Medieval and early modern portrayals of Julius Caesar : the transmission of an idea / Nigel Mortimer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mortimer, Nigel, author.

Contributor:

Orville H. Bullitt Classics Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Caesar, Julius--In literature.

Caesar, Julius.

Literature.

Physical Description:

xvii, 718 pages, 4 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 26 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

Summary:

Julius Caesar, ancient Rome's most colourful leader, has been a subject of controversy for more than two thousand years. In the classical world he was celebrated as an inspired military commander, as a law-giver and orator possessed of outstanding drive and intellect. He was also denounced for his ambition, cruelty, concupiscence, and for his overthrow of a noble republic. Over the centuries almost every conceivable characteristic has been attributed to him. His murder-the world's most famous political assassination-began a process which led to the inauguration of the imperial rule that would last for the rest of Roman time.0Throughout the medieval and early modern periods Caesar was central to narratives of conquest and resistance, of kingship and subjecthood, of liberty and despotism. There was a time, however, when he was not the most storied figure from classical antiquity. The post-classical phenomenon of a chimerical and ambiguous Caesar is born in thirteenth-century France when the author of the Li Fet des Romains, a monumental prose life of Caesar, chose to complicate the influential view of a monstrous Caesar found in Lucan's epic poem?Bellum civile?: this decision gave birth to the complex figure that has fascinated ever since.0This book offers original translations of texts written between 1170 and 1574 in French, Latin, Italian, and Middle English, accompanied by commentaries which enable the reader to chart the evolution of the Caesar phenomenon throughout the medieval period right up to his first appearances on the early modern stage.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: I. CAESAR REVIVED

1. Julius Caesar From Classical Antiquity Into The Early Middle Ages

The transmission of the corpus Caesarianum

The impact of Lucan's Bellum civile

Anglo-Norman Caesar

Matthew of Vendome's contradictory Caesar

Translated extract: Matthew of Vendome, from the Ars versificatoria (c.1170

5)

2. The Emergence Of The Medieval Caesar: Li Fet Des Romains

Philip Augustus of France

Caesar's Gallic campaigns (58

51 BC)

The Civil War (49

45 BC): Authorial distancing and the constructed `Lucans'

The Li Fet and monarchical authority

Tyranny and tyrannicide

Commentary and translated extracts

1. Prologue

Translation

2. The crushing of the Catilinarian conspiracy at the battle of Pistoia

3. The siege of Alesia: Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar

4. Drappes Brenno and Caesar's captivity at Sens

(a). Drappes and Caesar clash on the field

(b). Caesar trapped inside the city of Sens

(c). The triumph of good council

5. The final submission of Gaul: Caesar's charm wins over the tribes

6. The causes of the Civil War

7. The world rallies to Pompey's cause

(a). Alexander's embassy to the paradis terrestre; the interpretation of the wonderstone

(b). The medieval Alexander

(i). The Iter Alexandri

(ii). La prise de Defur

(iii). Le voyage d'Alexandre au paradis terrestre

(iv). The Li Fet version

(c). Caesar and Alexander

(d). The Rothelin Continuation

8. The battle of Pharsalus: libertas et Caesar

(a). The Li Fet Pharsalus narrative

(i). The escalation

(ii). Caesar and Pompey meet in single combat

(iii). The last stand of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

9. Cato and the battle of Phycus

10. Cleopatra and the Alexandrian War

(a). Ptolemaic Alexandria

(b). Cleopatra: politician, lover, soldier

(c). Arsinoe and Ganymede

11. The Battle of Munda: suicidal Caesar

12. Caesar's slide into tyranny

Beyond Lucan: Caesar Rebalanced

3. Jean De Thuin: Li Hystore De Julius Cesar

De Thuin's manipulation of his source materials

(a). Celebration of Caesar the preudome

(b). Denigration of Pompey

(c). Suppression of Lucan's personal opinion

(d). `ne fu mie de mierveille' (HJC 110.4): elimination of pagan and supernatural elements

(e). Omission of topographical and mythological digression

(f). Political conservatism

2. The causes of the Civil War

3. Marcus Cassius Scaeva's valour at Dyrrachium

Lucan's compromised hero

4. The battle of Pharsalus

(a). `Ore sont a cois, u d'avoir hounour ou de pierdre francisse et iestre deshounoure

(i). Caesar

(ii). Pompey

(iii). Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

5. Cornelia's lament on the death of Pompey

6. Cato rebukes Tarcondimotus of Cilicia

7. Amatory Caesar: Cleopatra and the Alexandrian campaign

(a). Lucan's Cleopatra: menace to Rome

(b). Jean de Thuin's Cleopatra: medieval paragon

(c). Feminine argument: Cleopatra in discussion with Caesar

(d). The debat d'amour

(e). Caesar in love: the hero emasculated

`Li plus poissans princes dou monde'

II. HUMANIST CAESAR

4. The Florentine Iurgium Caesareum

The arrival of the Li Fet in Italy

Trecento vacillation: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio

(a). Dante Alighieri (1265

1321) and providential Caesar

(b). Francesco Petrarch (1304

74)

(c). Giovanni Boccaccio (1313

75)

Caesar and the foundation of Florence

(a). Lino Coluccio Salutati (1331

1406) and the libertas fiorentina

(b). Leonardo Bruni and the `civic humanist' Caesar

Medicean Caesar: tyranny and the cult of Marcus Brutus

5. Poggio Bracciolini: On The Excellence Of Scipio And Caesar

Poggio's Caesar: `A greedy bandit and an adulterer'

Translated extract: De praestantia Scipionis etCaesaris (1435)

6. Guarino Da Verona: On The Excellence Ofscipio And Caesar

Translation: De praestantia Scipionis et Caesaris (1435)

Poggio Bracciolini, Defensio de praestantia Caesaris et Scipionis (1435)

7. Cyriacus Of Ancona: In Praise Of Caesar

Translation: Caesarea laus (1435)

Appendix: Cyriacus among the humanists

1. Letter from Poggio Bracciolini to Leonardo Bruni: Oblata est mihi nuper (March 31, 1438)

2. Letter from Poggio Bracciolini to Jacopo Foscari: Ciriacus noster Anconitanus (July 20, 1438)

8. Milanese Caesar: Pier Candido Decembrio, A Comparison Of The Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar And Alexander The Great

Milanese political ideology and the cult of Caesar

Decembrio's sources: Plutarch and Suetonius

Translation: La Comparatione di Caio Mio Cesare imperadore & d'Alessandro Magno (1438)

9. Pietro Del Monte: Letter To Poggio Bracciolini

`Most treacherous of men! Most despicable monster!'

Translated extract: Letter to Poggio Bracciolini (January 31, 1440)

10. Lancastrian Caesar: John Lydgate, Serpent Of Division

Senatorial power

Lydgate's Caesar

Translation: Serpent of Division (?1422

3)

11. Regiminal Caesar: Jean Du Quesne And Robert Gaguin

Classical antiquity and historical writing at the later Burgundian court

Charles the Bold, the Burgundian Caesar

Commentary, texts, and translations

1. Jean du Quesne's Caesar

The Burgundian Caesar Commentary (1473

4)

2. Robert Gaguin's Caesar

The Commentaries of Julius Caesar (1485)

III. CAESAR DRAMATIZED

12. Early Modern Caesars: France

Caesar at the French presses: editions, translations, and commentaries

Subversive Caesar: `The fiercest tyrant that ever was'

Caesar on the tragic stage: serene demi-god to nervous ruler

1. Marc-Antoine Muret, Julius Caesar (c. 1547)

2. Jacques Grevin, Cesar: Tragedie (1560/1)

3. Etienne Jodelle, The Deliberations of Julius Caesar on the Banks of the Rubicon (1561)

4. Robert Gamier, Cornelie: Tragedie (1574)

France at peace: heroic Caesar reinstated

13. Early Modern Caesars: England And Scodand

Caesar and classical historians at the English presses

Caesar on the Elizabethan stage

(a). Thomas Kyd, Cornelia (1594)

(b). The Tragedie of Caesar and Pompey, or Caesar's Revenge (c.1595)

(c). William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Julius Caesar (1599)

Jacobean Caesar: Lucan revived

(a). George Chapman, Caesar and Pompey (c. 1604)

(b). William Alexander, The Tragedie of Julius Caesar (1607)

(c). Ben Jonson, Catiline, His Conspiracy (1611)

(d). John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, The False One (c.1620)

(e). Jasper Fisher, Fuimus Troes (c.1625)

Postlude: `O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet, / Thy spirit walks abroad'

A Study in Ambiguity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Orville H. Bullitt Classics Fund.

ISBN:

0198847564

9780198847564

OCLC:

1124593095

Publisher Number:

99985777316