Julius Caesar
For the Shakespeare play based on the life of Julius Caesar, and the movies derived from it see Julius Caesar (play)
Gaius Julius Caesar, Rome, (probably) 100 B.C. - March 15, 44 B.C.
Julius Caesar was born to a well known and ancient patrician family (Gens Julia) which supposedly traced its ancestry to Iulus, the son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who according to myth was the son of Venus. At the height of his power in 45 B.C. Caesar began building a temple to Venus Genetrix at Rome, signifying his link to the goddess.
Caesar's family was not rich by the standards of the Roman nobility, and no member of his family had achieved any prominence in recent memory. His paternal aunt Julia married Marius, the leader of the Populares against the influence of the Optimates. Also, Caesar married Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna in 84 B.C.. This family relationship, with political involvements, caused Caesar great trouble during the dictatorship of Sulla, who ordered him to divorce in 82 B.C.; Caesar refused and prudently left Rome for military service in Asia and Cilicia. He was back in 78 B.C., when Sulla died, and began his political career as a prosecuting advocate.
He traveled to Rhodes, for his phylosophical studies, and was kidnapped by pirates, but convinced his captors to raise his ransom, which increased his prestige, then he organised a naval force, captured pirates and had them crucified.
His wife Cornelia died in 68 BC. He later married Pompeia, a relative of Pompey, but divorced her in 62 BC after a scandal.
He was elected curule aedile in 65 B.C., pontifex maximus in 63 B.C., and praetor in 62 B.C.
-skipping years here-
In 59 B.C., the year of his consulate, Caesar entered into a strategic alliance with two other leading politicians, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. Crassus was the richest man in Rome; Pompey was the most successful general. Caesar brought to the alliance his political popularity and drive. Pompey married Caesar's daughter Julia. This unofficial alliance is called by historians the First Triumvirate, or "Three-man Arrangement".
- Consul, governor of Gaul and Spain59 BC
- Proconsul in Gaul, 58 BC-49 BC
- Crosses the Rubicon, January 7, 49 BC, (alea jacta est)
- Defeats Pompey at Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 BC; soon after Pompey was murdered by an officer of King Ptolemy, then Caesar defeated Pompey's faithful troops at Tapsus (46 BC) and Munda (45 BC)
- Dictator, 10 year term 46 BC
- Dictator for Life, 45 BC
After Pompey's death, he stayed in Egypt, where he had Queen Cleopatra as his mistress.
At the end of his life Caesar had accepted the title Dictator with the unusual and extra-constitutional provision that he would hold the office for life rather than the usual brief term.
The question of whether or not Caesar intended to accept the title of King, to settle for the title of Dictator, or even to escape from the question by leaving for the Eastern Mediterranean to fight the Parthian Empire causes scholarly debate.
Caesar was assassinated with 23 stabs in the Roman Senate on the Ides of March of 44 B.C. by a group of conjurers among which was his adopted son Marcus Junius Brutus; his famous last words were: Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi! (or Et tu, Brute). Legend reports his wife Calpurnia (married in 59 BC) had dreamt of this murder just the night before, but Caesar answered "There's nothing we must fear but fear".
Caesar was succeded by Octavianus Augustus, the first Roman emperor.
- as an historian and a writer
Julius Caesar published a book (a Commentarius) on his campaigns to subdue the Gauls, The Gallic War (De bello Gallico). This book's reputation has suffered by being assigned as a school text to introductory and intermediate Latin students, who of course hate it -- as they would anything else used as a reading at that level! On re-reading in later life, many people perceive the clarity of syntax and beauty of style of which an early Latin teacher tried to convince them. Also, many geographical and historical facts can be retrieved from this book (Gallia omnia divisa est in partes tres...), which was also one of the first written in third person.
Other books:
Caesar vividly describes in his Gallic War the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent slaughtering tribal armies that opposed Roman domination.
Note: the name Gaius is completely equivalent to Caius, so Caesar's name is found in both forms.
The name Caesar remained in many languages as a synonym and a title of commander, leader; the german kaiser and the russian czar titles are derived from Caesar. It has to be remembered that latin classical pronunciation [1] for caesar is not similar to the english one, being letter C read as K (as in kid) [2], so it sounded like "kai-sahr".
The root itself could be not originally latin: on Rosetta stone there is a hieroglyphic cartouche that has been transcripted as k-e-s-r-s and supposed as related to the latin sense. More interesting, it has been said that latin caesar could be a derivation of persian Kasrá=Chosroës and its plural form Akásirah (the title of four great dynasties of Persian Kings), through Ahasuerus or Khusrau (Cyrus the Great); eventual relationships with kisri and kasra have been seen as less meaningful, also because mostly referred to later times (Sassanides). Another hypothesis of possible derivation from Xerses (grandson of Cyrus the Great) has been advanced, but with more doubts.