Yo, César - Ep.2 (El Imperio Romano)

El hombre clave en la agonía de aquella República iba a ser Cayo Julio César, de quien nadie hubiera creído cuando nació que estaba reservado a semejante protagonismo histórico. De sangre noble, con antepasados que se remontaban a la diosa Venus, pero de estatus económico y social mediocre, su bisabuelo y su padre solo habían llegado a ser pretores (magistrados públicos). Pero él era más listo y muchísimo más ambicioso. César fue un hombre extraordinario, en el sentido lato del término. Su personalidad es una de las mejor conocidas de la historia antigua, gracias al interés por el detalle con que redactaron sus biografías Suetonio y Plutarco, dos autores coetáneos que escribieron a fines del siglo I, es decir, siglo y medio después de su muerte. Escucha la historia completa en el podcast. Déjanos tu comentario en Ivoox o Spotify, o escríbenos a [e-mail] Comparte nuestro podcast en tus redes sociales, puedes realizar una valoración de 5 estrellas en Apple Podcast o Spotify. Texto: Alberto Porlán Dirección, locución y producción: Iván Patxi Gómez Gallego Contacto de publicidad en podcast: [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

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Great story reports present the Roman Empirechapter two I Caesar, a text by

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Albert. For a century before thebirth of Christ, Rome was the proud
capital of the hegemonic power of theWest. In a few generations it had
gone from being a grouping of barbaroustribes established in the Etruscan- dominated Tiber

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hills to becoming the engine of history. Many causes converged in that transformation,
but the main of all was theirform of government. From the end of
the fourth century B C, whenTarquinius, the proud last Etruscan king,
was overthrown, they evolved into arepublican form of government that would last half

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a millennium, but nothing forever isthe Roman Republic. Senatus populusque Romanus began
to show clear signs of decay.Problems of all kinds were never lacking,
because their own growth made governance increasinglydifficult. When the n g lo xomero
came before Christ, the bottom seaof social inequality had fractured Roman society so

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much that the republican structure remained ona miraculous footing. The basis of all
the problems was the resistance of theopulent aristocrats to yield a span of their
privileges, which had turned the Senatebuilt as the sacred temple of dialectics into
a den of particular interests. Thearistocratic faction, the right led by the

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potent crass had won for its causethe upper middle class sector, the optimates
against the popular graco. Left.Among them were few secrets, because Rome
was a hot line for all talk, more than a political institution. The

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Senate was then a market or astock exchange where he sent the money.
He bought opinions and votes to gainmore power to make more money with.
It could be said that the RomanRepublic finally succumbed to the apotheosis of the
same human vices that harass the presentcapitalist democracies, corruption, greed, sectarianism,

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amichism and vanity. The key manin the agony of that republic was
to be Callo Julius Caesar, whomno one would have believed when he was

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born, who was reserved for sucha historical prominence of noble blood, with
ancestors dating back to the goddess Venusbut of mediocre economic and social status.
His great- grandfather and father hadonly become public magistrates, but he was
smarter and far more ambitious. Caesarwas an extraordinary man in the sense of

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the term. His personality is oneof the best known in ancient history,
thanks to the interest in the detailwith which he wrote his biographies. Suetonius
and Plutarch, two contemporary authors whowrote at the end of the 1st century,
that is, a century and ahalf after his death. Suetonio is

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agile and light, while Plutarch isdense and neat. But the sharpness in
the analysis of Caesar' s personalityis the heritage of both. Penetran in
his personality through subtle details such asthe one offered by Suetonius, never fed
such a deep hatred not to giveup on him willingly if the occasion was
presented. As we know, notonly at decisive moments is the consistency of

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a character, but also the dailydetails proved. Caesar, for example,
was bald since he was young andalso smug, so when he was crowned
with Laurel, he sought a specialcrown that almost completely concealed his baldness.
Until then, he had used atrick to comb the hair that he called
ironically moving, which consisted of puttingthe hair on the back of his head

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and the wingers up to the topof his skull. Plutarch adds of the
detail that he scratched his head witha single finger so as not to disturb
such delicate work of precision anecdote ApartCayo, Julius Caesar was an ingenious,

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elegant and generous cult. Refined hisoratory was the best in Rome. He
wrote as a teacher in prose andverse. He had a great character and
all women loved him and he lovedhim. He also demonstrated unusual military capabilities,
and not only as a strategist whowon a hundred battles, but also
in terms of the immediate command ofthe troops, because he was involved in

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the operations personally and because his menknew that he was a determined person who
faced the obstacles of face and overcameit with wit and determination. He ate
the ranch with the soldiers and lookedafter them like the girls in his eyes.

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He knew how to be inflexible whennecessary, but usually he was indulgent
with the troops that felt understood byhis general and gave the best in combat.
His soldiers showed him a blind fidelityborn of absolute trust. They knew
Caesar would never betray them because hewas one of their own. They had

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seen him walk between the rain andthe mud in front of them when,
at the decisive hours of the Rubiconpass, he gathered his beloved 13th legion
to expose him frankly to the situationthat forced them to march on Rome itself,
facing the rest of the army,and then confessed that he had no
money to pay them His veterans.Those who had accompanied him for ten years

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of campaigns, not only agreed tofollow them, but contributed to it by
voluntarily surrendering their personal spoils of warto make possible the train expedition in combat

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was prudent or daring depending on thecircumstances, but as a person, it
was immoderate by nature what is saidto be a guy capable of everything,
even to impose on his lack ofgenerous moderation until waste, but also greedy.
He became fond of luxury since hebegan to say fruit and his tastes
were refined. He had a passionfor precious stones, big pearls and gold,

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as well as for the most expensiveslaves and slaves he bought at prices
that shocked himself. But he couldalso be more austere than anyone else if
the case came his whole life heknew how to moderate himself with wine,

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which was unusual among the Roman potentatesand he was not too demanding with food
as a young man. It wasthin, but robust. Then he became
fat to the point, leaving asidethe sporadic epileptic attacks suffered by the sacred
evil. He had perfect health.In its best military times, it came
to make marches of one hundred andzero steps that come to be about seventy

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kilometers. Their disproportionateness applied especially tosexual territory. He wasn' t graceful.
In addition to his baldness, hehad a prominent chin, arched mouth,
and lower lip thicker than the upperlip, and something fell. But

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still, I magnetized women. Hehad a well- earned reputation of performing
more in bed than the best ofhis legionnaires, who, by the way,
loved that facet of his general.They came into the cities to cry
out for citizens. It is totell your wives that the adultererer Calvo has
arrived. Bald had three wives andhundreds, perhaps thousands of diamonds, more

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or less sporadic. Among them muchof the women of the most prominent citizens
of Rome, including Murcia, wifeof his colleague of Pompey triumvirate, which
earned him the hatred of many principals. In any case, it seems that
the two great loves of his lifewere Servilia, the mother of Brutus,

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one of his murderers and, accordingto rumors, never approved, his son
and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt andmother of his son Ceaseon. Apart from
that approved fire with women, hisenemies had not forgotten that, as a
boy he marched into one of theAsian wars and, instead of fighting,

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he was chosen by the king ofBitinia or Comedes, who loved the ephebs
to be part of his entourage.It seems that some Greek merchants invited by
Nicomedes had seen him acting as theking' s cupbearer in the company of
other young men of pleasure and Caesarhad to bear to be called Queen of

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Bitinia by his rrio ival bibulo orto face the curion dictatorship that came to
refer to him as man of allwomen and woman of all men. It
was a woman who made things easierfor her. At the beginning of his

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career. Her lover Tértula, wifeof the potent Crassus, who got her
husband to make a big loan tobuy the Senate votes enough to be sent
to Hispania with a military command.Caesar took advantage of his Hispanic successes to
make himself known in Rome and whenhe returned in the sixty- fifth year

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before Christ, he was appointed citycouncillor, in which, according to his
contemporaries, he organized new and unknownshows. Until then, he bowed politically
on the popular side, aligning himselfwith grace, and the Senate managed to
remove him from his hands, namingHispanica' s proposed rector. Then other

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debtors appeared, because Caesar was dealingwith the big thing by claiming it before
leaving to Hispania the payment of thetwenty- five million sesterces that he owed
them crasso. He became his guarantoragain and when he returned to Rome,
as the victor of the Iberian tribesand laden with Gold, his political estimation
and popularity made a qualitative leap.He was elected a member of the first

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triumvirate, an alliance never officially recognizedthat divided power between Pompey, Krasso and
him Crassus. He then went onto fight the births, whose riches were
considered fabulous, and died in anabsolutely horrible way. When General Parto,

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who had voked him to a peaceconference, offered to placate his thirst for
gold, he definitely had him maniacatedand poured gold at him. Melted down
the throat, Pompey stayed in Romeand Caesar went to conquer the Gauls.

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It was the Mediterranean strip that legionswere forced to travel to reach Hispania.
It was Caesar who put France onthe maps and its treasures in the coffers
of Rome. For seven years hefought tirelessly against Gauls, Belgians and elbetics,
leaving behind a million corpses. Accordingto modern estimates, a real genociide.

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He even dared to land in Englandin search of his beloved pearls.
In addition, he wrote a detailedchronicle of how he made his deb gallic
veil comment on the Gaul War.With Gaul subdued and enormous prestige accumulated.

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On his return, Rome had toface Pompey, who had moved on to
the side of the aristocrats. Hecrossed the rubicon with that famous alle Hacta.
It' s lucky it' sthrown out. On the first day
of the forty- ninth year beforeChrist and in less than three months he
entered Rome, after Pompey' sshameful flight, which had double forces than

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his own. The decisive battle tookplace on the plain of Farsalia. There
Caesar demonstrated his military talent and hisveterans what they had learned in the galleys.
The balance of losses resulted in twohundred deaths on Caesar' s side
and fifteen zero on Pompey' s, who fled Egypt with his wife.

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Once there pharaoh Ptolemy the thirteenth,who was a vassal of Rome and knew
the result of Farsalia, cut offhis head to be pleased to cease.
When he landed in Egypt, followingPompey in the spirit of capturing and pardoning
him. The Egyptian presented it tohim on a tray, even though things

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were getting worse in Rome. Caesarremained nine months in Egypt, magnetized this
time by Ptolemy' s sister Cleopatra. In the end, as his soldiers
threatened to revolt, he returned toRome and settled the conflicts in Hispania,
from where he no longer arrived.Wheat Goa Rome beating Pompey' s at

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the Battle of Munda the current Montillain Cordoba. But the real problem was
among his own, a part ofwhom disapproved of his relationship with Cleopatra and
feared that the most fanatical faction wouldproclaim him king by liquidating a five-
century republic. Thus they conjured themselvesto murder him on the day of the

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Idus in March, that is,on the fifteenth of that month. That
morning there were signs and warnings.His wife Calpórnea dreamed that she saw him
covered in blood and unsuccessfully begged himto stay home. A street fortune teller
cried out to him to guard himselffrom the March days, to which Caesar
responded. We are and the soothsayersentenced mysteriously, but they haven' t

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passed yet. Minutes later, inthe Senate room and the conjurers stabbed him
one by one. The faithful frameAntonio, who had been entertained at the
entrance, discovered him lying in ahuge pool of blood. Thank you for

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