Before Caesar: The Tragedy of Gaius Gracchus

Ancient Rome Before the Dark Times. Before the Empire. Before Julius Caesar

An episode of Aural Traditions—an anthology podcast with similarities to Anansi Storytime, at least judging by its cover art. The Tragedy of Gaius Gracchus is A story based on the Roman Republic. That is, before Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire. In fact, the episode makes clear, this happened before Julius was killed. The main character of Gracchus and most of the supporting cast are people who actually existed during the time of the Roman Republic.

Historically speaking, and according to a quick glance of Wikipedia, the story told in this less than an hour audio production is more or less accurate on all but one area. There’s a line of dialogue which mentions Brutus. The one to whom Shakespeare’s famous words “Et Tu, Brute?” are spoken to years later in the historical play from the famous playwright. While there’s no documentation that Brutus said those words. The point is Brutus betrayed and killed Caesar after Gaius Gracchus was already dead. In other words, an historical inaccuracy.

Most people won’t notice or assume Gaius Gracchus is a fictional character before looking too deeply into Rome’s ancient past. The story makes you want to know more, but once you know the truth, the scene and mention of Brutus is more than a bit out of place, it doesn’t make sense historically.

Accuracy vs Drama

Even if there was another historical Brutus who played a similar role as the person who killed Julius Caesar, the fact the writer uses that name is indicative of a larger problem with period pieces—from before the common era to early modern period of history (Post-Renaissance) in particular. Did Roman’s speak in elegant iambic pentameter or other poetic verse like in Shakespeare? Chances are no, they spoke Latin. At the very least, they wrote it. Going back to the Brutus example, using that name or character draws attention to itself—especially when it’s mentioned in the opening narration that this story takes place before Caesar and the Roman Empire.

The acting and dialogue on the page is great and feels very Shakespearian in the way the words are written and performed. If this is an original work, the writer did a fantastic job of capturing that gravitas we see from experiencing Shakespeare for the first time on the stage through the words and the actor’s only exemplified it.

4.5/5 Stars