When an article I’m reading says that Plato’s eugenics program is a great idea
(Thanks Addy for the submission!)
When Students Try To Explain Why They Are Taking Any Language Other Than Latin
(Thanks magistraomahony for the submission!)
When Aeneas sees his father in the underworld
ter conatus ibi collo dare bracchia circum;
ter frustra comprensa manus effugit imago,
par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno. (Verg. Aen. 6.700-2)
“Three times he tried to put his arms around his father’s neck; three times the shade, snatched in vain, eluded his hands. It was just like the light winds or winged sleep.”
When Verginius stabs his daughter so she doesn’t have be Appius Claudius’s slave
I’m like,
Sequitur aliud in urbe nefas, ab libidine ortum, haud minus foedo euentu quam quod per stuprum caedemque Lucretiae urbe regnoque Tarquinios expulerat… (Liv. 3.44) “Another thing happened in the city, an unspeakable thing born from lust, with an outcome not at all less foul than that which, through the rape and slaughter of Lucretia, expelled the Tarquins from the city and the kingdom…”
In the mid-fifth century BCE, the Romans suspended the normal constitution and appointed some decemviri to write down the laws. When the decemviri didn’t finish on time, they asked for an extension and then got kind of crazed with power. One of the decemviri, Appius Claudius (NOT the awesome Appius Claudius Caecus who built the Via Appia), got crazed with lust for this girl Verginia and tried to seize her as a slave. In order to save her from this fate, Verginia’s father took her aside in the Forum and stabbed her. Problem solved!
Just like they expelled the kings after the rape of Lucretia, the Romans overthrew the decemviri after the death of Verginia and restored the Republic.
(Happy Father’s Day from whatshouldwecallmeclassics!)
