Laeca is my name
Catiline is my best friend
We will conquer Rome
—————
Cicero must fall
He is insufferable
By my hand he dies
——————–
Cash Money Crassus
A true great man and ally
Is unstoppable
———————-
Cato the Younger
More like Cato the Latro
A disgrace to Rome
———————
The Optimates
Must be quickly disposed of
I’ll do it myself
After living as an Epicurean for the Week of Living Philosophically, I thought it would be interesting to live like a Stoic. Stoics focus on the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation while understanding that only certain things are under our control. As a Stoic, I meditated for 10 minutes in the morning and the evening. This meditation was initially difficult, as I tend to continuously stimulate my brain to prevent my mind from wandering. However, meditating challenges this, as I must reflect on my thoughts. In the first session of meditation, I meditated for 20 minutes, which felt like an hour. I checked my clock multiple times to ensure my alarm was set. I had trouble focusing on the text for reflection, and my mind wandered to school assignments and social problems. By the end of the week, meditation became easier and more calming. Sunday’s midday reflection was difficult, as it forced me to examine a situation and the extent of my control over it. Losing control scares me, so evaluating what I have control over was hard. I tried to adopt a Stoic mindset and understand that most of the situation was out of my control, and I should only try to control what was under my control. Adopting a Stoic in the future would likely prevent me from overanalyzing situations and trying to control the actions of others.
The Circles of Hierocles was the most interesting exercise, as it allowed me to extend compassion toward all humans. The exercise challenged us to picture ourselves surrounded by a circle of light. This circle represents affection towards ourselves. The circle expands to family and close friends and expands to encompass the human race. This task challenged me to show compassion and empathy to those who are frustrating me, as to include them in the circle, I had to show them affection. This idea differed widely from my original perception of Stoics as cold and unemotional. Instead, Stoics believe that we are all one organism and should have rational relationships.
To practice self-discipline, I chose to run a mile at the gym every day. While running benefits my health, I aimed at improving my mental strength through Stoic ideals. I regularly work out, so running is not difficult, although I often walk the mile or run half a mile. To run a mile every day requires strong mental focus, as I do not enjoy running. The mind is stronger than the body, so while running every day is difficult for me, it was often my mind telling me I could not, and my body followed this thought process. From Tuesday-Saturday, I ran a mile in under 10 minutes successfully. This also made me appreciate that I have a body that allows me to run and use my legs, as others are not as fortunate. Even the simple activity of running is an accomplishment. Overall, the week was interesting, and mostly helped me examine my control in situations.
For my second Acta, I decided to watch the movie Pompeii. The movie revolves around a male slave, Milo, who watches a Roman army led by Corvus massacre his entire Celtic tribe and kill his parents in 62 A.D. After the slaughter, he is captured and becomes a slave. The movie then skips to 17 years later in 79 A.D., where he is shown to be a fearsome gladiator nicknamed “The Celt” living in the Britannia. His master then decides that his talent is wasted in the provinces, and he is transported to Pompeii. Along the way, he meets a nobleman’s daughter, Cassia, and he helps put her horse out of its misery after it is injured. When the Celt arrives at the compound where the other gladiators are being held, he clashes with his peers and develops a rivalry with the most respected fighter there. He is then told that he would be fighting that gladiator in the arena.
Meanwhile, a Roman senator (Corvus) has come to Pompeii interested in investing in the city and courting Cassia. The Celt realizes that the senator is the man who killed his parents, and runs away with Cassia on a horse. They are caught, and The Celt is punished with lashes and ordered to enter the arena where he and a group of five gladiators will face many Roman soldiers. It is a very one-sided battle and the Celt was supposed to die, but he ends up surviving. Corvus is about to order his death, but Cassia stops him. Just then, the volcano erupts. Corvus is angry and kills the nobleman and his wife and imprisons Cassia in her villa. The Celt then escapes and frees her as the arena is destroyed by the eruption. A tsunami caused by fireballs plunging into the ocean then causes further chaos in the city, and at the same time, the senator captures Cassia a second time and flees on a chariot. The Celt chases them on a horse, and then defeats the senator in a fight and chains him to a chariot where he would die from the eruption. The Celt and Cassia begin to run away, but the horse throws them off and they kiss before being overtaken by ash from the volcano.
The visual effects of Pompeii were outstanding – the eruption, the tsunami, and the battles were all very realistic. The plot and conflict was also extremely captivating; the writers did a great job providing a thrilling love/revenge story while also ensuring that the movie stayed true to its historical roots. I particularly enjoyed the movie’s use of a real Celtic rebellion as a motivator for the main character, as well as the excellent portrayal of Roman power structures and opinions, such as the senator’s disdain for the provinces as well as the governor’s sycophantic behavior toward Corvus. Overall, Pompeii was a great movie, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
The ancient Roman sport harpastum was a physical gauntlet of a sport. The sport has drawn modern day comparisons to football, but there are some very important distinctions. The first being physicality. Harpastum has been described as extremely violent as there are records of broken limbs and many other injuries. The game is played with two teams on a field divided by a line in the middle. There were other lines on the field to mark boundaries. Each team had the same goal, keep the ball on your own side of the line. The players would pass the ball among the team to try and keep their opponent from gaining possession and possibly bringing it back to their side of the midline. There is no real documentation on how points were kept, but historians believe that either it was based on time of possession on the possessing team’s side of the midline, or completed passes on the possessing team’s side of the midline. Both of these are realistic options, as there is documentation stating that players on the same team would pass the ball back and forth. Harpastum did not have complex or complicated rules, but was rather straightforward: maintain possession and you win. To succeed in harpastum players needed a combination of both size and speed. The ball is sized like a modern day softball, which is why the sport is often referred to as “small ball game”. The ball was hard and stuffed with feathers, which gave it the softball like appearance.
The use of wrestling style holds were allowed to disable attacking opponents, as well as to defend the ball while in possession. Within documentations there are mentions of interceptions, tackling and fumbles, all common terms used when describing modern day sports. While deception such as ball fakes and jukes were also included.
Based on the rules and style of game, harpastum could be compared to modern day football, but the better comparison is rugby. With a similar style of keep away, as well as physicality, the games are very similar. Players in both rugby and harpastum need agility and size. The use of ball fakes and deception are also very common in rugby.
This leads me to another ancient ball game, episkyros. Epsikyos is believed to be the game that harpastum is based upon. Episkyros can first be seen being played in ancient Greece. The central difference between harpastum and episkyros was the goal of the game. In episkyros the goal is to get the ball behind the other team’s zone, similar to that of a touchdown in football. Both of these games are team oriented as you need around 10-12 players per team.
I have included below an excerpt from healthahoy.com on how to play episkyros today without all of the violence.
To play episkyros today, you’ll need a mini volleyball (or another cushioned ball around the size of a softball) and some small traffic cones. Since the rules of this ancient game aren’t known in detail, here’s a fun, modern version (without the violence):
Find a soccer field or any other sports field with a line down the middle. If you don’t have access to one, use training cones to mark the corners of the field and some white field-marking paint to divide the area in half. Split up into teams of 12 to 14 players and have them stand on the back lines of their respective sides. At the sound of a whistle, both teams try to be the first to reach the ball placed in the middle of the field.
Since we aren’t sure of the rules of episkyros, the best way to play would be to adapt the rules of American football. The biggest change would be removing individual plays, letting the game continue without pause until a team scores or the ball goes out of bounds. The team with the most points at the end of two 30-minutes halves wins.
(healthahoy.com)
Citations:
Harpastum. https://www.topendsports.com/sport/extinct/harpastum.htm. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022
“Roman Harpastum (Ball Game).” Health and Fitness History, https://healthandfitnesshistory.com/ancient-sports/roman-harpastum-ball-game/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.
“Greek Episkyros (Ball Game).” Health Ahoy, https://healthahoy.com/ancient-sports/greek-episkyros-ball-game/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.
“Ancient Roman Ball Games, Harpastum, Roman Soccer.” Ancient-Rome.info, 7 Oct. 2017, https://ancient-rome.info/ancient-roman-ball-games/.
Editorial Team. “Harpastum: The Ancient Roman Empire Ball Game.” History Of Soccer, 1 Sept. 2021, https://historyofsoccer.info/the-ancient-game-of-harpastum.
For my first Acta, I decided to watch the movie Gladiator which is based in the time period 180 AD. The time setting for this movie is out of the scope of this course so far but, nonetheless, a lot of elements of Roman culture that we have learned thus far in class were portrayed in the movie itself. During this time period, Rome was led by a sole Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who had fallen sick and knew his time alive was limited. This left Rome, and specifically its government hierarchy, vulnerable to change and corruption. This vulnerable state meant the plot encompassed and portrayed a unique set of Roman culture, some of which we have discussed in class and some of which we have yet to discuss and cover. The three main aspects of the movie that I found fascinating and want to reflect upon are the Roman’s military culture, how vast the Roman Empire truly was, and the sheer power the Roman emperor had over Rome.
Although we have discussed numerous battles and wars in this class including the three Punic wars between Rome and Carthage, we have yet to go in-depth with the realities of these wars and what Roman war culture was truly like. The scenes in Gladiator highlighted the realities are Roman war practices including both their barbaric and cooperative natures. From what I saw, what made the Roman empire so successful when it came to war was the fact that they were ready to viciously slay any opponent that stood in their way and, specifically, was ready to do so in a relatively organized manner. In one of the first scenes of the movie, we see the Roman army assembling for battle against the Germanic army. This Roman assembly was comprised of catapults, archers, warriors, and cavalry. It was very apparent from this scene that the Roman army and Roman generals put a lot of thought into their battles and how they configured the various units of the military. To kick off the battle the Romans sent a plethora of burning arrows and catapult ammunition into the vast Germanic army to initially weakening them. After this onslaught from the sky, the Romans waited for an initial Germanic rush which the Romans met with a solid line of soldiers and shields. As the Romans held their line and slowly killed off the Germanic soldiers, the Romans revealed the final trick up their sleeve; they flanked the Germanic soldiers from behind with a unit of cavalry. In a time with no satellites and poor mapping, the Romans were very impressive and successful with their military strategies. This likely explains the next element of the movie I want to discuss, how the Roman empire was able to expand as far as it did.
In a later scene, the main character, in a helpless state, is picked up by a caravan traveling to an unknown location. The caravan eventually arrives in North Africa in a Roman providence named Zucchabar. This scene took me by surprise as it highlighted the true vastness of the Roman empire; Rome itself was founded in modern-day Italy, Maximus, the main character, was from modern-day Spain which was part of the Roman empire, and he eventually ended up in North Africa which was also part of the Roman empire. The craziest part is that this barely encompasses the true size of the Empire as, at its peak, the Empire stretched as far east as the modern-day Middle East. In the movie, there was something special about being able to see the various cultures and peoples who comprised the Roman Empire and were considered Romans. I learned that not all Romans wore togas.
The final element that I want to discuss is the sheer power the Roman emperor had over Rome and its citizens. At the end of the war against the Germanics, Maximus, the main character, was considered a hero in Rome, so much so that the current Emperor chooses Maximus over his own son to become the next Emperor of Rome. I will spare you much of the details, but when the son gets word of this, he proceeds to secretly murder his father in order to gain the Emperorship. Knowing Maximus will be suspicious of the Emperor’s sudden death, the Emperor’s son declares that Maximus and his entire family must be murdered. What surprised me from this series of scenes is how willing the Roman soldiers were to kill a man that was considered a Roman hero. These soldiers put aside all of their prior knowledge and opinions to oblige to what the new Emperor had commanded them. Within days, Maximus was on the run, and his entire family, still in Spain, had been murdered. One declaration from the new Emperor turned Maximus from a hero into a villain. What is fascinating is that empires and rulers like this still exist in the modern world. A current example is modern-day Russia, the largest country in the world, where its President has declared war on Ukraine. This has left nearly 190 million citizens in the respective countries in a state of war and has turned two countries that were once allies into foes. Similar to the Roman Emperor, the decisions of one man can have drastic and irreversible consequences.
Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” explores Jerusalem during Roman occupation through the story of one resident named Brian. The movie offers a ludicrous yet somewhat compelling picture of what the Roman Empire looked like in the early first century CE. There are Roman names, architecture, customs, speech, and even some traces of Epicureanism are present.
The film opens with newborn Brian’s cradle being visited by the 3 wise men who soon realize they have mistaken Brian for a newborn Jesus Christ. In fact, Brian’s life follows a somewhat similar path to Jesus’ and they both end up meeting the same fate. Next, Brian is seen as an adult with his mother attending one of Jesus’ sermons, however he is too far away to hear anything. After attending a stoning of a heretic, Brian spots several members of the rebel group known as the People’s Front of Judaea (not to be confused with the Judaean People’s Front). This scene and the whole story of the People’s Front of Judaea is analogous to the constant revolts we learned about during the republic in Italy, Spain, and Gaul.
After a poorly planned abduction of Pontius Pilate’s wife goes awry, Brian lands in front of Pontius Pilate himself, set for a certain death. Brian pleads that he is a Roman citizen because his father was a Roman centurion. This made me think of the phrase “Civis romanus sum” as it was uttered by Cicero in the trial of Verres and the utmost importance that both fatherhood and citizenship had during the Roman Republic. However, Brian escapes death because his guards are incapacitated by laughter after learning of Pilate’s friend “Biggus Dickus”. After our lesson on the importance of Roman names, I understood that Dickus must be a (unfortunate) family name with Biggus as his given name. Though Biggus is certainly an unfortunate given name with Dickus as the family name, at least the father was kind enough not to give his son the name Smallus.
Brian escapes captivity via an impersonation of a religious prophet; however, he soon gains a (accidental) religious following who views him as a messiah. After being chased around and stalked by his prodigious following, Brian is recaptured by the Romans. His religious status must have made the Romans even angrier seeing how Rome reacted to the Bacchanalian affair, and anything that could be viewed as private or subversive. Brian is forced to carry a cross and is crucified; however, the occasion does not dim the spirit of his fellow convicts who proceed to cheerily sing a song named “Always look on the bright side of life”. This is the attitude of the Epicureans who did not fear death, instead suggesting that since death cannot touch us in life, there is nothing to fear. In fact, a line in the song embodies the epicurean spirit as it reads “I mean, what have you got to lose? / You know, you come from nothing / You’re going back to nothing / What have you lost? Nothing.” The film ends with the condemned happily embracing the spirit of Epicurus as they enter the twilight of their lives.
I watched the movie Gladiator, which follows the life of Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius. It begins with the emperor telling Maximus that he should be Rome’s next emperor, as opposed to the emperor’s son, Commodus. After hearing this, Commodus kills his father and asks for Maximus’s loyalty, to which he declines. Commodus then has Maximus arrested, but he kills his captors and escapes to his house, where he finds his wife and kids dead. He buries them and is then captured again and sold to a gladiator trainer named Proximo. Commodus fights in local tournaments and is successful because of his battle skills learned as a general. He then goes to fight in the Colosseum for the games ordered by Commodus, and he unexpectedly wins. Commodus comes down to congratulate Maximus on his win, as he didn’t know it was him because of his mask. When Maximus reveals himself, the crowd is in support of him, so Commodus lets him live, but he sets him up to fight Tigris, an undefeated gladiator, in his next match. Commodus orders Maximus to kill Tigris, but Maximus does not, and he once again gains the support of the crowd, which makes Commodus very angry.
After learning that his army still supports him, Maximus secretly meets with Commodus’s sister, Lucilia, and Gracchus, who plan an escape for Maximus to join his army and take back Rome. Commodus learns of the meeting and goes out to attack them. Maximus escapes, but several others die in the process. To gain back public approval, Commodus challenges Maximus to a duel. To gain an advantage, Commodus stabs Maximus before the fight. Maximus manages to disarm Commodus, who then pulls out a hidden knife and tries to stab Maximus. Maximus takes the knife and stabs Commodus in the neck and kills him. Maximus is still very hurt from his injuries, but he calls out to the people and asks for political reforms, the freedom of gladiators, and for Gracchus to be emperor. He then dies, and Lucilia carries his body, not Commodus’s from the Colosseum.
I really liked this movie; I think it represented Rome very well, even though it is not based on a true story. It shows the political problems and military discipline, love and treason, and hate and jealousy, all very Roman things. Although it is long, it was very well-written, easy to follow, and engaging throughout. The dialogue was understandable but accurate, and the battle scenes were very well filmed and very exciting. Overall, the movie was educational and engaging, and I would watch it again. My friends were pleasantly surprised to find themselves interested in a Roman history movie. They thought that they would be very bored by the movie, but they thought it was captivating and not boring at all.
With Liam Mears, Macy Brooks, and Nate Buchanan
When we chose this recipe, my first thought was: wow the Romans did not know how to cook. Libum was described to me as a sort of cheesecake, but it seemed like cheesecake in the same way that Michael Jordan did play for the Washington Wizards…but we all just kind of ignore that part of history. This recipe only had four ingredients: cheese, a singular egg, “runny honey” and some flour. Part of me was enthusiastic about such a simple recipe. Low cost and it probably wouldn’t take a lot of time out of my day. But then I remembered that I had to actually eat it once we were done…and those ingredients didn’t sound very flavorful.
Once we started getting to work on the libum, we decided to make some adjustments to the recipe. First we added a little salt. Why? No clue. But my classmates seemed to have more baking experience than I did so I had no problem letting them get creative. I was surprised that no one wanted to add more egg considering that this was a baked good that we were making and my first inclination in baking is always “eggs.” But like I said, I’m no expert so I didn’t question it. The second adjustment we made did make sense to my non-baking mind; we added some more flour.
By this point, we had already made a ball of the original quantities of ingredients (plus the salt). We proceeded to add the extra flour and mix it into our current ingredients. At this point, I was a little more hopeful for at least this mixture resembled something that would eventually become edible. Did it look like regular cake batter? Hell no, I thought at first. But I had to remind myself that it’s Ancient Rome we’re talking about. They didn’t add a bunch of sugar to everything like we do to our desserts. There were no Blueberry Poptarts, no Butterscotch Krimpets, no DC vegan chocolate cake. It was a simpler time with less available culinary materials. If Cato, Caesar, Cotta, and Crassus could consume such a crappy cake, then damn it, so could I. We finished up the “dough,” plopped it on a flour dusted pan, and placed it in the preheated oven. And then we waited.
After a while, our libum was ready. When it came out of the oven, I felt less like Michael Jordan on the Wizards and more like LeBron James on the Lakers (NOT this season); cautiously optimistic. We topped off the libum with a special honey sauce, and by special I mean mixing honey with water. My desire to try the thing declined a little as the water-honey reminded me of something yellow but much less pleasant than honey. We sat down to try it, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised! It was definitely not cheesecake, but reminded me of a soft bagel. And despite the questionable appearance of the water-honey, it did add a nice bit of flavor to the otherwise bland dish. All in all, this was a fun activity and I think helped to immerse us in the lives of Ancient Romans even more. We often think about how people of different places and times behave but food is quite literally what keeps any person alive and I was glad to get a little taste of what that’s like.
On a cold Monday afternoon, it seemed the perfect time for baking. With just a few friends and even fewer ingredients, we embarked on a journey to create a simple dessert from Roman cuisine. Luckily, unlike the Romans, we were able to get the ingredients from a grocery store and bake the Libum in a gas oven…albeit an HC apartment oven with no handle. We first used a recipe from the BBC website, but after reading some other students’ Libum-making experiences, we realized we should consult multiple sources to ensure we had a cooking time, and the right amount of flour. We ended up using about quadruple what the original recipe suggested, which I think ended up being a good call. Our final dough (flour, ricotta, and 1 egg) was sticky, but not so much that we couldn’t form it into two balls and feel good about the shape and texture.
I think our final product was a great success! While definitely not a “cheesecake” in the way we’d typically expect, it was a tasty little treat. The texture was fairly light, but the outside was golden brown and crunchy enough to make an enjoyable eating experience. We scored them about 3/4 of the way through the cooking process, resulting in what I think were very aesthetically pleasing cakes. We used watered-down honey (as per the recipe) which I was a little skeptical about, and was probably the least visually pleasing aspect of the whole affair. Yet the extra sweetness from the honey made the dish, and without it the Libum would have been a fairly bland bread-like dessert. We also added some cut up mangos (another benefit to our non-Roman existence), which were a good pairing with the honey and cheesecake. I would definitely make this again, especially because of how easy it was. I was a huge fan of the texture, and this would be a good dessert to try a bunch of variations on. Maybe in the future if I make this again, I could add different fruits or spices that would have been around Italy during this time, and imagine what real Romans might have done with this dish.
After watching a clip from the gladiatorial reenactment of the Battle of Carthage in class, I decided it was time to finally watch “Gladiator,” an Academy Award winning film featuring Russel Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. “Gladiator” tells the story of Maximus a former Roman general who is forced into slavery and eventually the gladiatorial arena due to the hostile takeover of a new emperor.
“Gladiator” opens with Maximus winning an important battle against the Gauls under the command of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Aurelius is rapidly approaching death and decides that instead of his son Commodus, who he believes to be unworthy, he will appoint Maximus to succeed him. Commodus, hearing this, kills his father and demands fealty from Maximus. When Maximus refuses, Commidus tries to kill Maximus and successfully kills and crucifies his wife and young son. Maximus, injured by the attempt on his life, is captured by slavers and then sold to a gladiatorial training school run by Proximo, a former Roman gladiator. Maximus is made to fight in a variety of low level gladiatorial fights and wins gaining notoriety. Commodus, now emperor, after struggling with the daily life of leading Rome and dealing with the senate decides to organize a series of games. Maximus due to his notoriety is brought to Rome to fight in these games. Maximus is able to win multiple fights that are massively stacked against him and eventually announces himself with his real name and promises to get revenge. Commodus is aghast but the crowd has fallen in love with Maximus and he cannot kill him. Maximus begins to plan a rebellion with the help of Commodus’s sister Lucilla and a senator. The plan is found out by Commodus and he quickly kills the allies of Maximus. Then, even after destroying the conspiracy, in order to prove himself to the people, Commodus challenges Maximus to a gladiatorial fight but not before stabbing him. Even with this injury Maximus defeats and kills Commodus, and Commodus’s guards are unwilling to save him. Maximus then collapses from his injuries and he’s honored with a proper burial.
Watching this movie in the context of our class was interesting because it is set after the downfall of the republic. Even though it is not historically accurate in any way, it shows the continuation of the resolve of the Roman people and their attachment to values similar to those of the Republican period. This is demonstrated by the fact that even as emperor, Commodus feels it necessary to repeatedly prove his auctoritas to both the people and the senate. This necessity for honor even by the Emperor demonstrates that these Roman values and accountability to the people still exists.
