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Innumerable as the Starrs of Night,
Or Starrs of Morning, Dew-drops, which the Sun Impearls on every leaf and every flouer Milton |
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Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
— that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. Keats
E = M
Energy is eternal delight.
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What wailing wight
© Copyright 2002 – 2007
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Impearls: Earthdate 2007-11-10
In Impearls’ earlier piece on the “Constitution of the Roman city-state,” notice was paid to the fact that the principal officers of the Roman civitas (city-state or county) were a duo who were typically termed duumvirs and the system was thereby a duumvirate (literally “two-man-office”); to the tail end of which I thereby tacked on a postscript, to wit:
That then drew this reply from Impearls reader Circe:
(Laughing.) That’s pretty funny! Taking the point semi-seriously though, I suspect — the malady known as “Bush Derangement Syndrome” being as prevalent as it is at present — quite a number of BDS-affected souls would like or at least fantasize treating the President of the United States as Nero was. Bush, however, is fairly young and will in bit over a year (unlike Nero) voluntarily leave office; thereafter (barring untoward events) he’s likely to live for a number of decades yet. Given that, who knows how public opinion will shift by the time the matter truly is “postumous”? Recall that Truman ended his term in office highly unpopular (locked in a stalemated war that cost nearly as many American lives as the Vietnam War did to boot), and yet look how he’s regarded now. The essential point, of course, is that the United States (in its executive branch) is a constitutional duumvirate — a feature in my view probably copied by the American founding fathers (I suspect principally James Madison) directly from the Roman model. Certainly there’s nothing among America’s British and Continental political forebears (other than the Roman) similar to the U.S. President and Vice President. (That and other resemblances between the Roman and American constitutional systems probably deserve a further posting one of these days to properly consider the matter.) Beyond that, folks who disbelieve that America (as well as Rome) has “apotheosized” (honorarily deified) at least some past Presidents (as Rome did some of its Emperors) need look no further than the overlooming fresco encompassing the dome of nothing less than the Capitol of the United States (Congress’s designated assembly hall, as the Roman Capitol was for the Senate in Rome), revealing emigre Italian artist
Constantino Brumidi’s
stunning masterpiece “The Apotheosis of Washington”….
George Washington — General principally responsible for his country’s independence, chairman of its constitutional convention, and first President of the United States — sits enthroned over a rainbow.
With a gesture at the Constitution/Law, flanked by the goddesses of Liberty (holding the traditional Roman fasces of authority) and Victory/Fame (cradling the palm of victory whilst flourishing the clarion of fame) — haloed round by a constellation of thirteen Starry maidens hoisting a banner proclaiming E Pluribus Unum — the apotheosized Washington regards us from on high as the Lord of Hosts.
Figures
f1 Constantino Brumidi, “The Apotheosis of Washington,” and a detail therefrom, 1865, Capitol of the United States. f2 Constantino Brumidi, detail from “The Apotheosis of Washington,” 1865, Capitol of the United States. Labels: American history, apotheosis, constitution, George Washington, Roman law Impearls: Earthdate 2007-10-27 |