#serving Pompey

[brother-emperors]

Genuinely curious how you feel about Marcus Antonius the fun disaster?

he's like, alright

[ghoul-haunted]

wh

what kind of summary

uh

While Catullus and Clodia made love in the shadows, the whole of Italy was quaking as Caesar, Pompey and Crassus forged a doomed alliance for power.

yeah!!! sure I'll get a lot of mileage out of that!

[whencyclopedia]

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman orator, statesman, and writer. He was born on 6 January 106 BCE at either Arpinum or Sora, 70 miles south-east of Rome, in the Volscian mountains. His father was an affluent eques, and the family was distantly related to Gaius Marius. He is not to be confused with his son (of the same name) or Quintus Tullius Cicero (his younger brother). Cicero died on 7 December 43 BCE, trying to escape Rome by sea.

Early Life & Political Career

Cicero was sent to Rome to study law under the Scaevolas, who were the equivalent Ciceros of their day, and he also studied philosophy under Philo, who had been head of the Academy at Athens and also the stoic Diodotus. However, Cicero's early life was not one that was sheltered behind books and learning, and at the age of 17, he served in the Social War under Pompey the Great's father. It was during this period of political upheaval in Rome, the 80s BCE, that Cicero finished his formal education.

However, that is not to say that Cicero stopped his learnings. In 79 BCE he left Rome for two years abroad, with the aim of improving his health and studying further. In Athens, he was taught by masterful Greek rhetoricians and philosophers, and it was in Athens that he met another Roman student, Titus Pomponius Atticus. Atticus went on to be Cicero's lifelong friend and correspondent. Whilst in Rhodes Cicero went to the famous Posidonius. It was during this time that Cicero married his first wife, Terentia, and after he had returned to Rome in 77 BCE, he was voted quaestor at the minimum age of 30. Things were seemingly progressing quickly, but after having spent his quaestorship at Lilybaeum, he never gladly left Rome again. As such his refusal of provincial governorships led to Cicero concentrating on legal work, through which he prospered both monetarily and politically. A good example of this is the In Verrem, this speech has a message of interest that is relevant to current issues of cultural heritage and war. In 69 BCE Cicero was aedile, and in 66 BCE Cicero became praetor, again, at the minimum age, which was 40.

Between 66 and 63 BCE Cicero's political views became more conservative, especially in contrast to the social reforms being proposed by Julius Caesar, Gaius Antonius, and Catiline. Cicero's success is born by the fact that he received the consulship of 63-62 BCE, once again, at the minimum age (42), and that he was consul prior, the consul who had won by the most votes, and further to this, he was also a novus homo. It was during this time that Cicero successfully exposed the Catilinian revolution, and under the power of the Senatus Consultum Ultimum put to death the revolutionaries who had survived up until that point. This led to Marcus Cato calling Cicero pater patriae, 'father of his country'.

Continue reading...

[uglierdaikon]

happy Ides of March to all who celebrate

I'm taking this time to share with all of you the murder mystery-esque dinner party I am planning.

(For background, I studied Latin for 5 years, ancient Greek for one, and nearly came out of college with a classics minor on accident, so I am A Fucking Nerd about this stuff)

So anyways. Secret Caesar. Everyone in attendance is assigned the role of an ancient Roman. No background knowledge of Roman history is needed because I will be providing them with what little info is necessary for them to get by in the game. Each person is either an ally of Caesar, a conspirator, or Caesar himself (in disguise). No one except me (well, and Caesar) knows who Caesar is. The conspirators must discover Caesar and "kill" him before dessert is served to win, and the allies must shield him from discovery to win (hard, because they also don't know who he is). I am there as the Ghost of Pompey the Great to provide assistance as needed and also to be entertained. I have never been so excited for anything in my life. I only wish I had thought of this idea early enough to be able to host it today

[hearmeoutworthypoll]

The little ceasers mascot. Asking for my brother

If only we knew his name…

Roman general. Formed the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus. Led the Roman armies to victory in the Gallic Wars, extending Roman territory. This achievement contributed to his rise in power and defiance of the Roman Senate’s orders to step down from his position, leading to a civil war. He won and established his dictatorship. On the 15th of 44 BC, he was assassinated by a group of senators, including Cassius, who were fearful of his dominion.

Fucked up the calendar. Serves cheap shitty pizza that I have to reheat in my toaster oven as soon as I bring it home to fully cook it, but hey there’s no wait time

Reminder, the premise is “would a normie think it’s weird to find them attractive?” (Would they have to “hear me out?”)

[theantonian]

Was Mark Antony Sacrificed for Julius Caesar’s Glory?

I deeply believe that Mark Antony did not do anything without Caesar's knowledge when he was left in charge of Rome. What is most likely is that Antony did everything by Caesar’s direct orders. You cannot slaughter so many people and still remain popular and to continue represent yourself as a popularist. So, Caesar needed someone to sacrifice himself. Who could that be? Of course, Mark Antony, who else? His loyalty to Caesar was legendary, do anyone really believe that he would do anything without “advising” with the great Caesar? Caesar played the game and he won the game. Antony was not a candidate for the heir, not before not ever. Did Antony know his place in Caesar's general agenda?

Antony bought Pompey’s house, which was up for sale. But he did not have the money to pay for it. Caesar and Antony fought over the payment. According to Plutarch, Antony himself makes out that the reason why he did not take part in Caesar's African campaign was that he felt aggrieved at not having been rewarded in any way for his earlier successes. After serving him so faithfully, when Caesar returned to Rome, he punished Antony by removing him from all offices and rewarding his enemy Dolabella, who was the source of causing violent riots.

At any rate, Caesar soon realized that he would not get another man as loyal as Antony so after his return from North Africa, he singled out Antony for special honours and chose him as his colleague in consulship.

What exactly had the Dictator promised Antony in exchange for the city’s plebs suddenly supporting him as potential King of Rome at the Lupercalia festival?

Antony’s loyalty was the reason the conspirators wanted to assassinate him alongside Caesar. However, he survived the assassination and was the one who actually saved Octavian’s head by bearing the blunt of the anti-Caesareans, his master performance after Caesar's death in front of people of Rome. He was the one forced Brutus and Cassius to leave Rome. When Caesar’s so called son Octavian pretended to be sick and hid in the marshes of Philippi to avoid capture, it was Antony who defeated his murderers and avenged him.

Octavian was perhaps the first of politicians we still in power today. His mouth full of promises and the knife hidden behind his back.

Antony was Caesar’s servant and soldier, too dirty and too old for being the heir. Octavian was Caesar’s closest male relation, a rich patrician and thus a perfect choice according to Caesar.

Antony was a better man, but he was not ambitious, cold-blooded and cruel enough. He was a soldier above all, after 25 years in blood and sex it was not easy to play the saint. The old Rome died with him and path to the “emperor's throne” was open.

[monsterkong]

The Legacy of Julius Caesar - Hero or Tyrant?

Julius Caesar is one of history’s most polarizing figures—a man whose actions forever altered the course of the Roman Empire. But was he a hero who championed the cause of the common people, or a tyrant who destroyed the Republic? The truth, as with many historical figures, lies somewhere in between. 🌟

The Early Years: A Man of the People

Caesar was born into a patrician family, but his early life was marked by financial struggles. Unlike many of his peers, who inherited vast wealth, Caesar had to borrow money to fund his political career. Despite these challenges, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a powerful advocate for the Roman people. His populist policies, such as land redistribution and tax relief, earned him the support of the masses but made him enemies among the Roman elite. 💰

Caesar’s rise to power was bolstered by his military success, particularly his conquest of Gaul. His campaigns not only expanded Rome’s territories but also filled its coffers with gold and slaves. However, these victories came at a cost—Caesar’s brutal tactics led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, earning him a reputation as a ruthless military commander.

Crossing the Rubicon: The Point of No Return

By 49 BC, Caesar’s enemies in Rome were determined to bring him down. Led by Pompey the Great and Cato the Younger, they accused Caesar of crimes committed during his time as consul and in Gaul. Caesar knew that if he returned to Rome without his army, he would be arrested and possibly executed. Faced with this dilemma, he made a fateful decision: he would march on Rome with his army, crossing the Rubicon River—a point of no return. 🌉

This act of insurrection marked the beginning of the Roman Civil War. Caesar’s enemies, realizing they had underestimated him, fled Rome, leaving the city in chaos. Over the next few years, Caesar hunted down his enemies one by one, eventually emerging as the undisputed ruler of Rome. In 44 BC, he was declared dictator for life—a title that many saw as a threat to the Republic.

The Reforms and the Assassination

During his brief time as dictator, Caesar implemented a series of reforms that had a lasting impact on Rome. He reformed the calendar, creating the Julian calendar that we still use today, and introduced laws that improved the lives of the common people. But his efforts to centralize power and bypass the Senate alienated many in the Roman political class. 😡

On the Ides of March, 44 BC, a group of senators, including his former ally Brutus, conspired to assassinate him. Caesar was stabbed to death in the Senate, his murder seen as an attempt to save the Republic from tyranny. But instead of restoring the Republic, Caesar’s assassination plunged Rome into another round of civil wars, leading to the rise of his adopted heir, Octavian, who would become Rome’s first emperor, Augustus.

The Legacy of Julius Caesar

So, was Julius Caesar a hero or a tyrant? The answer depends on whom you ask. To the Roman elite, he was a tyrant who destroyed the Republic. But to the common people, he was a hero who stood up to the corrupt ruling class and fought for their rights. 📜

Caesar’s legacy is complex. On one hand, he implemented reforms that benefited the masses and laid the foundation for the Roman Empire. On the other hand, his actions contributed to the collapse of the Republic and the rise of autocratic rule. His life and death serve as a reminder of the dangers of concentrated power and the fragility of political systems.

In the end, Julius Caesar remains one of history’s most fascinating figures—a man whose ambition and charisma shaped the course of Western civilization. Whether you see him as a hero or a tyrant, there’s no denying the impact he had on the world. 🌍

[djemsostylist]

Rome, Part 2a: A History Desecrated

Okay, so the title is a little dramatic, but honestly, not that inaccurate. Rome is accurate the way Kingdome of Heaven is accurate--the major events happen, though not in the same way or for the same reasons or even always with the same people as they did historically.

Rome assumes, to it's detriment, that the reader has read about the Roman Empire, and knows what the hell is going on. It also assumes that building any sort of relationship between any of the characters--all of whom had, rather famously, deep, abiding connections that stretched back 30+ years before the events of Rome, is utterly unnecessary. These people had large, extended families, multiple children, relationships with each other and with other, smaller players, who were nevertheless important.

We'll start with the characters I think, to keep things simple. The show focuses on the historical characters of Caesar, Marc Antony, Pompey, Cicero, Brutus, Cato, Cassius (a more minor character), as well as Servilia, Atia, Octavian, and Octavia.

The characters, by and large, bear little to no resemblance to their historical counterparts. Though of course there is always room for interpretation (and bearing in mind that I am hardly an expert in the field), the characters feel less like actual people who once lived and more like clichés. Caesar here is mostly exceedingly British--stiff upper lip, inscrutable, devoid of the charisma and charm that made him so successful. The Caesar of the HBO is not a man who could shame an army into leaving off a rebellion merely by giving them what they wanted. In fact, this Caesar is so unremarkable, that I don't even really have much more to say about him. He exists. He is accompanied mostly by Mark Antony, who here, save Pompey, is probably the closest to his historical counterpart, save for being significantly stupider. This Antony gets no real moments to shine, as most of his savvy moves are preempted by bullying from Atia (who here plays his mistress--his first wife and children do not exist). They even take away his speech at Caesar's funeral--he is entirely portrayed as oafish, boorish, and horny.

Pompey is probably the most accurate, although it's honestly not hard to portray a sad old man at the end of his story, spurred on mostly by the Senate, which is pretty much how he is portrayed here. Cicero is played as a mostly sputtering sad sack (who, like Antony, has no family), and he borders on whiny and weenyish in a way that feels both cliched and grating. Brutus is fine, I suppose, if uninspiring--he exists mostly to be used, much like Antony--his only real convictions occur when someone makes his tummy hurt. Which, while perhaps not wholly inaccurate, just reads like he is a petulant child, driven by the whims of others. The other two anti-caesarians here are Cassius, who is much like Brutus--fine, if uninspiring, and Cato, who here is Cato the Elder, who plays the same character the actor played in the movie Hot Fuzz, so I feel like that says everything really.

If the men are mostly boring clichés with a single, overexaggerated trait, the women are SO. MUCH. WORSE. Atia, here a main character is vain, selfish, cruel, manipulative and self-serving. While the historical Atia is mostly a background player, here, Atia is front and center as she seems to be multiple historical ladies rolled into one (bc Rome seems allergic to having both large families and multiple female characters of the same generation). Servilia, a major secondary character in the show, is vain, selfish, cruel, manipulative, and self-serving. (Are we sensing a theme?) Caesar's third wife exists in approximately 3.5 scenes, but in the moments we see her she is vain, selfish, cruel, manipulative, and, you guessed it, self-serving. Octavia then, is a breath of fresh air! In her role she is portrayed as shallow, drippy, whiny, spineless, and useless, which is a honestly a refreshing change. This Octavia is incredibly stupid, easily manipulated (she has an affair with Servilia who convinces her to sleep with Octavian to pry info out of him, I'm not making this up), and prone to fits of crying and teenagerish whining. Cleopatra then, almost doesn't bear mentioning, but the drugged out, baby voiced, sex pest version somehow makes the other women almost seem to be treated respectfully by comparison. The women of this show, far from caring anything about the republic, society, or the men they should love and support, instead are absorbed in a constant series of catfights and backstabbing, and the plots resemble nothing so much as a Real Housewives of Rome show. The women who are treated the best are the two lowerclass women, the wives of our "heroes", both of whom are only married to their husbands through fear and coercion, and who live in fear of violence and the threat of death, which somehow feels grosser to me than if they were given the same treatment as the other women.

Octavian and his merry band are headscratchers--we spend the entirety of the first season with Octavian, whose only real friend is Titus Pullo (a man hired by his mother) and perhaps the sister he inexplicably sleeps with, only for the second season to start and the narrative to helpfully inform us that he actually has TWO super close friends who we have never heard of before, and oh here they are. The question of when he had time to make and meet these friends is bizarre, but both Agrippa and Maecenas here suffer from the same cliché disease the rest of the men suffer from, which leaves Agrippa some sort of overly saccharine cinnamon roll and Maecenas a bored trust fund baby with slightly strange inclinations. Octavian, after spending three months becoming an entirely different person, remains "smart" in the way writers think smart people work, meaning he knows things he shouldn't, is kind of a freak, and never smiles.

But perhaps the most egregious bit about the historical characters of Rome is the fact that none of them have any sort of relationship at all to each other, let alone their families. The only married couple with children we see on the show is Pompey and his post-Julia wife--literally NO ONE else is married or has kids. At all. Cicero dies alone with only his slave, Servilia dies alone with only her slave, Brutus and Cassius die alone with only their slaves, Atia doesn't die and I guess she does have children, but neither of her children have children (incredibly strange considering Octavia was mother to like, 10 children, biologically, foster, step--you name it), and Antony dies with only two children (his twins with Cleopatra, as here he does not have any children prior, since he was never married to his first wife and Octavia's ONLY CHILD (a girl, named Antonia) is actually Agrippa's.) Half of the Julio-Claudian dynasty just doesn't exist in this Rome.

And neither do any prior relationships. Caesar and Brutus have like, exactly two scenes together, and Caesar and Cicero's scenes are mostly Caesar being a dick and Cicero blubbering. There is no indication that any of these people were friends, had worked together, had love, respect or ANYTHING. The Civil War has basically no feeling to it, because why should it? These people mean nothing to each other, so who cares who lives or who dies?

While I'm generally annoyed at modern interpretations of historical characters, here it feels almost as if the writers had some personal vendetta against them, particularly the women. The way in which the characters are written feels pointed, although I'm hard pressed to figure out what exactly they want us to see. But Rome feels smaller, somehow, and less grand, and more like a story we've seen before, a thousand times, and less the start of one of the most famous empires the world has ever known.

[zerogate]

This is a book about music, but a special kind of music we’ll call transcendental. In what sense I use this term will get clearer as we proceed. Two notable experiences led me to write about the extraordinary Indian musician, Nada Brahmananda, whom I first met in 1976. One was an apparent precognitive dream about Nada before I ever heard of him. The other took place five years before I met the Swami, perhaps the strangest experience I’ve ever had that centered around a piece of music I’d call transcendental. So I should begin with an account of this experience, written down soon after it happened:

I live on the top floor of 14 Bedford Street in the West Village of New York City with my partner, Jane. We are listening to a jazz composition by John Coltrane,  The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. It is about 11:30 p.m. Jane is sprawled out on the sofa. I step to the window and gaze vacantly into the clear evening sky. I’m in a mild reverie from Coltrane’s hypnotic beat, softly thumping my foot, swaying to the rhythms of the music.Suddenly, a cluster of dazzling white lights appears out of nowhere. The lights are larger and more brilliant than any stars. They are attached to nothing I can see. They perform zigzag aerial acrobatics, in tune, it seems, with Coltrane’s music. Their appearance in the sky is so sudden and so silent, I just keep staring, somewhat surprised, listening to the music, watching the dance of lights. After about twenty seconds I realize that what I’m seeing is very strange indeed, and it starts to sink in. Something outside my window a few hundred or so feet in the sky seems to be communing with me and the music of John Coltrane. My attention fixed on the dancing lying light-cluster, I yell to Jane to come to the window. She gives a start, and joins me. Apparently I’m not just “seeing” things. Jane puts on her glasses and raises the window. It’s no reflection. Something is really out there, brighter, more dazzling, than any star. The light-entity suddenly stops its aerial capers and slowly glides downward, in a straight line, toward the dome of Our Lady of Pompei, the oldest church in Greenwich Village—built more than a century ago to serve migrants and refugees, located to the right at the corner of Carmine and Bleecker Streets. The lights hover there, pulsing above the dome of the church. An unusual sensation comes over me; it feels like I’m flying far out in space, surrounded by stars. Among the stars, I see the dome of Our Lady of Pompei and the lights still pulsing. Then I realize I am back in my room. The church is just blocks away! But now something else. Over the lights I see—but this more inwardly than outwardly—two large heads and massive shoulders. The figures I see look excited! They’re watching us! I recall one of the heads. It was human. I get an impression of curiosity, a kind of playful agitation, and a strong feeling that I—and Jane, who was half- dressed—are the objects of voyeuristic curiosity. Suddenly, the impression of the two heads fades. My attention is again riveted on the church dome. The light entity, above the cross, still pulsing, suddenly shoots back to where we first saw it, a few hundred feet above our rooftop. Again it makes zany and impossible aerial maneuvers. Then, without warning, it stops and hop-flies across the skyline, going uptown. We observe its trajectory, scramble to the other window, and watch it take one last curving leap over the top of the Empire State Building where it  vanishes. Jane and I were electrified after this highly strange encounter with what nowadays is called a UAP, an unidentified aerial phenomenon. Our apartment was on the top floor and we both had the impulse to walk a flight up and step onto the roof, which we promptly did. There we met with an equally astonished person, a young drummer who lived in the same apartment building, and whom I had recently turned on to the music of John Coltrane. His name was Louie and he said, “Did you see that?” So we had a third witness to confirm that what we saw was “real.” Louie noted the silence of our visitor and saw the lights in the form of a pyramid. Neither Jane nor I had had any impression of a pyramid.

-- Michael Grosso, Yoga of Sound: the Life and Teachings of the Celestial Songman, Swami Nada Brahmananda

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Grèce : Les maisons anti-pirates de l’île d’Ikaria.

Les pirates, aussi vieux que la marine, ont été un terrible fléau en Méditerranée depuis l’Antiquité, puisque le grand Pompée fut chargé de mener une expédition pour les exterminer. Ils ont particulièrement sévi dans les nombreuse îles grecques qui leur servaient de refuge. Ikaria a été leur victime à plusieurs époques, l’îlot voisin de Phourni constituant une base de raids idéale. Les habitants cessaient alors de vivre sur les côtes et se réfugiaient dans les montagnes où la géologie les protégeait, on trouve souvent de grands blocs de pierre plus ou moins plats formant un toit naturel qu’il suffisait de fermer par un ou deux murs. Visibles seulement de tout près, ils ont permis aux Ikariotes de disparaître littéralement pendant tout le XVIIe siècle, au point que l’île semblait inhabitée. Pour éviter d’attirer l’attention, les maisons n’avaient généralement qu’un seul niveau, plus bas que le rocher ou la falaise qui la camouflait et elles n’avaient pas de cheminée, pour éviter les colonnes de fumée. Les habitants interagissaient principalement la nuit et évitaient d’utiliser le feu ou toute source de lumière, et ils ne gardaient même pas de chiens, de peur que leurs aboiements n’attirent des invités indésirables. Quand par hasard des pirates parvenaient jusqu’à ces refuges, les habitants, prévenus par un système de guetteurs, avaient disparu. Les brigands ne trouvaient chez ces gens très pauvres, que quelques hardes ou objets sans valeur et en étaient pour leurs frais. Fait intéressant, malgré les difficultés endurées par les habitants au cours des siècles, Ikaria est connue comme la terre de la longévité en Grèce, où une personne sur trois finit par vivre jusqu’à 90 ans et beaucoup deviennent centenaires. Greece: The anti-pirate houses on the island of Ikaria. Pirates, who are as old as the sea, have been a terrible scourge in the Mediterranean since Antiquity, when the great Pompey was commissioned to lead an expedition to exterminate them. They were particularly rampant on the many Greek islands that served as their refuge. Ikaria has been their victim at various times, with the neighbouring islet of Phourni providing an ideal base for raids. The inhabitants stopped living on the coast and took refuge in the mountains, where the geology protected them: large, more or less flat blocks of stone are often found, forming a natural roof that could be closed off with one or two walls. Only visible up close, they allowed the Ikariotes to literally disappear throughout the 17th century, to the point where the island seemed uninhabited. To avoid attracting attention, the houses were generally only one storey high, lower than the rock or cliff that camouflaged them, and had no chimneys to avoid smoke columns. The inhabitants interacted mainly at night and avoided using fire or any source of light, and they didn't even keep dogs, for fear that their barking would attract unwanted guests. When by chance pirates reached these refuges, the inhabitants, warned by a system of lookouts, disappeared. The brigands would only find a few items of clothing or worthless objects in the homes of these very poor people, and they would have had their money's worth. Interestingly, despite the hardships endured by the inhabitants over the centuries, Ikaria is known as the land of longevity in Greece, where one in three people ends up living to the age of 90 and many become centenarians. Muriel Marchand

[ayliamc]

Italia

Days 0 & 1 - Planes, Trains, and Penises

Steps walked: 23,230

Flights climbed: 11

Vehicles ridden: 7

Points of interest visited: 1

Lemons spotted: Yes.

When you have a one hour layover in Montreal, and your flight to Montreal is delayed half an hour, you’re starting your trip with what I like to call a “cinched sphincter”.

Long story short, we made it. One uneventful three hour flight to Montreal (PLANE #1) led us to sprint thru the Canadian airport and find ourselves tucked onto an eight hour flight to Roma* (PLANE #2) where we got priority served some surprisingly yummy vegan dinners with an equally surprising complimentary wine. Some movies and some sleep later we had a significantly less satisfying breakfast before landing on time in Rome.

Planes: ✔️

Our TRAIN #1 got us from the airport into Rome proper where we hopped onto our TRAIN #2 with about five minutes to spare. A two hour trip to Napoli had me napping uncomfortably and waking up in a significantly more unpleasant mood thanks to a little bitch I’ve named “Hunger”. By now it was 1pm local time, our bodies thought it was 7am, and we’d had naught by a lousy dry muffin on the plane, some oversteeped bitter tea, and jackshit for lunch. And we still had to get onto TRAIN #3 which would at last take us to our final destination… for the moment…: Pompei.

Despite paying for Dan’s phone to be useable abroad, we had apparently already exceeded a limit we didn’t know existed which forced us after some scrambling to navigate to our hotel the old fashioned way: looking at street signs and a map. All accompanied, don’t forget, by Hunger, whom nobody likes.

Then naturally no one was at the very small little BnB we had booked so we had to contact someone to let us in, who assured us they would be there in 5-10 minutes. In Italian that translates to, “at least ten minutes.” (I’m learning that they live at a different pace than I do, the Italians. Much less concern with “getting there”, ‘twould seem after my whole half day of observation.)

Anyway it’s all well and good. Our BnB is a quintessentially classic little European building which makes the contrast of minimalist modern interior design particularly amusing. But it’s clean and close to the ruins, which is the goal.

Not the immediate goal though. That’s food.

I found a restaurant .07 miles away that claimed to have options “vegano” and after an initial paralyzing fear that I’d chosen the wrong restaurant due to the screaming baby behind us, they left almost immediately leaving us the whole place to ourselves.

We gorged ourselves on fresh pasta with mushrooms and garlic, paid quickly, and booked it to the ruins for our four o’clock tour.

Our poor guide had to do the whole tour in both English and Spanish which was a little bit of a bummer for us but still filled with lots of info about the ruins and also a hilariously stereotypical Italian interaction with our guide. “Ok, so-a here-a we-a have-a the penis-a arrow-a…”

You get the idea.

And yes, now you mention it, so many dicks in Pompei. Brothels with rooms dedicated to particular sex positions (indicated by the incredibly preserved illustrations above each room), dicks carved into the roads pointing the direction to the brothels for sailors who just came to port, dick illustrations in lieu of street names.** And lots of stories of orgies in the homes there as well. Free love was rampant in the Roman Empire. Also sacrifice and slavery and sewage running ankle deep in the streets which led to raised sidewalks and raised crosswalks.

‘Twas incredible to see how well preserved many of these structures are. Still vibrant with color, reliefs still in great condition, original tile floors… I mean I couldn’t believe how much of what we saw was original. And still more is being excavated all the time! What else will they uncover?

We saw a few molds of the bodies. It’s hard to imagine how terrifying that ordeal must have been. Hopefully it was fast for everyone.

We wandered around for over two hours and barely made a dent in the park, but we were rapidly fading from human to spirit, alive to dead, and it was time to go home.

We stopped at a grocery store and immediately realized we had no idea what to buy, and couldn’t read Italian ingredients anyway. So after wandering around like ghosts for five minutes we bought juice then left.

The place we stopped at for dinner was … adequate. Would not recommend but it did in a pinch. We got some bland food to go and ate it in silence in our hotel room, counting down the minutes until we could shower in our doorless-hotel-shower and pass out.

Which is what I’m about to do now.

*why on earth do we give proper nouns different names in English? Why do we say Florence when we could say Firenze? Why do we say Naples when we could say Napoli? I’ve been in Italy for less than a day and I’m already irritated by this.

** Pompei was a trade town and people spoke many different languages including but not limited to Greek and Latin. So street names were not a good universal way to identify an address. Instead, they used symbols and imagery. We saw a sun, a face, and — yes — a dick.

[brother-emperors]

I guess it's time to feel /something/ about Crassus asking Pompey to help him control the crowds so he could leave Rome to Parthia, essentially having Pompey walking Crassus to his death.

HELL YEAH @garland-on-thy-brow has an extremely fun post about this

[whencyclopedia]

Legio IX Hispana

Legio IX Hispana served with Julius Caesar in Gaul and against Pompey in the Civil Wars. Later, it fought alongside Augustus in his Cantabrian Wars and was one of the four legions Claudius took with him in his invasion of Britain in 43 CE. It survived mutiny and near decimation twice, only to recover. Although suffering heavy losses during the revolt of Boudicca, the legion rebounded and accompanied Agricola in his war against the Caledonians. The legion disappeared sometime after 120 CE.

Learn more about Legio IX Hispana

[going-to-superhell]

⟰ history of julius caesar ⟰

i posted this ages ago on a side blog but i don't use it so i'm putting it here

⋘ 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎… ⋙

in honour of the ides of march i will cover the history of julius caesar.

note: i have cross checked my infomation and researched to the best of my ability though i am human and not immune to error if there are any mistakes please let me know and i will correct it

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gaius julius caesar was born on july 12th or 13th in 100 BC or close to that year in suburra in now modern day italy to nobles lucius cornelius cinna and aurelia cotta.

before reaching adulthood caesar was engaged to a woman named cossutia who died in 84 BC. it is unclear if they ever married and has been a debate between historians. caesar first married in possibly 83BC to cornelia as they married after the death of caeser's father in 85BC or 84BC. in 76BC cornelia gave birth to his only legitimate child julia and the only child he acknowledged. cornelia died in 69BC.

caesar joined the roman army in 81 BC at about 22. in 79BC two years later he was able to serve as staff for a legate and saved a persons life and was awarded a civic crown of oak leaves.

he was deployed by his general on a mission to nicomedes, who was the king of bithynia to negotiate with him in order to acquire a fleet of ships which was successful positively impacting his military career.

in 72BC caesar was elected to be a tribune. during the spring of 69BC caesar left rome to secure hispania.

during 67BC caesar married pompeia after he served as quaestor in hispania, they divorced in 62BC after pompeia hosted the festival of the bona dea which no man was permitted to attend but publius clodius pulcher managed to get in disguised as a woman, apparently to seduce pompeia. he was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege, caesar gave no evidence against clodius at his trial and he was acquitted. caesar divorced pompeia saying "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion".

in 59BC caesar was elected consul at the age of 40, late that year he married calpurnia and they stayed married until his death.

in 58BC julius caesar became the govener of gaul and stayed there for 8 years gaining more land for the roman empire and commanded over 50,000 men.

on the 26th of august 55BC caesar first landed in britania though the romans didn't conquer britania until 43AD.

in 49BC the senate ordered caesar to hand over his army to their control which he refused and advanced on italy but paused at the river rubicon/line that divided gaul and italy. he ignored the roman law prohibited a governor to leave his province and advanced to confront his enemies in rome which the senate considered a treasonable offence but there was little they could do.

in late 48BC caeser first arrived in alexandrea, egypt to kill gnaeus pompeius magnus or pompey who he killed that year and continued to pick off his enemies one by one during the next 3 years.

caeser met cleopatra when he first arrived in alexandrea and started their affair shortly after meeting. on the 23rd of june 47BC cleopatra gave birthto their son caesarion.

in 45BC caeser retrurned to rome as a dictator but allowed the senate to continue working except that he replaced disloyal senators with his own appointments of loyal men.

in 44BC caeser declared himself dictator for life and on march 15th or the ides or march he was killed by 23 stab wounds though 60 men agreed to assassinate him. his last words were 'kaì sý, téknon' this is most often translated to 'you too, my son?' the words kaì sý found in greek comedy and on mosaics translate to 'screw you'. julius caesar died surrounded by friends.

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⟰ other infomation ⟰

around 64BC caesar had an affair with servilia that continued until his death. servila was the mother of his friend brutus

calpurnia was a teenager when she married julius caesar in 59BC

shakespear changed julius caesars last words to 'et tu, brute' which translates to 'you too, brutus?'

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⟰ glossary ⟰

legate: high ranking military officer in the roman army

tribune: an elected official in ancient rome

quaestor: ancient roman public official

hispania:iberian poeninsula and its provinces

consul: ancient roman official - highest elected political officce in the ancient roman republic

gaul: france

britania: britan

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⟰ refrences ⟰

britantica

national geographic

history learning site

unrv history

totaly history

history today

university of chicago

ancient egypt online

greece is

wikipedia (basic info ie, lovers, children, parents, birthday, ect)

⟰ other wikipedia references ⟰

cossutia

cornelia

pompeia

calpurnia

caesarion

[garland-on-thy-brow]

The Death of Caesar (La morte di Cesare) - Gaetano Sertor 1788, translated by me.

Previous scenes.

ACT II.

SCENE 7.

Magnificent temple meant for the Lupercal rites, illuminated at nighttime and full of people, with an eminent place for Caesar.*

In the front - Caesar, Antony, Cassius, Albinus, Calpurnia, and Porcia; in the back - several Conspirators, distinguished by a crimson ribbon on the left shoulder. Priests, guards, and lictors.

Caesar. Romans, my duty summons you to this temple to perform the Lupercal rites. Far from us be the unrest, far be the dissension, and let all breathe peace and goodwill. Antony shall give the sign… But no, Brutus is not here. Let it be delayed until he arrives.

Antony. Here he comes.

Caesar. Brutus, my wishes are fulfilled now that you are here.

Brutus. Brutus always fulfils his promises.

Calpurnia. (How murky and dark is his face!)

Antony. In this day, that we want to be sacred to joy, let it be our sole great thought to offer the gods of Rome dances and prayers and chants: our empire started with them.*

(Everyone takes their places.)

Chorus with dance. * Oh you, great gods-protectors, with favour look upon us: let Rome be far from danger and ever live and win.

Caesar. From Hesper's furthest coast to Dawn's resplendent realm… Antony. Let Rome's name resound in never-ending praise.

Chorus. Let Rome be far from danger and ever live and win.

Brutus. Our freedom is what makes us exalted and unconquered. Cassius. Die sword in hand, but never forswear Liberty.

Chorus. Oh dearest of hopes, oh yearned-for Liberty!

Porcia & Calpurnia. Oh gods, who read in souls, you know my just desires. I pray you, smile upon them, console my faithful heart.

Chorus. Let Rome be far from danger and ever live and win.

Antony. Let these triumphant laurels become the golden crown… (pulls out a crown and goes to present it to Caesar. The Romans shudder at this sight and run to stop him as Caesar stretches out his hand to accept the crown.)

Chorus. Halt, villain, no further, cast off the guilty thought.

Caesar. Romans, calm yourselves. I do not approve of Antony's transport, and do not accept from his hand a pledge that you deny me. But you could use less boldness facing me. In you, who were slaves to Marius and to Pompey, who were silent in front of them, and who are emboldened by my kindness to insult me, resistance turns into disdain, into offence, and I am not used to bearing this.

[Continues under the read more!]

Brutus. And how could people restrain themselves in the face of this wretched deed? They spoke, Caesar, like Romans, and their will, if Heaven inspires you, must be your will too.

Cassius. Let him perish who stays silent, who dares this much, and who serves the tyrant.

Caesar. (Hardened, obstinate souls!)

Calpurnia. (O Heaven!)

Antony. Cassius, what are you saying? Before the eyes of the world's monarch, such insolence? Such insult to Antony?

Calpurnia. Antony, Cassius, oh god, be silent. What madness drives you, today, in the presence of Roman matrons, to rage so?

Brutus. You yourself*, I see it, shudder at this dire attempt, at the grievous shame brought onto the Roman name.

Albinus. (Since the fire caught, I hope great things from it.)

Porcia. (My father's ashes, could it be the long-awaited day when you shall be avenged?)

Caesar. I understand. Not liberty, like you claim, but envy, but jealousy of my glory makes you so bold. Yet he who sacrificed himself fully for his country should have found it more grateful. I do not want to recount my deeds here, but neither should you have forgotten what I had done in the Forum, in the Senate, on the battlefield, and what rights I had given to you. Let those whose hearts fret in envy know this: Caesar adores Rome, does everything, and fears nothing.

Calpurnia. (How my heart trembles!)

Brutus. If you adore Rome, why do you oppress her? Your words disagree with your deeds too much.

Cassius. Your ambitious arrogance has already erupted from your breast. But you did not attain that which you hope for.

Caesar. Vicious spirit, o ingrates, and venom, and baleful hatred make you talk. (transported by anger) But should I be finally forced to forget my feelings of Father and Citizen, should I no longer find Fatherland in Rome, I shall then too…

Antony. Restrain yourself, my lord.

Calpurnia. Beloved husband, I pray you, cease your anger. Calm yourself, have pity on my fear.

Caesar. But how, my dear, can I not be angered, if they came here only to insult me?

Brutus. Caesar, to quiet resentment and strife, to soothe the hearts, is in your power.

Caesar. What do you want, then? What are you asking from me? Who dares to lecture me on my duty? I know what I must do, what I will do; but let my thought be revealed to the Fathers only. You have tested my patience long enough. Let the Lupercal ceremony be finished, and let the Senate be assembled in the Curia of Pompey. Gathered there, the judges of the earth shall hear the one who subjected it to the Capitol. They shall hear from the Citizen who loves them, from the Dictator who rules them, whichever they prefer - advice or law.

(aria with chorus) Caesar. In vain do you expect to make me yield to defiant boasting. Ah! When did I deserve from you such savage recompense?

Chorus. Ask for our blood, but do not expect us to give up our faith, our honour.

Caesar. What do you fear from my heart that loves you, that ever wants you to be happy? My dear wife, you hear it, I pray you, have compassion for my pain.

Chorus. Ah, at the sound of his laments my rage is disarmed.

Caesar. But your souls soften: they are moved, I see it. Righteous Heaven, I do not ask for more: now have I attained my triumph. Follow me, beloved wife, come with me to breathe again. (exit Caesar with everyone except Brutus, Cassius, Porcia, Albinus, and Conspirators)

Translator’s notes.

"Magnificent temple" etc. - the Lupercal rites were held in a cave at the foot of the Palatine Hill, in which, according to the legend, the she-wolf nursed Romulus and Remus. To reconcile the historical cave with the operatic magnificent temple, I like to imagine a magnificent cave.

“to offer the gods of Rome dances and prayers and chants: our empire started with them” - the Lupercal rites symbolically recreate Rome’s foundation myth.

"Oh you, great gods-protectors" etc. - because the librettist chose to stage the central scene of the opera as an elaborate religious ceremony in the heart of Rome, it seems like a great time to mention that he was a priest who in 1774 got permanently exiled from Rome after confessing to be the author of Il conclave 1774, a subversive "documentary" opera about the Papal elections. He knew, from experience, quite a bit about Roman ceremonies, Roman conspiracies, and Roman exiles (like Ligarius in the ballet earlier).

"You yourself, I see it" - masculine singular ("tu stesso"), meaning that Brutus is addressing either Caesar or Antony.

[Link to the original, via Corago.]

[furlantravelfashionblogger]

New discovery in Pompei 🇮🇹: In the recent excavations of Regio IX, archaeologists have uncovered a fascinating fresco depicting a possible ancestor of pizza. Bad news for pineapple pizza haters - the first pizza precursors were likely topped with fruit!

Discover all the pizza varieties: https://www.tasteatlas.com/pizza

The 2,000-year-old painting, discovered in the middle of a half-crumbled wall during recent digs at the sprawling Pompeii Archaeological Park, depicts a silver platter holding a round flatbread, alongside fresh and dried fruits such as pomegranates and dates and a goblet filled with red wine.

Despite its resemblance to a pizza, the recently unearthed fresco differs significantly from the pizza we know today, as it lacks two crucial ingredients: tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Tomatoes did not arrive in Europe from the Americas until the 16th century and, though the first mention of mozzarella appears in an Italian cookbook as early as the year 1570, Italians did not start using the ingredients to make what is now called pizza until the 18th century.

The researchers believe it represents the Roman flatbread called mensa, which served as both food and a plate during that time. Pompeii, destroyed by an eruption of the Mount Vesuvius volcano nearly 2,000 years ago, is only about 23 km away from Naples, the modern-day home of the Italian pizza, a UNESCO-protected food.

Photos: Pompeii - Parco Archeologico