The Real C. Julius Caesar

[cmacq]

Power of the Press to get it wrong, yet again?

Based on what Poulp' has uncovered, maybe the 46 BC date of the Arles foundation, was taken by the press(out of context), and they ran with it. This has happened to me several times. Beware the press. If you ever want them to maybe get something a little right, provide a written statement.

[Poulp']

http://www.tourisme.ville-arles.fr/d...ille_arles.pdf

a map of Arles, see the bridge in the middle ? that's Trinquetaille Bridge; according to Luc Long, the statues were found in the vicinity.

Christine Albanel, minister of Culture and Communication, congratulates her department over the exceptionnal discoveries they found in Arles. Several ancient statues have been uncovered, some of which are unique in Europe.

Some statues hold a special interest:

- a real-sized bust of an old Caesar. This marble bust of the founding father of the roman city of Arles is the oldest representation of Caesar known to this day. It is typical of the serie of realistic portraits of the republican era (calvitia, aging traits...). It probably can be traced back to the founding of the city in 46BC.

That's the translation of the official statement, and I wish to analyse it further. For TA in particular.

"It probably can be traced back...", in the original version "il date sans doute de la création de la ville d’Arles en 46 avant Jésus-Christ"

I choose to translate "sans doute" with "probably", and to modalize it even though the first half of the sentence is an assertive which states a fact in the present tense. (present of the indicative, hard truth).
Out of context, "sans doute" could have been translated using "without a doubt".
Yet I choose to ignore that possibility. My reasons are:

"a real-sized bust of an old Caesar. This marble bust of the founding father of the roman city of Arles is the oldest representation of Caesar known to this day. It is typical of the serie of realistic portraits of the republican era (calvitia, aging traits...)"
That part is just a copy pasta of Luc Long's declaration, an easy and almost no-brainer edit.

"some of which are unique in Europe"
That's half of the truth; "some of which are unique in the roman world" is far more accurate. But it would include the Near East, Lower Egypt and Turkey.
Turkey in Europe is a political issue.

"à Arles"
that's totally incorrect. And finding that mistake on official documents pisses me off.
You can't say "à Arles", "à Avignon", "à Aix", but you can say "à Aubagne".
Why ? because there's a double [a] sound, the correct saying in french is "en Arles" "en Avignon" "en Aix". "A Aubagne" is correct however since there's a [a] [o] sound.

The last point is what made up my mind.
In my opinion, the official statement was written by some lazy copy pasting clerk. In this case, who wrote the document is more important than where it is published.

[paullus]

It seems like the main reasons for the 46 BC dating are:

1- the founding of Arles

and of lesser importance:
2- pre-death realism (I really want to see a sideview...has anyone seen one?)
2b- immature features of Caesar's face that are more pronounced in (supposedly) later depictions
3- late Republican realism (though this by no means puts it within more than a broad range of years)