(August 30, 2012 at 11:12 pm)Stimbo Wrote: It's also worth adding that there were people who knew Julius Caesar personally and I'm sure that at least most of them wrote extensively on things he said and did. Then as FtR said, there's all the things written by the man himself, as well as events that were influenced by actions dependent on his very existence. Not to mention all the coins and statuary depicting him that still exist to this very day.
No part of the NT was written by anyone who claimed ever to have met the JC character in person and certainly wasn't written during his supposed lifetime. There are no documents by him or artworks inspired by him (until many years later) or any mention of the man, his works or anything about him outside of the NT.
Indeed. Octavius, Cicero, Vergil, and Paterculus were contemporaries of Caesar's ( and Cicero was an enemy.) In addition, Titus Livius and Gaius Asinius Pollio were alive and writing at the time. While Pollio's work has not survived and the portion of Livy which dealt with the time in question is also no longer extant, Pollio was cited as the source by both Appian and Dio which means that they had an actual history written by a contemporary witness to the events.... something the jesus freaks would give their left testicle to possess!
In my list I neglected to mention Josephus....who did discuss Caesar and his murder and the aftermath.... but for whom xtians had to forge references for their godboy!
