"Before someone is scandalized by the title, I must clarify that reading the following article is suitable for all audiences. Some people, after the initial anticipation, may be disappointed by the absence of erotic content in the next few paragraphs, but I will try to make up for it with a major historical enigma. And for this, we will move to the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos, to a pond located almost at the end of its beautiful gardens, attached to the wall on the right. It is a small rectangular pool, at the bottom of which are several mosaics with fish, seahorses and fantasy aquatic beings. Next to it stands a banana tree, an impressive size tree that provides shade for visitors. Most do not usually notice this charming corner, since it competes with the attractive variety of floral species and the beautiful fountains configured in terraces that surround it. But right there is where we will find the key to the story that I want to share today.
On the wall next to it there is a large epigram inscribed on the stone, where it reads: «In Tartess lands there is a famous house, there where the windy Córdoba is seen in the placid, in the middle and encompassing the entire dwelling, Caesar's banana tree rises, with thick hair, which the happy right hand of the undefeated guest planted, beginning its trunk to grow from his hand. Oh, tree of the great Caesar! Oh, beloved of the gods! Do not fear iron or sacrilegious fire. Martial". A first reading can leave us a little confused, and it is reasonable that we ask ourselves many unknowns: Who is it referring to? Is the banana a metaphor? Why is it recorded precisely there? To clear them, it will be necessary to connect the ancient history of Córdoba with the clues offered by the mysterious message.
We will begin by analyzing who signs it. Marcial was a Latin poet from the first century, very fond of extolling the deeds of the great Roman leaders. So that Caesar you are referring to is, without a doubt, Gaius Julius Caesar, one of the greatest generals of all time and first emperor of the Roman Empire. And that, although it is not an excessively well-known fact, he was in Córdoba on two occasions.
The first was in the year 65 BC, when our city was caput provinciae and its customs house was installed in what is now the Alcázar. A young Caesar was assigned to Corduba to perform quaestor duties, and it was then that, according to legend, he planted a plane tree with his own hands in the fortress gardens. The tree became so leafy over the years that it caught the attention of poets from all over the Latin world, such as the aforementioned Marcial, who would immortalize it in his rhymes. After the death of the emperor, the Hispano-Romans thought that his spirit revived in the trunk of the tree, this being the reason for his great vigor and exuberance. It even seems that they watered it with wine, thinking that this would please their long-awaited leader. Although the exact place where it was located is unknown,
There are fewer pieces left to complete the puzzle, but an important question still remains: Why a banana, and not any other tree species? To find the answer we must try to understand the mentality of the time and the character. In the Classical World, this tree was associated with war, and planting one was believed to bring good fortune on the battlefield. According to Pliny, the mythological hero Agamemnon planted a colossal plane tree in the forest of Arcadia before rising victorious in the countless adventures narrated by Homer in the Iliad. Menelaus, legendary king of Sparta, also planted another tree of this same species with his own hands, just before achieving glory in the Trojan War. For this reason, I have no doubt that Julius Caesar intended to imitate the classical heroes,
What that ambitious Roman quaestor probably did not suspect, as he plunged his hands into the land of the Alcázar, is that two decades later he would return to Corduba, precisely to that city where he grew up, to finish off the transcendental battle of Munda. In this way, Julius Caesar closed the circle, and we cannot rule out that after his great triumph, he went alone one night to that tree that he planted twenty years ago to thank him for the "services rendered.""
(
visit link)