History made Beautiful
Teuta acted as a regent for her step-son after King Agron’s death and rose to the Ardiaean throne. Teuta proceeded to continue her husband’s expansionist aspirations. However, Teuta’s most feared forces, probably even more than her powerful navy, were the Illyrian pirates. It was also the Illyrian pirates which would be the cause of her downfall.
In modern times, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 BC) is remembered as the greatest Roman orator. A prolific thinker, his writings include books on rhetoric, orations, philosophical and political treatises, as well as letters. Although more than 900 of his correspondence between 67 and 43 BC survive, this is only a very small portion of the letters that he wrote and received. Many of his letters did not survive, and many others were, perhaps understandably, suppressed for political reasons after his death.
When word of his younger brother’s life-threatening illness reached him, Roman General Tiberius crossed the Alps like a man possessed. Tiberius’ frantic dash across the Rhine from northwestern Italy to Germany to his brother’s bedside evolved into a legend.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known as Horace, was a significant figure in Latin literature and a key figure during Emperor Augustus’s reign. Famous for the phrase ‘carpe diem,’ Horace’s works spanned diverse topics, from love and philosophy to politics.
Caligula’s parents, Germanicus and Agripinna, provided the genetic lynch-pin between the two most powerful dynasties in Rome, as well as celebrity, nobility and glamour. They were beloved by the Emperor and the empire alike. From the glowing reports on Germanicus and Agripinna, it was hard to believe that Caligula was their son.
We would often see her images and, perhaps just as often, forget her name. In paintings, she is a beautiful tragic figure, looking up helplessly towards a Roman soldier standing over her. However, in 16th century Europe, there was no other ancient name that fuels an artist’s imagination like “Lucretia”.
The people of ancient Rome knew of a tragic hero Drusus (Drusus the Elder), the younger brother of Tiberius who died in a campaign. But there was another, younger and lesser known, Drusus in Tiberius’ family. He was Nero Claudius Drusus (Drusus the Younger, nicknamed Castor), the only son of Tiberius. The elder Drusus may have been a hero, but Castor seemed to be mostly overlooked first by his own family, as well as future historians.
Despite the numerous charges against him by ancient writers, there are also evidence that Nero enjoyed some level of popular support. A poem dated about two centuries after Nero’s death proclaims Nero a man “equal to the gods,”
if she ended up being a wife of a low-ranking official or a well-off merchant, Julia would have been perfectly content. But she wasn’t. Being the daughter of the first emperor of Rome meant that it was her destiny to be a part of the political maneuverings of the empire whether she wanted to or not.
A modern research shows that while many people do lack information on their family heritage these days, it also shows that they want to and are willing to take the steps to learn more about where they came from. In fact, 84 percent agree that it is important to know about their heritage. Being aware of your history is important for many reasons like creating a sense of connection, a greater emotional well-being and even providing means to develop a sense of personal identity. Now imagine if this was taken away…
As the bird is the symbol of the spirit of life, the serpent is the symbol of the sting of death. This was a very wide-spread ancient belief. The association of the bird and the serpent to life and death goes back to the last part of the stone age, later represented by ancient Greek’s Medusa, all the way to ancient China where the two animals are revered as embodiments of power and nobility.
Rome would stand “as long as the pontifex climbs the Capitoline beside the silent Virgin,” the poet Horace said. The “silent Virgin” was a Vestal virgin, a priestess of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth and home. She was an embodiment of the city and citizenry, and her well-being was fundamental to the well-being and security of Rome. A vestal is a woman of the city. Beloved and closely watched by the people. But what usually happens to the woman who is “watched by the people”?
Martini Fisher 