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A street artist makes Julius Cesar a queer icon in Rome
A rainbow coloured Julius Cesar gazes out atop his famous lines: ‘The die is cast.’
In celebration of LGBTI civil victories across the world, a Roman street artist presented a ‘revised’ portrait of the city’s most famous citizen on Friday.
Mauro Pallotta drew Julius Cesar covered in rainbow colours accompanied by the quote: ‘Alea iacta est’ (the die is cast).
He said: ‘After the historic result of the Supreme Court in the US recently, and the Irish Yes Equality campaign, [I] wanted to reiterate what [Cesar] said first of all: “The die is cast”.’
He was alluding to the momentum the gay rights movement has gained in recent years.
Julius Cesar was born on July 12 100BC. Whether he was a ‘queer icon’ is disputed.
He was not openly homosexual, but suspected to have engaged in affairs with men when young.
During his time as a general, he was teased for a youthful affair he had with a Turkish king: Nicomedes IV.
To taunt him and reduce his credibility, his enemies crafted the phrase: ‘Caesar may have conquered the Gauls, but Nicomedes conquered Caesar.’
Same-sex relationships were tolerated in Cesar’s time and common. However it was considered unmasculine to be the passive partner (‘bottom’), as the chant suggests.
The post A street artist makes Julius Cesar a queer icon in Rome appeared first on Gay Star News.
Jack Flanagan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/a-street-artist-makes-julius-cesar-a-queer-icon-in-rome/
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