Roman Dictators

Roman Dictators The behavior of the Roman dictators- or Magister populi  Praetor Maximus- changed over time, eventually turning into the ruthless, murdering heads of state we now think of (e.g., Sulla), but thats not how they started. The first of the Roman dictators may have been T. Lartius in 499 B.C. His master of the Horse was Sp. Cassius. Consulship and Limited Government After the Romans expelled their kings, they were well aware of the problems of letting a single man hold absolute power for life, so they created a split appointment with a set time period, one year. The split appointment was to the consulship. Since consuls could cancel each other out, it wasnt the most efficient type of government leadership when Rome was in a  crisis caused by war, so the Romans developed a very temporary position that held absolute power in cases of national emergency. Roman Dictators and Imperium Roman dictators- the Senate-appointed men who held this special position- served for 6 months at a time or shorter, if the emergency took less time, with no co-dictator, but instead, a subordinate Master of the Horse (magister equitum). Unlike the consuls, Roman dictators didnt have to fear retribution at the end of their terms in office, so they were free to do what they wished, which was, hopefully, in the best interests of Rome. Roman dictators had imperium, like the consuls, and their lictores carried fasces with axes on either side of the city walls, instead of the usual fasces without axes within the city of Romes pomoerium. UNRV notes that there were 12 lictors for dictators before Sulla and 24 from his day. Source H.G. Liddells A History of Rome From the Earliest Times to the Establishment of the Empire

Does music work on the mind or the body Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Does music work on the mind or the body - Essay Example The most obvious property of music is its sound and this, in turn, is caused by actual occurrences in the physical world. Rodeway sums it up neatly when he writes: â€Å"The auditory sense is primarily physical rather than chemical. The sound is concerned with motion or activity, that is with vibration and resonance of substances (air, water, solids). (Rodoway: 1994, p. 90) The human ear is the main receiver of sound and is able to detect the movement of air and distinguish variations in the sounds that are produced. There are, however, other parts of the body that are involved in listening to music, because the ear is part of a perceptual system, involving the whole human organism and elements of the environment which the listener and the music share. Anyone who has attended a rock concert is very aware of the physical sensation of vibration which occurs when base sounds are emitted from huge speakers with great intensity: the whole upper body feels the vibrations. Some high pitche d sounds are painful, causing the eyes to tighten up and the body to cringe. Observation of humans and animals as they react to music and other sounds reveals that movement of the head and shoulders towards the source of a sound often occurs so that both ears can be used to help locate the distance and direction accurately. Some animals like foxes and dogs have ears that face forward and can be swiveled left and right to focus more closely. The physical properties of the space in which music occurs are also important in determining how sound is received.