The Jewish War: First half of Book 2

[cahn]

Last week: Discussion on how Herod stacked up against various Roman emperors in terms of body count of his nearest and dearest; how Friedrich Wilhelm might hear the Josephus text; Herod throwing money around; Cleopatra!

This week: ...uhhhh there was a lot going on and I haven't actually finished the reading yet *ducks* -- I am doing that right now and I should most likely be able to comment tomorrow. (I don't anticipate this being a problem again for at least two more months, and most likely not then either; this was a confluence of various time sinks that doesn't usually happen all at the same time.) But I wanted to go ahead and get the post up because I know you guys have read it... (ETA: have finished the reading now :P :) )

Next week: finishing up Book 2!

Comments

Re: Graves' Claudius and the Republic

[cahn]

Unfortunately, Nero (who had lost his palace in the fire) decided that he too deserved a little treat, and kept a chunk of the land to build his Domus Aurea on, which gave rise to speculation that he'd set the whole thing going so he could build a new palace. (I've seen a reconstruction, the Domus Aurea was very nice...)

Ohhhh this makes a lot of sense, both that he might do that and also that this would give rise to speculation!

as opposed to those wealthy Senators sitting on their arses saying he couldn't do things and failing to appreciate his mastery of the water organ.

...water organ??