• AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Fun fact! The Roman emperor Diocletian abdicated the throne after he stabilised the Roman empire after the Crisis of the Third Century. He retired to his villa in what is now Croatia to grow cabbages. This was an unprecedented move — typically an emperor served for the rest of their life and/or were violently overthrown. However, it took only a few years for the peace that Diocletian had established to begin to crumble into civil war again; when his friends and colleagues beseeched him to return to stabilise things, he was reported to have said “If only you knew the peace and tranquility I gain from tending and growing my cabbages, you would understand the impossibility of such a request!”[1][2]

        I sincerely wish Dylan a life of as much peace and tranquility as the MVP ex-emperor Diocletian.


        [1]: I don’t remember the source of this particular translation, but the original source for this is Epitome de Caesaribus 39.6

        [2]: A different translation of the same line is “If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”. I prefer this one, because it makes it sound like he was disproportionately proud of his cabbages rather than just glad to be away from the shitstorm of Roman politics. However, the one I actually used fit the sentiment of my comment better.

        n.b. I am not a Historian, just a scientist whose late best friend was a Historian, and thus I am morally obligated to use what he taught me to make shitposts.

        Edit: formatting


        1. 1 ↩︎

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        After you’ve dealt with enough end users, farming is glorious. And a lot more complicated than you would think.

    • Zink@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      For years I have been one foot into the engineer turned goose farmer meme, with the other foot left in my normal job.

      It works alright! I don’t worry about work while at home in my suburban zoo, and when I’m at work I am not dying to get the hell out of there like I remember being several years ago.

          • FauxPseudo @lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            18 hours ago

            I only have two dogs. I’m not quite sure how many cats there are But I think including the fosters are somewhere around a dozen. Sometimes it feels like my property is just a frog and toad sanctuary.