Julius Caesar

Here are my 2 portraits -



denarius - RRC 480/6
March 44 BC
Dict Perpetuo
Ex - Edward Gans





aureus - RRC 490/2
43 BC
Octavian/Divus Julius Caesar
Baroque portrait style
Ex - Garrett Collection

 

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Was he really an elephant?

 

I think the numismatic depictions of Caesar are more trustworthy depictions than the busts of him. The Romans evidently never labeled the busts with names.
Here is a denarius of Caesar with a heavy laurel wreath to cover his balding head....

 

quoted from Suetonius, The Life of Julius Caesar at https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/suetonius/12caesars/julius*.html
45 [Legamen ad paginam Latinam] He is said to have been tall of stature with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a somewhat full face, and keen black eyes; sound of health, except that towards the end he was subject to sudden fainting fits and to nightmare as well. He was twice attacked by the falling sickness during his campaigns. He was somewhat overnice in the care of his person, being not only carefully trimmed and shaved, but even having superfluous hair plucked out, as some have charged; while his baldness was a disfigurement which troubled him greatly, since he found that it was often the subject of the gibes of his detractors. Because of it he used to comb forward his scanty locks from the crown of his head, and of all the honours voted him by the senate and people there was none which he received or made use of more gladly than the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath at all times. They say, too, that he was remarkable in his dress; that he wore a senator's tunic with fringed sleeves reaching to the wrist, and always had a girdle over it, though rather a loose one; and this, they say, was the occasion of Sulla's mot, when he often warned the nobles to keep an eye on the ill-girt boy.

A dupondius, which I have shared before in another thread:
Southern Italian mint, 38 BC
Ref.: RPC 620; Crawford 535/1;
31 mm, 32.71 g

 

Hmmm I know that guy

 

Agree to a point. It seems ethically problematic to admire somebody that brutalized thousands for their own glory seeking purposes.

But, the world was brutal on the whole back then compared to our modern, hyper-civilized perspective. The truth of the matter is, the Gauls probably would have gladly done the same thing to the Romans if the opportunity had presented itself.

Sometimes, the distinguishing factor between mass murderers and helpless victims is nothing more than technology and resources .

 

..i just watched that awhile ago...the original pilot...kool!...you know that was a female actress playing the magistrate...

 

History is not about deciding who's been nice and naughty, who deserves to be admired or despised. We are mere mortal sinners, not God Almighty or Santa Claus. Ancient Romans had a custom that can be seen as the ancestor of our modern cancel culture, it was called Damnatio Memoriae.

When an emperor was alive and in power, openly criticizing him was forbidden because it would have been interpreted as undermining the imperial regime itself, the Roman peace, the whole society. Speaking of the ruling emperor was a precise rhetorical genre called Panegyric. It's like at our modern funerals: the only socially accepted kind of speech about the deceased is funeral eulogy, even if he had been a bastardly son of a b*** all his life and everybody's happy he died at last. But when the emperor was dead, the Senate examined his records, his accomplishments vs his blunders, he was judged and either deified or condemned. If he was deified, the laws he had signed became divine laws that would be observed forever, but if his memory was condemned (damnatio memoriae) his laws were considered null and void, all his statues and portraits were destroyed, his name was erased from official inscriptions. The Roman Catholic Church still organizes more majorum this kind of post-mortem trials in order to canonize people - or not...

For ancient Roman authors, writing about past emperors was a delicate topic. Caesar and Augustus had been deified, Vespasian and Titus too. A Roman was not free to criticize them, for criticizing gods might be felt to be impious. Tacitus was wise enough to begin his historical work at the death of Augustus...

Now, who are we to blame or praise political leaders of the past? In the name of what? Because we feel morally superior to our own ancestors? Laws and morals were not the same as ours in other countries and in other periods. When the Indian prince Siddharta discovered the people was miserable and suffering, rather than think : "I'm the Prince, one day I'll be the King and I'll use my power to make better laws, create free healthcare and education, give workers social rights, tax the nababs in order to fund welfare for the poor, etc.", he decided to just become an hermit in the jungle. Will we judge him severely for this?

 

In this comic, Caesar's portrait seems rather realistic, don't you find?

 

Yes I did!

 

Georgia Schmidt... also, she was the voice of the Mrs Beasley doll.


And, Susan Oliver played Vina, the girl for Captain Pike... but she was ALSO the The Orion Slave Girl... The famous Green Girl!

 

i like that one..1964..i was going into 1st grade...

 

One person's Julius Caesar(and most all subsequent Roman emperors) are another person's Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jung-Un et al.

Keep in mind, the Romans invented the word 'Dictator' - giving one man(w/ all of his accompanying flaws and ambitions) unchecked absolute power and decision making.

Many of us may look fondly and wax nostalgic about these ancient figures, but truth be told, many of these 'great' men in antiquity were egomaniacal self-serving tyrants that were responsible for horrible atrocities in their efforts to expand and/or maintain control of their empire(s).

They were indeed (for lack of a more apt moniker) -- 'Evil Men'.

 

Some had suitable nicknames....Atilla the Scourge of God/ Timur the Lame/ Ivan the Terrible/ and the meaning of evil Vlad Tepes "the Impaler".

 

Who would you rather spend the day with...

VINA:


Or CAESAR?

 

I would rather spend the day with my Dog then with Caesar. I trust my pooch fully/ not with the latter. I would not say the same for my "hero" Hannibal, he was the greatest captain in history, but also was a gentlemen and all around nice guy.His aim was to free the Mediterranean region from RR oppression/ tyranny/ slavery.Men like JC/ Sulla / Crassus/ Octavius/ thought they where superior to all beneath them.

 

Agreed, completely: My Dog and Hannibal!

 

How about Ivar The Boneless?

 

Don't ask, don't tell...