Skip to comments.
Roman dig backs ancient writers' portrait of megalomaniac Caligula
Guardian ^
| Aug., 03
| John Hooper
Posted on 08/29/2003 3:54:32 PM PDT by churchillbuff
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-48 next last
When architects did up Gold's Gym and find stacks of Our magazine, will they be able to provide the proper links to the modern California Republican Party - and its fall into decadance?
To: churchillbuff
Billigula
2
posted on
08/29/2003 3:57:45 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: churchillbuff
To me this story is just more evidence that scholarly types have difficulty believing true evil exists.
I don't think people living nowadays can concieve of the barbarity of some ancient "civilizations".
To: churchillbuff
Suspicious of the very unanimity of the ancient sources, modern scholars have suggested they could have been politically biased. Gee, so if the ancient sources had all disagreed, then modern scholars would feel better? Man, postmodernism has really rotted the brains of historians.
4
posted on
08/29/2003 4:06:41 PM PDT
by
LenS
To: churchillbuff
When I buried our cat in the back yard I threw some long grass on top just so I wouldn't be shoveling dirt on top of him. I thought thought that an archaeologist digging there thousands of years from now will speculate that grass had something to do with our death rites.
5
posted on
08/29/2003 4:06:46 PM PDT
by
lelio
To: churchillbuff
Suetonius rocks. I highly recommend "The Twelve Caesars". As ancient historians go, he was surprisingly balanced, giving the good points and the bad points about Julius Caesar and the Emperors. And he's much more entertaining to read than Tacitus.
6
posted on
08/29/2003 4:16:39 PM PDT
by
wimpycat
(Down with Kooks and Kookery!)
To: Paul Atreides
OK, I thought it was "Clintigula"
7
posted on
08/29/2003 4:18:45 PM PDT
by
HighWheeler
(Do not remove this tagline under penalty of law.)
To: churchillbuff
But did he really say "I did not have sex with that Vestal!"?
After the Clinton years, the reign of Caligula doesn't seem so outrageous.
8
posted on
08/29/2003 4:23:17 PM PDT
by
Spok
To: I still care
Unfortunately, many scholars are thorough-going statists. A lot of people getting tenure worship Castro and some even still try to whitewash Stalin's crimes, so why not excuse Caligula as well? I dread the day it becomes official, politically-correct dogma to rehabilitate Hitler. America isn't quite dumbed-down enough for that, but, I fear, America may someday become that dumbed-down.
I once read an article that said the Romans became so messed-up because they used lead pipes to carry water and many people, including numerous crazy emperors, became insane due to lead poisoning. I don't know how true that is. A lot of things in Imperial Rome went far beyond bad behavior, as if people were not in their right minds at all.
9
posted on
08/29/2003 4:23:34 PM PDT
by
Wilhelm Tell
(Lurking since 1997!)
To: Paul Atreides
"NO UGLY WOMEN ALLOWED"
I detected a slight error in your sign. As I remember, both the HillaBeast and Janet Reno appeared at DNC functions. Not to mention that the Dems seem to have a taste for the "attractiveness challenged" and "adapose enhanced" female.
OK, OK - I am assuming them to be female. Without DNA tests who can be sure in such social situations?
10
posted on
08/29/2003 4:23:46 PM PDT
by
GladesGuru
(In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles - -)
To: I still care
EXACTLY. I have studied ancient Roman history extensively and have read the ancient accounts of Caligula's megalomania without any doubt as to their veracity. The same "academics" who doubt such behavior could have been possible are among the same folks who would have protested against the war acting as Saddamite apologists.
Revisionist historians are full of ca-ca.
To: wimpycat
I'll have to check that out. I tried listening to the unabridged version of Gibbon's Decline and Fall on audio tape and fell asleep multiple times. Perhaps it was the narrator who had this accent that sounded like Rush doing his Jesse Jackson impersionation.
12
posted on
08/29/2003 4:32:57 PM PDT
by
lelio
To: churchillbuff
He really was an S.O.B. When he died he was just on the brink of destroying the Judeans for refusing to place a statue of him in the temple. In fact, if you want to read a heartwarming story, see Josephus for his account of the general Petronius, whom Caligula charged with setting up his image in the temple. The Jews refused to do it, and Petronius couldn't convince them otherwise. Finally he said words to the effect that he would place his own life in jeopardy by trying to stall Caligula, for it was better that he should die than so great a multitude as the Jews should perish. When word of this reached Caligula he sent a message back by ship ordering Petronius to commit suicide. Shortly after the message was sent, Caligula was assasinated, and the ship bearing the news of his death reached Petronius before the order to kill himself.
To: GladesGuru
Now, now....do you really think Bubba would invite the water buffalos to a toga party?
14
posted on
08/29/2003 4:41:58 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Paul Atreides
If only the United States had but one neck, so that I might sever it in a single stroke!
To: churchillbuff
"Writing about 70 years after Caligula's assassination, Suetonius recorded that the emperor
"built out a part of the palace as far as the Forum, and making the temple of Castor and Pollux
its vestibule, he often took his place between the divine brethren, and exhibited himself there
to be worshipped." This type of behavior is still occurs today. It's nothing new. Consider both the Kims in
North Korea, Saddam in Iraq, Fidel in Cuba, Mao in China, Stalin in Russia, Hitler in
Germany; all men who want/wanted to be"godlike" in their respective countries.
The Mullahs in Iran are doing the same thing. The DemonRATs have tried it in this
country with with their absurd memorializing of JFK. African dictators are still at it too --
Kahddafi in Libya and that idiot racist anti-white dictator in Zimbabwe come to mind.
16
posted on
08/29/2003 4:53:29 PM PDT
by
StormEye
To: churchillbuff
I frea that we are going the way of the acient romans. Their civiliation rotted from the inside out& then were conqured by the vandalls. they had their "games" & so do we. At the end they believed that anything went [sex,drugs & rock&roll ect...]
Well, foks there is a "Herato" at the gates. In fact there are a bunch of them there. And GOD help those who would cross that bridge.
SEMPER FI!!
17
posted on
08/29/2003 5:11:51 PM PDT
by
Knightsofswing
(sic semper tranyis [death to tryants!!])
To: StormEye
You ought to read "The Autumn of the Patriach" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a story told by various narrators of their going through the ruins of a just-dead dictator's palace. The man had sold the ocean to the Gringos, for example, and he kept scores of concubines who gave birth at seven months. This was typical Marque hyperbole, as was, I thought, the description of the palace as run-down. He was so corrupt that he didn't care about the upkeep of the palace.
I learned differently after the Paraguayan dictator Alfroeder Stroessner was deposed in the late 1980s. When they went into his palace it was found decrepit. Stroessner swiped over a billion dollars from that little country, and he didn't even care to fix the holes in the ceiling of his home.
Oh, and he abused girls regularly. His son was known as "La Colonela." Ouch.
I'm not surprised by the Caligula revisionists. Castro is another Stroessner, Stalin, Caligula, etc. Can't let history stain ole Fidel, now, can we?
When I was working down there I enjoyed laughing at Stroessner and all his corruption. Then Clinton became President, and I had to apologize. Our Arkansas Ceasar was even worse than Stroessner.
How embarrassing.
18
posted on
08/29/2003 5:21:32 PM PDT
by
nicollo
To: churchillbuff
There are those who crediby argue that Calligula, and even the Romans generally, suffered from lead poisoning. Thus, their saturnian (God of lead) behavior like devouring your offspring depicted by Goya:
19
posted on
08/29/2003 5:31:49 PM PDT
by
frithguild
(Better living through technology)
Comment #20 Removed by Moderator
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-48 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson