Medusa, Antaeus, and Caesar Libycus

Although it is well known that Lucan’s Libya is a wild and threatening place, its threat is not restricted to indigenous people, places and things, such as Hannibal, Cleopatra, the Syrtes, or the desert with its catalogue of horrifying snakes. He also associates Libya with anti-Republican Romans, above all Julius Caesar, who endangers the Republic with his excessive, animalistic energy and resembles the continent where he is trapped in the final book. Although the gods as characters are removed from the world of the Bellum Civile, Lucan allows supernatural traces to linger in particular locations such as the Gallic grove in Book 3 or Thessaly in Book 6. Libya is by far the greatest of these reservoirs of frightening myth and fantasy, which do violence to the historical credibility of the narrative, just as Libya itself is presented as the origin or conduit of a number of historical characters who assault Italy and Europe. Lucan’s two mythic narratives (Antaeus in Book 4 and Medusa in Book 9) are essential parts of the hostile Libyan landscape, but in very different ways. The male Antaeus, associated with lions, is connected with a region of solid rock where he was destroyed. The female Medusa, associated with snakes, is connected with a region of shifting sands where she left a deadly, everlasting legacy. To complicate matters further, even though Medusa’s snakes represent the annihilation of the Republican self, the logic of the narrative is undermined and there is even a sympathetic subtext. As part of Libya’s historical and mythical legacy, these stories reveal that for Lucan, historical epic is linked with Republicanism, but mythical epic is in the service of dictatorship.

Shakespeare's tragedy of Julius Cæsar /

Mode of access: Internet.

Julius der erst Römisch Keiser von seinen kriege[n] : erstmals vß dem Latin in Tütsch bracht vnd nüw getruckt.

Fingerprint nach Ex. der Kunstbibliothek Berlin und der UB Frankfurt

Rendering to Caesar and God : St Paul, the natural law tradition and the authority of law

The question of the authority of law has occupied and vexed the literature and philosophy of law for centuries. Law is something that characteristically implies obedience, but the precise nature of law’s authority remains contentious. The return to the writings of the Apostle Paul in contemporary philosophy, theology and jurisprudence begs attention in relation to the authority of law, and so this article will consider his analysis and critique of law with a focus on his Epistle to the Romans. It argues that Paul’s conception of the authority of law is explained on the basis that the law is from God, it externally sanctions obedience by virtue of the civil authorities, and it convicts internally in conscience. This triad is justified by the law of love (‘‘love your neighbor as yourself’’), and will be explained in relation to the natural law tradition as well as converse ideas in positivism. Hence, considering the reasoning of Paul in relation to traditional jurisprudential themes and the law of love provides a useful alternative analysis and basis for further investigation regarding the authority of law and the need for its obedience.

Julius Pick aged 93 at his grandson Gary Godshaw's Bar Mitzvah; Buffalo, New York Portraits Men

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Portrait of Hilde Rosenbaum with her father Julius Rosenbaum in military uniform Portraits Family

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Studio portrait of Julius Krakauer as a young man; Landeshut (Kamienna Gora), Schlesia.

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Bianca and Julius Rosenbaum kissing on a pier Portraits Couples

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Bianca and Julius Rosenbaum with unidentified group Portraits Couples

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Portrait of Julius Rosenbaum; Berlin Portraits Men

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Summer home of Bianca and Julius Rosenbaum; Glinicke, Berlin Portraits Men

Verso: handwritten correspondence

Photo button portrait of unidentified couple, possibly cattle dealer Julius Herzberg and his wife Olga Herzberg née Eckermann Portraits Couples

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Julius Pick aged 93 at his grandson Gary Godshaw's Bar Mitzvah; Buffalo, New York Portraits Men

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