Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gāius Jūlius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He has frequently appeared in literary and artistic works since ancient times.
Contents |
[edit] Ancient literary works
- Caesar is referred to in some of the poems of Catullus (ca. 84-54 BC)
- He is depicted in Virgil's Aeneid (ca. 29-19 BC), an epic poem about the foundation of Rome
- He appears as a character in Lucan's Pharsalia (AD 61), an epic poem based on Caesar's civil war
[edit] Medieval works
- A legendary account of Caesar's invasions of Britain appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (ca. 1136)
- In the 13th century French romance Les Faits des Romains, Caesar is made a bishop
- In the 13th century French chanson de geste Huon of Bordeaux, the fairy king Oberon is the son of Caesar and Morgan le Fay
- Caesar was considered one of the Nine Worthies, first written of in the early 14th century
- Caesar appears in Canto IV of Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy (ca. 1308-1321), in Limbo alongside Aeneas, Homer, Ovid, Horace and Lucan. His assassins, Brutus and Cassius, and his lover, Cleopatra, are seen in hell.
- Caesar's civil war and assassination are recounted in Geoffrey Chaucer's Monk's Tale (ca. 1385, one of his Canterbury Tales)
[edit] Renaissance and early modern works
[edit] Theatre
- William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar (1599) depicts Caesar's assassination and its aftermath, and has been adapted for the cinema several times
[edit] Opera
- Handel's Giulio Cesare (first performed 1724)
[edit] Modern works
[edit] Theatre
- Caesar and Cleopatra (1901), a play by George Bernard Shaw
[edit] Fiction
- Masters of Rome, a series of six novels by the Australian writer, Colleen McCullough
- Emperor Series, a series of four novels by the writer, Conn Iggulden
- Roma Sub Rosa, a series of historical mysteries by the American writer, Steven Saylor
- Ides of March is an epistolatory novel by Thornton Wilder dealing with characters and events leading to, and culminating in, the assasination of Julius Caesar.
[edit] Film
- Played by Fritz Leiber, Sr. in Cleopatra (1917)
- Played by Claude Rains in Caesar and Cleopatra (adapated from Shaw's play, 1945)
- Played by Louis Calhern in Julius Caesar (adapted from Shakespeare's play, 1953)
- Played by John Gavin in Spartacus (1960)
- Played by Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963)
- Played by Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo (1964)
- Played by John Gielgud in Julius Caesar (adapted from Shakespeare's play, 1970)
- Played by Klaus Maria Brandauer in Druids (2001)
[edit] TV
- Cleopatra (1999 mini-series) played by Timothy Dalton
- a 2002 TV movie called Julius Caesar, which depicts his active life
- Empire (TV series), played by Colm Feore
- Gaius Julius Caesar in Rome (TV series), played by Ciarán Hinds
- Julius Caesar (2002) TV, played by Jeremy Sisto
- Wayne and Shuster's comedy sketch Rinse the Blood off My Toga is a spoof of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the form of a Dragnet episode
- Xena: Warrior Princess highlighted Julius Caesar as a major protagonist, as played by actor Karl Urban
- Histeria!, where Caesar's appearance is based on Frank Sinatra
- Internet sitcom Custer and Julius: Beyond 2000 features a modern-day Julius Caesar, played by actor Steve Anderson.
[edit] Comics
- Asterix comics, written by the French writer René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo.
- Caesar appears in Neil Gaiman's Sandman #30, "August" (collected in The Sandman: Fables and Reflections)
[edit] Games
- Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego features Julius Caesar in one of its stages.
[edit] Rumours
The following quotation warning of the dangers of patriotism attributed to Caesar, or sometimes to Shakespeare's play, began appearing on the internet and elsewhere in 2001:
| “ | 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 has 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 of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar. | ” |
However, it is inauthentic. The quotation cannot be found in Caesar's works or any other ancient source, nor is it in Shakespeare, but nonetheless in 2002 political cartoonist Paul Conrad used it, attributed to Shakespeare, in a cartoon depicting George W. Bush as Caesar, and Barbra Streisand used it in a speech to a Democratic Party rally shortly afterwards.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Quotation debunked by Snopes.com and About.com
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
