#servilia

[charlesoberonn]

Brutus's mother Servilia was Caesar's mistress and long-time paramour.

Imagine being part of a murder conspiracy against your mom's boyfriend.

[ysabeausfrenchtwist]

"Our name is redeemed. The Republic is safe." "It was horrible, mother." .........

"He tried to speak to me.. but no words came out."

[seianusfanboy]

cato and his chudlings

(his sister servilia at right, at the bottom is his daughter porcia and servilias son brutus)

[moonlady101]

I went to Barcelona this past weekend to watch SIX, the musical, and since then I can't stop thinking about another version of it, but with Caesar's wives and mistresses.

Imagine Cornelia singing about how she was the only one to give him a roman daughter and the tragedy of her death; Pompeia singing about how he decided to divorce her because of the whole Bona Dea scandal; Calpurnia crying that he never listened to her; Cleopatra rapping how she was the most clever of them all and arguing with Servilia about who he liked best. And then, at the end, the king of Bythinia makes an appeareance and talks about how he made Julius his queen...

Bonus points if the House of Holbein is substituted for Caesar's soldiers singing about their general's sex life, leaded by Mark Antony.

[nocticola]

Rome 2x1 Passover (2007)

[malachimulligan]

i would like to preface this by acknowledging that octavia was raped, her husband was murdered and she was manipulated into fucking her brother. that being said, the toxic relationship with lindsay duncan? it should have been me

[enlitment]

Top 5 favorite historical events 👀

Oo, good one! Thanks for the ask ✨

1. The Ides of March

Apart from being a beloved Tumblr holiday, I just find the whole event so interesting! Few times in history have had such a lasting cultural impact (hello, statue of Brutus at the National Convention!).

Plus it's so wonderfully morally grey, which you can see from the different perception of Brutus throughout history (burning in lowest circle of Dante's hell vs. being hailed as a hero by the French revolutionaries).

Was it the right thing to do? It was an act of extreme violence, and the republic was arguably beyond saving anyway, as became clear later. Does it mean it was the wrong thing to do though? I'm definitely not qualified to answer that. But it is an interesting question to think about, which makes this event one of my favourites.

(Plus the whole thing kind of reads like an ancient tragedy, since it could be read as Brutus (& co) killing someone who was essentially a father figure to him, but also was widely known to have slept with his mother. Hamlet who?)

2. Camille rallying the crowds at Palais Royal

I'm a sucker for a good epic moment, and this is certainly one of them. Camille leaping on the table and overcoming his stutter to address the crowd of dissatisfied Parisians, inspiring them to take action? Yes please!

(not to mention that any event that demonstrates the power that words can have is going to be automatically interesting in my book.)

3. The Servilia Letter Affair

Situated during the late Roman Republic after the Catiline conspiracy, it's another hilarious evidence of the fact that poor Cato the Younger simply couldn't catch a break.

For those uninitiated: as Cato and Caesar were arguing about what kind of punishment is appropriate for the conspirators wanting to overthrow the consul, a mysterious letter was delivered to Caesar, right in the senate. Cato suspected that there was something foul going on, something that could potentially link Caesar - Cato's oponent - to the conspiracy that was just being discussed. He therefore seized the letter from Caesar and insisted he will read its contents out loud, in front of everyone. Doesn't sound all that unreasonable, right? ...except the document in question just happened to be a steamy, in Plutarch's words "unchaste" love-letter to Caesar, written by none other than Cato's own half-sister, Servilia.* Yikes. Cato apparently proceeded to then throw the letter back to Caesar, saying: "Take it, thou sot." Iconic.

* who was also Brutus' mother. See, it's all connected!

4. Publishing of the Éncyclopedie

I just love studying the Age of Enlightenment as a whole, but I think the Éncyclopedie is perhaps the best embodiment of all of the things the era was about. I like learning about the Éncyclopedistes - their petty personal dramas are fun to read about, but I also like the fact that what fuelled the project was a (mostly) genuine desire to educate people and make human knowledge more readily available to the masses.

Also look what I came across while in Verona!! ->

5. Women's March on Versailles

A great reminder that women can be a strong political force and that their place in history should not be overlooked! Though it was not necessarily a women-only event, it clearly shows just how much of a significant role women (and working class people in general) played in the French Revolution.

[wavesechoes]

so the other day i started hbo rome, i've just finished episode 6 of the first season and let me tell you if i was octavia minor awkwardly apologizing to servilia about my mother's crimes and servilia reassured me by gently shushing me and telling me it's alright and there's no need to apologise, i would have FOLDED. KNEES WEAK NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY. DROPPED TO MY KNEES. no need for further scheming she would have me in the palm of her hand right then and there.