"Humanity lives in its fiction."
— Blaise Cendrars
"A deserted library in the morning - there’s something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully."
— Haruki Murakami
on this day…
ante diem xvii kalendas maias
* ludi Cereri continue (day 4)– games in honour of the grain goddess Ceres, instituted by/before 202 B.C.
* Fordicidia — an obvious fertility ritual in which a pregnant cow would be sacrificed to the earth goddess Tellus
* 421 B.C. — Peace of Nikias brings the first phase of the Peloponnesian war (a.k.a. the Archidamian War) to an end (by one reckoning)
* 69 A.D. — the forces of emperor wannabe Vitellius defeat the forces of emperor wannabe Otho
* 251 A.D. — Martyrdom of Maximus and Olympiades in Persia
"Beauty without intelligence is a masterpiece painted on a napkin."
— Anon.
"If one is to believe in peaceful coexistence, the first messengers of that peace will be children’s books."
— Jella Lepman
"Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength."
— Eric Hoffer
on this day…
ante diem xviii kalendas maias
* ludi Cereri continue (day 3) — games in honour of the grain goddess Ceres, instituted by/before 202 B.C.
* 69 A.D. — first battle at Bedriacum; the forces of emperor wannabe Vitellius eventually would defeat the forces of emperor wannabe Otho
* 73 A.D. — mass suicide at Masada (?)
* 195 A.D. — Julia Domna, wife of the emperor Septimius Severus, is given the title mater castrorum (“mother of the camp”
on this day…
pridie idus apriles
* ludi Cereri (day 1) — games in honour of the grain goddess Ceres, instituted by/before 202 B.C.
* 65 A.D. — death of Seneca (according to one reckoning) [this needs fixing]
* 250 A.D. — martyrdom of Vissa (or Vissia) at Fermo
* 300 A.D. — martyrdom of Victor in what would become Portugal
US Civil War…
On April 12, 1861, 150 years ago today, the first shots of the Civil War rang out at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
on this day…
ante diem iii idus apriles
* 421 B.C. — Peace of Nikias brings the first phase of the Peloponnesian war (a.k.a. the Archidamian War) to an end (by one reckoning)
* 52 B.C. — trial of Milo – with Cicero on his side — for the murder of Clodius (by one reckoning)
* 92 A.D. — martyrdom of Antipas
* 145 A.D. — birth of the future emperor Septimius Severus
