Comments on: He Saw Alexander the Great

By: 100swallows

100swallows — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:44:36 +0000

Thanks, Rrishi, I had never heard either of those stories and they are curious and memorable. I’d say an old body preserved in honey is still pretty ghoulish: did Alexander’s nose stick to Augustus’s cheek?

By: Rrishi

Rrishi — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:54:14 +0000

Then there’s that excellent but probably apocryphal (right?) story that Augustus knocked off Alexander’s nose when he bent to kiss the corpse, and also — second beloved fact — that the body was embalmed in honey. Now THAT’s why the old historians were the best, they wrote these things down!

Gosh, what an experience it must have been to see the conqueror like that — much less ghoulish than the Mao and Lenin displays (yuck) in Beijing and Moscow.

By: The Alexander Sarcophagus « The Best Artists

The Alexander Sarcophagus « The Best Artists — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:19:33 +0000

[...] Didn’t Alexander the Great have a sepulchre? No doubt. But his body was removed from it in ancient times and carried to Egypt, to Alexandria. Caesar Augustus had a look at it 250 years later when he was there after catching up with Anthony and Cleopatra. See that story here. [...]

By: mike

mike — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:06:10 +0000

madame monet: It seems like you have confused Gaius Gracchus’s fate with that of Marcus Linius Crassus. Gracchus commited suicide rather than face the senate. Crassus who wanted to match the military success of Alexander the Great, decided to attack Parthia. Upon his defeat, his soldiers urged him to parley which resulted in the Parthians removing his head and hands. His head was sent to the court of the Armenian king who he had slighted and various versions include the hollowing out of the head which was filled with lead or gold. If something was done to his head aside from it being removed, it was likely, according to dio cassius’ account(a couple hundred years later) that molten gold was poured into his mouth. One gruesome story claims he was made to drink the molten gold, thus killing him for his greed.

By: 100swallows

100swallows — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:54:45 +0000

Madame Monet: No, I don’t know that story. How terrible! Where does it come from?

By: Madame Monet

Madame Monet — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Thanks for the interesting clarification.

I was reading another story this past week, and was wondering if you’d heard it. Whoever killed Gaius Gracchus (I didn’t take care to remember the killer’s name, but it was in a battle) cut off his head, scooped out his brains, filled the empty cavity with molten lead, and carried it back to whoever in Rome had wanted Gaius’ head. The killer threw the lead weight on a scale and was paid in gold the same weight. Do you know this story?

Madame Monet

By: 100swallows

100swallows — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:06:56 +0000

Madame Monet: Julius was lover one. Cleopatra had his baby, people said, and she named him Caesarion.
Mark Anthony was lover two.
No lover three.
Augustus (Octavio), much younger than any of them, fought a war with Anthony and beat him, then caught up with him in Egypt, where he had fled. Augustus’s only interest in Cleopatra was as a captured enemy. He wanted to take her back to Rome in chains for his victory parade.
Suetonius says Augustus had Caesar’s son, Caesarion, murdered.

By: Madame Monet

Madame Monet — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:02:59 +0000

Well from what I have been reading this past week (we’re doing a unit on the Romans in Grade 3, and I’ve been doing a bit of reading), Cleopatra was apparently the lover of Julius Caesar? But was this before or after Mark Anthony? So, was Augustus Caesar also in here? I was surprised at two, but am even more surprised at three.

Madame Monet
Writing, Painting, Music, and Wine
Winewriter.wordpress.com