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 worshiped 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 14, 2010
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 worshiped 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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"He also bribed a man to bring a charge of high treason against Gaius Rabirius, who some years before, had rendered conspicuous service to the senate in repressing the seditious designs of the tribune Lucius Saturninus; and when he had been selected by lot to sentence the accused, he did so with such eagerness, that when Rabirius appealed to the people, nothing was so much in his favor as the bitter hostility of his judge." This line to me is strange to regard Caesar as a god, it says he bribed someone to get what he wanted. You would think that the people would not want to think of someone as a god who had to bribe people to get what he wanted.
ReplyDeleteThere is the part towards the beginning where the give Caesars account of his families liniage. Of course, the way he told it, his family was descended from Gods. But I think the author wouldn't want to have put this into his biography, and place it so early, if he didn't want to have the reader thinking that Caeser was a God.
ReplyDeleteJon Hepola
XXXII. As he stood in doubt, this sign was given him. On a sudden there appeared hard by a being of wondrous stature and beauty, who sat and played upon a reed; and when not only the shepherds flocked to hear him, but many of the soldiers left their posts, and among them some of the trumpeters, the apparition snatched a trumpet from one of them, rushed to the river, and sounding the war-note with mighty blast, strode to the opposite bank. Then Caesar cried: “Take we the course which the signs of the gods and the false dealing of our foes point out. The die is cast.”
ReplyDeleteAn apparition? Yeah, that would get the peasants' tongues wagging - it would kinda freak me out and make me wonder just who this guy was too.
Ruth Wilson
ReplyDeleteThe one alicyneven used on the first comment and all the other criminal afairs he was accused of, the bribes he made or had made in his favor... that doesnt say 'god' to me. Although, the gods of that time were really not much better, so maybe they have a point. Zeus had multiple afairs, Apollo kills his father, Zeus... really, what should we expect from these people?
yeah, I know those are the Greek gods, but they got apropreated into Roman culture, too!
ReplyDelete"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."
ReplyDeleteThese lines demonstrate the accepted family history of Caesar and his relatives...if it was decreed that Caesar was a divine being after he was dead, I think that the Romans would easily have accepted it. Caesar also became quite legendary when the people were so stirred up before and after his death, so that the actual facts may have become distorted and exaggerated, thus seeming more grand than they really were.
XXVIII. 'He took no less pains to win the devotion of princes and provinces all over the world, offering prisoners to some by the thousand as a gift, and sending auxiliary troops to the aid of others whenever they wished, and as often as they wished, without the sanction of the senate or people, besides adorning the principal cities of Asia and Graecia with magnificent public works, as well as those of Italia and the provinces of Gallia and Hispania"
ReplyDeleteI think this shows him as divine because he seems like such a generous person. He was willing to help where needed. Even though this may not have directly helped Roman people it shows how caring he is. He also built public works which also helps make him divine. He also acted with the waiting for the senate making him superior and giving him the image of god like.
XLV. He is said to have been tall of stature, with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a somewhat full face, and keen black eyes; sound of health, except that towards the end he was subject to sudden fainting fits and to nightmare as well. He was twice attacked by the falling sickness [morbus comitialis, so-called because an attack was considered sufficient cause for the postponement of elections, or other public business. This is thought to have been epilepsy.] during his campaigns. He was somewhat overnice in the care of his person, being not only carefully trimmed and shaved, but even having superfluous hair plucked out, as some have charged; while his baldness was a disfigurement which troubled him greatly, since he found that it was often the subject of the gibes of his detractors. Because of it he used to comb forward his scanty locks from the crown of his head, and of all the honors voted him by the senate and people there was none which he received or made use of more gladly than the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath at all times. They say, too, that he was remarkable in his dress; that he wore a senator's tunic [Latus clavus, the broad purple stripe, is also applied to a tunic with the broad stripe. All senators had the right to wear this; the peculiarity in Caesar's case consisted in the long fringed sleeve.] with fringed sleeves reaching to the wrist, and always had a girdle [While a girdle was commonly worn with the ordinary tunic, it was not usual to wear one with the latus clavus.] over it, though rather a loose one; and this, they say, was the occasion of Sulla's mot, when he often warned the nobles to keep an eye on the ill-girt boy.
ReplyDeleteHe may not have actually been a god, and had some areas in which he did not act like we would hope a god would. In this line he makes it seems that Caesar looked the part. Sometimes looks alone can cause others under him to think that he is superior and be of divine nature.