Jim’s Reviews > Caesar: Life of a Colossus > Status Update

Other conservative senators muttered that it was a mistake to give the theatre—that most Greek of institutions—a permanent home in the city. In the past most of the audience for any performance had stood, and they feared that giving them seats would just encourage more citizens to waste their days as idle spectators.

Battles usually lasted for hours, but hand-to-hand fighting was physically and mentally exhausting and seems usually to have occurred in short furious bursts, before the lines separated by maybe just a few yards, drew breath and tried to build up enough enthusiasm to close again.

Although his political instincts had failed him a few times during these days, Caesar had shown his ability to realize that he had made a mistake and the skill of recovering from it.

Ultimately, most of the Roman elite preferred to allow some of the major problems facing the Republic to go unanswered rather than see someone else gain the credit for dealing with them.