«Julius Caesar was a surprising politician who kept his electoral promises»

2023-11-22 02:46:26

Julius Caesar won every election he ran for. “He was a surprising politician who fulfilled his electoral promises,” explains Santiago Posteguillo. “He won successive elections, he carried out what he promised and, when he ran again, they voted for him again.” For example, he offered an agrarian reform on the occasion of the consular elections of the year 60 BC and, after being elected, he presented the law on January 1, 59 BC «Today, leaders do not usually carry out their programs or only part of them, they delay them. to the maximum or even do the opposite,” the writer argues and suggests: “Let everyone draw their own conclusions.” The author will star today in a meeting of the EL CORREO Classroom that will take place starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Bidebarrieta Library in Bilbao. The meeting has the collaboration of the publishing house Ediciones B and the support of BBK.

The talk

Speaker. Santiago Posteguillo, author of ‘Maldita Roma’. Julio Arrieta, journalist from EL CORREO, will accompany him in the presentation.

Place and time. Bidebarrieta Library, today at 7:00 p.m. Free admission.

With the collaboration: BBK Foundation.

‘Damn Rome’ constitutes the second installment of his planned hexalogy about the legendary military and political figure, a project of enormous scope. The in-depth study of the character can facilitate a certain seduction that he himself recognizes. “Yes, there is an inertia for the character to fascinate you, but there is the professionalism of the historical novel writer to maintain objectivity,” he argues.

This work talks about the lights and shadows of the character in the period between his youth and maturity, with his arrival to power. «As we all are at the beginning, it is a conglomerate of ideas. Then life takes us down paths we never thought we would take.” The title of the book alludes to those pacts and concessions that he must make in the struggle with his rivals.

The protagonist of the novel was the last representative of a popular faction that fought against the privileges of the senatorial oligarchy. Posteguillo establishes important differences between his way of acting and that of current leaders in authoritarian regimes. “In Russia, Iran or Venezuela there is a tendency to annihilate the opposition, even physically,” he points out. “Caesar militarily defeats his enemies, but he does not deprive them of their lives and they will repay him by murdering him.”

‘Damn Rome’

The title of the book alludes to the pacts and concessions that he had to make in his fight for leadership.

Rulers’ strategy

The commercial success of this project is apparently contradicted by the decline of training in the Humanities and the marginalization of subjects that have to do with our past, philosophy or literature. “It responds to a clever strategy by those who govern us, regardless of their ideology, to deprive us of classical knowledge and subjects that make us think,” he explains. “Thus, they have a mass of people without a critical mentality who are not demanding of their ruling class and are easily manipulated.”

The desire to know faces these restrictions. “Books like ‘Damn Rome’ explain to us where we come from and that is why we establish parallels between those circumstances and the current political situation,” he says. “Many who have not found this knowledge of the past find it in entertaining texts that attract them and, for this reason, the historical novel enjoys such notable popularity today.”

Culture, in any case, has become a common source of controversy. “Their role is to promote reflection and make rulers uncomfortable, generate criticism towards each other, making them feel uncomfortable with their approaches,” he alleges and mentions the case of the Roman comedian Plautus, who set his works in Ancient Greece to avoid problems. . “My novels are also open to interpretation, even if they are set in Rome two thousand years ago.”