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Gaius Julius Caesar
The Man, The Myth, The Legend
Beta Version
Beginnings…
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Born in July, 100 BC
Patrician family (but not very influential)
Son of Gaius Julius Caesar and Aurelia Cotta
Father G. had served as a governor in Asia
Mother Aurelia was well-regarded
Had 2 older sisters, “Julia” (1 died young)
A Scary Time to Grow Up
• Caesar’s early years were during the
tumultuous civil wars of Marius/Cinna and
Sulla
• These men all wanted absolute power.
• (That’s a whole other lecture…)
A Scary Time to Grow Up
• His dad died suddenly around 85 BC
• He was elected as head priest of Jupiter in 84 BC
• Had to break off his engagement to a plebian girl
because of the priesthood requirements.
• Married Cornelia, Lucius Cornelius Cinna’s
daughter.
• His only child in marriage, Julia, is born
Bad News…
• Sulla came to power and proscribed his
enemies---i.e., put their names on a “hit list”
to be killed and their property confiscated
• Caesar was on his list, since Marius was his
uncle by marriage AND he was married to
Cinna’s daughter!
Bad News…
• Young Caesar refused to divorce Cornelia
when ordered to.
• Sulla stripped him of his inheritance,
priesthood, and Cornelia’s dowry
• Time to go into hiding!
Better News…
• BUT… Caesar’s mom’s family had a lot of Sulla
supporters.
• Mom’s family, with help from the Vestal
Virgins, persuaded Sulla to drop the manhunt.
• Sulla supposedly said, “I see many a Marius in
Caesar.”
Army Days
• Caesar joined the army (ironically, a priest of
Jupiter could not serve in the army, so he had
to Sulla to thank for his military career…)
• Served very well, earned the Civic Crown (2nd
highest award in the Roman army)
Back to Rome
• Came back to Rome in 78 BC when Sulla died
• Became an orator and won fame in the law
courts
• Lived a modest life, since his inheritance had
been stripped away.
Notable Dates
• Delivered funeral oration for his Aunt Julia
(Marius’ widow) in 69 BC
• Wife Cornelia dies in 69 BC in childbirth
• Elected quaestor in 69 BC (served in Spain)
"When quaestor, he pronounced the customary orations
from the rostra in praise of his aunt Julia and his wife
Cornelia, who had both died, and in the eulogy of his aunt
he spoke in the following terms of her paternal and
maternal ancestry and that of his own father: The family
of my aunt Julia is descended by her mother from the
kings and on her father's side is akin to the immortal
gods. For the Marcii Reges go back to Ancus Marcius, and
the Iulii, the family of which ours is a branch, to Venus.
Our stock therefore has at once the sanctity of kings,
whose power is supreme among mortal men, and the
claim to reverence which attaches to the gods, who hold
sway over kings themselves."
More Dates
• 67 BC: Married Pompeia, granddaughter of
Sulla (ironic!)---later divorced
• 63 BC: elected Pontifex Maximus (chief priest)
and praetor
• 63 BC: During the “Catilinarian Conspiracy”,
he was accused by Cicero of siding with
Catiline to overthrow the Republic…but that’s
another whole other lecture
Dates, Dates, Dates!
• 61 BC: Propraetor (governor) of Spain
• 60 BC: After military campaigns in Spain his
troops call him “imperator”…honorific title
that allowed a general to have a triumphal
parade (he turned down the triumph to run
for consul instead)
• 60 BC: Runs for the consulship of 59 BC and
wins
• 59 BC: serves as consul with Marcus Bibulus
The Strange Year of 59 BC…
• The 2 consuls were expected to work together
• Caesar bullied Bibulus when Bibulus didn’t
support a land-distribution law
• Bibulus spends most of the year out of public
• Instead of the “the consulship of Caesar and
Bibulus” Romans called it “the consulship of
Julius and Caesar” 
Three’s a Crowd
• In 59 BC, Caesar allied himself with the
wealthy Crassus and the famous general
Pompey to form the First Triumvirate
• He gave Pompey his daughter Julia as wife
• Crassus had already helped Caesar out of a
huge debt problem years earlier
Also in 59 BC…
• 59 BC: Caesar married for the 3rd and last
time, to Calpurnia
• She was 16 years old
• She never remarried after his death
On to Gaul
• Caesar manipulated laws and managed to be
appointed governor of Cisapline Gaul
(northern Italy) and Illyricum (southeastern
Europe), then later Transalpine Gaul (southern
France)
• This gave him 4 legions at his command
The Gallic Wars
• 58 BC-50/49 BC: Campaigns in Gaul
• 1 million Gauls killed, 1 million enslaved
• 52 BC: uprising of Vercingetorix and the seige
at Alesia
Britain
• Caesar invades Britain in 55 BC and again in 54
BC, but doesn’t gain a permanent stronghold
there
Triumvirate Troubles
• Caesar’s daughter, Pompey’s wife, dies in
childbirth in 54 BC
• Crassus killed in battle in 53 BC
Civil War…again
• 50 BC: Caesar is recalled to Rome by Pompey
and the Senate. He’s supposed to lay down his
military command before entering “Roman”
territory.
• 49 BC: He crosses the Rubicon with his army
and incites civil war
• Alea iacta est: “The die is cast.”
More Fighting
• Caesar and Pompey battle around the
Mediterranean (another lecture in itself)
• 48 BC: Pompey defeated at Pharsalus in
Greece
• Pompey runs to Egypt where he is murdered
by the current (boy) Pharaoh
• Pharaoh gives Caesar Pompey’s head when
Caesar arrives…
Dictator!
• Meanwhile back in Rome…while all this is
happening…
• 48 BC: Caesar is appointed dictator
• Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) is appointed
his magister equitum: master of the horse
(lieutenant)
Love on the Nile
• Pharaoh and sister (Cleopatra) are also in a civil
war
• Caesar sides with Cleopatra
• They celebrate victory with a famous tour down
the Nile
• (Oh, and during the fighting the Great Library of
Alexandria accidentally gets burned down.
Oopsie!)
• 47 BC: It’s a boy! Caesarion is born
Let’s Speed Things Along…
• After some more military campaigns in Pontus
and Spain, Caesar returned to Italy in 45 BC
• Pontus: Veni, Vidi, Vici
• He got a triumph
• He started a lot of reforms…
Caesar’s Reforms
• The Julian Calendar: Based on the Egyptian
solar calendar of 365.25 days and 1 leap year
every 4 years
• Lots of reforms to taxes, legal system, etc.
…the End
• In 45 BC he had filed a will and named his
great-nephew Octavian as his heir
• Murdered in 44 BC after accepting the title
“Dictator for Life”
• Assassination took place at a Senate meeting
in the Theater of Pompey
• Assassins led by M. Junius Brutus…whose
mother had been Caesar’s mistress years
earlier (hmmmm….)