Posted on 09/05/2001 12:10:40 PM PDT by A.J.Armitage
I am delighted at the prospect of reading, Claudius.
Thank you for continuing the series of Caesars. It is intriguing reading; and a relief from many of the rather empty and vacuous threads current running on Free Republic.
A.J. you are a strong and valued contributor on going. Thanks.
Actually, Nero didn't play the violin (not yet invented, I understand). He played the lyre (kind of mini handheld harp).
Of course, a lot of politicians are pretty good lyres themselves. 8^)
The biggest confirmation of that is how little difference there was between them. The Civil War was over a presidential election, but not really. There were actual issues at stake. Same thing for the election of 1876. Now we get that kind of thing when it doesn't really matter. (I suspect Gore would have been much more radical than he indicated in the campaign, but in public persona the two were alike.)
AHHHHHHHH ........ so say I.
The GGG list may or may not be pinged later. :') Thanks go to A.J.Armitage for starting this topic.Those About To DieThe greatest naumachia of all time was the naval engagement staged by Claudius... [on] the Fucine Lake (now called the Lago di Fucino) some sixty miles to the east of Rome. This lake had no natural outlet and in the spring it often flooded many miles of surrounding county. To overcome this trouble, a tunnel three and a half miles long had been cut through solid rock from the lake to the Litis River to carry off the surplus water. This job had taken thirty thousand men eleven years to finish. For the dedication of the opening of this tunnel, Claudius decided to stage a fight between two navies on the lake. The galleys previously used in such engagements had been small craft with only one bank of oars. For this fight, there were to be twenty-four triremes (three banks of oars), all regulation ocean-going warships—and twenty-six bi-remes (double bank). This armada was divided into two fleets of twenty-five ships each and manned by nineteen hundred criminals under the command of two famous gladiators. One fleet was to represent the Rho-dians and the other the Sicilians and both groups wore the appropriate costumes... The hills around the lake formed a natural amphitheater and on the morning of the fight the slopes were covered with over 500,000 spectators. As the lake was several hours' trip from Rome, the crowd brought their lunches and picnicked while watching the fight... A big tent had even been put up to care for the wounded after the battle -- after all, prisoners were scarce and the survivors could always be used again in other spectacles. As matters turned out, the tent served another purpose. Fifteen women in the crowd gave birth during the fight and had to be cared for in the tent. It is an interesting example of the mob's passion for these fights that women in advanced pregnancy traveled sixty miles from Rome so as not to miss the naumachia.
by Daniel P. Mannix
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