Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind is closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

This is a modern sentiment attributed to Caesar, or sometimes to Shakespeare (from his play Julius Caesar, of course). There are several clues that this is a fake beyond the fact that you will never find it in any of the writings of Julius Caesar, nor in any saying attributed to him in antiquity, nor in Shakespeare's play. See Charles A. Harris, Idioms and phrases of Caesar, Boston, 1906; E. G. Sihler, A complete lexicon of the Latinity of Caesar's Gallic war, Chicago, 1968; Hugo Merguet, Lexicon zu den Schriften Caesars und seiner Fortsetzer, Hildesheim, 1966; Marvin Spevack, Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare, Cambridge, MA, 1973. First, the Roman army didn't use drums and they had no military associations for Romans. Second, "a double edged sword" is not an idiom found in Latin. All Roman military swords were double edged and used primarily as stabbing weapons. Third, the quotation is not in iambic pentameter, as it would be if it were from Shakespeare's play. It is merely unremarkable prose with a lot of modern cliches (drums of war, double edged sword, patriotic fervor, narrows the mind, fever pitch, blood boils, mind is closed, blinded by patriotism). Finally, there is no evidence this quotation existed before December, 2001.