Why is Julius Caesar the most famous Roman Emperor?

Why is Julius Caesar the most famous Roman Emperor?

Fiction and pop culture.

Because his death was dramatized. Makes for good movies and shit.
Plus the hes mentioned in the bible.

No he isn't

Because Shakespeare wrote a play about him is probably the main reason. Crossing the Rubicon is also a popular phrase, but I don't know how long that has been popular, or if most people could tell you where it came from.
Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's

Caesar, like Augustus, became a title for the emperor
Do you realize Caesar died in BC times?

He was not an emperor.

BAIT

>He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Because he was a real nigga

Then how come Augustus Caesar got both titles????

Coz he's the OG emperor (kinda). He also coined the title.

Consul4Lyfe*

Why would the first Emperor not be the most famous? It's like asking why George Washington is the most famous President.

He died a martyr.

Lincoln is the most famous president

Uhhh the most famous president is Obama. Lol. The current president. You think some dips in rest of the world know who george washington and abe lincoln are?

Who?

Because he was(unofficially) the first emperor and he was the god-father of Augustus.
There is also the fact he successfully fought in Iberia, Gaul, Britanny, Germany, and Egypt.

Caesar hadn't come to be used as a title yet. The first five emperors (Augustus through Nero) were called Caesar because of various tenuous family connections with Julius Caesar. The Caesar mentioned at that point in the Bible would be Tiberius, who is mentioned as such in at least one other place in the Gospels.

No. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy, and FDR are generally the most well known and famous of the Presidents. Lincoln doesn't edge out GW or FDR.

It also has to do with the fact that Augustus's claim to fame, legitimacy, and that of his successors are directly based off Caesar's power base and reputation. And to a lesser extent, also acknowledging his great-great uncle mother fucking Gaius Marius.

Because, the Senate decided his fate.

Can he really be called emperor? All the guy wanted was to be king.

He wasn't even an emperor, just a dictator like Sulla.

He's famous because he won the civil war that put the last nail in the coffin of the republic, he conquered Gaul, he was a great writer whose works were read throughout the middle ages, and a lot was written about him in general.

>nobody knows who Cicero is anymore
>better writer, better speaker, more interesting human being, hundreds of his letters survive, at the height of his career an equal to Caesar and Pompey

>successful military career
>successful political career
>won a civil war that tied up the two previous
>was assassinated right as he reached his peak
>assassination set the course for the end of the republic/beginning of the empire
>first five emperors, while not direct descendants, were from his family
>namesake, due to being the first to wield the power, became the title for all future emperors (Roman and beyond)
>wrote his own histories
And most importantly for the general public, whether they're aware of it or not.
>had a play written about him by the most famous playwright in history

You forgot JFK

>emperor

>>nobody knows who Cicero is anymore
Woah, let's not exaggerate. Caesar is more famous, but Cicero still is extremely famous.

Ded lyke myrtre

It's treason then.

>at the height of his career an equal to Caesar and Pompey
No he wasn't, not even close. He never was anymore relevant than your average roman of consular status. Compare with Pompey, who started blackmailing the senate and threatening rebellion since his twenties to (successfully) get what he wanted or Caesar, who was considered just as good a lawyer as Cicero, and was also a war hero from the days of his military tribunate, and would go on to basically take over the republic with the first triumvirate and then on his own. There's absolutely no comparison whatsoever. What did Cicero do politically that Catulus the younger didn't? Or Metellus Pius? Or many other of his consular contemporaries? Cicero's fame comes from his literary works, because as a politician he was of middling importance, always under the thumb of some bigger fish, from Pompey to Mark Anthony to Augustus.

You forgot Greece and Anatolia, where he won the Civic Crown.

>nobody knows who Cicero is any more
What?
That's like saying nobody knows how Marcus Aurelius is
Maybe stop posting

I'm pretty sure the average guy (not the average Veeky Forumstorian) is not gonna know who Marcus Aurelius was, whereas there's a good chance he'd heard about Cicero.

Huh? Julius Caesar? I'm pretty sure Belisarius was the best Roman emperor. Otherwise, Mehmet II was also pretty good

>Mehmet II
>Roman

Oh yeah, you're right. I meant to say Carolus Magnus.

really cool name

The Ottomans are the undeniable successors to Rome

He set up this empire thing, was divinized, and the name Caesar become synonymous with emperor.

People are astoundingly stupid and undereducated, for the most part.
I think maybe ten of the fifty people at my work would known Cicero or Aurelius

Caesar was an incredible politician and general. He was everything a Roman statesman aspired to be, and all the rest of them hated him for it. He was also fantastic at self-promotion, and his self-published works about his Gallic exploits are as famous as Aurelius Meditiations while, by contrast, actually being interesting to read.

>nobody knows who Cicero is anymore
>Caesar and Pompey
People know more about Cicero who became a meme than they know about Pompey who is just some guy who did some thing in rome possibly he sure as hell wasn't Caesar.
Cicero and Caesar both left a cultural impact, even if Caesar left a much bigger one.

De Bello Gallico is by far more famous than the Meditations. If only because every single student of latin translated "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres..." during his studies.

>every single student of latin
All five of them on the continental US.

Probably due to the play by Shakespeare.

Caesar was Augustus's legal name

If someone had used a bust of Augustus in the OP but kept the text then it'd have been a pretty clever thread a good way to weed out the idiots.

Pompey was the first guy to get 3 seperate triumphs.

That was Augustus.

Julius Caesar was not an emperor

Bullshit, just off the top of my head I remember Valerius Corvus (Volsci, Samnites, Ausones, Etruscans) and Gaius Marius (Celtiberians, Numidians, Cimbri) did it too before Pompey. A lot more generals must have managed that too.

There are like 5-7000 AP latin tests every year, and they come after 2-4 years of latin studies. Then all the college students. There probably are something like 3-600k latin speakers in the US.

>Roman Emperor

>Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's

This always makes me think - at what point was Caesar an acknowledged title for "leader of Rome" in the sense we understand it as? I mean to contemporaries, obviously we get that since Augustus it became a thing.

At the point of Jesus' life, there had been Julius and Augustus, and Augustus was his acknowledged heir. Augustus took it more to connect himself with Julius which wouldn't be that unusual, and Augustus in the principate put on a lot of airs about "lol I'm not emperor chill I'm just an influential guy it's a republic niggas."

Why would he not say "Give unto Rome what is Rome's" or "give unto Augustus what is Augustus'" or "Give unto Princeps what is Princeps'"? What special significance did Caesar, as a title rather than a name, have to contemporaries?

It occurs to me that I'm retarded and Jesus would've been a teenager when Augustus died, though the question still stands.

It clearly didn't occur to you that by virtue of adoption both Augustus and Tiberius were legally named Caesar too.

If they have even a meager understanding of history then yes they do you fucking moron.

Oblongo will be a footnote in American history in 200 years time.

It did, the fact remains that it was a name rather than a title. Tiberius also took "Princeps" which was more the title of his position in society than "Caesar" which was essentially a family name, and like I asked I wasn't sure when "Caesar" became the indicator of the position of "Ruler of Rome" over the various other titles that the emperor (itself a nebulous position at the time) took.

Because he was deified and brightest comet appeared after his death.

It surely was an indicator of position by the tetrarchy, else there wouldn't have been 2 augustuses and 2 caesars.

Some Romaboo turkroach is not a Roman Emperor

The Ottomans didn't pay any homage to Rome after Mehmet died. Even if they did they would not truly be Rome, at best they could have been a sort of spiritual successor like the Russians but they weren't even that.

Certainly, I'd imagine it was acknowledged by the time the Julio-Claudians were ousted and a new family still styled themselves as "Caesar"

But in Augustus and Tiberius' case it just seemed curious to me. Princeps strikes me as the descriptive title for the position in which Augustus gathered his powers, and Tiberius inherited this. Tiberius was also called Augustus within his lifetime IIRC, and that again is more of a "title" given that it was granted to Octavian by the senate.

>Not recognizing the Divus Iulius as first of Ceasars of Res Publica.

He also conquered an entire province and was Cleopatra's lover.

Tiberius*
Caesar was just a title for the Emperors anyway

Caesar remained as a title for ruler long after the Julio-Claudians though, I mean it's literally the root of the titles Kaiser, Tsar, etc.

The first Emperor was Augustus

because the prestige of Caesar was instrumental in gaining legitimacy for the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Augustus and his degenerate relatives had to present Caesar as some sort of demi-god and hero of the late republic.

Chances are that if Augustus never came along Caesar would be about as memorable as Sulla or Cinna.

Caesar was never Roman emperor.

Augustus was the first Roman Emperor.

Caesar became synonymous with being a Roman Emperor, therefore Caesar was the Roman Emperor.