William Shakespeare and Ancient Rome

Caesar's Rule Over Rome

Some Facts About Rome

When Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus competed to be leader of Rome, Caesar came out on top.

• Caesar was the dictator of Rome, but it was just supposed to be a temporary position.
• He increased the Senate members from 300 to 900 and filled it with his supporters.
• Some of his supporters feared he would continue being the dictator, so they assassinated him.

Fun Fact: Among the group that assassinated him on the Senate floor was his best friend. He also died at the foot of the staute of Pompey, the man he killed in the same spot that he was dying in. The last thing he saw was the face of the man he had killed to become leader of Rome.

William Shakespeare and Ancient Rome

• The Romans often wore tunics – two pieces of woollen fabric sewn together at the sides and shoulders, with openings for your arms and head – they were the most common clothes in Rome. Some Romans also wore togas – a kind of woollen shawl – to show how wealthy they were.(National Geographic)
• Christianity spread like a wild fire later on in Roman history and for awhile Christians were heavily perscuted, and often killed if they were open about their beliefs. Constantine, a Roman emperor, converted to Christianity on his death bed making him the first Christian emperor of Rome. Right before he died, Constantine issued and signed the Edict of Milan, which declared the offical tolerance of Christianity in Rome, but it wasn't until Theodosius the Great was emperor, that Christianity was made the offical religion of Rome.

The Roman Senate

The Patricians and Plebeians

The Roman Senate was very important to the Roman culture and society in that time.

• The Roman Senate consisted of 300 patricians.
• Those who serve in the senate, serve for life.
• The original purpose of the senate was to advise or help out the government officals of that time.
• Later it ended up holding the power of the law.

• The Patricians were the high class, wealthy group of land owning people.
• The Plebeians were the people who were more poor and were usually small farmers and merchants. They were considered the lower class of people.
• In both classes, men were considered citizens and were allowed to vote.

Fun Fact: They couldn't marry people from the other class.

By: Taylor Mosbey And Hailey Ratley

Ancient Rome

In 509 B.C. the Romans set up a republic.

They didn't have a king, it wasn't a monarch but they did have a leader. Some citizens had the right to vote.

They split their society into two groups, the Patricians and the Plebeians.

Random facts about Shakespeare!

• One of Shakespeare’s relatives on his mother’s side, William Arden, was arrested for plotting against Queen Elizabeth I, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed.
• Shakespeare lived a double life. By the seventeenth century he had become a famous playwright in London but in his hometown of Stratford, where his wife and children were, and which he visited frequently, he was a well known and highly respected businessman and property owner.
• People used to spell his name many different ways, including "Shakspere," "Shake-speare," "Shakespear," "Shaxberd" and "Sheakspear."
• Shakespeare introduced about 3,000 words into the English language.
• His plays have even been translated into Klingon, the language from "Star Trek."
• There are about 13 suicides in his plays.
• Shakespeare's gravestone says, "Blessed be the man that spares these stones, and cursed be he that moves my bones."
• His cause of death is not known, though legend has it that he drank too much one night and caught a fever.
• Shakespeare’s parents were probably illiterate, and his children almost certainly were.
• Nobody knows what Shakespeare did between 1585 and 1592.

Shakespeare's greatest achievements

Shakespeare's Family

1. He shaped the performing art community by writing plays that were entertaining and educating. Not only informing the public but helping them become aware.

2. He wrote about controversial subjects. (i.e. the political system, the judicial system, and others) He had the guts to point out the cons as well as the pros.

3. He allowed the "underlings" of society attend his plays. Although they had to stand the length of the performance at the head of the theatre he still felt it important to let everyone be cultured and educated.

4. His works are still ever popular today. While other plays and movies wither away, his plays are still timeless. Almost everyone recognizes lines from his plays without knowing they"re origin; dead as a door nail, neither a borrower nor a lender be, to thine own self be true,

just to name a few.

5. I think that the most admirable of accomplishments he ever had was that he really knew how to handle his audience. He wrote not only for the Queen but for the peasant. He was the creator of emotion in the play house and never has anyone else stood as tall for as long as he has regarding this quality.

• He had 8 brothers and sisters
• Joan, born 1558, died before 1569.
• Margaret, born 1562, died 1563 (aged 5 months).
• (William, born 1564, died 1616.)
• Gilbert, born 1566, haberdasher, died 1612. (A haberdasher sells hats, clothes, thread, ribbons etc.)
• Joan*, born 1569, married William Hart, died 1646.
• Anne, born 1571, died 1579.
• Richard, born 1574, occupation unknown, died 1613.
• Edmund,* born 1580, "player," died 1607.

Shakespeare's works

William Shakespeare

• The top ten famous plays are:
• Hamlet,
• Macbeth
• Julius Caesar
• The Tempest
• 1 Henry IV
• King Lear
• Romeo and Juliet
• King John
• Much Ado about Nothing
• The winter's tale.

• William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• He died April 26th, 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• by 1592 he was in London working as an actor and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more

Fun Facts About Shakespeare

• On his death bed Shakespeare made several gifts to various people but left his property to his daughter, Susanna. The only mention of his wife in Shakespeare’s own will is: “I give unto my wife my second best bed with the furniture”. The “furniture” was the bedclothes for the bed.
• Shakespeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing almost 3,000 words to the English language.