Philodemus on the Good King According to Homer

TLDR

In 1844 Italy was in turmoil, following the failed Moto di Savigno uprising in Romagna and Calabria. The massacres of Cosenza and the execution of the Bandiera brothers in June 1844 sparked widespread liberal outrage across Europe.

Abstract

In 1844 Italy was in travail; even the subjects of Ferdinand II Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies, knew it. The previous year had seen the failure of the ‘Moto di Savigno’, an attempt at a combined rising in Romagna and Calabria. In March occurred the massacres of Cosenza; on 12th June the Bandiera brothers set sail for the kingdom, only to be arrested on arrival and executed. The martyrdom inflamed liberals throughout Europe. It was appropriate that the scholars of the Reale Officina de' Papiri Ercolanesi , engaged in the task of publishing the papyri found in 1752 in the Villa dei Pisoni at Herculaneum, should have reached a work of Philodemus called (so the editor Cirillo believed) περὶ τοῦ καθ΄ "Ομηρον ἀγαθοῦ λαῷ: ‘Hinc fit, Rex Augustissime, ut tomus hic quasi suo iure se Tibi tradat, cui divinitus fuit mandata Tuorum populorum cura, atque incolumitas (quae adeo acriter sancteque tueris) hoc praecipue tempore, quo vana quaedam, falsa, et perniciosissima philosophandi ratio caecas hominum mentes, animosque invasit.’