New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 9, 1923, Page 20

By JULIUS MORITZEN, N outstanding point In Geny Brandes's “Cajus Julius Cee- " is the famous Danish erite's picture of the women of that day, The doors of the Roman household are flung wide open, and wilh that penetrative analytieal skill which to-day marks Brandes as almost alone in his par- tieular fleld he searches out the nooks and corners and brings inte the light new knowledge of the men and women of Rome and the lands that Julius Cesar laid captive, The panorama that he unfolds furnishes an aggregation of lovely femininity, side by side of which we find eruel- ty, treacherousness, infidelity, sueh as this age eannot eoneeive. It is perhaps true that other writers have concerned themselves with Roman society under Juliue Cesar., But it is not given to every out and out historlan to invest his work with sueh picturesqueness as Brandes has succeeded in throwing around the characters after the lapse of more than nineteen centuries, Herein lies his fascination as a writer of historical events. Ciwesar's relations with Cleopatra alone make & chapter of unsurpassed virility, “During the later years of his life," says Brandes, “Cleopatra meant to him what Aspasia was to Pericles: an object for his love and a scanda! in the eyes of the enviou Divorce Evil of the Day, Of the many women whose names are associated with Cmsar's only very few present a clear cut ple- ture, declares Brandes. In comparl- son with the men of the time little is known about the women, The historians of antiquity were not in- terested in the sentimental side of existence, And yet the Danish eritic found plenty of material for his molding. Take the following, for in- stance: “While it was said that during a full 500 years no divorce had taken place in Rome, In the perlod that now occuples us a whim, a quarrel, a love affair, in particular political interests, sufficed to dis- solve the marriage pact, The incli- nation to look on marriage as merely formal grew constantly. They tell of a lady who In the carly years of the empire had eight husbands In the course of five years. The dis- position to make changes quickly is evidenced by the actions of another lady who brought it up to twenty- three marriages, and her twenty- third husband had in her his twenty- first wife. “In former years the head of the family possessed unlimited power over every member, not only over the slaves but what we may term as all belonging to the household. Life and death were in his hand. The husband ruled absolutely over his wife's person and property. “But that time was now long past, Woman had obtained rights and had freed first her person and then her property from the domination of her husband. Right of inheritance was now hers, so that she could dispose at will over property left her. She had even succeeded in having set aside those laws that in former times were decreed against luxury in dress and expensive jewels. “Jestingly, the Roman women of Cresar's time were referred to as the ‘rulers of the masters of the world.’ ‘Where they possessed fortunes they kept their money affairs in good or- der, had as managers lawyers, who, if necessary, instituted lawsuits on their account. Should the husband happen to get in money difficulties it was no rare thing for him to bor- row of his better half, who made him pay high interest. Furthermore, it was not an exceptional thing for the handsome lawyer to become the lady's best friend. “In the circus the women sat among the men. The same was the case in the theaters, but here they liked to occupy the upper rows where they could be best observed. They went there perhaps more for the purpose to be seen than themselves gsee, There they were sitting in their handsomest costumes with their most attractive coiffure. They arrived either on foot or were carried there in their sedan chairs. We find from a somewhat later period Ovid's de- seription of the kind of flirtation rould take place on such an oc- casion. . The Play and Poetry. “The Roman women, in contrast to those of Greece, at the perform- ance of some play could compla- cently witness some rather bold comedies. The clever, intellectual among these ladies sometimes gath- ered around them an entire court of admirers who followed them about. Now and then they would compose verses, but these were dilettantish. Neither a Sapho nor a Corrina sprang from Roman soil as in the case of Hellas." The relations of Cwsar to his wives, Cornelia, Pompeia and Cal- purnia, and also Cleopatra, as well as those other women who entered Into his life, naturally leads us to ex- pect that hére would be a field where Drandes would give special evidence of his skill as a writer of great his- torical happenings, Nor does the reader suffer any disappointment on that score. Roman soclety, luxuri- ous and corrupt, the good and the bad in that age of stirring conquest Brandes visualizes 8o that it appears as if that company of actors on the stage of life stood before us in the flesh. Brandes candidly admits that it is extremely difficult to know the real truth with regard to Cesar’s re- sal wenderful lationship to the women mentioned by the writers of antiguity, Tt is » domain where the loosest gosaip as- sumes glgantic proportions when it concerns an individual whose name constantly ocours and recurs in the present and the past, “Of great welght, however, are two facts,” sasserts Brandes. “The first is that Suetonius was not a eon- temporary but, in the capaeity of private seeretary to Hadrian and rummaging thrugh the libraries, published his imperial biographies aroung 120, according to our time of reckoning. The contemporary whe is the richest source for information is Cicero, who, in spite of all his flattery, constantly proved hostile to Cesar. “The second important faet is that all judgment anent Cesar that has reached us from the past necessarily has had to pass through the period of Augustus and during this passage received impressions of a very pe- cullar kind, “Augustus owed everything to Cmsar, but we understand human nature very little if we think that it was A necessity or a pleasure for Augustus to hear Ceesar pralsed, In that respect he was totally different from Napoleon I1I, who, notwith- standing his many shortcomings, lived and, breathed in the remem- brance of Napoleon I, and at no time expressed the least doubt of the greatness of the founder of the dy~ nasty." Cleopatra and Eunoce. Among the many women who en- tered into Cwesar's life two queens occupy unique positions. It is true that almost nothing is known about one of these, Eunoe of Mauritania “But about the other one' come +»ments Brandes, “we know a great deal, especially since among the many women of Cmsar's acquaint- ance she alone captivated him to such a degree that she Influenced his political program; that for her sake he committed the only consequential political-stragetic folly in his whole lite; his long stay in Egypt which came to cost him so dearly, On her account he challenged at last, un- wisely, the public opinion of Rome; something that contributed toward the feeding of the last conspiracy against him. “Cleopatra was a fateful element in Cmsar’'s life. Her father, Ptolemy Auletes, did not enjoy a good reputa- tion. Cicero says about him in his second speech, ‘De lege agraria’ that neither through his descent or by his mode of thinking did he carry the royal stamp. But Cicero fails to add how much Rome contributed toward the debasement of this mon- arch, It is simply fabulous how the Romans utilized his misfortunes through extortions,and thereby com- pelled him to practice extortion on his own people. “In this parent Cleopatra saw no worthy prototype, and the events experienced by her in her childhood could only teach her to be on her guard and make the best possible use of her abilitles. The events of that time did not inspire her with confidenceiin human kind or give her any illusions as to what life in gen- eral could promise her. She was the issue of a marriage between brother and sister, such as was customary in the case of the Egyptian-Macedo- nian royal house. Her mother was also called Cleopatra. Following the execution of the sister, Berenike, the succession was so arranged in her father's will that Cleopatra as the oldest of thg surviving children should marry the oldest of her two brothers, both of whom were named Ptolemy, and that after her father's death she should ascend the throne together with her brother and hus- band. Married Young Brother. “Cleopatra was 1. years old when her father fled to Rome, 14 when he was brought back and triumphed over her older sister. She was 17 yvears old when she became queen and was married to her nine-year- old brother. “Appian relates that Marcus An- tonius, who years later should oc- cupy so big a place in her history, was struck with her beauty when as general of Gabinius's cavalry for the first time he saw the fourteen-year- old princess. Altogether she greatly impressed every Roman with whom she came in contact. When the oldest son ‘of Pompelus and Mucia, Cnefus Pompeius, in the year 49, came to Alexandria to hasten the war gpreparations of his father against Cesar, Cleopatra is said to have won him completely.” b The reign of the seventeen-year- old queen and nine-year-old King was short. The leading men of the country took the boy's part, since it was much easier to control him than finally accused her of attempting to expel her brother from the throne. Organizing a militar® and plebeian rebellion against her, they succeeded in having her driven from the cap- ital. “But she by no means gave up her cause, but gathered an army near the border between Egypt and Arabia which was ready to meet the forces of her brother, equipped by his guardian and Prime Minister Pothi- nos, and commanded by the daring and dangerous Egyptian general, Achillas, The encounter between the two armies was prevented because great events in the Roman Empire gave all something else to think about.” It is necessary to touch only briefly on Cemsar's arrival before Alexandria In its bearing on the meeting with Cleopatra which sub- sequently proved so fatal to his for- tunes, After his defeat at Farsa- los, Pompeius fled to Egypt, where, as the former protector and friend of Ptolemy Auletes, he expected to get a good reception; perhaps even hoped to obtain military aid to con- tinue his warfare against Cesar. Egypt, out of consideration for her own security, had heretofore re- mained neutral during the clvil war. After due consideration the Egyp- tlan Government concluded it would be best to have Pompeius killed on his arrival. “A few days after the murder Cleopatra Gets the Benefit' of the Dout Georg Brandes Finds That She Was the Vietim of En- vious Tongues and That Apparently She Was . a Woman of Great Merit GEORG BRANDES Cmsar's fleet cast anchor before Alexandria,” Brandes writes. “While yet on board he received the head of Pompeiusgand his signet ring. He had the head buried, and erected over it a small temple consecrated to Nemesis. The signet ring he sent to Rome in witness of his opponent’s death and his own supremacy. “But Cesar did not leave Alexan- dria when he learned of Pompeius's death. He had not come to Egypt merely for the purpose of pursuing a beaten enemy.” Brandes then enumerates a num- ber of reasons for Cessar's stay, among them his need for money, his desire to maintain his political prestige; this and much more he makes mention of in his book about the civil war. But there is one reason that he does not sneak of, his wish to make the acquaintance of Cleopatra, of whose cleverness and beauty rumor had told him a great deal. And there is ground for the belief that some time before she had sent a messenger to him to enlist his aid. Summoned by Caesar. “On the advice of Pothinos the young king went te see Camsar, but left his forces at Pelusium, under the command of Achillas,” Brandes continues. “But Pothinos only sent word to Cleopatra that Cesar com- manded her to send home her troops. Cunningly he withheld the further Germany’s New Art Is EW art with a distinctly Rus- N sian flavor, which has been adopted almost exclusively in Germany, was deprecated by Frank Crowninshield, editar of Vanity'Fair and Vogue, after he had spent several days in Berlin and other museums. “The German has attacked art from the Intellectual standpoint,” sald Mr. Crowninshield, in his criti- cism. “Art as we have all come to accept it Is the expression of the artist's emotion and not the pgoduct of complex Intellectual proCesses. Hence the new German artist has taken all the emotion from art and is proud of It “‘Look at this picture,’ one of the leading Beérlin critics said to me in one of the expositions, ‘The artist has taken every trace of the old fashioned emotions out of it. It rep- resents thought alone—the work of a magnificent brain.' [ confess [ can see nothing in it. I believe peo- ple still want their emotions played upon and delight in the expression of ideals.” Will Bring Samples Home. The New York editor has collected a huge array of reproductions of the new art in Germany which he will take to New York in the hope of making his point against the present tendencies and encourage the more sedate forms of painting and sculp- ture so long accepted as genuine art. “It is only in painting, etching, architecture and sculpture, however, that the Germans have strayed from the things we always considered ex- cellent. That Is merely one evidence of how they are drifting into A new order with utter docility under the changed conditions of ;the country. The theater Is as admirable as ever. “I have seen the best of the plays now running in Berlin and the great- est impression they convey is the in- tense seriousness of the playwright, the actors and the audiences. It is the great qualty which makes the German stage the best in the world.” “What have you found in Europe that America needs or would want?” Mr. Crowninshield was asked by a HeraLD representative. “Much,” he said. “There are the musical and art criticisms of France and Italy, the political and social expressions of England and the sci- ence and theaters of Germany. Content in Their Own Sphere. “There I1s a great class of people in America which is really striving upward, perhaps not seriously enough yet, but the tendency Is seen in the increasing number who want to know something about the outside world of art and letters. There is Disliked something better in the home, the office and education. Publications which portray the better things of life are avidly seized and read by all classes who are striving upward in gnything from dress to science. Such publications do not find favor in Europe, where members of no class are anxious to get into another. There is no dissatisfaction with life among Europeans and they remain content Ip their own spheres.” Mr. Crowninshield declared that Berlin social life is fdr less desirable than that in other European coun- tries. ever present the tendency to want A Cat’s Sense of Humor N American, who has spent A much time in England, tells of a little comedy that took place in a country inn. It was the quietest and cleanest and perhaps the barest inn he had ever seen. He had the parlor all to himself at this particular time, and sat at the plain deal table, wrapped about with a silence that was a positive, tangible thing. Suddenly he stopped eating, beset with a curfous idea that some- thing was about to happen. And it did. A faint tapping sound- ed in the long passage outside. It grew louder, and presently a lean, lanky yellow hen cruised in at the open door, obviously in search of crumbs. The man remained verfectly still. The hen went about with her head askew, narrowly inspecting the place. She seemed cautious to an absurd degree, taking each step with painful wariness, and making no advance without each time thoroughly re- connoitering . every corner of the room. Her footsteps on the hard- wood floor were as acute as the blows of a hammer In the pervading silence. She could not muffle them, try as she would, although every moment saw her anxiety redoubled. ‘What was she so desperately afraid of? And then the man caught sight of the other personage in the little dumbshow drama. On the window ledge, slumbering Convright, 1922, by The New York Herald in the sunshine lay a frowsy tabby cat, which now, as the man for the first time observed her, opened one eye—a wary, vixenish, green eye-—— and turned it on the hen. The rea- son for the hen's caution was ap- parent, and as speedily justified. It is a moot point whether any sensa of humor has been vouch- safed to the lower creation; but the old cat in this case possessed this sense it ever four footed creature did. She rolled to her feet, and made as it she would spring. There was no harm in the act. She had evi- dently not the slightest wish to hurt the hen. It was merely a feline joke. She did not even leave her snug perch: and for all the man knew, the thing may have been done entirely for his own entertainment. She may have wished him to see what a com- jcal figure a hen cuts whep she is made to run on a surface unsuited for clawed feet. And this hen, for all her instant and frantic efforts, made as little progress on the hard, polished hoards as a man on a tread- mill, till, giving it up at last, she took wing and cluttered screeching out into the yard, communicating her alarm to all her fellows there, so that the whole village rang with their din. Thereupon the old cat settled down again, with a fat, contented emile upon her face, and smirked herself to sleep. ' ""'wull W AN f”“"".xui?"”munh“h i by a single friend, the Sicllian Ap- Carried in & Bag, “Late that evening she reached unnoticed—passing among the mass of ships that filled the harbor-—the stalrway leading to the wing of the royal palace occupled by Cmsar, Her companion placed her in one of the many colored bags that travelers at that time carried for the purpose of thelr bed covering and rugs, The bag was laced together with straps, and, putting the load on his back, Apollodoros In that way fooled the guard, “Cleopatra was brought before Cmsar as & bundle. Before his eyes the straps were unloosened, and out of the bag stepped Cleopatra; like Aphrodite, according to the legend, from out the sea shell, “Cwsar was transformed into Cleo- patra’s spokesman after having been her judge.” Brandes discusses the Alexandrian war for no other purpose than to present to view Cleopatra, “for whose sake Casar permitted his ene- mies undisturbed to gather armles against him in Asia, Africa, Spain, while, if Cleopatra had never existed, he could have put an end to the world war at once. For Cleopatra's sake he found himself in a more dif- ficult position than ever before, and on her account he was compelled to wage war during more than four years subsequently. No pther wom- an.did him such harm, and none re- mained so precious to him until the last, A Woman of Great Merit. “Not that this passion was un- reasonable or was bestowed upon one unworthy of it. Cleopatra pos- sessed not only beauty, that beauty which takes. equal rank with rich intelligence and rare goodness. Apart from her attractions she apparently was a woman of great merit, “The fury with which she was de- famed by historians and poets want- ing to ingratiate themselves with Augustus makes no impression on a modern reader free from bias, and what, for instance, Plutarch tells about her long after her time is un- reliable nonsense that he had heard from his great-grandfather, Nikar- chos, who again built upon evidence and anecdotes passing from mouth to mouth during 150 years, mostly among liberated slaves, and which go contrary to the facts. It is a pity that Shakespeare had no other source than Plutarch for his presentation of Cleopatra! True ecnough, it was not her he wished to picture with his portraiture but evidently another woman much closer to him, ‘“‘Ceesar never complained of Cleo- patra. Nor did she give him any occasion. His love for Cleopatra, nevertheless, proved ruinous to him once more when again he saw her in Rome. On the completion of the Alexandrian war, and Cessar in the year 47 left Heypt, she bore him a son soon after his departure, who ‘as prince of Egypt was called Ptol- emy, but whom the mother named Cesarion; a designation that Cesar acknowledged. It is very certain that when in the year 46 she ar- rived in Rome to be near Cemsar she had her tiny son with her. Hated by the Romans. “Although her reception was for- mal, still she was received in Rome as Queen over a great country that was the ally of the republic; sha was the guest of the Dictator and resided in his gardens. But her coming in reality gaused great of- fense; the antipathy of the Romans rose to fever heat. Not that Ro- man society objected to an {llegiti- mate love connection. The old fash- joned Puritanism existed no longer. It was a long time since the Roman matron remained at home at the spinning wheel. “That Cmsar's name in Rome was assoclated with some of the foremost women of the patrician class rather shed a halo around him than made a stain. And that in Africa he should have had an affair of the heart with an exotic queen like Eunoesof Mau- ritania or in Egypt a connection with the Queen of the Nile, those were travel adventyres and indifferent gal- lantries.” Brandes declares that the Romans lost sight of the fact that Cleopatra was by no means a barbarian queen by descent, but to the contrary, of purest Greek stock. However, this aid not matter; she came from Fgypt. And that Cmsar should let a woman_ from the land of the i‘}!j i T i i: HE i i iE b i i £ ] g i £ T % s L iz 1 i ¥ii 2is § H 2 i | £ 5 E ; i £ { fedt | i ih i H it E : H i . I 4 } is F ¥ L til 1 i 31 I i?i‘ i i end to the Roman the Egyptian Queen 1t Is not necessary to particularize here, Also, in “Antony and Cleos patra” Shakespeare dramatizes vivs idly the further career of Cleopatra as enchantress, Clodia and Fulvia, ‘There , appeared on the Roman stage at the time of Cmsar two women who played important parts in the political drama which wit- nessed the rise and fall of the die- tator—Clodia and Fulvia, Of the former of these, Brandes says that she probably was descended from that famous Appius Claudius Cmcus, the bullder of the Applan Way and the Aqueduct, Her particular admirer was Cajus Valerius Catullus, and around this couple Clcero wove a can- vas showing Roman beauty at its worst. Every lover of Latin poetry is familiar with the manner in which Catullus sang the praises of Clodia, who comes before the reader in the form of his beloved Lesbla, “Originally it was the Intention of Catullus that his friend should be to that period as another Sapho,” Brandes afMrms, “her equal in power of attraction, knowledge and taste, Clodia was of an imposing beauty and the aristocratic young men of the ' day danced attention upon her in her house in Rome, her gardens along the Tiber, or at her country place in Bajae, Married to the opti- mate, Quintus Metellus Celer, who had been praetor in 63 and consu) in 60, he was considered a valua- ble military man. When he died in 59, very suddenly, the spiteful ru- mor had it that Clodia personally or through her brother had rid herself of her husband by giving him poi- son." Brandes gives a detailed account of what happened when Clodia and Catullus fell out and how the latter rained abusive language over the one who formerly he had adored. Cicero occupies a prominent place in all those happenings. As one of her accusers he brought her before the Roman seat of judgment. But, argues Brandes, “to form a true pic- ture of her presents us with unsur- mountable difficulties, since we have not a single line from her hand or a work from her own mouth. Her violent accusers were a discarded lover, and a malicious lawyer who pern&uted her because in her daring and impudent brother he had found an enemy. Cireco had busied himself in a matter that did not concern him in the least. The Rebellion of Women. “That Clodia overstepped what was due old time Roman custom and morals i8 indisputable. But she was no exception in that respect. Eman- cipation of woman broke over Rome during the last century of the repub- lic. The ladies were getting tired of sitting at home while I'oman and Greek courtesans took possession of their husbands.” Moral censors of to-day shoot wide of the mark il they adduce from what took place two thousand years ago that the world has changed little. But yet Brandes comes to the defense of the womankind of that period by calling attention to the kind of men that surrounded a Clodia, for in- stance. To judge her with some show - of justice, he says, we must consider her environment, Cicero's enmity contributed chiefly toward the bad reputation attaching to her character. \ “To understand women like Clo- dia,” affirms thle Danish writer, “her sister-in-law Fulvia, and others with similar instincts and methods of act- ing, we must remember that their blood was untamed. It was not for nothing that they were the females to the males who made conquest of the then known world. They fol- lowed their impulses, which were al- ways impetuous, sometimes wild."” “If Clodia possesed the beauty of a bacchante, Fulvia's features were those of a beautiful but wild goddess of vengeance. Like Clodia, she is the feminine instinct of the time, but her aim lies in the direction wer and wealth, not to be worshi® by many men, Ambition to rule, covetousness, jeadousy are her compongnt parts. She looks upon herself as coming last in the historical events then cen- tering, and she enjoys to make her- self felt by gathering taxes, take re- venge, have the weaker men obey her summons and setting the stronger rulers against each other to get back the one on whom de- pended her influence. She did not succeed in pushing aside Octavius so that Amtony became absolute sobe- reign. She was no more successful in supplanting Cleopatra. Her life was passion’s football; her death tragic.” H