The flaw suggested below may not be as large as it appears to be. After all, Caesar did name Octavius as his heir.
SW >I don't know if I can find anything out from Channel 5. The flaw in the >argument does indeed seem quite marked. I wasn't sure whether we were >asked to think that the plan for Augustus' succession was a climactic >stroke of genius (let's hope Saddam Hussein is no Caesar) or a wild >thought typical of the alleged frontal lobe epilepsy which incredibly >happened to become reality. - Martin Hughes > >On Thu, 27 Mar 2003, James Butrica wrote: > >> >What are the chances of this programme being re-aired or recorded >> >(perhaps by our PBS) I would be interested in this, having discussed >> >the Catilinarian orations and the various intrigues of the time. >> >> I too would be interested in seeing this, but I see one flaw in the >>reasoning: >> >> >> >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. >> >> That flaw, of course, is the notion of Romans being "forced to accept his >> nominated heir": Antony and Lepidus seemed to have rather different ideas >> about who would or should succeed Caesar and were readily available >> alternatives. >> >> James L. P. Butrica >> Department of Classics >> The Memorial University of Newfoundland >> St. John's NL A1C 5S7 >> (709) 737-7914 / (709) 753-5799 (home) >> >> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 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 "The gate of Paradise is guarded by true friendships" Vassilis Politakis ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
