Caesar

After reading the biographies of four ancient leaders over the last month I realize I am content to be a wife and a mother. Being invisible to most makes it so less people want me bead. At some point their lives Lycurgus, Numa, and Alexander the Great were hunted by people whose only thought was to see them die. Caesar is no exception. In fact almost all his life he has an enemy out to get him. Even as a young man he is taken captive by pirates, whom he later has crucified.

The problem Caesar has was that he had a plan for his life and it included ruling all of the Roman Empire as a dictator. He knew how to make that happen and did it. Among many things he did were he befriended the right people, he married the right people, he married his daughter to the right family. More than the the people he knew, his conduct prepared him and his people for him to rule. He honored Marius, his uncle, who was a rival of Sylla, the master of Rome. It was no secret that Sylla had murdered Marius and his son to avoid their competition. The people loved Caesar for this. He earned the love, admiration, and respect of his soldiers during the war with the Gauls and with the people by not using war to make himself rich or to provide himself with luxury. All four of the men I studied were successful due in large part to this characteristic, generosity. Caesar also worked really hard and kept going despite having epilepsy.

While he was fighting a battle in Britain, Caesar's daughter dies. Her's was a political marriage and her death upset the delicate balance that had been established in the government. A civil ward starts between those who would have Caesar as the sole leader and those who supported Pompey. This civil war was devastating to the people. Caesar succeeds and Pompey is killed after fleeing to Africa.

Caesar has enemies that try to kill him in Africa. He fights a war and wins. Cleopatra ends up ruling Egypt as queen after her brother is killed in the ward. He comes back to rule Rome and is declared dictator for the fourth time, this time for life.

He forgave his enemies and even promoted and befriended them. This proved a fatal mistake as he is murdered horribly by them in the middle of the Senate. The people declare him deity, but also just let go those involved in the conspiracy to kill him after an innocent man is torn limb from limb by a mob.

What a scary time to be alive. The crowds were crazy. The government changed so often, the people had to be in chaos, not to mention what their economic system must have been like. I just can't imagine what would happen if someone murdered the leaders of our country. Our country would erupt with violence and bedlam. This biography does paint Caesar in a good light, but Plutarch did come right out and say that this was his intention in writing his book. I don't really know much about him except what I read here. This makes me what to read Julius Caesar by Shakespeare.

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great had many admirable qualities. He was very generous and well liked throughout all of his life. By the end of his life many who had been thought his friends had betrayed him and many people acted disrespectful toward him.

He was born in July of 356 BC to Philip and Olympias. He claims Hercules and Aeacus as his ancestors. As a child he was very temperate and precocious. The King of Persia, Darius, was very impressed with him. The older he grew the less he delighted in his father's conquests because he felt that they would be one less place for him to conquer. He hoped to inherit a kingdom in turmoil so he would have some action and work to do when he became king.

He studied under Leonides, Lysimachus, and Aristotle. His teachers learned that it was best to persuade rather than compel, he responded much more favorably. He loved learning and reading. He also like to practice the art of medicine. He eventually drifted from Aristotle because he like war too much. At sixteen he started his military career by taking Maedi.

His father was murdered by Paersaias. He left the kingdom a mess, which Alexander set out right away to fix. Before he left he divided all of his property among his friends. He continues this practice the rest of his life. He became very displeased when people refused his gifts more than when they begged. He he was always generous with his friends and spoils them to the point that they eventually go rotten and complain about him. After one particular night of partying and ingratitude he tells them that, “those who labor sleep more sweetly and soundly than those who are labored for.” They start to treat him disrespectfully.

He was also very kind, fair, and respectful to everyone, even those who are taken prisoner of war. Eventually he defeats his long time enemy, the King of Persia. Darius escapes, but his mother, wife, and two daughters are captured. He treats them very well, so much so that they hardly noticed a difference in their lifestyle. When the wife of Darius dies during childbirth he gives her a funeral fit for a queen. After he conquered a land he tried very hard to win the hearts of the people. He tried to make them his people, yet respected their local customs, even participated at times.

He was a temperate man in all respects while a youth. After he conquers as far into Asia as he dares he takes a trip to the ocean. On this trip many things happen that open his eyes to his mortality. He sees his friends for who they are and almost dies. Something changes, he loses his temperance and parties all the way home. At home he dies. Some say he was poisoned by his own mother, who also killed his half brother. There is much to admire in Alexander, but his life is also a cautionary tale. He was too trusting and generous in a biased way. He may have gotten as much pleasure out of giving his belongings to the people of his country as of giving to just his friends, maybe more. The people certainly would have loved him ore than his friends did. He also got a little greedy, which almost cost him his life.

I didn't like this story very much. There was too much military stuff in it. I like the stories about life, I am not interested in military strategy. I guess his whole life was about conquest, but it didn't actually tell me very much about who he really was. I would have liked to have heard more about his relationships and how he dealt with the death of his father, or how he related to his half brother. I would have liked to have had more insight into what he was like as a husband. He certainly seemed like a gentleman. Someday maybe.

Lycurgus and Numa Pompelius

Lycurgus and Numa Pompelius scare me. They were men who set out to reform their countries and did it. Plutarch claims they set us a sort of democracy, but it was more Orwellian communism to me, only scarier, because these were real people living this way, not just characters in a book. Both of their ideas a threat to the freedom and happiness God designed for His children, and no doubt Satan was doing a happy dance for the 500 years that the society Lycurgus set up flourished, and the generations affected by Numa. Not to mention the fact that these writings are now here for any one to read and be “inspired” by.

They both seemed to have stated good intentions; peace, equality, and eliminate poverty and crime. Lycurgus set out to accomplish his goals using violence and education. Numa choose peaceful means and religion, but neglected the education. Here in lies the reason for the success of Lycurgus and the ultimate failure of Numa. Lycurgus taught love of government and obedience from the time they were little children. Plutarch wrote, “Reading and writing they gave them just enough to serve their turn; their chief care was to make them good subjects and to teach them to endure pain and conquer in battle.” he also left the child raising decisions up to a committee of experts, ie old men, because they didn't really belong to the parents, but to the state. Numa didn't worry about education and left children to their parents.

Lycurgus essentially broke up the family. He kept them separated much of the time and made regulations and laws that made it impossible for relationships to be developed. Children were sent to school at seven. Men couldn't even dine at home. Sex was for procreation only and wives could be sold to another man so he could have children after her husband had enough. Numa, essentially, weakened the family but still left it in tact.

There are many other laws and practices they instituted that I am not going to elaborate on because I feel like these are not to emulated, but avoided. As I was reading this I got the feeling that these ideas are so far from God's plan, yet close enough to be mistaken or twisted by some to seem a part of it. I will just leave it at that these men had high ideals, but without God's Spirit to guide us we are guided by Satan. I am go thankful to have a knowledge of the true plan that God has for His children and can see the evil in this kind of society. The people could not have been happy, their animal instincts for food, shelter, and sex were satisfied, but what about the instinct to love and be loved? There could not have been much love anywhere in their society, except that lust that is often mistaken for love, but does not last.