The historian (and Caesarian) Sallust insisted that his age had yielded only two truly great men: Caesar, and Caesar’s mortal enemy M. Still, even in this environment, Caesar remained an unsimple figure. The month Quintilis was renamed Iulius, and Caesar divinized as Divus Iulius. This dissonance mostly dissolved in the aftermath of Philippi, when the triumvirs-Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian-were united in their opportunistic reverence for Caesar’s memory. Thus was Caesar’s subsequent reputation permanently infused with paradox. Social breakdown was averted only when Mark Antony introduced a compromise: Caesar’s murder, the senate decreed, was not a crime, and yet all the dictator’s measures and acts-and future designs-held the force of law. Caesar’s legions clamoured for vengeance, as did Caesarian loyalists in the senatorial order. 3.82–83), the urban masses did not merely grieve for the man but found ways of honouring him as a god. While his assassins styled themselves Liberators and Cicero denounced Caesar as tyrant and parricide of his country (Cic. 1.22) nor his status as father of the fatherland or perpetual dictator. The Ides of March did nothing to clarify the contrarieties of Caesar’s career, neither his invasion of Italy “in order to restore freedom to the Roman people” (Caes. In popular culture, however, Caesar’s manifestations vary wildly: although he continues to register at a political level, he can also signify imperial excess or martial prowess, and he is available as a medium for lampooning the various guises of his own reception. In art, Caesar the god and Caesar the chivalrous king gradually give way to Caesar the slain dictator or Caesar the imperious conqueror. And there are other important issues: Caesar as a problem in the recovery of authenticity, or Caesar, because he is a canonical author, as a symbol of the conservative claims of the established order. The Caesar of literature is often a reaction to the Caesar of Shakespeare. Caesar’s literary reception, though influenced by contemporary political conflicts, is not always tethered to them in straightforward ways. This contrariety, not least by way of the analytic category of Caesarism, is especially marked in the political discourse of the 19th and 20th centuries. As a political idea, Caesar exhibits from the very beginning a tension between his role as dictator and destroyer of the Republic and his standing as the political and military genius who founded the Empire. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire.The reception of Caesar constitutes, for obvious reasons, an immense topic. With his soldiers deserting him, Mark Antony took his own life and Cleopatra chose the same course, committing suicide on 12 August 30 BC. Octavian pursued them and captured Alexandria in 30 BC. Octavian was victorious and Cleopatra and Mark Antony fled to Egypt. In 31 BC, Mark Antony and Cleopatra combined armies to take on Octavian's forces in a great sea battle at Actium, on the west coast of Greece. They subsequently had three children - two sons and a daughter. In 41 BC, Mark Antony, at that time in dispute with Caesar's adopted son Octavian over the succession to the Roman leadership, began both a political and romantic alliance with Cleopatra. Ptolemy XIV died mysteriously at around this time, and Cleopatra made her son Caesarion co-regent.

Cleopatra followed Caesar back to Rome, but after his assassination in 44 BC, she returned to Egypt. In 47 BC, Cleopatra bore Caesar a child - Caesarion - though Caesar never publicly acknowledged him as his son. Ptolemy was killed in the fighting and another brother was created Ptolemy XIII. Cleopatra, who had been exiled by her brother, was reinstalled as queen with Roman military support. Caesar followed and he and Cleopatra became lovers. Pompey fled to the Egyptian capital Alexandria, where he was murdered on the orders of Ptolemy. In 48 BC, Egypt became embroiled in the conflict in Rome between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Whether she was as beautiful as was claimed, she was a highly intelligent woman and an astute politician, who brought prosperity and peace to a country that was bankrupt and split by civil war. They were married, in keeping with Egyptian tradition.

When her father Ptolemy XII died in 51 BC, Cleopatra became co-regent with her 10-year-old brother Ptolemy XIII. She is celebrated for her beauty and her love affairs with the Roman warlords Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.Ĭleopatra was born in 69 BC - 68 BC. © Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, ruling Egypt from 51 BC - 30 BC.

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