Like a True Epicurean - PowerPoint Presentation

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Like a True Epicurean

Atticus 14-15Slide2

No one heard at his dinner party anyone (entertainment) other than a reader; which we indeed judge most delightful.

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And it was not dined/there was no dinner ever without some reading at his house, so that the guests would be delighted no less in mind than in stomach.

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And he called those, whose character was not different from his.

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Although so great an increase of money had been made, he changed nothing about his daily way of life, nothing about his custom of life.

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He had no gardens, no suburban or maritime villa, and no rustic estate in Italy, besides at

Arretium

and

Nomentum

.

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He didn’t lie nor was he able to tolerate one. And so his friendliness was not without severity nor his seriousness without a good nature,

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so that it was difficult to be understood, whether his friends feared or loved him more.

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Whatever he was asked, he promised conscientiously, because he thought that it was not a trait of the generous but of the weak, to promise what he could not offer.

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There was so much concern in him that he seemed to do the same thing in striving for that which he had agreed, not an ordered thing, but his own affair.

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Questions

What sorts of entertainments would typically be held at a Roman dinner? At the home of Atticus?

Why do people that win the lottery as a general rule lose their fortunes?

What is a maritime or suburban villa?Slide12

Questions

Was Atticus a pushover?

Did his friends like him or fear him?

Are you the type of person that says “yes” to everything people ask of you? Was Atticus? Why?Slide13

Questions

Have you had to do something for someone that you didn’t really want to do, such as washing a parent’s car? Did you do as good a job on it as you would have if you were washing your own car?

What does Cornelius Nepos say about Atticus?Slide14

Homework

Atticus and Cicero, p. 410

Vocab to Learn 402-408-412Slide15

Derivatives

edifice protection

artificial mediocre

heredity par, paritysaline cogent sumptuary constant Slide16

Derivatives

et cetera horticulture

elegant mendacity

convivial arbitrationculture humanitysinecure principal,

princepsSlide17

Derivatives

testimony, testimonial apparent

vulgar, Vulgate chant, incantation

apt extreme

accidentSlide18

Atticus and Cicero

I am able to bring no greater testimony truly of his character than that he was the same very pleasant young man to old Sulla, as he was as an old man to the young man Brutus (and moreover/also) with his peers, Quintus

Hortensius

and Marcus Cicero,Slide19

Atticus and Cicero

He lived thus so that it is difficult to judge to which age he was better suited. (Result clause/indirect question)Slide20

Questions

How do middle aged people usually treat the elderly? their children?

Do you know a person who is equally at home with any age group?Slide21

Although Cicero loved him especially, so that not even his brother Quintus was dearer or closer to him. As a sign of this thing there are besides his books, in which he makes mention of it, which have been published, 11 volumes of letters from his consulship up to the last year (of his life) sent to Atticus; which he who reads, does not much long for a history composed of those times. Slide22

Thus truly everything about the pursuits of the leading citizens, the lives of the generals, the changes of the republic were written, so that everything may appear in these and easily be able to be said that

his (Cicero’s)

foresight was wisdom in a certain manner.Slide23

For not only did Cicero predict future things which happened with him living, but also the things which are coming into use now just as a prophet sang.Slide24

Cicero

In this section Cornelius Nepos praises Cicero’s ability to estimate the political events of the future of his time. What political events have you been able to predict? What strange events did you not predict? Slide25

Atticus, Friend of the Emperor

This man content in the equestrian order, in which he had been born, came into a family connection of the emperor, son of the divine (Julius); although already he had acquired a familiarity of him in no other way than by the elegance of life.Slide26

Atticus: Friend of the Emperor

Moreover a granddaughter was born to Atticus from Agrippa, to whom he had given his marriageable daughter. Caesar promised this girl at hardly a year old to Tiberius Claudius Nero, son from (Livia) Drusilla, his stepson; this connection confirmed their connection, and it made their familiarity more frequent.Slide27

Questions

Comments on the power of Augustus over Agrippa. What if Agrippa didn’t want to promise his daughter to Tiberius??????Slide28

-Continued

Although not only before this betrothal, when Augustus was away from the city, he never sent letters to any of his own people, without sending a letter to Atticus, what he was doing, in the first place, what he was reading, and both in what places and for how long he was going to staySlide29

-continued

but even, when he was in the city and on account of his endless business tasks less often than he wished, he enjoyed (the company) of Atticus, no day intervened without good cause, in which he was not writing to him, when at one time he was asking something from him about antiquity, at

a

nother he was proposing some poetic question to him, sometimes joking he was coaxing more wordy letters.Slide30

Family History

The granddaughter of Atticus that Augustus made Agrippa betroth to Tiberius was called

Vipsania

Agrippina. The historians say that Tiberius and Vipsania loved each other deeply, but after Agrippa died before Augustus, there was a problem.Slide31

Family History

Tiberius was only a stepson to Tiberius, not related to the

Julians

. Augustus apparently felt that Tiberius needed a connection to the Julians to make him a better heir apparent. Thus he forced Tiberius to divorce

Vipsania

and marry his daughter Julia. Slide32

Family History

Tiberius remained extremely bitter about being forced to divorce

Vipsania

. Later on when he became emperor and went off the deep end he had Vipsania’s

new husband imprisoned.

Vipsania

did have a son by Tiberius named Drusus, who was favored to succeed Tiberius, but he died conveniently, perhaps due to foul play. Some suspect his wife, who may have been in collusion with Sejanus, head of the Praetorian Guard who was attempting

to

oust Tiberius.Slide33

The Julio-Claudians

All of these things factor into a famous book called

I, Claudius

by Robert Graves. It chronicled the alliances of the Augustan household and how these marriages, divorces, affairs, and murders gave us the succession of emperors that we ended up with: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, the five of whom we call the

Julio-Claudians.Slide34

I, Claudius

Although it dates to the 70s,

the miniseries based on the book

features some of the best Shakespearean actors of all time. Some of them actually would be familiar to you from movies you have seen.Augustus is played by Brian Blessed. He is in 4 out of the 5 Shakespeare films of the 1980’s and 90’s and was Boss Nass in

Star Wars: the Phantom

Menace.Slide35

I, Claudius

Tiberius was played by George Baker, who could have played James Bond, but the role went to Sean Connery, He made fun of this turn of events by playing a Roman named

Jamus

Bondus

in a Roman themed sitcom called

Up, Pompeii!

He also wrote a show about poets like Robert Graves and Wilfred

Owen, author of the poem that features

dulce

et decorum

est

(Latin connections

!) Slide36

I, Claudius

John Hurt portrays Caligula. He’s been in so much stuff it would take forever to discuss, but he was

Ollivander

in the Harry Potter franchise.

Derek Jacobi portrays Claudius. He has been in many films as well, including

Gladiator

and a mystery series where he portrays a medieval monk named

Cadfael

. He portrayed Daedalus in an episode of Jim Henson’s

Storyteller. Slide37

I, Claudius

Sejanus, the corrupt head of the Praetorian Guard who betrays Tiberius, is played by Patrick Stewart, well known to Americans as Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the

Star Trek

franchise and Professor Xavier, leader of the X-men in the Marvel

cinematic universe.Slide38

I, Claudius

Kevin

Mcnally

portrayed Drusus, the great grandson of Atticus. He played Joshamee Gibbs in the

Pirates of the Caribbean

movies. He also provided the voice of Faulkner in the video game

Assassin’s Creed III

.Slide39

The Death of Atticus Part Two

For it stands to me (I have decided) to cease to nourish the disease. For whatever food I have taken in these days, thus I have lengthened life, so that I have increased pains without hope of health. Wherefore I seek from you, first, to approve of my plan, then not to in vain try to stop me by discouraging.Slide40

Death of Atticus: Part Two

With this oration having been completed with such constancy of voice and appearance , that he seemed to be wandering not from life, but from one home to another, when indeed Agrippa weeping and kissing him begged and beseeched, Slide41

Death of Atticus: Part Two

that he himself also should not accept for himself that which nature was forcing, and, since then also it was possible to overcome the times/crisis, that he should save himself for himself and his family, he (Atticus) repressed his (Agrippa’s) prayers with his silent obstinacy. Thus when he had abstained from food for two days, suddenly the fever departed and the disease began to be lighter. Slide42

Death of Atticus: Part Two

However just the same he carried out his proposition. And so on the fifth day, after he had entered that plan, he died.

Test on Friday, Nov. 11

th

. The sentences will be taken from the sections “Atticus, Friend of the Emperor” through the “Death of Atticus”. These sections talk about the connections Atticus had with Agrippa and Augustus, and also show how Atticus ended his life. Pay close attention to subjunctive clauses, ablative absolutes, and gerunds and gerundives.