#Roman republic

[victusinveritas]

I don't know who the fuck censored "hell" in that last image, but it sure as shit wasn't me. What is this, 3rd grade internet?

[dicklessthewonderclown]

GUYS GUYS LISTEN. tomorrow is the ides of march. someone has the chance to do the funniest thing ever. just saying.

on a completely unrelated note, did you guys know that julius caesar assumed dictatorship for life about a month before the ides of march? fun fact about the roman republic government system, ‘dictator’ was a temporary position. and the dictator was nominated by a consul (often at the request of the senate), then confirmed by a vote of the comitia curiata. most dictators were appointed for 6mo-1 year, bc they were often appointed to resolve a specific situation. enough out of me, the point is that it was a temporary and elected position. and when someone tried to have that position be for life, well, sic semper tyrannis

[eurydiceauxenfers]

I know we all love the Ides of March here and I know how very cathartic it would be if our own current wannabe dictator experienced some serious deja vu. I get that most of you are not being serious here when you say you want an Ides of March repeat, but for those who are, let me seriously explain something to you.

Caesar’s assassination did not save the Roman Republic, it was its final death blow. Do you know what happened immediately after the Stabbening?

Caesar’s supporters turned him into a martyr and whipped his populist power base into a violent bloody mob. The second Triumvirate enacted a bloody war and purge against Caesar’s enemies before turning on each other like Cadmus’ dragon teeth warriors, until eventually Octavian emerged on top and officially ended the Republic. And throughout it all, the common man suffered.

I’d also like to remind you that the men who stabbed Caesar were not protecting our Enlightenment inspired Democratic Republic. They were protecting Roman Republicanism. They were not rebels, they were wealthy, elite men, fighting to preserve their own power base and wealth. Ultimately the entire downfall of the Republic was centered on one issue: land reform. The elites of Rome sought to forcibly buy out land from yeoman farmers and consolidate it into large villas, forcing the previous owners out into poverty to be replaced with cheap slave labor. Populists like Caesar fought to enact land reforms to protect the small farmers. He also funded a lot of public infrastructure and welfare projects as well as the arts.

Caesar was more of a “leftist” (whatever the fuck that even means for someone who lived thousands of years before the development of feudalism let alone capitalism and socialism) than the men who stabbed him. He was also a dictator and tyrant, unbelievably corrupt and a callous ruthless opportunist to his core (not to mention, like all Romans, a genocidal, colonizing racist). The Ides of March is not a guide, it’s a cautionary tale.

[gizromana]

Today on this day 2069 years ago Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times on a Senate meeting. And so I thought - there is no better day than this one to dip my toe into the art narrated in Ancient Rome. The idea was fun in theory, but I realised the full extent of the tragedy at the moment when I had to render 23 hands... I am honestly so grateful not all Senators had the gall to do the did.

[nuttysaladtree]

The result is, at the moment, somewhat unfortunate: there really isn't, to my knowledge, a good place for a beginner to get an up-to-date treatment of the Gracchi, short of reading the older works, then reading a lot of articles (often in difficult to obtain publications, many not in English) to catch up on the debates. Needless to say, an up-to-date accessible monograph covering both brothers and presenting the points of contention about them is desideratum.

(formatting original) Bret Devereaux in a 2025-01-17 post on his blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, "Collections: On the Gracchi, Part I: Tiberius Gracchus", accessed 2025-02-28

to be confident in posting about your Guy all u need to do is read fifty academic articles and five books of varying respectability and reliability and also watched a few operas or plays. this tumblr thing can be so easy

[taisart11]

Beware the Ides of March 🔪🩸

[victusinveritas]

[astyrastir]

Sudden urge to render

[astirastyr]

Trying to get used to drawing him :}

[i-cant-think-of-anything-to-say]

Fun Things to do this Ides of March!!

Have a picnic 🧺

Read a book 📖

Bake a sweet treat 🍪

Watch a movi— okay Ceaser is gone. grab a knife. we revolt at the next senate meeting.🔪

[nuttysaladtree]

Tags from original post: #he's fine with me talking about historiography#he's mad b/c right before this i told him that adoptionism 'had a lot of points' and 'could have solved some stuff'

From the replies:

violsva 6d: Which video game was your 1stC stoic friend playing?

elucubrare 6d Original Poster: all day ttrpg session with my skald friend as the dm

"on the one hand," i tell the late medieval monk i hang out with sometimes, "each age reconfigures the great events of history in the way that makes them most meaningful for their own time. like how you keep drawing alexander in full plate."

"he's a knight, what else would he wear"

"on the other," i continue, ignoring him, "it does make me feel like i've gone a little bit crazy when people applaud caesar's assassins as restoring power to the people. at best they wanted a different dictator for life."

"was your 1st century ad stoic friend busy or something"

"yes. anyway the point is applauding action taken for action's sake without looking at the consequences is silly. it's not like killing caesar restored the Res Publica anyway -"

"because all Caesar did was knock over its rotted corpse," he says along with me. "can i play Dark Souls in peace now?"

[mrjocrafter]

Your Ides of March reminder that Gaius Julius Caesar was (1) elected by the people, (2) highly popular with the people during both of his stints as consul, and (3) was killed because a group of aristocrats didn't like that he redistributed land to poor citizens and expanded welfare, and believed he would undertake more such reforms.

[jacks-the-flower]

i love that both julius caesar and brennan lee mulligan are trending right now- like brennan would take a look at our ides of march posts, point out how technically historically caesar was killed because he was doing too much good for the commoners, and then would turn around and metaphorically stab the motherfucker like the rest of us because fuck dictators and facists

[porciaenjoyer]

tumblr in the roman republic

🤔 politicalcitizen Follow

WHEN is cicero going to release the next philippic… i literally feel like i’m in the siege tower 😩

🗡️ antonysstola Follow

I didn't know people were still supporting C*cero. This is gross.

👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 curiontonyreal Follow

op, maybe you were joking, but this really isn't okay. c*cero has been ATTACKING antony ruthlessly. please do not support him and his harmful content....

#after the way he insulted antony and curio? not a good look. #cw cicero

LIII notes

🏛️ mournfulcaesarian Follow

i mkss himm... i mjss him@so mucj

☄️ hopefulbeliever Follow

DIVVS IVLIVS watches over us even now.

CC notes

🛡️ liberator-4-ever Follow

are they seriously giving that freak imperium :/

🛡️ liberator-4-ever Follow

eheu! turning off reblogs since you can’t behave yourselves.

V̅I̅I̅ notes

🏺catharsis-lover Follow

oh to see antigone at the city dionysia…

#i was born in the wrong generation #all we have now is political discourse 😣

II notes

⚔️ liberatorstournament Follow

🏛️ mournfulcaesarian Follow

disgusting.

🩸aristogeitoncore Follow

Yet another uneducated pleb with no real-world experience here to tell us why “Caesar was good, actually”. Come back when you’ve donned the toga virilis.

#Btw CASSIUS SWEEP!!!!

CMXXXI notes

🍇 sillydebauchee Follow

Dinner party at my place tonight!

👩🏻 palatinegirl Follow

#Full disclosure we will be hurling my political opponents off the Tarpeian Rock.

hey op what the fuck does this mean?

CLVIII notes

[mrjocrafter]

ADDITIONAL CONTEXT:

Caesar's assassins were largely motivated by conservatism and the desire to roll back popular populist reforms such as land redistribution and welfare expansion (yes, seriously).

The extent of Caesar's tyranny is debatable as both previous Republican dictators (such as the conservative Sulla) and subsequent Emperors make his sole rule look pretty decent in comparison to everything that came before and after. He was definitely a dictator, but he had, even according to his assassins, the broad support of the Roman citizenry.

The Assassination of Julius Caesar was the last gasp of a dying reactionary movement attempting to maintain an aristocratic status quo which had been crumbling for centuries.

i appreciate that everyone is having a good time w the stabbing memes but every year im a bit like

[seianusfanboy]

get ready caesar