Our Head of History is Fluffy. Fluffy has read Classical Historians widely in translation. His favourite Historian? That would have to be either the Father of History himself, Herodotus, or Gibbon. For Latin 'week' Fluffy wanted to write on a theme inspired by Plutarch:

Caesar and Churchill: Parallel lives

At first, these two Great Men might seem far from similar. Caesar according to Suetonius was 'tall, of a fair complexion, round limbed, rather full faced, with eyes black and piercing.' Unhallowed by the years Winston seems a far more human figure, portly, perhaps tipsy, sentimental, prone to sulking. He was portrayed as rather too human by Gary Oldman in a recent film. But these cliches belie the real man. Caesar and Churchill had much in common, both were colossi who bestrode their ages, brilliant men of action who determined the parts they played on the world stage too important for others to record, so they did so themselves. Their characters and their genius had much in common.

Background

Their backgrounds were similar. The Julian clan were one of Rome’s oldest patrician families, and Churchill’s ancestor the Duke of Malborough had beaten the French at Blenheim. But for several generations neither family had achieved much. The spectacular rise and fall of his father Randolph was a deep felt family humiliation which spurred Winston on to redeem the family name. As for Caesar, he probably didn't believe his family was descended from Venus through Aeneas, but we can imagine he was raised to consider himself the equal of any in Rome, and any king or emperor abroad, as any Roman optimate would be raised.

Accused of Homosexuality

At the beginning of their careers both men were accused of homosexuality. Suetonius claims that Caesar had taken the passive role in an affair with King Nicomedes of Bithynia. In 1895 Winston was accused of ‘acts of gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde type.’ He sued for defamation and received £400 damages.

Captivity

Both men suffered captivity at the beginning of their careers. Caesar was on his way to study philosophy at Rhodes when his ship was intercepted by pirates. He was held hostage with a slave or two while his companions were sent to the nearest Roman port to put together a ransom. Meanwhile Caesar composed poetry, scorned the pirates who didn’t appreciate it, and promised that once freed he would come after them with a Roman fleet and crucify them. This is more or less what happened.

Winston was famously captured in the Boer war and imprisoned in a converted school house in Johannesburg. He didn’t stay long, taking the opportunity to jump the fence and make his way to neutral Mozambique by freight hopping a coal train, much like a depression era hobo. It made him nationally recognised.

France

They are most famous for their time spent in geographical France. Winston holidayed there, in Provence, the former Roman province the protection of which was Caesar’s causa belli. Winston soldiered, in the trenches, in Flanders, where Caesar had fought the Belgae.

We can only assume Caesar liked Gaul; after all he slept with lots of Gaulish women. We know for a fact Winston was a Francophile. He first visited France, like so many others, as a reluctant teenager to study the language with a French host family.

In fact, both men saw the region as performing the same strategic purpose: that of being a buffer against the Germans. The first years of the Gallic War were spent persuading the Helvetii (was ever a migration so hopeless?) and other German tribes to keep out of Gaul, and consequently, out of Italy. Winston praised the French for the same reason. In ‘33, a few months after Hitler became Chancellor, he declared in Parliament ‘Thank God for the French Army.’

Crossing the Rhine

It was to make the Germans think twice about crossing the Rhine that Caesar built the first bridge across that great river near Koblenz. It worked, and for several hundred years the Germans stayed on the eastern side. He could have used boats, but he thought a bridge would make more of an impression. Soon after marching his men across and back, he had it dismantled. He actually built another one a few years later.

Winson too crossed the Rhine in famous circumstances, about two hundred km downstream, as part of the Allies’ final push into Germany in the last months of the war. Winston had been forbidden by the king to land with the troops on D Day; crossing the Rhine a few hours after the first amphibious troops was consolation.

Channel Invasions and Kent

In the same year that Caesar crossed the Rhine, he also became the first Roman to cross the Channel into Britain. He landed in Kent. Churchill’s house Chartwell is in the West of Kent. Their paths must cross there hundreds of times.

Caesar took the shortest route across the channel. He didn’t need to surprise the natives particularly, and the shortest route was the safest. Even so, the channel weather nearly caused disaster when a storm destroyed several ships on the landing beach. Two thousand years later weather was critical in the Allied invasion of Normandy. The landings succeeded despite bad weather, and a few days later a storm threatened resupply. The Allies could have used Caesar’s strategy in reverse and attacked from Kent to the Pas de Calais, but chose Normandy instead.

These combined expeditions essentially brought Germany and Britain into contact with the classical world and helped define Europe as it is known today. Before, Europe really meant the Northern fringes of the Mediterranean sea, and especially the two peninsulas which jut down into it, in the same way that at first the United States was no more than a strip of land along the Atlantic Coast.

Trouble getting out of boats

Caesar, like most Romans, avoided the sea if possible. Winston, although First Lord of the Admiralty, never spent much time on the sea for pleasure. Both had trouble getting out of boats. When Caesar landed in North Africa, he tripped and fell face first on the beach. He prevented a curse by declaring he had grabbed Africa with both hands.

When Winston first arrived in India he was so eager to climb the harbour wall that he slipped, dislocating his shoulder. This made it difficult for him to carry a lance so instead he carried a pistol, a fact which may have saved his life when charging the Mahdi’s army in the battle of Omdurman.

Stoicism and Epicureanism

Both Caesar and Churchill were capable of enduring great hardships but also capable of enjoying the finer things in life. Caesar could travel long distances on horseback but he was also known as a fastidious dresser.

When Winston went to war in the Sudan, and when he went to cover the Boer War, he insisted on cases of champagne being sent with him. But when he returned to the trenches in 1915 he shared the mud and filth and horror with his soldiers. He had a bath sent from London to his dugout, which he let his officers use. One of the things he was most proud of was reducing, so he says, lice infestation among his men.

Bravery and Risk Taking

Great bravery was a feature both men shared. Caesar won the corona civilis besieging Mytilene in the island of Lesbos. When necessary, he commanded his troops from the front, plugging gaps in the defenses at Alysium. He borrowed huge amounts of money for his political campaigns (basically for bribery) which he would only be able to pay off if he was elected to office. One of his most famous quotes, which he probably didn't say is a gambling quote: Alea iacta est.

Churchill had a strange fascination with danger, from his trip to Cuba in 1895 when he marched with the Spanish Army through rebel held territory, to his evident joy in crossing the Rhine in 1945. These two events bookend a career of nearly fifty years in which he not only tolerated danger, but actively sought it. During the blitz he watched from the roof of Downing Street as the bombs fell, until he was persuaded against it. He enjoyed the tables at Monte Carlo, especially after WWII. Before the WWII he often found it difficult to pay for his extravagant lifestyle. When he became prime minister one of the first tasks of the cabinet and his friends was to arrange for a wealthy benefactor to clear his debts so he wouldn't have to worry about money during the war.

Delegation

We get the sense with both men that they can’t rely on subordinates to carry out crucial missions. With Caesar this may have been true, his best general Labienus went over to Pompey. Churchill had capable men around him, especially his chief of staff Alan Brooke, who, while recognising Churchill’s brilliance, saw it his duty to dissuade the prime minister from his less realistic schemes.

Patrons of the Jews

Caesar was born and grew up in the Subura neighbourhood of Rome. The first Jews in Rome settled in this area. It is quite possible, perhaps even likely, that, as one of the leading families in the neighbourhood, the Julians were patrons of the Jews. As dictator he passed legislation that exempted the Jews from military service, and certain other responsibilites.

From childhood Winston was acquainted with the Jewish friends of his parents, friendships which lasted his entire life. Winston proclaimed himself as a friend of the Jewish People, and a Zionist.

Writing

Both men are famous for documenting their own roles in history. Caesar also wrote a treatise on grammar which was highly praised by Cicero, although this is not extant. Churchlll wrote a History of the English Speaking Peoples and received a Nobel Prize for his combined work. They both were able to dictate to more than one secretary at a time, in the case of Caesar, on horseback. Caesar’s De Dello Gallico was probably read out in instalments in the forum for propaganda purposes; Winston’s morale boosting speeches in WWII are probably what he is most famous for.

Miscellanea

• Both are known to have liked hats. Or at least headgear. Winston was well aware of the symbolic power of his bowler hats. Caesar prized the laurel wreath offered to him because it hid his bald patch.

• Both were men in a hurry, worried that they were leaving it too late to make their mark.

• Both men were great horseman. Caesar could ride with both hands behind his back, and Churchill was a decent polo player, despite dislocating his shoulder.

• Neither were religious.

• Both men were associated with triumvirates; Caesar with Crassus and Pompey, Churchill with Roosevelt and Stalin. They were both the most dynamic in their respective triumvirates.

• Both were also earnest reformers. In his short time in Rome Caesar reformed the calendar, planned public works and legal reforms and civil engineering projects. As Home Secretary Winston reformed the prisons and introduced labour exchanges.

Differences

• Caesar, by accounts, had a large sex drive, Winston, by his own account did not.

• Caesar's only legitimate child (by Roman Law) died before him. Winston had a large family.

• Winston lived to a ripe old age. Caesar did not.