This being my first "blog" I thought it might be appropriate to explain myself and my motives. Why Publius? Why Poplicola? What's Latin for pretentious? I first encountered the name Publius in the biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Excellent book by the way. Alexander Hamilton was one of the pioneers of blogging in North America and his medium was the newspapers of the day. Throughout his life he would blog his opinions on the events and debates of his time. These blogs, as well as those written by others, could be rather harsh and insulting to those who found themselves in the cross hairs. Such public insults could lead to a peculiar custom of the day called a dual. So these early day bloggers assumed allonyms or pseudonyms in order to avoid such unpleasantness. This practice was socially acceptable since it allowed the insulted party to ignore the insult as he could claim ignorance as to the author. Often enough everyone knew who the author was but understood the social dance being played out in order to avoid bloodshed. Given my aversion to dueling I thought it best that I assume an allonym as well.
I was so impressed by Alexander Hamilton and the life he led, as well as his roll as blogger extraordinaire in the formative years of our nation that I looked to him for inspiration. Mr. Hamilton used more than one allonym in his lifetime,though Pubius seemed to be his favorite. Pubius Valerius Pubicola was an immigrant to Rome who helped overthrow the last King of Rome. He was later accused of being a monarchist himself though he was able to convince the people otherwise and in so doing gained the nickname Publicola, meaning "friend of the people." Mr.Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison published the Federalist Papers under the group allonym Publius. Given my affinity for American history I thought I might pay humble homage to that great pioneer of blogging Alexander Hamilton.
My intent and desire is to add my voice to the ongoing debate that is America. If, through some informed argument, I can sway a few people's opinion then I will have achieved my goal.