Being a history geek (I rede encyclopedias for fun), I found this to be a fascinating story of archeology with a human face. Literally. But most intriguing was the absolute declaration from the writer that 'Bald and wrinkled, this is what Julius Caesar looked like in his final years'.
Such certainty. Such authoritative announcement. Even with the author's admission, in his own story, that no known portraits or sculptures exit of Julius Caesar, save for his death mask, which would have been taken from a dead man after being murdered. Hardly a generous representation of what he might have looked like in the vigor of life. Yet, here we have the conclusion published in the Times of London: 'Behold Caesar! It must be him. We said so.'
And this is what I find so troubling about modern science & society. A single piece; a fleeting glimpse; a cursory study; a brief factoid. The tenuous proof is produced & the sweeping proclamation is made as a nodding public is spoon fed something else to digest as 'truth'.
There are no known portraits or sculptures which exit of Julius Caesar, save for his death mask. The article even concludes that 'We do not have much knowledge of Caesar’s time in Arles.' Yet, this not a local patrician; or regional magistrate; or an old artist simply producing his self-sculpted masterpiece. No! It is Caesar!
I read it in the Times of London.
