Good day, our loyal readers! It is now that time where we tell you what we have learned in our history classes this past week. Well, again, by "we" I mean "me." Gillian is off spending time with her family, so she could not assist. Ah well, enjoy!
Ancient Rome:
After the assassination of Julius Caesar, a new triumvirate sprang up, to which historians gave the highly creative appellation, the Second Triumvirate. Now, the Second Triumvirate was a recognized political entity, unlike the First Triumvirate, which was an informal political alliance. The Second Triumvirate was composed of Marcus Antonius, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Since no one actually wants to remember every single one of a Roman's names, these three are generally known as Marc Antony, Marcus Lepidus and Octavian.
Octavian, named as Caesar's heir in his will, came to Rome at the behest of the senate to try and bring Antony under control. However, the result of Octavian's battle with Antony was their agreement to cooperate, since Octavian recognized that the senate was just using him. So, the three triumvirs divided up the Roman world among themselves. One of their first acts was to initiate violent proscriptions. One of the men to die as a result was the great orator Cicero. The triumvirs also had Caesar's assassins, Brutus and Cassius, declared outlaws so that they could go after them, which they did. Both Brutus and Cassius killed themselves after their armies were defeated.
However, Antony and Octavian still did not like each other all that much. Lepidus was off chilling in North Africa while Antony went of to the East. While there, he began an affair with Cleopatra of Egypt. This was a problem because Antony was married to Octavian's sister, Octavia. To make it better, she was Antony's second wife. So, she was left behind to care for Antony's children with his first wife while he went off and had children with Cleopatra. Personally, I'd say that that seems like poor planning on Antony's part.
Well, to make a long story short, Octavian forced Lepidus to retire and then went after Antony and Cleopatra. He defeated their armies and they killed themselves (are we seeing a theme here?). For anyone who wants an entertaining account of this period of Roman history, read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. They are both wonderful plays.
Anyhoo, Octavian took power and, in 27 B.C.E., he declared the Restoration of the Republic. Interesting note, he was not called emperor, nor were the rest of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. They were princeps, which means "prince." Thus, this period is officially referred to as the principate. Of all the things Octavian did, the most entertaining was the Creation of the Julian laws. One group, the Julian Law of Chastity and Repressing Adultery, gave certain strictures about bringing women to trial for adultery. This did end up forcing Octavian to exile his daughter, but can you blame her? Her father married her off to two or three different men. But this wasn't the best part. Octavian also wanted to make sure that women had children. If a woman had more than three children, she had legal freedom from her husband, which is pretty cool. However, monetary incentives could be gained by having 25 or more children. 25!! Who actually wants to have 25 children? And there better be monetary incentives! How else could you afford them all? Further reason that I am glad I don't live in Ancient Rome.
The New Deal and World War II:
We finally invaded France this week. Churchill just kept putting it off, but it finally happened. Not until after we'd invaded Italy, of course. But I suppose I ought to back up a little.
When last we saw them, the Allied forces were trucking away in Africa. As things went well there, Churchill and FDR met in Casablanca to discuss what to do next. Naturally, the next step was Italy. Seems perfectly logical. But not to Stalin, who was still pissed that there was no western front to distract Hitler. And Hitler understood this to mean that there would be no distraction, so he continued to concentrate on Russia.
The Italian campaign did not go nearly so well as our military commanders anticipated that it would. Mussolini had just gotten overthrown, and then the Nazis came in to help. Most attempts to get around the Nazi forces ended badly, and the Italian campaign continued until Germany's surrender. (A note from Gillian--the Allies' first advance in Italy was made against a German fortification line known as the Gustav Line. Under the command of General Mark Clark, who will later be a successor of General MacArthur in the Korean War, the Allies made a landing at Anzio (Operation Shingle), which was behind the Gustav Line, in January of 1944, intending to flank the German troops and breach the line. Clark didn't move inland fast enough, and the line wasn't breached until May, which led to the capture of Rome in June 1944, two days before the Allied invasion of Normandy. The history of this episode was interesting to me, since one of my mom's uncles fought in the European theater and was among those who landed at Anzio.)
Planning was, however, going on for the cross-channel invasion of France. Since the British had the ultra secret (which I keep wanting to call the über secret, but that doesn't seem like the best idea...), they were able to set up a fake army and they could read German correspondence to make sure that they bought it, which it seemed that they did. Eisenhower massively freaked out about the invasion up until it happened (and can you blame him?), even to the point of writing an apology for defeat. However, D-Day more or less went off without a hitch, though there were heavy casualties (which was to be expected). There was then debate about how to proceed, but Eisenhower told FDR that he'd resign if it didn't happen his way, so FDR put his foot down to Churchill. Several small groups were sent off across France. Another invasion took place in Southern France, which was also a success and allowed the Allies to go at the Nazis from two different directions.
Not much was going on in the Pacific theater, since the majority of men and supplies were being channeled into the cross-channel invasion (no pun intended). There was also much political debate going on back home, especially over who should run with Roosevelt as his vice-president, since it was apparent to everyone that whoever was the new VP would sooner or later be president. It would seem that FDR could have planned all of that better. I don't blame him for wanting to see things through to the end, but he was sick and he knew it. Who knows how things might have gone differently if he hadn't run again.
Well, that's all for this week, folks. Tune in next time, but I don't know what you will be tuning in for since we haven't learned it yet.
Have a wonderful week!
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