From pages 26-27
Vengeance, however, was not only the opposite of the Clementia Caesaris,
but also of the amnesty that had been granted to the murderers to prevent the annullment of the
Acta Caesaris, which had not only made the distribution of land to the veterans possible, but, more
importantly, preserved Octavianus’ inheritance.
Although the omission of criminal
prosecution of the Caesar murderers was incomprehensible to the people, even
detested by them, Octavianus could not enforce his vengeance plans immediately and
legally—election as tribune of the people, enabling him to drag the murders before a
people’s court, was denied to him by Antonius—but finally through his private army,
thus illegally.
After the undecided battle at Mutina, Antonius had to join him anyway,
and together with Lepidus, who had been in favor of an immediate retaliation
campaign against the murderers even on the evening of the Ides, they formed the
triumvirate. They stated that since Caesars Clementia had been misused by unfaithful
backstabbers in order to kill him, they preferred to counteract them rather than suffer
under them.
The condemnation of the sympathizers of the Caesar murderers
ensued, with the terrible proscription lists and the war against Brutus and Cassius, who
were defeated at Philippi. The price for the vengeance was enormous: The estates of
the towns of Italy blacklisted by the triumviri did not suffice for the allotment of land
to the countless soldiers who had been recruited for the victory at Philippi, others had
to be dispossessed because the monies Antonius was supposed to collect in the East for
the settlements could not meet the exorbitant requirements, either.
pick up at top of p. 29
Francesco Carotta
They stated that since Caesar’s Clementia had been misused by unfaithful
backstabbers in order to kill him…
Steefen
“Father forgive them for they know not what they do” equates to Caesar’s Clementia in effect [Caesar speaking forgiveness] at the time of his death.
Hm, someone told me I MUST read about the Gracchi brothers.
As for further context:
“After three years of this bloodthirsty rule, Sulla resigned the office of dictator and withdrew to the country. But his proscription lists remained in the memory of the survivors like a sinister image of terror, and Sulla’s ambiguous fame was proclaimed on his tomb with the words: «He did good to his friends and evil to his foes like none before him.”
So, before Clementia Caesaris, the forgiveness of Caesar-Jesus, we have Sulla’s goodness to friends and evil to foes.
Cicero was overwhelmed. That was more than he could understand. He felt himself all the more dearly called to play in his own way the philosophical accompaniment to Caesar’s historical deeds. «We do not find with you what we have found with every victor in civil war. You are the only one, Gaius Caesar, at whose victory no one has lost his life, except in battle.» So he addresses the dictator. In dithyrambic speeches he praises the clementissimus dux, the most-merciful leader, his «unique and unheard-of», his «wonderful and praiseworthy clementia». With wise insight he speaks in letters to friends of Caesar’s «unique humanity» and «incredible generosity», of his «mild and good nature».
The senate too was carried away by the general attitude, and made a unique decision in honour of the unique historical’ moment. It appointed Caesar as father of his country and decreed that a special temple should be built for the clementia Caesaris. There Caesar and his divine clementia were to be set up and worshipped, and on the pediment of the temple a globe of the world would proclaim that the clemency of Caesar spanned the whole world.
“On the day of Caesar’s funeral, the feast of the Liberalia, according to custom, the priestesses of Liber-Dionysus, old women wreathed with ivy, sat in the city distributing flat-cakes called liba of which they sacrificed parts for pious takers on sacred, portable, small stoves. These flat-breads were imprinted by the cult association of Liber Pater, the Roman Dionysus-Bacchus, with the grain goddess Ceres, the Roman Demeter, whose two symbolic elements, wine cup and bread host, live on in our Christian Eucharist.”
Apparently, Apollo was not that which could make [Octavian] popular with the people, to whom Ceres—because from her came the grain, thus the bread—remained more important and with her Dionysus, her cult-associate who, at the latest after his identification with Osiris, was not only regarded as wine god, but also as originator of grain cultivation [think Lord of the resurrecting cycle of crops].
A Sacrifice in the Passion of Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ
= = =
History of Julius Caesar
Bread and Wine
The celebration of Liberalia is tied to the Passion of Julius Caesar because Caesar’s funeral took place when it was celebrated on March 17. The celebratiion was meant to honor Liber Pater, an ancient god of fertility (for the wheat along with grapes and olives grown by Romans) and wine. Liber Pater is also a vegetation god, responsible for protecting seed.
In fact, during the 1950’s, the theologian Ethelbert Stauffer recognized Caesar’s funeral ritual as a unique passion liturgy, later found in the Roman Good Friday liturgy. As we have seen, the staging of Caesar’s funeral has to be attributed to Fulvia, then the wife of Antonius.
Antonius held the eulogy. Fulvia had Caesar’s bloodstained garments, and even his bloody, defiled corpse on display for the people, using an effigy fastened to a cross-shaped tropaeum raised above the bier. This incited the people to revolt and thus, we thank Fulvia for the original performance of the Passion, as it is reflected in Christian Easter, i.e. the most important, and for a long time, only Christian celebration.
Christianity
Bread and Wine of Communion
Steefen said
Apparently, Apollo was not that which could make [Octavian] popular with the people, to whom Ceres—because from her came the grain, thus the bread—remained more important and with her Dionysus, her cult-associate who, at the latest after his identification with Osiris, was not only regarded as wine god, but also as originator of grain cultivation [think Lord of the resurrecting cycle of crops].
The Egyptian god Osiris and the Greek god Dionysus had been equated as long ago as the 5th century BC by the historian Herodotus (see interpretatio graeca). By Late Antiquity, some Gnostic and Neoplatonist thinkers had expanded this syncretic equation to include Aion, Adonis, Attis, Mithras and other gods of the mystery religions. The composite term Osiris-Dionysus is found around the start of the first century BC, for example in Aegyptiaca (Greek: Αιγυπτιακά) by Hecateus of Abdera, and in works by Leon of Pella
In the 19th century, the idea of a pan-Mediterranean cult of the dying-and-rising demigod was used by Alexander Hislop in his anti-Roman Catholic treatise The Two Babylons. Hislop argued that Roman Catholicism was based not upon Biblical Christianity, but upon pagan cults of the divine mother goddess and her suffering son (e.g. Cybele and Attis, etc.).
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In 435BC, Greek historian Herodotus, in his Histories (pgs. 92; 100) gave his account of things as follows:
… For the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods in the same manner, except Isis and Osiris, who, they say, is Bacchus; but these deities they all worship in the same manner.”
In 40BC, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, in his 20-volume Historical Library, stated the following (aggregate quote):
“The initiatory rites of Demeter in Eleusis were transferred from Egypt (1.29.2). The rite of Osiris is the same as that of Dionysus and that of Isis is very similar to that of Demeter; the names alone having been interchanged, and the punishments in Hades of the unrighteous, the Fields of the Righteous and the fantastic conceptions, current among the many – all these were introduced by Orpheus in imitation of the Egyptian funeral customs.
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Francesco Carotta wrote “For Curio [Fulvia] could only arrange a funus imaginarium in Rome, at which, according to custom, a life-sized imago, a wax effigy was displayed in place of the missing body.21” This footnote refers to the custom, not to the claim that Fulvia did this.
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