The Life of Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was a dictator of the Roman Republic. He became this through war and suffering. Julius Caesar was a great man but yet he was also a terrible man. To begin with, Julius Caesar’s early life.

Julius Caesar was born on July 13th, 100 B.C. He was born in to a family that was a part of the Julius dynasty. At 15, Caesars father died, leaving him and his two sisters as orphans. They were then raised by their mother Aurelia. In 84 B.

C Caesar married Cornelia, the daughter of L. Cornelius Cinna. Later, Lucius Sulla, an aristocratic dictator, forced Caesar to divorce Cornelia, Caesar then refused. Caesar was going to be banished but with the begging of his family and friends Caesar was found not guilty. He also didn’t have to divorce her.

Sulla then Pardoned Caesar. Later was Julius Caesar’s Middle life. In 84 B.C. Caesar joined the army. In 69 B.

C. Cornelia, his then wife died. Two years later in 67 B.C. Caesar married a woman named Pompeia. That marriage didn’t last long though.

He divorced her in 62 B.C. Next, Caesars Political and Military life. In 65 B.C Caesar led the first Roman army to invade England in 55 B.

C and 54 B.C. In 54 B.C, his daughter, Pompey’s wife, died. Caesar became a Roman consul in 59 B.

C. He introduced many reforms which delighted his partners. During this very same time Caesar became Gaul’s governor. In 58 B.C Caesar began his conquest of Gaul.

His hope being to get as rich as possible. To get a safe spot on the front of the fighting lines, he had to get rid of the Germans who also wanted Gaul. It took 7 years to conquer Gaul but he received many treasures and the loyalty of his soldiers. After this war or campaign Caesar decided to stay in Gaul with his army until he could be chosen as the new consul. This made the senators mad, His political opponents wanted him back in Rome so they could prosecute him for the things he had done when he was a consul.

He made his decision, which resulted in the fall of the Roman republic. He lead his armies across the Rubicon River and said “Alea iacta est,” which is well known, and then he started his march towards Rome in January of 49 B.C. This action resulted in a civil war. In his defense Caesar stated that it was to defend the tribunes, who were recently cast out of Rome.

Pompey had to leave Rome with senators to escape from Caesar’s army. During Caesar’s armies march towards Rome, they encountered hardly any resistance, Pompey’s army either scattered or joined Caesar. As a result of this war, he became the Conqueror of Italy. Conquering Italy wasn’t enough for him, he decided he wanted Spain, which is where Pompey was. This resulted in peace between the legion’s commanders and Caesar, the war with Spain ended without any bloodshed. In December of 49 BC Caesar returned to Rome for 11 days.

This was the required amount of time to be elected as the new consul. Soon after he led his armies east and fought many battles in Greece. Pompey escaped to Egypt, where he was murdered by Ptolemaeus, who wanted to have Caesar on his side. During this same time there was a civil war in Egypt between Cleopatra and her brother. Cleopatra wanted Caesar on her side because of his huge army.

When he did finally join her, they weren’t as successful as they had expected, they ended up in the Alexandria’s palace. This of which was surrounded by made local people. In 47 BC Cleopatra gave birth to Caesar’s son, Cesarion; He was born shortly after Caesar left Egypt. Through all of Caesar’s life his main aim was to conquer the whole world. He won victory after victory, he took on war after war. After his last victory he said a famous phrase, “veni, vidi, vici,” “I came, I saw, I won.

In 46 BC Caesar was conquering North Africa, the next year he was conquering Spain, where he fought against Pompey’s sons. Between these two wars Caesar returned to Rome, but he had problems with keeping his reign. Towards the end of Caesars llie he had been elected consul five times and a dictator three times. Finally in 44 BC he became the eternal dictator. It was a lifelong title that stayed.

On March 15 44BC he was assassinated. He got 23 blows by a dagger and only one was lethal. Formally, Cesarion wasn’t Caesars son, so before he died Caesar had chosen Gaius Octavius, his sisters grandson, as his successor. On January 1st 42BC Caesar was formally declared a god named Divus Iulius (Divine Julius) Works Cited Page http://www.ancient-rome.biz/julius-Caesar-biography.html http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/Caesarevents1/a/Caesar Timeline.htm http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/Caesar.html http://www.who2.com/ask/julius Caesar.html