A cursed orb holding the spiteful spirit of a dictator? A ghostly face-off with…
Superman?! Here’s everything you need to know about the bizarre afterlife of Julius Caesar.
Before we fast-forward to Caesar's spiritual hotspot in 2022,
we've got to travel back 2,000 years or so. Gaius Julius Caesar was raised in a
wealthy aristocratic family in a troubled, politically unstable time in Roman history.
He must have taken the lessons of his youth to heart, because he rose to
power through a combination of brutality, intimidation, cunning, and deft oratory.
Caesar became the head of his family at age 16,
when his father died, and he went on to prove his military prowess in the army.
One well-known anecdote from 75 B.C. described him being kidnapped by pirates for ransom,
and swearing that he'd hunt them down. This wasn't just a brazen threat — he actually did it.
Later on he found them, slit their throats, and had them crucified for good measure.
Caesar became Rome's military tribune and forged an alliance with two crucial figures:
the war hero Pompey the Great, whom he would later kill, and Rome's wealthiest man,
Marcus Licinius Crassus. He ruthlessly campaigned in Gaul for eight years starting in 58 B.C.,
and then wielded his renown from that campaign to seize Rome in 49 B.C.
From there he marched on Egypt, claimed it for himself, had a son with Cleopatra,
and returned to Rome in 44 B.C. to assume the title Dictator Perpetuus, or "dictator for
life." Well, things escalated pretty quickly from there. He was immediately assassinated.
"And when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody,
huh? Because that’s not what Rome is about, we should totally just stab Caesar!"
Julius Caesar was cremated at the Roman Forum in a massive event,
akin to a sacrificial feast. In a sort of public riot, citizens threw whatever
possessions they could onto Caesar's blazing death pyre. The once-dictator
was incinerated on a massive bier decked out with a gilded model of the temple of Venus.
It contained an ivory couch and a pillar hung with the robe that Caesar wore when he was murdered.
There is some controversy as to where his remains ended up. Some say Caesar's ashes were interred at
the Forum, in The Temple of the Divine Julius, erected in his honor. You can still visit the
site today. At the time when the temple was built, however, it was illegal to inter people within the
city's boundaries. The biographical account Lives of the Caesars, written by the Roman historian
Suetonius a full 165 years after Caesar's death, in A.D. 121, points to a place called The Field
of Mars as his final resting place. His ashes were also widely believed to be buried at a temple on
Capitoline Hill. A smaller crowd believed that they were interred at Piazza di MonteCitorio,
near a column raised to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. One of the most fascinating theories suggests
that Caesar's ashes wound up in a lead ball at the tip of a mysterious obelisk in Heliopolis,
Egypt, which was moved to Rome by Emperor Caligula in A.D. 37.
When Caligula moved the obelisk supposedly containing Caesar's ashes, he placed it in
a public field called the Vatican Circus, or the Circus of Nero. This was the site where numerous
Christians were martyred, including, supposedly, St. Peter himself. While other obelisks would
later be toppled, this one was left standing as the final witness to an important historical time.
It seems that the obelisk remained undisturbed for about 1,500 years, until Pope Sixtus V moved
it to its current location in front of the Basilica of St. Peter in 1586.
At some point during the move from the Vatican Circus to the future Vatican City,
legend says that Sixtus just couldn't help but crack open the lead orb on top. Pandora’s box,
much? Reports indicate that there was indeed dust inside, but that's the extent of it.
Well, apparently just a little dust can kick up a storm.
To add to the drama of potentially unleashing a dictator's vengeful spirit,
the obelisk came to a near-catastrophe on the day of its relocation.
As Advocacy describes, the obelisk's ropes almost snapped under the strain of its weight — but a
gallant sailor from Genoa put his back into it, so to speak, and the obelisk was spared.
The entire time, Sixtus ordered the gathered crowd to stay still and silent on punishment of death.
The obelisk remained untouched until 1817, when a sundial was added to it.
1599 gives us the first historical mention of Caesar's ghost. He didn't materialize in Rome,
however, or near any supposed resting site. He manifested on stage, when Shakespeare debuted
Julius Caesar, a mere 13 years after the mysterious obelisk of Heliopolis was moved
from the Vatican Circus. Following Caesar's assassination in the play, his ghost appears
to Brutus in act 4, scene 3 to guilt him for his betrayal. While this is clearly fictional,
and conforms to Shakespeare's motif of ghosts representing projections of guilt — think
Macbeth — it at least marks an instance of the emerging Caesar's ghost legend.
Caesar's ghost has also shown up in narratives thousands of years after his death. Namely,
in Superman comic books. Yes, that's right. Volume 1, issue 91 of Superman depicts Supes facing off
against a literal ghost of Julius Caesar. Actor Julian Noa, who voiced Clark Kent's editor Perry
White, first deployed the phrase "Great Caesar's Ghost!" back in 1946, for a radio show reading of
Superman. From that point, "Great Caesar's Ghost!" became Perry White's catchphrase,
similar to other old-timey exclamations like "Great Scot!" or "Good Heavens!"
"Great Caesar’s ghost! Are you gonna wear that outfit into the jungle?"
Of course, Noa didn't make up the phrase. It was already a popular saying by then,
meaning that it had been milling around in language and consciousness for some time before.
So where exactly does legend place Julius Caesar's ghost and its hauntings nowadays?
Why, the Colosseum, of course. Tales don't describe why Caesar would choose to inhabit
the Colosseum — after all, it was built around A.D. 70, over 110 years after his death.
Ignoring that little inconsistency, we can probably assume Caesar is drawn to
the Colosseum because it reminds him of the heartwarming sights of bloodshed.
Tourist sites like Different Italian Journey go a different route, upping the apparitional ante.
At number six on their ghost tour list, they describe St. Peter's Basilica being the
haunting ground of Caesar’s ghost. They also describe an evil column inside the cathedral
that had demons bound to it, brought to the basilica from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.
But at this point things are just getting ridiculous, so we'll leave it at that.
As all this history, myth, and superstition illustrates,
we've indeed been haunted by Caesar's ghost:
the legacy of a dictator whose legend occupies the world more than 2,000 years after his death.
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