12-18-2004, 02:07 PM
Quote:</em></strong><hr>The suicide idea made interesting watching and there are some peculiar aspects to those final days... I don't think it holds water overall.<hr><br>
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Me neither. I think the fellow who came up with the 'Caesar suicide' idea was an Italian detective - the idea being connected to certain Mafia practices. Unfortunately, with all the similarities between the Mafiosi and the late Republican political scene, this one goes too far.<br>
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Basically, the assassination plot of Brutus and co didn't go to plan. The idea was that, after the killing, they would make a speech to the senate declaring their act to be tyrannicide (a semi-legal form of killing) - if the senate agreed, they would not only be immune from punishment, but also officially commended for their patriotic act. However, that wasn't all...<br>
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Julius Caesar was, I think it's safe to say, a fantastically vain person even by Roman terms - his dignity, honour and the acclaim of posterity meant a lot to him. <em>If</em> he'd been officially declared a tyrant after his death (which a decree of tyrannicide would have effected), all this would be as nothing - his statues would have been destroyed, his political decrees annulled. Not only that, his body would have been ritually dishonoured - stripped and dragged through the streets with a meathook through the jaw, before being thrown in the river. This is what the conspiritors had planned for him. Caesar, as a Roman, would have known that this is what happened to murdered 'tyrants'. There is <em>absolutely no way</em> he would have risked that fate.<br>
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As it happened, of course, the senate panicked and fled before the assassins could make their speech - news of the killing reached the mob before any decrees could be passed and the whole thing blew up - leading to the odd situation of the killers being pardoned and the dead man being officially mourned. All in the interests of avoiding civil war - which worked for a few months, at least. <p></p><i></i>
<br>
Me neither. I think the fellow who came up with the 'Caesar suicide' idea was an Italian detective - the idea being connected to certain Mafia practices. Unfortunately, with all the similarities between the Mafiosi and the late Republican political scene, this one goes too far.<br>
<br>
Basically, the assassination plot of Brutus and co didn't go to plan. The idea was that, after the killing, they would make a speech to the senate declaring their act to be tyrannicide (a semi-legal form of killing) - if the senate agreed, they would not only be immune from punishment, but also officially commended for their patriotic act. However, that wasn't all...<br>
<br>
Julius Caesar was, I think it's safe to say, a fantastically vain person even by Roman terms - his dignity, honour and the acclaim of posterity meant a lot to him. <em>If</em> he'd been officially declared a tyrant after his death (which a decree of tyrannicide would have effected), all this would be as nothing - his statues would have been destroyed, his political decrees annulled. Not only that, his body would have been ritually dishonoured - stripped and dragged through the streets with a meathook through the jaw, before being thrown in the river. This is what the conspiritors had planned for him. Caesar, as a Roman, would have known that this is what happened to murdered 'tyrants'. There is <em>absolutely no way</em> he would have risked that fate.<br>
<br>
As it happened, of course, the senate panicked and fled before the assassins could make their speech - news of the killing reached the mob before any decrees could be passed and the whole thing blew up - leading to the odd situation of the killers being pardoned and the dead man being officially mourned. All in the interests of avoiding civil war - which worked for a few months, at least. <p></p><i></i>
Nathan Ross
