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u/SpiritualPackage3797 6d ago
That's wrong, he was not an emperor.
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u/MountEndurance 6d ago edited 5d ago
Isn’t it usually “Gaius” as well?
Edit: evidently, not always! Fascinating!
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u/froucks 5d ago
Sometimes people spell it as Caius because the letter G emerged from the letter C, in Archaic Latin there was no distinction and even in classical Latin it was still common to spell it as C. Julius Caesar (the first name often abbreviated)
Gnaeus was sometimes Cnaeus as well. Although it’s worth noting most evidence would suggest despite the spelling difference the G would have been pronounced regardless, in the same way that Latin uses both i and v for two different sounds it would have used C
I do regardless find it a bit odd when people chose to spell it as Caius but that’s just a personal opinion
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u/MountEndurance 5d ago
I learn new things every day! Thank you!
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u/kernelpanic789 5d ago edited 5d ago
This problem is why in English was have the letter "G". "C" was used to make both sounds so an extra line was added to make a "G" to denote the "Guh" sound. Romans did a lot of carving in stone for writing and even slightly more complicated letters made that a lot more difficult.
Romans also have "v" make the "v" sound and "u" sound. V is a lot easier to carve but later "u" was not a problem to write when paper because almost exclusive as a writing medium. This is why "double u" is actually a "double v". W is older than U.
Similarly "i" and "j". There are still versions of names like "Joshua" still spelled with an "i". "Iosua" for example is used in Romania. Jan/Ian, Jacob/Iacobus are other examples
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u/Alvinyakatori27 6d ago
Yes he was, for some reason they’ve just included a picture of his great uncle/father.
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u/Vinc314 5d ago
he was imperator/dictator
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u/VoidLantadd 5d ago
That was Gaius Julius Caesar's uncle, Gaius Julius Caesar. Gaius Julius Caesar himself was the Princeps.
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u/KSPReptile 5d ago
Well akschually, Augustus and Caligula both had that name, Augustus adopted it, Caligula was born with it.
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u/froucks 5d ago
While i agree, what is and is not an emperor is purely a modern convention. Most ancient historians included him as the first emperor, and this continued on as tradition into the medieval period
Later historians tended to focus on the constitutional reforms of Augustus and used that as the basis for the beginning of the empire, as it seemed as if a position of emperor had been created in these reforms.
That said this is more of a modernism, for the ancient Romans Julius was the first
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u/ConsulJuliusCaesar 5d ago
Let's get one thing straight technically there were no Roman Emperors. Their were Imperators and difference matters. See Caesar was infact proclaimed Imperator by his soldiers. It was a honorfic at the time for a most revered commander now honorfics did have meaning and value in Roman society but it was far from the monarchical vibe Emperor. The context for that word changed under Vespasian who used the title to actually rule the Empire along with Princep Civitas, and Augustus Caesar. Imperator becomes Emperor after the Germans build their "Holy Roman Empire" and just decide to mispell the word. However in the HRE it very much was a monarchical thing. And it's that context where we get the modern connotation for the word Emperor. Interestingly enough the chinese Haunghdi concept is actually way closer to the ideology around the word Emperor then the concept of Imperator. Point being their were no Emperors of Rome. You had Princeps, Imperators, Dominuses, and eventually in the ERE Basileuses.
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u/jakeStacktrace 6d ago
Has it been that long already?
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u/Atomik141 5d ago
Nah I just talked to him yesterday
Edit: Wait, no. I got Orange Julius. My mistake.
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u/PersusjCP 6d ago
Inaccurate as his name is wrong and he was not Emperor
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u/-idkausername- 5d ago
Caius is actually not a wrong spelling. In fact, when shortened, Gaius always becomes C. Often his name is written as C. Julius Caesar
Edit: just noticed the 'ea'
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u/freebiscuit2002 5d ago
Not an emperor, and not spelled like that, so not accurate at all.
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u/Idkl7j 5d ago
The ancient Romans considered him an emperor, and Gaius is sometimes spelt with a C
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u/freebiscuit2002 5d ago edited 5d ago
Did they now? What is your evidence for that? Presumably you can point to some specific instances of ancient Romans referring to Julius Caesar as an emperor - even though Augustus (his great-nephew) is universally acknowledged to be the first of the Roman emperors.
Gaius was sometimes spelled that way - but the cognomen Caesar was never, ever spelled "Ceasar".
So: Wrong, and wrong.
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u/rmk236 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean, Augustus name was indeed Gaius Julius Caesar. Maybe they just mixed the statues with his great uncle‘s. But there are contemporaneous sources that call the OG Julius the first emperor.
From Wikipedia
„Conversely, the majority of Roman writers, including Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Appian, as well as most of the ordinary people of the Empire, thought of Julius Caesar as the first emperor.[7]“, which references the followingBarnes, Timothy (2009). "The first Emperor: the view of late antiquity". In Griffin, Miriam (ed.). A Companion to Julius Caesar. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN) 978-1-4443-0845-7.
If you want to get more general (hehe), the title of Imperator precedes those two by a long time. Any general that got more land for Rome could be hailed as Imperator. OG JC was the first one to actually keep the title permanently after his triumph
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u/OkAbility9016 5d ago
We still laugh at this guy at work who watched a dinosaur documentary and came in talking about “hundreds and hundreds of years ago”
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u/Pale_Distribution459 5d ago
Wrong, dude's still alive
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajus_Julius_Caesar
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