I think there's a great fear about the consequences of this conflict. There is a real anx ety when a caesar comes and he goes too. So let's bring the republic notion back into it. These these two men, are fighting each other, as it were, for for supremacy. That's what thy're figting for. Ii, how's the republic sitting in rome, thinking, i wonder what's going to happen to us?
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.