🔺 THE CAMPANIAN PROPOSEL “When these nations which lie between us are subjugated - and your courage and fortune are a guarantee that this will soon come about - you will have an unbroken dominion up to our frontier. Painful and humiliating is the confession which our fortunes compel us to make; but it has come to this, senators, we Campanians must be numbered either amongst your friends or your enemies. If you defend us we are yours, if you abandon us we shall belong to the Samnites. Make up your minds, then, whether you would prefer that Capua and the whole of Campania should form an addition to your strength or should augment the power of the Samnites.” Livy

🔘 HUSBAND OF AGRIPPINA MINOR “Passienus Crispus, a native of Visellium, began his first speech in the senate with these words: "Conscript fathers and you, Caesar," and was in consequence highly commended by Tiberius, though not sincerely. He voluntarily pleaded a number of cases in the court of the Hundred, and therefore his statue was set up in the Basilica Julia. He was twice consul. He married twice: first Domitia and then Agrippina, respectively the aunt and the mother of the emperor Nero. He possessed an estate of two hundred million sesterces. He tried to gain favour with all the emperors, but especially with Gaius Caesar (Caligula), whom he attended on foot when the emperor made a journey. When he was asked by Nero in a private conversation whether he had commerce with his own sister, as the emperor had with his, he replied "Not yet"; a very fitting and cautious answer, neither accusing the emperor by denying the allegation, nor dishonouring himself with a lie by admitting it. He was slain by the treachery of Agrippina, whom he had made his heir, and was honoured with a public funeral.” Suetonius

🔵 THE ROMAN CALENDER It was originally a lunar calendar with ten months, beginning with March and ending with December. This left a significant portion of the year unaccounted for. King Numa Pompilius is credited with adding January and February, bringing the total to 12 months. The Roman calendar was unique in its method of counting days within a month. Each month had three key markers: the Kalends (the first day of the month, the Nones (the fifth day of most months, the seventh in March, May, July, and October), and the Ides (the thirteenth day of most months, the fifteenth in March, May, July, and October). Days were counted backwards from these markers. For example, the day before the Kalends of March would be called "pridie Kalendas Martias." The Roman calendar struggled to accurately align with the solar year, leading to the occasional insertion of extra days to correct the discrepancy. Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar in 45 BC, introducing the Julian calendar, which was a significant improvement in accuracy.

🟣 STRABO ON THE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICANS “The Aethiopians live on millet and barley, from which they also make a drink; but instead of olive-oil they have butter and tallow. Neither do they have fruit trees, except a few date-palms in the royal gardens. But some use grass as food, as also tender twigs, lotus, and reed-roots; and they use meats, blood, milk, and cheese. They reverence as gods their kings, who generally stay shut up at home. Their greatest royal seat is Meroê, a city bearing the same name as the island. The island is said to be like an oblong shield in shape. Its size has perhaps been exaggerated: about three thousand stadia in length and one thousand in breadth. The island has both numerous mountains and large thickets; it is inhabited partly by nomads, partly by hunters, and partly by farmers; and it has mines of copper, iron, gold, and different kinds of precious stones. It is bounded on the Libyan side by large sand-dunes, and on the Arabian side by continuous precipices, and above, on the south, by the confluence of the three rivers — the Astaboras, and the Astapus and the Astasobas and on the north by the next course of the Nile, which extends to Aegypt along the aforesaid windings of the river. In the cities the dwellings are made of split pieces of palm-wood woven together, or of brick. And they have quarried salt, as do the Arabians. And, among the plants, the palm, the persea, the ebony, and the ceratia are found in abundance. And they have, not only elephants to hunt, but also lions and leopards. They also have serpents, the elephant-fighters, as also many other wild animals; for the animals flee for refuge from the hotter and more arid regions to those that are watery and marshy.” Strabo (Note: In ancient Greek and Roman times, "Aethiopians" was a broad term used to describe people of sub-Saharan Africa. It wasn't a specific ethnic group but rather a geographical and sometimes racial designation.)

⚪️ DEVOTION “Gnaeus Pompeius devoted himself to a military life, and inured himself to the hardships and fatigues of war, so that in a short time he was acknowledged as an expert in military matters. Casting off all sloth and idleness, he was always, night and day, doing something or other that was useful for the conduct of the war. He was very sparing in his diet, ate his food sitting, and altogether refrained from baths and other such luxurious activities. He allotted fewer hours for sleep than nature demanded, and spent the rest of the night in the concerns of a general, relating to the problems that he faced during the day; so that, by his habitual planning for the uncertain events of war, he became most accomplished in military activities. And therefore, in far less time than another could have prepared himself to take charge of an army that was already raised, in that time he raised an army, trained them, and disciplined them. And when the news of his remarkable exploits was brought to Rome, everybody at first, reflecting upon his youth rather than on his valour, supposed that the messengers were merely exaggerating in their accounts.” Diodorus Siculus

🟢 STARVING THE CAMPANIANS “Fabius Maximus, having laid waste the lands of the Campanians, in order that they might have nothing left to warrant the confidence that a siege could be sustained, withdrew at the time of the sowing, that inhabitants might plant what seed they had remaining. Then, returning, he destroyed the new crop and thus made himself master of the Campanians, whom he had reduced to famine.” Frontinus: The Strategemata