Guest Blog: Aurellian Springs 13 miles

Editor's Note: I have played least in sight here lately because I'm in a very busy period at work, so I was delighted when Kamela sent me this very interesting piece of grot to add to my collection.

Hello from Halifax!

Many road signs near my town point to a location called Aurellian Springs. Each sign has the mileage. For example, “Aurellian Springs 13 miles →.”

Based on all the signs, I figured that Aurellian Springs had much to offer. So I drove over there early on a Saturday morning.

Imagine my surprise when I beheld a country crossroads with a decaying tin-roofed general store, an elementary school, and nothing else but a stop sign.

Disappointed? Not me! As I explored the area, I found beautiful, rolling, deep green pastures with many hardwood shade trees, well-fed cows good enough to show at the State Fair, and barns that looked like they could pass muster in the horse country of Maryland. I also saw well-appointed modest homes. The friendly people waved and smiled.

Aurellian Springs: evermore a Golden place in my memory.

But I have to wonder: do the residents know how their locality got its name? Nope -- or at least they did not share this information with a stranger.

Of course, the name “Aurellian” or “Aurelian” appears on some rare headstones from the 19th century. I have seen them in the Notre Dame cemetery in Montreal. Furthermore, the phrase “aurellian gape” appears in Joyce’s inscrutable Finnegans Wake. Finally, in his Meditations, Roman Emperor Aurelius embraced the beauty of old age despite the ineluctable atrophy of the mind. But what do these three pieces of GROT have in common other than possible roots for the name “Aurellian Springs?”

First, Emperor Aurelius had reason to see beauty in the wasting of his mental faculties. His wife, Faustina, plotted to kill the aging Emperor and to replace him with her son. She took many lovers, including Cassius, whom she persuaded to overthrow her husband on his death bed. Aurelius did not die, Cassius forfeited his life as the price for a failed coup, and Aurelius forgave Faustina. Obviously, Aurelius not only wrote but also lived as a Stoic.

Second, “aurellian gape” may refer to the Emperor’s metaphor for old age: the beauty of a ripe fig that gapes open. (This hypothesis works as well as anything when interpreting Joyce’s book.)

Third, people at the turn of the 19th century may have named their sons “Aurelius” (and their daughters “Aurelia”) for the Emperor). After all, this period saw neo-classical architecture, empire dresses, and Latin studies.

Thus, “Aurellian” goes back to Rome by way of an inscrutable book and empire dresses. I wonder if the residents of Aurellian Springs care. I certainly hope it: “Aurelii” means “the golden.”