Caesar+Through+Shakespeare&Suetonius

__JULIUS CAESAR THROUGH THE VIEWS OF SHAKESPEARE AND SUETONIUS- __Emily Hollander Even today, Caesar is still one of the most recognized leade rs in history. People pra ise him on his tactics and precise plans, adore him for his goal oriented mind set, or hate him because of his awful dictatorship. But, nonetheless, no one can forget Caesar. Throughout time, different authors have written about his legacy in many different ways; two especially famous ones being William Shakespeare and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, also known as just Suetonius. Although they both have ﻿  Caesar as a mutual topic, the way he is portrayed in both of their works is quite different.

Shakespeare's play //Julius Caesar// is fairly condescending, considering the fact that the main character of the play is not who the play is named after. The real main characters of this play are Caesar's friends and comrades Brutus and Cassius. Although their feelings are not at the same level, they both fear of the possibility of Caesar taking over the power of Rome. So, after Cassius wrote and delivered false letters from the citizens claiming they didn't want Caesar a s emperor, they decide to plot his death, in order to ensure that he never takes to power. Once the citizens of Rome find out of the back stabbing Caesar's so called friends had done, they make it  their purpose to kill them and the friends whom they killed Caesar with. In the end, all of Caesar's closest men died by the anger of the citizens, except for Brutus, who killed himself after everyone had been destroyed. The origin of the story does indeed come from Julius Caesar and the possible repercussions of him being emperor, but it does not focus on his personal life as the reader would expect it to. Nonetheless, the play was written in a manor that amused audiences in seeing the other aspects of the time of Julius Caesar.

Suetonius is another great author, but his style of writing is completely different than the one of Shakespeare, merely because the time periods in which they lived. The way that Suetonius wrote his book //The Twelve Caesars// in praise of Caesar, even doing direct quotes of him. Suetonius describes Caesar as an admirable man and leader, by connecting with the citizens of Rome, and making them feel a s though he was no more than a friend  rather than their leader. Suetonius also accounts for Caesar's passion for power. He recounts one instance when Caesar was governor in Hispania, once seeing the statue of ** Alexander the Great, ** he fell onto his knees and cried because Alexander had accomplished much more than Caesar had yet to do when they were the same age. Suetonius also goes into detail about his physical appearance, noting that he was almost bald, and used different styling tips with his hair to conce al it. The book also tells about his assassination, in which he supposedly was given a letter describing his assassination, but he did not bother to look at it.

 WOKS CITED:  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px;">Dunton-Downer, Leslie, and Alan Riding. // Essential Shakespeare Handbook //. New York, NY: DK Pub., 2004. Print. <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif;"> [] <span style="font-family: Cambria,serif;">[]