Roman dictator whom Ovid raises to the stars on a blazing comet after the knives of the Senate — Venus his divine ancestress through the Trojan line, his apotheosis the poet's proof that metamorphosis continues in the age of empire.1
Ovid closes his Metamorphoses with Rome: Caesar had fallen to the knives of the Senate, and Venus — Aeneas' ancestress — could not bear to leave him among the shades. She rose to Olympus and begged Jupiter that the Julian star might rise among the gods.2
Jupiter agreed: Caesar's soul left his body and climbed heavenward on a fiery comet — the sign Romans saw at his funeral games. His temples stand on the ground he ruled; his name outlasts the month that bears it.3
Ovid's closing book apotheosizes Caesar as Roman dictator and Julian star — outside the Greek polis map. Residence stays deferred.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story