The Night “The Big Bang Theory” Didn’t Jump the Shark
*Spoilers are included*
Last night was the Season 5 ending for The Big Bang Theory and I have to admit, I was really worried about it. Sitcoms have a bad and predictable history when it comes to weddings. Normally, they don’t happen, normally the reason is stupid, and normally it is ignored in the after affects.
So, “here we go” with a finale in which Howard Wolowitz is suppose to get married and blast into space, neither of which are guaranteed to happen. In most sitcoms, neither would have happened. But the show starts with Wolowitz in the rocket with two other astronauts as his friends (minus Penny) watch from home and we learn quickly that he did in fact get married and that part of the show is told in flashback.
We see the group of friends scramble around to try and get Howard and Bernadette married before he leaves for his space mission. We see the continued conflict between Leonard and Penny over Leonard’s sudden proposal during sex last week. This was the reason I was worried about the show. Sitcoms love to screw up relationships. Get the “main couple” together and split them up as much as possible but keep them friends to the point the audience no longer cares about them (can anyone say Rachael and Ross). I had predicted Penny and Leonard would be the ones that ended up getting married. Penny missing from the group watching suggested perhaps her and Leonard had broken up again. Then it happened. After one failed attempted Howard and Bernadette get married, no last minute surprises.
Back to the present, Penny gets home from work just in time and the rocket starts to take off. A worried Bernadette comforts a worried Raj by holding his hand. Penny takes a surprised Leonard’s hand, interlocking their fingers. Then Sheldon reaches over to lightly grasp an even more surprised Amy’s hand.
Congratulations Big Bang Theory, you got this one perfectly right.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Sunday, December 18, 2011
One Less Mainframe Shop
Just over seven years ago, I was hired as the Financial System Administrator at my place of emplacement. In my first interview, I was told how they were getting ready to pick a new ERP and get off their “archaic” mainframe. After I was hired, the IT director at the time told me with glee how they would be shutting down the mainframe in six months. This shocked me a bit it was going to take at least a year to go live with the new ERP solution.
It turned out maintenance on the 20-year-old software was going to end in six months. The mainframe was actually scheduled for shutdown six months after we went live on the new software and platform. Well we did go live on the new ERP within a year, but the mainframe at one time had run the entire business of the company and while the financial suite was the last large part to go off it, there were still several “smaller” but just as important systems still running on it.
Consequently, it took seven years, and two other IT directors, before access to the now 11-year-old System/390 was finally cut this week. At some point after the New Year, a ceremony is being planned to let the Chairman flip the final switch to turn off the system. He has been a “Champion of Modernization” to get us off the mainframe for almost 10 years. I’m sure speeches will be made about how far we have come. Yet, as I look around at the countless servers, real and virtual, and think about the major software platforms hosted by outside vendors, all to replace the one S/390 that was divided in to four virtual systems I can’t help but wonder if we are really better off.
Friday, October 22, 2010
In my life, I have found…
People who tell me to be open-minded are typically close-minded.
People who preach love can spew a lot of hate.
People who say be tolerant are often intolerant.
People who want me to respect their beliefs do not respect mine.
That in the same day I can be called a left Wing Wacko and a Right Wing Nut.
People who preach love can spew a lot of hate.
People who say be tolerant are often intolerant.
People who want me to respect their beliefs do not respect mine.
That in the same day I can be called a left Wing Wacko and a Right Wing Nut.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Trains, Pizza, and the City
So I didn’t think I would get to go anywhere on vacation this year, but then some unexpected funds came in and Angel was glad for me to take one of my “dream” vacations; going to Chicago by train to eat deep dish pizza. Why Chicago? Because it’s the home of deep dish pizza. Why deep dish pizza? Because, in my opinion, it is the best kind of pizza. Why by train? Because I don’t like flying or driving and I had read somewhere a long time ago it was a good way to go to Chicago.
The week before we were scheduled to leave, my family and I traveled into downtown Fort Worth to find the train station and look around it so we would know what to expect. So we found everything that we needed to know about where to go and what to do. Now like most urban stations the one in Fort Worth, though small, is the transaction hub for the local bus and train as well as Amtrak and Greyhound. If you have ever seen any movie with a bus/train station that is full of a lot blank looking people and their too many bags, well that is exactly what this station looked like.
Now I’ve never been on a train before, so I decided to make my first trip a 24 hour ride in the “coach” section of the train. Hey my first plane trip was 10 hours to London so I clearly do not see the need to start out small. Now coach on a train is more like business class on a plane. There is plenty of leg room and chairs recline a good amount, even if not fully. There was no need to check bags as they provide plenty of room for people to bring on a couple of carry-on bags. The best part of the being on a train is you can get up and move around as you may need. It doesn’t matter if the train is moving, coming into a station, or stopped. The bad for me was sleep, or lack of it. I don’t sleep well as it is and I got about 3 hours broken into 20 minutes intervals throughout the night. I would have no problem traveling by train again, but probably not over night.
So we finally arrive in Chicago, take a taxi to the hotel and get our stuff in the room and immediately head out for pizza. Now it so happens that the hotel is a simple two blocks from a Gino’s East joint plus Gino’s has an agreement with local hotels for priority seating of out of town guests and a free order of breadsticks. So we walk to restaurant, give them our priority seating pass (which wasn’t really needed since it was only 4 pm and before the major rush) and once we are seated we give the waitress our free breadsticks coupon. William and Preston (11 and 10) decide to get the individual thin crust (1 cheese, 1 pepperoni) while Angel and I split a small deep dish sausage. Since we were so hungry, we had them bring everything out when they were done, not all at once. So the breadsticks came right out and went right down, very delicious. The boys’ thin crusts came out cut in squares and as a devoted father I tried a square of each. The overall pizza was good, but the crust a little hard for my taste. They also had a lot of cheese, and I mean a lot.
Now it was main event time, our deep dish was out and it was beautiful. Fulfilling all the stereotypes it was in a deep pan and had a thick crust. The dough is obviously allowed to rise in the pan after it is patted out. Lots of cheese and a sausage patty topped with a seasoned, crushed tomato sauce. It was like a dream come true. Yeah, it was that damn good. Angel and I quickly devoured the pizza and we knew then that our trip was worth it.
Once we were done we walked the block over to Michigan Ave and marveled at “The Magnificent Mile” and the city in general. People everywhere and from everywhere with large buildings rising into the sky as far as you can see. Chicago is home of the tallest building in the US and we couldn’t even see it from where we were. After walking a few blocks, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and crashed for the night.
So when I’m first planning the trip and ask the boys guess where we are going for vacation, Preston goes “The Beach?!”
“No, Chicago.”
“But I want to go to the beach”
“We are going to eat pizza”
“Don’t they have pizza at the beach?”
“Not this kind, they do have a lake so we will go there”
“OK,” he said, with some disappointment.
Accordingly we wake up to a grey, rainy day. Checking the weather forecast I see the rain should clear out by noon and we start to make our plans for the day. On the map we got from the hotel we are figuring out how to get to the Navy Pier when Preston reminds me I said we could go to the beach.
“It’s raining!”
“So?”
Well luckily for me there is a little beach on the way to Navy Pier, consequently, I said we could stop there. We grab the umbrella and off we go. After crossing under Lake Shore Dr we emerge next to a small little beach with no one on it. The rain has stopped but it is still grey and foggy and around 85 degrees. So we walk the small little beach and the boys kick off their shoes and go wading into the water. OK I can understand that, but within a minute the boys have their jackets off and are swimming all around. So Angel and I watch from the empty beach as the boys have the time of their life. It’s a nice little beach with very clear and very calm water. As Angel and I watch the kids, a few other families come and go often with kids taking off shoes and rolling up pant legs to walk though the water. After about 90 minutes the kids are ready to eat, the sun is out, and off we go to the Navy Pier.
Now for those who don’t know, the Navy Pier is the “Tourist Trap” part of downtown. The first thing the boys notice is McDonalds. So my first lunch in Chicago is the same thing I could have got at home. (Except, much to the pain of Angel and William, there are no Dr. Peppers). So we walk the Pier, Angel and the boys ride the Ferris Wheel, we go through a crazy maze with mirror and light tricks, take pictures, look at the shops, then head back to the hotel. Along the way the boys once again want to stop at the beach now that it is sunny and hot. The beach is now moderately crowded primary with people who had no plans of stopping based on the number of kids in water with regular clothes instead of swimsuits. After another hour we make it back to the hotel when we learned we all got a little sunburned. Oh well nothing bad, a quick change and off we go looking for Pizzeria Uno.
A quick history lesson: Pizzeria Uno is where Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza got started. Despite having the same corporate owners it is not the same pizza served at Uno Chicago Grill, the casual dining restaurant that evolved out of the Uno franchises.
Pizzeria Uno looks like a bar that just happens to serve deep dish pizza. It has a very limited menu and very limited seating. (Tip to travelers, a block away is Pizzeria Due, Uno’s sister restaurant with the same menu, same pizza, and more places to sit.) Like other deep dish places when you go put your name on the waiting list you can order your pizza. Drinks and other items wait until you are seated. So we are told it will be 20 minutes and I order a small half cheese, half pepperoni for the boys and small sausage for Angel and me. We get seated, get our drinks and continue our wait (real deep dish pizza takes around 45 minutes to prepare and cook). So our pizzas come out and we are all back in heaven. Uno’s pizza had a thick bottom crust with a thin pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was very chunky and not seasoned beyond some oregano and parmesan sprinkled on top. I have heard stories that the quality of the pizza at Uno has declined over the years, but as good as these were I find that hard to believe. There was nothing left once the four of us had completed our meal. We spent the rest of the evening again exploring the Magnificent Mile before returning and crashing again. The good news is we were getting a good cardio workout from all the walking.
Day three was a beautiful day with us deciding to go to a different beach. This one was a few blocks to the north and was bigger than the first. It seemed to take forever to walk there as by now our legs were quite tired from the day before. Still, we made it and were amazed at the difference. This was more of a standard beach; the locals came here and everyone was in a swimsuit. Unlike the calm waters of the first beach, this one had real waves to crash into. Once again the boys were quickly in the water and fun began. After a couple of hours we returned to the hotel changed and headed to the Pier. The rest of the family got Mickey D’s again but I went and found a place that served an Italian Beef sandwich and pigged out on it. Ah happiness. Looking out from the Pier, I noticed how the Chicago skyline goes on forever. As far north and as far south as I could see there are buildings rising from the ground and we couldn’t even see the heart of downtown in the Loop.
After lunch we took a water taxi to Willis (Sears) Tower. As it was the middle of the day we felt like we were roasting in the sun. Still, going up the river though all the buildings was an amazing experience. Hot, tired, and hurting from all the walking we then subjected ourselves to waiting in long lines to go through security and buy tickets to go to the sky deck of the tallest building in the US. We were told just as we were getting tickets that it would be a 45 minute wait from that spot. We about died right there. So we moved on to the next spot and after about 5 minutes the guy told us this was our lucky day and moved us on to the next area where we waited 10 minutes to get on an overcrowded elevator. We then raced up to the 103 floor in less than 60 seconds. What a view!! Yes all the waiting and crowds were now worth it. We finally got our souvenirs at the gift shop on top, took tons of pictures, waited in a long but fast moving line to go back down and exhausted from the day we got a taxi to take us to Lou Malnati’s for more deep dish pizza.
If you have watched any Food Network shows where they had deep dish pizza then you know about Lou Malnati’s. Yet again, arriving before the main rush we got seated right away and were served some glasses of water. Heading towards dehydration we all quickly drank it down and I almost felt bad for our waiter as he came to get our drink order and all we wanted was water. He brought us a pitcher of ice water which was gone by the time we were done with the meal. This time the boys ordered a medium thin crust half cheese, half pepperoni while Angel and I stayed with the small deep dish sausage. One difference here is Malnati’s offers a “butter crust” for about 75 cents more. From what I could get out of the waiter, a seasoned butter is spread across the dough prior to topping. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if it made any real difference based on the other pizzas we had before. The pizzas came out with the thin in a pan similar to the deep dish, with traditionally cut pizza slices, a crisp bottom, but soft top. It certainly wasn’t like other Chicago thin crusts I had seen. Although thicker than the thin crust, this deep dish was the thinnest of the three we tried with a thin, pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was a lot like Uno’s but perhaps a little sweeter. Once more the four of us consumed almost everything in front of us and I learned from the three places that I don’t put nearly enough cheese on my homemade pizzas. When Angel asked which one we liked the best Preston answered, “All three were really good.” I can’t add to that.
If someone only had a chance to go to one place on a quick trip I would recommend Malnati’s as it was the best priced of the three and had a more “restaurant” feel to it.
Walking back to the hotel we came across the Hard Rock Café and I was able to go in and get some souvenirs for a coworker who collects Hard Rock stuff. We also made it to a book store to so we would have things to read on the train ride home.
Our last half day wasn’t much more than getting ready to leave and heading out to Union Station to get on the train. The trip home was about the same as the ride out with me not getting much sleep and glad to finally make it home.
On the whole, I’d say it was a great trip. How did the rest of the family feel about it? Well I wanted to go to Chicago and they came with me. By the end they were all talking about what we needed to do when we went next time. I’m all for that, there are a lot more pizza places that I need to try.
The week before we were scheduled to leave, my family and I traveled into downtown Fort Worth to find the train station and look around it so we would know what to expect. So we found everything that we needed to know about where to go and what to do. Now like most urban stations the one in Fort Worth, though small, is the transaction hub for the local bus and train as well as Amtrak and Greyhound. If you have ever seen any movie with a bus/train station that is full of a lot blank looking people and their too many bags, well that is exactly what this station looked like.
Now I’ve never been on a train before, so I decided to make my first trip a 24 hour ride in the “coach” section of the train. Hey my first plane trip was 10 hours to London so I clearly do not see the need to start out small. Now coach on a train is more like business class on a plane. There is plenty of leg room and chairs recline a good amount, even if not fully. There was no need to check bags as they provide plenty of room for people to bring on a couple of carry-on bags. The best part of the being on a train is you can get up and move around as you may need. It doesn’t matter if the train is moving, coming into a station, or stopped. The bad for me was sleep, or lack of it. I don’t sleep well as it is and I got about 3 hours broken into 20 minutes intervals throughout the night. I would have no problem traveling by train again, but probably not over night.
So we finally arrive in Chicago, take a taxi to the hotel and get our stuff in the room and immediately head out for pizza. Now it so happens that the hotel is a simple two blocks from a Gino’s East joint plus Gino’s has an agreement with local hotels for priority seating of out of town guests and a free order of breadsticks. So we walk to restaurant, give them our priority seating pass (which wasn’t really needed since it was only 4 pm and before the major rush) and once we are seated we give the waitress our free breadsticks coupon. William and Preston (11 and 10) decide to get the individual thin crust (1 cheese, 1 pepperoni) while Angel and I split a small deep dish sausage. Since we were so hungry, we had them bring everything out when they were done, not all at once. So the breadsticks came right out and went right down, very delicious. The boys’ thin crusts came out cut in squares and as a devoted father I tried a square of each. The overall pizza was good, but the crust a little hard for my taste. They also had a lot of cheese, and I mean a lot.
Now it was main event time, our deep dish was out and it was beautiful. Fulfilling all the stereotypes it was in a deep pan and had a thick crust. The dough is obviously allowed to rise in the pan after it is patted out. Lots of cheese and a sausage patty topped with a seasoned, crushed tomato sauce. It was like a dream come true. Yeah, it was that damn good. Angel and I quickly devoured the pizza and we knew then that our trip was worth it.
Once we were done we walked the block over to Michigan Ave and marveled at “The Magnificent Mile” and the city in general. People everywhere and from everywhere with large buildings rising into the sky as far as you can see. Chicago is home of the tallest building in the US and we couldn’t even see it from where we were. After walking a few blocks, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and crashed for the night.
So when I’m first planning the trip and ask the boys guess where we are going for vacation, Preston goes “The Beach?!”
“No, Chicago.”
“But I want to go to the beach”
“We are going to eat pizza”
“Don’t they have pizza at the beach?”
“Not this kind, they do have a lake so we will go there”
“OK,” he said, with some disappointment.
Accordingly we wake up to a grey, rainy day. Checking the weather forecast I see the rain should clear out by noon and we start to make our plans for the day. On the map we got from the hotel we are figuring out how to get to the Navy Pier when Preston reminds me I said we could go to the beach.
“It’s raining!”
“So?”
Well luckily for me there is a little beach on the way to Navy Pier, consequently, I said we could stop there. We grab the umbrella and off we go. After crossing under Lake Shore Dr we emerge next to a small little beach with no one on it. The rain has stopped but it is still grey and foggy and around 85 degrees. So we walk the small little beach and the boys kick off their shoes and go wading into the water. OK I can understand that, but within a minute the boys have their jackets off and are swimming all around. So Angel and I watch from the empty beach as the boys have the time of their life. It’s a nice little beach with very clear and very calm water. As Angel and I watch the kids, a few other families come and go often with kids taking off shoes and rolling up pant legs to walk though the water. After about 90 minutes the kids are ready to eat, the sun is out, and off we go to the Navy Pier.
Now for those who don’t know, the Navy Pier is the “Tourist Trap” part of downtown. The first thing the boys notice is McDonalds. So my first lunch in Chicago is the same thing I could have got at home. (Except, much to the pain of Angel and William, there are no Dr. Peppers). So we walk the Pier, Angel and the boys ride the Ferris Wheel, we go through a crazy maze with mirror and light tricks, take pictures, look at the shops, then head back to the hotel. Along the way the boys once again want to stop at the beach now that it is sunny and hot. The beach is now moderately crowded primary with people who had no plans of stopping based on the number of kids in water with regular clothes instead of swimsuits. After another hour we make it back to the hotel when we learned we all got a little sunburned. Oh well nothing bad, a quick change and off we go looking for Pizzeria Uno.
A quick history lesson: Pizzeria Uno is where Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza got started. Despite having the same corporate owners it is not the same pizza served at Uno Chicago Grill, the casual dining restaurant that evolved out of the Uno franchises.
Pizzeria Uno looks like a bar that just happens to serve deep dish pizza. It has a very limited menu and very limited seating. (Tip to travelers, a block away is Pizzeria Due, Uno’s sister restaurant with the same menu, same pizza, and more places to sit.) Like other deep dish places when you go put your name on the waiting list you can order your pizza. Drinks and other items wait until you are seated. So we are told it will be 20 minutes and I order a small half cheese, half pepperoni for the boys and small sausage for Angel and me. We get seated, get our drinks and continue our wait (real deep dish pizza takes around 45 minutes to prepare and cook). So our pizzas come out and we are all back in heaven. Uno’s pizza had a thick bottom crust with a thin pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was very chunky and not seasoned beyond some oregano and parmesan sprinkled on top. I have heard stories that the quality of the pizza at Uno has declined over the years, but as good as these were I find that hard to believe. There was nothing left once the four of us had completed our meal. We spent the rest of the evening again exploring the Magnificent Mile before returning and crashing again. The good news is we were getting a good cardio workout from all the walking.
Day three was a beautiful day with us deciding to go to a different beach. This one was a few blocks to the north and was bigger than the first. It seemed to take forever to walk there as by now our legs were quite tired from the day before. Still, we made it and were amazed at the difference. This was more of a standard beach; the locals came here and everyone was in a swimsuit. Unlike the calm waters of the first beach, this one had real waves to crash into. Once again the boys were quickly in the water and fun began. After a couple of hours we returned to the hotel changed and headed to the Pier. The rest of the family got Mickey D’s again but I went and found a place that served an Italian Beef sandwich and pigged out on it. Ah happiness. Looking out from the Pier, I noticed how the Chicago skyline goes on forever. As far north and as far south as I could see there are buildings rising from the ground and we couldn’t even see the heart of downtown in the Loop.
After lunch we took a water taxi to Willis (Sears) Tower. As it was the middle of the day we felt like we were roasting in the sun. Still, going up the river though all the buildings was an amazing experience. Hot, tired, and hurting from all the walking we then subjected ourselves to waiting in long lines to go through security and buy tickets to go to the sky deck of the tallest building in the US. We were told just as we were getting tickets that it would be a 45 minute wait from that spot. We about died right there. So we moved on to the next spot and after about 5 minutes the guy told us this was our lucky day and moved us on to the next area where we waited 10 minutes to get on an overcrowded elevator. We then raced up to the 103 floor in less than 60 seconds. What a view!! Yes all the waiting and crowds were now worth it. We finally got our souvenirs at the gift shop on top, took tons of pictures, waited in a long but fast moving line to go back down and exhausted from the day we got a taxi to take us to Lou Malnati’s for more deep dish pizza.
If you have watched any Food Network shows where they had deep dish pizza then you know about Lou Malnati’s. Yet again, arriving before the main rush we got seated right away and were served some glasses of water. Heading towards dehydration we all quickly drank it down and I almost felt bad for our waiter as he came to get our drink order and all we wanted was water. He brought us a pitcher of ice water which was gone by the time we were done with the meal. This time the boys ordered a medium thin crust half cheese, half pepperoni while Angel and I stayed with the small deep dish sausage. One difference here is Malnati’s offers a “butter crust” for about 75 cents more. From what I could get out of the waiter, a seasoned butter is spread across the dough prior to topping. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if it made any real difference based on the other pizzas we had before. The pizzas came out with the thin in a pan similar to the deep dish, with traditionally cut pizza slices, a crisp bottom, but soft top. It certainly wasn’t like other Chicago thin crusts I had seen. Although thicker than the thin crust, this deep dish was the thinnest of the three we tried with a thin, pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was a lot like Uno’s but perhaps a little sweeter. Once more the four of us consumed almost everything in front of us and I learned from the three places that I don’t put nearly enough cheese on my homemade pizzas. When Angel asked which one we liked the best Preston answered, “All three were really good.” I can’t add to that.
If someone only had a chance to go to one place on a quick trip I would recommend Malnati’s as it was the best priced of the three and had a more “restaurant” feel to it.
Walking back to the hotel we came across the Hard Rock Café and I was able to go in and get some souvenirs for a coworker who collects Hard Rock stuff. We also made it to a book store to so we would have things to read on the train ride home.
Our last half day wasn’t much more than getting ready to leave and heading out to Union Station to get on the train. The trip home was about the same as the ride out with me not getting much sleep and glad to finally make it home.
On the whole, I’d say it was a great trip. How did the rest of the family feel about it? Well I wanted to go to Chicago and they came with me. By the end they were all talking about what we needed to do when we went next time. I’m all for that, there are a lot more pizza places that I need to try.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Beware the Ides of March
2053 years ago, a group of “Liberators” assassinated Gaius Julius Caesar in an attempt to restore Rome to its Republic roots. They feared that Caesar, who had become “dictator in perpetuity”, was trying to reinstate the monarchy with himself as king. Therefore, they plotted and at a session of the senate made their move. They stabbed Caesar 23 times.
Out into the capital they proclaimed, “Liberty” and “People of Rome, we are once again free!” There was just one small problem; they didn’t have a plan for after Caesar’s death. The assumed most of the people thought as they did, that Caesar was a tyrant who needed to be done away with. Once he was dead, the Republic would simply go back to the way things had always been. It was a bad assumption.
The “Liberators” were actually a group of wealthy aristocrats. The “people” of Rome (middle and lower classes) had loved Caesar and they grew angry that this group of men had killed their hero and defender. Caesar’s funeral turned into a riot as the crowd became a mob and went after the leaders of the assassins.
Over the next 15 years, there were five civil wars. None of assassins would live past the first two years and it’s probably just as well. Their act to restore the Republic may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. The man who Caesar had adopted in his will and named his sole heir was the sole survivor of all the civil wars. Gaius Octavian, Caesar’s grandnephew, would become Imperator Caesar Augustus and he finally restored the republic (see my first blog) when he became the Rome’s first emperor.
Out into the capital they proclaimed, “Liberty” and “People of Rome, we are once again free!” There was just one small problem; they didn’t have a plan for after Caesar’s death. The assumed most of the people thought as they did, that Caesar was a tyrant who needed to be done away with. Once he was dead, the Republic would simply go back to the way things had always been. It was a bad assumption.
The “Liberators” were actually a group of wealthy aristocrats. The “people” of Rome (middle and lower classes) had loved Caesar and they grew angry that this group of men had killed their hero and defender. Caesar’s funeral turned into a riot as the crowd became a mob and went after the leaders of the assassins.
Over the next 15 years, there were five civil wars. None of assassins would live past the first two years and it’s probably just as well. Their act to restore the Republic may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. The man who Caesar had adopted in his will and named his sole heir was the sole survivor of all the civil wars. Gaius Octavian, Caesar’s grandnephew, would become Imperator Caesar Augustus and he finally restored the republic (see my first blog) when he became the Rome’s first emperor.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Republic is Restored
It was January 13th of the year we now call 27 BC and Consul Imperator Caesar Octavian, son of a god, had come to the Senate. It had been a year and half since his return to Rome and over 3 years since his victory over the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. So strong and powerful was she that she had corrupted his former partner Mark Antony leading him astray.
They were dead now, each taking his/her own life. Sole power was vested in Caesar. He had spent the last year and a half consolidating his rule and for only the third time in the history of Rome the doors on both sides of the Temple of Janus were closed to show that Rome was at peace. Caesar gave a great speech in which he returned the power of the government to the Senate and the people of Rome. At some point it is believed he said something that could be translated as “The Republic is restored”.
It had been all carefully planned out. The Senate “managed” to talk him out of stepping down as consul and three days later they awarded him many honors and titles. Among those given were the title of princeps (first citizen) and the honorific of Augustus (the exulted one). Although he was serving as Consul he was also made proconsul (governor) of over half of Rome’s provinces. Unable to be in all of them he appointed lieutenants to act on his behalf. Thus over half of the administrators of the provinces owed their loyalty to Caesar personally and not the Senate. Since he was given the more troubled areas he also controlled almost 70% of the Roman Army.
The Republic had been restored. By “republic” Augustus had meant the state of Rome, not the same old failed government that had let him rise to power, but a newer more stable one. On January 13th it was restored but on January 16th the Empire was born.
Why bring this all up? Augustus is recognized as the first Roman Emperor. It’s not a title he would recognize, or even accept, if he understood today’s meaning because his power came from the people and the senate and had to be renewed every 5 or 10 years. Of course that was never really in question. To be safe and secure the people of Rome put on an act of preserving the republic all the while giving up their rights and freedoms to establish a new form of monarchy.
They were dead now, each taking his/her own life. Sole power was vested in Caesar. He had spent the last year and a half consolidating his rule and for only the third time in the history of Rome the doors on both sides of the Temple of Janus were closed to show that Rome was at peace. Caesar gave a great speech in which he returned the power of the government to the Senate and the people of Rome. At some point it is believed he said something that could be translated as “The Republic is restored”.
It had been all carefully planned out. The Senate “managed” to talk him out of stepping down as consul and three days later they awarded him many honors and titles. Among those given were the title of princeps (first citizen) and the honorific of Augustus (the exulted one). Although he was serving as Consul he was also made proconsul (governor) of over half of Rome’s provinces. Unable to be in all of them he appointed lieutenants to act on his behalf. Thus over half of the administrators of the provinces owed their loyalty to Caesar personally and not the Senate. Since he was given the more troubled areas he also controlled almost 70% of the Roman Army.
The Republic had been restored. By “republic” Augustus had meant the state of Rome, not the same old failed government that had let him rise to power, but a newer more stable one. On January 13th it was restored but on January 16th the Empire was born.
Why bring this all up? Augustus is recognized as the first Roman Emperor. It’s not a title he would recognize, or even accept, if he understood today’s meaning because his power came from the people and the senate and had to be renewed every 5 or 10 years. Of course that was never really in question. To be safe and secure the people of Rome put on an act of preserving the republic all the while giving up their rights and freedoms to establish a new form of monarchy.
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