Caius Or Gaius? How To Pronounce “Julius Caesar” The Right Way

Caius Julius Caesar was a consul, general and visionary for Rome. However, today I have not come to talk about his titles. Then why am I posting today? Today, on the 13th of July, 100 BC, baby Caius didn’t wear a laurel wreath, hold the proconsulship of Gaul, or command any legions. But he did have one thing from the very beginning – his name. It is fascinating to look at how much the pronunciation of his name changed over time, and how he probably wouldn’t recognize the way we pronounce it now. To celebrate his birthday, I found it only fitting that I analyze the pronunciation of all his tria nomina.

The praenomen resembles the modern first name, used to differentiate between members of the same family. In Ancient Rome there was a limited selection of common praenomen for parents to choose from. Caesar’s praenomen was also a rather popular one, spelt as “Caius” and sometimes “Gaius”. This initially confounded me, making me wonder how it was correctly pronounced and spelt. It seems like the Romans themselves had a similar dilemma, or rather – they invented the problem.

To navigate through this spelling conundrum, we need to explore the history of the Latin letter [c]. The letter [c] was derived from an early form of the Greek letter ‘gamma’. It is important to note that though English letters are written in the Latin script, their pronunciations are not always identical. In English, [c] is used for both ‘soft’ sounds (like in ‘century’) and ‘hard’ sounds (like in ‘cake’). However, in Latin, the letter [c] exclusively took on a plosive sound. Plosive sounds are made by drawing in breath, holding it and then releasing it powerfully, like in the letters [p] or [k]. The [c] was also used for /g/ sounds. You had to infer from context whether it was pronounced as a /k/ or /g/.

In earlier Latin inscriptions, the letter [c] preceded only the letters [i] and [e]. [k] preceded consonants and the letter [a], and [q] was used before [u]. However, this lead to a lot of confusion since it led to multiple variations for the same form of verb, take ‘loqui’ (to talk), and its variants (loqus, loka, loci).

Thus, the letter [c] was generalized for all words, except the /qu/ combination. For a long time, there existed still no specific letter for the voiced sound /g/. In languages like Etruscan it wasn’t of much consequence. Eventually, to resolve this issue in Latin, the letter ‘G’ was introduced, which looks like a stroke added to [C]. This [C] is preserved in names like Caius (pronounced as Gaius), and Cneus (again, pronounced as ‘Gneus’, which happens to be the first name of one of Caesar’s fellow Triumvirs, Pompey the Great).

So both ‘Gaius’ and ‘Caius’ are correct, and are anyways pronounced the same. In fact, ‘Gaius’ is more phonetically accurate. But you have to admit – there’s something beautifully symmetric about reading the name ‘CAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR‘, which was also used in inscriptions from that time. More importantly, Caesar himself refers to himself in third person as “C. Ivlivs Caesar” in his “Commentarii de Bello Gallico“. Thus, the spelling ‘Caius’ has the Dictator‘s stamp of approval, and by extension, mine.

Moving on now to his nomen, which refers to his family name, which was the Julii, an ancient Patrician family, claiming ancestry from Aeneas himself. To begin with, there there is no evidence of the existence of a Latin [j], which is why you may sometimes see his name spelt as “Ivlivs” or “Iulius” in inscriptions or ancient texts. (Romans used the letter [v] for both the /u/ sounds (like in Caivs) and /w/ sounds (take Caesar’s legendary quote “Veni, Vidi, Vici“).

The Latin [i] is most likely of Indo-European origin, and used as a vowel (like in ‘iam’) and consonant (like in ‘etiam’). Its usage is very similar to our English [y]. So “Ivlivs” would be pronounced more like “Yoo-lius”.

Finally, we have his cognomen. The cognomen refers to a branch or clan within a larger family, only employed in the more prestigious families. Though ‘Caesar’ refers to the branch of the Julii which the Dictator hailed from, it is now synonymous with him specifically. Because of the sheer gravitas and influence the Dictator wielded, his cognomen also became the title used to refer to Roman Emperors. And yet, the modern pronunciation of ‘Caesar’ has deviated from its ancient form more than his praenomen and nomen. We already know part of his cognomen was pronounced in the Ancient World, considering that it begins with a ‘hard’ [C]. The next part to go through is the ‘ae’.

[ae] and [au] are two of the most common Latin diphthongs, which are combinations of two vowels. [ae] (pronounced like in ‘eye’) was originally spelt as [ai], and only in the second century BC was it changed to [ae]. The end point of the diphthong moved from an /i/ sound to more of an /e/.

So there we have it, the tria nomina are pronounced as “Yoo-lius Kai-ser”, not “Joo-lius Seezer”.

Now we know how his name was pronounced in the Ancient World. However, the story is far from over. How, and why exactly did the pronunciation of his name change so drastically?

It all starts where anything starts for C. Iulius Caesar – Gaul. After the Norman conquest of England, Latin was taught through the medium of French. The Normans had their own system of pronunciation for Latin and Latin borrowings. The [iu] (which is in Ivlivs) and the [g] (in gentem) were pronounced like /dz/ (like in English ‘judge’). After the thirteenth century it was changed to /z/ but the old pronunciation still survives in English borrowings from French (like in ‘just’ from French ‘juste’). Scribes slowly switched from the using the letter [i] to [j] to represent this French /dz/ sound. And thus, Ivlivs became Julius.

The most dramatic shift in pronunciation, however, is in ‘Caesar’. Firstly, under the Norman influence, ‘C’ became ‘soft’ and pronounced as ‘s’.

Coming to the [ae], in rural districts [ae] and [au] developed into a monosyllabic form, and slowly penetrated into early Latin. Slowly this monopthongization of [ae] became normal, and became general, which sounded like an /e/ in Romance languages.

Latin pronunciation in England also played a role. Accented letters like [oe] and [ae] became shortened. Oedipus became Édipus and Caesaris became Căsaris. It was only in the late 20th century under initiative from bodies like the Cambridge Philological Society and the Classical Association, that the effort was taken to introduce pronunciation of Classical Latin in its authentic form.

Ironic, isn’t it? How the people responsible for the (mis)pronunciation of Caesar’s name were inhabitants of the very territory he was most proud of conquering?

As an avid German leaner, I’d like to add that contrary to English, modern German gets many parts of his name right. The German word for Emperor, ‘Kaiser‘ (taken from Caesar’s name) is somewhat close to a correct pronunciation of the Dictator’s cognomen. In German, the letter [i] was employed for sounds similar to those in Latin. In Middle High German, the [j] was introduced to represent the vowel sound of [i], not the french /dz/. Thus, the German ‘Julius’ pronunciation is as good as it gets.

This means that the current German pronunciation is the modern equivalent to the Latin, isn’t it? Sadly, a disappointment ensues. If you watch a video, listen to a podcast, or read a book in German about Julius Caesar, he’s referred to as “Julius Cäsar” (with a soft [c]). This is a consequence again, of the influence of the Medieval pronunciation of the cognomen. The word ‘Kaiser‘ meanwhile, originated sometime during the days of the early Roman Empire, staying true to its Latin roots. It feels frustrating to think of how the German language got the name for the title of Emperor right, but give the ‘soft’ [c] sound to the man who dismantled the structure of the Republic, paving the way for the Empire itself.

Now, whenever you talk about the Dictator Perpetuo, I hope you remember how to pronounce his name, the way he would’ve done it himself.

Though I personally prefer the auctoritas which the original Latin pronunciation emanates, I still employ the ‘modern’ pronunciation of Caesar’s name whilst discussing him. When I use it, there isn’t a fraction of a doubt about who I’m referring to. Though “C. Ivlivs Caesar” is perfect Latin, it would sound totally foreign to a layman. In fact, if you referred to him as “Julius Kaiser” in German, it would give the veneer that you know nothing about history, since you are essentially crowning him Emperor (though he would have probably refused the crown, as he did on Lupercalia).

Though not authentic to the original, we have been pronouncing Caesar’s name this way for centuries, leading to it becoming imbibed within his legacy. This shift in pronunciation signifies not just the vicissitudes of language, but of how far global culture and civilization has come. Centuries later, we found Caesar so relevant that we didn’t want to leave him in antiquity. The pronunciation of his name developed along with us, proof that his influence is of true-fix’d and resting quality.

Gentle readers, I have a little request to put forth to you. Just for today, when you think or speak about Julius Caesar, could you do it the Classical Latin way? That’s a gift which would make even baby Caius smile. 

Bibliography

1. Allen, W. Sidney. Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978
2. Must, Gustav. “The Symbols for /i/ and /j/ in German Orthography: An Historical Survey.” MLN 80, no. 5 (1965): 584–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2908482.
3. Collins, Andrew. “THE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN: ITS RISE AND FALL.” The Cambridge Classical Journal 58 (2012): 23–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26430979.