a. said by j. caesar upon a successful battle in the east at
phranaces is Veni, Vidi, Vici
This sentence was said after the battle where he won the entire war in a quick
manner. This sentence means “I came, I saw, I conquered”, and it indeed
happened this way because the war was short and heavily one-sided. The enemy couldn’t
do absolutely anything to Caesar, so he explains that he arrived and conquered
everything that he saw easily
b. said by j. caesar in reference to his assassination
conspiracy is et tu, brute
Brutus was Caesar’s best friend, however, behind the scenes he conspired to
kill Caesar because they disliked that he had become a tyrant. When they
stabbed him, Caesar saw Brutus and said that, which means “you too, Brutus?”
because he couldn’t believe that his best friend had betrayed him
c. said by cato in reference to the romans winning the punic
wars is carthago delenda est.
Cato was a politician in Rome who was an important figure during the punic wars
with Carthage. It is said that whatever speech he had he ended it with those
words which mean “Carthage must be destroyed”, regardless of the content of the
remainder of the speech. He believed that even a defeated Carthage should not
exist.
d. reference to j. caesar upon entering italy with his
troops is to cross the rubicon
This was the same time when he said that the die was cast. Rubicon was a river
in the Roman empire and Caesar was a governor on the other side of it, outside
of Italy, and when he returned he had to cross the Rubicon which he did with
his entire army. Crossing the Rubicon in contemporary times means to get to a
point of no return.
e. said by a soothsayer to j. caesar on the day of his death
is beware the ides of march
The conspiracy behind Caesar’s death wanted to kill him on the Ides of March
when there was a celebration in Rome. This scene became famous worldwide much
more thanks to Shakespeare who introduced the scene with the sentence “beware the
ides of march” in his play on Julius Caesar
f. said by j. caesar in reference to the bona dea rites is Caesar's wife must
be above suspicion
There was a festival where Caesar’s wife Pompeia was
supposed to be important and it was forbidden for men to enter. One man entered
in disguise and tried to seduce Caesar’s wife and was caught and prosecuted. He
was released since Caesar didn’t find evidence of this, however, he divorced
his wife either way and said that if a woman was to be his wife, she should
never even be accused of anything.
g. "the die is cast," latin quote said by j. Caesar upon entering
Italy with his troops is alea iacta est
This sentence means “the die is cast”. After his tenure as a governor ended,
Caesar was ordered to return to Italy but to not bring his troops with him. He
disobeyed this order and he crossed the rubicon river with his entire legion,
stating that the die is cast, meaning that he’s done what he’s done and there
is no return from it.
h. said by mark antony in reference to
brutus and the assassination conspiracy against caesar is friends, romans,
countrymen...
This is how a speech of Mark Antony began in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The
speech is in the wake of Caesar’s death and he talks about how Caesar was a bad
man and a Tyrant and he explains the behavior of himself and Brutus and why it
had to be done, saying that they came to bury him, not to praise him.
i. said by Augustus in reference to the growth and stability of the empire is I
found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble
Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire after
the Republic ended. There was a lot of corruption and infighting and
controversy and Augustus ended it all as he became the sole emperor. After
numerous years of ruling, he said that quote implying that he built Rome and
made it as great as it was
