SPQR Blues Chapter V: XXVI (and XXV)
Sunday, 25 October 2015 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spqrbluesHere are both of this weekend's comics.
There's a little cleanup and tweaking and inking still to be done, but Domitian is impatient.
The Flavian court--or, at least, Vespasian and Titus--strove to avoid the reputation for extravagance and profligacy of the previous regime, especially Nero's excesses and empire-bankrupting expenditures on luxuries and banquets. Why then the elaborate coiffures of the Flavian women, which became de rigueur fashion for many wealthy women of the time?
I read an interesting commentary on that recently. The hairstyles, elaborate as they were, also could represent the opposite of extravagance. Poets joked about how the piles of curls and coils made a tiny woman look deceptively tall and regal, a rude trick on an admirer and a literally over-the-top fashion statement; but the detailed hairstyles, with their emphasis on precise architecture and dependence on upright posture, could represent order, morality, strictness, and creating refinement from chaos. Everything Vespasian and Titus wanted to present to the world about their new dynasty.
There's a little cleanup and tweaking and inking still to be done, but Domitian is impatient.
The Flavian court--or, at least, Vespasian and Titus--strove to avoid the reputation for extravagance and profligacy of the previous regime, especially Nero's excesses and empire-bankrupting expenditures on luxuries and banquets. Why then the elaborate coiffures of the Flavian women, which became de rigueur fashion for many wealthy women of the time?
I read an interesting commentary on that recently. The hairstyles, elaborate as they were, also could represent the opposite of extravagance. Poets joked about how the piles of curls and coils made a tiny woman look deceptively tall and regal, a rude trick on an admirer and a literally over-the-top fashion statement; but the detailed hairstyles, with their emphasis on precise architecture and dependence on upright posture, could represent order, morality, strictness, and creating refinement from chaos. Everything Vespasian and Titus wanted to present to the world about their new dynasty.
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Domitian et Domitia
Date: 2015-10-25 09:48 pm (UTC)Nailed it! Domitia got back at her husband who cannot retaliate and set Mus free at the same time.
Domitian is not a happy camper and Mus is now in more danger than ever.
The imperial cat is not happy and his toy will suffer for it.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-30 06:37 pm (UTC)I'm afraid you're right--what seems a temporary reprieve may wind up being worse in the end.
Poor Mus! How we love to see him suffer.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-25 10:21 pm (UTC)This is a great set of panels. Mus has such a marvelous po-face here.
Oh, hey, is that Mrs. Nonnius Balbo in the entourage?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-26 04:11 am (UTC)Poor po-faced Mus. "You can make me come to this highly inappropriate party and drink huge amounts of wine and I will eat all the food but I am not having fun."
no subject
Date: 2015-10-26 05:08 pm (UTC)I
Date: 2015-10-26 05:39 pm (UTC)Re: I
Date: 2015-10-26 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-30 06:35 pm (UTC)LOL! What a wonderful expression!
I ♥ Domitia laying down the law. You go, grrrl!