He doesn't behave like a conventional aristocrat in many ways. He combines that appeal to the past with real popularism. Maria has already mentioned his links with the opponents of sulla, the dictator. His aunt julia, married marius, who was one who was a new man and had no political background but became a hero in rome at the end of the second century b c. So he combines a gynastic cachet with a new type power to help him get a start in political life.
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.