De Virgilio et fascium regimine. Oratio - 1930
De Virgilio et fascium regimine is a prose oration, delivered at the bishop’s palace in Reggio Calabria on 12 June 1930 on the occasion of Vergil’s 2000th birthday. Vergil’s bimillenario was celebrated throughout Italy, both in academic circles and in public events (Canfora 1985; Foss 1998: 308-316 and Ricchieri 2016). Among the audience was the Archbishop of Reggio Calabria, Carmelo Puija (1852-1937), who is addressed at the very beginning of the speech, as well as professors and students. The speech consists of three parts in which Quattrone sets out to demonstrate the importance of Vergil and his works for Italy.
In the first part of his speech, the orator refers to
Vergil’s Eclogue 4, which reveals the coming of Christ (a
Christian interpretation of the poem, attested as early as the 4th century). Quattrone
quotes Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars (Augustus 94; Vespasian 4)
and Tacitus’ Histories (13) to support his
interpretation. In the second part, Quattrone explains how Mussolini,
according to him, worked hard to restore Italian agriculture. More
specifically, he argues that the circumstances of Mussolini’s Battle of Wheat (Battaglia
del grano) are similar to those of Augustus’s agricultural reforms. In both
cases, he claims, the farmers had been forced to leave their lands in order to
participate in a war, while they were sorely needed again afterwards to
cultivate the farmlands. According to the poet, Emperor Augustus instructed Vergil
to write the Georgics specifically to encourage the Roman
farmers to return to their acres. From this, Quattrone concludes that the
Italians should look to Vergil’s Georgics as a source of
inspiration for restoring their own agriculture. In the third part,
Quattrone claims that Vergil’s Aeneid should be studied
because it contains exempla of pious, righteous, and patriotic
men, who should be imitated by the Italians. Towards
the end of his oration, Quattrone addresses the Italian youth directly, encouraging
them to immerse themselves in reading and studying Latin, especially Vergil, in
order to learn the virtues of the Romans and the art of speaking and
writing. De Virgilio et fascium regimine was first published in Quattrone (1930) and then in Quattrone
(1935).
Bibliography
Latin
texts
Quattrone, Francesco. 1892. Iuvenile speciem carminum
Latinorum: carmen, elegiae, odae sapphicae, epigrammata. Genoa: Juventutis.
———. 1898. Nova carmina: Elegiae. Ecloga.
Interpretationes. Epigrammata. Genoa: Juventutis.
———. 1918. Tomarmorimon: carmen can. Francisci Quattroniii
[Francesco Quattrone]. Reggio Calabria: Ex Officina Typographica
Francesci Morello.
———. 1930. De Vergilio et fascium regimine oratio habita
pro Virgilio commemorando in sacro Ephebeo Regino a.d. XII Kal. Junias an.
MDCCCXXX. Rhegii Julii: Ex Officina Typogr. Opera Antoniana.
———. 1936a. “De Vergilio et fascium regimine oratio habita pro
Virgilio commemorando in sacro Ephebeo Regino a.d. XII Kal. Junias an.
MDCCCXXX.” In Opera omnia, 261–70. Rhegii Julii: Francisci Morelli.
———. 1936b. Opera omnia. Rhegii Julii: Ex Officina
Typographica Francesci Morello.
Secondary
sources
Canfora, Luciano. 1985. “Fascismo e bimillenario della nascita di Virgilio.” In Enciclopedia Virgiliana, edited by Francesco Della Corte, 2:469–72. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana.
Foss, Clive. 1998. “Augustus and the Poets in Mussolini’s Rome.” In Style and Tradition. Studies in Honor of Wendell Clausen, edited by Peter Knox and Clive Foss, 306–25. Beiträge Zur Altertumskunde 92. Stuttgart: Teubner.
Nelis, Jan. 2011. From Ancient to Modern. The Myth of Romanità during the Ventennio Fascista: The Written Imprint of Mussolini’s Cult of the “Third Rome.” Brussels and Rome: Belgisch Historisch Instituut te Rome.
Ricchieri, Tommaso. 2016. “Il poeta dell’Impero e dei campi:
le celebrazioni del bimellenario virgiliano nel 1930.” Studi storici:
rivista trimestrale dell’Istituto Gramsci 57 (2): 237–66.
Nelleke
Koornstra
Can. Prof. FRANCISCI QUATTRONE
RHEGINI JVLIENSIS
DE VIRGILIO
ET FASCIUM REGIMINE
ORATIO
HABITA PRO VIRGILIO COMMEMORANDO
IN SACRO EPHEBEO RHEGINO
A. D. XII KAL. JVNIAS AN. MDCCCCXXX
RHEGII JVLII
Ex Officina Typog. «Opera Antoniana»
MCMXXX
BENITO MVSSOLINIO
ITALIAE - PERICLITANTIS - VINDICI
AD - GLORIAE - FASTIGIA - ALACRITER - PROCEDENTIS
AVCTORI
PATRIAE - LIBERTATIS - ET - JVRIVM
ADSERTORI - VNI - OMNIVM - MAXIMO
TENVEM - HANC - ORATIONEM
DICO
STVDIOSISSIME.
Irrita perpetuâ solvent formidine terras? .4
Permixtos heroas et ipse videbitur illis?.5
Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna
Et nova progenies caelo demittitur alto13
Vertere..... ulmisque adjungere vites
Conveniat; quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo
Sit pecori, atque apibus quanta experientia parcis.16
Magna virum!.19
Tu Marcellus eris. Minibus date lilia plenis
Purpureos spargam flores, animamque nepotis
His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere.21
Hae tibi erunt artes pacisque imponere mores
Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos,22
Roma triumphati dum caput orbis erit.25
Original Footnotes
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1) Aderat amplissimus Vir Carmelus Pujìa Archiepiscopus Rheginorum cujus auspiciis habitus est conventus.
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2) Inf. Cant. I. v. 82.
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3) Amplissimus CARMELUS PUJÌA Rheginorum Archiepiscopus.
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4) Eclog. IV. vv. 13-14.
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5) Ibid. vv. 15-16.
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6) Ibidem v. 17.
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7) Cantu, Storia della letteratura latina, Le Monnier 1864.
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8) Sveton. Aug. 94.
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9) Sveton. Vespasiano.
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10) Taciti Hist. 13.
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11) Isaiae Cap. XI, v. 6.
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12) Eclog. IV. v. 22.
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13) Ibid. vv. 5-7.
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14) Purg. XXII, vv. 70-73.
Quando dicesti: secol si rinnova
Torna giustizia, e primo tempo umano
E progenie discende dal ciel nuova
Per te poeta fui per te cristiano. -
15) In concione quam Vir magnus Mussolinius ad agricolas habuit a. d. VI Id. Decembres a. MCMXXIX in theatro romano, cui nomen Argentina, dixit: « La decisione d’intraprendere la battaglia del grano fu presa da me in data 11 Giugno 1925...Il 30 Iuglio ricevevo le rappresentanze dei sindacati agricoltori a Palazzo Chigi e specificavo che la battaglia del grano aveva per scopo di liberare il popolo italiano della servitù del pane straniero ».
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16) Georg. Lib. I, vv. 1-4.
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17) En verba: « Il 1930, o camerati agricoltori, sarà l’anno di Virgilio, il Poeta dell’Impero e dei campi. Noi lo celebreremo fascisticamente, al lavoro e col lavoro, facendo compiere un altro balzo innanzi a tutta l’agricoltura italiana ».
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18) Celso Ulpiani, Le Giorgiche, Casa Editrice F.lli Marescalchi Casalmonferrato 1927. Liber optimus, quem legere et manu assidue versare tanti est.
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19) Georg. Libr. II, vv. 173-174.
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20) Aeneid. Libr. I, v. 37.
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21) Aeneid. Libr. VI, vv. 882-886.
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22) Aeneid. Libr. VI, vv. 851-853.
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23) Inf. Cant. I, v. 87.
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24) Monti Prose e Poesie Vol. IV pag. 88 Firenze. Le Monnier, 1847.
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25) Ovid. Am. I. 15.