A view from the Aemilian Bridge

** Split from Book Club Choice thread, to discuss the olden days **


So looks like I'm reading Harris in the wrong order, but sure I can come back and read Imperium again at some stage.
Pompey seems like a bit of an arrogant so-and-so.
But Hortensius, Metellus and especially Verres are nasty bastids.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So looks like I'm reading Harris in the wrong order, but sure I can come back and read Imperium again at some stage.
Pompey seems like a bit of an arrogant so-and-so.

Pompey is a prick of the highest order and he'd almost drive you to Crassus. Almost. I tend to like Crassus since Laurence Olivier so winningly portrayed him in Spartacus.

Quote :

But Hortensius, Metellus and especially Verres are nasty bastids.

Well, they are patricians so they tend not to be particularly nice. It's all the noble self-regard.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So looks like I'm reading Harris in the wrong order.

Don't be too worried. Pompeii occurs about 150 years after the events in Imperium so bears no relationship whatsoever to Imperium. It is however Harris' first work in the classical world, so there's a natural literary progression from Pompeii to Imperium.

Oh. I have spartacus on VHS somewhere. Is that the Charlton Heston one ? Might watch it again at weekend. It's quite long though I think.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So looks like I'm reading Harris in the wrong order.

Don't be too worried. Pompeii occurs about 150 years after the events in Imperium so bears no relationship whatsoever to Imperium. It is however Harris' first work in the classical world, so there's a natural literary progression from Pompeii to Imperium.

Ahhh. So it's Pompeii the place, not Pompey the praetor of Cicero's time.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

So looks like I'm reading Harris in the wrong order.

Don't be too worried. Pompeii occurs about 150 years after the events in Imperium so bears no relationship whatsoever to Imperium. It is however Harris' first work in the classical world, so there's a natural literary progression from Pompeii to Imperium.

Ahhh. So it's Pompeii the place, not Pompey the praetor of Cicero's time.

Exactly, though a tome on the adulescentulus carnifex would be fun. A book on Pompey to a book on Cicero would be a standard chronological progression.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Oh. I have spartacus on VHS somewhere. Is that the Charlton Heston one ? Might watch it again at weekend. It's quite long though I think.

No, that's Ben Hur which is in Nero's(?) reign. Spartacus is the one with Kirk Douglas, Vivien Leigh, Peter Ustinov, Laurence Olivier and others. Tis good swords and sandals fun.

EDIT: I've confirmed that Ben Hur is set in the time of the reign of Tiberius, second Emperor of Rome. I would love to be Emperor of Rome in the 1st/2nd century AD.

They didn't have an emperor in Cicero's time ? Was that a new thing by Ceasar or someone. I have wiki some of this stuff.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

They didn't have an emperor in Cicero's time ? Was that a new thing by Ceasar or someone. I have wiki some of this stuff.

Well the first emperor of Rome, Augustus Caesar, was a contemporary of Cicero's, but the Republic still existed and the consuls were the men who were the supreme office-holders. The Republic ceased to exist after the ascension of August to the throne in 27 BC. He was to rule as Princeps(First Citizen) for 41 years till Tiberius succeeded him in 14 AD.

I'm just on the second part of Imperium now, and Caesar got his first mention. He's trying to get into the Senate. He seems to be about 6 years younger than Cicero. I'm looking forward to the second half. I hope it ends well for the man from Arpinum..

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

I'm just on the second part of Imperium now, and Caesar got his first mention. He's trying to get into the Senate. He seems to be about 6 years younger than Cicero. I'm looking forward to the second half. I hope it ends well for the man from Arpinum..

Kewl. Those office-holders did continue into the Empire, but their intrinsic power and influence was denuded by the fact that the source of authority for the Emperor now lay in the army and not in the acclamation of his peers in the Senate.

Quaestors, Praetors, Aediles, Procurators, Governors, Pro-Consuls, Consuls and Censors, they all became very unimportant at times in the Roman Empire. They were founts of authority during the Republic.

A Roman pic I very much *heart*



That scene does come up in Imperium EVM, enjoy!

You are too grand for Ireland, A-T. You should become the EU's emperor.

Ah I think I get it now. The Republic collapsed and was replaced by the Empire. I never knew Rome went through that kind of change. Bad Caesar.
It was a sad bit when Cicero found out from Tiro that Caesar was bonking Lady Murcia. An awful sense of what if...

That's a class image AT. Is that Cicero orating ?

Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882-1888
Wasn't it a contender for the Ard Taoiseach avatar election?

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Oh. I have spartacus on VHS somewhere. Is that the Charlton Heston one ? Might watch it again at weekend. It's quite long though I think.

No, that's Ben Hur which is in Nero's(?) reign. Spartacus is the one with Kirk Douglas, Vivien Leigh, Peter Ustinov, Laurence Olivier and others. Tis good swords and sandals fun.

EDIT: I've confirmed that Ben Hur is set in the time of the reign of Tiberius, second Emperor of Rome. I would love to be Emperor of Rome in the 1st/2nd century AD.

You'd make a fine caligula.

AfricanDave wrote:

Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882-1888
Wasn't it a contender for the Ard Taoiseach avatar election?

I think you are correct AfricanDave. It's all becoming clear now.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

AfricanDave wrote:

Cicero Denounces Catiline, fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882-1888
Wasn't it a contender for the Ard Taoiseach avatar election?

I think you are correct AfricanDave. It's all becoming clear now.

He is. It was one of my three nominees. I find it's a beautiful piece of art. Catiline is so powerfully portrayed as an isolated and vilified public figure. He is literally a toxic presence from which everyone recoils else they become infected by his villainy. Cicero, on the other hand, is at the height of his powers, denouncing the reprobate from on high. He is suffused by the aureous glow of constitutional righteousness. *sigh*

Is my devotion to the classical world becoming clear now!

riadach wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

Oh. I have spartacus on VHS somewhere. Is that the Charlton Heston one ? Might watch it again at weekend. It's quite long though I think.

No, that's Ben Hur which is in Nero's(?) reign. Spartacus is the one with Kirk Douglas, Vivien Leigh, Peter Ustinov, Laurence Olivier and others. Tis good swords and sandals fun.

EDIT: I've confirmed that Ben Hur is set in the time of the reign of Tiberius, second Emperor of Rome. I would love to be Emperor of Rome in the 1st/2nd century AD.

You'd make a fine caligula.

Thanks, I'd certainly see to it that I'd last more than his 4 years! I'd be looking to match Augustus' 41 year reign as Emperor of the Best Empire Ever.

Things you might want to know about Ancient Rome

*Roman fast food restaurants doubled up as brothels.
*Nero had his mother executed for disapproving of his girlfriend.
*Augustus developed Rome's first fire and police service.
*Before this, Crassus owned his own private fire service. They would get to a blazing house first and offer to put out the fire only if the owner sold the house to Crassus at a ridiculous discount. Having secured the property for a song, Crassus then spent some of the savings on rebuilding the house and either selling it on at a profit or renting it back to the previous owner.
*You never stopped being your father's dependent in Rome. He still exercised powers over you even if you were one of the consuls.
*The Roman jobs market had vacancies for such positions as orgy planner, sacrificial attendant and nomenclator.

arnaudherve wrote:

You are too grand for Ireland, A-T. You should become the EU's emperor.

Awh, thanks arnaud. I'm working on achieving the latter!

[quote="Ard-Taoiseach"]Things you might want to know about Ancient Rome

*Roman fast food restaurants doubled up as brothels.
*Nero had his mother executed for disapproving of his girlfriend.
*Augustus developed Rome's first fire and police service.
*Before this, Crassus owned his own private fire service. They would get to a blazing house first and offer to put out the fire only if the owner sold the house to Crassus at a ridiculous discount. Having secured the property for a song, Crassus then spent some of the savings on rebuilding the house and either selling it on at a profit or renting it back to the previous owner.
*You never stopped being your father's dependent in Rome. He still exercised powers over you even if you were one of the consuls.
*The Roman jobs market had vacancies for such positions as orgy planner, sacrificial attendant and nomenclator.[/quote]

Were there also positions for fire-starters ?

[quote="cactus flower"]

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

Things you might want to know about Ancient Rome

*Roman fast food restaurants doubled up as brothels.
*Nero had his mother executed for disapproving of his girlfriend.
*Augustus developed Rome's first fire and police service.
*Before this, Crassus owned his own private fire service. They would get to a blazing house first and offer to put out the fire only if the owner sold the house to Crassus at a ridiculous discount. Having secured the property for a song, Crassus then spent some of the savings on rebuilding the house and either selling it on at a profit or renting it back to the previous owner.
*You never stopped being your father's dependent in Rome. He still exercised powers over you even if you were one of the consuls.
*The Roman jobs market had vacancies for such positions as orgy planner, sacrificial attendant and nomenclator.[/quote]

Were there also positions for fire-starters ?

I'd say Crassus had a staff of them. I wouldn't put it past him. Crassus was a tricksy fella.

There used to be a rumour of small boys with buckets of stones paid to take windscreens out on the N9, until the laminated ones came in.

cactus flower wrote:

There used to be a rumour of small boys with buckets of stones paid to take windscreens out on the N9, until the laminated ones came in.

Yeah. Well, I'd well believe that Crassus gave a couple of denarii to those boys' forerunners in the 1st Century BC to start the fires his crew went around to quench. It is perhaps why his crew tended to be first on the scene in the event of a blaze. Crassus was the richest man in Rome for about twenty years before he died.