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Gaius Julius Caesar Pleads Against Norm-Breaking–Weekend Reading
- behrlich95 6y agoAll the credit here to Brad DeLong. Just wanted to share something interesting.
- golem14 6y agoReading the classics often make me feel we achieved very little improving our base instincts in the last 2000 years. Robert Harris has a number of pretty cool historical fiction books about Cicero (Imperium, Pompeii, Conspirata) that are a good read also and put much of the goneby times in context.
- behrlich95 6y agoThose Robert Harris books are a great read. And surprisingly historically accurate as well.
- 082349872349872 6y agoContext: G. Julius Caesar would break norms himself in -49. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon#Julius_Caesar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon#Julius_Ca... Interestingly, the work in which this pleading occurs appears to not have been written until after the results of alea iacta est had settled down, in Caesar's favour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallust#The_Conspiracy_of_Catiline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallust#The_Conspiracy_of_Cati... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Civil_War
- jbdelong 6y agoIt is not clear what game Sallust is playing in his _Cataline's Conspiracy_ here. Is Caesar wisely warning against norm-breaking? Is Caesar trying to cut Cataline & co. a break? Or is Caesar warning Cicero of what he Caesar, will do in -49, and what his adopted son Octavian will do to Cicero in -43? There may be many layers of irony here...