Does Yule mean Julius Caesar

[Divus Iulius]

Is they any connection with "Yule" and "Julius Caesar".

 

Julius Caesar did indeed create the "Julian" Calender and selected December 25 as the Winter Solstice , and upon the death of Julius

Caesar was venerated to the status of a "Sun-God" which would mutate into Sol Invictus.

 

The Christmas Star would then be the "Sidus Iulium", the Comet of Caesar

and also "Venus".

 

The Decoration of "Christmas Tree" with Shiny Metal would then derive from

the decoration of "Trees" or "Cruciform Tropaeum" with Shiny Armour, Swords and spoils of War.

 

The Roman Empire did conquer Britain and the Nordic Countries and the Roman Influences would have spread their..

[GhostOfClayton]

The simple answer to your first question is 'Yes'. Yule is originally northern European, and stems from the ancient Germanic habit of referring to halves of the year as 'Before July' and 'After July'.

 

Not sure that the rest follows logically though. It would be pretty obvious thing to bring an evergreen into your home at midwinter and decorate it. Plenty of evergreens kicking about the northern european forests.

Edited December 14, 2012 by GhostOfClayton

[Melvadius]

Of course as usual only the first line of your question, to which GOH has already provided an answer, is verifiably correct.

 

Christmas trees seem to have developed in the mid/ late 15th Century long after the Roman period with no evidence trail taking them back to any Roman tradition.

 

Julius Casear had no link with the preceding tradition of honouring Sol.

 

In fact Sol Invictus was a much later development and actually derived out of the the provincial Syrian god Elagabalus whose name was taken by the Severan heir.

[Divus Iulius]

Regarding "Cruciform Tropaeums".. were Rome decorated Tree's with Armour, Shiny Objects, and Spoils of War.. When Did Rome stop this Tradition , If one could connect Decorating Christmas Trees with the Decorating of Trees at the End of a victorious Battle , then that can be put forward as an origin for the Tradition.

 

What type of Trees did Rome used to Decorate Armour?

[Melvadius]

Regarding "Cruciform Tropaeums".. were Rome decorated Tree's with Armour, Shiny Objects, and Spoils of War.. When Did Rome stop this Tradition , If one could connect Decorating Christmas Trees with the Decorating of Trees at the End of a victorious Battle , then that can be put forward as an origin for the Tradition.

 

What type of Trees did Rome used to Decorate Armour?

 

Point of order the Romans and Greeks before them simply referred to Tropaeums as can be seen from the Lacus Curtius extract of Willima Smiths' Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities here.

 

As to what

What type of Trees did Rome used to Decorate Armour?

I assume you actually want to know if a specific type of tree was used for Tropaeums and the answer has to be whatever was growing locally and suitable to make a trophy out of to hang armour from and prop the various spoils of war against.

 

BTW nowhere in ancient writings or in articles by reputable scholars have I seen it referred to as necessarily 'cruciform'.

[GhostOfClayton]

To simplify the question. . . Did the Roman Tradition of "Cruciform Tropaeums" evolve into the modern Christian tradition of decorating a Christmas Tree? No.

 

The decorating of an evergreen bough is a pagan (we should use the word ploytheist to be politically correct) midwinter tradition that stretches back into antiquity in northern Europe. After all, in the deepest part of winter, when everything is dead, the still-living evergreen had a semi-religious significance, and also a symbol of hope for the return of the warmer weather. A bough would be brought into the home, latterly at the time of the year where the days stopped shortening, but no doubt (human nature being what it is) in many cases much earlier in the cold season, to be replaced periodically when the needles dropped. If you were a polytheist, and you had a religious object in your house, you'd probably decorate it, wouldn't you? Ockham's Razor applies, ergo Cruciform Tropaemus <> Christmas Tree Decoration. QED.

Edited December 14, 2012 by GhostOfClayton

[Divus Iulius]

 

BTW nowhere in ancient writings or in articles by reputable scholars have I seen it referred to as necessarily 'cruciform'.

 

It would need to be Cruciform for the Armour to be conviently placed upon and all depictions of the Trophy are Cross Shaped.

 

Justin Martyr (Flavius Justus).

But in no instance, not even in any of those called sons of Jupiter, did they imitate the being crucified .... that of the cross....And the power of this form is shown by your own symbols on what are called

[Melvadius]

Not necassrily I would draw your attendtion tothis article by Valerie Hope in whihc she specifically states that

The use of physical structures to commemorate battle sites, specifically victorious battles,

was a long-held Roman tradition, influenced by Greek prototypes. In its original form, a

trophy was a lopped tree adorned with captured weapons and to which prisoners were

chained (Picard 1957). With time such structures took on a more monumental and

permanent form. Mounds of earth might provide a locus for the display of the trophy. In

AD 16 the troops of Germanicus, the emperor's nephew, erected a mound on which they

set up arms with the names of defeated German tribes (Tacitus Annals II, 18).