Professor Catherine Steel

Of course, who in the historiography of Caesar becomes an important point of comparison. It's Caesar with whom Alexander is paired in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, for example. That becomes a fairly standard comparison, yes.

It is, compared with the rest of antiquity, which doesn't, of course, mean that it's rich by the standards that a historian of the modern world would recognize as such. And it's worth saying that kind of at the outset, although we know a lot about Caesar in comparison with other figures from antiquity, we know virtually nothing about his childhood.

It is, compared with the rest of antiquity, which doesn't, of course, mean that it's rich by the standards that a historian of the modern world would recognize as such. And it's worth saying that kind of at the outset, although we know a lot about Caesar in comparison with other figures from antiquity, we know virtually nothing about his childhood.

It is, compared with the rest of antiquity, which doesn't, of course, mean that it's rich by the standards that a historian of the modern world would recognize as such. And it's worth saying that kind of at the outset, although we know a lot about Caesar in comparison with other figures from antiquity, we know virtually nothing about his childhood.

Because ancient biographies aren't really interested in childhood as a period, they might record some anecdotes if those are predictive in some way. But as it happens, not for Caesar. So how do we know about Caesar? Well, we have two ancient biographies of him because he's included both in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, but also he's the first of the 12 biographies in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars.

Because ancient biographies aren't really interested in childhood as a period, they might record some anecdotes if those are predictive in some way. But as it happens, not for Caesar. So how do we know about Caesar? Well, we have two ancient biographies of him because he's included both in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, but also he's the first of the 12 biographies in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars.

Because ancient biographies aren't really interested in childhood as a period, they might record some anecdotes if those are predictive in some way. But as it happens, not for Caesar. So how do we know about Caesar? Well, we have two ancient biographies of him because he's included both in Plutarch's Parallel Lives, but also he's the first of the 12 biographies in Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars.

So we've got two biographies, both of which do what ancient biography has done, which is that they combine narrative with an interest in the smaller details of an individual, which may be morally revealing. So we do have quite a lot of anecdotal material about Caesar. The end of the Republic is itself pretty well documented. We've got all of Cicero's surviving material, speeches, letters.

So we've got two biographies, both of which do what ancient biography has done, which is that they combine narrative with an interest in the smaller details of an individual, which may be morally revealing. So we do have quite a lot of anecdotal material about Caesar. The end of the Republic is itself pretty well documented. We've got all of Cicero's surviving material, speeches, letters.

So we've got two biographies, both of which do what ancient biography has done, which is that they combine narrative with an interest in the smaller details of an individual, which may be morally revealing. So we do have quite a lot of anecdotal material about Caesar. The end of the Republic is itself pretty well documented. We've got all of Cicero's surviving material, speeches, letters.

We've got the historian Cassius Dio, who's obviously writing in Greek rather later, but has access to a lot of good source material. We've got Appian. And of course, we've got Caesar's own writings, his campaigns in Gaul that he wrote, and then his account of the Civil War.

We've got the historian Cassius Dio, who's obviously writing in Greek rather later, but has access to a lot of good source material. We've got Appian. And of course, we've got Caesar's own writings, his campaigns in Gaul that he wrote, and then his account of the Civil War.

We've got the historian Cassius Dio, who's obviously writing in Greek rather later, but has access to a lot of good source material. We've got Appian. And of course, we've got Caesar's own writings, his campaigns in Gaul that he wrote, and then his account of the Civil War.

Neither of which is going to be of particular interest for us, though, of course, because both of those were written after his consulship, as was his work on the Latin language, De Analogia. which survives only in the most modest fragments. But it's an important reminder. We think of Caesar as a great military leader, a great political leader, or at least a transformative political leader.

Neither of which is going to be of particular interest for us, though, of course, because both of those were written after his consulship, as was his work on the Latin language, De Analogia. which survives only in the most modest fragments. But it's an important reminder. We think of Caesar as a great military leader, a great political leader, or at least a transformative political leader.

Neither of which is going to be of particular interest for us, though, of course, because both of those were written after his consulship, as was his work on the Latin language, De Analogia. which survives only in the most modest fragments. But it's an important reminder. We think of Caesar as a great military leader, a great political leader, or at least a transformative political leader.

But he was also one of the leading intellectuals in the late Republic.

But he was also one of the leading intellectuals in the late Republic.

But he was also one of the leading intellectuals in the late Republic.

We can talk in general terms in some detail about that. And we do know a bit, in fact, about Caesar's family, which is also not irrelevant, I think, to what we're thinking about. So he is born into a patrician family. Now, patrician has a very distinct technical meaning when we're talking about Republican Rome.