history meme. five assassinations: Julius Caesar, by Senators of Rome
15 MARCH 44BC. On the Ides of March, Julius Caesar entered the Senate. There he was stabbed to death by around forty senators, members of the ruling class and paragons of education and intellect in the society of Ancient Rome. Only twenty-one names of these conspirators, self-styled as “The Liberators”, survive history and nearly all of them staunchly defended the so-called sancitity of the Republic threatened, allegedly, by the quick rise to tyrannical power of Julius Caesar. However, the death of the “tyrant” had also led to the end of the Republic for which he was killed. Civil war broke out, with Mark Antony on one side and Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, on the other. Eventually, Mark Antony fled to Egypt, where he would be defeated by Octavian. Octavian became Augustus, the first Emperor and founder of the Roman Empire, and ushered in the era of Pax Romana.
Camilla Macaulay, The Secret History
The light from the window was streaming directly into her face; in such strong light most people look somewhat washed out, but her clear, fine features were only illuminated until it was a shock to look at her, at her pale and radiant eyes with their sooty lashes, at the gold glimmer at her temple that blended gradually into her glossy hair, warm as honey.
Camilla Macaulay - The Secret History
She looked so much like her brother, yet his straightforward, uncompromising good looks were almost magical when repeated, with only slight variations, in her. She was a living reverie for me: the mere sight of her sparked an almost infinite range of fantasy, from Greek to Gothic, from vulgar to divine.
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen. 1811.
