Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

useless ancient roman law facts

thoodleoo:

okapiandpaste:

ancient-rome-au:

thoodleoo:

• if you call someone to witness and they refused to show up, you are legally entitled to stand outside their house and scream, but only every third day
  
• you can sell your son into slavery once or twice, but after the third time he doesn’t have to put up with that shit anymore
• no wailing allowed at funerals
• also you can only have ONE funeral per person, don’t get greedy
• if your neighbor’s tree has a branch hanging into your yard, you can legally cut down the entire fucking tree
• however, if some of your neighbor’s fruit from his dumb tree falls into your yard, he can legally come into your yard to snoop around get it
• if you call someone to witness and they’re too sick or old to get to court themselves, you have to provide a cart for them to come in, but it doesn’t have to be, like, a nice cart if you don’t want it to

With the exception of the second one, I wouldn’t change any of these. They’re already perfect.

Confused about the 3rd one bc there’s literally a Latin verb for wailing and beating your chest out of grief, which I explicitly remember seeing in several funeral scenes.

However, I’ve only heard that word to describe the professional wailers (yes, they had those) hired at funerals.

So if that’s true that means people couldn’t wail so they hired outsiders to do it instead. Can’t believe we killed the wailing market. 

a lot of people have actually been confused about this point so i’ll go ahead and explain it!

the law against wailing (as well as lacerating yourself) at a funeral falls kind of into the category of sumptuary laws- not exactly, because that’s a specific term, but it’s the same concept of preventing excess. there are several laws designed to prevent people from getting too extravagant with their funerals.

the thing is, you have to keep two things in mind when looking at the twelve tables. the first is, we aren’t exactly sure of the extent to which some of these laws were actually enforced. some of them entail pretty brutal punishments that we don’t think were necessarily carried out; for example, if a patrician was condemned to death, there was frequently enough time allowed for him to quickly pack up and go into exile. so while technically the twelve tables don’t allow hugely extravagant funerals, we know that people didn’t really heed that, especially in the case of public heroes.

the second thing is that these laws are really, really old, and not all of them stick around. probably the most famous example is that the law prohibiting marriage between plebeians and patricians was repealed after only a few years by the lex canuleia.

so yes, the twelve tables does outlaw excessive funerary practices, including wailing. but does that mean that anybody listened to that or that it remained a law? not at all.

Anonymous asked: Sarah, I just managed to hunt down the Confessio for the first time since I had to stop taking Latin (my Latin teacher taught us the twelfth stanza as a drinking song to improve our frankly tragic pronunciation and I LOVED IT) and I'm just incredibly thrilled about it and I want someone to understand why I'm so pleased about hunting down some random Latin poem so I'm telling you.

thoodleoo:

that’s such a good feeling, i’m proud of and happy for you

factsinallcaps:

factsinallcaps:

ROMAN SENATOR CATO THE ELDER FAMOUSLY ENDED ALMOST EVERY SPEECH WITH THE PHRASE “CARTHAGO DELENDA EST,” OR “CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED.”

IT WAS HIS BELIEF THAT THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE ROMAN SECURITY WAS TO COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE THE CITY OF CARTHAGE. THE ABSURD PART, HOWEVER, WAS THAT CATO EVEN USED THIS PHRASE TO CONCLUDE SPEECHES THAT HAD ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH CARTHAGE WHATSOEVER.

HE WOULD MAKE A SPEECH ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE COMPLETELY AND END IT WITH “ALSO, IT IS MY OPINION THAT CARTHAGE MUST BE DESTROYED.”

FOR THOSE KEEPING SCORE AT HOME, THE ROMANS WOULD EVENTUALLY RAZE CARTHAGE, SALT THE EARTH IT STOOD ON TO PREVENT ANYONE FROM REBUILDING, AND ENSLAVE THE ENTIRE POPULATION, BECAUSE THE ROMANS WERE APPARENTLY NEVER LOWKEY ABOUT ANYTHING

JUST AS A QUICK ASIDE WHEN I GOT TAUGHT THIS IN MY ANCIENT ROMANS CLASS, NINE PEOPLE INCLUDING MYSELF ENDED UP CONCLUDING OUR ESSAY ON THE NEXT TEST WITH THIS PHRASE, WHICH MY PROFESSOR COMMENTED ON TO THE WHOLE CLASS

ALTHOUGH SHE ALSO GAVE THE WHOLE CLASS A WARNING ABOUT USING FORMAL LANGUAGE IN ACADEMIC ESSAYS BECAUSE ONE STUDENT WHO SHE WOULD NOT NAME (IT WAS ME) REFERRED TO JULIUS CAESAR AS “A DICK.”

(via factsinallcaps)

diehellarache:

official-german-translationen:

Salvete, Gaius Iuli'us Caesar sum et pilorum album quam nivem habeo et aureos, sed interdum virides lauros et imperium Romanum construxi et eius eram quasi primus Caesar (sic merui nomen meum) et multi indicant mihi me Marcus Crassus similem esse (si non scitis Marcus Crassus, vobis opus est pecunia). Brutus non est filius meus quod est bonum nam ET TU, MI FILI???!?. Iamia sum sed dentes albos et rectos habeo. Pallidam cutem habeo. Etiam, maga sum magicum ludum, nomine Pigverruca, visitans quod desinam (ego sum MMCXIV), veni, vidi, vici. Classicus sum (si vos id non suspexistis) et multas togas emptas in Basilica Iulia habeo. Ratio amo et bellum Gallicum gero. Veluti, hodie omnia Gallia occupata. Omnia Gallia? Certe! Non est vicus parvus inter Aquarium, Babaorum, Laudanum et Brevisbonum. Ambulabam foris Pigverruca. Ninxit et pluvit et Gallia divisa erat in partes tres, quod me fecit felix. Marcus Porcius Cato me observavit. Digitum medium illo monstravi.

#I hate that I know what this is

(via galangrants)

thoodleoo:

at this point there are only a select few pieces of discourse about ancient greece and rome that i will tolerate:

• did achilles bottom or was it patroclus (i stand by plato’s decision because achilles is definitely a power bottom)
  
• how many “slutty” women was mark antony more of a slut than (the answer: all of them)
• if alexander the great wrote iliad fanfic would it be self-insert or would it straight up be patrochilles shipping
• instead of discourse about whether or not sappho liked women, discourse about how many fragments we can possibly construe to be extremely gay (it’s a lot, if you’re creative)
• Which Roman Poet Was The Biggest Greek Poetry Fanboy
• the scholarly implications of the fact that the infamous fanfic my immortal bears a striking resemblance to homeric epic

(via galangrants)

Latin phrases to use as incantations.

mothmaam:

This is gonna be a long list.

• ab intra - from within
• ab origine - from the source
  
• absit iniuria - “let insult be absent”
  
• absit invidia - “let envy be absent”
  
• absit omen - “let omens be absent”
  
• ab uno disce omnes - from one, learn all.
  
• abyssus abyssum invocat - deep calleth unto deep
  
• a capite ad calcem - from head to heel
  
• acta non verba - actions not words
  
• ad altiora tendo - “I strive to higher things”
  
• ad astra - to the stars
  
• ad fontes - to the sources
  
• ad meliora - towards better things
  
• ad oculos - to the eyes
  
• ad undas - to the waves
  
• ad victoriam - to victory
  
• adsum - I am here
  
• a fortiori - from the stronger/from strength
  
• a mari usque ad mare - from sea to sea
  
• audeamus - let us dare
• audentes fortuna iuvat - fortune favors the bold
  
• audi, vide, tace - hear, see, be silent
  
• beatae memoriae - of blessed memory
  
• bona fide - in good faith
  
• bono malum superate - overcome evil with good
  
• capax infiniti - holding the infinite
  
• carpe diem - seize the day
  
• carpe noctem - seize the night
  
• cave - beware
  
• ceteris paribus - all other things being equal
  
• circa - around
• citius, altius, fortius - faster, higher, stronger
  
• clavis aurea - golden key
  
• cogito ergo sum - I think, therefor I am
  
• compos mentis - in control of the mind
  
• concilio et labore - by wisdom and effort
  
• concordia cum veritate - in harmony with truth
  
• concordia salus - well-being through harmony
  
• coniunctis viribus - with connected strength
  
• consummatum est - it is complete
  
• corruptus in extremis - corrupt to the extreme
  
• crescit eundo - it grows as it goes
  
• de novo - from the new
• de profundis - from the depths
  
• dies irae - day of wrath
  
• dona nobis pacem - give us peace
  
• ego te provoco - I challenge you
  
• esse est percipi - to be is to be perceived  
  
• esse quam videri - to be, rather than to seem
  
• esto quod es - be what you are
  
• ex animo - from the soul
  
• ex luna scientia - from the moon, knowledge
  
• ex scientia tridens - from knowledge, sea power
  
• ex silentio - from silence
  
• ex undis - from the waves of the sea
  
• experientia docet - experience teaches
  
• fac et spera - do and hope
  
• fac fortia et patere - do brave deed and endure
  
• faciam quodlibet quod necesse est - I’ll do whatever it takes
  
• faciam ut mei memineris - I’ll make you remember me
  
• facta, non verba - deeds, not words
  
• fortis et liber - strong and free
  
• fortis in arduis - strong in difficulties
  
• gloriosus et liber - glorious and free
• hic abundant leones - here lions abound
  
• hic et nunc - here and now
• hic sunt dracones - here there are dragons
  
• hinc illae lacrimae - hence those tears
  
• hinc itur ad astra - from here the way leads to the stars
  
• igni ferroque - with fire and iron
  
• in memoriam - into the memory
  
• in nocte consilium - advice comes over night
  
• libra - balance
• littera scripta manet - the written words endure
  
• locus standi - a right to stand
  
• luceo non uro - I shine, not burn
  
• luctor et emergo - I struggle and emerge
  
• mare liberum - free sea
  
• memento vivere - remember to live
  
• more ferarum - like beasts
  
• natura non contristatur - nature is not saddened
  
• nec spe, nec metu - without hope, without fear
  
• noli me tangere - do not touch me
  
• ophidia in herba - a snake in the grass
  
• pro se - for oneself
  
• propria manu - by one’s own hand
  
• quaere - to seek
  
• quod abundat non obstat - what is abundant does not hinder
  
• resurgam - I shall arise
  
• semper ad meliora - always towards better things
  
• semper anticus - always forward
  
• semper apertus - always open
  
• semper fortis - always brave
  
• semper liber - always free
  
• stet - let it stand
• tuebor - I will protect
  
• vera causa - true cause

(via windbladess)