In Praise of Roman Fides

ἔτι δὲ καὶ καθ᾽ἡμᾶς ἱερεὺςχειροτονητὸς ἀπεδείκνυτο Τίτου, καὶ θύσαντες αὐτῷ τῶνσπονδῶν γενομένων ᾁδουσι παιᾶνα πεποιημένον, οὗ τἆλλαδιὰ μῆκος ἡμεῖς παρέντες ἀνεγράψαμεν ἃ παυόμενοι τῆςᾠδῆς λέγουσι:

 πίστιν δὲῬωμαίων σέβομεν,

τὰν μεγαλευκτοτάταν ὅρκοις φυλάσσειν:

μέλπετε κοῦραι,

Ζῆνα μέγαν Ῥώμαν τε Τίτον θ᾽ἅμα Ῥωμαίων

τε πίστιν 

ἰήϊε Παιάν,ὦ Τίτε σῶτερ.

Moreover, even down to our own day a priest of Titus is duly elected and appointed, and after sacrifice and libations in his honour, a set hymn of praise to him is sung: it is too long to be quoted entire, and so I will give only the closing words of the song:

 “And the Roman faith we revere, which we have solemnly vowed to cherish; sing, then, ye maidens, to great Zeus, to Rome, to Titus, and to the Roman faith: hail, Paean Apollo! hail, Titus our saviour!”

This is from Plutarch’s Flamininus 16.4.  After yesterday’s post I couldn’t help but share this gem.  I like how both passages are topped and tailed by the word pistis, using word placement to frame and contextualize the rest of the content.  Posts on Pistis and Fides.