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Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin pronunciation ; English pronunciation ; July 12 or July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he was also responsible for the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC.

Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar sparked civil war in 49 BC that left him the undisputed master of the Roman world. After assuming control of the government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. This forced the hand of a friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, who then conspired with others to murder the dictator and restore the Republic. This dramatic assassination occurred on the Ides of March (March 15th) in 44 BC and led to another Roman civil war. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified him as one of the Roman deities.

Caesar's military campaigns are known in detail from his own written Commentaries (Commentarii), and many details of his life are recorded by later historians, such as Appian, Suetonius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio and Strabo. Other information can be gleaned from other contemporary sources, such as the letters and speeches of Caesar's political rival Cicero, the poetry of Catullus and the writings of the historian Sallust.

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Caesar's literary works

Caesar was considered during his lifetime to be one of the best orators and authors of prose in Rome—even Cicero spoke highly of Caesar's rhetoric and style. Among his most famous works were his funeral oration for his paternal aunt Julia and his Anticato, a document written to blacken Cato's reputation and respond to Cicero's Cato memorial. Unfortunately, the majority of his works and speeches have been lost to history.

Memoirs

• The Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War), campaigns in Gallia and Britannia during his term as proconsul; and
• The Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), events of the Civil War until immediately after Pompey's death in Egypt.

Other works historically attributed to Caesar, but whose authorship is doubted, are:

• De Bello Alexandrino (On the Alexandrine War), campaign in Alexandria;
• De Bello Africo (On the African War), campaigns in North Africa; and
• De Bello Hispaniensis (On the Hispanic War), campaigns in the Iberian peninsula.

These narratives, apparently simple and direct in style— to the point that Caesar's Commentarii are commonly studied by first and second year Latin students— are highly sophisticated advertisements for his political agenda, most particularly for the middle-brow readership of minor aristocrats in Rome, Italy, and the provinces.

Poetry

Very little of Caesar's poetry survives to this day. One of the poems he is known to have written is The Journey.

Military career

Historians place the generalship of Caesar on the level of such military genii as Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte and Saladin. Although he suffered occasional tactical defeats, such as Battle of Gergovia during the Gallic War and The Battle of Dyrrhachium during the Civil War, Caesar's tactical brilliance was highlighted by such feats as his circumvallation of Alesia during the Gallic War, the rout of Pompey's numerically superior forces at Pharsalus during the Civil War, and the complete destruction of Pharnaces' army at Battle of Zela.

Caesar's successful campaigning in any terrain and under all weather conditions owes much to the strict but fair discipline of his legionaries, whose admiration and devotion to him were proverbial due to his promotion of those of skill over those of nobility. Caesar's infantry and cavalry were first rate, and he made heavy use of formidable Roman artillery; additional factors that made him so effective in the field were his army's superlative engineering abilities and the legendary speed with which he maneuvered his troops (Caesar's army sometimes marched as many as 40 miles a day). His army was made of 40,000 infantry and many cavaliers, with some specialized units, such as engineers. He records in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars that during the siege of one Gallic city built on a very steep and high plateau, his engineers were able to tunnel through solid rock and find the source of the spring that the town was drawing its water supply from, and divert it to the use of the army. The town, cut off from their water supply, capitulated at once.

Caesar's name

Using the Latin alphabet as it existed in the day of Caesar (i.e., without lower case letters, "J", or "U"), Caesar's name is properly rendered "GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR" (the form "CAIVS" is also attested using the old Roman pronunciation of letter C as G; it is an antique form of the more common "GAIVS"). It is often seen abbreviated to "C. IVLIVS CAESAR". (The letterform "Æ" is a ligature, which is often encountered in Latin inscriptions where it was used to save space, and is nothing more than the letters "ae".) In classical Latin, it was pronounced IPA (note that the first name, like the second, is properly pronounced in three syllables, not two) (see Latin spelling and pronunciation). In the days of the late Roman Republic, many historical writings were done in Greek, a language most educated Romans studied. Young wealthy Roman boys were often taught by Greek slaves and sometimes sent to Athens for advanced training, as was Caesar's principal assassin, Brutus. In Greek, during Caesar's time, his family name was written Καίσαρ, reflecting its contemporary pronunciation. Thus his name is pronounced in a similar way to the pronunciation of the German Kaiser. Clearly, this German name was not derived from the Middle Ages Ecclesiastical Latin, in which the familiar part "Caesar" is , from which the modern English pronunciation (a much-softened "SEE-zer") is derived.

Caesar's family

Parents

• Father Gaius Julius Caesar.
• Mother Aurelia (related to the Aurelia Cottae)

Wives

• First marriage to Cornelia Cinnilla
• Second marriage to Pompeia Sulla
• Third marriage to Calpurnia Pisonis

Children

• Julia with Cornelia Cinnilla
• Possibly Caesarion, with Cleopatra VII, who would become Pharaoh with the name Ptolemy Caesar.
• Adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (his great-nephew by blood), later known as Augustus.
• Possible, but seemingly unlikely, Marcus Junius Brutus with Servilia Caepionis.

Grandchildren

• Grandson from Julia and Pompey, dead at several days, unnamed

Female lovers

• Cleopatra VII
• Servilia Caepionis, mother of Brutus

Notable relatives

• Gaius Marius ( married to his Aunt Julia)
• Lucius Cornelius Sulla (possibly through Marriage)

Possible male lovers

Roman society viewed the passive role during sex, regardless of gender, to be a sign of submission or inferiority. Indeed, Suetonius says that in Caesar's Gallic triumph, his soldiers sang that, "Caesar may have conquered the Gauls, but Nicomedes conquered Caesar".Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). According to Cicero, Bibulus, Gaius Memmius (whose account may be from firsthand knowledge), and others (mainly Caesar's enemies), he had an affair with Nicomedes IV of Bithynia early in his career. The tales were repeated by some Roman politicians as a way to humiliate and degrade him. It is possible that the rumors were spread only as a form of character assassination. Caesar himself, according to Cassius Dio, denied the accusations under oath.

Mark Antony charged that Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors. Suetonius described Antony's accusation of an affair with Octavian as political slander. The boy Octavian was to become the first Roman emperor following Caesar's death.

Chronology

Honours

Was voted the title Divus, or "god," after his death.

During his life, he received many honours, including titles such as Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland), Pontifex Maximus (Highest Priest), and Dictator. The many titles bestowed on him by the Senate are sometimes cited as a cause of his assassination, as it seemed inappropriate to many contemporaries for a mortal man to be awarded so many honours.

As a young man he was awarded the Corona Civica (civic crown) for valor while fighting in Asia minor.

Perhaps the most significant title he carried was his name from birth: Caesar. This name would be awarded to every Roman emperor, and it became a signal of great power and authority far beyond the bounds of the empire. The title became the German Kaiser and Slavic Tsar/Czar. The last tsar in nominal power was Simeon II of Bulgaria whose reign ended in 1946; for two thousand years after Julius Caesar's assassination, there was a least one head of state bearing his name.

Note, however, that Caesar was an ordinary name of no more importance than other cognomen like Cicero and Brutus. It did not become an Imperial title until well after Julius Caesar's death.

See also

• Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar
• Nine Worthies
• Caesar cipher
• Julio-Claudian family tree

Notes

1. Official name after 42 BC, Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar Divus (in inscriptions IMP•C•IVLIVS•CAESAR•DIVVS), in English, "Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar, the deified one". Also in inscriptions, Gaius Iulius Gaii Filius Gaii Nepos Caesar, in English, "Gaius Julius Caesar, son of Gaius, grandson of Gaius".
2. Suetonius, Julius 49; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.20
3. Suetonius, Augustus 68, 71

References

Primary sources

Caesar's own writings

• Forum Romanum Index to Caesar's works online in Latin and translation
• Collected works of Caesar in Latin, Italian and English
• Caesar and contemporaries on the civil wars
• omnia munda mundis Hypertext of Caesar's De Bello Gallico
• Works by Julius Caesar at Project Gutenberg

Ancient historians' writings

• Suetonius: The Life of Julius Caesar. (Latin and English, cross-linked: the English translation by J. C. Rolfe.)
• Suetonius: The Life of Julius Caesar (J. C. Rolfe English translation, modified)
• Plutarch: The Life of Julius Caesar (English translation)
• Plutarch: The Life of Mark Antony (English translation)
• Plutarch on Antony (English translation, Dryden edition).
• Cassius Dio, Books 37–44 (English translation)
• Appian, Book 13 (English translation)

Secondary sources

• Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar: Life of a Colossus. New Heaven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-12048-6).
• Jiménez, Ramon L. Caesar Against Rome: The Great Roman Civil War. Westpoint, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0-275-96620-8).
• Meier, Christian. Caesar: A Biography. New York: Basic Books, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 0-465-00894-1); 1997 (paperback, ISBN 0-465-00895-X).

External links

• Julius Caesar Suzanne Cross's site with in‑depth history of Caesar, plus a timeline and links.
• C. Julius Caesar Jona Lendering's in‑depth history of Caesar (Livius. Org)
• Julius Caesar — virgil.org An Annotated Guide to Online Resources categorized into Primary Sources, Background & Images, Modern Essays & Historical Fiction.
• Julius Caesar, page with many links in several languages, including English
• History of Julius Caesar
• The Heart of Change: Julius Caesar and the End of the Roman Republic
• Julius Caesar at BBC History

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• Julius Caesar
• Ancient Roman generals
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• Iulii
• Nine Worthies
• Natives of Rome
• Historical figures portrayed by Shakespeare
• 100 BC births
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• Characters in Book VI of the Aeneid