Latin Intelligence?

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This one’s kind of interesting, given our knowledge of Classicists among the spying set. SkyNews had a very interesting little post on one of its blogs with the headline:

… which reports on a closed session from the Chilcot Inquiry which (I had to look it up) is one of those parliamentary committees looking into the UK’s role in the Iraq War. The SkyNews thing includes some interesting dialog and also links to the transcript, so we’ll use the transcript version … check this out:

SIR LAWRENCE FREEDMAN: What were your views of the final report of Duelfer’s?
SIS4: “Sunt lacrimae rerum”,13 really.
SIR LAWRENCE FREEDMAN: Would you like to elaborate?
SIS4: I think it says it all.
SIR LAWRENCE FREEDMAN: All right. We will stop there.
THE CHAIRMAN: “Tendebantque manus, ulteriore amore.”14 Shall we break for ten minutes?
SIS4: Yes, that would be lovely.

Sir Lawrence Freedman is a Professor of War Studies from King’s College, who may or may not have understood the reference (can’t tell from the context). The Chairman is Sir John Chilcot, who is a diplomat (who knows the Aeneid well enough to quote a somewhat obscure line). SIS4 is presumably a member of the Secret Intelligence Service (who also knows Latin well enough to quote it and understand it when spoken!) … the ‘footnotes’ there offer a translation of the Latin:

13 Literally “These are the tears of things” – Virgil, Aeneid Book I, line 462
14 “Their hands outstretched in yearning for the other shore”. Virgil, Aeneid Book VI, line 314

Nice bit of ‘capping’ by the Chairman and SIS4 … don’t see that much outside of Classics department lounges any more …

UPDATE (the next day): Amicus noster Jim O’Hara writes in and note:

Word missing in the second James Bond quote:

not

tendebantque manus ulteriore amore

but

tendebantque manus ripae ulterioris amore.

Nice instinct though to change ulterioris into the ablative in the absence of a word for it to modify.  And if you allow hiatus and ignore the last syllable he’s almost turned turned the hexameter into a pentameter.  Or was it the person doing the transcription?

4 thoughts on “Latin Intelligence?

  1. It sounds like they are all public school chums. SIS4 wouldn’t have used the Latin quote if he didn’t know that most of the others would understand what he meant. Sir Lawrence Freedman must have understood it as well, since he didn’t ask further.

    There’s also another classical reference in the report:

    [SIS4:] Lastly, I would say that there’s something of the Cassandra in secret intelligence work, because what you have to say to the world isn’t always welcome and sometimes it’s overlooked because it’s not politically convenient. This is the story of the continental services. Only history and the aftermath tells you whether your judgment was right.

  2. I’ve just been watching live on SkyNews and BBC, as Tony Blair gives evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry. He appeared previously, but he’s has now been called back for another session.

    He’s wriggling like an eel – at which he is an expert – in the face of polite but very determined questioning.

    No quotes from the Aeneid from him, but ‘facilis descensus Averno’ might be appropriate.

    They are now back from a break, so I’m off to watch again.

  3. Sir Lawrence Freedman was conspicuously silent when King’s College London chose to ‘disinvest’ in their unique Chair in Palaeography.

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