There is a great battle afoot for planet earth. The stunning reality is that the war began before we were born. As Montesquieu said an empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war. The historical experience of humanity has been that men invested with power are apt to abuse it and carry their authority as far as it will go.
Two thousand four hundred and twenty-one years ago 399 bc Socrates was forced by oligarchs deemed tyrants to drink hemlock because he refused to lie on their behalf. He refused to acknowledge the feudal oligarchy overlord’s choice of gods. He refused to say he knew what he could not.
Plato a friend of Socrates said he saw clearly regarding all states now existing that without exception their system of government is evil.
Plato a renowned philosopher of the century described the oligarchs as among the worst that could possibly govern a population. He decried that the human race will not see better days until either the stock of those who rightly and genuinely follow philosophy acquire political authority or else the class who have political control are led by some dispensation of providence to become real philosophers.
Having sentenced Socrates to death he said I paraphrase I would rather die having spoken my truth than to tell your lies and live. Nor do I now repent speaking the truth in my defense. For neither in war nor yet at law ought I or any man use every way of escaping death. Plato said no one is hated more than he who speaks the truth.
Can you see the modern divisions and similarities? Does it sound like the current war on the Truth of Julian Assange? Do you think the oligarchs had a serious fear of the truth choosing to murder Socrates over it? How would his death affect society’s fears of speaking the truth? Could the oligarchs reason from Socrates and Plato that the absence of truth and philosophy in the general public could allow them to be kept under oligarchy control by limiting the public access to both? Was Socrates’ specific reference to honor in war and law a specific statement about his tribunal’s persecution of a man for speaking the truth? That perhaps the truth should never be persecuted but revered as the divinity of God?
The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 BC and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, along with parts of Germany and the United Kingdom). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homelands against an aggressive Roman campaign. The Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the Roman Republic over the whole of Gaul.
There’s an important distinction to be made here that it was the Germanic and British tribes of Gallia that fought against the Campaigns of Julius Caesar and not the Celtics or the Navari.
Gaius Julius Caesar 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war and subsequently became dictator of Rome from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.
The constitution of the Roman Republic was a complex set of checks and balances designed to prevent a man from rising above the rest and creating a monarchy. To bypass these constitutional obstacles, Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus forged a secret alliance in which they promised to use their respective influence to help each other. According to Goldsworthy, the alliance was "not at heart a union of those with the same political ideals and ambitions", but one where "all [were] seeking personal advantage".
As the nephew of Gaius Marius, Caesar was at the time very well connected with the Populares faction, which pushed for social reforms. He was moreover pontifex Maximus—the chief priest in the Roman religion—and could significantly influence politics (notably through the interpretation of the auspices). In 46 BC, Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals",
The alliance was cemented with Pompey's marriage to Caesar's daughter Julia in 59 BC. Thanks to the alliance, Caesar received an extraordinary command over Gaul and Illyria for five years, so he could start his conquest of Gaul. In 56 BC, the Triumvirate was renewed at the Lucca Conference, in which the triumvirs agreed to share the Roman provinces between them; Caesar could keep Gaul for another five years, while Pompey received Hispania and Crassus Syria.
The death of Crassus ended the Triumvirate and left Caesar and Pompey facing each other; their relationship had already degraded after the death of Julia in 54 BC. Pompey then sided with the optimates, the conservative faction opposed to the Populares, and actively fought Caesar in the Senate, against the Populares faction, which pushed for social reforms.
In 49 BC, with the conquest of Gaul complete, Caesar refused to release his legions and instead invaded Italy from the north by crossing the Rubicon with his army. The following civil war eventually led to Caesar's victory over Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC and the latter's assassination in Ptolemaic Egypt, where he fled after the battle.
As Pontifex Maximus Gaius would have been a high cultural influence on the Greco-Roman philosophy of religion which inspired thinkers of the Roman Empire from 476ce - 31Bce. Greco-Roman philosophy focuses on objective inquiry, asking unbiased questions that favor no particular outcome. These philosophies were often seen as humanity’s first attempt to provide rational explanations for the working of the world, without mythological content. Milesian philosophers tried to explain how nature was made and searched for an underlying element, arche, constituting all matter.
Gaius Caesar was a firm believer in the morality of truth as evidenced by his proclamation as prefect of the morals and his most infamous quotes. “ I’m as constant as the Northern Star, of whose true fixed and resting quality, there is no fellow in the firmament.” “Set honor in one eye and death in the other, and I will look on both indifferently, For let the gods so speed me as I love the name of honor more than I fear death.” He admonished men for believing in lies “Men willingly believe what they wish” Men, in general, are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.” “ What we wish, we readily believe, and what we think, we imagine others think also.”
Brutus said of Caesar “The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power. To speak the truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections swayed more than his reason.
Caesar held both the dictatorship and the tribunate but alternated between the consulship and the proconsulship. In 48 BC, Caesar was given permanent tribunician powers, which made his person sacrosanct and allowed him to veto the Senate, although, on at least one occasion, tribunes did attempt to obstruct him. The offending tribunes, in this case, were brought before the Senate and divested of their office. This was not the first time Caesar had violated a tribune's sacrosanctity
When Caesar returned to Rome in 47 BC, the ranks of the Senate had been severely depleted, so he used his censorial powers to appoint many new senators, which eventually raised the Senate's membership to 900. All the appointments were of his partisans, which robbed the senatorial aristocracy of its prestige, and made the Senate increasingly subservient to him. To minimize the risk that another general might attempt to challenge him, Caesar passed a law that subjected governors to term limits. He was given the right to speak first during Senate meetings. Caesar then increased the number of magistrates who were elected each year, which created a large pool of experienced magistrates and allowed Caesar to reward his supporters.
Caesar even took steps to transform Italy into a Roman province and to link more tightly the other provinces of the empire into a single cohesive unit. This process, of fusing the entire Roman Empire into a single unit, rather than maintaining it as a network of unequal principalities, would ultimately be completed by Caesar's successor, Emperor Augustus.
In 46 BC, Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals", which was an office that was new only in name, as its powers were identical to those of the censors. Thus, he could hold censorial powers, while technically not subjecting himself to the same checks to which the ordinary censors were subject, and he used these powers to fill the Senate with his partisans. He also set the precedent, which his imperial successors followed, of requiring the Senate to bestow various titles and honors upon him. He was, for example, given the title of Pater Patriae and imperator.
In October 45 BC, Caesar resigned his position as sole consul and facilitated the election of two successors for the remainder of the year, which theoretically restored the ordinary consulship, since the constitution did not recognize a single consul without a colleague.
In February 44 BC, one month before his assassination, he was appointed dictator in perpetuity. Under Caesar, a significant amount of authority was vested in his lieutenants, mostly because Caesar was frequently out of Italy.
44 BC, Caesar was due to appear at a session of the Senate. Several senators had conspired to assassinate Caesar. Mark Antony, having vaguely learned of the plot the night before from a terrified liberator named Servilius Casca, and fearing the worst, went to head Caesar off. According to Plutarch, as Caesar arrived at the Senate, Tullius Cimber presented him with a petition to recall his exiled brother. The other conspirators crowded around to offer support. Both Plutarch and Suetonius say that Caesar waved him away, but Cimber grabbed his shoulders and pulled down Caesar's toga. Caesar then cried to Cimber, "Why, this is violence!"
The senators encircle Caesar, a 19th-century interpretation of the event by Carl Theodor von Piloty Casca simultaneously produced his dagger and made a glancing thrust at the dictator's neck. Caesar turned around quickly and caught Casca by the arm. Plutarch, said in Latin, "Casca, you villain, what are you doing?"[Casca, frightened, shouted, "Help, brother!". Within moments, the entire group, including Brutus, was striking out at the dictator. Caesar attempted to get away, but, blinded by blood, he tripped and fell; the men continued stabbing him as he lay defenseless on the lower steps of the portico. According to Eutropius, around 60 men participated in the assassination. He was stabbed 23 times.
The dictator's last words are not known with certainty and are a contested subject among scholars and historians alike. Suetonius reports that others have said Caesar's last words were the Greek phrase: "You too, child?" in English. However, Plutarch also reports that Caesar said nothing, pulling his toga over his head when he saw Brutus "And you, Brutus?", commonly rendered as "You too, Brutus?"); best known from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, where it forms the first half of a macaronic line: "Et Tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar." This version was already popular when the play was written, as it appears in Richard Edes's Latin play Caesar Interfectus of 1582 and The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke & etc. of 1595, Shakespeare's source work for other plays.
The account of Julius Caesar above is one sourced from multiple similar accounts in the history of Julius Caesar. As they all do it scribes the fall of the Roman Empire to Caesar, however, I have a very different perspective I’d like you to consider. That in fact, Caesar wasn’t responsible at all but a victim of slander by the Oligarch’s master manipulators mixing small portions of truth with a large faction of lies.
Using the same sets of facts I present my perspective looking for the truth.
Caesar the Roman general of a Roman Republic that inspired thinkers in Greco-Roman philosophy to maintain a thriving society from 476ce - 31bce or five hundred plus years of success, rescued Gaul from German and British tribes in the region successfully resulting in the expansion of the Roman Republic over the whole of Gaul. He then defeated his political rival who had sided with the oligarchs and conservative factions to oppose Caeser social reformers working for the public good and towards equality to become Emperor of Rome.
Caesar was well connected to the populist class and pushed for social reforms on their behalf. As Pontiff he had significant influence and defined himself as the prefect of Morals with a philosophical focus on objective inquiry, asking unbiased questions, in favor of no particular outcome and without mythological content. When he deemed it appropriate he removed a tribune for immorality not hesitating to overrule a tribune's sacrosanctity.
The Prefect of morals said he was constant as true north and hid behind no mask. Above all things, he cherished honor above life itself. He admonished others for lying and failing to seek honor above their Egos. He was not prone to allowing his egoic desires to sway his rational reasoning.
Filling the Senate with his supporters he promoted his populist social reforms. He put governors on term limits to oppose the rise of excessive political power. He increased the number of judges creating a large pool of experienced magistrates to provide services to the populist class. Before his Assassination, the middle and lower classes appointed their immensely popular Caesar Pater Patriae and imperator prefect of the morals dictator in perpetuity.
He worked to transform Italy into a Roman republic province and tighten other republic provinces into a single cohesive Republic of One. A process of fusing the entire Roman Republic into a unity of equality rather than maintaining it as a network of unequal principalities a task ultimately completed by his appointed successor Augustus.
Augustus would rule the Roman empire as one of the greatest leaders in human history and initiate an imperial cult as well as an era associated with imperial peace and harmony. I’d add that Augustus would rule the Roman Empire when the Roman Jesus of Galilee or Gallia was born in Bethlehem, Is that France is my question, C.6 BCE. and during his prosecution and inquisition by the Pontus Pilot.
Looking back at the questions discussed supra regarding the commentary of Plato. Let’s ask the Socratic questions Plato might raise. Did the Senators responsible for Caesar’s assassination effectively murder the truth as they’d done with Socrates? Did they declare war on a Greco-Roman philosophy founded on truth and objective facts unbiased by mythology as they’d done to Socrates? Were the Senator’s interests driven by desires to acquire more wealth and power? Has murdering truth, philosophy and honorable rule of law become a trend with Socrates and Caesar?
Does the intellectual world need the virtuous rational analysis of true facts fundamental to the logic of right reason in philosophy and to the rule of law? Are these fundamental true requirements for a free Government to survive based on the supremacy of the law? Does Tyranny begin where the law ends? Can Human freedom exist without the rule of law?