The ides of March
The Ides of March ( The Ides of March ) is an epistolary novel by Thornton Wilder from the year 1948th
action
The Ides of March is about the characters and events that led to the murder of the Roman general and dictator Julius Caesar , and ends with the assassination attempt on the Ides of March in 44 BC. Chr.
structure
The novel is divided into four books, each of which begins and ends earlier than the previous one. The poems of Catullus and the epilogue of Suetonius are the only parts of the text that do not come from the author's imagination. Nevertheless, many of the events described are historical (including Cleopatra's visit to Rome).
Historical authenticity
The novel is, in the words of the author, a '' Fantasy about certain events and people in the last days of the Roman Republic ... Historical reconstruction is not the primary aim of this work. ''
Although the novel describes the events of Caesar's murder, several earlier events are described as if they were contemporary; B. the scandal that Publius Clodius Pulcher caused by his penetration into the mysteries of Bona Dea , and the subsequent divorce of Caesar from his second wife Pompeia in 62/61 BC. Chr.
Several historical figures appearing in the novel were 44 BC. Already died, so Cato d. J. († 46 BC), Julia Marcia († 68/69 BC), Publius Clodius Pulcher († 52 BC) and (most likely) Catullus († approx. 54 BC) .
Editions and editions
The original edition was published in 1948 by Harper & Brothers in New York .
The novel was first published in German in 1949 in a translation by Herberth E. Herlitschka by Suhrkamp Verlag . In the same year, the first edition of 10,000 copies was sold and another was printed for the same amount.
A paperback edition was published by S. Fischer Verlag a little later and sold around 40,000 copies by 1960.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cit. after: Enlightenment - Constitutionalism - Atlantic World. Festschrift for Horst Dippel , Kassel 2009, p. 255