No More Learning

264. Pascere satis: L, "Raise [cattleJ well. " In Cicero's De Officiis Cato the elder an? swered the first question about how to run an estate profltably by these words.
265. humiles . . . improbi: L, "AlI humble people are not dishonest" [Cicero, De Offi? ciis, 2. 7IJ.
266. An ater, an albus: L, "Or black, or white. " Catullus said to Julius Caesar: "Do I
rendi?
nothing
96/664-667
607
money for trade," or "option money. " Ni- cole's annoyance seems to have been caused by the difficulty of finding words for Greek goods and processes no longer in existence.
275. ~"a'"Eva, A? wv: H, "King Leo. "
276. notary: Chap. One concerns the qualifi?
cations needed for and the duties of "tabu- laries," whose functions were similar to those of notaries.
277. ni cuivre . . . lin: L, "neither copper nor linen textiles. " From chap. 2, "Bullion and Moneylenders. " They are required by the notary to deal in silver and to keep out of other businessmen's business. The Source reads: "It is forbidden to hoard these com- modities so as to selI them at a period of dearth, or to exact an undue profit above what is fair when they are scarce. "
278. KlXTCX b6110v . . . : H, "cheat through increasing. "
279. "romaine": Prob. the name of a Ro? man scale.
280. ergastorios: H, "premises. "
281. Manuale: Manualis Legis, L, "Book of Law. "
282. Basiliks: A modernization of the Code of Justinian done by Leo the Wise.
283.
284. ence
285. 286.
287. off. "
Handschrift: G, "handwriting. "
eV}l[ex}lex ? . ? : H, "incense in the pres- of the Lord. "
au Mi}v X,,)v<ilV: H, "and not copper. " i;[ Tt~: H, "anyone. "
xerpOK01IEiu8w: H, "let a hand be cut
'0 bOllov '" : [changeJ the nature [of 289. Ell . . . Tr,e; MEa77~: H, "on the main
[businessJ street. " A particular circular thor? oughfare which functioned as the agora or marketplace.
2~0. ei. 8i}oewc; . . . : H, "the knowing assent of the Eparch. " The source has these words
288.
goldJ by cunning adulterate.
? ? 608
96/667
97/668
609
preceded by "avEv," "without. " Nicole's eyesight seems to have been better than Pound's here. Aveu: F, "consent, avowal. " The Greek v is similar to the Roman v, and the source of this pun.
291. Palace . . . castello: From Nicole's note describing the area of the agora.
292. 80VAOV: H, "slave. "
293. KaTG:A. A&KTTi<' ? . . : H, "The coinmea~
surer [must guard against] counterfeit[s].
294. Habdimelich: [ef. 161 above]. The af? fair concerned the coinage. The Islamic ruler wanted to settle debts with his own coinage.
But the ruler of the Byzantine Empire could not accept it for two reasons: (1) only the emperor had the authority to issue money; and (2) acceptance of the coins implied as? sent that Allah was the one God. All tradi? tion demanded that "Gold was of the Ponti? fex" [89:79; cf. 166 above]. The point is basic to Pound's economics: the state not only can but should issue money. More than that, no other agency should be allowed to do it.
295. Anno . . . : L, "Year six of the rule. " 296. "pacem": L, "peace. "
Exegeses
Eastman, Ezra Pound's Cantos: The Story of the Text, Orono,
Me. , 1979; DD, Sculptor, 239? 240; BK and TCDE, Pai, 9? 3, 505. 507; EH, Pai, 4? 1, 182? 185; Peck, Pai, 1? 1, 27? 28; CB? R, ZBC, 198; FR, P/! , 273; MB, Trace, 365; B de R, in EH, Ap? proaches, 187? 188; HK, Pai, 2? 3, 488; Peck, Pai, 2? 2,212; EH,
CANTO XCVII Sources.
Alexander Del Mar, History ofMonetary Systems, Chicago, 1896 [HMS] ;John Hamill, The Strange Case ofMr. Hoover Under Two Flags, New York, 1931; Dante, Par. XIX, Pur. XXXIII, XXVI, In! . VII; Homer, Od. X; William Carlos Williams, Paterson (au? thor's note); Lucilius and Laws o f XII Tables, in Remains o f Old Latin, ed. and trans. E. H. Warmington (Loeb) [Lucilius]; J. P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 95 [Migne, col. no. ] ; Philostratus, The Life o f Apollonius o f Tyana, trans. F. C. Conybeare, 2 vols. ,
Harvard University Press [P ,Life].
Background
EP, SR, 176; SP, 179, 184,307? 309, 311, 319, 325, 339? 341, 429-432, 448; PD, 6; Imp, 39; JIM, 113; CON, 27, 75, 248; Constance Head, Justinian II of Byzantium, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1972; Theodor Mommsen, History o f Rome, New York, Scribner, 1895; Herbert Finer, Dulles over Suez, Chicago, 1964; John Robinson Beal, John Foster Dulles, Harper Bros. , New York, 1957; Alexander Del Mar, The Science ofMoney, 1885, rpt. 196'7 [Science]; Wyndham Lewis, ed. , Blast I, 1914 (rpt. 1981); James A. Barnes, John G. Carlisle, Financial Statesman, Peter Smith, 1967 [Carlisle]; James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, ed. Gaster, Criterion, 1959;H. J. Rose, trans. , The Roman Questions o fPlutarch, Oxford, 1924 [Roman Questions].
that her exemplary life of public service would not suggest a concern for money. The source of the quotation is unknown.
S. Spew Deal: The "New Deal" of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
6. one billion . . . : Del Mar speculated on why abd? el? Melik went to 61/2 and finds it was to make money. He concludes the sup- posed train of thought thus: "Judging from the proportions of the metallic spoil thus far captured, we shall secure about twenty times as much (in weight of) silver as gold, and assuming that we eventually secure 100,000,000 marks of silver, and coin it at the Indian ration, our fund will amount to
1,120,000,000 dinars" [HMS, 137].
7. Gothic 8: "The ratio of 8 to 1 is Gothic"
[HMS,137].
8. barleycorn . . . mithcal: The source has: "In the earliest Moslem system (period of Mahomet) the mithcal [or dinar] was di? vided into 96 parts . . . : 96 barleycorns = 48 habbeh = 24 tussuj = 6 danik = 1 mithcal"
[HMS,141].
9. Shafy and Hanbal: A footnote [ibid. ] reads: "Esh Shafy and Ibn Hanbal both af? firm that the ratio was 12 in the time of the Prophet. " This was the ratio adapted from the practice of the Romans.
10. Roman Christers: The Roman emperors and/or people after the conversion to Chris- tianity.
11. devlish ingenuity: Prob. the long, inge?
nious argument Del Mar assigned to Abd-el- Melik which led him to the 61/2. 12 ratio
Pai, 8? 1, 53? 54.
1. Melik: Abd? el? Melik [96:92].
2. Edward: Edward III, king of England, 1327? 1377. The source says that in A. D. 692 Abd-el-Melik, "determined to assert his inde- pendence from Rome . . . struck gold coins with his own effigy, holding a drawn sword, as afterwards did Edward III when he reo nounced the same dread authority. Abd? el? Melik's dinars [ancient Moslem gold coin] bore this challenging legend: 'The Servant of God, Abd-el-Melik, Emir-el-Mournenim'" [HMS,134].
3. six and . . . people: The ratio of silver to gold used by Moslems, because after their conquests they owned most of the silver mines and planned [HMS, 134? 140] to spread their empire to India, where the ratio had for centuries been 6 or 7 to 1. The Romans had fixed the ratio at 12 to 1 be? cause it could then get "twice as much gold for silver in India as it paid for it in Europe" [HMS, 136]. The source says that the Mos? lem ratio "may have been due to the fact that in all the western countries conquered by the Moslem, silver was chiefly in the hands of the people, whilst gold was in those of their rulers; and the great alteration which was made in their relative value was a covert bribe to gain the suffrages of the former and reconcile them to Moslem government and religion" [HMS, 135].
4. (princess A. ): "Princess Alice" is a mar- ginal note in DP's annotated copy of The Cantos lOP]. Pass. the 3d child and 2d daughter of Queen Victoria, Alice Maud Mary (1843? 1878), who later became the grand-duchesse of Hesse-Darmstadt, except
Glossary
? ? 610
97/668-669
97/669
611
[HMS, 137-138]. He concludes in part: "As we have driven the Romans from the Medi- terranean, and will soon control the com- merce of Maritime Europe, whither could our gold dinars go outside of the influence of our own trade? Answer-Nowhere"
[HMS, 138].
12. ut supra: L, "as [mentioned] above. " 13. Paulus: [96:10].
14. Theophanus: Theophanes the Confes- sor, ca. 758-818, a monk and scholar of the Eastern church. He is the source of the story that Justinian was highly offended that Abd-el-Melik wanted to pay his tribute in Arab coins, thus leading to the war
[96: 165]. Recent scholars believe the story is legendary [Head,Justinian II, 47-50].
15. & went decimal: Abd-el-Melik created a new system: "the mitheal was divided into 100 parts. . . . Both the Roman binary weights and the Roman ratio of silver to gold were now dropped. the weights became decimal" [HMS, 141-142].
16. the Prophet . . . : The source says: "The dinar was valued at 10 dirhems-a valuation derived from the ordinances of the Prophet, and one which it would have been sacreli- gious to alter. The law of the Prophet levies a title on all possessions of the precious metals" [HMS, 142].
17. "NOUCH KHOR" . . . : A, "Feast in health! " The source quotes the Koran: "There are some who if you entrust them with a talent (quintar) give it back to you; and some if you entrust them with a dinar will not return it" [BK, Pai, 5-2, 349]. But Del Mar misunderstood the Koran passage.
An Islamic authority says the verse [Irnram's Family, iii, Medina, v, 60] is not about bar? rowing or lending money. It's about non? Moslems, some of whom are said to be trust? worthy and some not [Mohammed Shaheen, Pai, 11-3,420-428].
18. a king's head . . . benevolence: Stating that the prototype of the dinar was the Roman solidus, the source goes on: "The
dirhem [ten to a dinar] . . . was based upon an average of the three sorts of silver coins then circulating in the Persian dominions. Those with the effigy of the king and legend NOUCH KHOR, or 'Feast in Health' weighed one mithcal" [HMS, 145].
19. 1859 . . . Bassora: "In A. H. 1276 (A. D. 1859) a Persian, named Djevad, paid into the post office at Constantinople a dirhem struck at Bassora in A. H. 40. , . . Its weight is 36. 13 English grains" [ibid. ].
20. A. H. : L, "anna Hegirae" (from Arabic hijrah), meaning "in the year of the Hegira," the migration of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622.
copied from the coins of Andoleoo, king of Paeonia (in Macedon), about A . V . [for A. V. C. (ab urbe condita), which dates the founding of Rome ca. 753 B. C. ] 470"
[HMS, 27].
28. Gold scrupulum: "In A . V . 437 a nota- ble -addition was made to the monetary sys? tern of Rome by the issuance of a 'Roma' gold coin, called the 'scrupulum' which was valued at twenty aces. " The word scrupulum was used early to mean the 9th, then 10th, then 12th part of anything: "At a still later date the game of draughts was played . . . with twelve men. . . . Hence in Rome during the fifth century of the city a scrupulum l1)eant, not a weight, but the ninth of any- thing; and in the case of money it meant the ninth of the gold aureus" [HMS, 27-28].
29. B. C. 316: Del Mar gives a table of coins and their values, with a heading that says: "Roman coinage system about A. U, 437 or B. C. 316. Ratio of silver to gold 9 for I"
[ibid. , 28].
30. "Outre . . . ": F, "Besides the book of weights. " "With regard to the 'libra' of ac- count, Gibbon says that, besides the libra weight, the Romans used a libra of account, which they called pondo" [ibid. , 29].
31. 2000 aces . . . : Del Mar gives several tables of various dates willch start by defin- ing the ace in relation to other coins and end with the phrase: "Hence 2000 aces~ 1 libra" [HMS, 31-34].
32. Gibbon . . . : Edward Gibbon,
1794. Del Mar cites The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Miscellaneous Works in his bibliography [ibid. , 13].
Mar finds two grievous errors made by Morn? msen and carried on by Lenormant: "The first one is that of mistaking the 'libra' of money . . . for a pound weight of silver met? al; the second one is that of calculating the ratio from anachronical coins" [HMS, 38-39]. After dealing with the errors, Del Mar cites Gibbon, whose judgment he finds to be better than that of these later author? ities.
35. "Qu'on decrie": F, "that they return. " From a ballad inVillon's Testament about old, worn~out prostitutes: "Car vieilles n'ont ne cours ne estre / Ne que monooye qu'on descrie. " Pound translates: "For. old they have not course nor status / More than hath money that's turned in" [SR, 176].
36. Caligula: Roman emperor, A. D. 37-41. "Upon the death of Caligula an attempt was made to reestablish the Republic" [HMS, 40-41].
37. Nero: Roman emperor, A. D. 54-68. "Upon the news of Nero's death many pea? pie . . . ran wildly through the streets . . . fomenting an excitement that ended by in? volving the Senate in their design, and the issuance of an Act proclaiming a Republican government. Among the first measures of the short? lived administration was the coin? age of money, designed to announce the restoration" [HMS,42-43].
38. June 9th, 68: "Besides the gold coins, there were struck silver and bronze ones. . . . All these must have been struck between June 9, A. D. 68, the date of Nero's death, and July 18, A. D. 69" [ibid. , 43].
39. L1BERTATI: L, "For liberty. " "A com- mon type of these coins was a citizen clad in a toga, with a cap of Liberty on his head and a wreath of laurel in his right hand, and the
21.