Julius Caesar: Fact Or Fiction Version

7 Pages 1636 Words

The story of Julius Caesar’s assassination has been told both historically and fictionally. Historical sources focus on the facts of the assassination, while fictionally works focus more on the characters and the drama of the story. Because of the different purposes of the sources, there are many differences between the historical and fictional stories. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar adds certain details and dramatic elements to make the story more interesting and to make the play more enjoyable. Historical sources such as Fuller’s Caesar and Blooms Julius Caesar present a more accurate account of the events that occurred on and around the Ides of March (Bloom 82-97). There are however, because all of the sources are telling the same story, even more similarities. Reading all of the sources can give a reader an understanding of not only what really happened and why, but also what the people involved were probably like.
The time before Caesar’s death has many differences in how events happened rather than if events happened. Both historical accounts record that Caesar had recently returned from a long military campaign that sent him to the far reaches of the Roman Empire. Shakespeare’s account tells of a recent victory over Pompey but does not say that Caesar returned from a massive campaign (Fuller 101-119). In Fullers account, the conspirators had planned for much longer than the other authors recorded had. Fuller wrote that the conspirators convinced the Senate to offer Caesar the crown. The conspirators then placed a crown on a statue of Caesar that was quickly torn down by Caesar’s friends. “Then, a few days later, as he was riding through the streets of Rome, a crowd of people who had been led on by the Aristocrats hailed him as King” (Henretta No. 2). The final offer of the crown occurred before a large crowd of Romans, when a crown was placed on Caesar’s head he took it off and said “The Romans have no k...