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A Timeline of Key Historical
Events Affecting the Action of
the Play
 60
BC: “The First Triumvirate” or “The
Three-Headed Monster.” Pompey, Crassus,
Caesar
 59
BC: Caesar gives his only daughter, Julia,
in marriage to Pompey. Caesar, as Consul,
angers the powerful Optimate political party,
which threatens to prosecute him at the end
of his term.
 49
BC: Caesar’s term as Proconsul in Gaul
expires. Pompey and the Senate order him
to disband his army and return to Rome,
where he will face the prosecution from
which he has been immune. Disobeying the
order to disband, Caesar and his troops cross
the Rubicon River, entering the jurisdiction in
which he can be seized and imprisoned,
essentially declaring civil war against his
former ally.
 48
BC: -Caesar’s troops defeat Pompey’s.
- Pompey flees to Egypt.
-Caesar follows and is presented with
Pompey’s head. The Egyptians had
betrayed Pompey and killed him as a
“gift” for Caesar.
 46
BC: -Caesar returns triumphantly to Rome.
(This marks the beginning of
Shakespeare’s play.)
-Caesar is appointed Dictator, and
many question his autocratic/
tyrannical rule and see his
governing as a threat to the
Republic.
 45
BC: Caesar plans a public celebration for
his triumph over Pompey. This angers many,
since only triumphs over foreign “enemies”
are to be celebrated. Pompey was a fellow
Roman. Caesar acts more and more like a
monarch, appointing people to government
posts with no input or consent of the Senate,
issuing coins with his likeness, etc.
He allows his statues to be decorated in much
the same way that statues of the gods would
be. (Act I, scene 2: Marullus and Flavius are
punished for removing adornments from
Caesar’s statues.)
 44
BC: -At the feast of Lupercalia
(February 15), Caesar is named
dictator perpetuus, perpetual
dictator.
-Caesar is assassinated on the portico
of the theater built by Pompey the
Great.
Shakespeare alludes to both the feast of the
Lupercalia and the Ides (15th) of March, even
though he seems to condense the
appointment and the assassination into a
single event.

44 BC (cont)-Octavius meets with Antony to
collect his inheritance. Caesar’s will named
Octavius as his adopted son and left the
nineteen-year-old everything, but Antony seized
Caesar’s papers and fortune. They eventually
come to blows.

43 BC: The Second Triumvirate is formed:
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus

42 BC: -Triumvirate defeats Brutus and
Cassius at Battle of Philippi.
(This is the final battle in the play—Act V,
scenes 2-5)
 Scott,
Elizabeth. Advanced Placement in
English Literature and Composition Teaching
Unit: Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
Prestwick House, 2006.