My favourite leader probably is Cath the Great
She was awesome.

Just that Russia will never work, the size that it is.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:48, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

Mine is Genghis Khan by a country mile.
I fucking HEART Genghis Khan, big time.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:50, Reply)

Lycurgus, if he ever existed, would have been pretty awesome.

( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:52, Reply)

Nah
what a total bastard
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:54, Reply)

Don't knock the Spartans
they were awesome.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:54, Reply)

some of them were true
but Lycurgus doesn't sound very pleasant (fictitious obviously)
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:56, Reply)

I used to know the Great Rhetra off by heart
not hard, as it's like 5 lines long

I love Simonides' epigram at Thermopylae. It's one of my favourite snippits of poetry
"Go tell the Spartans, passer by
that here, according to their laws, we lie"
Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:59, Reply)

When I watched 300
I was annoyed they got the translation wrong I seem to remember. It's such an evocative piece of writing
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:11, Reply)

If you frequently reminded yourself
that it was an adaptation of a comic book rather than of ancient texts, the whole shoddy thing was a lot easier to cope with, I found.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:14, Reply)

I've not seen 300
it's what most people say when I say I'm interested in Sparta.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:19, Reply)

I laughed
when the Spartans contemptuously called the Athenians 'boy-lovers' in the film. Pot, kettle, black anyone?
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:21, Reply)

While hammered on Friday
I remember lecturing the poor boy I was with on anal sex.

I may have been preaching to the converted.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:22, Reply)

Haha
were you lecturing him on the evils? Given your 'big three' attitude.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:24, Reply)

It was scary
I mentioned smack, and said it was part of the 3 things I'd never do.

One of the people we were with replied with "So, it's smack, anal and what?"

I almost had a fit. HOW DID HE KNOWWWWWW
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:25, Reply)

That is a tiny bit scary

( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:34, Reply)

Apparently girls don't like anal
He may have found out the hard way.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:38, Reply)

As an Emperor
I love Augustus, though I also have some love for Vespasian.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:53, Reply)

Trajan always appealed to me.
I cannot remember why, though. Mind you Nero was nowhere near as bad as history traditionally paints him. He was a knob and a deviant, but did much for the architecture of Rome as opposed to beings its destroyer, it is now thought, I understand?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:56, Reply)

Haha I did an essay on that
and the conclusion I came too was that while Nero did indeed contribute to architecture, that it wasn't the public that was the beneficiary. And he was still a massive cunt
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 16:58, Reply)

Who cares about the public?
If you wander about in Bucharest, you cannot fail to be impressed by Ceacescu's building works, built with the blood of his people or not.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:02, Reply)

well
if you're going to evaluate an Emperor, then you need to.

After all some biographers argue that Nero was positing a cultural transition shift, from a military focus to a cultural one. I say that's a load of nonsense, he was an insane wanker who was herded in at the beginning, then broke out at the end
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:04, Reply)

I evaluate Emperors thusly:
1. Were they mental?
3. Did they commission huge engineering or architectural works?
4. Were they a sadist and ideally an incest-monger?
5. Did they slaughter any innocents?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 31 May 2010, 17:07, Reply)