“The most important part of your campaign is to bring hope to people and a feeling of goodwill toward you.”

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/nov/22/election-connection/

Election by Connection

NOVEMBER 22, 2012

Mary Beard

"In another curious text of the first century CE, Valerius Maximus’ compilation ofMemorable Deeds and Sayings, we read of one upper-class Roman politician who was canvassing in the Forum, shaking the hands of the voters, as candidates do. In doing the rounds, he came across a peasant with rough, horny hands. “Oh my goodness,” said the politician, “do you walk on them?” The onlookers took this as an insult to the honorable, hard-working Roman people, and he lost the election.

But as often, the apparent familiarity of the world of the ancient text is largely a matter of translation. For decades, if not centuries, Quintus Cicero’s advice has been adjusted in English versions to match our own political systems and processes. Freeman’s translation is no different. Even the idea that the politician should give people hope, a cliché of modern media politics, looks different in the original Latin from the modern English. Freeman’s version has: “The most important part of your campaign is to bring hope to people and a feeling of goodwill toward you.” It is, for us, an instantly recognizable thought. But what the original Latin actually says is this: “In seeking election you must take care that the state has a good hope of you, and a good opinion of you”—which is quite different from (indeed the reverse of) the modern idea of bringing hope to the people."