Rome,Julius Caesar

&Shakespeare

English IIRSS - 2009

Rome

Roman Garb

Roman classes

• Right to vote– Patricians

• Nobles (landowners)

– Plebians• Commoners

(regular townspeople)

• No rights– Slaves

• Captured prisoners of war

Rome

• Monarchy? Republic? Dictatorship? Oh my!

• How about a triumvirate!!– Caesar– Crassus– Pompey

Julius Caesar

• In 58 B.C., Caesar governed part of Gaul (France) and over the next 10 years conquered all of Gaul.

• Very charismatic. People loved him.

Crassus

Killed in battle!

Pompey

• With Crassus gone, it’s only Caesar and Pompey ruling Rome. (…so much for that triumvirate)

• Pompey feels jealous of Caesar’s popularity.

• He convinces the Senate to order Caesar to D.E.A.R. (drop everything and return – to Rome, that is…)

Caesar

• Being the brave and daring man that he is, Caesar decides to invade Rome instead.

• He wins the battle and makes himself absolute ruler. Isn’t there another word for that?

Pompey

• Ran… like the coward he is… to Greece.

• Caesar followed him.

• Ran again… to Egypt.

• This time he was murdered (guess who did it…)

Caesar

• 3 years later, he found Pompey’s sons and defeated them as well. (Why?)

• Caesar returns to Rome in victory and becomes the undisputed leader of the entire Roman Empire!!!

Marcus Brutus

• Very good friends with Caesar.

• Caesar appointed him to a high office.

• Conspirators convinced him that Caesar was too powerful and needed to be taken down.

Conspirators against Caesar• Marcus Brutus• Caius Cassius

– Brutus’ brother-in-law

• Decius Brutus• Casca• Cinna• Metellus Cimber• Trebonius• Caius Ligarius

Caesar’s Death

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

Shakespeare probably used Greek historian Plutarch’s (46 – 127) writings to write his play, Julius Caesar.

William Shakespeare

• (1564 – 1616)• Born in

Stratford-upon-Avon (England)

• This period is known as the Elizabethan Era; therefore, Shakespeare’s type of drama is known as Elizabethan Drama. (Who is this Elizabeth person?)

Elizabethan Drama

• Shakespeare wrote three types of plays:– Comedies (nobody dies)– Tragedies (everybody dies)– Histories (based on history)

• Julius Caesar is a historical tragedy. (Why do you think that is? Hmm…)

• His plays were performed in the Globe Theatre.

The Globe Theatre

• Holds up to 3000 patrons.

• Circular structure.

• Stage in the middle.

• Working-class folks paid a penny ($4 now) & stood on the ground. (exposed to weather, dirty)

• For 2 pennies, you can sit in the gallery. (Roof, see better)

Words to know…

• Act – a division within a play

• Aside – lines that are spoken by a character directly to the audience

• Anachronism – objects or concepts that are not placed in their proper historical time period.

• Double entendre – phrases or words which have double meanings, one of which is usually sexual in nature

• Dialogue – conversation between two or more characters

• Drama – work of literature designed to be performed in front of an audience

• Dramatic irony – when the audience or reader knows something that the characters in the story do not know

• Foil – a character who is nearly opposite of another character

• Hubris – excessive pride that leads to a character’s downfall (tragic flaw).

• Irony – a contradiction between expectation and reality.

• Monologue – a long speech spoken by a character to himself, another character, or to the audience

• Pun – a play on words that either sound alike or that have multiple meanings

• Rebuttal – rhetorical device meant to contradict previous comments given by another party.

• Scene – a division of an act into smaller parts

• Soliloquy – thoughts spoken aloud by a character when he/she is alone

• Synecdoche – referring to the part when you mean the whole.