Julius Caesar: Rome’s Greatest Leader

Julius Caesar is the most well known Roman ruler of all time. His military and political careers were both successful. This helped Caesar gain complete trust of the Roman people even though he killed the previous leader of Rome, Pompey. He was well liked by most everyone in Rome except for those who disapproved of him being named dictator of Rome. An assassination plot was devised to put an end to his rule. His death ultimately led to the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar’s legacy will be remembered by his brilliant military victories, his rise to political fame, and his role in the First Triumvirate.

Not much information is given about Julius Caesar’s early life because he had lost the works he had written as a child. It is known that Caesar was educated by a man named Marcus Antonius Gnipho. In his late adolescence, he took up a political position during the Roman Civil Wars. He quickly learned to associate himself with the most powerful people of Rome; he would only marry Cornelia, “the daughter of the most powerful Roman of the era, the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna”. Shortly after that, Lucius was killed by Sulla, the future “dictator” of Rome. Sulla demanded that Caesar divorce Cornelia; he refused, so Sulla stripped him of his priesthood of Jupiter and extracted his dowry from his marriage to Cornelia.

This worked out great for Caesar, since he was now allowed to perform his military duties; People in priesthood were not allowed to be associated with the military. He performed his duties for two year until Sulla died in 78 BC. He returned to Rome to begin his legal career. His career started off unsuccessfully, since he lost his first two cases before the Roman Senate. With the a...

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...e end of the Roman Republic which had been around for hundreds of years. In the Roman Empire, all the kings were called Caesar as a sign of the most powerful person in Rome. He is the most well known, most feared, and most respected leader the world has ever seen.

Works Cited

Taylor, Lily “The Rise of Julius Caesar” Cambridge University Press Second Series, Vol.4 March 1957 pp. 10-18 Web www.jstor.com May 4, 2014

Cook, Jams Wyatt “The Civil War” Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature, New York: Facts on File. 2008 Bloom’s Literature Webb May 4, 2014

Cook, James Wyatt “Caesar, Julius” ” Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature, New York: Facts on File. 2008 Bloom’s Literature Webb May 4, 2014

Lodge, Gonzalez “Caesar, Cicero, and Pompey” The Classical Weekly, Vol. 13 March 8, 1920 pp 138-142 Web www.jstor.com May 4, 2014