Joshua’s Reviews > The History of Rome, Books 1-5: The Rise of Rome > Status Update
Joshua
is on page 216 of 416
Book III was brilliant. Livy does a great job at building the tension on the Conflict of the Orders. The whole battle over patrician vs. plebeian is still accurate to this day. The Decemvirate is a great lesson in how quickly democracy and liberty can be dismantled, even through initial democratic means. Livy is also interesting how he heavily promotes moderation on both sides. He also hates greed. Quite a wise man.
— Apr 05, 2025 06:40PM
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Joshua’s Previous Updates
Joshua
is on page 139 of 416
Book II shows Livy's interest in the rivalry between senate & plebeian. The various battles with the Etruscans is commonplace but we rarely get information on the enemy, it's usually a tool for the plebeians to interact deviantly against the senate. I do like how laws and such are debated as we would see today. As such there we see the most similarities between Roman republicanism and modern republicanism.
— Apr 03, 2025 03:57PM
Joshua
is on page 109 of 416
The Plebeian Secession was great to see and shows how republicanism isn't solved as soon as a monarch is deposed but is a continuous process of liberty.
I love how there has to be a whole arc about a dream from Jupiter to make the Great Games as glorious as possible when in reality it was probably that they wanted it to be lavish and they tried to find a justification later.
— Apr 02, 2025 07:42AM
I love how there has to be a whole arc about a dream from Jupiter to make the Great Games as glorious as possible when in reality it was probably that they wanted it to be lavish and they tried to find a justification later.
Joshua
is on page 70 of 416
46-70. I enjoyed this session a lot. Tullia is a particularly interesting character as I see a lot of Lady Macbeth in her ambition and cruelty; Tarquin the Proud can be seen as a Macbeth who is overthrown for his illegality of rule. Brutus is an interesting character as well and his feigning of stupidity reminds me of an Asimov storyline, I wonder if he was inspired by this Brutus.
— Mar 27, 2025 08:27PM
