"Life of Caesar" Podcast: Episode 1
A few months ago, I listened to a podcast called "Life of Caesar" by Cameron Reilly and Ray Harris. It's a fun podcast, but it also has lots of errors and such. Some big, some small. So I thought I'd make a review of sorts where I'd list them with a follow-up on why this or that statement is incorrect or misleading. Because of the nature of my "review," it may seem like I didn't enjoy the podcast or thought it was bad. Not at all! I enjoyed it for the most part. I really liked their take on the Civil War, and those episodes were the best, imo. But being passionate about this period of history, I couldn't help but notice the mistakes they made, so here we are.
Episode 1:
• 09:20 – Ray: "One of the most important aspects of the dictatorship was that whatever decisions they made it had to be accepted, you couldn't go back and try to change them after the person laid down their dictatorship, it had to be accepted."
This is incorrect. The attempts to undo Sulla's legislations were made as soon as he was dead. Some of his laws remained, but the key aspects of his dictatorship were annulled by 70 BC. Most importantly, the restrictions he placed on the tribunate.
• 11:52 – Ray: "He [Sulla] was given an assignment and Gaius Marius wanted it, so Gaius Marius got the Senate change it and to give him the war against Mithridates."
The Senate had nothing to do with it. The bill to give the command to Marius was put forward by the tribune of the plebs Publius Sulpicius Rufus. The continual confrontations between tribunes and the Senate played a major part in the crisis of the Late Republic, and this was one of them.
• 21:17 – Ray: "By the time he [Caesar] gets back from Gaul he's got more money than he could ever spend or count."
Gaul made Caesar wealthy, but nowhere near that. During the Civil War, he had to borrow a lot of money to meet the costs of the war.
• 23:02 – Cam: "It's a river in north-eastern Italy, it's about 80 km long."
Seems like Cam is talking about the Fiumicino River, which has been identified as the most likely location for Rubicon. But it's still debatable. And even if Fiumicino is the original Rubicon, its course has changed over the years, so we can't know for sure how long it was.
• 32:11 – Cam on populares reforms of Gracchi, Caesar, etc: "And that was always seen with a lot of cynicism by the wealthy elite, the patrician class of Rome."
This is a general misconception that "patricians = rich, plebeians = poor." The Roman nobility consisted of both patricians and plebeians.
• 33:12 – Ray: "People have to remember that he lived in his mother's insula. She owned a large complex and she rented rooms to people. So when Caesar was growing up he saw many different walks of life, he saw many different nationalities, many different cultures were right there in his living quarters."
This is partly true, partly fictional. The fictional part is his mother's insula, and it comes from Colleen McCullough's series of novels, "Masters of Rome." There are no records that his family lived in or owned an insula. They weren't particularly wealthy, but most likely they could afford the domus.
The rest is quite true. Until he was 37, Caesar and his family lived in Subura, where many of the poor citizens, freedmen, and foreigners lived.
• 34:40 – Ray: "She [Cleopatra] certainly wanted to take resources of Egypt and mix it with the ability of Caesar and his fighting men and expend the empire."
Cleopatra benefited from her association with Caesar, for she got her throne back. But in any relationship with her client states, Rome was always the superior partner. If anyone was using Egypt's resources for expansion, it was Rome. Caesar was planning Dacian and Parthians campaigns for which the Eastern provinces and client states (including Egypt) would've had to provide money, supplies, and auxiliaries. All for Rome's expansion.
• 42:05 – Ray on Caesar's epilepsy: "I know he had to be careful, he had to make sure he got enough rest. And I think I read somewhere that it affected him more as he got older. One of his first big attacks, when he was on the run from Sulla and he was hiding out with this big German slave Burgundus. That Burgundus had to pretty much hold him down and make sure he didn't bite off his own tongue or choke on his own tongue because when it happened it was pretty intense. But the Egyptians believed that it was just a part of his greatness and it was just a sign showing that he was touched by the Gods or whatever. But he certainly had to live with it, he certainly had to be careful with it. And those who served him, who were around him, had to be told of the secret, so they could take care of him in case an attack came on."
a) According to Plutarch, the first attack occurred in Corduba, Spain. Caesar visited Corduba four times throughout his life (in 69 BC as quaestor, in 60 BC as governor, during the Civil War in 49 and 45 BC), but Plutarch does not specify the occasion. During his flight from Sulla, Caesar was only 18 and he contracted malaria, so it was a completely different incident.
b) There is an ongoing debate on what was the source of his seizures. Was it epilepsy, was it hypoglycemia, was it even a seizure, etc.?
c) As for having enough rest, Caesar was known for the exact opposite: he had very little rest and was always working.
The rest is fictional and taken from Colleen McCullough's novels. A German slave named Burgundus is a character from "Fortune's Favorites." There are no records on who accompanied Caesar during his flight from Sulla. The Egyptian incident is from "The October Horse." There are no records that he suffered any attacks while in Egypt.
• 43:21 – Ray on caesarean section: "It just shows you how much of an imprint he made on the Roman world at the time that they would name this after him. We don't even have proof that he was actually born that way, but again it just shows just how famous this man was that they would even think about naming that after him."
Cam: "I think it actually comes from the name of the law at the time. The Roman ruling law, the imperial law, was lex Caesarea. And part of that law was that if the mother died in childbirth, which obviously was very, very common in the ancient world, before the baby had been delivered, then the baby had to be cut from the womb. This goes way back, I think, well before Caesar. It was called lex Regia, the ruling law, and then later lex Caesarea. I think where the term came from was that it was the law, it was Caesarean law that baby was cut from the womb and over time it just became known as caesarean section. Nothing to do with Julius Caesar."
There are different theories on the etymology of "caesarean section." I don't know if this one is correct or not. But I just wanted to say that Caesar was not born through a caesarean section, and it wasn't named after him.
• 48:47 – Cam: "Servilia Caeponis."
Servilia didn't have a cognomen.
• 49:51 – Ray: "He [Marcus Brutus] stabbed him in the groin. Which, again, we don't know if that was on purpose or that just happened where the blade landed."
Plutarch says that Marcus Brutus stabbed him in the groin. But it might have been Decimus Brutus if we go by Nicolaus of Damascus' (who was a contemporary of Caesar's) account.
• 51:15 – Cam: "He [Caesar] thinks of this man [Marcus Brutus] as his friend, as his young son, almost a son. . . . They're very, very close."
Ray: "[...] Or at the very least a person who was like a father to him."
This is a huge exaggeration. Caesar had affection for Brutus because of Servilia, but they were never really close. Brutus was close to Cato, and Cato hated Caesar's guts. Not to mention that Caesar spent 9 years in Gaul, so they had no chance to interact. Caesar offered him the post of quaestor, but Brutus turned it down. In the Civil War, Brutus sided with Pompey (as did Cato). Also, Brutus was 40 at the time of Caesar's assassination—hardly a "young son."
• 52:20 – Cam: "Let's move on to the civic crown or the laurel wreath."
The civic crown (corona civica) was an oak wreath. Corona civica and the laurel wreath (corona triumphalis) were two different wreaths. Corona civica was a military award for saving a citizen's life in battle. A laurel wreath was worn by a triumphant general. Caesar got the former in 81 BC and the latter in 46 BC.
• 53:22 – Ray: "There was a battle and he saved someone's life, and he won the civic crown, which was the second highest award. And because of Sulla's laws, that was taken very seriously, these things were not giving out lightly."
The prestige of corona civica had nothing to do with Sulla. It existed long before him. I think Ray just misunderstood this part of Goldsworthy's book:
• 01:03:00 – Ray on the burning of the Alexandrian Library: "It's just sad that that happened when Caesar was fighting off forces."
The Library of Alexandria stood for centuries after Caesar's time and remained one of the major centers of learning. The question is what damage, if any, the fire in the harbor might have caused to the library during Caesar's stay in Egypt. The general consensus seems to be that some part of the library might have caught fire.
Episode 2
A few months ago, I listened to a podcast called Episode 1:
• 09:20 – Ray: "One of the most important aspects of the dictatorship was that whatever decisions they made it had to be accepted, you couldn't go back and try to change them after the person laid down their dictatorship, it had to be accepted."
This is incorrect. The attempts to undo Sulla's legislations were made as soon as he was dead. Some of his laws remained, but the key aspects of his dictatorship were annulled by 70 BC. Most importantly, the restrictions he placed on the tribunate.
• 11:52 – Ray: "He [Sulla] was given an assignment and Gaius Marius wanted it, so Gaius Marius got the Senate change it and to give him the war against Mithridates."
The Senate had nothing to do with it. The bill to give the command to Marius was put forward by the tribune of the plebs Publius Sulpicius Rufus. The continual confrontations between tribunes and the Senate played a major part in the crisis of the Late Republic, and this was one of them.
• 21:17 – Ray: "By the time he [Caesar] gets back from Gaul he's got more money than he could ever spend or count."
Gaul made Caesar wealthy, but nowhere near that. During the Civil War, he had to borrow a lot of money to meet the costs of the war.
"Crassus had boasted that only a man who could raise an army from his own resources could truly call himself rich. Caesar was rich, but he was now being called upon to fund a conflict on a massive scale, and no individual possessed that much money." – Adrian Goldsworthy
• 23:02 – Cam: "It's a river in north-eastern Italy, it's about 80 km long."
Seems like Cam is talking about the Fiumicino River, which has been identified as the most likely location for Rubicon. But it's still debatable. And even if Fiumicino is the original Rubicon, its course has changed over the years, so we can't know for sure how long it was.
"On the road from Ravenna to Ariminum (modern Rimini) the boundary between the province and Italy itself was marked by the Rubicon, a small river that to this day has not been positively identified." – Adrian Goldsworthy
• 32:11 – Cam on populares reforms of Gracchi, Caesar, etc: "And that was always seen with a lot of cynicism by the wealthy elite, the patrician class of Rome."
This is a general misconception that "patricians = rich, plebeians = poor." The Roman nobility consisted of both patricians and plebeians.
"...the patricians' exclusive hold on power was gradually eroded as the plebians demanded more rights, and wealthy plebian families forced their way into the ruling elite. From 342 BC one of each year's consuls had to be a plebian. By the end of the second century BC the majority of the most influential families amongst the senatorial elite were plebian. . . . There was no process for creating new patricians, and over the centuries a number of families died out altogether or faded into obscurity." – Adrian Goldsworthy
• 33:12 – Ray: "People have to remember that he lived in his mother's insula. She owned a large complex and she rented rooms to people. So when Caesar was growing up he saw many different walks of life, he saw many different nationalities, many different cultures were right there in his living quarters."
This is partly true, partly fictional. The fictional part is his mother's insula, and it comes from Colleen McCullough's series of novels, "Masters of Rome." There are no records that his family lived in or owned an insula. They weren't particularly wealthy, but most likely they could afford the domus.
The rest is quite true. Until he was 37, Caesar and his family lived in Subura, where many of the poor citizens, freedmen, and foreigners lived.
• 34:40 – Ray: "She [Cleopatra] certainly wanted to take resources of Egypt and mix it with the ability of Caesar and his fighting men and expend the empire."
Cleopatra benefited from her association with Caesar, for she got her throne back. But in any relationship with her client states, Rome was always the superior partner. If anyone was using Egypt's resources for expansion, it was Rome. Caesar was planning Dacian and Parthians campaigns for which the Eastern provinces and client states (including Egypt) would've had to provide money, supplies, and auxiliaries. All for Rome's expansion.
• 42:05 – Ray on Caesar's epilepsy: "I know he had to be careful, he had to make sure he got enough rest. And I think I read somewhere that it affected him more as he got older. One of his first big attacks, when he was on the run from Sulla and he was hiding out with this big German slave Burgundus. That Burgundus had to pretty much hold him down and make sure he didn't bite off his own tongue or choke on his own tongue because when it happened it was pretty intense. But the Egyptians believed that it was just a part of his greatness and it was just a sign showing that he was touched by the Gods or whatever. But he certainly had to live with it, he certainly had to be careful with it. And those who served him, who were around him, had to be told of the secret, so they could take care of him in case an attack came on."
a) According to Plutarch, the first attack occurred in Corduba, Spain. Caesar visited Corduba four times throughout his life (in 69 BC as quaestor, in 60 BC as governor, during the Civil War in 49 and 45 BC), but Plutarch does not specify the occasion. During his flight from Sulla, Caesar was only 18 and he contracted malaria, so it was a completely different incident.
b) There is an ongoing debate on what was the source of his seizures. Was it epilepsy, was it hypoglycemia, was it even a seizure, etc.?
c) As for having enough rest, Caesar was known for the exact opposite: he had very little rest and was always working.
The rest is fictional and taken from Colleen McCullough's novels. A German slave named Burgundus is a character from "Fortune's Favorites." There are no records on who accompanied Caesar during his flight from Sulla. The Egyptian incident is from "The October Horse." There are no records that he suffered any attacks while in Egypt.
• 43:21 – Ray on caesarean section: "It just shows you how much of an imprint he made on the Roman world at the time that they would name this after him. We don't even have proof that he was actually born that way, but again it just shows just how famous this man was that they would even think about naming that after him."
Cam: "I think it actually comes from the name of the law at the time. The Roman ruling law, the imperial law, was lex Caesarea. And part of that law was that if the mother died in childbirth, which obviously was very, very common in the ancient world, before the baby had been delivered, then the baby had to be cut from the womb. This goes way back, I think, well before Caesar. It was called lex Regia, the ruling law, and then later lex Caesarea. I think where the term came from was that it was the law, it was Caesarean law that baby was cut from the womb and over time it just became known as caesarean section. Nothing to do with Julius Caesar."
There are different theories on the etymology of "caesarean section." I don't know if this one is correct or not. But I just wanted to say that Caesar was not born through a caesarean section, and it wasn't named after him.
• 48:47 – Cam: "Servilia Caeponis."
Servilia didn't have a cognomen.
• 49:51 – Ray: "He [Marcus Brutus] stabbed him in the groin. Which, again, we don't know if that was on purpose or that just happened where the blade landed."
Plutarch says that Marcus Brutus stabbed him in the groin. But it might have been Decimus Brutus if we go by Nicolaus of Damascus' (who was a contemporary of Caesar's) account.
• 51:15 – Cam: "He [Caesar] thinks of this man [Marcus Brutus] as his friend, as his young son, almost a son. . . . They're very, very close."
Ray: "[...] Or at the very least a person who was like a father to him."
This is a huge exaggeration. Caesar had affection for Brutus because of Servilia, but they were never really close. Brutus was close to Cato, and Cato hated Caesar's guts. Not to mention that Caesar spent 9 years in Gaul, so they had no chance to interact. Caesar offered him the post of quaestor, but Brutus turned it down. In the Civil War, Brutus sided with Pompey (as did Cato). Also, Brutus was 40 at the time of Caesar's assassination—hardly a "young son."
• 52:20 – Cam: "Let's move on to the civic crown or the laurel wreath."
The civic crown (corona civica) was an oak wreath. Corona civica and the laurel wreath (corona triumphalis) were two different wreaths. Corona civica was a military award for saving a citizen's life in battle. A laurel wreath was worn by a triumphant general. Caesar got the former in 81 BC and the latter in 46 BC.
• 53:22 – Ray: "There was a battle and he saved someone's life, and he won the civic crown, which was the second highest award. And because of Sulla's laws, that was taken very seriously, these things were not giving out lightly."
The prestige of corona civica had nothing to do with Sulla. It existed long before him. I think Ray just misunderstood this part of Goldsworthy's book:
"...the corona civica was never lightly bestowed and commanded immense respect. During the crisis of the Second Punic War, when the Roman Senate had suffered huge casualties and needed to replenish its numbers, men who had won the corona civica were one of the main groups chosen for admission. It is just possible that Sulla had decreed a similar measure, so that aristocratic winners of the crown were immediately enrolled in the Senate, but even if this was not true, the decoration was guaranteed to impress the electorate and help a man's career."
• 01:03:00 – Ray on the burning of the Alexandrian Library: "It's just sad that that happened when Caesar was fighting off forces."
The Library of Alexandria stood for centuries after Caesar's time and remained one of the major centers of learning. The question is what damage, if any, the fire in the harbor might have caused to the library during Caesar's stay in Egypt. The general consensus seems to be that some part of the library might have caught fire.
"This seems to be more or less all that can reasonably be said in the present state of our information about what happened to the Great Alexandrian Library during Caesar's stay: neither a total conflagration nor just the burning of a certain amount of papyrus rolls in the harbour." – Heinz-Günther Nesselrath
Episode 2
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