Notes.
1 The eagle, symbol of Roman power, had moved
westward first with Aeneas, Lavinia’s husband; then Constantine returned it east when
he founded Constantinople in 330.
10 Justinian, emperor from 527 to 565,
codified Roman law (l. 24), but tolerated, if he did not actually accept, the monophysite
heresy that Christ possessed only a divine nature.
16 Agapetus I was pope from 535 to 536.
25 Belisarius (505-565) was Justinian’s
celebrated general who fought against the Ostrogoths in Italy.
33 The Ghibellines adopted the eagle as their
ensign.
34 The history of the eagle, the authority of
Rome, from early times up to the present Holy Roman Empire is presented as a pageant of
former successes and recent disasters.
36 Pallas, son of Evander who ruled the area
where Rome would rise, was killed fighting on the side of Aeneas against Turnus (Aeneid
X, 479-489). Alba Longa, (l. 37) was the area ruled by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas. The
three Horatii of Rome later conquered the three Curiatii champions of Alba Longa; the
power-center shifted to Rome (l. 39).
40 Romulus, the first of the seven kings of
Rome, took part in the rape of the Sabine women — whom they took as wives — and
Sextus Tarquinius, son of the last king, violated Lucretia, a patrician’s daughter,
an act that ended the monarchy in 510 B. C.
44 Brennus, a chief of the Gauls, and
Pyrrhus, a king of Epirus in Greece, battled Rome and lost. Dante names Roman leaders like
Torquatus, Lucius Quinctius (called Cincinnatus for his curly hair), the families of Decii
and the Fabii, all of whom fought bravely under the eagle’s standard (ll. 46-48).
Scipio Africanus (l. 52) defeated the (Arab) Carthaginians under Hannibal in 202 B. C.,
and Pompey the Great (106-48 B. C.) proved himself an able general in Italian, Spanish,
and African campaigns. Julius Caesar’s prowess in Gaul (58-50 B.C.), the Civil War,
and in the Mediterranean against Pompey, Ptolemy, and Juba prepared the way for the peace
that came after Augustus defeated Brutus, Cassius, Mark Antony and Cleopatra (ll. 55-81).
At last, the temple of Janus, always opened in times of war, was locked shut (l. 81).
Under Tiberius, the third Caesar (14-37 A. D.), Christ was crucified that sins be avenged,
and under Titus, son of Tiberius, that crime was in turn avenged by the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (ll. 87-93). Charlemagne, crowned emperor in 800, conquered the
Lombards and dethroned their king Desiderius. The Guelphs later joined up with the French,
whose emblem is the yellow lilies, while the Ghibellines arrogantly appropriated the eagle
itself as ensign. Charles II of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily, now compounds troubles
by leading the Guelphs in an effort to have the lilies usurp the eagle (ll. 94-111).
128 Romeo of Villeneuve (1170-1250) became
chamberlain of Raymond Berenger IV of Provence and administered the country honestly and
efficiently, even arranging marriages of Raymond’s four daughters to kings. |
|
-
"After Constantine turned back the eagle
-
Against the course of heaven which it followed
-
Behind the man of old who wed Lavinia,
-
-
"The bird of God two hundred years and more
- 5
Stayed on at Europe’s utmost boundary,
- Near
to the mountains from which it first flew.
-
-
"And there it ruled the world beneath the shadow
- Of
its sacred wings, from hand to hand, until
- With
the succeeding changes it came to me.
-
- 10
"Caesar I was, Justinian I am,
- Who,
by will of the First Love that I feel,
- Rid
the laws of what was gross and empty.
-
-
"Before I set my whole mind to this work,
- I
held Christ had one nature and not two,
- 15
And in that faith I was content to rest.
-
-
"But blessed Agapetus, who was then
- The
supreme shepherd, by his warning words
-
Directed me back to the one true faith.
-
-
"I believed him, and what he held on faith
- 20
I now view quite as clearly as you see
- How
contradictions are both false and true.
-
-
"So soon as I set my steps with the Church,
- It
pleased God by his grace to inspire in me
- The
high task to which I wholly gave myself.
-
- 25
"I gave my arms to Belisarius
- Who
was so joined to the right hand of heaven
- That
I took it for a sign to let mine rest.
-
-
"Here, then, my answer ends to your first question.
-
Certain details in my reply, however,
- 30
Require me to add on something more,
-
-
"So that you may perceive with how much right
- Men
strove against the sacrosanct ensign,
- Both
those usurping it and those opposing.
-
-
"You see what power made the eagle worthy
- 35
Of reverence, beginning from the hour
- When
Pallas died to give it sovereignty.
-
-
"You know it made its home in Alba for
- Three
hundred years and more, till at the end
- Three
heroes fought against three others for it.
-
- 40
"You know what it achieved through seven kings,
- From
the Sabine women’s wrong to Lucretia’s woe,
- While
conquering the countries round about.
-
-
"You know what it accomplished when borne by
- The
noble Romans battling Brennus, Pyrrus,
- 45
And the rest, the lords and their alliances.
-
-
"Then came Torquatus, Quinctius named for
- His
wild curly locks, the Decii and Fabii
- Who
won the fame which I am glad to honor.
-
-
"It cast down to the ground the pride of Arabs
- 50
Who followed Hannibal across the Alps’
- Rocky
crags from which you, Po, cascade.
-
-
"Beneath it Scipio and Pompey triumphed
- While
still young men; and to that hill, below
- Which
you were born, it showed its cruelty.
-
- 55
"Then, near the time when all of heaven willed
- To
bring the world back to a state of peace,
-
Caesar took it up at Rome’s command.
-
-
"And what it worked from Var up to the Rhine
- Was
witnessed by the Isere, Loire, and Seine,
- 60
And all the valleys whose streams fill the Rhone.
-
-
"What it worked next after it left Ravenna
- And
leaped the Rubicon was such a flight
- That
neither tongue nor pen might follow it.
-
-
"Around it wheeled the legions into Spain,
- 65
Then to Durazzo; and it struck Pharsalia
- So
sharply that the hot Nile felt the blow.
-
-
"Once more it saw Antandros and the Simois
- From
which it set forth, and where Hector lies;
- Then,
to Ptolemy’s grief, it soared again.
-
- 70
"From there, like a thunderbolt, it fell on Juba,
- And
afterward it turned back to your west
- Where
it had heard the blast of Pompey’s trumpet.
-
-
"For what it wrought with its succeeding keeper,
-
Brutus and Cassius howl in deepest hell,
- 75
And Modena and Perugia wailed for it.
-
-
"Weeping still is tearful Cleopatra
- Who,
fleeing its attack, snatched from the asp,
-
Instead of it, a dark and instant death.
-
-
"With this Augustus it reached the Red Sea shore;
- 80
With him it spread such peace throughout the world
- That
the temple of Janus was locked shut.
-
-
"But what that standard which stirs me to speak
- Had
done before and afterwards would do
-
Throughout the mortal kingdom subject to it
-
- 85
"Seems insignificant and shadowy
- When,
with a clear eye and with pure affection,
- You
mark it in the hand of the third Caesar,
-
-
"Because the living Justice which breathes in me
- Gave
it the glory, in the hand I’ve mentioned,
- 90
Of taking vengeance for the wrath of heaven.
-
-
"Now wonder at what I unfold for you:
- It
later sped with Titus to wreck vengeance
- Upon
the vengeance of the sin of old.
-
-
"And, lastly, when the Lombard tooth bit down
- 95
On Holy Church, beneath the eagle’s wings
-
Charlemagne through conquest brought her aid.
-
-
"Now you can judge the likes of those whom I
-
Accused just now, and of their sins and failings
- Which
are the reason for all your misfortunes.
-
- 100
"One side opposes to the public standard
- The
yellow lilies; the other claims the eagle,
- So
that it’s hard to see which sins the most.
-
-
"Let the Ghibellines, let them ply their arts
- Under
another emblem, for they follow
- 105
This standard ill in severing justice from it.
-
-
"And let the new Charles with his Guelphs not try
- To
strike it down, but let him dread the talons
- That
have stripped off the skins of stronger lions.
-
-
"Sons, many times before this, have wept for
- 110
Their father’s sins; and let him not believe
- That
God will change his coat of arms for lilies!
-
-
"This little star is spangled with the spirits
- Of
those who strove for good but aimed their actions
- In
order to acquire fame and honor.
-
- 115
"And when desires deviate off course
- In
that direction, the rays of their true love
- Must
rise on upward with less living force.
-
-
"But equal measuring of our rewards
- With
our merits is part of our delight,
- 120
Since we see them as neither less nor greater.
-
-
"In this way living Justice has so sweetened
- Our
own affections that they never can
- Be
bent aside to any wickedness.
-
-
"Assorted voices make sweet melody:
- 125
And so the varied ranking of our lives
-
Renders sweet harmony among these gyres.
-
-
"Within this present pearl shines the light
- Of
Romeo, whose beautiful and noble
-
Endeavor was so churlishly rewarded.
-
- 130
"But the Provençals who worked against him
- Have
no last laugh, for he takes an evil path
- Who
harms himself through the good deeds of others.
-
-
"Four daughters, and each one of them a queen,
- Had
Raymond Berenger, and this was managed
- 135
By Romeo, a low-born man and pilgrim.
-
-
"But then crooked words caused Berenger to ask
- A
reckoning of this just man who had ever
-
Returned in payment to him twelve for ten.
-
-
"At that point he departed, poor and old,
- 140
And if the world could know the heart he had
- When
begging his livelihood crust by crust,
-
-
"Much as it praises him, it would praise him more."
|
return to Paradiso V
go to Paradiso VII