August meditations

"Then the judges besought the deified Augustus that he would help them fulfill the obligation of their oaths since the intricacy of the case had perplexed them." -- Phaedrus III, 10.

"And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." -- Luke 2:1.

We are four days into one of the two months of the year (in the West) named for a Caesar of Rome.

In my part of the world, August is blazing hot. Of course, south of the equator, it is wintertime.

I steamed some carrots from the garden this week and drizzled them with honey. Augustus, I am told absolutely loved parsnips, a close cousin of carrots, served that way and ate them by the pound.

Thus in my small way, I commemorated this fascinating man. Not Julius Caesar, who was of course killed quite young, but Augustus, ensured that Rome would become and long remain an empire; that from Romania to Spain, some form of his language, Latin, would be spoken forevermore; that kaisers and czars would pay eponymous tribute to him; and that the laws and even the architecture of Europe would follow the Roman example.