Friday, February 07, 2025
Italy
Cicero, Post Reditum ad Quirites 1.4 (tr. N.H. Watts):
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And what of our country herself? Heaven knows that words can scarce express the love and joy which she inspires! How beauteous is Italy, how renowned are her cities, how fair her landscapes, her fields, and her crops! How splendid is her metropolis, how enlightened her citizens, how majestic her commonwealth, and how great the dignity of you her children!I understood celebritas as dense population, not renown. Cf. D.R. Shackleton Bailey's translation of quae celebritas oppidorum as "the populous towns".
ipsa autem patria, di immortales! dici vix potest quid caritatis, quid voluptatis habeat! quae species Italiae! quae celebritas oppidorum! quae forma regionum! qui agri! quae fruges! quae pulcritudo urbis! quae humanitas civium! quae rei publicae dignitas! quae vestra maiestas!
