Exploring the Romanticized Aspects of Julius Caesar's Life and Legacy: Future Recommendations and Studies

1. Introduction

Few mortal men have ever had so many claims to immortality as Gaius Julius Caesar, and even fewer have been so well able to fulfill such claims. However, in famous words, nothing is more astonishing than the "Evangelical History" of the Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar, being an assemblage of commentaries or recollections of a period or treatises about aesthetics and political ideals, all written by agents of the subject. Despite the billions of words written about him by men, most of whom he had never seen, even less did he ever acknowledge their existence. The most intimate circle of Caesar's family knew personally and actually saw their protagonist, but a few writing efforts remained. These efforts are nevertheless of preeminent significance in making that man a universal symbol of knowledge, power, and ambition, a very model of self-fulfillment in the world of self-fulfilling prophecies.

What this very model was seeking to accomplish in terms of bio-power, individual aggrandizement on a mass scale, or "civilization" is clearly inscribed in his increasingly obsessive quest for personal social security, the entangled political destinies and failures in his affinity with kings, queens, priests, and gods, plus the Byzantine predicament of his autocratic ambitions at the very height of liberties ever granted to a private citizen in the mystified history of Rome. Nevertheless, the mesmerizing vision of an ambitious, forthcoming, brilliant, handsome, eloquent military genius is not alone a personal affair, but a common ideal. In turn, this ideal was destined to be unpleasantly disillusioned, as is abundantly chronicled in the commentaries and remembrances considered here.

This study investigates how the physical appearance and speech of Caesar were initially encoded, celebrated, and eventually re-encoded in an emblematic iconography of a myth. The emphasis is put on the transmission of embodiments, their encoding privileges, and the perceptual aspects of perceiving and reading those. These transmitters are classical things—busts, coins, statues, paintings—but also memories and memories of memories of men. Nonetheless, Caesar was also an abstract representation, and it was precisely that without which historical beyondness would have no personifications or embodiments by which to rule the minds or heads of men. Outside the confines of Rome, next to nothing was known before.

Much like a comment to this remark, unavoidably but always preeminently looking outside, it would be fitting to celebrate Caesar this very year in the classical fashion with a monumental triumphal epithet: Julius Caesar, the General of Death, of Prolonged Life turned God, loved and hated by the gods, benefactor of Rome and free people in general, and destroyed by the treason of the most illustrious Romans. Augustus, waving a sword and mounted on a white horse, behind him a course of beaten army defeaters, triumphantly returns to the unseen city and, having rid the Earth of civil strife and bloodshed, in admiration and fear makes among men free those who wanted and others unwillingly followed the glorious fate of Caesar.

1.1. Background on Julius Caesar

Often heralded as a genius, even as a demigod, Julius Caesar has been the subject of extensive study ever since his death. Caesar ruled as a dictator in the waning years of the Roman Republic. With a mix of military and political acumen, he gained fame as general of the Roman army, leading successful campaigns in Gaul, where he pacified and incorporated the tribes in the region into the Roman Empire while earning the loyalty of the legions he led. Meanwhile, he entered politics as a populist, offering pragmatic policies to the lower classes of Rome and employing the influence of the veterans returning from his campaigns to pressure an increasingly elitist Senate to comply. His rise to power was fueled by the centuries-old struggle of the plebeians for equality, led, among others, by Caius Marius and the Gracchi brothers.

By undermining the original free republic envisioned by the founders of Rome, the policy of junta that Caesar sought to perpetuate created a political crisis in 44 B.C. After crossing the Rubicon, he pursued his rivals across Italy and Gaul until they were eliminated or isolated. Hopefully ending the power struggle after decades of war, he assumed the title of dictator in 46 B.C., but it soon became evident that this policy did not resolve the undying dispute between the optimates and the populares. Many conspiracies to assassinate him were orchestrated, including one led by Marcus Junius Brutus. In 44 B.C., Caesar was mortally attacked on the floor of the Senate. His death provoked a power vacuum and civil war that ultimately led to the establishment of the imperial dictatorship of his grandnephew Octavius, better known as Augustus. (Marshall, 2023)

1.2. Purpose of the Study

There are many romanticized views of Julius Caesar's life and legacy, from the birth of his child to the assassination of Caesar by Brutus and the subsequent rise of Octavian. The myths and realities of Caesar's legacy can be examined, seeking to understand what can be learned from the life that inspired them. Romanticized views of Caesar's life usually focus on only one aspect. However, they were more complex than depicted, and the myths can be better understood through the realities. For example, many myths surrounding Caesar's child can be understood by examining Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra, the historical context, and how these images perpetuated and changed over time. This method can be applied to other myths, including Caesar's death, rise to power, and forging of the Roman Empire. Future ideas for study include a more rigorous analysis of the myths, historical context, and subsequent changes to better understand aspects of Caesar's life and legacy that inspired romanticization. This study could encourage examination of other well-known historical figures in the same manner. (Almas & Mazhar, 2023)

2. Romanticized Aspects of Julius Caesar's Life

The intricate layers of history have transformed even the most recognizable figures in antiquity into romanticized caricatures. Julius Caesar was Rome’s brightest political star, a brilliant military commander who fought on the continent of Britain. The conflict between him and the Senate became one of the most delicate episodes in Roman history, ultimately concluding with the murder of the commander, which turned him into a martyr. After his death, his family claimed vendetta on his political enemies, hunting them down and arranging a bloodbath often referred to as the Great Proscription. Such mighty leaps of a well-known, historically grounded character evoke mythical images of the invincible warrior who conquered countless golden cities far beyond the known world. Nevertheless, it is essential in this day and age to discern Caesar the man from Caesar the myth. (Elliott, 2022)

Caesar’s military campaigns and victories lifted the man of humble origins into the family of famous rulers. He was the first who fought in a foreign war while being a youth in his father’s house, and his bravery in battles was immortalized through hymns. While it was a play that depicted these feats in great detail, it is another who introduced a specific romantic note into an otherwise detailed literary account by unveiling the inner world of a brilliant commander tormented by moral dilemmas. The question of Caesar’s wrath directed at a conquered king of Britain reflects the traveler’s worries on a larger scale – the fear that the captives will fall from honor and shame the race of warriors. Caesar’s visions depict the conquered king not as a relentless warrior sitting on a golden throne with lady slaves surrounding him, but rather as a man-of-war in fear of losing all these golden cities and defenseless before Caesar’s rage. The spectacle of such petty vengeance, compounded with gold and mercenaries, horrified the transcendental traveler and unfurled what was hidden beneath the pompous speeches upon golden wreaths. (Merrow et al., 2020)(LARGuS)

Another romanticized aspect of Caesar’s life is his relationships and romances, spiced with current events in Britain. One portrayal of Calpurnia’s dreams evokes classical mythological and pastoral images to amuse the audience by depicting a world of myths and legends similar to the play’s setting that will soon collapse. This dream retained its famous lines about the restoration of the blood river stained by the Roman carnage and the fallen steadfast statues of Caesar soaked by tears of shame through terrors of the night. Quite contrary to the dramatic build-up, another interpolated here just a hint of a dream which forbade Caesar to go forth. The well-known romanticized story about Caesar’s affair with Cleopatra is depicted yet again, adding a hint of the poor girl’s mercy. Strikingly resembling youthful love stories in Britain, the poem about Caesar’s nights outside was inserted into a play approximately two-thirds of the way through, the fair lady being taken captive during the opposing siege. Although she was missed dearly, Caesar, being a devoted soldier, never neglected his duty. The circumstances behind their union’s blossoming were romantically described. Caesar, passed by confidants about the lady’s allure, decided to capture her, and 'aswarm into the haven, the ship of mine.' (Taylor et al.2022)

2.1. Caesar's Military Campaigns and Victories

One of the most romanticized aspects of Julius Caesar's life is the series of military campaigns and victories he embarked upon and achieved as the general of the Roman army. These campaigns and battles played a pivotal role in defining Caesar's legacy and turning him into a mythical figure. This area of Caesar's life is well documented in history, but still, there are many instances of exaggeration. Roman conquests in Britain, Gaul, and the Mediterranean in a bid to expand the empire towards Britain are something many of the earlier historians have laid emphasis on, but still, it is greatly exaggerated. Additionally, the historical and literary works of later historians have only added more fantastical and mythical undertones to the storytelling of these wildly elaborate campaigns and battles, romanticizing the entire aspect like no other. (Dakkach, 2021)

Beginning from the conquest of Gaul and subsequent triumphs over kings and tribes in Europe, these years laid the ground for the ambition of Caesar to capture power in Rome due to the immense riches and power these repeated victories brought him. The campaign against the ambitious and formidable Ptolemy X, King of Egypt, and his conquest and subsequent capture of control of Egypt is something that has been emphasized in literature. The description of the campaign, its conquests, and the events through which it transpired effectively makes it seem almost mythical or legendary. Additionally, the description of the 20 legislative measures he implemented post-acquisition also greatly romanticizes the character of Caesar. Further reasons for this romanticization are cited as the “Cicero Factor,” which refers to certain works garnering more emphasis and zeal in later lives of Caesar, again describing the victory in an exaggerated manner. Additionally, like other generals, certain conquests against kings and tribes in Britain did not yield much significance to Rome and were instead more conquests of pride, but it somehow bafflingly exalted Caesar’s fame and credibility, portraying him as a semi-god throughout his conquests. (Strootman2020)(Oakley, 2022)

2.2. Relationships and Romances

Another significant aspect of Caesar’s life that has received a romanticized treatment by historians and scholars is his relationships and romances, both in his personal life and at the political level. His early romantic interest in Cornelia, the daughter of a politically active family, along with the political opposition to pursuing their marriage by Sulla, is a story worth telling. It is corroborated by multiple sources, including evidence that he was a man wanting autonomy for himself and for those he cared about. His first wife, Cornelia, is said to have shared his political ideals, and he was said to have loved her so dearly that he married a second wife only as a forced response to her early death. His other early wife is described in a rather negative light, while Caesar’s wife Calpurnia is praised for her virtue. Calpurnia was noted to have a prophetic dream predicting Caesar’s death and begged him not to attend the Senate on the Ides of March, which he initially planned to do. (BENI et al.)

His dramatic affair with Cleopatra is another story worth telling. At the time of their first meeting, Caesar was an aging member of the ruling class of Rome in his forties, while Cleopatra was a 21-year-old girl and the last Pharaoh of Egypt. Their meetings at the palace were described as a game of seduction and intrigue on Cleopatra’s part to convince him to take her side in the political conflict against her brother Ptolemy XIII. Their cultural differences, like the fact that Caesar was struck at the sight of her and was described as having shared the same trait with her, can be turned into poetic devices. Their unconsummated relationship was initially rather one-sided, where Caesar deemed her necessary to support his political plans, but can eventually be described as mutual love for each other instead of short-lived lust, probably after Caesar liberated her. Caesar gruesomely defeated her brother Ptolemy XIII, who drowned; her envious coup-supporting sister Berenice IV, who was executed; and other loyal supporters that mistakenly sided with Ptolemy’s faction, demonstrating the extreme consequences of crossing him. (Taylor, 2023)(Morstein-Marx, 2021)

While vivid details of events are necessary, these stories can have a variety of interpretations depending on the commentary. For example, following the earlier remarks on Caesar as the last lightning rod of the Roman Republic, there are parallels that can be drawn in these stories. Caesar’s love for Cornelia can be used to represent the eternal pursuit of freedom, whether it be freedom from an oppressor or simply freedom in power dynamics. Caesar and Cornelia loving each other despite all odds in society’s instruction can be described as romancing social norms and conventions. Caesar and Cleopatra’s relationship similarly can be portrayed as a game of seduction and intrigue between a desperate teenage girl and an aging ambitious man that reflects a male-dominant society.

2.3. Assassination and Martyrdom

The president's murder was carried out on the Ides of March in 44 BC, a conspiracy involving murder by nearly sixty senators. Caesar's killing was a landmark event in world history, and its impact on romantic literature has been very profound. The assassination has served as a perfect symbol of betrayal, illness, suspicion, false friends, demonic evil, and tantalizing revenge. Envy and ambition are common motives for betrayal in various works of literature, and Rome’s rusted bay of emotional betrayal under Caesar's term of office is an ideal model. For reasons timeworn, all offenders, from Cassius to those of the abandoned times of Othello, sought the victim's good and, falling into degeneracy, envisioned his poisoning. Most of literature's famed murders were spurred by personal envy or ambition in order to seize the throne. Caesar, through great achievements, commanded towering fearsome respect, interspersed with abhorrence: the titanic conquerors through the grit of wars gradually altered into vigorous political gardeners, viewing the menaces of rivals and later of commonly chosen kin. To Caesar, an all-too-believing nephew unwittingly became a classic model of slaughter. But intoxicated by unprecedented fortune, Caesar dismissed warnings thoughtfully conveyed by the go-between and at last fell under misery's cruel beams. Reports of his toilet’s stark bedraggled presence later vexed Rome's sleeping hearts and chagrined well-to-do courtesans.

Caesar's death at the hands of his close friends and allies was a baffling spectacle, leading contemporaries to promulgate that he had been possessed by fascination itself. However, it was declared that the grand figure of the Colossus in bronze is as old as the world: “in it dreams the naïve lovelorn sense of life to be ideal” and “wherever there looms the ideal figure of a deity cherishing all its equally divine creatures, human vicissitude wonders what sort of world this is.” If passion-philosophy was aware of this grand thematic occult surrounding Caesar from the very start of his life, it possessed, much less gloomily, a sense of vigorous new. (Tranquillus & Thomason, 2024)

An extraordinarily venerable, strange, or fearsome narrative has exercised a kind of awesome dominion over a civilization. Did the crucifixion of Christ, the execution of Socrates, or Caesar's murder symbolize the Greek fated tragic comprehension or pre-emptive foreshadowing? Whether treated in epic, elegiac, or sophisticated romance, all such tragic phenomena carried the same damning air redolent of puritanical genetics. The grand colloquialism, drunkenness, and idealistic panpsychism presented at sumptuous feasts the thorny picture of brilliant golden Tanaïds employed in romantic exile. In that rejoicing night turned native exhibition of well-to-do love somehow producible to be wanted, the solemn fire-brand of eternal agony at fate's cross brought placid peace with ruin's quivering submission nevertheless disdainful of lust.

3. Legacy of Julius Caesar

The legacy left behind by Julius Caesar is one shrouded in cultural mystique and political greatness. A man whose life was imbued with military excellence and academic erudition, Caesar cannot be encapsulated merely as a soldier or politician. His ambivalence as a ruler and legendary status as a statesman are unfathomable. This text embarks on a captivating exploration of Caesar’s remarkable yet paradoxical existence, erudition and elegant dissemination of knowledge, unmatched martial glory and vainglorious ambitions, benevolent accords and ruthless extermination of rivals, bitter fall and ethereal resurrection, proffered a golden era and heralded the collapse of Rome’s economic wealth, the crushed Republic and the ascended Empire, awe-inspiring Roman orator and founder of a new poetic convention, the portrayed eventuality of fiery love and averted tragedy on the eve of battle, and the nullification of ill-conceived forewarnings. Significantly, this investigation lays bare the various facets of Caesar’s life and legacy that remain treasured and romanticized over the centuries. (Pather)

Contention persists as to the certainties of Caesar’s beliefs; allegiance to the Republic is an unconvincing contention. Caesar’s work is findable and pleasing to the eye, ingeniously replicating notions of authority and audacity. The pursuit of knowledge is both Caesar endowing and acquiring; the text is diligent in establishing the former as a disavowal of ambition or superiority. Man and woman are portrayed individually, creating an equipoise rare among literature; admiration and reproach are equally distributed. The correlation between greatness and bleakness is explored, marking power as palliative to the outset but ultimately inducing excessive paranoia. No uncompromising attributions are allowed. Humanity prevails; Julius Caesar is ultimately appreciable as a human individual.

The endless legacy contingent upon Caesar’s death entails multifaceted perspectives. The newly settled political and social order replicated Caesar’s institutions but maintained his assassination as the commencement of an entirely new era. Triumph and subsequent calamity were foisted upon the returned Republic four hundred years hence, whilst the emergence of dictatorial emperors attested to Caesar’s unfulfilled cause. Caesar, the vanquished in conflict, became Caesar the marble statue, Caesar the suzerain of location, perennial celestial brilliance, and the passion for grandeur never evanescent afflicted all reluctant Roman patricians. The toll transfixed on the singularity of control and insurrection exhibited a stain on Italian oratory literature, colonial proclivities, and the cultural pulverization of foreign ethnicities confirming apparent signs elsewhere of preceding patterns brought to life by the Gallic Wars. The vision disseminating across the landscape or theatre integers intact with the position of the audience spurring thought, subjecting men to catalyze events, promoting ideas of resurgence, tragedy, and ruin abrogated, naive upon entry now interpreted alternatively variously between persuasions, agents, threads, and the audience to convey a comparatively benign realization emulating intent.

3.1. Political and Social Impact

Undeniably one of the most significant political and military figures in history, Julius Caesar greatly influenced the politics and society of both Rome and its empire. Born into the gens Julii, an old family of the patrician class, he rose through the ranks of the Roman political system until he became consul at just 40 years old. Gifted with a silver tongue, he rallied support from various factions within Roman society. He became well-known for his military genius while on campaign in Gaul, bringing in wealth and glory for him and Rome, but making powerful enemies within the Senate. He crossed the Rubicon and waged a civil war against his rival Pompey the Great, who ultimately lost and was murdered in Egypt. Again rising to the highest political office in Rome as dictator, Caesar expanded the empire’s borders, enacted sweeping social and governmental reforms, and sponsored a calendar that greatly improved timekeeping. Caesar’s life ended 55 years later, when he was stabbed to death by political enemies on the Ides of March. Widespread unrest among the populace followed Caesar’s death. Proposed new political structures after his murder fell through when a war erupted between two power groups. A triumvirate between the most powerful men left in Rome waged this war, which ended after Octavian claimed victory. He became Caesar’s adopted heir and the first emperor of Rome, thereby bringing the Republic’s political structure to ruin. The expansive political and social impact of Julius Caesar on Rome and its empire is still felt and studied to this day. Strategies employed in his political ascent, governmental reforms, and adherence to a calendar of his creation greatly influenced how centuries of societies were governed and how time was kept. (Morstein-Marx, 2021)(Kim, 2021)

Julius Caesar was born into the Julii, one of the oldest patrician families in Rome about 100 B.C. His family was on the political sidelines. Historians agree that the Julii fall on both sides of the benefactor – beneficiary divide, but they do so too narrowly. The Julii occupied plebeian affines at the lower end of the political elite, considerably understating the dramatic swing that Caesar would instigate in his family’s political fortunes. Raised to manhood during a political realignment that brought elite popularis far more risk-taking and even shocking than that of the Jovii, the young Caesar waded into those perilous waters, buoyed by able oratory and calculated gambles, which brought expanded military commands and increasing wealth and popularity but alienated the old elite, who feared the rising star’s ambitions.

3.2. Literary and Cultural Influence

The cultural and literary memorialization of Julius Caesar is evidently important and impactful, whether as an imperialistic general, tragic hero, shrewd politician, or perhaps, tired tyrant. Caesar's life and legacy have been captured by many authors, and the images compiled from ancient writers, many of which persist and reverberate immediately in any discussion of Caesar. Aside from classical texts, Caesar’s accomplishments are captured by many new mediums like sketches, statues, political cartoons, and even action figures. These memorializations, aside from evoking pictures of Caesar persuading the common folk with persuasions in markets, becoming dictator in a grand triumph, or dictating his commentaries on civil wars, have an agenda.

In the age of mass eulogization, it appears that public images are grounded in rhetoric, pitting Caesar as a benevolent and wise ruler against paranoid and bloodthirsty matadors. The literary and cultural engagement of Caesar's life is firmly placed within particular imperial paradigms faced in each epoch. In contemporary times marked by war, economic depressions, and polarizations, Caesar echoes out with warnings against tyrants, but also emboldens reflections about his spirit in leadership matters. Would wise statesmanship lead to peace or bring despotism? Would the desperate need for strong leadership win tyrants or crusaders?

4. Future Recommendations for Research

Following the analyses of the romanticized aspects of Julius Caesar’s life and legacy, a number of recommendations for further research are provided. The first deals with areas that may be worthy of exploration. The second addresses methodological considerations that may enhance future studies.

Areas for Further Exploration: A variety of topics expand upon the analyses presented. Certain aspects of Caesar’s legacy may be examined, such as the extent to which his life and career romanticized perceptions of subsequent Roman emperors. Subsequent to Caesar’s adoption of personal iconography on coinage, Roman imperial coinage underwent a change in portrayal from views of Roman gods and goddesses to that of portraits and mythological illustrations of emperors. Further study exploring the portrayal of Augustus within the coins of the imperial mints may elucidate how Caesar romanticized notions of his successors. Additional expansions of the form of romanticization may include the manner in which Caesar developed cults in regions of the Roman Empire beyond the Italian peninsula. Analyzing the dispersion of the myth of Venus Genetrix, a progenitor of Rome, observed within the temples, statues, and even paintings completed in principal cities from the first to third centuries may enlarge notions of romanticizing. Exploration of diverse romanticizing genres is also encouraged, including poetry, epitaphs, and biography texts. Non-contemporary Roman era works narrated the military campaigns of Julius Caesar and other figures through elegiac and epic poetry, respectively. (Foster, 2024)

Methodological Approaches: Future exploration of romanticized notions of Caesar should take into account methodological considerations. The first recommendation is that studies embrace the interpretations and frameworks of romanticization. The incorporation of conceptual understandings of magnification, idealization, integration-expansion components, and attributes may guide robust analysis of the form. Frameworks for examining the effects of romanticization, such as perception and understanding interpretations, are also worthy of consideration for exploration. Such approaches may diversify the understanding of the purpose and goals of romanticized portrayals. Further methodological considerations include the embrace of literary viewpoints or archetype classification. Embracing the perspective of psychoanalytic literary approach provides understanding of polysemous texts through consideration of the conscious and unconscious goals of authors and audiences. The use of archetype classifications allows for relative categorizations of materials relevant to universal patterns and interactions. Expanding understandings of the complexities of romanticization may reveal and illuminate further effects and phenomena of interest.

4.1. Areas for Further Exploration

There are three main areas for further exploration regarding specific topics and concerns within the thematic focus of Caesar's life and legacy. The first and most obvious suggestion concerns the substance, format, or material of Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars. The commentaries still inspire good engagement and other interpretations, but the original text is not easily available or accessible for most contemporary readers. A good translation and edition of the commentaries could do much to revive scholarly exploration of this primary source of information about Caesar's life, character, and aspirations in the period leading to his rise to personalist autocracy in Rome. Such an effort should be targeted not only to specialists of classic literature but also to political theorists and Latin Americanists interested in the emergence and diffusion of personalist regimes, styles of rule, and modes of political communication in historical perspective.

The second area for further exploration focuses on the legacy of Caesar's life and works and, more precisely, on the reception history of the translations of Caesar, with particular regard for the second half of the twentieth century. In a broader perspective, the translations of Caesar fit in and contribute to a comprehensive reconstruction of the historical and ideological transformations that took place in the style of political communication, sentimental education, and discursive tropes of governance and rule in Latin states and societies. A third area for further exploration involves Caesar and the birth of the policy sciences. Caesar's life, work, and legacy are of momentous historical significance in several respects, starting with the very emergence in the upper republic of Rome of military states that, unlike traditional monarchies, were governed as states ruled by armies, with great relevance to the politics of Western armies and states from the early modern period on to recent times. The structure of Caesar's all-comprehensiveness lends itself greatly to exploring the historical contexts of Caesar's life, aspirations, and legacy.

4.2. Methodological Approaches

The various methodological approaches that can be employed to conduct a study on the romanticized aspects of Julius Caesar’s life and legacy through different media are numerous, with some prior methods that have been applied in recent studies provided in this section. Textual analysis is a prominent method in exploring how authors and artists inscribe ideological meaning into a text through open or hidden thematic explorations. A speech act model offers three frameworks that focus on the thematic structure, formal structure, and rhetorical devices of a text. The thematic structure of a text highlights the "aboutness" of the text and the themes that are discussed, using semantic approaches, structural approaches, and schemes. The formal structure emphasizes how stories are told using macro- and microstructure. The rhetorical structure articulates how authors use rhetorical devices such as metaphor or hyperbole to enhance specific ideological meanings. While the majority of texts on Julius Caesar try to elevate his popularity to the public by emphasizing specific themes, it is crucial to note the rhetorical implications of those texts and how that may depoliticize discussions about Caesar and his legacies. Moreover, exploring pop cultural adaptations of Caesar through textual analyses offers prospects for understanding the interpretations of Caesar made available to the general public.

Along with the textual analysis method, an understanding of "Heuristic Ideology" is vital to maintain after situating the corpus. Heuristic ideology, or "explanatory" ideology, has five central properties detailing how belief systems employ implicit and explicit referents to enable cognitive understanding. Those properties are valence, perspective, influence, reciprocal effects, and development and change. Caesar emerged as a rich repository for such heuristic ideologies, which, broadly thinking, can illuminate climate knowledge and concepts to audiences from different socio-political backgrounds. While it is crucial to interrogate a text’s overt or covert ideological meanings, it is equally urgent to bear in mind potential limitations of understanding hegemonic meanings and/or unintended subversive consequences of such meanings.

5. Conclusion

The romanticized aspects of Julius Caesar's life have captivated audiences for centuries, leading to a wide array of interpretations spanning literature, art, and theatre. Scholars of Latin have long embraced Caesar's Commentarius de Bello Gallico as an ideal text for reading and analysis; such ardor encompassed a vast range of more literary interpretations of the life of Caesar (the man and character). These alternate visions of Caesar's character and life, including such interpretations as noble, tragic, heroic, ambitious, and ill-fated, can give rise to fresh appropriations of the Caesar character in theatre.

The best use of Caesar's life, now in Latin or translated, in education, drama, or as a basis of a new story, education via a recent work, would be a dramatic retelling of a vision similar to that of Shakespeare's. Such a vision would recapture the grandeur of ambition, victory, and benevolence, shrouded in its tragic illusion. Compounding this with both an objective view via the ancient sources and a contrasting modern view of a tyrannical character or an invader-enslaver could enrich interpretations.

These views largely oppose the imperial benevolence often presented for the invader character in children's literature and in the modern Shakespearean character. A new view could involve a more natural reaction to Caesar than portrayed in children's literature: devastation and loss of personal freedom and traditions with little compensation offered in return. Such a dramatic work would draw on extensive literary and historical sources in Latin or translation. Still, it could be freely interpreted in its retelling to leave dramatic gaps or ignore certain points to create tension, ambiguity, or drama.

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