Julius Caesar

william shakespeare john bowe michael feast adrian lester

At the heart of this tragic history is one of Shakespeare s most noble characters, the statesman Brutus, who is caught in a devastating conflict between private affection and public duty.

Julius Caesar has become the most powerful man in the Rome. Does his power now threaten the very existence of the Republic itself? A conspiracy is hatched, one that will have fatal consequences not only for Caesar and the conspirators but for the future history of the ancient world.

Brutus is played by John Bowe and Mark Antony by Adrian Lester. Michael Feast is Caesar."

Genres playsfictiondramaschoolclassicshistorical fictionread for schoolliteraturehigh schoolpoetry

3 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1,1599

Series

Shakespeare Made Easy

Places

rome, italy, philippi,

This edition

Format: 3 pages, Audio CD
Published: June 1, 2005 by BBC Audiobooks America
ISBN: 9781932219166
ASIN: 1932219161
Language: English

Characters More characters

Gaius Cassius Longinus

Gaius Cassius Longinus (before 85 BC – October, 42 BC) was a Roman senator, a leading instigator of the plot to kill Julius Caesar,[1] and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
Brutus Marcus Junius

Marcus Junius Brutus (early June, 85 BC – 23 October, 42 BC), often referred to as Brutus, was a politician of the late Roman Republic. After being adopted by his uncle he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, but eventually returned to using his...
Calpurnia (wife Of Caesar)

Calpurnia was either the third or the fourth wife of Julius Caesar, and the one to whom he was married at the time of his assassination. According to contemporary sources, she was a good and faithful wife, in spite of her husbands infidelity; and, f...
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (Latin: M·AEMILIVS·M·F·Q·N·LEPIDVS),[1] (born c. 89 or 88 BC, died late 13 or early 12 BC)[2] was a Roman patrician who rose to become a member of the Second Triumvirate and Pontifex Maximus. His father, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, ha...
Marcus Antonius

Marcus Antonius (83 – 30 BC) was a Roman politician and general. He was an important supporter and the loyal friend of Gaius Julius Caesar as a military commander and administrator, being Caesars second cousin, once removed, by his mother Julia Anto...
Portia Catonis

the wife of Roman senator Marcus Junius Brutus (fictionalized as a character in William Shakespeares play Julius Caesar as "Portia")more...

About the author

william shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".