Primus Pilus

The amazon member reviews alone are enough to steer me away. I wonder how Mr. Barber and Mr. Reed are actually perceived among their peers. At any rate Anthony Barret's book 'Caligula : The Corruption of Power' is much more academic even if proving some of his revisionist theories are as difficult as proving Caligula's various debaucheries.

Dr. Heather... on behalf of our little community, allow me to extend a warm and appreciative thank you for taking the time to visit with and to reflect on our questions. Of course you are most welcome to visit at any time.

Oops, I didn't mean to be confusing, the chart is actually something I compiled. I just meant that Andrew Dalby and his related books (as Pertinax suggested) can probably provide better detail than I.

Strangely enough it sure is praised by the ancients as the best of wines. I've not tried it, despite being a regular wine drinker so I can't comment on that part of it. Here's a simple list of ancient wines compiled mainly from Pliny, but I'm willing to bet that our Mr. Dalby can shed a bit more light on this.

This is quite frankly impossible to admit because it seems to suggest that we view the triumvirate in a vacuum of sorts and ignore the conditions which led to its formation. I am not arguing with the notions that essentially the triumvirate was in itself destabilizing, but I can't admit that the Republican system was completely healthy prior to that point.

Oh, that's a good point. Vain tyrant never saw it coming. Happy? Actually according to the soothsayers he did see it coming. I suppose you might say that the vain tyrant did see it coming and martyred himself.

The fact that he was a supporter of Christianity and Christian historians thusly labelled him as Great for his deeds regarding religion.

I am a firm believer in the theory that he wouldn't have had the opportunity for any such dramatic last statement. Plutarch probably says it best... Even if he was shouting and/or vocalizing, the thought of calmy and clearly delivering 'Et tu Brute' is just a bit too dramatically Shakespeare. Possible of course, but still unlikely. (All in my rather sometimes humble and sometimes not opinion )

Hmm, I don't think I'd be willing to jump to that conclusion. I don't believe that those 'stages' would give you the type of cohesive breakdown that your professor may be looking for. There are many ways we could define these stages, so this a pretty key element of the question.

It's not so much boring as opposed to garrison duty being considered one of the factors in the degradation of the legions. As previously suggested, garrison duty included building fortifications, roads, aqueducts and even towns as well as regular drilling, so it was not necessarily sitting around all day twiddling one's thumbs. However, it is generally argued that because they were no longer mobile armies with the express purpose of defeating a particular enemy but that they rather served as border security guards that campaign discipline and the motivation for Roman glory and personal plunder had evaporated.

Are there 5 year periods that meet the same conditions against the 'freedoms' of the Senatorial process? No. I would agree that this period, and of course everything that continued thereafter was a chain of events that eroded that process. However, I will argue that there are many cases where the rights of the people were just as stifled by this Senatorial process before the 'populares' movements. The revolts of the early Republic and the social wars are extreme examples of the Senates exclusionary policies. As for the original question though from the perspective of Senatorial freedom, might the Sulla, Marius and Cinna era actually be worse than the triumvirate? Consider that while the triumvirate dominated policy during its era, proscription was not necessarily a public tool. Yes the street gangs were running amok in order to effect policy and power (assumedly at least with some direction from various powerful players), but Senators and their various factions were not necessarily being exiled, having properties confiscated and potentially losing their lives at nearly a comparable rate to what happened a generation earlier. Agreed, the triumvirate was a process involving the use of personal popularity and charisma (Caesar and Pompey), military stature (Pompey) and wealth (Crassus) to 'dictate' legislative policy. Its not that everything the triumvirate did was illegal but that it was one more precedent setting event that made continuing political breakdowns that much more possible. Was it doomed to degenerate into monarchy? Quite possible but its the will of individuals who broke the Republic. What we tend to end up arguing in this situation is if the Republic was better than the principate from a moralistic standpoint. I believe that the answer is of course the concept of political freedom is far greater than the dictatorial regime. However, the Republic often gets labelled as some great bastion of freedom for all, when these freedoms were limited in scope and application to the populus. However, despite the fact that the average Roman of the time may have had difficulty finding work due to the abundance of slaves among other social issues, they still had the right to speak out, to assemble, to vote, to work, to be educated, etc. The problem was that many of the opportunities to practice these rights weren't as available as they once might have been. (I may not be entirely on topic there, but I was just free flowing...)

Claudius Out of curiousity, did the word please even remotely occur to you?

They all depend upon quality and supply of course, but prices are truly all over the map. My Caesar 'Aeneas' coin was about $150. A very high grade one can push $1,000 though I suppose. One can begin collecting denarii easily in the $20ish range though. I tend to look for these bargains but have splurged a few times over the years (if you can actually call spending a couple of hundred $ every once in a great while splurging ) All depends on budget and interest I suppose.

No, we just try to limit it to the 'off topic' forum. In this case it was loosely applied to the subject at hand, but yes we also prefer it to be within the context of the ancients. Point taken though, and our agitating friend Cato should understand that the comment regarding Kennedy was unnecessary.

Julius Caesar. 48-46 BC. AR Denarius (3.81 gm). This denarius was minted by Julius Caesar between 48 and 46 BC in a travelling military mint during the civil wars and is a clear example of political propoganda. The obverse diademed head of Venus represents the Julian clan's divine lineage. The hero Aeneas was the son of Anchises and Venus. Aeneas

The first (and there were relatively few in comparison to other coins he produced) was in 44 BC. I believe it was the "DICT PERPETUA" coin. A fine sample.

When was this first done ? There seem to be many coin portraits of other Romans dating from 56, 54 BC. When did Caesar produce his first ? Yes there are portraits of Romans on coins but never portraits of living Romans before Caesar. This may seem such a little thing to us now, but it was a terrible affront to the sensibilities of the aristocracy. In my blog (which is due for an entry) I point out a coin of Sulla that shows him represented in quadriga (four hourse chariot) while still living, but it is definately not a portrait. Additionally that style of coin was very popular in the Republic and there is virtually no distinction between Sulla's and numerous other examples. Although the coin depicting Sulla also contains the legend SVLLA, so the representation is quite clear.

And let me just add that nobody is required to credit every single source they use in every single post. Its just when that information is copied from another web site that I think its a fair gesture and an act of good faith.

Stealing isn't quite accurate, but absorbing or adopting probably fits a bit better. I know it might seem to be semantics, but its actually a fairly significant difference. Our own Ursus provides an excellent introduction here in The Roman Domestic Cult.

How about something liberal... "King Nicomedes tossed my Caesar salad." Ok ok, I really do need that beer now.