I Dare Say The
Deforestation Of The Country, Which Prevented The Downflow Of The
Rivers - Choking Up Their Beds With Detritus And Producing Stagnant Pools
Favourable To The Breeding Of The Mosquito - Has Helped To Spread The
Plague In Many Parts Of Italy.
In Horace's days Venosa was immune,
although Rome and certain rural districts were already malarious.
Ancient votive tablets to the fever-goddess Mephitis (malaria) have been
found not far from here, in the plain below the present city of Potenza.
A good deal of old Roman blood and spirit seems to survive here. After
the noise of the Neapolitan provinces, where chattering takes the place
of thinking, it is a relief to find oneself in the company of these
grave self-respecting folks, who really converse, like the Scotch, in
disinterested and impersonal fashion. Their attitude towards religious
matters strikes me as peculiarly Horatian; it is not active scepticism,
but rather a bland tolerance or what one of them described as
"indifferentismo" - submission to acts of worship and all other usages
(whatever they may be) consecrated by time: the pietas - the
conservative, law-abiding Roman spirit. And if you walk towards sunset
along any of the roads leading into the country, you will meet the
peasants riding home from their field labours accompanied by their dogs,
pigs and goats; and among them you will recognize many types of Roman
physiognomies - faces of orators and statesmen - familiar from old coins.
About a third of the population are of the dark-fair complexion, with
blue or green eyes.
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