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Thursday, July 4, 2002

The Fourth of July

I have sat here all day and read and watched tv. I'm working on a couple major books but I finished reading a mystery. Actually I started a couple others but found them boring. The one I finished was another one by Steven Saylor, "Roman Blood". This is another of his mysteries set in ancient Rome, 80 BC during the time of Sulla. This is a chilling story of possible parricide (father killing) which was just about the worst crime in Rome where a father was considered perfectly justified in treating his family anyway he wanted, even killing them. Gordianus the finder is hired by Cicero to find evidence on the case and find his life in danger. Good book. I really don't like how Roman society worked, the cruelty, the slavery (more slaves than freemen) the little value that is put on human life, but it is a fascinating society whose effects still haunt us today. We still feel the results of the Roman empire and what it wrought, not only as the midwife of christianity but also the shape of the world that we inheirited.

I ate too much and had no exercise but I feel good and relaxed and happy. Sometimes it's nice to just be lazy and unhealthy. I did watch a few fireworks on the internet, but that's it.


© Rachel Aschmann 2002.
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