The Journey to Rome

"I sing of arms and the man, he who, exiled by fate,

first came from the coast of Troy to Italy..." - The Aeneid

Pictured: On the plane to Rome (taken May 14th, 2016). International travel is no joke. Aside from the long waits at sterile airports, a trans-Atlantic flight can take over 12 hours to complete. Prospects like that aren't encouraging; thankfully I was preoccupied with a couple of books and a few loose sheaves of paper. After nearly 8 months of research and a year of Greek linguistics, I departed from McCarran Airport with a purpose: Read Procopius. Understand him. Understand antique historiography. Determine the quality of his grammar, if possible. It's easy to forget about airline food when one's seeking answers. Procopius of Caesarea was a sixth-century Byzantine historian best known to modern readers for his 'Secret History', a scathing indictment of the Emperor Justinian and his wife, Theodora. To his contemporaries, he was famous for his 'History of the Wars', which included books on Belisarius' campaigns in the Middle East, North Africa, and Italy for the Byzantine Empire. A copy of the 'Bella Gothica' (a subsection of the 'History' entitled 'The Gothic Wars', books V-VIII in the canon) was tucked in my carry-on, along with sections of the text in Greek. It was the subject of this trip. Alongside Procopius were selections from Thucydides' seminal history, 'The Peloponnesian War'. On each paper there was a Greek side and an English side. The English served as an easy reference, but the Greek was paramount. After spending months navigating Greek, to know the result -- real paleographic experience at the Vatican -- was so close at hand, staring at the text proved difficult. The sense of anticipation, and panic, was overwhelming. Inside these archives were the oldest Procopian manuscripts; reading them was essential to my thesis. I was being presented with a great honor (it's extraordinarily rare for undergraduates to have access to the Vatican), an academic challenge, and a limited timetable. It's hard not to get a lump in the throat. On my lap was a copy of Virgil's 'Aeneid'. I had promised myself that for each city visited, a book would accompany the journey. The Latin poet's magnum opus was for Rome, Dante's 'Comedy' for Florence, and Hemingway's 'Movable Feast' for Paris. The Hemingway wasn't mine, but it served the purpose. These texts were to enliven the experience, keep me sharp, and provide a ready distraction from the work. It seemed appropriate. Professor Fitzpatrick accompanied me throughout the trip in a professional capacity. As my mentor, he wanted to chart the research's progress and ensure easy entry into the archives. He also served as a companion and guide for Europe. Along with him, my fiancee, Alexandra, was with us. She owned the Hemingway and was visiting Europe for the first time. It was with this mindset and with these people that I arrived in Rome, jetlagged and determined to find answers.

#photo #travel #Rome #Italy #Greek #Research #Procopius #Airplanes