Corona stories

Cicero's Rome

The colosseum was built in 70-80 AD

While there's life, there's hope (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

In the weekend edition of May 23rd the volkskrant had an article about the exaggerated sensibility of developed, privileged countries towards disasters hitting them (“wij zijn chaos ontwend”). In no time our world has had such a long period of stability and prosperity. If we hear of poverty and disasters, it is usually not from our world, it is elsewhere, far away. Now it is a catastrophe to be shut down, to be not able to plan for our next vacation. There are still countries in the world where a curfew is the daily rule, where death and fighting in the streets is a daily practice and where a line at the entrance of a supermarket is leading to empty shelves.

A room without books is like a body without a soul (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Church dignitary sifting through a second hand book store

In ancient times Rome was the forefront of civilization. I just finished reading the Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris. In a series of three novels he tells the story of Cicero, the lawyer, philosopher, speaker and statesman, who in his life from 106 – 43 BC was the witness of the last half of a century of the roman republic. Never in his life was the society, the city and the Mediterranean world at peace. Intrigues, corruption and murder were the rule of the day and not the exception. Politicians of all colors lived a dangerous live. Political enemies were simply eliminated by extermination. To go out without a bodyguard was suicidal even for a popular man. The mood of the crowd could change without notice and even bodyguards would not help for a lynching mob of plebs. Speculation led to lack of bread and famine for the ordinary people, while corruption led to the extortion of enormous sums for the benefit of the few getting unimaginably rich.

The sinews of war are infinite money (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Cicero became famous by his prosecution of Gaius Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily, whom he got convicted against all odds and Verres mighty friends. But his life was full of changes and dangers. He won the election to be Consul for a year, the highest function the Roman Republic had to offer. At the time he started the famous and successful campaign against Catalina. But soon the odds turned against him and he was exiled. He was able to return under the protection of Ceasar, against whom argued since he foresaw his dictatorial intentions. Soon he had to flee again. His villa on the palatine was burned to the ground, his other properties seized. Again he was able to return and welcomed by the cheering crowds. After Ceasars murder he was the most popular man in Rome. In the Phillipic speeches he argued against Marc Anthony and in support of the young Octavian, adopted son of Ceasar.

The safety of the people shall be the highest law (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Street artists and spectators without social distancing

At the end of his life, although at first Cicero was protected by Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, a compromise to get together the triumvirate with Marc Anthony and Lepidus was reached by sacrificing some of each ones most popular friends. Cicero was killed, his head and hands chopped off and exhibited on the forum in Rome for deterrence and instruction.

The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal

(Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Accordeon players trying to get attention from the guests of a restaurant

With the knowledge of its history, there are few other places in the world which are as exciting for a visitor like Italy and in particular Rome. Many of the buildings of Cicero’s time are gone. Each emperor had own monuments built to increase his fame and tore down the achievements of previous rulers to gain space. I have looked for own pictures which could illustrate the history around Cicero. I could not find a lot but it would be an exciting project to search for his memories in a town where history has been covered by history. Instead here is a combination of pictures of more modern roman ruins, which are all closed for visitors now. Also these later roman times are illustrated in timeless literature, think of “memoirs de Hadrian” by Marguerite Yourcenar or “Claudius the god” by Robert Graves. In 1986 and 2012 when these pictures where taken, these historic streets, which are now so empty, were full of people – tourists, craved for by some, hated by others.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history? (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Tourists rest from the heat

Today, of course, Rome is full of tourists year round. But there is so much to see that there is always a place of escape. And in the eternal city you can spend a lifetime wihtout be able to see everything.

The masses inside the colloseum

Another holy man at the base of the Scalinata die Trinita dei Monti

A nun chats with a swiss guard at the entrance to the vatican

View from the Palatine over the smog of the city

In Cicero's time the rich and influential had their villas on the Palatine hill. Here his villa was burned down. Later emperors built their palaces here

The forum not only was a market place, but also a stage for speeches, also by Cicero

Jumping into the fountains is tempting but not allowed

Scalinata de Trinita dei Monti

The Pantheon, built in 118 AD as a temple and later converted into a church

The porta pinciana was part of the Aurelian wall built in 271 AD

The circus of Mexentius built in 306 AD along the via appia south of the city

The enormous baths of Caracalla, built in 271 AD

One of the many fountains

Castel St Angelo was built as the mausoleum for the emperor Hadrian in 130 AD

The interior of the Pantheon full of tourists

The mass quarters of the plebs were repugnant in Cicero's time and the basis for big profit for rich owners like Cicero's enemy Crassus. Today these old flats are unaffordable

Mounting the beauty under heaven

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving" (Lao Tzu)

On good friday 1986 we arrive at the station of Emei, in Sichuan. The reason of fame of this at the time ugly, dirty town is nearby 3077 m Emei Shan, one of the sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism. From the 2. century on the mountain was adorned with monasteries. In the 15th century there were more than one hundred. The same people who had destroyed monasteries and Buddhist statues in the cultural revolution under Mao were in 1986 cutting wood, carrying bricks to rebuild monasteries and remodel Buddha statues for the expected invasion of tourists. The mountain rises 2600 m above the plain where the town is and we wanted to climb it. Again (see number 19), there is a detailed description of the adventures of these days in the travel diary which i have kept.

"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." (Lao Tzu)

Tourist map of emei shan from 1986

The description of the trails and the history of the mountain on the back f the map and the official chinese and tourist money of the time

The route to the summit and back in total is 132 km. We expected to do it in 3 days. Yes, we were young and wild then. Food and lodging was available in the monasteries. To achieve the goal, we invested 1 Yuan in a walking stick and after noodle soup for breakfast in the Fuhu temple at the base we took off. The first problem turned out to be the muddy path. We were afraid that our light shoes would not survive the whole route to the top. Nevertheless we passed a lot of old people on the first 2,5 hours and 11 km to the Quingyin Pavillion, a beautiful temple which can be entered over a bridge above a water fall, These lower temples still or again had beautiful paintings, statues and were full of fruit trees and flowering plants. However, the diary is full of complaints about the masses of local tourists, souvenir shops and restaurants.

"Everything has beauty but not everybody sees it" (Confucius)

The local crowd passing souvenir shops

From the Pavillion the path turns into a staircase. That is even more exhausting, especially for the upper legs. All the material for the reconstruction of the temples had to be carried up. Some of the people climbing up carry heavy loads, either in a tray on the back or balanced on the ends of a wooden stick on their shoulder. I try to lift the load of bricks of one man…. but I would not have been able to carry it more than a few steps. Some offer to carry our backbags or even us up the mountain. Some of the locals are indeed carried up that way. We decline.

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox" (Lao Tzu)

Carrying load up the mountain

After another 7 km and 400 m of climbing, at 12.40 we reach the beautiful Hongchun temple. We take a break and watch some monks on a stone bench leafing through old books in the sun. There are courtyards with Zen gardens and exotic plants. Again, only the crowds of noisy locals disturb the peace.

You cannot open a book without learning something" (Confucius)

From here it is 15 km and 700 height meters more to the Xianfeng temple at 1732 m. There are few hikers left who go uphill, but crowds of people walk down. They shout chinese encouragements at us, which we answer by cursing in german. The route up the stairs is steep and exhausting, but spectacular. The path follows a gorge and crosses numerous little bridges. After 33 km we finally reach the Xianfeng temple, our destination for today.

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished"(Lao Tzu)

The Xianfeng temple where we stayed the first night

There are plenty of rooms for pilgrims in the temple and for 9 yuan we get a double room. There is a washroom. In a corner is a pile of coal dust to heat a pot with water. Everyone with the desire to clean himself gets a basin and a dipper full of boiling water, which can be diluted with cold water according to personal taste. It works wonder for the tired feet.

"Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power" (Lao Tzu)

Monks drying their books

Then we proceed to the pilgrims‘dining hall. Above a hole in the wall is a chalk board with the menu. I take it from the hook and put my head into the hole to look for somebody to order. On the other side of the hole is a smoky and greasy kitchen. Somebody in a cooks’ apron aims with chopsticks at some rats scurrying around on the ground. I order everything on the menu twice. It turns out to be pork, egg-soup and pancakes. The food is good. And since the dining hall is so dark, we can only hear the pets….

"He who knows does not speak. He who speaks, does not know" (Lao Tzu)

The diary is full of complaints about the chinese visitors. They come in bigger groups and are rowdy and loud. In contrast to us westerners, the chinese like to be in company. A place is only good for them when they have lots of people to share it with. In this temple one guy gets out a bottle of booze and then the party starts. We would have preferred a quiet temple. We get a lot of pints in the hope to be able to sleep through the noise.

"He who talks more is sooner exhausted" (Lao Tzu)

The toilets in the Xianfeng temple

Surprisingly there is electrical light in the temple all night. That is good when you have to go to the toilet. This location can be attained via a kind of wobbly wooden bridge. At the end wooden cubicles with a hole in the ground hover above the abyss. Below the shit of 600 years of Buddhism slowly slides down the flank of the mountain. But not everybody was able to aim right into the hole. My nightmare is to loose my glasses….

At night it has rained. Fortunately we had a room on the ground floor, because the roof was leaking and the beds upstairs got wet. So without breakfast we continue our hike up the sodden stairway. In addition it is cold.

"Wherever you go, go with all ;your heart" (Confucius)

Eventually we meet the famous Emei Shan monkeys. The monkeys are known to be notorious thieves and we tightly hold on to our gear. Indeed we pass a number of plundered, empty handbags and their former contents. At a point the path is plastered with banknotes. A triumphant monkey up in a tree swings another empty bag. We collect as much of the money as we can easily get and continue. Later we meet a beggar and give him what we found. He is dumbfounded.

"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt" (Lao Tzu)

Unfortunately my only photo of the famous ferrocious monkeys

The day is foggy and gets increasingly colder. At least there is no rain. But the path gets so icy that we buy crampons from a vendor along the way. Above 2100 m there even is a lot of snow. From time to time we have a noodle soup in wretched shelters along the path. It gives some warmth. The path must be spectacular at clear weather. To the left an abyss disappears in the fog. To the right a forest of bamboo. Muffled sounds seem to come from far away.

"If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as a teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself" (Confucius)

Summit temple in the mist

The top of the mountain can also be reached on a basic road. There are busses. Therefore there is a huge, bleak and dark temple at the top. There are several buildings with dormitories and bedrooms for hundreds of visitors, but tonight only a few huddle together around a stove in the only heated room. On each bed we find one of the typical chinese down winter jackets. We gratefully wear it.

Also here, dinner is good. But it is accompanied by the smacking, sneezing, snorting and spitting sounds of the chinese guests. In China, if you don‘t make noises while you eat they think you don‘t like the food.

The night is cold even though I wear all my clothes and have brought my sleeping bag good for -10 C. Getting to sleep again is difficult. All the noise easily penetrates the thin walls. At least there is enough light to read. After we finally fall asleep we wake up from rattling and knocking on the door. We think somebody has got the room wrong in the maze of buildings, but it turns out that we share our room with a chinese girl. She comes late but like all the other chinese visitors gets up before dawn to see the famous sunrise.

Shops and food stalls on the way to the summit

The rumour goes that the sun rises on Emei shan in the center of a perfectly round rainbow. Pilgrims had been so overwhelmed that they jumped into the rainbow and ended up in the abyss. Nobody had to jump that day. Nobody had to get up early either. There was no sun and no rainbow.

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated" (Confucius)

The icy landscape at the summit

The way down we took the bus.

„Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it“ (Lao Tzu)

Confucius lived from 551 – 479 BC. His philosophy defined rules for personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity. „He is widely considered as one of the most important and influential individuals in human history. His teaching and philosophy greatly impacted people around the world and remain influential today“ (Wikipedia)

„A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves“ (Lao Tzu)

Although it was thought that Lao Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius, it is not sure that he is more than a legendary figure. If he really existed, it was after Confucius, in the 4th century BC. If you read the advice of these men, which was well known for such a long time, you are tempted to ask why their easily understandable and correct words are not followed by the leaders of the world.

„There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is imitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest“ (Confucius)