because of the many active areas of excellence in our society, namely those qualifying solid reality which does not talk much but working incredibly well, and we know it only from time to time, when we discover, for example, that with the imminent delivery in orbit of the European laboratory Columbus (in about twenty days), more than half of ' entire International Space Station orbiting the Earth will Italian-built.
Whatever they say, then, the Italians have it all: people who can engage in serious and overcome every difficulty, even among non-optimal environmental conditions of work, and who managed to achieve extraordinary results, while working individually or in small groups, with lack resources and without the certainty of an appropriate institutional support.
This reality today is entirely consistent with that of past centuries, when our peninsula has generated the extraordinary individual who gave humanity the notes of music, comedy, art, humanism, the Renaissance, Italian, New World, Galileo's scientific method, melodrama, flashlight, telephone, radio and nuclear energy. Therefore, there is no rhetorical exaggeration in the famous phrase engraved in large letters on all four sides of the Palace of Italian Civilization, the EUR: "a nation of poets, artists, heroes, saints, thinkers, scientists, navigators, transmigration ".
This long introduction was necessary to be able to report back to the Italians real and not some outlandish parodies that are passed off as truth, or used as a crude satire Cheap, disqualifying only those who ye say, and who takes them for good. There being so enabled to understand the legitimacy and the sense of demand that has been placed, we can start thinking about possible correlations between the legacy of Rome and the specificity of the Italians today, in positive and negative.
My personal response, it should be clearly stated, not meant to assert the incontrovertible truth, since my actual competence is inherent in the historic naval and maritime sector alone. I am still able to give a sufficiently reliable opinion on the thinking of the ancient Romans, as the historical research necessary to compile "Classic" led me to read a huge number of works in Latin and Greek World Rome old (in fact, all those that were found, in total, I see now that it's 535 works cited in my bibliography, and 245 ancient authors which I have reported the specific citations in "Classic" ). From this speed reading course I have not analyzed and stored, but rather only the parts that were directly or indirectly useful to my research. However, from all I could take even a good perception of the genuine attitude of the authors.
On the basis of the evidence can be derived from ancient sources, it is quite clear that, broadly speaking, all the virtues and the vices which now repent over the Italians were equally existing in Rome and the Roman world. This applies, of course, with all the approximations and simplifications involve the opinions expressed in too general and brief. It should not be, in fact, forget that we are talking about the characteristics of a population whose thousand year history has been absorbed in themselves and that many of the cultures encountered in the provinces of an empire that spanned three continents, in addition to the diverse ethnicities, philosophies, religions and superstitions. On the other hand, when we are not so interested in distinguishing the endless mutations occurred in time, space and social groups of a world as complex and detailed, but we only care about whether the current characteristics of the Italians have been directly edited by Romans or are otherwise attributable to some extent the legacy of Rome.
In order to further narrow the topic (because otherwise the review extends beyond measure), I limit myself to the matters specified in the application:
- characters mostly positive: "creative, friendly, open, pioneer .... great chefs and great cooking ";
- characters with possible negative side effects " unique, different from all, humble (open to learning), individualists ".
I hope that if there will be no further action, they are also focused on these aspects in order to be scattered in too many directions.
For the first category of characters, certainly confirm my first opinion, that we have all inherited directly from the ancient Romans. Examine them in logical order.
welcoming and open.
Here is one of the intrinsic peculiarities of the Romans, this was their greatest strength, but this was also the major cause of their vulnerability.
Rome was founded by Romulus as a city open to anyone who wanted to settle there. This concept remained in force for all, provided, of course, comply with the laws of Rome and not to endanger the safety of the Roman people. The welcome was always so available to all, regardless of place of origin, language, ethnicity and religion. The same enemy that the Romans engaged in a military confrontation were to be accepted among friends and allies of the Roman people, because this was the normal ending of all conflicts after the Roman victory.
However, this innate desire of the Romans to welcome friends and former enemies very soon to give Roman citizenship to their leaders more representative of the situations created great risk during the Empire, as these new citizens are not yet intimately Romanized aroused some serious sedition, which is also of tremendous setbacks like that - disastrously - Teutoburg.
In late Roman Empire, then, placing in the legions, in an ever more massive, hastily converted barbarians, and only virtually Romanized, put the Empire itself at the mercy of people who had not assimilated virtually nothing of Roman civilization. The same fall of the Western Empire was caused by an internal mutiny led by Odoacer, who, while belonging to the bodyguard of the emperor, deprived him of his powers, even without understanding the implications of his gesture.
Creative and pioneers.
The Romans were fundamentally pragmatic. Faced with any business of war or peace, they were not acting along the lines of ready-made theories, but let us consider the situation case by case basis, and to develop lines of action which can achieve the goal in the best way, but with the necessary expenditure of energy and with minimal risk.
In the military field, that is exactly what we are constantly emerging from the analysis of their land and naval battles. They reached an enormous power thanks to their unquestionable virtue war, but also to caution them not to expose themselves when the result could be obtained in another way (not uncommon in cases of backroom deals, corruption or betrayal instigated by other methods). What is not so surprising when one remembers that Machiavelli became "Machiavellian" after studying the deeds of the Romans.
And the Italians? The military capabilities of the Italians have long been very popular throughout Europe, as our leaders and our armies were the most popular. More recently, past several decades of war put the trauma of defeat and civil war, now again become evident is the strong stuff of us, they made their professionalism even in situations of great risk and their ability to adapt to new situations, without being ensnared by the schematic. In the Persian Gulf, nel1988/89, we were the first to adopt the most effective tactic to escort our merchant ships in the event of a threat of mines drifting: At first it seemed a preposterous solution, then take all the other major in the marine those waters.
In civil matters, the Roman pragmatism led them to acquire all that was good in the cultures of the people in the provinces and overseas, improving significantly the solutions of others and then creating their own solutions, absolutely original and more responsive to needs. This is evident in all fields of construction, land (roads, aqueducts, baths, bridges, tanks, etc..) Maritime (ports, breakwaters, jetties divers, lighthouses, canals, seaside villas, etc..) And naval ( just think of the ships of Nemi), in various other engineering products (pipes, valves, taps, pumps, ball bearings, elevators, etc.), agriculture, nell'itticoltura, medicine, geography (including through different further exploration), law, literature, and art in the shows.
of Italians is not even appropriate to speak, as these are all areas where creativity is beautifully maintained.
Great chefs of great cooking
The taste of the Romans for good food and recipes developed is very old, so that we also have fragments that Ennio speak. Equally important was for the Romans, the selection of the best wines and the special care of the most valuable, such as the famous Falerno . In imperial times, with increasing well-being increased further the search for the most succulent delicacies, of which there are descriptions made famous. From such a passion for haute cuisine recipes from old age is evidently derived the entrenched habits of our quality of food and wines.
The second category of characters, those who have the potential downsides, I would say also that we have all inherited from the Romans, but we have accentuated in part due to its heritage Rome. Let's examine them one by one.
individualists.
In the Roman conception of society, the main actor was the man or the individual, and never the masses. Even in Roman politics, the famous battles between the party "popular" and the aristocratic was not a contest to give more power to the people as a whole (or as mass), but to ensure that members of the mob could rise to individually those positions that had long been the prerogative of senators or knights. After the Gracchi, the greatest exponents of so-called popular were Mario and Cinna, followed by Caesar, and finally by Octavian. All persons who seek power for themselves and their supporters, even with the declared intention of meeting the needs of the people trampled by the prevarication of the senatorial class.
The Romans were thus of individualists. Some of them do not even hesitate to put themselves at odds even with their homeland when they felt offended in his own personal integrity: the most striking cases are those of Coriolanus, a refugee from the Volsci, Mario, Africa, and Sertorius in Spain.
Humble (open to learning).
Here you can see, on the one hand, another aspect of that pragmatism which has already been discussed, and the other an intellectual curiosity that, by giving more importance to information sought than the dubious satisfaction do not have to show for itself. In fact, the Romans had no difficulty in requiring the teaching of others when it was more productive. If you were unable to acquire sufficient information to do things right to improve, they did. Otherwise continue to employ teachers who are not Romans. This made the fortune of the Greeks, who could "sell" their good theoretical knowledge.
In the case of the Romans, however, does not seem entirely appropriate to speak of humility, because there was an attitude that they conceive. Maybe for them it was rather indifferent.
In Italian there is certainly the same openness to learning. I do not know if we could really call it humility (who has a taste of subservience and subordination) or simple realism and lack of arrogance.
Unique, different from all
The Romans were in mentality. It was not obviously or place of origin or ethnicity, or philosophy or religion. Anyone, anywhere it came from, when it became the Roman Empire took that mentality. This mentality was fundamentally universalist: he felt the first Roman citizen of the world, although favored Rome and Italy and would give his life for them.
Italy, in fact had a beginning special status. It was never considered a "province" of Rome, but a sort of extension of the residence of the Romans or their trips, as we would say today. This involved very early (as a result of the Civil War) the extension of Roman citizenship to the entire peninsula. During the period of the Empire, the distinction between Romans and Italians came to disappear.
After the fall of the Western Empire, its territory became the prey of various barbarian kingdoms. While these kingdoms, fighting among them, began to extol the selfishness "national" and thus to forge the first elements of the identity of the future European nations, the Italians were refractory to this process, though still influenced by the universalism that made them indifferent to the color flags that passed through their territory. This basic attitude has remained largely present in all the centuries of foreign domination, but was not removed even after the unification of Italy. Despite his patriotism, certainly very strong especially in the Risorgimento period, that universalism is rooted still the basis of our mentality. This uniqueness is certainly not a demerit, but represent still a dangerous vulnerability as long as in other European countries will remain strong on national interests.
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