Reading notes

• Commodus §1.1 Rome

  Rome, the ancient capital of the Republic and Empire; used by Madách as an emblem of heroic greatness ruined and abandoned — a direct allegorical mirror for Habsburg-era Hungary.

• First Attempts (Juvenilia) §115 Rome

  The 'Rome' poem uses the image of Rome's heroic ruins abandoned to a foreign people as a direct allegory for Hungary under occupation; the fallen warrior-bones plowed up indifferently by foreign farmers echo across both the Mohács and Rome sections.

• The Tragedy of Man §6 Rome

  Rome, the ancient capital of the Republic and Empire; used by Madách as an emblem of heroic greatness ruined and abandoned — a direct allegorical mirror for Habsburg-era Hungary.