Artistic License History / Julius Caesar (2003)

• Several characters who played important roles in Caesar's life are Adapted Out to streamline or simplify the story, including Crassus, Cicero, Servilia, Metellus Scipio, Sextus Pompey, and Octavian.
• Several noteworthy episodes in Caesar's life and career are also omitted, including his early military service in Asia Minor, his time at King Nicomedes' court, the trial of Gaius Rabirius, his election as Pontifex Maximus, the Cataline Conspiracy, the Bona Dea Scandal, and his governorship of Hispania Ulterior.
• Sulla is portrayed as a populist who despises the Senate; in fact, he was a member of the conservative Optimates faction and marched on Rome to reverse the changes implemented by Caesar's uncle Marius and the Populares faction he led.
• Pompey was not with Sulla when he reached Rome, as Sulla had sent him to Sicily to secure the grain supply. Furthermore, Pompey was in his early twenties at this time and had golden hair, as opposed to the middle-aged black-haired figure first shown.
• Although Cato the Younger was five years Caesar's junior, he is played by 59 year-old Christopher Walken as opposed to 28 year-old Jeremy Sisto's Caesar. In fact, Cato would have been only 13 when first shown! Additionally, despite what's depicted in the series, Cato was actually pro-Sulla and a staunch member of the conservative Optimates faction.
• When Caesar is bought before Sulla, Sulla does not recognize him, when in fact Sulla's first wife had been Caesar's aunt, and they had met many times.
• According to the series, Gaius Marius used to make the same allegations of being descended from gods as Caesar did. Marius was not Caesar's uncle by blood; furthermore, he had been raised in the countryside and was a Novus Homo - the first man in a family to reach the Senate.
• Marius appears to be a Composite Character of Gaius Marius (Caesar's uncle) and Lucius Cornelius Cinna (Caesar's father-in-law), since Sulla wants Caesar to divorce Marius' daughter.
• When Caesar was forced to leave Rome during the dictatorship of Sulla in 82 BC, he was 18 years old, yet the miniseries already depicts him as having his daughter Julia, shown as a 12 year-old. In reality, Julia would not be born until 76 BC, several years after Sulla's dictatorship.
• Caesar was not helped by Pompey in 82 BC; Pompey knew nothing of Caesar at the time. Additionally, Caesar did not flee to the east, but into the Italian countryside, where he hid until a delegation of noblemen convinced Sulla to recall the sentence of death upon him. Sulla was also never tricked into thinking Caesar dead, as the miniseries depicts.
• Sulla was no longer dictator of Rome when he died, and he died in a far more peaceful manner than a heart attack in a bathtub.
• Caesar was not captured by the pirates while escaping from Sulla in 82 BC, but was captured in 75 BC en route to the island of Rhodes to learn rhetoric from Apollonius Molon.
• It's implied that Caesar spares the pirates who ransomed him after they have been paid. After his rescue, he actually hunted them down and had them all crucified.
• Cornelia's death occurred not when Caesar returned from his captivity with the pirates, but about six years later in 69 BC.
• At the funeral oration of his wife, Caesar implies Marius died at Sulla's hand; he in fact died of a stroke in 86 BC, while Sulla was on the other end of the Roman world.
• During his lifetime, Caesar was married three times, not twice as depicted. His second marriage to Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla, is completely omitted.
• Caesar is not known to have had a Greek slave named Appolonius, who both tutored Julia and took part in Spartacus’s slave rebellion. Appolonius appears to be based on Apollonius Molon, under whom Caesar studied rhetoric.
• Caesar did not receive command of Gaul as a quid pro quo with Pompey that he would get command in exchange for Pompey marrying his daughter Julia. Caesar received command of Gaul because the governor of Transalpine Gaul, Metellus Celer, died unexpectedly, and the province awarded to Caesar at the suggestion of Pompey and Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.
• In the miniseries, Vercingetorix is shown being killed by sword in his prison cell shortly after Caesar's return to Rome in 51 BC. In actuality, he was held for five years and was publicly paraded during Caesar's triumphal celebration in 46 BC, then ritually strangled.
• The series shows that Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, was hostile of his extramarital affair with Cleopatra. However, by all accounts, she seemed to have tolerated his many affairs, which included the wives of both of his allies in the First Triumvirate; Servilia (mother of Caesar’s future assassin, Brutus); the Mauritanian queen Eunoë; and Cleopatra, who claimed that he was the father of her son, Ptolemy XV, better known as "Caesarion". Additionally, despite what's depicted, Calpurnia was still living with Caesar when he was assassinated.
• During Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March, the series depicts the first conspirator to stab Caesar as Cassius, attacking from the front. However, the first person to stab Caesar was Casca, from behind. Additionally, the assassination took place in the Theatre of Pompey, not the Senate building in the Forum. At the time, Caesar was financing a reconstruction of the Forum, and so the senators met in other venues throughout Rome, the Theatre of Pompey being one of them.
• Despite what's shown, Calpurnia was not at Caesar's side when he died. However, the night before his assassination, she dreamed that Caesar had been wounded, and lay dying in her arms. After the assassination, she allegedly rushed out of her house in grief accompanied by several women and slaves. She then delivered all of Caesar's personal papers, including his will and notes, along with his most precious possessions, to Mark Antony.

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