Julius Caesar - The Mind of a Dictator

Julius Caesar - The Mind of a Dictator | History Documentary

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2 жыл бұрын

Julius Caesar - The Mind of a Dictator | History Documentary
Watch the short form of this video here: • Julius Caesar - Conque...
Warning: This video contains graphic historical medical images.
Julius Caesar is one of the most powerful men in history. An astute politician and moving public speaker who was adored by the common man. He was a masterful, but ruthless, military tactician who added huge swathes of Northern Europe to the Roman Republic.
He was also famous in his lifetime for being the husband of every woman in Rome.
His actions brought about a devastating Civil War and he was made perpetual dictator - Emperor in all but name - before being brutally assassinated after ignoring warnings for his safety
Find out about his epileptic seizures in his final two years and what could have caused them - brain tumour, tapeworm or something else and how his brain disorder could have cost him his life by affecting his judgment.
Discovering more for yourself
So much has been written about Julius Caesar, it is hard to know where to begin. His own accounts of the Gallic and Civil Wars, tell you a lot about him and these can be downloaded for free, but Greg Woolf’s book Et tu Brute is a detailed, but not too detailed, look at how Caesar walked into his assassination. There’s also an excellent section on how his death reverberated through history, across Europe and in America. It's available through my Amazon Store. www.amazon.com/shop/professor...
References:
Gaius Julius Caesar - The Gallic War (Loeb Classical Library, 1917)
Gaius Julius Caesar - The Civil Wars (Loeb Classical Library, 1914)
Lucretius - On the Nature of Things (Translated Leonard, 1916)
Plutarch - The Parallel Lives (Loeb Classical Library, 1919)
Suetonius Tranquillus - The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Loeb Classical Library, 1913)
Academic References:
Cawthorne, T. (1958). Julius Caesar and the falling sickness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 51, 27-30.
Dirckx, J. H. (1986). Julius Caesar and the Julian emperors: a family cluster with Hartnup disease?. The American Journal of Dermatopathology, 8(4), 351-357.
Galassi, F. M., & Ashrafian, H. (2015). Has the diagnosis of a stroke been overlooked in the symptoms of Julius Caesar?. Neurological Sciences, 36(8), 1521.
Gladhill, B. (2012). The Emperor's No Clothes: Suetonius and the Dynamics of Corporeal Ecphrasis. Classical Antiquity, 31(2), 315-348.
Gomez, J. G., Kotler, J. A., & Long, J. B. (1995). Was Julius Caesar's epilepsy due to a brain tumor? The Journal of the Florida Medical Association, 82(3), 199-201.
Hughes, J. R. (2004). Dictator Perpetuus: Julius Caesar-Did he have seizures? If so, what was the etiology? Epilepsy & Behavior, 5(5), 756-764.
Hyam, J. A., Paterson, D. J., Aziz, T. Z., & Green, A. L. (2011). Depiction of the neuroscientific principles of human motion 2 millennia ago by Lucretius. Neurology, 77(10), 1000-1004.
Imparato, F. (2016). Celiac disease could have been the cause of Caesar’s epilepsy. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 50(9), 797.
McLachlan, R. S. (2010). Julius Caesar's late onset epilepsy: a case of historic proportions. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 37(5), 557-561.
Montemurro, N., Benet, A., & Lawton, M. T. (2015). Julius Caesar's epilepsy: Was it caused by a brain arteriovenous malformation? World Neurosurgery, 84(6), 1985-1987.
Theodore, W. H. (2021). Epilepsy in the Hippocratic collection: Seizures and syndromes. Epilepsy & Behavior, 115, 107704.
Wolf, P. (2014). History of epilepsy: nosological concepts and classification. Epileptic Disorders, 16(3), 261-269.
Copyright Disclaimer
The primary purpose of this video is educational. I have tried to use material in the public domain or with Creative Commons Non-attribution licences wherever possible. Where attribution is required, I have listed this below. I believe that any copyright material used falls under the remit of Fair Use, but if any content owners would like to dispute this, I will not hesitate to immediately remove that content. It is not my intention to infringe on content ownership in any way. If you happen to find your art or images in the video, please let me know and I will be glad to credit you.
Images
Wikimedia Commons
National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, Netherlands
Public Domain or used on Fair Use basis for education purpose
Music:
Mahler: Symphony Number 7 - Gerard Arthus - Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Holst: Mars - Bringer of War - Skidmore College Orchestra - Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Video produced by Professor Graeme Yorston and Tom Yorston.

Пікірлер: 34

@roymerritt9927 2 жыл бұрын

In January of last year, I was in the hospital having my excessive plaque removed from my left carotid artery. On my third day there I was visited by the vascular doctor who treated me and a neurologist. The neurologist asked me if anyone had ever told me I had a brain tumor. I answered no. A CT scan was ordered for me and I had two more days in the hospital. Later after further tests, I was informed the tumor was benign and calcified. I was also told I had arteriovenous in my brain as well which are entangled veins that cause a lot of blood to travel into a major artery and can result in a stroke. And I was told it may have been there since my birth. I have never had any outward problem as a result of it, at least none that I am aware of. And I have never had seizures. But over the last year, I've had spells of dizziness which in turn lead to nausea and often compel me to lay down. I'm 73 and considering I have serious heart trouble and combined with that it has caused me some consternation. But as far as all that goes I'm not reckless or foolhardy. I came I saw and I left it along.

@professorgraemeyorston 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing Roy.

@susanmenegus5543 Жыл бұрын

Bless you and stay strong sir.

@indigocheetah4172 10 ай бұрын

Hello , Professor Yorston, your channel is a treasure. The research , delivery , editing and content , are second to none.I was fascinated of the life of Julius Caesar. I'm surprised that there are not more viewers. Thank You .

@professorgraemeyorston 10 ай бұрын

Thank you, numbers are growing slowly.

@LoisThiessen 11 ай бұрын

I appreciate the information you shared in this video. History is not cut and dried; it is extremely helpful to have a more nuanced take on causes and effects of historical events. Thank you.

@professorgraemeyorston 11 ай бұрын

Thank you.

@raystaar 11 ай бұрын

That this fascinating video has only been seen by 1500 people in the last year is a blot on the KZfaq algorithm.

@professorgraemeyorston 11 ай бұрын

I couldn't agree more!

@ElkoJohn Жыл бұрын

His willingness to go to his death, without showing any fear, would fit the profile of other famous warriors.

@1wor1d 10 ай бұрын

6:27 "Veni, vidi, vici" Caesar did not utter these words after his campaigns in Gaul, which took many years to subdue. It was after he achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela, in what is now Turkey.

@tiggerjones1323 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting

@professorgraemeyorston 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks again Tigger!

@churchofdivusiulius4352 9 ай бұрын

After studying much about JC's life, I think the last explanation is correct. He had some type of illness and suspected his remaining life to be short, so he chose martyrdom. More importantly, he also perhaps planned his own apotheosis, desiring to create a new religion with himself as the monotheistic god of the Roman empire. The details of his funeral as recorded by historians of the time include the fact that a wax effigy of his martyred body was displayed on a tropaeum, the Roman emblem of victory used in triumphs. It would have looked just like a person hanging on a crucifix. Another little known fact about JC was that he preached and practiced a program of compassion and forgiveness of his enemies known as the clementia caesaris. He mentions it in his book The Gallic War, and other ancient writers also write about it. Hundreds of temples to Divus Iulius were built around the empire by Augustus and were marked as places of clemency for fugitives who could get to one. Mark Antony was the high priest of the cult of Divus Iulius, the defied god who he became, and Augustus was well known (you can view it on his coins) as Divus Filius, the Son of God.

@professorgraemeyorston 9 ай бұрын

Thank you, very interesting.

@churchofdivusiulius4352 9 ай бұрын

@@professorgraemeyorston For more details see "Jesus Was Caesar" by Francesco Carotta.

@jenniferkubik478 5 ай бұрын

I would be interested if you did a video like this on Nero. I remember reading something about him a few years ago.

@professorgraemeyorston 5 ай бұрын

Nero is next on the list.

@bradleypierce1561 14 күн бұрын

Thank you for this video. I have always been interested in Julius Ceaser, and I am constantly looking for any new information I can find on this great man.

@professorgraemeyorston 13 күн бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it.

@tonkysue207 Жыл бұрын

Really surprised this channel not larger,hidden gem.💙uk

@professorgraemeyorston Жыл бұрын

Thank you, it's growing!

@taranullius9221 Жыл бұрын

Completely agree.

@taranullius9221 Жыл бұрын

Shout out to JTR tour on YT too. One of the best Ripperologists and ridiculously under-subbed. What could be better than history meets medicine or history meets crime? I can't think of anything. Maybe butterscotch schnapps.

@WildMen4444 3 ай бұрын

Ave Divus Julius!

@professorgraemeyorston 3 ай бұрын

I'm not sure he was divine, he seems to have been just as human as the other powerful figures in Roman history.

@carlossummers4992 Жыл бұрын

💛

@professorgraemeyorston Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it!

@richardshiggins704 11 ай бұрын

"The noblest Roman of them all" . This is the most hypothetical of your insights as we shall not know for certain what was the cause of Caesar's suspected epilepsy . It might well have been idiopathic .

@professorgraemeyorston 10 ай бұрын

Trying to draw medical conclusions on limited information that is 2000 years old is always going to be a bit speculative.

@leonidragozin2247 28 күн бұрын

The low survival rate of women after caesarian section doesn't deny the fact of caesarian section - that even corroborates the version of caesarian origin of Caesar!

@professorgraemeyorston 27 күн бұрын

Not sure I follow your logic.