Julius Caesar’s funeral
Caesar assassination’s was on 44 B.C. at Ides of March (March 15) in the Curia of Pompey in the Campus Martius, was killed with 23 stab wounds; on the eve of the Ides, arguing about which was the best death, he had told to Marcus Lepidus "However else they prefer a quick and sudden".
The news spread immediately, the streets emptied and fear rampant in the Urbs; even the murderers were afraid and took refuge on the Capitoline Hill.
Caesar's body was placed on a stretcher and taken to the Domus Publica, where he lived as Pontifex Maximus, and here given to Calpurnia that made him prepare for the final rite: the servants washed the body and perfumed with unguents, was coated with praetexta robe and covered his head, in lectus funebris placed between the images of his ancestors.
He stayed there in the three days following when was opened his testament which made Octavian his successor and heir to a large part of its assets, also left 300 sestertius to every citizen of Rome and left the Hortis that had along the Tiber to the Rome ‘s city. The next day was the day of the policy; while the equites Lepidus maintained order in the city, the Senate met to decide the future of Rome; the strong anti cesarean faction got amnesty for the conspirators and assignments for Brutus and Cassius; Marc Antony asked and obtained that any law or act decided by Caesar was maintaining its effectiveness, it was recognized his divine nature and the proclamation which Divus Julius.
The day after it held the funeral: the funeral procession left the Domus Publica between the heart-rending cries of Calpurnia, the coffin was supported by the magistrates, surrounded by all the patricians and plebeians who had held public office and followed by an immense crowd of citizens and veteran, walked the Via Sacra to the Rostra at the Forum. Here Marc Antony held the funeral speech, who recalled that Caesar had made in praise Caesar to Rome and also what he had left to all Romans and showed the bloody daggers of the conspirators and the blood-soaked robe of Caesar; in these words, the people rose up: two soldiers threw the candles on the coffin where the body lay and, immediately after the veterans of the legions threw their weapons on the fire, the matrons threw jewelry and all the people wanted to stoke the fire so they destroyed wooden stands prepared for the ceremony. Lepidus and his equites had to stop the crowd that collected the embers from the fire and wanted to go burning the houses of the conspirators Junius Brutus and Cassius Longinus.
The next day Caesar's ashes were collected and placed on an altar and worshiped as divine; at the place for some nights stayed up Jews in thanksgiving for the privileges he had granted to their people of Alexandria.
Caesar's ashes were placed in an urn and the legends of the XII century report that was enclosed in a golden globe on the top of the obelisk that stood in the Circus of Nero on the Vatican Hill.
In Mirabilia Urbis Romae it is told of how the pilgrims who came to Rome passed reverent in front of the obelisk placed near St. Peter; the custom was unwelcome by the church until Pope Sixtus V had moved the obelisk to the center of St. Peter's Square and ordered to remove the globe and replace it with a cross containing the relic of the cross.
The architect Fontana, in charge of the work, reports that inside the globe there was nothing but rust and iron powder: but if the globe was gold how there could be iron powder and then...
Today, there is a Julius Caesar’s grave, located in “The Temple of Caesar” at The Forum: an altar is all that remains of ancient gravesite.
by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 09/08/2015)