Hot History - Caesar, like the Salad

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Hey Hot History Club, today we're deep diving into the epic rise and fall of Roman General turned Dictator, Julius Caesar. We're covering it all, including connecting the dots to find out what Caesar has to do with salads, pirates, Brits & Bob Dylan!

Hello everyone and welcome to the very first episode of Hot History, the podcast, where we talk about the things in history that you probably should know but don't. My name's Ainsley and I'm so excited to have you listening along as we dive into some of the most scandalous and influential people and moments throughout time. We'll be joined throughout this season by a number of guests and experts, but we're going to kick off our first episode solo by getting down and dirty with one of, if not the most famous man in history. Gaius Julius Caesar. Class is in session. Now if you're like me and your entire Ticot feed for the last few weeks has been men, obsessing over the Roman Empire, then the name Caesar may have popped up. So who was he?

Very simply, very clearly, Julius Caesar was a Roman general who declared himself dictator, which upset a bunch of people because Rome was not an empire at this time. it was known as the Republic, and the leaders there were elected for terms of service, much like we do now. He was not, contrary to popular belief, the founder of the famous Salad, and he is widely remembered as a military and political figure, but also one of those key personalities throughout time that managed to get embroiled in a lot of violence, scandal, and treachery. So let's get into a quick life summary. Who were the Caesars? Where did they come from?

and how did Julius get a start in life? He was born on or around July 13th, 100 BC to a family who came from old Roman nobility. Now, despite this, the Caesar's had no real money and even less influence. And in 85 BC, tragedy strikes them and his father dies. So at just 16, Caesar is forced to become the head of his family.

That in and of itself is often. obviously difficult, but it's made even more impossible as Caesar's uncle Marius was having some serious beef with Rome's current ruler at the time a man called Sulla. Now, Caesar's in a really, really unfortunate position here, because he's ultimately forced to take a side in this war that really doesn't have anything to do with him. Of course, he declares his allegiance to his uncle and marries one of his allies, a young woman named Cornel. The pair have a child together, a daughter named Julia. But when Sulla eventually wins the war in 82 BC, he orders the pair get a divorce for standing against him, which Caesar refuses to do.

Now there's not a lot of info really available about the relationship between Caesar and Cornelia, but we do know from several sources at the time that Caesar was distraught when she eventually died and held her in the highest of regards. So was his refusal to divorce Cornelia, one that came from his love for her, or was it born from his pride for himself? Now we can't be certain here, but it is the first real statement

that Caesar makes on his own, his first real stand, if you will. So rather than divorce, he decides to leave Rome and join the army, where he earns the civic crown for courage and a reputation as a military leader, which would come in handy. as when Sulla dies, Caesar returns to Rome a military hero.

So we know Caesar was a military guy, but how did he get from the army to politics? Well, once back in Rome, much like Elwood's in Legally Blonde, he stuck it to the man and became a lawyer, where he discovered his talent for public speaking, which he decides to pursue by crossing the Eugenic in 75 BC to study in Rhodes. But the journey didn't go quite as planned. Caesar gets captured by a band of pirates who hold him for ransom. Now, if we look to Plutarch's parallel lives, the capture scenes as a minor inconvenience for Caesar, who from the get-go simply refuses to behave like a captive.

He bosses the pirates around, forces them to listen to poems that he'd written, and when they didn't like them, he declared that they were illiterate invalids. But my personal favorite is when the pirates set his ram. ransom to 20 talents, he laughed, told them was too low and that they had to raise it to 50. And when this ransom was eventually paid, he hired a private fleet to hunt them down and have them crucified. Now, while this certainly wasn't Caesar's first take down, after all, he's an army man. It shows his immense opinion of himself. And while researching this, I came across a really interesting piece titled The Hidden Role of Malignant Narcissus in History, which looks at the

similarities between infamous people's temple leader Jim Jones, who was responsible for the mass murder suicide in Jonestown in 1978 and Julius Caesar. The author denotes that Caesar was easily a narcissist, having a fascination with self-appearance, egotistical worldview and destructive behavior, which in this interaction with the pirates, we see quite clearly. And it's important to understand this, that while Caesar seems like a pretty impressive guy, he was also a dick, which we'll get to later on. So how did Caesar rebound post capture? Quite well. His studies proved fruitful and in 69 BC he became Keister, which was a kind of treasurer of a Roman province, but shortly after his wife, Cornelia, died. Now there's no rest for an available bachelor

in Rome and so Caesar remarries this time to a young woman named Pompeia, which might much like his first marriage, was one of political gain, as Pompeia was a relative of another very important political figure of the time, Pompey the Great, who we will get to later. But the marriage set him up well. After all, she was basically the Jackie Onassis of Rome, and he finally became a magistrate. But he wasn't satisfied, as the one position Caesar really wanted, was Pontiff Maximus, or chief priest of Rome. So he decided. decides to make a grand gesture, Oprah flying her audience to Australia level of gesture, and personally funds a lavish set of games for the people of Rome.

But there's one tiny issue. The dude's broke. He has no real money to do it himself, so he has to take on debts with the promise to repay these men with favours and titles once he is elected. Now one thing we can be sure of is Caesar, a when, not an if kind of guy, and two years later, he was elected Pontiff Maximus. So he's climbing up the political ladder. He's got a hot new wife, but not all that glitters is gold, and that could not be more true for the Caesars as a couple. In 62 BC, the scandal to end, all scandals goes down. Forget Watergate. Forget Monica Lewinsky. The boronad die blows them

out of the water. Not really, but I love it. So let's talk about it. Two years earlier in 64 BC, Julius Caesar begins an affair with the little sister of one of his greatest political rivals, because of course he does. And while his wife can't really do anything about it, she herself takes a lover in another prominent Roman of the time, a man called Claudius. So what's the big deal? They've both got lovers, they stay together, everyone lives happily ever after. That is until the festival in celebration of Bona Dai, which is comprised of secret and sacred rituals only for the girls. This is a big deal.

I mean, the Vestal Virgins are here. And this is all going down in Caesar's house as Pompeia is the host. She's throwing this whole show. Everyone's having an amazing, sacred, womanly time until it is discovered that Pompeia's lover, Claudius, has snuck into the event dressed as a woman to meet with his mistress. This is big drums. Like I remember that scene in keeping up with the Kardashians where Kim goes into Scott's Hotel and finds that girl in his bathroom. Like this is like Bravo level drama. And Caesar is pissed. He hits the roof. Like despite,

the hypocrisy he himself is extremely famous for one of his love affairs which we'll get to later on this is in front of the virgins the virgins and all the prominent women of rome and he's really properly embarrassed and has clodius arrested shortly before the pair divorce he rebounded though and a year later forms perhaps the most important relationship he ever will between pompey relative of his divorce wife and the Jeff Bezos of Rome, a man called Crassus. Now, why was this so significant? What do these three dudes have in common that would inspire them to band together? It's one thing. Ambition. Pompy, known amongst his men as Pompey the Great, belonged to the Roman mobility and had a lot of political sway. Crassus was literally the richest man in Rome,

and Caesar was this young, charismatic war hero. these three formed an alliance known as the first triumvirate to get Caesar elected and take a power for themselves. This relationship was further strengthened by Caesar's daughter, marrying Pompey, and in 59 BC, their efforts were successful as Caesar is finally elected consul, the highest political office in Rome. But consuls only rule for a year, and Caesar's still a relatively young guy, he's only 40, and he decides to go back. He's the highest political office in Rome. But consul's only and he decides to go back to the army where he's appointed governor of Gaul, a region that includes parts of modern France, Belgium and Germany.

The Gaelic wars, as they're known, were fought by the Romans over eight years to expand their territory, and it was here that Caesar earned the loyalty and the respect of his troops, which he'd very soon need, because back home in Rome, Caesar's daughter and Crassus both die, which means that Pompey is left completely and entirely alone and finally decides to align himself with Caesar's enemies. And it's quite a nasty breakup. And in the end, Pompey orders Caesar to return home and surrender his troops, which he doesn't and starts a war instead. So he chased Pompey, all around Spain, Greece and finally Egypt, where he meets a beautiful, smart, and he's a beautiful, and politically troubled young woman, who some of you may already know.

Cleopatra the 7th ruled ancient Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus between 51 and 30 BC alongside her brother, Ptolemy. However, soon after their ascension, Ptolemy's advisers one of the throne for him and him alone and drive Cleopatra from Egypt. But you can't keep a good girl down, and a year later, she raises an army to fight back. But here is where things get. Interesting. In 48 BC, Ptolemy, Cleopatra's brother, invites Pompey, the guy seizes at war with into Egypt. He is then invited to leave his ships and come ashore, and just as he steps foot onto Egyptian soil, thinking is safe, thinking he's protected, he's been invited by the co-faro.

he's murdered by one of Ptolemy's own officers. Now it's clear from this that Ptolemy was never going to offer him protection. In fact, he wanted him dead so that he could present his head to Caesar. Now there's a lot of speculation about how Caesar reacted to hearing of Pompey's death. It is generally agreed he did call it murder. And if we look to Plutarch's life of Pompey and life of Caesar, we find that when presented with Pompey's preserved head, Caesar turned away with loathing,

eventually bursting into tears. There's a lot to unpack here, but I think one of the key things to remember is that pride was a major virtue of the Roman people. And from several occasions digging into this more, I found this phrase, or similar version of it, saying that only a Roman can kill a Roman, and that the disputes between brothers were not the business of foreigners.

Now, regardless of what you believe, this murder, which is what it was, was genuinely humiliating for the Roman people, and it sets up the scene to follow perfectly. Caesar, whether genuinely furious or faking it to gain control in the region, sides with Cleopatra, who went to great lengths to seek Caesar's support, reportedly smuggling herself into a carpet to get into the royal palace to see him. The pair eventually drive Ptolemy from Alexandria, he later drowns in the Nile. So with Ptolemy gone, Caesar enters Alexandria as an unpopular conqueror.

Think Deneres going north and coming into Winterfell, except when he arrives, he gives the throne back to Cleopatra and her younger brother. But Caesar and Cleopatra were not just political allies. They were also lovers. Now, I thought this was public knowledge, but I thought, to speaking to a bunch of my friends, they were shocked, and even more so when I told them that the pair had a son named Caesarian. The two keep casual though, and Caesar returns to Rome, where he does away with the ideas of consuls and democracy, and in 49 BC, is elected dictator of Rome. But what does that mean? What do dictators do, and how are they really any different from kings and emperors. Well, the first thing to understand is that Caesar's a dictator in the time of the

Republic. He isn't and never was a Roman emperor in the time of the Roman Empire. As dictator, his powers were virtually unlimited and he used them to go about a vast series of reforms, which included enlarging the Senate, decreasing Rome's debt, rebuilding the city of Carthage, granting citizenship to foreigners and last but not least. He introduced the Julian calendar, the system which denotes that the year totals 365 days with the addition of a leap year every four years. So all that sounds great, but not everyone's happy with dictator Caesar. In fact, the title that Caesar referred to himself as was dictator for setting the constitution. And many rumours at the time were somewhat hopeful that Caesar would actually produce a constitution,

which he didn't. And in the end, his original term of 10 years as dictator extended in perpetuum. aka for life. So by 44 BC, Julius Caesar possesses more power, more influence and more honours than any other Roman had held since the time of the seven mythical kings of Rome almost 400 years before. And this became a problem to many of his fellow Romans as they feared he would become a king putting an end to the republic. So with no plans for his own retirement, a band of senators came together on March 15th, 44 BC, inviting Caesar to a meeting where they ambushed him, stabbing him over 20 times until he bled to death at the foot of a statue of his once friend, son-in-law, an enemy, Pompey the Great.

Now what follows is a cluster fuck to say the least. The killers run into the streets thinking they'd be greeted with cheers. Instead, many of the people in the city who genuinely liked what Caesar had achieved were dead nervous about the implications of his death. Others in the street rushed to the safety of their homes after seeing senators covered in blood. And even the conspirators themselves seemed to have been lost what they should do now. So they kind of just walked around before returning to their homes. One of the assassins, a man called Brutus, prepared a speech to celebrate their victory. and was shocked to find that there was people who were actually pissed.

Now, Caesar's status as dictator, it didn't really bother the lower and middle classes. In fact, many of his radical reforms benefited them, such as the cancellation of debts and the adjustment of the tax code. So as far as stabilising the Republic goes, it was a big fat fail, and civil war breaks out again. But it wasn't between the assassins and those who loved Caesar. It was, in fact, between Caesar's 18-year-old great-nephew and heir, Octavian, and one of Caesar's former deputies, Mark Anthony, who were fighting over who gets to fill Caesar's place and become heir to his vast fortune. And after much fighting, it was the scrappy 18-year-old Octavian who won out.

Now, we can talk about Octavian for days, and we'll get to him later on in the season. But the key thing to understand, and spoiler, is that Octavian wins. declares himself emperor, renames himself Augustus, and from all of that, the Roman Empire is born, which all comes back to Caesar. Without his dictatorship, and especially without his death, Octavian wouldn't have had the platform for his nor the empire's rise. So we've covered a fair chunk of historical ground spanning around 70 years from Caesar's birth to the rise of the empire. And as part of this series, we'll be answering three big questions at the end of each episode. So that if you remember nothing else, you've got these three things under your belt.

One, where does this person sit in history? Two, what impact did they have on modern society? And three, what are their mentions throughout pop culture? So let's start with one. Where does he sit in history? As discussed, Caesar lived in the period known as the Roman Republic. He existed in the same time as the Roman Republic. He existed in the same time as several key historical figures, including Cleopatra, Augustus, and Cicero.

He was born around the same time that Venus de Milo was carved and exactly 100 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. He was alive for the gladiator rebellion led by Spartacus and was one of the very first Romans to land in Britain. He also made effective use of the newly created Scorpio, one of the very very very first Romans to land in Britain. Scorpio, one of the very early versions of the crossbow. He also died around 75 years before Jesus and 123 years before the eruption that claimed the city of Pompeii. So a pretty interesting pocket of history. But what impact does Caesar have on modern society? As we know, he was a very successful military leader devising a series of campaigns and strategies that have been used throughout time by variety of other leaders and armies, and his expansion of Roman territory also set up the

rise of the empire, Caesar's long-lasting impact actually comes in with his calendar system and language. Yes, Caesar developed his own code. He was always interested in ciphers like Morse code and Pig Latin, so much so that he invented the Caesar cipher, which was actually used by naval code breakers during World War II. Then we have the Julian calendar, which follows a 365, 12-month year based on a sole year, which would occur for three years until we had a leap year on the fourth. Caesar even moved the start of the year from March 1st to January 1st. So he's kind of a big deal, which is why I was surprised to see that Time magazine puts Caesar as the 15th most significant figure in history. He comes after the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Aristotle and Karl Marx, but also after William Shakespeare, who came in fourth and wrote an entire play by the guy, and Napoleon Bonaparte, who came in second and saw himself as a Caesar-like empirical figure.

In fact, much of his own life mirrors Caesar's in many ways. Which brings us to question three. How is Caesar mentioned and remembered in pop culture? Most famously, we have Shakespeare's play. centered around his assassination and the aftermath that follows, featuring the now very famous phrase et tu Brutei. We have Plutarch back in 110 AD who wrote about Caesar alongside Alexander the Great. He appears again in the early 1300s in Dante's Define Comedy,

and then in 1898 in George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra. He was also the inspiration, which I didn't know, for Bob Dylan's Song Crossing the Rubicon, among many reincarnations in film and TV, most notably in Cleopatra, the 1963 film starring Elizabeth Taylor. So while Caesar may only rank 15th, according to times most significant people of all time to pop culture, he's highly relevant throughout so many different periods from Elizabeth in England to 1960. Hollywood, which gives him some serious historical cred. Thank you so much for listening along.

Now your Caesar salads always be fresh and crispy. And join us next time as we chat about history's number one girl crush, Cleopatra. See you then.