Name: 凱撒家族的黑暗歷史。崛起｜古羅馬有聲紀錄片 (The Dark History of the House of Caesar: The Rise | Ancient Rome Audio Documentary)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:36:26.000Z
Duration: 47 min 1 s
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Fortune is one of the most mysterious forces in nature.

It influences our lives before our birth and will continue to exude its power long after

She can be quick to give generously, and often even quicker to ravage terribly.

In history, the Mongols seemed to have had Fortune on their side, when nearly the whole

They were even able to gather a force of 140,000 men to cross the sea and take Japan.

Yet, Fortune does no man's bidding forever.

Her fickle hand decided to strike a blow against the Mongols in the form of a monstrous typhoon.

Japan had expected an enormous invasion, but instead Fortune delivered thousands of dead,

Because of this, Fortune appears an almost paranormal force.

The ancient Romans recognized this, choosing to see luck in the form of the goddess Fortuna.

For her they built temples, worshipping her in the hopes of winning her whimsical favour.

Animals were sacrificed and their entrails scrutinised, all with the aim of decoding

Earthquakes, famines and pestilence still visited the Romans as they did elsewhere.

The legendary figures of Roman genius would have come to nought without Fortune's favour.

These characters were lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

Without these rare instances of fate, Rome would have fallen to dust, joining the remnants

This, therefore, is the story of how two men acted out the roles assigned to them by the

goddess Fortuna, to the extent that they would build a new stage for Western civilization

to play out all of its spectacular dramas.

The legend goes that Rome, through its founders Romulus and Remus, was born on the teat of

Both the inhabitants of the city-state and the world accepted this as historical truth.

After all, there was definitely something of the wolf in the Romans.

A restlessness nature that beckoned them to conquer and devour everything in their path.

In fact, it was believed that Rome was destined to conquer the entire world.

One man believed that it was only through him that Rome could achieve its rightful glory.

Julius Caesar was a scion of an ancient, noble family.

A family which, in spite of its proud pedigree, had little more than a few sliverings of gold

and a dubious claim to be a descendant of the goddess Venus to show for it.

This distasteful fact would fester in Caesar's breast like a sickness throughout his life.

This sickness had but one cure: success in all things.

And, in Rome, a free republic, all citizens were considered equal.

And so, how can one rise to the top, when there is no top to rise to?

However, as is often the case, some citizens were more equal than others.

As a member of the old nobility, that had existed since the ancient time of Kings, Caesar

Yet, their capacity for wielding power was equal to that of the lowliest street urchin.

In this, Rome found its pride: here, a citizen was only worth his merit.

Merit usually being quite crudely counted in the number of heads cut off and enemies

Julius Caesar would use his reputation and genius to excel in this way, and in doing

so create a legacy which would take nearly one thousand years to match in the inexorable

As a young man, though, Caesar's career prospects were bleak to say the least.

His family, though noble, was associated with the losing side of a bloody civil war.

This meant that Caesar spent the first few decades of his life dredging through the monotony

At the age of 31, whilst serving as a treasury secretary in Spain, he is said to have cried

underneath a statue of Alexander the Great.

A lamentable image considering that Alexander had the world at his feet by Caesar's age,

whereas he was but a frustrated, middling civil servant.

He was meant for so much more than his current lot in life.

Thus, the Republic's lack of appreciation for his talents was intolerable.

And, it was not just the Republic who failed to recognise his worth.

Sometime before his time in Spain, when he was but a young man, Caesar was kidnapped

Knowing that they had a noble prisoner in Caesar, the pirates demanded the great sum

of 20 talents, a contemporary unit of measurement, in exchange for his safe return.

By all standards, this was a princely ransom.

After all, a single talent was the equivalent of around 30kg of silver.

Any other man from a down-on-their-luck noble family might have worried over their ability

20 talents of silver was a pitiful sum for a man of his quality.

He demanded that he was worth 50 at the very least.

The pirates took the chastisement with good cheer, even when their uppity captive promised

in no uncertain fashion that he would crucify them all.

The ransom was duly paid and another profitable kidnapping concluded.

However, it would soon be clear that Julius Caesar was not a man to make idle threats.

He quickly assembled a small fleet in Greece and pursued the pirates.

One can only imagine their surprise when their one-time captive and haughty aristocrat surrounded

Outmanned and enveloped, the pirates surrendered to Caesar.

Eager to save their lives, all dropped onto bended knee and begged for mercy.

Caesar, steely eyed and sharp of mind, was the sort of man who understood the balance

The handing out of mercy could make a man more powerful.

After all, such was the prerogative of a king to his subjects.

So, the pirates got their mercy: as their bodies were hammered to crosses, their throats

That was Caesar's mercy, a mercy which the Republic would feel soon enough.

It had always been Caesar's ambition to be the very best.

The incident with the pirates was just a taster of his capabilities, and of his wrath.

However, let it not be doubted that Caesar was anything less than a man of charisma.

In fact, it was his charisma which allowed him to progress through the fearlessly competitive

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凱撒家族的黑暗歷史。崛起｜古羅馬有聲紀錄片 (The Dark History of the House of Caesar: The Rise | Ancient Rome Audio Documentary)

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