Did you know Julius Caesar was an auctor?

Auctor is Latin for author. Julius Caesar is often portrayed in his later years as a dictator and a powerful military commander. However, we rarely see him as an author. And yet, he was. Caesar had honed his writing skills with many works of literature- most are lost, but some survived to be read even in this day.

The De Bello Gallico (The Gallic Wars) was written by Caesar regarding his nine years as Commander in the Gallic war. He wrote it in simple, direct Latin.  Someone with his background could have written it in fancy Latin, but he didn't. Why? Back in days of the Roman Republic, much of the senate were wealthy patricians, and only they could understand the more complex forms of Latin. Caesar wanted the support of the plebeians, so he kept the language simple to be understood by the common people. This will be further discussed in a future post. The famous starting words of the book are "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres...", meaning "All of Gaul is divided into three parts."



The Bellum Civile (The Civil War) was about the civil war against Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey The Great), lasting from 49 BCE to 48 BCE. The book ends abruptly, meaning that either parts of the book are lost or the entire book had not been completed, and he was assassinated before he could.

The next few works are the lost writings of Caesar. They are mostly gone, but either some fragments have been found or they were mentioned by other famous authors. When Cato the younger died, Cicero wrote a pamphlet in praise of him. Since Caesar opposed Cato's political actions, he wrote the Anticato, which criticized that pamphlet. It is considered rude because he criticized a person after his death. The book Iter describes his route from Rome to Hispania.
The praises of Hercules, the Oedipus, were suppressed by Emperor Augustus for an unknown reason.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Works_by_Julius_Caesar

What crown did Julius Caesar wear?

In 81 BCE, the Romans conquered Mytilene, a small island in Greece. This is called the siege of Mytilene.  At that time, Julius Caesar was a young soldier who fought for the Romans. Caesar was then awarded the civic crown (corona civica in Latin) by Marcus Thermus, the commander of the Roman army, because Caesar fought bravely and saved the lives of many Roman soldiers.



The Civic Crown was made of common oak leaves woven together to form a crown  It was given to Roman citizens who saved the life of other citizens by killing an enemy. It was the second highest honor given to a citizen the first being the Grass Crown.  Pliny the Elder, in his book Naturalis Historia, says that the honor is the same whether you save the life of an ordinary citizen or a general. The receiver of the crown had to wear it for the rest of his life. He had the right to sit by the senators, who have to rise when he enters. He was also exempted from public duties.

References

Civic Crown   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_Crown

Marcus Thermus  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Minucius_Thermus

Roman Proverb

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, or else you are a barbarian.

Why is Julius Caesar called Divine?

In Roman history, Romulus, the founder of Rome, was accepted as Quirinus. Quirinius was the early god of war, identified with Mars. In later times, he was known as Janus Quirinius. The Sabines, ancient Italian people who lived in the Appenine mountains, erected an altar for Quirinius at the Quirinius hill, one of the seven hills of Rome. Romulus was the first to be raised from human to divine.
The Roman Republic did not make any man divine. This all changed with Julius Caesar. After he was assassinated ("Et tu, Brute"), he was raised to the divine status, and hence he was Julius Caesar the Divine.
In his book on the life of the twelve Caesars, Suetonius expresses his thoughts on the apotheosis of Romulus as a cover story to hide his suspicious disappearance, which could be associated with the Patricians conspiracy. The divine status of Caesar was probably also related to the conspiracy, although Caesar being referred as a living divine started even before his death. It was made official by Augustus in 42 B.C.E.


References

Imperial Cult of Ancient Rome  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_cult_of_ancient_Rome#cite_note-38

Temple of Caesar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Caesar

Julius Caesar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar