6 myths about the Ides of March and killing Caesar

Vox ^ | March 15, 2015 | Phil Edwards

[EveningStar]

This is what most of us know about the death of Julius Caesar, half-remembered from movies and plays:

• Some soothsayer said, "Beware the Ides of March."
• A few idealistic Romans decided to win back Rome for the people.
• Caesar got stabbed by Brutus with a big sword, said "Et tu, Brute?" and died nobly.

All of that is wrong.

[EveningStar]

Soothsayer. Caesar!

Caesar. Ha! who calls?

Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!

Caesar. Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.

Caesar. What man is that?

Brutus. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Caesar. Set him before me; let me see his face.

Cassius. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.

Caesar. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.

Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.

Caesar. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

[EveningStar]

ping

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks EveningStar. The second misconception is the only one of the those three that is important for people to understand:

A few idealistic Romans decided to win back Rome for the people.

Anyone who bitches about "crony capitalism" can not be on the side of the murdering thugs and thieves of the Roman senate, unless they're hypocrites or cynical liars. [the brothers Gracchi]

[blueunicorn6]

“Watch out for March fifteenth.”

Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

[Rodamala]

Everyone knows Caesar was taken down with a single M855 Green Tip right through his body armour... like God intended tyrants to die.

[BeadCounter]

It is amazing we can know this history. Something to read up more on.... by the way everyone, if you like this story, Bing has a great wallpaper for today: http://www.bing.com/ , the ruins of Rome, I didn’t know it was so expansive. My wallpaper for a few days. I have read a few historic novels on Rome.

[SunkenCiv]

“You want to change four score and seven to ... 87? That would be like Mark Anthony saying, ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I’ve got something I wanna tell ya.’”

(apologies to Bob Newhart)

[bert]

” Wherefore art thou Caesar”

“Et Tu Brutus”

“Ahhhhh, Decimus I thought I knew him well””

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

An interesting take upon a great event. His death was the final drama of what had been about 100 years of Social War, Antony and Augustus. We are in the early stages of that end of our Republic and the rise of formless powers such as Sulla, Marius, Pompey, Caesar and others. The Kennedy's may have been our Gracchi, “The Progressives” our Plebeians etc.

[JoeProBono]

[MileHi]

LOL!

[Flag_This]

"There was idealism involved: Caesar was turning the Roman republic into a dictatorship and making himself a king."

If you vote to make someone Dictator Perpetuo don't be surprised if they get a little uppity.

[Busko]

As told by Brian Williams

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Caesar got whacked by an ex girlfriend. She sent her son, son-in-law and a guy named Decimus to take him out. It’s and old, old Italian story.

[Flick Lives]

“Caesar was killed with swords in a grand Senate room”

I thought he was killed by Colonel Mustard with a candlestick in the Drawing Room.

[Liberty Valance]

Beware The Eyes of Marge

[GreyFriar]

Because pizza hadn’t been invented they couldn’t have assassinated him the day before, March 14, or pizza Pi day. Although if it was square pi then they had to wait another day to get around to it.

[Beowulf9]

According to Strauss:

“Myth 3: Brutus was the assassins’ ringleader and Caesar’s best buddy.

As far as epic betrayals go, we tend to imagine Brutus in the same league as Judas. In reality, that infamy should be reserved for someone called Decimus.

Caesar trusted Decimus much more than he trusted Brutus — and that made his betrayal more shocking. Misspelled in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar as “Decimus,” Decimus was much more important than most of us realize. “There were three leaders of the assassins’ conspiracy,” Strauss says. “Brutus, Cassius, and Decimus....”

But what I don’t understand is in Suetonius’s The Twelve Caesars (translated by Robert Graves) it says”

“More than sixty conspirators banded together against him, led by Gaius Cassius and Marcus and DECIMUS BRUTUS.”

In other words, Brutus was DECIMUS.

Also, he goes on to say, “Twenty-three daggers thrusts went home as he stood there. Caesar did not utter a sound after Casca’s blow had drawn a groan from him; though some say that when he saw Marcus Brutus about to deliver the second blow, he reproached him in Greek with: ‘You too, my child?’

Lastly, Strauss here says, “Decimus dined with Caesar the night before his assassination and convinced Caesar to leave his house the next morning.”

But in Suetonius’b Twelve Caesars he writes, “And on the day before his murder he had dined at Marcus Lepidus’s house, where the topic discussed happened to be t’the best sort of death’ - and ‘Let it come swifty and unexpectedly, cried Caesar.”

How is it that Strauss claims Brutus is a different man from Decimus? It seems they are the same man, ‘Decimus Brutus’.? Is this an attempt at revisionism? Seems unlikely, with so many scholars about to correct him and so much history already in books already all over the world attesting to these things. I don’t understand.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Mark Twain’s Library of Wit and Humor:

Mark Antony’s Oration Over Caesar.

/.• W. (The Text from which Shakespeare wrote his Version.

l

Friends. Romans, countrymen! Lend me your ears;

I will return them next Saturday. I come

To bury Caesar, because the times are hard

And his folks can’t afford to hire an undertaker.

The evil that men do lives after them,

In the shape of progeny that reap the

Benefit of their life insurance.

So let it be with the deceased.

Brutus had told you Caesar was ambitious:

What does Brutus know about it?

It is none of his funeral. Would that it were I

Here, under leave of you, I come to

Make a speech at Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;

He loaned me five dollars once when I was in a pinch

And signed my petition for a post offlce.

But Brutus says he was ambitious.

Brutus should wipe off his chin.

Caesar hath brought many captives to Rome

Who broke rock on the streets until their ransoms

Did the general coffers fill.

When that the poor hath cried, Caesar wept,

Because it didn’t cost anything, and

Made him solid with the masses. [Cheers.]

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff,

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.

Brutus is a liar and I can prove it.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown

Which thrice he did refuse, beeause it did not fit him quite,

Was this ambitious? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious.

Brutus is not only the biggest liar in the country

But he IS a horse-thief of the deepest dye. [Applause.]

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. [Laughter.]

You all do know this ulster.

I remember the first time ever Caesar put it on,

It was on a summer’s evening in his tent,

With the thermometer registering ninety degrees in the shade;

But it was an ulster to be proud of.

And cost him seven dollars at Marcus Swartzmeyer’s.

Corner of Fulton and Ferry streets, sign of the red flag.

Old Swartz wanted forty dollars for it.

But finally came down to seven dollars because it was Caesar!

Was this ambition? If Brutus says it was

He is even a greater liar than Mrs. Tilton!

Look! in this place ran Cassius’s dagger through:

Through this the son of a gun of Brutus stabbed,

And when he plucked his cursed steel away,

Mark Anthony how the blood of Caesar followed it!

[Cheers and cries of “ Give us something on the Silver

bill!” “Hit him again !” &c.]

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts,
I am no thief as Brutus is,
Brutus has a monopoly in all that business,
And if he had his deserts, he would be
In the penitentiary, and don’t you forget it!
Kind friends, sweet friends, I do not wish to stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
And as it looks like rain,

The pall bearers will proceed to place the coffin in the hearse,
And we will proceed to bury Caesar,
Not to praise him.

[Texan5]

My 1st husband was born on the Ides of March-he came to a bad end a few years ago, too-offed over a woman