Petra
Manivs Constantinvs Serapio

In this city there is a long colonnaded street (about 300 meters–984 feet.) that still represents the original paving. This street runs along the east-west axis, and is the main artery of the city. Along the colonnaded street there are several structures, perhaps stores, separated from the street by a sidewalk.

Three rooms (xxvi, xxvii, xxviii) have been found immediately to the West of the steps leading to the "Trainus Market."  Another two rooms (xxix, xxx) have been found  to the east of the steps.  Most probably these rooms were shops or taverns

Rooms xxvi and xxvii are wide and rectangular.  Each one was divided into severa parts by archways.  One half of the room xxvii is occupied by a sort of a "well" covered with a stove.  Nobody that I spoke with in Petra knew the purpose of this "well."  Room xxviii was built with two floors.

The rooms xxix and xxx are twin rooms.  They both have some counter space along the walls.  In Room xxix, on the floor, were found , 138 coins.  An addiional 48 coins have been found in room xxx.

The monumental steps of the market and a monumental arch were built between the First and Second century A.D.  On the arch there is an inscription dating back to 114 A.D.  Here Petra is mentioned as the "metropolis" of the Provincia Arabia (The Nabatean Reign had been reduced to a Roman Provincia in 106 A.D. by Trainus).  The inscription also provides the name of Gaius Claudius Severus, the first Roman Governor of the Provincia Arabia.

Petra was destroyed by two earthquakes; one in 383 A.D. and one in 551 A.D.  

1998
Irene Afrania Lentula, Marcus Octavius Germanicus, Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, Marcus Cassius Julianus, Gaius Marius Merullus, Lucius Equitius Cincinnatus Augur, Decius Iunius Palladius Invictus, Patricia Cassia

1999
Prima Fabia Drusila, Marcus Cornelius Felix

2000
Quintus Sertorius, Caius Flavius Diocletianus

2001
Laura Cornelia Amantia Magia, Titus Octavius Pius, Decimus Antoninius Aquilius, Julilla Sempronia Magna, Tiberius Apollonius Cicatrix, Caius Curius Saturninus

2002
Honoria Lania Drusilla, Aulus Hirtius Helveticus, Gnaeus Arminius Saturninus

2003
Secundus Tullius Longinus, Sextus Apollonius Scipio, Julia Gladia Quintiliana, Gaius Iulius Scaurus, Lucius Quintius Constantius

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The Art of War
Marcus Minucius-Tiberius Audens

Your comments are invited on this idea both from a Roman Military Application or from a Business Application.  Your comments will be reprinted here in the coming months.

"The Art of War --Ancient Military Strategy for Modern Business," Sun Tzu:

1.----"The way of the ancient kings was to consider humanness foremost, while martial artists considered intelligence foremost.  This is because intelligence involves the ability to plan and to know when to change effectively".

Chapter 1: "On Assessments"

2.----"If people know they will be richly rewarded if they overcome the opponent, then they will gladly go into battle."

Chapter 2: "On Waging Battle"

3.----"According to the rule for military operations there are nine kinds of ground.  Where local interests fight among themselves on their own territory, this is called the ground of dissolution."

Chapter11: "The Nine Kinds of Terrain"

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Rhine River Patrol, Part 7

He awoke to darkness and rain.  Slashing rain that penetrated his leaf cover and filled the shallow ditch in which he lay.  He wondered why he was outside of the slave-pens, and then he remembered.  He was free.  He was wounded, wet and cold, exhausted, starving and very thirsty, but for the moment he was free.  For how much longer was the question.  He cautiously lifted his head clear of the leaf cover and listened for any sign of the guards who were seeking him.  He heard nothing.  He opened his mouth and drank thirstily of the falling life-giving rain, and was thankful for this unexpected mountain storm.  He now had some kind of chance, if only the guards had sought some shelter.  He didn't think for a minute that they would give up the search.  He knew his value to the slave-master, and even wounded as he was it was more than both of the guards would earn in three months.  No, they would not abandon the search, and sooner or later they would find this place.  The storm and the resulting darkness was a temporary cover at best, but the must use this unexpected help both wisely and immediately.  The pain in his arm was very severe and the arm was stiff, but there was little that he could do about that now.  The mud poultice was still in place to his touch and he added some more mud to the wound, scraped from the bottom of his trench. The rustle of the few dry leaves that were left was drowned by the sound of the rain flailing the brush and trees around him.  He was shivering now, and he knew that he must start moving and get lower down the mountain before he became so chilled that movement was impossible.

Carefully he rose to his feet still cradling his arm, ripping his one small weapon, and peered through the brush.  The glimmer of a fire shown downslope just to the right of this patch of hidden ground.  There appeared to be a rock outcropping there as revealed in the firelight, and it would be there that that the search party would be trying to stay warm and dry until this storm passed.  Already the rain was slacking off, and the black sky above showed a glimmer of moonlight through the heavy storm clouds. He had to get moving!!!  Cautiously he crawled out of his sheltering scrub, and wormed his way under a nearby thorn bush. He had to get past the guards, but they sat astride the only cover leading to the forest below.  Another thousand paces or so below him beckoned a heavy dark forest in which he was sure he could lose himself. 

Maybe if he couldn't get past them, where they were, then they could be moved in order that he could slip past in the shadows.. He cast about for a stone of the right size.  He found a not very heavy one, near the roots of the thorn bush, but it would have to do.  If he could toss the stone over the outcropping, the sound of it rolling down the slope on the far side of the scrub would possibly move these oafs out in a search to find him.  They had already proven themselves to be argumentative and not too clever, except for that damned archer.  A sharp pain stabbed through him, as he thought about the hole in his arm.  He hoped that individual had not joined the search down here on the slope.  He could still see some torches up above on the trail where the chase had started, so he knew that they wouldn't give up so easily.  He thought that the slave-master was probably laying about his with his whip furious with the disruption of his work schedule.  He hefted the stone in his good hand, and slowly stood, looking for a point of aim.  He knew that this was going to hurt like the devil, and he would probably only get one chance.  He was counting on the surprise to rob these searchers of the chance to think carefully about what they would hear.

He threw the missile with all of his might and bent over with the pain in his arm biting his lip until he tasted blood..  The stone didn't quite make it over the outcropping of rock, but rather bounced off of it where it hit and rolled down the slope on the far side.  Shouts, from the fireside told him that the guards had heard the resulting noise, and two shadows leaving the fire, immediately after the shouting, showed him that he had been successful.  The two guards left the fire, running across and down the slope directly away from him.  The way down seemed clear now, and he shifted again to the outside of the scrub opposite the fire and moved quietly downslope toward the dark forest just below.

As he moved downslope he could hear the guards on the far side of the scrub shouting to each other in the darkness.  They were well away from his path, and just a few more minutes and he would be able to lose himself in that leafy forest that lay across the shoulder of the mountain.  Just a few more steps----

"That's about far enough!!” the rough voice behind him ordered and he felt the unmistakable pain of a sword-point jammed against his spine. He stopped dead still and wondered who the devil this was.  Still holding his sword knife against Gaius' side the man moved around the slave, and in the weak light of the fire's flickering flames Gaius saw the archer. He was dressed in a skirt which came down to his ankles and his bow and quiver of bolts were slung across his back.  His sword-knife was about three handspans long with a wicked upturned point.  An empty leather scabbard hung from a broad leather belt.  His pouch was on the opposite side, and was apparently quite full as it bulged so that the top flap strained against it's knot.  A small water bottle hung from the other side of the belt

"Now what? asked Gaius.  "I don't suppose an appeal would do any good."

"No, my friend, I am afraid not.  You are much too valuable to let slip through my hands.  Those two stupid hounds baying at each other over there were useless, and that's why I joined the search.  I know you for a shrewd animal if nothing else."

Gaius let his shoulders slump in apparent defeat. But while he tried to show that he was totally defeated his mind was racing.  He looked in pretty bad shape, and maybe this archer thought that he was all done. "I didn't really think so," Gaius replied, "but your remarks are not very complimentary about your fellow searcher's."  

The archer sneered at this comment.  "They are fools of the worst kind. They argue and quarrel among themselves, and they are so stupid as to be useless in this kind of a search."

Gaius looked beyond the archer's shoulder, and said, "well, maybe you should save your comments for those "hounds" to share face-to- face." He pointed behind the archer 

"Eh!!??, The archer half-turned on reflex and then realizing that he had been duped endeavored to turn back, but he was too late.  The arrow point in Gaius's hand that had been hidden by the mud covering and darkness, ripped into the archer's throat and he staggered back dropping the point of the sword-knife.  Gaius simply fell on the archer and bore him to the ground grappling for the sword-knife.  The archer tried to scream, but could only gurgle through the blood pouring from his ripped throat.  He struggled to keep control of the sword-knife, but the outpouring of his lifeblood drew his strength from his arms and his struggles grew weaker.  His opponent's weakening was just in time since Gaius was also exhausted and weakened with the pain of his arm wound.

Gaius's arm was shrieking in pain as he rolled onto the archer's head and finally got hold of the knife, but by the blade.  He could feel the blade slicing into his hand as he wrested the sword-knife from his opponent. Raising himself he hit the archer as hard as he could in the side of the head with the sword-knife's pommel, and the archer's stiffened and then relaxed beneath him.  Gaius rolled off his opponent and reversed the sword knife in his hand ready for a second attack, but the archer lay bleeding and unconscious.  He thought to give the archer a killing blow, but decided instead to cut the bowstring and take a handful of arrows and his pouch and water bottle for what they might contain.  Then he shakily stood in the dark shadow of scrub and still hugging the downslope side of the brush made his way carefully down the mountain taking care to keep the thick scrub always between him and the search party and keeping his head well down below the top of the brush-line.  In this way he continued to the forest edge.  He quickly stepped into the heavy shadow of a large tree.  Gaius paused for a moment and looked back the way he had come.  He could still hear the two guards calling to each other, and could still see some torch light up on the trail. 

He certainly was not out of trouble yet, but he was armed again. Against that he was in severe pain from his arm and a deep flesh would on his hand.  If the archer's bulging purse held any promise at all, he might well have at least one meal while he was free, and the water bottle sloshing sounds indicated at least one more drink was available. Things were much better than they had been and he felt more confident than he had in many long months.

Gaius turned away from the shouting and the torchlight on the mountain above him.  The fire seemed to have died, and he immediately sought out the deep shadows of the larger trees.  He would move off until he was completely out of the area, then he would stop, and have something to eat and a drink.  Then he would continue on until he felt that he was safe. He began to plan his trek further down the mountain and as far away from the mines and slave-pens as he could get.

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The Amazing Constantinople Aqueduct
Marcus Minucius-Tiberius Audens

Buried deep in the Thracian Forest of Western Turkey is a marvelous water supply system that rivals anything built by the Romans at Carthage or Cologne. This s a stretch of approximately 150 miles of ground water channels, tunnels and aqueduct bridges that stretches Westward from Constantinople (Istanbul) seeking an ever-expanding source of water.

This masterpiece of Roman hydraulic Engineering has been, for the most part, ignored by studies and writings of the Roman efforts in hydraulic engineering throughout the empire.  On of the reasons is the apparent difficulty in getting into the heavily forested  primitive area through which it passes. The most determined attempt to bring this system to the attention of those who may be interested in this information, was published just a few years ago The title is:

"The Longest Roman Water Supply Line" by Kazim Cecen, a Turkish Hydrologist.

The ancient city of Constantinople was poorly placed for an adequate water supply.  In it's early years the relatively short (10 miles) "Belgrade Forest System" during much of the Roman period, (A.D. 46 --330) was sufficient to supply the growing city with the precious life -giving water.  However, this area of the world is subject both to drought, and to the problems of having no nearby rivers, lakes or springs of fresh water.  This lack would cause some severe water shortage problems in the years to come.

As the city grew, new sources of water were required and the search turned westward to the Istranja Mountains and the city of Vize about 150 miles away.

This water system gathers water from hundreds of small streams and springs along this 150 mile route, and varies from simple ground water channels to expertly bricked tunnels and 90 foot high three tiered bridges to carry the water over the steep and heavily forested canyons. 

The amount of work going into this wonder was almost beyond comprehension.  A brief mention of the "restoration" of the system, four centuries after the aqueduct was originally constructed allows the following work force simply to restore, to some degree, the ravages of time and enemy attacks.  This was listed as:

--1,000 masons,
--200 plasterers,
--500 clay workers,
--5,000 laborers, and
--200 brick makers!!!! 

What, I wonder, would have been the original total list of workers required by the time this whole system was finished, as indicated by the inauguration of the new water supply by the Roman Emperor Valens in 373 A.D.? 

References:--

----"The Longest Roman Water Supply Line," Kazim Cecen;, Turkish Hydrologist.
----"Lifeline to Byzentium (article)," Kristen M. Romey, Archaeology Magazine (Jan. / Feb - 2003), Pages 24-31.

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Roman North Africa
Libya: Tripolitania (Part II)
Dominus Praefectus Serapio

As I said before, the coastline of Libya, with no shortage of promontories where wadis flow into the sea, and where there are also many small, habitable islands, provided exactly the kind of place that the Phoenicians preferred to settle in. It seems likely that the kind of stop-overs needed by the coastal trade on which Phoenician vessels had been engaged ever since they first sailed west in search of ores must also have existed along the coast of the Tripolitania, between the gulf of Sidra and the gulf of Gabès. Nevertheless the earliest settlements in the areas where Lepcis, Oea and Sabratha were to rise have until now provided not a single pottery fragment. It should be remembered, however, that the island of Lide (a rock situated at the mouth of the Wadi Lebdah that was possibly used as an early Phoenician outpost) was completely built over during the construction of the port at Lepcis by Imperator Septimius Severus. Archaeological evidence does not tally with references from written sources. Sallust, Silius italicus and Pliny the Elder all speak of Phoenician settlements of colonists from Tyre and Sidon in Lepcis; they also maintain the colonists from Tyre settled in Sabratha, and that Phoenicians from Sicily and Africa settled in Oea. We must nevertheless treat these sources with caution. Anyway, it is legitimate, for instance, to assume that the tradition reported by this late-Roman source may in part at least have sprung from a local desire to ennoble their own cities by claiming origins that go back in the past as far as possible. In this way they put themselves on a par with the defeated city of Carthage. the emporia of Tripolitania also managed to distance themselves from their ancient ties of subjection to the mortal enemy of their new Roman lords.

In reality, the growth of trading posts in Tripolitania between the second half of the 7^th century B.C. (Lepcis) ant the beginning of the 4^th century 8Sabratha) seems directly linked to a specific desire to exploit and augment the natural routes leading into the country’s interior. In turn, these led to contacts with the Garamantes tribe, through whom they could tap into the immense resources of the sub-Saharan Africa, Cyrenaica and Egypt. In the late 7th century B.C. this level of economic and political planning was implemented by Carthage, that had its roots already firmly planted in Africa.

On the one hand Carthaginians looked towards the Mediterranean; on the other they sought to dominate Africa. The first treaty they made with the emerging power of Rome in 509 B.C. fits into this scheme of things: under the terms of the treaty, the Romans were prohibited from sailing past Cape Bon (the peninsula at the northeast of Tunisia). Another aim of their strategy was to penetrate right to the heart of the Gulf of Sidra. Foundations attributed to the Carthaginians can be found from Macomaca, a busy outpost specializing in salt fish on the Tuaorga Lagoon near Misurata, to Macomades Syrtis and Charax (past present-day Sirte), a town where smuggled Cyrenaican silphium was traded for wine.

These small centers, of which Charax was the most important, chart the progressive advance of Carthage eastward, toward the point where the Phileni brothers had died in their attempt to establish a borderline. Although things shifted from time to time under the Ptolemies, this area traditionally formed the boundary between the Carthaginian African area and Cyrenaica, influenced by the Greeks.  To sum up, all evidence we have points to the fact that all three Tripolitanian cities (not just the older Lepcis, but also the more recent Oea and Sabratha) if they were not colonies of pure Carthaginian origin, at least grew up in a way which suited the plans and the needs of Carthage.

According to the sources, we know that the status of "Carthaginian colonies" was particularly burdensome. For example, we know that Lepcis paid "vectigal", or tributes, to Carthage of a talent a day (in other words more than nine tons of silver every year!). It is likely that all three cities did the same. So when Scipio defeated the Carthaginians at Zama it must have come as a relief to those cities. Even if after 201 B.C. they still nominally belonged to Carthage, in reality the Emporia of Tripolitania asserted very quickly their independence. Neither the brief domination of Massinissa, king of Numidia, to whom Rome eventually gave the region (probably in about 162-162 B.C.), nor indeed the far more liberal and peaceful rule of Micipsa, held back the development of the three cities. Even though they had to pay tributes to the distant Numidian kings, they preserved their own language, institutions and religious traditions. And above all they were free to trade on an independent basis.

Today there is irrefutable archaeological evidence that these three cities played a full part in Mediterranean trade. this trade was increasingly dominated by the Romans, and the evidence shows that the Emporia grew progressively richer. Evidence of this is the impressive amount of urban development that took place in Lepcis and Sabratha between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century B.C. In addition, rich Hellenistic cemeteries have been discovered in the suburbs of these two cities, as well as in Oea. Mediterranean trade was boosted by ever-growing demand for goods from the inexhaustible resources of Africa: wild animals and beasts for amphitheaters, hides, ivory, gold dust, semiprecious stones and, of course, slaves. The coastal plan was systematically exploited, making late-Hellenistic Lepcis an important center in trading grain. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the cereal-growing land irrigated by the Cinyps Wadi had very high yields. In addition, sheep farming prospered on the Jebel uplands behind the three cities.

Both their geographical position and their legal status as peripheral vassals of the kingdom of Numidia meant that the Tripolitanian Emporia felt no adverse effects from the last Punic War. Lepcis, at least, threw in its lot with Rome from the beginning of the Jugurthine War in 111 B.C., signing a treaty of alliance ad friendship. From then on, Lepcis gave its new allies every assistance and in 108 B.C., albeit temporarily, a Roman garrison was stationed in the city. It seems likely that, as during Carthaginian domination, Lepcis continued to function as the administrative capital of the Empotia region. During the 1st century B.C. not just Lepcis but also Oea and Sabratha struck their own bronze coins; Lepcis also had silver coins. The Tripolitanian Emporia remained independent until at least 46 B.C., appearing to escape relatively unscathed from the Roman civil wars; it was in 46 B.C. that Caesar imposed the fine of one million liters of oil as punishment for help (arms, soldiers and money) given to Juba and Pompey's faction. We don't know if on that occasion the Tripolitanian cities also lost their legal status as "liberae" (free) cities, only to regain it under Augustus. What is certain, however, is that by the middle of the Augustan era they were autonomous and enjoyed the right to mint coins that bore the likeness of Augustus. For Lepcis, Oea and Sabratha the increase in traffic and safety on the trade routes into sub-Saharan Africa, the shield provided by Roman troops in relation to the "nationes" (tribes) of the interior, perhaps the lifting of the onerous annual oil tribute that Caesar had imposed, and finally the reconfirmation of a broad measure of independence - all this must have been more than sufficient motive to mine a series of separate coins bearing the head and the symbols of the reigning Imperator.

Within the framework of Africa Proconsularis, in other words the new Augustan province, the Emporia were more or less left free to govern themselves. Nonetheless, for them too the by-now unstoppable process of incorporation into the Roman empire had begun; it was hastened by the voluntary (and self-seeking) support given by their governing classes to Roman rule. This had two consequences on the freedom of the Tripolitanian cities during the 2nd and the 1^st century B.C.. First, it established a pronounced degree of political conservatism; second, it opened up the possibility of the Emporia taking over (and this time purely for their own advantage) the trading routes that used to belong to the destroyed Carthage. The limits of the world in which they traded (and clearly, in the broader sense, also their cultural world) were therefore far greater and more varied than the single Western influence (the Italian peninsula) that the other Carthaginian "civitates" (settlements) of Africa inevitably clung to, whether or not they were free. On the other hand, it is easy to see why the Roman and italic influence was far stronger for example in Utica than in Lepcis. Although Utica was a free city, it was also the seat and court of the provincial governor, and so played host to his administration.

As a consequence, the Emporia didn't merely absorb those elements of Alexandrine culture that had already penetrated Carthaginian civilization, but after 201-146 B.C. they were also directly influenced by Alexandria itself and by the whole of Greco-Eastern world of which Alexandria was the capital. With this came, if not political, then at least cultural and commercial influences.

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Plutarch's Portrayal of Cato the Elder
An Essay by Romanus Diogenes
Reprinted by permission of the author

This is an essay on Plutarch's portrayal of Cato the Elder, from his series of biographies of prominent Greeks and Romans. (1) In order to understand Cato the Elder, I think it is important to give consideration to both Plutarch and to Cato's historical background. Plutarch lived ca. 40 A.D. to ca. 120 A.D. He was a Greek, from the town of Chaeronea, in Boeotia, the region north of Attica. (2) The reason for pointing this out is to show that Plutarch lived during a time when Greece was a part of the Roman Empire; at this time, Rome was considered as a benevolent ruler. Also at this time, Greek culture, the Hellenistic culture, was dominant in the Empire.  It was not unusual for a Greek to write about Romans. Polybius had already done this in the first century B.C., when the Roman Empire was still being established, although that was within the framework of the Roman Republic. So, Plutarch was a Greek who was writing within a milieu in which the culture of his own country was dominant and in which his country, Greece, enjoyed the benevolent rule of the autocracy of Rome.

Since this was something that the upper class would do, for their less educated, lower class neighbors, this would indicate that his family was upper class. This evolved, eventually, into the patron-client system. However, Plutarch refers to Cato being a Plebeian, not a Patrician. Previously, in Roman history, political success had been restricted to the Patrician class, but this was a time of change in Rome, as well as expansion. Indeed, the latter brought about the former. The main socio-political division was not Patricians versus Plebeians, but Optimates (which included Patricians and well-off Plebeians) versus Populares. Plutarch does not indicate that Cato had any trouble being elected to the various offices which had formerly been restricted to Patricians. I assess that he had, eventually, enough money, he became a Senator (Plutarch nowhere actually says that Cato became a Senator; I assess that it went without saying for Plutarch) and he was of the Optimates Party. Cato started his military career during the Second Punic War. This was the way that all Roman politicians started their careers. Military service, as well as money, was a required prerequisite to a political career, and Cato went to serve with Fabius Maximus. Since Fabius was known for his opposition to the Scipios, one may wonder if Cato first picked up his own dislike of that family under Fabius, although even if that is the case, it was probably maintained because Cato and the Scipios were so different. One may also ponder as to whether Cato was really enthusiastic about being a soldier or was he just "doing his required time" before his political career. Plutarch notes that Cato strove to be the best soldier he could be. I assess therefore, that Cato truly wanted to be a top notch soldier because that was part of being a complete Roman, heart and soul. At this point, Plutarch notes that Cato, during his tour of duty with Fabius, during the siege of Tarentum, was influenced by a colleague who was a Pythagorean. Plutarch comments that Cato's views of life were influenced by this philosophy. This is very interesting, since Pythagoreans is a Greek philosophy, and Cato is known for being so against Greek influence in Rome. Cato's dislike of Greek culture is a theme in Plutarch's biography of him. Yet at the same time, Cato, like other educated Romans, was well acquainted with Greek literature, as his comment to Polybius, on one occasion, shows.(7)

Apparently, after this term of service, Cato returned to his farm in Tusculum. According to Plutarch, his exemplary life style and abilities attracted the notice of a much richer neighbor, Valerius Flaccus, "a member of one of the oldest patrician families and aman of great political influence."(8) Valerius Flaccus apparently brought Cato to Rome and sponsored him for a political career. I assess that Valerius, as a Patrician, was probably conservative about the changes going on in Rome, and he saw an ally, of great ability, for the Optimates, in Cato. Another thing is that Plutarch indicates that Cato gained enough money, through a sober, industrious, thrifty, even stingy, life style as a farmer, to invest in various enterprises and become, eventually, very rich, including becoming a Senator (for which a certain amount of wealth was legally required). I assess, however, that Cato needed some seed money for his career and he would not have got it if it were not for Valerius Flaccus. Cato was very boastful about himself, another theme in Plutarch's account, so he probably never acknowledged, openly, any monetary debt to Flaccus but he did always ally himself with Flaccus politically, right up to the time he was elected to the office of censor, which was the highest point of his political career. Cato served as quaestor to Scipio (later Scipio Africanus) for the invasion of Carthage. He did not get along with Scipio because of the latter's extravagant lifestyle and, to Cato, too lax treatment of the troops. Plutarch notes that Cato did not believe, at that time, that troops should be paid anything more than they needed for the basics of existence.(9) Scipio replied to the effect that Rome would not judge him by the money he spent but by whether or not he won battles. Cato called for an investigation into Scipio's expenditures but the latter was cleared.

At this point, Plutarch comments on how Cato was trying to preserve the old, virtuous ways but that Rome was changing and the old ways were being submerged by influences from the newly conquered lands. Plutarch further comments on Cato's habits of economy, in particular on how he treated old slaves, selling them off after they could no longer work, so he would not have to spend money on no longer productive property. The author disapproves of this, commenting that it is the "mark of a thoroughly ungenerous nature."(10) On the other hand, this sort of behavior was to be praised when it was exhibited by Cato in some office such as governor of Sardinia.(11) There, it was an example of fiscal honesty, apparently a virtue already in decline among the Romans. Plutarch continues this commentary section, talking about Cato's oratorical ability. Apparently, Cato strove to achieve a pithy style of speech, with what we might call memorable one-liners.

Plutarch quotes a number of them. It is here that Plutarch repeats the story of Cato's quote, from the Odyssey, to Polybius, thus repeating the theme that Cato was literate in Greek and Greek culture even though he affected to dislike Greeks and Greek culture. I cannot fully think of an explanation for this; no doubt, it calls for further study of Roman history and thought on my part but I can offer an example that is perhaps analogous. During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, I was in the U.S. Army, and I fully believed that the Soviet Union was an evil tyranny that should be crushed; on the other hand, I was very attracted to Russian history and culture, especially to the mystical beauty of their icons (I now am an iconographer). Of course, the Romans were not militarily concerned with Greece; excluding Philip IV of Macedonia, it posed no threat to them. But just as some of the more ardent American patriots of the Cold War were concerned with the "insidious threat of Communism creeping into our free society and undermining morality and liberty," Cato may have considered Greek culture an insidious threat to the virtues that made Rome great even while he was attracted to that culture. Cato continued on with his political career, achieving all the offices of the "cursus honorum," the progress of offices from lowest to highest. He was elected consul in 195 B.C., with his political benefactor, Valerius Flaccus. This shows the Roman custom, at that time, of electing one consul from the Plebeian class and one from the Patrician class. However, as I noted above, those social classes were no longer a true picture of Roman politics. It was the Optimates, rich conservatives of both the Patrician and Plebeian families, versus the Populares, or people who were not rich. Cato was probably a Senator by that time and was probably an Optimate. At that time, there was a developing middle class, the "knights," or "equestrians," people who were rich enough to afford a horse and serve in the cavalry branch of the armed forces but the main social and political division was, I assess, still between the very rich Optimates and the very not-so-rich Populares. The Populares, of course, had numbers on their side, but, I may comment, the Optimates had money, for bribes, on their side. After his consulate, Cato continued to serve in both military and political offices. I think his period, right after his consulate, as governor of part of Spain, is interesting because it shows that he may have changed his personality with time and/or experience. As I noted earlier, Cato had opposed Scipio Africanus for paying the troops more than was needed for the barest subsistence. But in his period as governor of part of Spain, "over and above the plunder that his soldiers obtained on campaign, he presented them each with a pound of silver,"(12). Plutarch also quotes him as saying, at this time, that he did not "blame thoses who seek to make their fortune in this way."(13) Thus, he perhaps changed his views with experience, or perhaps he remained hard on the governing class, whom he thought should always be the example of virtue but regarded the soldiers as those from whom less is to be expected. He served as a "legate under Titus Sempronius the consul, and helped him subdue Thrace and the territories bordering the Danube. Later, he was a military tribune under Manius Acilius during his campaign in Greece against Antiochus the Great."(14)Plutarch spends some time on this campaign, possibly because he himself was Greek and because one of the main battles took place at Thermopylae.(15) Cato is shown as being very heroic in this episode. Plutarch asserts that "these actions which I have described were the most remarkable achievements of Cato's military career."(16) Plutarch, as I noted earlier, was writing within the milieu of a benevolent rule over Greece by Rome, and who knows what life would have been like if Rome had faltered at this point and Antiochus had won.

This may have influenced his description of the campaign. On the other hand, Plutarch maintains his even handedness between praise and criticism of Cato by noting that "Cato never stinted his own praise, and could never resist following up a great achievement with a correspondingly boastful description of it."(17)Plutarch then recounts Cato's election to and activities as censor. This was Cato's most distinguished post. Cato used the great powers of this office in an attempt to make Rome return to more virtuous ways, from the past. But, he was not with the times. Rome's success had brought about inevitable change. There was no way to stop it. The Optimates had unsuccessfully banded together to oppose his election as censor, so he was elected mostly, I assess, by votes of the Populares. Perhaps they saw it as a way to putone over on the Optimates but after a while even the Populares became disenchanted with their new censor because of his reform efforts. After this office, he continued to be active in the law courts, and as a sort of senior statesman. His last great political activity was his advocacy that Rome return to north Africa and finish off Carthage. After a diplomatic mission there, he became convinced that Carthage was reviving and would become a serious threat to Rome if not stopped as soon as possible.

Plutarch asserts that "Some people consider the last of his political achievements was the destruction of Carthage. In the military sense, it was the younger Scipio who brought this about, but the fact that the Romans went to war at all was very largely the consequence of Cato's advice."(18) I think it ironic that this last goal of Cato's was carried out by a member of the family that he so disliked. Plutarch ends his biographical essay of Cato with this episode but in the section before this episode, and after the account of the censorship, he spends a lot of time talking about Cato's personal life. There, he asserts that Cato was a model father but he contrasts, again, Cato's attitude about slaves, of which Plutarch disapproves, and he mentions again Cato's dislike of Greeks and Greek culture.

In conclusion, I think Plutarch portrays Cato as one of the greatest Romans because he, Cato, strove to embody the virtues which were the ideal of the Romans, and he came very close to doing so. The Romans revered him for that, as well. But, I think that, like most ideals, they didn't expect that they themselves would ever be called upon to achieve such a state of civic sanctity. The Romans revered him for what he was in his own life but disliked him when he tried to lead them to that ideal.

References:

1. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, Penguin Classics edition, trans. by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin Putnam Press, Inc., 1965. This is Plutarch's series on prominent Romans; the Penguin Classics edition of his series on prominent Greeks is The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives, trans. by Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Penguin-Putnam Press, Inc., 1960. The translator for the Penguin edition, Ian Scott-Kilvert, indicates in his introduction to both books that he has not included the lives of all the prominent men in Plutarch's series.
2. Plutarch. The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives,
Penguin Classics, p. 7.
3. Plutarch, Makers of Rome, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert. p. 119.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. The New College Latin & English Dictionary, John C. Traupman, Ph.D. (New York: Bantam Books, 1966), s.v. "prisc-us,-a,-um."
7. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 129.
8. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 122.
9. Ibid., 123.
10. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 125.
11. Ibid.
12. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 130
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., p. 132.
15. Ibid., p. 133.
16. Ibid., p. 135.
17. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 135.
18. Plutarch. Makers of Rome, p. 149.

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On Leaving Nova Roma
Gaius Popillius Laenas

In November of 2756 auc. (2003), I resigned as a cive of Nova Roma.   The reasons were personal, but at the time I did not feel anger, but instead frustration and disillusionment.

I have seen many people resign from Nova Roma.  About one month after I received my citizenship, on the Ides of March in 2754, a large group of cives resigned in protest, because they felt Nova  Roma was going in the wrong direction.  I have had friends and acquaintances resign for differing reasons.  Some came back immediately; some have yet to return.  The co-founder of Nova Roma  has resigned his citizenship twice, and some think he will yet  return in the fullness of time.

In the days following my resignation, I was contacted by an unexpected number of people.  Some were close Nova Roman friends, some were friends with whom I had infrequent contact, and some were acquaintances that surprised me with an e-mail.  One even phoned me in what ended up being a two-hour phone call.

At the time of my resignation, I felt I had given the decision a complete thinking through.  I believed I was old and experienced enough not to let emotion cloud my judgment.  I was wrong.

Nova Roma is more than politics and even more than the Religio.  It is a diverse group of people who share love for the same thing ­  ancient Rome and the hope that some part of it can live again.  The people who contacted me after my resignation reminded me, this is something worth hanging on to.  

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