Virtutes Romanae: Richard Armitage and Responsibilitas

I was talking to my Intro class yesterday about Plato’s Republic…specifically about the criteria required for one to become a Philosopher-King in Plato’s ideal state- yes, I know, it’s a veritable carnival of fun in Prof. Obscura’s classroom!  In any case, one of the criteria Plato identifies is an ideal age…40-ish, young enough to still be physically strong, and mature enough to employ reason.  The 18-20 year olds in the crowd are skeptical that the “olds” would make better kings, but I point out that, with age, comes experience which theoretically assists in the process.   One of the natural offshoots of this is the increased capacity for personal responsibility – accountability if you will.  Not only must the philosopher king be a good and just ruler, but as such, he must be able to accept responsibility for his decisions.

This is something that a lot of people, especially young people struggle with.  It is a daily parenting challenge for me…a pet peeve even.  Case in point.  Last summer, I won an iPad3…yes won – free to me – yay!!!  All was rosy for about two weeks until I asked my then 13 year old son to carry it to the car for me.  He did, and as I was coming out the door, I watched him accidentally drop it.  It landed on one corner on the concrete driveway.  The conversation went something like this:

Yeah, it looked a little something like this…

Me:  Did you just drop the iPad?

Him:  No..

Me:  I watched you do it.   Is it broken?  (I could plainly see that the display was severely cracked)

Him:  No – You should have put it in a case.  (true, but not the central point here)

Me:  Just admit that you dropped it and apologize – I know it was an accident

Him:  *insert cricket sound effect*

I wanted nothing more than for him to take responsibility for his actions – well, I wanted an unbroken iPad, but accidents do happen – however, he is incredibly stubborn about this kind of stuff to this day.  It is something that will almost certainly incite future battles between us.

This notion of personal responsibility and accountability is summed up in the Roman virtue of RESPONSIBILITAS… What?  OK, OK  – you caught me wordsmiths!  Responsibilitas is not actually a Latin word…the concepts related to responsibility really fall under the Virtutes Romanae of GRAVITAS, but I already talked about that one here, and this topic has been weighing on my mind.  Richard Armitage certainly embodies the qualities of GRAVITAS, and I’ve seen very little behavior in his public life that would suggest that he has any lingering adolescent tendency to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.  In fact, his professional reputation suggests exactly the opposite.  It is something to which we all could aspire.

Richard Armitage reacts and responds to a question with gravitas

There is no one who is infallible – we all make mistakes from time….we misspeak, we mishear, we misunderstand, we overreact.  Mistakes are a part of life, but how we choose to deal with them can define us.    Mistakes can be embarrassing, but attempts to wriggle out of them even more so, especially if we insinuate someone else’s culpability to excuse our own.  Perhaps the best, most responsible reaction is to say from the start, “Mea culpa – (Latin for  “my bad”)  I goofed, I misspoke, I misunderstood, I overreacted..boy is my face red!”   I’m challenging myself to do this as a matter of course – no matter how much toner I need to balance out my complexion.  You can hold me to it!

Richard Armitage and Batman?

Far be it from me to not jump into the Batman mania.  There has been a ton of buzz about Richard Armitage being amongst the pool of actors in consideration for the role of Batman in an upcoming Superman/Batman effort.  If he were so inclined, I’m sure Mr. Armitage could nail that part.  Batman is in his wheelhouse – a flawed, but heroic character.  It’s all speculation at this point, I suppose.  As I understand it, there is not even a script for the film as yet.  Reading the comments on some of the reports has been extremely interesting. One particularly struck me in it’s reference to Richard Armitage as possessing the gravitas to do justice to the character of Batman.  “Yes!” I thought, that is the perfect term.

Latin authors, of both prose and verse, often refer to the mos maiorum (“the customs of the ancestors”) as models of correct Roman behavior.   According to the poet Ennius:

“Moribus antiquis res stat Romana virisque.” (“The Roman state stands on ancient customs and heroes.”)

The Romans measured their Romanitas or “Roman-ness” via a series of qualities known jointly as The Roman Virtues.  Gravitas was one of these virtues.  Translated literally it means gravity or seriousness, but in the context of a personal trait, novaroma.org sums it up really nicely as:

“A sense of the importance of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness.”

I also find it interesting that secondary definitions of the term refer to heaviness or dullness – things that Richard Armitage has accused himself of on more than one occasion.   (He’s a bit hard on himself if you ask me…)

Richard Armitage reacts and responds to a question with gravitas

Gravitas is certainly a quality Richard Armitage possesses in his approach to his work.  His seriousness, responsibility and earnestness would all contribute beautifully to his characterization of Batman should he inhabit the role one day.

Incidentally, there are 14 other Roman Virtues, so we may just revisit this topic in the future 🙂