Septimii Severi somnium - 1930
Septimii Severi somnium is a poem in
dactylic hexameters (283 in total) which Taberini submitted without success for
the Certamen Hoeufftianum of 1930 (van Binnebeke 2020: 286 n. 12). In
this poem Taberini voices his support for the regime’s ongoing effort to
colonise Libya and put an end to the Libyan resistance movement. The main
character is the Libyan-born emperor Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 CE), who in
a vision of Rome’s future sees his home-town, Leptis Magna, being conquered by
Mussolini’s regime. Taberini exalts the idea of Rome as beacon of civilization
to portray the Fascist aggression in a positive light, especially by drawing on the constructed opposition between
“Romans” and “barbarians”. The poem is mentioned in Garavani’s commemoration of
Taberini (Garavani 1934: 185). Sacré discusses the author’s use of the device
of the prophecy post eventum (Sacré 2020: 230-231). Septimii Severi
somnium was published as a booklet (Taberini 1933). The edition used for
FLT is the copy which Taberini submitted to the Certamen Hoeufftianum in
1930 (Taberini 1930).
The first part of Septimii Severi somnium (vv. 1-90) focuses
on Septimius Severus’ military campaign against the Picts, the people inhabiting
Caledonia (now Scotland). It begins with a description of the fortification of Hadrian’s
Wall (in modern-day Northern England), which aimed to keep the Picts out of
Rome’s empire (vv. 1-35). The Picts’ attempt to climb the wall and defend their
land against the Romans concludes with the capture of many of them (vv. 36-90).
The widespread hostility in Fascist Italy against Great Britain was surely a
factor in the author’s choice to frame Septimius’ vision within an expedition
against the ancient inhabitants of that land. Barbarus and cognate words
(e.g. barbaricus) recur constantly in the poem (e.g. vv. 1, 11, 15, 42,
50, 78, 92, 98, 129 162, 198, 243, 247, 249) to characterise Rome’s constructed
enemies: the ancient Britons fighting against Septimius and the Libyans attacked
by the Fascist regime. The idea of Rome’s civilizational superiority is thus
the connector between Septimius’ expedition and Italy’s aggression of Libya.
The second part (vv. 91-173) begins with the dialogue between a local
bard and Septimius Severus, in which the durability of the Roman empire is
pondered. The bard claims that no empire is unperishable, and therefore Rome
will also fall (vv. 108-112). He also predicts the rise of the British Empire
(vv. 116-121). Severus reproaches him for such views and asserts the god-sanctioned
stability of the Roman Empire (vv. 129-136). However, the old man’s prophetic words
haunt the emperor and lead him to a pensive soliloquy in which he laments Rome’s
moral decadence (vv. 145-173).
The last part of the poem recounts the dream that the Roman emperor
had the following night (vv. 174 ff.). A godly figure appears in a dream to Septimius
Severus (v. 178), who later identifies herself as the Sibyl of Cumae (v. 214). The
Sibyl illustrates to the emperor the future of Rome (vv. 219-273), explaining
him that the fall of the empire will not lead to the end of Rome itself. To
show this she tells the emperor about the coming of Christ and the transition
to Christian Rome. She then invites Septimius to look at the Christian Cross in
the sky (vv. 226-229), in a way reminiscent of the legend of Constantine’s
vision of the Cross before the battle against Maxentius in 312 CE. Septimius is
still somewhat puzzled by the Sibyl’s revelation, unable to understand the paradox
of Rome being eternal despite the doomed end of the empire (vv. 230-240). At
this point the Sibyl announces the advent of Mussolini and Fascism. She tells
Septimius Severus that after centuries of hardship (which include the First
World War and its aftermath, vv. 259-264), a dux will rise who will reinvigorate
the Fatherland, bind Church and State together, and restore ancient Rome’s
domination in Libya (vv. 265-272).
Bibliography
Latin texts
Taberini, Luigi.
1930. ‘Septimii Severi somnium’. Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief, 64. 833, nr.
12.
———. 1933. Septimii
Severi somnium. Carme latino con traduzione italiana dell’autore. Ancona:
Tipografia Dorica.
Secondary sources
Binnebeke, Xavier
van. 2020. ‘Hoeufft’s Legacy: Neo-Latin Poetry in the Archive of the Certamen
Poeticum Hoeufftianum (1923–1943)’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and
Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse,
and Valerio Sanzotta, 245–325. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven:
Leuven University Press.
Garavani, Giunio.
1935. ‘Commemorazione del Prof. Luigi Taberini’. In Atti del III congresso
nazionale di Studi Romani, edited by Carlo Galassi Paluzzi, 4:185–86.
Bologna: Licinio Cappelli Editore.
Sacré, Dirk. 2020.
‘The Certamen Hoeufftianum during the Ventennio Fascista: An
Exploration (with Unpublished Poems by Vittorio Genovesi and Giuseppe
Favaro)’. In Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian
Fascism, edited by Han Lamers, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, and Valerio Sanzotta,
199–241. Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46. Leuven: Leuven University
Press.
Nicolò
Bettegazzi
SOMNIUM
Critical Notes
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1) Nunc: manually added by anonymous reader.
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2) instant: manually corrected by anonymous reader.
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3) The word Instant has been manually crossed out.
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4) A tergo: manually added by anonymous reader.
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5) tamen et: moved manually from before pugnant to after.
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6) Veste senex: manually moved from after indutus.
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7) instar: manually moved from after hic.
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8) in eos: manually added, replacing in illos(?) after dominatur.
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9) somno: originally sommo, corrected by FLT-editors.
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10) gelido: originally magno, manually corrected.
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11) Septimus: Quonam...abdidit alma?: manually added.
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12) barathrum: originally baratum, manually corrected.
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13) Usus magister est vitae: manually added.