The Ides of March has come and gone and I have survived unlike Gaius Julius Caesar who came to grief in the temporary Senate house in Rome on that date in 44BC.
Caesar’s death is probably the most famous of all political assasinations although the murders of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy would be close behind but the infamy of Caesar’s death has survived nearly 2000 years so it must be on top.
Cicero, a political contemporary of Caesar and one of the greatest orators of his day said of Caesar’s assasination that it had been “planned with the courage of men and the understanding of boys”. And he was right.
The evil doers who saw to the end of the great dictator were all senators too, spared by Caesar after he defeated them in a civil war and allowed to retain their priviliged position in Roman society by him.
Caesar of course had attained enough power by the time of his death to have himself made “Dictator for Life”. Those senators who opposed him, fearful that the corruption and perks that existed for those who were part of the narrow oligarchy that ruled Rome, would dissipate under his rule, decided that removing him was the only way to return Roman political process to it’s former self.
Thus, the great general who had been victorius on so many battlefields, was killed in the heart of Rome by Romans. By the very men to whom he had shown mercy.
What they didn’t understand was that Caesar’s battle hardened legions didn’t take kindly to the violent death of their commander and threw their weight behind his heir, Octavian, and a second civil war saw the conspirators hunted down and killed off, leaving Octavian as the master of Rome and, under his more famous moniker Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
It’s hard in this day and age to fathom the power of men like Caesar and Augustus. But the mere fact that they named the months of July and August after themselves and those names are still used today may go some way to explaining it and their continuing allure to the modern world.
While March 15 produced no problems for me it certainly did for our manager who’s dodgy dealings almost produced a Caesar-like episode in our meeting room at work.
I won’t go into details but his methods certainly have produced an aggressive response from the staff on my shift who have been very hard done by due to his poor decision making which made for a very intense meeting yesterday.
Many of those who had formerly supported him turned on him and it dawned on me that Caesar’s supposed last words, “You too Brutus?”, uttered to one of his murderers, Brutus, the son of Caesar’s long term mistress could have been used to effect by the manager. How ironic.
The battle was still going on last night and the facade our fearless leader envokes makes me wonder if he knows what is going on or is merely too embarrassed and proud and arrogant to admit there have been mistakes made.
I daresay there will be more made of it today. No one wants to cause unpleasantness at work but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.
I don’t think it will be a very calm Friday! Let’s see how we go.
Caesar’s death is probably the most famous of all political assasinations although the murders of Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy would be close behind but the infamy of Caesar’s death has survived nearly 2000 years so it must be on top.
Cicero, a political contemporary of Caesar and one of the greatest orators of his day said of Caesar’s assasination that it had been “planned with the courage of men and the understanding of boys”. And he was right.
The evil doers who saw to the end of the great dictator were all senators too, spared by Caesar after he defeated them in a civil war and allowed to retain their priviliged position in Roman society by him.
Caesar of course had attained enough power by the time of his death to have himself made “Dictator for Life”. Those senators who opposed him, fearful that the corruption and perks that existed for those who were part of the narrow oligarchy that ruled Rome, would dissipate under his rule, decided that removing him was the only way to return Roman political process to it’s former self.
Thus, the great general who had been victorius on so many battlefields, was killed in the heart of Rome by Romans. By the very men to whom he had shown mercy.
What they didn’t understand was that Caesar’s battle hardened legions didn’t take kindly to the violent death of their commander and threw their weight behind his heir, Octavian, and a second civil war saw the conspirators hunted down and killed off, leaving Octavian as the master of Rome and, under his more famous moniker Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
It’s hard in this day and age to fathom the power of men like Caesar and Augustus. But the mere fact that they named the months of July and August after themselves and those names are still used today may go some way to explaining it and their continuing allure to the modern world.
While March 15 produced no problems for me it certainly did for our manager who’s dodgy dealings almost produced a Caesar-like episode in our meeting room at work.
I won’t go into details but his methods certainly have produced an aggressive response from the staff on my shift who have been very hard done by due to his poor decision making which made for a very intense meeting yesterday.
Many of those who had formerly supported him turned on him and it dawned on me that Caesar’s supposed last words, “You too Brutus?”, uttered to one of his murderers, Brutus, the son of Caesar’s long term mistress could have been used to effect by the manager. How ironic.
The battle was still going on last night and the facade our fearless leader envokes makes me wonder if he knows what is going on or is merely too embarrassed and proud and arrogant to admit there have been mistakes made.
I daresay there will be more made of it today. No one wants to cause unpleasantness at work but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted.
I don’t think it will be a very calm Friday! Let’s see how we go.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 