Michael’s Reviews > Caesar's Vast Ghost: Aspects Of Provence > Status Update

‘[…] It is something of a paradox that it was the scriptures which first conferred a new theological freedom on woman—one which she was no slow to accept. When St Paul remarked, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,” he was making place for the new concept of human “persona”, a word which up to then had indicated simply a mask used in stageplays.’

‘[…] The Roman Empire with its colourful tapestry of nymphs and gods, while poetically satisfying, did nothing to offer woman even a nominal equality of status before the law. The Roman world was completely masculine-inclined and such civic rights as existed were male-dominated in their conception. […]

‘[…] though the Church father went on execrating her, calling her “sovereign pest”, “gateway to hell”, “arm of the devil”, “advance guard of hell”, “larva of the demon”: the baleful voice of St John Chrysostom, St Anthony, St Jerome and other Christians of the same outlook. […]

‘[…] The early tombs reveal the new trend with ghastly clarity. The expression in these figures reveals an intensity of conviction which makes you forget their enormous hands, unwieldy heads and pitiful, disproportionate limbs and bodies.’

‘[…] But once Christianity sets in, all the slender grace of these plastic conceptions vanishes to be replaced by subject matter which is as rueful as it is lugubrious: hairy saints and bowed mourners, sanctimonious goblins from a world of guilt and repentance whose very salvation hovers over them as a sort of threat: castration, fear, repression. […]

‘[…] Or they gave a frank and free expression to the best at they considered appropriate to his memory. For them the dead could still be cherished thus in memory. […]

‘[…] The pagans approached death so cheerfully. Their monuments exhale a smiling guileless happiness almost worthy of Chinese sages.
‘The so-called pagans carved upon a dead man’s tomb only an agreeable recollection of the happiest scenes of everyday life: the vine-gatherings, the olive-plantings, the picnics, the hunting excursions, the story-tellings or recitations. […]

‘The most striking difference, both in treatment and subject matter, is to be found in the early Christian monuments which form the most riveting part of the unparalleled collection of Roman sarcophagi held by the city today, and which are on view to the public. A brief visit cannot help but render a modern visiter thoughtful. [I can attest to that.] […]

Durrell quoting Aldo: ‘“[…] But as philosophers we have a right to deplore the predisposition towards monotheism that set in and coaxed our thinkers through pragmatism to a final scientific determinism which is responsible for many of our ills.”’

‘But what is so striking about these sculpted Roman caps [chiselled on the graves of rich Romans indicating how many of his slaves he had freed on his death] is that they indicate something which we did not believe formed part of the Roman consciousness: namely, any idea of freedom whatsoever, or any real admission that Rome, for all its virtues and splendours, was founded completely on slave labour.’