Author: Dr. Zar

A Brief History Coming-of-age romantic comedy fans, here is your chance to be among the first in Cleveland, Ohio to see a free, virtual screening of Música on Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 7:00PM Eastern.  Please log on to https://amazonscreenings.com/MUSICAhistory for your chance to watch a virtual screening of this film. Digging Deeper Based on writer, director, and star Rudy Mancuso, Música is a coming-of-age love story that follows an aspiring creator with synesthesia, who must come to terms with an uncertain future, while navigating the pressures of love, family and his Brazilian culture in Newark, New Jersey. Rudy Mancuso,…

A Brief History Sometime in September 282, Roman Emperor Probus was murdered by his soldiers for unclear reasons due to different accounts in different sources. Digging Deeper Near the end of the biography of Probus’s predecessor, Tacitus, in the Historia Augusta, an ancient text possibly dating to the 4th century, the biographer speculates that had Probus “lived longer the world would contain no barbarians.”  To dig deeper, I encourage you to read the full biographies of both Tacitus and Probus in this primary work and to also read at least one biography of Probus of a more modern nature that…

A Brief History On an unknown day c. November 275, Roman Emperor Aurelian was murdered by members of the Praetorian Guard, only to be subsequently deified by the Roman Senate. Digging Deeper Written some unknown time later, towards the end of the biography of Aurelian in the Historia Augusta, the ancient biographer lists Aurelian among the twelve best Roman emperors as a contrast to the more numerous number of “evil” emperors.  The biographer then ponders the following: “The question, indeed, is often asked what it is that makes emperors evil; first of all, my friend, it is freedom from restraint,…

A Brief History On an unknown date in 267, Odaenathus, King of Palmyra, was assassinated along with his son and co-king. Digging Deeper Odaenathus’s biographer in the Historia Augusta laments the king’s assassination in the following passage: “Some god, I believe, was angry with the commonwealth, who, after Valerian’s death, was unwilling to preserve Odaenathus alive.  For of a surety he, with his wife Zenobia, would have restored not only the East, which he had already brought back to its ancient condition, but also all parts of the whole world everywhere, since he was fierce in warfare and, as most writers…

A Brief History On March 13, 222, the Roman army hailed Severus Alexander as emperor, following the assassination two days earlier of his cousin Elagabalus. Digging Deeper In at least two excerpts from the biography of Alexander in the Historia Augusta, the emperor is described as having a disdain for jewelry.  In the first, the biographer says, “All the jewels that he had he sold and the proceeds he deposited in the public treasury, saying that men had no need of jewels,​ and that the women of the royal household should be content with one hair-net, a pair of earrings,…