Anthony Deon Hill
Research Paper
22 April 2014
Uli Edel’s mini-series, Julius Caesar details the life of Caesar from young adulthood to his
assassination by the Roman Senate. However, similar to William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar,
many things that were altered or omitted to create a dramatization of his life and death. In
Shakespeare’s play, Cleopatra and her son Caesarion are omitted to allow Shakespeare to draw parallels
to his periods’ Queen Elizabeth.1 Uli Edel’s motivation for directing the mini-series stems from his
knowledge of Caesar’s life and the desire to convert what he knew into a television series.2 Having
already been familiar with Shakespeare’s play, Edel set out to differentiate his work from Shakespeare’s
by focusing on the life of Caesar instead of merely the death and aftermath.
Edel’s primary motivation for directing the series was because of how such a “frail character”
was able to change the entire world by “overcoming his physical weaknesses” to become one of the
greatest leaders the world has ever known.3 Unlike Shakespeare, Edel works to show a more flawed side
to Caesar by including his adulterous affair with Cleopatra VII. Edel likely recognized the significance of
such an important person in Caesar’s life and included her to show how despite being loved by the
people and treated as the descendent of a god, he was attaining more and more power and becoming
exceedingly close to demolishing the Roman Republic, at least in the eyes of the Senate. Edel also went
to great lengths to recreate ancient Rome. He thoroughly researched ancient Rome to create the set
and enlisted the aid of Romans to recreate the costumes and weapons seen in on the show.
The film also omits the third member of the triumvirate, Marcus Licinius Crassus.4 Crassus had
financially aided Caesar during his rise to consul and his resources as the “richest man in Rome” allowed
for him to effectively control Rome alongside Pompeii and Caesar despite the massive amount of debt
Caesar would incur upon himself.
There is little information on the exact relationship between Caesar and his third wife Calpurnia
which leads me to believed that Edel used the love triangle between her Caesar and Cleopatra to
modernize Caesar’s story by adding in romantic tension. Also modernized was the marriage between
Caesar’s daughter Julia and Pompeii who was 31 years her senior. Despite the mini-series beginning with
an 18 to 20 year old Caesar, he has an adolescent daughter who later ages up to a young woman in a
period short period of time historically. Pompeii had defeated pirates invoking a grain blockade in 2
months instead a period of years to make Julia age up to a modern day marriageable age.5
One omission in the mini-series includes the entire relationship of his second wife. Before his
marriage to Calpurnia Pisonis, he married a woman named Pompeia a year after his first wife, Cornelia
passes away from illness.6 Caesar at this point expressed a desire to be “above suspicion” and divorced
his wife despite his inability to offer any evidence of her suspected adultery. This is ironic since Caesar
1
William Shakespeare believed that the only reasons to justify killing a king (in this case dictator) were if the king
was absolutely evil or if the king had killed a previous king to take the throne. His goal in writing Julius Caesar was
to show the chaotic outcome of such an occurrence.
2
Interview Uli Edel, Director, 2002.
3
Caesar is widely believed to have suffered from epilepsy as noted by C. Suetonius Tranquillus’s The Lives of the 12
Caesars.
4
A political and business agreement between Caesar, Pompeii, and Crassus which effectively allowed them to rule
Rome together.
5
This was likely to done to avoid media backlash at showcasing a May-December relationship on television.
6
C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the 12 Caesars (New York: The Modern Library, 1931) p. 6
would go on to have affairs with many women including queens.7 These scenes were likely excluded to
make Caesar appear nobler in the series.
I really enjoyed the way Caesar was portrayed in his final scenes before his assassination. Even
though the Senate had only their own personal interests in mind, I was able to feel how helpless they
felt in front of the ‘dictator for life’. As Caesar continually denied their protests I could tell they had no
power at all and that killing Caesar was their only hope of retaining any authority at all. Though
according to Suetonius Tranquillus, this scene didn’t take place historically as Caesar was assaulted
immediately after taking his seat.8 His iconic last words are also believed to be a manufacture of time as
well.9
Despite the 178 minute runtime, I found the pacing to be a major problem as events continued
to unfold with Caesar occasionally with more telling than showing. It seems as though Caesar became a
popular conqueror and then all of a sudden the Senate is all over him and antagonizing him. There
should have been more scenes to show whether or not he was becoming another Sulla instead of scenes
where Pompeii and Cato the Elder were merely gossiping back and forth. Though overall I found the first
half of the film to be much stronger than the second half.
As this film is about Julius Caesar himself instead of an ensemble cast about the events of Rome,
many actors are given too few scenes to adequately portray their characters’ importance. Most
notoriously in my opinion is Cleopatra, one of the primary reasons for Caesar’s assassination.10 Critic
Susan Granger shares some of my sentiments as seen when she describes the series as a “complicated
character-study” and argues that it “devotes too much time to the Gallic Wars and too little to political
intrigue, particularly Caesar's self-destructive involvement with Egypt's Queen Cleopatra”.11 Despite her
4 year relationship with Caesar and being a dynamic character in history as well, Cleopatra enters the
film fairly late in the story. Perhaps Udel, like Shakespeare, feared that the audience (like Caesar) would
become too captivated by the presence of the charming Cleopatra and would detract from Caesar’s rise
and fall.12 Caesar and Pompeii’s friendship also deteriorated at much too fast a pace for my liking.
According to Calpurnia, Pompeii seemed to want Caesar to fail despite being the one to provide him
legions. He started as a three-dimensional character then seemed to devolve into a one-dimensional
character at an alarming pace.13
I found the scene of Cleopatra’s first appearance to Caesar to be interesting but not compelling
enough to be believable. Instead of accurately portraying Caesar and Cleopatra’s Caesar later tells his
wife Calpurnia in the mini-series that he is merely using Cleopatra to further the interests of Rome.14
Whether or not he is sincere does little to show how he truly feels for Cleopatra and vice versa.
Originally Cleopatra captivated Caesar after appearing before him in a carpet and enchanting him with
her beauty and audacious nature as she appeals to him for aid during Egypt’s civil war. He was also
7
Ibid., p. 30
Op. cit., Tranquillus, p. 47
9
Et tu Brute?: And/Even you Brutus/child?
10
Although Octavian was chosen as Caesar’s successor, Cleopatra and Caesar had a son, Caesarion, who the
Romans feared would try to rule over Rome and Egypt after the latter was conquered by the former.
11
Susan Granger, Internet Movie Database.
12
Cleopatra claimed to be the goddess Isis and was treated as such by her followers.
13
He began the series as a man who valued honesty and justice such as when he twice refused Sulla’s orders to
murder two honest men (Caesar and another innocent man) despite the threat to his own life and devolves into a
man so terrified of losing his power that he alienates his close friend and turns him against him.
14
Thayer Watkins, “The Timeline of the Life of Cleopatra”, San José State University.
8
drawn to her wealth which she would obtain once her brother Ptolemy was disposed of. In the film she
merely disguises herself as a servant and speaks of divine ancestry and shortly afterwards kisses Caesar.
The scene had none of the charm that I was expecting and I considered it to be one of the series’ few
weaknesses.
Originally I believed the Ides of March to be merely Shakespeare’s invention as a form of
dramatic irony. Upon discovering that Caesar did in fact receive warnings and omens of his fate, I found
the inclusion of them in the series to be a very strong point.15 Of course, even though having Calpurnia
race to her dying husband’s aid was merely a part of the dramatization, I found the scene to be
enjoyable and rather ironic that the woman he shafted was the one who was beside him at his end
whereas the woman he fell in love with was nowhere to be seen in the final scenes.
Caesar’s personality was interesting as he struggled to hide his epilepsy and to remain
committed to his principles. I felt that the scenes with Vercingetorix were great at depicting a parallel
between Caesar and the enemy that made him famous. The scene of their first meeting mirrored
Pompeii’s earlier scene with Caesar. Apparently courage was greatly admired in ancient Rome. Caesar at
times seemed to be merely playing a role in his own life. The role of a dictator despite his desire to not
be a king seemed to weigh heavily on his mind. Vercingetorix’ words that they were not similar were
strong words that I’m sure Edel’s Caesar took to heart. How historically accurate of this characteristic of
Edel’s Caesar is difficult to surmise but I enjoyed all the scenes that displayed of courageous
individuals.16
If Edel’s purpose was to present to us the life of Julius Caesar then I would say he did a great job
but there was so much more that could have been done to make it better. Of course adapting a person’s
entire life into a film is impossible but the many unnecessary changes to history could have been
avoided. One alteration I found to be disastrous was the scene of Caesar’s capture by pirates. In the film
Caesar is treated like garbage by the pirates and often threatened with death whereas historically,
Caesar was treated very well by the pirates and despite almost becoming friends, threatened to crucify
all of them which they took as a friendly joke. Once released, he cemented his reputation for always
doing what he said he would do by tracking down the pirates and crucifying them.17 Their crucifixion
would have been a great event to include in the story to showcase how absolute Caesar was. Another
great scene would have been his visit to the Temple of Hercules where he stumbles upon the statue of
Alexander the Great and sighs.18
I felt that the ending of the film was perfect but it didn’t exactly match Edel’s words about
Caesar changing the world. Ending the film at Caesar’s death would be similar to ending an Alexander
the Great film at his own death. Similar to how Alexander’s death destroyed his empire, Caesar’s demise
continued to change the world in an even more radical way as the Roman Republic collapsed and the
Roman Empire rose. I feel a more satisfying title for a Julius Caesar mini-series would be The Rise of the
Roman Empire so that viewers who are not familiar with Shakespeare’s play (which, along with its
sequel, details the aftermath of Caesar’s death) would not be left hanging.
15
Sara Albee, Julius Caesar/Cleopatra, (Pelhaum, NY: Benchmark Education Company, 2011) p. 15
Caesar’s refusal to divorce his wife Cornelia, Vercingetorix refusing to give up what is his despite being alone and
completely outmatched, Julia marrying Pompeii to aid her father, etc.
17
Though he did have their throats slit first out of respect for the hospitality shown to him.
18
Op. cit., Tranquillus, p. 6
16
Bibliography
Tranquillus, C. Suetonius. The Lives of the 12 Caesars. Trans. Joseph Coverse. New York: The
Modern Library, 1931. Print.
Albee, Sarah. Julius Caesar/Cleopatra. Pelhaum, New York: Benchmark Education Company,
2011. Print.
Mark, J. Joshua. “Julius Caesar.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia
Limited, 28 April 2011. Web. 13 April 2014. <http://www.ancient.eu.com/Julius_Caesar/>.
Edel, Uli. Interview by TNT Drama, Inc. 2002. TNT Drama. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. 2002.
Web. 19 April 2014.
Watkins, Thayer. “The Timeline of the Life of Cleopatra.” San José State University. San José
State University. Web. 12 April 2014. <http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/cleopatra.htm>.
Granger, Susan. Julius Caesar 2002. Internet Movie Database. Web. 20 April 2014. <
http://www.imdb.com/reviews/351/35118.htm>.
Brode, Douglas. Shakespeare in the Movies. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam
Inc., 1998. Print.