The Real Caesar vs.
Shakespeare’s

Syannah Dozier
Similarities and Differences
between the Real Julius Caesar
By: Sy’annah Dozier
and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
The Real Caesar

Not yet confirmed, Gaius Julius Caesar's birthday is
thought to be about two or three days before the ides
of July in 100 BCE.

Caesar's father died when he was sixteen, and two
years later at the age of eighteen, he married
Cornelia, the daughter of a noble and had their only
legitimate child, Julia.
Shakespeare’s Caesar

It is clear that Shakespeare based his play almost
exclusively on Plutarch’s narrative of Roman
characters.

He then translated into English by Thomas North in
1579,

The text was popular and Shakespeare certainly had
access to it.
Their Similarities

Caesar dies on the Ides of March both in the play
and in real life, but it is not confirmed whether he
was actually warned beforehand about his death by a
soothsayer as in the play.
Their differences

In the play, this is in Act 1 Scene 2. Antony offers
Caesar the crown thrice, and Caesar refused.

In Caesar's actual history, Antony offers him a
diadem, ((the symbol of the Hellenistic monarchs))
but Caesar refuses, saying the only King of the
Romans is Jupiter.