Sphinx

The problem with developing an interest in classical references in modern political discourse is that the evidence never stops piling up. It’s the advantage of blogging, of course, that it’s easy to update whenever something interesting comes along. When it comes to proper academic analysis, however – since blogs are still not taken seriously for that purpose – there’s a constant fear that a new development will suddenly put things into a different light, locked in endless struggle with the wish/need to get the thing finished.

I cannot decide whether it’s a good or bad thing that my chapter on depictions of Trump as Roman emperor was submitted months ago so can’t include references to the analogies being drawn between his 4th July authoritarian military spectacle and the vast, expensive shows put on for Caligula; the good news is that it fits perfectly with the general outline of such references. Johnson’s classical references continue to proliferate in an apparently random manner, but their overall role in his public persona seems pretty consistent; it’s more striking that apparently a quick re-read of his The Dream of Rome can fuel a front-page story – specifically on his criticism of Islam, but there’s so much more material there…

Thankfully I have not attempted to write anything substantial on the place of the classics in European Union politics, so I don’t have to worry too much about the fact that Ursula von Der Leyen threw a Pericles quote into her closing statement at the European Parliament before the confirmatory vote yesterday:

And at the very end, before we going to go in the vote tonight let me end perhaps with a saying that comes once again from a Greek statesman. He was one of the founders of democracy and I think it’s a wonderful motto for our common work. It says “the secret to happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage.” Let’s have courage together, let’s be courageous on the European Union.

It’s not exactly earth-shattering – and there has to be a suspicion that it’s been pulled from a handy quotes website rather than based on detailed familiarity with the Funeral Oration. Interesting that Pericles isn’t named – is this line really so familiar, or is the assumption that everyone can Google? (I’m reminded of Adam Roberts’ The Real-Town Murders, one of my holiday books, in which everyday conversation is full of obscure quotes and allusions because everyone is running automatic annotation software in their visual feed). Founder of democracy? Okay. Continuation of sentence, “therefore do not be afraid of the dangers of war“? You can see why she left it out.

It may be over-interpretation, but I am struck by the possibility that this more than just a throwaway quote. Firstly, we can link it to a comment in von der Leyen’s main speech, in a section headed ‘Defending Europe’s Values’:

The cradle of our European civilisation is Greek philosophy and Roman Law. And our European continent went through its darkest period when we were ruled by dictators and Rule of Law was banished. For centuries, Europeans fought so hard for their liberty and independence.

It’s a while since we’ve had such an explicit reference to the ‘classical roots of Europe’; what this immediately reminded me of was the preface to the ill-fated draft European Constitution, which opened with similar claims – and with another quote from the Funeral Oration, this time attributed to Thucydides rather than his sock puppet: “Our constitution…is called a democracy…”. Is this a deliberate call-back, a revival of more ambitious plans for Europe and its values? I guess we’ll just have to see how much Thucydides gets cited in coming months…