Fides

De la fidelidad

Hoy en día todo esto aparece como anacrónico o vale tan sólo como una mera retórica, tan grande es la prevalencia de un tipo de hombre fugaz y sin carácter, siempre listo a cambiar de bando de acuerdo a la dirección hacia la que sople el viento y movilizado tan sólo por un bajo interés. La democracia es el suelo más apto para la “cultura” de un tipo semejante. En realidad, existe una relación estrecha entre fides y personalidad.

La fidelidad es algo que no se puede ni vender ni comprar. A una ley se la obedece, a una necesidad uno se pliega, la conveniencia puede ser sopesada, pero la fides, la fidelidad, tan sólo el acto libre de una interior nobleza puede establecerla. Fides significa pues personalidad.

Julius Evola
(De Il Conciliatore, Febrero de 1972)

***The Roman Concept of fides

"FIDES" is often (and wrongly) translated 'faith', but it has nothing to do with the word as used by Christians writing in Latin about the Christian virute (St. Paul Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13). For the Romans, FIDES was an essential element in the character of a man of public affairs, and a necessary constituent element of all social and political transactions (perhaps = 'good faith'). FIDES meant 'reliablilty', a sense of trust between two parties if a relationship between them was to exist. FIDES was always reciprocal and mutual, and implied both privileges and responsibilities on both sides. In both public and private life the violation of FIDES was considered a serious matter, with both legal and religious consequences. FIDES, in fact, was one of the first of the 'virtues' to be considered an actual divinity at Rome. The Romans had a saying, "Punica fides" (the reliability of a Carthaginian) which for them represented the highest degree of treachery: the word of a Carthaginian (like Hannibal) was not to be trusted, nor could a Carthaginian be relied on to maintain his political relationships.