But my favorite Roman jokes are the ones Caesar's veterans told of his sexual exploits. They warned Romans to "lock up their wives" because with them came "the bald-headed adulterer." Caesar was known in his own time as a profound womanizer, but homosexual rumors also dogged him. In his Gallic triumph his veterans chanted a verse celebrating the gossip that Caesar got a little too close with Nicomedes the king of Bithynia, during his time there:
Caesar subdued Gaul - but Nicomedes subdued Caesar:
Behold now Caesar triumphs, who has conquered Gaul -
Nicomedes does not triumph, although he conquered Caesar.
I'm sure it sounded better in Latin:
Gallias Caesar subegit Nicomedes Caesarem:
Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias
Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem.
This particular jest so annoyed Caesar that he actually took a public oath denying it. According to Cassius Dio, all this did was make him look ridiculous. Some things never change, as Idaho senator Larry Craig unfortunately found out this summer: nothing says "I'm gay" like a public declaration that you're not gay.
Technorati Tags: Julius Caesar, Nicomedes, legions, Cassius Dio, Mary Beard, Cicero, Larry Craig
2 comments:
hehe. Thanks for the laugh.
Actually he was the object of ridicule not because he had sexual relations with another man. That was commonly accepted in ancient Rome. No, they mocked him because rumour was that he was a "bottom" in the relationship.
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