URBEM FECISTI - SCRIPT

Passports of Italy, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia

The articles of the series Urbem Fecisti are dedicated to the way Rome has shaped the modern world, to its modernity. It's a fact that Roman Empire is still living inside each of us in the western world and not only.

Do you like travelling? You are reading the posts on this blog so, very likely, yes.
Therefore, have you bought your flight ticket? Have you reserved your room, possibly at San Lorenzo Guest House or Villa Borghese Guest House or St. John Villa in Rome? Have you packed your luggage? Yes, yes, yes; last thing to do is to check if you have money and credit card in your wallet and your passport ready.

Greek passport

Have you ever noticed a detail of your passport? No matter which is your country, no matter which language is spoken, no matter which alphabet is used in the country, everything is always written using also the Latin alphabet, including the cover sheet.
Well, there is one small exception for the cover sheet, the passport of Greece; the front page is written using only the Greek script.
That's because the prestige of the Greek alphabet is very close to the prestige of the Latin one. Both Latin and Greek were official languages in the Roman Empire and Greek became the only official language in the Eastern Roman Empire in the VII century.
That's only one of the many legacies of ancient Rome that has allowed a wild world to become a single city, a common code to communicate.

Urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat

URBEM FECISTI - JOURNALISM AND CAESAR

The articles of the series Urbem Fecisti are dedicated to the way Rome has shaped the modern world, to its modernity. It's a fact that Roman Empire is still living inside each of us in the western world and not only.

What do Julius Caesar and journalism have in common?

Caesar is, by many, considered the most important person in the history of the western world. He was the man that gave an empire to Rome and that marked a turning point in the political life of Western Europe and Middle East. Julius Caesar is celebrated as  one of the most, if not the most, capable generals in the military history. His victories are countless and they were almost all obtained with a very limited number of losses among his troops. At Pharsalus, the place where he defeated his rival Pompeius Magnus, the losses of the army of Pompeius were approximately 15000 soldiers; on the other side Caesar lost just 200 people despite having an army that was half of that of Pompeius.
Anyhow there other things for which Julius Caesar may be considered a person thta has left a legacy to the modern world, something that is part of our daily life.
One of those is the reform of the calendar. The Gregorian calendar that we are using nowadays is just a refinement of the Julian calendar.
But Caesar can be considered also the first newspaper publisher and war reporter of the history.

The ancient Romans were already used to keep track of the most important events of the life of the city that were reported in the Annales (yearly facts). That is the reason why the Roman history is so well documented. The historians that lived in that period had a precise source of information.
In the year 59 BC Caesar, during his consulate, officialized and properly organized the publication of the Acta Diurna (daily news) to report not only important events of the public life but also city news such as births, weddings and so on. The very first Acta Diurna had already appeared in 131 BC, but it was only after the decree of Ceasar that they started to be published and kept in a regular way. Acta Diurna were written on lime bleached wood tables or carved on stones that, after being exposed for some time, were removed and kept in the public archives.
The publication of the Acta Diurna, went on at least till 331 AD, when the capital of the empire was moved to Costantinopole. Unfortunately none of the tables has survived till the present times. Anyhow, again, they were a great source of information for the historians of that time.

Commentarii de Bello Gallico, or simply De Bello Gallico (Gallic War) is not only the most important text of the Latin prose, but also the first example of war reporting.
Other people had already written about war facts, the best example being probably the Anabasis of the Greek Xenophon. But all of those text were written well later of the facts.
Caesar started to report the facts more or less on real time. When the Senate began to oppose his campaign, he started sending to Rome the reports of his victories immediately after writing them to gain popular support. It was also the first example of propaganda.
coming back to the Acta Diurna, it is interesting to observe that is was normal for powerful or rich people living in the provinces, far away from Rome, to pay scribes to copy the Acta Diurna, and to send to them. Thanks to the efficient road system the were able to receive the copies in few days after the publication.
What has made Rome so different from other ancient civilation, and so present in our daily life, has been the fact that the Romans had a different way of thinking, for sure more pragmatic but, more importantly, open to changes.

Chickens and linguisting misunderstandings

Conosco i miei polli = literally, I know my chickens

Ironic, to know very well a person and therefore the way that person will act in a given situation

I Know them like the back of my hands.

One of the most commen problems we may have when travelling is to be victim of linguisting misunderstandings.
One may think that common saying may be understood by everyone whan translated, but that is not true.
Many years ago, at the beginning of my career, I had an epic fail being victim of a linguistic misunderstanding.
During a meeting with other my colleagues from different countris, while talking about some other people and the opportunity to involve them int a project we were developping, I firmly stated "I know my chickens", being convinced they were not the appropriate ones.
Suddenly silence came into the room till the moment one of the other people said: "What the hell are you saying? We are a chemical company, not a chicken farm!"
Luckily my italian boss, that in the meantime was only laughing, came into my help explaining what
I intended to say. Ilarity, then, became general.
But my moment of shame was not yet finished. Few days later, I got into the office in Rome and, on the board, I saw a communication of my boss summarizing the meeting and starting with my unforgettable words.

I KNOW MY CHICKENS

Vincenzo

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