(’59 BCE’ – ’53 BCE’)
(~7 YEARS)
.
#1
“CAESAR”
(age 41)
.
#2
“POMPEY”
(age 47)
.
#3
“CRASSUS”
(age 56)
(“the richest man in rome”)
.
*“crassus” is killed in the “battle of carrhae”*
(“8 MAY 53 BC”)
(which essentially ‘disbands’ the ‘first triumvrate’)
.
(“carrhae” was located in what is modern-day ‘turkey’)
.
(against the “parthian empire”)
(rooted in ‘mesopotamia’)
(modern-day ‘iran’)
.
(at the time, ‘crassus’ ruled over the roman province of ‘syria’)
(which made him a very rich man)
(but he wanted to be even richer)
(and he also wanted to achieve the same level of ‘military glory’ as ‘caesar’ + ‘pompey’)
.
(‘artavazdes II’ (king of armenia) offered ‘crassus’ 40K+ troops (‘10K cataphracts’ + ‘30K infantrymen’) as long as ‘crassus’ invaded via ‘armenia’)
(rather the more direct + (dangerous) route across the ‘euphrates river’)
(the king wanted to ‘maintain the upkeep’ of his troops)
(while minimizing casualties with a safer invasion route)
(‘crassus’ refused the offer…)
.
👎*DOH!*👎
.
(and so ‘crassus’ crossed the ‘euphrates river’ to take on the ‘parthian empire’)
.
(as i learn about this battle in ‘summer 2019’, the ‘united states’ may become embroiled in conflict against ‘modern-day iran’)
.
*cue “fall of rome”*
.
(the ‘battle of carrhae’ was one of the most crushing defeats in roman history)
“the parthian shot”
(parthian soldiers were able to shoot their arrows backwards while seemingly retreating)
(crassus reluctantly met with the ‘parthian leaders’ to ‘surrender’ + negotiate a ‘peace treaty’)
(only because his troops threatened to ‘mutiny’ if he did not)
(his own son was killed in this battle)
(the ‘negotiations’ turned violent when one of the ‘parthian generals’ pulled at the reins of ‘crassus’ horse’ …)
(or his junior officer ‘octavius’ (?)) did when he suspected they would be ambushed)…
(not the ‘1st roman emperor’ octavius)
(who was only ‘5 years old’ at the time)
.
(….causing the meeting to turn violent)
(and so the parthian leaders slaughtered ‘crassus’ and his ‘generals’)
(how were they killed?)
(did they fight back?)
(were they required to show up without weapons?)
.
(according to the greco-roman historian ‘plutarch’…)
(46 AD – 120AD)
(…the parthian leaders allegedly poured ‘molten gold’ down the ‘crassus corpse’ throat)
(to mock his apparent ‘thirst for wealth’)
(then (according to ‘plutarch’), the sister of ‘artavasde II’ married ‘pacorus’)
(who was the ‘son’ (+ ‘heir’) of the parthian king ‘orodes II’)
(who reigned from ‘57 BCE’ to ‘37 BCE’)
(after killing his father (the parthian king ‘phraates III’)
(only to be killled by his own heir ‘phraates IV’ in ‘37 BCE’)
(‘phraates IV’ was declared ‘heir’ only after his initial heir (his son ‘pacorus’) was killed by the roman general ‘ventidius’ in ‘asia minor’)
(’38 BCE’)
(shortly after his generals defeated ‘crassus’ and the romans in the ‘battle of carrhae’, ’orodes III’ had invaded ‘armenia’ and subjugated ‘artavasde II’)
(at the wedding of ‘pacorus’, the ‘head of crassus’ was presented during a performance of “the bacchae”)
(to represent the severed head of ‘pentheus’ in the play)
(ala “john the baptist”)
(a greek tragedy written by ‘euripides’)
(‘480 BCE’ – ‘406 BC’)
(which first premiered in ‘405 BC”)
(a year after the death of ‘euripides’)
(at the ‘theater of dionysus’)
(produced by his son (or nephew))
(~355 years before this matrimonial rendition)
(considered “one of the greatest tragedies ever written’)
(in the play, the greek god ‘dionysus’ arrives in ‘thebes’ to enact revenge on those who had claimed that he was not the son of ‘zeus’)
.
(he intends to prove to ‘king pentheus’ that he was ‘born a ‘god’’)
(and he intends to introduce ‘dionysian rites’ to ‘thebes’)
.
(he was born out of an affair between the god ‘zeus’ and ‘semele’ (a mortal woman))
.
(his ‘mortal relatives’ (the family of his mother ‘semele’) do not believe that ‘dionysus’ was the son of zeus)
.
(‘agave’ is the sister of ‘semele’ and mother of ‘pentheus’)
(making ‘pentheus’ + ‘dionysus’ cousins)
.
(and so he sends the women of ‘thebes’ (including his aunts) into an ecstatic frenzy)
.
“proto-beatlemania”
.
(he leads them into the mountains to perform his ‘ritual festivities’)
.
(all the while disguising himself as a ‘mere mortal’ to the people of ‘thebes’)
.
(the “greek chorus” in the play is named “bacchae”)
(these female followers perform a ‘choral ode’ to ‘dionysus’)
.
‘tiresias’ (a blind + elderly ‘seer’) + ‘cadmus’ (founder + former king of ‘thebes’) set out to join the festivities)
.
(probably to take advantage of the ecstatic young women)
.
(‘king pentheus’ (grandson of ‘cadmus’) disapproves of the festivities after discovering ‘tiresias’ + ‘cadmus’ in ‘ceremonial dress’)
.
(he orders his soldiers to arrest anyone caught engaging in ‘dionysian worship’)
.
(including the ‘mysterious foreigner’)
(‘dionysus in disguise’)
(pentheus intends to have him stoned to death)
.
(‘dionysus’ is arrested and brought before ‘pentheus’)
(the king becomes interested in the rites and asks him to explain them to him)
(but the answers from dionysus are ‘cryptic’)
.
(a “proto-jesus” brought before ‘pilate’)
.
(pentheus is infuriated and has ‘dionysus’ chained to an angry bull in the palace)
.
(it is then that ‘dionysus’ reveals his ‘divine powers’ by breaking free of the ‘bull’ and destroying the palace with ‘earthquake’ + ‘fire’)
.
(then a herdsman arrives at the palace to report on a group of the dionysian women performing miraculous destructive feats)
.
“proto-manson family*
.
(one of the women was ‘agave’ (the mother of ‘pentheus’))
.
(when the herdsman and his friend attempt to arrest ‘agave’, the group of crazed women rip their cattle to shreds and force the herdsmen to flee)
.
(‘sparagmos’ is the name for the maenad technique of ‘ripping living things to shreds’)
.
(often followed by ‘omophagia’)
(eating the shreds)
.
(‘pentheus’ first intends to send soldiers to massacre the women)
(but dionysus convinces him to disguise himself as a ‘female maenad’ and spy on the women)
.
(‘pentheus’ is already possessed by the hallucinatory powers of ‘dionysus’ and thinks he sees 2 suns in the sky)
.
(he perceives ‘horns’ protruding from the head of ‘dionysus’ as he realizes that ‘dionysus’ is actually a ‘god’)
.
(as they approach ‘mount cithaeron’, ‘pentheus’ wants to climb an evergreen tree in order to spy on the women)
.
(‘dionysus’ magically bends down the tree for ‘pentheus’)
.
(then he points ‘pentheus’ out to the women the man in the tree)
.
(the women (led by his mother ‘agave’) proceed to rip ‘pentheus’ to shreds)
.
(‘agave’ arrives back in ‘thebes’ with the severed head of her son)
(in her crazed state, she believes it to be the head of a ‘mountain lion’)
.
(she presents the head to her father ‘cadmus’ and he is horrified)
.
(then she tries to show ‘pentheus’ his own severed head as ‘cadmus’ explains to her that she has killed her son)
.
(the corpse of ‘pentheus’ is re-assembled as much as possible)
.
(and so ‘dionysus’ ultimately avenges the ‘house of cadmus’ who didn’t believe he was a ‘god’)
.
(‘agave’ and her sisters are sent into exile)
.
(‘cadmus” and his wife are turned into snakes)
.
(‘dionysus’ then leaves ‘thebes’ and leads a ‘barbarian horde’ to plunder the cities of ‘hellas’)
(keep in mind that ‘plutarch’ was born ~104 years after the battle)
(so his account is (somewhat?) ‘unreliable’)
.
(the ‘triumvirate ‘ collapsed with the death of ‘crassus’ as ‘caesar’ + ‘pompey’ cooperated with each other only to please ‘crassus’)
*“the richest man in rome”*
(pompey was jealous of caesar’s ‘power’)
(caesar was jealous of pompey’s ‘eminence’)
(after death of ‘crassus’, pompey was appointed ‘sole consul’ of rome)
(as an ‘emergency measure’)
(‘pompey’ had married caesar’s daugher ‘julia’)
(‘76 BCE’ – ‘54 BCE’)
(her mother was caesar’s first wife ‘cornelia’)
(at her birth, caesar was ‘24’ + cornelia was ‘21’)
(caesar had her married to ‘pompey’ in ‘april 59 BCE’)
(for political gain)
(when the ‘first triumvirate’ was established)
(pompey was ‘47’ / julia was ‘17’)
(in 55 BCE, ‘pompey’ was surrounded by an angry mob during the election of ‘aediles’ where his gown was soaked with the blood of the rioters)
(a slave delivered the bloody gown back to their home and julie believed that her husband had been murdered)
(pregnant at the time, she suffered a miscarriage and her health rapidly deteriorated)
(in ’august 54 BCE’, she (along with the baby) died in childbirth)
(she was ‘22’)
(after her death, ‘caesar’ offered ‘pompey’ his ‘great niece’ in marriage)
(how old was she?)
(but ‘pompey’ declined)
(instead he married ‘cornelia metella’ in ’52 BCE’)
(she was ‘21’ / he was ‘54’)
(his 5th wife)
(her 2nd husband)
(many thought she should have been married to one of pompey’s son)
(the greedy old man)
(she had been married to the son of ‘crassus’)
(who died along with his father sometime after the ‘battle of carrhae’)
(~ age 33)
(she was the daughter of ‘quintus caecilius metellus pius scipio nasica’)
(an enemy of caesar)
(caesar emerged victorious in the ‘gallic wars’)
(in the “battle of alesia”)
(‘september 52 BCE’)
(in ‘50 BCE’, ‘pompey’ (the leader of the ‘senate’ at the time) ordered ‘caesar’ to disband his army (as his term as ‘governor’ of ‘cisalpine gaul’ / ‘illyricum’ was over) and return to ‘rome’)
‘cisalpine gaul’ —> ‘northern italy’
‘illyricum’ —> ‘southeastern europe’
(caesar also became ‘governor’ of ‘transalpine gaul’ after emerging victorious in the ‘gallic wars’)
(‘transalpine gaul’ —> ‘southern france’)
(‘caesar’ feared ‘prosecution’ if he returned to ‘rome’ without any ‘magisterial power’)
(as ‘pompey’ had accused him of ‘insubordination’ + ‘treason’)
.
.
‘10 JANUARY 49 BCE’ —>
(caesar crosses the ‘rubicon river’ with a single legion)
“the die is cast”
(this led to a ‘civil war’ between the 2 men)
(at first, ‘pompey’ (and many senators) fled south)
(even though pompey’s troops far outnumbered caesar’s single legion, he did not have faith in their fighting abilities)
(caesar pursued them)
(pompey escaped before caesar could capture him)
(then caesar left for ‘spain’ and left ‘mark antony’ in charge of ‘italy’)
(defeated pompey’s forces in 27 days)
(then headed to ‘illyria’ to confront ‘pompey’)
(‘illyria’ is in the ‘balkan peninsula’)
(modern-day ‘albania’ / ‘croatia’ / ‘bosnia’ / ‘herzegovina’)
.
.
“9 AUGUST 48 BCE” —>
(‘caesar’ defeats ‘pompey’ @ the ‘battle of pharsalus’)
(in modern-day greece)
(‘caesar’ returns to rome and is pronounced ‘dictator’)
(with ‘mark antony’ as his ‘master of the horse’)
(aka ‘2nd in command’)
(he presided over his own election as ‘consul’)
(then resigned the ‘dictatorship’ after 11 days)
(he pursued ‘pompey’ in egypt)
.
.
*28 SEPTEMBER 48 BCE* —>
(over 5 years after death of ‘crassus’)
(‘pompey’ is killed by the ‘egyptian general ACHILLAS as well as former roman officer SEPTIMIUS and a 3rd assassin SAVIUS)
(who were serving the egyptian king “ptolemy XIII theos philopator”)
(they convinced pompey to board their boat and then killed him)
“ACHILLAS”
(‘ima killllll you!’ in ‘ebonics’)
“LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS”
(“if it were up to me…”)
“SAVIUS”
(they stabbed him to death with their swords)
(he was beheaded and his headless torso was tossed into the sea)
(when caesar arrived in egypt a few days later, he was horrified to learn of how pompey was killed)
(although the egyptians believed that by killing pompey, they would be helping caesar)
(when caesar found out ‘pompey’ had been killed by ‘egyptian officials’, he started crying)
(…and then had those egyptian assassins promptly killed)
“what a fucking asshole!*
.
👎*DOH!*👎
.
(from there, caesar became involved in the ‘egyptian civil war’)
(between the child pharaoh ‘ptolemy XIII’ and his older sister ‘cleopatra VII’)
“ptolemy XIII”
(‘62 BCE’ – ‘47 BCE’)
(became ‘co-pharaoh’ in ‘51 BCE’)
(at ‘age 11’)
(he is married to his older sister ‘cleopatra VII’)
(‘69 BCE’ – ‘30 BCE’)
(she is ~18 years old)
.
👎*DOH!*👎
.
(‘caesar’ sides with ‘cleopatra’)
(partly motivated by the fact that ‘pompey’ had been killed by the forces under ‘ptolemy XIII’)
(‘caesar’ defeats ‘ptolemy XIII’ at the “battle of the nile”)
(’47 BCE’)
(‘ptolemy’ drowns while attempting to swim across the ‘nile river’ and escape caesar’s forces)
(‘age 15’)
(‘cleopatra’ become the ruler of ‘egypt’ and caesar lingered around to enjoy the luxurious life of an ‘egyptian pharaoh’)
(and has a son (‘caesarion’) with the ‘22-year old’ cleopatra)
(‘caesar’ is ‘53 years old’)
(in ‘48 BCE’, caesar is again appointed ‘dictator’ (rather than ‘consul’?) with the same 1-year term)
(then caesar easily defeated the ‘king of pontus’)
(in modern-day ‘turkey’)
(and mocked the fact that ‘pompey’ had so much trouble defeating enemies as weak as this)
(during this campaign, he was greeted warmly in the city of ‘tarsus’)
(in modern-day ‘turkey’)
(but, according to ‘cicero’, the roman senator ‘cassius’ was plotting caesar’s murder at this point)
“all things must pass…”
(then caesar went to africa in order to defeat the remnants of pompey’s senatorial supporters who had fled there)
.
(‘cato the younger’ had fled to ‘utica’)
(in modern-day ‘tunisia’)
.
(as caesar closed in on him, he committed suicide by his own sword)
(‘46 BCE’)
(~ age 49)
.
(‘caesar’ was then appointed as ‘dictator’ for 10 years)
.
(pompey’s sons fled to spain)
.
(caesar slaughtered them in the “battle of munda”)
(march 45 BCE)
.
(he was then elected to his 3rd + 4th 1-year terms as ‘consul’)
(in ‘45 BCE’, he was the ‘sole consul’)
.
(while caesar was tracking down pompey’s sons in spain, the senate began bestowing more honors upon him)
.
(instead of proscribing his enemies, he had pardoned them all and so he did not have any obvious enemies at that point)
.
(though some romans felt the celebrations of caesar’s victories to be “in bad taste” as he had defeated fellow romans, not ‘foreign enemies’)
.
(in ‘september 45 BCE’, caesar returned to ‘italy’ and named his grandnephew ‘gaius octavius’ his sole heir)
.
(‘octavius’ was ‘18 years old’)
.
(his 2nd heir (in the event that ‘octavius’ died before him) was ‘decimus junius brutus albinus’)
.
(who was ‘40 years old’ at the time)
.
(not THAT ‘brutus’)
(although he too ended up being one of caesar’s main assassins)
.
(in his will, he also left a substantial gift to ‘citizens of rome’)
.
(during this period, ‘caesar’ drafted a new ‘constitution’)
(with 3 goals in mind…)
#1
(suppress all resistance in the roman provinces)
(thus establishing order in the republic)
.
#2
(create a strong central government in rome)
.
#3
(bind all ‘roman provinces’ into a single cohesive unit)
.
(‘caesar’ accomplished the first goal with his victory at the “battle of munda”)
.
(in order to accomplish the other 2 goals, he had to increase his control over rome’s other governing bodies)
.
(he also focused on other long-neglected issues)
.
(the most important being the reform of the ‘roman calendar’)
(with the creation of the ‘julian calendar’)
(the people of rome were ostensibly celebrating his victories over foreign opponents, rather than fellow romans)
(when ‘arsinoe IV of egypt’ (cleopatra’s half sister) was paraded in chains, her dignified apperance moved spectators to pity)
(which didn’t help matters for caesar)
(nor did the staging of brutal ‘gladiatoral games’)
(caesar orded a census be taken, which decreased the ‘grain dole’)
(decreed that jurors could only be selected from the ‘senate’ or ‘equestrian’ ranks)
(*caesar is killed on ’15 march 44 BCE’*)
(‘age 56’)
.
(less than 4 years after the death of ‘pompey’)
.
(stabbed 23 times by 60 men in the ‘roman senate’)
(because he was becoming too powerful)
.
(the ‘commoners’ threatened to riot after these ‘aristocrats’ murdered the ‘man of the people’)
.
(‘mark antony’ found out about the plot the night before but was intercepted before he could warn caesar)
.
(they had been growing apart anyway)
*and he was angry when he found out that ‘octavius’ was named as caesar’s heir rather than him*
.
🌚”*hmm…” says arv*🌚
.
*THE 2ND TRIUMVIRATE*
(’43 BCE’ – ’33 BCE’)
(~10 YEARS)
#1
“OCTAVIUS”
(‘age 20’)
#2
“MARK ANTONY”
(‘age 40’)
#3
“LEPIDUS”
(‘age 45’)
.
(1 year after caesar’s murder)
(“octavius” (caesar’s heir) had been battling “mark antony” + “lepidus” in ‘northern italy’ before this alliance was forged)
(he was named ‘suffect consul’ in ’43 BCE’)
(unlike the ‘1st triumvirate’, this agreement was officially embedded into the ‘constitution’)
(it was made official with the passage of the ‘lex titia’)
(it set a ‘5-year term’ for the 3 men)
(which was renewed in ‘38 BCE’)
(in ’36 BCE’, a ‘sicilian revolt’ against the ‘2nd triumvirate’ was waged by ‘sextus pompey’ (a son of ‘pompey the great’))
.
(‘lepidus’ (who controlled rome’s ‘african provinces’) raised an army of 14 legions to quell the revolt)
.
(the ‘legions’ of lepidus remained in ‘sicily’ after their victory, and ‘lepidus’ declared to ‘octavius’ that he should be granted control over ‘sicily’)
.
(during negotiations with ‘octavius’, lepidus suggested that ‘octavius’ could have control over ‘sicily’ and his ‘african provinces’ if he were given back his old territories in ‘spain’ + ‘gaul’)
.
(which were legally his according to the ‘lex titia’)
.
(at that point, ‘octavius’ declared that ‘lepidus’ was trying to usurp his power)
.
(in a humilating turn of events, lepidus’ sicilian legions defected to ‘octavius’ + ‘lepidus’ was forced to submit to him)
.
(he was stripped of all powers except that of ‘pontifex maximus’)
(or “head of the principal college of priests”)
(a ‘proto-pope’)
.
(he was then exiled in “circeii”)
(in ‘central italy’)
.
(‘mark antony’ had married octavian’s older sister ‘octavia’ in ‘40 BCE’)
(he was ‘43’ / she was ‘29’)
(they had 2 daughters together)
.
(‘octavius’ had married mark antony’s step-daughter ‘clodia pulchra’ in ‘43 BCE’)
.
(he had chosen her over lepidus’ wife’s niece ‘servilia’)
.
(‘mark antony’ was the third husband of clodia’s mother ‘fulvia’)
.
(‘octavius’ was ‘20’ / ‘clodia’ was ‘14’)
(they never consummated the marriage)
.
(when he requested a divorce from ‘clodia’, the relationship between he + ‘mark antony’ became strained)
.
(‘fulvia’ organized 8 legions in italy to fight for ‘mark antony’ against ‘octavius’)
.
(‘octavius’ eventually married ‘scribonia’ + defeated the legions)
(with her, he had his only child “julia the elder”)
.
(despte being married to octavius’s sister, ‘mark antony’ openly carried on an affair with ‘cleopatra’ and they had several children together)
.
(similar to ‘caesar’ + ‘pompey’)
(with pompey marrying caesar’s daughter)
.
(‘octavius’ as ‘caesar’ / ‘mark antony’ as ‘pompey’)
(making ‘lepidus’ —> ‘crassus’)
.
(in ‘33 BCE’ it came time to ‘renew’ the triumvirate’s 5-year term)
.
(‘mark antony’ continued to refer to himself as a ‘triumvir’)
.
(‘octavius’, in an attempt to distance himself from ‘mark antony’, did not use this title for himself)
.
(as ‘octavius’ successfully waged war in ‘illyricum’, ‘mark antony’ unsuccessfully waged war against the ‘parthian empire’)
.
(the same mistake ‘crassus’ made)
.
(then ‘mark antony’ (with the help of cleopatra’s fortunes) conquered ‘armenia’ with the overthrow of ‘king artavasdes’)
.
(he then publicly announced what is known as the “donations of alexandria” in which he granted territories to cleopatra’s children)
.
(meanwhile in ‘july 32 BCE’, ‘octavius’ illegally obtained mark antony’s will and revealed it to the ‘roman public’)
.
(he had left substantial fortunes to his children with ‘cleopatra’ and requested that his body be buried in alexandria’ (instead of ‘rome’?))
.
(from then on, it was open warfare between ‘octavius’ + ‘mark antony + cleopatra’)
.
“SEPTEMBER 31 BCE” —>
(‘octavius’ emerged victorious at the ‘battle of actium’ in greece)
.
“30 BCE” —>
(‘octavius’ chased ‘mark antony’ + ‘cleopatra’ into egypt)
(where they both committed suicide in ‘alexandria’)
.
(‘octavius’ established himself as ruler of ‘egypt’)
(considered the ‘successor’ to ‘cleopatra’ as ‘pharaoh’)
.
(his ally ‘gaius maecenas’ prevented a conspiracy against ‘octavius’ organized by lepidus’s son)
.
.
*27 BCE*
(at that, ‘octavius’ renamed himself ‘caesar augustus’)
*the ‘senate and people of rome’ named him ‘princeps’*
(latin for ‘first citizen’)
(he was ‘36 years old’)
.
(although the ‘republic’ existed in name, historians consider this to be the beginning of the ‘roman empire’)
.
.
*👨🔬🕵️♀️🙇♀️*SKETCHES*🙇♂️👩🔬🕵️♂️*
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
.
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥