The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
Encyclopedia
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome is a 2003 history book by American professor Michael Parenti
. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The book's central argument is that Julius Caesar
was assassinated
because wealthy and conservative elites wanted to block Caesar's reforms.
and demagogue
. If so, then Caesar's assassination can be portrayed as a defence of the Republic. Also, that plebs
or "the Roman commoners" are viewed "as a parasitic mob
, a rabble interested only in bread and circuses."
In contrast, Parenti argues that Caesar's assassination was "one incident in a line of political murders ... [of] popularly supported reformers." Parenti also argues that, despite their traditional depiction as a lazy, criminal mob, the plebs largely consisted of hard-working laborers with practical political and economic concerns.
In more recent times, Edward Gibbon
is presented as a typical "eighteenth-century English gentleman ... in the upper strata of ... society." In contrast, the satirist
Juvenal "offers a glimpse of the empire as it really was, a system of rapacious expropriation."(p. 18) Various other historians are criticized including Theodor Mommsen
. Parenti states that current scholars perpetuate the bias that favors an aristocratic interpretation of history.
Some historians will differ with Parenti's approach. First, Gibbon famously argued that the reigns of the so-called Five Good Emperors, Nerva
through Marcus Aurelius, was the period in which humanity was most content in all of history. Gibbon thus found human happiness in the Imperial system that Caesar influenced and not in the pre-Caesar Republic. Second, it is of note that Juvenal lived and wrote in the Rome of the Caesars, in a society transformed by Caesar and his descendants. Juvenal was not criticizing the by-gone Republic that Caesar had helped to destroy but rather the Empire, the system in fact inaugurated by Caesar. Finally, Mommsen's writing may have been influenced by the politics of his era but he was a German nationalist in an era when "Germany" did not exist, being instead a group of aristocratic fiefdoms. Mommsen was therefore prone to be critical of aristocrats. Parenti also ignores the links drawn in the 19th century between Caesarism and Bonapartism, and critics of Napoleon III often compared him to Caesar, especially after he wrote a book praising Caesar.
s operated crowded tenement apartments that were prone to fire, epidemic disease (such as typhoid and typhus
), structural collapse, and high crime rates.(p. 29) However, "looming over the toiling multitudes were a few thousand multimillionaires"(p. 30) with an "officer class of equites or equestrians
" and "at the very apex ... the nobilitas, an aristocratic oligarchy
."(p. 31) Parenti argues against various opinions that he regards as misconceptions: for example, he states the frequency of slaves being freed (manumission
) should not be exaggerated; manumission was often expensive and only achieved at old age (when the slave wasn't productive anymore) and didn't include the slave's wife and his children.
kings reigned ... [with] exploitative rule"(p. 45) and was overthrown after which the Roman people had an aversion to monarchy
. Instead, Rome had a Senate
elected by the upper class with executive
power held by a pair of consul
s. The consuls had one-year terms and were subject to the veto of the other. Poor Romans could elect tribune
s which were government bodies consulted by the Senate; tribunes had the power to veto legislation but not to propose legislation. Tribunes were elected by open ballot
and, thus, this limited measure of democracy was corrupted by vote buying.
So the Roman Republic was an environment of corruption and partial democracy. Then, Parenti presents the reader with an overview of the political scene:
Some historians would claim that the populares were by no means necessarily the minority, as denoted by the success of Marius, Cinna and Caesar. Parenti uncritically assumes that the populares were earnestly interested in the plight of the common man while the optimates were avaricious. A more nuanced approach would have been more accurate, see the treatment of the optimate Drusus below.
However, Marcus Livius Drusus is considered by some historians to have been an Optimatis (see, for example: Ward, Heichelheim and Yeo, A History of the Roman People, 3rd ed., page 164).
held by most historians. While admitting Cicero's chief fame as an orator, Parenti presents Cicero as a hypocrite
, a sycophant
, and a devious flatterer as well as noting abuse of power. Often, in his public speeches, Cicero would accept the goals of the populares or praise an opponent while, in private letters, he bitterly complained. In particular, Cicero's prosecution of Catiline
for a supposed conspiracy is presented as a witch-hunt
and Parenti notes nine suspicious flaws in Cicero's accusations.(p. 107-111) Most seriously, he states that Cicero's self-aggrandizing prosecution led to several executions as well as a military campaign against a legion of impoverished Roman veterans. (p. 93)
Parenti lists Caesar's measures to relieve poverty; some measures are outright grants to the poor but most are programs to put the plebs to productive work. Also, several measures are taken to curb corruption practices of the wealthy as well as to levy some luxury tax
es. Then Parenti turns to debt relief and contrasts "two theories about why people fall deeply in debt."(p. 151)
In the second theory, debtors are lazy and free spenders. However, Parenti states this model doesn't apply to the poor but rather to the spoiled children of the upper class:
In any case, Caesar's debt relief was aimed at "the laboring masses, not the dissolute few."(p. 153)
Also, Parenti states that:
Then, Parenti firmly argues against the accusation that Caesar was responsible for the burning of the Library of Alexandria
. (See Library of Alexandria
for a detailed treatment of this issue.) Instead, Parenti states that the library:
In an unusual measure, Caesar also proposed a cap on total wealth when:
Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti is an award-winning, internationally known American political scientist, historian, and culture critic who has been writing on a wide range of both scholarly and popular subjects for over forty years. He has taught at several universities and colleges and has been a frequent guest...
. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The book's central argument is that Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
was assassinated
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
because wealthy and conservative elites wanted to block Caesar's reforms.
Analysis
Michael Parenti claims that in most ancient and modern histories, Julius Caesar is characterized as a dictatorDictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
and demagogue
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. If so, then Caesar's assassination can be portrayed as a defence of the Republic. Also, that plebs
Plebs
The plebs was the general body of free land-owning Roman citizens in Ancient Rome. They were distinct from the higher order of the patricians. A member of the plebs was known as a plebeian...
or "the Roman commoners" are viewed "as a parasitic mob
Crowd
A crowd is a large and definable group of people, while "the crowd" is referred to as the so-called lower orders of people in general...
, a rabble interested only in bread and circuses."
In contrast, Parenti argues that Caesar's assassination was "one incident in a line of political murders ... [of] popularly supported reformers." Parenti also argues that, despite their traditional depiction as a lazy, criminal mob, the plebs largely consisted of hard-working laborers with practical political and economic concerns.
Chapter One "Gentlemen's History: Empire, Class, and Patriarchy"
Parenti notes that history is biased towards powerful interests because only the wealthy (or those funded by the wealthy) had the free time to engage in research and writing. Parenti itemizes various ancient writers with a conservative orientation. Also, since most ancient writings have been lost, few opposing views survive into modern times. The writings that have survived favor the elite.In more recent times, Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
is presented as a typical "eighteenth-century English gentleman ... in the upper strata of ... society." In contrast, the satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
Juvenal "offers a glimpse of the empire as it really was, a system of rapacious expropriation."(p. 18) Various other historians are criticized including Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
. Parenti states that current scholars perpetuate the bias that favors an aristocratic interpretation of history.
Some historians will differ with Parenti's approach. First, Gibbon famously argued that the reigns of the so-called Five Good Emperors, Nerva
Nerva
Nerva , was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became Emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65...
through Marcus Aurelius, was the period in which humanity was most content in all of history. Gibbon thus found human happiness in the Imperial system that Caesar influenced and not in the pre-Caesar Republic. Second, it is of note that Juvenal lived and wrote in the Rome of the Caesars, in a society transformed by Caesar and his descendants. Juvenal was not criticizing the by-gone Republic that Caesar had helped to destroy but rather the Empire, the system in fact inaugurated by Caesar. Finally, Mommsen's writing may have been influenced by the politics of his era but he was a German nationalist in an era when "Germany" did not exist, being instead a group of aristocratic fiefdoms. Mommsen was therefore prone to be critical of aristocrats. Parenti also ignores the links drawn in the 19th century between Caesarism and Bonapartism, and critics of Napoleon III often compared him to Caesar, especially after he wrote a book praising Caesar.
Chapter Two "Slaves, Proletarians, and Masters"
"Rome's social pyramid" has many slaves (servi) at the bottom with "a step above ... propertyless proletariat[s]" (proletarii).(p. 27) SlumlordSlumlord
A slumlord is a derogatory term for landlords, generally absentee landlords, who attempt to maximize profit by minimizing spending on property maintenance, often in deteriorating neighborhoods. They may need to charge lower than market rent to tenants...
s operated crowded tenement apartments that were prone to fire, epidemic disease (such as typhoid and typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
), structural collapse, and high crime rates.(p. 29) However, "looming over the toiling multitudes were a few thousand multimillionaires"(p. 30) with an "officer class of equites or equestrians
Equestrian (Roman)
The Roman equestrian order constituted the lower of the two aristocratic classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the patricians , a hereditary caste that monopolised political power during the regal era and during the early Republic . A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques...
" and "at the very apex ... the nobilitas, an aristocratic oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
."(p. 31) Parenti argues against various opinions that he regards as misconceptions: for example, he states the frequency of slaves being freed (manumission
Manumission
Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
) should not be exaggerated; manumission was often expensive and only achieved at old age (when the slave wasn't productive anymore) and didn't include the slave's wife and his children.
Chapter Three "A Republic for the Few"
Next, the formation and nature of the Roman Republic is described. Early in Roman history, "a succession of EtruscanEtruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
kings reigned ... [with] exploitative rule"(p. 45) and was overthrown after which the Roman people had an aversion to monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
. Instead, Rome had a Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
elected by the upper class with executive
Executive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
power held by a pair of consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
s. The consuls had one-year terms and were subject to the veto of the other. Poor Romans could elect tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
s which were government bodies consulted by the Senate; tribunes had the power to veto legislation but not to propose legislation. Tribunes were elected by open ballot
Ballot
A ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
and, thus, this limited measure of democracy was corrupted by vote buying.
So the Roman Republic was an environment of corruption and partial democracy. Then, Parenti presents the reader with an overview of the political scene:
- In the second century B.C., the senatorial nobles began to divide into two groups, the larger being the self-designated as the optimatesOptimatesThe optimates were the traditionalist majority of the late Roman Republic. They wished to limit the power of the popular assemblies and the Tribunes of the Plebs, and to extend the power of the Senate, which was viewed as more dedicated to the interests of the aristocrats who held the reins of power...
("best men"), who were devoted to upholding the prerogatives of the well-born. ... The smaller faction within the nobility, styled the popularesPopularesPopulares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
or "demagogues" by their opponents, were reformers who sided with the common people on various issues. Julius Caesar is considered the leading popularis and the last in a line extending from 133 BC133 BCYear 133 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scaevola and Frugi...
to 44 BC44 BCYear 44 BC was either a common year starting on Sunday or Monday or a leap year starting on Friday or Saturday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the Proleptic Julian calendar...
(p.54-55).
Some historians would claim that the populares were by no means necessarily the minority, as denoted by the success of Marius, Cinna and Caesar. Parenti uncritically assumes that the populares were earnestly interested in the plight of the common man while the optimates were avaricious. A more nuanced approach would have been more accurate, see the treatment of the optimate Drusus below.
Chapter Four "'Demagogues' and Death Squads"
Parenti lists a number of Populares, noting that almost all of them were assassinated. The list includes:- Tiberius GracchusTiberius GracchusTiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
- Gaius GracchusGaius GracchusGaius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populari politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus...
- the second Marcus Fulvius FlaccusMarcus Fulvius FlaccusMarcus Fulvius Flaccus was the name of several Romans, including:* Marcus Fulvius Flaccus * Marcus Fulvius Flaccus -See also:* Fulvius, for other members of the gens* Flaccus, on the cognomen...
- Marcus Livius DrususMarcus Livius Drusus (tribune)The younger Marcus Livius Drusus, son of Marcus Livius Drusus, was tribune of the plebeians in 91 BC. In the manner of Gaius Gracchus, he set out with comprehensive plans, but his aim was to strengthen senatorial rule...
- Publius Sulpicius RufusPublius Sulpicius RufusPublius Sulpicius Rufus was an orator and statesman of the Roman Republic, legate in 89 to Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo in the Social War, and in 88 tribune of the plebs....
- Cornelius CinnaCinnaCinna was a cognomen that distinguished a patrician branch of the gens Cornelia, particularly in the late Roman Republic.Prominent members of this family include:...
- Gaius MariusGaius MariusGaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
- Lucius Appuleius SaturninusLucius Appuleius SaturninusLucius Appuleius Saturninus was a Roman popularist and tribune; he was a political ally of Gaius Marius, and his downfall caused a great deal of political embarrassment for Marius, who absented himself from public life until he returned to take up a command in the Social War of 91 to 88...
- Cnaeus Sicinius
- Quintus SertoriusQuintus SertoriusQuintus Sertorius was a Roman statesman and general, born in Nursia, in Sabine territory. His brilliance as a military commander was shown most clearly in his battles against Rome for control of Hispania...
- Gaius Servilius GlauciaGaius Servilius GlauciaGaius Servilius Glaucia was a Roman politician who served as tribune of the Plebs in 101 BC and praetor in 100 BC. He arranged for the murder of an elected tribune of plebs to make spot for Lucius Appuleius Saturninus who was the next one to become tribune by the votes...
- Sergius CatilineCatilineLucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
- Publius Clodius Pulcher
- Julius CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
However, Marcus Livius Drusus is considered by some historians to have been an Optimatis (see, for example: Ward, Heichelheim and Yeo, A History of the Roman People, 3rd ed., page 164).
Chapter Five "Cicero's Witch-hunt"
Parenti argues strongly against the favorable view of CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
held by most historians. While admitting Cicero's chief fame as an orator, Parenti presents Cicero as a hypocrite
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
, a sycophant
Sycophant
Sycophancy means:# Obsequious flattery; servility.# The character or characteristic of a sycophant.Alternative phrases are often used such as:-Etymology:...
, and a devious flatterer as well as noting abuse of power. Often, in his public speeches, Cicero would accept the goals of the populares or praise an opponent while, in private letters, he bitterly complained. In particular, Cicero's prosecution of Catiline
Catiline
Lucius Sergius Catilina , known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician of the 1st century BC who is best known for the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Roman Republic, and in particular the power of the aristocratic Senate.-Family background:Catiline was born in 108 BC to...
for a supposed conspiracy is presented as a witch-hunt
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
and Parenti notes nine suspicious flaws in Cicero's accusations.(p. 107-111) Most seriously, he states that Cicero's self-aggrandizing prosecution led to several executions as well as a military campaign against a legion of impoverished Roman veterans. (p. 93)
Chapter Six "The Face of Caesar"
This chapter summarizes the life and career of Julius Caesar.Chapter Eight "The Popularis"
Parenti is critical of most of the ancient sources, except for Caesar's writings and those of his supporters. Parenti also says Sulla encouraged the growth of large estates in the Roman countryside (p. 79).Parenti lists Caesar's measures to relieve poverty; some measures are outright grants to the poor but most are programs to put the plebs to productive work. Also, several measures are taken to curb corruption practices of the wealthy as well as to levy some luxury tax
Luxury tax
A luxury tax is a tax on luxury goods: products not considered essential. A luxury tax may be modeled after a sales tax or VAT, charged as a percentage on all items of particular classes, except that it mainly affects the wealthy because the wealthy are the most likely to buy luxuries such as...
es. Then Parenti turns to debt relief and contrasts "two theories about why people fall deeply in debt."(p. 151)
- The first says that persons burdened with high rents, extortionate taxes, and low income are often unable to earn enough or keep enough of what they earn. So they are forced to borrow on their future labor, hoping that things will take a favorable turn. But the interested parties who underpay, overchange, and overtax them today are just as relentless tomorrow. So debtors must borrow more, with an ever larger portion of their eanings going to interest payments ... eventually assumes ruinous proportions, forcing debtors to sell their small holdings and sometimes even themselvs or their children into servitude. Such has been the plight of destitude populations through history even to this day. The creditor class is more just a dependent variable in all this. Its monopolization of capital and labor markets, its squeeze on prices and wages, its gouging of rents are the very things that create penury and debt.(p.151-152)
In the second theory, debtors are lazy and free spenders. However, Parenti states this model doesn't apply to the poor but rather to the spoiled children of the upper class:
- who live in a grand style, cultivate the magical art of borrowing forever while paying back never, as did Caesar himself during his early career. Such seemingly limitless credit is more apt to be extended to persons of venerable heritage, since their career prospects are considered good. ... They treat fiscal temperance as tantamount to miserliness, and parade their profligacy as a generosity of spirit.(p.152)
In any case, Caesar's debt relief was aimed at "the laboring masses, not the dissolute few."(p. 153)
Also, Parenti states that:
- Caesar was the first Roman ruler to grant the city's substantial Jewish population the right to practice JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
... That he has consorted with such a marginalized element as the Jewish proletariat must have been taken by the optimates as confirmations of their worst presentiments about his loathsome leveling tendencies.(p.153-154)
Then, Parenti firmly argues against the accusation that Caesar was responsible for the burning of the Library of Alexandria
Library of Alexandria
The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...
. (See Library of Alexandria
Library of Alexandria
The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...
for a detailed treatment of this issue.) Instead, Parenti states that the library:
- was in fact brought to ruination by a throng of Christ worshipers, lead by the bishop TheophilusTheophilus of AlexandriaTheophilus of Alexandria was Patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, from 385 to 412. He is regarded as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church....
in A.D. 391391Year 391 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tatianus and Symmachus...
. This was a time when the ascendant Christian churchChristian ChurchThe Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
was shutting down the ancient academiesAcademyAn academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
and destroying libraries and books throughout the empire as part of its totalistic war against paganPaganismPaganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
culture.(p.155)
In an unusual measure, Caesar also proposed a cap on total wealth when:
- In 49 B.C.49 BCYear 49 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus...
, he attempted to enforce a law that limited private holdings at 15,000 drachmas in silver or gold, thereby leaving no one in possession of immeasurably large fortunes.(p.164)
External links
- Book website
- A talk by Parenti on this book (a 14MB MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
audio file hosted at IndymediaIndependent Media CenterThe Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
). In the first half of the talk Parenti vividly presents the most controversial statements from his book especially against the 95% of status quo historians whom he described as the "Ciceronian" camp as opposed to the 5% of historians who are "Caesarians". In the second half of the talk, Parenti gives a reading from his book about the day of the Caesar's assassination which is one of the least controversial parts of the book. - Interview on Democracy Now! February 23, 2004, includes audio file.
- Video of Parenti talking about the book A full on 1hr 15min video of Parenti's talk "The Assassination of Julius Caesar" given in Seattle. April 5, 1998. Also in 8 parts.
- Booknotes interview with Parenti on The Assassination of Julius Caesar, September 7, 2003.