Transcript

9.11.26 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome. This is Radio Eye's History Show, and
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Speaker 1: I'm your host and reader for today, Joseph Bolt. So
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Speaker 1: glad to be with you this time. And before we begin,
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Speaker 1: as you know, we need to remind you that Radio
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Speaker 1: about this history show. program. So if you have any
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Speaker 1: topics that you want covered in history or any comments
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Speaker 1: us and that number would be 859-422-6390 and let us
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Speaker 1: know what you are thinking. Radio Eye is a reading
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Speaker 1: service that's intended for people who are blind or have
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Speaker 1: other disabilities and make it difficult to read printed material.
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Speaker 1: So I'll cite the sources as we go along here,
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Speaker 1: maybe in just a few seconds, because what I want
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Speaker 1: to talk with you today about and go over the story,
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Speaker 1: and you've probably heard it before, but let's get the
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Speaker 1: facts straight, and that is the assassination of Julius Caesar. Caesar.
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Speaker 1: And this story I'm about to read comes from two
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Speaker 1: sources that I've combined. And the first source is from HistoryHit.com,
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Speaker 1: The Ides of March, The Assassination of Julius Caesar Explained.
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Speaker 1: And that's written by Colin Ricketts in August of 2018. 2018,
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Speaker 1: I mean. And then historyhit.com, How Did the Assassination of
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Speaker 1: Julius Caesar Unfold? And that was written by Tristan Hughes
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Speaker 1: in March of 2022. So let's get to reading. The
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Speaker 1: date that Julius Caesar, the most famous Roman of them all,
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Speaker 1: was killed at or on his way to the Senate
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Speaker 1: is one of the most famous in world history. The
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Speaker 1: events of the Ides of Mark 15 March in the
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Speaker 1: modern calendar, in 44 BC, had enormous consequences for Rome,
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Speaker 1: triggering a series of civil wars that saw Caesar's great nephew, Octavian,
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Speaker 1: secure his place as Augustus, the first Roman emperor. But
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Speaker 1: what actually happened on this famous date? The answer must
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Speaker 1: be that we will never know in any great detail
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Speaker 1: or with any great certainty. There is no eyewitness account
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Speaker 1: of Caesar's death. Nicholas of Damascus wrote the earliest surviving account,
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Speaker 1: probably around 14 AD. While some people believe he may
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Speaker 1: have spoken to witnesses, nobody knows for sure. and his
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Speaker 1: book was written for Augustus, so it may be biased.
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Speaker 1: Suetonius' telling of the tale is also believed to be
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Speaker 1: fairly accurate, possibly using eyewitness testimony, but was written around
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Speaker 1: 121 A.D. Even the briefest study of Roman politics will
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Speaker 1: open a can of worms rich in plotting and conspiracies.
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Speaker 1: Rome's institutions were relatively stable for their time, but military
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Speaker 1: strength and popular support, as Caesar himself showed, could rewrite
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Speaker 1: the rules very quickly. Power was always up for grabs.
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Speaker 1: Caesar's extraordinary personal power was bound to excite opposition. Rome
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Speaker 1: was then a republic, and doing away with the arbitrary
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Speaker 1: and often abused power of kings was one of the
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Speaker 1: founding principles. In 44 B.C., Caesar had been appointed dictator,
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Speaker 1: a post previously awarded only temporarily and in times of
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Speaker 1: great crisis, with no time limit on the term. The
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Speaker 1: people of Rome certainly saw him as a king, and
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Speaker 1: he may have already been regarded as a god. More
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Speaker 1: than 60 high-ranking Romans, including Marcus Junius Brutus, who may
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Speaker 1: have been Caesar's illegitimate son, decided to do away with Caesar.
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Speaker 1: They called themselves the Liberators, and their ambition was to
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Speaker 1: restore the power of the Senate. This is what Nicholas
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Speaker 1: of Damascus records, The conspirators considered a number of plans
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Speaker 1: for killing Caesar, but settled on an attack in the
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Speaker 1: Senate where their togas would provide cover for their blades.
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Speaker 1: Rumors of a plot were going around, and some of
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Speaker 1: Caesar's friends tried to stop him from going to the Senate.
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Speaker 1: His doctors were concerned by dizzy spells he was suffering,
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Speaker 1: and his wife, Calpurnia, had had worrying dreams. Brutus stepped
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Speaker 1: in to reassure Caesar that he would be fine. It
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Speaker 1: is said, or rather he has said, to have made
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Speaker 1: some sort of religious sacrifice, revealing bad omens, despite several
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Speaker 1: attempts to find something more encouraging. Again, many friends warned
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Speaker 1: him to go home. And again, Brutus, reassured him. So,
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Speaker 1: as Caesar entered the meeting room, he headed for his
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Speaker 1: gilded chair, the senators rising to greet Caesar. In total,
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Speaker 1: the senators present in the room numbered in the few hundreds.
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Speaker 1: Most were not expecting anything out of the ordinary to
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Speaker 1: happen before the meeting commenced. For those 30 to 80
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Speaker 1: senators involved in the conspiracy, however, the time had come.
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Speaker 1: They had arrived early. They had watched as Caesar entered
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Speaker 1: the room, their daggers hidden within the folds of their togas.
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Speaker 1: A senator approached Caesar. His name was Tilius Caesar. Cimber
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Speaker 1: had supported Caesar in the preceding civil war, but since
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Speaker 1: then relationships between the two had soured, especially after Caesar
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Speaker 1: had exiled Cimber's brother. As soon as Caesar had seated
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Speaker 1: himself on his ornate chair, Cimber walked up to the dictator,
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Speaker 1: hoping to speak to him before the meeting officially began.
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Speaker 1: Simber threw himself to his knees before Caesar. He asked
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Speaker 1: Caesar for clemency on behalf of his exiled brother. Let
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Speaker 1: him return from exile. Well, for Caesar, this issue was
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Speaker 1: not a priority. Recalling Simber's exiled brother was not a
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Speaker 1: pressing matter. He shrugged off Simber's plea, telling the senator
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Speaker 1: that he would consider the issue later. Standing up, Simber
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Speaker 1: grabbed hold of Caesar's toga, shocking the seated dictator and
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Speaker 1: many of those surrounding them. There was Simber, grabbing on
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Speaker 1: to the revered Caesar, a man who had recently been
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Speaker 1: declared sacrosanct. untouchable. It was a shocking, blasphemous move, but
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Speaker 1: Simber had his reason. He was one of the conspirators.
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Speaker 1: His grabbing of Caesar's toga, either to hold Caesar down
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Speaker 1: in his chair or to expose the dictator's neck, was
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Speaker 1: the agreed-upon signal for the assassination to begin. The first
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Speaker 1: assassin stepped forward, Publius Casca. Like Cimber, Casca was another
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Speaker 1: former supporter of Caesar who had since become disillusioned with
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Speaker 1: the statesmen. Casca had positioned himself directly behind Caesar in
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Speaker 1: his gilded chair, centimeters from the seated tyrant. Now, with
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Speaker 1: Cimber holding Caesar down, Casca took out his dagger from
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Speaker 1: the folds of his toga, raised his weapon, and aimed
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Speaker 1: for Caesar's neck. Presumably, in a downward attack motion, if
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Speaker 1: he was striking at a seated Caesar from right behind
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Speaker 1: his target. He missed. Rather than stab Caesar in the neck,
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Speaker 1: Casca drove his dagger into Caesar's shoulder. Casca cried out
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Speaker 1: to his brother, another senator, in on the plot for
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Speaker 1: some help. but Caesar would not sit idly by and
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Speaker 1: immediately leapt up and reacted to Casca's blow. By this point,
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Speaker 1: the meeting room had descended into pandemonium. Marcus Brutus was
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Speaker 1: among the wounded, having been accidentally struck on the hand
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Speaker 1: by Cassius as the latter tried to land a blow
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Speaker 1: on Caesar. Those senators not involved in the plot watched
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Speaker 1: on in panic and soon started to flee. Only two
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Speaker 1: senators attempted to aid Caesar, but their efforts proved fruitless. Soon,
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Speaker 1: they too were forced to flee. Dagger after dagger punctured
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Speaker 1: Caesar's body. His toga was smeared with his own very
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Speaker 1: mortal blood. According to Nicholas, the dying dictator ultimately fell
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Speaker 1: to the ground before the statue of his old rival, Pompey.
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Speaker 1: Having received more than 20 stab wounds, there Caesar breathed
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Speaker 1: his last. Caesar's famous last words, Et tu, Brute? Or
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Speaker 1: almost certainly an invention, given longevity by William Shakespeare's dramatized
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Speaker 1: version of events. Expecting a hero's reception, the assassins ran
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Speaker 1: out into the streets, announcing to the people of Rome
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Speaker 1: that they were free again. But Caesar had been enormously popular,
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Speaker 1: particularly with ordinary people who had seen Rome's military triumphant
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Speaker 1: while they had been well treated and entertained by Caesar's
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Speaker 1: lavish public entertainments. Caesar's supporters were ready to use this
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Speaker 1: people power to support their own ambitions. The Senate voted
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Speaker 1: an amnesty for the assassins, but Caesar's chosen heir, Octavian,
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Speaker 1: was quick to return to Rome from Greece to explore
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Speaker 1: his options, recruiting Caesar's soldiers to his cause as he went.
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Speaker 1: Caesar's supporter, Mark Antony, also opposed the liberators. but may
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Speaker 1: have had ambitions of his own. He and Octavian entered
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Speaker 1: into a shaky alliance as the first fighting of a
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Speaker 1: civil war began in northern Italy. Interestingly, some of the conspirators,
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Speaker 1: such as Cassius, had wanted to kill Mark Antony along
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Speaker 1: with Caesar at the Senate meeting. But Marcus Brutus, according
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Speaker 1: to the likes of Appian and Cassius Dio, convinced them
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Speaker 1: not to. Their sole aim was to kill Caesar, the dictator.
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Speaker 1: To free Rome from a tyrant. To murder the man
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Speaker 1: whose power and position were eroding the ideas of the Republic.
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Speaker 1: Mark Antony was a problem for another day. So, on
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Speaker 1: 27 November 4743 B.C., the Senate named Antony and Octavian
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Speaker 1: as two heads of a triumvirate, together with Caesar's friend
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Speaker 1: and ally, Lippidus, tasked with taking on Brutus and Cassius,
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Speaker 1: again both liberators. They set about murdering many of their
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Speaker 1: opponents in Rome for good measure. The liberators were defeated
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Speaker 1: in two battles in Greece, allowing the triumvirate to rule
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Speaker 1: for an uneasy ten years. Mark Antony made his move
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Speaker 1: and married Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt as well as
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Speaker 1: Caesar's former lover. He planned to use Egypt's wealth to
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Speaker 1: fund his own ambitions. Once Antony and Octavian had eliminated
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Speaker 1: their shared enemies, they turned on each other. Octavian's forces
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Speaker 1: routed those of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.
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Speaker 1: after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. No one left,
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Speaker 1: it seemed, could challenge Octavian's absolute power. Thus, the assassins
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Speaker 1: who sought to thwart one dictator inadvertently paved the way
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Speaker 1: for another. Contrary to the hopes of the conspirators, Julius
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Speaker 1: Caesar's death did not bring about an immediate return to
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Speaker 1: the Roman Republic of old. Instead, it marked the start
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Speaker 1: of more than a decade-long struggle that ultimately ended in
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Speaker 1: the rise of Octavian who by 27 BC renamed himself
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Speaker 1: Caesar Augustus, remembered as the first emperor of Rome, leading
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Speaker 1: to the birth of the Roman Empire with a capital E.
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Speaker 1: A return to civil war loomed. As for Caesar's body,
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Speaker 1: for a time it remained where Caesar had fallen in
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Speaker 1: the Senate meeting room, soaked in the tyrant's own blood.
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Speaker 1: That was, however, until three of Caesar's slaves arrived at
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Speaker 1: the Korea later that day on 15 March 44 B.C.
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Speaker 1: Having placed Caesar's body on a litter. They then carried
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Speaker 1: his corpse back to his house. Caesar's funeral would occur
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Speaker 1: three days later on 18 March. I'd like to finish
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Speaker 1: this segment of Radio Eye History with another article from History.com
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Speaker 1: entitled Did Cleopatra Really Die by Snakebite? And this article
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Speaker 1: was written by Sarah Pruitt in March of 2025. Let's read.
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Speaker 1: After Roman forces crushed the Egyptian army in the Battle
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Speaker 1: of Actium, Antony and Cleopatra retreated to Alexandria where they
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Speaker 1: watched as their former allies and supporters defected to Octavian's side.
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Speaker 1: As Stacey Shift wrote in her 2010 biography of Cleopatra,
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Speaker 1: the couple dissolved their debaucherous society of inimitable livers and
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Speaker 1: founded a new one. entitled Companions to the Death. Cleopatra
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Speaker 1: had a two-story mausoleum quickly constructed on her palace grounds
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Speaker 1: next to a temple dedicated to her alter ego, the
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Speaker 1: goddess Isis. By the end of July in 30 BC,
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Speaker 1: Octavian's forces had reached Alexandria, and Cleopatra retreated to her mausoleum.
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Speaker 1: Hearing a report that she had died, Antony stabbed himself
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Speaker 1: with his own sword. His men carried him to Cleopatra,
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Speaker 1: and he died in her arms. According to Plutarch, a
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Speaker 1: member of Octavian's staff, secretly warned Cleopatra on August 9
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Speaker 1: that the general was planning to leave for Rome in
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Speaker 1: a few days and take Cleopatra and her children with him.
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Speaker 1: The following day, Cleopatra shut herself away in the mausoleum
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Speaker 1: with two maidservants, Iris and Charmian, and sent a note
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Speaker 1: to Octavian, who was by then staying in Alexandria, likely
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Speaker 1: in the queen's palace. Upon opening Cleopatra's note, which asked
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Speaker 1: that she be buried at Antony's side, Octavian immediately sent
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Speaker 1: his men to investigate. When they broke down the mausoleum door,
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Speaker 1: they found Cleopatra lying lifeless on a golden couch, her
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Speaker 1: two servants dead and dying beside her. Cleopatra was 39
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Speaker 1: years old at the time she died and had ruled
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Speaker 1: Egypt for more than 20 years. Well, according to the
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Speaker 1: most widely repeated theory of Cleopatra's death, she died from
22:39
Speaker 1: a venomous snake bite. inflicted either by an asp, a
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Speaker 1: small viper, or an Egyptian cobra. Hers would have been
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Speaker 1: a particularly poetic suicide because the asp was a symbol
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Speaker 1: of royalty to the Egyptians, while the cobra was associated
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Speaker 1: with Cleopatra's favorite goddess, Isis. Well, there are several problems
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Speaker 1: with this theory, according to Egyptologists. For one thing, cobras
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Speaker 1: were typically at least five feet long and could grow
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Speaker 1: up to eight feet. much too large to smuggle into
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Speaker 1: Cleopatra's mausoleum in a basket of figs, as the story goes.
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Speaker 1: In addition, not all snakebites are deadly, and those that
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Speaker 1: are kill their victims slowly and painfully, making it hard
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Speaker 1: to believe a snake was able to kill Cleopatra and
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Speaker 1: her two maids. in the short time it took for
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Speaker 1: Octavian to receive her note and send his guards. If
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Speaker 1: Cleopatra did poison herself to death, author Schiff and others argue,
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Speaker 1: it's more likely she drank a lethal herbal concoction or
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Speaker 1: applied a toxic ointment, as one ancient historian Strabo suggested.
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Speaker 1: Either of these would have killed her and her servants
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Speaker 1: more quickly and effectively than a snake bite. In 2010,
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Speaker 1: the German historian Christoph Schaeffer suggested that Cleopatra may have
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Speaker 1: ingested a fatal mix of hemlock, wolf's bane, and opium
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Speaker 1: based on his studies of ancient documents and his work
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Speaker 1: with a toxicologist. The truth, however, remains elusive. With no
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Speaker 1: known eyewitness and no primary written accounts of Cleopatra's death,
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Speaker 1: much of what we know comes from Octavian, who some
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Speaker 1: have suggested is a suspect himself. He certainly had a
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Speaker 1: motive to want Cleopatra dead, as the charismatic queen, as
25:39
Speaker 1: long as she was alive, posed a potential threat to
25:43
Speaker 1: his dominance in Egypt. Well, whether or not Octavian ordered
25:50
Speaker 1: the murder of Cleopatra and her maidservants, or simply provided
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Speaker 1: her the space and opportunity to kill herself, what happened
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Speaker 1: next is clear. He directed his guards to hunt down
26:01
Speaker 1: and kill Caesarean, Cleopatra's teenage son, that she had had
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Speaker 1: with Caesar. This would, of course, remove any question of
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Speaker 1: the boy's succeeding his mother on the throne. Octavian then
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Speaker 1: made Egypt a Roman province with himself as emperor. He
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Speaker 1: later took the name Augustus. In his subsequent memoirs, Octavian
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Speaker 1: Augustus ensured his version of Cleopatra and her suicide, snakebite
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Speaker 1: and all, would live on for centuries to come. As
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Speaker 1: for what really happened in that mausoleum, Plutarch may have
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Speaker 1: said it best. Quote, The truth of the matter No
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Speaker 1: one knows. Well, I guess it's time to close once
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Speaker 1: again for another chapter of Radio Eye History. I sure
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Speaker 1: hope that you enjoyed today's program, and I thank you
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Speaker 1: for listening and giving me your time today. I'm your host,
27:29
Speaker 1: Joseph Bolt, and I'll be back next time with another
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Speaker 1: chapter of Radio Eye History. Until then, happy trails to you.