P
Peter_W
Guest
Steve Andersen:
Do you think you know Caesar? See if you can pass this little test:
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*]Caesar, apart from having held just about all the Roman official positions and titles, amongst other things Quaestor, Aedile, Consul, Emperor - either successively or contemporaneously - there was one which he held which was considered to be the most important and was always mentioned in pride of place. It was:
a) Dictator;
b) Pontifex maximus.
*]The first Roman to intervene in a civil war at the head of a private army was
a) Caesar;
b) Octavian, (later called Augustus).
*]During the Gallic war:
a) Caesar ordered the horses of the Teutons to be stolen and proudly divided the booty amongst the young Roman knights.
b) Caesar took the horses away from the proud young roman knights and awarded them to his Teutonic equestrians.
*]After the conquest of Gaul:
a) Caesar deported the defeated as slaves to Rome, ordered the men to fight each other as gladiators in the circus and threw the women and children to the lions;
b) He awarded the Gauls the right to Roman citizenship and appointed many of them as Senators, to the extent that more Gallic trousers were to be seen in Rome than togas.
*]After all the worldwide wars, Caesar:
a) …left behind a deserted, depopulated world, razed the resisting towns to the ground, increased the taxes, took away the best arable land from the peoples, distributed it to the Roman aristocrats and thereby starved out the provinces;
b) …rebuilt the destroyed towns and founded countless new ones, lowered the taxes, confiscated the usurped estates of the aristocrats, distributed the best land to the veterans and the proletarians, reversed the spread of pasture land, promoted farming and thereby defeated the famine and left behind thriving countryside.
*]After his victory in the civil war
a) Caesar made an example of his enemies and ordered all of them to be executed, even having Spartacus crucified;
b) Caesar forgave all his enemies, reinstated them to their positions and honor, and most touchingly, he took especial care of Brutus, who would later murder him.
*]Caesar was murdered:
a) because he had suppressed the Roman people and enslaved the foreign races; Gauls and Jews were among the principals of the conspiracy; at the funeral speech Anthony spoke the famous word “and Brutus is an honorable man”, the people celebrated, dragged the body of the tyrant through the city and finally threw it into the Tiber;
b) because he had cut back the privileges of the Roman nobility; the most distinguished of Romans were among the conspirators, the learned Cicero was one of the principals; Gauls and Jews mourned him longer than all the others; at his funeral Anthony praised him as a God and his deeds as miracles; the people burned Caesars body in the Forum, revolted against the murderers, hunted them down and drove them out of the city.
*]After his assassination:
a) Caesar was condemned and his name became a nickname for all his successors, especially for the bad ones like Caligula and Nero, who were called Caesar in mockery and scorn;
b) Caesar was raised to the Gods out of the deepest conviction of the people and only the best of his successors were allowed to be seen as Gods after his example.
…]
Source: carotta.de/subseite/texte/esumma/edictato.html
I’m not sure they’re sour grapes.…]
Sour grapes
Yes, that seems to be part of my nature. And while we’re at it let’s continue but coming from the other side this time.
Do you think you know Caesar? See if you can pass this little test:
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Code:
**Do we really know Caesar?
**
Shall we put it to the test? Which of the alternative answers proffered below is correct?
[list=1]a) Dictator;
b) Pontifex maximus.
*]The first Roman to intervene in a civil war at the head of a private army was
a) Caesar;
b) Octavian, (later called Augustus).
*]During the Gallic war:
a) Caesar ordered the horses of the Teutons to be stolen and proudly divided the booty amongst the young Roman knights.
b) Caesar took the horses away from the proud young roman knights and awarded them to his Teutonic equestrians.
*]After the conquest of Gaul:
a) Caesar deported the defeated as slaves to Rome, ordered the men to fight each other as gladiators in the circus and threw the women and children to the lions;
b) He awarded the Gauls the right to Roman citizenship and appointed many of them as Senators, to the extent that more Gallic trousers were to be seen in Rome than togas.
*]After all the worldwide wars, Caesar:
a) …left behind a deserted, depopulated world, razed the resisting towns to the ground, increased the taxes, took away the best arable land from the peoples, distributed it to the Roman aristocrats and thereby starved out the provinces;
b) …rebuilt the destroyed towns and founded countless new ones, lowered the taxes, confiscated the usurped estates of the aristocrats, distributed the best land to the veterans and the proletarians, reversed the spread of pasture land, promoted farming and thereby defeated the famine and left behind thriving countryside.
*]After his victory in the civil war
a) Caesar made an example of his enemies and ordered all of them to be executed, even having Spartacus crucified;
b) Caesar forgave all his enemies, reinstated them to their positions and honor, and most touchingly, he took especial care of Brutus, who would later murder him.
*]Caesar was murdered:
a) because he had suppressed the Roman people and enslaved the foreign races; Gauls and Jews were among the principals of the conspiracy; at the funeral speech Anthony spoke the famous word “and Brutus is an honorable man”, the people celebrated, dragged the body of the tyrant through the city and finally threw it into the Tiber;
b) because he had cut back the privileges of the Roman nobility; the most distinguished of Romans were among the conspirators, the learned Cicero was one of the principals; Gauls and Jews mourned him longer than all the others; at his funeral Anthony praised him as a God and his deeds as miracles; the people burned Caesars body in the Forum, revolted against the murderers, hunted them down and drove them out of the city.
*]After his assassination:
a) Caesar was condemned and his name became a nickname for all his successors, especially for the bad ones like Caligula and Nero, who were called Caesar in mockery and scorn;
b) Caesar was raised to the Gods out of the deepest conviction of the people and only the best of his successors were allowed to be seen as Gods after his example.
Code:
If you knew the correct answers i.e. in all cases (b) - or if you can at least entertain the idea that these are the correct ones and not obdurately maintain that Caesar is the spiritual grandfather of Mussolini, the tyrant of Asterix and the persecutor of the early Christians, if you have studied history not (only) in Hollywood (Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, Spartacus, etc.), if you are perhaps not so certain that Rome really was the “ancient empire of evil” (O-Ton Spiegel-TV, and others), then you are prepared for the “Crash of History” that you will experience whilst reading this texts, or at least, partially prepared.Source: carotta.de/subseite/texte/esumma/edictato.html
) then, fine, leave it. There are always people who prefer to stay in self-chosen ignorance.
