June ShakespeareCAT: The Roman plays / ancient history

The picture shows Gaius Iulius Caesar, found on the website of the Vatican museums.

Shakespeare belongs to the Renaissance, when antiquity became fashionable again and everyone was chasing after classical statues and ancient Greek and Roman texts. Four of his plays are based on such re-discovered texts: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus. They rely mostly on the histories of Plutarch.

Julius Caesar is mainly about the politics of the late Roman Republic and its (literally) warring factions, but also about the power of speech and rhetoric. It is one of the plays that have never truly vanished from the stage because every new generation can find something relevant in the moral questions discussed here: how to deal with tyranny.

Antony and Cleopatra has one of the most famous love stories in history, but it has been staged far less often than Julius Caesar, for a long time only in abridged versions, and only in the 20th century has it become truly popular.

In contrast, Coriolanus is a mythical figure from very ancient Roman history, about the fight between the plebeians demanding their share in the city’s politics and the patricians who want to preserve their pre-eminence.

Titus Andronicus is one of the darkest and bloodiest plays in Shakespeare’s work (if it is his, there have always been arguments about his authorship) and although he sets it in the late antiquity during the Goth invasions, the subject matter of revenge is very much familiar from ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

In June, you can either read the plays, watch the movie and TV adaptions, or enjoy some historical fiction or non-fiction set in the periods. Suggestions are welcome!

Fiction: GB Shaw’s play Caesar and Cleopatra, Margaret George’s Memoirs of Cleopatra, Colleen McCullough’s “Masters of Rome” series, and let’s not forget Astérix and Cleopatra!

Non-fiction: Mary Beard’s SPQR, Kyle Harper’s The fate of Rome, biographies of Caesar, Mark Antony or Cleopatra as written by Michael Grant, Adrian Goldsworthy, Ernle Bradford, Christian Meier

Here’s the link to the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2022_ShakespeareCAT#June:_hosted_by_miss...

Such great topics! Good presentation, Birgit! Although Julius Caesar is my favorite work of the Bard, I've read it many times. This time I'm going to go with Coriolanus. This will supplement my background when I have to teach about the brothers Gracchi.

ETA: The library does not have this title. I'm going with Titus Andronicus.

My reading group's book for June is Marcus Agrippa: Right Hand Man of Caesar Augustus. I've got quite a bit of fiction set in Roman times, but I don't know yet what I will choose.

Never mind, wrong author. Thinking I, Cladius

I'm currently listening to Titus Andronicus. You'd need a strong stomach to watch that.

>5 Helenliz: Agreed! I just completed Titus Andronicus and boy is it bloody! At the beginning Titus returns from 10 years of war with only 4 of his 25 sons still alive. He brings back captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and her 3 sons. The immediate blood-letting begins when he sacrifices Tamora's oldest son to his dead son (s), thus earning him Tamora's vow of vengeance. There is a planned rape with 2-3 perpetrators and the approval of those in charge. There are multiple severed limbs, a live burial, and a case of cannibalism. There are even human pies; which reminds me of the Barber of Fleet Street! This does really seem over the top for Willy. There are scholars who believe he did not write it. I don't have enough knowledge to comment. 107 pages

Choices . . . choices. I may be going "eenie, meenie, miney, mo . . ."

I've had a copy of Livy's history of Rome, books 21 to 30 (Hannibal's War), kicking around forever, so this may be the right time to finally read it. I'd hoped to read it for HistoryCAT last year, too.

>8 rabbitprincess: I've got a copy too, 1800 pages worth! Would love to read it. Maybe I will read one "book" at a time instead of trying to tackle all of them at once.

I have a couple of Lindsay Davis titles that might work here.

I loved Julius Caesar when we read it in 10th grade, so I'm going to see how it holds up for me mumble-cough decades later.

I will start with Julius Caesar by Shakespeare. I also have the nonfiction book Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff if I have time to get to it.

>12 Kristelh: I just ordered Cleopatra since I lost my original copy (too much weeding).

I just finished Julius Caesar.

I was going to read Antony and Cleopatra, but Coriolanus fits one of the June TIOLI challenges so I'll be reading Coriolanus.

I read two kid books about ancient Rome: Find Out! Ancient Rome in the DK series and If I Were a Kid in Ancient Rome. I am also finishing Daughter of Rome which I like very much.

finished
Book Julius Caesar by Shakespeare

Taking an easy start with Ode to a banker, set in the literary world of ancient Rome.

And a non-fiction book about Ancient Rome: Dark Rome : Das geheime Leben der Römer which is a very readable account of criminal and political shenanigans.

I finished Cleopatra: a life by Stacy Schiff. I learned what we don’t know about Cleopatra and what Shakespeare got right.

There were a number of books I would have liked to read for this challenge, but I ran out of time and chose a shorter graphic novel. I finished Asterix and Cleopatra, a favourite from my youth, but I opted to read it in the original French this time.