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Quote of the day #52
I usually read history books that I can relate a little bit, but this book is on sale on Audible and you know me–I am like a moth attracted to fire whenever I hear the word “sale”. So I bought this book named “S.P.Q.R”–whatever that means–by Mary Beard about ancient Rome.
Well, I can’t say I am completely ignorant of ancient Rome since I read “Caesar and Cleopatra” by George Bernard Shaw, and “Julius Caesar” and “Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare. However I’ve forgotten almost everything in those plays. Wait, I also watched the TV series called “I, Claudia”, and forgot almost everything in that series, except that figs picked from a tree could be poisonous.
This book “S.P.Q.R” tells you that assassinations in ancient Rome are not as infrequent as we tend to think after watching the play “Julius Caesar”. Well, obviously Shakespeare was ambivalent about democracy, plebeians, or republic and he despised Brutus and Cassius for defending the republic through violent means.
I guess if I know more about the period, I would like this book more. Still it is a very nice book if one doesn’t mind about the violence, murder, battle etc.
It is a culture marked by its reluctance to discard its past practices, tending to preserve all kinds of fossils… even if their ritual significance has been lost. …They are rather like people who acquire all kinds of brand new kitchen equipment, but can’t ever bear to throw away their old gadgets, which continue to clutter up the place even though they are never used.
The demands put into the mouth of the plebeians (Plebeians are commoners in ancient Rome who can vote) offered a systematic program of political reform, based on different aspects of the freedom of the citizen, from freedom to participate in the government of the state, to freedom to share the rewards, to freedom from exploitation, and freedom of information. It is hardly surprising that working class movements in the early 19th and 20th centuries in many countries found memorable precedents and some winning rhetoric in the ancient story of how the concerted actions of the Roman people won the concessions from the aristocracy and secured full political rights for the plebeians.
If the assassination of Julius Caesar became a model for the effective removal of a tyrant, it was also a powerful reminder that getting rid of a tyrant did not necessarily dispose of tyranny.
…what recently nurtured the tyranny was nothing other than our inaction … Weakened by the pleasure of peace we learned to live like slaves.
Haoyan Do 
These are all so thought-provoking, especially the final one! It very much has an activism tone to it! 😆
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Oh, Yes, wish this book has more quotes like that and less about those violent battles. LOL.
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I love these quotes and very interesting.
Anita
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Thank you.
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Very interesting. I took an ancient Roman history course but the professor was not very good. She left out all the interesting parts like the stuff this books deals with.
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So true. Sometimes a teacher can make or break a subject for us. And good teachers are so rare. This book is a little too bloody for me. I like more about cultural stuff, like the bride wore yellow in ancient Rome. LOL. I wonder how they chose such a color. Maybe it is the easiest color to weave and dye in those days.
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Luckily, most of my professors were great with the exception of a couple. This one just wasn’t for me lol.
It could be, or the colour yellow could have some sort of significance since they were quite superstitious and religious.
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I usually would end up loving a subject when I had a good teacher. LOL. Sometimes certain teachers just don’t click with us. It must be some mysterious thing. I mean not clicking is as mysterious as clicking.
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I feel the same way, the only reason I took history in university is because I had such good history teachers growing up.
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Yes, I only had one good history teacher in school for one semester. He is really good.
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Wow! That last line highlights so powerfully the mindset of an era and, while the writing has an air of violence, it is also alive and vivid. ❤
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Thank you, Jaya, Thank you for your encouragement. Yes, it has some quotes that are very powerful, but I don’t like the violence so much, which is why I don’t like history so much.
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These quotes are a great choice!!!
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Thank you.
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🙏💖
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so interesting to read.
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Thank you.
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