History: the Ultimate Fandom

(via pondicusrex)

creepyabandonedplaces:

Some graffiti found in Pompeii’s ruins: 

• Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men’s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!

• Restituta, take off your tunic, please, and show us your hairy privates.

• I screwed the barmaid.

• Apollinaris, the doctor of the emperor Titus, defecated well here.

• I screwed a lot of girls here.
• Sollemnes, you screw well!
• Theophilus, don’t perform oral sex on girls against the city wall like a dog

fvckyeahromanhistory:

Ides of March Special: Silver Denarius of Marcus Brutus, Macedonia, 43-42 BCE

This coin was struck in honour of Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. The reverse shows the cap of liberty given to freed slaves flanked by two daggers. This indicates Brutus’ intention of freeing Rome from Caesar’s imperial ambitions and the murder weapons employed to do so. Below is the day of the deed; EID.MAR, the ides of March.

Few coins capture a moment in history with such stark and brutal imagery. Brutus had carried out the attack with some fellow Roman Senators in 44 BC when Caesar had come unarmed to address the Senate on 15 March. This day was known to the Romans as the ides, or the middle day of the month and was recognised on a new calendar system that Caesar himself had established just two years before.

The assassins, or ‘freedom party’ as they regarded themselves, fled Rome to Macedonia to raise an army. However, they were defeated by Caesar’s allies led by Mark Antony and Octavian at the Battle of Philippi (42 BC). Brutus subsequently committed suicide.

The decision to flee east was probably influenced by the richness of the provinces of the eastern Roman Empire - raising an army was a very costly business. Supplies needed to be bought and soldiers needed wages. Amongst the coins the conspirators briefly struck to this end was this, the ‘Ides of March’ denarius.

P. Matyszak, Chronicle of the Roman Republi (London, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2005)

M.H. Crawford, Roman republican coinage (Cambridge University Press, 1974)

(Source: )

amantes-amentes:

nevertravelled:

this scene is so great in explaining male sexuality in rome - roman men aren’t meant to be desired, because being desired is a passive state, which is why they can fuck pretty much whomever they want, as long as they are the penetrators (… lol) - while also being, like, the funniest scene in the show. it’s so hard to screencap, though, because it’s all in lyndsey marshal’s eyebrows as she takes vorenus’ measure, and kevin mckidd practically quivering in fear.

… and then shaking with lust ;)

amantes-amentes:

fyeahancientrome:

If you’re fleeing an enemy, make sure the people at your destination don’t prefer the other guy.

LAWLCANO

historyis:

Ancient Graffiti portrait of Roman Emperor Nero drawn between 37 A.D and 68 A.D.

This just amuses the everliving shit out of me.

I love this show, and I think I will spam this blog with things from this show now.

fuckyeahcrazyleaders:

NERO: SUPREME EMPEROR OF NECKBEARDS

(Source: madhistory)

antinous-:

Caesar:
“Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once.”

Julius Caesar (II, ii, 32-37)

Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, has had dreams in which her husband was murdered. At Caesar’s request, the priests have sacrificed an animal which, upon being cut open, was discovered to have no heart. And so they sent word to Caesar that he should stay home on this fateful day, the ides of March, which the Soothsayer had already warned him about earlier in the play. Caesar muses, “What can be avoided /Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?” In other words, if the gods are predicting that he is going to die, then how will he get around it? He goes on to encourage his wife with the now-famous lines, finding it strange that men fear death so much, when death is inevitable in every man’s life. He has been a strong and brave man, and has not wasted precious hours of his life anticipating tragedy.