Читать книгу Exil und Heimatferne in der Literatur des Humanismus von Petrarca bis zum Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts - Группа авторов - Страница 12

On 31 December 1433 Poggio addressed a consolatory letter to Cosimo de’ Medici in exile, and then wrote a second letter on 28 October 1434, shortly after Cosimo’s return.1 As John W. Oppel has argued, these two letters reveal Poggio’s strategy of aligning himself with the Medici faction and indeed becoming their spokesman. The humanist, who was nine years older than the great banker, strove to consolidate his Florentine base after the crisis of the Roman papacy: for in May 1434 Poggio had like Eugenius IV escaped from Rome, only to be captured and then released by pirates. In his letter of consolation, Poggio tells Cosimo that he is neither the first nor the last just man to suffer exile at the hands of violent factions:

Illa vero cogitatio praecipuam vim habere potest ad te confirmandum; neque primum extitisse, neque postremum fore, qui benemeritus de patria civis fuerit explusus. Habes refertos historicorum libros eorum exemplis, quos excellentes ac singulares viros inique mulctavit sua respublica, cum ob res bene gestas summa praemia mererentur […] Nolo insistere domesticis exemplis, ne quam offensionem contrahat oratio. Attamen si quis praeterita tempora scrutetur diligenter, inveniet plure egregios cives invidia et contentione civili magis quam culpa se suis civitatibus fuisse eiectos.

(For this thought, in truth, may have the greatest power to fortify you: that you are not the first nor will you be the last well-deserving citizen to be expelled from his native land. You have the books of the historians, filled with examples of those excellent and singular men who were roughly handled by the respublica, when, on account of their good deeds, they merited the greatest rewards […]. I will not insist on familiar examples, lest someone take offense. However, if anyone examines past time diligently he will find many outstanding citizens who, more through jealousy and civil strife than for their own fault, were expelled from their countries).2

Poggio continues by adducing ancient examples but, as Oppel notes, cites only Roman examples of famed exiles – Camillus, Scipio, Rutilius, and Cicero – since he had apparently not yet begun to study Greek:

Sed non fuit nostre solum civitatis hec labes et ignominia, verum aliarum quoque, quarum facta summopere admiramur. Respublica romana, ut de Grecis sileam ac Barbaris, etiam tum cum omni virtutum genere florentem Annales describunt, hoc morbo ingratitudinis laboravit. Referam paucos, quo sermo effugiat satietatem. Non tulit sua etas neque virtute neque probitate neque rebus gestis Furio Camillo superiorem. Hic tamen tribunorum et plebis iniquitate pulsus in exilium abiit et quidem eo tempore, quo maxime patria suo auxilio egebat. Quid egerit superior Africanus in patria ex faucibus Hanibalis liberando, qua fuerit animi moderatio, qua continentia et morum gravitate vixerit, non est ignotum tibi; hunc tamen tribunorum insania exulare coegit. Publius Rutilius integerrimus vir fuit ac sanctissimus, quem quia iustior videretur quam vulgi opinio ferret, urbe eiecerunt, cuius in hoc precipue claruit virtutis splendor, quod cum ei per Syllanam victoriam liceret in patriam redire, perpetuum sibi exilium elegit, recusans in eam urbem reverti, in qua plus arma quam leges valerent. Nequitia Clodii conservatorem patrie expulit M. Tullium Ciceronem, quem postea gloriari solitum accepimus se Italie humeris in patriam reportatum. Quamplures preterea historie memorant summos ac clarissimos viros simile exitum sortitos. Sed hos quatuor tantum retuli, ne mireris casum tuum, cum videas tot patrie conservatores talia suorum meritorum premia reportasse.3

(Such disgrace and degradation is not found in our country alone, but also in others whose actions completely amaze us. To leave out the Greeks and barbarians, the Roman republic suffered from the disease of ingratitude even when the annalists describe it as flourishing with every kind of virtue. I shall only relate a few examples to avoid boring you. In his day no one surpassed Furius Camillus in virtue, honesty, and great deeds. But the villainy of the tribunes and the mob drove him into exile precisely when the country needed his aid. You are aware what the elder Scipio Africanus achieved in freeing his country from the jaws of Hannibal ‒ with what moderation, self-control, and high principles he lived. And yet the madness of the tribunes forced him into exile. Publius Rutilius was a very upright and blameless man, but because he seemed more just than public opinion would bear, they expelled him from the city. The splendor of his virtue shone all the more because, after Sulla’s victory allowed his return to his country, he chose perpetual exile, refusing to go back to a city in which arms were more powerful than laws. The villainy of Clodius banished Marcus Tullius Cicero, the savior of his country, although we learn that later he often boasted that he had been carried back to his homeland on Italy’s shoulders. Besides these, history records numerous lofty and famous men who shared a similar fate. But I have only mentioned these four so that you will not wonder at your plight, seeing that so many saviors of their countries received such rewards for their merits).