Was Julius Caesar the real Jesus Christ?
- Thread starter Laura
- Start date
mkrnhr said:
It sure seems rather similar.
It occurs to me that Caesar, as pontifex maximus, the only one having the power over the vestals, i.e. Cicero's sister-in-law, Fabia, might have used this position as a bargaining tool with Cicero during the Catiline controversy. Cicero may have been attempting to embarrass Caesar as pontifex - which might have had repercussions - by sending in Clodius to the Bona Dea festival at Caesar's house. With Fabia there, as a vestal, she could have increased Caesar's embarassment, or she could have declared that there was a "sign" from the goddess during the ceremony that was unfavorable to Caesar, or could have declared that the ritual fault was with the pontifex, not the vestals. The situation was really pregnant with possibilities and I seriously doubt that it was just because Clodius was on a lark or after Caesar's wife. Obviously, if that was his aim, there were much better - and safer - opportunities for dalliance than a house full of women! And Caesar's mother on hand! Sheesh.
So, it does seem to me that there was a plot afoot and Cicero was behind it. He was gloating over his success at the previous year's festival and the "sign" that backed his human sacrifice (for so it was). Cicero was singularly un-creative. If he found something that worked, he did it again.
But Caesar acted very, very quickly. He divorced his wife with the famous remark that Caesar's wife must be above suspicion but refused to prosecute Clodius himself. The scandal died down and would have faded away had it not been brought up later by a guy named Cornificius (I think) who was, interestingly, a Caesarian. So that suggests that, in some way, Caesar may have been behind pushing the issue out there because he had plans to separate Cicero from Clodius. Obviously, since Crassus came to Clodius' rescue, the two of them were working on this together.
So, at some point, Caesar may have made it imperative for Cicero to testify against Clodius either via a third party, or possibly directly by threatening Fabia. Or perhaps, Fabia acted for Caesar. Later events suggest that Cicero's wife was disgusted with his pusillanimous behavior toward Caesar - she may have become a Caesarian; and his brother, too was a legate of Caesar's.
The fact that there was some kerfuffle about vestals associated with Clodius is very interesting. We know that he was too young to have prosecuted Catlina for incestum with Fabia but he did prosecute Catiline for other misdeeds in the year or two before Cicero became consul and the Catiline affair came to the fore. So some things seem to have been confused and conflated. It is said that, during his trial, Clodius really went off on the corruption of the sacred organizations, like the vestals, so the threat may have come from him which made Fabia determined to see him hang and so, she pressured Cicero to testify against him.
A whole lot of interesting things are all tangled up in this knot.
Meager1 said:
This has turned out to be quite a brilliant and deeply insightful book. I hope those of you who are wondering how the knowledge of Caesar as Jesus was lost will read it. It also, as I had already begun to figure out, proposes that a whole lot of legends and folk-tales and myths of Europe, probably even including the Grail stories, are really about Caesar.
Alright, thanks Meager1 and Laura. I'll probably be reading that next (then get to some other things lined up, including the Worship of Augustus Caesar one I saved and all the papers you attached, Laura).
Don Genaro
Jedi Council Member
Laura said:
Indeed, it gives a new level of meaning to the saying "all roads lead to Rome" :D
Mal7 said:
Google translates it as follows:
So, I think it must mean "Along with Alexander the Great and Charlemagne, he stands (is regarded) as one of the eternal images; for Napoleon and Bismarck, he is an ever-present force. ... "
Meanwhile, disconcerting discovery. Petrarch who more or less got the whole "looking into the past, reading ancient writings to recover history" thing going, apparently utilized all the available ancient sources to write a bio of Caesar. It's apparently highly regarded as a work. However, it has NEVER been translated into English!!!
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Viris_Illustribus_%28Petrarch%29
Obviously, I would like to have a translation of this. (Just the Caesar) So, who can do it? Anyone?
