{"id":3827,"date":"2009-04-21T10:42:47","date_gmt":"2009-04-21T14:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3827"},"modified":"2009-04-21T10:42:47","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T14:42:47","slug":"roman-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/roman-gods","title":{"rendered":"Roman Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m working my way through Plutarch’s Lives<\/a>\"\" (or Parallel Lives<\/em>, if you like). I decided not to challenge myself to blog about it, the way I did with Montaigne, because I didn’t like the way that made me rush through some of the essays in an attempt to compress\/distill them. I’m still glad I made my way through his work, but I need to revisit many of them. With Plutarch, I’ll share what I can, but I make no promises.<\/p>\n

Anyway, while reading the life of Numa Pompilius<\/a>, the successor to Romulus as king of Rome, I came across this wonderful passage:<\/p>\n

To the god Terminus, or Boundary, they offer to this day both public and private sacrifices, upon the borders and stone-marks of their land; living victims now, though anciently those sacrifices were solemnized without blood; for Numa reasoned that the god of boundaries, who watched over peace, and testified to fair dealing, should have no concern with blood.<\/p>\n

It is very clear that it was this king who first prescribed bounds to the territory of Rome; for Romulus would but have openly betrayed how much he had encroached on his neighbors’ lands, had he ever set limits to his own; for boundaries are, indeed, a defense to those who choose to observe them, but are only a testimony against the dishonesty of those who break them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m working my way through Plutarch’s Lives (or Parallel Lives, if you like). I decided not to challenge myself to blog about it, the way I did with Montaigne, because I didn’t like the way that made me rush through some of the essays in an attempt to compress\/distill them. I’m still glad I made … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Roman Gods”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[118,655,654],"class_list":["post-3827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-montaigne","tag-numa-pompilius","tag-plutarch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-ZJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3846,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-42709","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 4\/27\/09","author":"Gil","date":"April 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Plutarch's Lives (Numa Pompilius, Solon, Poplicola and about half of Themistocles), Push Man and Other Stories, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Clyde Fans, Bk. 1, by Seth. Oh, and that new ish of Fantastic Man. What I'm listening to: Not a lot. I watched The Wire on my Pod\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0679600086","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2891,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-defense-of-seneca-and-plutarch","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":1},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Defense of Seneca and Plutarch","author":"Gil","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"No rambling exegeses this week. Instead, you get a couple of passages from Montaigne. The first comes from his Defense of Seneca and Plutarch: We must not judge what is possible and what is not, according to what is credible and incredible to our sense. . . . It seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3161,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/low-res-2","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":2},"title":"Low-res","author":"Gil","date":"January 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My health is fine, my finances are in order and my job seems pretty secure, so I don't have much by way of \"you must change your life\" New Year resolutions. I did pretty well on my main one for 2008: post to this blog every day. There were still\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/low-res-2#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1471,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-democritus-and-heraclitus","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":3},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of Democritus and Heraclitus","author":"Gil","date":"April 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortunately, you don't need to know anything about Democritus or Heraclitus to enjoy this brief essay. (Yeah, \"enjoy\". I know most of you dear readers don't care for this project, but I'm sticking with it, because I'm finding all sorts of grist for my mill in it. Nyeh!) It begins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6474,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lets-go-a-roman","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":4},"title":"Let’s Go A-Roman","author":"Gil","date":"July 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I got back from that Piraeus seminar in Annapolis in early June (part 1 and part 2), I've found myself recharged. Now that I've wrapped up the Top Companies issue of my magazine, which occupies my June-into-July every year, I feel like I'm ready to get at a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0140443886","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8974,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-130-the-cult-of-experience-and-the-tyranny-of-relevance","url_meta":{"origin":3827,"position":5},"title":"Episode 130 – The Cult of Experience and the Tyranny of Relevance","author":"Gil","date":"August 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #130: Elizabeth Samet - The Cult of Experience and the Tyranny of Relevance \"How do you learn things? How do you acquire the patience to admit when you don't know things? I think those are really important things for an Army officer to know.\" Elizabeth D. Samet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"41X6zxtIM4L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/41X6zxtIM4L._SX327_BO1204203200_-290x440.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3828,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3827\/revisions\/3828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}