[quote]cato wrote:
[quote]pch2 wrote:
[quote]cato wrote:
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I gotta love the title.[/quote]
I could have a completely geeky moment and use my vast powers of Nerd to explain exactly what I mean, but let’s just say that Carthage represented a feminine stereotype. ;)[/quote]
Reach into the depths, explain.[/quote]
I’m not sure how much you know about Carthage, so forgive me if I type things you consider common knowledge.
There are different stories about the origin of Carthage. The most famous is probably the one in Virgil’s Aeneid. No matter which version you prefer, the basic point is that Carthage was a great city founded by a woman (according to Virgil, a woman named Dido). Skipping most of that, Carthage grew into a rich and powerful city, and was something of a rival to Rome. They were almost twins. At a certain point Rome began to consider itself more an empire than a city, and Carthage (and other places) became a greater rival and obstacle. One way Rome dealt with this was to play up feminine stereotypes, either casting enemies in a feminized role or, in cases like Carthage and that whole incident with Boudica in Britain, demonize actual female rulers (I use the term “actual” loosely, because there’s no archaeological evidence of Boudica and so forth). Rome saw itself a certain way: disciplined and powerful, intelligent, cunning, blah blah blah, and decided these were masculine traits; this isn’t necessarily how Rome WAS, just how it saw itself. Female rule was abhorrent. What was feminine was weak, decadent, extravagant, undisciplined, blah blah blah. So, if you wanted Rome to hate a city, make that city feminine. For a Roman, Carthage represented what was unnatural and hateful (not for all Romans; I’m painting with a VERY broad brush).
Now I come to personal thought on the matter. For me, the idea of Carthage is the idea that what is female CANNOT be what is traditionally valued as Roman. That a female CANNOT be disciplined or powerful. That the Glory-That-Is-Rome and Female are mutually exclusive, and that no female can achieve greatness as Rome defined it and remain female.
As an aside, Cato the Elder was a Roman who had a certain single-mindedness about the destruction of Carthage. He ended every speech he gave, no matter the topic, with “Carthage must be destroyed.” His actual Carthage and my figurative Carthage are different, and we definitely want to destroy them for different reasons, but I hope we have the same determination about it.
I am such a dork.[/quote]
Awesome, thanks. I didn’t know any of that.
