Welcome to the podcast “An Ancient Language for a Modern Soul. Poemi Conviviali by Giovanni Pascoli. Today we will talk about a short but beautiful poema conviviale, depicting a moment in the life of the second emperor of Rome, Tiberius, when he was just a baby. The poem is in fact called Tiberius. I’m here today with Dr. Francesco Galatà, who is a researcher at the University of Messina, Italy. Francesco has worked extensively on Pascoli as a Latin poet (yes because he wrote poetry in Latin as well), and has also written about the poem Tiberius. You will hear the poem in the translation by James Ackhurst and myself and published in 2022 by Italica Press. The poem is read by Joanna Strafford. The music is played by Arianna Mornico at the Celtic harp, and since this poem is about the emperor as a baby, we chose to accompany the poem with the arrangement of a traditional ballad who is also a lullaby, and which is called Oiche Mhat, “good night”.
ELENA
Welcome, Francesco, and thank you for being here.
FRANCESCO
Thank you Elena, and good morning.
ELENA
This poem starts with the image of a runaway family: Claudius, Tiberius’ father, Livia Drusilla, and baby Tiberius. They are fleeing Rome during the night. Before we delve into Pascoli’s poem, I’d like to talk a bit about the protagonists of this poem, not only Tiberius but also his family.
FRANCESCO
Tiberius was born in 42 BC, the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero, and Livia Drusilla. His father, Claudius, was a member of the gens Claudia, and he was an important military man, and a politician. In fact, he had served under Julius Caesar and was rewarded for his service with an important position, although he was really a Republican, meaning he was in favour of restoring the Republic after Caesar had seized power, and in fact, he approved of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Because of his political views, Claudius incurred the enmity of Augustus, who was then known as Octavian, and Mark Anthony. The two of them were at the time allies, during the political turmoil that followed Caesar 's assassination. He had to flee from Rome, the moment Pascoli describes in his poem. In 44 B.C. Claudius married the formidable Livia Drusilla, who was 16 and about 30 years younger than him. Their first child was, indeed, Tiberius, whom we see in the poem as a baby, and who became the second emperor of Rome.The poem portrays the family as they are fleeing Rome. During this time, Tiberius’ father frequently switched sides: at times he was with Pompey, at times with Mark Anthony.
ELENA
Well, we know that eventually, Claudius (Tiberius’ father) convinced himself that Octavian, by then the Emperor Augustus, was not a tyrant at heart and aimed at the restoration of the Republic, so he happily settled in Rome with Livia, and two-year-old Tiberius. The restoration of the Republic was indeed one of the elements of Augustus’ propaganda, although he was the de facto ruler of Rome, so we can maybe suspect that Claudius eventually acted out of political convenience.
FRANCESCO
Tiberius grew up away from his mother, in the custody of his father Claudius, but when Claudius died, Augustus adopted him. Tiberius became one of the most successful generals of Rome. Since Augustus and Livia did not have children, Tiberius became a likely candidate for the succession. For this reason, he was forced to divorce his beloved wife Vipsania, and marry Julia, Augustus’s daughter, a marriage that was, by all means, disastrous. Tiberius succeeded Augustus in 14 AD. Initially, his rule was positive. He improved the civil service and restored Rome's financial condition. However, Tiberius lacked Augustus' natural rapport with the Senate, and he became increasingly unpopular. This contrasted strongly with the popularity of the charismatic Germanicus, his expected successor. When Germanicus died in 19 AD, it was widely believed that Tiberius had poisoned him in order that his own son, Drusus, should succeed. But in 23 AD, Drusus died, throwing open the question of the succession.
Tiberius's reliance upon the ambitious and brutal Sejanus, the head of the Praetorian guard (the imperial bodyguards), resulted in allegations of tyranny. In 27 AD, Tiberius retired to Capri, never returning to Rome. It is at this point that we hear all the reports about Tiberius’ sadistic, perverse, and scandalous nature.
ELENA
Let’s focus a bit on Pascoli’s poem. Francesco, you worked on the gestation of this poem, from an initial draft called Tiberio poppante, “Tiberius as a baby” to the final version that we find in Poemi Conviviali. Can you tell us a bit about it?
FRANCESCO
Tiberius is portrayed as an innocent child. Fate is the central theme of Tiberius. It drives the action. While this is not explicitly stated in the latest version of the poem, in the earlier version, Tiberio poppante, it is more apparent: during the escape, when the nocturnal landscape stirs at the sound of the child’s cry, Claudius says to Livia, ‘Throw away that wolf cub, progeny cursed by the gods.’ To which Livia responds, ‘Even if the gods hate him, I love him; and against the gods, I will protect the emperor until he ascends the throne.’ This ancient version of the poem ends with the image of Livia suckling Tiberius: ‘Livia, she-wolf of Rome, suckled her wolf cub.’ In this way, Pascoli connects the story of Livia and Tiberius to the myth of the Capitoline she-wolf and the fateful twins, Romulus and Remus. However, the omens for Tiberius’ future are ominous. Despite this, Livia is resolute in facing any danger, even from the gods, to ensure that fate is fulfilled.
ELENA
Tiberius’ mother, Livia Drusilla, is quite an interesting character, a very powerful and wilful woman. Livia had apparently pushed Claudius to seize power and become “king”, at which the rational and prudent Claudius threatened to divorce her. And what did Livia do? I’m going to borrow the words of Robert Graves, who in his classic novel I Claudius, written in 1934, provides a poignant narration of Livia’s actions and personality: [quote]
“Unknown to Claudius, Livia immediately set about engaging the passions of Augustus. This was no difficult matter, for Augustus was young and impressionable, and she had made a careful study of his preferences: besides which, she was by popular verdict one of the three most beautiful women of her day. When she had made sure of Augustus, she urged him to put aside his wife Scribonia. He divorced Scribonia the very day that she bore him a daughter, Julia. [End of quote].
Livia , who was eighteen years old, went to Claudius and said: [quote from Graves again] “Now divorce me. I am already five months gone with child and you are not the father. I made a vow that I would not bear another child to a coward, and I intend to keep it.” Claudius simply said ‘Let’s discuss the matter in private’. The child was really his own, but he was not to know this, and when Livia said it was another, he believed her.” [end of quote].
Claudius was a bit shocked that the adulterer was Augustus, but he consented to the divorce immediately. So, Livia married Augustus and became Empress. Again, in the book by Graves we read: [quote] “Augustus ruled the world, but Livia ruled Augustus. And I must here explain the remarkable hold that she had over him. It was always a matter of wonder that there were no children of this marriage, since Livia had not shown herself unfruitful, and Augustus was reported to be the father of four natural children, plus Julia. He was known, moreover, to be passionately devoted to Livia. The truth is that the marriage was never consummated. The only reasonable explanation was that Augustus was a pious man, and he knew the marriage was unpious: this knowledge, it seemed, affected him nervously. Livia, who had wanted Augustus as an instrument of her ambition, was more than glad for his impotence. She found that she could use it as a weapon for subjecting his will. She also took the greatest care of his health and comfort, and she was never unfaithful to him; and for this he was so grateful that he never looked at any other woman”. [end of quote]. Now, naturally, this is Graves narrating the story through the perspective of Claudius, who was the fourth emperor, so it is a fictional account loosely based on Suetonius, but we still get the idea that Livia was indeed a remarkable character.
FRANCESCO
Pascoli’s poetry is rich with magnificent female figures, which he portrays with great sensitivity and psychological insight. I will mention only the courtesan Myrrhine in Poemi Conviviali, and the peasant Phidyle, the matrona Pomponia Graecina and the slave Thallusa in the Latin poems. For the character of Livia Drusilla, Pascoli, like Robert Graves, drew on the information provided by the historian Suetonius.
According to Suetonius, when Livia was pregnant with Tiberius, she personally incubated a chicken egg in her own hand to determine the sex of her child. From the egg hatched a chick with a marked crest, symbolising a future crown. When Tiberius was still an infant, Livia consulted an astrologer, who foretold that her son would one day be a king, but “without royal insignia” — an omen that Livia either could not understand or chose not to. Through her maternal affection, wisdom, and unwavering determination in the face of adversity, Livia played a pivotal role in setting the wheels of destiny in motion. While fate is the central theme of Tiberius, it is Livia who emerges as the true protagonist.
Pascoli transforms the story of Livia and Tiberius into a grand tragedy: as in classical Greek tragedy, men believe they are forging their own destiny through their actions and choices, only to discover in the end that it was all preordained. And what they have striven to achieve with all their might is precisely what ultimately threatens to destroy them and their entire world.
This tragic dimension of Tiberius’s biography deeply fascinated Pascoli. This explains the early composition of Tiberio poppante, written when Pascoli was 20 years old, and the later rewriting of the same text when he was a mature poet, having already begun to construct the Convivial Poems, one of his most ambitious poetic collections, through which he sought to explore the roots of Western culture in search of a meaning for the anxieties of humanity.
It is significant that in the same year Pascoli composed Tiberius(1897), he also wrote a short Latin poem (Chelidonismos) centred on the figure of this unhappy emperor.
Tiberius is in his palace on Rhodes. It is the day he receives the letter from Augustus recalling him to Rome. As always in his life, he is anguished by the future that awaits him and that now knocks on his door. He spends his time questioning astrologers and fortune tellers. That very day, he hears an ancient folk song coming from the street: it’s the traditional swallow song that announces the return of spring. He interprets this as a favourable omen. Yet, his soul remains troubled. In the atrium of his palace are displayed the famous sculpture groups The Punishment of Dirce (also known as the Farnese Bull, now in the Archaeological Museum of Naples) and The Death of Laocoön (now in the Vatican Museums). While still listening to the swallow song, Tiberius wanders among these representations of a vain struggle against death, and his anguish deepens. Pascoli uses these magnificent works of art to symbolise Tiberius’s inner state, overwhelmed by forces far greater than himself.
What would happen when he finally became emperor — having already shown himself unfit for the role — has no place in Pascoli’s poems. But there was no need. It was all already written in the destiny of that suckling child, loved only by his mother.
ELENA
Very interesting, thank you. Such a short poem with a long history. Without further ado, I’d like to let the listeners enjoy the poem we talked about. Thank you very much, Francesco, for this conversation.
FRANCESCO
Thank you