M. Porcius Cato

To get, from Nicomedes, STDs Good. Maybe Looking for a Bithynian to tease

That's my guess. L. Annaeus Florus, P. Annaeus Florus, L. Annius Florus, P. Annius Florus all refer to the author of the poem, I don't want to be Caesar, please, to tramp round the Britons, weak at the knees, [one line lost] in the Scythian frosts to freeze. Any ideas on what was in the lost line?

That's a magnificent book.

Good call. Martial is a nice counterexample. I wonder if the Greeks and Romans had different tastes. In the Clouds, Aristophenes describes the ideal in male beauty thus: If you follow my recommendations, And keep them ever in mind, You will always have a rippling chest, radiant skin, Broad shoulders, a wee tongue, A grand rump and a petite ποσθη

1. Scipio Africanus, 2. Seneca, 3. Horace, and 4. Cato the Elder.

If it wasn't much different, why the artistic depictions of Hercules as so small? When was the depiction created? Roman sexual behaviour changed over the late republic in line with other tastes in luxuries. From the moral outrage of earlier times to the licentious smirk of imperial Rome. Was the artist any good? Was he making a joke at the sponsor of the work? Was it an insult? I can't answer your question MPC. The depictions of Herakles' small member span hundreds of years and art forms. Here's the famous Herakles Farnese: And here is Herakles from an Attic vase: Given the consistency of the depiction across time, contexts, artists, and possible models, I don't see how the counter-evidence of virile Hercules' small member can be dismissed as reflecting decadent Imperial tastes, generally poor artistic merit, jokes at sponsors, and so on. In contrast, there is an easy way to explain this consistency--the ancients, unlike moderns, didn't associate large penises with strength and masculinity.

There is evidence of the opposite. Cato the Younger was a philhellene. Far from ejecting philosophers from Rome, Cato the Younger had philosophers by his side in Rome, when travelling abroad, and even at Utica. His last night was spent discussing the Stoic paradoxa.

I'm partial to the whole republican era--from Brutus to Brutus. Within that period, I find the restoration after Sulla to be the most dynamic and interesting.

Am I right to assume that you're talking about the principate? During the republican era, you could be both a senator and an equite. Also, membership in neither was hereditary.

But the people willing to assassinate or mount coups are not inherently law abiding people That's true, and it's why small crimes (like Clodius' Bona Dea crime or Caesar's crossing into Germania) must be prosecuted mercilessly--a ruthless application of the law will catch petty scoundrels before they go on to greater crimes. No arguement there, but notice how limp the prosecution was. Caesar was never formally prosecuted, so that prosecution was as limp as an invisible unicorn is pink. Clodius' prosecution, however, was a true cause celebre, and it cost the young scoundrel dearly.

If it wasn't much different, why the artistic depictions of Hercules as so small?

A prequel would be nice, but, I don't think a movie could do our favorite period justice. There's simply too much meat to fit on the sandwich. Maybe they could focus on the events surrounding the Catilinarian Conspiracy--it provides a nice foreboding of conflicts to come, with all the major players still on hand (Caesar, Servilia, Pompey, Cicero, Cato, etc).

Pecunia non olet--et pecuniam perdat stuporis. Anyway, why assume the series will take us into I,Claudius territory? Maybe it will be a prequel.

Caesar wasn't the first deified Roman. Romulus was deified first (Plut. Rom. 27, 28; Liv. I.16; Cic. de Rep. II.10). Among other deified Romans were Augustus' wife Livia, Nero's wife Poppaea, Antoninus' wife Faustina, and Hadrian's lover-boy Antinous. What merry pantheon they would have made with Caesar as their Jove! EDIT: Or would Caesar play Ganymede to Antinous' Jove?

No. And it's not clear what the Romans thought of penis size anyway. A paragon of male strength, like Hercules, was typically depicted as having a very small penis. In contrast, Priapus, who was more laughable than sexy, was large enough to have given his name to the malady of priapism. But, then, we're talking about the author of Thorn Birds, so why expect historical authenticity when it gets in the way of writing a bodice-ripper.

According to Broughton's Magistrates of the Roman Republic, the tribune of 212 was C. Servilius Casca, and Broughton also lists the triumvir of 218 as "C. Servilius (Geminus)". Critically, however, Broughton lists neither as belonging to the patrician branch of the Servilii.

I can't recall ordinary magistracies ever having been invested with titles. Although Favonius, I believe, once addressed Pompey and Caesar as "king and queen" (respectively, of course).

Another wonderful installment in a fascinating series. I wonder why the Fabii stopped being so prominent after the Punic War.

Thanks for the reference--I look forward to reading it. FWIW, I relied on Smith's Biography.

I agree with PP. After the Greeks were deprived of their own imperial ambitions, Greek historical narrative had to switch to the new protagonists, which were in Rome. Now wouldn't it be amazing to find some Carthaginian Polybius, writing of the Roman conquest of Greece, or a Carthaginian Plutarch, writing of the parallels between the illustrious Carthaginian statesmen and Roman ones? Maybe today we'd be talking about Punic-Roman civilization instead of Greco-Roman civilization.

I agree with both Nepehle and DDickey--Teresa doesn't belong on the list, though not merely because she was a rock star for medievalist masochism. She doesn't belong on the list because she changed the world much, much less than others that could appear on the list.

I think there might be an error or two here, though the fault is partly Livy's. C Servilius, the triumvir taken by the Boii, does not appear to have taken the path of Pulcher to the plebeian caste. His son--listed in the Capitoline Fasti with the cognomen Nepos and not Geminus (as Livy would have it)--did serve as a plebeian aedile, but did so unaware of his father's existence, and a special rogatio was required to protect him from his illegal election to the tribuneship. This rogatio makes no sense if C Servilius had been plebeian. For this reason, I don't really think that C Servilius should be counted as a precedent for the weird adoption to the plebeian caste by Caesar's Pretty Boy. FWIW, over the 700 years that the Servilii served Rome, there were several patrician and plebeian branches, including Ahala, Axilla, Caepio, Casca, Geminus, Glaucia, Globulus, Priscus Fidenas, Rullus, Structus, Tucca, and Vatia Isauricus.

But the people willing to assassinate or mount coups are not inherently law abiding people That's true, and it's why small crimes (like Clodius' Bona Dea crime or Caesar's crossing into Germania) must be prosecuted mercilessly--a ruthless application of the law will catch petty scoundrels before they go on to greater crimes.

Having *some* legal mechanism of succession certainly would have helped clarify things for the law-abiding citizens of Rome. The risk, however, of a hereditary mechanism of succession is that you risk getting some retarded or insane fool on the throne, which completely undermines the authority of the position.