Classical History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Classical History’
Pliny admired Julius Mauricus because he spoke his mind, and Emperor Nerva because he let him.
Rome welcomed gentle Nerva (r. 96-98) with relief following the death of Emperor Domitian, who — thanks to hangers-on such as Fabricius Veiento, and the feared spymaster Catullus Messalinus — had maintained a vicious police state. Pliny’s friend Julius Mauricus had lost his brother in one of Domitian’s purges, but he was still speaking his mind.
When Brennus the Gaul broke through the gates of Rome, Marcus Furius Camillus was far away in exile.
After Marcus Furius Camillus successfully besieged the Etruscan cities of Veii in 396 BC and Falerii a year later, he returned to Rome in grand style, expecting popular adoration. But he overdid the spectacle, and rivals used the grumbling to contrive his banishment for corruption. He settled in Ardea on the coast, and he was still there in 390 BC when he learnt that Rome was under imminent threat.
Marcus Furius Camillus knew he must make the Falisci submit to Rome, but the method one man proposed was more than he could stomach.
In 396 BC, Marcus Furius Camillus captured Veii, the southernmost city of Etruria and only nine miles north of Rome. The following year he captured Falerii, chief city of the Falisci (also in Tuscany) after a siege that had lasted ten years. The Falisci did not take kindly to Roman rule, and Camillus was tasked with securing their obedience — but he would not do it at just any price.
Roman statesman Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus was thrust out the City for his hardline politics, but he did not stay away for long.
The story of Gnaeus Marcius Corolianus tells of a Roman nobleman forced to choose between his own life and the wishes of his family. How much of it is legend remains a matter of debate, though historians seem satisfied that the background (it is set in the late 490s BC) is plausible enough. At any rate, William Shakespeare found the tale sufficiently appealing to turn it into a play, in about 1607-8.
When Porus, the Indian king, surrendered to Alexander the Great at Jhelum, he had only one request to make of him.
Alexander the Great’s Indian expedition (327-325 BC) pushed the boundaries of his vast empire into much of what is now Pakistan and into India’s Punjab. The most serious resistance came from Porus, King of Paurava, in a fierce battle in May 326 BC at the Hydaspes or River Jhelum in the Punjab, during which Alexander demonstrated once again that he was a prince as well as a general.
Leander recalls that first night when he dared the perilous waters of the Hellespont, and swam to meet his lover Hero.
According to legend, one stormy night the wind extinguished the candle that Hero lit to guide her lover Leander as he swam to her across the Dardanelles Strait, and he was lost. Roman poet Ovid imagined the letter that Leander might have sent by ship to his darling, while he waited impatiently for calmer waters.