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Julius Caesar trailer | 2012 | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Julius Caesar trailer | 2012 | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Julius Caesar trailer | 2012 | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Man of Honour VS Man of Action | Julius Caesar | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Early Life of Gaius Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was born on or around July 13, 100 B.C., to his father, also named Gaius Julius Caesar, and his mother Aurelia Cotta. He was also the nephew of the famous Roman general Gaius Marius.

Caesar traced his bloodline to the origins of Rome and claimed to be a descendant of the goddess Venus through the Trojan prince Aeneas and his son Iulus. Despite his allegedly noble heritage, however, Caesar's family was not wealthy or particularly influential in Roman politics.

Did you know? Unlike in the Shakespeare play, Caesar's last words were not "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?"). Instead they were reported as "You, too, my child?"

After his father died suddenly in 85 B.C., Caesar became head of his family at age 16-right in the middle of a civil war between his uncle Marius and the Roman ruler Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In 84 B.C., he married Cornelia, the daughter of an ally of Marius. Caesar and Cornelia had one child, a daughter named Julia.

In 82 B.C., Sulla won the civil war and ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia. Caesar refused and went into hiding. His family intervened and convinced Sulla to spare Caesar's life; however, Sulla stripped Caesar of his inheritance.

Despite the reprieve, Caesar left Rome, joined the army and earned the prestigious Civic Crown for his courage at the Siege of Mytilene in 80 B.C. After Sulla's death in 78 B.C., Caesar returned to Rome and became a successful prosecutor widely known for his oratory skills.

Pirates Capture Caesar

In 75 B.C., as he crossed the Aegean Sea in route to Rhodes to study philosophy and oratory, murderous pirates captured Caesar. Reportedly, Caesar acted more like a domineering leader with the pirates than their captive.

After his ransom was paid, the pirates let him go. But Caesar hired a private fleet to hunt them down and had the pirates crucified for their crimes.

Political Rise

Caesar soon began his political career in earnest. He became military tribune and then quaestor of a Roman province in 69 B.C., the same year his wife Cornelia died. In 67 B.C., he married Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla and relative of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great), with whom he formed an important alliance.

In 65 B.C., Caesar became aedile-an important Roman magistrate-and produced lavish games in the Circus Maximus which endeared him to the public but threw him heavily into debt. Two years later, he was elected Pontifex Maximus.

Caesar divorced Pompeia in 62 B.C. after a politician incited a major scandal by disguising himself as a woman and making his way into a sacred women's festival hosted by Pompeia.

The First Triumvirate

One year later, Caesar became governor of Spain. A series of successful military and political maneuvers, along with the support of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus (known as the richest man in Rome), helped Caesar get elected as senior Roman consul in 59 B.C.

Caesar, Crassus and Pompey soon formed an informal alliance (strengthened by the marriage of Caesar's daughter Julia to Pompey) known as the First Triumvirate. The union terrified the Roman Senate who knew that a partnership between three such powerful men would prove unstoppable. They were right, and the triumvirate soon controlled Rome.

Caesar in Gaul

Caesar was appointed governor of the vast region of Gaul (north-central Europe) in 58 B.C., where he commanded a large army. During the subsequent Gallic Wars, Caesar conducted a series of brilliant campaigns to conquer and stabilize the region, earning a reputation as a formidable and ruthless military leader.

Caesar built a bridge across the Rhine River into Germanic territories and crossed the English Channel into Britain. But his great successes in the region caused Pompey to resent him and complicated the already-strained relationship between Pompey and Crassus.

As Caesar conquered Gaul, the political situation in Rome became increasingly volatile, with Pompey its lone consul. After the deaths of Pompey's wife (and Caesar's daughter) Julia in 54 B.C. and Crassus in 53 B.C., Pompey aligned with Caesar's opponents and ordered him to give up his army and return to Rome.

Caesar refused and, in a bold and decisive maneuver, directed his army to cross the Rubicon River into Italy, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of Pompey. Caesar and his armies pursued Pompey to Spain, Greece and, finally, Egypt.

Julius Caesar and Cleopatra

Hoping to prevent Caesar from invading Egypt, the child pharaoh Ptolemy VIII had Pompey killed on September 28, 48 B.C. When Caesar entered Egypt, Ptolemy gifted him Pompey's severed head.

Caesar soon found himself in the middle of a civil war between Ptolemy and his Egyptian co-regent Cleopatra. Caesar became her lover and partnered with her to overthrow Ptolemy and make her ruler of Egypt. The pair never married but their long-term affair produced a son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, known as Caesarion.

Dictatorship

Caesar spent the next few years wiping out his enemies and what remained of Pompey's supporters in the Middle East, Africa and Spain.

In 46 B.C. he was made dictator of Rome for ten years, outraging his political opponents and setting the stage for the eventual end of the Roman Republic. Caesar began making several drastic reforms to benefit Rome's lower- and middle class, including:

regulating the distribution of subsidized grain

increasing the size of the Senate to represent more people

reducing government debt

supporting military veterans

granting Roman citizenship to people in Rome's far-flung territories

reforming the Roman tax codes

creating the Julian calendar

Julius Caesar Quotes

Many people still consider Caesar a great leader with keen insights into human nature. Over the centuries, many of his words have become famous quotes, such as:

"I came, I saw, I conquered."

"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

"The die has been cast."

"If I fail, it is only because I have too much pride and ambition."

"In the end, it is impossible to become what others believe you are."

"As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can."

"No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected."

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

"There are no tricks in plain and simple faith."

"Which death is preferable to every other? The unexpected."

Assassination

Caesar declared himself dictator for life in 44 B.C. However, his crusade for absolute power didn't go over well with many Roman politicians. Fearing he would become king, a group of senators conspired to end his life.

On the Ides of March (March 15, 44 B.C.), the senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, stabbed Caesar 23 times, ending both his reign and his life as he fell bleeding onto the Senate floor at the feet of a statue of Pompey.

Caesar's assassination at age 55 made him a martyr and incited a cycle of civil wars resulting in the downfall of the Roman Republic and the rise to power of his grandnephew and heir Gaius Octavius (Octavian)-later known as Augustus Caesar -to emperor of the Roman Empire.

Play: 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar'

In 1599, William Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a play based on Caesar's life. Set in 44 B.C., it tells the story of a Roman politician named Brutus who plots with others to assassinate Caesar. It also portrays Caesar's brutal murder and the aftermath.

The play is thought to have made its debut in 1599 at the Globe Theater in London and continues to mesmerize audiences to this day, inspiring songs, novels, films, television shows and even comedy acts. It has also provided many well-known quotes-attributed to Shakespeare, not Caesar- including:

"Et tu, Brute?"

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."

"The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves."

"Beware the Ides of March."

"Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

Sources

A Timeline of the Life of Julius Caesar. San Joseʹ State University.
Julius Caesar. Ancient History Encyclopedia.
The Reader's Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker. Houghton Mifflin Books.

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Julius Caesar - Play, Quotes & Death | HISTORY

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Julius Caesar was a general, politician and scholar who became dictator of ancient Rome until he was assassinated in 44 B.C., inspiring a play by Shakespeare.

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Brutus Speech at Caesar's funeral - Closed Captions

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Julius Caesar, Act 3 Scene 2 | 2012 | Royal Shakespeare Company

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Beware the Ides of March. But Why? | HISTORY

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It’s unlikely even Shakespeare could have predicted how his famous phrase would have evolved.

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In a paper titled "Has the Diagnosis of a Stroke been overlooked in the Symptoms of Julius Caesar?" doctors Francesco M. Galassi and Hutan Ashrafian of Imperial College London argue that the Roman general may have been afflicted by cerebrovascular disease. Their study, published in the journal "Neurological Sciences," offers a provocative new take on Caesar's mysterious illness, which began in the years after his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Roman power structure. Conventional wisdom has long held that he suffered from epilepsy, but Galassi and Ashrafian suggest that his symptoms are more in line with Transient Ischemic Attacks, more commonly known as "mini-strokes."

"The theory that Caesar was epileptic appears not to have very solid philological foundations," Dr. Galassi told Discovery News. "If carefully re-examined, the facts appear to suggest a simpler and more logical diagnosis of stroke."

Caesar wrote widely about his life and military campaigns, but he never addressed his health. What little evidence historians have on his physical condition comes from ancient chroniclers, a few of whom make reference to a sickness that plagued him in his later years. Suetonius tells of "sudden fainting fits" and "nightmares"; Appian writes of "convulsions"; and Plutarch describes Caesar as suffering from "distemper in the head" and "epileptic fits." According to Plutarch, Caesar collapsed while on campaign in Cordoba, Spain in 46 B.C., and he later had to retire from the Battle of Thapsus in modern day Tunisia after "his usual sickness laid hold of him."

Despite Plutarch's diagnosis of epilepsy, Galassi and Ashrafian argue that Caesar's late-life health woes-including weakness in the limbs, dizziness and headaches-were caused by mini-strokes, which occur when there is a temporary shortage of blood to the brain. His mercurial personality and bouts of depression, meanwhile, may have been the result of stroke-induced brain damage. "All of the symptoms reported in Caesar's life are compatible with him having multiple mini-strokes," Galassi told the Guardian newspaper.

As evidence, the researchers point to a famous incident in which Caesar scandalized the Roman public by remaining seated when the Roman Senate presented him with an honor. According to Plutarch, he later blamed his failure to rise on his sickness, which he claimed caused his senses to be "speedily shaken and whirled about, bringing on giddiness and insensibility." On another occasion, Caesar exhibited bizarre behavior upon hearing a speech by the silver-tongued orator Cicero. Plutarch describes him as being so affected by Cicero's words "that his body trembled, and some of the papers he held dropped out of his hands and thus, he was overpowered."

The authors argue that these fits would have inspired much more comment from Caesar's contemporaries had they been the kind of seizures that usually accompany epilepsy. They also note that Caesar's "morbus comitialis," as the Romans called it, didn't manifest until his later life, which is exceedingly rare in cases of epilepsy. "The idea that he was epileptic is unfounded," Dr. Galassi told the Guardian. "We think others start from the assumption that he had epilepsy. Our theory is simpler and more logical."

Since Caesar was known for his physical toughness, historians had previously written off stroke or heart attack as a possible explanation for his illness. He reveled in the military life, and was described as being remarkably fit well into his 50s. Nevertheless, members of his family did have a history of sudden and unexplained death. Pliny the Elder wrote that his father and another relative both dropped dead without warning while putting on their shoes, leading Galassi and Ashrafian to speculate that Caesar may have inherited a health defect. "Even if Caesar participated in an active lifestyle and may have benefited from an environmental background of a Mediterranean diet," they write, "there is the added possibility of genetic predisposition towards cardiovascular disease."

The new study is not the first attempt to offer an alternative explanation for Caesar's illness. In the past, researchers have proposed everything from migraines, malaria and Ménière's disease to a parasitic infection, a brain tumor and even syphilis. Interestingly, Caesar may have had good reason to present himself as epileptic. The ailment was well known to the Romans, having been described by the famed Greek physician Hippocrates in a 400 B.C. treatise entitled "On the Sacred Disease." Many in ancient Rome believed the seizures and fits caused by epilepsy to be a sign of divine possession, and it was often associated with the powerful. According to Galassi and Ashrafian, Caesar may have played up evidence of his epilepsy as a means of bolstering his public profile.

Fact Check

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Julius Caesar Suffered from Strokes, Not Epilepsy, New Study Says | HISTORY

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A new examination of Julius Caesar's health has found that the Roman dictator may have suffered from a series "mini-strokes" rather than epilepsy.

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The Cosby Show - Friends, Romans, Countrymen

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The Cosby Show - Friends, Romans, Countrymen

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The Cosby Show - Friends, Romans, Countrymen

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More than 2,000 years after his death, Julius Caesar remains one of history's most momentous figures. His military and political achievements transformed ancient Rome and left a legacy that still endures-from our idioms ("crossing the Rubicon") to our calendar. The following are six of the most important legacies of the renowned Roman military commander and dictator.

1. Caesar expanded Roman rule in Europe.

After being appointed governor of Rome's northern territory of Gaul in 58 B.C., Caesar vastly extended the boundaries of the Roman Republic across Europe, all the way to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and English Channel. During the bloody eight-year Gallic Wars, his legions conquered local tribes in present-day France, Belgium and Switzerland.

In 55 B.C., Caesar's army built a timber bridge spanning the Rhine River in just 10 days-a marvel of military engineering. Then, Roman troops marched across the waterway for the first time ever to subdue German tribes threatening eastern Gaul. Later that year, the Roman general commanded the first of two expeditions across the English Channel. These initial incursions into Britain laid the foundation for Rome's eventual conquest of much of the island.

2. He started a civil war by 'crossing the Rubicon.'

Through his masterful battlefield tactics and willingness to fight in combat, Caesar earned the respect and loyalty of his soldiers. He also earned the jealousy of Pompey, his former political ally in the First Triumvirate who effectively ran Rome. When Pompey's supporters in the Roman Senate demanded that Caesar disband his army and return to Rome as a civilian, he refused.

Instead, in 49 B.C., Caesar brazenly led a legion across the Rubicon River, which divided Gaul and Rome, sparking a civil war. Forces supporting Caesar on one side and Pompey on the other battled as far away as Spain, Greece and North Africa. Although outnumbered, Caesar's legions defeated Pompey's army in a decisive battle at Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 B.C., prompting Pompey to flee to Egypt. But before he could even step ashore, he was assassinated at the behest of the teenaged pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. Ptolemy, it turned out, sought Caesar's support in Egypt's own civil war-one that had pitted him against his co-regent and sister, Cleopatra VII.

3. Caesar installed Cleopatra on the Egyptian throne.

When Roman reinforcements arrived in early 47 B.C., Caesar's forces defeated Ptolemy's army in the Battle of the Nile. After the young king drowned in the Nile River while fleeing the battle, Caesar installed Cleopatra and her 12-year-old half-brother, Ptolemy XIV, as co-regents, but the queen held the true power.

But Ptolemy gravely miscalculated. When he presented Caesar with Pompey's severed head upon his arrival in Alexandria, the reaction wasn't gratitude; it was horror. Caesar promptly executed Pompey's assassins and sided with Cleopatra in Egypt's civil war.

According to the ancient historian Plutarch, Caesar had the 21-year-old Cleopatra transported into the royal palace where he had taken residence by having her smuggled inside a linen sack filled with dirty laundry. As urban warfare erupted in Alexandria, the pair began a romance while besieged in the palace for six months.

Around the time Caesar returned to Rome, Cleopatra gave birth to a boy believed to be his son. The Egyptian queen named him Ptolemy XV, but Alexandrians mockingly referred to the boy as Caesarion, "Little Caesar."In 46 B.C., Cleopatra and her infant son moved into a villa on the banks of Rome's Tiber River, and the married Caesar continued to visit his mistress in apparent violation of Rome's bigamy laws.

Following Caesar's murder, Cleopatra returned to Egypt and later had a love affair and alliance with Caesar's deputy, Mark Antony. The pair committed suicide after Augustus defeated their armies in 31 B.C.

4. He ruled over Rome as a dictator.

Buoyed by the support of his army and Rome's plebeians (non-elite citizens), Caesar emerged from his war with Pompey with tremendous power. After being named dictator of Rome for 10 years in 46 B.C., he declared himself "dictator for life" the following year. Caesar's sweeping reforms-such as granting property to retiring soldiers, redistributing land to the poor and canceling debts-proved popular with the military and Rome's lower and middle classes.

Caesar's reforms angered elites, as did his disregard for the Roman Senate and republican tradition. A cult of personality developed around Caesar as he minted coins with his image, celebrated his birthday as a public holiday and ruled the Senate from a golden throne.

5. His assassination led to the collapse of the Roman Republic-and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Caesar's autocratic rule heralded the dawn of the Roman Empire. Dozens of senators who believed Caesar's concentration of absolute power threatened the republic's democratic institutions plotted his murder, which occurred on the Ides of March in 44 B.C.

Rather than saving the 400-year-old Roman Republic, however, the assassination accelerated its demise. In their attempt to thwart a dictator, the senators inadvertently created an emperor. Caesar's heir, Augustus, emerged from a lengthy civil war as Rome's supreme leader after purging his enemies, murdering Caesar's assassins and cracking down on republicans. Augustus deified Caesar (effectively making Augustus the son of a god) and ushered in the autocratic Roman Empire, which lasted for approximately five centuries.

6. He introduced the modern calendar.

Caesar was so powerful that he changed time. The traditional Roman calendar, which was based on the 355-day lunar year, required constant revisions since it fell out of sync with seasons and festivals. Aided by the Greek mathematician and astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar enacted the Julian calendar, which was based on the 365¼-day solar year with a " leap day " added every four years.

To reboot the calendar, 46 B.C. spanned 445 days before Caesar's system took effect on January 1 in 45 B.C. The Julian calendar predominated in most of the Western world for 16 centuries. Since each solar year is slightly less than 365¼ days, the Julian calendar gained one day every 131 years. By the 1500s, the calendar was 10 days out of step with the seasons. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII modified the calendar by eliminating 10 days from that year and decreeing that only one out of every four centennial years would be leap years. The Julian calendar is still in use in portions of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

An additional legacy of Caesar can be seen on the calendar. Following Caesar's assassination, the name of his birth month was changed from Quintilis to Julius (July) in his honor.

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Julius Caesar: 6 Ways He Shaped the World | HISTORY

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From the battlefield to the calendar, the ancient Roman dictator's achievements changed the course of world history.

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AI unlocks ancient text owned by Caesar's family

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AI unlocks ancient text owned by Caesar's family

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AI unlocks ancient text owned by Caesar’s family

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Students win a prize for using AI to reveal the contents of 2000-year-old text for the first time.

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.