#the two noble kinsman

[robbinggoodfellows]

i cant believe shakespeare invented lesbians

#two noble kinsman #shakespeare

[a-world-of-whimsy-5]

“Flesh and Blood”

Part 6 :The Hunt (Part 1)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Pairing: Prince Aemon the Dragonknight x Fem. Reader (Northerner /House Stark | Third Person POV)

Themes: Soft | Some sensuality

Warnings: Kissing | Alcohol use | Mentions of sexual activity | Brief mention of violence

Word count: 3.2K

Summary: Aemon and y/n join the others when they go off to the Kingswood for a grand hunt.

Minors DNI,. You are responsible for the media you consume | 18+ | Rules and tag form can be found here.  

It was still dark outside while Aemon quietly made his way to the Sept. Guests were slowly pouring into the outer yard, all in anticipation of the hunt. At the break of dawn, they would depart.

But not yet. There was still time, and Aemon wanted to make the most of it. He peeked inside the cold marble interior and found it empty. Pleased with this discovery, he found two new candles, one purple and the other a blinding white. He lit them before bringing them to the likenesses of The Father and The Mother. Aemon placed one at the feet of each before closing his eyes and bowing his head. He prayed, grateful for the second chance that had been given and for his wife's opening her heart to him. Aemon silently thanked the Mother and Father for smiling down on his efforts to save his marriage. The air within the Sept was still and cold. The prince was confident he was being heard. Light of heart by the end of his devotions, he searched for another candle, a brilliant red one. He lit it and placed it at the feet of the Warrior. Aemon closed his eyes and prayed again for a successful hunt and for his arrows to fly true.  

The door was thrown open, and a gust of wind followed the intruder in. Aemon opened his eyes even as his hand went straight for the handle of his sword. He surpressed a sigh when he saw who the interloper was.  

"Noble kinsman!" Baelor cried in greeting. "Come to pray, I see!"

 "Good morrow, your grace." Aemon stood to attention and bowed his head. "Yes, I have come to pray. And to give thanks for favors granted."

"I have heard," the king replied as he searched for candles for his own use. "Your wife is returning to your side. But I hear she wishes to return to the old ways?"

"She merely wishes to pray to the Gods of her people," Aemon said. He turned to face the likeness of the Warrior again. He prayed even more and asked for the strength needed to deal with his cousin. "I see no harm in it." 

Baelor was less than pleased. "Meaningless idolatry, I call it. If I had my way, I would cut down those blasted trees and make the Northerners bend the knee before the Seven who are One. Alas, the council and your father and even my lady wife think differently."

With plans for her engagement, her sister’s coronation, and everything else, Elaena did not have time to speak to Aemon about a regency in Daena’s name. It was unnecessary, however. He was starting to see why his father was helping the queen with the claim. If Baelor remained king after Viserys surrendered to the Stranger, he would begin wars with the North and the Iron Born.

And it would be the entrails of Southron warriors decorating the hulls of Iron Born ships and the Weirwood trees of the North. Not garlands of winter roses and bones from whales that had been hunted. 

"The North will not bend the knee. Not now." Aemon reminded the king. "Our dragons are all dead, and the sun is setting on our once glorious dynasty. We cannot afford more wars. Let the North keep to their ways, and we to ours. The realm will thank our family for it." 

The king huffed in disappointment and shook his head. "You surprise me, kinsman." Baelor lit a candle for the Father and walked toward his carving, his bare feet making no sound as he padded over the smooth floor. "I took you for a pious, believing man."

"I am a pious, believing man," Aemon replied respectfully, choosing a different way to appeal to the king. "I simply refuse to be a foolish one. War with the North will end only in bloodshed and with our armies decimated. And you, as a believing king, must consider the cost to your subjects. Have a care for them, your grace. They are weary of war. The Seven will reward you greatly in the afterlife if you do."

Baelor smiled, a slow creeping smile that made Aemon feel ill. Still, his words took hold of the king. 

"Perhaps you are right," Baelor said, oblivious to Aemon's sigh of great relief. "I shall turn my eyes to the building of the Great Sept. Yes. That is what matters."

Another meaningless cost thrust upon our subjects, Aemon thought sadly. But at least he is no longer thinking of war. 

"Indeed," the prince agreed heartily instead. "That is what matters."

Baelor bowed his head to pray. Aemon, seeing his chance, made his way back out as silently as he could manage. He breathed more freely in the brisk air and turned his eyes to the pale streaks of dawn. He made haste and returned to his tower, passing the Godswood along the way. He had to speak to the servants before leaving. Changes had to be made before y/n came back with him. 

The prince stopped before the Weirwood tree when its leaves rustled softly with the wind. He brushed his fingers over his lips and still felt the imprint of his wife’s on his own.

Y/n's kisses had been soft and sinful. And yet, Aemon no longer found cause to hate the parts filled with sin. Kissing his wife felt as natural as breathing. Holding her felt natural. And touching her. Aemon turned his hands and gazed at his palms. There was nothing there, but he could still feel the warmth of his wife’s skin against his. He had felt her tremble. Heard her moan. Unraveled and gave himself to the wildness growing within him when she sighed his name. Had it not been for the festivities, he would have taken her back to their chambers and carried her to bed. If he had been like his brother, utterly reckless, he would have taken y/n right there beneath the shade of the Weirwood tree. He looked at the tree and the dappled light all around it. And remembered his dream.

It was the same dream he had since he first saw her swimming back at the Cerwyn Manse. Aemon chased y/n around ancient trees, oblivious to the bite in the air and the frost crunching beneath his feet. She would tease him, goad him, and laugh when he caught her. And he always, always captured her. She felt perfect and soft in his arms. He would kiss her until her laughter died and kiss her until she moaned. He would lay her down beneath the shade of a gnarled tree and drown in her warmth. 

"Aemon," she would whisper while he lost himself in her. Her hands would brush over his hair as he feasted on her lips. She would sigh softly again. The sound chased him to waking and the cold light of day. In his still sleep-like state, he expected to find y/n beside him. He did not, and disappointment spiraled through him, making him feel empty. 

He heard her laughter again. This time, it was not in his dreams. Y/n had come running when her youngest cousin decided to wander around the Godswood.  

"Marna!" She cried softly. "Get back here!" 

Marna wriggled free of her cousin’s clutches and raced down the pathway in a gale of laughter. She ran straight into Aemon and stopped.  

"Lift!" She ordered, and raised her arms, thinking he would take her onto his shoulders like he often did whenever he called over at the Cerwyn Manse.

"I believe you thought of exploring?" He grinned and crouched down to Marna’s level. His wife’s cousin had the look of the North. A lean, long face, thick brown hair, and pale gray eyes. They were softer and kinder now, but that could change soon enough. Life in the North tended to do that.  

"Yes, she did," y/n replied, her hands on her hips. "And she will be in trouble if she does not return. Go on," she urged when Uther came in search of his youngest sister. "Go back to your brother." 

Marna pouted and returned to her brother in a huff. Aemon broke out into a wider grin when the little girl grumbled the entire way. Y/n turned to him, a smile on her lips. Aemon did not give her time to speak. He slid his arms around her and kissed her lightly on the neck. Y/n was startled but slowly melted when he pressed his lips over hers. Her mouth tasted so sweet when she shuddered and parted it for his tongue, her hands grasping at his tunic. Voices were heard from outside Godswood. The prince finally drew back, albeit very reluctantly.  

"Six months wasted because of my hard-headedness," he murmured and stepped away. Someone else had walked into the Godswood. It was Viserys. He called Aemon and y/n over. The time had come for them to leave. "I should have kissed you long and deep on our wedding night; I should have kissed you every night and day. I should have loved you often and held you after. Will you forgive me?"  

"Perhaps," she replied shyly, her eyes twinkling. "If you went down to your knees and groveled. I always did love a good grovel." 

Aemon laughed and led her back to the outer yard to join the others.  

Several hours of hard riding later, the Kingswood came into view. Lord Commander Hardyng and the palace guard kept a careful eye as they led the royal family and their guests down winding paths lined with pine and birch and fir. The air was crisp and cold, even as the sun rose higher and higher in the sky. The breath of rider and horse mingled while they rode down one beaten path after another until they reached a clearing near a clear pond.  

The field was filled with flowers and awash in a riot of color. Servants had ridden a day or two before and prepared the many tents that would be needed. Daena had ridden ahead as well, along with her sisters. They were standing by the entrance to the campsite, ready to greet their guests in Baelor's name. The smell of roasting meat hung in the air. It was just as well, as everyone was already tired from the ride, and more than one stomach growled. 

Several giant aurochs had been roasting since the morning. Kitchen boys basted them with honey and herbs while turning them on immense wooden spits. The meat crackled and split even as it cooked. Trestle tables and benches had been arranged amid the tents, and dishes piled high with olives, bread, cheese, and wild berries had been set out for anyone hungry.  

Aemon found a place beside Elaena and waited for y/n to join him. He smiled, kissed her hand when she sat beside him, and formally introduced her to his cousins.  

"We are putting the dragon skulls back," Eleana said. "My sister insists on them being treated with the respect they deserve. They will be arranged all around the throne room. My sister wants them that way on the day of her anointing." 

"Atop marble plinths and surrounded by hundreds of lit candles? It will be a most glorious sight, to be sure." 

"That is what we all hope for."

Conversation died while courses came and went. A hearty mushroom soup. Delicate little tarts filled with spinach and cheese. Roast fowl and vegetables. Fish caught fresh from a nearby river and cooked in lemon and herbs. Then came the course of meat. Aemon carved a generous portion for his wife, smiling while she ate with a hearty appetite. Servants walked around tables, filling cups with iced wine and ale and cold water. Minstrels sat to one side, strumming and singing, and filled the evening air with sweet melodies.  

It was wondrous, even as morning gave way to evenfall. The cares of the past were forgotten, even if it was for a short while. Aemon glanced at his wife, pleased to see her talking with the queen and her sisters.  

Such a pity, he thought, when he heard Daena eagerly talk about her plans for the future. Danny and y/n would have gotten along well had fate not intervened. 

By now, the city was well aware of the trial by combat. Jonnel and Edric fell to Lord Stane, just as many predicted. With the swing of a sword, y/n had become heiress to Winterfell and the future Lady of the North. She would have to leave after her sister visited King’s Landing and had her fill of the city. No one knew how much longer Cregan Stark had left in this world.  

There was shouting and boisterous laughter. Aegon was growing louder with each cup of wine he drank. From time to time, Aemon could see him teasing and getting bawdy with the serving girls. He felt grateful that Alys decided to stay back and keep Naerys company. The sight of her husband fondling the women around him would have wounded her deeply. Aegon grew even louder and drank even more than he ate. A serving girl walked past him. Aegon demanded a kiss. She readily obliged. Others were watching. Many were talking, their eyes not at all kind. Aemon rose, thinking his brother had gone too far. 

"Come sit with me, brother," he called softly. "We have not had time to talk together." 

"No," was all Aegon said before turning his attention back to the serving girl. Aemon went over to him and put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Aegon turned and shoved him so hard that he fell onto his back.

"Some Dragonknight," Aegon spat, then guffawed when Aemon dusted himself off and stood up. "I can still best you, little brother, even when I am in my cups," he said, turning to face y/n. "I pity her for being wed to one such as you." 

Aemon bristled. He bit his tongue, thinking the blow to his pride would be worth it if it meant Aegon not making a complete spectacle of himself in front of the court.  

"I will take care to pass on your commiserations to her," he retorted sharply. "Now come, sit, and eat with father and myself." 

"I…" 

"You are disgracing yourself in front of the court." 

Aegon grumbled and shrugged. "Oh, very well then," he muttered. Aemon sighed in relief, pleased that his appeal to Aegon's vanity had succeeded. "I will sit and eat and behave myself." 

Viserys was watching his oldest with barely disguised contempt. He said nothing to Aegon but turned to whisper something to the Lord Commander. Servants stopped serving wine and ale to the prince after that. 

"Are you hurt, husband?" Y/n asked quietly. She reached over and dusted specks of grass and dirt out of Aemon’s hair.  

"Just a blow to my own pride," Aemon began. He searched for his brother and found him helping himself to the bread and meat. "I am well, I assure you." 

The rest of the evening drifted peacefully. Minstrels came and went, and the court fool walked around the tables making crude noises and singing sharp-witted songs that made everyone laugh, even the one at the receiving end of his mockery. Aegon finally stopped eating and fell asleep with his head on the table. Lord Commander Hardyng had him carried back to his tent.  

The moon had risen and hung high in the sky. Someone lit a bonfire to keep everyone warm. The feast went on. Servants carried trays laden with sweets: stewed fruits and pears soaked in wine and cakes covered in thick, sugary frosting. The queen walked around the tables, talking to courtiers and guests of the crown.  

She is improving, Aemon thought. Daena praised the Dornishmen for their realm’s defiance against the dragons, spoke to the YiTish ambassador about the customs of his people, entertained the children of several others, and made them laugh. She introduced her sisters to others before finally making her excuses and leaving. Aemon glanced at his wife. Her eyes had grown heavy, and she was the only one remaining from her family. Uther had gone to help his mother put the younger children to bed.  

And Aemon did not want the night to end. 

"Would you care for a late-night swim?" he suggested. "The river is just beyond those trees. I was told the water was calm today." 

Y/n agreed. "Pray give me a moment. I need to change and fetch a pelt." 

The lake was not that far, but Aemon left word with the Kingsguard so they would not be disturbed. Lord Commander Hardyng winked and said, "About time something happened," under his breath. Aemon went red in the face but took his words in good spirits. 

Y/n had gone ahead and was already in the water, clad in a simple cotton shift. Aemon stood in the shadows, content to watch. 

His wife was as comfortable in the water as in the saddle. She glided through the water without a care in the world, turning her face up and paddling. She wanted to gaze at the moon. Her shift drifted and spread out in the water. His eyes traveled over her body. The prince drank in every inch he saw, from the exposed flesh to the hair limned by moonlight, and found his wife to be the answer to every young knight's dream. And she was his, bound to him by oath. He went forth, not wanting to miss another moment.  

"This is not the first time I have found you like this," he declared, and walked onto a nearby tree that had fallen into the water after a great storm. "I am starting to think you are part mermaid, wife." 

Y/n laughed and swam over to him. "I am not part mermaid, to be sure. There is not a drop of Greyjoy blood in my family. Or perhaps there is, and no one knows of it." 

Aemon smiled and sat back on his haunches. The bark was stout and strong, and its leaves had already rotted away in the water.  

"Are you all right?" She asked again. "I was so worried when Aegon pushed you. I thought he was going to reach for his sword." 

"I am well," he replied, more than a little alarmed that he had not stopped to consider that his brother had a sword by his side. Aemon swore to never be so careless again. "My brother will forget everything come morning and complain of awful head pains to anyone who would listen." 

Y/n laughed again and swam further away. "Will you not join me?" she asked. "You did suggest we swim." 

Aemon smiled and stood up. "I did," he said, before slipping out of his boots and stripping off his clothes until his breeches were all that remained. "And I will join you." 

A mist slowly crept in over the water. They kept close to the fallen tree, paddling and laughing and splashing each other whenever they could. Silver moonlight mingled with the flickering golden light of little fireflies. The soft hum of insects and water lapping at the shore were the only sounds that carried with the breeze. Aemond drank deep on the magic of the night, and he found he could not keep his hands away from his wife. He kept touching her, and kissing her, and he found her lips to be as sweet as always. He would have done more had the mist not thickened. Y/n shivered. It was frightfully cold.  

"Come, wife," he said, wanting to take her back to their tent, where it was warm. "Our tent and a good night’s sleep awaits." 

If you enjoyed this, please consider commenting/reblogging it!

#aemon the dragonknight #aemon the dragonknight x reader #aemon the dragonknight imagine #aemon x reader #x reader #reader insert #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #asoiaf imagine #asoiaf x reader #a world of ice and fire #house targaryen #house stark #fanfiction #writeblr #💫whimsy's shenanigans #💫a world of whimsy writes

[paceywittergayboatman]

Ewan Roy as Surrogate Grandfather and his Role in Greg's Demise

Masterlist

One Sweet Love by Sara Bariles-38

Emily Dickinson-6

The Celebration: How Long Can This Go On?by Michael Koresky-5

Basket Case by Sara Bareiles-24,32

Coney Island by Taylor Swift-18

Invisible Girls: The Truth about Sexual Abuse by Patti Feuereisen and Caroline Pincus-37

Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman-33

Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina by The Mountain Goats-14

Pericles; Cymbeline; The Two Noble Kinsman-21?

Inhibited by Louis Untermeyer-29

Family Ties by-39

Succesion

1.5-1,2,7,8,9,10,12,13,25

2.9-3

1.7-4

1.6-11,15,16,17,22,23,26,34,35,36

1.1/1.2?-19,20

3.5-27,28,30,31

3.9-37

#succesion #ewan roy #greg Hirsch #succesion web weaving meta

[frodo-with-glasses]

Hi! Maybe Frodo and Eowyn? 1, 3, 5, 10

Ooh, now here's an odd pair! This should be fun.

1. “When I think they became friends”

Well, clearly they could only have met during the festivities after the destruction of the Ring. Merry introduced them, I'm sure, heaping glowing praise upon the valiant Lady Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, she who slayed the Witch King—

"Not without aid," she said.

"Oh, don't even mention it." He waved his hand as if banishing the words from thought. "And now, Lady, I must regrettably introduce you to my dowdy old bore of a cousin."

"Thank you very much," said Frodo.

"Well, it's about time someone said something a little less than charitable," said Merry, putting his hands into his pockets. "They've been singing your praises all week."

"Yes, they have," said Frodo with a wince, "and quite beyond the point of embarrassment. But where are my manners?" He bowed low. "It is an honor to meet a Lady of such noble blood and such great courage. Were she not already a friend of my kinsman, I'd feel nearly ashamed of myself."

Eowyn had already been smiling, but the kind words softened her countenance even further. "You speak generously. My accomplishments are no greater than yours."

"Then let's not speak of it any longer. To be honest, I'm weary of hearing of it." He sighed, and his gaze became distant. "I should like some peace for a change."

"I begin to feel the very same way," said she.

They looked upon one another for a long moment, and it seemed, to their surprise, that each was gazing into a mirror; and the reflection to be seen was not one of outward appearance, but of emotion, weariness, and hope.

The Lady broke the silence. "Would you walk with me?"

Frodo stirred as if waking from a dream. "I'd be honored."

(So they went, and Merry presumably wiggled finger guns at them and ducked out.)

3. “A random headcanon I have of them”

Frodo has a fascination with study and learning, but books don't cover everything. I think he'd be endlessly intrigued by a culture that writes no literature and is only referenced tangentially in other sources. He'd have a lot of questions about Rohan, and Eowyn would give her answers in the form of songs that were made to remember their history, and Frodo would probably forget most of it by the time he gets back to the Shire—the matter of recording everything concerning the Ring was more pressing—but he'd never forget the sound of that magnificent language.

(Maybe, in another life, he could have written and translated Rohan's history too. But that would be left to the work of others.)

5. “A scene I wish we had of them”

See above :-D Frodo and Eowyn are kindred spirits in some surprising ways. I'd love to see how they'd interact.

10. “A song that reminds me of them”

I'll go with "Worn" by Tenth Avenue North. Frodo and Eowyn are heroes, yes, but they're also two troubled souls looking for some hope, and I think this song captures that longing very well.

FRIENDSHIP ASK GAME!

#ask game #frodo baggins #eowyn #eowyn of rohan #lord of the rings #lotr #my writing

[troybeecham]

Today the Church honors The Holy Martyrs Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus.

Orate pro nobis.

Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus, suffered in the ninth century AD in the time of the cruel Muslim North African ruler Ibrahim II. The siege of Syracuse from AD 877 to 878, which was part of the larger campaign to conquer Christian Sicily beginning in AD 802, led to the fall of the city of Syracuse, the Byzantine Empire’s capital of Sicily, to the Aghlabids, a Muslim dynasty that ruled the northern coast of modern Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The siege lasted from August 877 to 21 May 878 when the city, effectively left without assistance by the central Byzantine government, was sacked by the Aghlabid forces.

The Muslims were unable to capitalize upon this success due to internal rivalries, which even led to a full-scale civil war. Small-scale warfare with the Byzantines continued without any side gaining a decisive advantage until the arrival of the deposed Aghlabid emir Ibrahim II, who in 902 rallied the Sicilian Muslims and captured Taormina, effectively completing the Muslim conquest of Sicily, although a few fortresses remained in Byzantine hands until AD 965. The events of the siege are described in some detail by the eyewitness Theodosios the Monk, who included an account of it in a letter written during his subsequent captivity. Most of the population of the city was massacred during the sack; St. Theodosios writes that among the notables alone, over 4,000 were killed.

After the capture and destruction of the Sicilian city of Syracuse, Ibrahim captured and brought to Africa many slaves, among whom were Saint Andrew, Saint John, and his two children Peter and Antoninus. That they were singled out by Ibrahim likely indicates that they were nobles. Ibrahim compelled Peter and Antoninus to study the Arab language and sciences, the Qur’an and the Muslim religion, intending that they become Muslims.

When the youths had grown, the emir Ibrahim was so fond of them for their wisdom and virtuous life, that he named Antoninus his kinsman, and he appointed Peter as his chief steward. However, he learned that the youths secretly confessed faith in Christ from other slaves jealous of the preferential treatment being given to them. Ibrahim flew into a furious rage, ordering them to be bound with iron shackles and beaten with knotted rods.

After prolonged scourging, they put Saint Antoninus on a donkey, tied him on with straps, then drove him through the city, beating and ridiculing him with abuse. The martyr endured all the insults and gave thanks to God. Saint Peter was thrown into prison after a fierce beating with the rods. Both sons died in prison from their tortures.

An order was then issued to arrest John, the father of the holy martyrs. The brutal Ibrahim grabbed him by the neck with his left hand, and with his right he thrust a knife into his throat. They cast the dead body of the father, together with the bodies of his sons, into a large fire.

As for Saint Andrew, the torturer wore him down with hunger, and then ran him through with a spear in the chest. When the martyr prayerfully began to give thanks to God, Ibrahim ran him through a second time. As he lay dying from loss of blood, they beheaded the righteous martyr with a sword.

They were martyred on this day in AD 900, and are honored by the Churches of the East and West.

Almighty God, who gave to your servants Andrew and John, and John’s children Peter and Antoninus boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

#father troy beecham #christianity #jesus #god #saints #salvation #peace #martyrs #faith

[roseslaces]

19. Of Lucretia, who put an end to her life because of the outrage done her.

This, then, is our position, and it seems sufficiently lucid. We maintain that when a woman is violated while her soul admits no consent to the iniquity, but remains inviolably chaste, the sin is not hers, but his who violates her. But do they against whom we have to defend not only the souls, but the sacred bodies too of these outraged Christian captives,—do they, perhaps, dare to dispute our position? But all know how loudly they extol the purity of Lucretia, that noble matron of ancient Rome. When King Tarquin's son had violated her body, she made known the wickedness of this young profligate to her husband Collatinus, and to Brutus her kinsman, men of high rank and full of courage, and bound them by an oath to avenge it. Then, heart-sick, and unable to bear the shame, she put an end to her life. What shall we call her? An adulteress, or chaste? There is no question which she was. Not more happily than truly did a declaimer say of this sad occurrence: "Here was a marvel: there were two, and only one committed adultery." Most forcibly and truly spoken. For this declaimer, seeing in the union of the two bodies the foul lust of the one, and the chaste will of the other, and giving heed not to the contact of the bodily members, but to the wide diversity of their souls, says: "There were two, but the adultery was committed only by one."

But how is it, that she who was no partner to the crime bears the heavier punishment of the two? For the adulterer was only banished along with his father; she suffered the extreme penalty. If that was not impurity by which she was unwillingly ravished, then this is not justice by which she, being chaste, is punished. To you I appeal, ye laws and judges of Rome. Even after the perpetration of great enormities, you do not suffer the criminal to be slain untried. If, then, one were to bring to your bar this case, and were to prove to you that a woman not only untried, but chaste and innocent, had been killed, would you not visit the murderer with punishment proportionably severe? This crime was committed by Lucretia; that Lucretia so celebrated and lauded slew the innocent, chaste, outraged Lucretia. Pronounce sentence. But if you cannot, because there does not compear any one whom you can punish, why do you extol with such unmeasured laudation her who slew an innocent and chaste woman? Assuredly you will find it impossible to defend her before the judges of the realms below, if they be such as your poets are fond of representing them; for she is among those

"Who guiltless sent themselves to doom,And all for loathing of the day,In madness threw their lives away."

And if she with the others wishes to return,

"Fate bars the way: around their keepThe slow unlovely waters creep,And bind with ninefold chain."

Or perhaps she is not there, because she slew herself conscious of guilt, not of innocence? She herself alone knows her reason; but what if she was betrayed by the pleasure of the act, and gave some consent to Sextus, though so violently abusing her, and then was so affected with remorse, that she thought death alone could expiate her sin? Even though this were the case, she ought still to have held her hand from suicide, if she could with her false gods have accomplished a fruitful repentance. However, if such were the state of the case, and if it were false that there were two, but one only committed adultery; if the truth were that both were involved in it, one by open assault, the other by secret consent, then she did not kill an innocent woman; and therefore her erudite defenders may maintain that she is not among that class of the dwellers below "who guiltless sent themselves to doom." But this case of Lucretia is in such a dilemma, that if you extenuate the homicide, you confirm the adultery: if you acquit her of adultery, you make the charge of homicide heavier; and there is no way out of the dilemma, when one asks, If she was adulterous, why praise her? if chaste, why slay her?

Nevertheless, for our purpose of refuting those who are unable to comprehend what true sanctity is, and who therefore insult over our outraged Christian women, it is enough that in the instance of this noble Roman matron it was said in her praise, "There were two, but the adultery was the crime of only one." For Lucretia was confidently believed to be superior to the contamination of any consenting thought to the adultery. And accordingly, since she killed herself for being subjected to an outrage in which she had no guilty part, it is obvious that this act of hers was prompted not by the love of purity, but by the overwhelming burden of her shame. She was ashamed that so foul a crime had been perpetrated upon her, though without her abetting; and this matron, with the Roman love of glory in her veins, was seized with a proud dread that, if she continued to live, it would be supposed she willingly did not resent the wrong that had been done her. She could not exhibit to men her conscience, but she judged that her self-inflicted punishment would testify her state of mind; and she burned with shame at the thought that her patient endurance of the foul affront that another had done her, should be construed into complicity with him. Not such was the decision of the Christian women who suffered as she did, and yet survive. They declined to avenge upon themselves the guilt of others, and so add crimes of their own to those crimes in which they had no share. For this they would have done had their shame driven them to homicide, as the lust of their enemies had driven them to adultery. Within their own souls, in the witness of their own conscience, they enjoy the glory of chastity. In the sight of God, too, they are esteemed pure, and this contents them; they ask no more: it suffices them to have opportunity of doing good, and they decline to evade the distress of human suspicion, lest they thereby deviate from the divine law.

#St Augustine #The City of God #Christianity #paganism #Rome

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Isabel de Clare 4th Countess of Pembroke (1172-1220 AD).  Anglo-Irish women of the nobility in profile...

Isabel de Clare’s life is largely known in detail for her proximity to people in her life during the late 12th & early 13th centuries of Medieval England.  Her parents and ancestors were of noble & royal extraction.  Her husband rose through the ranks from son of a relatively minor noble to being the man regarded as the best knight and most trustworthy nobleman in all of the Angevin Empire and a powerful statesman who ruled in England in all but name for a brief period.  In death he was lionized as the “greatest knight who had lived” and their children would either become nobles & warriors in 13th century England themselves or marry into other noble families of note.

All of this overlooks just how important, strong and capable Isabel was of her own merit.  Something her husband and indeed Anglo-Norman law at the time recognized.  Despite its male dominance, there were women capable of being major power players in the ranks of nobility & royalty and Isabel played a contribution to that.  Her life offers us a unique glimpse into a noble woman’s life during the High Middle Ages in Western Europe.

Royal Roots, Birth & Early Life: 

-Isabel de Clare was born circa 1172 AD, somewhere in Leinster (southeastern), Ireland.  From the start she was a symbolic & physical bridge between two cultures.  She was the result of a political but dutiful marriage, and her physical being would be of crucial importance in later years.

-Her father was Richard FitzGilbert, also known as Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (1130-1176).  Richard would be best known to history by his nickname Strongbow.  He was an Anglo-Norman nobleman of the De Clare family.  The De Clare or Clare family originated in Normandy and came to England where they accompanied William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy who would become the first Norman King of England.

-The first Richard FitzGilbert (1035-1090) was a companion of Duke William and distant kinsman.  They both shared a common ancestor in Richard I of Normandy (932-996), Count of Rouen & Duke of Normandy.  The name De Clare was from the Norman French for a place name, to be from or “of” said location.  As a reward for being companion to Duke William in the Norman Conquest of England. Richard FitzGilbert like other Norman nobles was granted landholdings in England, becoming the new English nobility which replaced the Anglo-Saxons of old.  Richard’s particular land holding was in centered in the town of Clare in Suffolk England which made him the first Lord of Clare.  He also gained territory in Tonbridge in Kent, England.

-Over the generations the family expanded its holdings in England and in the Welsh Marches, Anglo-Norman controlled portions of southern Wales.  Strongbow’s father Gilbert de Clare (1100-1148) became 1st Earl of Pembroke under King Stephen of England, gaining control of important parts of the Welsh Marches, including the Pembroke peninsula in southwest Wales.  He also held Striguil in southeastern Wales on the River Wye, forming the strategic border between England & Wales.  

-Gilbert de Clare was married to Isabel Beaumont, a former mistress of King Henry I of England & daughter of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester & his wife Elizabeth de Vermandois.  Elizabeth was a French noblewoman was the paternal granddaughter of French King Henry I (1008-1060) of the House of Capet.  While her maternal grandfather Herbert IV, Count of Vermandois (1028-1080) was a descendant of Charlemagne and the Carolingian dynasty of Franks.  Also, by virtue of Henry I’ of France’s marriage to Princess Anne of Kiev, Strongbow and subsequently Isabel de Clare were direct descendants of the Kievan Rus’s royal ruling House of Rurik which ruled Medieval Ukraine & Russia.  Also confirmed among their ancestors from this line were Swedish royalty, Polish tribal royalty & possibly Byzantine Greek royalty, if the debated connections regarding Anne of Kiev’s purported paternal grandmother (Anna Porphyrogenita) are indeed true.

-Isabel de Clare’s mother and the wife of Strongbow was Aoife MacMurrough of Eva of Leinster (1145-1188) an Irish princess who was daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster.  Ireland at the time was not ruled by one king but was instead made up of several feudal petty kingdoms, Leinster being one of them located in the southeast of the country, a land of rivers, hills and the famed Wicklow Mountains.  Aoife’s and subsequently Isabel’s ancestry in Ireland went back to various Irish petty kings & even the vaunted High Kings of Ireland, who ruled as a somewhat symbolic overlord of the other petty kings.  This included her paternal ancestor through Brian Boru, High King of Ireland & King of Munster and founder of the O’Brien dynasty who defeated the Vikings at their settlement in Dublin in 1014, taking the area back for the Gaelic natives of Ireland after years of Viking rule.  Though Brian Boru died in the process.

-Isabel de Clare’s parents came together in the 1170′s following a power struggle in Ireland between her maternal grandfather Dermot MacMurrough & then High King of Ireland, Rory O’Connor who worried that Dermot would become too powerful as King of Leinster, so he launched an invasion of Leinster, this forced Dermot off his throne and into exile in 1166.

-Dermot’s exile took him to the court of Henry II, King of England & Duke of Normandy who was in France at the time, trying to hold together his many French possessions (Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, Anjou etc.) which made up his Angevin Empire.  Henry would not personally partake in restoring Dermot to the throne in Ireland, but he did authorize Dermot to negotiate and make mercenary use of some of his Anglo-Norman nobility and their knightly retinues.  Strongbow would be one of these Norman nobles Dermot would negotiate with.

-Strongbow promised to assist Dermot in the recapture of his throne, in exchange for Aoife’s hand in marriage and kingship of Leinster upon Dermot’s death, co-ruling with Aoife to give it air of legitimacy among the native Irish.  The Norman invasion of Ireland commenced in small waves as early as 1169 with Strongbow himself arriving in 1170 where his Anglo-Norman forces, some 200 mounted knights and 1,000-foot soldiers teamed with earlier Norman war parties from the prior year, they took the port city of Waterford, once a Viking a stronghold.  Here Aoife & Strongbow were married, uniting the Irish royalty with Anglo-Norman nobility in a political manner.  

-Children would of course cement this marriage with the birth of Isabel probably in 1172 and her brother Gilbert.

-Dermot’s gamble paid off, his Norman mercenaries overwhelmed the forces loyal to High King Rory O’Connor.  The Gaelic Irish military in terms of arms & armor were no match for the Anglo-Normans who sported the most high-quality weapons and armor of their day in Western Europe.  Dermot was once again agreed to be King of Leinster in agreement with O’Connor.  However, his deals with his new son-in-law Strongbow & the other Anglo-Normans unintentionally and unbeknown to them opened the door to the start of England’s several centuries of involvement in Ireland...  

-Dermot would die in 1171 shortly after the retaking of the kingdom, leaving his son and son-in-law (Strongbow) to claim kingship of Leinster.  His son and Aoife’s brother claimed it under traditional Brehon law while his deal with Strongbow left it as part of the dowry for marriage.  

-Meanwhile. Henry II of England was concerned about his Anglo-Norman nobles over in Ireland. Strongbow in particular had through marriage and acquisition of lands, begun a private colonization of Ireland.  Other nobles who took part in Dermot’s operation did so too.   This resulted in Henry and Strongbow making a deal, in exchange for keeping Leinster and the restoration of Strongbow’s English, Welsh & French landholdings, he would surrender the ports of Wexford, Waterford & Dublin to royal authority directly.  He’d also be required to assist Henry on campaign in France against rebels.  He was made in title by Henry II, Lord of Leinster & Justiciar of Ireland (chief justice).  Henry II arrived in Ireland in late 1172 for a six month stay where royal troops directly loyal to him took over the key cities of Wexford, Waterford & Dublin from the earlier Anglo-Norman mercenaries.  All the Anglo-Norman nobles who gained land in Ireland during the initial invasion were forced to pledge fealty to Henry II as Lord of Ireland in exchange for their right to keep their newly colonized lands.  Likewise, the native Gaelic kings were to pledge fealty to Henry II as their feudal overlord, essentially ending the now meaningless institution of High King of Ireland.  Waves of Anglo-Norman, Welsh, & Flemish colonists began to settle and establish new English towns in Ireland.  Some established relations with the Gaelic Irish, intermarrying, becoming a new cultural group which would expand, ebb and flow over the centuries, the Anglo-Irish.  Thus began a fusion of Anglo-Norman architecture, warfare, language and with a gradual cultural assimilation of Gaelic customs that began to blur the differences overtime until the early Anglo-Normans became just accepted as Irish.  Nevertheless, politically the longer lasting implications of England’s occupation of Ireland had begun.

-Isabel de Clare was born into this new political realty, her maternal ancestral homeland permanently transformed within a few years due to her maternal grandfather’s personal struggle to regain power in his homebase.  None of the the participants, including her parents & grandfather had the slightest notion of the longer-term implications of their decisions.  Isabel & her brother were, nevertheless, the flesh and blood realty of this new political & cultural fusion.  Meant in part as political bridges between two worlds.

-Strongbow intended for his son Gilbert to inherit Leinster and the various holdings in Wales, England and Normandy.  His own death came about in 1176 following an infection of the leg.  He was buried in Dublin, with his tomb & effigy still found Christ Church Dublin.  Aoife took charge of her children’s upbringing hoping to ensure their inheritance.  She was by many accounts fierce in this regard, she was also seemingly well-educated for anybody in that time period but especially a woman, a trait she passed on to Isabel.  She is also said to have led Anglo-Norman & Irish loyalist troops into battle against those who tried to take Leinster from her, she earned the nickname Red Eva.

-Gilbert de Clare, died as a teenager around 1185.  Thus, all the inheritance remained with his mother Aoife and would by right of Anglo-Norman law pass on to his nearest relative, his sister Isabel and any man she would marry.  

-Aoife died in 1188 by some accounts, this left the teenage Isabel orphaned without and without her brother.  She was, nevertheless, rightful heir to Leinster, the castles in Wales & England that had belonged to her father and paternal grandfather (Gilbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke).  She was the 4th Countess of Pembroke in this line after her brother’s brief tenure.  Isabel, became a royal ward of Henry II personally.  Meaning he would ensure the safekeeping of her legal inheritance and person.  He entrusted this to Ranulf of Glanville, Justiciar of England.  She was therefore kept in London for her safekeeping.

-In practical terms this royal wardship was essentially a foster home for orphaned nobility until the king could marry them off to some other noble.  Sometimes, other nobles would be entrusted as their personal guardian and be tasked with arranging the marriage of the ward to another noble, sometimes to their guardian’s child or even the guardian themself for personal gain.  This would of course require the king’s blessing.  

-Isabel was described as beautiful, kind & intelligent “the good, the wise and courteous lady of high degree.”  She was among the wealthiest heiresses in the Angevin Empire (Henry II’s personal empire which through conquest, inheritance and diplomacy included all of England, parts of Wales, Ireland and most of Northern & Western France).  She was well educated like her mother and could speak her father’s language of French, the courtly language of the English royalty and the Anglo-Norman nobility at the time.  She could also speak her mother’s native Irish (Gaelic) & Latin, the language of clergy, diplomacy and government bureaucracy.  This coupled with her bloodlines would be of tremendous political import, meaning she could navigate the Irish and Anglo-Norman cultures she was born of.  Rather than her education in language, courtly manners, warfare, diplomacy and politics being perceived as a threat to any husband, it would have likely been seen as a great asset.

-Her hand in marriage was promised by Henry II, to one William Marshal in 1189.  Marshal was himself an Anglo-Norman noble born and raised in England around 1147.  He was the son of a relatively minor noble in England’s West Country with his mother coming from a more distinct Norman family.  He came of age through training as a knight with his mother’s relative in Normandy, enduring a six-year apprenticeship in knightly warfare, court etiquette & the arts.  He saw some combat but was assigned to the personal service of England’s Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and then the service of her and Henry II’s son, Henry the Younger.  They bonded especially in the late 1170′s by becoming famous knights on the European knightly tournament circuit that was just blossoming at the time.  Marshal became perhaps the most renowned tournament knight of all, capturing or unhorsing some 500 knights.  Henry the Younger would eventually die after Marshal served him for over a decade loyally.

-Marshal then found himself in Henry II’s personal service and during a war against the King of France who was briefly joined by Henry II’s son and heir Richard where he personally unhorsed Richard with a lance, killing the horse but sparing the prince.  Supposedly, the only man to do so.  After Henry II’s death, Richard rose to the throne of England & Normandy.  He was preparing to go on Crusade to the Middle East and liberate Jerusalem from Muslim rule.  He would in time be known as Richard the Lionheart.

-Despite Marshal’s recent opposition with King Richard, the new monarch kept Marshal in his service.  He also fulfilled his father’s promise to wed Isabel de Clare to William Marshal.  This would make Marshal not only a wealthy and increasingly influential knight but by right of marriage make him now one of the wealthiest landowners & nobles in the Angevin Empire.       

Marriage, until death do you part;

-William Marshal & Isabel de Clare were married in August 1189 in London.  There was an age difference, she was not quite 18 and he was in is early 40′s.  Despite the political nature of the marriage, it appears to have been a genuinely happy one by all accounts.  Neither party appears to have been unfaithful to one another.  The written records show a great mutual appreciation for one another and produced 10 children, 5 sons and 5 daughters over the next several decades.  

-Marshal was technically by right of marriage, Earl of Pembroke but he would not officially acquire the title in his own name until 1199, a decade after his marriage.  Nevertheless, he was overlord of Leinster and Striguil and set about making improvements to the castles both he had acquired in England & France for loyal service to the monarchs but his marital gains in Wales & Ireland.

-For the first decade of marriage, William was in service to Richard the Lionheart, particularly when he was gone on Crusade, he stayed behind as a member of the ruling council.  This kept him in England, Wales & France mostly, with little attention to affairs in Ireland.  Isabel for her part focused on raising a family and supporting her husband as he navigated politics.  Though his wartime commitments to defending England from rebels & the French throne often kept them separated.  Isabel, appears to have been like her mother before devoted to ensuring the cultured learning of her children.

-Affairs in her native Ireland wouldn’t be pressing for the Marshal family until around the year 1200, during the reign of Henry II’s youngest son with Eleanor of Aquitaine, John.  John became king after the death of his eldest brother Richard who had returned from years in the Crusades and then a captive in Germany from a rival monarch, found himself campaigning against Philip II of France (his father’s rival) to regain territory that had been lost under John’s regency of throne.  John was eventually back in Richard’s good graces when the Lionheart died of infection from a crossbow wound fired by a rebel soldier in southern France where Richard was campaigning to suppress a revolt.

-John was now King of England and had a reputation for being paranoid, highly emotional and making rash decisions, making him more unpredictable than his older brothers and father.

-Marshal found himself both in John’s good graces and bad graces at various times over the years.  He and Isabel were turning to press their rightful rule in Leinster in the early 1200′s despite John’s warnings he not to do so.  John like his father Henry II had been concerned about Strongbow now worried Marshal and Isabel would be too powerful and independent in Ireland. Indeed, in the two decades since the Norman invasion of Ireland, the Anglo-Norman nobility who settled there had become accustomed to their own relative autonomy.  Loyalty to the king was in name but in practice, so long as they didn’t rebel against the king, they were basically free to do as they please.  John’s predecessors did little to enforce this and initially John was more concerned about England & France.

-Marshal & Isabel helped develop the town of New Ross in Leinster, an English town separate from the Gaelic towns nearby, it was peopled with English & Welsh colonists, many of whom were part of the Marshal family retinue and to whom they owed their feudal allegiance.  The castles of Kilkenny, Trim & others were developed and expanded by Marshal & Isabel.  

-Meanwhile, Marshal earned John’s ire for having paid homage to Philip II of France in exchange for retention of Norman lands after the French kicked John’s English armies out of Normandy, forever losing his ancestral duchy of Normandy to France.

-Concerned of Marshal’s power in Ireland and anger over his dueling homages to John in England and Philip in France.  John organized for Marshal to come pay homage in England where he was duly placed under house arrest at the royal court.  Meanwhile his own Justiciar in Ireland, Meiler Fitzhenry who had his own ambitions on Leinster invaded using his own Irish & Anglo-Norman forces with John’s blessing.  John sought to teach Marshal a lesson and increase personal control over Ireland by having a Norman noble with more loyalty.  It also worked in Fitzhenry’s favor.  

-Marshal himself was considered fair if not especially popular among the Anglo-Normans already settled in Leinster under his rule.  While the native Gaels were less than enthused by him or any other Anglo-Norman lord.  Isabel, however, appears to have been the critical element & saving grace for Marshal.  Given her ancestry including the native Irish rulers of Leinster and the Anglo-Norman new elite, her command of language & diplomacy appears to have held things together while this Anglo-Norman civil war with the king’s blessing raged in Ireland.  

-in 1208 Fitzhenry’s men besieged Isabel (who was pregnant) and the Anglo-Normans who were loyal to Marshal all while Marshal himself and his sons remained personal hostages of King John.  Only thanks to an alliance between Marshal’s & Isabel Anglo-Norman loyalists with another rival of Fitzhenry, Hugh de Lacy (1176-1242) Anglo-Norman noble who was first Earl of Ulster did the war come to an end in Marshal & Isabel’s favor.  Isabel is said to have helped direct the defense of her castles under siege while de Lacy’s men came to their relief, defeating and capturing the men John had sent to assist Fitzhenry.

-Fitzhenry remained a noble in Ireland but he was removed as Justiciar.  Marshal was released by John, and he was allowed to reunite with Isabel.

-Isabel’s day to day to involvement in the civil war is hard to gauge but almost certainly if not the military matters, the diplomatic ones she learned from her Irish princess mother, along with her symbolic blood ties to the Irish & Anglo-Norman nobility of Leinster still held important sway.  As Marshal had said prior to his departure to his custody in England, all he had emanates from her.  This was mostly true in a political and legal sense, but he appears to have meant it in a romantic sense since she was his faithful wife & mother of his children, the vessel to his dynastic future.

-In the coming years, Isabel & Marshal looked to marrying off their children to important Anglo-Norman nobility.  Though successful in this regard and Marshal & Isabel have thousands if not millions of descendants today, none of their sons would bring about descendants meaning, their holdings in Ireland, Wales and England would transfer to other families since their daughters were married off into other noble families and hence the Marshal dynasty was short lived-in terms of male direct descendants.  All five daughters Maud, Isabel, Joan, Eva & Sibyl all had children that lived and went onto have descendants that live into the modern era, including members of the British royal family today as well as numerous people in America and elsewhere due to colonial descendants from English nobility.

-Marshal found himself back in John’s good favor and counselled him during the rough times of the First Baron’s Rebellion (1215-1217).  He also helped guide John to signing the famed Magna Carta, meant as a peace treaty to ensure certain royal guarantees for the rebellious nobility.  Making Marshal one of the Magna Carta “signers”, though the peace was broken shortly thereafter, and John died of illness during rebellion.  To make matters worse England’s civil war between nobles revolting against John’s excesses and those loyal to him, including Marshal now attracted the attention of the French king Philip II and his son Louis.   The rebel barons now swore fealty to Louis and asked he take over as King of England.  Marshal had been made guardian of John’s son 9-year son who was crowned Henry III, making him the 4th crowned King of England that Marshal would serve.  Marshal was styled as “Guardian of the Realm” and swore to defending England and its rightful king from the predations of the rebel barons and the French pretender.

-As regent he was now the head of the country in practical matters, yet he was also 70 years old.  Marshal would help Henry III and England’s royalist forces when the war when at age 70 and donning knight’s armor one last time he would lead a royalist force to defeat a combined Anglo (rebel)-French force in the Battle of Lincoln in May 1217.  This along with the English naval victory over France at Sandwich ended the war in the royalist favor.  Henry III was recognized by France at the rightful King of England and the rebels would be forgiven in exchange.  

-Marshal won the war for England but his old age was catching up with him.  He now set about as Regent of England on behalf of Henry III to try and restore the treasury which was drained under John.  He also reissued updated versions of Magna Carta, later cited by historians as a cornerstone moment in the gradual expanding of human rights and democracy, though the original document was narrow in scope and intended for the nobility and the preservation of their rights against royal abuse.  It would influence English common law and American Constitutional law in centuries to come.

-From 1217-1219 Marshal was the de-facto the ruler of England, he wasn’t always successful, but he did ensure some measure of peace and lay a foundation that Henry III’s other regents and the king himself could later build upon.

-Isabel remained faithful to the very when Marshal died at home near Reading England in May 1219.  She was said to have wept uncontrollably at his passing and could not walk during his funeral procession to London where he was buried in Temple Church.

-Nevertheless, evidence shows that despite her husband’s passing she immediately set about ensuring inheritance was due.  Writing the other regents that her lands in Ireland, Wales (minus Pembroke which went to their eldest son) and England were duly granted in her name.  She also negotiated with the French king to ensure inheritance of her Norman lands.  She even got William Marshal II, their eldest son the hand in marriage to Henry III’s younger sister Princess Eleanor, though this marriage would produce no heirs. 

-Isabel’s son William Marshal II was effective as agent managing her various estates, but illness caught up with her in March 1220 and she died in Wales ten months after her husband’s death.  She was buried Tintern Abbey near Striguil Castle, now Chepstow Castle which had belonged her father Strongbow and his father before him.  Her grave is there to this day alongside her mother Aoife of Leinster.  Though the abbey which the De Clare & Marshal families patroned is now in ruin, the grave markers are located on the ground.

-So passed a woman of high birth within the High Middle Ages of Western Europe. She was born of two different cultures and served as a living bridge immersed in the customs of both.  As a result, she was given a unique and rich in-depth education unusual for anybody for the times but especially someone of her sex.  Her life is mostly known for a seemingly peripheral role in relation to her family and acquaintances of great political importance but the evidence we have suggests she was regarded by especially her family and husband in particular as an absolutely vital and strong character in the events of the time.  She played a part in shaping the history of nations, by dint of her birth and by her cultured and determined character.   

#middle ages #england #france #anglo-norman #medieval #William Marshal #knighthood #chivalry #ireland #leinster #castles #normans #nomandy #de clare #strongbow #wales #chepstow castle #princesses #countess #brehon law #eva of leinster #high middle ages #henry ii #richard the lionheart

[akemansimblog]

Nils Westbrook refused to acknowledge his Aryan ancestry because he was born in Fialam. The emperor did not want to take a long time with him, and it seemed to him fraught with danger to execute another noble kinsman. So Nils was quietly sent to a slave settlement. A slave who was a brother to a lissier's wife would have sounded unthinkable. So the emperor made up a short story about how the boy escaped from prison. The trail of Niels, according to this version, was lost somewhere in the Fourth Sea. In fact, the young boy ended up in a new kind of prison. Three men, two women, a baby, and a dog lived with him in the settlement. Each week, two fighters were chosen by lot for the arena, and the loser of most of the rounds was destined to die.

#sims 2 screenshots #sims 2 stories #the sims 2 #lets play #ts2 #simblr #sims 2 gameplay #ts2 gameplay #ts2 simblr #sims 2 #the sims #historical sims #sims 2 ancient #ts2 pictures #ts2 screenshots #ts2 historical #ts2 story #ts2 test of time #test of time challenge #thesims2 #sims 2 simblr #sims 2 storytelling #sims2 #sims 2 pictures

[controversial-articles]

India's Relations With the US and Russia.

Since the start of the '2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine', India has been in a formidable position between the two world powers the US and Russia, in a quite ahistorical way or the other. India has good relations with both the US and Russia, but due to Russia's declaration of war on Ukraine, the US and Russia are ready to rout each other, and India is getting mashed in between them. According to the normal public, India should be neutral in this, but that's not exactly the case and India is indirectly supporting Russia in this war. Let me tell you why.

Historical Relations of India with Russia and the US.

For us to know, why India is supporting Russia in all this let's take a look back in time. When India got its independence from the British, our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, tried to make India a socialist country, and most of India's leaders were influenced by socialist ideology and impressed by China and U.S.S.R, thus Pakistan( India's borne enemy) got the chance to seal its ties with the US, and the US also looked forward to this friendship as it wanted to have an ally to keep a check on USSR and PRC in south Asia.

Even with the ideological difference the US helped India in the 1962 Sino-Indian war, US supplied India with grains as at that time India wasn't independent in grain production and was having a food crisis. But in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, the US openly supported Pakistan, it was a great setback in India's and US relations, but things got severe in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war when the US openly supported Pakistan, and even supported Pakistan's war crimes(rapes, genocide, human trafficking) in Bangladesh, and even went as far as sending its 7th fleet to attack India, it wasn't just the US, the fleets of Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy were also sent to attack India, in the midst of all that USSR supported India and sent its nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear warheads. The tensions rose to the point where a world war would have happened. 

After this, for the next 20 years India's relations with the US were at their lowest, but in 1992 after the disintegration of the USSR, when India opened its economy to the world, Europe and the US started putting efforts for their relations with India to get better, as they wanted their companies to step foot in the fresh Indian economy and get cheap labor.

Since then India's relations with the US had been getting better and better, but once again in 2022 when India supported its noble kinsman Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the relations and ties were damaged, and India gained a formidable position against the West, but not so openly for it to defy the West completely.

Which is better the US or Russia

India's relations with the US were selfish and beneficial and thus fragile and can end at any moment, and India also hates the US but currently, neither it has the economy, military power, and geopolitical power to openly defy the US, the US has always been against India in the way or the other, the relations between US and India are built purely due to the fact that the US is more powerful than India

whereas,

the relations between Russia and India are nothing like that, the relations between Russia and India are mutual like a brother looks after a brother, and thus more solid and favorable than the US, and even if India wants to become enemies with Russia, it can't as approximately 70% of the Indian military's weapons warships and cruisers are supplied from Russia.

India's Noble Kinsman, Russia  

Since its independence, India's relations with Russia have always been great and especially after the 1971 war, Russia is like India's very own big brother, which has always helped India out in every situation and protected it in fragile geopolitical situations. Sure sometimes there were problems between them.

 Once a brother, always a brother no matter the distance, no matter the difference, and no matter the issue.

#india russia #india us relations #us russia

[storiesbydtcecil]

Ginrei's Visit And Byakuya's Regret

By the time Byakuya made it to his office, he was seething inside. People stayed out of his way-literally- fleeing after sensing his low, menacing spiritual pressure before they'd caught a glimpse of him.

When the captain enters the barracks, subordinates line the walls in the corridors of Squad Six bowing their heads out of respect for his station as is proper. As Byakuya approaches, he registers numerous spiritual pressures just as they made themselves scarce to prevent an encounter with him like a school of fish darting away, sensing an unnatural disturbance.

He didn't blame them.

At this very moment, his control, his patience, and his emotional governance were in tatters. His knuckles were bleeding on his right hand, shame suffusing him at the thought of his actions just minutes before in the meeting hall.

Damn Kaito! Damn the lot of them for this!

For, as Byakuya suspected, the proposal for him to marry Rukia was a screen for the real plot.

Kaito and the elder council knew he would never, in three millennia, agree to marry his sister. Such a move like that would bring down a scandal, the likes of which would rock the Seireitei on its foundations, not to mention the nobility.

Dissolving Rukia's adoption, changing his role from guardian and brother to lover and husband, would bring shame down on his house. Everyone would immediately assume that he and Rukia have been entertaining secret liaisons or a sexual relationship under the fiction of brother and sister. Though a lie, it will be damaging to Rukia.

As a woman, with propriety at stake, as society insists upon, she will bear the brunt of the scorn, unfair as that is. Being the head of the household, Byakuya could, essentially, do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted. In theory, if he were a rogue, the most he'd have gotten would be a token protest from the council elders; maybe not so much as that, given Rukia's origins.

Each member of the council is the leader of his or her cadet branch. Through a system of votes, decisions are made that affect the entire clan, with Byakuya's voice being the final say on any motion.

Today, he didn't use his voice to cast aside the elders 'council'. He would have lost the argument.

I lost my arguments either way.

Though it rubs Byakuya the wrong way to admit it, his actions up to this point drove the Elders to resort to 'necessary measures,' as they phrased it. He understands their misgivings and shoulders the responsibility for what pushed his kinsman into this corner.

He hasn't remarried. He hasn't sired any heirs, legitimately or not. Except for his wife for those brief years, in all his two hundred and fifty years, Byakuya Kuchiki has never entertained a lover in his bed. And when Hisanna left this world, he had no interest in anything along the lines of intimacy.

To their credit, the Elders had tried different avenues to see to their charge. They arranged balls, fêtes, tea parties, and tournaments, inviting the noble hierarchies and their eligible daughters in hopes that he would meet with a young woman of noble bearing. Byakuya would attend as a matter of showing his face, then leave once he's made enough of an appearance to spark gossip.

Like attires laid out by servants on his bed, the counsel had selected noblewomen out for him 'to get to know', two years after Hisanna died; their time measure for getting over the hurdle of grief. They had been lovely. One long, shallow parade of pompous powdered faces and rouge lips, self-important egos, and flattery competed for his attention and the chance to switch whatever their titles were, to the shiny new one of 'Lady Kuchiki.' But when they each met his sister, most of them had turned their noses up at Rukia, 'the gutter rat' he adopted into the noble house of Kuchiki. When they thought he was looking, they played nice with her, pretending to adore the girl, who was the last remnant of his late wife. When they thought he wasn't looking, the scene got disturbing. Byakuya's seen mangy dogs treated with more respect.

Now, he reflected on what would have happened had he considered their suitability a bit more. Vetted the young ladies enough to find one among them he could have entered into a political marriage with- loveless and for spectacle, as it would have been but with mutual benefits for both houses.

Three hells! He could have stomached the act long enough to implant his seed to impregnate his bride, couldn't he? Maybe acquire some aphrodisiacs from the World of the Living to help with his performance? He would have pictured Hisanna's face when he gazes down at the stranger in her place under him. If he could've predicted the council would have used a technicality in the Kuchiki laws against him. He didn't even know that such a thing could be done or in the Kuchiki customs. But that's no excuse.

'At the age of maturity, if there are no heirs sired by the current head of the clan, then the next in line from a cadet branch would legally be entitled to the position as head of the clan should he or she be of the same age, rank, or station.'

Byakuya knew of this custom of the Kuchiki laws. In the event of his death, then someone from the most influential cadet branch would be his successor if he didn't have one already named. He didn't. Not out of carelessness given his day job but out of lack.

Byakuya was yet to find someone from the Kuchiki cadet branches who wasn't bloated with self-important arrogance and hell-bent on sucking up as much power as they could get. Even the less influential cadet branches scheme and plot pettily against one another.

If Rukia had been his blood sibling, then the mantle as head of the clan would automatically pass down to her. Byakuya would have been grooming her with gruelling lessons on the clan's history daily, more so than what she'd gotten during her first year after she was adopted; and she hated those.

But Rukia, for all her wits and determination to her duties, traits he admires about her, shows no aspiration for being more involved with Kuchiki affairs than absolutely necessary. Byakuya didn't have that luxury.

With such a coveted position as head of the clan, Byakuya has to maintain a spy network dedicated to delivering important titbits and reporting to him daily. He has spies of spies that didn't even know that the information they garnered as they work under their different guises: servants, cooks, scullery maids, gardeners, etc gets fed back to the head of the very clan members they spied upon.

Byakuya couldn't claim to be a spymaster in all its methodical intrigues, which can get tedious, but he's adept enough to watch for assassination attempts, spies in his own house from other houses and his cadets' branches, sedition, sinister plots, coup d'etats, rapes, kidnappings, underhanded tactics, and the list continues. To top it off, he wasn't just watching for himself and his immediate household, he remains diligent for the weaker cadets branches with less influence that, if he wasn't careful, would have been absorbed by the other branches instead of maintaining their independence.

Watching Kaito's cadet household is like having his breakfast every day. Byakuya and his spies actively keep vigilant due to the cadet house's actions in the past and their history of starting sedition in the clans against the main branch household some nine centuries back. Ginrei and Byakuya's father had nearly annihilated that entire branch, those who were not exiled outright. Believing that the cadet household could be playing the long game, the main branch has kept watch constantly, keeping the power dynamics in check, weary of betrayal.

Since Kaito became the head of the branch, taking over when his aged father committed seppuku in penance for his family crimes against the main branch household, there's been no evidence of unsavory practices.

How could I have not seen this coming?

Anticipating the answer to their aggressive suggestion would be a hard 'NO', old snake face, and the rest of the council set up a counter-proposal, something Byakuya couldn't have predicted.

If Byakuya didn't dissolve her adoption and, marry Rukia with the Kuchiki council's backing now - which would go a long way to smoothing ruffled feathers among the nobles; not only from the other great houses but also with cadet branches- then by right of custom, Kaito's in position as the next in line, and from the first and, most influential cadet branches, to vote to install his son, Kalon Kuchiki, Byakuya's first cousin, as the next head of the clan by marrying off Rukia to him.

Byakuya would rather see his sister dead on the battlefield than give her over to that artifice!

They want to use my sister as a bargaining chip to sink their claws into the main household.

Or, by contrast, trail her name through the mud should Byakuya marry her so that they'll have their heir. Either way, the council gets what it wants, and Rukia's reputation (what she's worked so hard to build up) gets compromised.

Either by me or, by the council.

Entering his office and sliding the door shut, Byakuya took his seat in the uncomfortable wooden chair assigned to all with his rank and all lieutenants. It mimics the head captain's office chair. A sign of equality; through power scales widely differ among the white cloaks and the lieutenants of the Gotei Thirteen.

Resting both elbows on his desk, Byakuya pressed his face into his waiting palms, ignoring the protest of his right knuckles as flexing them sent pain signals through his arm. He inhales a deep breath, and holding it in his lungs, begins counting backward from twenty in his mind while slowly releasing the trapped air through his mouth. Byakuya continues this breathing technique until the need to yell and tear at his hair abated long enough. In the process of calming down, Byakuya senses movement resuming around the barracks. As if time thawed the silence, slowly the barracks came back to life. Feet shuffled over the wooden floorboards, uniform clothing rustles, curiosity inked through spiritual reiatsus, maybe wondering why their ever-collected stoic captain's spiritual pressure was mad as all nine hells. It's not normal to see the captain of Squad Six get emotional. Only one other can claim to wrile him so, to shatter his mask of calm, and he lives in the World of the Living.

But unlike that brat, Byakuya couldn't just whip out his sword, hack things to bits like a barbarian, then call it a day. In that, he envied the simpleton teenager; his problems were never beyond the point of his sword.

Keeping his eyes closed, Byakuya moves his fingers to his temples, massaging them slowly- continuing his deep inhalations- exhaling through his mouth.

"I thought I would find you here,"

Byakuya's eyes snap open, startled at the voice in his office. He dropped his hands immediately.

Ginrei was standing on the threshold of Byakuya's office, the door sliding wide enough to accommodate his slight build, now sunken with age. The man before him once towered over Byakuya. Ginrei was a powerful Shinigami to be reckoned with. Their roles were reversed now with the passage of time.

"Grandfather!" Byakuya stood instantly, causing the wooden chair to scrape against the floor protestingly at the sudden movement.

The thin old man slid the panel door shut behind him as he shuffled into his former office. Wrinkled hands clasped behind his slightly stooped back.

"Lord Kuchiki-Sama," Ginrei greeted his grandson by his title with differential respect, accompanied with a bow of his grey head.

Byakuya bowed in reply, showing his respect in return.

His grandfather is the reason he has his title and is his strongest supporter. He may be burdened with age, but the man is not to be underestimated.

Byakuya's desk is opposite the only door in his office to the far wall. When he's seated behind his desk, he faces the threshold and can usually tell when someone approaches from three corridors down in any direction, his spiritual awareness far-reaching. Yet Ginrei slid his door open, then stood before him without Byakuya picking up on his reiatsu? Yes, his eyes were closed, but that makes spiritual energies more perceivable without the hindrance of sight.

Breaking the posture as their greeting ended, Ginrei turned, then walked to the window in silence.

Suddenly, it's as if Byakuya was a fresh-face lieutenant again in service to his superior, Ginrei Kuchiki, the Captain of Squad Six.

Byakuya dreaded asking his grandfather why he was here? He's guessed the answer well enough.

"Grandfather," Byakuya begins, tentatively breaking the silence.

"I heard," Ginrei started, interrupting his grandson in his matter-of-fact gravelly voice, "that you punched Kaito in the face," the older man arched a salt and pepper brow as he turned his head in Byakuya's direction, "repeatedly."

Byakuya hides his wince before taking a deep breath and blowing it out in a soft sigh. The instant his fist met Kaito's wrinkled jaw, he calculated that this was coming.

Ginrei was still waiting for him to comment, Byakuya realized- to defend himself as a matter of fairness before the judgement- much to his disquiet.

Byakuya bit the inside of his left cheek, feeling like a boy of fifteen winters and not a man in his first quarter millennium. He clears his throat, "I lost my temper."

"Where?" Ginrei asked innocently.

The question took Byakuya by surprise, making his brows collide confusedly in the center of his forehead, "I don't follow," he admitted.

"Where did you lose your temper, exactly?" Ginrei repeated his question, "over a ravine? Down the open maw of a gully? In a deep trench at the bottom of the ocean somewhere in the World of the Living?"

Byakuya flushed with shame for his actions. How did he look before the elders pummelling into an old man's face? Thinking about someone doing the same thing to Ginrei and Byakuya wished he could sink into the floor like his Bankai.

"He insulted-" Byakuya started to explain through gritted teeth.

Ginrei unclasped his hands from behind his back to hold up a palm to stop him, "I am aware of what Kaito said. I heard every detail. Regardless of your reasons, and Kaito might have deserved the thrashing for his foolish words in your presence," Ginrei allowed, "it's reflecting poorly on you to behave like a tyrant to the people you are responsible for. It behooves the Kuchiki Clan's name to have its head knock the dentures out of a clan elder advisor."

Byakuya didn't bother to hide his wince this time. "I will make an effort to amend the main branch's relationship with Kaito and his household if he apologizes before the council for his insolence."

"Apologise for what he said about Rukia-Sama or Hisanna-Sama?" Ginrei gave Byakuya a quizzical look.

Byakuya gave him a deadpan look in return, "Both."

Ginrei's lips quirked slightly before turning back to whatever had his attention at the window.

Did grandfather just was smirked? What does that mean? Byakuya was puzzled for a second then he let the thought go.

In an effort to change the subject, Byakuya asked after another a few moments passed, "were you aware of the council's proposal?"

His grandfather was absent for the counsel's meeting this morning, citing his reasons for skipping as 'an unforeseen errand' for which he installed a trusted aid to act in his stead. When Ginrei says "unforeseen errand" that can mean anything from a hollow incursion, an internal dispute that required him to sit in as a mediator or he was attending to his gardening on his estate. Given the lack of reports on the first two, Byakuya suspected the latter.

Today must be an exercise of my patience.

"I did," The older man answers easily, "it was I who recommended that you marry Rukia."

Byakuya's witty retort to that?

"What?"

Byakuya's hand fumbles for the uncomfortable chair and sits down before the strength in his knees deserted him.

"This must come as a surprise, considering that I was against her adoption in the beginning," Ginrei said evenly, walking away from the window of his old office, both hands tied behind his back once again. "And I advised against marrying her sister," the old man's voice was reminiscent, "but you did what you wanted to, ignoring the council's advice and my own. Against all the odds, she is now a part of this family, and she has responsibilities."

Surprise? Byakuya felt like someone just throat punched him. He could barely breathe. When had his life become a game of 'Annoy Byakuya until he went Bankai?'

He was still recovering from what his grandfather just confessed, but maybe it was silly of him to feel this way. After all, Ginrei is a part of the Council of Elders. Why wouldn't he be a part of their discussions?

"Grandfather," Byakuya had to take a breath before continuing, "with all due respect, I've repudiated this...radical decision to alter mine and Rukia's life."

Ginrei remained silent, keeping a fixed grey gaze on his grandson's face.

"I understand," Byakuya continued, amazed that his tone was so steady given the tumult of emotions clashing through his spirit right now, "that the council wants self-preservation to maintain the purity of the Kuchiki bloodline. What I find pointless is the inclusion of Rukia in this decision? She doesn't carry the blood in her veins. Why then-?"

"Do I need to repeat myself?" Ginrei's tone was wheezy and rhetorical, "you made that decision for Rukia from the moment you adopted her into this family. Many on the council thought that you would repeat your earlier mistake."

Byakuya stiffened, "Mistake?"

"Yes," Ginrei replied calmly.

Byakuya knew his grandfather was only retelling what council members said in private away from the head's ears and eyes, and this is not something the man would divulge on a whim. His grandfather was only being honest with him, a rare quality among nobles. Byakuya bit his tongue and listened. After a moment, Ginrei continued.

"On the year after Hisanna's death, you found her sister."

Byakuya's chest heaved with a deep breath, reliving the day as if it was yesterday, the complexity of the feelings that roiled inside of him on seeing the girl's face for the first time. His mouth had gone dry, his heart drumming in his rib cage threateningly.

Hisanna!

Tears threatened to embarrass him in the company of the superintendent of Shinōreijutsuin Academy. But it was not his wife. The face was nearly identical, but that's where the similarities ended. Never had his late wife been so full of life.

Where Hisanna was frail and needed protection; as Byakuya watched this scrawny girl during a practice training session with wooden swords against their partners, from a window high up in the superintendent's office, he could perceive the fiery vigor emanating from her very pores as she attacked opponents larger, and stronger than her.

Jealousy had strangled him at that moment. Jealousy that Hisanna's younger sister got every ounce of life and health that she needed. He remembered thinking as he watched Rukia get knocked on her backside for the third time in less than two minutes by her red-headed taller partner, that it wasn't fair.

Then he resented that he was the one standing here and not Hisanna, who's searched every day for her younger sister.

"We, myself included," Ginrei's voice intruded on his reminiscence, "believed that you were going marry her, as you did her older sister, to cope with your grief. At least, those were the more savory arguments." the old man demurred.

Once again, the legs of the wooden chair scraped against the floorboards as Byakuya stood abruptly, palms balled into fists, "she was but a child," he hissed through gritted teeth.

Having a shouting match in his office with ears growing from the walls would only aid the art of gossip against the Kuchiki Clan.

Keep it together. Get yourself under control. Byakuya thought willing cooling reason to temper his anger.

"A girl that looks very much like your dearly departed wife. A girl with no family name. An urchin from the slums, no one would have batted an eye if your reasons for acquiring Rukia was for comfort and release." Ginrei's steady eyes met his grandson's glaring stormy gaze.

His grandfather's tone held no inflection of judgement or scorn. He was relating conversations, the discussions between him and the council members or members of other noble houses from years ago, yet the words still burned like a Hado spell.

"And when have I made a showing of being a scoundrel for them to assume that I would do such a thing?"

Ginrei shrugged nonchalantly, "people talk and make their assumptions. That's not something you can ever control. As they say in the World of the Living, 'when you're up on stage, be ready to accept both the roses and the rotten tomatoes."

"Then why suggest this now?" Byakuya asked after a stretch of silence, his eyes narrowing at his grandfather.

After all I've put her through? After she had to be rescued by a stranger from me. Blindly following the law, I nearly killed and threatened to kill the precious life, my wife, with her last breath entrusted me to find and protect.

Bile rose in his throat; his actions soured in his memories.

Ginrei strolled over to Byakuya's side and placed a hand on his shoulder. Looking up into his grandson's face, he told him,

"I raised a man of integrity,"

Byakuya knew that when Ginrei started this speech, it meant the subject matter was closed. Unfair of him because it didn't feel close to Byakuya.

"I took a boy and raised a leader of men,"

"Grandfather..." Byakuya swallowed, "I will not marry Rukia,"

"Then you're condemning her to a bitter, miserable life because Kaito will, on legal grounds, force the match between Kalon and Rukia. She's at the age of maturity, no longer, legally, in need of a guardian's guidance."

He turns to leave, hands clasped behind his back, striding to the door. A few paces away, he stopped. Looking over his shoulder, Ginrei remarked, "I know the man that I raised will do what's best for the collective whole regardless of the sacrifice."

Sliding the door open, Ginrei Kuchiki left. Leaving Byakuya in the hell of a situation he created.

Find the rest of the story here: https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/245932377/write/973536871

#bleachfanfiction #bleachships #bleachanime #rukiaxbyakuya #romance

[frontmezzjunkies]

Shakespeare In The Parking Lot’s Two Noble Kinsman

#frontmezzjunkies presents an #interview with #JaneBradley @jebrad88 #Shakespeare In #TheParkingLot’s #TwoNobleKinsman @DrillingCompany interview conducted by #MichaelRaver @michaelraver #shakespeareintheparkinglot @bryantparknyc #freeshakespeare

L-R: Elowyn Castle, Dava Marantz, Jane Bradley, Lizabeth Allen, Rémy.S in The Drilling Company’s Two Noble Kinsman. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. The Interview: Jane Bradley Interview conducted by Michael Raver Jane Bradley is one of those beautifully transformative actors who can do anything. She’s not afraid to embrace silliness—in fact, she often leans into it. She’s also a director and a…

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#Jane Bradley #Michael Raver Interview #Shakespeare #The Drilling Company #Two Noble Kinsman

[iliyad]

everything that has happened in 2020, in case you forgot

because it’s been a long year. counts up to december 20. i tried to get in as much as i could, but there will still be some things missing, because it's been a long year.

january (timeframes will be rough)

australian bush fires

persian gulf crisis

taal volcano eruption

impeachment trial of donald trump

covid-19 pandemic what else is there to say?

the united kingdom’s withdrawal from the european union

february

delhi riots

collapse of malaysia’s coalition government

stock market crash

luxembourg made public transport free

conditional peace agreement between the united states and the taliban

march

afghanistan war crimes inquiry authorised to proceed

tokyo summer olympics postponed to 2021

north macedonia joins nato

russia-saudi arabia oil price war

april

united states designates a white supremacist group as a terrorist group for the first time

opec and allies agree to cut oil production by 9.7 million barrels a day

united states suspends funding to the world health organisation

nova scotia attacks

israeli politicians agree to form a unity government

iran deploys first military satellite

king salman declares people will not be executed for crimes committed as minors

the pentagon officially releases three ufo videos

colombia formalises its membership of the oecd

may

venezuelan dissidents and american private military attempt to infiltrate venezuela and remove president maduro from office

scientists discover parasitic microbe blocking mosquitos from carrying malaria

first black hole discovered in a star system visible to the naked eye

styrene gas leak in india

cross-border clash at the nantha lu crossing between chinese and indian soldiers

konarak vessel incident

fossil analysis indicates modern humans may have arrived in europe thousands of years earlier than thought

maternity hospital stormed by gunmen in afghanistan

discovery of millipede fossil as the world's oldest-known land animal dating c.425 million years

east africa floods

palestine terminates all agreements with israel and the united states after israel plans to annex the jordan valley

cyclone amphan

united states announces withdrawal from open skies treaty

mining company rio tinto destroys sacred aboriginal caves at juukan gorge in australia

george floyd is killed, beginning mass global protests against police racism and brutality

costa rica becomes first central american country to legalise same-sex marriage

chinese government votes for legislation granting powers to suppress democracy movement in hong kong

rwandan court sentences former mayor to life imprisonment for role in rwandan genocide

first crewed spacex flight is launched

june

state of emergency declared by russia after 20 thousand tons of oil leaks into ambarnaya river

libya’s government claims control of tripoli

turkish and iranian forces begin air and artillery strikes against kurdish forces in iraqi kurdistan

north korea demolishes kaesong’s inter-korean liaison office

solar eclipse

7.5 magnitude earthquake in oaxaca, mexico

historic three-party coalition government formed in ireland

china passes hong kong national security law

july

russian voters support constitutional amendment allowing vladimir putin to seek two further six-year terms

landslide at jade mine in myanmar

bulgarian protests against boyko borisov’s government

mass graves uncovered in burkina faso believed to be the result of extrajudicial executions by government forces

turkish president orders the hagia sophia in istanbul to be reverted from a museum to a mosque

china floods

twitter accounts of prominent politicians, ceos and celebrities hacked in bitcoin scam

flooding of the brahmaputra river

nasa launches mars 2020 rover mission

august

barakah nuclear power plant in the uae becomes first commercial nuclear power station in the arab states

beirut explosions

belarusian protests sparked by controversial presidential election

vladimir putin announces russia’s approval of world’s first covid-19 vaccine

israel and uae agree to normalise relations

stranded japanese ship breaks in mauritius and spills one thousand tonnes of oil into the ocean

coup d'état takes place in mali

africa is declared free of wild polio

amazon ceo jeff bezos becomes first person ever with a net worth exceeding us$200 billion

hurricane laura

japanese prime minister shinzo abe resigns after seven years

september

an agreement is signed to transition sudan into a secular state

largest find of mammoth skeletons at construction site for airport in mexico city

pope benedict xvi becomes longest-living pope

kosovo and serbia announce normalisation of economic relations

bahrain and israel agree to normalise relations

typhoon haishen

announcement of detection of phosphine in venus’ atmosphere

first discovery of perfectly preserved cave bear remains in siberia, believed to be 22 thousand - 39 thousand years old

venezuelan government is accused of crimes against humanity by human rights council

france, germany, and the united kingdom reject china’s claims to the south china sea

oldest known copy of any work by william shakespeare, a 1634 edition of the two noble kinsman, is found in spain

documents of the financial crimes enforcement network are released, detailing suspicious transations valued at over us$2 trillion

microsoft buys zenimax media in the biggest and most expensive takover in the video game industry

deadly clashes erupt between armenian and azerbaijani forces in nagorno-karabakh

october

the european union launches legal action against the united kingdom for overriding sections of the brexit withdrawal agreement

new caledonia votes against independence from france

mass protests break out in kyrgyzstan against controversial parliamentary election

thai protests

new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern's labour party wins second term in office by a landslide, gaining the first parliamentary majority since introduction of new voting system in the early 90s

nasa's osiris-rex spacecraft becomes their first probe to retrieve samples from an asteroid

geneva consensus declaration on women's health and strengthening families is signed by 34 countries

falkland islands declared free of land mines

israel and sudan agree to normalise relations

nasa confirms existence of molecular water on the moon

7.0 aegean sea earthquake

typhoon goni

november

amhara women, children and elderly killed in ethiopia

tumblr melts down over supernatural ship “destiel” (dean winchester and castiel), causing this site to crash several times

united states election concludes joe biden as president of the united states, STATES FLIP DATA

hurricane eta

united states exits the paris climate change accord

armenia and azerbaijan sign ceasefire agreement

hong kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse

nasa and spacex launch to the international space station

hurricane iota

brereton report into australian war crimes during the war in afghanistan released

indian farmers’ protest

iranian nuclear scientist mohsen fakhrizadeh is assassinated

koshobe massacre

lunar eclipse

protein folding is solved

december

arecibo telescope collapses

the united kingdom approves covid-19 vaccine

three activists jailed in hong kong for part in democracy protests

united nations commission on narcotic drugs votes to remove cannabis from dangerous drugs list

united states announces withdrawal from somali civil war

russia begins mass vaccination against covid-19

venezuelan parliamentary election

the united kingdom begins mass vaccination against covid-19

report into the christchurch mosque shootings released

nepal and china officially agree on height of mount everest

israel and morocco normalise relations

end of nicolas sarkozy corruption trial in france

the european union agrees to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% over the next decade

bhutan and israel normalise relations

the international criminal court accuses the philippines of crimes against humanity in its war on drugs

the united states accuses switzerland and vietnam of currency manipulation

a new, highly-infectious strain of covid-19 begins to spread through the united kingdom and europe

#2020 #wildfires #covid-19 #coronavirus #destiel #united states #literally this year...may was So Long #you're welcome xoxo #and yes i included destiel because i Had To

[arofili]

three houses of the edain ➴ house of haleth ➴ headcanon disclaimer

          Haldir was the son of Halmir, and the fifth Chieftain of the Haladin. When he was twenty-two years of age, a great feast was held between his people and the House of Hador where both he and his younger sister Hareth wed the children of Lord Hador. Hareth married Hador’s heir Galdor, and Haldir took to wife Hador’s daughter Glóredhel, a golden-haired woman with the beauty of an elf.           Glóredhel passed her golden hair to Haldir’s son Handir, who grew into a man of noble heart and great prowess in battle. Handir followed his father into the Fifth Battle, marching under the banner of High King Fingon, and when Haldir was slain covering an attempted retreat across the Anfauglith, Handir took command of the surviving Haladin and led them in a flight from the battlefield. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Glóredhel’s heart broke and she died of grief.           The wife of Handir was Beldis, daughter of Bregil of the House of Bëor and Arachon of the Noldor. Though her father and brother were slain amid the Sudden Flame, Beldis and her aging mother had fled to Brethil with Emeldir the Man-hearted, and though she was many years older than Handir she was yet fair and youthful thanks to her elven blood. Handir admired Beldis for her kindness and quiet strength and knew from his youth that he wanted to marry her; Beldis, who had assumed her heritage would complicate any chance she had at love, was quickly won over by his eager attempts at courting.           Beldis bore Handir one son, whom she named Brandir after her fallen brother. Brandir was a wayward and inquisitive child, prone to wandering off into the woods and driving his parents mad with worry. On one such misadventure, Brandir fell into the River Taeglin and badly broke his leg; he would have been swept downriver to his death had not Beldis discovered him and leapt into the waters to save him. Though Beldis managed to get her son to shore, she herself succumbed to the deadly waters of the Taeglin, leaving Brandir shivering and alone on its banks for hours. When at last Handir tracked him down, it was too late for proper healing to set in, and Brandir was left lame and motherless thereafter.           Due to his injury and his gentle mood, Brandir was never a man of war and instead took delight in all things that grew in the earth, becoming a healer so he might aid those who suffered similar mishaps to himself. But when his father was slain by orcs in the north of Brethil, Brandir became the Chieftain of the Haladin despite never wishing for such a responsibility. His cousin Hardang attempted to usurp his leadership, claiming he was unfit to rule, but seeing that his people needed his wisdom more than Hardang’s brashness, Brandir took charge despite his earlier hesitation.  In order to protect his people, Brandir sought silence and secrecy, closing the borders of Brethil and retreating from the remaining realms of Beleriand.           But despite his efforts, the Haladin would not remain isolated from the Shadow. When Nargothrond fell, the woodmen of Brethil attempted to rescue the elven prisoners of the retreating orcs, but failed to save Princess Finduilas, whom they buried in the mound of Haudh-en-Elleth. In the spring of the next year, the marchwardens encountered a strange man carrying a black sword who fell into a swoon upon discovering the death of Finduilas. He was carried to Amon Obel upon a bier and taken to the Chieftain, but when Brandir saw him a shadow darkened his heart.           Still, Brandir resolved to heal the stranger, and tended to him until he woke and cast off his darkness. Alone of the Haladin, Brandir learned that this was Túrin son of Húrin, his kinsman and a man under the Curse of Morgoth. Túrin determined to renounce his past, taking the name Turambar to symbolize his new life, but soon he began to ignore Brandir’s orders to remain in stealth and led the woodmen of Brethil in hunting orcs.           On one such hunt, Turambar discovered a feverish young woman lying upon the Haudh-en-Elleth and carried her to Brandir for healing. Turambar gave her the name Níniel, but it was Brandir who cared for her, and soon both men had fallen in love with her. Níniel’s heart was given to Turambar, and when he asked for her hand, Brandir urged her to postpone her decision and revealed the truth of Túrin’s lineage. Níniel did consider Brandir’s words, for he was a dear friend to her if not her beloved, but in the end she did marry Turambar at Midsummer the following year, and soon was expecting his child.           Turambar grew ever bolder until Brandir had lost the respect of his people. When Turambar’s deeds of valour drew the attention of Glaurung, Turambar asked for volunteers to accompany him on a quest to slay the dragon, and only Dorlas stepped forth. Seeing the others hold back, Dorlas scorned them and demanded to know if none would take the place of Brandir the Lame so that the House of Haleth would not be put to shame. Though his kinsman Hunthor took up the task and upbraided Dorlas for his cruelty, Brandir, who had long been unheeded, was now subjected to the derision of his people and became bitter at heart.           Not long after her husband’s departure, Níniel declared that she must follow her husband and ignored Brandir’s counsel to wait for their return. In despair, Brandir renounced his lordship and his people, but resolved to hobble after the woman he loved. He did not catch up to her until it was too late and the malice of Glaurung had revealed that she was in truth Niënor daughter of Húrin and the brother of her husband. Choked on horror and dread, Niënor Níniel ran to the waters of Cabed-en-Aras and cast herself into the Teiglin as Brandir called after her in vain, watching another woman he loved be devoured by the river.           Utterly defeated, Brandir limped away and soon encountered Dorlas, who had quailed from the fight and fled. Blaming his cowardice in part for Níniel’s demise, Brandir struck Dorlas down and continued on to give the awful tidings to those who had once been his people. But as he told the dreadful story, Túrin Turambar appeared though he was thought to have perished, and in his wrath at Brandir’s “lies,” Túrin slandered his name and slew him.           Yet soon after Mablung the Hunter arrived confirming Brandir’s words, for he had been tracking Niënor and had arrived too late. Túrin, now full of guilt and remorse, fled from the scene and killed himself upon his black sword in penance for the blood of Beleg, killed by accident, and Brandir, killed unjustly.

#tolkienedit #oneringnet #silm #silmarillion #children of hurin #haladin #edain #brethil #haldir of brethil #gloredhel #handir #beldis #brandir #my edit #my writing #edit writing #headcanons #tefain nin #three houses of the edain #house of haleth

[paceywittergayboatman]

Succesion Twin Sagas Tom Wambsgans and Marianne Hirsch Part 2: Marianne Hirsch and her Role as a Surrogate Mother to Greg

Part 1

Masterlist

Part 1

Non Succesion (it's not perfectly annotated atm)

Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia by Julia Kristeva-,27,31✔️

White Oleander -38,39✔️

Pericles; Cymbeline; The Two Noble Kinsman(child)-12,9,24✔️

The Portable Kristeva-34✔️

Maternal Measures: Figuring Caregiving in the Early Modern Period-16✔️

Family Ties By Diana Khoi Nguyen-40

Woodcut by Lawanda Walters (Jane)-30✔️

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez-1✔️

The Celebration 1998-19,20✔️

The Celebration: How Long Can This Go On? By Michael Koresky-18✔️

Sharp Objects-17✔️

Pretty Little Liars Season 7-13✔️

Cut by Catherine Lacey-21✔️

Succesion

Teen haven-3✔️

Thanksgiving-2, 5,6✔️

Marianne (1.1 and 1.2)-4,14✔️

15✔️

1.1-22,23✔️

1.2 -25 26✔️

3.7-10,11✔️

3.1-37,36✔️

Austerlitz-8✔️

The Celebration: How Long Can This Go On? by Michael Koresky

#Succesion #Marianne hirsch #greg Hirsch #Ewan roy #succesion web weaving meta

[mjvnivsbrvtvs]

hi! so we have established at this point that you have A Lot Of thoughts about antony and brutus. but how does caesar (julius, not the little bitch octavian) play into that? bc like. my knowledge and impression of them is very limited and mainly constructed from watching hbo rome and idk. i think it'd be fun to throw caesar in the mix. love all the art and writing on your blog btw! have a nice day.

Hey, okay! So this used to be over 30 pages long (Machiavelli and Caligula got involved and that's when things got out of hand), but through the power of friendship and two late night writing dates fueled by coffee, I’ve cut it way down to under 10. Many thanks to the people who listened to me ramble about it at length, and also to a dear friend for helping me cut this down to under ten pages!

Also, thank you! I'm glad you enjoy the stuff I make! It makes me very happy to hear that!

And quickly, a Disclaimer: I’m not an academic, I’m not a classicist, I’m not a historian, and I spend a lot of time very stressed out that I’ve tricked people into thinking I’m someone who has any kind of merit in this area. It's probably best to treat this as an abstract character analysis!

On the other hand, I love talking about dead men, so, with enthusiasm, here we go!

For this, I’m going to cut Shakespeare and HBO Rome out of the framework and focus more on a historical spin.

Caesar is a combination of a manipulator and a catalyst. A Bad Omen. The remaining wound that’s poisoning Rome.

Cassius gets a lot of the blame for Brutus’ turn to assassination, but it overlooks that Brutus was already inclined towards political ambition, as were most men involved in the political landscape of the time.

Furthermore, although Sulla had actually raised the number of praetorships available from six to eight, there were still only two consulships available. There was always the chance that death or disgrace might remove some of the competition and hence ease the bottleneck. But, otherwise, it was at the top of the ladder that the competition was particularly fierce: whereas in previous years one in three praetors would have gone on to become consul, from the 80s BC onwards the chances were one in four. For the senators who had made it this far, it mattered that they should try to achieve their consulship in the earliest year allowed to them by law. To fail in this goal once was humiliating; to fail at the polls twice would be deemed a signal disgrace for a man like Brutus.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

The way Caesar offered Brutus political power the way that he did, and Brutus accepting it, locked them into the assassination outcome.

Here is a man who’s built his entire image around honor and liberty and virtu, around being a staunch defender of morals and the republic

In these heated circumstances, Brutus composed a bitter tract On the Dictatorship of Pompey (De Dictatura Pompei), in which he staunchly opposed the idea of giving Pompey such a position of power. ‘It is better to rule no one than to be another man’s slave’, runs one of the only snippets of this composition to survive today: ‘for one can live honourably without power’, Brutus explained, ‘but to live as a slave is impossible’. In other words, Brutus believed it would be better for the Senate to have no imperial power at all than to have imperium and be subject to Pompey’s whim.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

and you give him political advancement, but without the honor needed for this advancement to mean anything?

At the same time, however, Brutus had gained his position via extremely un-republican means: appointment by a dictator rather than election by the people. As the name of the famous career path, the cursus honorum, suggests, political office was perceived as an honour at Rome. But it was one which had to be bestowed by the populus Romanus in recognition of a man’s dignitas.69 In other words, a man’s ‘worth’ or ‘standing’ was only really demonstrated by his prior services to the state and his moral qualities, and that was what was needed to gain public recognition. Brutus had got it wrong. As Cicero not too subtly reminded him in the treatise he dedicated to Brutus: ‘Honour is the reward for virtue in the considered opinion of the citizenry.’ But the man who gains power (imperium) by some other circumstance, or even against the will of the people, he continues, ‘has laid his hands only on the title of honour, but it is not real honour’.70

Brutus may have secured political office, then, but he had not done so honourably; nor had he acted in a manner that would earn him a reputation for virtue or everlasting fame.

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

Brutus in the image that he fashioned for himself was not compatible with the way Caesar was setting him up to be a political successor, and there was really never going to be any other outcome than the one that happened.

The Brutus of Shakespeare and Plutarch’s greatest tragedy was that he was pushed into something he wouldn’t have done otherwise. The Brutus of history’s greatest tragedy was accepting Caesar’s forgiveness after the Caesar-Pompey conflict, and then selling out for political ambition, because Caesar's forgiveness is not benevolent.

Rather than have his enemies killed, he offered them mercy or clemency -- clementia in Latin. As Caesar wrote to his advisors, “Let this be our new method of conquering -- to fortify ourselves by mercy and generosity.” Caesar pardoned most of his enemies and forbore confiscating their property. He even promoted some of them to high public office.

This policy won him praise from no less a figure than Marcus Tullius Cicero, who described him in a letter to Aulus Caecina as “mild and merciful by nature.” But Caecina knew a thing or two about dictators, since he’d had to publish a flattering book about Caesar in order to win his pardon after having opposed him in the civil war. Caecina and other beneficiaries of Caesar’s unusual clemency took it in a far more ambivalent way. To begin with, most of them were, like Caesar, Roman nobles. Theirs was a culture of honor and status; asking a peer for a pardon was a serious humiliation. So Caesar’s “very power of granting favors weighed heavily on free people,” as Florus, a historian and panegyrist of Rome, wrote about two centuries after the dictator’s death. One prominent noble, in fact, ostentatiously refused Caesar’s clemency. Marcius Porcius Cato, also known as Cato the Younger, was a determined opponent of populist politics and Caesar’s most bitter foe. They had clashed years earlier over Caesar’s desire to show mercy to the Catiline conspirators; Cato argued vigorously for capital punishment and convinced the Senate to execute them. Now he preferred death to Caesar’s pardon. “I am unwilling to be under obligations to the tyrant for his illegal acts,” Cato said; he told his son, "I, who have been brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, cannot in my old age change and learn slavery instead.

-Barry Strauss, Caesar and the Dangers of Forgiveness

something else that's a fun adjacent to the topic that's fun to think about:

The link between ‘sparing’ and ‘handing over’ is common in the ancient world.763 Paul also uses παραδίδωμι again, denoting ‘hand over, give up a person’ (Bauer et al. 2000:762).764 The verb παραδίδωμι especially occurs in connection with war (Eschner 2010b:197; Gaventa 2011:272).765 However, in Romans 8:32, Paul uses παραδίδωμι to focus on a court image (Eschner 2010b:201).766 Christina Eschner (2010b:197) convincingly argues that Paul’s use of παραδίδωμι refers to the ‘Hingabeformulierungen’ as the combination of the personal object of the handing over of a person in the violence of another person, especially the handing over of a person to an enemy.767 Moreover, Eschner (2009:676) convincingly argues that Isaiah 53 is not the pre-tradition for Romans 8:32.

Annette Potgieter, Contested Body: Metaphors of dominion in Romans 5-8

Along with the internal conflict of Pompey, the murderer of Brutus’ father, and Caesar, the figurehead for everything that goes against what Brutus stands for, Brutus accepting Caesar’s forgiveness isn’t an act of benevolence, regardless of Caesar’s intentions.

On wards, Caesar owns Brutus. Caesar benefits from having Brutus as his own, he inherits Brutus’ reputation, he inherits a better PR image in the eyes of the Roman people. On wards, nothing Brutus does is without the ugly stain of Caesar. His career is no longer his own, his life is no longer fully his own, his legacy is no longer entirely his. Brutus becomes a man divided.

And it’s not like it was an internal struggle, it was an entire spectacle. Hypocrisy is theatrical. Call yourself a man of honor and then you sell out? The people of Rome will remember that, and they’re going to make sure you know it.

After this certain men at the elections proposed for consuls the tribunes previously mentioned, and they not only privately approached Marcus Brutus and such other persons as were proud-spirited and attempted to persuade them, but also tried to incite them to action publicly. 12 1 Making the most of his having the same name as the great Brutus who overthrew the Tarquins, they scattered broadcast many pamphlets, declaring that he was not truly that man's descendant; for the older Brutus had put to death both his sons, the only ones he had, when they were mere lads, and left no offspring whatever. 2 Nevertheless, the majority pretended to accept such a relationship, in order that Brutus, as a kinsman of that famous man, might be induced to perform deeds as great. They kept continually calling upon him, shouting out "Brutus, Brutus!" and adding further "We need a Brutus." 3 Finally on the statue of the early Brutus they wrote "Would that thou wert living!" and upon the tribunal of the living Brutus (for he was praetor at the time and this is the name given to the seat on which the praetor sits in judgment) "Brutus, thou sleepest," and "Thou art not Brutus."

Cassius Dio

Brutus knew. Cassius knew. Caesar knew. You can’t escape your legacy when you’re the one who stamped it on coins.

Caesar turned Brutus into the dagger that would cut, and Brutus himself isn’t free from this injury. It’s a mutual betrayal, a mutual dooming.

By this time Caesar found himself being attacked from every side, and as he glanced around to see if he could force a way through his attackers, he saw Brutus closing in upon him with his dagger drawn. At this he let go of Casca’s hand which he had seized, muffled up his head in his robe, and yielded up his body to his murderers’ blows. Then the conspirators flung themselves upon him with such a frenzy of violence, as they hacked away with their daggers, that they even wounded one another. Brutus received a stab in the hand as he tried to play his part in the slaughter, and every one of them was drenched in blood.

Plutarch

For Antony, Caesar is a bad sign.

Brutus and Antony are fucked over by the generation they were born in, etc etc the cannibalization of Rome on itself, the Third Servile War was the match to the gasoline already on the streets of Rome, the last generation of Romans etc etc etc. They are counterparts to each other, displaced representatives of a time already gone by the time they were alive.

Rome spends its years in a state of civil war after civil war, political upheaval, and death. Neither Brutus or Antony will ever really know stability, as instability is hallmark of the times. Both of them are at something of a disadvantage, although Brutus has what Antony does not, and what Brutus has is what let’s him create his own career. Until Caesar, Brutus is owned by no one.

This is not the case for Antony.

You can track Antony’s life by who he’s attached to. Very rarely is he ever truly a man unto himself, there is always someone nearby.

In his youth, it is said, Antony gave promise of a brilliant future, but then he became a close friend of Curio and this association seems to have fallen like a blight upon his career. Curio was a man who had become wholly enslaved to the demands of pleasure, and in order to make Antony more pliable to his will, he plunged him into a life of drinking bouts, love-affairs, and reckless spending. The consequence was that Antony quickly ran up debts of an enormous size for so young a man, the sum involved being two hundred and fifty talents. Curio provided security for the whole of this amount, but his father heard of it and forbade Antony his house. Antony then attached himself for a short while to Clodius, the most notorious of all the demagogues of his time for his lawlessness and loose-living, and took part in the campaigns of violence which at that time were throwing political affairs at Rome into chaos.

Plutarch

(although, in contrast to Brutus, we rarely lose sight of Antony. As a person, we can see him with a kind of clarity, if one looks a little bit past the Augustan propaganda. He is, at all times, human.)

Antony being figuratively or literally attached to a person starts early, and continues politically. While Brutus has enough privilege to brute force his way into politics despite Cicero’s lamentation of a promising life being thrown off course, Antony will instead follow a different career path that echoes in his personal life and defines his relationships.

Whereas some young men often attached or indebted themselves to a patron or a military leader at the beginning of their political lives,

Kathryn Tempest, Brutus the Noble Conspirator

+

3. During his stay in Greece he was invited by Gabinius, a man of consular rank, to accompany the Roman force which was about to sail for Syria. Antony declined to join him in a private capacity, but when he was offered the command of the cavalry he agreed to serve in the campaign.

Plutarch

To take it a step further, it even defines how he’s perceived today looking back: it’s never just Antony, it’s always Antony and---

It can be read as someone being taken advantage of, in places, survival in others, especially in Antony's early life. Other times, it appears like Antony himself is the one who manipulates things to his favor, casting aside people and realigning himself back to an advantage.

or when he saw an opportunity for faster advancement, he was willing to place the blame on a convenient scapegoat or to disregard previous loyalties, however important they had been. His desertion of Fulvia's memory in 40, and, much later, of Lepidus, Sextus Pompey, and Octavia, produced significant political gains. This characteristic, which Caesar discovered to his cost in 47, gives the sharp edge to Antony's personality which Syme's portrait lacks, especially when he attributes Antony's actions to a 'sentiment of loyalty' or describes him as a 'frank and chivalrous soldier'. In this context, one wonders what became of Fadia.19

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 47 B.C.

Caesar inherits Antony, and like Brutus, locks him in for a doomed ending.

The way Caesar writes about Antony smacks of someone viewing another person as something more akin to a dog, and it carries over until it’s bitter conclusion.

Caesar benefits from Antony immensely. The people love Antony, the military loves Antony. He’s charming, he’s self aware, he’s good at what he does. Above all of that, he has political ambitions of a similar passion as Brutus.

Antony drew some political benefit from his genial personality. Even Cicero, who from at least 49 did not like him,15 was prepared to regard some of his earlier misdemeanours as harmless.16 Bluff good humour, moderate intelligence, at least a passing interest in literature, and an ability to be the life and soul of a social gathering all contributed to make him a charming companion and to bind many important people to him. He had a lieutenant's ability to follow orders and a willingness to listen to advice, even (one might say especially) from intelligent women.17 These attributes made Antony able to handle some situations very well."1

There was a more important side to his personality, however, which contributed to his political survival. Antony was ruthless in his quest for pre-eminence

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 477 B.C.

None of this matters, because after all Antony does for Caesar

Plutarch's comment that Curio brought Antony into Caesar's camp is surely mistaken.59 Anthony had been serving as Caesar's officer from perhaps as early as 53, after his return from Syria.60 He is described as legatus in late 52,61 and was later well known as Caesar's quaestor.62 It is more likely that the reverse of the statement is true, that Antony assisted in bringing Curio over to Caesar. If this were so, then he performed a signal service for Caesar, for gaining Curio meant attaching Fulvia, who provided direct access to the Clodian clientela in the city. Such valuable political connections served to increase Antony's standing with Caesar, and to set him apart from other officers in his army.63

Kathryn E Welch , Antony, Fulvia, and the Ghost of Clodius in 477 B.C.

Caesar still, for whatever reasons, fucks over Antony spectacularly with the will. Loyalty is repaid with dismissal, and it will bury the Republic for good.

It’s not enough for Caesar to screw him over just once, it becomes generational and ugly. Caesar lives on through Octavian: it becomes Octavian’s brand, his motif, propaganda wielded like a knife. Octavian, thanks to Caesar, will bring Antony to his bitter conclusion

And for my "bitter" conclusion, I’ll sign off by saying that there are actual scholars on Antony who are more well versed than I am who can go into depth about the Caesar-Octavian-Antony dynamic (and how it played out with Caligula) better than I can, and scholarship on Brutus consists mostly of looking at an outline of a man and trying to guess what the inside was like.

At the end of the day, Caesar was the instigator, active manipulator, and catalyst for the final act of the Republic.

I hope that this was at least entertaining to read!

#i cut out A Lot and its thanks to the patience of Friends that i got it down to the length that it is #like i cannot stress enough that i worked machiavelli into this and started dissecting the whole #brutus-cassius conflict with the framework that it was orchestrated by caesar #typically tho i tend to treat caesar as a symbolic device. a representation of something Very Wrong #this is a tag for asks

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Tue., Jan. 25, 2022

January 25_January12

THE MONK MARTINIAN OF BELOZERSK (1483)

Saint Martinian of White Lake, in the world Michael, was born in the year 1370 in the village of Berezniko, not far from the Cyrilov monastery. At age thirteen he left his parents and went secretly to Saint Cyril of White Lake (June 9), whom many described as a great ascetic.

The young Martinian began zealously to imitate his teacher, with whom he dwelt in complete obedience. At the monastery he studied reading and writing, and with the blessing of Saint Cyril, he occupied himself with the copying of books. In time Martinian was ordained deacon and then hieromonk.

After the death of Saint Cyril (+ 1427), Martinian withdrew to a deserted island on Lake Vozha. Several monks gradually gathered around him. Saint Martinian established for them the church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and introduced a general Rule for the inhabitants. Yielding to the persistent requests of the brethren of Therapon monastery, he consented to become igumen of the monastery and brought it into an improved condition.

Saint Martinian gave spiritual support to Great Prince Basil in the difficulties of his time, when his first-cousin Demetrius Shemyaka illicitly sought the Moscow throne. He was always an advocate of truth and justice. Afterwards, upon the entreaty of the Great Prince, the saint accepted the governance of the monastery of Saint Sergius of Radonezh.

In 1455, Saint Martinian returned to the Therapon monastery. In his last years he was grievously ill and not able to walk, so the brethren carried him to church. He died at age 85. His relics were uncovered in the year 1514, and this event is celebrated on October 7.

THE NUN EUPRAXIA OF TABENYSSA (TABENEIA THE OLDER_ 393)

Saint Eupraxia was daughter of the Constantinople dignitary Antigonos, a kinsman of the holy Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395).

Antigonus and his wife Eupraxia were pious and bestowed generous alms on the destitute. A daughter was born to them, whom they also named Eupraxia. Antigonos soon died, and the mother withdrew from the imperial court. She went with her daughter to Egypt, on the pretext of inspecting her properties. Near the Thebaid there was a women’s monastery with a strict monastic rule. The life of the inhabitants attracted the pious widow. She wanted to bestow aid on this monastery, but the abbess Theophila refused and said that the nuns had fully devoted themselves to God and that they did not wish the acquisition of any earthly riches. The abbess consented to accept only candles, incense and oil.

The younger Eupraxia was seven years old at this time. She liked the monastic way of life and she decided to remain at the monastery. Her pious mother did not stand in the way of her daughter’s wish. Taking leave of her daughter at the monastery, Eupraxia asked her daughter to be humble, never to dwell upon her noble descent, and to serve God and her sisters.

In a short while the mother died. Having learned of her death, the emperor Saint Theodosius sent Saint Eupraxia the Younger a letter in which he reminded her that her parents had betrothed her to the son of a certain senator, intending that she marry him when she reached age fifteen. The Emperor desired that she honor the commitment made by her parents. In reply, Saint Eupraxia wrote to the emperor that she had already become a bride of Christ, and she requested of the emperor to dispose of her properties, distributing the proceeds for the use of the Church and the needy.

Saint Eupraxia, when she reached the age of maturity, intensified her ascetic efforts all the more. At first she partook of food once a day, then after two days, three days, and finally, once a week. She combined her fasting with the fulfilling of all her monastic obediences. She toiled humbly in the kitchen, she washed dishes, she swept the premises and served the sisters with zeal and love. The sisters also loved the humble Eupraxia. But one of them envied her and explained away all her efforts as a desire for glory. This sister began to trouble and to reproach her, but the holy virgin did not answer her back, and instead humbly asked forgiveness.

The Enemy of the human race caused the saint much misfortune. Once,while getting water, she fell into the well, and the sisters pulled her out. Another time, Saint Eupraxia was chopping wood for the kitchen, and cut herself on the leg with an axe. When she carried an armload of wood up the ladder, she stepped on the hem of her garment. She fell, and a sharp splinter cut her near the eyes. All these woes Saint Eupraxia endured with patience, and when they asked her to rest, she would not consent.

For her efforts, the Lord granted Saint Eupraxia a gift of wonderworking. Through her prayers she healed a deaf and dumb crippled child, and she delivered a demon-possessed woman from infirmity. They began to bring the sick for healing to the monastery. The holy virgin humbled herself all the more, counting herself as least among the sisters. Before the death of Saint Eupraxia, the abbess had a vision. The holy virgin was transported into a splendid palace, and stood before the Throne of the Lord, surrounded by holy angels. The All-Pure Virgin showed Saint Eupraxia around the luminous chamber and said that She had made it ready for her, and that she would come into this habitation after ten days.

The abbess and the sisters wept bitterly, not wanting to lose Saint Eupraxia. The saint herself, in learning about the vision, wept because she was not prepared for death. She asked the abbess to pray that the Lord would grant her one year more for repentance. The abbess consoled Saint Eupraxia and said that the Lord would grant her His great mercy. Suddenly Saint Eupraxia sensed herself not well, and having sickened, she soon peacefully died at the age of thirty.

MARK 10:2-12

2 The Pharisees came and asked Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" testing Him. 3 And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her." 5 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.' 7For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 'and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. 10 In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. 11 So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

HEBREWS 12:25-26; 13:22-25 

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." 22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words.23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly.24 Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. 25 Grace be with you all. Amen.

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