We learned in yesterday’s lesson on Canto XI that Virgil and Dante were about to go down to the seventh circle in which there would be three rings. This circle is for the Violent and each ring is for those who are violent to themselves, their neighbors and God.
At the broken chasm’s edge we found
The infamy of Crete, conceived within
The false cow’s shell. When he saw us come his way
He bit himself in rage like one insane.
My master called, “Perhaps you think you see
The Duke of Athens – the one who dealt you death
Up in the world. Beast, take yourself away:
This is no man your sister taught; in truth
He has come here to witness your punishment.”
As a bull breaks loose in the deathblow’s aftermath,
And plunges back and forth, but though unspent
Cannot go forward, so did the Minotaur act.
My ware guide cried, “Run to the descent –
Go quickly, while he’s raging.” So we picked
Our way down over a rubble of scattered stone
That shifted under me often as I walked
With the new weight.
The way down is guarded by Minotaur, “the infamy of Crete”, which has the head of a bull and the body of a man. He was a guard because of his bestial and violent nature.
Minotaur – After ascending the throne of the island of Crete, Minos competed with his brothers as ruler. Minos prayed to the sea god Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull as a sign of the god’s favour. Minos was to sacrifice the bull to honor Poseidon, but owing to the bull’s beauty he decided instead to keep him. Minos believed that the god would accept a substitute sacrifice. To punish Minos, Poseidon made Minos’ wife Pasiphaë fall in love with the bull. Pasiphaë had the craftsman Daedalus fashion a hollow wooden cow (the “false cow’s shell” in Canto XII), which she climbed into in order to mate with the bull (bestiality). The monstrous Minotaur was the result. Pasiphaë nursed the Minotaur but he grew in size and became ferocious. As the unnatural offspring of a woman and a beast, the Minotaur had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured humans for sustenance. Minos, following advice from the oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos’ palace in Knossos. Androgeus, son of Minos, had been killed by the Athenians, who were jealous of the victories he had won at the Panathenaic festival.The common tradition holds that Minos waged and won a war to avenge the death of his son. Minos required that seven Athenian youths and seven maidens, drawn by lots, be sent every seventh or ninth year (some accounts say every year) to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus (“Duke of Athens” in Canto XII) volunteered to slay the monster. He promised his father, Aegeus, that he would put up a white sail on his journey back home if he was successful, but would have the crew put up black sails if he was killed. In Crete, Minos’ daughter Ariadne fell madly in love with Theseus and helped him navigate the labyrinth. Theseus killed the Minotaur with the sword of Aegeus and led the other Athenians back out of the labyrinth. On the way home, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos and continued. He neglected, however, to put up the white sail. King Aegeus, from his lookout on Cape Sounion, saw the black-sailed ship approach and, presuming his son dead, committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea that is since named after him. This act secured the throne for Theseus. – Wikipedia (parenthesis mine)
The “Harrowing of Hell” is the triumphant descent of Christ into Hades between the time of his Crucifixion and his Resurrection when he brought salvation to all of the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world. Theseus had gone down into the labyrinth to kill the Minotaur. Hercules had also invaded the place of the dead when he dragged Cerberus out. Both of these classical mythological characters are used by Dante as a type of Jesus Christ who invaded Hades, the place of the dead, to bring salvation to those who loved God but had died before Christ. Then Jesus Christ arose from the dead, spent some time with His disciples and followers before ascending into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God. His trip to Hades is what caused the landslide that Virgil and Dante are now navigating.
“You may be thinking about this ruined terrain
Guarded by the feral rage that I defied
And quelled just now. Know then: that other time
I journeyed here, this rock had not yet slid.
It must have been a little before He (Jesus) came
To Dis, if I have reckoned rightly, to take
The great spoil of the upper circle with Him –
When the deep, fetid valley began to shake
Everywhere, so that I though the universe
Felt love; the force that has brought chaos back
Many time over, say some philosophers.
And at that moment this ancient rock, both here
And elsewhere, tumbled to where it now appears.
DigitalDante.columbia.edu: “Theseus and Hercules are classical forerunners of Christ, early harrowers of Hell whose actions symbolize infernal defeat. As I wrote in Dante’s Poets:
“Both Theseus and Hercules are figurae Christi, heroes who descended to the underworld to rob it of its booty, and as such both are mentioned in Inferno IX: Theseus by the Furies, who still clamor for revenge (‘mal non vengiammo in Teseo l’assalto’ badly did we not avenge ourselves on Theseus [Inf. IX, 54]); and Hercules implicitly by the angel, who reminds the devils of Cerberus’ ill-fated attempt to withstand the hero in Inferno IX, 97-99. (Dante’s Poets, pp. 209-10)”
The earthquake that caused the landslide was caused when Christ entered Hades and rescued the righteous who had died prior to Jesus. He conquered Hell and liberated the righteous. Virgil says he intuited that the great shaking was the universe feeling Love. In essence it was, as Jesus is Love and He broke sin and Hell with the power of Love.
Acts 2:22-33 (BSB, Peter preaching after the Holy Spirit descended upon them on the Day of Pentecost after Christ’s ascension into Heaven) 22 Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. 23 He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. 24 But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its clutches.
25 David says about Him:
‘I saw the Lord always before me;
because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will dwell in hope,
27 because You will not abandon my soul to Hades,
nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
You will fill me with joy in Your presence.’ (Psalm 16:8-11)
29 Brothers, I can tell you with confidence that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that He would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses. 33 Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT) 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Ephesians 4:3-10 (BSB) 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 Now to each one of us grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 This is why it says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captives away,
and gave gifts to men.” (Psalm 68:18)
9 What does “He ascended” mean, except that He also descended to the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things.
1 Peter 3:18-22 (NLT) 18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison— 20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 22 Now Christ has gone to heaven. He is seated in the place of honor next to God, and all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority.
1 Peter 4:1-6 (NLT) 1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. 2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. 4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 6 That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.
Romans 10:5-13 (CEV) 5 Moses said a person could become acceptable to God by obeying the Law. He did this when he wrote, “If you want to live, you must do all the Law commands.”
6 But people whose faith makes them acceptable to God will never ask, “Who will go up to heaven to bring Christ down?” 7 Neither will they ask, “Who will go down into the world of the dead to raise him to life?”
8 All who are acceptable because of their faith simply say, “The message is as near as your mouth or your heart.” And this is the same message we preach about faith. 9 So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. 10 God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.
11 The Scriptures say no one who has faith will be disappointed, 12 no matter if that person is a Jew or a Gentile. There is only one Lord, and he is generous to everyone who asks for his help. 13 All who call out to the Lord will be saved.
Zechariah 9:11-12 (NIV) 11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
The river of blood is called Phlegethon and the souls in it are standing in a depth according to their sin — the worse the sin, the deeper they stand in the river.
But keep your eyes below us, for coming near
Is the river of blood – in which boils everyone
Whose violence hurt others.” O blind desire
Of covetousness, O anger gone insane –
That goad us on through life, which is so brief,
To steep in eternal woe when life is done.
I saw a broad moat bending in an acurve
Encircling the plain, just as my guide had said:
Between the moat and the bottom of the cliff
Centaurs who were armed with bows and arrows sped
In file, as on a hunt they might be found
When they were in the world.
Here is a river of blood where the sinners, who are violent against their neighbors, are boiled in blood. And around this river are centaurs who shoot them with arrows if they rise to the top.
Centaur – a centaur is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. These creatures represented barbarism and unbridled chaos, and had a bestial and lustful reputation. The father of the race of centaurs was Centaurus, himself the offspring of Ixion who had made love to Hera, or more precisely, a cloud made by a jealous Zeus to resemble Hera. The centaurs were believed to live in the forests of Thessaly, beyond the laws of man. The most famous centaur was Chiron known for his great wisdom. He tutored Asklepios, god of medicine, Hercules, Achilles and Jason.
A second famous centaur is Pholos, who hosted Hercules while he was engaged in hunting for the giant boar. Philos offered Hercules food and his cave as a place to rest from the hero’s labours and together they had a quiet drink from the gigantic wine-filled pithos jar that belonged to all of the centaurs and had been a special gift from Dionysos, the god of wine. But other centaurs joined the party and got drunk and started a fight which Hercules won. Hercules accidentally killed Chiron with one of his poisoned arrows, dipped in the blood of the Hydra. Pholos was also killed in the incident as well.
A third centaur is Nessos (or Nessus). Hercules and his new wife Deianeira, attempted to cross the river Evenus (or Euenos) on their way to Tiryns. Nessos offered to carry the girl across the water but halfway across molested her. Hercules used one of his poisoned arrows. With his dying breath Nessus told Deianeira to keep some of his blood (poisoned by the poisoned arrow) away from the sunlight and use it to make a love potion if Hercules’ love ever waned. Sure enough, when she thought Hercules was having an affair with Iole, she put the blood on his cape. When he put the cape on, the poison caused him such agony that he went mad. In despair, Deianeira killed herself and Hercules through himself on a funeral pyre. But he was given an immortal place on Mt. Olympus where he married Hebe, the goddess of youth.
Dante, the pilgrim, erupts with an impassioned interjection that begins “Oh cieca cupidigia e ira folle” which translated is “O blind desire of covetousness, O anger gone insane”. “Cupidigia” is cupidity. Cupidity is greed, avarice, inordinate desire for wealth. “Ira” is anger. Dante uses these words here because they are key motivators to violence against others. They are “internal impulses that goad the soul”. What is a goad? It was a stick with a sharp point that a shepherd used to get his sheep’s attention and make them move along or go in the right direction. As a verb, it means to provoke, drive, urge to action. Another goad would be a spur on your boot that you use to gouge your horse and spur him to move. So what is the vice that motivates the action of violence against others? Greed and anger.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NIV) 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
One hailed us from a distance: “You who descend
The hillside, for what torment have you come?
Tell from there – if not, I draw my bow!”
“We will make an answer to Chiron,” my guide told him,
“Who is beside you; you always brought yourself woe
Because your will was hasty.” He nudged me and said,
“That one is Nessus: he who met death through
Fair Deianira, and by himself satisfied
Vengeance for himself. The middle one whose gaze
Is directed at his breast, with lowered head,
Is the great Chiron, tutor of Achilles.
The other is Pholus, full of rage. They circle
The moat by thousands; if any should should rise
Out of the blood more than its guilt make lawful
They pierce it with their arrows.”
Because Dante, the pilgrim, is not dead, his body is still substantial. The others are spirit forms, aka shades or ghosts. So his movement actually displaces rock and he will need to be carried across the Phlegethon River. Virgil speaks to Chiron and asks for one of the centaurs to carry them safely to the other side. Nessus is given the task.
“So Savage, give us a member of your pack
To come along as companion to us both
And show us where the ford is – and on his back
Carry this one who, not a spirit, cannot
Fly through the air.” Then Chiron turned and spoke,
Bending his torso toward Nessus on his right,
“Go back and guide them, then; and turn away
The challenge of any other troops you meet.”
As they go along, they see the river and it’s inhabitants.
Along the boiling crimson – those boiled inside
Shrieking beside us. One some it came so high
It covered their eyebrows. The mighty centaur said
“These are the tyrants given to blood and plunder.
Here they lament the merciless harm they did:”
He begins to point out violent sinners to Virgil and Dante. The worst sinners are up to their eyebrows in the boiling blood and they are the tyrants and cruel rulers who did violence by murder and by theft and destruction of private property.
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) – He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through western Asia and northeast Africa, and by the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history’s most successful military commanders. Alexander endeavoured to reach the “ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea” and invaded India in 326 BC, winning an important victory over the Pauravas at the Battle of the Hydaspes. He eventually turned back at the demand of his homesick troops, dying in Babylon in 323 BC in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II. He was only 32 years old. How he died is a matter of debate with different accounts. One theory is he may have been poisoned by Antipater. But if it was poisoning it took him 12-14 days to die. It’s possible if the poisoner used White Hellebora. Another is fever (such as typhoid or malaria) and another could have been alcohol poisoning after drinking down a large bowl of wine in honor of Heracles. Or maybe he drank water not mixed with wine and the bacteria killed him. – Wikipedia
Dionysius – Dionysius the Younger (c. 397 BC – 343 BC), or Dionysius II, was a Greek politician who ruled Syracuse, Sicily. He was the son of Dionysius I, or Dionysius the Elder, and Doris of Locri. When his father died in 367 BC, Dionysius, who was at the time under thirty years old, and completely inexperienced in public affairs, inherited the supreme power and began ruling under the supervision of his uncle, Dion, whose disapproval of the young Dionysius’s lavishly dissolute lifestyle compelled him to invite his teacher Plato to visit Syracuse. However, under the influence of opponents of Dion’s reforms, Dionysius conspired with the historian Philistus and banished his uncle, taking complete power in 366 BC. Without Dion, Dionysius’s rule became increasingly unpopular, as he was incompetent. When Plato appealed for Dion’s return, the irritated Dionysius interfered with Dion’s property and finances and gave his wife to another man. Before this, Dion’s Syracusan estates had financed his peaceful and comfortable life overseas in Athens, but Dionysius’s last offence spurred him into action. Dion formed a small army at Zacynthus and returned to Sicily in 357 BC, much to the delight of the Syracusans. As Dionysius was in Caulonia, Italy at the time, Dion took all but Syracuse’s island citadel easily. Dionysius sailed back to Syracuse immediately, attempted attacks from the citadel and tried to negotiate peace treaties. When he was unsuccessful in all attempts, he sailed to Locri and left the citadel in the hands of his son Apollocrates. While in exile, Dionysius took advantage of the friendly citizens of Locri and became the city’s tyrant, treating the locals with great cruelty. He did not return to Syracuse until 346 BC, eight years after Dion’s assassination by his officers. Soon after he left Locri, the locals drove out the remaining troops and took their revenge on Dionysius’s wife and daughters. Dionysius, who was still unpopular, was able to regain power in Syracuse only because of its great political instability. In the preceding years many other cities in Sicily defected from Syracuse and were ruled by local tyrants. Several of these cities joined the Syracusans in an attack against Dionysius which proved to be quite successful. Dionysius was forced back into the citadel. At this time, 344 BC, Timoleon arrived and began his invasion of Sicily. Dionysius, out of respect for Timoleon and aware he no longer had a chance of victory, arranged the surrender of the citadel and was given safe passage to Corinth. Dionysius died in the following year in Corinth, where he lived in increasingly miserable conditions. – Wikipedia
Azzolino – Ezzelino III da Romano (April 25, 1194, Tombolo – October 7, 1259), a Ghibelline, was a son of Ezzelino II da Romano, ruler of Bassano del Grappa and other fiefs in the Veneto, and Adelaide degli Alberti di Mangona, who came from a family of counts in Tuscany. At the age of four years, he was sent as a hostage to Verona, but nothing else is known about his childhood or education. In 1213, he took part in the siege of the castle of Este, which belonged to his father’s archenemy, marquess Azzo VI of Este, who died in 1212 and later to his son Aldobrandino. When Ezzelino II retired to a monastery in 1223, his possessions went to his sons Alberico, who got the castles and villages in the countryside of Vicenza (including the important centre of Bassano del Grappa) and Ezzelino, who got the possessions in the countryside of Treviso. Ezzelino became an important factor in Veronese politics and in 1226/1227 he had become podestà—Lord Mayor—of that city. He briefly lost Verona, but regained it in 1230. At this time control over Verona was highly important because the Emperor Frederick II was in conflict with the Second Lombard League, an alliance of cities in Northern Italy. Whoever controlled Verona could block the Brenner Pass, and thereby prevent the arrival of reinforcements for Frederick from Germany. Initially in 1226, Ezzelino favoured the Lombard League which could block the Brenner and emerge victorious from its first confrontation with the Emperor. Later however, he and his brother Alberico changed sides. In 1232 they struck an alliance with Frederick and received an imperial privilege of protection. Finally in 1236, Frederick II arrived in the March. Since Ezzelino and his Veronese allies, the Monticuli and Quattuorviginti, had gained control of Verona in early 1236, the emperor could bring reinforcements–among them 3000 German knights—from across the Alps. In a campaign that began in November 1236 Frederich and Ezzelino, who was becoming an increasingly important ally of the emperor, subjugated all the important cities of the March of Treviso: Vicenza was conquered in November 1236, Padua and Treviso surrendered in February/March 1237. In 1236 Ezzelino married Selvaggia, Frederick’s natural daughter who was thirteen years old at the time; conquered Verona and by treason Padua, seizing the position of podestà of that city. In Padua he had the monk Giordano Forzatè arrested and exiled. Ezzelino was one of the protagonists in the Ghibelline-Imperial victory of Cortenuova (1237) and in 1239 was named Imperial viceroy for the March of Treviso. His long-lasting struggle against Azzo VII of Este, the new duke of the Este ended with the total defeat of the latter and the annexion of many territories. After a failed pacification attempt by Frederick, as soon as the emperor set off again Ezzelino attacked the Este, submitting Treviso—even though it was his brother’s fief—Belluno and Feltre. He was now lord of all lands between the city of Trento and the Oglio river and had acquired a reputation for cruelty and the regular use of torture against all enemies and alleged plotters, in the cities he ruled. In 1249, five years after Selvaggia’s death at the tender age of just 21 years, he married Beatrice di Buontraverso. After Frederick’s death in 1250, Ezzelino supported his son, Conrad IV. There was growing disgust at Ezzelino’s cruel behavior, and in 1254 he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, who also launched a crusade against him. In 1258 he launched a broad Ghibelline offensive in Lombardy and Veneto along with Oberto Pallavicino of Cremona. After a failed attempt to assault Milan itself, he was wounded by an arrow in the course of the Battle of Cassano d’Adda and had to retreat but was captured near Bergamo. He killed himself by intentional self-neglect during his imprisonment in the castle of Soncino, near the city of Cremona in Lombardy. In the following year his brother Albert was put to death, and the Romano family became extinct. – Wikipedia
Obizzo of Esti – Obizzo II d’Este (c. 1247 – 13 February 1293), a Guelph, was a bastard, the fruit of an illegitimate relation of Rinaldo I d’Este – the only son and heir of the Margrave Azzo VII d’Este – with a Neapolitan laundress. Soon after his birth, Obizzo was expelled from Ferrara with his mother and settled in Ravenna. In 1251: his father Rinaldo, a hostage of emperor Frederick II since 1238, was poisoned with his barren wife, Adelaide da Romano. Without any other sons to continue his line, the Margrave Azzo VII saw in Obizzo the only chance of survival of the House of Este and fought for his recognition as his heir. Obizzo was legitimated by the Pope Innocent IV in 1252, shortly after his mother was drowned in the Adriatic. He was Marquis of Ferrara and the March of Ancona. In 1264 he was proclaimed lifelong ruler of Ferrara, Lord of Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289. His rule marked the end of the communal period in Ferrara and the beginning of the Lordship, which lasted until the 17th century. He was most likely killed by his son Azzo VIII d’Este without having nominated an heir. Azzo claimed the government as the eldest son (primogeniture) but his brothers Aldobrandino and Francesco made a violent dispute for their rights. In 1263 Obizzo married firstly with Giacomina (died December 1287), daughter of Niccolò Fieschi di Lavagna and niece of Pope Innocent IV. They had five children: Azzo VIII (after 1263 – 31 January 1308); Beatrice (died 15 September 1334), married firstly with Ugolino Visconti, Giudice of Gallura and secondly on 24 June 1300 to Galeazzo I Visconti, Lord of Milan; Maddalena, married firstly with Aldobrandino Turchi, from Ferrara, and secondly with Raniero di Canossa; Aldobrandino II (died 1326); Francesco. In 1289 Obizzo married secondly with Costanza (died 1306), daughter of Alberto I della Scala, Lord of Verona. This union was childless. Obizzo d’Este is cited in Dante’s Inferno and is in the first compartment of the Seventh Circle of Hell for purchasing Ghisola from her brother Venedico Cacciamenico for sexual relations. – Wikipedia
Guy de Montford – Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola (1244–1291) was the son of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and Eleanor of England. He participated in the Battle of Evesham against the royalist forces of his uncle, King Henry III of England, and his cousin, Prince Edward. Both his father and elder brother were traumatically killed during the disastrous battle, Guy de Montfort was seriously wounded and captured. He was held at Windsor Castle until spring 1266, when he bribed his captors and escaped to France to rejoin his exiled family. Guy and his brother, Simon the Younger, wandered across Europe for several years, eventually making their way to Italy. Guy took service with Charles of Anjou, serving as his Vicar-General in Tuscany. In Tuscany, he married an Italian noblewoman, Margherita Aldobrandesca, the Lady of Sovana. With her he had two daughters: Anastasia, who married Romano Orsini, and Tomasina, who married Pietro di Vico. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Tagliacozzo and was given Nola by Charles of Anjou. In 1271, Guy and Simon discovered that their cousin Henry of Almain (son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall) was in Viterbo at the church of San Silvestro.
In revenge for the deaths of their father and brother at Evesham, on 13 March 1271, Guy and Simon murdered Henry, supposedly while Henry was praying during the elevation of the Host, and while he clutched the altar, begging for mercy. “You had no mercy for my father and brothers”, was Guy’s reply. This murder was carried out in the presence of the Cardinals (who were conducting a papal Election) of King Philip III of France, and of King Charles of Sicily. For this crime the Montfort brothers were excommunicated. Simon died later that year at Siena, “cursed by God, a wanderer and a fugitive”. Guy was stripped of his titles and took service with Charles of Anjou again, but was captured off the coast of Sicily in 1287 by the Aragonese at the Battle of the Counts. He died in a Sicilian prison. – Wikipedia
The mighty centaur said,
These are the tyrants given to blood and plunder.
Here they lament the merciless harm they did:
Here’s Alexander, and he who held Sicily under
For many a sad year, fierce Dionysius;
That black hair there is Azzolino’s; and yonder,
That other fairer head is Obizzo of Esti’s:
In the world above, the man his stepsons slew.”
…
A little farther on, the centaur stopped
At a crowd seeming to rise from the boiling flow
Up to the throat. He showed us one who kept
Off to one side. “Within the bosom of God
He stabbed an other’s heart, and it has dripped
Blood ever since upon the Thames,” he said
In the passage above, Dante, the poet, is listing two classical tyrants, Alexander the Great and Dionysius II. Then he mentions tyrants from his own times, Azzolino/Ezzelino and Opizzo/Obizzo.
Tyrant – an absolute ruler unrestrained by law; a cruel and oppressive leader; a usurper of legitimate sovereignty; a ruler who uses power oppressively; a cruel, despotic ruler who follows no law.
First Known Use of tyrant was in the 14th century. Middle English tyraunt, from Anglo-French tyran, tyrant, from Latin tyrannus, from Greek tyrannos. The philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, first used the word negatively. They defined a tyrant as a person who rules without law, using extreme and cruel methods against both his own people and others. The Greek philosophers stressed the quality of rule rather than legitimacy or absolutism. Dante is using the word “tiranni” when talking of those up to their eyebrows in boiling blood. He is expressing the form of government that seemed to be popular in Italy during his times.
I saw some others whose head and even chest
Came up above the stream, and in that crowd
Were many I recognized. The blood decreased,
Sinking by more and more until it cooked
Only the feet, and that is where we crossed.
“To here, you have seen the boiling stream contract,”
He said, “From here, its bed grows deeper again
Till it completes its circle, to reconnect
With where God’s justice makes the tyrants groan:
It goads Attila, a scourge on earth, and Pyrrhus,
And Sextus; there also are eternally drawn
The tears, unlocked by boiling, milked from the eyes
of Rinier Pazzo and Rinier da Corneto – men
Who brought such warfare to the public ways.
Then he turned back and crossed the ford again.
Attila – Attila the Hun (c. 406–453 AD) Attila’s father, Mundzuk, was the brother of kings Octar and Ruga, who reigned jointly over the Hunnic empire in the early fifth century. This form of diarchy was recurrent with the Huns. His first wife was Kreka or Hereka. He had many. His people were nomads who had only recently arrived in Europe. They crossed the Volga river during the 370s and annexed the territory of the Alans, then attacked the Gothic kingdom between the Carpathian mountains and the Danube. Large numbers of Vandals, Alans, Suebi, and Burgundians crossed the Rhine and invaded Roman Gaul on December 31, 406 to escape the Huns. The Roman Empire had been split in half since 395 and was ruled by two distinct governments, one based in Ravenna in the West, and the other in Constantinople in the East. The Roman Emperors, both East and West, were generally from the Theodosian family in Attila’s lifetime. The death of Ruga in 434 left the sons of his brother Mundzuk, Attila and Bleda, in control of the united Hun tribes. Bleda died following the Huns’ withdrawal from Byzantium (probably around 445). Attila then took the throne for himself, becoming the sole ruler of the Huns. He was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, in Central and Eastern Europe. During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being stopped in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. Valentinian’s (Valentinian III, Roman emperor of the West from 425 to 455; his reign marked by the ongoing collapse of the Western Empire) sister was Honoria, who had sent the Hunnish king a plea for help—and her engagement ring—in order to escape her forced betrothal to a Roman senator in the spring of 450. Honoria may not have intended a proposal of marriage, but Attila chose to interpret her message as such. He accepted, asking for half of the western Empire as dowry. When Valentinian discovered the plan, only the influence of his mother Galla Placidia convinced him to exile Honoria, rather than killing her. He also wrote to Attila, strenuously denying the legitimacy of the supposed marriage proposal. Attila sent an emissary to Ravenna to proclaim that Honoria was innocent, that the proposal had been legitimate, and that he would come to claim what was rightfully his.
Attila gathered his vassals—Gepids, Ostrogoths, Rugians, Scirians, Heruls, Thuringians, Alans, Burgundians, among others–and began his march west. In 451, he arrived in Belgica with an army exaggerated by Jordanes to half a million strong. Aëtius moved to oppose Attila, gathering troops from among the Franks, the Burgundians, and the Celts. A mission by Avitus and Attila’s continued westward advance convinced the Visigoth king Theodoric I (Theodorid) to ally with the Romans. The combined armies reached Orléans ahead of Attila, thus checking and turning back the Hunnish advance. Aëtius gave chase and caught the Huns at a place usually assumed to be near Catalaunum (modern Châlons-en-Champagne). Attila decided to fight the Romans on plains where he could use his cavalry. The two armies clashed in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Theodoric was killed in the fighting. Attila was in retreat and disarray, and the Romans had the benefit of appearing victorious. Attila returned in 452 to renew his marriage claim with Honoria, invading and ravaging Italy along the way. Communities became established in what would later become Venice as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon. Aëtius lacked the strength to offer battle, but managed to harass and slow Attila’s advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the River Po. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila’s camp. Italy had suffered from a terrible famine in 451 and her crops were faring little better in 452. Attila’s devastating invasion of the plains of northern Italy this year did not improve the harvest. To advance on Rome would have required supplies which were not available in Italy. Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as the Bishop of Rome Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the Emperor. Marcian was the successor of Theodosius, and he had ceased paying tribute to the Huns in late 450 while Attila was occupied in the west. After Attila left Italy and returned to his palace across the Danube, he planned to strike at Constantinople again and reclaim the tribute which Marcian had stopped. However, he died in the early months of 453. The conventional account from Priscus says that Attila was at a feast celebrating his latest marriage, this time to the beautiful young Ildico (the name suggests Gothic or Ostrogoth origins). In the midst of the revels, however, he suffered a severe nosebleed and choked to death in a stupor. An alternative theory is that he succumbed to internal bleeding after heavy drinking, possibly a condition called esophageal varices, where dilated veins in the lower part of the esophagus rupture leading to death by hemorrhage. There seemed to be a lot of blood but no apparent wound. Emperor Marcian (who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from 450 to 457) may have been the political force behind Attila’s death and was it at the hand of his new bride? Attila’s sons Ellac, Dengizich and Ernak, “in their rash eagerness to rule they all alike destroyed his empire”.
Pyrrhus – Pyrrhus (red) was either the son of Achilles or the king of Epirus.
Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, son of Achilles and the princess Deidamia. The Greeks captured the Trojan seer, Helenos, and forced him to tell them under what conditions they could take Troy. Helenos revealed to them that they could defeat Troy if they could acquire the poisonous arrows of Heracles (then in Philoctetes’ possession); steal the Palladium (which led to the building of the famous wooden horse of Troy); and put Achilles’ son in the war. In response to the prophecy, the Greeks took steps to retrieve the arrows of Heracles and bring Neoptolemos to Troy. Odysseus was sent to retrieve Neoptolemos, then a mere teenager, from Scyros. Neoptolemos was held by some to be brutal. He killed six men on the field of battle among others, captured Helenos, and made Andromache, then a widow, his concubine. The ghost of Achilles appeared to the survivors of the war, demanding Polyxena, the Trojan princess, be sacrificed before anybody could leave. Neoptolemos did so. With Andromache, Helenos and Phoenix, Neoptolemos sailed to the Epirot Islands and then became the King of Epirus. With the enslaved Andromache, Neoptolemos was the father of Molossos and through him, according to the myth, an ancestor of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. He was either killed after he attempted to take Hermione from Orestes as her father Menelaus promised, or after he denounced Apollo, the murderer of his father. In the first case, he was killed by Orestes. In the second, revenge was taken by the Delphic priests of Apollo. After his death his kingdom was portioned out and Helenos (who later married Andromache) took part of it. – Wikipedia
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (319/318–272 BC) was a Greek king and statesman of the Hellenistic period. He was born to prince Aeacides of Epirus, and Phthia, a Thessalian noblewoman, the daughter of the Thessalian general Menon. Aeacides was a cousin of Olympias, making Pyrrhus a second-cousin-once-removed to Alexander the Great. Pyrrhus was married five times: his first wife Antigone bore him a daughter called Olympias and a son named Ptolemy in honour of her stepfather. She died in 295 BC, possibly in childbirth, since that was the same year her son was born. His second wife was Lanassa, daughter of King Agathocles of Syracuse (r. 317–289 BC), whom he married in about 295 BC; the couple had two sons, Alexander and Helenus; Lanassa left Pyrrhus. His third wife was the daughter of Audoleon, King of Paeonia; his fourth wife was the Illyrian princess Bircenna, who was the daughter of King Bardylis II (r. c. 295–290 BC); and his fifth wife was the daughter of Ptolemy Keraunos, whom he married in 281/280 BC. In 319/318 BC, Arrybas, Aeacides’ father and the regent of Epirus, died leaving Epirus to the joint kings Aeacides and Neoptolemus. Aeacides supported Olympias in her fight against Cassander and marched on Macedon. In 317 BC, when Pyrrhus was only two, Olympias requested Aeacides’ support yet again and he marched on Macedon a second time. Many of his soldiers did not like their service and mutinied. Aeacides released these soldiers from his army. When the mutineers arrived in Epirus they caused a rebellion against their absent king and Aeacides was dethroned. Cassander sent one of his generals, Lyciscus, to act as regent to the still underaged Neoptolemus. Epirus in effect became a puppet kingdom of Cassander. Pyrrhus’ family fled north and took refuge with Glaukias of the Taulantians, one of the largest Illyrian tribes. By 313 BC, Cassander was distracted by his war against Antigonus Monophthalmus. Aeacides took advantage of the situation and returned to Epirus. He appears to have regained popularity and raised a large army. Cassander sent an army under his brother Philip who defeated Aeacides in two battles. Aeacides was wounded in the last battle and died soon after. In 307 BC, Glaukias invaded Epirus and put Pyrrhus on the throne. Pyrrhus was only eleven years old, so his guardians ruled in his stead until he came of age. When he was seventeen he travelled to the court of Glaukias in Illyria to attend the wedding of one of Glaukias’ sons. While he was in Illyria the Molossians rose in rebellion, drove out Pyrrhus’ supporters, and returned Neoptolemus to the throne. This time Glaukias was unable to help him. Pyrrhus travelled to the Peloponnese and served his brother-in-law Demetrius Poliorcetes. In 302 BC, Demetrius took his army to Asia Minor to support his father Antigonus Monophthalmus. Pyrrhus impressed Antigonus for he is reputed to have said that Pyrrhus would become the greatest general of his time, if he lived long enough. The Battle of Ipsus was the largest and most important battle of the Wars of the Successors. Pyrrhus probably fought with Demetrius on the right wing, a place of honour, and made a brilliant display of valour among the combatants. Unfortunately for Antigonus, he lost both the battle and his life. Demetrius, victorious on his wing, managed to escape with 9,000 men. Pyrrhus, still with Demetrius, continued to serve his brother-in-law who started rebuilding his father’s empire. In 298 BC, Pyrrhus was taken hostage to Alexandria, under the terms of a peace treaty made between Demetrius and Ptolemy I Soter. There, he married Ptolemy I’s stepdaughter Antigone. In 297 BC, Cassander died and Ptolemy, always looking for allies, decided to help restore Pyrrhus to his kingdom. He provided Pyrrhus with men and funds and sent him back to Epirus. Pyrrhus returned to Epirus at the head of an army, but not willing to fight a civil war he agreed to rule Epirus together with Neoptolemus. Soon both kings started to plot against one another. Pyrrhus was informed of a plot against his life and decided to strike first. He invited his fellow king to a dinner and had him murdered. In 295 BC, Pyrrhus transferred the capital of his kingdom to Ambracia. In 292 BC, he went to war against his former ally and brother-in-law Demetrius, he invaded Thessaly while Demetrius was besieging Thebes. Demetrius responded immediately, he left the siege to his son Antigonus Gonatas and marched back north at the head of a large army. Pyrrhus, outnumbered, withdrew to Epirus. His second wife Lannasa, daughter of Agathocles the self proclaimed king of Sicily, deserted him. She claimed that she, a daughter of a Greek king, could no longer bear to share her home with barbarian women. She fled to Corcyra, her dowry, and offered it and herself to Demetrius. He accepted, sailed to the island and took possession of both Corcyra and Lannasa. Demetrius planned to invade Epirus. Demetrius left a strong force under his best general Pantauchus in Aetolia and marched on Epirus. Meanwhile, Pyrrhus had raised his army and was marching to his allies rescue. The two armies, on different roads, passed one another and Demetrius started plundering Epirus while Pyrrhus met Pantauchus in battle. The fighting was heavy, and according to the sources Pantauchus and Pyrrhus sought out one another. Pantauchus challenged Pyrrhus to individual combat, Pyrrhus accepted. After hurling spears at each other they fought it out with swords. Pyrrhus was wounded, but in return wounded his opponent twice, in the thigh and in the neck. Pantauchus’ bodyguards had to carry him away. Emboldened by their king’s victory the Epirots resumed their attack and broke Pantauchus’ army, and took 5,000 prisoners. The army then honoured Pyrrhus by bestowing the surname of ‘Eagle’ upon him. Demetrius, upon hearing of Pyrrhus’ victory, marched back to Macedon. Pyrrhus released his prisoners and marched back to Epirus. In 289 BC, Pyrrhus, learning that Demetrius was dangerously ill, invaded Macedonia. His original intention was merely to raid and pillage, but with Demetrius unable to lead his forces he met almost no opposition. Pyrrhus penetrated as far as the old Macedonian capital of Aegae before Demetrius was well enough to take the field. Since Demetrius commanded a superior force Pyrrhus had no choice but to retreat. Demetrius, just as restless as Pyrrhus, planned to invade Asia and reclaim his father’s old domains. He first made peace with Pyrrhus granting him his holdings in Macedonia while holding on to Corcyra and Leucas, then he started to raise a vast army and a huge fleet. Faced with this threat, the other Diadochi, Lysimachus, Ptolemy and Seleucus, allied against him. The three kings sent embassies to Pyrrhus trying to win him over to their side or at least get him to remain neutral. In 288 BC, the allied kings began their campaigns against Demetrius. Ptolemy sailed against Demetrius’ Greek allies with a large fleet. Lysimachus invaded upper Macedonia from Thrace. Pyrrhus waited until Demetrius had marched against Lysimachus and then invaded southern Macedonia. Demetrius must have thought Pyrrhus would not renege on his treaty for western and southern Macedonia fell without opposition. Meanwhile, Demetrius had won a victory over Lysimachus near Amphipolis. When the Macedonian army heard their homeland was being overrun by Pyrrhus they turned on Demetrius. They were fed up with his autocratic rule and grandiose plans and refused to advance any further. Demetrius then led his army against Pyrrhus. Unfortunately for Demetrius, his troops were so fed up with him they deserted to Pyrrhus and he had to flee. Lysimachus was soon joined by Pyrrhus and they decided to share rulership over Macedonia. Demetrius gathered a new army in Greece and besieged Athens, which had rebelled against the puppet government he had installed. The Athenians called on Pyrrhus for assistance and he marched against Demetrius once more. Pyrrhus was encouraged to aid the Tarentines by the Oracle of Delphi. He recognized the possibility of carving out an empire for himself in Italy. He made an alliance with Ptolemy Keraunos, King of Macedon and his most powerful neighbor, and arrived in Italy in 280 BC. Pyrrhus entered Italy with an army consisting of 20,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers, 500 slingers, and 20 war elephants in a bid to subdue the Romans. Due to his superior cavalry, his elephants and his deadly phalanx infantry, he defeated the Romans. He then offered the Romans a peace treaty which was eventually rejected. Pyrrhus tried to wrest Campania from the Romans, but was thwarted in this by the reinforced army of Laevinus. He then boldly marched on Rome itself, but found its defences too formidable. Pyrrhus now faced three armies; the garrison of Rome, Laevinus from the south and Curuncanius from the north. Not wanting to be caught between three armies Pyrrhus withdrew to Tarentum, where he wintered his troops. When Pyrrhus invaded Apulia (279 BC), the two armies met in the Battle of Asculum, where Pyrrhus won a costly victory thus the term Pyrrhic victory (a victory that was so costly to the victor that it was tantamount to a defeat). In 278 BC, soon after disembarking his army in Sicily, he lifted the Carthaginian Siege of Syracuse. Pyrrhus was proclaimed king of Sicily. In 277 BC, Pyrrhus captured Eryx, the strongest Carthaginian fortress in Sicily. This prompted the rest of the Carthaginian-controlled cities to defect to Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus’ army then began besieging Lilybaeum. Pyrrhus then requested manpower and money from the Sicilians in order to construct a powerful fleet. When the Sicilians became unhappy about these contributions he had to resort to compulsory contributions and force to keep them in line. These measures culminated in him proclaiming a military dictatorship of Sicily and installing military garrisons in Sicilian cities. These actions were deeply unpopular and soon Sicilian opinion became inflamed against him. Pyrrhus had so alienated the Sicilian Greeks that they were willing to make common cause with the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians took heart from this and sent another army against him. This army was promptly defeated. In spite of this victory, Sicily continued to grow increasingly hostile to Pyrrhus, who began to consider abandoning Sicily. As his ship left the island, he turned and, foreshadowing the Punic Wars, said to his companions: “What a wrestling ground we are leaving, my friends, for the Carthaginians and the Romans.” While his army was being transported by ship to mainland Italy, Pyrrhus’ navy was destroyed by the Carthaginians at the Battle of the Strait of Messina, with 98 warships sunk or disabled out of 110. When Pyrrhus returned from Sicily, he found himself vastly outnumbered against a superior Roman army under Manius Curius Dentatus. After the inconclusive Battle of Beneventum in 275 BC, Pyrrhus decided to end his campaign in Italy and return to Epirus which resulted in the loss of essentially all the gains he had made in Italy. His western campaign had taken a heavy toll on his army as well as his treasury. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, Pyrrhus went to war yet again. In 272 BC, Cleonymus, a Spartan of royal blood who was hated among fellow Spartans, asked Pyrrhus to attack Sparta and place him in power. Pyrrhus agreed to the plan, intending to win control of the Peloponnese for himself, but unexpected strong resistance thwarted his assault on Sparta. On the retreat he lost his firstborn son Ptolemy, who had been in command of the rearguard. Pyrrhus had little time to mourn, as he was immediately offered an opportunity to intervene in a civic dispute in Argos. Since Antigonus Gonatas was approaching too, he hastened to enter the city with his army by stealth, only to find the place crowded with hostile troops. During the confused Battle of Argos in the narrow city streets, Pyrrhus was trapped. While he was fighting an Argive soldier, the soldier’s old mother, who was watching from a rooftop, threw a tile which knocked him from his horse and broke part of his spine, paralyzing him. Whether he was alive or not after the blow is unknown, but his death was assured when a Macedonian soldier named Zopyrus, though frightened by the look on the face of the unconscious king, hesitantly and ineptly beheaded his motionless body. While he was a mercurial and often restless leader, and not always a wise king, he was considered one of the greatest military commanders of his time. – Wikipedia
Sextus – Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius (c. 67 – 35 BC), also known in English as Sextus Pompey, was the younger son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) by his third wife, Mucia Tertia. His elder brother was Gnaeus Pompeius. Both boys grew up in the shadow of their father, one of Rome’s greatest generals and an originally non-conservative politician who drifted to the more traditional faction when Julius Caesar became a threat. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC, thus starting a civil war, Sextus’ older brother Gnaeus followed their father in his escape to the East, as did most of the conservative senators. Sextus stayed in Rome in the care of his stepmother, Cornelia Metella. Pompey’s army lost the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC and Pompey himself had to run for his life. Cornelia and Sextus met him in the island of Lesbos and together they fled to Egypt. On the arrival, Sextus watched his father being killed by treachery on September 29 of the same year. After the murder, Cornelia returned to Rome; in the following years, Sextus joined the resistance against Caesar in the African provinces. Together with Metellus Scipio, Cato the Younger, his brother Gnaeus and other senators, they prepared to oppose Caesar and his army to the end. A Sextus Pompeius denarius, minted for his victory over Octavian’s fleet. On the obverse is the Pharos of Messina, on the reverse the monster Scylla.
Caesar won the first battle at Thapsus in 46 BC against Metellus Scipio and Cato, who committed suicide. In 45 BC, Caesar managed to defeat the Pompeius brothers in the Battle of Munda, in Hispania. Gnaeus Pompeius was executed, but young Sextus escaped once more, this time to Sicily, and thereafter raised another dissident army in Spain. Back in Rome, Julius Caesar was killed on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus. This incident did not lead to a return to normality, but provoked yet another civil war between Caesar’s political heirs and his killers. Sextus had the time and resources to develop an army, with the whole island of Sicily as his base, and (even more importantly) to establish a strong navy operated by Sicilian marines. Brutus and Cassius lost the twin battles of Philippi and committed suicide in 42 BC. In 39 BC, Sextus and the triumvirs signed for peace in the Pact of Misenum. Sextus and Octavian accused each other of violating the terms of the Pact of Misenum. Octavian was defeated in the naval battle of Messina. He now turned to his friends Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Titus Statilius Taurus, both very talented generals. In addition, the third triumvir, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, raised 14 legions in his African provinces to help defeat Pompey. Agrippa spent the winter training a navy on land and building a fleet near Lake Avernus, from scratch. Agrippa fought Sextus at Mylae in August 36 BC, and again a month later, while Lepidus and Statilius Taurus invaded Sicily. In the Battle of Naulochus, Agrippa destroyed the remainder of Sextus’ fleet. Sextus escaped to Asia Minor and, by abandoning Sicily, lost his only base of support. Sextus Pompeius was finally captured in 35 BC, and executed without trial in Miletus by Marcus Titius, whom Sextus had once spared. Sextus had married Scribonia, a distant relative. She was the daughter of Lucius Scribonius Libo, consul of 34 BC and the niece of another Scribonia, the second wife of Octavian. Sextus and Scribonia had a daughter, their only child, called Pompeia Magna. – Wikipedia
Rinier Pazzo – Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo were infamous highway men who terrorized northern and southern Tuscany, and seemingly spilt enough blood to be entirely submerged in the River of Boiling Blood. Rinier Pazzo was of the noble family of the Pazzi of Val d’Arno in Florence who was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics.
Rinier da Corneto – Rinier da Corneto and Rinier Pazzo were infamous highway men who terrorized northern and southern Tuscany, and seemingly spilt enough blood to be entirely submerged in the River of Boiling Blood. Rinier Pazzo was of the noble family of the Pazzi of Val d’Arno in Florence who was excommunicated in 1269 for robbing ecclesiastics.
Dante defines tyrants as rulers who do not observe the laws or care about common rights of man. They are not concerned with the common welfare of the people but only seek private gain. He will bring this up again in Canto XXVII.
Using examples of well known tyrants (well known to the educated in Dante’s times), helps him define tyranny to the reader. If you don’t know these names, you would not understand his definition of tyranny. His examples also include vengeance killings (Guy de Montford who killed his cousin for killing his father and brother) and the murder of others for gain (the notorious highwaymen). Remember this ring is for those who are violent against others by murder or by destroying and taking the possessions of others. They are are well punished by having to swim eternally in boiling blood. I can think of others that would join Dante’s examples since the Inferno was written!
Genesis 9:5-6 (ESV) And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
Exodus 21:12 (ESV) Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.
Matthew 5:21-24 (NLT, Jesus speaking) 21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell. 23 So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, 24 leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.
Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT, Jesus speaking) 43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Romans 12:19 (ESV) Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
1 John 3:15 (ESV) Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV) There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
James 4:1-12 (NLT) 1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.
11 Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. 12 God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor?
(The “law” here is the Law of Love through Christ. We are not supposed to set ourselves up in God’s place and be law, judge, jury and executioner.)
Excerpts of Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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