THE IDES OF MARCH

THE IDES OF MARCH- 2012

The name Julius Caesar is one of the most recognizable names in the history of the world.

A survey was conducted after the Millennium in China, India, the Middle East, North and South America, the European Community and Africa. Ceasar is the most recognized name worldwide. Schoolboys in primary and secondary education and in Universities knew more details about Caesar than about many of their own past leaders and rulers.

In other words Caesar ranked higher than Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Gandhi, Churchill and Washington.

Why is this so?

For one thing, the ancient Latin pronunciation of the C sounded like a hard K. Thus he was known to his Legions, his enemies, and more importantly to the masses of Romans who loved him as Kesar. It is easy to see how the Teutonic tribes who wished to join the ranks of his legions and those who fiercely fought him to the death would call him Kaiser. This is still in usage today. The Russians, then known as Thracians feared him yet they opposed him almost to the last man, woman and child. They referred to him as Czar, which is still very much in the Russian lexicon.



Caesar was endowed with incredible magnetism. He led his armies into battle – always. He could be seen for miles. A tall, slim warrior attired in a voluminous scarlet cloak, astride a white horse caparisoned in gold and silver. He rode a few meters ahead of his armies.

“Here I am. You can follow the battle by concentrating on me and on my position. Kill me if you can.”

His centurions also wore red, a darker crimson red. As the Latin name implies Centu - Cento, they commanded a hundred men. Caesar loved them all. He trusted and relied on them. They constituted the energy, which flowed from his matrix. He rewarded his centurions generously. His legions belonged to him personally because he paid for their salaries, their pensions and rewarded them with land to cultivate after they mustered out of his service. If any of them died while in his service, their widows and their families were looked after “vita natural Durante.” For as long as they lived.

He rarely lost a battle, what’s more he hated to lose his men and therefore devised strategies and tactics, which would reduce the risk of serious and permanent injury or worse, cause their premature deaths. At the end of each battle he stood before them and wept, if the losses had been particularly high.

In this way he ensured the devotion and the respect of his armies. Historians remark on his sobriety. Caesar drank wine diluted with water during moments of relaxation. In those days the fermentation of grapes rendered a stronger and also a purer wine. Therefore the alcoholic content was much higher than the wine we are used to imbibing today.

On military campaigns, Caesar drank vinegar made from grapes also heavily diluted with water. He wrote the Commentaries on his military campaigns in Gaul, Britain and Egypt with such lucidity, sense of adventure and suspense that to this day it makes for fascinating stuff.

Churchill does not even come close. To be sure he was verbose and thanks to his Roman studies he could be pompously oratorical. But the man was never in the middle of any war, not even a melee. He was someone with bombast who bamboozled the masses by keeping himself far, far away from danger. In World War ll, he made sure he only gave peremptory orders from the safety of his bunker/air-raid shelter in Saint James Park.

Eisenhower was even worse. He was so far from the battlefield the sound of cannon and gunfire could not be heard. And Bush … not only does he not know where countries are located (he thinks Andorra is in Africa) he didn't even show up for his military training … and even though he was more than a thousand miles away he went into hiding on 9/11 and of course. Definitely, not Ceasar-like. I think Putin may be endowed with the necessary bravery if ever he were faced with would be malefactors. King Bhumiphon of Thailand is so loved by his people that his military escorts are non-existent. President Obama seems to be rather cool about the supposed threats against his life. He is part African after all - they have a sense of what the Arabs eloquently call Makhtoum. The will of God, Destiny, the Cosmic Forces and the Heavenly Masters.

As a politician Caesar was magnificent. He represented what today we would define as working class/proletarian and an emerging middle class. He was against the accumulation of wealth for wealth’s sake and considered it indecorous and distasteful.

He did not inherit a fortune. Indeed one might say that aside from his military genius, political mastery, an uncanny ability to read the minds of friends and foes alike, stunning good looks, a gift for languages, and most importantly, an almost magical and seemingly never ending strokes of good fortune (I am fortune’s child, he used to say) Caesar was liquid poor. Given his unending talent for finance and for opportunities to make money his financial penury did not last long.

But Caesar ‘s lineage was superbly blue. His descended from the Kings of Rome which had been deposed 400 hundred years ago, when the Roman Republic had been set up replacing the monarchical rule. There was talk that he also had Etruscan genes in him, which might explain his blonde hair, fair skin and blue eyes.

To judge by the unquestioned esteem, admiration and love he expressed for his mother Aurelia, we must presume that not only was she a devoted mother; she was also his Chief inspiration. Historians of the time refer to Aurelia as the wisest counselor of Caesar. She never left him in the care of wet nurses or nannies. She was his first tutor and mentor. The hand that rocks the cradle is a powerful hand indeed. She was ambitious for Caesar but not if he had to step over the corpses of his friends. She saw to it that they did not live in a wealthy area of Rome. With the name of Julii they could have found the necessary patronage. Instead, Aurelia and her son owned an apartment in the Suburra, the area of the proletariat and the working class. That is where young Caesar grew up. His father spent most of his time in military campaigns in Switzerland and in Northern Italy. By all accounts he was nurtured in a harmonious and loving atmosphere. I have observed that the historians of the period tend to heap praise and lauds on Aurelia.

The Romans we know, became master builders and engineers. Their apartments from the Latin ”apartare” to be a part of but to remain in your own space easily comprised seven to eight floors. Aurelia rented most of the apartments and from the age of four she taught her son how to keep track of money and to spend it wisely. At her son’s suggestion, the Julian family’s apartment had a fire escape, which was revolutionary for those days. It is still innovative in the 21st century; I have seen many modern buildings in the West without fire escapes. Note that the Suburra still exists today, as do most of Rome’s neighborhoods, which existed in the time of the Roman Republic.

The character of Caesar showed its solid steel and granite when he defied his uncle Cornelius Silla or Sulla. He was a seventeen-year-old youth if that. Silla, dictator of Rome had ordered Caesar to repudiate his young wife Cornelia, daughter of Cinna. Cinna was the leader of what we might define as democrats – with tongue in cheek. During the Roman Republic the Democrats fought for the well-being of the have-nots in the Roman Senate. Cornelius Silla was an aristocratic Republican, as were most of his backers, including Caesar’s family – the Jullii. The teen-ager swam against the current.

“Dearest Uncle, with all due respect, I am constrained to refuse your order to put away my good and chaste wife only because you do not agree with her father’s political tendencies. However, if you command me publicly before the Roman Senate I will do so.”

Shamat. Checkmate. Silla pondered a fate worse than death for the young Caesar but his cool and practical advisors prevailed. No! It would not be a good show for the people of Rome to see aristocrats murdering their fellow caste members. Reluctantly, Silla set aside his fury. Aurelia, whose sister Julilla had been Silla’s wife until her mysterious suicide, suggested a change of climate for her son. Caesar cleverly saw her point and left for Rhodes. He traveled to as many Greek cities and islands as he could, all the while perfecting his knowledge of Greek and of the sea.

In one of these voyages to Athens, pirates attacked his ship. They slaughtered the crew and all the passengers except Caesar. One of the pirates had recognized him. At the age of fourteen, Caesar had been appointed Pontifex Maximus – Supreme Pontiff. Silla had thought up this stratagem in order to keep the rising star of Caesar out of politics for as long as he could.

The pirates kept him alive in the hope of asking for a ransom. Caesar told the leaders that he would escape from their ship, and no one could stop him because he was the Goddess Fortuna’s favorite. He would then hunt them down and hang each and every one of them without mercy.

“It’s not personal. You are disrupting trade between Rome and the East and that is an impediment to the economic growth of Rome.”

It is a pity that historians are unable to tell us how Caesar freed himself and ran away. We haven’t a clue as to how he then procured himself a ship and followed the pirates, caught up with them, won a raging skirmish at sea and calmly proceeded to execute all the ringleaders. He took the precaution of hanging them in the presence of witnesses. He also took pains not to punish the members of the crew.

Caesar conquered Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany Vritain and parts of EasternEurope. In his day those countries were known as Cisalpine, Transalpine Gaul and Germania and Britania. His Commentaries are still the best reference books. He wrote volumes, which are not only well written, but filled with acute observations regarding his adversary’s customs and traditions are still important today.

He changed the history and the map of Europe forever. I often ask myself what would have happened if the Barbarians had not overrun Italy and the Iberian Peninsula? In the end they became Latinized and Romanized even ore so than the average Roman citizen. Perhaps more good resulted in the incursions than bad.

A group of engineers from Oxford and Cambridge attempted in 2000 to build Caesar’s bridge over the Rhine using materials and calculations of his epoch. It spanned a 100 meters and his engineers had finished it in less than ten days. Even with today’s technology, satellites, super sensitive instruments and so many experts, they gave up because they had only gotten as far as ten meters. It was clear that they could not only equal his feat, they could not duplicate it.

Caesar may have been the first in recorded history to deliberately destroy the environment. He describes it in his Commentaries. A million hectares of wheat and oat fields as well as oak trees burnt to the ground on his orders. This was solely to starve the Gauls and to render them vulnerable since they had no place to hide.

"As Consul of Gaul I am not going to allow the sacrifice of human beings to your sacred oak trees. Fornicating under the oak trees while your Druids slaughter their victims in order to appease the spirits dwelling in the woodlands and forests is barbaric. You are going to be dragged kicking and screaming into a civil world of Roman Law," he told the religious leaders whom he called Druids.

Vercingetorix, the tragic King of Gaul which today is France fought Caesar with guile, force, human sacrifice and courage. Superior technology, intelligence and a sort of enlightened ruthlessness won the day for Caesar.

“Veni, Vidi, Vinci.” I came, I saw, I conquered is ascribed to Caesar. He may have said it with sarcasm and irony. It took him ten long years to secure Gaul for Rome. Those acts may have cost him his life, as we shall see. His wars on Gaul can be considered a World War of sorts. The Roman Senate had no idea just how vast Gaul was. Western Europe today, with the exception of Spain and Portugal and Italy was the Gaul Caesar and his legions had conquered.

As more and more land was taken the Senate trembled and took back its word.

“You have devastated a world without out permission. We authorized you to go into a very small area. You are now an Outlaw. You are denied entry into Roman territory and into the city of Rome itself,” voted a bribed Senate.

His famous phrase ”Iacta Alea Est.” Let the Dice Fly and not as has wrongly been translated The Die Is Cast: came about because the Roman Senate led by Pompey Magnus, Cicero, Cassius, Catiline and Cato lobbied vigorously against his return to Rome. They had good reason to be terrified. The corruption had spread like fungi. It was now intolerable. The poor became poorer. Food was scarce and money even more so. The homeless and beggars abounded. Only the artisans, workers, craftsmen,small merchants and soldiers paid taxes. Caesar and his supporters in the Senate ferociously opposed this taxes.

Caesar was filled with such a cold fury he decided to march on Rome. His uncle Cornelius Silla had also been refused entry 25 years ago and he retaliated by killing nearly one third of the Roman population.

Caesar took only one legion. Today the River Rubicon, which is near Emilia-Romagna, is but a rivulet. Even in Caesar’s time it was more of a stream. The Rubicon marked the frontier between Rome and the outside world of the Barbarians, the foreigners, the others. Caesar stopped his horse, turned around on his saddle, stood up on his stirrups and declared loudly.

“Centurions and Legionnaires of Rome. Iacta Alea Est!”

What it really meant was that it did not matter which way the dice flew. It was onwards to Rome and never look back. Thus, Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and ignited a civil war.

His instincts had proven him right. As he marched toward Rome, towns, cities, provinces and regions acclaimed him “Ave Kesar, Ave Kesar.” He had no need for his four legions, which had encamped a few miles outside the frontier of the Roman Republic. By the time Caesar reached Rome, the people of Rome had swelled his army to thousands.

To restore order, food supplies, commercial routes and stave off starvation and hence - a revolution, Caesar declared himself DICTATOR. There were legal precedents for this. Cincinnatus had done it. So had Marius and Cornelius Silla. It was always implicit that as soon as law and order and civil unrest were restored, the Dictator would relinquish all power and retire back to his estates.

Caesar was a man who inspired total dedication from his legions and admiration from the masses. He could also arouse hatred and envy on the part of his own class – the oligarchs who had run the Roman Republic for hundreds of years. Some of his colleagues in the Senate envied his success in war and in love.

In the civil war that ensued as a result of Caesar’s return, Catilene plotted against Caesar. He went over to the side of General Pompey Magnus. Cicero became aware of the plot but remained silent. Brutus, Cassius, and Cato all backed Pompey and participate actively.

A Roman matron, perhaps seeking to ingratiate herself with Caesar, or perhaps in revenge against a former lover decided to reveal all the details to Caesar. Five of the ringleaders were thrown to their deaths off the Tarpeian cliffs. The rest had fled Rome. Caesar sent word to Brutus, Cassius, Cato and Cicero that for the good of Rome there would be no further blood spilt.

He forgave them all. This act of generosity and chivalry cost him his life. His heir and great-nephew Octavian would heed this when the time came to be merciless. I have often wondered if Stalin, an avid student of history kept this in mind during the great purges.

“As Dictator, Caesar tried to deal with the problems that had brought unrest and civil war to Rome for some sixty years. He felt that the rich were indecently rich. Why should a man own 200,000 hectares of land? Indeed, why should his legions die to sustain an unsustainable way of life? The government, suitable for a small city was outdated and unable to handle the global metropolis that Rome had turned into. Rome had conquered so many lands that like it or not it had become an empire. Running an empire required different abilities and talents. It needed honest and skilled bureaucrats to administer it. Yet those in power in the Roman Senate clung to the old and outmoded republican forms. Kings had been driven out of Rome 400 years ago, and the suspicion, only a suspicion, which had no tangible proof, that Caesar, might want to be King, began the Conspiracy against him.” Quoted and translated from Suetonius, Divus Julius. XLIV, X.

In February of 44 B.C. the Senate voted Caesar Dictator for life. So long as it was Pro Tempore, (for a period of time) the oligarchs swallowed their poison, Once they realized that Caesar intended to govern for a very long time they considered it the worst provocation. The Kings had been driven away. The oligarchs ruled by collegiality and by consensus. In truth life had turned into a daily bloodbath. They objected to breaking up their ”Latifundi” so that the retired soldiers, the landless and the working classes could share in the wealth.

Caesar’s days were numbered on that fateful February.

In the meantime Caesar proceeded at maximum speed to replace the old administrators with the new. Efficient and bright young men replaced decrepit and entrenched administrators who had enriched themselves beyond a quantum of tolerance. Well-informed and new tax collectors begun implementing Caesar's new laws on taxation. Horror and terror permeated the ranks of the oligarchic classes.

“By the end of March or, at the latest the first week of April, I shall be leaving Rome for my campaign against the Parthians,” announced Caesar to a stunned Assembly of Senators and Deputies.

The legend has remained that Caesar fully intended to retrace Alexander the Great’s steps towards Persia and India by going through Russia. Quite a few historians like Pliny the Elder, talk about this campaign. I don’t think that it can be discounted as a mere legend. Caesar had demonstrated to himself and to the world that he was a superior Conqueror and Leader than Alexander. He did not believe in killing for the sake of killing. He was interested in new lands for economic and commercial exchanges. He wanted Rome to grow as a world/global power.

That was the principal reason for the alliance with Cleopatra, Pharaoh and Queen of Egypt. Her country had wheat and other commodities and minerals that Rome needed badly for her expansion into other lands Caesar was aware that the Egyptian sacerdotal class, including the Pharaoh had arcane otherwordly knowledge so powerful that it beggared Rome's in spite of her militay might.

I think the sex was simply the sugar, which was added to the transaction. Caesar was strongly attracted to women, and they found him irresistible not only because he was powerful. Even in his sixties he had retained his lithe body and good looks. From all accounts, his sexual prowess delighted and satisfied their every fantasy.

The conspirators had little time to prepare their murder plot. Sixty-three people knew about the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar. Of these 23 would take part in the killing. That made for too many people to keep a secret. Secrecy was the key to the successful fruition of a murder plot, particularly one involving the greatest military Conqueror of their time. As well, most of the sixty-three with murder in their hearts and on their minds were his friends and acquaintances. Caesar was a practical and pragmatic political animal. The Senate and the Lower Chamber needed dissenters. They compelled him to be ever more creative. In his later years Caesar became somewhat of a Stoic.

“Beware the Ides of March,” repeated the Soothsayer Spurinna several times a day as Caesar walked to the Roman Forum on his way to the Senate. It is important to note that Caesar was a very approachable man inside the perimeters of the Roman Forum. Any richly or poorly dressed individual could stop and talk to him even if he did not know Caesar. He always listened attentively. His villa was easily identifiable because mile long lines of men, women and children waited their turn for an audience with Caesar. The people of Rome loved Caesar. They believed his promises because he had always honored them.

His wife Calpurnia, to whom he was devoted often chided him for his lack of sleep. “You never sleep more than four hours, dearest Gaius Julius.”

“You know dear Spouse that since my twenties four hours of sleep are more than sufficient for me to feel rested.”

She too had come to learn of the Conspiracy to kill her husband. And her concern increased as the Ides of March approached inexorably. Surely Caesar knew the entire Conspiracy in all its gruesome details? He had used spies long before Cornelius Silla nominated him Pontifex Maximus at the age of fourteen. The Suburra, where Caesar had spent his childhood and adolescent years pullulated with every conceivable kind of information. Some of his most trusted centurions came from the Suburra.

Lest we forget, Cleopatra was living in an opulent villa in Rome as Caesar’s mistress. She had a son by him - Caesarion He neither denied nor confirmed his paternity. As with most upper class Italians to this day, he lived with his wife Calpurnia. There are no records of Caesar and Cleopatra ever being seen in public together. The call of the wild penis can be hard to disregard but Caesar’s head ruled over his genitals. It would have been unconscionable for him to disrespect Calpurnia in any way.

Did he tryst with Cleopatra in her villa? She had political ambitions for Egypt. It follows therefore that she would have her own spies, probably Greek who kept her informed of every leaf and stone that dropped in Rome. She traveled to Rome with hundreds of courtiers and experts in her entourage. We presume she brought her own astrologers, The Egyptians possessed the oldest science of the stars and the planets, and they cast astrological charts long before the Babylonians. The Ides of March must have alarmed them. After all, it taxes our credibility to believe that the sixty three people involved in the Conspiracy did not confide in at least one person, who in turn passed the “secret” to yet more persons.

Hollywood luxuriates in its ignorance and arrogance. They have consistently attempted to rewrite history. Allow me to set the record straight. Notwithstanding the 100 million dollar motion picture “Cleopatra”, the Queen of Egypt did NOT make a triumphal entry into Rome. She was accorded the honors which Rulers and VIP’s received when in Rome. Given the fact that Egypt was vital to the economic and financial survival of Rome: she might have received more pomp and ceremony than most.

On his return from Egypt, Gaius Julius Caesar entered Rome in glorious triumph, accompanied only by his legions. He brought good news for the people. Roman ships anchored off the port of Ostia, Civitavecchia, Brindisium (Brindisi) and Genova (Genoa) had arrived from Egypt laden with wheat, oats, beans and fruits. They cheered themselves hoarse.

In the Roman calendar the Ides always fell on the fifteenth day of the month. Caesar was the greatest gambler the world had ever seen. Many of us still remember and often quote him in his famous “Iacta Alea Est” Let The Dice Fly. It is difficult to consider that Caesar was not aware of the Conspiracy. Surely his spies would have informed him. I think he decided to witness the events which would unfold on the Ides of March. He would play out the drama until Death, if everything pointed to the inevitability of his murder. He would go with grace and dignity.

Escape was not for Caesar, the Conqueror, the First Man of Rome, and the foremost Politico, the Patriot and Dictator for Life. Escape was never an option for one such as him. Fortune’s child would become immortal. His life and his many conquests would be the subject of endless plays, dramas, histories, discussions and motion pictures forever. His assassins' names would be obliterated from the Roman lexicon. No one would name his or her son Cicero, Cato, Brutus and Cassius ever again.

He was pleased that he had adopted his great-nephew Octavian, then seventeen years old as his lawful son and heir. Octavian was the son of his affectionate niece Athia, the daughter of Guilia, sister of his beloved mother Aurelia. Caesar believed in bloodlines. Thus, only the line descended from his mother could he turn to in his hour of need. He had no legitimate male sons nor did he ever legitimize any. Again, because he was convinced that” The offspring of my sons carry my name, but the children of my daughters or maternal nieces have my blood.”

“Octavian Julius Caesar is brilliant, brave and highly intelligent. He will choose his administrators wisely. He has no political baggage because of his extreme youth. His streak of ruthlessness, which he masks well underneath a falsely delicate nature, will stand him and Rome in good stead. He will bear the name of Caesar splendidly and successfully. Long live Caesar,“ he pondered as thunder and lightning pelted Rome on the eve of the Ides of March.

I think the Conspiracy to kill Caesar was led by vindictive and jealous men. Cassius, one of its leaders nurtured a rancor, which turned into hatred because Caesar named Brutus Praetor of Rome. He felt and he may have been right that Brutus, whose main occupation was usury, was not the best choice.

“Caesar has passed me over only because Brutus is the son of his long time mistress Servilia,“ he thought.

Something else rankled in Cassius’s heart. His wife Tertullia had once had a passionate affair with Caesar. Gossip ascribed this to Servilia’s controlling nature. Caesar had severed their long relationship before his departure for Gaul. Servilia never stopped loving and hating him. So she ordered her daughter Tertullia to come to Caesar’s bed as a sort of gift.

An objective observation of the principal actors in this conspiracy lead me to conclude that most had been at one time or another, cuckolded by Caesar.

Shakespeare might have portrayed Portia, wife of Brutus as the epitome of fidelity. Perhaps by the time she was married to him she had become a good wife. However, she had nursed an impossible infatuation for Caesar. He was the sort of man who loved women, pleasured them, covered them with gifts and then left them. Indeed, he spent more time in conquest of foreign lands than he ever spent in Rome.

The years had made Portia bitter. She was out for blood. As Cato’s daughter, she wanted nothing more. There is a gamut of motives behind the Conspiracy ranging from the noble (but duped) sentiments of a few to envy, hatred and opportunism. Brutus was not a man who was easily swayed, but if any person or persons could do it, that would have been Cassius first and Portia a very close second.

“Please don’t attend the session at the Senate today. I had a nightmare wherein I saw you covered in blood,” pleaded Calpurnia gazing into her husband’s eyes as they drank freshly squeezed blood red oranges from North Africa.

Caesar reassured his wife that he would not stay long and they would enjoy an enchanting spring luncheon together.

As he strode inside the Forum, Spurinna the Soothsayer stepped in front of him. "Great Caesar. Beware the Ides of March.”

“They are upon us and nothing has taken place,” replied Caesar brusquely.

“They have only just begun,’’ retorted the Soothsayer walking away.

Caesar continued on his way wordlessly. Of course, he was alone. He knew Marc Anthony; his second cousin was away on a mission.

“Iacta Alea Est.”

It was eight o’clock in the morning of the 15th of March 44 B.C. Caesar entered the chambers of the Senate. He noticed a couple of elderly Senators; his allies had already taken their seats. Brutus, Cassius, Decimus and Casca stood in the area where Caesar always sat. They stepped aside so that he could ascend towards his usual place. When he was seated, he noticed that more solons had joined the quartet and that they were on their way up to him.

“They seem to be pushing Tullio Cimbrus forward. They must want favors as usual, he whispered mostly to himself.

Caesar had sent Tullio’s brother into exile in Sicily.

“Look here Cimbrus, thank the Gods and the Goddesses that all I did was send your vicious and treasonous brother away. Other men like the dead Silla or Marius would surely have executed him,” his voice was now sharp.

They were about to reach his seat. He rose swiftly and continued. ‘What do you Brutus, Decimus, and Cassius have in common with that horrid man who is unworthy of being called by his name by me?”

A tense and dangerous silence surrounded him.

Undeterred Caesar went on. "You share nothing with that person or his brother Cimbrus here present. You have no blood ties. Your studies, culture, ideals or way of life are different."

Caesar turned his torso to walk away. Cimbrus suddenly grabbed his toga bordered in purple and pulled at it so violently that the toga came undone, exposing his back. At the same time as this occurred he felt an acute pain between his shoulder and his neck. Casca had stabbed him! Caesar gripped Cascas’s wrists and yelled.

“Curse you Casca, what are you doing?”

He heard Casca call out for help to his brother who was part of the group, which now completely encircled him. Caesar looked for an opening among the men. One unarmed man among twenty-three killers brandishing well sharpened daggers. It was forbidden for legislators in the Senate to carry swords, daggers or knives. Caesar had unfailingly observed this rule.

His well-disciplined mind took over. He felt the stabs and the slashes from a distance. Pain seemed far away. He quivered at the sight of his torn toga now in tatters. I think at that moment Caesar knew that he was going to die. He stopped defending himself. He did not ask for mercy. He never cried out for help. As he stumbled from the loss of blood, his assassins took advantage of this weakness to pass him as if he were a ball. Near death his sense of DIGNITAS, which in ancient Rome meant self-esteem and self respect and pride in doing one’s duty - all rolled into one - became more acute than ever. His dismembered toga exposed his private parts and his abdomen. He used all the strength he had left to fall on his knees and gather the remnants of his toga around his lower torso. Then slowly he lay on his side. The voices and cries diminished in volume. He no longer cared what the voices said around him. He found the force to put himself in a fetal position before abandoning himself into a profound sleep.

According to the medical examiner Antiseo, of the twenty-three stab wounds, only one proved fatal to Caesar - the stab wound to his throat by Cassius.

Of the many unprecedented actions one of them adds even more luster to this glorious human being. His last will and testament provided for every citizen of Rome with 300 sesterces in gold. At the time of his assassination Rome was a city of a million people, perhaps more.

I think he may be the first and last Leader of this magnitude to ever provide for the people of his country. He left millions of ducats for his war against the Parthians. He wished to ensure his Legions would be provided for. Octavian received millions as did Marc Antony. He even remembered the friends who all turned out to be his assassins with thousands of gold ducats.

I can think of no other leader then as now who has ever remembered the people . If any of my readers know any examples please enlighten us.

In conclusion, these words come to mind. "December 7th, 1941, is a day that will live in infamy," pronounced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We now know that the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy was known by the Pentagon and by the White House. At least three months before the attack, cryptographers working for the US Navy had cracked the Japanese military communiques emanating from one of their bases in the Marshall Islands.

The only authentic day of infamy for much of the ancient and modern world took place on the Ides of March. Two examples will suffice.

In the capital city of Mozambique, Maputo, I was invited to visit a high school on the Ides of March. I entered the classroom with General Veloso. Classes had just resumed after a horrendous civil war. The peace had been brokered in Rome by the Vatican and the United Nations A drawing of Julius Caesar on the day of his assassination covered the entire length of the blackboard.

I was impressed and complimented the entire class. It had been a collective endeavor. Then I asked if they knew what the 7th of December 1941 meant. I was met with blank stares. The class president said they had no idea.

I thought Manila would be different. The Japanese bombed Manila, declared an open city by General Douglas MacArthur on the 9th of December 1941. Surely, the children at the elite school would know? I mean, there was the Battle of Bataan, Corregidor, Lingayen Gulf and the infamous Bataan Death March.

Well my dear readers, the children were not aware of the attack on Pearl Harbor," the day that will live in infamy" but one 10 year old boy volunteered this piece of information.

"We are familiar with the Ides of March because one of the greatest men in history, Julius Caesar was murdered on that day 44 years before the birth of Christ."

That says it all.

Iacta Alea Est.

THE POPES AND GALILEO

Pope Benedict XVI's recent declaration that Galileo Galilei was correct in his declaration that the planets, including the Earth revolved around the sun in an elliptical path was taken by some anti-Catholics and non-believers as a formal pardon.

Hello? Are you people daft? Galileo was pardoned way back in the 16th century after his celebrated trial. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a Jesuit took up his defense brilliantly. He proved to be an astute advisor to Galileo. Otherwise he would have been burned at the stake as a heretic. Instead he was pardoned after his rather fork tongued recantation and allowed to live in comfort if not luxury in Florence under the care of his natural daughter, the nun Suor Maria Celeste.

Galileo's Villa in exile is in an area known as Pian dei Guillari, which was located up in the colorful Florentine hills. It was fraught with symbolism for during the Renaissance carnivals abounded with guillari - a combination of Jokers, confidence men and bufoons.

Pope Urban VII, who descended from the powerful Barberini clan, one of the members of the so called black papal nobility of Rome was a man endowed with a monumental ego and a lust for building churches and palaces. The Roman "Popolo" which is another word for the proletariat coined an aphorism regarding the Barberini clan which is still used whenever a familiar situation regarding the plunder of buildings comes up.

"Whatever the Barbarians left unsacked and unplundered in Rome; the Barberini followed in their footsteps and outdid them."

Pope Urban was haughty, testy and full of his own sense of Gravitas. ( as the ancient Romans used to say) It means dignity, majesty and face all rolled into one. He was also spoiled and used to commanding others since childhood. The Popes until the early 20th century had the power of condemming a man or woman to death by beheading or by hanging.

Galileo was a man of Science. Many of us consider him the Father of Modern Technology. Yet Galileo was a very conceited man, arrogant to an extreme and contemptuous and mocking of all those who did not agree with him on anything he declared or wrote. He brooked no arguements or discussions. In some ways he was more intolerant than the Vatican Curia.

He had written several scientific tracts on Astronomy. Copernicus before him, had declared that the sun was the center of our Universe and the planets, Earth among them, and they all revolved around the sun.

Galileo reiterated this in many of his writings. The Church kept mum anxious not to whip up controversy. Indeed, even the Barberini Pope knew he was right. Why? Elementary. All the monasteries, cathedrals, churches, convents, and palaces which the Church built followed the principles set up by Copernicus and Galileo.Their architectural plans all followed the sun. Their altars and loggias and stained glass windows attest to this.

An astute man would have been delighted with such a result. Ahime! Galileo was not what one would call wise. Indeed many geniuses are anything but prudent. He could not leave well enough alone. His ego demanded much more. Galileo wanted to humiliate the Pope. He wanted to be RIGHT and damn the cost. The whole blasted world had to know that he - Galileo Galilei had humiliated the ignoramus Pope Urban and taught him and the entire Roman Curia a lesson in Science and Astronomy.

So he worte his famous/infamous "Dialogue of Two Worlds" in which he ridiculed the Pope.
Urban was enraged. He demanded a retraction of the book. Uppity Urban had no choice because the whole book denigrated him. So, there was no question of excising certain sentences. The work had to be retracted in its entirety.

Galileo not only refused to take back anything which had offended Urban, he now publicly challenged him to retaliate.

What had begun as a small squall in a teapot turned into a celebrated if not notorious trial. Then some malicious members of the Curia jumped on the bandwagon. Remember, Galileo, for all his mathematical, scientific and even technical razzle dazzle had few friends because of his abrasive and abusive manner.

His pride and his incautiousness led to his downfall. He may have been tortured. Perhaps he may have dared them to do it. His fragile state of health could not handle it. I ask you dearies, who can really cope with torture?

Galileo recanted. His life was spared. He was remanded into the custody of his natural daughter, the nun Suor Maria Celeste, whom he had ignored for most of his life. By that time, he was almost blind. The stars, planets and moons he had studied so endlessly with telescopes he had developed and invented himself now remained forever out of his sight. Could he have had a worse Karmic punishment?

I often visited his Astronomical laboratory at Arcetri, in the vicinity of Pian dei Guillari. It remains mindboggling to this day.

I think anti-clericalism which was common in the middle 17th century until the past century propangandized the myth of a narrow minded and obtuse Catholic Church. Galileo was the perfect grist for the frequent bashing.

The fact that even this present Pope, Benedict XVI praised Galileo as a "divine man" proves that he felt somewhat compelled to issue this declaration.

When I lived in the Villa of the Saracen in Bellosguardo which lies on the opposite side of the hill where Pian dei Guillari is I was told by historians that twenty some odd years prior to his quarrels with the Church and the Pope, he had a sumptuous Villa almost diagonally across from my Villa.

When Zubin Mehta once told me that he was living in Jean Harlow's former mansion in Beverly Hills, I thought I would drop a few names.

"Wow! Harlow herself. But did you know that Galileo used to be my neighbor 450 years ago and that Baccio D'Agnolo, the architect of my Villa was Michelangelo's Maestro?"

MY KIND OF TOWN, CHICAGO IS…

Chicago is my kind of town as the Man Frank Sinatra sings. Yet like many I was unaware of the history of this bustling airport. I am mortified that a curious individual like me never stopped to wonder.

Yesterday I received the following two stories, and thought you would enjoy reading them. Perhaps these two stories will serve as my Apologia.

You may have read them before, but it wouldn’t hurt to read them again.

STORY NUMBER ONE:

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the Windy City in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie”. He was Capone's lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block.

Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocities that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify the wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. So, he testified.

Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine.

The poem read:
"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop...
At late or early hour..
Now is the only time you own...
Live, love, toil with a will...
Place no faith in time, for the clock may soon be still".

STORY NUMBER TWO:

World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier the USS Lexington in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship.

His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold: a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.

The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.

Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.

Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2.






SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Butch O'Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son. (Pretty cool, huh?)

O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named after Edward O'Hare - the first US Naval Ace of WWII. He was a hero. The kind you hardly see any more.

Tina Turner in the motion picture “Mad Max” was wrong, wrong, wrong. We do need heroes!

THE ORIGIN OF DO-RE-MI

The Latin Hymn to Saint John the Baptist

During the Christmas holidays our family always make it a ritualistic point of watching “The Sound of Music.” There is the famous scene, which takes place in the Mirabel gardens of the von Trapp family. Maria and the children dance and sing around the statue of Pegasus, the white winged horse. They sing “Do-Re-Mi.” One of the children declares that the silly sounding syllables "don’t mean anything.” Wrong and quelle horreur dear child.

Tsk! Tsk! Oscar Hammerstein.

The lyrics originated in medieval choral music. They are based on the first six phrases of the text of a beautiful hymn to Saint John the Baptist, written by Paolo Diacono (720 - 799), which in Italian means deacon. He wrote the Latin words:

“Ut quant laxis,
Re-sonare fibris,
Mi-ra gestorum,
Fa-muli tuorum,
Sol-ve polluti,
La-bili reatum.”

The translation of the text is as follows:

"So that your servants may sing at the top of their voices the wonders of your Acts, absolve the original sin from their stained lips.”

We thank the Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo for being the first to create the System of Solmisation, sometimes called the Aretinian syllables or the Guido syllables to honor Paolo Diacon. Based on Diacon's poem, Guido d'Arezzo used Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol and La – to name the six tones of C to A.

Ut was eventually replaced with the more melodic Do and another syllable Si or Ti was added, creating a scale of seven notes – Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si.

Sol was later shortened to so, making them all end in vowels.

This forms the present system of singing names for the tones of the scale.

ALL POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL DYNASTIES ARE COVERED IN BLOOD

Now that we are watching the political selection process in the USA – and are well aware that it is usually the wealthy who run for the highest offices, I am reminded of what Voltaire wrote --

“All great wealth begins with a crime.”

That particular quote has remained imprinted in my mind. It opened my eyes and more importantly my ears, as to the means employed in the creation of the great fortunes of members of my family, those who comprised the clan, and as is often the case in the Orient, blood kin of other blood kin.

I can’t remember how old I was when I first read Francois Marie Arouet – Voltaire, in my family’s library. Indeed we had two libraries. One had all the leather bound books and manuscripts. The books were wall to wall and floor to ceiling, in which rare Philippine narra wood (mahogany) served as shelves. An autonomous generator kept the room at a constant temperature. Typhoons struck the Philippines every year, many of them vicious and pitiless. They devastated the islands. My grandmother Esperanza reasoned that the rest of us living in Santol Mansion could do without electricity for a few days if the 150-mile an hour winds knocked out the power lines.

"The books must always be kept alive because Knowledge is as important as the breath of Life,” she would always remind us.

The second library was equally portentous. It housed many books written in the 19th and 20th centuries. We used to have copies of most of the books. The Blasco Ybanez first edition, or Ezra Pound or Thomas Hardy was covered in thick brown paper. The uncovered book with the cover exposed was the one you could read.

Naturally, the most fascinating books appeared in the Forbidden Index – a list of works by authors of every nationality condemned by the Holy Office of the Catholic Church. I am almost certain that all of Voltaire’s works had been worthy of this distinction. The library housing the books of Forbidden Knowledge was kept under lock and key.

My parents and Grandmother relented when I showed them a paragraph out of historian Will Durant’s book on France and the French Revolution. It described how the erudite courtesan Ninon de Lenclos, in her late eighties gave her formidable collection of books which numbered in the thousands to the son of her notary Monsieur Arouet ‘’In the hope that the young Arouet who seems to have an incurable passion for books will make the fullest use of them.”

The world would know the notary’s son simply as Voltaire. And that was how the gates of Knowledge, Information, Dissent, and Revelation were unlocked for me, for which I thank my Grandmother Esperanza as the Master of Santol Mansion and my parents, Camilla and Edmund.

So as I think back on what Voltaire said – and look through the annals of history, it seems to me that there are many examples where this is the case, which may explain why people are doubly suspicious of most politicians.

The first Super rich family must have been Egyptian. At first I thought he had to have been a Ruler, then I learnt about Imhotep, the Architect and builder; Advisor and Councilor to the Pharaoh Zoster; Astronomer – Astrologer - Alchemist; probably High Priest and Sorcerer and Healer as well. He remains one of the most extraordinary individuals who ever walked the earth. Indeed, Imhotep became a God. He needed qualities beyond the norm to achieve so much. He was a Master of intrigue and deception. His acquisitive itch for gold-wealth doubtless led him to be ethically if not morally reprehensible at times. According to the high order of the Cosmos, would these not be considered crimes? True, lawyers would reply, “Well, technically not.”

I once saw a golden chariot attributed to King Sargon of the Assyrian-Babylonians in the British Museum. Alongside it was a tall inscription in cuneiform, which described his exploits in one military campaign. One hundred thousand skulls of his slain enemies had been stacked forming a perfect isosceles triangle. His astrologers and mathematicians had ensured that it be so.

I cannot quite condemn King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, not completely. The Old Testament accords him a cruel verdict. He was millennia ahead of his time with his splendid and sustainable hanging gardens on the roofs of his entire palace complex. But he imprisoned the Prophet Daniel. When will the high and mighty learn not to mess with holy men? Daniel was a fearsome and fanatic prophet and he brought the wrath of God upon him, so we are told.

King Solomon was a Big Spender. With his harem of 900 women and megalomaniac views on the Temple it taxes my credibility to believe him a wise man. Yet both the Torah and the Q”uran revere him as such. The Song of Songs is attributed to him. Most probably they are a collection of songs and canticles by different cantors and poets. I have seen a rendering of his shock and awe temple thanks to expensive graphics by computer. It is magnificent, but looks suspiciously like a Babylonian inspired immense Ziggurat. Was the Judaic faith already contaminated?

There’s the Trojan empire with the city of gold, Troy as its capital. It must have been tedious for Helen to live with valiant and just attractive Greek King Menelaus; when there was drop dead gorgeous young Paris who never tired of coupling. Homer adores Helen and he makes no secret of that. We know that she had three or four husbands before running off with Paris to Troy. Thanks to the cunning Odysseus, the Greeks finally win the war after ten grueling years in which there was no clear winner. Five thousand years later as a humble reader and observant of the Iliad and the Odyssey, I note that Homer kills off all the most extraordinary and brave warriors, Achilles and Patroclus on the Greek side, Hector and Paris and the entire dynasty of King Priam of Troy except for the warrior Aeneas who manages with the assistance of Venus to escape the atrocities. Odysseus men and lovers are all eliminated. Helen returns to her husband ten years older but is she any the wiser?

The Julian Dynasty founded by Julius Caius Caesar comes to mind. His name remains today. Czar, Kaiser, Kezar (for the Mongols and the Chinese) As a military genius he ranks highest in the Pantheon of Warriors, because he remains undefeated, even in this Millennium. He had two uncles who taught him the political art of survival, the dictators Marius and Cornelius Sulla. They used to be partners in power, but who can truly believe that anyone in his right mind would willingly participate in a deal to share POWER? Caesar amassed an immense fortune, which he used to pay his legions. We can then safely assume that his Legions were highly trained professionals. As with political leaders today, he made money by skimming off the top, by accepting huge bribes to pass laws, which benefited the few, and by taxing the rich. Please note. He was generous with all of his soldiers, in particular his centurions. His order to burn over one million hectares of forests in Gaul during his Gallic Wars may be the first recorded environmental destruction by man on a massive scale in Europe. Probably millions of Teutonic and Germanic tribes perished, all in the name of civilization.

“We Romans are a civilized people. We do not sacrifice human beings to the spirit of an oak tree and allow their blood to fall on men and women who engage in sexual acts directly beneath them.”

Sixty-three people had prior knowledge of the conspiracy to kill him. I am going to delve into that in another essay. Many of his aphorisms are still with us today. Iacta alea est is one of them. Let the dice fly.

End of Part I: To be continued.