SPQR

[George Pond <gmcnp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony Brucia asks:

> Anyway the badge represents the "Automobile-Club Roma"  The insignia shows a shield 
>with a 6 legged (I think) cat (I think).  It also has the initials "SPQR" with a 
>Maltese cross.  Does  anyone know what the insignia signifies and what the letters >stand for?

Tony:  

SPQR was a common acronym found throughout Roman times and stood for
"Senatus Populosque Romanorum", if I recall my high school Latin
correctly.  It translates as "The Senate and the People of Rome" and
denotes the Roman Republic, which fell when Guias Julias Caesar was
proclaimed first Emperor of Rome.

The six legged cat is actually a wolf nursing a baby I think.  Fable has
it that Romulus and Remus, the purtported founders of the City of Rome,
were raised by wolves.  The wolf sign is also associated with the Roman
Republic (and AGIP Petroleum).

While Rome exported brutal but efficient government and excellent roads
throughout all of the lands surrounding the Medeterranian Sea before the
birth of Christ, it took the cities of Milan and Turin almost two
additional millenia to develop the higest and best use for those roads!

George Pond
"Quo usque tandem abutare, Catalina, patentia nostra?"

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