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Who were the Romans? How did they understand themselves as a people and 'Roman' as an identity? And what were the implications of that understanding - and perhaps more importantly the underlying reality - for Roman society and the success of the Roman Empire? This is the first part of a series looking at these…
On the first day of 1759, a Monday, Rev Dr Ignazio Saverio Mifsud – an erudite preacher who left all the sermons and panegyrics he wrote to our National Library in Valletta [see Joe Zammit Ciantar, Il-Priedki bil-Malti ta’ Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, Malta 2008] – starts his Giornale Maltese [a sort of a diary, National Library of Malta, MS 13, pp. 1 and 2] by giving details on how much money he used to give to relatives, neighbours and friends on the occasion of L-Istrina.
He writes: “Il solito tributo delle mancie, detto La Strena. .tari trenta. scudo uno. dieci .; alla serva della Sig.ra Teresa. quattro; al figlio di un cugino… tari due; alla serva della Sig.ra Rosa. tari otto; alla figliola.”. [‘The usual donation of tips, called La Strena. . tarì 30 . scudo one . 10 .; to Mrs Teresa’s servant. four; to the son of a cousin… tarì two; to Mrs Rosa’s servant . tarì eight; to the daughter of.’]