Gaius Julius Caesar’s familial name thrives as a massive influence on the political world in the Greco-Roman society. Caesar’s political genius extends into his impressive speeches and poems, whether or not you realize they are for propaganda. His charisma, intellectual aptitude, generosity, and another host of impressive traits solidified his great position (despite his, as Britannica calls it, ‘unlovable personality’). However, I don’t want to talk about his political achievements, but rather share some other interesting stories.
Pirates
In 75 BCE, a group of Sicilian pirates captured the 25-year old Julius Caesar, unknowing of their distant bad luck. Caesar raised his ransom from 20 talents to 50 talents, humouring the pirates for not knowing who the great Caesar was. And so this great commander took to bossing the Pirates, forcing them to listen to his speeches and poems, joining in on their activities, and acting as if he were their leader.
Despite threatening to crucify them, the pirates thought their prisoner was merely jesting. Once the ransom was paid, Caesar gathered a naval force, hunted the pirates down, and non-jestingly crucified them.
Nicomedes
Five years following the Pirate escapade, Caesar travelled to Bithynia to fetch a naval fleet from the king, Nicomedes. Accordingly, Caesar spent a little too much time at the kings court, and so a rumour bloomed that the two had sexual relations. This is completely unproven, though the rumour sat in Caesar’s reputation for far too long. HIs enemies and comrades would often jest. However, Caesar had legitimate reasons to grow his public reputation at the king’s court, to give speeches and form those connections.
The leap year
Prior to 45BC, the Romans used a calendar based on the lunar cycle, dictating that there were approximately 355 days in a year. Consulting with the Astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar implemented the somewhat prideful Julian Calendar, following the solar cycle. Although Pope Gregory XIII improved on it (creating the also prideful Gregorian calendar we use today) this implemented the base of our current model, and accounted for the additional quarter of a day in every solar cycle. Thus, they created a calendar with 365 days, with every fourth year a leap year.
Camelopard
With images, we have the fortune to see pictures of almost anything. The Europeans in 46BC in fact did not have pictures, especially when Ceasar brought a giraffe. Creatively, the Romans believed this appeared as a mix between a leopard and camel (and perhaps four extra necks). Some also called the giraffe a (roughly translated) ‘wild sheep’, and “the tallest, the most gentle, and the most useless of the large quadrupeds”.
Also unlike today, the Romans saw killing a rare uncharted species as a display of power. So Caesar had this useless quadruped killed in the arena by a group of not-so useless lions.
