In March I linked to Damian Lewis' fine rendition of Marc Antony's funeral oration speech from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I came across an even better performance of the speech today, this one by Jake Phillips, about whom I know nothing. The combination of Jake's acting ability and his Southern accent makes for a memorable rendition.
I don't have a Tik Tok account (and recommend against it) so am linking it via a twitter account I frequently read.
On our recent drive cross-country we listened to many of The Rest Is History podcasts by British historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, which are funny, entertaining, and educational. Among these were several on Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon and on the life of Cleopatra, in both of which Marc Antony played key roles.
Marc Antony’s speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in the original Southern. It actually sounds spookier and more authentic this way. https://t.co/4d58uMlBV2
Damian Lewis performing an excerpt from Marc Antony's funeral oration speech from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Wonderfully done. It is a reminder of the brilliance of Shakespeare's language. How many of these phrases have become a part of our common heritage, so easily familiar to us four hundred years later?
What remains most puzzling about the assassination is the lack of thorough planning by the conspirators beyond the act of killing Caesar. Though there were many plotters, Brutus, because of his reputation for integrity, fidelity to the Republic, and possibly because of the rumor that he was Caesar's son (probably not), was the key participant, and it was Brutus who insisted that Caesar be the sole target. Antony, Caesar's chief subordinate, who could have easily been killed, was instead deliberately spared. It was as if the conspirators thought once Caesar was dead the Republic would spontaneously regenerate itself, a fatal error, compounded by allowing Antony to speak at Caesar's funeral.
In reality we don't know precisely what Antony said, and he certainly would not have said it in the same tone as Lewis. Immediately after the assassination, public opinion was divided in Rome. Antony would have been speaking in a public forum to a large crowd without the benefit of modern amplification. His speech, of necessity, was pitched more broadly and more loudly. Whatever he said, it was effective, rousing the crowd, generating outrage and anger. What was now a mob left the scene and began hunting down the conspirators who had fled to their homes and strongholds. Eventually they were to flee Rome altogether. Within two years, most of the conspirators were dead.
Caesar's death triggered more than a decade of civil wars. First, between his supporters and his killers and then among his supporters culminating in the conflict between Octavian (Caesar's nephew) and Marc Antony and Cleopatra. It was only with Octavian's victory at Actium in 31 BC, Antony and Cleopatra's suicides the following year, and, by order of Octavian, the murder of Caesarion, the 13-year old child of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, that the civil strife ended.
My top travel destinations that I've never been to are Israel and Istanbul and the Aegean Coast of Turkey. Below is a satellite photo of Istanbul, its sprawling suburbs, and the Bosphorus.
Istanbul is on the European (left shore) where the Bosphorus discharges into the Sea of Marmara. The old city is on the promontory, just south of the inlet. It is also the location of the ancient city of Byzantium, founded in the 8th century BC and later refounded as Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine in 330AD. Conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 and later officially renamed as Istanbul in 1930; as They Might Be Giants reminds us, it's now Istanbul (Not Constantinople).
Ideally, we'd start with a visit to Istanbul to see both the modern city and the archaeological remnants of its long history and then travel down the coast of Asia Minor to the excavations at Troy and on to the ruins of the cities of the Classical World such as Ephesus. Ephesus is also the setting for Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and we are great fans of the Flying Karamazov Brothers interpretation of The Bard's work, which we watched on several occasions with our children.
