Monday, December 10, 2007

Cedant Arma Togæ


This afternoon I was watching the Ballad of Josie (Doris Day)...and there was a Latin quote in it that I looked up...brb...




quote




Because the toga was not worn by soldiers, it was regarded as a sign of peace. Cicero's De Officiis contains the phrase cedant arma togæ: literally, "let arms yield to the gown", meaning "may peace replace war," or "may military power yield to civilian power."




unquote




In the movie, the yielding is to the "gown"...Josie...which is what caught my eye...apparently Wyoming gave women the vote before they entered the Union, which hadn't as yet given women the vote...and an interesting problem when Wyoming decided to join the Union!




But I got interested in the quote and spent a bit of time reading about Cicero and the Catiline Conspiracy...




This evening I watched Open Range...the gunfight again!...Water World...and now a movie I haven't seen since I was a kid...Hell and High Water with Richard Widmark, which came out in 1954.




Cicero and Old Rome fit into JFK...and so does this Widmark film...it starts out that Widmark is hired by a consortum of international "volunteers"...scientists and citizens concerned about nuclear bomb proliferation...seems nuke scientists have been dissappearing and aereal photos of a secluded island show facilities that could be used for bombmaking...




Torpedo!


Close the hatch!


My hand!...My hand!


Give me a knife....


Nooo!...Nooo!


Aaaggghhhh!!!


.....


"We can save oxygen by shutting up!"


This film came out the same year as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and too was in the Academy Award running for special effects.


"Dont talk."


"Now here is where we find out if we lived right."


DavidDavid

Tree in the Door

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