Why did William Shakespeare write The Tragedy of Julius Caesar?

Answer 1

To entertain his audience and make a living. That's the practical answer.

As to his psychological motivations, he isn't available to ask. There must have been something about it he liked.

Answer 2

It was his job. He was a professional playwright and was obliged to churn out scripts for his acting company. He may have chosen the story of Antony and Cleopatra to dramatise because he remembered reading about it in school (Plutarch's Lives was a standard text in those days), and because his Julius Caesar seems to have gone over fairly well. (Although Jonson's Sejanus, also taken from Roman History, was a flop.)

Answer 3

He's read the story in school when he studied Plutarch. No doubt he felt that the story gave scope for grisly murders and sword-swinging battles on the one hand, and some great oratory on the other. This would make the play attractive to both his highbrow and his lowbrow audience. And bums on seats was the main objective for Shakespeare.

Answer 4

He wrote it for the same reason he wrote all his plays: to make money.