What did Julius Caesar really look like? 

Caesar's greatest achievement is the fact he's still relevant 2000+ years after his death. That's eternal life.

I'm really surprised that you say the two ancient statues of him are so different from each other, because to me their comparison illustrates the commonality of the two depictions like sketches of a model in a drawing class. The similarities are uncanny and the differences seem so minor. Just goes to show how we all see things differently. I especially like the way you see things, too. Love your channel. Your narration is so relaxing and informative.

Caesar must have been a smiley guy in life- the older the portraits get, the more of a cheeky smirk he gets on his face. It seems to disappear as his legacy grew into a more stoic and serious one.

I must be blind cause the busts in 0:46 looks almost identical, but differences that very well may only be caused by the carving technique of the artist. Just like how if you told van Gogh and Monet to draw the same tree, you would get two different paintings of the same tree.

Why did no one ever take a photo of him?

At 0:41 while the heads and necks are different the main facial features resemble each other - the ridge above the eyes, the nasolabial folds, and for the most part the nose and the chin as well as the size and shape of the mouth and many of the larger wrinkles. This would indicate that the features are shared with the man himself.

0:30 they don’t look completely different at all haha, can clearly tell both are based on the same person.

I think Ferrucci’s bust of Caesar is one of the finest works of art ever made. I’ve yet to come across another sculpted face imbued with such humanity.

Like a old Italian

Just want to let you know that your content is top-tier. A little oasis from the chaos of our times. I've learned a lot of extremely interesting things through your uploads, and they definitely enrich my life. Keep up the great work.

Kind of like Alexander’s statues. There are some that are very similar than others that look WAY different.

More than 2,000 years after his death, there are still fresh flowers left every day in the temple built over his funeral pyre.

What's also interesting is that the earliest bust also shows a protrusion on his head, supposedly from childbirth. If the artist wanted to idealize caesar, this would obviously be one of the first things to scrap, so its precence indicates that the rest of the bust is also fairly realistic.

So we add comb over to the list of stuff that Romans invented.

I’m so glad I found your channel, I’m hooked! The treasure videos are my favorite but now I can’t keep watching more... keep up the good work my friend, thank you. I think it’s incredibly admirable and just fantastic that you took your passion, specialized in it, and then gave back to the public with educational content.

The right one just looks more detailed tbh, you've gotta remember that between 2 artists you're always going to have different art styles too, and the features are similar, even if he was one or another or something in-between he'd still look like the Caesar we know, since paintings and interpretations have always been different

Yes I see what you mean. Your speech is more measured and practiced. A great video with fantastic topics and well layed-out. Look forward to more! :)

I think Keeps would have been a more fitting sponsor for this video rather than Squarespace.

Hey mate I just got your book as a birthday present and am enjoying it. Really enjoy your videos as well.

Love history, and this channel is the first one I’m seeing ancient history coverage. Beauty of history is you always got something to learn about!

Closer than trying to work out what King Canute looked like from old coins.

Another great video. Also enjoyed your book.

I just want to say I appreciate you and your channel very much. You remind me very much of my history teachers that held major passion in what they taught.

We need a buff, naked Eisenhower in the Capitol Rotunda.

I absolutely LOVE your incorporation of numismatics into your work.

Just wanted to add I just received your book in the post and cant wait to read it. Been a long wait but the book looks and feels beautiful. Bigger than I thought too!

What if the guy on the pizza box is the most accurate of them all?

To my eye, the two busts at the beginning of your video look like the same person. Great channel btw.

I love this channel! I learn something new about ancient Rome each video. I had no clue that Death Masks were a thing, super cool to learn about them

Another interesting video, thanks! I really enjoy the way you communicate this stuff. Every sentence has me thinking, "Tell me more..."

Thank you for another interesting video.

Excellent, and well evidenced and reasoned.. Thank you for your astuteness, Doc

"aggressively decrepit" I would hate to have an argument with you!! Love your bids Sara Gibson

Great information on a confusing topic! Thank you!

The two shown at the beginning look to me to be the difference between a man that was in pretty good shape having come from a campaign and the other looks like the same guy only older and more fat and out of shape. It is more jowly and saggy looking. Just my thoughts. Look how Queen Elizabeth has changed on coins and I remember the shock when she suddenly had a double chin. My point is that I'm sure he changed a lot from a guy riding miles on a horse to a guy sitting on his ass and feasting.

I think Julius Ceaser looked like the Told in Stone dude

Very interesting and your narration is excellent

0:31 Those two ancient statues which you claim to differ dramatically from one another are objectively remarkably similar. Note the size and shape of his nose, the two wrinkles on the bridge of the nose between the eyebrows and the two on the forehead, the same brow ridge, the same hairline and combed forward hairstyle. Note also the sunken in cheeks and protruding cheek bone, the wrinkles on either side of his mouth, the protrusion of the lower lip, the chin, the jugular indent on the neck beneath the chin, the two wrinkles on the neck. In fact if you observe the coin at 2:55 you can see that same jugular indent and wrinkles on the neck along with many other similarities. Even the bronze statue at 6:04 shares an incredible amount of similarities with the ones at 0:31. All of these ancient portraits clearly depict the same man and the similarity in structure and form between them speak to the artistic talent and mastery of trade which the ancients possessed.

There's a "render" Caesar joke in here somewhere..

I’ve listened to your book twice now great stuff

So interesting. The topic just a small niche and yet something we can all wonder about now that you brought it up.

Awesome video, thank you!!!!

Great video. I'm of the view that the most accurate is probably the one that depicts him least ideally - but it's fascinating to see people's interpretations of him. Ciaran Hinds will forever be caesar to me, anyway :D

From the contemporary sculptures I’ve seen of Julius Caesar one could easily pick him out of a crowd of a thousand.

Fascinating stuff.

I love this channel

It seems Albert Uderzo's caricature of Julius Ceasar in the Asterix comics is closer than the later idealized Roman statues.

Thank you for yet another enjoyable and informative video.

Super interesting!

this is the kinda content im here for

You’re such a good speaker and writer. I am a history major and I loved ancient histort. I want to read your book but is there an audible version and if so plz tell me you read it

🤩Described by Suetonius as “unbridled and extravagant in his intrigues,” Caesar was known to his soldiers as “every man's woman and every woman's man.”

It is amazing we kind still know with some accuracy how a 2000 years old looked like. Maybe the most important man in history.

Could you do a video about the decline in Roman art during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries, which is one of my favourite periods.

Great video, this motivates me to seek out the versions of his busts. I find it interesting that the coins would have what appears to be a realistic and somewhat unflattering portrayal of his likeness given that coins would be widely distributed throughout the empire and in the possession of virtually every Roman.

0:30 I'll choose these two. Toldinstone, I love your posts, but, how can you not see similarities? Broad face, large forehead, patrician nose, sunken jowls with pronounced cheeks, receding hairline, intense eyes that have a remarkable upper eyelid, firm and strong lips, structured skull at the eyebrows. All the physical features of a great leader. That's Caesar.

Honestly, to me the two statues you showed looked like they were from the same person. I was actually struggling to spot differences. The one on the left just looked like it was less detailed than the one on the right.

whoa i didn't notice how many subscribers you have gained now!!! wtf ? did it have to do with the release of your book? congrats!

This is very much a modern perspective with photos, we do the same but the expectations are different

The older statues show how worn down he is from trying to conquer the village of indominable Gauls.

Is your book sold here in Australia? I don't usually read books but yours seems very interesting to me

Hey , got your book on audible. It's great. I hope you write more 👌

Those two coins of Octavian show him with the pork chop type sideburns usually associated with one of his famous successors (Caligula? Nero? I forget). I'm so used to the full statue of Octavian in the fancy armour, with a clean shaven and youthful face, that if I only seen the picture off those coins I would not think it was him, but the one successor I spoke about above.

The most accurate depiction of Caesar is probably the way he's depicted in Asterix comics.

You have destroyed my fantasy that all Roman's important enough to have statues made really had great abs

The Green Caesar is the creepiest sculpture I ever saw. I bet it was painted to look life-like before, when it was a new statue

The incomparable Prof Mary Beard did a documentary on this some years ago. With a nearly full "survey" of all the heads identified with Caesar. IIRC, including one that was likely Caligula. 🤣

0:35 both statues do look similar and consistent. I don't agree that they look so different that they could be different men. If there were 20 head busts on a table with these two mixed in, most people select these two as the same person.

0:28 I think the two statues look quite similar, shape eyes, chin square face etc

There is another ancient version found in Turkey that is damaged and is now in the British Museum . Many scholars nave stated that it is one commissioned by Cleopatra. It is markedly different than the ones depicted here., as it has the “broad “ face.

Even with wrinkles and thinning hair, Caesar constantly remains on the list of people who are asked to name 3 historical figures they would like to meet. His life was the perfect mixture of intellectual cunning, glory, sex, violence and Cleopatra magic, ingredients promissing a blockbuster movie nowadays. He is fascination, he is immortal.

Facinating

excellent

Subscriber numbers still on the rise 👌

The bust at 4:41 the reason the neck doesn't have any physical features is because the head is meant to be replaced. you can see where you can remove the head it's underneath the chin.

maybe u can put the ad right at the start of every video so as no interruption after? thx

The two busts at @00:48 could very well be taken as the same person. The heads have very similar odd-shapes, lip & mouth shape/size are close, eye spacing, size, and inset are very similar, the nose bridge is similar, the brow ridges match closely, foreheads are similar, chins are close in shape and size and the cheek structure is very much alike. There are differences, like the ears, the one on the right side has different angles from the head, but at a close look, they have the same general shape. The nose tip is also different. Not knowing the time of the creation of the busts, we can assume a few things. Different artists, and source references, and different times of the subject's life. The sources used could have been one in common use at the time of creation and the artist interpretation accounts for the differences. If there were different sources used, they could have come from earlier common sources and the same interpretation issues would apply to them. Is this Julius Ceasar? Since they did not have smartphones, we can't say for sure ;)

I saw a sculpture of his head at the British Museum. It was so skilfully made I assumed it must have been a realistic portrait.

We all hail Caesar

Me and my cousin use his cipher alot and its pretty fun

I studied art history a lot. Pretty much all the Roman statues are idealized. Whether it be through idealizing the body (stolen from the Greeks like you mentioned) , or through a preference called verisim which was all about idealizing older men perceived to be wise and knowledgeable. When you talked about them wanting to be recognized warts wrinkles and all, that was also a form of idealism. It was about displaying characteristics perceived to be intellectual. Notice how they are still overtly masculine and appear old but strong. Art was their propoganda. If they could portray political figureheads as being better than you in every way (both mentally and physically) that was how they garnered respect for their leaders. It was a tool for both fear and control. Ancient civilizations used this as well.

When looking at Roman facial sculpture you need to know if it was going on a plinth because they would manipulate The shape to make it look right from below the 2 sculptures you showed at 50sec were actually alot closer when you imagine that with the left one being elevated and the right one being set at eye level

0:35 I'm comparing them...and they both look like exactly the same guy. Literally all the features are the same, the right one just has better detailing and appears more realistic.

Not as chiseled as the toldinstone content?

The Arles bust IS, the face of Guy Jules. It actually matches Suetonius' description, n even fits his psychological profile.

Nice

Those second set of statue busts side by side he said looked different. But they looked practically the same

Damn, who knew you could learn a lot about Roman politics by looking at a few statues

A man can be in his 40's- 50's and have an old looking face but a relatively muscular body that looks much younger than his face because the face is exposed to the Sun all the time but the body usually isn't so it stays younger looking, assuming physical fitness.

Not about Caesar, just want to share my excitement that Amazon UK has finally dispatched your book. Woohoo, tomorrow is Naked statues and fat gladiators Thursday.

the only Caesar still referred to by and unanimously recognized as "Caesar" even though it was more of a title than a name. Makes me think of how prominent any more modern leader would have to be to carry the name of "president", "king", or "prime minister" as an exclusive identifier while they would not be the last person to hold that position or title. It makes me wonder what made that name stick for 2000+ years.

I'm not versed in statues and all that but those two ancient busts of him look pretty similar to me, whilst having subtle differences that a portrait of any one person will have if portrayed by multiple artists. I suppose we all see things differently.

The two heads at 0:50 look pretty much exactly the same to me, just at slightly different angles.

Wasn't there a recent find of a bust in the south of France? or is that the last one you feature?

"handsomer, more godlike" more Hellenized

Have you seen how some politicians' drawn caricatures in the present, become so popular and so well known that the exaggerated traits of the drawing becomes instantly recognizable as much as the living character? Well, in ancient Rome such "obvious traits" of copies from copies of a copy is what for most people may have been enough to recognize a given (living or dead) person rather than the accuracy with the real one. Most people would never meet such important characters anyways but the whole point was to establish their hierarchical significance. Another question is representations that would have been made for the elites of different regions, those may have been in need of better (and more expensive) quality copies of someone they may have aspired to meet or recognize. Or even to have bragging rights among their acquaintances or to uphold the bestowed power that possessing such portrait may have given (like you see in current officials around the world who have portraits of their Kings or tyrants etc, as a demonstration of loyalty etc.).

I like to think he looks exactly like grand moff Tarkin

Some of the statues depict him young whereas some depict him when he was old?

I like your content. I have to ask however that you vary your speech pattern a bit more. It's like you're going through a 5 second loop.

They say you die twice, firsty when your body fails and secondly when the last person that remembers your name dies. Ceasar is immortal.