This came up in an earlier thread, so for anyone interested: the four main ancient theories about the origin of the cognomen "Caesar." 1) Pliny the Elder says it is from caesarean section:

primusque Caesarum a caeso matris utero dictus, qua de causa et Caesones appellati

"and the first of the Caesars was so called from the cut open womb of his mother, for which reason Caesos are also named" (NH 7.9.47)

Like the Tarquins, Bush the Elder and Bush the Younger are a clear example of a Livian doublet: an original George Bush was split into two figures, father and son, in the later historiographic tradition. This explains the reduplication of events in the accounts of their reigns: both make war on Hussein, Tyrant of Iraq; both preside over a market crash & beginning of a recession; the World Trade Center is attacked in the transitional periods near the end/beginning of their respective presidencies;

An apt quotation.

Augustine is our source for this passage of Cicero (De re pub. 5.1, ap. Aug., De civ. Dei 2.21). One small observation to add below.

https://twitter.com/ccpecknold/status/1320530607970131969

contra many modern conservatives (and others), Cicero doesn't see "winning the culture" and exercising political power as being in tension. In fact, they are mutually dependent: "neque viri nisi ita morata civitas fuisset, neque mores, nisi hi viri praefuissent," &c.

LOL "None 1707"

https://twitter.com/simongerman600/status/1320470952459837441

An illustration of how all such lists hinge on disputes over definitions and national continuity. ee.g.,
- Golden Horde 1480 vs. None 1707
- Germany until 1991 vs. Poland until 1945
- Slovakia (not Czechia) and Yugoslav states (not Serbia) "occupied" by their confederations.

This point is clearly true... and yet also puzzling. Because it would mean that moving message coordination from private email lists and group chats to Twitter was a remarkable self-own by journos. So—on the premiss that such moves are not totally irrational—why do it? 1/

https://twitter.com/AntiquaUrbs/status/1320377998823116800

(Qualification: of course there are still private messages, email lists, Slack channels, etc. in which things are still coordinated. And yet we can see much more of the sausage being made, so to speak, than ever.) 2/

νόμος ὁ πάντων βασιλεύς ("Nomos, king of all") was one of the most famous aphorisms of Pindar already in the ancient world. The text of the poem from which it comes is a modern reconstruction on the basis of ancient quotations and papyrus finds (Pindar fr. 169a.1–8): It is also somewhat fraught. Notably, disagreements exist(ed) about how to interpret:
(1) νόμος: as "law" or "custom"?
(2) δικαιῶν: as "justifying" or "punishing"?
(3) The dir. obj. of ἄγει
(4) The relationship between the initial gnomic statement and the labors of Hercules

Whenever I see things like this, I wonder how it could be that bluecheck journos, who presumably follow political media, can apparently have no knowledge of things commonly discussed in media. Is it.... 1) because they are basically children. Media are heavily populated with a lot of kids in their mid-twenties. Just out of college, barely educated, and possibly even too young to have been paying attention the last time the topic came up.

Interesting twist: the Arsacid Tiridates III, who converted Armenia, was in power largely due to Roman assistance.

https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1310547153853521920

He reclaimed the throne of Persian-occupied Armenia in alliance with the Romans, who were campaigning against the Sassanids. And Diocletian helped drive out the forces of the emperor Narses and set up Armenia as an independent protectorate. 2 years later, he was baptized.

The Church has celebrated the Annunciation from the beginning. A few examples from ancient art:

1. Wall painting from the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome, thought to be the earliest surviving depiction of the Annunciation (2nd–4th c. AD—there's a bit of disagreement on the date) 2. Painted linen textile fragment from Egypt (4th c. AD)
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O141449/t…

Coda: much classic Christian SF draws on this debate and deals specifically with the question of how life on other worlds might or might not fit into Salvation History. Lewis in the Space Trilogy imagines extraterrestrial worlds unaffected by the terrestrial Fall. (Analogous to a Polygenic/Unfallen interpretation of the Antipodes.)

Very interesting thread by Pater Edmund on the Medieval debate over the Antipodes—which is strikingly parallel to the debate that we currently have over extraterrestrial life. A bit more info on the history of geography below, for those who are interested in such things.

https://twitter.com/sancrucensis/status/1309416842470076417

In antiquity and in many Medieval writers, it was believed (to summarize crudely) that crossing Ocean was impossible. And so the mainstream of Christian thought tended to the view that the Antipodes (which were a conjecture anyway) simply did not exist.

Continuing... things totally collapse by the end of 53 because of the rise in factional street violence and rioting (ahem). The gangs of ruffians headed by Clodius and Milo are typically thought to be "Caesarian" and "Pompeian" respectively, but they alignments were not so clear-cut as that.

Since these days are rife with accusations of electoral malpractice and comparisons of the United States with the Late Republic, here's a quickish summary of events in 54–52 BC—a testament to how badly an electoral system can break down in an increasingly unstable regime.

https://twitter.com/flaviusclemens/status/1309005786610372608

The consular elections of 54 were delayed repeatedly because of political violence in the city and because of several concurrent electoral scandals. These were not unusual by this point, but Appian notes that they now advanced to new and intolerable extremes (App., BC 2.19)

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about here in our ever-more-panoptic society.

gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/amazon… Two brief thoughts:
1) If, at this point, you still actually believe assurances from tech companies about privacy and security, I don't know what to tell you. (But perhaps you'd be interested in buying this fantastic bridge I have....)

I do think we need to take a moment to appreciate that, as happens so often, the critics have switched sides for political reasons: All of a month ago, streaming platforms were pulling any TV show that had blackface in it, even in contexts which made it extremely clear that blackface was offensive and wrong, and which criticized the characters who wore blackface.

The "right-wing smear campaign" narrative about the Netflix pedo movie currently being promoted by the takemongers is oddly lacking in awareness of even leftist arguments. There is a longstanding feminist critique of cinematic depictions of rape: even films/shows that have an anti-rape narrative and that attempt to show the trauma of rape have all too often portray the act itself an an overly glamorous or eroticized manner.

Orff's Carmina Burana is an impressive piece of music. But the reception history illustrates an interesting selection effect.

https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1302430563815567366

Hollywood has taken to only one part of Orff's CB. No one uses "Floret silva nobilis" for schlocky fight scenes; only "O fortuna" has the ominous atmosphere Hollywood melodrama requires. So we get a partial, false impression of Orff's work from pop culture.

To explain: it is mostly agreed that Julius Caesar was first performed in 1599 (there are surviving references to it from September of that year). But there is also a theory based partly on astronomical refs in the play, that it was first performed on June 12, which would have made it the first play performed at the newly opened Globe Theatre.

Interesting to note the opening of Pliny's letter:

https://twitter.com/OptimoPrincipi/status/1298555134860034048

The unnamed source, "a man you can implicitly credit," is unsurprisingly Pliny the Elder (as noted at the site linked). The Elder Pliny has a whole section in his Natural History on stories of human-dolphin friendship (Hist. nat. 9.(8).24–28)
perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?do…

Perhaps instead of just accepting the opinion of Random Radio Dude, we should look at what the Church has historically taught on this subject. A truly radical proposal, I realize. Canon 15 of the Council of Agde (506 AD):

https://twitter.com/CatholicSkeptic/status/1297978521923530752

"It is not permitted to bishops, priests, or deacons to have dogs or hawks for hunting. But if one of such persons shall have been detected in this will, if he be a bishop, let him suspend himself from communion for three months; a priest, let him abstain for two months....

For my part, I find the many flavors of Rose Garden Insanity Twitter endlessly amusing. ee.g., we have: The new Rose Garden is a neofascist parade ground