Cassius

In B&G Marius says that Amadeo was "Fifteen at most" when he was bought from the brothel and Armand himself says he was "perhaps seventeen" when Marius turned him which means he was with him for about 2 years. Typically in boys puberty has already started at age 15 meaning that they would have facial hair and even pubic hair. Armand said he was 17 because he already stopped growing taller but maybe he mistaken his slower growth as puberty already being done.

I think it is likely that Amadeo wasn't actually 15 when Marius rescued him because he said he was "too young for a wet pleasure" meaning he isn't able to produce semen. This would mean that he is likely 13 or even younger.

We know that he was with Marius for about a year before getting sent to the brothels, if we assume that he was 13 when rescued he would be 14 when sent to "experience pleasure". As we can see that he described himself as having "a little" underarm hair and also being able to ejaculate which makes it match developmentally with a 14 year old going through puberty.

So 13, plus 2 years being with Marius would make him around 15 when he was turned. Which I do think makes much more sense with how people described Armand as looking like.

‘Grant that, and then is death a benefit.

So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop, And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood Up to the elbows and besmear our swords.

Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace, And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, Let's all cry "Peace, freedom, and liberty!"’

lucan's pharsalia, trans. jane wilson joyce &

appian civil wars 1.120, trans john carter

a million (several) years ago I said that in my ideal world, spartacus would have gotten the chance to gut crassus like a fish and read the fate of rome in his entrails. I also said something about spartacus' sacrifice at crixus' funeral games is like a foundational sacrifice/curse on rome. continuing that thought, there's something about how there's a narrative echo of crassus' fate in the fate that falls on spartacus (bodies unburied) and how crassus' death was a sort of death knell for that iteration of rome which was already something of a bloated corpse.

it's good to be back and thinking about spartacus, I took a brief detour a year and a half ago to get through an absolute brick of a book on sparta/lakonia and then picked up the broad topic of athens to pin down some thoughts on thrace, especially around how greece/rome perceived thracians and it's been. well. hm. so! speaking of thracians, pentheus!

The Allure and Repulsion of Thracians, Despoina Tsaifakis

which of course can bring us back to crassus

Dionysiac Tragedy in Plutarch, Crassus, David Braund