M. Porcius Cato

I think it was the Battle of Leipzig.

No problem.

You're wrong to make blanket statements like the first sentence above. I and a few others have made arguments with factual content on the postive aspects of Caesar and you know it, feel free to use the search function. You may not agree with them or support the interpretation but just calling the arguments absent is garbage. Painting anyone who defends Caesar part of the 'friends of dictatorship' in the hinted at larger sense of also linking their support to the regimes of Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin is just hyperbole on your part. Yes, I know that many others have made arguments for Caesar throughout the forum, but I'm just talking about this thread. Also, technically-speaking, Caesar wasn't quite Stalin (but who knows what would have happened if Caesar had lived long enough and had Stalin's technological capacities).

Alas, my people were all eaten by that terrible thing. lol!

He placed his laws above the veto power of the tribunes, thereby abolishing the ultimate tribunician power. In doing this (among his many other crimes against freedom and humanity), Caesar put the lie to the claim that he was a friend of the people. Caesar loved only two things--power and the sound of slaves singing his praise. Actually, Caesar was far too smart to have Cato whacked--by murdering Cato, Caesar would have consigned himself to the dustbin of history.

Actually, since the partisans of Caesar haven't any arguments for his greatness (except chanting "Hail Caesar"), your grade would probably be better served by at least listing all anti- arguments like I did (you'd get at least 1/2 credit) than by listing the tiresome propaganda that is forever bandied about by the friends of dictatorship.

I just needed the right invitation...

OMG! Thanks for the heads-up: now I have some new Polybius to read!

In my opinion, Julius Caesar was bad. (1) He attempted a cover-up of the Catilnarian conspiracy by opposing a trial for the accused. His motivation may have been to hide his own foreknowledge of the traitors' plans (being an intimate of those involved). Moreover, his recommendation of exile for the accused would have let the traitors join Catiline on the fields of war, where they could have passed valuable information to their rebel comrades. (2) While consul, he had M. Porcius Cato arrested merely for voicing his opposition to Caesar's hare-brained schemes. The move was so extraordinarily illegal that the whole Senate refused to meet until Cato's release. (3) In Spain and in Gaul, Caesar betrayed the interests of Roman allies by sacking their towns and enslaving Roman friends. His motivation in both cases was merely to run up a body count so he could celebrate a triumphal parade in Rome. His campaign in Gaul (where he mercilessly slaughtered and enslaved perhaps a million or more tax-paying trading partners of Rome) finally led to the threat of prosecution for his illegal crossing into German territory. (4) Rather than face prosecution like an honorable Roman or even go into temporary exile (as Cicero had once done), Caesar waged war against the Republic by illegally crossing the Rubicon with the 13th legion. Taking Rome essentially by surprise, he confiscated the entire Roman treasury for his own personal use. (5) The Civil War he launched wiped out the cream of the Roman Senate and their best generals, including Pompey and Caesar's best officer Labienus (who refused to join Caesar in his traitorous mission). (6) Once victorious over all his old enemies, he had himself declared a DICTATOR FOR LIFE. In this role, he immediately cancelled all elections for lower offices, abolished the power of the tribunes (who were the representatives of the people of Rome), and personally selected Yes-Men for the office of consul (which had been the highest-ranking elected position in the old Republic). Laying the precedent for future serfdom (and anticipating Stalin's Berlin Wall), he forced 20 - 40 year old Italian civilians to remain in Italy, and he attempted to wipe out the wealth of his political opponents by cancelling debts owed to them. (7) As dictator, Caesar seemed to lose all touch with reality. He had his face plastered over all the coins (a previously illegal act). He forced Romans to build him a palace, to carry an ivory statue of him at religious ceremonies, to place another statue of him within the great Quirinal temple with the inscription "To the Invincible God," and to place still another statue of him beside the statues of the (deposed) kings of Rome. All the time he did this, he ostentatiously refused to allow anyone to call him King, and he sent out goon-squads to arrest anyone who made the mistake of recognizing that Caesar had robbed all Romans of their liberty. By the way, if you plagiarize any of this, you'll get an automatic F. Plus, I haven't mentioned a single good thing Caesar did (dying, for example), so good luck finding that on your own.

I don't think it really happened... I just think Silius was using poetic liscense. But like I said, I'm pretty sure in Punica Hannibal's Spanish wife shipped a son to Carthage to be sacrificed to aid her husband in his endeavors. I thought all the kids went to Spain.

Where did you guys go? The Dominion of the Red Scary Dragon is no more!

I don't recall Hannibal ever having sacrificed a son. Does anyone else?

This is a really great post Sextus. How were the aqueducts connected to private residences? Lead pipe? If so, how did that work?

What are Mackay's credentials?

While I'm at it, I might as well also inquire whether anyone contributes to Wikipedia. Currently, its article on the Decurion is terribly skimpy and uninformative.

Maybe the Romans didn't perform actual exorcisms, but they did take all sorts of steps to ward off evil spirits. The labyrinthine mosaics adorning Roman antechambers supposedly had apotropaic origins. Also, the trident of Neptune was claimed to ward off evil spirits.

Isn't this an easily-refuted notion? Look at the fortifications outside Hadrian's Wall--the sites are nearly covered with the post holes of the granaries. If these things were nearly empty, why did they build so many? And if the Romans were so ill-fed, why were the teeth of legionaries nearly ground to a stub? You don't see that in hunger victims, do you?

Iranian oil supplies to the US are but a drop in the bucket compared to the oil we get from Canada. Moreover, the cost of an Iranian nuclear attack on a US city absolutely dwarfs whatever we economic benefit we might obtain from Iranian oil. To my mind, what separates Iran from North Korea is that the former is ruled by an elite who love travelling to Europe and sending their children to the West for school and fun. This might give us a little leverage in combatting the Black Turbans who want to send us all back to the Middle Ages.

Yes, first 20 members rank ordered by post count. Here is the classic Pareto distribution.

What exactly was a decurion? I've seen the term applied in two different ways on UNRV. Sometimes, the term is applied to a junior cavalry officer (or maybe cavalry NCO would be a better term). At other times, the term is used for a town councillor. Is it both?

BTW, does anyone know the source of my sig? I got it from an old Latin assignment!

Weren't the Scythians running around in that area? I'm not really sure.

In my opinion, the attempt of Athens to become an imperial power was both an inevitable result of its direct democracy and the cause of its failure to accomplish this end. On the one hand, the mob was itching to slaughter the weaker members of the League; on the other hand, it had its best military officers arrested for any set-back, thereby undercutting any chance it had at an empire. As is typical, the mob never holds ITSELF responsible for its mistakes (after all, the very idea of democracy is vox populi vox dei). Republics are much better than democracies in this regard because they allow men of merit to compete for the reins of government while being answerable to the people only for their jobs, not their very lives.

The Black Sea ports were important trading ports. For what it's worth, though I'm not a nature-lover, I've never been anywhere with greater natural beauty than Crimea (at least back in 1987).

Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni. -- Lucan. Bel. Civ. i. 127.