#lemur romanus

[lemurious]

how did you first get into ancient rome? you've been putting SO MANY really cool comics and posts about it all over my dash that i'm like, i need to get more into this, but it just feels like there's so much stuff that i don't know where to start (ignore my copy of spqr that's been sitting my shelf for the last year 😭)

Thank you for asking! So, I've always been mildly interested in Ancient Rome and Greece, and then was looking for a new language to learn a couple of years ago, and started playing with Latin on Duolingo (which is actually terrible, not recommended at all...) and got completely hooked in spite of the limitations of Duolingo! Then went through various Latin courses until I found the wonderful Satura Lanx (highly recommended if you want to learn Latin), meanwhile getting deeper and deeper into Roman history, especially the late Roman Republic (think Marius through Octavian).

SPQR is very much a classic, but it actually didn't quite click for me for some unfathomable reason - I am loving Mary Beard's Emperor of Rome right now... I enjoyed Tom Holland's trilogy (Rubicon, Dynasty, Pax), though I would recommend it only as a starting point because it is fairly superficial and has a tendency to interpret statements from ancient historians as facts... I loved Mike Duncan's The Storm Before the Storm, about Marius and Sulla - it might be a good start? Anthony Everitt's Cicero was also very clear and informative. And honestly, I am absolutely loving the primary sources (I will talk your ear off about Sallust's Bellum Catilinae), though granted I am finally at the level where I can read them in Latin :D

If you are more into podcasts, I have thoroughly enjoyed Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series on Rome (disclaimer - he is not a historian, and he is very much into military history, fortunately, so am I): Punic Nightmares, as well as Death Throes of the Republic. Mike Duncan has The History of Rome podcast, which is quite highly regarded, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it.

For historical fiction, I would recommend Steven Saylor's Roma Sub Rosa, which is a mystery novel series set in the late Republic that openly addresses slavery, has non-heterosexual characters, etc. Catilina's Riddle is especially good because I am clearly biased and I loved his take on Catilina. A lot of people enjoy Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, but it felt too drawn out for me.

Honestly, though, the most important part is to explore and have fun! History, literature, primary sources, fiction, Tumblr community, it is all part of enriching ourselves, finding new inspiration, connecting with people, and often, creating new art... and always feel free to throw me random Roman ideas! Or, perhaps you'd feel like joining the tiny fandom and writing some fics? :D (The fandom would be blessed by your talent!) Enjoy! <3

[lemurious]

So I’m a ‘I love Shakespeare!Brutus as a character’ person (Julius Caesar was one of the first plays I saw and I went WOW) which isn’t a question exactly but do you have book recs about the real people depicted in the play? <33

<3 you are a delightful person in every way, including this - well... I wonder what others would recommend! I learned Latin so that I could read the original Caesar, and so many letters, from Brutus and Cassius to Cicero and back, and of course the amazing Sallust (though it's far before the play), and - essentially nothing from Mark Antony. It has been called the Antony problem...there are so many opinions about him, from ancient to modern, and nothing written *by* him.

I enjoy Mary Beard, and used to like Tom Holland's books before I actually got more seriously into Roman history (he takes all the classical historians as ground truth, which is A Problem); and Steven Saylor's Roman mystery novel series is fun and rather light, and his Catilina's Riddle finally gives some decent treatment to the man... oops, I think I need to read more :D

[lemurious]

2024 Book Summary

Summarizing my yearly reading and selecting the 5 best books of the year is one of my longest personal traditions. For many years I used to put my lists on Facebook, but I quit it early in 2024, so now testing out Tumblr as an alternative, at least for my own records :).

I would love to see your lists, O Tumblrites! (pronounced like "Quirites")

Numbers: In 2024 I have read 50 books, in 4 languages.

Firsts: this year I started listening to audiobooks (especially while crocheting on long plane rides), and started reading un-abridged Latin: Seneca, Cicero, <3 Sallust <3, Tacitus, P. Cornelius Nepos, etc. I think, more Latin to solidify it in 2025, and then French in 2026! (Unless I give in and start on French earlier).

Top 5:

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (read in English, Hapgood translation because for this book translations do matter). One of the best books I have ever read. The reason for Lemur's Belated Awakening of Social Consciousness, a self-reckoning, a very practical change in certain decisions I have made about my life, and a reminder of the power of hope and progress and the radiance of the future that recalls Terra Ignota (and the character(s) I would follow to hell and back, looking at you Les Amis). I could write so much more about it; but, you might start with my pinned post.

C. Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), Bellum Catilinae A.k.a. the reason why if you know me in real life, I haven't been able to shut up about the Catilinarian conspiracy, the fact that that we mostly learn about from Cicero's In Catilinam speeches which were vehemently against it; and whether Caelius was the traitor, with his own failed rebellion recalling Catilina's 15 years later; and how Caesar spoke for clemency while Cato called for death; and Catilina's speech at his desperate last stand (I will add an excerpt in comments)...and what a shame it is that we don't have piles of books and movies about this period! (OK I loved Steven Saylor's Catilina's Riddle but I could read ten more!) I am currently in the state of "do I have to write the novel I am dying to read?" :D

Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus) read in English, Fagles translation. I read it for a Continuing Education class on the plays of Sophocles, which was a fantastic experience overall: 18 people of all ages and all walks of life spending late Wednesday nights (in person) reading and discussing plays with an absolutely wonderful professor. What it means to be a hero outside the epic; and the questions of identity, piety, family, city/state and self-determination; and absolutely gorgeous imagery.

Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War. I have read a fair number of Classical history books this year, and this was by far the best - in part because I love military history and strategy, and the author is excellent in discussing it, not just every specific decision, but the reasoning behind it, and what were the alternatives and the potential outcomes. It is a very clearly written and incredibly readable book! Of course I am a coward for not starting straight with Thucydides, but he awaits me in 2025! :D More Alcibiades! (Alcibiates, Theramenes and Thrasybulus my beloved Original Triumvirate :P)

Victor Hugo, Ninety Three. A wonderful, complex take on La Vendée in 1793. So...this was the favorite book of my grandma's, whose own family was caught between the Russian forces and the freedom fighters in the 1940s, and who became a history teacher under USSR occupation afterwards. There were a lot of things she couldn't exactly talk about in class...which meant she taught a lot of French Revolution, adored Camille Desmoulins, and told me how much she had cried while reading 1793. And it took me decades to actually realize all of that and finally read it, which is bittersweet, because my grandma had passed away two years ago and I cannot talk to her about it. (If you've read this far, call whoever you consider loved family; doesn't have to be blood related at all).

I will be starting 2025 with A Place of Greater Safety by Hillary Mantel.

Here's to so many more wonderful books to read and to discuss with friends; and to provide us with solace and inspiration in 2025! <3

[lemurious]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Ancient History RPF, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Lucius Sergius Catilina, Marcus Caelius Rufus, Marcus Tullius Cicero Additional Tags: Regret, Grief/Mourning, Catilinarian Conspiracy, After the conspiracy and before the civil war, Memory, Secrets Series: Part 5 of The Tribunes Summary:

Caelius walks home, though he could’ve called a litter. He is bound to run into a few acquaintances, a client or two, perhaps, even a friend. He has a word for each of them, an inquiry into their affairs. He collects their answers, like shells on a string to be put around his neck, until it will strangle him.

It has been fourteen years. If anyone asked him, he could tell the months, and the days too.

Caelius talks to Cicero, and prepares for war, and remembers.

[lemurious]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Ancient History RPF, Gallic Wars - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Marcus Antonius | Mark Antony/Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius | Mark Antony & Gaius Trebonius Characters: Marcus Antonius | Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Gaius Trebonius Additional Tags: War, Gallic War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Strategy, Death, hard choices, Battle of Avaricum, Battle of Alesia Series: Part 4 of The Tribunes Summary:

"Or would you rather spare Alesia now, and fight another ten Alesias next year? There are a few thousand outside the walls, now – how many tens of thousands would you have killed if the campaign goes on? How many of our own men? How far will you bleed the treasury before there are riots in the Forum, while we are cavorting here, going from one skirmish into another?"

here’s a bit of strategy and hard choices and antony and caesar (and extra trebonius!) for the collaborative series we’ve been working on with the wonderful @dreamsofarachne :)

[lemurious]

So I’m not sure if lyric prompts work for you but just in case they do - fandom of your choice + I will send out an army <3333

thank you! I turned it into "I will bring you an army" because apparently I misremembered the prompt :D so here is my first drabble in what will hopefully become a series for Catiline :)

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[lemurious]

Steven Saylor, Catilina's Riddle (text under cut)

recommending!

to read and think of lost causes and last stands and quo usque tandem abutere catilina patientia nostra? and failed revolutions and senatus consultum ultimum and sallust dropping an absolutely heartbreaking speech at the end of his bellum catilinae (worth learning latin for it alone) and two thousand years of histories written by the winners and still not nearly enough of them had turned to stories.

Text:

And yet, why should I let those words be lost forever? What other legacy of him would survive? No statues of Catilina would ever be erected in Rome; no histories would ever be written to glorify him; he had left no son to carry on his name or his cause In a few years all that would re- main of Catilina would be a series of speeches vilifying him before all the world.

[lemurious]

[vae victoribus]

My Antony/Cassius late Roman Republic trilogy is complete!

Vae Victoribus here on AO3.

The fics are circular - the end of What Counts as Liberty is the beginning of To Be Remembered - and can be read in any order.

- To Be Remembered (Rome after Cassius's return from Parthia, and Philippi) - Hellespont (after Pharsalus, Cassius switches allegiance to Caesar) - What Counts as Liberty (the Ides, and the beginning of the civil war)

I am eternally grateful to everyone for reading, leaving kudos and comments, and encouraging me to keep writing what turned out to be one of my longest pieces ever. There will be more! <3