JULIUS CAESAR (100 – 44 B.C.)

The Politician

Gaius Julius Caesar came from a partisan family, but he was also the nephew of Gaius Marius, a general who had once been a private soldier and became the champion of Rome’s lower classes – the plebeians and the Italian non-citizens.

Julius Caesar was a young politician, who managed to get along well with both Pompey and Crassus (the two ex-consuls), who hated each other. After serving as a governor of Roman provinces in Spain, Caesar returned to Rome to run for Consul. He was supported by both Pompey and Crassus.

But Caesar was always looking ahead. He didn’t like his prospects after he finished his term as Consul. It was customary for ex-consuls to be given governorship of the provinces. If the senate had its way, Caesar (the leader of the party of Marius) would go to the most remote parts of Africa.

Instead, Caesar proposed to the 2 ex-consuls – both powerful men; Pompey with his military reputation and his popularity, and Crassus with his money – that they divide the real power in Rome among themselves and take the governorships they wanted.

After Crassus was killed and Pompey assassinated, he returned to Rome and undertook many reforms. The senate, however, was not pleased with Caesar’s actions. They felt that he was spending money too freely, and that he was planning to proclaim himself “King of the Roman” – a title and position that they all feared. Thus, in the year 44 B.C., a group of senators attacked Caesar on the steps of the Temple of Pompey, and stabbed him to death.

His adopted so and heir, Octavian Caesar, took over his place as head of the state and ruled as an absolute monarch, while preserving all the reforms of a republican government.


Source: 50 Military Leaders Who Changed The World, William Weir
2007 Shaques Publishing Inc