Salvete Quirites! Thought you'd like to share this:
(from Vitruvius, de Architectura, VI i. 9-11)
"Southern peoples, owing to the rarity of the atmosphere, with their minds
rendered acute by the heat, are more readily and swiftly inclined to
resourcefulness in planning; but northern peoples, steeped in a thick
climate amid reluctant air, are chilled by the damp and have sluggish minds.
We can observe this in the case of snakes: they move quickest when the heat
has drawn away the damp with its chilling effect; but in the cold and wintry
seasons they are chilled by the change of climate, and are sluggish and
motionless. Hence we need not wonder if warm air renders the human mind more
acute, and a cool air impedes.
"Now, while southern peoples are of acute intelligence and infinite resource
in planning, they give way when courage is demanded, because their strength
is drained away by the sun; but those who are born in colder regions, by
their fearless courage are better equipped for the clash of arms, yet by
their slowness of mind they rush on without reflection, and through lack of
tactics are balked of their purpose. Since, therefore the disposition of the
world is such by nature, and all other peoples differ by their unbalanced
temperament, it is in the true mean within the space of all the world and
the regions of the earth that the Roman people holds its territories. For in
Italy the inhabitants are exactly tempered in either direction, both in the
structure of the body and by strength of mind corresponding to their
courage. For just as the planet Jupiter is tempered by running in the middle
between the heat of Mars and the cold of Saturn, in the same manner Italy
presents laudable qualities which are tempered by admixture from either side
both north and south, and are consequently unsurpassed. And so by its policy
it shatters the courage of the barbarians and by its strong hand the plans
of the southerners. Thus the divine mind placed the state of the Roman
people in an excellent and temperate region in order that it might obtain
dominion over the whole world."
Thus Vitruvius (1st Century BCE). Looks like Manifest Destiny dressed up as
climatology to me. Though it could explain why the Romans were so keen on
constructing baths (i.e., of alternating cold and hot rooms) in the
provinces - temperateness being, if Vitruvius Pollio is to be believed, next
to godliness !
Tepete in valetudo deorum,
Vado.
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