byronic :: mad bad and dangerous to know

Oh summer, what you do to me.

I’m in Italy for a couple of weeks. It’s ridiculously hot so I got to wear my gorgeous Frida Kahlo dress last night. It feels great; I love a blazing hot summer.

The month of August is named after Augustus Caesar (born Gaius Octavius Thurinus), adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar, and first Emperor of the Roman Empire (27 BC-AD 14). 

According to Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars

In his infancy he was given the surname Thurinus in memory of the home of his ancestors, or else because it was near Thurii that his father Octavius, shortly after the birth of his son, had gained his victory over the runaway slaves. That he was surnamed Thurinus I may assert on very trustworthy evidence, since I once obtained a bronze statuette, representing him as a boy and inscribed with that name in letters of iron almost illegible from age. This I presented to the emperor, who cherishes it among the Lares of his bed-chamber. Furthermore, he is often called Thurinus in Mark Antony’s letters by way of insult; to which Augustus merely replied that he was surprised that his former name was thrown in his face as a reproach. Later he took the name of Gaius Caesar and then the surname Augustus, the former by the will of his great-uncle, the latter on the motion of Munatius Plancus. For when some expressed the opinion that he ought to be called Romulus as a second founder of the city, Plancus carried the proposal that he should rather be named Augustus, on the ground that this was not merely a new title but a more honourable one, inasmuch as sacred places too, and those in which anything is consecrated by augural rites are called “august” (augusta), from the increase (auctus) in dignity, or front movements or feeding of the birds (avium gestus gustuve), as Ennius also shows when he writes:

“After by augury august illustrious Rome had been founded.”  (via)

All hail August!

kateoplis:

Jenny Odell, Every Baseball Diamond in Manhattan (116)

Chtenia / Чтения - Journal of Russian readings
Issue 15: Summer - Table of Contents

7: Summer Delight tamara eidelman :: Translation by Paul E. Richardson
14: What a summer, what a summer this is! fyodor tyutchev :: Translation by Lydia Razran Stone
17: White Nights fyodor dostoyevsky :: Translation by Constance Garnett and Paul E. Richardson
65: The Cathedral Clergy nikolai leskov :: Translation by Margaret Winchell
74: Rainy Summer afanasy fet :: Translation by Lydia Razran Stone
77: Memoir of a Gulag Actress tamara petkevich :: Translation by Ross Ufberg and Yasha Klots
102: I embraced by midday maximilian voloshin :: Translation by Lydia Razran Stone
105: Return to Ithaca irina bogatyryova :: Translation by Liv Bliss
127: August, Asters marina tsvetaeva :: Translation by Nina Shevchuk-Murray

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This evening’s entertainment arrived in the post today. It’s about to be consumed with perfect Damson plums and Pearl Jam bootlegs, as the St Pancras sunset fills our living room with an orange glow.