TLS

The Murdoch headquarters in London

This by way of follow up of the advertisement of purchase of a TLS at reference 1.

Overall, very disappointing. Apart from the irritating change of format, very little to interest me. 

The change of format looks to me to be an effort to be more popular in appearance. To be more like the Times and the rest of the gang in the Murdoch portfolio. That is to say, as far as I can make out, the TLS has always been and remains part of the the Times group, unlike, for example, the TES which Wikipedia says was sold off at some point. The TLS itself is rather coy about ownership, but one of the contact addresses given on their website is the News UK (reference 4) headquarters in London Bridge Street snapped above. So perhaps the only road goes downhill.

One small item of interest was in a letter, from which I learn that Beethoven's Kreuzter Sonata was originally dedicated to one George Bridgetower, probably of mixed Bajan (that is to say, a person from Barbados) and German parentage. A child prodigy who as an adult could actually play the difficult violin part of this sonata, but who fell out with Beethoven and lost the dedication. As usual, Wikipedia in on the case at reference 5.

A larger item of interest was a piece by Mary Beard, of whom I usually disapprove on the grounds that she is far too fond of being on television for an academic, about the book by Fergus Millar noticed at reference 6. Her complaint seems to be that the focus of the book on the bureaucratic side of a Roman's emperors's life is far too narrow. Furthermore, Millar was mistaken in deliberately refusing to look at other work on modern dictatorships or that on any of the many other examples of one man rule from around the world.

She may be right, but as it happens I was recently prompted by something, I forget what, to buy the DVD of the 1960 Taylor-Burton film 'Cleopatra', on which the IMDB take is to be found at reference 7. Very long at five or six hours - no idea how this was managed in a cinema - but we managed in three or four sittings. And not as bad as some of the snooty reviews we came across would have one believe. And it was all the better for being made in the relatively coy early 1960's, so no need for lashings of unnecessary sex and violence. The four stars - Harrison, Taylor, Burton and McDowall all knew their stuff, at least most of the time.

The present relevance being that Julius Caesar is often portrayed as the good guy while Augustus is often portrayed as the bad guy, very unattractive by comparison. But this was not how it seemed to the people of the time: Caesar was an arrogant showman who wanted to be king, while Augustus knew how to get along with people. How to pretend to be a servant of Senate and people, of the res publica, while actually being a hereditary, absolute monarch. And he reigned for a long time, even managing to die in his bed, a trick not always managed, be one ever so absolute.

There is an interesting piece at the end of the Millar book, 'From Pompey to Constantine', about this very matter. About how the Latins of Rome were oddly out of step with most of the rest of the Roman world, mostly Greek flavoured, where kings were normal and respected.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/an-italian-flavoured-sunday.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=tls.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/05/lost.html. Hitherto, the blog search button top left has been very reliable, producing, for example, posts which meet the search criteria more or less immediately after they have been posted. But this morning, I fail to work out why this item appears in the search at reference 2 above. No TLS that I can find.

Reference 4: https://www.news.co.uk/.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bridgetower.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/reprieved.html.

Reference 7: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/.