blogging

The blog may be the finest invention of the last two thousand years. In my youth I was full of ideas and opinions - after all, I'd grown up in Rome, been taught by philosophers. We young men would walk the gardens of Lucullus discussing poetry and art, recalling the latest theatrical show, quoting the Amores and trying to pick up girls. We were educated, my brothers and I.

You can imagine then that it was a shock to return to my native land, even as tetrarch. I had been used to society, and suddenly there I was, stranded in a dusty backwater, surrounded by beards and scowls. And nobody in Galilee cared a hoot for my opinions on Ovid or Virgil, for my deep understanding of fashion, for my appreciation of the latest trends in painting and mosaic, for my penetrating insights into the complexities of the politics of the Senate and the Palatine.

If only the internet had existed then. How I would have liked to have poked old Augustus on facebook, or flirted with Roman maidens via webcam! And with a blog I could have shared my opinions with the world, rather than mouldering in my half-built capital, starting ill-advised wars and antagonizing the locals.

Anyway - today's news is that I've invited some new friends to be my co-authors. That's all by way of introduction - I shall let them speak for themselves.