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]
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
All that is necessary for the bad guys to triumph isw for everybody else to stand around and do nothing — regardless of their motives.
Sunken Civ,
You are pretty well versed in most of these matters of history and so I am asking you:)
Strauss makes the claim that the myth was Brutus was not Caesar’s best friend but Decimus was.
However in the 12 Caesar’s, Suetonius writes: “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.? He also claims Caesar spent his last night dining with Decimus but Suetonius claims Caesar spent his last night dining with Marcus Lepidus.
Since Suetonius is used as one of the historical references to Julius Caesar I don’t really understand these discrepancies.
Can you shed light on them?
A bit of trivia that seems to have dropped out of general knowledge is the meaning of “the Ides”. The Ides of March is March 15, but the Ides of April is not tax day.
The Kalends is the first day of the month: March 1, April 1, May 1, June 1, July 1, August 1, September 1, October 1, November 1, December 1, January 1, February 1.
The Nones is variable: March 7, April 5, May 7, June 5, July 7, August 5, September 5, October 7, November 5, December 5, January 5, February 5.
The Ides is eight days after the Nones: March 15, April 13, May 15, June 13, July 15, August 13, September 13, October 15, November 13, December 13, January 13, February 13.
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[snip] Some websites state that an English archaeologist, James Theodore Bent, had discovered the “Tomb of Cassius” on Thassos in the late 1800’s. This relates to an article published in the New York Times in 1902. However, the story was posted 5 years after the archaeologist’s death and many years after he is said to have visited Thassos. We can find no published report from Mr. Bent pertaining to this, which is highly surprising as this would have been a major archaeological discovery! They obviously had ‘fake news’ even in the 1900’s! As to other published reports that there are artefacts from Cassius’ tomb in the museum on Thassos, these are again totally false. [/snip]
https://www.atoz-guides.com/ancient-cemetery-discovered-on-thassos-2/
(afaik, none of the murderers of Julius Caesar has a known burial place; by contrast, the spot where Caesar’s body was cremated by the thousands of his mourners has a monument still visible today, and it continues to have flowers and other stuff left there by admirers)
