I met Bali yesterday morning and we clicked. His owner has a problem with her Achilles‘ tendon and cannot take him for walks. As she lives only a few doors away I stepped into the breach.
We walked along the towpath to Richmond. Bali, like me at Castle Park, acts the giddy goat running round and round in circles yapping and dashing hither and thither enthusiastically looking for something he never finds. He rushed down to the foreshore to chase an Egyptian Goose into the river. He is obedient and perfectly behaved on the lead. Other dogs seemed to bore him. Bali is a small working English Cocker Spaniel.
Thames towpath, April 2019.
I saw this poster on the towpath and would have investigated if I hadn’t just hooked up with Bali. By the way, I have confessed my change of allegiance to Reggie who is most put out. I have been away so much this month that spring has sprung along the river unobserved by me.
Bluebells at Kew Gardens, April 2019.Wisteria on Richmond Green, April 2019.
Yesterday was the first day of term at the Ancient World Breakfast Club. Dr Hannah Cornwell from the University of Birmingham spoke on Violence and Peace in Roman Civil War based on her book published last year, The Roman Civil Wars: a House Divided. History does repeat itself she reminded us wryly. You may think that this summary makes it otiose to buy the book – I do.
Perhaps in defiance of expectations, Roman peace (pax) was a difficult concept that resisted any straightforward definition: not merely denoting the absence or aftermath of war, it consisted of many layers and associations and formed part of a much greater discourse on the nature of power and how Rome saw her place in the world. During the period from 50 BC to AD 75 – covering the collapse of the Republic, the subsequent civil wars, and the dawn of the Principate – the traditional meaning and language of peace came under extreme pressure as pax was co-opted to serve different strands of political discourse. This volume argues for its fundamental centrality in understanding the changing dynamics of the state and the creation of a new political system in the Roman Empire, moving from the debates over the content of the concept in the dying Republic to discussion of its deployment in the legitimization of the Augustan regime, first through the creation of an authorized version controlled by the princeps and then the ultimate crystallization of the pax augusta as the first wholly imperial concept of peace. Examining the nuances in the various meanings, applications, and contexts of Roman discourse on peace allows us valuable insight into the ways in which the dynamics of power were understood and how these were contingent on the political structures of the day. However it also demonstrates that although the idea of peace came to dominate imperial Rome’s self-representation, such discourse was nevertheless only part of a wider discussion on the way in which the Empire conceptualized itself.
Her talk was a lot more interesting than the digest suggests.
One comment
Is Bali absolutely sure that he is an English Cocker Spaniel ?He looks more like a Springer Spaniel to me; and his behaviour fits, dashing hither and thither like a mad thing and thinking longingly of aswimming. Hide your phone CB before he eats it.
Is Bali absolutely sure that he is an English Cocker Spaniel ?He looks more like a Springer Spaniel to me; and his behaviour fits, dashing hither and thither like a mad thing and thinking longingly of aswimming. Hide your phone CB before he eats it.