🔶 THE THIRD MACEDONIAN WAR BEGINS “The Romans carried on the Macedonian war (around 171 BC) with less disturbance to their country than the Punic war, but with more renown, as the Macedonians surpassed the Carthaginians in honour, and were animated, moreover, by their glory in having conquered the east, and supported also by the auxiliary forces of all the neighbouring princes. The Romans, accordingly, both raised a greater number of legions, and called for assistance from Masinissa, king of Numidia, and all the rest of their allies; while notice was also given to Eumenes, king of Bithynia, to aid them in the war with his whole force. Perseus, besides his Macedonian army, which had had the reputation of being invincible, had supplies for a ten years' war, collected by his father, in his treasures and magazines. Elevated by these resources, and forgetful of his father's fortune, he bade his soldiers think of the past glory of Alexander.” Justinus

🔴 DISEASE AND REMEDY ON CAMPAIGN “In his German campaign, Germanicus Cæsar had pitched his camp beyond the river Rhenus (Rhine); the only fresh water to be obtained being that of a single spring in the vicinity of the sea-shore. It was found, however, that within two years the habitual use of this water was productive of loss of the teeth and a total relaxation of the joints of the knees: the names given to these maladies, by medical men, were "stomacace" and "sceloturbe." A remedy for them was discovered, however, in the plant known as the "britannica," which is good, not only for diseases of the sinews and mouth, but for quinzy also, and injuries inflicted by serpents. This plant has dark oblong leaves and a swarthy root: the name given to the flower of it is "vibones," and if it is gathered and eaten before thunder has been heard, it will ensure safety in every respect. The Frisii, a nation then on terms of friendship with us, and within whose territories the Roman army was encamped, pointed out this plant to our soldiers: the name given to it, however, rather surprises me, though possibly it may have been so called because the shores of Britannia are in the vicinity, and only separated by the ocean. At all events, it was not called by this name from the fact of its growing there in any great abundance, that is quite certain, for at the time I am speaking of, Britannia was still independent.” (Germanicus 15 BC – AD 19 was a popular Roman general, nephew and adopted son of Tiberius. He was famous for his campaigns in Germania. His early, possibly poisoned, death was a great loss to Rome). The Natural History. Pliny the Elder

Egyptian history is so misunderstood 🤯

🔘 MOTIVATIONS FOR THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE “It was in Caesar's consul­ship that there was formed between himself, Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus the partner­ship in political power which proved so baleful to the city, to the world, and, subsequently at different periods to each of the triumvirs themselves. Pompey's motive in the adoption of this policy had been to secure through Caesar as consul the long delayed ratification of his acts in the provinces across the seas, to which, as I have already said, many still raised objections; Caesar agreed to it because he realized that in making this concession to the prestige of Pompey he would increase his own, and that by throwing on Pompey the odium for their joint control he would add to his own power; while Crassus hoped by the influence of Pompey and the power of Caesar he might achieve a place of pre-eminence in the state which he had not been able to reach single-handed. Furthermore, a tie of marriage was cemented between Caesar and Pompey, in that Pompey now wedded Julia, Caesar's daughter.” Velleius Paterculus, Roman History

🟣 MAGO “Mago, general of the Carthaginians, having defeated Gnaeus Piso and having blockaded the tower wherein he had taken refuge, suspecting that reinforcements would come to his relief, sent a deserter to persuade the approaching troops that Piso was already captured. Having thus scared them off, Mago made his victory complete.” Sextus Julius Frontinus: Stratagems

⚪️ THE POSESSIONS OF MITHRADATES EUPATOR “As for Pontus, Mithridates Eupator established himself as king of it; and he held the country bounded by the Halys River as far as the Tibarani and Armenia, and held also, of the country this side the Halys, the region extending to Amastris and to certain parts of Paphlagonia. And he acquired, not only the sea‑coast towards the west as far as Heracleia, the native land of Heracleides the Platonic philosopher, but also, in the opposite direction, the sea‑coast extending to Colchis and Lesser Armenia; and this, as we know, he added to Pontus. And in fact this country was comprised within these boundaries when Pompey took it over, upon his overthrow of Mithridates.” “Eupator was both born and reared at Sinopê; and he accorded it special honour and treated it as the metropolis of his kingdom. Sinopê is beautifully equipped both by nature and by human foresight, for it is situated on the neck of a peninsula, and has on either side of the isthmus harbours and roadsteads and wonderful pelamydes-fisheries, of which I have already made mention, saying that the Sinopeans get the second catch and the Byzantians the third.” Strabo

Don’t cry for me Argentina.

Suppiluliuma I

🟢 FEVER AND BATTLE, NORTH AND SOUTH “Those who live near the equator, and are exactly under the sun's course, are, owing to its power, low in stature, of dark complexion, with curling hair, black eyes, weak legs, deficient in quantity of blood. And this deficiency of blood makes them timid when opposed in battle, but they bear excessive heat and fevers without fear, because their limbs are nourished by heat. Those, however, born in northern countries are timid and weak when attacked by fever, but from their sanguineous habit of body more courageous in battle.” Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, de Architectura

⚫️ PLOT AGAINST THE KING “Because both sides were digging tunnels in the area, they frequently encountered and even talked to each other; and from these encounters he became known to the king's men. Once, when he was caught on his own in the tunnels, one of the enemy pressed him to betray his allies, and he pretended to agree to the suggestion. When the king was informed of this, in his desire to capture the city he promised a reward and arranged a time to discuss the betrayal. Because the Roman demanded a surety for the agreement, the king sent men to settle it on his behalf. But the Roman said that he would not trust the agreement, unless the king gave him an oath in person. Mithridates considered that it was beneath his royal dignity to descend into the mines. But since the traitor said that he would not co-operate otherwise, and he was very eager to capture the city, Mithridates was forced to agree to the request. As a result the king would have been captured, if he had not been protected by one of his friends who, rightly suspecting a plot, produced a device that fitted in the tunneland could quickly be opened and closed. When this had been placed in the tunnel, and Mithridates and his friends went in, the centurion . . . the men who intended to help him seize the king, drew his sword and rushed at the king. But just in time the king closed the gate, and so escaped the danger.” Diodorus Siculus

🟡 PLINY ON SYRIA “Next to these countries Syria occupies the coast, once the greatest of lands, and distinguished by many names; for the part which joins up to Arabia was formerly called Palestina, Judaea, Coele Syria, and Phoenice. The country in the interior was called Damascena, and that further on and more to the south, Babylonia. The part that lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris was called Mesopotamia, that beyond Taurus Sophene, and that on this side of the same chain Comagene. Beyond Armenia was the country of Adiabene, anciently called Assyria, and at the part where it joins up to Cilicia, it was called Antiochia. Its length, between Cilicia and Arabia, is 470 miles, and its breadth, from Seleucia Pieria to Zeugma, a town on the Euphrates, 175. Those who make a still more minute division of this country will have it that Phoenice is surrounded by Syria, and that first comes the maritime coast of Syria, part of which is Idumaea and Judaea, after that Phoenice, and then Syria. The whole of the tract of sea that lies in front of these shores is called the Phoenician Sea. The Phoenician people enjoy the glory of having been the inventors of letters, and the first discoverers of the sciences of astronomy, navigation, and the art of war.”

🔶 DOUBLE PERIL “Hannibal, when the Romans, among other articles of peace, demanded from Antiochus that he should be surrendered to them, received notice of this demand from the king, and, taking to flight, went off to Crete. Here, when he had long led a quiet life, but found himself envied for his great wealth, he deposited some urns, filled with lead, in the temple of Diana, as if thus to secure his treasure. The city, in consequence, being no longer concerned about him, as they supposed that they had his wealth in pledge, he betook himself to Prusias, putting his gold into some statues which he carried with him, lest his riches, if seen, should endanger his life. Prusias being subsequently defeated in a battle by land, and transferring the war to the sea, Hannibal, by a new stratagem, was the cause of procuring him a victory; for he ordered serpents of every kind to be enclosed in earthen pots, and to be thrown, in the hottest of the engagement, into the enemy's ships. This seemed at first ridiculous to the Pontic soldiers, that the enemy should fight with earthen pots, as if they could not fight with the sword. But when the ships began to be filled with serpents, and they were thus involved in double peril, they yielded the victory to the enemy.” Justinus

🔴THE MEDICAL LIBRARY OF PONTUS “It was he (Mithradates) who first thought, the proper precautions being duly taken, of drinking poison every day; it being his object, by becoming habituated to it, to neutralize its dangerous effects.” “Among the other gifts of extraordinary genius with which he was endowed, Mithridates displayed a peculiar fondness for enquiries into the medical arts; and gathering items of information from all his subjects, extended, as they were, over a large proportion of the world, it was his habit to make copies of their communications, and to take notes of the results which upon experiment had been produced. These memoranda, which he kept in his private cabinet, fell into the hands of Pompeius, when he took possession of the royal treasures; who at once commissioned his freedman, Lenæus the grammarian, to translate them into the Latin language: the result of which was, that his victory was equally conducive to the benefit of the republic and of mankind at large.” (Mithridates VI 134-63 BC, King of Pontus, fierce opponent of Rome in the Mithridatic Wars. Known for his ambition and attempts at poison immunity. Ultimately defeated by the Romans). The Natural History. Pliny the Elder

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”

🔘 CAESAR SURVIVES THE SOCIAL WAR “Then followed the consul­ship of Gaius Caesar, who now lays hold upon my pen and compels, whatever my haste, to linger a while upon him. Sprung from the noble family of the Julii, and tra­cing his descent from Venus and Anchises, a claim conceded by all investigators of antiquity, he surpassed all his fellow-citizens in beauty of person. He was exceedingly keen and vigorous of mind, lavish in his generosity, and possessed a courage exceeding the nature, and even the credence, of man. In the magnitude of his ambitions, in the rapidity of his military operations, and in his endurance of danger, he closely resembled Alexander the Great, but only when Alexander was free from the influence of wine and master of his passions for Caesar, in a word, never indulged in food or in sleep except as they ministered, not to pleasure, but to life. To Gaius Marius he was closely related by blood; he was also the son-in‑law of Cinna, whose daughter no consideration of fear would induce him to divorce, whereas Marcus Piso, a man of consular rank, had divorced Annia, who had been the wife of Cinna, in order to win Sulla's favour. Caesar was only about eighteen years of age at the time of Sulla's dictator­ship; and when a search was made for him with a view to putting him to death, not, it is true, by Sulla himself, but by his minions and partisans, he escaped from the city at night by assuming a disguise which effectually concealed his rank.” Velleius Paterculus, Roman History

🟣 THE SIEGE OF CROTONA “The consul Cornelius Rufinus for some time besieged the city of Crotona, without success, since it had been made impregnable by the arrival of a band of Lucanian reinforcements. He therefore pretended to desist from his undertaking, and by offers of great rewards induced a certain prisoner to go to Crotona. This emissary, by feigning to have escaped from custody, persuaded the inhabitants to believe his report that the Romans had withdrawn. The people of Crotona, thinking this to be true, dismissed their allies. Then, weakened by being stripped of their defenders, they were surprised and captured.” Sextus Julius Frontinus: Stratagems

⚪️ CYRENÊ “Cyrenê grew strong because of the fertility of its territory, for it is excellent for the breeding of horsesand produces beautiful fruit, and it had many men who were noteworthy and who were able to defend its liberty in a noteworthy manner and to resist strongly the barbarians who lived above them. Now in ancient times the city was independent; and then the Macedonians, who had taken possession of Aegypt, grew in power and attacked the Cyrenaeans, under the leader­ship of Thibron and his associates, who had slain Harpalus; and having been ruled by kings for some time the city came under the power of the Romans and is now joined with Crete into one Province. But Apollonia, Barcê, Taucheira, Berenicê, and the other towns near by, are dependencies of Cyrenê.” Strabo