WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY
Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell
(@RHCLambengolmo)
Vol. 2, No. 20: March 15, 2023
The
Ides of March!
“Beware
the Ides of March!” the soothsayer had warned Julius Caesar – and the prophecy
came true. On this date in 44 BCE, Caesar was assassinated by a group of
conspirators on the floor of the Roman Senate, setting off a chain of events
that led to the death of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire.
Today,
on the 2,066th anniversary of this epoch-making event, we take time
to remember Caesar through the words of Plutarch, the Greek biographer and
philosopher; Suetonius, the Roman historian; and Shakespeare, the world’s
greatest playwright.
Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other
matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation
through very slight forces.
à Julius Caesar: The
Civil War 3.68
“Plutarch
on Leadership and the Good Life”
By Rob
Chappell, M.A.
Adapted
& Expanded from Cursus Honorum IX: 5 (December 2008)
The
principles of leadership have been taught for thousands of years through the
reading of biographies and essays. One of the most respected authors of such
edutaining literature is the Greek historian Plutarch (46-120 CE), who sought
to provide his readers with practical examples of how to exercise leadership in
the “real world” of the Roman Empire. Plutarch studied philosophy at the
Platonic Academy in Athens during the 60s CE, and after traveling extensively
throughout the Mediterranean basin, he settled down to serve as a magistrate in
his hometown of Chaeronea. He was also a priest of Apollo at the famous oracular
shrine of Delphi, where he also founded a library.
Plutarch
wrote his Parallel Lives in
pairs, comparing the achievements, characters, and motivations of a famous
Greek leader and a famous Roman leader for the instruction of his readers.
Fifty biographies in this monumental series are extant, and they have exerted a
profound influence on European literature, most notably on Shakespeare’s plays,
like Julius
Caesar. Plutarch’s evaluation of Caesar’s character is
noteworthy:
“The rule of Caesar, although during its
establishment it gave no little trouble to its opponents, still, after they had
been overpowered and had accepted it, they saw that it was a tyranny only in
name and appearance, and no cruel or tyrannical act was authorized by it; nay,
it was plain that the ills of the state required a monarchy, and that Caesar,
like a most gentle physician, had been assigned to them by Heaven itself.
Therefore the Roman people felt at once a yearning for Caesar, and in
consequence became harsh and implacable towards his murderers.”
à Plutarch: Parallel
Lives:"Dion
and Brutus"
Plutarch freely acknowledged that he was not writing histories in the strictest sense, but biographies designed to illumine the struggles and triumphs of great leaders from the past:
“It is not histories I am writing, but lives; and in
the most glorious deeds there is not always an indication of virtue or vice;
indeed, a small thing like a phrase or a jest often makes a greater revelation
of a character than battles where thousands die.”
à Plutarch: Parallel
Lives: “Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar”
In contrast, Plutarch’s Moralia (a collection of 78 edutaining essays on various themes related to philosophy, leadership, and ethics) provided instruction to his readers through dialogues, letters, orations, question-and-answer sessions, and storytelling. Plutarch’s philosophical outlook was Platonic, and his writings reveal a concern for making Plato’s perennial philosophy practical and down-to-earth so that people could apply its teachings to empower themselves to lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives. He encouraged his readers not only to learn from the ideas of others but also to form their own opinions as they searched for wisdom:
“The correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel
that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting — no more — and then it
motivates one towards originality and instills the desire for truth..”
à Plutarch: Moralia:
“On Listening to Lectures”
Plutarch is a warm-hearted and open-minded guide to the art of leadership, and his insights into the human condition are both practical and profound. His writings have been a cornerstone of classical education for 1900 years, and they remain relevant in our postmodern age because they address a wide variety of issues and concerns that people still encounter in the home, school, and workplace of today.
Portrait of
Plutarch from the Nuremberg
Chronicle, published
in 1493. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Life
of Julius Caesar –
Chapters 81-88
By
Suetonius (ca. 69-122 CE))
81.
Now Caesar's approaching murder was foretold to him by unmistakable signs. A
few months before, when the settlers assigned to the colony at Capua by the
Julian Law were demolishing some tombs of great antiquity, to build country
houses, and plied their work with the greater vigor because as they rummaged
about they found a quantity of vases of ancient workmanship, there was
discovered in a tomb, which was said to be that of Capys, the founder of Capua,
a bronze tablet, inscribed with Greek words and characters to this purport:
"Whenever the bones of Capys shall be moved, it will come to pass that a
son of Ilium shall be slain at the hands of his kindred, and presently avenged
at heavy cost to Italy." And let no one think this tale a myth or a lie,
for it is vouched for by Cornelius Balbus, an intimate friend of Caesar.
Shortly before his death, as he was told, the herds of horses which he had
dedicated to the river Rubicon when he crossed it, and had let loose without a
keeper, stubbornly refused to graze and wept copiously. Again, when he was
offering sacrifice, the soothsayer Spurinna warned him to beware of danger,
which would come not later than the Ides of March; and on the day before the
Ides of that month a little bird called the king-bird flew into the Hall of
Pompey with a sprig of laurel, pursued by others of various kinds from the
grove hard by, which tore it to pieces in the hall. In fact the very night
before his murder he dreamt now that he was flying above the clouds, and now
that he was clasping the hand of Jupiter; and his wife Calpurnia thought that
the pediment of their house fell, and that her husband was stabbed in her
arms; and on a sudden the door of the room flew open of its own accord.
Both
for these reasons and because of poor health he hesitated for a long time
whether to stay at home and put off what he had planned to do in the senate;
but at last, urged by Decimus Brutus not to disappoint the full meeting which
had for some time been waiting for him, he went forth almost at the end of the
fifth hour; and when a note revealing the plot was handed him by someone on the
way, he put it with others which he held in his left hand, intending to read
them presently. Then, after several victims had been slain, and he could not
get favorable omens, he entered the House in defiance of portents, laughing at
Spurinna and calling him a false prophet, because the Ides of March were come
without bringing him harm; though Spurinna replied that they had of a truth
come, but they had not gone.
82.
As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their
respects, and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer
as though to ask something; and when Caesar with a gesture put him off to
another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders; then as Caesar cried,
"Why, this is violence!" one of the Cascas stabbed him from one side
just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca's arm and ran it through with his
stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound.
When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his
head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his
left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also
covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering
not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written
that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, "You too, my
child?" All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some
time, and finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home,
with one arm hanging down. And of so many wounds none turned out to be mortal,
in the opinion of the physician Antistius, except the second one in the breast.
The
conspirators had intended after slaying him to drag his body to the Tiber,
confiscate his property, and revoke his decrees; but they forbore through fear
of Marcus Antonius the consul, and Lepidus, the master of horse.
83.
Then at the request of his father-in‑law, Lucius Piso, the will was unsealed
and read in Antony's house, which Caesar had made on the preceding Ides of
September at his place near Lavicum, and put in the care of the chief of the
Vestals. Quintus Tubero states that from his first consulship until the
beginning of the civil war it was his wont to write down Gnaeus Pompeius as his
heir, and to read this to the assembled soldiers. In his last will, however, he
named three heirs, his sisters' grandsons, Gaius Octavius, to three-fourths of
his estate, and Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius to share the remainder. At
the end of the will, too, he adopted Gaius Octavius into his family and gave
him his name. He named several of his assassins among the guardians of his son,
in case one should be born to him, and Decimus Brutus even among his heirs in
the second degree. To the people he left his gardens near the Tiber for their
common use and three hundred sesterces to each man.
84.
When the funeral was announced, a pyre was erected in the Campus Martius near
the tomb of Julia, and on the rostra a gilded shrine was placed, made after the
model of the temple of Venus Genetrix; within was a couch of ivory with
coverlets of purple and gold, and at its head a pillar hung with the robe in
which he was slain. Since it was clear that the day would not be long enough
for those who offered gifts, they were directed to bring them to the Campus by
whatsoever streets of the city they wished, regardless of any order of
precedence. At the funeral games, to rouse pity and indignation at his death,
these words from the "Contest for the Arms" of Pacuvius were sung: — "Saved
I these men that they might murder me?" and words of like purport from the
"Electra" of Atilius. Instead of a eulogy the consul Antonius caused
a herald to recite the decree of the Senate in which it had voted Caesar all
divine and human honors at once, and likewise the oath with which they had all
pledged themselves to watch over his personal safety; to which he added a very
few words of his own. The bier on the rostra was carried down into the Forum by
magistrates and ex-magistrates; and while some were urging that it be burned in
the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, and others in the Hall of Pompey, on a
sudden two beings with swords by their sides and brandishing a pair of darts
set fire to it with blazing torches, and at once the throng of bystanders
heaped upon it dry branches, the judgment seats with the benches, and whatever
else could serve as an offering. Then the musicians and actors tore off their
robes, which they had taken from the equipment of his triumphs and put on for
the occasion, rent them to bits and threw them into the flames, and the
veterans of the legions the arms with which they had adorned themselves for the
funeral; many of the women too, offered up the jewels which they wore and the
amulets and robes of their children.
At
the height of the public grief a throng of foreigners went about lamenting each
after the fashion of his country, above all the Jews, who even flocked to the
place for several successive nights.
85.
Immediately after the funeral the commons ran to the houses of Brutus and
Cassius with firebrands, and after being repelled with difficulty, they slew
Helvius Cinna when they met him, through a mistake in the name, supposing that
he was Cornelius Cinna, who had the day before made a bitter indictment of
Caesar and for whom they were looking; and they set his head upon a spear and
paraded it about the streets. Afterwards they set up in the Forum a solid
column of Numidian marble almost twenty feet high, and inscribed upon it,
"To the Father of his Country." At the foot of this they continued
for a long time to sacrifice, make vows, and settle some of their disputes by
an oath in the name of Caesar.
86.
Caesar left in the minds of some of his friends the suspicion that he did not
wish to live longer and had taken no precautions, because of his failing
health; and that therefore he neglected the warnings which came to him from
portents and from the reports of his friends. Some think that it was because he
had full trust in the last decree of the senators and their oath that he
dismissed even the armed bodyguard of Spanish soldiers that formerly attended
him. Others, on the contrary, believe that he elected to expose himself once
for all to the plots that threatened him on every hand, rather than to be
always anxious and on his guard. Some, too, say that he was wont to declare
that it was not so much to his own interest as to that of his country that he
remain alive; he had long since had his fill of power and glory; but if aught
befell him, the commonwealth would have no peace, but would be plunged in
strife under much worse conditions.
87.
About one thing almost all are fully agreed, that he all but desired such a
death as he met; for once when he read in Xenophon how Cyrus in his last
illness gave directions for his funeral, he expressed his horror of such a
lingering kind of end and his wish for one which was swift and sudden. And the
day before his murder, in a conversation which arose at a dinner at the house
of Marcus Lepidus, as to what manner of death was most to be desired, he had
given his preference to one which was sudden and unexpected.
88.
[Caesar] died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was numbered among the
gods, not only by a formal decree, but also in the conviction of the common
people. For at the first of the games which his heir Augustus gave in honor of
his apotheosis, a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh
hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar, who had been taken to heaven;
and this is why a star is set upon the crown of his head in his statue.
It
was voted that the hall in which he was slain be walled up, that the Ides of
March be called the Day of Parricide, and that a meeting of the Senate should
never be called on that day.
89.
Hardly any of his assassins survived him for more than three years, or died a
natural death. They were all condemned, and they perished in various ways —
some by shipwreck, some in battle; some took their own lives with the self-same
dagger with which they had impiously slain Caesar.
Plutarch:
Life of Julius Caesar – Chapter 69
69.
At the time of his death Caesar was fully fifty-six years old, but he had survived
Pompey not much more than four years, while of the power and dominion which he
had sought all his life at so great risks, and barely achieved at last, of this
he had reaped no fruit but the name of it only, and a glory which had awakened
envy on the part of his fellow citizens. However, the great guardian-genius of
the man, whose help he had enjoyed through life, followed upon him even after
death as an avenger of his murder, driving and tracking down his slayers over
every land and sea until not one of them was left, but even those who in any
way soever either put hand to the deed or took part in the plot were punished.
Among
events of man's ordering, the most amazing was that which befell Cassius; for
after his defeat at Philippi he slew himself with that very dagger which he had
used against Caesar; and among events of divine ordering, there was the great
comet, which showed itself in great splendor for seven nights after Caesar's
murder, and then disappeared; also, the obscuration of the sun's rays. For
during all that year its orb rose pale and without radiance, while the heat
that came down from it was slight and ineffectual, so that the air in its
circulation was dark and heavy owing to the feebleness of the warmth that
penetrated it, and the fruits, imperfect and half ripe, withered away and
shriveled up on account of the coldness of the atmosphere. But more than
anything else the phantom that appeared to Brutus showed that the murder of
Caesar was not pleasing to the gods; and it was on this wise. As he was about
to take his army across from Abydos to the other continent, he was lying down
at night, as his custom was, in his tent, not sleeping, but thinking of the
future; for it is said that of all generals Brutus was least given to sleep, and
that he naturally remained awake a longer time than anybody else. And now he
thought he heard a noise at the door, and looking towards the light of the
lamp, which was slowly going out, he saw a fearful vision of a man of unnatural
size and harsh aspect. At first he was terrified, but when he saw that the
visitor neither did nor said anything, but stood in silence by his couch, he
asked him who he was. Then the phantom answered him: "I am thy evil
genius, Brutus, and thou shalt see me at Philippi." At the time, then,
Brutus said courageously: "I shall see thee;" and the heavenly
visitor at once went away. Subsequently, however, when arrayed against [Mark] Antony
and [Octavius] Caesar at Philippi, in the first battle he conquered the enemy
in his front, routed and scattered them, and sacked the camp of Caesar; but as
he was about to fight the second battle,
the same phantom visited him again at night, and though it said nothing to him,
Brutus understood his fate, and plunged headlong into danger. He did not fall
in battle, however, but after the rout retired to a crest of ground, put his
naked sword to his breast (while a certain friend, as they say, helped to drive
the blow home), and so died.
The ghost of Caesar taunts Brutus about his imminent
defeat at Philippi, in this anonymous painting from the late 19th
century. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Julius Caesar: Act
III, Scene 2
By William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
[Mark Antony Speaks at Caesar’s Funeral]
Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I
have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The
evil that men do lives after them;
The
good is oft interred with their bones.
So
let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath
told you Caesar was ambitious.
If
it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And
grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here,
under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For
Brutus is an honorable man;
So
are they all, all honorable men),
Come
I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He
was my friend, faithful and just to me,
But
Brutus says he was ambitious,
And
Brutus is an honorable man.
He
hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose
ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did
this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When
that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition
should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet
Brutus says he was ambitious,
And
Brutus is an honorable man.
You
all did see that on the Lupercal
I
thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which
he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet
Brutus says he was ambitious,
And
sure he is an honorable man.
I
speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But
here I am to speak what I do know.
You
all did love him once, not without cause.
What
cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? —
O
judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And
men have lost their reason! — Bear with me;
My
heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And
I must pause till it come back to me.
Julius Caesar: Act
II, Scene 2
By William Shakespeare
Caesar: Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The
valiant never taste of death but once.
Of
all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It
seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing
that death, a necessary end,
Will
come when it will come.
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