Author: * Silvia Caesar -
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Date: Jan 7, 2007 - 09:45
On Devauchelle's : how would one write Caesar in demotic? How different would
it be from Djeser?
It's difficult to say. Demotic is an everyday cursive writing no longer bound
to the hieroglyphic script as closely as hieratic is. You must read it from right
to left. It is very difficult to decipher, even for skilled scholars and always
subject to interpretation. See here for
Caesar and Djeser. I'd like to be more explicite but although I teach ancient
egyptian in french it's
rather
difficult
for
me in english ;-)
I'l ask my friends egyptologists for other occurrences of demotic writings
of
Caesarion's and Djeser's names.
And what does "year 5" mean? Five counted since what?
The ancient Egyptians counted years from the first regnal year of the living
king. When he died, the calendar was reinitialized. This stela has been written
during the fifth year of a Ptolemy (neither Cleopatra nor Caesarion according
to Devauchelle), the day of the festival of Isis, or the birthday
of ... Djeser (if Devauchelle is right,
neither
Caesar
nor
Caesarion
were born
at
that time).
although if he was Caesar's son, would he have been engaged to Julia as
Munzer proposes so plausibly? quoting
Safiria and Asterix : Sono Pazzi Questi Romani
! :-) but if it were so... This (including the tragical conclusion in march
-44) is a very good stuff for a novelist !
According to Thomas W. Africa (The Mask of an Assassin : a psychohistorical
study of M. Junius Brutus,
Journal of interdisciplinary History, Vol 8, n° 4 (spring 1978), p. 609), Quintus
Servilius Caepio, to whom Julia was bethroted, was Marcus Brutus : "...His
other uncle, Q. Servilius Caepio has adopted Brutus, whose name was officially
Q. Caepio Brutus. [...] In
59
the
first
triumvirate
was
in
power,
and Caesar's young daughter, Julia was bethroted to someone called Servilius
Caepio.
Weighty
authorities
have
assumed that this Caepio was young Brutus , and subsequent events make the conjecture
plausible." It's rather complicated especially if you follow Sir Ronald
Syme (Bastards in the Roman Aristocracy, Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, Vol 10, n° 3 (jun. 15, 1960), p. 327 : "...if a son
be sought for Caesar, it is Decimus, not Marcus."
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