Only a few historical figures retain their renown in the relentless
march of time, with one yardstick being widespread, continuing
depictions across various cultures. Two of these are prominent figures
from the ancient Graeco-Roman world, but their legacy is enduring -
one's name is still used for a victorious champion (especially in the
Indian subcontinent) and the other's for a monarch in his own land as
well as wide swathes of Europe and Asia down to the modern age, still
names a month and is forever linked with today's date (or the Ides of
March).
Their historic achievements apart, both Alexander the
Great (356-323 BC) and Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) also had a major
cultural impact - right from their own eras down to the present - in
literature and later in film, TV, comics, radio and even video games.
But
while the Macedonian monarch-turned-world conqueror has become more of a
legend - figuring in folklore, scriptures of three religions (Judaism),
Christianity (some denominations) and Islam (though opinion is divided
if he is the Quranic Dhul-Qarnayn), epics like "The Alexander Romance"
(by an unknown author), Ferdowsi's "Shahnameh" and then starring in
"Iskandernameh", the Roman general and statesman remains mostly grounded
in fact. This could be due to the survival of much of Caesar's own
writings and accounts of his contemporaries as well as the more lasting
nature of his accomplishments.
The most-known works featuring
Caesar are William Shakespeare's eponymous play of 1599 (though he
appears only in three scenes but gives us some memorable lines), and the
Asterix the Gaul comic series, where he is the principal - but
honourable and long-suffering - antagonist. This depiction draws quite
on his real persona - including inclination for decisive action,
legendary temper, eloquent speech and habit of referring to himself (in
his works) in the third person. Another comic appearance was in MAD's
"MAD Clobbers the Classics" section (as Julius Seesaw along with Mock
Agony, Brutish, Cautious and others).
But Caesar has a wider
appearance in other significant literature of the Western world - in his
lifetime, he figured in the popular poems of Catullus, and in the next
century (the first century after Christ), in Virgil's epic "Aeneid" and
Lucan's poem "Pharsalia".
In the medieval era, he figures in
Dante's "The Divine Comedy" where Canto IX shows him in a section of
Limbo meant for virtuous non-Christians, along with some other Greeks
and Romans (though assassins, Brutus and Cassius and lover, Cleopatra,
are among souls of the wicked in the lower regions of hell) while his
civil war and assassination figure in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"
(the "Monk's Tale"). Closer to our time, is George Bernard Shaw's play
"Caesar and Cleopatra" (1898).
He is no stranger for modern
fiction - and has mostly a positive role but not always. One of the
first to feature him - but as a villain - was Talbot Mundy's historical
(with some fantasy elements) novel "Tros of Samothrace" (1934) where
Caesar (and Roman civilization's) depiction as imperialistic and
tyrannical kicked off a furious debate in letters' section of
newspapers.
Then there is American author Thornton Wilder's
epistolary novel "The Ides of March" (1948), dealing the events leading
to his assassination but with some poetic licence - and latitude (as the
author admits) and likewise in Italian author Valerio Massimo
Manfredi's 2008 novel of the same name.
But a definitive work -
quite close to history as possible - is the seven-volume Masters of Rome
series by Australian writer Colleen McCullough, which spans most of the
Roman Republic's turbulent last century (c.110 BC-27 BC). Caesar comes
onstage towards the end of the first book "The First Man in Rome"
(1990), figures in "The Grass Crown (1991)", takes centrestage midway
through "Fortune's Favorites" (1993), stars in "Caesar's Women" (1995),
and "Caesar (1997), and bows out in the middle of "The October Horse"
(2002). On public demand, McCullough brought out "Antony and Cleopatra
(2007)" as the series' definitive ending.
British writer Conn
Iggulden's Emperor series - "The Gates of Rome" (2003), "The Death of
Kings" (2004), "The Field of Swords" (2005), "The Gods of War" (2006),
and "The Blood of Gods" (2013) take a considerable amount of liberty
with facts - making Caesar and Brutus contemporaries - but is still
readable if this doesn't bother you.
A soldier's point of view is
the basis of two six-volume series - British writer S.J.A Tuney's
"Marius' Mules" (2009-14) as well as American writer R.W. Peake's
"Marching With Caesar" (2012-13) (and two related novels including
"Caesar Triumphant" (2014) on the premise Caesar avoids assassination
and his subsequent career).
"The evil that men do lives after
them/The good is oft interred with their bones.." was his lieutenant
Mark Antony's funeral peroration in Shakespeare's play but Caesar's
literary role proves the Bard wrong!
(15.03.2015 - Vikas Datta is
an Associate Editor at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can
be contacted at [email protected])
