Birth and first experiences
Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome on July 13, 100 BC from the noble gens Iulia, a patrician family that boasted a mythical descent from Iulo, son of the Trojan hero Aeneas, and therefore from Venus.
Caesar, nephew of Gaius Mario, married, very young, Cornelia, daughter of Lucio Cornelio Cinna, one of the leaders of the Marian party. This bond with a family notoriously aligned with the popular, in addition to the relationship with Gaius Mario, attracted the aversion of the senatorial oligarchy and Silla. He had to leave Rome, but returned after the death of Silla (78 BC) and began his career as a lawyer and politician along the different stages of cursus honorum.
The stages of Julius Caesar's cursus honorum
He was Quaestor in Spain in 68 B.C.; building in 65 B.C.; maximum pontiff in 63 B.C.; praetor in 62 B.C.; proprector in Further Spain in 61 B.C.
The First Triumvirate
In 60 B.C. Julius Caesar stipulated with Pompey and Crassus the so-called secret agreement of the First Triumvirate, with a view to the division of power (for further information read the First Triumvirate: Caesar, Pompey and Crassus).
Having become consul in 59 B.C. as a result of this pact, Julius Caesar passed, in addition to two agricultural laws in favour of Pompey's veterans, another law that recognized his work in Asia (and this in open contrast with the Senate).
In 58 B.C., in turn, supported by Pompey and Crassus, Julius Caesar obtained, for a period of five years, the proconsulate of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyrian, to which was added, shortly after, also the government of Narbonne Gaul.
Julius Caesar conquers Gaul
From 58 to 52 BC Julius Caesar completed the admirable work of conquest of all Gaul. He subjected the Celtic people to this action, presenting it as a defensive and preventive operation above all (For a more in-depth study, read Caesar's book on the conquest of Gaul).
He took as a pretext some encroachments of the Helvetians and other Germanic tribes and engaged his troops in a war that lasted seven years and that brought into the hands of Rome a very vast territory, rich in raw materials and slaves.
In this war Caesar revealed his exceptional military skills and was able to make the conquest of Gaul the basis of his political power in Rome, obtaining a strong and devout army and a glory higher than that of Pompey.
Breaking with Pompey
Pompey understood that Caesar's new prestige represented a danger for him: for this reason he sided with the senators. So, clinging to legal quibbles, Pompey and the Senate denied Caesar the consulate and while Caesar was preparing to return to Rome to claim the office, they ordered him to dissolve his army.
Civil War
Caesar, in response, on January 10, 49 BC crossed the sacred line of Pomerius, which Silla had drawn near the river Rubicon (near Rimini). While Caesar trampled on this impassable line with his army, he pronounced a famous phrase destined to go down in history: alea iacta est (the "die is cast").
In the meantime, a state of siege had been proclaimed in Rome. It was the civil war. (For more information read the Civil War of 49-45 BC. Caesar against Pompey).
In August 48 Julius Caesar defeated the senatorial army led by Pompey in Farsalo, Thessaly; later he stifled other outbreaks of Pompeian resistance in Africa (Battle of Tapso, 46 BC) and Spain (Battle of Munda, 45 BC).
Julius Caesar, master of Rome
Consul and dictator during the years of the civil war, dictator for life since 45 BC, Caesar assumed the highest offices of the State.
At the same time, he limited the power of the Senate and brought in many members from all walks of life; he curbed the interference and speculation of the knights; he helped the people with subsidies, the needy and the unfit for work, even with the possibility of occupation and settlement in colonies.
He took care of ensuring administrative justice in the provinces and improved their legal-political status, granting Latin citizenship (as to the inhabitants of Sicily) or Roman citizenship (as to the Cisalpine Gauls). But his program of balance and social justice had imposed renounces to the various classes and harmed disparate interests.
The Ides of March: the assassination of Julius Caesar
So on March 15, 44 B.C., shortly after his proclamation as dictator for life, Caesar was assassinated by a group of aristocrats of strong republican faith, concerned about autocratic tendencies and the inclinations towards royalty that he was showing. (For more information read the Ides of March).