Infinite Halves

It is in history that we understand who we are as a collective and who we are as individuals, it is whom we seek to be and whom we become. What value do we place on history? I could not think of a better time to honor the importance of historical preservation than in July, the month that honors Julius Caesar. By Wikimedia (Wikimedia commons) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons For the past year, I have been conducting Hellenistic research, which has led my studies down the corridors of the great Alexandrian Library. As many may know, this library and museum once held between 400,000 and 700,000 scrolls. Many individuals often equate the destruction of the library with Hypatia’s murder in 415 A.D. However, this tremendous source of knowledge began its decay in 48 B.C., over four hundred years before the religious uprisings, because of Julius Caesar. In a civil war with Ptolemy XIII, Caesar started a fire in th...

If it weren’t for Julius Caesar, we would now be enjoying the dog days of summer during the months of Quintilis and Sextilis. However, the Julian calendar, designed by mathematician and astronomer Sosigenes, turned a 10-month calendar into a 12-month calendar. In 44 B.C. the Romans renamed Quintilis as Iulius (July), in honor of Julius Caesar. Then in 8 B.C., they renamed Sextilis as Augustus (August), in honor of his Julius’ nephew, Augustus. That said, Happy Quintilis! By Nicolas Coustou — Marie-Lan Nguyen (2006), Public Domain,  https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=895638 In 48 B.C. Julius Caesar, a tremendous military man and political leader, chased his son-in-law, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey), into Alexandria. After Caesar’s daughter, Julia, passed away, Pompey sided with the conservative faction of the Roman Senate. Unhappy with his son-in-law taking liberties and combatting him for the leadership of the Roman state, Caesar entered into a civil war ...