PROMISE OR ACHIEVEMENT? VERGIL AND THE FLAG OF MINAS GERAIS (1788-1963)

Abstract

The Inconfidência Mineira (Minas Conspiracy) is the only episode of the colonial past that appears on the Brazilian civic calendar as a holiday. In addition to being associated with the image of Tiradentes (Joaquim José da Silva Xavier), not by random officially resembling the image of Christ, the flag which the conspirators would have sketched has become official in 1963 in the form known nowadays and has become another symbol of the conspiracy elected as the founding moment of national emancipation. However, its motto - Libertas quæ sera tamen - needed a more accurate examination and a more precise understanding of the intentions of the conspirators, especially Alvarenga Peixoto, who chose this fragment of Vergil’s Eclogues (1.27), currently translated as follows: “Liberty, albeit late”. This article proposes another translation and therefore a new interpretation for that fragment.

Keywords
Minas Conspiracy; Vergil; flag; eclogues; symbol