Damien Nelis
Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:07:46 GMT
Martin's characteristically interesting mail raises the issue of the ambiguity surrounding the word CAESAR in the Aeneid, or at least in Aeneid 1 in Jupiter's speech. Is Caesar there: JULIUS CAESAR? OCTAVIAN-AUGUSTUS? BOTH? ALL CAESARS? Exact names names and titles and their datings are important. It is not clear (at least to me) what sense Vergil made of the connections between Caesar and Augustus. To what extent were things that look AUGUSTAN to us just developments of plans and ideas laid down by Julius Caesar? These are just idle questions which happen to be exercising me at the moment. D. Nelis ---------- >From: M W Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: VIRGIL: Caesar: forensics at last >Date: Wed, Mar 26, 2003, 3:16 PM > > A programme was shown on television the other night in the UK (Channel 5) > reporting on the investigation by a Rome police officer into Caesar's > death and on the forensic evidence which he sough to supply. He has > learned over the years that one should always investigate the victim. > Perhaps the programme has been shown or will be shown in other countries. > > The thesis was the C deliberately laid himself open to assassination, > motivated by a mixture of ill-health and plans for the future of Rome. > The evidence is his claim to illness in the face of a Senate delegation, > remarks of the 'I have lived long enough for nature and for reputation' > style (I'm not sure that that was actually quoted) and his refusal to be > surrounded with bodyguards. His plan was to show the Romans that if they > rejected him as king they would find themselves forced to accept his > nominated heir, so he would be a real king even in death. All this was > fitted, with scientific flourish, into the pattern of symptoms and > thoughts characteristic of frontal lobe epilepsy. > > I mention this mainly because I admire popularisation. On the other > hand, it shows that science can be very like fantasy - V might have > agreed here. Foresight on C's part clear enough to envisage the thrills > and spills of the Triumviral period and their final outcome would have > been enough to make his deification a serious proposition. > > Quite a few public figures take inadequate security precautions, for > various reasons. In C's case, I thought that the programme > showed no recognition of the fact that bodyguards were notoriously part > of the apparatus of Greek tyrants, exactly the model that C would not > have wanted to follow. > > > Of all the things which could not have been predicted at the time C's > death, one of the most significant, I'd suppose, would be the kind of > intellectual support that C's heir, the Augustus of the future, would win > - surely a very important element in his success. The dying C could > hardly have foreseen V, yet without V and other thinkers who rallied to > the cause the future of C's family would have been very different. - > Martin Hughes > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. > Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message > "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You > can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub