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Showing posts from September 22, 2019

Some Thoughts on an Inscription INVICTIS PAX

Watercolour by Jayaram Parappil An article written for the parish paper of St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne Words by Philip Harvey and Peter Bryce In the Victorian period every youth with a classical education knew that Invictus was a title given to Roman gods. Central amongst these was Invictus Sol, the unconquerable sun. The cult of sun worship was a contender for attention in the early Christian era of the Empire, imported to Rome from the East and a threat to the local deities. Moreover, Invictus was by extension a motto of the Roman legions, making it a military word of exalted expectations. There is the very faintest echo of this in the naming of the 1948 Australian cricket team, the Invincibles, led by the formidable Donald Bradman. The English were hit for six and no one got hurt. The triumphalism inherent in this word is displaced and problematized by another piece of Victoriana. Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole t