Luciano Canfora
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619368
- eISBN:
- 9780748670734
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619368.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This book is a profile of an extraordinary man, and a new interpretation of one of the most controversial figures in history. Julius Caesar played a leading role in the politics and culture of a ...
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This book is a profile of an extraordinary man, and a new interpretation of one of the most controversial figures in history. Julius Caesar played a leading role in the politics and culture of a world empire, dwarfing his contemporaries in ambition, achievement, and appetite. For that, he has occupied a central place in the political imagination of Europe ever since. Yet he remains something of an enigma, struck down by his own lieutenants because he could be neither comprehended nor contained. In surviving evidence, he emerges as incommensurate and nonpareil, just beyond the horizons of contemporary political thought and understanding. The result of the author's many years of research is a portrait of the Roman dictator that combines the evidence of political history and psychology. The product of a comprehensive study of the ancient sources, it paints a detailed portrait of a complex personality whose mission of ‘Romanisation’ lies at the root of modern Europe.Less
This book is a profile of an extraordinary man, and a new interpretation of one of the most controversial figures in history. Julius Caesar played a leading role in the politics and culture of a world empire, dwarfing his contemporaries in ambition, achievement, and appetite. For that, he has occupied a central place in the political imagination of Europe ever since. Yet he remains something of an enigma, struck down by his own lieutenants because he could be neither comprehended nor contained. In surviving evidence, he emerges as incommensurate and nonpareil, just beyond the horizons of contemporary political thought and understanding. The result of the author's many years of research is a portrait of the Roman dictator that combines the evidence of political history and psychology. The product of a comprehensive study of the ancient sources, it paints a detailed portrait of a complex personality whose mission of ‘Romanisation’ lies at the root of modern Europe.
Tobias Harper
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198841180
- eISBN:
- 9780191876714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198841180.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the creation of new orders at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was the culmination of a prolonged period of “unprecedented honorific inventiveness” starting in the ...
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This chapter examines the creation of new orders at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was the culmination of a prolonged period of “unprecedented honorific inventiveness” starting in the late nineteenth century. In Britain the new Order of the British Empire was branded the “Order of Britain’s Democracy” in recognition of the fact that it extended far deeper into non-elite classes in British society than any previous honour. Between 1917 and 1921 more than 20,000 people in Britain and throughout the British Empire were added to this new Order. This was an unprecedented number, orders of magnitude larger than honours lists in previous years. While the new Order was successful in reaching a wider, more middle-class audience than the honours system before the war, which was socially narrow, there was a substantial backlash to what was widely perceived by elites to be an excessive (and diluting) opening-up of the “fount of honour.” This backlash was connected to political controversies about the sale of honours that eventually helped bring about Lloyd George’s downfall. This chapter also contains a brief description of all the components of the British honours system at the beginning of the twentieth century.Less
This chapter examines the creation of new orders at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was the culmination of a prolonged period of “unprecedented honorific inventiveness” starting in the late nineteenth century. In Britain the new Order of the British Empire was branded the “Order of Britain’s Democracy” in recognition of the fact that it extended far deeper into non-elite classes in British society than any previous honour. Between 1917 and 1921 more than 20,000 people in Britain and throughout the British Empire were added to this new Order. This was an unprecedented number, orders of magnitude larger than honours lists in previous years. While the new Order was successful in reaching a wider, more middle-class audience than the honours system before the war, which was socially narrow, there was a substantial backlash to what was widely perceived by elites to be an excessive (and diluting) opening-up of the “fount of honour.” This backlash was connected to political controversies about the sale of honours that eventually helped bring about Lloyd George’s downfall. This chapter also contains a brief description of all the components of the British honours system at the beginning of the twentieth century.
R. Alan Covey
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190299125
- eISBN:
- 9780197508169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190299125.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History, Military History
This chapter begins with the Castilian conquest and colonization of the Canary Islands, which deployed a medieval model that had been carried over to the Americas by Columbus. When the Aragonese pope ...
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This chapter begins with the Castilian conquest and colonization of the Canary Islands, which deployed a medieval model that had been carried over to the Americas by Columbus. When the Aragonese pope Alexander VI granted half the globe for Spanish missionary work and imperial expansion, Isabella and Ferdinand lacked the policies, institutions, and laws to rule over native peoples who did not live like European Catholics. They also struggled to maintain control over their Spanish colonists, who often abandoned the new settlements to explore, plunder, and raid for slaves in other places. The chapter follows one of these wayward colonists, Francisco Pizarro, from Hispaniola to Panama and on to the exploration of the Pacific coast of South America. As Charles V attempted to establish law and order in his American colonies—and to face the challenges of the Protestant Reformation—he granted Pizarro permission to colonize Peru, a rich, civilized realm that had been contacted during a rare moment of success in the conquistador’s otherwise disastrous expeditions on the Peruvian coast.Less
This chapter begins with the Castilian conquest and colonization of the Canary Islands, which deployed a medieval model that had been carried over to the Americas by Columbus. When the Aragonese pope Alexander VI granted half the globe for Spanish missionary work and imperial expansion, Isabella and Ferdinand lacked the policies, institutions, and laws to rule over native peoples who did not live like European Catholics. They also struggled to maintain control over their Spanish colonists, who often abandoned the new settlements to explore, plunder, and raid for slaves in other places. The chapter follows one of these wayward colonists, Francisco Pizarro, from Hispaniola to Panama and on to the exploration of the Pacific coast of South America. As Charles V attempted to establish law and order in his American colonies—and to face the challenges of the Protestant Reformation—he granted Pizarro permission to colonize Peru, a rich, civilized realm that had been contacted during a rare moment of success in the conquistador’s otherwise disastrous expeditions on the Peruvian coast.
