Absence of Lictors.....

[guidoLaMoto]

-- doesn't seem to be a Reply tab on Guy's post and can't find the OP on this topic. ..BUT--

According to Suetonius-- as Caesar sat down  before the assembled Senate, several conspirators approached him as if to pay respects. The lictors were probably behind or off to the side and not positioned to defend Caesar from the attack which began suddenly and unexpectedly. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/suetonius/suetonius-on-the-death-of-caesar/ (ch 82)

Maybe the better question is what did they do in the immediate aftermath of the attack? Maybe they just scrammed realizing that they had just failed their mission?

Edited July 8, 2024 by guidoLaMoto
Spelling correction

[indianasmith]

Didn't Caesar dismiss his lictors a couple of days previously? Or is that just a detail from speculative fiction?

If they were present, they would have been bound by law and tradition to defend him to the death.

[guidoLaMoto]

Suetonius addresses the plot and assassination in paragraphs 80 thru 83....then states in paragraph 86 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0061%3Alife%3Djul.%3Achapter%3D86%3Asection%3D1 that Caesar had dismissed his Spanish bodyguards ("custodias Hispanorum cum gladiis"-- guards with swords of the Spanish) No reference to timing of the dismissal....Are these equivalent to the official lictors?

We have only the summary of Livy's treatment of the subject (Book 116) which is quite brief.

In the days of The Republic, each consul was assigned 12 lictors who only carried the fasces without the axe blade when within the bounds of the Pomerium..... A Dictator was assigned all 24 lictors and they each maintained the bundled rods with axehead at all times.

Edited March 7 by guidoLaMoto

[indianasmith]

Correct!  Of course, Suetonius was writing over a century later . . . does anyone else mention Caesar having "Spanish bodyguards"?
That seems such an odd term.

Caesar was extraordinarily self-confident, from all I have read.  He may have dismissed his lictors to show the people of Rome that he did not fear assassination.
If so, not a wise move!

[guidoLaMoto]

The Latin in that paragraph is a little ambiguous-- note that Hispania = Spain, Hispani = Spaniards and Hispaniensis = Spanish.... As we said recently in another thread, we today commonly refer to the short, double edged sword usually used by Roman legIonaires as a gladius, but that's really just the general name for sword (cf- gladiator= swordsman). The particular sword of the legIonaires is correctly called gladius Hispaniensis = Spanish sword.....

In that quote, Suetonius uses the terms custodias cum gladiis hispanorum....adspiciendium = with swords of the exposing Spaniards.....???......That's usually translated as "Spanish guards with swords exposed"....but if I were asked to translate that English into Latin, it would be "custodias Hispanienses cum gladiis adspectis."

In that paragraph, Suetonius is speculating on Caesar's state of mind, that maybe he had become tired of living and  his efforts were no longer worth it. "Sunt qui putent..." = There are those who may think....

I don't know what other historians wrote. Livy's actual comments are lost. I'm trying to find Dionysius of Halocanarssus' reference, but I don't do Greek, so would have to rely on translations, which can be questionable as seen above.

Edit-- silly me....D of H only covered The Founding thru the Punic Wars.

 

 

Edited March 9 by guidoLaMoto

[indianasmith]

It's a shame we don't have more contemporary records of Caesar's final years. 

[guidoLaMoto]

A little more searching reveals:....Polybius called it "gladius Hispaniensis" but Livy used the term "gladius hispanus," consistent with Suetonius' passage. ....Either way, to translate  "custodias cum gladiis hispanorum" as Spanish guards with swords rather than guards with Spanish swords is a misrepresentation of the original thought.....The real confusion comes from the word "adspicientium"- an adjective in the plural genitive case, therefore modifying hispanorum, when it should be in the plural ablative if it is to modify "gladiis."....A scribe's error perpetuated thru the ages??