High population. Diversity of peoples and religions/beliefs. Lots of money flowers in LA, enough to allow for "start-up" cults, and enough for cults to take advantage of people and subsist on.

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Yes, thank you. I came across a lot of the things you mentioned in my own research and wanted to hear from someone else as well.

He should’ve called in sick they day.

In the Shakespeare play, he goes because he’s afraid he’ll look weak. Maybe he went because he thought the Ides meant good things for him, and the assassins chose the Ides for the same reason?

The irony is they all ended up dead.

It doesn't tell anything about Gladiators in Britain.

Thats just someones assumption.

There are vases with Medusa depicted on.

Was Medusa in Britain?

It’s funny to learn about that day and hear about the nine billion different ways Caesar was warned about his assassination, and all the things that happened that day that could have prevented his murder but didn’t. Things like waking up and not feeling well, his wife tries to make him stay home but at the last second he’s like “ahhh I might as well go into work today.”

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It is sometimes difficult to tell if some artworks were decorative, religious or both. I'm really not an art historian, but I can offer some guide lines.

A fresco in a Roman villa is probably decorative. But when you see statues? It becomes hard to tell. We don't always know. And I said that it could be both, because it may have been. Roman religion is not an organized religion like Christianity. There are temple sure, when we find fragments from altars we know it's for religious purposes. But when a rich man orders the crafting of a statue... is it purely aesthetics? Or is he a devout follower that want to honor the goddess? We do not know.

It's also important to understand that since it wasn't an organized religion, different people had different interpretation of what the goddess meant. Sometimes she was Venus the goddess of physical love (there's a reason why we call aphrodisiacs aphrodisiacs...), but at times she was also Venus Genitrix, Venus the mother (this one is thought to be a religious statue of her), Venus Felix the goddess of luck. In Pompei she is often represented in full dress and with jewels.

But my point is... if she is presented nude (like the many many nude Venus you can find)... it doesn't mean it's lewd art for the male gaze. She is a goddess (nudity is associated in antiquity with gods), she is also a goddess of sex. Her beauty doesn't imply that it's lesser. Those statues aren't the ancient equivalent of Playboy.

Sword poised to strike the winning blow, a gladiator looms over his opponent. The opponent raises his hand in a signal of defeat, seemingly at the last second. The dramatic moment is captured in 1,800-year-old clay on a vase unearthed in the U.K.

Known as The Colchester Vase, the bronze-colored piece of Roman pottery was uncovered in 1853 at a grave in Colchester. Although the vase has been admired for the last century, the Colchester Vase had never been studied in depth until recently.

Analysis revealed a story of gladiators in Roman Britain — a multilayered story encapsulated by a 9-inch tall vase.

There's a book called War Lovers about how politicians like Teddy Roosevelt and Hearst worked together to drum up support for an expeditionary war against Spain.

There was also a book a few years ago called Confronting Imperialism that was a collection of essays on The Anti-Imperial League which opposed Hearst and Roosevelt's march to war. The members of the group included notable folks like Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie (this is was one of the key events that pushed him to create the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) and Helen Keller.

The Ides of March, known as Idus Martii in Latin, refers to the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar. In ancient Rome, the Ides were considered an important marker for certain religious observances and political activities. Each of the Ides was sacred to Jupiter, the Roman’s supreme deity.

The Ides were also used as markers for certain religious observances and political activities, including the settling of debts and the payment of taxes. They were also important dates for the performance of public ceremonies, such as the opening of the gladiatorial games. But the Ides of March gained notoriety due to one fateful event - the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BC.

I don't think it was as important as some make it out to be. There were genuine reports of Spanish war crimes in Cuba, aided by a long-standing dislike of Spain ( the not entirely unfounded "Black Legend"). Plus we'd had our eyes on Cuba since the antebellum era. The yellow press just fanned existing prejudices and sentiments. It amplified pre-existing thoughts and was more or less with (rather than leading) the times.

One day dear Maximus, our children’s children will be able to spa and get potatoes in the same place!! But for now we must bask in our loins without delicious root vegetables at our arms reach, until the sovereignty of Rome has the foresight to accept our planning permissions without stabbing someone in the back. - a Roman dreamer *probably

Thank you. That's exciting news.

Do you have more? Like, I've also struggled to find literature on the empire cycle.

Now that I've read on Tut, I'm reading on Akanaten.

After that, I want to read on Cleopatra and maybe the Ptolimaic era.

Have you read 12 Ceasars? It looks like a great, fluid picture of the Roman empire, but does it focus on those dictators or does it look at the culture and politics as a whole?

I see. Which ancient art pieces of hers were made for ritual purposes?

It was also supposed to create an economic sphere to rival the common market in western Europe. It didn't really work well at that. But part of the reason for it was so that the USSR could offer something in place of the Marshall plan money that the USSR was forcing those countries to turn down.
Tony Judt's book, Postwar, does a good job of covering it, but it covers pretty much everything during the postwar period so it's a pretty weighty tome. But it's one of the best history books I've ever read.

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Ok I have a question. What are some of the reasons why so many cults have popped up in Los Angeles?

The kaminsky method?

I don't know what exactly you are trying to research, and for most purposes you will obviously need to get access to some literature about the subjects, so a library would be your best starting point, but for a preliminary overview an online search is not a bad idea. However, a WW2 site is not really the best starting point for something that happened a good 20 years before WW2, and the English wikipedia is probably not the best site for detailed information about early 20th century Germany. I only know the very basics about the Freikorps, but for an online search maybe using google translate for the relevant German wikipedia pages might be a better start (assuming you don't speak German).

Wilhelm Reinhard https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Wilhelm_Reinhard_(General)?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Reinhard’s freikorp https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Freiwilligen-Regiment_Reinhard?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Kiel iron brigade https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/1._Marine-Brigade?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Potsdam regiment https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Regiment_Potsdam?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Franz von Stephani https://de-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/Franz_von_Stephani?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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Adam did what now?

Great article. Love getting the paper copy of the LRB in the mail and finding gems like this. Started on the bio over the weekend.

Indeed - thank you for posting it.

Thanks. I looked under the About bit but couldn't see it!