Julius Caesar
From Philosopedia
Caesar, (Caius) Julius (13 July 100 B.C.E. - 15 March 44 B.C.E.)
According to Corliss Lamont, Caesar “avowed his unbelief in immortality and was contemptuous of the supernaturalist rituals and sacrifices that he carried out for the sake of political expedience.”
J. M. Robertson remarked that “the greatest and most intellectual man of action in the ancient world had no part in the faith which was supposed to have determined the success of the most powerful of all the ancient nations.” Whereas the illiterate Marius carried about with him a Syrian prophetess, and Sulla carried a small figure of Apollo as an amulet, Caesar was a convinced freethinker who disbelieved in the popular doctrine of immortality. If he offered sacrifices to gods in whom he did not believe, he was simply following the habitual procedure of his age. Froude has written that Caesar’s writings “contain nothing to indicate that he himself had any religious belief at all. He saw no evidence that the gods practically interfered in human affairs. . . . He held to the facts of this life and to his own convictions; and as he found no reason for supposing that there was a life beyond the grave he did not pretend to expect it.”
A memorable evaluation, penned by Alexander Pope: “Caesar, the world’s great master and his own.” His detractors, however, call him a demagogue who forced his way to dictatorial power and destroyed the republic. As for his personal morality, legend has it that Caesar had an affair with the king of Bithynia. Also, Suetonius wrote
- Home we bring our old whoremonger; Romans lock your wives away.
