The Anathemata
Middle-sea and Lear-sea (continued)
Five hundred and thirty-nine years since the first consular year and the beginnings of the less uncertain sequences and the more defined contours.
How long since first we began to contrive
on the loose-grained tufas
quarried about the place;
incise, spaced and clear
on the carried marbles
impose on the emblems:
S E N A T U S P O P U L U S Q U E . . . ?
for all the world-nurseries
to say: Roma knows great A.1
For the world-connoisseurs to cant their necks and to allow:
Yes, great epigraphers, let’s grant ’em one perfected aesthetic—and, of course, there’s the portrait-busts.
David Jones notes
1 I had in mind a child’s rhyme which I can but hazily recall, but which I think ran somewhat as follows:
“Fiddle taddle titmouse
Flora* knows great A
B and C and D and E,
G H, I and J and K.”
* Or Doris, or Augustus or whatever the name of the child reciting it.
additional notes
The first consular year was 509 BCE; hence the text is set to 30 CE.
comments