This early recognition is what allows him to turn and offer some semblance of counterattack. Caesar, seasoned veteran that he is, would immediately grasp the implication. Yet the movement is much more violent than the language suggests: I suspect that ab utroque umero togam adprehendit (“grasped his toga from both his shoulders”) means Cimber used the distinctive Roman garment to entangle Caesar in a clinch and make him easier to stab. Stripped into English translation, this seems a comical example of bathos: of course, violence is about to occur. Suetonius, earlier in the same section, also records that Caesar, when first apprehended by Tillius Cimber, cried out “ ista quidem vis est!” – “this is violence!”. Suetonius, you will have noticed, provides two versions of Caesar’s death. Certain men hold, however, that he said to the attacking Marcus Brutus: You too, child. The best place to start is the account as handed to us by Suetonius:Ītque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito, etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: καὶ σὺ, τέκνον.Īnd in this way, was struck with 23 blows at the first strike he gave a groan but uttered no cry. Of these, only Suetonius and Cassius Dio report that Caesar said anything – and the latter of these is quite problematic. Straight away, though, we have a problem. Suetonius, Plutarch, and Appian all composed their histories during the height of the Roman Empire, in the 2 nd century AD, and Cassius Dio followed soon after, having survived Commodus (ruled 180–92). Then comes Velleius Paterculus, writing under the Emperor Tiberius (ruled AD 14–37). Nicolaus of Damascus (c.64 BC–AD c.10), who comes down to us only in fragments, also explicitly mentions that he writes his account at the behest of Caesar’s successor, Augustus (63 BC–AD 14). There are effectively six historical accounts, each with their virtues and vices. What is intended here, then, is a good old-fashioned bit of Classical philology, a combination of what we’re told to call Quellenkritik and Quellenforschung: not just analysing and critiquing our sources but trying to ascertain from where they themselves got their information.Ĭats roam the Largo di Torre Argentina, the site in Rome where the Curia of Pompey stood, and where Caesar fell. The fact that it comprised only three words means that even a comparatively short piece can treat them well. More so, perhaps, since Shakespeare’s account is well known, well quoted, and well parodied in Anglophone literary culture. This is partially because words, literature, and their context(s) are of major concern to Classicists. The topic of Caesar’s last words is an especially fitting one for an Anglophone Classics journal. The man who conquered the enemy as soon as he saw them, the colossus who bestrode three continents, was reduced to a bloody heap by his countrymen, his eyes as glazed and empty as those in the statue of Pompey, his former rival, looking down at him. There today, on the Ides (15 th) of March, in the Curia of Pompey, Tullius Cimber lays his hands upon Caesar, Servilius Casca (“envious Casca”, as Shakespeare has it) strikes the first blow. The assassination of Julius Caesar, William Holmes Sullivan, 1888 (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK). A false friend wearing a dramatic mask to lure his benefactor to his death. Surely it would hold for one more day? What were the cries of a woman, or so-called omens, to Caesar’s luck? His fortuna? This is certainly how his close friend Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus certainly argued. Caesar’s luck had survived his debtors, seen him from the Suburra to the domus publica (the stately residence of the chief priest), given him a Gallic revolt to crush and shattered the invincible aura of Pompey the Great (Caesar hadn’t even had to kill his rival himself). Here is Caesar, old but still vital, near-black eyes energetic in a tanned and campaign-worn face, toga crumpled (ever so slightly, there are slaves for that after all) from where Calpurnia clung pleadingly to him. his death one to furnish seemingly endless materials to playwrights, philosophers, and poets. Even English, during the British Empire, used the word to advertise its Indian dominions, giving the king the title kaisar -i-hind (“Emperor of India”). Caesar’s very name, after all, remains a byword for regality, German Kaisar, Russian tsar, and perhaps a few lesser-known variants: Ottoman Turkish qaysar, Indonesian kaiser (likely through a Dutch intermediary). Indeed, as they come about again it is hard to escape the thought that the Ides are never quite fully gone, that we are living in a world predicated upon the death of Caesar and the Augustan settlement.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |