PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN

Transcription

1 PEOPLE ALMOST MENTIONED IN WALDEN: MARCUS PORCIUS CATO UTICENSIS, THE YOUNGER WALDEN: I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and imagination, what Wilberforce is there to bring that about? PEOPLE OF WALDEN WILLIAM WILBERFORCE JOSEPH ADDISON CATO, A TRAGEDY

2 95 BCE Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, Cato Minor) was born in Rome, a great-grandson of Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Elder, Cato the Censor). 72 BCE Cato the Younger enlisted in the Roman army raised to fight against the slave army of Spartacus. SERVILE INSURRECTION 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

3 67 BCE Cato the Younger was military tribune in Macedon. 64 BCE 64 BCE: By this year Cato the Younger was definitely serving as a quaestor in Rome. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 3

4 63 BCE In about this year Mark Antony got married with his cousin Antonia (the first of several wives). Cato the Younger was elected as tribune of the plebs for the following year. Lucius Sergius Catilina, a patrician, was leading a rebellion inside Rome with the purpose of making himself king. Cato assisted the consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero, in dealing with the Catiline conspiracy. Cato proposed to set an example by executing all the conspirators, over the objection of Gaius Julius Caesar, who advocated exile for the conspirators while their comrades were still in arms, possibly for the duration of their lives. The senate voted for execution and the rebellion was utterly crushed. When Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius died, Caesar became Pontifex Maximus in charge of Roman religion. He was Papa Caesar, the Pope of Rome, and you could kiss his ring, or perhaps his foot. (The head of the Roman Catholic religion would not be referred to as Pontifex Maximus until at least four additional centuries 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

5 had passed, which is to say, at the very earliest the 4th Century of our Common Era.) ITALY 60 BCE The 1st Triumvirate (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and Gaius Iulius Cæsar). In this period Marcus Antonius and his intimate friends such as Scribonius Curio and Publius Clodius were preoccupied not by politics or by warfare but in having themselves expansively riotous good times. Cato the Younger required Caesar to choose between consulship and triumph. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 5

6 59 BCE At Pompeii in 80 BCE, the builders of the Small Theater had dug out an ampitheater at the extreme east of the city. The earth removed from the hole had been used to fashion bleachers for the crowd this is now the oldest known such ampitheater. In this year there broke out in this arena a riot between the Pompeians and the Nocerians that was completed by a famous massacre. After a fight of gladiators organized by the Livineis Regolo who had been banished from the Senate, the incident began as rock throwing and went on to the use of metal weapons to destroy trapped spectators. In result the Roman Senate would exile those who had been prominent in the massacre and, for the following decade, ban all such exciting spectacles. THE PAX ROMANA Cato the Younger opposed Gaius Iulius Cæsar s laws. Politically, Marcus Terentius Varro had supported Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, reaching the office of praetor after having been tribune of the people, quaestor, and curule aedile. In this year he was one of the 20-member commission that was carrying out the great agrarian scheme of Cæsar for the resettlement of Capua and Campania. 58 BCE Marcus Antonius studied in Rhodes and Athens, where he met Aulus Gabinius, the new governor of Syria. He accompanied Gabinius as a cavalry commander for a period of service in Judaea and Egypt. Toward the end of this year, Cato the Younger left Rome to become governor of the island of Cyprus. 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

7 56 BCE Yet another altercation involving our favorite pushy people, the Romans: at Morbihan Gulf the legions of D. Junius Brutus defeated the Veneti, creating the Pax Romana. The siege of Larignum (Vitruvius is our only source for the details of this siege). In March, Cato the Younger returned to Rome from being governor of the island of Cyprus. At about this point, Livia Drusilla was born. 55 BCE Lucretius died. Cato the Younger made an unsuccessful run for praetorship. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 7

8 Crassus attacked the Parthians with a Roman army, but was overthrown and killed at Carrhae in Mesopotamia. His lieutenant Cassius would collect together what remained of the army and prevent the Parthians from conquering Syria. Cato the Younger became praetor. 54 BCE In about this year Albius Tibullus was born wealthy, perhaps in Pedum near Praeneste, probably as a member of the Roman equestrian order. His lover would be a lad named Marathus. The south-eastern coast of Albion was brought under the protection of the Pax Romana. The Dumnonii (Veneti or Loegrians) of southwest Albion migrated to Caledonia (Scotland). IRELAND 8 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

9 51 BCE Cato the Younger made an unsuccessful run for consul. During the Gallic War, the siege of the Gallic oppida at Uxellodunum (Vitruvius offers us some information about this siege). Mark Antony, left by Gaius Iulius Cæsar in the northern sector in charge of 15 cohorts, accepted the surrender of Commius, leader of the Atrebates. Ptolemy Auletes died leaving his Egyptian kingdom to his teenage daughter, Cleopatra, and her prepubescent brother Ptolemy XIII, with whom for reasons of tradition she would need to marry. She would become the only pharaoh of the Ptolemy family ever to familiarize herself with the language of her subjects. After the death of Ptolemy XIII and the birth of Caesarion, she would marry another younger brother, Ptolemy XIV, again of course for pharaonic reasons. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 9

10 49 BCE July/August: Julius Caesar was in Spain, having left Lepidus in charge of administrative matters in Rome and Mark Antony to command his troops remaining in Italy. When Caesar returned and led his legions in an advance down the east coast of Italy, Antony held Arretium for him. The Senate would be forced into flight. Cato the Younger fled with Pompey and the Senate toward Greece. 48 BCE August: Yet more battles involving our favorite pushy people: at Dyrrachium in what is now Albania the legions of Gnaeus (Cneius) Pompeius Magnus defeated the legions of Gaius Julius Caesar and at Pharsalus in Thessaly the legions of Caesar (Mark Antony commanding the army s left wing) defeated the legions of Pompey the Great, restoring the Pax Romana (Vitruvius offers us some information about these battles). During the civil war Marcus Terentius Varro had been in command of one of Pompey s armies in the Ilerda campaign. He would escape the penalties of being on the losing side in a civil war through two pardons granted by Caesar, one prior to and the other subsequent to the Battle of Pharsalus. When Pompey was defeated, Cato the Younger fled to Africa. Afterward, Julius Caesar would dispatch Antony back to Rome with the legions he did not immediately need, to look after his interests. When Caesar would be appointed dictator Antony would become his magister equitum. 10 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

11 HDT THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: WHAT? INDEX MARCUS PORCIUS CATO UTICENSIS 46 BCE April 6: Yet another battle involving our favorite pushy people: at Thapsus to the east of Carthage on the coast of Africa the legions of Gaius Julius Caesar defeated the legions of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, creating the Pax Romana. Cato the Younger, at Utica to the west of Carthage (he had not participated in the battle), concluded that there was no longer any way to continue the struggle. Here he is as depicted in the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 11

12 Musee du Louvre, reading Plato s PHAEDO in preparation for offing himself. According to Plutarch, when Cato stabbed himself the wound was not fatal, the sword was taken away, and a physician stitched him up but after the physician had left Cato managed to complete the job by stoically pulling out his intestines. If the above statue made Cato out as being younger than he actually was at the time that he came to the messy end of his road, in the HBO series Rome Karl Johnson portrays a Cato who was noticeably too old. 12 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

13 Vitruvius offers us some information about this battle, as he likewise offers us some information about the siege at Larignum in 56 BCE, the sieges at Avaricum, Gergovia, and Alesia in 52 BCE, the siege at Uxellodunum in 51 BCE, siege at Massilia in 49 BCE, the battles at Dyrrhachium and Pharsalus in 48 BCE, and the battle at Zela in 47 BCE which offers us evidence that he had most likely been serving in the ballista auxiliary unit of the Roman legion Legio VI Ferrata. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 13

14 1713 April 14, Tuesday: Joseph Addison s Cato, a Tragedy was first staged. CATO, A TRAGEDY It would be repeated more than 20 times in London alone, and would be acclaimed both by the Whigs and by the Tories. Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis was being offered as a type case of republican virtue and liberty. The play uses Roman history as a way to examine binaries such as individual liberty vs. government tyranny, Republicanism vs. Monarchism, and logic vs. emotion, and would be republished in some 26 editions during the course of the century. Cato is shown with his army at Utica just to the west of Carthage along the coast of Africa in 46 BCE, as the army of longtime enemy Gaius Julius Caesar nears irresistibly after a battle at Thapsus to the east of Carthage. Cato was not depicted onstage as stoically completing the job by pulling out his own intestines. His suicide would enable Cato s supporters to make their peace with the conqueror. Henry Thoreau would include in WALDEN what seems to be a reference to a line in Act V, Scene 1, does any divinity stir within him? that might seem to be a paraphrase of Addison s line Tis the divinity that stirs within us. (Although Thoreau might have studied this play in 1837 or 1841 as part of his reading in the 21-volume edition of English poetry created in by Alexander Chalmers, THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER; INCLUDING THE SERIES EDITED WITH PREFACES, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY DR.SAMUEL JOHNSON: AND THE MOST APPROVED TRANSLATIONS, in fact we have no record of his having checked out volume number 9, the volume in which this play appears, having a record only of his checking out from the Harvard Library volumes number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 21.) WALDEN: I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and imagination, what Wilberforce is there to bring that about? PEOPLE OF WALDEN WILLIAM WILBERFORCE JOSEPH ADDISON CATO, A TRAGEDY 14 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

15 1777 General George Washington s Continental Army drove the British from the College of New-Jersey s Nassau Hall. (That Army would however overwinter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania while government bigwigs occupied this fine edifice. Oneida, Tuscarora, and Delaware Indians helped Washington s cold and starving troops during this winter encampment. Washington, who often quoted from Joseph Addison s Cato, a Tragedy, had the play performed that winter in spite of Congressional hostility to stage performances. Contrary to popular impression, the winter of 1777/1778 would be a comparatively mild one, the really severe weather during the Revolutionary War being yet to arrive during the winter of 1779/1780 during which the revolutionary forces would be in winter camp at Morristown.) CATO, A TRAGEDY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 1782 The death of Cato the Younger was depicted in stone by Philippe-Laurent Roland The death of Cato the Younger was depicted in paint by Bouchet Louis André Gabriel, Bouillon Pierre, and Guérin Pierre Narcisse they just couldn t leave this guy alone Joseph Addison s play Cato, a Tragedy was revived at Covent Garden with John Kemble as Cato the Younger. CATO, A TRAGEDY CATO: A TRAGEDY Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 15

16 16 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

17 1832 The death of Cato the Younger was again depicted in stone, by Jean-Baptiste Roman and François Rude. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 17

18 2002 In the TV miniseries Julius Caesar, Cato the Younger was channeled by Christopher Walken. 18 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

19 2005 1st season of the HBO series Rome. Karl Johnson portrayed Cato the Younger. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 19

20 On the Mormon Channel, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. 2d and final season of the HBO series Rome Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

21 COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this read-only computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace resulting in navigation problems allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC Please contact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. It s all now you see. Yesterday won t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. Remark by character Garin Stevens in William Faulkner s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: December 11, 2013 Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 21

22 ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot Laura (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. 22 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith

23 Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary writerly process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project 23