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Episode 49 – Manius Curius Dentatus
— He died in the year 270 BC, creating an image of perfect ethics, and a behavior that will be missed, even in the times of the Roman Empire.
Life and death of Manius Curius Dentatus, a plebeian who solved the Samnite problem, the Pyrrhus problem, and most problems in the south of Italy.
Parcial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 49 — Manius Curius Dentatus.
It is not easy to hold a sword. To stare into your enemy’s eyes — at times, an inch apart. To move form one side to the the other, dodging his blade. To watch his muscles twitch, in the very moment the tip of your sword has made it into his flesh.
It is not easy to walk to a battlefield, only to arrive and see the enemy army.
It is not easy to stand still, in rows and rows of men — your countrymen.
They know — just like you — that they will kill, and perhaps they will be killed, as well.
And, in the case of a victory, it is not easy to walk home — to Rome — and to continue your life — as if nothing had happened.
It is not easy to caress the cheeks of your children, and be good to your wife, after you had to extinguish the life of another man, who will never get to be good to his wife, and to caress his own children’s cheeks.
All this — is extremely hard.
Even more so — if you do it, for the first time.
Because — after all — this is not a video game, where you can log off by pressing a button, simply because they are telling you — dinner’s ready, or because the pizza delivery guy is ringing the bell.
What exactly did men do, between those two key points?
The battle itself, and the continuation of normal life?
Well — I think, I have an answer.
More than anything, they must have been busy, trying to erase images from their minds, so that — normal life could take its course. At home.
And for that — more often than not — men needed stimuli.
Alcohol. Women. Gambling. And more fights, to forget the one before.
And when those stimuli — get out of hand, my dear listeners — that’s when things start to go wrong.
According to several sources, some unconfirmed — Roman soldiers looted, raped, and burned civilian property in a city called Aquilonia, right after their commander, Spurius Carvilius Maximus, let them loose.
Many a widow in Aquilonia, had to — not only face the reality of now being a widow, but also the fact that some stinking, crude Roman warriors where combing through the city, looking for them.
Without as much as washing the blood off heir hands, those legionaries — those vultures, saw no other way of getting rid of the atrocities of war, but by committing new — adrenaline-pumped — atrocities.
They were the ones who made it through, and nothing else mattered.
The thing that separates humans from beasts — that ability to calm down, to reason, and to discern who is enemy and who is not — all that, was out the window.
And, in our Family Saga, the boys who took part of this fight, were no different on that day.
Sadly, they fell into the trappings of mad — mass hysteria.
And why wouldn’t they? The dash though Aquilonia offered so many pleasures of life, and nothing prepared those boys, to — let’s say — not to do what everyone else was doing.
Even Spurius Attius, now a veteran of the battle of Sentinum, went for it, even though he recently married.
But perhaps, that was precisely the factor that got him to do what he did, because his marriage was anything but a happy one.
And so, when his commander said, it was time to have some cake, he jumped into the cake.
Brothels and common homes, schools and small businesses, nothing was forbidden.
Even temples did not offer protection to the women of Aquilonia, and many ran into the tunnels the city had, only to be discovered, followed, and abused, without any civility or remorse.
But — with so much cake, this didn’t go down well.
And by the time the boys made the march home, most of them realized they were ill.
Not just ill.
This was an infectious disease. A shameful proof of what they had done, down in Aquilonia.
Episode 48 – 300k
— “Do you declare, from your heart, to possess a wife?”
A census and a wedding. Rome passes 300 thousand inhabitants, and the Samnites are beaten at Aquilonia.
Parcial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 48 — 300k.
When Lucius Eugenius, Spurius Attius, and young Tatius got a glimpse of the hills surrounding Rome, their spirits went up.
All three made the walk home, all the way from the north — and all three were now war veterans.
For a Roman — and ordinary Roman — that’s no small feat!
And so, once they were down with all the military formalities and once they showed up on their home street,, their women, their children, their slaves, they all walked out to welcome them home!
The DOMUS — house — Lucius Eugenius managed to build with their work, spanned two homes next to each other, a corral for raw materials, and a workshop, right across the street.
Plus, a small garden behind the second house.
This was a piece of real estate that Lucius managed to buy right after the Big War, from an impoverished Patrician.
And of course, we are not counting that around 50 slaves were now working at the workshop, and a dozen or so were busy tending to the needs of the ever growing family.
Life wasn’t that bad, after all!
And after they all settled back in, and once Lucius sat in his favorite reclining chair — Laurentia, his wife, reminded him in a casual tone:
— “In five days we have to walk to the Field of Mars, husband. Town criers have been announcing the event, for days, now…”
Lucius sighed.
Another census.
Everyone hated a census.
The tables of the censors, they so-called Tabulae Censoriae in Latin, were piling up in forums already, to be taken to the field, the day of the census. From Equestrians and Senators, down to the last and lowest Roman, if you were in one of those five social levels, designed by long-gone King Tullius Servius, you had to go.
Plebe or Patrician, everyone had to be there.
— “We’ll take Julia this time,” old Lucius said. “And Spurius, too.”
— “What about his fiancee?” asked Laurentia.
Lucius paused for a second. Good question. Then he replied.
— “No. We haven’t finished all the arrangements, yet. All this fighting. Let her go with the Furnii. The censors will be liking that — looks more respectful.”
In his mind, Lucius cursed the constant wars Rome had, but he knew he couldn’t do a thing about them.
Besides, WARS were making him rich.
Quite rich indeed.
And this richness allowed for Spurius to soon-to-be-wedding a girl of the Furnii, a respectable — even though Plebeian— family.
The Furnii were also one of the oldest families, according to the annals of ancient Rome.
And according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a man named Gaius Furnius — that’s F — U — R — N — I — U — S — came to be a tribune of the plebes, back in the year 445 BC, and that was something Lucius Eugenius respected a lot.
And so — in a few week’s time, Spurius Attius, the young veteran of the Battle of Sentinum, would take a daughter of the Furnii as his wife.
Not bad for the family!
All right, my dear listeners.
As you can see, today we have two topics.
A wedding and a census.
And that means, that after our Latin Word of this episode, we’ll see how Romans went about having a census, and then — how they organized a wedding in those not-so-high circles of society.
The society of ancient Rome.
Now, please be aware that both — weddings and censuses — have had their fair share of evolution in the one thousand years of Roman history, which means that I tried my best — to keep these two events, match the times we are living in, right now.
Which is the beginning of the third century BC.
Oh, and after that, we have the next battle against the Samnites, the battle of Aquilonia, and here goes a little spoiler in the story that follows.
Let me explain.
Right after the battle of Aquilonia, a plague will break out in Rome — one of the larger ones — and we’ll be talking about how a new deity named Aesculapius — adopted from its Greek counterpart named Asclepius, became a world-wide symbol, today — recognized by a serpent bent over a fountain or wrapped around a staff, as if spilling its venom — to be used as an antidote — as a cure.
This serpent can be seen almost all over the world, in pharmacies, hospitals, medical centers, Centers for Disease Control, and even as part of the logo of the WHO — World Health Organization.
The other spoiler is that we’ll soon have the result of our upcoming census, and hey — we’ll know just how many people lived in Rome. Those numbers used to be published on plates all over Rome, especially in the Roman Forum.
[…]
Episode 47 – The Battle of Sentinum
— And Decius Mus didn’t do that, either.
The biggest battle of Italy, numerically speaking. The most important one, strategically speaking. We are at the gates of a new era for Rome.
Parcial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 47 — The Battle of Sentinum.
A long, long, long, time has passed.
When I last published our episode 46, I never thought that because of unforeseen circumstances, I would find myself away from this podcast, for so, so long.
And — oh boy, has the world changed since then!
Nobody could have imagined something called Coronavirus.
Nobody could have imagined a world where people have to stay indoors just to stay alive.
A world were nations try to out-lie each other, as if a war depended on it.
A grave-digger said “they keep bringing me bodies.”
“And they keep telling me they are not victims of COVID-19.”
The economy stalled.
Nobody could imagine a world where supply would come to a standstill.
Only to be followed by demand, coming to a standstill, too.
Nobody could imagine we would forget about climate change.
Instead, we now wish things could get back to how it once was.
Cities like Venice were complaining of over-pollution and over-tourism.
Now, only dolphins and jellyfish visit its canals.
No tourists.
We were peeking in air travel.
Now we have no space to park airplanes.
The US was hitting an all-time low on unemployment.
Now, there is an all-time high, since at least the Great Depression.
In India, skies went from progress-grey, to shutdown-blue in less than a month.
Before, people heaped on railroads.
Now people walk between cities.
No railroads.
Before, schools in China were overcrowded.
Now, the Internet is breaking because schools are empty.
We canceled the Olympics.
For the first time ever, China closed the Forbidden City.
The Vatican and Mekka — both still stay empty.
And so…
…here we are.
Let’s continue.
Let us continue this tale. The Tale of Rome.
We are in the year 295 BC.
The soldiers on both sides couldn’t bear it any longer.
After two days of staring into each others faces, something just HAD TO GIVE!
And then — it happened!
And it happened on the third day, in that area of land, between the two armies. Some people call it the no-man’s-land, or the dead zone.
Someone let a deer loose, right in front of the eyes of both armies. The stag was probably three of four years old, and he was obviously lost.
And then, once the stag started to run, someone from the Etruscan side, let another animal loose.
A wolf!
Right away — the wolf went for the deer, and as he was giving him chase, the Gauls, the Umbrians, and the Etruscans were egging him on.
The cheers got louder, and then came the rain.
A rain of javelins and spears.
The wolf reacted by turning to a side, running smack towards where the Romans stood. Full speed ahead.
The deer?
Dead, under the weight of two or three javelins — blood oozing from its mouth and the place where the weapons had pierced him to the ground.
Meanwhile, the Romans opened their lines, so that the wolf could run through them, and that was exactly what the animal did.
The Romans weren’t going to kill the wolf!
They came from a she-wolf, after all!
And while tension grew between the two armies, the Romans were spreading the word.
— “Look what those barbarians just did — to that deer,” they said.
The beautiful animal was protected by their divinity — the divinity to the goddess Diana!
— “They will fall,” the Romans kept saying.
They were convinced gods were going to favor their cause.
Alright — before we continue with the cinematics of this battle, we need to take a good look into WHY some 100,000 soldiers were camped out not all that far from Rome, and JUST ABOUT to decide who will become the MASTER of Italy.
And for THAT, we first need to get back to the Battle of Trifernum, which is where we got stuck last episode.
So then, let us go to TRIFERNUM now!
We’ll jump back two years.
To the year 297 BC.
We already know the stats of that event, but — just to recap, we had some 20 thousand Romans on one side, and some 25 thousand Samnites on the other side.
Quintus Fabius Rullianus and Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus were commanding the Romans, and a man named Gellius Statius was at the helm of the Samnites.
Both side were very aware that Publius Decius Mus was on his way, bringing more troops with him, obviously for the Roman side.
And obviously we are talking about the son of that Publius Decius Mus who sacrificed himself at the Battle of Vesuvius, back in the year 340 BC.
When Rulianus was on his way to the field where the battle would take place, Samnite forces tried to trap him, just like it happened at the Caudine Forks, in the year 321 BC, during the second Samnite War, which — obviously, wasn’t called that way, at that time.
Instead, people just called it the Great War.
Rullianus, far too smart to let his troops walk into trap, simply stopped along the way.
Yep.
Feeling that the valley was a perfect trap, Rullianus simply refused to enter, and so he ordered everyone to take a break, aware that the forests surrounding the valley were most likely full of Samnites in hiding.
He was right.
The Samnites, seeing that the ambush didn’t work, got nervous and were quickly discovered. They streamed out into the open, and a battle was soon set up.
Rullianus accepted the proposed fight, and the Romans prepared accordingly.
[…]
Episode 46 – The Third Samnite War
— That’s right, when the Etruscans heard that Corvus was leading the roman troops, they got into their fort and did not want to come out, not even to check on the weather.
For the third time, the Samnites. And some say, third time is a charm. And in this case, it was exactly like that. It’s the last years of Marcus Valerius Corvus’ life.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 46 — The Third Samnite War.
Peace reigned supreme in Rome.
We are in the year 302 BC, or — as the Roman liked to refer to their years — we are in the year of the consulship of Denter and Paulus.
Less than six months ago, peace treaties were ratified by the Senate of Rome, and now — Romans were the masters, of all of Central Italy.
And just as we’ve seen in our last episode, there was no shortage of heroes, either.
Take two examples?
Fabius Rullianus and Papirius Cursor.
Yep. It does happen at times. All of the sudden, it happens that a generation springs up in some places, and — suddenly, a nation finds itself blessed, by a generation of people who simply do stuff better.
Better than their parents, and better than their grandparents, at times.
It’s like a wave — like the waves of the ocean, coming ashore. Every so often, you get a bigger one, a prettier one, and sometimes you can tell by counting the waves in between, but sometimes you can’t.
Yep. Sometimes, it’s almost like magic.
It happened in the States, with the baby boomers, and it happened in Argentina, with the incredible soccer generation, that saw people like Maradona, rise and fall.
True.
Sometimes, a generation like this, changes the destiny of a sport, a view on things, or even a nation, — even for a whole century, only to disappear after that, and never to return.
These waves usually leave nostalgia behind, and a strong taste that thing used to be better, before.
A legacy, if you will.
Alright, before I go all the way off the topic, here is an overview of the stuff we’ll be seeing today.
For that — I made a short list, of five topics.
Have a listen.
ONE — The years 302, 301, and 300 BC, from a legislative point of view. Two important laws are coming out in these years, and we wanna be there, and see what they are all about.
Their names are — the Lex Valeria, and the Lex Ogulnia.
TWO — We are also getting to see Marcus Valerius Corvus again, who — by now — is being addressed as Marcus Valerius Maximus Corvus.
[…]
In the year 300 BC, Corvus was elected again, to lead the destiny of Rome — but this time as a Consul, and not as a Dictator.
His mission this time was to finish the thing with the Aequi, and this was the fifth time, he was elected Consul of Rome.
But — that year — Corvus was doing something more than just leading troops, and winning things for Rome.
Yep. In the year 300 BC, Corvus decided to give his support to the two laws that we talked about, earlier on.
Let me explain.
First — Since Corvus was totally in favor of the Lex Ogulnia, he made sure that, the day the law passed, he was present in Rome, standing — right in front of the building that was housing the College of Pontiffs.
He also made sure he was there, when the first Plebeian priests joined the ranks of those Pontifex.
And second — He himself helped push the Lex Valeria through the red tape, by means of a legal move, known as the provocatio, or the right to stand up for the people of Rome.
[…]
Episode 45 – Fabius Rullianus and Papirius Cursor
— “Fortified camps are to be defended by arms, rather than arms being defended by fortified camps,” Rullianus said.
A flashback of an encounter between two heroes of the Samnite Wars. Papirius Cursor and Fabius Rullianus.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 45 — Fabius Rullianus and Papirius Cursor.
The Ciminian forest was one of those primitive places — created in the times before gods and humans, and its purpose was to keep Romans and Etruscans apart.
There were no roads through it, and even the edges of the forest — the way they looked — they caused utter angst in Rome’s population.
Nobody ever dared to get tino the Ciminian forest, up until the fourth century before Christ.
What’s more, when the Roman Senate, explicitly gave orders to Consul Fabius Maximus Rullianus to NOT to enter the confines of the forest, and when he did so — chasing Etruscans, and when he emerged unscathed from the the forest, the Romans — at first — had thoughts about letting him back into the city, for they feared that evil spirits had taken possession of the souls of the Consul, and all his soldiers.
At least — this is how our dear Livy told the story.
Yup.
This forest — partly fossilized, and partly so densely overgrown that sunshine couldn’t make it through — was one of the few regions in Italy that still held soft ground between the roots of its trees.
It’s called permafrost. It’s soft ground had low temperatures — so low, that they never get to solidify.
And so, the forest kept swallowing beasts, trapped in the soft ground. From wild boars to deers, they got stuck in there, as if it were quicksand, and this area of permafrost sometimes went all the way to the region where the Tiber river met the Apennine hills.
To put it briefly, this woodland was the perfect natural border, between Rome and Etruria, for the better part of four centuries.
But….
We are not here to talk about how Fabius Rullianus crossed that forest, even if it was in direct disobedience of the Roman Senate.
Because — after all — this happened in the year 310 BC, and we didn’t make it to that year, yet.
Which means, we still have the Third Samnite War ahead of us.
And — had it NOT been, that the Samnites got such a BAD beating from the Romans — at the Battle of Sutrium, perhaps, Rullianus never had the need to get into that forest, in the first place.
This was partly — because the town of Sutrium was literally at the edge of the Ciminian Forest, and when the Etruscans went running into the woodland, the Romans had to — either, loose them, or follow them.
So, then…
We are here to talk about, the other time, Rullianus disobeyed an order.
Just — that time, it wasn’t with the Senate of Rome.
That time, he ignored orders of a Dictator of Rome.
And that Dictator was none less than a man, named Lucius Papirius Cursor.
[…]
On one hand — they could not counter Papirius, for two reasons.
ONE — He was not a Consul — he was a Dictator. He just had the power. Period.
AND TWO — Denying him something of this magnitude, or defending someone who had openly disobeyed him, did not look good.
Yep, it was a bad precedent to future generations, and the Senate was not willing to publicly weaken the position of a Dictator.
But on the other hand, they didn’t want to have Rullianus punished. After all, he just managed to beat the Samnites, and thanks to his preemptive actions, Rome could focus on other things, for this whole year.
And being able to focus on other things, instead of warfare, meant that Rome could make money.
Suddenly, this year looked like a surplus-year, and all thanks to the quick wit of a man, who directly disobeyed his superior, and brought back some 20 thousand slaves to Rome.
[…]
Episode 44 – Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus
— In order to really appreciate the beauty of a beach, one should not be swimming in the sea, neck-deep in the water.
Second installment of our Biography episodes. This time, we tackle Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Partial Transcript
Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus — two names we heard along this podcast, again and again.
This — undoubtedly means, that — as faithful learners of Ancient Rome, we often depend on these two characters, in the same way we depend on what Virgil and Titus Livius wrote, which we’ve seen in our episode 40.
We depend on Plutarch for how he described those early beginnings of Rome. We also depend on him for his masterpiece, called “Parallel Lives” and the way he portrayed Romans and Greeks who lived in his times and the times before him.
We’ll talk about Parallel Lives a lot more, in this episode.
We also depend on Dionysius of Halicarnassus for the way he wrote, and his unique point of view, just to name two of his powers. But — perhaps, his biggest power was his world famous sobriety when writing about Rome. His refreshing view of men and their faults.
Well — that’s also something we’ll see today, further down the line.
But first, I want to list a few of the biggest differences that come to mind, between these two giants and the other two guys we had in Episode 40 — Livy and Virgil.
Here we go.
ONE — By reading their works, it is easy to infer that both Livy and Virgil were more — should I say — lost, when it came to writing.
Even though this is my opinion, I believe that Livy and Virgil sailed the oceans of their imaginations, without guidelines on where they would find themselves after dark, almost as if it didn’t really matter if they were even able to drop anchors, at the end of each chapter.
Plutarch and Dionysius — on the other hand, seemed to know the direction of their vessels very well. It almost feels like they knew the winds, the currents, and even the depth of the waters they were sailing through.
At the end of each paragraph, they already knew the next port of call, and they knew the weather patterns that would allow them to get there.
In writer’s terms — to me, Livy and Virgil were much more like “pantsers” — writing by the seat of their pants, while Plutarch and Dionysius were much more like “plotters.”
For those not familiar with these two terms — pantsers versus plotters, here is a side-note.
Pantsers start writing a novel — usually without much of a plan, and let their imaginations fly, and take them were they may take them. They develop story plots on the fly, and add sub-plots to their main story as they go.
Plotters do the opposite. They lay out the plot, the sub-plots, and even the changes that story characters go through, before starting chapter one. After that, they write it all down.
In general, we consider that most writers fall into one of these two categories, but the truth is, that we all have parts of both sides.
[…]
And now, without any further ado, here are TEN pairs of Greek and Roman lives, in no particular order.
ONE — Theseus and Romulus — mythical founders of Athens and Rome, respectively.
TWO — Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius
THREE — Themistocles and Camillus. Yep — that Marcus Furius Camillus!
FOUR — Pericles and Fabius Maximus
FIVE — Alcibiades and Gaius Marcius Coriolanus
SIX — Aristides and Cato the Elder
SEVEN — Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius — How fitting is that!
EIGHT — Lysander and Sulla
NINE — Demosthenes and Cicero
And finally — TEN — Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
My personal opinion? What an honor for Julius Caesar!
[…]
Episode 43 – The Appian Way – Part Two
— The wheelbarrow as we know it, made its appearance in Europe around the tenth century, at the height of the Dark Ages.
Part Two of the Appian Way. Tools, laws, and lists of other Roman roads, used at the time.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast. The Tale of Rome, Episode 43 — The Appian Way – Part Two.
— “One more step, to your left!”
The boy, holding the heavy groma, and some 40 paces away from the surveyor, didn’t hear the order.
And so — he didn’t move.
— “To the left, I told you,” the surveyor yelled.
The boy, now startled, jumped to his left. The poor apprentice couldn’t get a single word, because of the strong gale blowing east from the sea.
— “A single step, I told you!” The surveyor was running out of time and patience. “What a stulte, this boy,” he muttered to himself.
Stulte was the word for “slow” in Latin, especially when someone was — sort of, slow to understand things.
In plain English, it would also mean dumb, or dim-witted.
So when the boy tried to get back to where he thought the man wanted him to stay, he tripped on a rock.
As he tried to avoid the fall, he held on to the groma, and its ferrous tip bent into an awkward angle.
And to make matters worse, one of the handles of the groma broke off, as the apprentice tried to hold on to it.
The main pole hit the ground, and so did the boy.
Like that, the groma was useless.
[…]
Miles and miles of swamps, infested with cattails, frogs, mosquitoes and the ocasional corpses of animals and men, that just couldn’t make it through the land.
Here, I would like to add two things.
One one hand, the Appian Way wasn’t built in all its length in the year 312 BC. That year, it only got to Capua.
And later on — in the year 291 BC, to be more precise, the road would reach the locality of Venusia. We are still some 20 years away from that.
And then — another 10 years later, the Appian Way would finally reach Tarentum.
By that time, we will be dealing with a whole new topic.
The upcoming wars against Pyrrhus of Epirus.
And then — after that, the Appian Way will go all the way to the heel of Italy. That is Brundisium.
And after that, the road will make a giant U-turn, and snake its way to the other end of Italy. The point where the continent is at its nearest with the island of Sicily.
Centuries later, under the reign of Emperor Trajan, the Appian Way will become a true masterpiece for its times.
OK, and on the other hand, I need to make a short list of Roman roads — or ways, rather, that ALREADY existed before the construction of the Appian Way.
[…]
Episode 42 – The Appian Way
— And more than once, it happened that clients would get the wrong door, and walk into the school, before they realized, there were no girls there, but young students instead.
The Roman road that would make Rome the undisputed powerhouse of Italy. And the life of Appius Claudius, the maker of that road.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 42 — The Appian Way.
No other road, path, or route of communication has changed the history of the western world as much as the Appian Way, today also known as the Old Appian Way.
Natural passage points, or itineraries, that people used by land — such as the Silk Road, the Amber Road, and their maritime counterparts — such as the Strait of Gibraltar — they all can claim their own importance, and yes, they did their fair share, to alter history in their own ways.
As another example, we have the pathway between the locality of Marathon and Athens, which was traveled by a Greek soldier in record time, so that he could pass the news, that the Persians had been defeated. Of course, the mere concept of this distance proved of so much importance in our western world, that today we have an Olympic sport, bearing the name and the distance, of that very pathway.
Marathon!
But — all these are not proper routes — properly designed, planned, traced out, and set up.
The Silk Road was never marked along the whole way. Yes, there were milestone points, and there were knots where people just had to pass through, but those were mostly dictated by nature, or by a government. Not by a designer.
And the Silk Road has never been methodically curated, kept up, and renovated, not by any stretch of the imagination. It served its purpose, sure. But the purpose was very different.
So, when we talk about a road, a cobbled road — and, to make it more specific, a Roman road, this road — the one we are talking about today, truly changed the course of the history of Rome.
Not only because it was the first of its kind, but also because until today, it still remains being the most famous one. And that’s just one of the reasons.
So, today we are dedicating our entire episode to the reasons behind this road.
And to why a Roman Censor, named Appius Claudius, a man of Sabine origin, was pushing so hard through the political system, to get this road done.
And — last but not least, we also wanna learn that this man wouldn’t be stopped from building this road, even as total blindness set in, during the last 15-or-so years of his illustrious life.
So much so, that we will know him as Appius Claudius, the Blind.
And since we will be talking of this man, we should not forget the other masterpiece of his, the just as famous Aqua Appia — in other words, the first aqueduct that brought clean water to Rome, from the mountains.
Yes — it was a subterranean waterway, but the merit still stands.
But before we go talk about Appius Claudius, and the Appian Way, or the Aqua Appia, I want to tell you guys about the dilemma I had to face this week.
When it was time to pick a celebrity phrase, to put it as some kind of GRAND SUBTITLE, for the Appian Way, I found out I had way too many choices.
Too many strategists, generals, writers, historians — past and present, had their say about the Appian Way, and so — it really wasn’t easy to make a choice.
So…
In the end, I picked what a certain Publius Papinius Statius said about the Appian Way, around the year 69 after the birth of Christ.
It was the year when this man — Statius, moved from Neapolis to Rome, and this is what he said:
APPIA LONGARUM — TERITUR REGINA VIARUM
[…]
How many times did Romans have to march from Rome to Capua, during the last — say, 10 years?
Yep. I didn’t count, but for sure — many, many times.
It becomes clear — almost immediately, that — rather sooner than later, someone would show up, and say, hey — we can’t keep dragging ourselves through the swamps that lay between Rome and the south.
— Let’s do something about it!
And this man, was Roman Censor Appius Claudius.
And yes — this was not a matter of “if” the road was going to be built some day. It was a matter “when.”
Besides, those swamps along the Italian coast were a breeding ground for disease.
Those swamps, called the Paudine Swamps, also known as the Pontine Marshes, were very characteristic of the region, where rivers were often short, and had not enough drag to make it through the lowlands, west of the Apennines.
That created large areas of marches. Breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
[…]
Episode 41 – The End of the Great War
— In the end, Gaius Pontius saw that his old father — Herennius Pontius, had been right all along. Samnia now had a deadly enemy called Rome, and all Romans could think of, was vengeance.
The end of the Second Samnite War, from the fall of Apulia, to the inspection of Samnia, by Consul Publius Sempronius.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Sanya, in the south of China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome. Episode 41 — The End of the Great War.
We are in the year 435 of the Founding of the City. By our accounts, that is the year 319 BC.
Early morning. It’s the first day of the year.
Not the first day of the Julian Calendar — that would come centuries later — but, the first day of the Calendar, as it was set by Romulus, and Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.
And the business of this first day of the year, was to elect the two new Consuls for the year.
Serious business.
Senators old and young, were hurrying to the building of the Curia, for — two really important decisions, depended on today’s vote.
On one hand, somebody would have to deal with the consequences of what happened at the Caudine Forks.
And, on the other hand, there was a law that was going to — either pass, or not pass.
And that law, had nothing to do with war, or the humiliating defeat at the Caudine Forks.
That law, if passed, would take away one certain power from Consuls, and would give it to the new guys in town.
The Censors.
That’s right — if today’s law passed, Censors would become the ones, who would have the power to remove someone from the Senate, and there was a myriad of reasons why this could happen.
So, anyways.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of what was going on, I would like to read a short list of six items, on how a Senator’s day went on, when it was time to pass new laws, welcome new Senators into the house, and other (smaller) business at hand.
ONE — Before the start of any important session, Senators would go to the Augurs, or Oracles, and see if the day in question, was actually good for passing new laws, or any other business.
At that time, there were four guys with sufficient authority in all of Rome, to decide whether the day was auspicious or not.
We’ll talk more about this further down the line.
TWO — Before any voting, there were speeches. Always. Even if the voting was as trivial as the naming of a street, a speech was to be had.
THREE — Sometimes these speeches went really long. And I mean, long!
[…]
A huge army from Tarentum showed up on the horizon, just as Romans and Samnites were about to get running into each other’s throats.
Their trumpets stopped everyone, and the Tarentines announced that this battle was being ordered, canceled.
That’s right! Canceled! And the Tarentines even said that whoever made a move to attack the other side, the army of Tarentum would immediately join the other side, and make the aggressors lose the whole fight.
Right away, the Romans called up their oracle, and checked on their sacred chicken.
The chicken said — well, they didn’t say a thing — the oracle said, the gods were totally in favor of a frontal, brutal, battle, and that Rome was not to be afraid of the new arrival.
And so — they made their battle formations, and started to walk forward.
[…]
Episode 40 – Livy and Virgil
— Instead, people die the day nobody ever talks about them, or even thinks about them.
A biography episode in The Tale of Rome. We compare and contrast two giants of their time. Livy and Virgil.
Partial Transcript
Hello, this is Abel, speaking from Beijing, China. Welcome to my podcast.
The Tale of Rome, Episode 40 — Livy and Virgil.
Virgil and Livy — Livy and Virgil. At the end of the day, the order of these two names doesn’t really matter. However — I felt like sharing why I chose to name this episode, the way I did.
Our podcast started with a story where a guy named Aeneas was fleeing from a city called Troy. This was obviously brought to us by Virgil.
Still — I decided to put Livy’s name first, on the cover of the episode.
And no — the reason is NOT their looks. I can promise you that. This is not a beauty contest!
But, after I picked the two pictures that would illustrate this episode’s cover, I ended up having Livy — full front, and Virgil, seen from a side.
So…
Had I placed Virgil on the left side of the cover, he would be facing away from Livy. Not nice!
And since we — and when I say “we,” I mean the vast majority of readers in the western world — since we usually write from left to right, the title ended up being “Livy and Virgil,” because — well… Livy was on the left, and Virgil was on the right.
All right, that’s sorted out!
And now, let’s start this story, and let’s start it this way…
We are in the year 18 AD — AD, as in ANNO DOMINI, or “after the birth of Christ.”
A ship was arriving in Rome’s port. And I am not talking about the port of Ostia, the one built by the fourth king of Rome — Ancus Marcius.
I am talking about another port — a few hundred miles south.
Portus Julius.
[…]
SIX — While Livy would sometimes write up to 20 pages a day, Virgil had days where not even a single sentence was created.
Furthermore, if it wasn’t that Virgil’s death wish was deliberately disobeyed, today we would not have his works. Nothing.
That’s right. The whole Aeneid would have been burned. That was the wish of Virgil, on his deathbed. And what’s even more curious, Virgil never considered his Aeneid as a complete work of art.
On a personal note, that’s understandable. Artists are often like that.
[…]
The podcast currently has 85 episodes available.