Critical Thinking & Persuasive Writing Exercise Ancient Studies Honorable Men? Or Ambitious?: Brutus, Cassius, and Julius Caesar

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1 Honorable Men? Or Ambitious?: Brutus, Cassius, and Julius Caesar Select one of the following scenarios for your writing assignment, due at the end of your history block class on Wednesday, March 4, or Thursday, March 5: Scenario 1: The year is The trustees of Asheville School have voted in a recent board meeting to adopt a new team name and mascot for the school. After much debate, they reached consensus that Liberators would replace Blues as the team name. However, the trustees could not agree on the mascot; Brutus & Cassius had many supporters, as a pair and as individuals, but so too, for very different reasons, did Julius Caesar. (Mr. Gregory even wrote a special plea, reminding the trustees that the Renaissance Italian poet Dante had placed Brutus and Cassius in the ninth and lowest circle of hell, along with Judas Iscariot, in his great work, The Inferno.) The trustees knew to tread carefully with students and teachers so well versed in the Humanities. In their fear of getting it wrong, they turned to the third form scholars of Ancient Studies to decide: Which figure would best inspire Asheville School students to fight for freedom in the athletic arena today, and in society throughout their lives? Your task is to write a letter explaining and defending the choice you want the Board to make. Consider all the material you have encountered in your Ancient Studies course as well as the specific documents accompanying this assignment, and then write a letter identifying and supporting your choice. Explain the Roman definition of Liberty most consistent with Asheville School values today. Explain what your figure(s) did to promote liberty in ancient Rome, and what obstacles your figure faced or overcame in the fight for freedom. Explain why the other figure(s) is/are not a good choice, and what he/they did to undermine the cause of true freedom. Throughout your letter, draw on specific evidence from the course and the documents to help you make your case. Remember, you may soon be wearing a uniform with either Caesar or Brutus & Cassius on it, and you want to be able to wear that uniform with pride so help the trustees to get it right! Scenario 2: The year is 712 Ab Urbe Condita (or 41 BC), and you are a member of the Senate in Rome. Marcus Antonius has defeated the army of Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi a year ago. Though he and Caesar s heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, have lingered in the East making sure the provinces remain under Roman control, Antony has sent word to the Senate that he would like to celebrate a Triumph for his victory over the conspirators who murdered the great Julius Caesar. The Senate is divided: some senators owe their positions to Caesar, while others have remained quietly supportive of old senatorial tradition. (The more vocal, active, or committed traditionalists have found themselves dead, either through proscription, battle, or suicide.) Antony s proposal has sparked an unusually vigorous debate. Supporters view the Triumph as the proper means to celebrate the life and achievements of Caesar and to 1

2 show scorn for the dishonorable assassins. Opponents, in turn, argue that now is the time instead to honor the noble liberators and to remind the Roman people of the tyranny that the ambitious Caesar imposed. Important evidence already is in circulation throughout Roman society. Simonus Panifex has published an account of events in his book, Modern Rome (this will go through many later editions and be republished in 2008 as Simon Baker s Ancient Rome). A clever playwright, Villiamus Shakspurius, has written and staged a popular production bringing the thoughts and deeds of leading Romans to life (William Shakespeare will borrow heavily from this drama centuries later). The reading public also has access to accounts from Plutarch, Sallust, and Cicero. You know these works well, and they have influenced your thinking; you can draw from them and from the accompanying documents as you prepare your speech. Your task is to write a speech for delivery in the Senate arguing either for or against the Triumph. Specifically, you should: Assess the life and achievements of Julius Caesar. Did he help Rome with his reforms, or did he destroy the very essence of the free Republic? Assess the motivations and actions of Marcus Brutus. Did he think and act honorably with respect to Caesar and to Rome? Assess the motivations and actions of Caius Cassius. Did he think and act honorably with respect to Brutus, to Caesar, and to Rome? Your goal throughout should be to persuade your fellow senators to take the proper action in response to Antony s request and to the recent painful history of Rome. 2

3 PLUTARCH: Life of Brutus When the Roman state split into two factions with Pompey and Caesar taking up arms against one another, and the whole empire was thrown into confusion, it was generally expected that Brutus would choose Caesar s side, especially as his father had been put to death at Pompey s orders some years before. But Brutus believed he ought to put the public good before his private loyalties, as he was convinced that Pompey had the better reasons for going to war. (4) [After Pompey s defeat at Pharsalus, Brutus] wrote to Caesar, who was delighted to hear he was still alive, and invited Brutus to join him. Later, Caesar not only pardoned him, but treated him as one of the most honored members of his circle Meanwhile, Brutus even succeeded in allaying Caesar s anger against Cassius. (6) At this time there were a number of praetorships vacant, and it was expected that the one which carried the greatest dignity, that is the praetorship of the capital, would be conferred upon Brutus or Cassius. According to some accounts this circumstance created still more disharmony between the two men Brutus had little more than his honorable reputation and his record for upright dealings to set against Cassius s many brilliant exploits to during Crassus s campaign against the Parthians. However, when Caesar had listened to each man s claims and was discussing the affair with his friends, he summed it by saying: Cassius has the stronger case, but we must give Brutus the first praetorship. Cassisus was appointed to another praetorship, but he was more resentful about the post he had lost than the grateful for the one he received. (7) At any rate, there seems little doubt that Brutus could easily have become the first man in Rome, if he had had the patience to serve for a time as Caesar s deputy and wait for his power to pass its zenith and the glory of his achievements to fade. But it was Cassius with his violent temper and his hatred of Caesar which had its roots in personal animosity rather than ant disinterested aversion to tyranny who influenced Brutus s feelings and urged him on. Brutus, it is said, was opposed to the dictatorship, but Cassius hated the dictator. (8) SALLUST: Roman Decline Ambition tempted many to be false, to have one thought hidden in their hearts, another ready on their tongues, to become a man s friend or enemy not because they judged him worthy but because they thought it would pay them, and to put on the semblance of virtues that they had not. At first is was not so much avarice as ambition that disturbed men s minds a fault which come nearer to being a virtue. For distinction, preferment, and power are the desire of good and bad alike only, the one strives to reach his goal by honorable means, while the other, being destitute of good qualities, falls back on craft and deceit. (WW ) 3

4 CICERO An Enemy of Freedom Speech addressed to Antony Then you placed the diadem on [Caesar s] head: the people groaned. He took it off and they applauded. So, criminal, you were ready, alone among all that gathering, to propose that there should be a king and autocrat at Rome; to transform your fellow- consul into your lord and master; and to inflict upon the Roman people this ultimate test of its capacity to suffer and endure Far be it from me to distract from the glory of our noble liberators. Yet such is my grief that I must speak out. Seeing that the man who rejected the diadem was killed, and was, by general account, killed justly, it is appalling that the man who made him the offer should still be alive. (WW 334) Your ambition to reign, Antony, certainly deserves to be compared with Caesar s. But not in a single other respect are you entitled to the same comparison. For the many evils Caesar inflicted upon our country have at least yielded certain benefits. To take a single example, they have discovered who are fit to be entrusted with their fortunes, and who, on the other hand, need to be shunned [B]rave men have now learnt to appreciate the noble achievement, the wonderful benefaction, the glorious renown, of killing a tyrant[.] What men could not endure in Caesar, will they endure in you? Mark my words, this time there will be crowds competing to do the deed. (WW ) CICERO: Let Us Not Be Enslaved to a Tyrant! That the Roman people should be slaves is not right. On the contrary, the immortal gods have granted Rome the rulership of all the nations of the earth. We have come to a moment of extreme crisis. The issue is whether we art going to be free men, or not. You must win, Romans. And surely your patriotism and unanimity will bring this about. You must do anything ill the world rather than lapse into slavery. Slavery is what other peoples may have to endure. What belongs to the Roman people is freedom. (WW 348) 4

5 SIMON BAKER Ancient Rome: But where Tiberius s character was by turns idealistic and gentle, stubborn and ambitious, it would take an altogether more meticulous, cold and ruthless mind to harness the power of the people and drive it to its logical conclusion. Such a mind would use the people not simply to take on the conservatives in the Senate, but to rise to power outside the legal apparatus of the republic; it would use them not for the sake of land reform, but to achieve sole mastery of the Roman world. (100) In Rome, during the hundred years before Christ the idea of liberty became the subject of a fierce debate. In that debate two freedoms clashed time and again: the freedom of the aristocratic elite and the freedom of the Roman people What turned this ideological debate about freedom into a bloody, violent and messy revolution was a highly personal quality, one that went to the very core of Roman aristocratic values: dignity. A Roman noble s sense of prestige, honor and political standing was paramount prized by aristocrats above all else. Ironically, it would be the very same quality that would drive Julius Caesar to fight a civil war and to destroy the corrupt aristocratic milieu that so cherished it. ( ) The constitutionalists were fighting for their traditional freedom to exercise their dignity equally and without interference from others in the pursuit of a glorious career; the [constitutionalists feared] tyrants, would- be kings and powerful individuals who put their interests above those of the republic. The populists, on the other hand, were struggling for the people to have freedom from the domination of the elite, and the freedom to pass their own laws. (103) Learning from the ruthless example set by Sulla, Pompey and Caesar would, over the next two decades, accumulate more personal power and influence in Rome than any politician before them. Unlike Sulla, however, they sought to boost not the power of the Senate, but the power of the populists. ( ) The alliance of [Caesar and Pompey] was potentially so powerful and threatening that, at the election for the consulship in the summer of 60 BC, the conservatives led by Cato would stop at nothing to prevent Caesar and Pompey from getting their way The year of Caesar s consulship represents the logical conclusion of the long struggle between the populists and the constitutionalists. Above all, it shows how the populists had now gained the upper hand. For the striking innovation of 59 BC was that the leading populist of the day, the man who was prepared to buck tradition and defy the wishes of the Senate, was no longer a tribune of the people. He was a man in possession of one of the greatest sources of power in the republic the consulship. When, on other days of voting on Caesar and Pompey s program, his fellow consul Bibulus repeatedly tried to obstruct the public business by declaring that the omens were not good, Caesar simply ignored him and pressed ahead anyway. Was Caesar breaking the law? Cato certainly thought so. In the feverish tension of 59 BC, Caesar and Pompey compounded their illegalities. They introduced once again an ominous element used by both sides in the war of popular politics: brute force. In order to make sure that the land bill went their way, gangs of Pompey s thugs simply entered the Forum on the day of the voting and cleared it of all opponents to the bill. ( ) 5

6 The dour, tenacious senator [Cato] remained utterly determined to stop Caesar s accumulation of power, and now he believed he had the weapon with which to do it. Cato assured his allies that he had grounds for prosecuting Caesar in a court of law over the illegalities perpetrated during his consulship. Yes, it was true that while Caesar was still in office, Cato could not touch him. But as soon as the term of his commands in Gaul came to an end and he returned to Rome, Caesar would be taken to court like a common criminal. (116) When Caesar arrived in Gaul he had no instructions or legal authority to wage war. Indeed, just the year before a law had been passed curbing the arbitrary actions of Roman provincial governors. Caesar would have known all about this. It was none other than he, as consul, who had devised and proposed the bill. And yet even regarding his own populist laws, Caesar was meticulous in calculating the moment to break them. (117) There was uproar in the Senate, Cato s being the loudest voice. Caesar, he said, was simply doing as he pleased: illegally instigating wars with independent tribes not subject to Rome; illegally levying troops and filling up his legions with non- Roman citizens; and illegally granting them citizenship. He was, cried Cato, his own self- appointed judge and jury, heaping crime upon crime against the republic! (118) Caesar s own acute sense of his dignity had been at the heart of his pursuit of office in Rome, had motivated his actions as consul, and was now driving him on to even greater feats of glory in Gaul. The effect of that ambition was to build for Caesar an unprecedented power base both abroad and at home. ( ) [T]he awesome, terrifying coldness of Caesar s decision at Alesia [shows] the extremes to which he was prepared to go in the name of his dignity and that of the Roman people. (129) The conquest of Gaul had brought its proconsul astounding personal riches, as well as unparalleled glory in the eyes of the Roman people and a quasi- private fighting force of ten Roman legions prepared to do whatever he asked of them. Cato, knew it, his allies knew it, and even Pompey knew it. The knowledge only brought with it unease. (131) Caesar knew that as soon as he became a private citizen, Cato would pounce and prosecute him for his alleged crimes as consul in Rome and proconsul in Gaul. Yet the idea that he, Caesar, the man who had sweated blood to win Gaul for the glory and benefit of the republic, might be treated as a petty criminal was absolutely out of the question. Who was the whinging Cato to tell Caesar what to do? Such a prospect was completely beneath Caesar s dignity. (132) Caesar s unprecedented demands made it easy for Cato to present him as the would- be tyrant, as the man bent on destroying the republic, the man whose grotesque greed and ambition were driving him to seize power. (133) In a bid to drive an unmistakable wedge between Pompey and Caesar, an intense pressure offensive began. While the consuls of 51 BC attacked Caesar publicly in the Senate for holding on to his command, Cato worked on Pompey privately, playing to the general s insecurity. (134) And yet as both sides stepped closer to outright confrontation in the latter half of [50 BC], the majority of the Senate wanted to pull back from the precipice. In November the senators voted 6

7 by 370 to 22 for peace. But that meant only one thing: giving in to Caesar s wishes. To Cato that was simply unconscionable. (136) On no account was Caesar to dictate conditions to the Senate, [the constitutionalists] cried. With this, the political process came to a dead end and war was inevitable. The consuls passed an ultimate decree of the Senate. (137) Such an unseemly exit [for Antony, Caelio, and Curio] was a fitting conclusion for the stand- off, for it gave Caesar one final proof of the Senate s injustice, one last piece of propaganda. The contemptuous, corrupt and arrogant senators had yet again insulted the liberty of the Roman people by threatening the tribunes and violating the sanctity of their persons. (138) The general himself described his spin offensive in a letter of the time: I have of my own accord decided to show all possible clemency and to reconcile myself to Pompey ; Let this be a new style of conquest, to make mercy and generosity our shield. (140) The city s poor were left behind, many in tears, morose and resigned to being taken captive. It left the impression that perhaps Caesar was indeed right: the rich did not care for the Roman people, but just for themselves. (142) To fight the war against the armies of Pompey and Cato, Caesar told the Senate [in 49 BC], he needed money from the state treasury. A tribune of the people called Metellus vetoed the request, protesting that it was against the law. Caesar snapped, stormed out of the meeting and declared that in the war against the enemies of the republic he was going to take the money anyway. The people s politician, the man whose whole career had depended on his alliance with the tribunes and the defence of their sacred rights, now forced Metellus aside with the words, It s easier for me to kill you than argue with you. The gold reserves of the republic were Caesar s. But before he left the city, there was time for one last act of illegality. As if a king, he appointed a praetor to take care of Rome on his behalf. (145) To the enemy Romans who survived [the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC], Caesar showed clemency once again in a first step to heal the sick republic. He also pardoned the noblemen who fought against him. (151) On his return to Rome in 46 BC, Caesar celebrated four lavish triumphs; his veterans were given a lifetime s salary, and there was a gift of money for every Roman citizen. Between 49 and 44 BC Julius Caesar was voted four consulships and four dictatorships. With the power that these offices granted him, he honored his pledges to reform the republic and restore the liberty of the people. Legislation, ranging from the suspension of rent for a year to the settlement of veterans and the urban poor in Italy and in colonies abroad, was enacted, but it was by no means the revolutionary, radical overhaul that the conservatives feared. (152) In January 44 BC [Caesar] ostentatiously rejected the title and crown of a king, yet a religious cult and statues suggest that he accepted deification. When, in February, he agreed to the office of dictator in perpetuity, it was hard to escape the reality that Caesar now ruled as an autocrat, as Rome s first emperor. ( ) 7

8 SHAKESPEARE: Julius Caesar What means this shouting? I do fear the people Choose Caesar for their king. Cassius: Ay, do you fear it? Then I must think you would not have it so. I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. ( ) Cassius: I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Caesar. And this man Is now become a god, and Cassius is A wretched creature and must bend his body If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. ( ) Cassius Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. ( ) Caesar: Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek- headed men, and such as sleep- a- nights, Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous. Such men as he be never at heart s ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous. ( ) Casca: I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it. It was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown (yet twas not a crown, neither; twas one of those coronets), and as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but to my thinking he was very loath to 8

9 lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it a third time. He put it the third time by, and still as he refused it the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and fell down at it. ( ) Cassius: Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see Thy honorable mettle may be wrought From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes; For who so firm cannot be seduced? If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humor me. I will this night In several hands in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely Caesar s ambition shall be glanced at. ( ) Casca: Indeed, they say the Senators tomorrow Mean to establish Caesar as a king, And he shall wear his crown by sea and land In every place save here and Italy. Cassius: I know where I will wear this dagger then; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius. ( ) And for my part I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general And to speak truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections swayed More than his reason. But tis a common proof That lowliness is young ambition s ladder Whereto the climber- forward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees, By which he did ascend. So Caesar may. Then lest he may, prevent. ( ) 9

10 Let s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. We ll all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, And in the spirit of men there is no blood. O, that then we could come by Caesar s spirit And not dismember Caesar! But, alas, Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends, Let s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully. Let s carve him as a dish fit for the gods, Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. ( ) Decius And know it now: the Senate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you shall send them word you will not come, Their minds may change. ( ) Cinna: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. Cassius: Some to the common pulpits and cry out Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement. People and Senators, be not afrighted. Fly not; stand still. Ambition s debt is paid. ( ) Antony: O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! ( ) If there be in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar s, to him I say that Brutus love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar living, and die all slaves, than Caesar were dead, to live all freemen? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him. As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it. As he was valiant, I 10

11 honor him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? ( ) Antony: The noble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answered for it. He was my friend, faithful and just to me, But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambitious? ( ) Antony: Have patience, gentle friends. I must not read it. It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. You are not wood, you are not stones, but men. And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you; it will make you mad. Tis good you know not that you are his heirs, for if you should, O, what would come if it? ( ) Antony: Through this the well- beloved Brutus stabbed, And, as he plucked his cursed steel away, Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it, As rushing out of doors to be resolved If Brutus was so unkindly knocked or no; For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar s angel. Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! This was the most unkindest cut of all. For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, Ingratitude, more strong than traitors arms, 11

12 Quite vanquished him. Then burst his mighty heart ( ) Remember March; the ides of March remember. Did not great Julius bleed for Justice sake? What villain touched his body that did stab And not for justice? What, shall one of us That struck the foremost man of all this world But for his supporting robbers, shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes And sell the mighty space of our large honors For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I had rather be a dog and bay at the moon Than such a Roman. ( ) Antony: Villains, you did not so when your vile daggers Hacked one another in the sides of Caesar. You showed your teeth like apes and fawned like hounds And bowed like bondsmen, kissing Caesar s feet, Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind Struck Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers! ( ) Antony: This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he Did that they did in envy of great Caesar. He only in general honest thought And common good to all made one of them. His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him that nature might stand up And say to all the world This was a man ( ) 12