Profiles in Toxic Masculinity, Part 11
Appearances Can Be… Deceiving?
It’s just another bust of some old dead white guy, right?
Perhaps not. Look again. That curly-headed figure is Marcus Antonius, better known these days as Mark Antony; right-hand man of Julius Caesar, general of the Roman Army, Triumvir of Rome, lover of Cleopatra, one of history’s serious badasses, and this week’s Profile in Toxic Masculinity – a title to which few men have a stronger claim.
His Maculate Origin
Marcus Antonius was born on the 14th of January, 83BCE, to Marcus Antonius Creticus, a Roman politician and military man of no great account, and Julia, a third cousin of Julius Caesar, with whom Mark Antony’s life would become entwined.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the great orators of the time, noted of the senior Antony that he could be safely entrusted with power because “…he was incapable of either using or abusing it effectively.” IN 74 BCE Antony Senior was dispatched to defeat pirates in the Mediterranean but died in Crete in 71BCE, having made little or no progress on that front.
This left the young Antony, along with his brothers Lucius and Gaius, without any real supervision. The brothers joined a gang of toughs roaming the streets of Rome gambling, drinking and womanizing. By the time he was twenty, Antony had somehow amassed an enormous load of debt and, bankruptcy laws being non-existent at the time, he fled to Greece in 58 BCE to escape his creditors.
His Adventurous Career
A year after arriving in Greece Antony, then twenty-six, wangled an appointment as commander of cavalry under Aulus Gabinius, Proconsul of Syria. A year after that, Gabinius, being Roman, decided to interfere in the politics of Egypt.
It seems in 58BCE, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII had been deposed in an uprising led by his sister, Berenice IV. Ptolemy had sought refuge with Rome, and was supported by his friend, the Roman general Pompey Magnus. The Roman Senate voted against any interference, but Pompey and Gabinius decided to go ahead anyway. They invaded Egypt, encouraged by Ptolemy’s payment of ten thousand talents of gold. With Mark Antony among the troops, they successfully restored Ptolemy XII to the throne of Egypt; during this time Mark Antony is rumored to have made the acquaintance of Ptolemy’s then fourteen-year-old daughter, Cleopatra.
While Antony was thus engaged, events of great import were taking place in Rome. Pompey had formed the First Triumvirate with Marcus Lucinius Crassus and Julius Caesar. This was a not-so-secret agreement by which the three men proposed to exercise control over Rome and her possessions.
While it’s unclear what contributions Antony made to actions in Egypt, in 54BCE he managed to get assigned to the staff of his distant cousin Julius Caesar, who had just been appointed Governor of Cisalpine Gaul and Transalpine Gaul, and who was proceeding to conquer all of free Gaul into the bargain.
It was in the conquest of Gaul and its aftermath that Antony’s various talents came to the fore.
Brando as Antony
A key part of the alliance in the First Triumvirate was the marriage of Pompey to the daughter of Caesar, Julia. But Julia died in childbirth in 54BCE, and Crassus was killed the following year in the Battle of Carrhae. As the Triumvirate tottered, Pompey was co-opted by the Optimates faction in the Senate to proscribe Caesar and Antony.
At this time, the conquest of Gaul was complete, and Antony was given the task of mopping up stragglers and various rambunctious factions in the conquered territory. He showed great talent for brutality in this process, so much so that Caesar decided to send his protégé into politics; Antony went to Rome and was elected as People’s Tribune in 49BCE, which post gave him veto power over Senate actions and allowed him to protect Caesar from retribution by the Optimates. This task Antony carried out with vim and vigor until the Optimates faction passed a decree declaring Caesar and enemy of the state and ordered him to Rome to stand trial for war crimes.
Antony was “violently” expelled from the Senate and returned to Gaul to tell the tale. The rest is well known; Caesar showed the Senate the “what else,” and the Roman Civil War ensued.
Various actions followed, but the real decision point was at the Battle of Pharsalus, where Antony commanded the left wing of Caesar’s army. Despite being poorly supplied and outnumbered, Caesar’s faction won the battle, and Antony’s place as general and second-in-command sealed his reputation.
Antony was reported to have enjoyed the trade of war in addition to being quite good at it, but once the Optimates were put paid to and Pompey Magnus dead, assassinated by agents of Ptolemy XIII when he fled to Egypt, he had, for the moment, no more wars to fight.
Then, in 44BCE, his friend and protector, Julius Caesar, was assassinated on the floor of the Senate. Antony found himself alone. Dressed as a slave to escape notice, he fled north, vowing to return.
His One-Man War
When no great massacre of Caesar’s supporters in Rome materialized, Antony quickly returned. Caesar’s widow, Calpurnia, was persuaded to turn over all of Caesar’s personal papers and effects to Antony. She also agreed that Antony should have control of all of Caesar’s personal properties, effectively making him leader of the political factions formerly controlled by Caesar.
This, of course, gave Antony considerable political clout – for a while. Antony was also now the sole surviving Consul of Rome. He acted quickly, seizing the Treasury and ordering Caesar’s (now Antony’s) Master of Horse, one Marcus Lepidus, to march his 6,000 troops to Rome to “restore order” but mostly to intimidate the Optimates and other factions supporting Caesar’s assassins, who were led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.
This didn’t go over well with Brutus and his allies, but Antony had 6,000 troops in addition to de facto control of the Treasury and the Caesarion faction of the Senate, so they saw little alternative but to make a deal. The deal was this: Caesar’s will would be opened, read, and ratified as legal; Cassius, Brutus and Antony would retain their political appointments, received from Caesar; and both factions would preside over a public funeral for Caesar, to be arranged by Antony.
But at Caesar’s funeral, Antony showed a gift for demagoguery, at one point throwing Caesar’s blood-stained Senatorial toga into the crowd. A riot resulted, in which several buildings around the Forum and the homes of several of the assassins of Caesar were burned. Brutus and Cassius, fearing retribution by the angry mobs, fled to Greece.
Antony, however, received a nasty shock when Caesar’s will appointed his nephew, Gaius Octavian, as his sole heir and recipient of all his monies and properties. Octavian, in accordance with Roman custom, adopted the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.
In May of 44BCE, Octavian, then nineteen, returned from Macedonia, where he had been stationed with one of Caesar’s legions. He expected prompt surrender of all of Caesar’s properties and coin to his control, but Antony didn’t see things that way. He refused to surrender any control and maintained his grip on the Caesarian faction of Roman politics.
Octavian proved to be not so easily thwarted. Borrowing heavily against his inheritance, he quickly began raising his own “personal bodyguard” from among the veterans of Caesar’s legions. This placed Antony inn a difficult spot, made more difficult when none other than Cicero gave a series of speeches in the Senate condemning Antony, referring to his bankruptcy, his many scandalous affairs, his youthful thuggery, his drunken binges; pretty much anything unsavory Antony had ever done was dragged out onto the Senate floor – and there was a lot of it. I’ve often said, if people think politics today are nasty, they should read some of Cicero’s speeches about Mark Antony; he literally heaped invective on Antony’s head, and since most of it was accurate, it stuck. Antony found his support from the people of Rome slipping.
In an attempt to broker another deal, the Senate offered Antony the governorship of Macedonia when his Consular term ended. Antony refused, demanding instead Cisalpine Gaul, then governed by Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, one of Caesar’s assassins. When Albinus balked, Antony took his remaining legions north and attempted to seize Cisalpine Gaul by force, which resulted in the Senate sending an army north nominally commanded by the two sitting Consuls but, in reality, commanded by Octavian. At the Battle of Mutina, Antony was defeated and forced to flee to Transalpine Gaul.
After Mutina, however, the Senate miscalculated. With the idea of preventing any more Dictator’s for Life arising from the house of Caesar, they assigned all of Octavian’s legions to other commanders, forcing Octavian to seek an alliance with the only available remaining powerful member of the Caesarian faction: Mark Antony. Antony had by this time reunited with Lepidus in Transalpine Gaul and had control of a considerable force; when Octavian and Lepidus met with Antony in November of 43BCE, Octavian had already returned to Rome, gotten himself appointed Consul, and begun hunting down and punishing Caesar’s assassins. Antony agreed to seal his alliance with Octavian by marrying Octavian’s sister, by whom he fathered two children. The new Triumvirate then turned their attentions to Brutus and Cassius, who had been raising an army in the East.
Brutus and Cassius’s army was destroyed at the Battle of Philippi. The new triumvirate divided the provinces of Rome up among themselves, with Octavian retaining control of Rome and Spain and the western territories, while Antony received the rich provinces in the East, including Macedonia, Egypt and retaining his control of Gaul. Lepidus, the junior partner in rank if not age, received Africa, which at that time meant only a strip of desert along the Mediterranean coast.
Taylor and Burton as Cleopatra and Antony
His Dark Side
Antony seized his control over Rome’s richest territories and set to subduing any opposition. Quickly cementing a political (and sexual) alliance with Cleopatra, with whom he eventually had three children, he invaded the rebellious Parthians, reconquered Judea, and put paid to the rebellious pirates led by Sextus Pompey, the son of Pompey Magnus.
But his relationship with Cleopatra was to be his downfall.
Antony, perhaps goaded by Cleopatra, eventually made a public speech in Alexandria formally renouncing his alliance with Octavian. Antony’s children by Cleopatra were awarded the thrones of some of the various satrapies under Antony’s control, and he declared Cleopatra his true wife, and Cleopatra’s son by Caesar, Caesarion, to be the legitimate son of Caesar and heir to Caesar’s name and titles. This Octavian, as Caesar’s legal heir, could not tolerate. He moved on Antony and, in 31BCE, at the naval battle of Actium, dealt the forces of Antony and Cleopatra a sound defeat.
His Golden Years
My favorite Antony – James Purefoy
Antony didn’t really have any golden years. Following the defeat at Actium, Antony returned to Alexandra, where he was besieged by Octavian’s forces. On the first of August, 30BCE, he committed suicide by stabbing himself with a sword. Cleopatra was taken prisoner by Octavian’s forces but, after several attempts, managed to kill herself as well.
Marcus Antonius was an unsavory man. By all accounts he was probably a high-functioning alcoholic. His many marriages and dalliances left him with a fair number of children, most of whom he ignored. But during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War he proved an invaluable second-in-command and, at Philippi and Parthia, an accomplished general in his own right. He had a knack for connecting with the common workers and tradesmen of the late Republic, and while he was instrumental in the fall of the Republic and the descent of Rome into tyranny, he had a bloody single-mindedness that is all too uncommon today. His place in history has resulted in his portrayal on big and small screens by such lights as Richard Burton, Marlon Brando and (my favorite) James Purefoy.
We don’t have to admire the life and times of Mark Antony. But we should respect them and learn from them.
I really enjoyed the Rome series and purefoy as well. Fun write up!
It’s a shame that Rome was so expensive that it got axed early. They were forced to speed up the timeline so much towards the end that it became ridiculous, as individual episodes would span years.
Yeah, you hate to finally see a well acted series scraped over money, but at the end of the day it’s still a business.
Yes! So much juicy stuff they skipped over to get to the end.
I too thought Purefoy was great as Antony, portraying him as a crass, somewhat charming lout who could be both vicious and pathetic at various times.
Cisalpine Gaul and Transalpine Gaul
Otherwise known as the Gaul that knew it’s own mountainous nature and the one that was more mole-hill with greater ambition.
After reading profiles in masculinity I will finish stacking the firewood. Then I intend to set the sights on my new Blackhawk in .41 mag.
Do I qualify as a shitlord or do I need to up my game?
Well, you have the 45 Winc, that puts you in star category.
I’m looking at the pile I finished yesterday, hope my grand daughter wants all of it.
I have a TC Contender in .41 that I need to dial in. Thinking about switching it to a .44 since it would be easier to find ammo for it.
I would think a proper firing sequence of the .41 mag ought to get that firewood to stack itself, neatly.
I applaud anyone who knows how to stack wood any more.
Further, I would applaud your turning your Blackhawk on the masses hereabout who think you can deliver a cord of wood in one trip using a half-ton pickup.
I really liked Liz as Cleopatra. Jealous of R. Burton though. The little I know of the history was glommed from 10th grade English. Trying to get farm boys interested in Shakespeare must have been challenging for the teacher.
Thanks, Animal, I’m now learning what I should/could have learned at a younger age.
Historians don’t think Cleo was any great beauty. Maybe she had other talents?
Power?
Oraltory?
Fellatio?
Like chrome off a trailer hitch?
Like the bronze off a Gladius.
Thanks Animal.
The Optimates get an unfair shake in history.
Great Article Animal, didn’t mean to sound like i didn’t like it.
The first in my upcoming Nova Roma series gives them a somewhat happier ending.
was given the task of mopping up stragglers and various rambunctious factions in the conquered territory.
Little shits always tryna rebel. That’s why you send your religious missionary in ahead of the army to convert the population.
Rome wasn’t big on religious conversions. They were much more interested in either collecting taxes from those who submitted, or selling the rebels and their children at the slave markets. That conquest of Gaul made Caesar the 2nd richest man in the world from slaves sales. The massive influx of cheap labor also warped the Roman economy and did irreparable damage to the working class.
Just a Total War joke. But, yes, Rome was about what you say.
You kept the only admirable thing about him until the end.
His campaign against the Parthians wasn’t quite as boneheaded and disastrous as Crassus’, but it was a pretty bad loss. Some of the same stupid mistakes of getting suckered into fights with the Parthian cavalry in places where they had all the advantages.
Blaming your crappy ally for running away, then going back and looting their country was a nice touch our modern politicans would appreciate.
Great article Animal! Thanks for taking the time to research and write this for us.
Praised be the King!
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has issued a new executive order allowing some businesses declared to be “non-essential” to resume operations this coming Friday, including indoor ranges around the state that have been closed for the past two months.
According to the governor’s Executive Order 61, indoor ranges, which the governor had declared to be “places of amusement,” can reopen on May 15th, as long as they follow certain social distancing guidelines.
I can’t wait for order 66.
Fuhrer von Wolf was just on the television saying he would put out of business any business that defied his orders to stay closed. I guess he can, since he can’t run for re-election, fly his fascist flag with impunity.
He can’t run for releection now. There’s no limit on the total number of terms a PA governor can serve. The only restriction is a governor can’t serve more than two consecutive terms. Gauleiter Wolf can sit out the next gubernatorial election then run again in the following election. I don’t expect him to do that, I expect he will go on to other things.
Hopefully things like pushing up daisies.
Speaking of toxic masculinity, this kid on YouTube built an AWD rally Miata. He started on YT doing video game reviews, mostly racing games and when he got old enough to drive started to mod the real deal. He taught himself how to wrench, weld, fabricate even did some of the body work and paint. Real strong work ethic and general positive. If you like cars or just to see a young man try to better himself, give it a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmg4g_Vt8FJW649AYWxYawDUtX92Tg-JG
This is a stick-up. Nobody move.
Meanwhile, in an April article for the New York Times, Daniel Markovits, a law professor at Yale and author of “The Meritocracy Trap,” said a 5% tax on the wealthiest 5% of American households could raise up to $2 trillion.
“Our extraordinary battle against the pandemic should draw on the immense reserves that the most privileged among us have accumulated over decades of abundance,” he said.
“Government borrowing is tempting because debt is now so cheap. But borrowing will in the end burden the young, who are now suffering their second economic calamity in a decade. Instead, the relief effort should be funded through a one-time wealth tax imposed on the richest Americans, whose wealth has exploded alongside rising inequality.”
British academics have also been arguing the case for implementing wealth taxes amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Nick O’Donovan, a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Future Economies Research Centre, claims the British government could cover the costs of the pandemic with a one-off tax on the wealth of U.K. citizens. Meanwhile, researchers from City University in London have suggested that taxing wealth at the same rate as income could raise £174 billion ($214 billion) to fund the response to Covid-19.
Taxing wealth was a core policy in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign for the Democratic candidacy. Under Warren’s proposal, net worth between $50 million and $1 billion would have been subject to a levy of 2%, while wealth above $1 billion would have been taxed at 6%.
Just like Robin Hood. Steal from the rich and give to the government. That’s how you make a truly just society.
Interesting. I bet we are too far gone now to recognize that this requires an amendment to do.
“But borrowing will in the end burden the young,”
Well, he got one thing right.
They should have been born earlier, so the burden wouldn’t be so heavy. Kids today, anyway
Apparently D. Markovits, law professor, doesn’t use Bastiat’s book on The Law as a text book, but then who does?
When you can’t get the short trees to grow, you cut off the tops of the tall ones. Equality.
+! Tall Poppy Syndrome
Fuhrer von Wolf was just on the television saying he would put out of business any business that defied his orders to stay closed.
And the pigs will not hesitate to do his bidding, no matter the cost in lives or destruction.
Something something all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Depends on the county.
Some county DAs have instructed police in the county to not enforce the restrictions.
Speaking of toxic masculinity, I watched Extraction this weekend. It’s ok for a shot-em-up action movie, i.e. mindless entertainment. But the plot has issues and, as usual, the amount strain that it put on the body in the actions of the characters (like getting hit by a bus) and still being able to walk away from things is a stretch to say the least. The gun play felt kind of John Wick-ish, but less cartoony and not as dumb as Equilibrium. Speaking of Christian Bale, I watched War of Flowers as well. I haven’t checked but I assume it is based on a true story. It is set in Nanking in 1937 (?) when the Japanese occupied it. I am sure this crowd is generally familiar with events in this location and time. It is decent movie with some toxic male (and female) heroism. But there are couple scenes that are a bit difficult.
But there are couple scenes that are a bit difficult.
I can imagine. It amazes me that out of all of the axis powers, Japan is seen in the most sympathetic light.
You think more than Italy? Hell I bet most people couldn’t tell you which side they were on.
Well, they did switch sides before it was over.
The Romanians, too. The Finns just sued for peace once the outcome became clear. (they’d only fought with the Germans to regain Finnish territory lost in the 1939 Finno-Soviet war.
IIRC, even FDR didn’t want to declare against the Finns but when the declared war on the Soviets, he felt he had not choice.
Helsinki was one of only three capitals of the European countries that participated in WWII and were never occupied. The other two are London and Moscow. It’s probably not a coincidence that the first two Olympics after the war happened in London and Helsinki.
That wouldn’t surprise me. If the US had any actual offensive actions towards Finland, I’ve never heard of them. Between having bigger fish to fry and public sympathy for the Finns, why bother? The Romanians, too – they were caught between 2 huge powers and basically had to pick one. They went with the one that would actually pay them for their oil and looked to be winning at the time.
i think the Sweeds come off worse than the Finns. At least the Finns were fighting against an imperial aggressor in the USSR. Sweeds just decided to fuck over the Norwegians with their faux “neutrality”
The Swedes provided assistance to the Finns for both of the Finns’ wars with the Soviets. Assisstence in both men and material. Quietly because the Swedes were officially neutral.
Which I guess just adds fuel to the fire of “the Swedes fucked over Norway.”
Finland. They were only on Germany’s side because the Soviets invaded them and then wound up opposing Germany too.
A lot of it is due to how much anti-Japanese sentiment of the time was pretty racist. Anti-German sentiment was explicitly about how Hitler and Nazis were bad but not all Germans were bad thanks to memories of the anti-German WWI propaganda. And desire for Japan to be a Cold War ally.
But his relationship with Cleopatra was to be his downfall.
Chicks plus dicks, man. Whaddyagonnado?
Everything I’ve read about screams a level of “lethally crazy” that can only be achieved with centuries of inbreeding. She had most of her family killed. Yet several powerful men who should have known better still stuck it in.
In the aforementioned HBO “Rome,” James Purefoy as Antony comments on Caesar’s dalliance with Cleopatra:
“He’d fuck Medusa if she wore a crown.”
Thanks, Animal!
I knew almost nothing about the man, so I appreciate the write up.
we memorized his eulogy in 11th grade
do kids do anything like that anymore?
Download onto your phone and you won’t have to memorize it. And you have it ready for the test
10th grade for me.
Catholic schools might still require kids to memorize it.
Great article, Animal!
Speaking of Marcuses, I’ve ordered The Daily Stoic.
Awesome! Reading Marcus Aurelius and Seneca legit improved my outlook on life.
I had a great week last week and it felt good. I am going to try to make this one a good one too and I figured this might help keep my mind right.
I keep it over the john and read it during the daily constitutional. Very good book, and easy to remember to do.
How’s the lad going? Bragging rights with his friends?
“Nah, doesn’t hurt, really”
He’s just fine. Came home and continued helping his dad load up the truck to take to storage, which was what they were doing when he cut himself.
He’s not bragging, though. He acts like he would rather forget it had happened.
Closing in on two hours and no Biggus Dickus comment.
I’m a little disappointed in you people.
Gluteus Maximus: Rome’s greatest undercover agent.
You crack me up.
Sadly, not original to me.
Gluteus Maximus, Rome’s greatest undercover agent, goes into a bar, and motions for the barkeep.
Barkeep: What’ll it be?
GM: I’ll have a martinus.
Barkeep: Don’t you mean “martini”?
GM: Listen, pal, if I want more than one, I’ll tell you.
(Canadians of a certain age will ID the dialogue almost immediately.)
How do you think I feel – tossing a cis/trans line out there and getting nothing!
{shrug} It’s a tough crowd.
I noticed cis/trans but had nothing clever come to mind.
Speaking of that, profiles of Shaka Zulu, Bhagat Singh, Bagha Jatin, Yu Peilun, etc. might prove instructive.
Rappers aren’t heros.
The hell they’re not!
Heh. Profiles in toxic femininity would work too, e.g., Lucretia Borgia, Boudicca, and Ching Shih (for starters).
That’s awesome femininity, not toxic!
You’re not hip to Menenisim.
What does Daniel have to do with anything?
Wouldn’t Drink, or eat lots of meat. Sounds kinda like a pansy to me…
By… Menen.
My demon hunter story– Her name is Deb Judge. I named her after Judge Deborah from the Old Testament, with the idea she would lead troops into the apocalypse.
How about Hannah Duston?
Toxic femininity = Hillary
She has been utterly incompetent at everything she has tried, except arkanciding people and even then everybody knows it was her.
I was using toxic unironically
I figured that out after I hit post. LOL. “Incompetence” is the first thing I think of when I see/hear her name.
Queen Maeve of Connacht would have a place in that.
Hmmm. An idea is blooming.
Ooooooo I’m in. Irish mythology is my jam.
Mrs. Animal (Bronze Star recipient and has more balls than most men I know.)
Wow! I would love to someday hear that tale.
Right?
Hell yeah! Also, Lilya Litvyak – The Rose of Stalingrad, Ace in her YAK-1, she was the first female pilot to shoot down another plane, the first of 2 female Aces, and (IIRC) still holds the record for most kills by a female pilot.
Well, here’s the Mata Hari.
Also Lyudmila Pavlichenko (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Pavlichenko); 309 kills
I thought toxic femininity was gossiping and back-stabbing.
That is true. I was thinking of female counterparts, women who actually do things and have power and are leaders, whom “feminists” would say are victims of internalized misogyny and patriarchy.
Yeah. It just galls me that the idea of “toxic masculinity” is something that has become ingrained in the culture, but suggesting that women doing typically female behavior could be at all toxic would get people shrieking in horror.
The thing that gets me most with “Toxic Masculinity” is that 1) they demonize some of the best aspects of ‘masculinity’ (stoicisim for example), and 2) celebrate some of the worst human characteristics (being unassertive, sniveling, and lack of conviction).
Shaka Zulu doesn’t feel for you, HM.
Just heard that a few bars in the county asked the sheriff about opening up an he said there was nothing he could or would do to stop them, so they are open. I wonder if any
State PatrolStasi will stop by and show em how to cower in place.https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/05/11/nation/coronavirus-boston-massachusetts-may-11/
/Vomits
That will make it a lot easier to sue. They can’t hide behind “this is temporary due to an emergency”, because they just stated anything in place at the time will be permanent.
Quite a few governors have promoted themselves to Gauleiter.
Regional Governors now have full control of their territories! Fear will keep the local systems in line!
What’s wrong with “The New Normal”? I thought we libertarians are forward-thinking people who do not look to the past but to the glorious future which will always be better than today and will never involves ideas we don’t like?
Seems a shame about them Gauls… just a century and a halfish earlier Hannibal was leading them all over Italy kicking Roman ass.
Three and a half centuries earlier they were sacking Rome. The Romans didn’t forget.
Dan Carlin has a fantastic episode about the Gallic wars, and it is slightly heartbreaking, and makes you think. Men who knew very much that resistence to the Romans meant death, rape and slavery for their families but decided that not being subjugated to Rome was worth the risk.
I love how Black History Month has a day created by a slaveowner.
I thought Hannibal was Carthagian?
Pretty sure he was a Cannibal
Brian Cox was the best!
I’d get in on this but I am having a friend for dinner.
He went the long way to get to Rome and ran into a few Gauls along the way, some friend, some foe.
How very Gauling
Lately when I sign in I’m sometimes asked to “prove my humanity” by completing simple arithmetic equation. Is this a new feature?
Next up you’ll have to solve a partial differential equation to get in. They’re weeding out us dummies.
DEMOCRATIZE GLIBS NOW!
I find it ironic that Cleopatra almost destroyed 20th Century Fox thanks in part due to Liz leaving Eddie Fisher and the company was in trouble until a movie starring Eddie Fisher’s daughter came out.
Okay, Alanis.
Cleopatra just had One hand in her pocket, the other was holding an Asp.
OT: random observation – old folks sing the “Happy Birthday” song in a much more staccato, peppy manner as compared to younger folks. I wonder if that’s something that has changed over the years.
You look like a monkey and you smell like one too!
So if Pompey was the leader of the Optimates’ faction does that mean he was Optimates Prime?
Who was Rodimus then?
Julius Caesar.
Corona infects the military
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqAvgWDera4