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Internet Shakespeare Editions

About this text

  • Title: Julius Caesar: Chronology
  • Authors: David Bevington, John D. Cox
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-366-3

    Copyright John D. Cox and John D. Cox. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Authors: David Bevington, John D. Cox
    Peer Reviewed

    Chronology

    A Brief Chronology of Julius Caesar and of Shakespeare's Life and Work

    (Some dates are approximate, especially those of Shakespeare's plays.)

    1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
    100 BCE Birth of Gaius Julius Caesar
    85 Birth of Marcus Junius Brutus and of Gaius Cassius Longinus (Cassius)
    83 Birth of Marcus Antonius (Antony)
    62 Birth of Gaius Octavius Thurinus (Octavius)
    48 Caesar's defeat of Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus
    45 Caesar's defeat of Pompey's sons and Roman triumph. Caesar's adoption of Octavius as his heir, renamed Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus
    44 Caesar's assassination on 15 March ("Ides of March")
    42 Brutus's and Cassius' defeat at the battle of Philippi. Their deaths by suicide
    31 Octavian's defeat of Antony at the battle of Actium
    30 Antony's death by suicide
    27 Octavian's title "Augustus" bestowed by the senate
    14 CE Death of Augustus
    46-120 Life of Mestrius Plutarchus (Plutarch)

    1509-47 Reign of Henry VIII
    1534 Act of Supremacy, declaring Henry VIII head of the Church of England
    1547-53 Reign of Edward VI
    1553-58 Reign of Mary I. Return to Catholicism
    1558-1603 Reign of Elizabeth I
    1563 Adoption of the Thirty-Nine Articles
    1564 William Shakespeare born April 23
    1569 Northern Catholic rebellion suppressed
    1576 James Burbage builds The Theatre
    1578 John Lyly, Euphues
    1579 Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar; Sir Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives
    1582 Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway, November
    1583 Birth of Susanna, May 26
    1583-84 Plots against Elizabeth on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots
    1584 John Lyly, Galatea
    1585 Births of Shakespeare's son Hamnet and his twin sister Judith, February 2.
    Earl of Leicester sent to aid the Dutch against the Spanish
    1587 Execution of Mary Queen of Scots February 8
    1588 At some point, Shakespeare moves to London; family remains in Stratford. War with Spain. The Spanish Armada fleet destroyed in July
    1588-94 Shakespeare writes the early comedies and histories and the early tragedy Titus Andronicus
    1590 Thomas Lodge,Rosalynde; Philip Sidney, Arcadia; Spenser, Faerie Queene, Books 1-3
    1592 Shakespeare attacked in print by Robert Greene
    1593 Venus and Adonis
    1593-1603 The Sonnets
    1594 Shakespeare joins the Lord Chamberlain's Men; The Rape of Lucrece
    1594-5 A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet
    1596-8 The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Parts I and II
    1597 Earl of Essex sent to Ireland to put down a rebellion led by the Earl of Tyrone; George Chapman, An Humorous Day's Mirth
    1598 Jonson, Every Man in His Humour
    1598-9 Much Ado About Nothing, The Merry Wives of Windsor
    1599 Shakespeare's company moves to the Globe. As You Like It, Henry V, Julius Caesar
    Prohibition and public burning of satires
    1600-02 Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Hamlet, All's Well That Ends Well
    1601 Shakespeare's father dies
    Essex's abortive rebellion and his execution; T. Dekker, Satiromastix; Jonson, Poetaster; the "Poet's War"
    1603 Shakespeare's company the Chamberlain's Men becomes the King's Men
    Death of Elizabeth I; coronation of James I, March 24
    1603-4 Measure for Measure, Othello
    1604 James's confrontation of the Puritans at the Hampton Court Conference. Peace with Spain.
    1605 The Gunpowder Plot foiled November 5
    1605-6 King Lear
    1606-7 Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles
    1608 Coriolanus
    1609-11 Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest
    1613-14 Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen
    Shakespeare in retirement,living in Stratford. Globe burns
    1616 Death of Shakespeare, April 23