“Caesarem vel ab elephanto, qui lingua Maurorum ‘caesai’ dicitur, in proelio caeso, eum qui primus sic appellatus est doctissimi viri et eruditissimi putant dictum, vel quia mortua matre et ventre caeso sit natus, vel quod cum magnis crinibus sit utero parentis effusus, vel quod oculis caesiis et ultra humanum morem viguerit” - Historia Augusta, Aelius 2 A.D.) we find not just Plinius’ explanation of the origin of the name Caesar, but three more: In Historia Augusta (probably from the end of 4th cent. cutting out the child from the womb) which is caedo, cecidi, caedere, caesum ( Nat. The name would, therefore, stem from the Latin word for “cut” ( i.e. Plinius Maior, or Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.), wrote that the name came from an ancestor who had been born by a surgical birth, an ancient Caesarean section. The ancients had several ideas as to the origin of Gaius Julius’ cognomen, Caesar. Woodcut from Vitae Caesarum by Caius Suetonius Tranquillus. Illustration of the story of the birth of Julius Caesar by Caesarian section. The Julii, according to Suetonius, descended from kings and the goddess Venus herself. However, the biographies of Caesar written later by Suetonius (69–122 A.D.) and Plutarchos (46–120 A.D.) are also relevant sources.Ĭaesar was born in the city of Rome into a patrician family, i.e., the ruling class, the gens Julia. We know a lot about Caesar’s life from his own accounts as well as from other contemporary sources, such as the letters and speeches of Cicero and the works of Sallust (86–35 B.C.). He was also a skilled orator and author. During his life, he became a prominent military general, a politician, and in the end, a dictator. in Rome during the month of Quintilis which later became July, named after his family the Julii. Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 100 B.C. Just like Cicero in the previous chapter of 2000 years of Latin Prose, Julius Caesar, needs very little, or no, introduction, as he is one of history’s most famous men. Commissioned in 1696 for the gardens of Versailles, now with the Louvre Museum, Paris.
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