Ianus
Ianus was an Etruscan and king of Latium, the region of Rome that is today called Lazio, the same name of one of the football teams of Serie A. He founded a city on one of the seven hills of Rome, called the Ianiculum, nowaday Gianicolo, as Ianus in modern Italian is spelled or spelt Giano. He was also a Numen, or should I say a tutelary deity, in other words a second order god and the male equivalent of a Muse. Poets always invoked Goddesses and Muses but never Numens especially Ianus as, although he had two faces so that he could look into the past and the future, he was reputed to be a bit inventive with his clairvoyance. However, because of his two faces, back and front, he was appointed as representative of the first month of the year, Ianuarius, so he could look unto the past year just gone with one face and with the other at the new evolving year.
The word Ianus is also the root of the Latin noun for door (ianua). It was a practice of the early Romans to keep the ianua of the Temple of Ianus always closed except in the periods when Rome was at war. Then the ianua of the temple would be opened to simbolise the bringing of good auspices through the patronage of Ianus and a successful completion of the war. That is probably why he got his fame for "inventiveness" or blatant lier as Rome didn't always win its wars. But the early Romans were a very religious people and fearful of first, second, third and down to the last order of gods, goddesses, spirits, etc, so they couldn't really tell him to his face that he was also a lier, he belonged to the supernatural after all, so they had to show a "glad face to an unpleasant game", translating a saying that is still common to this very day.
Note the inscription on his right leg. I have not deciphered it yet, but it is my intention to enquire with Palaeographers or with the Museum of Cortona and update this note.
Picture taken from the Museum of Etruscan Academy in Cortona, Tuscany, Italy.
The picture was digitally re-edited by myself to improve its quality at this low definition.
Julian Calendar
Artistic Composition: Et tu, Brute?
This image shows a painting by Jean-Léone Gérome, the Death of Caesar, on which I overlaid the Julian Calendar, the image of the divine Caesar and the name, CAESAR, at the top of the arched colonnade; his spirit is rising over his assailants from the place where he was murdered. The size of his face was made big to stress his divinity viv-a-vis his mortal assassins. The hue of the picture was tinted red to signify the tragedy that had just been perpetrated. The software used for the composition was Photoshop 5.
Marcus Tullius Ciceronis was born at Arpinum, a town 80 miles south-south-east of Rome on 3 January 106 B.C. He studied Literature, Philosophy and Law in Rome, and died in Formia on 7 December 43 B.C., victim of the proscription of Mark Anthony. He was born a commoner and became an Homo Novus through the successful application of his great eloquence in the law courts, as a politician, a philosopher and an academic. He was a prolific writer and his writing style has often been imitated or, at least influenced, the writings of later writers.
75 BC - Elected as Questores in Sicily. Then in 69 BC he was elected Aediles. In 66 BC he was elected Praetores and finally, in 63 BC he was elected Consul, a position that he had aspired to from the very beginning. Behavioural practioners will find a huge source of information on strategy and tactics of carrear planning and execution in his writings. But they need to know Latin first to enter his mind. Several Ph. D. research topics could be explored in this field.
Cicero lived, unfortunately, in a period of transition of the Roman State, hence troubled times. The State was changing from an oligarchic res publica (republic) led essentially by senators, to a Principate and later Imperial State. He was a profound believer in the first form of government, and as a coherent conservative, defended that belief passionately to the end. After the assassination of Caesar, while the divine Augustus was chasing Pompey, the loyal Mark Anthony was making ways for a possible succession to the Principate by himself. Cicero attacked him publicly, in the interest of the res publica, in his 14 Orations against Mark Anthony, known as Philippics. This made Cicero a personal enemy of Mark Anthony who included Cicero's name in his personal proscription list when the second triumvirate was formed by Anthony, Octavian and Lepidus.
Seneca the Elder gives an account of the way Cicero met his death in a declamation of the type suasoriae, i.e. a speech on a deliberative topic, as opposed to the other type of declamation, controversiae, based on famous law cases passed by the Courts. If you wish to read this paragraph of Suasoriae VI-17 click here.
The photo of Cicero was taken from a statue located in front of the Court of Cassation in Rome. The Court of Cassation is the highest Court of Appeal. The statue was placed on top of the pedestal "borrowed" from the statue of another great orator and lawyer, Crassus, shown below. The editing and assembly was done in Photoshop CS2.
Licinius Crassus
Aemilius Papinianus