“Kimos, son of Menedoros, a young Greek-Italian,
devotes his life to amusing himself,
like most young men in Greater Greece
brought up in the lap of luxury.But today, in spite of his nature,
he is preoccupied, dejected. Near the shore
he watches, deeply distressed, as they unload
ships with booty taken from the Peloponnese.Greek loot: booty from Corinth.
Today certainly it is not right,
it is not possible for the young Greek-Italian
to want to amuse himself in any way.”___
The young man is seeing the booty from the Roman conquest and destruction of Corinth in 146 BC. Lucius Mummius Achaicus killed the men and sold the women and children into slavery and then burned the city. He was given the cognomen Achaicus as the conqueror of the Achaean League. The site was almost deserted for the next century.
Julius Caesar refounded the city as Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis in 44 BC, shortly before his assassination.
On an Italian Shore, from Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, translators; George Savidis, editor, CP Cavafy, Collected Poems, revised edition, Princeton University Press, 1992, at cavafy.com.
Wating for the Barbarians
Waiting for the Barbarians 2
In Alexandria, 31 BC
Kaisarion
The Ides of March
May 2, 2008 at 9:57 am
Εις Iταλικήν παραλίαν
Ο Κήμος Μενεδώρου, Ιταλιώτης νέος,
τον βίον του περνά μέσα στες διασκεδάσεις·
ως συνειθίζουν τούτο οι απ’ την Μεγάλη Ελλάδα
μες στα πολλά τα πλούτη αναθρεμένοι νέοι.
Μα σήμερα είναι λίαν, παρά το φυσικό του,
σύννους και κατηφής. Κοντά στην παραλίαν,
με άκραν μελαγχολίαν βλέπει που εκφορτώνουν
τα πλοία με την λείαν εκ της Πελοποννήσου.
Λάφυρα ελληνικά· η λεία της Κορίνθου.
A σήμερα βεβαίως δεν είναι θεμιτόν,
δεν είναι δυνατόν ο Ιταλιώτης νέος
νάχει για διασκεδάσεις καμιάν επιθυμίαν.
Each of the Greek lines is broken into two parts: the gaps are not shown here.