Sense of Duty
By: Charz
Tags: Aeneid, Bushidō, Caesar, Duty, Gimu, Hikikomori, Inazo Nitobe, Kiri Komori, Livy, NEET, Otaku Nation, Otakuism, Roman Spirit, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Tacitus, Virgil
Category: Codex, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, -
Hae tibi erunt artes, – pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.
Virgil, Aneid VI. 851
The True Roman Giri
The history of Rome is one of the few which we can read. For the Romans wrote of their own doings and have left us in the pages of Livy and Caesar and Tacitus a fuller and more interesting account of themselves and their deeds than we have of almost any other nation. The history of Rome has too a special interest for the Modern World, because many of our laws and institutions are based on those of Rome. Perhaps the greatest interest of our subject lies in the fact that the Romans at their best were men of strong resolute character with the deepest sense of duty and patriotism, ruling themselves and therefore born to rule the world. Their example of strength and duty and determination is not one of which we can afford to be ignorant. To the Jew the world is indebted for Religion, to the Greek for all that is beautiful in Thought and Art, to the Roman for Law and Order and the sense of Duty. Virgil gives the true spirit of Rome when he writes :
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento, -
Hae tibi erunt artes, – pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.A Short History of Rome, E. E. Bryant,1914
The Roman Bushi ?
It is indeed striking how closely the code of knightly honour of one country coincides with that of others; in other words, how the much-abused oriental ideas of morals find their counterparts in the noblest maxims of European literature. If the well-known lines
Hae tibi erunt artes – pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.were shown a Japanese gentleman, he might readily accuse the Mantuan bard of plagiarising from the literature of his own country.
Bushido, the Soul of Japan, Inazo Nitobe, 1905, p29
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