Truth for Gulio Regeni

31/03/16

On the facades of many public and private buildings in north-eastern Italy, but also in other parts of the Peninsula, the black writing on a yellow background stands out: “TRUTH FOR GIULIO REGENI”, the young graduate student, originally from Friuli Venezia Giulia, who died in mysterious circumstances in Egypt the 31 January of the 2016 and found dead body after 5 days on the edge of a peripheral street of Cairo.

Truth for Giulio Regeni Has it become the mantra necessary to explain the bilateral relations between Italy and Egypt, despite the pain of the family and the tragedy of death?

Thus, while the prosecutors of Rome and Cairo investigate, in the most disparate ways and sometimes with paradoxical effects, the media circus (who knows if this formula can still be used in a journalistic piece ?!) wallows on rumors and fake scoops, moreover made even more paying from the point of view of the gossip as alternating with embarrassing and embarrassing statements by Egyptian investigators and the usual inadequate Italian diplomacy (Caso Marò docet).

However, this intricate situation leads to some observations, or rather to some reflections on the work that the Friulian student was conducting in the land of the pyramids.
He seems to have taken care of a field research concerning the denial of the rights of itinerant workers, all for the elaboration of a thesis that would allow him to obtain a research doctorate at the prestigious University of Cambridge; a bookworm job to a superficial examination of the facts, stuff for nerds, nothing to do with the secret services.

NO! Absolutely not! Citing spies would be conspiracy theorists, the thesis involving intelligence was defined even by beggars ignorant, however, the investigators and the same family firmly deny it, in other words tense with jackals and speculators.

Wait a moment, "speculators"? But what does this Italian term look like?
Right!
To the Latin noun Speculatores, a military figure with administrative duties, born in the Republican age VI-I century BC with the name of frumentarii and evolved until the end of the Empire.

A thousand years of a role in the res militaris, within a world founded on the activity of the exercise, we must swear, it will have determined a significant influence in culture and in the way of thinking, but it will have been such as to reach up to we? And then in all this, what hits the poor Dr. Regeni?
Maybe all or maybe nothing at all!

- Speculatores at the origin they were figures superimposed on those of the frumentarii, they dealt with the procurement of grains for the legion they belonged to, keeping the accounts of what was being forfeited and, in short, redistributing ante-litteram scouts, however, over time, the expansion of trade, the flow of cereals from countries like Macedonia and Egypt, what a coincidence! He made sure that these "mythical accountants" began to collect not only the elements necessary to account for the foodstuffs of the legion, but also the outlets, the complaints and any other communication that came from the merchants, people who certainly did not hesitate to tell them things.
This condition, this capacity, certainly could not escape the highly attentive senatorial ruling class which began to exploit the information obtained from the frumentarii by turning them into speculators, in this way it would have been easier to foresee the moves of allies, partners and enemies. 
Who, above all, understood the new role of the Speculatores it was Julius Caesar, the then Roman proconsul in fact he will use them as avant-gardes of his legions, especially in Gallic territory, such avant-gardes used to exploit the trade routes between Mediterranean and central Europe, areas already widely beaten by Phoenicians and Achaeans from the age of bronze. 
With the rise of Octavian and the advent of the principality, these diligent quartermasters re-entered the camp of the praetorian units, that is, the guards of the imperial domus, but it will be with Adriano that they will even constitute the personal guard of the prince himself, assuming a role of such importance to even influence the appointment of the emperors.

There is nothing left to do but return to Giulio Regeni, probably one speculator of our times, almost certainly unaware of the double significance that their work would have, certainly involved in an upward game between intelligence and security forces of different countries with divergent interests.

The question remains whether the same innocence attributable to Regeni can be assumed for those who considered it correct and useful for the doctoral student to work in the environment of clandestine unionism in an autocratic state like Egypt.

There is also the doubt that the work of the Italian student was necessary for a university world, the Anglo-Saxon world, which has always contributed significantly to scientific research, has been and is a source of valuable information for the network of security services, these always looking for reliable and scientifically rigorous knowledge.

Truth for Giulio Regeni, an unaware speculator of the XNUMXst century, truth for Giulio Regeni, a boy too prepared and too precious a resource to be justified in having sent him to the "front line" without adequate preparation and training aimed at self-protection.

Truth for Giulio Reggeni, so that everyone can say what they know, in Cairo as well as in London and Rome. 
Truth for Giulio Regeni!

Signature letter: L'homme qui goes

(photo: ©Maurizio Bonanni)