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Gravitas, Severitas, Veritas, Virtus

2006; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 59; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1227/00006123-200608000-00001

1524-4040

NULL AUTHOR_ID,

Classical Philosophy and Thought

Figure: Ulysses (Odysseus) and the Sirens (detail, oil on canvas, 1891) by Waterhouse (courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne).More than two thousand years ago the Romans established a set of virtues, qualities of life to which every citizen should aspire. These comprised the heart of the "Via Romana"—the Roman Way and were thought to provide the Roman Republic with the moral strength to be successful. Such personal qualities as dignitas, firmitas, honestas, humanitas, industria, pietas and prudentia were considered the building blocks for the quality of person that would create the substance and integrity of the Republic. For those in leadership, certain of the virtues were considered to be essential rods for measure. These included gravitas, (the sense of the importance of the task, responsibility and earnestness), severitas (sternness—gravity and self-control), veritas (truthfulness—honesty in dealing with others) and virtus (courage—particularly in matters of society and governing) (3). These personal characteristics and those considered essential for leadership were not peculiar to the Romans. Although, particularly emphasized and embraced in the early emerging Roman culture, they were based principally on Greek philosophy, character, and legend as was apparent in the depictions of the hero form in existent legends and literature-such as the Odyssey (5). The English word "odyssey" may be defined as a series of adventurous journeys usually characterized by multiple changes of fortune. The Greek "odusseia" means the story of Odysseus, hero of the Trojan war who did indeed experience a decade-long adventurous journey with multiple challenges only to return to his home on the island of Ithaca to find the situation more dangerous than his trials at Troy or journey over uncharted seas (4). His story and essentially his character is conveyed in an epic poem consisting of 12,109 lines of hexameter verse composed probably late in the eighth century BC or in the early seventh century by a poet known in later times as Homer. Book one of the epic begins (2): "Sing me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy. Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home." Features of Odysseus as transmitted in this work conveyed a meld of the utterly human and heroic-weak and strong with profound qualities of gravitas, severitas, veritas, and virtus that created a heroic code of individual within a quite ordinary human form. Within the stream of history, neurosurgery, and medicine in general, has entered stormy waters and is undergoing a multiplicity of unusual and unprecedented challenges. These issues are more than just scientific, professional, or economic. They additionally relate to what Hegel termed "Zeitgeist" or the intellectual and cultural climate of the time. These multi-factorial situations do more than ever require a reexamination of leadership issues and qualities of person as these problems are being faced. In this issue, the Program for the Annual Meeting of The Congress of Neurological Surgeons is presented in preliminary form (1). Its major theme "transcendent leadership" would seem to be not only timely, but also critical for our future as a specialty. Old virtues deemed important by those who established our roots as a civilization require examination and reemphasis. Michael L.J. Apuzzo, M.D. Los Angeles, CA