The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

favorite choice of the rich and famous all over the
world. This is the Rolls- Royce of fountain pens.
Roman holiday A public per for mance that features
extravagant acts of barbarity and debauchery.
<strong>The</strong> entertainments that took place in the arenas of
ancient Rome were notorious for their cruelty,
which included gladiatorial combats to the death
and the throwing of captives to wild animals. Such
bloodthirsty extravaganzas were prohibited by
Emperor Constantine I in a.d. 325 but were soon
revived and carried on until 405. “For I have written
about the Coliseum, and the gladiators, the
martyrs, and the lions, and yet have never once
used the phrase ‘butchered to make a Roman holiday.’
I am the only free white man of mature age,
who has accomplished this since Byron originated
the expression” (Mark Twain, <strong>The</strong> Innocents Abroad,
1869).
Rome See all roads lead to rome; fi ddle
while rome burns; romulus and remus; when
in rome, do as the romans do.
Romeo and Juliet (romeeo, jooleeet) Archetypal
pair of tragic lovers. William Shakespeare’s
tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1594) told the story of
two young lovers of Verona, whose love was
doomed from the outset by the enmity between
their warring families. <strong>The</strong> play ends with the
death of both lovers among various others, including
Romeo’s best friend Mercutio. Shakespeare
based his tale on a poem by Arthur Brooke entitled
<strong>The</strong> Tragicall History of Romeo and Juliet (1562),
which itself drew ultimately upon an earlier Italian
version by Luigi da Porto, written in 1535. Somewhat
perversely, a man who has the reputation of
being a slick womanizer is often dubbed a Romeo.
This was no Romeo and Juliet love story, but a sordid tale
of lust and betrayal. See also plague on both your
houses, a.
Romulus and Remus (romyblbs, reembs) <strong>The</strong>
legendary found ers of Rome, whose names are
still frequently invoked in references to the city.
Romulus and Remus were variously identifi ed as
the twin sons of Mars and Rhea Silvia or of Aeneas’
daughter Ilia. Because Rhea Silvia was a vestal virgin,
obliged to maintain her virginity on pain of
death, the twins seemed doomed but were saved
by the gods and suckled by a she- wolf. Romulus
killed Remus during an argument over where they
should site their city and in due course became the
fi rst king of Rome. <strong>The</strong> company the two brothers
built around their initial idea has become one of the
biggest conglomerates in the world, and they are still
honored as the Romulus and Remus upon whom this
huge empire was constructed.
Roncesvalles See roland; rounceval.
room at the inn, no See no room at the inn.
room of one’s own, a A private place or a retreat
from the world. <strong>The</strong> phrase was selected by the
British novelist Virginia Woolf for the title of a
1929 essay examining contemporary prejudices
against women. To survive the stresses of modern urban
life it is more important than ever to have a room of one’s
own in which to escape the constant pressure.
Room 101 A place in which people are brought
face to face with what they fear most as a form of
torture. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the George Orwell
novel Nineteen Eighty- Four (1949), in which Room
101 is the room in which Winston Smith is tormented
by his fear of rats. <strong>The</strong> story goes that the
author had undergone many tedious discussions in
Room 101
405