David Jobling
Julius Caesar
March 31st 2006 10:09
We’ve all heard of him-but frankly why does everyone keep going on about him? Well one thing that I want to make clear is that Caesar was never an ‘emperor’ of Rome, he was a last dictator. Lets start from the beginning shall we?
A bit of background information:
Rome started out as a monarchy, however these kings ruled with an iron fist Eventually the people got fed up and threw them all out. Myths about the behaviour of the kings still exists today. The most famous is perhaps that of the Rape of Lucretia. The story goes that Lucretia was the a very chaste and pure wife, while her husband was at war a ‘prince’ saw her and feel in love with her. Being as pure as she was the only way the prince could have his way was to rape her-which he did. Lucretia was so horrified that although her family told her the shame that had occurred was not her fault she committed suicide because she couldn’t deal with it. (let me just say here, that I’m not a big fan of this myth.) This is generally viewed as the last straw that led people to uprise and kick the kings out of Rome. This action led to the development of the Roman republic. A system where (simplistically speaking) the power was divided up between the senate and the tribune of the plebs (ie, the common folk).
How does Caesar fit into the picture?
Well in 49 BC, Caesar defied the senate by coming back and marching on Rome leading to civil war. The senate didn’t want Caesar to come back to Rome because of his army and his popularity-they feared he’d become a dictator, and well they were right. Before he started civil war-he conquered Gaul (modern day France) and Britain. To make things worse he wrote a book about his conquests-at the time this was like a big action blockbuster and Caesar became and overnight celebrity. Can you see why the Senate wasn’t thrilled about a guy who was immensely popular and had the support of the army behind him? If your into it, his book is still in print today.
To cut a long story short, Caesar won the civil war and basically killed the entire republic system-giving himself rule and becoming a dictator.
What else did he do?
Well he had an affair with Cleopatra-she actually managed to convince him to help her knock of her brother and sister from power so that she could be queen of Egypt. And he made sure that that happened.
Apart from illicit affairs he came up with a whole new calendar system-that is the one we still use today.
His Death:
Basically the senate were getting more and more frustrated with Caesar and increasingly seeing him as a wannabe king. The senators eventually banded together-and they even convinced Brutus on of Caesar’s most faithful friend to join in the conspiracy. Theyre little plot unfolded on the 15th of March (I’m quoting this date so it may be off considering on what source your looking at) Gaius Trebonius engaged Antony in a long discussion outside the Senate to keep him out of the way-antony at the time was of course one of Caesar’s biggest supporters. The assassins all gathered around Caesar’s curule chair, Tullius Cimber pretended to submit a petition and then one of them grabbed Caesar’s toga pulling it forward which was the signal for the attack. One by one they all started to stab Caesar. The plan was probably the biggest back fire of history. Instead of freeing Rome from Caesar all the senators managed to do was introduce it to a period of chaos.
Famous quotes:
“Veni, vidi, vici,” or translated to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
And
“Et tu Brutus?” translated to “And you Brutus?” (he said this one just before he died-seeing that Brutus his close friend had betrayed him)
How to use this info at a cocktail party:
If anyone mentions Caesar you can say that he was responsible for the calendar we use today, and that he conquered modern day France, and that we can still buy the book he wrote about it today.
If your in a bit of a ‘show off’ mood about something you did at work or etc you can say ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ In response to any questions about it.
If anyone calls Caesar an emperor you can take great pleasure in correcting them.
The info for this post was taken from: (http://heraklia.fws1.com/) and the book: Ancient Rome by Nigel Rodgers.
A bit of background information:
Rome started out as a monarchy, however these kings ruled with an iron fist Eventually the people got fed up and threw them all out. Myths about the behaviour of the kings still exists today. The most famous is perhaps that of the Rape of Lucretia. The story goes that Lucretia was the a very chaste and pure wife, while her husband was at war a ‘prince’ saw her and feel in love with her. Being as pure as she was the only way the prince could have his way was to rape her-which he did. Lucretia was so horrified that although her family told her the shame that had occurred was not her fault she committed suicide because she couldn’t deal with it. (let me just say here, that I’m not a big fan of this myth.) This is generally viewed as the last straw that led people to uprise and kick the kings out of Rome. This action led to the development of the Roman republic. A system where (simplistically speaking) the power was divided up between the senate and the tribune of the plebs (ie, the common folk).
How does Caesar fit into the picture?
Well in 49 BC, Caesar defied the senate by coming back and marching on Rome leading to civil war. The senate didn’t want Caesar to come back to Rome because of his army and his popularity-they feared he’d become a dictator, and well they were right. Before he started civil war-he conquered Gaul (modern day France) and Britain. To make things worse he wrote a book about his conquests-at the time this was like a big action blockbuster and Caesar became and overnight celebrity. Can you see why the Senate wasn’t thrilled about a guy who was immensely popular and had the support of the army behind him? If your into it, his book is still in print today.
To cut a long story short, Caesar won the civil war and basically killed the entire republic system-giving himself rule and becoming a dictator.
What else did he do?
Well he had an affair with Cleopatra-she actually managed to convince him to help her knock of her brother and sister from power so that she could be queen of Egypt. And he made sure that that happened.
Apart from illicit affairs he came up with a whole new calendar system-that is the one we still use today.
His Death:
Basically the senate were getting more and more frustrated with Caesar and increasingly seeing him as a wannabe king. The senators eventually banded together-and they even convinced Brutus on of Caesar’s most faithful friend to join in the conspiracy. Theyre little plot unfolded on the 15th of March (I’m quoting this date so it may be off considering on what source your looking at) Gaius Trebonius engaged Antony in a long discussion outside the Senate to keep him out of the way-antony at the time was of course one of Caesar’s biggest supporters. The assassins all gathered around Caesar’s curule chair, Tullius Cimber pretended to submit a petition and then one of them grabbed Caesar’s toga pulling it forward which was the signal for the attack. One by one they all started to stab Caesar. The plan was probably the biggest back fire of history. Instead of freeing Rome from Caesar all the senators managed to do was introduce it to a period of chaos.
Famous quotes:
“Veni, vidi, vici,” or translated to “I came, I saw, I conquered.”
And
“Et tu Brutus?” translated to “And you Brutus?” (he said this one just before he died-seeing that Brutus his close friend had betrayed him)
How to use this info at a cocktail party:
If anyone mentions Caesar you can say that he was responsible for the calendar we use today, and that he conquered modern day France, and that we can still buy the book he wrote about it today.
If your in a bit of a ‘show off’ mood about something you did at work or etc you can say ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ In response to any questions about it.
If anyone calls Caesar an emperor you can take great pleasure in correcting them.
The info for this post was taken from: (http://heraklia.fws1.com/) and the book: Ancient Rome by Nigel Rodgers.
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