Venus was the spirit of desire, mating, fertility; sacred to her was April, the month of opening buds (“aperire“).
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 61
Aperire means “to open” in Latin.
Tag: Will Durant
Quote: Cato’s Advice to Farmers
De agri cultura [is] the only work of Cato, and the oldest literary Latin that time has saved. He gives detailed advice … on making cement and cooking dainties, on curing constipation and diarrhea, on healing snakebite with the dung of swine, and offering sacrifices to the gods. Asking himself what is the wisest use of agricultural land, he answers, “Profitable cattle raising.” The next best? “Moderately profitable cattle raising.” The third best? “Very unprofitable cattle raising.” The fourth? “To plow the land.”
—Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 104
Misanthropic Quote about a Misanthropic Roman
Cato fought corruption recklessly, and seldom let the sun set without having made new enemies. Few loved him, for his scar-covered face and wild red hair disconcerted them, his big teeth threatened them, his asceticism shamed them, his industry left them lagging, his green eyes looked through their words into their selfishness. … He expelled Manilius for kissing his wife in public; as for himself, he said, he never embraced his wife except when it thundered–though he was glad when it thundered. … After five years of heroic opposition to the nature of man, he retired from office, made successful investments, manned his now vast farm with slaves, lent money at usurious rates, bought slaves cheap and–after training them in some skill–sold them dear, and became so rich that he could afford to write books–an occupation he despised.
—Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 104
Misanthropic Quote: Appreciation or Appropriation?
We must lay it to the credit side of Rome that some of its generals could understand Polycleitus and Pheidias, Scopas and Praxiteles, even if they carried their appreciation to the point of robbery. Of all the spoils that Aemilius Paulus brought back from his victories over Perseus, he kept for himself only the library of the King, as a heritage for his children.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 96
In other words, he didn’t just pick up on ideas, he literally stole the physical books.
When the Blond Gauls Got Colonized
Spain, rewon from Carthage, had to be kept under control lest Carthage should win it again; besides, it was rich in iron, silver and gold. The Senate exacted from it a heavy annual tribute, and the Romans governors reimbursed themselves liberally for spending a year away from home … Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (179) adjusted his rule sympathetically to the character and civilization of the native population, made friends of the tribal chieftains, and distributed land among the poor. But one of his successors, Lucius Lucullus (150) lured 7000 natives to his camp by a treaty promising them land; when they arrived he had them surrounded and enslaved or massacred. … The rebellious Celtiberians of central Spain bore a siege of fifteen months in Numantia, living on their dead; at last (133) Scipio Aemilianus starved them into surrender. In general the policy of the Roman Republic in Spain was so brutal and dishonest that it cost more than it paid. “Never,” said Mommsen, “had war been waged with so much perfidgy, cruelty, and avarice.”
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, pp. 87 – 88
… and that is how revolution usually ends (Misanthropic Quote of the Week)
In 146 the cities of the Achaean League [in Greece] announced a war of liberation [from Rome]. Leaders of the poor seized control of the movement, freed and armed the slaves, declared a moratorium on debts, promised a redistribution of land, and added revolution to war. When the Romans under Mummius entered Greece they found a divided people and easily overcame the undisciplined Greek troops. Mummius burned Corinth, slew its males, sold its women and children into bondage, and carried nearly all its movable wealth and art to Rome. Greece and Macedon were made into a Roman province under a Roman governor; only Athens and Sparta were allowed to remain under their own laws. Greece disappeared from political history for two thousand years.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, pp. 86 – 87
Quote: A Typical Roman, for Good or Ill
In summary, the typical educated Roman of this age was orderly, conservative, loyal, sober, reverent, tenacious, severe, practical. He enjoyed discipline, and would have no nonsense about liberty. He distrusted individuality and genius. He had none of the charm, vivacity, and unstable fluency of the Attic Greek. He admired character and will as the Greek admired freedom and intellect; and organization was his forte. He lacked imagination, even to make a mythology of his own. He could with some effort love beauty, but he could seldom create it. He had no use for pure science, and was suspicious of philosophy as a devilish dissolvent of ancient beliefs and ways. He could not, for the life of him, understand Plato, or Archimedes, or Christ. He could only rule the world.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, pp. 71 – 72
Quote: Those June Weddings
Juno Regina was the queen of heaven, the protective genius of womanhood, marriage, and maternity; her month of June was recommended as the luckiest for weddings.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 61
Why Jupiter is not just another name for Zeus
Among these original national gods Jupiter or Jove was the favorite … In the early centuries of Rome he was still a half-impersonal force–the bright expanse of the sky, the light of the sun and moon, a bolt of thunder, or (as Jupiter Pluvius) a shower of fertilizing rain; even Virgil and Horace occasionally use “Jove” as a synonym for rain or sky. In time of drought the richest ladies of Rome walked in barefoot procession up the Capitoline hill to the Temple of Jupiter Tonans–Jove the Thunderer–to pray for rain. Probably his name was a corruption of Diuspater, or Diespiter, Father of the Sky.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 61
… and when the Romans encountered Zeus, they said, “Hmm, seems to be Jupiter.”
Roman Priests: the Original Lawyers
Before [the Twelve Tables of the Decemvirs], Roman law had been a mixture of tribal customs, royal edicts, and priestly commands. “Mos maiorum“–the way of the ancients–remained the exemplar of morals and a source of law … early Roman law was a priestly rule, a branch of religion, surrounded with sacred sanctions and solemn rites. The priests declared what was right and wrong (“fas et nefas“), on what days the courts might open and assemblies meet. All questions regarding marriage or divorce, celibacy or incest, wills or transfers, or the rights of children, required the priest as now so many of them require the lawyer. Only the priests knew the formulas without which hardly anything could be legally done. The laws were recorded in their books, and these volumes were so securely guarded from the plebs that suspicion charged the priests with altering the texts, on occasion, to suit ecclesiastical or aristocratic ends.
The Twelve Tables effected a double juristic revolution: the publication and secularization of Roman law.
–Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 31
Out of Babel Books 