Qualis et unde genus, qui sint mihi, Tulle, Penates,
quaeris pro nostra semper amicitia.
si Perusina tibi patriae sunt nota sepulcra,
Italiae duris funera temporibus,
cum Romana suos egit discordia cives— 5
sic mihi praecipue, pulvis Etrusca, dolor,
tu proiecta mei perpessa es membra propinqui,
tu nullo miseri contegis ossa solo—
proxima suppositos contingens Umbria campos
me genuit terris fertilis uberibus.
What kind of gods and of what race are the kind that belong to me, Tullius,
you ask on account of our never-ending friendship.
If to you are known thee Perusian graves of our fathers,
the funerals of Italy in harsh times,
When Roman discord drove our cities--
thus to me sorrow especially, Etruscan dust,
you endured to the full the exposed limbs of my relative,
you cover up the bones of the miserable man with no soil--
Nearby Umbria, bordering on the subsitute plain
gave birth to me from her rich, fertile earth.
Roma was a very cosmopolitan city, and people came from all over - just like any international capital. Until Constantinople, Roma WAS the place to go to. That meant there were always lots of people from different parts of the world, and this would be a very legitimate question. One of the ways that Roma is so much like America for me is the melting pot it became, like many other cities.
I don't know what is going on in this poem. Halfway through answering his friend's question, the poet veers off into some bitterness against Etrusca. Maybe Etrusca beat them at football.
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