Macedonian has several things to do at once. Is doing several things at once a good or bad habit? More is not better

The Assassination of Caesar (Carl Theodor Piloty, 1865). Photo: Wikipedia

Today's date, March 15, is significant because on this day Gaius Julius Caesar, an ancient Roman statesman and political figure and commander, was killed. Many rumors and legends have lived for centuries about this historical figure, some of which we will present here.

Place of Caesar's death

For example, many people mistakenly believe that Caesar was killed in the Senate building. However, this is not true. The Senate burned down before Caesar took the reins of power. He gave the order to build a new curia, but during his lifetime he never saw it. The Senate was completed under Octavian Augustus, and the building that has survived to this day was erected during the reign of Emperor Diocletian.

Due to the fact that there was no specific place for the meetings, they were held in different rooms all the time. Moreover, this practice continued even after the curia appeared. On the day when Caesar was killed, the meeting place was chosen next to the “new building” - the Theater of Pompey. It was here that the conspirators attacked the “emperor.” During the reign of Augustus, the site of Caesar's murder was considered cursed and was walled up, and a public restroom was built nearby.

Were Caesar's last words "And you, Brutus?"

It is believed that Caesar called out these words when he saw that Marcus Junius Brutus had drawn his weapon and was preparing to strike. This phrase became a catchphrase, however, it was apparently invented and immortalized by William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar. The Greek philosopher and biographer Plutarch, who describes in detail the murder of a Roman politician, does not report any phrases thrown by Caesar to Brutus: “Some say that, fighting off the conspirators, Caesar rushed about and shouted, but when he saw Brutus with a drawn sword, he attacked head toga and exposed himself to blows. The historian and writer Suetonius also expressed doubt that Caesar said anything to Brutus: “And so he was struck by twenty-three blows, only at the first he let out not even a cry, but a groan, although some suggest that Mark rushed at him He said to Brutus: “And you, my child!”

Caesar's name was Caius

This version of honoring the so-called praenomen, or personal name of Gaius Julius Caesar, is indicated in many different sources. This is also fiction (for example, in “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov). However, this pronunciation of the name is incorrect. The reasons for incorrect pronunciation may lie in the following. Initially, the sounds [k] and [g] were not distinguished in any way in written Latin. In addition, the alphabet from which Latin subsequently developed did not contain the letter [g]. As literacy began to spread among the Romans and written information increased, a tail was added to C to distinguish similar sounds. In this case, the capital letter C was used as the initial of the names Guy and Gney (C and CN). The Romans very much did not like to change what had already become traditional. And if they abbreviated the name Augustus as AVG, then the name Gaius was still abbreviated as S. This could be the reason for the incorrect naming of the Roman commander.

Caesar could do several things at once

It is believed that Gaius Julius Caesar could do several things at the same time. Suetonius, in his biography of Augustus, writes that during circus performances Caesar “read letters and papers or wrote replies to them.” Plutarch notes, with reference to a certain Oppius, that Caesar could, during a campaign, sitting on a horse, dictate to several scribes the text for different letters. Pliny the Elder in his Natural History informs us that “he knew how to write or read and at the same time dictate and listen. He could dictate four letters to his secretaries at a time, and on the most important issues; and if he was not busy with anything else, then seven letters.” Scientists have proven that a person is not able to do several things at the same time, like electronic computers. What is described here is nothing more than skillful switching from one task to another, correct prioritization.

Caesar is a descendant of the ancient gods

Caesar was very fond of mentioning that the Julian family, to which he belongs, dates back to the ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus. Caesar considered Aeneas, the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, to be his ancestor. Aeneas was allegedly the son of the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite and the nephew of King Priam, the last ruler of the fallen Troy. Caesar used this “fact” for personal gain.

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Bust of Julius Caesar from the collection of the British Museum. Photograph of Roger Fenton, commissioned by the British Museum. Approximately 1856 Royal Photographic Society

Julius Caesar is probably the most famous character of ancient history, and indeed of all ancient history. Only Alexander the Great can compete with him. Countless volumes of scientific works, popular biographies and fiction have been written about Caesar. He was played in films by such outstanding actors as John Gielgud, Rex Harrison, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Ciaran Hinds. Around any outstanding historical figure, sooner or later a husk of myths and legends grows. Caesar did not escape this either.

Myth 1. His name was Caius Julius Caesar

Let's start with the name. Caesar, like almost every Roman boy from a good family, had three names: first, praenomen, or personal name (Gaius) - there were very few of them in Ancient Rome, Gaius was one of the most common; secondly, a nomen, or family name (Iulius), and thirdly, a cognomen, originally a nickname with some dictionary meaning, attached to a branch of the clan and becoming hereditary (Cicero - Pea, Naso - Nosy). What the word Caesar meant is unknown. There were many explanations: Caesar himself claimed that it was “elephant” in the “Moorish language,” and Pliny the Elder raised the word to the verb caedo, “to cut, cut,” arguing that the very first Caesar (not ours, but one of his ancestors) was born from a cut uterus, that is, as a result of a procedure later known as a caesarean section. Already thanks to the glory of our Julius Caesar, his cognomen in various forms entered many languages ​​of the world as a synonym for ruler - Caesar, Kaiser, Tsar.

The variant Kai (not Gaius) Julius Caesar has been around in everyday speech for a very long time. It is also found in literature: for example, in the fantastic story “Ghosts” by Turgenev, in “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov, or in “The White Guard” by Bulgakov. A search through the corpus of Russian literature texts produces 18 results for the query “Caius Julius” versus 21 for “Gai Julius,” almost equally divided. Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy recalls an example from the “Logic” of the German Kantian philosopher Johann Gottfried Kiesewetter: “Caius is a man, people are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal” (in Kiesewetter: “Alle Menschen sind sterblich, Caius ist ein Mensch, also ist Caius sterblich” ). This is also, of course, “Caius” Julius Caesar. In languages ​​with Latin-based graphics, the variant Caius instead of Gaius also continues to be found - not only in novels, but also, for example, in the books of the modern British popularizer of antiquity Adrian Goldsworthy. This writing is the result not so much of a misunderstanding, but of a peculiar ancient Roman idea of ​​fidelity to tradition.

Although the sounds [k] and [g] have always been different in Latin, this difference was not initially reflected in writing. The reason was that the Etruscan (or some other Northern Italic) alphabet, from which Latin developed, did not have a stop [g]. When the volume of written information began to increase and literacy began to spread (in antiquity, in principle, there were not many free people who could not read and write at least at a primitive level), it became necessary to somehow distinguish between letters denoting dissimilar sounds, and C was attached tail. As linguist Alexander Piperski notes, the letter G is an innovation with a diacritic like the letter E, only more successful from a historical perspective. The letter E, as you know, was popularized by Karamzin, and Roman lovers of antiquities recorded that G was introduced into the alphabet by a certain Spurius Carvilius, a freedman and the first owner of a private elementary school in Rome, in the 3rd century BC. e.

The capital C, representing the sound [g], was often used as the initial of the names Guy and Gnaeus (C and CN, respectively). Such initials were found in dedicatory inscriptions, on tombstones, and in other contexts of increased importance. The Romans were very neurotic about this kind of thing and preferred not to change anything about them. Therefore, in the inscriptions starting from the 2nd century BC. e. we often see the letter G where it should be (for example, in the word AVG, an abbreviation for Augustus), but at the same time the name Guy is abbreviated in the old fashioned way as S. The same with the name Gnei, which is abbreviated as CN (however, the form “Knei” ", as far as I know, is not found anywhere in Russian).

Most likely, it was this ambiguity that caused the split of the popular Roman name into the correct Guy and the erroneous Kai. Kai from Andersen's "The Snow Queen" is most likely not related to Caesar - this is a common Scandinavian name, and there are many other etymological hypotheses about its origin, mainly going back to the Frisian languages.

Myth 2. We know what he looked like

Let's look at some sculptural portraits.

The first is the so-called Tusculan portrait, excavated in 1825 by Lucien Bonaparte (brother of Napoleon I). It is kept in the Museum of Antiquities of Turin. Several more sculptural images, stored in the National Roman Museum, the Hermitage, the New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, etc., belong to the same type.

Tusculan portrait from the Museum of Antiquities of Turin. Dated to 50–40 BC.© Gautier Poupeau / Wikimedia Commons

Copy from a Tusculan portrait. 1st century BC e. - I century AD e.© J. Paul Getty Trust

Copy from a Roman original of the 1st century AD. e. Italy, 16th century© State Hermitage Museum

The second common type of portrait of Caesar is the so-called bust of Chiaramonti (now kept in the Vatican Museums). Adjacent to it is another bust from Turin, sculptures from Parma, Vienna and a number of others.

The famous “Green Caesar” is kept in the Berlin Antique Collection.

Finally, in the fall of 2007, another alleged bust of Julius Caesar was raised from the bottom of the Rhone River near the French city of Arles.

You can also see a good selection of sculptural portraits of Caesar here.

It is noticeable that even within the same type, the portraits are not very similar to each other, and if you compare one type with another, it is not at all clear how they can be the same person. At the same time, ancient Roman portrait sculpture was distinguished by a very high level of realism and consistently achieved portrait resemblance. To be convinced of this, just look at the numerous portraits of later emperors - Augustus, for example, or Marcus Aurelius. They cannot be confused with each other or with anyone else.

What's the matter? The fact is that almost all ancient sculptural portraits that have come down to us are not signed and their attribution is a highly conjectural matter. Signed portrait images were found only on coins, and Caesar was the first Roman whose image appeared on coins during his lifetime (this happened in 44 BC, and already on March 15 of this year, on the ever-memorable Ides of March, he was killed ). Caesar's denarius, minted by the mint official Marcus Mettius, became the model for all later coins of imperial times.

The 55-year-old Caesar was depicted on the denarius with the realism characteristic of the late Republican era: a very long neck with folds, a protruding Adam's apple, a wrinkled forehead, a thin face, in some versions - wrinkles in the corners of the eyes, a wreath, which, according to rumors, Caesar camouflaged his baldness. But still, a coin is a special genre, and the attribution of a sculptural bust on the basis of a stylized numismatic picture is an unreliable matter. Of course, archaeologists from Arles wanted as many people as possible to know about the Roman bust of outstanding quality - which is undoubtedly a rare find - and this should also help finance the work. And for such a purpose, the “bust of Julius Caesar” is more suitable than the “bust of an unknown Roman.” The same caution should be applied to all other sculptural images of Julius Caesar.

In how the public imagines a character, reputation is often more important than credibility. If you do a Google image search for Emperor Vitellius, the first thing you see is a bust from the Louvre depicting an obese, arrogant man with a triple chin. This correlates well with the image of the emperor, who, according to Suetonius, “was most distinguished by gluttony and cruelty.” But the surviving coins show a completely different face - a man also not thin, but certainly not with a snub nose.

Bust of a man (pseudo-Vitellius). Copy from an earlier sculpture. 16th century© Wikimedia Commons

Denarius of Emperor Vitellius. '69© Wikimedia Commons

Myth 3. He could do several things at once.

Have you ever heard your mother or grandmother say, “Don’t read while you eat, you’re not Gaius (or Caius) Julius Caesar”? At the heart of this warning is the idea that Caesar could multitask and that this kind of multitasking was a unique ability that most people did not have.

Firstly, this meme is most common in Russia. In Western European cultures there is no such stable expression, although the fact itself is known and sometimes mentioned. However, finding it in sources is not so easy. Suetonius says nothing about this in his biography of Caesar. Plutarch, with reference to a certain Oppius, notes that Caesar “during the campaign, he also practiced dictating letters while sitting on a horse, simultaneously employing two or even ... an even larger number of scribes.” This remark is inserted between a mention of his dashing physical dexterity (“He could, by moving his arms back and placing them behind his back, let his horse fly at full speed” - if you think this is not so difficult, I remind you that ancient horsemen did not use stirrups) and a story about the invention of SMS (“They say that Caesar was the first to come up with the idea of ​​​​conversing with friends about urgent matters through letters, when the size of the city and exceptional busyness did not allow meeting in person”).

Pliny the Elder speaks in somewhat more detail about this feature in his monumental work Natural History. He finds the liveliness of mind that distinguished Caesar unprecedented: “They report that he could write or read and at the same time dictate and listen. He could dictate four letters to his secretaries at a time, and on the most important issues; and if you weren’t busy with anything else, then seven letters.” Finally, Suetonius, in his biography of Augustus, notes that Julius Caesar “read letters and papers or wrote answers to them” during the circus games, for which he was criticized, and Augustus made efforts not to repeat this PR mistake of his adoptive father.

We see that we are not talking about real parallel processing, but (as happens with computers) about quickly switching from one task to another, about competent distribution of attention and prioritization. The life of a public person in antiquity posed tasks to his memory and attention that were incomparable with those that modern people have to solve: for example, any speech, even many hours, had to be learned by heart (opportunities for improvisation, of course, existed, but the general outline in any case had to keep it in my head). Nevertheless, even against this background, Caesar’s abilities made an indelible impression on his contemporaries.

Napoleon Bonaparte, whose desire to imitate and surpass Caesar is well documented, was also famous for his ability to dictate up to seven letters at once and, according to the memoirs of one of his secretaries, Baron Claude François de Meneval, attributed this superpower to his virtuoso mastery of the technique, which in modern managerial jargon is called compartmentalization . “When I want to take my mind off something,” Napoleon said, according to Meneval, “I close the box in which it is stored and open another. The two things never mix and never bother or tire me. When I want to sleep, I close all the drawers." This system of spatial visualization of topics or tasks also dates back to classical antiquity.

Bonus track. Where was Julius Caesar killed?

Caesar was killed on his way to a Senate meeting. This fact, combined with the authority of Shakespeare (who places the assassination scene somewhere near the Capitol - that is, perhaps in the Forum, over the western part of which Capitol Hill rises), gives many the erroneous impression that he was killed directly in the Senate building . The Senate building still stands on the Forum and is even called the Julian Curia. But during the time of Caesar he was not there: the old curia burned down during the unrest that preceded his reign, he ordered a new one to be built, but did not have time to see it (it was completed under Augustus; the building that has survived to this day is even later, from the time of Emperor Diocletian) .

While there was no permanent meeting place, senators gathered wherever they could (this practice has always existed and did not stop after the construction of the curia). On this occasion the place of the meeting was the portico of the newly erected Theater of Pompey; there the conspirators attacked Caesar. Today this point is located in a square called Largo di Torre Argentina. In the 1920s, the ruins of four very old temples from the Republican era were discovered there. Under Augustus, the site of Caesar's murder was walled up as if it were cursed, and a public latrine was built nearby, the remains of which can still be seen today.

Sources

• Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. The Life of the Twelve Caesars. Divine Julius.
• Caius Pliny Sec. Natural history.
• Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Alexander and Caesar.
• Balsdon J.P.V.D. Julius Caesar and Rome.
• Goldsworthy A. Caesar: Life of a Colossus.

  New Haven; London, 2008.

• A Companion to Julius Caesar.

How to do several things at the same time? Surely this question is of interest, first of all, to those people who often do not have time to do everything necessary, both at work and on a personal level. To give the answer, we will need to delve into the science called, that is, the art of time management.

Probably many people know a man who did several things at the same time - Julius Caesar. Largely thanks to this quality, he was remembered and went down in history.

Is it possible to replicate his abilities and how to do many things at the same time? More on that later.

First of all, and this is very important, you need to be able to divide all the things you do into 2 categories:

1. Active actions– these are actions that require concentration and mental effort (for example, writing an article, negotiating with a client, writing a report, etc.).

2. Passive actions– these are actions that are performed automatically and do not require concentration or mental effort (for example, driving to work, standing in line, eating, etc.).

It is also important to understand that for different people and in different situations the same actions can be both active and passive. For example, for a novice motorist or in a large stream of cars, driving is an active action, but for an experienced one and on a free country road it is a passive action.

So, if you are thinking about how to do several things at the same time because you don’t have enough time, you need to start by doing active ones in parallel with passive things.

Each person daily performs a certain number of passive actions that cannot be avoided and will have to be performed in any case. If you have to perform some passive action, think about what active things you can do in parallel with it.

The simplest option, which many people use, is to make the necessary phone calls while walking down the street (passive action). A mobile phone, and many other modern technologies, are generally a very useful thing - with their help you can do several things at the same time in a variety of situations.

For example, again, while driving down the street or even on public transport, you can listen to useful audiobooks on headphones - this will save you a lot of time, and also benefit yourself: firstly, you will learn useful lessons from the materials you listened to, secondly, you don't have to spend a significant amount of time reading these books. I admit that I myself walk a lot and actively use this method. You can listen to these same useful audiobooks in the car instead of useless radio or music.

If you perceive visual information better and are forced to passively spend some part of your time on public transport, you can use e-books for reading during this period. True, for this you will need to sit comfortably, which is not always possible, but you can always listen to the necessary material with headphones, thereby doing two things at the same time.

Using headphones and a mobile device, you can not only “read” books, but also do other useful things at the same time as passive ones, for example, learn English or take personal development training using audio lessons. Agree, it won’t be unnecessary, and you’ll spend your time profitably.

If you access the Internet from a mobile device, you can use this opportunity during passive travel on public transport or while waiting for important active tasks, for example, viewing mail and responding to important messages. Once on one of the forums I read that a student working part-time used the 2 hours a day spent on the train to write articles for sale using a laptop. That is, he actually earned money during the inevitable and routine passive processes, doing two things at the same time. Well done! Take note...

You can do several things at the same time not only with the help of modern gadgets. The second, active thing can be simply thought, mental processes. By performing a passive action, you can simultaneously make some plans, develop something in your mind, for example, tactics for holding an important business meeting. And, for example, when going to lunch during your lunch break, you can take a colleague with you and discuss some work issues over the meal so as not to waste working time on them.

Thus, it is possible and even necessary to do two things at the same time, competently combining passive and active actions. This will certainly give a good, useful result and will significantly save your time, which is not enough.

However, if we are talking about combining one active action with another, that is, doing two things at the same time, each of which requires concentration and mental effort, the effect will most likely be completely opposite. Namely, the result of both of these matters will suffer, neither of them will be completed efficiently, because... You will not be able to concentrate properly on any of them.

Why is this so? The answer lies in the way the human brain works. When a person concentrates on performing one active action, both his hemispheres are involved in the work, and the brain performs its functions in the best possible way. If a person simultaneously performs two active actions, then the functions are divided between the two hemispheres: the right hemisphere processes the first action, and the left hemisphere processes the second. In this case, the result will depend on how developed the brain is in a particular person, but it will definitely be of less quality than when performing one action. And if a person does several things at the same time (3 or more), complete chaos begins in the brain, and thought processes cannot proceed properly in any of the tasks being performed.

Thus, only a person with unique brain abilities (such as Julius Caesar) can do several active tasks at the same time so that they are all completed efficiently. An ordinary person is physiologically unable to do this.

To do this, when doing this, simply think through and write down a list of passive things that you need to do. Then think about what active tasks you can combine with these passive ones, doing them simultaneously, in parallel. Then all that remains is to carry out the planned plan, significantly saving time (and this, do not forget, is an irreplaceable human asset) and having time to do all the planned things.

Well, it’s better not to do several things in parallel, if each of them requires active mental activity - this will only make it worse for you, and the overall result will suffer. Concentrate on only one active action, and, if possible, carry it out in parallel with a passive one.

Now you know how to do several things at the same time, in which cases it is possible and makes sense. I hope that my advice will be useful to you and help you achieve success in any business. Don’t forget that there are other, no less important ones that can and should also be used in order to have time to complete all the planned tasks.

See you again on the site, which will become your guide on the path to success, will increase your financial literacy and teach you how to use personal finances as efficiently as possible.

Caesar was a very cunning and far-sighted politician. He was always ready to repel numerous enemies, both in the military and in the secular field. Caesar had no time to have fun, but his position obliged him to attend various events, including gladiator fights. Sitting in the imperial box of the amphitheater, the ruler of Rome used the time usefully: he looked through, answered letters, talked with advisers and associates.

Watching Caesar, his political opponents noticed that the emperor was not paying enough attention to the spectacle taking place in the arena. Since at that time gladiator fights were considered an event of exceptional importance among the patricians, Caesar was asked how he managed to watch the battle, write letters, and read them. The emperor answered the sarcastic question simply: he said that the Great Caesar could do two or three things at the same time.

Version two. Scientific

Already in our time, scientists have decided to confirm or refute the ancient legend. Psychologists from Canada published the results of an unusual experiment in the journal Neuron. They examined a group of people for their ability to multitask. The group of seven were given tasks. The first task was to sort the images that appeared on the screen by pressing a button. The second task was to sort the sounds and say the answer out loud.

Psychologists have found that the human brain is physically unable to perform two tasks, but can switch to performing another task. At the beginning of the experiment, each subject performed one of the tasks without difficulty, but could not simultaneously perform the second “sound” task. However, over time, the situation began to improve: the switching speed increased. It turned out that the ability to switch from one task to another can be trained, but it is impossible to train the brain to perform several tasks at the same time. Apparently, through constant training, Caesar taught his brain to work so quickly that the people around him did not notice the fractions of a second that the emperor needed to switch.

Version three. Divine

Everything is simple here: Caesar believed in his own divine origin. It is clear that the emperor, descended from Venus herself, had access to abilities that a mere mortal could only dream of. It seemed to the people that the most educated Caesar was endowed with divine power. Caesar could simultaneously (or almost simultaneously) discuss state problems, dictate messages and write, and at the same time enjoy the worship of his own people. True, the senators did not share the opinion of ordinary people about the divine essence of the newly-minted dictator, but that is another story.

Catchphrases about Caesar and his ability to do several things at once are not relevant and have little credibility. Researchers of this issue gave priority to women in possessing this unique ability, because a man, as it turned out, is simply not capable of this.

Dear ladies, you have probably noticed more than once that you can easily perform several activities at the same time. For example, cooking borscht, at the same time cleaning the refrigerator, watching TV where your favorite talk show is on, and not just watching, but being aware of what is happening there and commenting, and even chatting with your girlfriend on the phone. Such virtuosity and dexterity are inaccessible to men. A man is able to concentrate on a maximum of one activity.

Most women simply cannot comprehend how a computer or a book or watching TV can interfere with listening and hearing what a woman is saying. Then we are sincerely offended and make claims to the man about this: “You never listen to me!”, “How did you not tell me? Yesterday, when you were fixing your phone, I told you that your mother would come!” - Do you remember at least once saying something like that to your man.

But believe me, in reality everything is different. It's not that your man doesn't listen to you or doesn't want to listen. He simply does not hear, because during some activity his brain simply turns off from everything extraneous, which can prevent him from concentrating on what he is currently doing. This is due to some features of the structure of the male brain, which is noticeably different from the female one.

The left and right sides of the brain are connected by a bundle of nerves. This “cable” of nerves is called the corpus callosum. It allows one side of the brain to be in constant contact with the other side and allows the two hemispheres to exchange information. Research has proven that estrogen (a female hormone) promotes the formation of more connections between the left and right hemispheres. And the result of more connections between the two sides of the brain is women's ability to multitask, as well as a tendency to speak quickly and fluently.

According to research, the male brain is divided into sections. The configuration of the male brain makes it possible for a man to concentrate without being distracted by just one particular activity. For example, when a man stops at a gas station, the first thing he does is turn off the radio! According to statistics, men who talk on the phone while driving in a car are more likely to get into accidents than women, since the telephone conversation diverts all the attention and concentration of the man.

There are still not many examples from life. For example, when a man is preparing a new dish according to a recipe, and a woman starts talking to him, he gets angry because he is not allowed to do his job in peace. If a man is shaving and you talk to him, he will most likely cut himself. Or a man misses a turn on the road because a woman talks to him all the time and does not allow him to concentrate on driving.

An interesting fact is that women often confuse the left and right sides because they use both hemispheres of the brain. Interestingly, about 50% of women cannot instantly answer where the right and left hand are, but can only determine this by a ring or other sign. That's why our men so often scold us for saying turn left when we mean right.

And that's not bad! It's great that we don't have a moment's peace. We live brightly, participating in everything at once, we have time everywhere, and clean the house, cook, wash, and work, and look after the children and, of course, our men - that’s why we are women!