Pompey had no great reason to be gratitude tod, to be grateful to these people. So there was lots of things on the table back there and they wanted to force it. They were lucky that pompey was with them. Anything could happen still. He crosses a rubicon. We're into civil war. And now, as we're all saying, this an absolutely massive move. It's a massive, just say, he crosses the rubiconb and the romans say, you can't do that. But, ok, they did force caesar’s hand, probably to go further than er wants to - not that he was prepared to.
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life, work and reputation of Julius Caesar. Famously assassinated as he entered the Roman senate on the Ides of March, 44 BC, Caesar was an inspirational general who conquered much of Europe. He was a ruthless and canny politician who became dictator of Rome, and wrote The Gallic Wars, one of the most admired and studied works of Latin literature. Shakespeare is one of many later writers to have been fascinated by the figure of Julius Caesar.
With:
Christopher Pelling
Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford
Catherine Steel
Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow
Maria Wyke
Professor of Latin at University College London
Producer: Thomas Morris.