THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem x kalendas januarias

• Saturnalia (day 7)
• Larentalia -- a funerary ritual at the purported tomb of Acca
  Larentia, who was the wife of the shepherd who found Romulus
  and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf; or perhaps a festival in honour of a mistress of Hercules
• rites in honour of the Tempestates; a divinity brought to Rome after the First Punic War (= Ba'al of the skies or Ba'al of the clouds)
• 179 B.C. -- dedication of a Temple of Diana and A Temple of Juno Regina in
  the Campus Martius by M. Aemilius Lepidus
• 250 A.D. (or 304?) -- martyrdom of Victoria and Anatolia
• 303 A.D. -- martyrdom of Midgonius and Mardonius at Rome

::Tuesday, December 23, 2003 8:00:15 AM::
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CHATTER: The Saddamania Continues ...

... this time with another vote for Vecingetorix; or perhaps we're comparing George Bush to Julius Caesar; or both:

Julius Caesar knew how to announce the capture an enemy leader. In 52 BC, his Roman soldiers defeated the tribes of Gaul, and captured the Gallic leader Vercingetorix. The "barbarian" chief was paraded through Rome in chains, and executed after six years in captivity. In The Gallic Wars, Caesar justified his invasion and occupation of Gaul by writing that Vercingetorix "terrorized waverers with the rigors of an iron discipline. Serious cases of disaffection were punished by torture and death at the stake, and even for a minor fault he would cut off a man's ears or gouge out one of his eyes, that they may be an example to the rest, and frighten others."

Caesar described the Gallic defense and ultimate surrender: "To the extraordinary valor of our soldiers, devices of every sort were opposed by the Gauls....I ordered that their weapons should be surrendered and their tribal chiefs brought before me. I took my place on the fortifications in front of the camp and the chiefs were brought to me there. Vercingetorix was surrendered, and the weapons were laid down before me....A thanksgiving of twenty days is decreed..."

In 2003 AD, George W. Bush also announced the capture of an enemy leader, using much the same language as his Roman predecessor: "The world is better off without you, Mr. Saddam Hussein....Our brave troops, combined with good intelligence, found you....He stayed in power by fear, by ruling through fear....He's a liar. He's a torturer. He's a murderer.... He's a person that was willing to destroy his country and to kill a lot of his fellow citizens. He's a person who used weapons of mass destruction against citizens in his own country."

More in Counterpunch ...

::Tuesday, December 23, 2003 7:20:01 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

2.00 p.m. |A&E| Helen of Troy (part 1)
"Movie. A very special take on the story of one of the most
powerful, yet traditionally unexplored women in Greek history,
going beyond the myth of "the face that launched a 1,000 ships"
and started the 10-year-long Trojan War. Starring Sienna
Guillory as Helen, Matthew Marsden as Paris, Rufus Sewell as
Agamemnon, Stellan Skarsgard as Theseus, and John Rhys-Davies as
King Priam of Troy."

4.00 p.m. |HISTU| Gods & Goddesses
"The world of the Ancient Greeks lives on today through its
mythology. For countless generations prior to biblical times,
tales of gods and goddesses were passed down by storytellers and
interwoven into traditions and philosophies. Each city devoted
itself to particular gods. But these gods also had human
frailties. Where did the pantheon originate? Did any of the
stories in Greek mythology actually occur? We look at new
archaeological evidence that supports the possibility. "

A&E = Arts and Entertainment

HISTU = History Channel (US)

::Tuesday, December 23, 2003 7:11:44 AM::
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