perpetual memory loss

I recently finished Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals and it is an incredibly good read.  The book begins on May 18, 1860, the day when the Republican Party was set to select their Presidential candidate, and shows the demeanor of the four potentials: William Seward, Salmon Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln.  After this chapter ends she begins a multiple biography detailing the lives of the the four main rivals.  For the next ten chapters she deftly details these men’s lives from their beginnings all the way until the election of Lincoln. Throughout she also sprinkles in the lives of other notable people:  Mary Todd, Stephen Douglas, Edwin Stanton et. al.  She does this by focusing each chapter on a period of time and then splitting the chapter into four pieces.  Although it may sound awkward it works well and the reader is carefully guided through with her strong narrative.  To further help the casual reader she has removed all footnotes and instead has opted for extensive end notes (while the historian in me misses the footnotes the end notes are extensive enough that most people won’t miss them but will probably be glad that they are gone).  Her prose is clear and concise and she deftly weaves multiple story lines together so that the reader can follow along easily.

She tries her best to get to the facts about who Lincoln was and what he believed, and she does this by using, not only his words and actions, but those of his rivals.  One of the main strengths of this book is that you can see how all of these men’s opinions about Lincoln changed as they got to know and appreciate his talents.  One person in particular, Edwin Stanton, dismisses Lincoln as a “long armed ape” upon his initial meeting with him; but years later, after working with Lincoln through the Civil War, he becomes so distraught at his assassination that he has trouble functioning.  This happens time and again throughout the book, and even more stunning than their changes of opinion is that Lincoln took all of these slights without bearing any animosity towards these people.  One of the worst characters was Salmon Chase (I really grew to dislike him) who was way too sanctimonious and kept working against Lincoln, even while he was on the cabinet.  However, Lincoln kept taking the high road because Chase’s talents were needed for the war.

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This is an idea I had the other day, and I figure that I will make this a reoccurring post. Whenever I think or remember a good story I will post it with all the pertinent historical details. For the first entry today we will be taking the way back machine to 75 BC. This is the story of Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) being kidnapped by pirates.*

By 75 BC Sulla had won his civil war with Marius–who was Casear’s uncle–and had set up proscription lists of prominent Marius supporters who were to be killed. Although Caesar was not on these lists Sulla was said to have “see more than one Marius in that boy.” Caesar regularly moved around trying to conceal his whereabouts. When he was finally caught by Sullas soldier’s, Caesar bribed the captain, Cornelius, with two talents of gold, and fled to Bithynia. The story gets interesting when Caesar left Bithynia to return home. It was near the the island of Pharmacusa where Caesar was captured by Cilician pirates.

The Pirates initially demanded twenty talents for Caesar. Caesar laughed at the pirates and told them that they should ask for more than that, because he is worth much more than twenty talents. Caesar, himself, offered the pirates fifty talents, and sent off some of his men to go get the money. Caesar was then left there among the “bloodthirsty” pirates with one friend and two attendants. Caesar would spend thirty-eight days with the pirates treating them as subjects. When he wished to sleep he would send for them and tell them to make no noise. He exercised, wrote speeches, and poetry. He amused the pirates by practicing his speeches in front of them, and often he taunted them telling them that he would come back and hang them. At other times Caesar threatened the pirates that he would return and crucify them. The pirates took this all in jest and laughed at the young Caesar.

When his ransom money came, Caesar was released, and he immediately left for Miletus where he gathered ships and men. He left from Miletus, and found the pirates still lounging on the same island where he had been their captive. He took them and their money captive. He took them to prison in Pergamus, and asked the praetor of the region, Junius, to punish them. Junius, however, had his eye on the pirate treasure and took his time coming to a decision. Caesar not wanting to wait left Junius and went to Pergamus. It was there that Caesar had the pirates brought to him and crucified, just as he had promised them.

*The information in this post was taken from Plutarch’s account of the life of Julius Caesar found in Vol II of Plutarch’s Lives. Additional information was taken from Oxford’s Dictionary of National Biography.