Gaius Julius Caesar was born into a patrician family that claimed descent from the goddess Venus, a lineage that would eventually make his name synonymous with emperor. The Julii Caesares traced their ancestry back to Julus, the son of Aeneas, who was himself a son of Venus, establishing a divine pedigree that was well established in public consciousness by the first century BC. Despite this ancient pedigree, the family was not politically influential during the middle republic, with the first consul appearing only in 157 BC. The first person to bear the cognomen Caesar was a praetor in 208 BC during the Second Punic War, and the family's political fortunes had recovered in the early first century, producing two consuls in 91 and 90 BC. Caesar's father was moderately successful politically, serving as proconsular governor of Asia for two years, likely 91, 90 BC, and marrying Aurelia, a member of the politically influential Aurelii Cottae. There is no evidence that Caesar himself was born by Caesarian section, as such operations entailed the death of the mother, but Caesar's mother lived for decades after his birth and no ancient sources record any difficulty with the birth. The family's claim to divinity was a powerful tool in Roman politics, as it suggested a destiny that transcended ordinary human limitations.
The Priest and The Pirate
In early 84 BC, Caesar's father died suddenly, and the political landscape shifted dramatically with Sulla's victory in the civil war of 82 BC. Sulla ordered Caesar to abdicate his priesthood and divorce Cinna's daughter, Cornelia, but Caesar refused, implicitly questioning the legitimacy of Sulla's annulment. Sulla may have put Caesar on the proscription lists, though scholars are mixed, and Caesar then went into hiding before his relatives and contacts among the Vestal Virgins were able to intercede on his behalf. They reached a compromise where Caesar would resign his priesthood but keep his wife and chattels. After Sulla's death in 78 BC, Caesar returned to Rome and was alleged to have wanted to join in on the consul Lepidus' revolt that year, though this is likely literary embellishment. He then attacked some of the Sullan aristocracy in the courts but was unsuccessful in his attempted prosecution of Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella in 77 BC. Going after a less well-connected senator, he was successful the next year in prosecuting Gaius Antonius Hybrida for profiteering from the proscriptions but was forestalled when a tribune interceded on Antonius' behalf. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Third Mithridatic War over the winter of 75 and 74 BC, and Caesar is alleged to have gone around collecting troops in the province at the locals' expense and leading them successfully against Mithridates' forces. While travelling to Rhodes seeking the tutelage of the rhetorician Apollonius Molon, he was intercepted and ransomed by pirates in a story that was later much embellished. According to Plutarch and Suetonius, he was freed after paying a ransom of fifty talents and responded by returning with a fleet to capture and execute the pirates, though the recorded sum for the ransom is literary embellishment and it is more likely that the pirates were sold into slavery per Velleius Paterculus.
In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, an informal political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass political power were opposed by many in the Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the private support of Cicero. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a string of military victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, which greatly extended Roman territory. During this time, he both invaded Britain and built a bridge across the river Rhine. These achievements and the support of his veteran army threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey. The alliance between Caesar and Pompey slowly broke down, and by 50 BC, Pompey had realigned himself with the Senate. With his command expiring and the Gallic Wars largely concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. In early January 49 BC, Caesar openly defied the Senate by crossing the Rubicon and marching towards Rome at the head of an army. This began Caesar's civil war, which he won, leaving him in a position of near-unchallenged power and influence in 45 BC. After assuming control of government and pardoning many of his enemies, Caesar set upon a vigorous reform and building programme. He created the Julian calendar to replace the republican lunisolar calendar, reduced the size of the grain dole, settled his veterans in new overseas colonies, greatly increased the size of the Senate, and extended citizenship to communities in Spain and what is now northern Italy. In early 44 BC, he was proclaimed dictator for life. Fearful of his power, domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king, a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March, the 15th of March 44 BC. A new series of civil wars broke out and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents thirteen years later. Octavian then set about solidifying his power, transforming the Republic into the Roman Empire as its emperor.
The Gallic Conquest
During the Gallic Wars, Caesar wrote his Commentaries thereon, which were acknowledged even in his time as a Latin literary masterwork. Meant to document Caesar's campaigns in his own words and maintain support in Rome for his military operations and career, he produced some ten volumes covering operations in Gaul from 58 to 52 BC. Each was likely produced in the year following the events described and was likely aimed at the general, or at least literate, population in Rome; the account is naturally partial to Caesar , his defeats are excused and victories highlighted , but it is almost the sole source for events in Gaul in this period. Gaul in 58 BC was in the midst of some instability. Tribes had raided into Transalpine Gaul and there was an on-going struggle between two tribes in central Gaul which collaterally involved Roman alliances and politics. The divisions within the Gauls , they were no unified bloc , would be exploited in the coming years. The first engagement was in April 58 BC when Caesar prevented the migrating Helvetii from moving through Roman territory, allegedly because he feared they would unseat a Roman ally. Building a wall, he stopped their movement near Geneva and , after raising two legions , defeated them at the Battle of Bibracte before forcing them to return to their original homes. He was drawn further north responding to requests from Gallic tribes, including the Aedui, for aid against Ariovistus , king of the Suebi and a declared friend of Rome by the Senate during Caesar's own consulship , and he defeated them at the Battle of Vosges. Wintering in northeastern Gaul near the Belgae in the winter of 58, 57, Caesar's forward military position triggered an uprising to remove his troops; able to eke out a victory at the Battle of the Sabis, Caesar spent much of 56 BC suppressing the Belgae and dispersing his troops to campaign across much of Gaul, including against the Veneti in what is now Brittany. At this point, almost all of Gaul , except its central regions , fell under Roman subjugation. Seeking to buttress his military reputation, he engaged Germans attempting to cross the Rhine, which marked it as a Roman frontier; he here built a bridge across the Rhine in a feat of engineering meant to show Rome's ability to project power. Ostensibly seeking to interdict British aid to his Gallic enemies, he led expeditions into southern Britain in 55 and 54 BC, perhaps seeking further conquests or otherwise wanting to impress readers in Rome; Britain at the time was to the Romans an island of mystery and a land of wonder. He, however, withdrew from the island in the face of winter uprisings in Gaul led by the Eburones and Belgae starting in late 54 BC which ambushed and virtually annihilated a legion and five cohorts. Caesar was, however, able to lure the rebels into unfavourable terrain and routed them in battle. The next year, a greater challenge emerged with the uprising of most of central Gaul, led by Vercingetorix of the Averni. Caesar was initially defeated at Gergovia before besieging Vercingetorix at Alesia. After becoming himself besieged, Caesar won a major victory which forced Vercingetorix's surrender; Caesar then spent much of his time into 51 BC suppressing any remaining resistance.
The Civil War
From the period 52 to 49 BC, trust between Caesar and Pompey disintegrated. In 51 BC, the consul Marcellus proposed recalling Caesar, arguing that his provincia in Gaul , due to his victory against Vercingetorix in 52 , was complete; it evidently was incomplete as Caesar was that year fighting the Bellovaci and regardless the proposal was vetoed. That year, it seemed that the conservatives around Cato in the Senate would seek to enlist Pompey to force Caesar to return from Gaul without honours or a second consulship. Cato, Bibulus, and their allies, however, were successful in winning Pompey over to take a hard line against Caesar's continued command. As 50 BC progressed, fears of civil war grew; both Caesar and his opponents started building up troops in southern Gaul and northern Italy, respectively. In the autumn, Cicero and others sought disarmament by both Caesar and Pompey, and on the 1st of December 50 BC this was formally proposed in the Senate. It received overwhelming support , 370 to 22 , but was not passed when one of the consuls dissolved the meeting. That year, when a rumour came to Rome that Caesar was marching into Italy, both consuls instructed Pompey to defend Italy, a charge he accepted as a last resort. At the start of 49 BC, Caesar's renewed offer that he and Pompey disarm was read to the Senate and was rejected by the hardliners. A later compromise given privately to Pompey was also rejected at their insistence. On the 7th of January, his supportive tribunes were driven from Rome; the Senate then declared Caesar an enemy and it issued its senatus consultum ultimum. There is scholarly disagreement as to the specific reasons why Caesar marched on Rome. A very popular theory is that Caesar was forced to choose , when denied the immunity of his proconsular tenure , between prosecution, conviction, and exile, or civil war in defence of his position. Whether Caesar actually would have been prosecuted and convicted is debated. Some scholars believe the possibility of successful prosecution was extremely unlikely. Caesar proposed giving up his command , opening himself up to prosecution , in January 49 BC as part of peace negotiations, something he would not have proposed if he were worried about a sure-fire conviction. Caesar's main objectives were to secure a second consulship , first mooted in 52 as colleague to Pompey's sole consulship , and a triumph. He feared that his opponents , then holding both consulships for 50 BC , would reject his candidacy or refuse to ratify an election he won. This also was the core of his war justification: that Pompey and his allies were planning, by force if necessary, to suppress the liberty of the Roman people to elect Caesar and honour his accomplishments. Around 10 or the 11th of January 49 BC, in response to the Senate's final decree, Caesar crossed the Rubicon , the river defining the northern boundary of Italy , with a single legion, the Legio XIII Gemina, and ignited civil war. Upon crossing the Rubicon, Caesar, according to Plutarch and Suetonius, is supposed to have quoted the Athenian playwright Menander, in Greek, let the die be cast. Pompey and many senators fled south, believing that Caesar was marching quickly for Rome. Caesar, after capturing communication routes to Rome, paused and opened negotiations, but they fell apart amid mutual distrust. Caesar responded by advancing south, seeking to capture Pompey to force a conference. Pompey withdrew to Brundisium and was able to escape to Greece, abandoning Italy in face of Caesar's superior forces and evading Caesar's pursuit. Caesar stayed near Rome for about two weeks , during his stay his forceful seizure of the treasury over tribunician veto put the lie to his pro-tribunician war justifications , and left Lepidus in charge of Italy while he attacked Pompey's Spanish provinces. He defeated two of Pompey's legates at the Battle of Ilerda before forcing surrender of the third; his legates moved into Sicily and into Africa, though the African expedition failed. Returning to Rome in the autumn, Caesar had Lepidus, as praetor, bring a law appointing Caesar dictator to conduct the elections; he, along with Publius Servilius Isauricus, won the following elections and would serve as consuls for 48 BC. Resigning the dictatorship after eleven days, Caesar then left Italy for Greece to stop Pompey's preparations, arriving in force in early 48 BC. Caesar besieged Pompey at Dyrrhachium, but Pompey was able to break out and force Caesar's forces to flee. Following Pompey southeast into Greece and to save one of his legates, Caesar engaged and decisively defeated Pompey at Pharsalus on the 9th of August 48 BC. Pompey then fled for Egypt; Cato fled for Africa; others, like Cicero and Marcus Junius Brutus, begged for Caesar's pardon.
The Dictator for Life
Prior to Caesar's assumption of the title in February 44 BC, he had been appointed dictator some four times since his first dictatorship in 49 BC. After occupying Rome, he engineered this first appointment, largely to hold elections; after 11 days he resigned. The other dictatorships lasted for longer periods, up to a year, and by April 46 BC he was given a new dictatorship annually. The task he was assigned revived that of Sulla's dictatorship. These appointments, however, were not the source of legal power themselves; in the eyes of the literary sources, they were instead honours and titles which reflected Caesar's dominant position in the state, secured not by extraordinary magistracy or legal powers, but by personal status as victor over other Romans. Through the period after Pharsalus, the Senate showered Caesar with honours, including the title which historically was associated with the censorial power to revise the Senate rolls. He was also granted power over war and peace, usurping a power traditionally held by the comitia centuriata. These powers attached to Caesar personally. Similarly extraordinary were a number of symbolic honours which saw Caesar's portrait placed on coins in Rome , the first for a living Roman , with special rights to wear royal dress, sit atop a golden chair in the Senate, and have his statues erected in public temples. The Roman calendar month Quintilis, in which he was born, was renamed July. These were symbols of divine monarchy and, later, objects of resentment. The decisions on the normal operation of the state , justice, legislation, administration, and public works , were concentrated into Caesar's person without regard for or even notice given to the traditional institutions of the republic. Caesar's domination over public affairs and his competitive instinct to preclude all others alienated the political class and led eventually to the conspiracy against his life. Caesar, as far as is attested in evidence, did not intend to restructure Roman society. Ernst Badian, writing in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, noted that although Caesar did implement a series of reforms, they did not touch on the core of the republican system: he had no plans for basic social and constitutional reform and that the extraordinary honours heaped upon him merely grafted him as an ill-fitting head on to the body of the traditional structure. Similarly, however restlessly active he was, we still hear of nothing that could be construed as a move towards the consolidation of the commonwealth. We have no evidence that he intended to set up a monarchy. The most important of Caesar's reforms was to the calendar, which saw the abolition of the traditional republican lunisolar calendar and its replacement with a solar calendar now called the Julian calendar. He also increased the number of magistrates and senators from 600 to 900 to better administer the empire and reward his supporters with offices. Colonies also were founded outside Italy , notably on the sites of Carthage and Corinth, which had both been destroyed during Rome's 2nd century BC conquests , to discharge Italy's population into the provinces and reduce unrest. He also took further administrative actions to stabilise his rule and that of the state. Caesar reduced the size of the grain dole from 320,000 down to around 150,000 by tightening the qualifications; special bonuses were offered to families with many children to stall depopulation. Plans were drawn for the conduct of a census. Citizenship was extended to a number of communities in Cisalpine Gaul and to Cádiz. During the civil wars, Caesar had also instituted a novel debt repayment programme no debts would be forgiven but they could be paid in kind, remitted rents up to a certain amount, and thrown games distributing food. Many of his enemies during the civil wars were pardoned , Caesar's clemency was exalted in his propaganda and temple works , with the intent to cultivate gratitude and draw a contrast between himself and the vengeful dictatorship of Sulla. The building programmes, started prior to his expedition to Spain, continued, with the construction of the Forum of Caesar and the Temple of Venus Genetrix therein. Other public works, including an expansion of Ostia's port and a canal through the Corinthian Isthmus, were also planned. Very busy with this work, the heavy-handedness with which he ignored the Senate, magistrates, and those who came to visit him also alienated many in Rome. The civic associations restored by Clodius in 58 BC were again abolished. His actions to reward his supporters saw him allow his subordinates illegal triumphal processions and resign the consulship so that allies could take it up for the rest of the year. On the last day of 45 BC, when one of the succeeding consuls died, Caesar had an ally elected as replacement for a single day. Corruption on the part of his partisans was also overlooked to ensure their support; provincial cities and client kingdoms were extorted for favours to pay his bills.
The Ides of March
Attempts in January 44 BC to call Caesar dictator , a title associated with arbitrary oppression against citizens , were shut down by two tribunes before a supportive crowd. Caesar, claiming that the two tribunes infringed on his honour by doing so, had them deposed from office and ejected from the Senate. The incident both undermined Caesar's original arguments for pursuing the civil war and angered a public which still revered the tribunes as protectors of popular freedom. Shortly before the 15th of February 44 BC, he assumed the dictatorship for life, putting an end to any hopes that his powers would be merely temporary. Transforming his dictatorship, even with a decadal appointment, into one for life clearly showed to all contemporaries that Caesar had no intention to restore a free republic and that no free republic could be restored so long as he was in power. Just days after his assumption of the life dictatorship, he publicly rejected a diadem from Antony at celebrations for the Lupercalia. Interpretations of the episode vary: he may have been rejecting the diadem publicly only because the crowd was insufficiently supportive; he could have done it performatively to signal he was no monarch; alternatively, Antony could have acted on his own initiative. By this point, however, rumour was rife that Caesar , already wearing the dress of a monarch , sought a formal crown and the episode did little to reassure. The plan to assassinate Caesar had started by the summer of 45 BC. An attempt to recruit Antony was made around that time, though he declined and gave Caesar no warning. By February 44 BC, there were some sixty conspirators. It is clear that by this time, the victorious Caesarian coalition from the civil war had broken apart. While most of the conspirators were former Pompeians, they were joined by a substantial number of Caesarians. Among their leaders were Gaius Trebonius consul in 45, Decimus Brutus consul designate for 42, as well as Cassius and Brutus both praetors in 44 BC. Trebonius and Decimus had joined Caesar during the war while Brutus and Cassius had joined Pompey; other Caesarians involved included Servius Sulpicius Galba, Lucius Minucius Basilus, Lucius Tullius Cimber, and Gaius Servilius Casca. Many of the conspirators would have been candidates in the consular elections for 43 to 41 BC, likely dismayed by Caesar's sham elections in early 44 BC that produced advance results for the years 43, 41 BC. Those electoral results came from the grace of the dictator and not that of the people; for the republican elite this was no substitute for actual popular support. Nor is it likely that the subordination of the normal magistrates to Caesar's masters of horse was appreciated. Brutus, who claimed descent from the Lucius Junius Brutus who had driven out the kings and the Gaius Servilius Ahala who had freed Rome from incipient tyranny, was the main leader of the conspiracy. By late autumn 45 BC, graffiti gives a number of examples: If only you lived now, Brutus, on the Capitoline statue of Lucius Brutus. If only you were alive. Your descendants are unworthy of you, challenging Marcus Brutus to act. Brutus became the first consul, since he had expelled the kings; This man at last became king, since he had expelled the consuls, on a statue of Caesar. and some public comments at Rome were condemning Caesar as a tyrant and insinuating the need for a Brutus to remove the dictator. The ancient sources, excepting Nicolaus of Damascus, are unanimous that this reflected a genuine turn in public opinion against Caesar. Popular indignation at Caesar was likely rooted in his debt policies too friendly to lenders, use of lethal force to suppress protests for debt relief, his reduction in the grain dole, his abolition of the restored by Clodius, his abolition of the poorest panel of jurors in the permanent courts, and his abolition of open elections which deprived the people of their ancient right of decision. A popular turn against Caesar is also observed with reports that the two deposed tribunes were written-in on ballots at Caesar's advance consular elections in place of Caesar's candidates. Whether the Romans thought they had a tradition of tyrannicide is unclear; Cicero wrote in private as if the duty to kill tyrants was already given, but he made no public speeches to that effect and there is little evidence that the public accepted the logic of preventive tyrannicide. The philosophical tradition of the Platonic Old Academy was also a factor driving Brutus to action due to its emphasis on a duty to free the state from tyranny. While some news of the conspiracy did leak, Caesar refused to take precautions and rejected escort by a bodyguard. The date decided upon by the conspirators was the 15th of March, the Ides of March, three days before Caesar intended to leave for his Parthian campaign. News of his imminent departure forced the conspirators to move up their plans; the Senate meeting on the 15th would be the last before his departure. They had decided that a Senate meeting was the best place to frame the killing as political, rejecting the alternatives at games, elections, or on the road. That only the conspirators would be armed at the Senate meeting, per Dio, also would have been an advantage. The day, the 15th of March, was also symbolically important as it was the day on which consuls took office until the mid-2nd century BC. Approached on his golden chair at the foot of the statue of Pompey, the conspirators attacked him with daggers. Whether he fell in silence, per Suetonius, or after reply to Brutus' appearance you too, child? is variantly recorded. He was stabbed at least twenty-three times and died at once.
The Aftermath and Legacy
The assassins seized the Capitoline hill after killing the dictator. They then summoned a public meeting in the Forum where they were coldly received by the population. They were also unable to fully secure the city, as Lepidus , Caesar's lieutenant in the dictatorship , moved troops from the Tiber Island into the city proper. Antony, the consul who escaped the assassination, urged an illogical compromise position in the Senate: Caesar was not declared a tyrant and the conspirators were not punished. Caesar's funeral was then approved. The funeral saw Caesar's body move from the Regia, the official home of the and formerly the palace of the kings, into the forum where it was then cremated. Antony inflamed the public against the assassins, which triggered mob violence that lasted for some months before the assassins were forced to flee the capital and Antony then finally acted to suppress it by force. In 44 BC, there was a seven-day cometary outburst that the Romans believed to represent the deification of Caesar, giving it the name Caesar's Comet. On the site of his cremation, the Temple of Caesar was begun by the triumvirs in 42 BC at the east side of the main square of the Roman Forum. Only its altar now remains. The terms of the will were also read to the public: it gave a generous donative to the plebs at large and left as principal heir one Gaius Octavius, Caesar's great-nephew then at Apollonia, and adopted him in the will. Resumption of the pre-existing republic proved impossible as various actors appealed in the aftermath of Caesar's death to liberty or to vengeance to mobilise huge armies that led to a series of civil wars. The first war was between Antony in 43 BC and the Senate which resulted in Octavian , Caesar's heir , exploiting the chaos to seize the consulship and join with Antony and Lepidus to form the Second Triumvirate. After purging their political enemies in a series of proscriptions, the triumvirs secured the deification of Caesar , the Senate declared on the 1st of January 42 BC that Caesar would be placed among the Roman gods , and marched on the east where a second war saw the triumvirs defeat the tyrannicides in battle, resulting in a final death of the republican cause and a three-way division of much of the Roman world. By 31 BC, Caesar's heir had taken sole control of the empire, ejecting his triumviral rivals after two decades of civil war. Pretending to restore the republic, his masked autocracy was acceptable to the war-weary Romans and marked the establishment of a new Roman monarchy. Caesar was an accomplished author and historian; much of his life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns. Other contemporary sources include the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. Later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also important sources. Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. His cognomen was subsequently adopted as a synonym for emperor; the title Caesar was used throughout the Roman Empire, and gave rise to modern descendants such as Kaiser and Tsar. He has frequently appeared in literary and artistic works. Based on remarks by Plutarch, Caesar is sometimes thought to have suffered from epilepsy. Modern scholarship is sharply divided on the subject, and some scholars believe that he was plagued by malaria, particularly during the Sullan proscriptions of the 80s BC. Ridley cites: Other scholars contend his epileptic seizures were due to a parasitic infection in the brain by a tapeworm. Caesar had four documented episodes of what may have been complex partial seizures. He may additionally have had absence seizures in his youth. The earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer Suetonius, who was born after Caesar died. The claim of epilepsy is countered among some medical historians by a claim of hypoglycemia, which can cause epileptoid seizures. A line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has sometimes been taken to mean that he was deaf in one ear: Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf. No classical source mentions hearing impairment in connection with Caesar. The playwright may have been making metaphorical use of a passage in Plutarch that does not refer to deafness at all, but rather to a gesture Alexander of Macedon customarily made. By covering his ear, Alexander indicated that he had turned his attention from an accusation in order to hear the defence. Francesco M. Galassi and Hutan Ashrafian suggest that Caesar's behavioural manifestations headaches, vertigo, falls possibly caused by muscle weakness due to nerve damage, sensory deficit, giddiness and insensibility and syncopal episodes were the results of cerebrovascular.