Download Julius Caesar - Spokane Public Schools

 Take out a scrap of paper and write 4 things you know
which are related to Ancient Rome and/or Julius
Caesar.
Historical Context from 44BC and 1600AD
 753 BC – Kingdom of Rome
 Tiber River
 510 BC – Tarquin is King of Rome
 He is an unpopular king and the strong Roman families
decided to get rid of the concept of king altogether
 510 BC: Rome is now governed by a senate
 300 elected senators
 Two elected consuls
 Each has veto power over the other
 (First Consuls: L. Iunius Brutus and L. Tarquinius Collatinus)
 The Senate appoints a vast amount of officials to carry
out their wishes including:
 Law makers
 Tribunes
 Questors
 And GENERALS
 Crassus
 Pompey
 Caesar
 Caesar is elected as one of the consuls
 Caesar is asked by the senate to give up his command
 Takes one of his legions across the Rubicon
 Civil War begins: Casear vs Pompey
 Very successful general
 Conquered Gaul (France)
 Defeated political rivals (Pompey)
 His success makes him a god-like figure in the eyes of
the populace of Rome
 Wanted to keep the senate for bureaucratic purposes.
Suppress armed resistance in provinces
2. Strong Central Government
3. Turn the Empire into a single cohesive unit
1.
 Caesar had enlarged his own power at the expense of
the noble families of the senate
 He was not a young man, and had no natural heir
 Many feared the political uncertainty that would
follow his death
 Huge political and religious turmoil
 1450s War of the Roses + Reformation Era
 Henry VII
 Henry VIII
 Edward VI
 Mary
 Elizabeth I
(Catholic)
(Catholic then Protestant)
(Protestant)
(Catholic)
(Protestant)
 Born during the reign of Elizabeth
 Wrote Julius Caesar in 1599
 Elizabeth had enlarged her own power at the expense
of the aristocracy in England
 She was not a young woman, and had no natural heir
 Many feared the political uncertainty that would
follow her death
 Write a sonnet in the Shakespearean style.
 It must be about a part of Ancient Roman history
during the time of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony and
Octavian
 14 lines – Iambic Pentameter
 Rhyming structure:
 ABAB
 CDCD
 EFEF
 GG