When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome, that her wide walks encompass'd but one man?
Julius Caesar, I, ii, William Shakespeare
Today Caesar died. The Ides of March. And you, Brutus?
Are you not ashamed..
Oh how do you sleep at night I wonder…how does your consicious allow you to slumber but then you don’t have a concious to keep you true…
The Deed:
"So it began, and those who were not in the conspiracy were so horrorstruck and amazed at what was being done that they were afraid to run away and afraid to come to Caesar's help; they were too afraid even to utter a word. But those who had come prepared for the murder all bared their daggers and hemmed Caesar in on every side. Whichever way he turned he met the blows of daggers and saw the cold steel aimed at his face and at his eyes. So he was driven this way and that, and like a wild beast in the toils, had to suffer from the hands of each of them; for it had been agreed that they must all take part in this sacrifice and all flesh themselves with his blood...Some say that Caesar fought back against all the rest, darting this way and that to avoid the blows and crying out for help, but when he saw that Brutus had drawn his dagger, he covered his head with his toga and sank down to the ground."
Plutarch, Life, 66
" When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, 'You too, my child?' "
Suetonius Life , LXXXII.
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O Caesar beware of the Ides of March......
The night before Caesar died, at a dinner at Lepidus’ house, he was heard to answer the question “What death is the best?” with the instant answer, “An unexpected one."
So would a soldier expect to die; so he did.
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Premonition Ignored:
Cicero quoted Caesar, in the Pro Marcello, as saying “Satis diu vel naturae vixi, vel gloriae” (I have lived long enough both in years and in accomplishment)
Caesar is alleged to have said, in the year before his murder, "It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but, should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new Civil War will break out under far worse conditions than the last" ( from Suetonius).
His words were prophetic.
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The Last Laugh:
"But that great divine power or genius, which had watched over him [Caesar] and helped him in his life, even after his death remained active as an avenger of his murder, pursuing and tracking down the murderers over every land and sea until not one of them was left and visiting with retribution all, without exception, who were in any way concerned either with the death itself or with the planning of it."
Plutarch, Life, 69.
An extraordinary example of Caesar's luck was passed to his heir in the summer of 44 BC. Octavian (as AUGUSTUS was then called), portraying the grieving heir with great dignity, agreed to follow one of the honors voted Caesar and gave games in his honor in late July of that year.
The sources agree that - with extraordinary aptness - a great comet appeared in the skies over Rome on the very day the games began (it would have been just after Caesar's 56th birthday).
The comet ruled the skies until the games ended, at which time it disappeared. No stage manager in world history had a better omen to claim that the great Julius was now taken to the gods themselves, his divinity manifest to all of Rome and his murderers guilty of destroying a god.
Octavian immediately fastened, not only on Caesar's star, but on his status as the [adopted] son of a god, "divi filii," and used it to devestating political effect in the months and years to come.
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Do we pray for a new Caesar, a kindly emperor to solve all our problems?
I am fascinated by the man...Gauis Julius Caesar, not only was he a great man, he was great among a time when Great Men lived in the Res Publica of Rome.
Among his peers he could count the Great orator Cicero, Pompey, Mark Antony, Brutus, Cassius, Cato, Cleopetra VIII of Egypt, Crassus, and in his lifetime he had known both Gauis Marius & Sulla.
He was considered in his own time to be an superb advocate and orator, second only to Cicero for skill and eloquence. Caesar spoke Greek fluently, sign of the educated upper-class Roman; he was knowledgeable and discerning about Greek philosophy, literature and art. He was apparently possessed of great magnetism, personal charm, and a vibrant sense of humor and wit. There are several phrases like VIDI, VINI, VICI, & The Die is Cast which are still in common use which are attributed to Caesar.
After a lifetime of seeking glory within the terms of the aging Republic, all Caesar's best adversaries were dead or silenced; he had the love of the mob, but the hatred of much of the nobility; he had chosen to fight his enemies using the tools that had, by now, become familiar, but were still guaranteed to earn him, forever, the infamy of the man who destroyed the Roman Republic.
One senses that he knew this but his opponents left him with no other choice, if he had not gone to war it was the end of his public career and for a man like Caesar not an option.
Whatever doubts exist about his political actions, Caesar's military reputation has kept its pristine glory; with Alexander, he is generally accounted one of the greatest commanders of all history. His record of almost unbroken victories was envied by, among others, both Napoleon and Hitler. His lessons of swift, unexpected attack reverberate even now.
When a young man in Spain, Caesar allegedly wept when he saw the statue of Alexander, having accomplished, himself, so little by the same age.
His death on the Ides of March, 44, occurred when he had conquered the Roman world and finally saw his chance to take that hunger for world conquest to the East, like Alexander. His legions were marshaled, his preparations made, his personal affairs settled.
Those who love liberty can never accept the concept of a benevolent dictator, a contradiction in terms.
Yet Caesar's greatness far outweighs those of the many petty politicians who, neither Ciceros nor Catos, attempted to control Rome in his own time.
It is difficult to drag Caesar down to earth to judge him impartially with them. Yet he left a solid body of legislative achievements behind him that helped lay the legal and political groundwork for an Empire.
In his will he formally adopted his great grand nephew (the son of his sisters daughter) Gauis Ocatvius, *also known as Octavian, Octavianus & later AUGUSTUS) and left a bequest to each and every R0man alive, thus it was the mob, which had so loved him in life which began to worship him inspite of all the hinderences the Senate put to stop this...Even today there are are always offerings and flowers where the people burnt
GAUIS JULIUS CAESAR...The last Dictator of Res Publica of ROMA...
Augustus' remarkable political and social achievements are his own (though in his reign he did more than Caesar to bury the Republic). Yet Augustus built in every direction upon Caesar.
There was a reason that all emperors were called Caesar for thousands of years after the man himself was gone.
Caesar is Dead, Long Live Caesar.....
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* the Ides of march falls on the 15th of March
* the month of July is named in honour of Julius. his gens just as August is named after his heir Augustus.
* the calendar we use today is the JULIAN CALENDAR which was introduced by Julius Caesar...
* There are several phrases still in common use which are attributed to Caesar : VINI, VIDI, VICI (I came, I saw, I Conquered).... Crossing the Rubicon....The Die is cast *what he actually said was Let the Dice Fly High (a quote from his fav greek poet Menander)
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Recommended reading
The Masters of Rome series by Colleen Mc Cullough ( a six book series on the life and time of Julius Caesar)
