Download Jose Sison Luzadas

The Judgment of History
“Salahat ng sugat ang pinakamahapdi ay yung
saksak galing sa punyal ng isang matalik na
kaibigan.” Translation:”Of all wounds inflicted, the most painful is the one
coming from the dagger of a trusted friend.”… Old Filipino proverb
By
Jose Sison Luzadas
Delray Beach, Fl
Source from INTERNET
Helplessly fending off the conspirators with their knives coming
from all directions, Gaius Julius Caesar stood to his ground, a true
fashion of a brave veteran Roman soldier. Of the thirty-two stabbings
Julius Caesar received he groaned but once and that was the first
initial blow”, so says Suetonius, Roman historian and author of
“Lives of the Twelve Caesars”
Relying chiefly from witnesses watching on that violent Friday, March
15, 44 BC Ides of March, Suetonius noted that the most climactic was
when Caesar was surprised and shocked to see a face revealed
turned out to be his mistress’ son whom he enjoyed conversing with
him in Greek language about Hellenic culture.
The rumor long circulated was that Brutus was his son. If so, the
moment of truth came when Brutus, the assailant-assassin finally
took his turn to finish the job he planned, sworn and participated. To
kill Caesar before he dissolves the Roman Republic and install
himself emperor to would only preempt the death of the Republic that
his brave ancestor, Lucius Jucinius Brutus founded after expelling
the Etruscan king and established the Republic with two consuls
instead of a king.
In the crowd who witnessed the killing, bystanders heard Caesar
moaned, “Ka isu teknon”, it sounds more of Ilocano than Greek to
mean, “You too my son?” Besides Suetonius, Plutarch who wrote
“Parallel Lives of Great Greeks and Romans” confirmed that it was
Greek but the phrase attributed to Caesar became famous and often
quoted thanks to Shakespeare who created the words “Etu Brutus” to
add drama and tragedy.
Yes, it was William Shakespeare whose play, “Julius Caesar”
brainwashed us into associating the Latin phrase ‘ETU, BRUTUS’ on
the brutal killing of Caesar.
Without Shakespeare’s “Etu Brutus” we will be deprived using the
word BRUTE or BRUTAL or BRUTALITY to describe violent wicked or
cruel and merciless killing!
But to attribute these words to Brutus, the Roman citizen and
defender of the Roman Republic will be unfair as he vehemently
asserted his genuine patriotism when he proudly declared, “it was not
that I love Caesar less but I love Rome more!”
While Julius Caesar is the greatest Roman, it was Shakespeare who
singled out Brutus ”as the Noblest Roman of them all!”
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