Household Noise
I thought it was difficult to live with the noise created by my six kids, but after reading the following excerpt from Seneca written around AD 50 I now realize my housing situation isn’t that bad.
“I live over a bath. Imagine the variety of voices, enough noise to make you sick. When the stronger fellows are working out with heavy weights, when they are working hard or pretending to work hard, I hear their grunts; and whenever they exhale, I hear their hissing and panting. Or when some lazy type is getting a cheap rubdown, I hear the slap of the hand pounding his shoulders. . . . If a serious ballplayer comes along and starts keeping score out loud, that’s the end for me . . . . And there’s the guy who always likes to hear his own voice when washing, or those people who jump into the swimming pool with a tremendous splash. . . . The hair plucker keeps up a constant chatter to attract customers, except when he is plucking armpits and making his customer scream instead of screaming himself, and the fellow hawking cakes, and all the food vendors yelling out what they have to sell, each with own special intonation.” (source: Sources of Western Society, volume 1)
Rome Through The Eyes of an Autistic Artist
Cornelius Tacitus – select quotes
If we must fall, we should boldly meet the danger.
Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
~ in Histories
The desire for fame is the last infirmity cast off even by the wise.
~ in Histories.
The more corrupt the State the more numerous the laws.
~ in The Annals of Imperial Rome, Ch. 3
This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.
Silly Romani: Things We Won’t Cover in Class
History of Rome
Roman Gods
Roman Gods Direct
Roman Decimation
Crimewatch: Julius Caesar
Cleopatra
Marc Antony & Cleopatra
Roman Funerals
Gladiator School
The Collosseum
Gladiator Blindfold
Roman Criminal Justice
Roman Cures: New Criminal’s Head
Roman Medicine
Caligula’s War on Poseidon
Caligula Mystery Detective
Crazy Caligula
Caligula
Bad Roman Emperors
Nero Persecutes Christians
Elagabalus Romo Lottery
Dinner with Elagabalus
Roman Kitchen Nightmares
Roman Table Manners
Roman Sausage Smuggler
Tabellarii Messenger
Boudicca
Life and Death in the First Century
I have been reading and re-reading James S. Jeffers’ book The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity. It is an informative and thoroughly enjoyable book — I highly recommend it. In his chapter on “Life and Death in the First Century” he recommends the following books for further reading:
Labor and the Economy
- The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship, by Ronald F. Hock
Leisure and Games
- Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games, by Roland Auguet
Travel
- Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson
- Travel in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson
- The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting, edited by David W. J. gill and Conrad Gempf
- The Cities of St. Paul: Their Influece on His Life and Thought, by William Ramsay
Dining
- Roman Cookery, by John Edwards
- Rome: Its People, Life and Customs, by Ugo Enrico Paoli
The Eschatology of Jonathan Edwards
Here is is another article that I contributed to the Dictionary of Premillennial Theology . As with the previous articles, I would change some things in this material if contributing to this or a similar compilation. Nevertheless, I believe the following to be both accurate and helpful.
* * * * * * * * * *
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is generally recognized as America’s greatest theologian and philosopher. At the time of Edwards’ ministry most of Protestant theology, being heir to the amillennialism of Augustine and Calvin, spiritualized the Scripture’s teaching concerning the millennium. Edwards, on the other hand, was innovative in the development of a postmillennial eschatological vision. Edwards saw the millennium as a literal historical reality which was the telos toward which history had been progressing since the fall of Adam. He thought it probable that this latter-day glory would begin in America. His millennial expectation is often considered to have been a major factor in the social movement resulting in the American Revolution.
Edwards interpreted tribulational passages as predictions of the apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church and the suppression of true religion. He believed that the Reformation marked the shortening of days (Matt. 24:22), which is to be identified with the restricting of the powers of spiritual Rome and the papal Antichrist. Applying the year-day theory of interpretation to the twelfth chapter of Revelation, Edwards proposed that the millennium would arrive approximately 1260 years after 606 A.D., when the Bishop of Rome was recognized as having universal authority. Thus, the millennium was imminent and the revival fires of the Great Awakening could very well be harbingers of the coming age when great progress in technology would free mankind from material concerns to engage more fully in the noble exercises of mind and vital religion. At this time the kingdom of Antichrist will be utterly overthrown and there will be a national conversion of the Jews. Following the millennium will come a period of great apostasy and tribulation, which will be superseded by the personal Second Coming of Jesus Christ in infinite majesty. The saints will be gathered unto their Head, forever to be in his presence, and the wicked will be summoned before the judgement-seat of Christ. (Kevin Stilley )
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, general editors Perry Miller and John E. Smith, 10 volumes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957-1993); ______, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, reprint 1992, 2 volumes (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Press, 1834).
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Marcus Porcius Cato – Select Quotes
Suffer women once to arrive at an equality with you, and they will from that moment become your superiors.
Emas, non quod opus est, sed quod necesse est: quod non opus est, asse carum est. [Buy not what you can use, but what you cannot do without. What you do not need is dear at any price.]
~ quoted by Seneca in Epistulae, xciv, 28
Fures privatorum in nervo atque in compedibus aetatem agunt; Fures publici in auro atque in purpura. [Those who steal from private individuals spend their lives in stocks and chains; those who steal from the public treasure go dressed in gold and purple.”
~ in Praeda militibus dividenda
