We're down in the crowded pit of the schismatics, the ninth of the evil pouches (or "malebolge") that make up the giant eighth circle of fraud in Dante's INFERNO.

We've already seen two figures, heard about at least four others, and are about to meet yet another guy. Except he can't speak. His tongue's been cut out. Because he fomented the Roman civil war--and helps us see Dante the poet's ambivalence as an idealist.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore this short passage from INFERNO about Curio, the one who (maybe?) goaded Julius to cross the Rubicon and destroy the Republic to found the Roman Empire.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[02:00] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXVIII, lines 91 - 102. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this passage, just scroll down this page.

[03:24] Who is this Curio?

[09:20] Dante fulfills his promises--in the most meta-literary way!

[11:53] Dante the pilgrim's lines are fractured, the way the other schismatics' lines are fractured. Is that intentional?

[15:57] My long-standing interpretive error from this passage.

[19:04] A important warning about the horizons of interpretation.

[22:03] Dante has used the line about delay from Lucan's PHARSALIA before.

[24:16] From fearless to forlorn: the narrative journey of most of the damned.

[25:57] Three implications from this passage. 1) Is the distinction between schismatics and scandalmongers easy or complex?

[28:21] 2) These figures seem to still delight in tribalism, even in hell.

[32:04] 3) Dante is an idealist---which inevitably leads to ambivalence--which inevitably leads to rage.

And here is my English translation of Inferno, Canto XXVIII, Lines 91 – 102

And I to him, “Indicate the guy and fill me in,

If you want me to take that news back up top.

Who’s the one who found the sight of that city so bitter?”

At that, he laid his hands on the jaw

Of one of his fellow travelers to wedge open his mouth,

Saying, “Here’s the guy and he can’t speak.

“This one, while in exile, drowned the doubts

Of Caesar, promising him that if a guy is

Ready, he always harms himself with further delays.”

Oh, how forlorn he seemed to me,

With his tongue cut out way down in his throat,

This Curio, who used to speak so fearlessly.