Julius Caesar: Hist and Legend

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

An introduction to the historical figure of Julius Caesar and the stories and debates surrounding the man, in his own lifetime and beyond. We examine his early successes in politics, while also exploring the problems facing the Roman Republic; then look at Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and the horrific civil war that followed, both of which he recounted in his own spellbinding prose; and finally consider his last years as dictator and his assassination. Was Caesar to blame for the Republic’s fall? Or was he the statesman who saw more clearly than any other that the Roman empire had to take a new shape? Classes are mostly discussions, focusing on the ancient evidence as well as classic works by modern historians of Rome.