Roman Sweeps
Ben Tripp
tandem = at last
Greeks considered it was kidnapping
10 years according to Virgil
The Greeks do not like the
Trojans, they are sailing to Asia
they are going to besiege
Troy for a long time
The Greeks and the Trojans fight outside
the walls for a long time
The Greeks kill many Trojans
The Trojans kill many Greeks
After a while, the Greeks build
a wooden horse, this hollow structure
carries many Greeks
then the Greeks can re-appear and vanquish
the Trojans
from the inside
it is the question
a geographical area with its own governing body
a certain area that is separated from another area
by borders
I’ll tell you why we
have the words
Camilla in The Aeneid
. . . . . . . . .
Among the Italians, Latinus reigns.
Latinus helps the Trojans
Camilla (“even though a woman”) helps the
Rutuli
The poet tells the story as follows
Among the Volsci, Metabus reigns
after a few years
others build Alba Longa
The Volsci don’t like Metabus
Therefore M.b. takes his small
daughter and wanders thru Italy
Finally he sees the deep river
He ties his daughter to a long
spear
When the Volsci approach he throws
the spear across the river
The Goddess Diana helps Metabus
the spear carries Camilla across the
river
Thus Metabus is safe, Camilla is safe
Afterwards they wander through many
lands together
But the Trojans kill Camilla and
could defeat the Rutuli
It’s the 8th hour. Middle of the afternoon probably
The subura is not quiet. It is clamoring loud
Faustus is in the building, his daughter is in the shop
Faustus the landlord, I guess
erasing graffiti
that accuses him of being a thief
“Are you sleeping, Rufina?”
“I’m not sleeping!”
I’m always working
has thinking brought me here
as some people say to me
then how might I leave it
and be done with this consequence
where did it really start
looking back just might be worse
I don’t know the tautology
He is just a character/interlocutor
bothering people
he served in the army
he would vote
& pester people on the street
he wouldn’t let people get away
with their first answer
“so much of the
Catholic faith
is built on Platonism”
After Romulus, many kings reigned among
the Romans
When Tullus Hostilius reigned
the three Horatii were growing up
thriving blossoming
the Romans fought with the Albani
The gods will help the Romans
The gods will give the Romans
victory
quamquam solus est . . .
in the field between Rome and Alba
they fight
non iam
oraculum, oraculi
oracula, oraculorum
“ . . . because the oracles of the gods
they have . . . ”
You will have the books if you
give me money
You will no longer be ignorant
of the oracles of the gods
The king laughs and sends her away
because she is asking for too much money
Sybil sets fire to three of the books
out of nine
She returns with the remaining six
but the price is the same
Again Tarquinius laughs and sends her away
When she returns again she has only three books
and still doesn’t lower the price
No longer does he laugh
the Roman people
often adjudicate
separate desires
/ (they) were helping
Near the bank of the river
into the camp of the Etruscans
at last the Romans expelled
Tarquinius from the country
because of many injustices
But soon he returns with many
troops
Porsena helps Tarquinius with
many Etruscans
et castra (prope ripam fluvii) ponit
castra ponere = to set up camp
the Romans were greatly scared
while Gaius Mucius hastens
secretly into the camp of
the Etruscans
and there he draws his sword
and runs not at Porsena (who doesn’t look
like a king)
kills the poor secretary
not Porsena
Mucius doesn’t know what Porsena
looks like
philo-so-phia
Déjà vu
spinning webs as a
conciliation
Learning is recollection
You’ve always known it somehow
Which fork gets taken
and which other left behind
x-ness
one example pointing to the general
“Why are you drawing your sword
against me?”
Exceptional Roman
Mucius replies
“I don’t ask for compassion
nor do I fear death”
Tarquinius
to get a sense of structure
Mucius Scaevola
The flames are consuming his
hand
as he says
interlocking 300 Praetorians armored now
coming towards the camp
Fearing neither the flames
the persistence of the man
affects Porsena
He gets a nickname
out of the dead, and fabulous
prizes
he wasn’t even after a famous
title, refrigerator, car
Itaque: “And so . . .”
CORIOLANUS
Gaius Marcius est vir (inter Romanos)
Nom. Acc. praeclarus
a distinguished guy among
the Romans
they call him Coriolanus
for the rest of the story
because he attacked
the city of the Volsci
“Corioli”
with great arrogance
he looks down on the people
and so the Romans attack him
the road lined with tombs
the dead need to be remembered
in public in Ancient Rome
the inscriptions on these things
A poor man is in the sepulcher
the canine sees it
People bring offerings like
food and wine, bread
Gisco holds them
always
passing under the Arch of Claudius
w-idet
Infans est laetus.
Catia non est laeta.
Catia est Britannica
scorns the emperor
his statue and horse-d
in vain for nothing
they send ambassadors
it’s me
Coriolanus
“Why do you lead
troops against your own
Fatherland?”
lacrimae
finally a woman’s tears
move Coriolanus
to change
if you give them a truce
you will lack a victory
occido, occidere
because (somebody did something)
propter = because of something
on account of
Regulus will not stay in Italy
Regulus will not scorn the promise
Cincinnatus
when the people chose to elect
a dictator
so that an enemy overwhelming
would not triumph
uxor, uxor-is, f.
3rd
He shouted to his partner
“I’m under-dressed,” the statesmen
are coming
when he heard the
envoys
“I don’t desire any honors.”
“ . . . Nullum imperium
nullos honores desidero . . .”
salus publi(k)a
(k)i(w)ibus meis
demands me
he hurried from the fields
and left for the city
the old man thought little
of all the rewards
off you go
milés, milit-is
he put it aside
and returned to his fields
and not afterwards did he ever
disrespect the work of a farmer
although he had once
the power of a dictator
Ben Tripp is a poet who has also written critically about poetry, art, music & other etcetera(s) for many publications including The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB, HTML Giant, Whitehot Magazine and Full-Stop Quarterly. He is the author of two e-books “The Lemon” (Metambesen, 2014) and “What About Frasier”(Gauss PDF, 2015). He is also an educator who has worked in both public and private schools throughout New York City, where he currently lives. He blogs and archives work at benjamintripp.wordpress.com/.