In Roman times the ides were the days 13 of each month, except March, May, July and October that the day was celebrated 15. And today is March 15, a month dedicated to Mars, the god of war. In general, these days were days of good news, but History has its quirks. As everyone knows, on this day from the year 44 a. C. Julius Caesar was assassinated.

Today I remember this date with a series of books whose author or protagonist is Caesar. Its fundamental figure remains immortal throughout the centuries and they are countless writers who have told or fictionalized his life or his actions. The same He left us a great written legacy (all of us who study Latin in his day know it well). But then there have been many more. These are a tiny part.

Note on the Ides of March

According to the Greek writer Plutarch, fortune teller (with a good eye, the truth) had warned Caesar of the danger, but he did not pay attention and what happened happened. Plutarco tells that when Caesar went to Senate, the seer was found and mocked by commenting that the ides of March had already arrived, to which the seer replied that yes, but they weren't done yet.

Caesar's death in the Senate is considered the inflection point in the history of Ancient Rome, as it marked the transition from the period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.

The Gallic War - Julius Caesar

Gallia est omnis divisa in parts three. Any high school student who begins to study Latin, if he is from my generation and went for Pure Letters when that was the style, he does so with that phrase from this work by César.

Are the seven books that Caesar dedicated to counting the bells developed over seven years (58 to 52 BC) in Gaul, along with raids on Britain and in Germany. Each book is a year. He wanted to spread his fame by explaining in a seemingly aseptic way the importance and difficulty of his exploits. He does not skimp on praise for his lieutenants and soldiers as a way to keep them in his cause, but he also intends to praise their war achievements for his desire to catch up with Pompey, first friend and then enemy whom he defeated.

Julius Caesar - Suetonium

Or also Life of the divine Julius Caesar. It was written by the historian Suetonio Tranquilo Key, which was born when the Flavian dynasty came to power. He was in the service of the great emperor Trajan and he was Hadrian's secretary, the latter position that allowed him access to the imperial archives and the correspondence between Caesar and Augustus. This material was used for the Lives of the twelve Caesars, his best known work. Julius Caesar's is the first of eight books that compose it.

Julius Caesar, the man who could reign - Juan Eslava Galán

This writer from Jaén graduated in English Philology from the University of Granada and received a doctorate in Letters with a thesis on medieval history. It was high school teacher for thirty years, a task that he combined with novel writing and essays on a historical theme.

This is one biography brief of Caesar. It goes through his life trajectory from his birth to his murder. It goes through some of the most important moments of the last epoch of the Latin republic just before the transition to the empire. Have a very entertaining and didactic style, which makes it very easy to read.

The Ides of March - Valerio Massimo Manfredi

How could such a reference and successful author of a historical novel as Manfredi not touch the figure of César? Impossible. So he wrote this chronicle of the previous forty-eight hours to the bloody event in the Senate. All the characters that intervened from Caesar to Portia, Cicero or Brutus, the executing hand, are intermingled and positioning themselves on a chessboard while assuming their role.

Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare

And I can't let myself the play par excellence about Caesar. Probably written in 1599, this tragedy of the most famous English writer of all time is based on the Parallel lives of Plutarco. It narrates the murder of Caesar but standing out from all the characters on the one hand Brutus and Cassius and on the other Marco Antonio. And what moves them all: ambition and maneuvers to achieve power.

Caesar's tears - Jesús Maeso de la Torre

I finish with the most recent novel by one of the most recognized historical novel authors that we have. Maeso de la Torre is another Jaén from Úbeda who also has combined teaching with literature and historical research. He has received numerous prestigious awards and has also contributed to the media The Country, The Voice of Cádiz o Cádiz newspaper. He is the author of more novels such as Tartessos, The stone of destiny o The Chinese box.

In the latter we travel the known world of that time, from Rome to Britain, from Gaul to Egypt and from Greece to Tapsos, in North Africa. With an agile narrative style and a very rigorous historical content, Maeso de la Torre tells us the life of the military and political leader and the prophetess arsinoe, who will accompany you to Rome and solve the murder mystery of his mother, the priestess of the temple of Antaeus, in Tingis.

Fictional characters intermingle with real ones like Pompey, Cato, Crassus, Mark Antony, Lepidus, Brutus, Octavian, Bogud of Mauritania, the egyptian queen Cleopatra, the exotic African queen Eunoë, Caesar's daughter, Julia, his wife calpurnia o slavishly, her lover. All, plus the intriguing senators of the decadent Republic, compose a great story about the rise, life and murder of one of the most important characters in history.

By last…

For all those interested and admirers of Caesar I always recommend Roma, the excellent series of the HBO 2005, which portrays the character and his time as very few.