Meaning Behind the Phrase to Cross the Rubicon

To cross the Rubicon is a metaphor which means to take an irrevocable step that commits one to a specific course. When Julius Caesar was about to cross the tiny Rubicon River in 49 B.C.E., he quoted from a play by Menander to say anerriphtho kybos! or let the die be cast in Greek. But what kind of die was Caesar casting and what decision was he making? Before the Roman Empire Before Rome was an Empire, it was a Republic. Julius Caesar was a general of an army of the Republic, based in the north of what is now Northern Italy. He expanded the borders of the Republic into modern France, Spain, and Britain, making him a popular leader. His popularity, however, led to tensions with other powerful Roman leaders. Having successfully led his troops in the north, Julius Caesar became governor of Gaul, part of modern-day France. But his ambitions were not satisfied. He wanted to enter Rome itself at the head of an army. Such as act was forbidden by law. At the Rubicon When Julius Caesar led his troops from Gaul in January of 49 B.C.E., he paused on the northern end of a bridge. As he stood, he debated whether or not to cross the  Rubicon, a river separating  Cisalpine Gaul—the piece of land where Italy joins the mainland and at the time inhabited by Celts—from the Italian peninsula.  When he was making this decision, Caesar was contemplating committing a heinous crime. If Caesar brought his troops from Gaul into Italy, he would be violating his role as a provincial authority and would essentially be declaring himself an enemy of the state and the Senate, fomenting civil war. But if he  didnt  bring his troops into Italy, Caesar would be forced to relinquish his command and likely be forced into exile, giving up his military glory and ending his political future. Caesar definitely debated for a while about what to do. He realized how important his decision was, especially since Rome had already undergone a ​civil dispute  a few decades earlier. According to Suetonius, Caesar quipped, Even yet we may drawback, but once cross yon little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword.  Plutarch reports that he spent time with his friends estimating the great evils of all mankind which would follow their passage of the river and the wide fame of it which they would leave to posterity.   The Die Is Cast The Roman historian Plutarch reported that at this critical moment of decision Caesar declared in Greek and in a loud voice, let the die be cast! and then led his troops across the river. Plutarch renders the phrase in Latin, of course, as alea iacta est or iacta alea est. A die is simply one of a pair of dice. Even in Roman times, gambling games with dice were popular. Just as it is today, once youve cast (or thrown) the dice, your fate is decided. Even before the dice land, your future has been foretold. Let the die be cast itself is an expression meaning roughly let the game begin, and it comes from a play called Arrhephoros (the Flute Girl), a comedy written by the Greek playwright Menander in the 4th century B.C.E. Menander was one of Caesars favorite dramatists.   When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, he started a five-year Roman civil war. At the wars end, Julius Caesar was declared dictator for life. As dictator, Caesar presided over the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Roman Empire. Upon Julius Caesars death, his adopted son Augustus became Romes first emperor. The Roman Empire started in 31 B.C.E. and lasted until 476 C.E. Therefore, by crossing the Rubicon into Gaul and starting the war, Caesar threw the dice, not only sealing his own political future but effectively ending the Roman Republic and beginning the Roman Empire.

Organisational Performance and Customer Satisfaction...

As the Chief Executive Officer of Sierra Lighthouse Hotel Freetown, I’ve been provided with an Organisational Performance and Customer Satisfaction equation: Consumer Expected Quality - Organisational Actual Quality = Customer Perceived Quality EQ AQ = Dissatisfaction EQ = AQ = Mere Satisfaction AQ EQ = Delighted Customer An Organization Performance includes multiple activities, that help in establishing the goals of the organization, and monitor the progress towards the target. It is used to make adjustments to accomplish goals more efficiently and effectively. Organization Performance is what business executives and owners are usually frustrated about. This is so because, even though the employees of the company are†¦show more content†¦the expected quality. Example, a person may have heard only good things about the food at Sierra Lighthouse restaurant and decides to eat there. The food is expensive since it’s a five star hotel. Upon arrival he orders a dish and instead of being served within 20 minutes like it’s suppose to be the dish comes after 45 minutes. The customer tastes the food and it’s tasteless, the customer would be dissatisfied and would never visit Sierra Lighthouse. The customer would also tell his friends and family about his/her bad experience and they too would never visit Sierra Lighthouse. EQ = AQ = Mere satisfaction This is were in the what a customer expects ( EQ ) is exactly what the customer gets ( AQ ). Example, a person is used to eating grilled shrimps at Kimbima’s Restaurant then a friend comes along and offer to take him/her to Sierra Lighthouse for Dinner. The customer orders grilled shrimps at the Sierra Lighthouse and when customer taste the food it’s tastes the same as Kimbima’s. The customer would have a mere satisfaction because that’s the taste he/she has been used to already. All the customer would have is another place to eat his/her favourite dish in case Kimbima runs out of shrimps. AQ EQ = Delighted Customer This is were in what a customer gets from a product or service ( AQ ) is more than what the customer expected ( EQ ). Example, a person is used to eating Pizza at King David’s restaurant and one day a friend tells him theShow MoreRelatedTask 2.3 Group Dynamics And Teamwork1623 Words   |  7 Pagesorganizational structure, with this office being a functional group since it operates as a full-time department team performing ongoing work to achieve organizational objectives. Group dynamics is the forces that operate in groups that affect task performance and human resource maintenance (Wiesner, 2010). While there are a number of models on group development such as Tuckman or Gersick (1988) this office group is in the early stages of group formation regardless of which model is used. 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Ap European History Frq Karl Marx vs. Adam Smith Free Essays

â€Å"Adam Smith’s enormous authority resides, in the end, in the same property that we discover in Marx: not in any ideology, but in an effort to see the bottom of things. In both cases their greatness rests on an unflinching confrontation with the human condition as they could best make out. † Assess the above quote. We will write a custom essay sample on Ap European History Frq: Karl Marx vs. Adam Smith or any similar topic only for you Order Now What ideas did both men draw upon in order to formulate their ideas? What were their conclusions? Why were their conclusions so different? To what extent were they correct? Adam Smith and Karl Marx were considered to be amongst the best or if not the best economic theorists the world has ever seen. Despite seeming to be polar opposites, both Smith and Marx are fundamentally similar. Both are looking to see what makes the entire system run, and what the basis of economy truly is. They both have their flaws, yet they were both correct. Their idea was to formulate something that would run the basis of economy. Both have different ideas, both have different agendas. Marx and Smith had different thoughts and drawing different conclusion on how things should be run, and yet to a certain extent both of them are correct. Both men drew their ideas upon very different sources. Adam Smith was a child of the Enlightenment; therefore he must’ve drawn some Enlightenment ideas. In 1751 Adam Smith met Scottish philosopher David Hume, who was a major Enlightenment thinker. It is safe to assume that Smith learned many things from Hume, who was ten years his senior. Some also argued that Smith came up with the idea to write â€Å"Wealth of Nations† on his own, with little or no influence of others. Marx, on the other hand, was greatly influenced by the ideas of others. Georg Hegel’s dialectics inspired Marx greatly. Generally, the idea was that conflict between two opposing forces would produce a synthesis which was generally more acceptable to both sides. Hegel saw this phenomenon in nature and everywhere, and it was the basis of class conflict in Marx’s writings. Conflict would ultimately lead to synthesis, in which mankind would progress. In a way Marx was also inspired by Smith himself, and possibly also by early socialists such as Saint-Simon. Not only were their ideologies differ, each drew different conclusions from their theorems too. In his book â€Å"Wealth of Nations† Smith proposed that a nation’s wealth should be judged by its gold and silver supply but by the total of its production and commerce (today more commonly known as GDP). He also explored the idea of division of labor, through which specialization would lead to an increase in quality for manufactured goods. Marx would argue that communism offered the best model both politically and economically with its collectivist ownership, production, and central planning, which are intended to distribute wealth equally amongst the populace and eliminate the distinctions between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat altogether. He reasoned that workers would be exploited by capitalists (or bourgeoisie), for the capitalist system basically means that the rich would get richer and the poor would get poorer. Furthermore, the bourgeoisie is always in a better position to negotiate a low wage for the proletariats. One of his theories, the labor theory of value, claims that the value of a good or service is directly connected to the amount of labor required for its production. So, in effect the two theories and conclusion were very different. The very difference in ideology is what set the two apart. While Adam Smith contended that the most ideal economic system is capitalism, Marx believed that capitalism leads to greed and inequality. Karl Marx is more of a revolutionary; Adam Smith was more to reforms rather than a full-scale revolution, as he valued order and stability more rather than freedom from oppression. Karl Marx saw class struggle, while Adam Smith saw special interests that were often at odds with the general public interest. Also, Smith did not put the spotlight on the land holdings or the riches of the aristocracy like Marx did. They also differed on the method of production of goods and services and distribution of resources. While Adam Smith’s envisioned ideal society would not distribute resources equitably or eliminate gaping wealth levels between the different classes in a society, Marx’s ideal economy would produce, according to the directives from a central authority, and distribute resources according to the needs of the public. However, despite the disagreements, both Smith and Marx were correct to a certain extent. In a wider perspective, they both wanted a prosperous nation of wealth. They both also agreed that the workers (proletariats) were crucial for the production of goods. Both of them also recognized that there is a conflict, or at least a wide division, between the working and upper class. Adam Smith also realized that there are basic social classes: land-owners, wage earners, and capitalists. Marx, to a certain extent, also accepted the condition where there are different classes, albeit trying to change the situation. Overall, both of them proposed ideas to change the economy to fit their liking, despite both economists going in a completely different direction altogether. How to cite Ap European History Frq: Karl Marx vs. Adam Smith, Papers