Caesar: Hero Or Tyrant – Document a One View of Caesar

Suetonius Describes Caesar: Hero or Tyrant – Document A One View of Caesar

The excerpt below was written by Suetonius, a Roman historian, in 100CE. Suetonius describes what Gnaeus Pompeius believed were Caesar’s motives for actions he took as leader of Rome. Gnaeus Pompeius was a Roman politician during the late Republic who opposed Caesar.

This was his excuse for the civil war, but it is believed that he had other motives. Gnaeus Pompeius used to declare that since Caesar’s own means were not sufficient to complete the works which he had planned, nor to do all that he had led the people to expect on his return, he desired a state of general unrest and turmoil…Some think that habit had given him a love of power and that weighing the strength of his adversaries against his own, he grasped the opportunity of usurping the despotism which had been his heart’s desire from early youth.

Vocabulary x motives—reasons, purposes x means—wealth, money, funds x sufficient—enough x works—public building projects x turmoil—disorder, chaos x adversaries—rivals, opponents x usurping—seizing, taking over x despotism—tyranny, authoritarianism

Source: The Lives of 12 Caesars. Suetonius Tranquillus, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html

Suetonius Describes Caesar: Hero or Tyrant – Document B Caesar’s Actions

The excerpt below was written by Suetonius, a Roman historian, in 100CE. Suetonius describes some of the actions of Caesar as ruler of Rome.

…for the adornment and convenience of the city, also for the protection and extension of the Empire, he formed more projects…: First of all, to rear a temple of Mars, greater than any in existence…and to build a theatre of vast size, sloping down from the Tarpeian rock.

Vocabulary x adornment—decoration, beautification x convenience—ease, usefulness x rear—bring up, tend to x vast—large

Source: The Lives of 12 Caesars. Suetonius Tranquillus, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html

Caesar: Hero or Tyrant – Document C Cicero Justifies the Assassination

The excerpt below was written by Cicero, a Roman politician and philosopher. Cicero was a member of the Senate, but did not participate in the assassination of Caesar. In this excerpt, he justifies (defends) the assassination of Caesar.

Our tyrant deserved his death for having made an exception of the one thing that was the blackest crime of all…here you have a man who was ambitious to be king of the Roman People and master of the whole world; and he achieved it! The man who maintains that such an ambition is morally right is a madman; for he justifies the destruction of law and liberty and thinks their hideous and detestable suppression glorious…Can the most horrible and hideous of all murders—that of fatherland—bring advantage to anybody, even though he who has committed such a crime receives from his enslaved fellow-citizens the title of “Father of his Country?”

Vocabulary x exception—something omitted, left out x ambitious—determined, motivated x maintains—argues, claims x destruction—ruin, damage x liberty—freedom x hideous—ugly, shocking x detestable—hateful, revolting x suppression—defeat x enslaved—forced into slavery, confined

Source: The Lives of 12 Caesars. Suetonius Tranquillus, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html

Suetonius Describes Caesar: Hero or Tyrant – Document D Caesar’s Goals

The excerpt below was written by Suetonius, a Roman historian, in 100CE. Suetonius describes goals Caesar had as ruler of Rome.

…to reduce the civil code…to include only the best and most essential [laws]; to open to the public the greatest possible libraries of Greek and Latin Books…to drain the Pomptine marshes; to make a highway from the Adriatic across the summit of the Apennines as far as the Tiber; to cut a canal through the Isthmus…

All these enterprises and plans were cut short by his death.

Vocabulary x civil code—laws x summit—peak, top x enterprises—projects, activities

Source: The Lives of 12 Caesars. Suetonius Tranquillus, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html