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I CAN ONLY admire the education that enabled Dr Brian Arkins (Letters, yesterday) to tell us how the Taoiseach’s latest difficulties “bring to mind, inevitably, the dictum of Tacitus about Emperor Galba: capax imperii, nisi imperasset.” It would have been impressive enough if the dictum had been brought to his mind unexpectedly, or even as a mild surprise. But that it should have happened “inevitably” is a tribute to his classics teachers, writes FRANK MCNALLY
Presumably Dr Arkins is a graduate of the old school. Unfortunately, the old school was knocked just before I was due to start there. We had a Latin teacher at the new school, but he died half way through first year, and my chance at a classical education went with him. The only thing I still remember from my second-hand text book is a rhyme written by the previous owner: “Latin is a language/As dead as dead can be/It killed the ancient Romans/And now it’s killing me.” So I had to look up the emperor Galba yesterday and was delighted to discover that today is his birthday. Historians agree he was born on the equivalent of December 24th in the year 3 BC: which, by another happy chance, makes him a very close contemporary of a certain Jesus of Nazareth, in whose honour this week’s celebrations occur. Ironically, Biblical historians suggest that Jesus too was born around 3BC or 4BC; although not in December.
