Tag: julius-caesar
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Octavian
”Better a cautious commander, and not a rash one” When Julius Caesar and his his legions had finished their conquest of Gaul, a million Gauls and Germans were dead, and a million more were enslaved. In his decade-long conquest of what is today France, Belguim, North-West Italy and a small part of the Rhineland, Caesar…
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Antony and Cleopatra
O Cleopatra, I am not distressed to have lost you, for I shall straightaway join you; but I am grieved that a commander as great as I should be found to be inferior to a woman in courage – as recorded by Plutarch, when Antony was told of Cleopatra’s (supposed) death The Roman politician and…
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Spartacus: The 3rd Servile War
Slavery in ancient Rome differed from its more modern form only in that it was not based on race, but like any form of slavery it was an abusive and degrading practice, and cruelty was commonplace. As a slave you had no rights whatsoever, and time and again those who suffered under this practice rebelled…
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Beware the Ides of March
If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it – Gaius Iulius Caesar The Ides of March (15th) 44 BC, was the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome by a group of disgruntled Senators, and is one of the most consequential dates in history, an event that…
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Cicero – A New Man
‘If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need‘ – Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 – 43 BC After building a career as a skillful barrister in the law courts, and putting down the Cataline insurrection, Cicero had not only become a shrewd politican, but one of the best orators and…
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Who was Julius Caesar?
In his The Life of Julius Caesar, par. 45-53 (translated by J.C. Rolfe), the ancient Roman historian Suetonius describes the appearance of Gaius Julius Caesar as follows: “They say he was tall, fair-skinned, well-built, with a full face, black and lively eyes. He was distinguished by excellent health: only towards the end of his life…