Opinion Caesars wife
At the recent interaction with electronic media,PM said Caesars wife must be above suspicion.
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At the recent interaction with electronic media,PM said Caesars wife must be above suspicion. This is an expression he,or his speech-writers,are fond of,because he has used it in the past.
We are familiar with the expression too,without necessarily being aware of its origins,unless one is steeped in Roman history. So I decided to track it down. First,which Caesar is this? There has been more than one. This is the easy part. As expected,this is Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC). But which wife is this? Julius Caesar had three wives.
Thanks to Shakespeare,we are more familiar with the third and last one,Calpurnia. The first was Cornelia Cinnilla. Julius Caesar married her when he was 18 and she was 13. Cornelia died in childbirth at the young age of 26,having given birth to Caesars only offspring,Julia. The suspicion part is not about Cornelia,but about the second wife Pompeia. In 62 BC,Pompeia organized a festival in honour of a goddess named Bona Dea,in Caesars house. The cult of this goddess was associated with chastity and fertility in women,and men werent allowed to participate in,or enter,the festivities.
There was a politician named Publius Clodius Pulcher.
As a legislator,he later pushed for a grain dole.
Do you detect a parallel with NAC and right to food there? Evidence clearly showed Clodius had an illicit relationship with Pompeia. In addition,disguised as a woman,he entered the Bona Dea festivities.
Though evidence was strong,Caesar refused to testify against Clodius. Do you detect a parallel with Raja there? If you are not convinced,it has been written about Clodius,His suspected ability to win the wife of Caesar,might be read as indicating the potency of his political influence. Despite evidence,jurors were bribed to ensure Clodius acquittal and he and Caesar remained close.
Plutarch wrote,Caesar divorced Pompeia at once,but when he was summoned to testify at the trial,he said he knew nothing about the matters with which Clodius was charged. His statement appeared strange,and the prosecutor therefore asked,”Why,then,didst thou divorce thy wife?”
“Because,” said Caesar,”I thought my wife ought not even to be under suspicion.” The parallels are extremely strong. Why did Caesar divorce Pompeia and later marry Calpurnia Pisonis? The reasons were entirely politican,designed to cement Caesars position. PMs speech-writers have greater sagacity than we give them credit for.
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