Patriae Moderatur Amore [1]It has been some time since I last went horseback riding, so when the opportunity arose, it stirred a flood of memories. As far back as I can remember, if there was a horse within sight, my father would lift me into the saddle, no matter where we were. His love of horses was steadfast, equestrian in his very nature. His first real job was as a stable boy at the Kensington Stables near Prospect Park in Brooklyn.
He would often recall how he lingered too long at the stables before finally rushing home for dinner, leaving no time to bathe. My grandfather ran his table with military punctuality. Seated to his right, still reeking of horses, he barely had time to settle before my grandfather would say, “You stink,” and send him to his room without supper. An aunt would quietly bring him food later.
Proud of his Neapolitan ancestry, he loved that Napoli’s ancient emblem was a rampant black stallion on a golden field—Il Corsiero del Sole, the “Sun Steed.” The horse, long associated with the city, symbolized vitality and sovereign strength. Tracing its origins to antiquity, a colossal bronze horse once stood in Naples, traditionally associated with the Temple of Neptune—symbolizing the unpredictability of the sea and protection from earthquakes.
The horse also appeared on early Neapolitan coinage and civic imagery and was later connected—symbolically rather than heraldically—to the Aragonese rulers of Naples in the fifteenth century. Over time, the image evolved, but the figure of the horse endured as a sign of independence and power. In my father, it was no symbol at all but simply who he was.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, February 18th, Feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous
Notes:
[1] Patriae moderatur amore appears beneath Filippo Palizzi’s 1877 depiction of an unbridled horse in the fields beneath Vesuvius, evoking Il Corsiero del Sole. The phrase may be translated as “He is guided by love of the fatherland.”
