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Gaius Julius Caesar
Born: July 13, _____________________ BC
Assassinated: March 15, _____________________BC
He was ________________ years old when he died.
Caesar was a Roman __________________________ and _____________________leader whose
conquests extended the Roman world. He also introduced Roman influence into modern
____________________, an accomplishment whose direct consequences are visible to this day. Caesar
fought and won a civil war which left him undisputed master of the Roman world, and he began extensive
reforms of Roman society and government.
He became ________________________________ for life, and heavily centralized the already faltering
government of the weak ________________________. His dramatic assassination on the Ides of March
became the catalyst of a second set of civil wars which became the twilight of the Roman Republic and the
dawn of the Roman Empire under Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son, ________________________
______________________________.
Early life
Caesar was born in Rome to a well-known patrician family which supposedly traced its ancestry to Julus, the
son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who according to myth was the son of Venus.
In 69 BC, Caesar became a widower after his wife Cornelia's death trying to deliver a
_______________________ son. In the same year, he lost his aunt Julia, to whom he was very attached.
During the funerals Caesar delivered eulogy speeches.
The First Triumvirate and the Gallic War
In _________________________ BC Caesar was elected senior Consul of the Roman Republic by the
Centuriate Assembly.
At this time, the leading general _______________________________ was fighting in the Senate for
farmlands for his veterans, without success. A former Consul, Marcus Licinius Crassus, allegedly the richest
man in Rome, was also having problems in obtaining his long-desired military command against the
Parthian Empire. Caesar the Consul was in desperate need of Crassus's money and Pompey's influence, so
an informal alliance was created. Historians call this union the First Triumvirate (rule by three men). To
confirm the alliance, ____________________________ married Julia Caesaris, Caesar's only daughter.
Despite the differences in age and upbringing, this political marriage proved to be a love match.
Following a difficult year as Consul, Caesar was given powers to govern __________________________
(southern France) and ___________________________ (the coast of Dalmatia) for five years. He was not
content with an idle governorship. Instead, he started the _______________________ (58 BC-49 BC) in
which all of Gaul (the rest of France) and parts of Germania were annexed to Rome. He waged war on
several other countries as well.
Historians say the whole campaign resulted in ____________________ conquered cities, _____________
subdued tribes, ___________________ men sold to slavery and another ___________________ dead in
battle fields. Ancient historians are notorious for exaggerating numbers of this kind; Caesar's conquest of
Gaul was certainly the greatest military triumph since the campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Despite his successes and the benefits they brought to Rome, Caesar remained unpopular among his
peers, especially with the conservative faction, who always suspected him of wanting to become king.
In 54 BC, Julia Caesaris died in childbirth, leaving both Pompey and Caesar heartbroken. Still away in Gaul,
Caesar tried to secure Pompey's support by offering him one of his nieces in marriage, but Pompey refused.
Instead, Pompey married Cornelia Metella, the daughter of Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest
enemies.
The civil war
In __________________________ BC, the Senate, led by Pompey, ordered Caesar to return to Rome and
disband his army because his term as Proconsul had finished. Moreover, the Senate forbade Caesar to
stand for a second consulship in absentia. Caesar knew that he would be prosecuted and politically
eliminated if he entered Rome without the immunity enjoyed by a Consul or without the power of his legions.
So Caesar refused to act as ordered and crossed the Rubicon river (the frontier with Italy) on January 10, 49
BC and civil war broke out.
Pompey fled to ____________________________, where he was murdered by an officer of King Ptolemy
XIII. In Rome, Caesar was appointed ______________________________, with Marcus Antonius as his
chief lieutenant. He ended up siding with Cleopatra in her battle with her brother and husband, Ptolemy.
Caesar defeated the Ptolemaic forces and installed __________________ as ruler, and began an affair with
her which produced his only known natural son, Ptolemy XV Caesar, better known as "Caesarion."
In 44 BC, Caesar became consul a fifth time with Marcus Antonius as his colleague; he was soon appointed
______________________ ______ _______________(dictator perpetuus).
His tragic end
Because their normal meeting place had been destroyed by fire, Caesar summoned the Senate to meet in
the Theatrum Pompeium (built by Pompey) on the ____________________of March (March 15) 44 BC. As
the Senate convened, Caesar was attacked and stabbed to death by a group of senators who called
themselves the ______________________________________; they justified their action on the grounds
that they were preserving the Republic from Caesar's alleged monarchical ambitions. Among the assassins
were Gaius Trebonius, Decimus Junius Brutus, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Gaius Cassius Longinus.
Caesar sustained ____________________ stab wounds, which ranged from superficial to mortal, and fell at
the feet of a statue of ______________________.
The literary Caesar
Caesar was considered during his lifetime to be one of the finest orators and authors of prose in Rome; even
______________________________ spoke highly of Caesar's rhetoric and style.
Caesar's marriages and offspring
*First marriage to Cornelia Cinnilla -Julia Caesaris, married to Pompey and a stillborn son, unnamed
*Second marriage to Pompeia
*Third marriage to Calpurnia Pisonis
*Affair with Cleopatra VII-Ptolomy XV Caesar (Caesarion), Egyptian pharaoh
Posthumously adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Roman emperor
Interesting tidbits
*He ordered the revision of the calendar and made a year _______________________ days
*The month of ________________________ was named for him.
* He received ______________________________________________ from the King of Egypt after the war
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Caesar_Julius.html