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Me, myself & I
Me, myself & I
My name is Serena.
I am a student: I study Ancient History. I'm an historian and an epigraphist - which means that I'm going to pass my whole life conversating with engraved stones.
I really think I should have lived under Augustus' reign or during the second Punic War.
I should have seen Rome in the majesty of the empire, the battle of Cannae with the blood-tinted Aufidus, Agrippa's pensive and frowned forehead, the rain on the marbles in Milan.
I should have heard Stilicho's last words, Maecenas' voice, Virgilius' Mantuan accent, Scipio's mocking laugh in Zama.
And streets, seas, the Tiber in a morning of snow, red walls and sunsets, almost infinite aqueducts, fire and ice deserts, cities high against the sky and elephants walking on the edge of the deepest ravines.
"Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice"
(Marcus Aurelius)
"We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?"
(Yeats)
My name is Serena.
I am a student: I study Ancient History. I'm an historian and an epigraphist - which means that I'm going to pass my whole life conversating with engraved stones.
I really think I should have lived under Augustus' reign or during the second Punic War.
I should have seen Rome in the majesty of the empire, the battle of Cannae with the blood-tinted Aufidus, Agrippa's pensive and frowned forehead, the rain on the marbles in Milan.
I should have heard Stilicho's last words, Maecenas' voice, Virgilius' Mantuan accent, Scipio's mocking laugh in Zama.
And streets, seas, the Tiber in a morning of snow, red walls and sunsets, almost infinite aqueducts, fire and ice deserts, cities high against the sky and elephants walking on the edge of the deepest ravines.
"Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice"
(Marcus Aurelius)
"We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?"
(Yeats)