Like their human counterparts, the cats of ancient Rome satisfied their blood lusts by watching brutal gladiatorial games in which kittens were forced to pounce on each other in the Cardboard Colosseum. Such contests could stretch on for hours, until the emperor Julius Polydactus sealed the fighters’ fate with a thumbs down.
Are you not entertained, Sharon H.?
Ancient Rome even had corporate sponsors!
Chewy Dotcomus, of course.
Love this! Who else besides DebG and I are fans of the ancient world?
I can’t say I’m a fan of actual gladitorial games, nor of animal fighting. I like this kitten version, as it is cute and not serious—like the Puppy Bowl (I can’t wait). I’m not much of a scholar; I tend to prefer my Ancient Rome (and Greece and Egypt) filtered through Shakespeare and historical novels.
My mom just informed me that one of the prizes on The Price is Right is tickets to the Puppy Bowl. 🙂
Now that’s what I call high cultchah!
I’ve also seen, on my Facebook feed, a couple “profiles” of kittens who are in the halftime show (one of them is a black kitty named Fruit Bat; I sent it to Mike so we’ll see if he uses it. I saw another one last night but I didn’t get a chance to watch it).
The Puppy Bowl has given me a reason to look forward to Superbowl Sunday. The Hallmark Channel has a Kitten Bowl that I haven’t known about for the last 6 years so I will be eagerly awaiting that as well.
I took three years of Latin in HS and continue to think that was a good idea. My mother and father grew up and were educated in Europe between the two World Wars. They attended classical gymnasiums (I don’t know if there is a different word in English because this had nothing to do with gyms). They had eight years of Latin and six of Greek. When I got to high school and had to choose a language there was no question but that I had to study Latin. They were disturbed and disheartened by the lack of Greek. Because of them and my own lifelong interest in history I continue to think of Roman and Greek parallels to current events.
I had four years of Latin and three years of Greek in HS. I wasn’t especially gifted at it, but enjoyed it very much. While I’ve forgotten pretty much everything I learned, what remains is a deeper understanding of English etymology, which is the main reason I took both subjects. So I still think of it as a success.
In America, and American English, we don’t really have a word for that type of gymnasium (which I’ve always associated with German for some reason, though I gather the concept is not exclusive to Germany). It’s something akin to the public schools and “better” grammar schools that fed Oxbridge 100–150 years ago and perhaps American prep schools during the same era, but probably not equivalent.
Digression: There’s a lot to be said for a classical education, but the elitism and cultural imperialist attitudes that so often accompanied it is something I’m glad to do without. Perhaps if we included Arabic, Hebrew, and a couple of Chinese languages in the definition of “classical” we could revive the idea more equitably. Oh, yes, and Sanskrit. I hope I haven’t left out anything else really important.
Personally I just wish modern languages were taught better—and earlier!—when I went to school.
End of digression: Puppy Bowl! Puppy Bowl! Rah! Rah! Rah!
Wow ! Latin and Greek! Did you go to high school in NYC? I know you live here now. I didn’t think any of them offered both. My parents grew up in the part of the then Yugoslavia that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so my guess is the gymnasium concept was German/Austrian for them.
Yes, I’m a native. I went to public school till high school, then to a small private school—complaining bitterly about the snobbery of private schools, I might add. I wanted to stay with my friends. I wonder now how I would have fared had I gotten my way. Well, woulda-coulda-shoulda, it was all over and done with a very long time ago.
Me! Give me some of that ‘bread and circuses’ for old times sake.
One of my bucket list items is to see the Fertile Crescent but my mother says that I have to wait until she’s dead. Would also love to see the ancient indus river cities and the stonehenge in Africa. Also want to see the ancient Keltic salt mines/villages in the Alps.
I saw the picture immediately after reading the title and was expecting a joke about the siege of Alesia.
Thanks for remembering! I started giggling at the title and still haven’t stopped.
Once upon a time, someone filmed his kittens pouncing on each other in their kitty cage and then added cage match commentary. It was epic and hilarious.
I wouldn’t mind being thrown in THAT pit.
Hours? I could be entertained by this for days.
“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
I still love that movie, despite some, ummmm, glaring historical inaccuracies.
Tell me about it. There’s sooo many movies that me and hubby sit through and go nope that’s not right; uhhh hmmm, don’t think that person was living at that time. Just got to remember it’s Hollywood and it’s not a documentary, they call it creative license and my personal favorite “Inspired by a True Story”.
You’d probably enjoy The Hollywood History of the World by George Macdonald Fraser (of Flashman fame/infamy). It’s from 1988, though, so misses a lot that has never-really-happened since.
I think I owned that book, or something similar, once upon a time. Friends don’t let me go to historical movies anymore, or if they do, they come along with me to watch my head explode.
Hey, I LOVED MadMen, but when they used anachronistic language it drove me nuts. I don’t know why they assume that no one will notice or care (or don’t care if we do)—especially about history that’s well within living memory for many people. And I say this as someone in the entertainment industry.
I used to teach classical civilization classes and encouraged students to find historical inaccuracies in movies. Most glaring was “Troy” which came out during finals week ad my Greek archaeology students got extra credit for pointing out things like “they didn’t have the color blue for clothes” or “why is the Mycenaean lion gate in the throne room?” or “fools! they cut themselves out of a franchise when Briseis killed Agamemnon!”
I also had the students do final projects in which they had to produce an artifactand then research and write a text about the decisions they made and the significance of the piece. I was always blown away by the high quality of their work!
I’m sure much credit goes to you as both a rigorous and highly inspirational teacher!
Thank you, Ricky & Bibi’s mom. That means a lot to me considering I’m going through a crisis of purpose at the moment. Teaching 14-19 y o boys is just not the same as teaching at the University level and I have been suffering with my inadequacies at this level for too long…
Favorite Fun Factoid: The place in Rome where Julius Caesar (a noted ailurophobe) was murdered (“Et tu Brute…”) is now the Largo Argentina cat sanctuary. The step upon which he died, as he walked up to one of the official temples, is often home to a happily reclining feline. Was happy to spend some time at the sanctuary cuddling Roman cats last time I was in Rome!
If I ever have a chance to go to Rome I will make that my must-go-to destination.