Romulus killed his brother Remus over who would get to name their city. The natives called it Rome from there on.
In an early episode of The Sopranos, Tony and his crew are working over a Hasidic guy at the behest of his former father-in-law. He speaks of his people outlasting the Roman Empire and says, "And the Romans, where are they now?" Tony responds, "You're lookin' at 'em, asshole."
On the surface, the Remus and Romulus story seems to prove Tony's point. It should be recognized, however, that this myth has always had numerous interpretations. Not a few felt all along that, even though they got Rome out of it, this was a tragic tale.
2 comments:
The whole thing sounds pretty fishy to me. Maybe Romulus couldn't stand the idea of the city being named Reme.
Since I had only a vague memory of the episode I had to look up what had been going on to lead to the confrontation with Tony and crew. It looks as though Ariel, the Hasidic guy, had been working for his father-in-law for a long time before marrying the daughter. In fact, his changes were what had increased the motel chain's profits, making his demand for 50% interest in one of them seem a reasonable deal for freeing the divorcing daughter to remarry. Hmmm.. he didn't get it once Tony showed his gladiatorial tendencies.
There are some who say that Rome never actually fell, that it only went through a kind of phase change that's survived in the West in terms of culture, administration, language, and institutions. But whether that's the case or not, or whether Romulus and Remus ever walked the earth, fratricide is indeed a terrible tragedy.
"Reme" could work with a well-placed diacritical. "Rême", say. Although maybe that's more of a French thing.
It was Ariel's bad luck that his father-in-law went for the hired gangsters option. The thing about that kind of arrangement is that whoever brings in the outside help commands their loyalty, or at least their obedience. They're not there to has out who's right and wrong. And I know that Tony's friend Hesh suggested they threaten the guy with castration. Don't remember exactly how things shook out, but that is an effective threat.
There's a case to be made for Rome's survival, and that it was just the old titles that passed away. Much of the world speaks languages derived from Latin, chiefly Spanish, French, and Portuguese. Likewise, the Roman-influenced iteration of Christianity still holds sway with a large part of the world's population. Romulus and Remus may be purely allegorical figures, but the allegory does continue to have relevance.
Post a Comment