he also hoped that he was setting a positive example, by laying down his power and retiring to private life, once he'd re-established republican government.
Heh! Isn't that also what Augustus said he'd done? (And of course, I'm thinking of all the killing that Sulla ordered as well - that set a rather different precedent for others, didn't it?)
He's such a great man, and yet he creates this situation in which the people who ought to have been closest to him feel that they have no option than to destroy him.
I think the other thing that makes Caesar so charismatic is that he was, comparatively, so merciful to his defeated enemies. Now, perhaps he was just foolishly trusting (or really, really conniving) or whatever, but I think it's the fact that he did "forgive" Brutus and Cassius and Cicero and then Brutus and Cassius murder him ... that kind of sticks in my craw a little bit too, I have to say (viewed purely as a personal tragedy, I mean, not as historical necessity or as a judgment of political systems or anything else.)
I put "forgive" in parentheses, because I did really like how Brutus in last night's episode pointed out that from his perspective he hadn't done anything that NEEDED forgiveness (well, yet, anyway!)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-11-15 01:51 am (UTC)Heh! Isn't that also what Augustus said he'd done? (And of course, I'm thinking of all the killing that Sulla ordered as well - that set a rather different precedent for others, didn't it?)
He's such a great man, and yet he creates this situation in which the people who ought to have been closest to him feel that they have no option than to destroy him.
I think the other thing that makes Caesar so charismatic is that he was, comparatively, so merciful to his defeated enemies. Now, perhaps he was just foolishly trusting (or really, really conniving) or whatever, but I think it's the fact that he did "forgive" Brutus and Cassius and Cicero and then Brutus and Cassius murder him ... that kind of sticks in my craw a little bit too, I have to say (viewed purely as a personal tragedy, I mean, not as historical necessity or as a judgment of political systems or anything else.)
I put "forgive" in parentheses, because I did really like how Brutus in last night's episode pointed out that from his perspective he hadn't done anything that NEEDED forgiveness (well, yet, anyway!)