Sublime
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Ovid was exiled by the emperor Augustus in 8 CE for what he himself terms “a poem and a mistake.”
Emily Wilson • The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca
Octavian and Antony had come to blows in a series of military engagements in northern Italy and then patched things up again by forming with Lepidus a ‘triumvirate for establishing government’. This was a formal, five-year agreement that gave each of the three men (triumviri) power equal to consuls, their pick of what provinces they wanted and
... See moreMary Beard • SPQR
And there was no end to his rash promises of debt relief (one of the most despicable forms of radicalism in the eyes of the Roman landed classes) or to his bold threats to take out the leading politicians and to put the whole city to flames.
Mary Beard • SPQR
And so the Celts and Macedonians seem to have amiably rubbed shoulders with one another – until the death of Alexander and the collapse of his empire, that is, when the Celts in Illyria spotted an opportunity. In 280 BC, they joined forces with the Thracians and attacked the Macedonians. The head of the Macedonian leader ended up on the tip of a
... See moreAlice Roberts • The Celts: Search for a Civilization
Before the Social War was over, one of its commanders, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a consul in 88 BCE, became the first Roman since the mythical Coriolanus to lead his army against the city of Rome. Sulla was forcing the hand of the senate to give him command in a war in the East, and when he returned from that victorious four years later, he marched
... See moreMary Beard • SPQR
"No, no," said Crasedes. "Brassitus was a general in the Plenian armies. Are you familiar with them?"
"I am not."
"Oh, giant empire, existed about three thousand years ago. They had a civil war, arguing over whether the landowning classes should get two votes for every hectari they possessed, or three ... Silly thing, really. Brassitus came to power
... See moreManuel Quezon ran for president of this new commonwealth. He beat out Emilio Aguinaldo, who ran on a protest…
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Daniel Immerwahr • How to Hide an Empire
The underlying issue was brutally straightforward. Would Caesar, with more than 40,000 troops at his disposal only a few days from Italy, follow the example of Sulla or of Pompey?