Memento mori

 

One of the most important celebrations and rites in ancient Rome were the Triumphs. These were ceremonies granted to victorious generals after a successful campaign against an enemy of equal status to theirs. Triumphs, therefore, had no sense when a military campaign was against a slave revolt, for example.

These celebrations were structured around a big military parade which included the victorious general leading his actual troops, treasures and spoils form battle captured to enemy, and enemy leaders too, who were later to be executed in different ways. Celebrations as well included public games and shows, big banquets paid for by the triumphant general, and could eventually last several days.

It was the glory day for the general, who got all the privileges and attention form the whole city of Rome. He was the man of the day, certainly, and not even the Consuls could defy the general’s authority during the triumph.

Military was important for the Romans at that time, and several important Consuls got the job precisely after having succeeded in battle: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Julius Caesar, Gaius Marius, Lucius Sulla are good examples, representatives of the top class in the most glorious times of the Roman Republic.

It is said that human beings can live about 40 days without eating, and may survive about 10 days without water, but not more than 10 minutes without some sort of flattering. Aware of this, and with the intention to limit the triumphant general’s self ambitions, custom set that the triumphant general carried behind him in his very chariot a slave who was instructed to whisper regularly in the general’s ear “Remember, sir, that you are still a mortal”…

For more than fifteen years the Microsoft Legions have mastered the IT world like old Romans did in the known world of the time. For fifteen years they have rallied the world with all types of celebrations and triumphal parades. For fifteen years the “Pax Microsoftiana” has set the foundations of the industry.

But it seems the beginning of the end f the world as Microsoft conceived it might not be far from now, and it looks like Gates, Ballmer and their General Staffs have missed the words from the slaves they should have carried in their war chariots in their triumphs, if they ever thought of carrying them.

With their empire seriously threatened, as the Roman one was by the barbarian hordes coming from the North, now they begin to realize that they should have reacted years ago. “We missed the whole cycle”, Big Ape states. Well, more than one big cycle, we’d say. Too comfortable in its own complacency, Microsoft failed to understand there was life beyond their company, and clearly intelligent one.

Still a heavy tanker, though, relying more in the cost of change that their installed base may not be able to afford than in real innovation, it won’t clearly sink fast and easy. Like the Roman Empire, it will fall at one  point in time, though still its heritage might influence their conquerors latently, as Roman culture did since its fall up to this day.

But certainly more in the road to past

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History than in the way to the future.

Caesar’s wife

 

Before becoming Consul of Rome, Julius Caesar was appointed Pontifex Maximus. He was appointed head of state religion. At that time, he was married to Pompeia, granddaughter of former dictator Cornelius Sulla. Thus, Pompeia was the head of state religion too, at least in matters related to women, in those years. Pompeia was Caesar’s second wife.

Some time after Caesar’s appointment to the job, Pompeia, as his wife, hosted the Festival of the “Bona Dea” (“the Good Goddess""), only for women attendance, to which men were forbidden to participate.

One of the start up politicians of the time, Publius Clodius Pulcher, disguised himself as a woman and entered the venue, apparently with the intention of seducing Mrs Caesar.

Not really producing any evidence of any wrongdoing, the episode was seized by Julius to demand divorce from Pompeia under the argumentation that “my wife ought not even to be under suspicion”. The real reason behind this break up and divorce were much more political, as politics of the time was mainly driven by family relationships worked out by marriages. Caesar was already deep into politics by that time. Historians strongly suggest he already had his next marriage (ie political alliance) in mind in his quest for power.

We have read the recent article in Fortune which analyses more in depth the story behind Mark Hurd ’s departure from HP a few months ago. Quite detailed and thorough.

Detailed enough to imagine a nice story.

In a given point in time, after having divorced its previous companion, the HP Board married Mark Hurd as the new CEO. In a certain point in time, Mark decided to have Festivals with other top executives from potential customers. Of course, those festivals were very exclusive, discreet, and reserved for the attendance of VIPs only.

A relatively unknown would-be starlet, Jodie Fisher, was hired by HP so as to greet guests to those festivals, and eventually supervise Mark’s agenda, ensuring he spent enough quality time with each person in the festival. Necessarily she herself spent a lot of time with Mark, with or without witnesses.

Not really producing any evidence of any violation of HP’s harassment policy, the episode was seized by the board to demand divorce from Mark… pity the HP PR spokespeople failed to make the historical parallelism. It would have been fun.

Still, though HP was not totally clear about the story, probably in the hope of letting it pass as fast as possible, smart journalists like those at Fortune open the door to details. A mere matter of trust, we may conclude after reading his article. The HP Board lost trust in Mark, even beofre anybody else did, even with no proof nor evidence at that time.

We agree that for any company, its CEO “ought not even to be under suspicion”. They in fact are an asset of the company they work for, aren’t they?

There is still, however, an interesting open question after the story. As the Festival’s episode was an excuse for Caesar to divorce Pompeia, a necessary step in his political career and quest for power, were there any quests for power behind the ousting of Hurd? We have no idea, but it would be interesting, in our opinion, to investigate a bit the likely candidates to marry the HP Boards at the time, and like enchanted frogs or toads, transform themselves into princesses or princes.

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