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| Tarquin the last King in Rome |
Let’s go back in time boys and girls, way back, back to the last time Trumps spirit might have appeared on our planet. The time was around 534 years BCE in Ancient Rome when King Tarquin’s misuse of power brought down the monarchy system and gave Rome its first Republic. You see, King Tarquin already had a reputation of unsavory character when he seized the throne by murdering his predecessor, King Servius Tullius. As new ruler, King Tarquin, “on day one,” arrested a number of patricians on phony charges so he could take their wealthy estates for himself. This greediness alienated many in the country, but until his son, Sextus, raped the wife of the noted patriot Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, no one did anything about it. However, much as with President Trumps son’s recent admission of dealing with Russians for personal gain has finally gotten even the most stubborn of Republicans to wake up and take note, King Tarquin’s son crime was the proverbial last straw in Rome and Lucius Junius Brutus, the patriot of the day along with other leading nobleman, locked Tarquin and his disturbed children out of the city and dissolved the kingship.
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| First King Tarquin Now Trump |
The Roman fathers then proceeded to create a completely new kind of government, one based on the wishes and votes of the common citizen.
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| Their Sleazy Sons |
So, what’s it mean to you and me, today? Well, for one, there is hope in the caos and madness the Trump Family has bestowed on our once proud country, and two, the future is certainly bright once we have a modern day Brutus stand up to the madness. It has happened before. Historically speaking, we are in good hands.
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| Coming Soon: Our Brutus Hero! |
Feeling horny today? You should be, on August 8th in Rome each year, the people celebrated the Eve of the Festival of Venus with songs, poetry, libations, and passionate lovemaking. The goddess of love and beauty was invoked and honored with prayers. It was also a time when sorceresses performed love magic and divinations were done for romance and marriage.
In case you forgot:
The Roman Venus
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The goddess Venus was the Roman equivalent of the Greek Aphrodite, and was the essence of natural beauty. She was associated with most all things girly, especially when it came to love and romance. She was even considered the protector of chastity for young women, despite her reputation for having many love affairs. You probably wouldn't expect powerful male rulers to find a goddess who is busy dealing with lovesick girls to be of much importance. But she was. And they did.
You see, in 217 BCE, as the Second Punic War was raging between Carthage and Rome, an oracle predicted that Rome could win, but only if they convinced Venus of Eryx to grant them her allegiance. They promised to build a temple in her honor if she would agree to help them. Apparently, she accepted--the Romans did win, and they eventually fulfilled their promise by building the temple in the middle of Rome.
Genealogy also made Venus important to many Roman rulers. In Greek and Roman mythology, one of her love interests was the mortal prince Anchises. From one of their romps came their son Aeneas. He would go on to lead the survivors of Troy into Italy, guided by the celestial light of Venus. As the Roman poet Virgil tells it, the heirs of Aeneas were the founders of Rome. They claimed direct descent from the goddess, which gave them quite a divine status. Among the members of this prestigious family were Julius Caesar and his nephew and adopted son, Augustus.
A Virgil Love Poem:
All these souls, after they have passed away a thousand years, are
summoned by the divine ones in great array, to the lethean river. . .In
this way they become forgetful of the former earthlife, and re-visit the
vaulted realms of the world, willing to return again into living
bodies.
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| Virgil Statue |
