The Birth of Julius Caesar and Life as a Boy Julius Caesar's Family

HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR
     Hail Caesar
     The first triumvirate
     Caesar's years in Gaul
     The Gallic War
     Caesar and Pompey

     Dictator

Hail Caesar
Not many private citizens build a career then effectively that their name ways 'emperor', 2000 years later, in other people's languages. Yet such is the case with Julius Caesar, the origin of Germany's Kaiser and Russian federation'due south Tsar. Early in his life Caesar (c.100 BC - 44 BC) shows ruthless decision. In 75 BC he is captured by pirates, when sailing to Rhodes to study in a famous school of oratory (an essential skill for Roman politicians). He raises the ransom to secure his freedom, but so also raises a individual force to pursue the pirates. He tracks them downwardly and has them crucified. An former anecdote adds that, when all the same their captive, he has joked that this is what he will do.
From around 65 BC Caesar gets heavily into debt in pursuit of political offices which depend on the popular vote (he particularly pleases the Romans with some unusually lavish gladiatorial shows). At the same time he cultivates the friendship of Crassus, ane of the richest men in Rome. Crassus has made his first fortune through the 'proscriptions' of Sulla, of whom he was a shut supporter. Crassus is a jealous enemy of Pompey, another close lieutenant of Sulla. In the intervening years, with his armed services successes in the east, Pompey has won much greater public esteem than Crassus. Caesar, on good terms with both men, sees reward in an alliance.
The first triumvirate: lx-53 BC
Pompey, Crassus and Caesar all have grievances against the senate. Caesar, elected consul for the coming year, 59 BC, could normally expect a provincial governorship; instead he has been given the supervision of Italy'due south forests and cattle trails. Pompey has non been allowed the land which he needs for the disbanded veterans of his army. Crassus has been frustrated in a assisting tax-collecting venture in Asia. The 3 men form, in threescore BC, what is now known every bit the first triumvirate. To cement the link, Pompey marries in 59 Caesar's only child, Julia (though he is older than her father). With equal cynicism, selective rioting by Pompey's veterans is used to persuade the senators to change their minds.
In the circumstances, they practice and then. Land is found for the veterans. The business bug of Crassus are resolved. And instead of forests and cattle trails, Caesar finds himself in accuse of Rome'due south 2 northern provinces - Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul.
Caesar'south new provinces provide him with rich opportunities: to recruit soldiers far away from Rome who will be loyal to him solitary; to accomplish new conquests which will print the public at dwelling; and to amass large personal funds by annexation conquered territories. Meanwhile Pompey stays in Rome, hoping to further his ain interests by political means. These two are now the most powerful men in the republic. Every bit allies they are unbeatable. The underlying question is how long it volition be before they emerge, in truer colours, as rivals.
Caesar'south years in Gaul: 58-50 BC
Caesar is away from Rome for eight years. During this time he systematically subdues the Celtic tribes in Gaul, making divide alliances with their many independent chieftains. He even adventures beyond the natural boundaries of Gaul - the region framed by the Alps, the Rhine, the Atlantic and the Pyrenees. In 55 and once more in 53 he bridges the Rhine for brief campaigns into Germany. Twice in the same period he crosses the Channel to test the mettle of the Celts in Britain (see Caesar in Britain). According to Plutarch, writing 150 years later, this expedition is the first to evidence to certain sceptical scholars in Rome that Britain really exists.
Caesar's campaigns into Germany and Britain suggest that he considers Gaul itself secure. The year 52 BC proves him wrong. The Celts detect an inspiring leader in Vercingetorix, a young chieftain of the Averni. His early successes against Roman contingents are in the absence of Caesar, who has been wintering southward of the Alps. But the great general'due south arrival does not make quite the difference to which he has become accustomed. Caesar is besieging the town of Gergovia when Vercingetorix attacks and routs the Roman forces, killing 700. This is Caesar'south outset defeat in all his years in Gaul. It prompts many more tribes to come out in back up of the rebels.
The side by side siege in the campaign reverses the state of affairs. Vercingetorix holds the fortress of Alesia. Caesar and his troops, attempting to blockade the garrison, are themselves threatened by a large ground forces of Gauls. Merely when the Romans win the first major battle betwixt the two sides, the Gauls melt away. To save further lives, Vercingetorix rides out of the town and surrenders - in a dramatic gesture of Celtic chivalry. He is kept in captivity for six years, until Caesar finds the right moment to atomic number 82 him through the streets of Rome in a triumphal parade.
The Gallic State of war: 52 BC
It is probably in the autumn of 52 BC, afterwards his defeat of Vercingetorix, that Caesar settles down in his wintertime quarters at Bibracte (to the northwest of modern Lyons) to record for posterity his successes in Gaul over the by vi years. The title he writes at the caput of his papyrus is 'Gaius Julius Caesar's Notes on his Achievements' - though historians volition come up to know his book simply as The Gallic War. When the work is finished a re-create goes off to Rome, where it is probably published during 51. Caesar has been assiduously cultivating support dorsum in the capital, for political struggles to come up. The volume of his achievements is an important shot in this other campaign (meet Caesar and his book).
Caesar and Pompey: 54-48 BC
During the showtime few years of Caesar'southward absenteeism from Rome the triumvirate retains its cohesion. Role of the reason is that the marriage betwixt Pompey and Caesar's girl proves surprisingly happy. But Julia dies in 54, later on giving birth to a girl. In 53 Crassus is killed campaigning in Asia, at Carrhae. There is picayune at present to mask the inevitable rivalry between Pompey and Caesar. The senators in Rome, alarmed past Caesar'due south successes in Gaul, incline towards Pompey as their all-time protection. In an attempt to clip Caesar's wings, the senate instructs him, in December of the year 50 BC, to give upward his command of Gaul and to return to Rome as a individual citizen.
When Caesar receives the senate's bulletin, he is in the southern office of his territory, in Cisalpine Gaul. The purlieus between this province and key Italia is a minor river, the Rubicon, flowing east into the Adriatic simply north of modern Rimini. Caesar's response is firsthand. He marches his regular army due south towards Rome, crossing the river on 10 January 49. Quite autonomously from his disregard of the senate'due south instructions, it is against the constabulary for any commander to bring a Roman ground forces outside the province to which he and it are assigned. In crossing the Rubicon, Caesar consciously and irrevocably launches a civil state of war.
Pompey escapes the immediate danger by embarking a large army in a fleet of ships and retreating across the Adriatic to Greece. Caesar pursues him there and eventually defeats him at Pharsalus, in the summertime of 48 BC. Pompey flees once more, this time to Egypt. Merely his presence is regarded by a faction in the Ptolemaic courtroom as a likely source of trouble. He is stabbed to decease as he steps aground.
Caesar is but three days behind with his fleet. His arrival no dubiety convinces the Egyptians that the murder of Pompey has been a wise precaution. While nevertheless at sea off Alexandria, Caesar is welcomed by envoys begetting his rival's caput, already embalmed. Alexandria promises more than conventional delights as well. The country'due south queen, Cleopatra, is 20-two. Caesar is l-two and susceptible (see Caesar and Cleopatra).
Dictator: 48-44 BC
Subsequently the victory at Pharsalus, Caesar sends his trusted lieutenant Mark Antony back to Rome. Antony arranges for the senate to declare Caesar a dictator, with no fixed term. Subsequently a few months of dalliance with Cleopatra, Caesar returns the long manner to Rome - up round the coast to Asia Small-scale, where a rebellious king demands attending. Caesar rapidly defeats him: Veni, vidi, vici he later on declares, 'I came, I saw, I conquered'. After a brief visit to Rome he sets off once again for a winter campaign in Africa, where there remains strong support for Pompey. By the spring of 46 BC the opposition has been suppressed. Now is the time for the triumph with which victory is traditionally celebrated.
Caesar's triumph in Rome surpasses all others. It is spread over four days, variously depicting his victories in Gaul, Egypt, Asia Minor (accompanied by the triumphal slogan Veni, vidi, vici) and Africa. Each day's procession begins with distinguished prisoners from the campaigns. Vercingetorix the Gaul is one of these. Immediately afterwards his appearance he is taken bated and strangled, having now served his purpose. Adjacent comes Caesar at the head of his legions (singing cheeky songs about their bald general equally they march), followed past the booty of the campaigns, waggon loads of gilt. Each soldier is to have a share, co-ordinate to rank. There is fifty-fifty a hand-out for every spectator lining the route.
Equally amusement there are re-enactments of naval battles, a fight to the death between prisoners of state of war and criminals, an come across between giraffes and lions. The final upshot of the triumph is a feast in the streets at 22,000 tables, afterwards which Caesar is escorted to his house by elephants. At the cease of each day, more modestly, he has climbed on his knees the steps of the temple of Jupiter to nowadays his laurel crown to the god. The dictator is firmly in control. During the next ii years he sets about a thorough reform of Rome's administration, including the introduction of a new calendar. He even plans another campaign of conquest, to extend the empire notwithstanding further to the east.
But his plans are well-nigh to exist cut curt. Early in 44 BC his friends in the senate pass a resolution that he shall exist dictator for life. There is widespread gossip that he really wishes to be king, catastrophe the long Roman republic tradition. A plot is hatched to cut him down. Information technology involves as many as sixty people, led by Brutus and Cassius. Notwithstanding information technology is successfully kept a secret. On March 15 (the Ides of March in the Roman calendar) Caesar is sitting in his seat in the senate when the conspirators strike. More than than twenty senators stab him, to share the responsibleness. He collapses at the foot of a statue of his old enemy, Pompey, staining it with his blood.
Caesar's death launches a new civil war. Far from strengthening the old traditions, as the conspirators hope, the chain of events leads inside twenty years to the stop of the Roman democracy. It is replaced by the Roman empire, and in a real sense this is Caesar's empire. The first five emperors, spanning well-nigh 100 years, are all from Caesar's family unit. The name Caesar becomes, as it will remain, synonymous with emperor.

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Source: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa44

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