Roman Emperors

[iago]

If you've never studied the Roman Emperors, I highly recommend you get a book about it.  From Augustus in the first century for the next 300 years, it's one of the bloodiest and funniest lines. 

My two favorites are:

Nero: killed his mother and his first wife.  Burnt down part of Rome and built a golden palace over it. 

Commodus: dressed like Hercules, demanded to be worshipped as a god, and he neglected matters of state while dallying with a harem of some 300 women.  He re-named Rome to, "The Colony of Commodus".

It's a really cool history, with a lot of really insane emperors.  I highly recommend reading it!

[trust]

Mine is Caesar, I've loved that guy since about 6th grade.

When I was at a summer program and we took Latin we had to pick latin names, so I was Julius (pronounced with no J since the letter is nonexistant.)

But seriously wasn't he (and pretty much everybody else in that time period) freakin awesome? Roman stuff is definitely one of my favorite things to watch on the History Channel.

[iago]

Yes, Caesar was cool, but there's one small problem: he wasn't an emperor

Caesar grabbed power in a military coup in the first century BC.  He demanded (and got) total power, making him effectively a dictator.  He used (and abused) the power to restructure the republic (not yet an empire) and make it stronger.  Unfortunately, in doing so, he took the power away from the Senate and the Aristocrats, who were used to be in control.  That pissed them off so they, as you all know, had Caesar assassinated. 

As a result of Caesars reforms, the republic/empire couldn't look after itself because of that, and the two main factions (one held by Octavian, later known as Augustus, and the other was Marc Antony, friend and protege of Caesar) fought for power in a civil war that lasted many years (25 or 30, I think?).  Finally, Augustus killed Marc Antony, and Cleopatra (Antony's girl) killed herself (around 30AD, I think).  Octavious named himself the first emperor of Rome, and changed his name to Augustus Caesar to help hide his bloody history, then continued the work that Caesar had started.  He was very successful, and there was a long period of peace (known as the Pox Romana) starting with Augustus and ending with Marcus Aurilius (around 200AD).  So Augustus Caesar finished what Julius Caesar had started. 

The story is actually much more involved than that.  I'm sure you could find it if you read up on Julious Caesar, Augustus Caesar, and Marc Antony. 

(Note: the years and spellings might be wrong, I did that all from memory)

[Super_X]

But, Brutus is an honorable man.

[iago]

Brutus and the others were doing what they perceived was best for the empire.  Caesar was taking too much power, and was changing their way of life, so they killed him. 

Octavius wanted to continue Caesar's work and make the Roman Republic into an empire.

Marc Antony wanted to make Rome back into a Republic. 

Hence, the civil war, pretty much caused by Caesar

[trust]

Oh. Well, then, Caesar is my favorite dictator.


I think Rome would have been better with Caesar in total control too.

[iago]

And it was, for a few years. 

[Super_X]

Dude, Octavious and marc antony where on the same side for a while, they where attacking rome, ya know?

[iago]

You might be right, they both had careers before the civil war. But during the civil war, they were definitely against each other. 

[Super_X]

I might be wrong, too. I'm mainly remembering this stuff from Shakespeare's play.

[iago]

Shakespeare's play isn't a great place to get information from.  It was written for entertainment. 

[Warrior]

so I was Julius (pronounced with no J since the letter is nonexistant.)

In Latin I believe they use the I to get a near J sound
Iulius

I like Ceasar as well, if I were a roman I'd be him.

[Super_X]

Shakespeare's play isn't a great place to get information from.  It was written for entertainment. 

I know, it's just my most recent thing I've heard from that supposide time period. My last roman history class was freshman year, so, 2~ agoe.

[iago]

so I was Julius (pronounced with no J since the letter is nonexistant.)

In Latin I believe they use the I to get a near J sound
Iulius

I like Ceasar as well, if I were a roman I'd be him.

Yeah, like the god Jupter was known as Iupiter.  Silly Romans. 

And I wouldn't want to be Caesar.  He killed A LOT of people. 

[trust]

And I wouldn't want to be Caesar.  He killed A LOT of people. 

He wouldn't have been such a great general if he hadn't...

[Warrior]

I love the latin language, although it's a bitch to learn it's pretty cool how they did things.
"v"'s sound like W's and C's always take the hard "K" sound except in special cases

Example: Silva is pronounced Silwa which means Forest

They also would be able to write Latin using no spaces (and they used to!) since
all latin sentences end with a verb and they can tell what the word is being used for by the ending

[iago]

And I wouldn't want to be Caesar.  He killed A LOT of people. 

He wouldn't have been such a great general if he hadn't...

Of course.  But I personally wouldn't be able to do that, and probably nobody here would be able to kill.  We aren't as used to death as the Romans were.  Doing things back then like Terrorists do now was perfectly acceptable, and wasn't nearly as shocking. 

Also, having slaves would be cool.  Although odds are pretty high that you'd be a slave or freedman if you lived back then, which would suck. 

I love the latin language, although it's a bitch to learn it's pretty cool how they did things.
"v"'s sound like W's and C's always take the hard "K" sound except in special cases

Example: Silva is pronounced Silwa which means Forest

They also would be able to write Latin using no spaces (and they used to!) since
all latin sentences end with a verb and they can tell what the word is being used for by the ending

Yeah, Latin is difficult.  I wonder why "Cicero" has a soft C... hmm!

[Sidoh]

I love the latin language, although it's a bitch to learn it's pretty cool how they did things.
"v"'s sound like W's and C's always take the hard "K" sound except in special cases

Example: Silva is pronounced Silwa which means Forest

They also would be able to write Latin using no spaces (and they used to!) since
all latin sentences end with a verb and they can tell what the word is being used for by the ending

I haven't studied it in the least, but I do recognize what a good language it is.  Why else would the scientific community use it so heavily?!

[Warrior]

I know in special cases, especially names they don't respect that unwritten rule. But 90% of the time it uses a hard c sound.

It get's annoying with Nomnative Plural and Genitive where you have the same endings and have
to make out what case the word is by the context of the rest of the sentence.

Also the fact that there are 5 declensions 3 conjugations and some other crap make learning Latin
a dread for anyone who hates studying (me)

[Hitmen]

I love the latin language, although it's a bitch to learn it's pretty cool how they did things.
"v"'s sound like W's and C's always take the hard "K" sound except in special cases

Wow, that's like the exact opposite of german,  'w' is pronounced as 'v', and 'c' is never hard.

[Warrior]

I guess Ceasar beat the gauls so hard thier speech got fucked up. LOL BURN.

[Sidoh]

I guess Ceasar beat the gauls so hard thier speech got fucked up. LOL BURN.

ROFL

[rabbit]

And I wouldn't want to be Caesar.  He killed A LOT of people. 

Really?  I'd not want to be Caesar because he got stabbed 45 times.  That would suck.

@Warrior: Don't forget the 6 tenses and 7 parts of speech!

I studied Latin for 4 years..what a waste...

[Sidoh]

@Warrior: Don't forget the 6 tenses and 7 parts of speech!

That's crazy.  I like Latin from the little I know of it, but as I found when I took Spanish, studying speech languages bores me.

[iago]

Really?  I'd not want to be Caesar because he got stabbed 45 times.  That would suck.

We all have to die sooner or later.  Besides, I doubt he cared much after the 3rd or 4th stab. 

That's crazy.  I like Latin from the little I know of it, but as I found when I took Spanish, studying speech languages bores me.

I agree, learning languages is hard.  We had to take a class of Latin for some reason.  He basically gave us about 8 words (to be, to love, whatever "video" translates to, to run, boy, girl, soldier, and farmer) and a bunch of sentences to translate. 

Another cool thing they did in Rome: when they took over Greece, they took 1000 aristocrats hostage, and, if the Greek people pissed them off, they'd torture and kill one of the aristocrats.  That kept the Greeks in check until they were used to be owned by Rome

[Sidoh]

We all have to die sooner or later.  Besides, I doubt he cared much after the 3rd or 4th stab. 

Hehe.

I agree, learning languages is hard.  We had to take a class of Latin for some reason.  He basically gave us about 8 words (to be, to love, whatever "video" translates to, to run, boy, girl, soldier, and farmer) and a bunch of sentences to translate. 

Another cool thing they did in Rome: when they took over Greece, they took 1000 aristocrats hostage, and, if the Greek people pissed them off, they'd torture and kill one of the aristocrats.  That kept the Greeks in check until they were used to be owned by Rome

The foriegn exchange student here still has problems with English pretty frequently.  He's pretty hard to understand if you don't listen closely.  That's bad because most of the classes I have with him also have another student who is really good at distracting me.  Warrior knows who I'm talking about.

[Warrior]

@Rabbit the 6 tenses are covered by the Conjugations iirc (Meaning there are six conjugations instead of 3)

Past Present Future Perfect Imperfect is what I think it is

Additionally it will be like

Past:
Past Nomnative
Past Genitive
Past Ablative
Etc..

For each one.
Pretty damn annoying.

[rabbit]

Imperfect Perfect Present Future Future-Perfect Pluperfect