italiansreclaimingitaly:It’s the Ides of March (Idus Martii, IPA: /ˈiðus ˈmartii/)! On the 15th of M
italiansreclaimingitaly:It’s the Ides of March (Idus Martii, IPA: /ˈiðus ˈmartii/)! On the 15th of March of the year 44 BC, Julius Caesar (IPA: /ˈjulius ˈkajsar/ or /ˈt͡ʃɛsar/ if you follow the Ecclesiastical pronunciation) was assassinated.I’m sure most of you know how it went (if you don’t, you can read it up here), so I wanted to give you a bit of trivia instead of summarizing the whole story.Et tu, Brute?It’s the famous phrase Caesar apparently uttered in his last moments to Brutus, one of the leaders of the conspiracy, whom Caesar deeply trusted and helped (by making him praetor, among other things). This phrase is the Latin translation that William Shakespeare used in his play “Julius Caesar”, but there is no evidence to prove that Caesar actually said those words. Suetonius, the famous Roman historian, reported that someone claimed that Caesar had uttered those words (yeah, history…), so we cannot know for sure. We do know that the phrase quoted by Suetonius is in Greek: “καὶ σὺ τέκνον;”. The transliteration is “Kai su, teknon?” and the most common translation is “You too, (my) child?”. The most accurate Latin translation is “Tu quoque, (Brute,) fili mi!“ and it’s the most commonly used in Italy, so if you mention it to an Italian person, they probably won’t recognize the one in the title. From the linguistic point of view, "quoque” is the literal translation of “too”, while “et” usually means “and”, that’s why it’s the most commonly used and accepted by scholars.Largo ArgentinaIt’s a place, in Rome, and it’s full of temples, to the point that in Italian we call it Area Sacra (Holy Area). There are a couple of interesting facts about this place:It’s full of cats. There are lots of cats in Rome in general, but some places have become actual shelters for these strays, where harming them is prohibited and the colonies can grow and live in peace. Rome is famous for its gattare (“gatto” means cat in Italian), women who devote their lives to feeding and taking care of strays like Largo Argentina’s ones. Yep, spending your whole life alone with cats was a thing before the Internet era.It’s the place where Caesar was killed! There are four temples in the Area Sacra and it has recently been proved that the space behind two of these temples (B and C, respectively), was originally the Curia of Pompey, the place where senators used to meet. A note from the historian Cassius Dio seems to further prove that, since he refers to two latrines (no kidding) that fit in the mapping of the Area Sacra. But there’s more! Since us Romans (and Italians) love reenacting famous historical events, if you’re in Rome and happen to be near Largo Argentina today at 4:30pm (GMT+1), you’ll directly witness the assassination, reproduced with costumes, 23 knife wounds, and quotes from Shakespeare. People from all places and countries still bring flowers to Caesar’s Tomb (video).Images via (x), (x) and (x). -- source link