It was just under 2,000 years ago that a Roman named Horace invented satire.
(True, Horace's obscure collection of poetry in dactylic hexameter doesn't exactly read like an episode of Have I Got News For You. But it counts.)
As such, it might seem surprising that the country which invented satire has so few modern day examples of the artform to its name. (Although perhaps more than might appear to outsiders - see this comment below.)
Then again just a brief glance at the peninsula's politics demonstrates two very good reasons why satire in Italy can seem so anaemic.
First, the political power of (now outgoing) Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is such that any attempt at satire, at least at his expense, can be swiftly hit by multi-million euro lawsuits and shut down - see Viva Zapatero, a 2005 documentary by Italian comic Sabina Guzzanti about the PM's successful attempt to silence her late-night TV show.
Second, Berlusconi himself is arguably so ludicrous that any satirical deconstruction of his character is pretty much redundant.
Already in the past few days Berlusconi, 75, has:
- Faced defections from his own party ahead of his 52nd confidence vote in parliament since 2008
- Denied his own resignation via Facebook after stocks rose 2.5% on rumours he was about to quit
- Had a humiliating series of financial measures imposed on his government by the IMF
- Dealt with the fallout from a punch-up in his parliament
- Delayed the release of his third album of romantic ballads out of sensitivity to the 'economic crisis'
… all while watching as the cost of government borrowing rises in Italy close to the levels at which Ireland, Greece and Portugal were forced to accept eurozone bailouts.
And that last fact that would be bad enough, but for the additional wrinkle that the eurozone can't hope to meet the colossal scale of Italy's debt, estimated to be 1.9 trillion-euros or 120% of gross domestic product, even if it had to.
(Update: And now, to make things worse, he's said he'll resign if financial austerity measures are approved.)
Sounds like a bad week.
But then Berlusconi has had a few of those.
In fact, the true magnitude of Berlusconi's ability to rise form the ashes of political self-immolation is hard to describe even with raw statistics.
In 2009 Berlusconi estimated that in the last twenty years he had made 2,500 court appearances in 106 trials, and spent more than 200m euros on legal fees fighting accusations of false accounting, tax evasion and bribery of a judge - all charges he denies, and of which he has never been definitely convicted.
His ability to fight those charges was no-doubt aided by his personal wealth, built initially through construction and then media ownership and now estimated at £5.6bn by Forbes. He now owns a media empire (Mediaset), Italy's largest publishing house (Mondadori), a newspaper (Il Giornale) and a football club (AC Milan) among dozens of other companies.
Other important Berlusconi facts include his election victories (three), his election defeats (two), his ongoing trials (four) and his divorces (two).
He's also a man as notorious for his quotes as for his actions - for instance when discussing his philandering he said: "As always, I work without interruption," he once said. "And if occasionally I happen to look a beautiful girl in the face, it's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay".
Which brings us on to the alleged sex scandals - possibly Berlusconi's most notorious vice. From his 2009 divorce, sparked when he was photographed at the birthday of an aspiring model and later on a boat with topless models, to the audio recordings released in the same year reported to have been between Berlusconi and an escort and his 2011 trial on charges that he had sex with an underage prostitute, the prime minister is never far from a bunga-bungle.
Berlusconi denies he has ever paid for sex, but admits that he "is no saint".
Even that might seem surprising for a man well into his mid-70s. Even so, from the outside at least Berlusconi's physical stamina is notorious. But perhaps the hair transplant and plastic surgery around his eyes have something to do with it, but natural charisma also surely has its part to play.
Despite the accusations, however, Berlusconi has endured. Even though he now commands less respect than ever from the eurozone leaders he has made a career out of courting and violently insulting , he is still (technically) standing.
Even heading into his 52nd confidence he remained confident - and you couldn't blame him. He survived the previous four-and-a-bit dozen of them after all.
Well, now his time is at an end. The PM is about to slow down for good - as he was ordered to by a doctor in 2006 after collapsing at a party rally. And within a few days Italy may finally be facing a post-Silvio future.
But in the inevitable shock of that moment, perhaps the Italian people should remember the words of another Roman satirist, Juvenal, who coined the phrase "nemo repente fuit turpissimus" - or "no man became wicked all at once".
For Juvenal was right - Berlusconi was made by Italy, as much as he remade it in his image. He is not a dictator, was voted into power three times, and still has the support of more Italians than any politician hit by a comparatively middling political scandal in the UK would believe.
Whoever it is that comes next will do well to resist those same pressures - economic, social and political - and lead Italy conclusively in a different direction.