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That was the title of a show I watched on Discovery Times. The brought in a forensic scientist and Phsycalogical profiler to examine the evidence concerning Ceasar's assassination. Their final conclusion?That Ceasar had a form of epilepsy and knowing and some point he would completely lose control he used the conspiracy of Cassius and Brutus to meet his own ends, namely a form of suicide. He dismissed his body guards and ignored all warnings. He even changed his will just before his murder. They felt because of his vanity he could not allow himself to lose control of his mind. So in effect he commited suicide.
I find this dubious at best. Even if Caesar had epilepsy, he would have not understood it to be a mental illness. He would have perceived it to be a tormenting spirit coming over him. He would have sought a religious answer to “appease” the tormentor whether it be a god or a daemon. If Caesar was that vain, he would never have thought something was actually wrong with himself. IMHO
Good point. I find a lot of their conclusions to be grasping at straws. It seems they always want to change history.
I would imagine that modern scholars get more notice, notoriety, tenure, or book deals when they assert novel/scandalous yet plausible motives or reasons to historical events or people that the rest of us thought was relatively settled. You're not going to hear all that much from academic types who assert standard historical fare because it lacks the “oooooh” factor. Give 'em a good scandal, however, and people take notice. Now watch as Donnie places into his thesis the part where Jonathan Edwards hid a giant gold statue of Zeus right underneath where the U.S. Capitol building is now located...
Now watch as Donnie places into his thesis the part where Jonathan Edwards hid a giant gold statue of Zeus right underneath where the U.S. Capitol building is now located...
Havent heard of that one. Sounds like Discovery channel needs to look into it.
I find this dubious at best. Even if Caesar had epilepsy, he would have not understood it to be a mental illness. He would have perceived it to be a tormenting spirit coming over him. He would have sought a religious answer to "appease" the tormentor whether it be a god or a daemon. If Caesar was that vain, he would never have thought something was actually wrong with himself. IMHO
I would agree with this. In addition, Caesar undoubtedly knew his enemies were around him since he crossed the Rubicon and brought civil war to Rome. It's a path he chose and given turbulent Roman politics after the killing of the Gracchi brothers he should have known that assassination was one answer to internal differences among high officials.
