Julius Caesar

**Gaius Julius Caesar** (July 12, 100 B.C.E - March 15, 44 B.C.E)

## Family

Julius Caesar is the son of Gaius Julius Caesar and Aurelia Cotta.

## Marriage and Issue

Caesar married Cornelia and had one daughter, Julia. While in Egypt, he got into an affair with Cleopatra VII of Egypt, and had a son, Caesarion, who briefly reigned as pharaoh until his assassination.

## Early Life

Caesar was born into a wealthy family, but his family stripped of everything when his father fought on the losing side in a civil war. He joined the army to regain his family's honor.

## The Triumvirate

In 71 B.C.E, Caesar is a soldier in an army led by Marcus Licinius Crassus. Crassus stations his army in defense of Rome, as an army of 100,000 slaves led by Spartacus are making headway towards the city.

Caesar interrupts a meeting among Crassus and his generals who plan on retreating back towards Rome, so they could better prepare themselves for an attack. He tells them that they need to attack them while Spartacus is not expecting it. Crassus agrees to this and the army marches before dawn.

The army arrives in the morning and Spartacus, who is caught off guard, is defeated and killed, even though his body was not found.

After the victory, Caesar tells Crassus that he is wasting resources and human labor by having every captured slave crucified. Crassus tells him that this proves they were the ones who defeated Spartacus and no one else.

Caesar and Crassus then race to Rome as another Roman general, Pompey Magnus, also wants to claim glory for the defeat of Spartacus.

They end up arriving in Rome after Pompey, and Crassus is disappointed. Caesar watches as the situation escalates and intervenes before Crassus draws a blade on Pompey.

Caesar returns home and visits Cornelia and Julia, and takes that as reward enough for his role in defeating Spartacus. He then attends meetings in the Senate and sees a conflict brewing between Pompey and Crassus. In a private talk with Crassus later on, Caesar finds out that Crassus is willing to get into a civil war with Pompey. Crassus asks him for his support if war does come and being safe, Caesar agrees.

After Caesar returns home, he finds that Cornelia has fallen ill and dies soon after. Cornelia is burned on a pyre shortly after her death. While he mourns Cornelia, he thinks about his father's fate in his own civil war. If he picks the wrong side, he would be ruined and that was the last thing he wanted. In order to resolve this issue, he manages to create an alliance between Pompey and Crassus. Crassus is convinced almost immediately, but Pompey wants to be sure Caesar can be trusted. So Caesar promieses to push his legislation through first as Consul of Rome, and he gives him his daughter's hand in marriage.

After the wedding, Crassus and Pompey make Caesar consul and the First Triumvirate begins.

## The Great Conqueror

After being sworn in as consul, he starts pushing through the legislation of both Pompey and Crassus, starting with the payment of the soldier's who fought in the Third Servile War. The Senate however, disagrees and postpone the vote.

Pompey and Crassus question his ability to push through their legislation after he failed to convince the Senate to pass the bill. He hires thugs to attack any senator who opposed the bill. During the next meeting, the bill is passed unanimously. From then on, any bill he wants passed, will be passed.

Using his newfound wealth and power, he rises up in class. He starts throwing parties and begins an affair with a woman named, Servilia. After one night together, Caesar meets Servilia's son, Brutus, and tells him, he looks like his father.

Due to his highly unpopular techniques, Pompey and Crassus decide that it is time for Caesar to be removed from Rome as they do not want to risk their political careers and decide that they will give him a governorship in a province of his choice. After meeting with Servilia, he decides that he will peacefully accept their offer and takes a governorship in Gaul.

In 58 B.C.E, Caesar and his men cross the border and officially start the invasion of Gaul. He has his men attack the split tribe making good headway in the Conquest of Gaul. He eventually reaches the end of the roman supply lines and keeps going further into Gaul to accomplish his goals.

By 56 B.C.E, some of Gaul had been conquered and he sends his reports of the invasion back to Rome in a series of letters known as the Gallic Commentaries. He does this in the hopes that he will gain support among the people of Rome. Due to his popularity, many soldiers join Caesar in his conquests. One of the new soldiers, was known as Mark Antony. Antony was automatically favored by Caesar due to his high position in Roman society.

During a march further into Gaul, the Romans are attacked by a unified force of Gauls led by a Gallic Chieftain, Vercingetorix.

Caesar finds out that Vercingetorix has been using a scorched-earth campaign and had been destroying much of the lands resources to try and slow down the Romans. Caesar uses this against them by building a wall that stretched 11 miles in order to cut off the supply lines from the Gauls trapped inside. Caesar hoped they would run out of food and be forced to surrender.

While Caesar is in Alesia, he finds out from Mark Antony, that Crassus has been killed in Parthia and that Pompey has been elected consul of Rome. To add more bad news to his cause, he finds out that another 125,000 Gauls are headed to Alesia. He orders another walls built around the wall he had already made. Just a few days after its completion, the relief army arrives.

## Crossing the Rubicon

During the Battle of Alesia, the Gauls inside Alesia find a week spot within the inner wall. As Caesar and Antony deal with him, Caesar sends cavalry outside the walls who manage to make the Gauls believe that support had arrived and they retreat.

Vercingetorix surrenders himself after losing the battle and Caesar goes home victorious. He sends news of his success and chests of gold and treasure to treat the people.

While heading back to Rome, Caesar receives news that he is being stripped of his command and that he has to return home to face charges. He also finds out that his daughter has passed during childbirth.

Caesar and his army reach the Rubicon River, and he has to decide whether or not he crosses the Rubicon and declares war on Rome. He crosses in January of 49 B.C.E.

As they march towards Rome, he finds out that Pompey has abandoned Rome and is headed towards Brundisium. Caesar changes course and pursues Pompey. Caesar and Pompey race towards Brundisium, but they get there too late. He orders ships built as quickly as possible in order to chase Pompey down before he can build his army.

After two months, only enough ships have been finished to carry half his troops. He takes half and leaves Mark to finish the other half as quick as possible. They arrive in Pharsallus two days later with only 11,000 men.

Caesar meets Pompey who tries to convince him to have a truce, but Caesar turns him down. The two armies meet on the battlefield, and the Battle of Pharsallus begins.

## Queen of the Nile

In Pharsallus, Caesar proves victorious against Pompey. One of Pompey's generals, Cato, has been slain alongside 15,000 men and 20,000 plus Brutus have been captured. Pompey has fled to Egypt with the hope that Ptolemy XIII of Egypt would lend him support against Caesar. Caesar sends Mark to Rome to maintain order, while he chases Pompey to Egypt.

Caesar arrives in Egypt after Pompey and meets the king. Ptolemy presents him with the decapitated head of Pompey. Caesar tells the king to put it away and says he's going back to Rome. Ptolemy does not let him and has him placed under house arrest in Alexandria.

After some time, the king's sister, Cleopatra, rescued Caesar and he helped her defeat Ptolemy, who ended up drowning in the Siege of Alexandria. Cleopatra becomes the sole Queen of Egypt and gets into a relationship with Caesar.

After a few months, Caesar returns to Rome, and finds that the city has fallen into chaos under the rule of Mark Antony. Caesar recalls the Senate and pardons them for taking Pompey's side in the civil war in order to help establish order in Rome. In return for clemency, Caesar makes himself dictator of Rome for the next ten years by a unanimous vote in the Senate.

Caesar starts by reinvigorating the Roman people. He creates an efficient feeding system for the people and puts on days of games. All this makes Rome stable and makes him popular among the people. Caesar then starts including some of the senators in his plans for Rome as to garner popularity among the senators.

He invites Servilia to come see him and during their visit, Caesar becomes ill with epilepsy.

## The Ides of March

Caesar talks to a doctor about his illnesses and that he has been having it for the past few years. The doctor prescribes medication for the headaches and leaves.

Caesar enacted some new reforms. Some of these include an increase in the job market which resulted in the creations of new temples and harbors. He also introduces a new calendar to fix the disrupted Roman way of telling time and has the people of the conquered territories made into Roman citizens.

Later on, Cleopatra visits Rome with news that Caesar is the father of a son, Caesarion. This causes a threatening feeling among the Senators of Rome and Servilia.

With the arrival of his son and some convincing from Cleopatra, he starts considering a monarchy for Rome.

He recalls a meeting with the senate and a proclamation is read establishing him as the dictator of Rome for life. Caesar then has another epilepsy attack in front of the Senate. In order to take the Senate's mind off of his sickness, he plans an invasion of Parthia. During planning with Mark, he has Brutus call the Senate for a meeting the next day.

Caesar goes to Senate, and while he is distracted, he is attacked by a Senator and then stabbed a few more times until he is finished off by Brutus. This became known as the Ides of March.