Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar came from an old but not wealthy Roman family. A gifted speaker and politician, he formed an alliance with Pompey and Crassus and was elected consul in 59 BC. As governor in Gaul, modern France and Belgium, he fought a series of wars from 58 to 50 BC that added the whole region to Rome's territory and twice took him across the Channel to Britain. He wrote his own account of these wars in clear, plain Latin. When the Senate ordered him to give up his army, he crossed the Rubicon River into Italy in 49 BC, starting a civil war against Pompey, whom he defeated. As dictator he reformed the calendar, creating the Julian calendar, and pardoned many former enemies. Many senators feared he meant to make himself king, and on the Ides of March, 15 March 44 BC, a group led by Brutus and Cassius stabbed him to death in a meeting of the Senate. His adopted heir Octavian later became Rome's first emperor.

Julius Caesar is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Practiced Roman state religion; as a young man he was appointed priest of Jupiter (flamen Dialis). Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)

See also: Plutarch's Life of Caesar