Posts Tagged ‘Julius Caesar’
By their fruit (or sled or mask or…) ye shall know them…
click the image above, or here
As we whisper “Rosebud,” we might watch our backs, recalling that it was on this date– the Ides of March– in 44 BCE that Julius Caesar, who’d assumed power as Dictator of the Roman Republic, was stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus and a gang of other Roman senators.
Muccini’s depiction of the tyrannicide (source)
Lifestyles of the Rich and Fictional…
Home of Gerald & Ellen O’Hara, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, Suellen & Carreen (Gone With The Wind) 2007, India ink and graphite on vellum, 30 x 42 inches.
For artist Mark Bennett, it’s all about the context… pushing his pens into corners that the cameras can’t reach, he provides floorplans for the homes of famous movie and television characters, from the O’Hara’s to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson; from the Jetsons to Jeannie.
As we wrestle with Zillow, we might recall that this was a bad date for Roman republicanism: on this date in 42 BCE, Brutus’s army was decisively defeated by Mark Antony, Octavian, and their troops at the Second Battle of Philippi in the Roman Republican Civil War. Brutus, who’d joined Cassius in the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar two years earlier, committed suicide.
Brutus, resting before the battle (source: Heritage History)
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Even more graphic!…
Your correspondent promises to rest his obsession with visualization (at least briefly)– but not before sharing this helpful round-up from the naughty-but-nice folks at COED Magazine: “The 50 Funniest Internet Infographics“… some will be already familiar to long-time readers, as they’ve been featured here before; many others, likely new…
As we loosen our belts we might reconsider that toga, as it was on this date in 55 BCE (or very nearabouts, scholars suggest) that Julius Caesar and his Roman force first invaded Britain. Contrary to a rather widely-held belief, Caesar did not on this occasion say “veni, vidi, vici.” Rather, he wrote those famous words in a report to Rome in 47 BCE after defeating Pharnaces II of Pontus at Zela (in Asia Minor– in just five days… and with no pants).
Edward Armitage’s reconstruction of the first invasion
It could be worse…
Meet Roy Sullivan. He was struck by lightening. Seven times. (Statistically speaking, getting hit by lightning is a three-thousand to one chance. Thus getting hit seven times is roughly a twenty-two septillion to one shot. That’s 22,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. To 1.)
Read Roy’s story and meet the other six members of Cracked.com’s list of “The 7 Most Bizarrely Unlucky People Who Ever Lived“…
As we count our blessings, we might send imperial birthday greetings to Gaius Julius Caesar, born on this date in 100 BCE. ‘Twas Julius Caesar who, having expanded the Roman world through the conquest of Gaul and the invasion of Britain, led his forces across the Rubicon in 49 BCE and took dictatorial control of Rome, ending the Republic and inaugurating the Empire.
“Veni, vidi, vici,” indeed.
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