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![]() From this, Churchill understood Caesar as “a man of virtue, correctitude, and impeccability.” Reading Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, he saw an alternate view. In a 1931 essay he admits being misled by political cartoons comparing Gladstone to the famous Roman. Yet Churchill’s view of Caesar was not naive. I suppose there might be half a dozen competitors, including Marlborough, for second place.” 11 Caesar and Napoleon were two biographies Churchill would have liked to write. “Julius Caesar,” he told the boys, “because he was the most magnanimous of all the conquerors.” 10 Churchill’s doctor, recalls his 1955 musings about Napoleon: “He a very wonderful man. On a return to Harrow School he was asked who was the greatest man who ever lived. Caesar’s Commentaries deal with larger numbers, but in Lawrence’s story nothing that has ever happened in the sphere of war and empire is lacking.” 9 * * *Ĭhurchill’s thought about Caesar went beyond a good story or serviceable quotation. ![]() Lawrence, he wrote, “was also the commander. His literary agent Emery Reves was impressed: “Reading the description of events one would swear that you had been a war correspondent at the time of Julius Caesar.” 8Įarlier, Churchill had used Caesar’s work to acclaim T.E. The first chapter of his Birth of Britain relies heavily on Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul. Discussing housing needs in 1944, he referenced the Roman’s description of Gaul: “The subject is divided, like ancient Gaul, into three parts…” 7 But Churchill also delved deeper. He came, he saw, he capitulated.” 6Ĭaesar also occasionally showed up in an offhand manner. 5 (Caesar proclaimed “ Veni, Vidi, Vici” after his victory at Zela.) Describing a Gallipoli commander he wrote: “ General Munro was an officer of swift decision. “They came, they saw, they ran away,” he wrote of Egyptian forces in Sudan. ![]() 4Ĭaesar quotes occasionally inspired Churchill’s. He was an old man, but read magnificently.” 2 During a 1900 lecture tour he wrote: “I am going to-night to see Julius Caesar which I have looked forward to for a very long time, never having seen it given on the stage.” 3 In 1933 he accepted an offer from The Strand Magazine to retell a Shakespeare play, choosing Julius Caesar because he knew it so well. Beaumont a lecture on Shakespeare’s play of Julius Caesar. In 1886, he wrote his mother: “…a certain Mr. 1 Given his schoolboy opinion of Latin, this probably imparted no enthusiasm. Young Winston translated Caesar’s works in school. But Churchill is one of the few who have been compared to Caesar in a meaningful way. Winston Churchill stands among many who have recalled Caesar and the magic of his name. Much of his fame traces to Shakespeare, whose play brilliantly walks the indistinct path of Caesar’s ambiguous character and purposes. His name is both a byword for audacity and genius-and for political corruption and autocracy. The name of Julius Caesar is immortal in the memory of man. (Musée Crozatier du Puy-en-Velay, Wikimedia Commons) Painted in 1899 with certain historical discrepancies: Gauls with long hair and mustaches one captive bears a neck torque, then reserved for gods and royals a Percheron horse not known in Gaul is saddled and harnessed, but Gauls rode bareback a rectangular instead of oval shield and a burning castle. The Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix surrenders to Julius Caesar after the Battle of Alesia (52 BC): oil on canvas, by Lionel Royer (1852-1926).
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