What we really need is an Agamemnonemon

Mostly ancient Greek and Roman stuff

[necrophilologist]

caesar.

[thoodleoo]

repeat after me: i am a sexy bitch and nobody ruins my 44 bc

[thevintageducky]

Congratulations

[voluptuarian]

Must hand it to Mark Antony for successfully pulling two of the baddest bitches in Republic-Era history (if not ancient history period) almost back to back. Also if we consider that alongside Cleopatra's marital tko of Julius Caesar and Antony, and Fulvia having bagged Clodius Pulcher previously its almost a serial relationship chain of the most interesting and happening people in the world at the time. More historical dramas should focus on this aspect I feel

[agamemnonemon]

[agamemnonemon]

Roman senators have a biological clock reminding them to die brutally by age 65. If you see him getting depressed, violating the law, or causing political problems it's time to KILL HIM or HELP HIM COMMIT SUICIDE. His intestines yearn for the floor

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Today's scholarly findings from the Pharsalia Discord with @pomp-quio, @soldatrose, @transbutchblues, and @thoodleoo.

1. Antony is a carrion-eater. Cases:

moved into Pompey's ghost house and "swallowed" his wealth (Cic. Phil. 2.67)

married the haunted Fulvia

Caesar's body

Cicero's head ("It is said that even at his meals Antony placed the head of Cicero before his table, until he became satiated with the horrid sight" - App. B Civ. 4.20).

Cf. the head of Caesetius Rufus brought to Antony's dinner (Val. Max. 9.5.4)

Cassius' metaphorical body (the general's cloak and sword, Plut. Brut. 45)

perhaps Brutus' literal body

relationship with Cleopatra haunted by Caesar's ghost.

When it is not directly about dead men's bodies, Antony "takes dead men’s houses and marries dead men’s wives" - @transbutchblues.

2. In being a carrion-eater Antony emulates Pompey, who married Crassus' daughter-in-law (and also stole a lot of things, although more often from alive men - which is I think a significant difference).

3. Lucan depicts Antonius the Orator's head "set on a banquet table", just like Cicero's head in Appian's book 4. This continues Lucan's theme of "turning against one's patria = turning against one's ancestors": Antony proscribes his grandfather the same way time-travelling Caesar chases his ancestor Aeneas out of Troy, starting off the washing machine cycles of violence.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

#quick someone find a cannibalism theme for curio and we can make up smth insane about fulvia

@p-clodius-pulcher in Sartorio's opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto the undead Curio wants (and ultimately manages) to marry Pompey's widow (and Crassus' daughter-in-law) Cornelia.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

#to bring it back to the pharsalia it’s interesting that lucan follows the mutiny narrative with the accusation of a mutinous antony#so it ends up sounding like antony is a kind of rapacious figure biding his time & waiting for caesar's life to be threatened. just like#cicero accused antony of doing in phil 2. also a carrion eater moment?#(AND re: cleopatra a&c has antony's 'i found you a morsel cold upon dead caesar's trencher'! he DID eat strange flesh!!)

@soldatrose yesss definitely same vibes. He is waiting for someone else to kill the prey so he can then eat it!

[This too is a nature documentary by David Attenborough.]

[garland-on-thy-brow]

On the topic of Antony as "deteriorated Pompey".

"You had tasted, or rather you had drunk deeply, the blood of citizens: you had been in the lines of Pharsalia in the front rank; you had slain Lucius Domitius, a man most distinguished and noble; and many besides who had fled from the battle, whom Caesar would perhaps have spared, as he did some, you had most cruelly pursued and butchered. After so many brilliant exploits what reason was there why you should not follow Caesar into Africa, especially when so great a part of the war remained?" - Cic. Phil. 2.71

Antony is licking Caesar's sword, except he is actually presented here as worse than his master (Pompey in this kind of rhetoric is not typically "worse than Sulla").

Then again, Pompey fights for Sulla in Africa - which Antony does not for Caesar. Antony is waiting for someone else to do the job so he can reap the rewards.

Returning to an earlier point - where Pompey steals from living men, Antony robs the graves.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Taking from my tags on a different post because it is related:

Both Cassius (at the famous dinner) and Cicero (Phil. 1) threaten Antony in case he should become a tyrant. Which he does.

Then Antony displays tyrannical glee at the death of both of them and tries to eat their bodies with his eyes.

For Cicero, Plut. Ant. 20: 'he gazed upon [Cicero's head and hand] exultantly, laughing aloud for joy many times'.

For Cassius: Aurelius Victor de Vir. Ill. 83 for Antony's exclamation 'Vici' when learning about Cassius' death. With Plut. Brut. 45 for how exactly Antony learned of Cassius' death: Cassius' cloak and sword were brought to him by one Demetrius. The cloak and sword of course stand for a general's body the same way the tongue and hand stand for Cicero's oratory.

[garland-on-thy-brow]

Addition on marrying dead men's wives by @apolloniosofrhodes: "Also Antony marrying Octavia before her mourning period for her dead husband was over".

[agamemnonemon]

Okay, wait, has anyone mentioned this yet

(Plutarch, Life of Antony 24)

[agamemnonemon]

You're tearing me apart Licinnus!

Oh, salve Marce

[thefollowersofthedivinesnake]

(Full view plz)

Some historical characters that will be making an appearance in the webcomic I'm developing!

[problempuppy]

i could be the most incompetent attack dog youve ever seen

[menecrates]

a brief pause in our regularly scheduled warfare to announce metellus scipio's new culinary innovation

[agamemnonemon]

New show on ancient Roman hulu called "URSUS". It's just suicide and political anxiety interspersed with nice looking food.

[hamletthedane]

Thinking about him (the soldier in Poynter’s Faithful Until Death painting watching an apocalypse unfold around him with horror in his eyes as he tries to keep himself standing beneath a doorway, based on an actual 19th century archeological find of a man in full soldier’s garb under a doorway at Pompeii)

[hamletthedane]

We see you, fictionalized version of a man who died nearly 2,000 years ago in Pompeii. And we grieve for you still.

[starsandwhales]

I know this isn't ninjago guys but I finished this 17 hour painting for my art class and I was proud of it so...enjoy.

I love Egypt fun fact about me. :) [ID: a detailed, realistic painting of the hathor columns at the dendera temple complex in dendera, egypt. /end ID]