Two years after his death, the Roman Senate declared Caesar a god. This gave Roman biographers the unusual task of recounting the life of a man who was, by official proclamation, a divine being. By the time the biographer Suetonius writes his Life of the Deified Julius, the Roman people has worshipped Caesar as a god for more than 150 years. Please read through Divus Julius, and pick out a line that shows especially well why the Roman people might have accepted Caesar as divine or a line that shows that regarding Caesar as a god was more than a little strange.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Caesar the God (Extra Credit)
Two years after his death, the Roman Senate declared Caesar a god. This gave Roman biographers the unusual task of recounting the life of a man who was, by official proclamation, a divine being. By the time the biographer Suetonius writes his Life of the Deified Julius, the Roman people has worshipped Caesar as a god for more than 150 years. Please read through Divus Julius, and pick out a line that shows especially well why the Roman people might have accepted Caesar as divine or a line that shows that regarding Caesar as a god was more than a little strange.
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I picked two lines I think work to make him seem like a god.
"The family of my aunt Julia is descended by her mother from the kings, and on her father's side is akin to the immortal Gods; for the Marcii Reges (her mother's family name) go back to Ancus Marcius, and the Julii, the family of which ours is a branch, to Venus. Our stock therefore has at once the sanctity of kings, whose power is supreme among mortal men, and the claim to reverence which attaches to the Gods, who hold sway over kings themselves
He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was numbered among the gods, not only by a formal decree, but also in the conviction of the common people. For at the first of the games which his heir Augustus gave in honor of his apotheosis, a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour [about an hour before sunset] and was believed to be the soul of Caesar, who had been taken to heaven; and this is why a star is set upon the crown of his head in his statue
Using his family line he can claim to be a decendant from god, which is something all rich and important people do.... and then even if you did not believe this mortal man was a god, a superstitious roman might see the comet and believe that he was really a god, because they believed in so many other signs to signal things like omens and peoples fortunes.
"there was discovered in a tomb, which was said to be that of Capys, a bronze tablet, inscribed with Greek words: "Whenever the bones of Capys shall be moved, it will come to pass that a son of llium shall be slain at the hands of his kindred, and presently avenged at heavy cost to Italia"...Shortly before his death,the herds of horses which he had dedicated to the river Rubicon stubbornly refused to graze and wept copiously. Again the soothsayer Spurinna warned him to beware of danger, which would come not later than the Ides of March; and on the day before the Ides of that month a little bird called the king-bird flew into the Curia of Pompeius with a sprig of laurel, pursued by others of various kinds which tore it to pieces in the hall.The very night before his murder he dreamt now that he was flying above the clouds, and now that he was clasping the hand of Jupiter; and his wife Calpurnia thought that the pediment of their house fell, and that her husband was stabbed in her arms..."
With so many omens surrounding him how could the very religious Roman people not think Caesar was of a godly nature, and was being warned of his demise.
"For at the first of the games which his heir Augustus gave in honor of his apotheosis, a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour [about an hour before sunset] and was believed to be the soul of Caesar, who had been taken to heaven; "
Having a natural event occur at such a time as your honorary games is VERY impressive so perhaps the Romans took this as support for the godliness of Caesar. Who else but a god would ascend to heaven in a blazing orb of glory.
VI. When quaestor [67 B.C.], he pronounced the customary orations from the rostra in praise of his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia, who had both died. And in the eulogy of his aunt he spoke in the following terms of her paternal and maternal ancestry and that of his own father: "The family of my aunt Julia is descended by her mother from the kings, and on her father's side is akin to the immortal Gods; for the Marcii Reges (her mother's family name) go back to Ancus Marcius, and the Julii, the family of which ours is a branch, to Venus. Our stock therefore has at once the sanctity of kings, whose power is supreme among mortal men, and the claim to reverence which attaches to the Gods, who hold sway over kings themselves." In place of Cornelia he took to wife Pompeia, daughter of Quintus Pompeius and granddaughter of Lucius Sulla. But he afterward divorced her [62 B.C.], suspecting her of adultery with Publius Clodius; and in fact the report that Clodius had gained access to her in woman's garb during a public religious ceremony was so persistent, that the senate decreed that the pollution of the sacred rites be judicially investigated.
In this passage he supposedly claims that he is a direct descendant of the immortal Gods. He also claims his aunt Julia comes from a line of kings. From these lines you can see that he believes he is a God and everyone else around him is not as good as he is.
During the nine years of his command this is in substance what he did. All that part of Gallia which is bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Cévennes, and by the Rhine and Rhone rivers, a circuit of some 3,200 miles [Roman measure, about 3,106 English miles], with the exception of some allied states which had rendered him good service, he reduced to the form of a province; and imposed upon it a yearly tribute of 40,000,000 sesterces. He was the first Roman to build a bridge and attack the Germans beyond the Rhine; and he inflicted heavy losses upon them.
After reading these few lines it is pretty easy to see why the Roman's thought of Caesar as a god. Not only was he good with politics, but he was also a good general who helped to expand the lands that were under Roman rule. After his death men after him who ruled over the empire would take his name because of all the things he did for Rome.
Eric Bengs
He gave entertainments of divers kinds: a combat of gladiators and also stage-plays in every ward all over the city, performed too by actors of all languages, as well as races in the circus, athletic contests, and a sham sea-fight. In the gladiatorial contest in the Forum Furius Leptinus, a man of praetorian stock, and Quintus Calpenus, a former senator and pleader at the bar, fought to a finish. A Pyrrhic dance was performed by the sons of the princes of Asia and Bithynia.
On and on, the entertainments are described throughout the "Life of the Deified Julius." Numerous times, Caesar was responsible for such lavish entertainments and accepting the man who was responsible for such great feats as those of a god.
Hardly any of his assassins survived him for more than three years, or died a natural death. They were all condemned, and they perished in various ways---some by shipwreck, some in battle; some took their own lives with the self-same dagger with which they had impiously slain Caesar.
This makes me happy that none of the assassins lived good lives after Caesar was murdered. Caesar was the great general, senator, and emperor who helped make Rome the complete center of the World. This is the guy who brought Roman influence all the way to Britain. Some cowards decided to end the life of the great leader. In some famous murders of great leaders, the assassins lived long flourishing lives for a while. In this case it did not happen. Alex Mason
On the granting of this, aiming still higher and flushed with hope, he neglected nothing in the way of lavish expenditure or of favors to anyone, either in his public capacity or privately. He began a forum with the proceeds of his spoils, the ground for which cost more than a hundred million sesterces.
He treated people so well that who wouldnt love him. He gives away alot of what he wins in his battles and whithout thinking about it. Not only giving public services but giving away from his own person.
He filled the vacancies in the senate, enrolled additional patricians, and increased the number of praetors, aediles, and quaestors, as well as of the minor officials; he reinstated those who had been degraded by official action of the censors or found guilty of bribery by verdict of the jurors. He shared the elections with the people on this basis: that except in the case of the consulship, half of the magistrates should be appointed by the people's choice, while the rest should be those whom he had personally nominated. And these he announced in brief notes like the following, circulated in each tribe: 'Caesar the Dictator to this or that tribe.
This shows all of the amazing things that he has done in the governmental aspect of Rome. I find it interesting that he was found as the dictator of most tribes. This is just a sign of how well respected he was and how much power he had with the Roman people at his back.
XXV. [58-49 B.C.] During the nine years of his command this is in substance what he did. All that part of Gallia which is bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Cévennes, and by the Rhine and Rhone rivers, a circuit of some 3,200 miles [Roman measure, about 3,106 English miles], with the exception of some allied states which had rendered him good service, he reduced to the form of a province; and imposed upon it a yearly tribute of 40,000,000 sesterces. He was the first Roman to build a bridge and attack the Germans beyond the Rhine; and he inflicted heavy losses upon them. He invaded the Britons too, a people unknown before, vanquished them, and exacted moneys and hostages. Amid all these successes he met with adverse fortune but three times in all: in Britannia, where his fleet narrowly escaped destruction in a violent storm; in Gallia, when one of his legions was routed at Gergovia; and on the borders of Germania, when his lieutenants Titurius and Aurunculeius were ambushed and slain.
I chose this line because like in the main post it is some of my favorite stuff. It also shows that he did things that no other general did before, and he didn't stumble at doing them, when he discovered a new people such as the Britons, he wiped them out and started collecting from them. He also reduced a large amount of settlements in Gaul into a province of Rome, again cementing his power in the locals minds.
Now back home this would definitely make him out to look like more than a man, doing things that seem godly, such as crossing the Rhine river, turning a large portion of Gaul into a province, and defeating a people that were currently completely unknown to the Romans.
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