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"Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH

 
GSB/LTD
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"Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
You've probably heard the story dozens of times: that before he was assassinated on March 15, 44BC, Julius Ceasar was warned by a soothsayer who -after fondling the entrails of an Owl- darkly intoned, "Cave idius Martius" or "Beware the ides of March." The trouble is that never happened! Oh, Ceasar was slaughtered on that day alright, but the rest of his murder is largely a matter of fiction, including his famous last words, "et tu, Brute?"

The fact is that Ceasar -like JFK 2,019 years later- danced with the devil by harboring an ego-driven-fate-tempting-death-wish that eventually got both men killed. Both leaders were wildly popular with the masses but deeply hated by their political opponents and that public adulation was a very strong factor in their deaths. And both men fully realized the political risks they were taking.

In Kennedy's case he was warned well in advance not to go to Dallas where violent protests erupted shortly after his visit was announced. But, when he arrived he not only ignored the risks but even embraced them by telling his SS agents to stand down and then ordering the bulletproof bubbletop pulled from his Lincoln limo so "the people could see their President". And they did, right up to the second the back of his head was blown off.

In Ceasar's case the hoi polloi already adored him long before he even infamously crossed the Rubicon to drain Rome's swampy, shit-filled Tiber River and then commenced to oust corrupt Senators right and left. The people loved Ceasar so much that he often abandoned the usual circle of Praetorian Guards that followed him when in public and on that March 15th he only allowed two men to trail him through the streets: a single guard and a trusted body slave, both of whom ran like Hell once those Pugios started to slash away. And like Kennedy, had he only allowed his usual detail of guards to protect him, history would've been VERY different.

And immediately after their deaths, both men became a part of enduring histories: Ceasar's corpse was still oozing blood from the 23 knife wounds that shredded his toga as it was laid out for all to see in the Forum and Kennedy's three-day funeral extravaganza gripped the entire world as everyone [including myself] watched it live, ensuring that the sound of those muffled drums would forever echo for generations to come.

So, where did the "Ides" myth begin? That came from the writings of Plutarch -who was only two years old when Ceasar was assassinated- and it was he who fabricated the entire soothsayer scenario around 110AD, or nearly 70 years after those knives came out. And, about ten years after that another Roman "social influencer" -Suetonius- added more fictional details, even dreaming up the name of the soothsayer herself!

But the real myth took hold in 1599 when William Shakespeare wrote his play JULIUS CEASAR by grimly showing that fictionalized murder to the rowdy, drunken audiences of the Globe theater and added the line "et tu, Brute?" which again, never happened back in 44BC.

History is riddled with lies such as this -both great and small- and yet they are still widely accepted today as fact.

And that simply boggles the mind!

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/15/2023 08:33 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
What does e tu Brute mean?
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
What does e tu Brute mean?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83921755


That would be, "You too, Brutus?" And again, that line sprang entirely from the fertile imagination of William Shakespeare in 1599.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
Even the exact location of Ceasar's assassination -and who actually slashed away with those knives- is a myth that was created by Plutarch and it is his LIFE OF CEASAR [written around 110AD when he was in his 70's] that modern accounts use for their "facts."

Today it's claimed there were 60-80 conspirators in on the plot to kill Ceasar. While there were certainly that many in the Senate and many, many more who hated him with a godly passion, in reality there were only around ten who actually sat around guzzling their watered-down wine and planned how to do it. It should further be noted that there were usually between 300-500 Roman Senators at any given time and that it was only a very small minority who opposed Ceasar, even though the majority were still corrupt to some degree.

It's also taught today that Ceasar fell at the foot of Pompey's statue inside the Senate chamber itself and that too is a myth began by Plutarch and much later memorialized in Renaissance paintings. But Ceasar was actually attacked in a short, dark passageway that led into that chamber.

According to the eyewitness version of Ceasar's hysterical slave afterward, he was steered to that side entrance by Marcus Junius Brutus, who kept his arm around on Ceasar's shoulders the whole time, chatting amiably [Ceasar probably already suspected his treachery but still gave him the benefit of considerable doubt]. And behind Brutus were two others the slave didn't recognize except by the purple borders on their togas - which meant they were also Senators. At the end of the passageway waited 3-4 more with knives hidden but ready and when Ceasar got close enough, his arms were pinned to his sides and those blades did their work... all 23 times while Pompey's eyeless statue loomed overhead about 15 feet further into the Senate hall.

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/15/2023 08:26 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
For a fun bit of historical repetition, research a classic bust of Marcus Junius Brutus and then compare it to a picture of Mike Pence! You'll find they share not only the same short haircut, but also similar ears, jawline and tight-lipped mouth.

And of course, there's also the way that both men betrayed a man they once called a dear friend!

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/12/2023 09:24 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
For a fun bit of historical repetition, research a classic bust of Marcus Junius Brutus and then compare it to a picture of Mike Pence! You'll find they share not only the same short haircut, but also similar ears, jawline and thin-lipped mouth.

And of course, there's also the way that both men betrayed a man they once called a dear friend!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


For a fun bit of historical repetition, research a classic bust of Marcus Junius Brutus and then compare it to a picture of Mike Pence! You'll find they share not only the same short haircut, but also similar ears, jawline and thin-lipped mouth.

And of course, there's also the way that both men betrayed a man they once called a dear friend!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


bsflag
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
For a fun bit of historical repetition, research a classic bust of Marcus Junius Brutus and then compare it to a picture of Mike Pence! You'll find they share not only the same short haircut, but also similar ears, jawline and tight-lipped mouth.

And of course, there's also the way that both men betrayed a man they once called a dear friend!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


For a fun bit of historical repetition, research a classic bust of Marcus Junius Brutus and then compare it to a picture of Mike Pence! You'll find they share not only the same short haircut, but also similar ears, jawline and tight-lipped mouth.

And of course, there's also the way that both men betrayed a man they once called a dear friend!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


bsflag
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 81893243


Take a good look and see for yourself, Sport. The resemblance is startling, especially the bust held in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme gallery in the National Museum of Rome, which was sculpted during Brutus' lifetime.

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/12/2023 09:32 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
His-story repeats

Ad-nauseum.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
His-story repeats

Ad-nauseum.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83748367


Not quite. "Ad infinitum" would be far more accurate, but then I don't know the limits of your digestive system.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
What does e tu Brute mean?
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83921755


That would be, "You too, Brutus?" And again, that line sprang entirely from the fertile imagination of William Shakespeare in 1599.
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


bump
Noah was a conspiracy theorist too, until it started raining.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
Op making shit up
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
No, I am attempting to teach you something factual instead of the bullshit revisionist history you've readily accepted from YouTube, Wikipedia or teachers who likewise learned nothing when they studied... before passing on the same garbage to their own students. It's a classic case of GIGO that never relents.

And to circumvent that you must did deeply and actually read the works of those ancient historians while also taking into account their reasons for writing what they did. Men such as Cicero, Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny [both elder & younger], Plutarch, Polybius and Herodotus... all of whom I have read. Ceasar's own military life is very well-documented since he kept detailed personal journals that he later published. And I've read some of those too, boring and riddled with vanity though they are.

But just like today, many of those "social influencers" had ulterior motives; they would commonly only 1. write what they were told, 2. what would bring them fame/fortune or 3. did so decades -even centuries- after the events they allegedly chronicled. And Josephus, Suetonius and Plutarch were especially guilty of all three.

My source material comes from the discoveries of the Finnish historian Dr. Jaako Suolahti, Phd., whose specific field of study was the Roman Republic and who in the 1950's gained an international reputation for his dogged determination to seek out the truth... in a journey that eventually took him to the restricted shelves of the infamous "secret archives" of the Vatican library. And it was there he found an amazing document the Curator claimed was written in Mark Antony's presence in the days following Ceasar's assassination.

That document detailed Antony's first official acts on March 15th, 44BC, and included the only eyewitness testimony to the murder, that of Ceasar's slave who was present. The document further records that immediately following his account, Antony had the slave executed for abandoning his master and the Dictator of the Empire. However, it does not state what happened to the singular Praetorian guard that was also with Ceasar that day. Suolahti eventually concluded that he was the "inside man" on the assassination and quickly committed suicide to avoid what was sure to have been a lingering death by Antony's own hand.

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/15/2023 08:39 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
To further illustrate how little is taught about actual life in ancient Rome, here's something else to chew upon:

There were two common languages spoken in the Roman Republic/Empire and they were largely based upon class distinction. While the lower uneducated classes spoke only Greek, the elite spoke both Greek and Latin and as a result Greek was the language of COMMERCE while Latin was the language of AUTHORITY and LAW. And Latin remains so even today as it's used extensively in the legal field [and to a lesser degree the medical one]. Remember: whenever anyone doesn't want you to know what they're really talking about, you're probably going to hear little bit of Latin thrown in. But it gets better because even then the language is prostituted:

In classic Latin there is no spoken equivalent for a soft "C" or any "J' sounds. Thus, "Julius Ceasar" was pronounced "Yoo-Lee-Us Kay-Sir", "Cicero" became "Ki-Kurr-Oh" and so forth.

But how many Lawyers, Doctors -or history teachers- even know that, let alone use it or teach it to you? And this is just one small example of the subtle yet pervasive historical revisions that are handed down through the ages that nobody bothers to ever question.

Because we are indoctrinated not to do so!

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/15/2023 08:40 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
To further illustrate how little is taught about actual life in ancient Rome, here's something else to chew upon:

There were two common languages spoken in the Roman Republic/Empire and they were largely based upon class distinction. While the lower uneducated classes spoke only Greek, the elite spoke both Greek and Latin and as a result Greek was the language of COMMERCE while Latin was the language of AUTHORITY and LAW. And Latin remains so even today as it's used extensively in the legal field [and to a lesser degree the medical one]. Remember: whenever anyone doesn't want you to know what they're really talking about, you're probably going to hear little bit of Latin thrown in. But it gets better because even then the language is prostituted:

In classic Latin there is no spoken equivalent for a soft "C" or any "J' sounds. Thus, "Julius Ceasar" was pronounced "Yoo-Lee-Us Kay-Sir", "Cicero" became "Ki-Kurr-Oh" and so forth.

But how many Lawyers, Doctors -or history teachers- even know that, let alone use it or teach it to you? And this is just one small example of the subtle yet pervasive revisions that are handed down through the ages that nobody bothers to ever question.

Because we are indoctrinated not to do so!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


lower class people spoke vulgar latin. If lower class didn't speak latin we wouldn't have all of the romance language off shoots.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
To further illustrate how little is taught about actual life in ancient Rome, here's something else to chew upon:

There were two common languages spoken in the Roman Republic/Empire and they were largely based upon class distinction. While the lower uneducated classes spoke only Greek, the elite spoke both Greek and Latin and as a result Greek was the language of COMMERCE while Latin was the language of AUTHORITY and LAW. And Latin remains so even today as it's used extensively in the legal field [and to a lesser degree the medical one]. Remember: whenever anyone doesn't want you to know what they're really talking about, you're probably going to hear little bit of Latin thrown in. But it gets better because even then the language is prostituted:

In classic Latin there is no spoken equivalent for a soft "C" or any "J' sounds. Thus, "Julius Ceasar" was pronounced "Yoo-Lee-Us Kay-Sir", "Cicero" became "Ki-Kurr-Oh" and so forth.

But how many Lawyers, Doctors -or history teachers- even know that, let alone use it or teach it to you? And this is just one small example of the subtle yet pervasive revisions that are handed down through the ages that nobody bothers to ever question.

Because we are indoctrinated not to do so!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


lower class people spoke vulgar latin. If lower class didn't speak latin we wouldn't have all of the romance language off shoots.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 80182673


That's only minimally true. As late at 400AD the Latin that was spoken among the lower classes was not even recognizable among the educated since it was a confusing blend of Greek/Latin and as such it was often as foreign as Ebonics would be to an Oxford scholar today.

Rome itself was a polyglot of immigrant languages/cultures/belief systems and as such when you wandered among the seven hills would encounter a veritable tower of Babel as they all struggled to communicate. But it was Greek that was the universally spoken/written language [particularly of commerce] among the unwashed masses during the Roman Republic. However, that began to change when Rome expanded it's boundaries and the new Empire grew.

Vulgar Latin emerged among those lands conquered by Rome when -out of sheer necessity- educated locals assimilated it into their own spoken languages; but again it wasn't the lower-classes that first did this. In fact, among them it was a common act of defiance not to use Latin in any form unless forced to do so, something the Holy Roman Catholic Church later excelled at compelling. And it was that church that worked most diligently at creating homogeneous communication in order to spread the new faith.

While romantic ["Romanicus"] languages did evolve from Latin, it was only after the Roman empire fell and was conquered by a multitude of nationalities [all of whom spoke their own unique languages] that during the Middle Ages Latin fully morphed into those romantic bastardizations. But it was the still purest form of classic Latin that was used by scholars both secular and sacred.

Lastly, it should also be noted that the same church that helped to create those new languages also ushered in their decay during the Dark Ages when all learning outside the church was forbidden.

History is your friend and one not tainted by revisionist concepts -even linguistic ones- even more so!

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/13/2023 11:02 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
So Julius Caesar put the months out of order on the Julian calendar.

March is supposed to be the first month.

That is what the Ides of March are about.


Oct means 8
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
So Julius Caesar put the months out of order on the Julian calendar.

March is supposed to be the first month.

That is what the Ides of March are about.


Oct means 8
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 75268269


No, Ceasar didn't place March as the first month since it had already been observed so in the Roman Republic; his greatest contribution to the calendar was the addition of the leap year... that, and adding his name to it! The 365-day and 12-month calendars actually date back to the Egyptians and Sumerians.

But here's where it gets interesting:

March ["Martius"] was named after Mars -the God of War- since that was when the Roman legions emerged from a short winter hiatus to again resume their fighting. The legions didn't like to die in the snow so they spent the colder months in training and crafting new weapons/armor. BTW: Notice how the war rhetoric has ramped up again this month? Some things NEVER change!

Similarly, February ["Februarius"] was a month of sacrificing and purification to ask the Gods for success in the coming new year... especially in battle.

But you are absolutely correct in stating that October means "8" ["Octo" in Latin], just as September ["Septo"] meant "7", November ["Novem"] meant "9" and December ["Decem"] meant "10".

And our entire system of numbers comes from the total fingers human beings have on our hands.

Incidentally: before August was renamed by Augustus [after himself], it was called "Sextilla" which meant "6" in Latin.

Further, all of the days of the Roman week [excepting Sunday and Monday] were named after their Gods; and since there was no separation of church/state, every day was dedicated to their official worship.

-Sunday was named for the Sun ["Sol"], the bringer of all life and Monday was named for the Moon ["Luna"], when life recedes overnight.

But the rest were named after Gods:
-Tuesday was named for Mars
-Wednesday was named for Mercury
-Thursday was named for Jupiter
-Friday was named for Venus
-Saturday was named for Saturn.

Needless to say, the Catholic Church wasn't content to merely meddle with languages so in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decided to standardize the calendar for the entire known world [even though the old Julian had worked very well for over 1,600 years]... as one does when one has assumed unlimited power. And it's that church-dictated Gregorian calendar we still use today.

Isn't history FUN?

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/13/2023 11:09 AM
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
I have to say that New Jerusalem Calendar looks great. You can see the history in the picture. Straighten out Rome, straighten out the world.

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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
I have to say that New Jerusalem Calendar looks great. You can see the history in the picture. Straighten out Rome, straighten out the world.


 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83837976


Go spam another thread, okay? This one is about HISTORY and not the ravings of a new-age bullshit artist hustling a pseudo religion!
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
clappa

lovethispost
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
I have to say that New Jerusalem Calendar looks great. You can see the history in the picture. Straighten out Rome, straighten out the world.


 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83837976


Go spam another thread, okay? This one is about HISTORY and not the ravings of a new-age bullshit artist hustling a pseudo religion!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


New Jerusalem Calendar fixed history. We all know the Romans messed up the months. New Jerusalem Calendar fixed it. Now Rome and Jerusalem and the whole world are launched into a new era.
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Re: "Beware The Ides Of March!" : The Great Historical MYTH
I have to say that New Jerusalem Calendar looks great. You can see the history in the picture. Straighten out Rome, straighten out the world.


 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83837976


Go spam another thread, okay? This one is about HISTORY and not the ravings of a new-age bullshit artist hustling a pseudo religion!
 Quoting: GSB/LTD


New Jerusalem Calendar fixed history. We all know the Romans messed up the months. New Jerusalem Calendar fixed it. Now Rome and Jerusalem and the whole world are launched into a new era.
 Quoting: Anonymous Coward 83837976


That's TOTAL BULLSHIT coming from someone who has no clue about true history and only perverts it further with your insane proclamations.

Last Edited by GSB/LTD on 03/15/2023 08:30 AM





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