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SHAKESPEARE AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare Anonymous C17th portrait
Busts of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony Dr William Sterling www.williamsterling.co.uk 1 2
Coin of Caesar February 44 BC
Roman bust of Brutus Brutus by Michelangelo 3 4
Bust thought ot be Cassius
Coin of Brutus with Ides of March and daggers
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Coin of Brutus and Casca
Coin of Cassius with Liberty
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was the greatest orator and lawyer of his time but opposed Caesar’s tyranny. Although not involved in the conspiracy he congratulated the assassins and was Coins of Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus killed on the orders of Mark Antony.
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Coin of Fulvia Antonia, the first real woman to appear on a Roman coin. She married three important politicians: two populists Clodius and Curio followed by Mark Antony. She was a leading populist in her own right and was a witness at the trial of Milo whose gang had killed her first husband. She had been attacked in writing by Cicero who became a bitter enemy. During the war between Antony and Octavian she raised 8 legions to fight for her husband but he used her sudden death in 40 BC to reconcile with his rival. The assassination of Cicero from a C15th French manuscript
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The Vengeance of Fulvia by Francisco Maura y Montaner 1888, Prado Fulvia with the head of Cicero by Pavel Svedomsky c 1880
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Edward John Poynter The Ides of March from Julius Caesar 1883
The Piacenza Liver showing sections used by an Etruscan haruspex. The Soothsayer in Julius Caesar who warned him to “Beware The Ides Of March” was an Etruscan haruspex called Spurinna according to Roman sources.
Dr William Sterling www.williamsterling.co.uk 15 16
César se rendant au sénat aux Ides de Mars by Abel de Pujol c 1820
Jules César se rendant au sénat le jour des Ides de Mars by Abel de Pujol c 1820
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Karl Theodor von Piloty Murder of Caesar 1865, Lower Saxony State Museum Assassination of Caesar by William Holmes Sullivan, c. 1888, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
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Vincenzo Camuccini - La morte di Cesare 1804-5
Assassination of Julius Caesar by Vincenzo Camuccini, The Met 21 22
Woodcut manuscript illustration by Johannes Zainer c 1474 Victor Honoré Janssens - The death of Caesar c 1700
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Aftermath of the attack with Caesar's body abandoned in the foreground, La Mort de César by Jean Léon Gérôme, c. 1859–1867 H Smith 1830 25 26
Plutarch's lives for boys and girls - being selected lives freely retold 1900 illustrated by W H Weston
George Clint Act III Scene 2 The Murder c 1800 27 28
The dead body of Caesar, painted by Bela Čikoš Sesija, before 1920
Folger Shakespeare Library Washington DC
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Antony with Caesar's body Act II Scene 2 by Alfred Krausse 1829-1894
Marc Antony's Oration at Caesar's Funeral by George Edward Robertson
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Coins of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
Lepidus, Antony and Octavian in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by Henry Courtney Selous
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Alexandre Bida Brutus and Caesar’s Ghost Act IV Scene 3 c 1880
Dr William Sterling www.williamsterling.co.uk 35 36
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William Blake Brutus and Caesar’s Ghost c 1805
Dr William Sterling Le spectre de Jules César apparaissant à Brutus by Félix Joseph Barrias 1856 www.williamsterling.co.uk 37 38
Richard Westall Brutus and the Ghost of Caesar who taunts him about imminent defeat ACT IV SCENE 3 Copperplate engraving by Edward Scriven London, 1802
Dr William Sterling John Masey Wright c 1820 www.williamsterling.co.uk 39 40
Preparing a scene from The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Act IV Scene 3 Brutus and Julius Caesar, Hoftheater Meiningen, Cassius by John Masey Wright c 1820 Germany
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Second Battle of Philippi 23 October 42 BC First Battle of Philippi 3 October 42 BC
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Shakespeare’s Heroines – Portia by Sampson Low 1896, Folger Brutus and his companions after the Shakespeare Museum Washington DC battle of Philippi by W H Weston for Plutarch's Lives 1900
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Le Suicide de Porcia by Pierre Mignard c 1645
Elisabetta Sirani - Portia wounding her thigh 1664
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Frank Howard RA 1828
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Byam Shaw c 1900 57 58
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