Friday, July 27, 2012

Spartan Gold: Unione Corse and more

pg 203

"He is in the pocket of the Union Corse-the Corsican mafia."
The Unione Corse is a secretive criminal organization operating primarily out of Corsica and Marseilles in France. Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, it has not attempted to gain a foothold in the United States, and thus does not have the other organization's notoriety. "Unione Corse" is the general name given by French and American authorities to the major Corsican gangs who organized the French Connection, the heroin trade between France and the U.S. from the 1950s to the early 1970s.
"Fortune favors the bold."
Fortune favors the bold, Fortune favors the brave, Fortune helps the brave, and Fortune favors the strong are common translations of the Latin proverb "Fortes fortuna adiuvat", "Fortuna audaces iuvat" and "Fortes fortuna juvat".

The phrase means that Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those who take risks or action. Its earliest recorded use is by the second century BC playwright Terence, in his play "Phormio" (fortes fortuna adiuuat) and by Ennius in Ann. 257: (fortibus est fortuna uiris data)[1] A similar phrase, (audaces Fortuna iuvat) is shouted by Turnus in Virgil's Aeneid in book X just before he is utterly destroyed by Aeneas' Trojans.
"He who dares, wins."
Who Dares, Wins, Latin: "Qui audet adipiscitur" (French: Qui ose gagne; German: Wer wagt, gewinnt; Polish: Kto ryzykuje, wygrywa; Russian: Победа храбрым достается) is a motto that originated with the British Special Air Service.
It is normally credited to the founder of the SAS, David Stirling. The motto has been used by nine elite special forces units around the world that in some way have historical ties to the British SAS:
"No wolves on Elba. Wild dogs. And snakes. Many snakes."
There's only one venomous snake on Elba:
Vipera aspis – Asp viper. south-western Europe: northeastern Spain, Andorra, most of France- inckuding in the Ile de Re and Oleron islands -, Monaco, Italy, the islands of Elba, Montecristo and Sicily, San Marino, Switzerland; northwestern,  Slovenia and extreme southwestern Germany

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