Dominic Prentice

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was born on July 12th, 100 BC. When he was only 16 his father

had passed away but he remained close to his mother. Rome during his youth was

very unstable and did not seem like it was not able to handle its size and the many

cultural influences inside it. At around the time of his fathers death he married a

woman named Cornelia. The dictator at the time did not like a nobles daughter to

marry Caesar so he said to divorce his wife or all his belongings would be taken away,

but he refused and escaped through the military. After the death of Sulla, he returned

to Rome to begin his career in politics. Caesar at that time traveled many places to

study so he can become more successful and upon his arrival back to Rome he began

his work with Pompey. He served many key government positions under Pompey. He

experienced a tragedy when his wife Cornelia died in 69 BC. Eventually he remarried

Pompeia a distant relative to Pompey. Caesar continues his alliance with Pompey and

was elected as consul which was a very powerful government position. Caesar

eventually started to become allies with Crassus who was beginning to become an

intense rival to Pompey. But with Caesars brilliant negotiations he convinced them

that they would be better off as allies instead of enemies. This partnership became
known as the Triumvirate. An early controversial move was when Caesar paid off

some of Pompeys men to stage a riot. Not long after this Caesar secured the

governorship of Gaul allowing him to create a much larger army and proving to

everyone how much of a great leader Caesar really was. As he expanded his reach he

showed how ruthless he was towards his enemies. While Caesar was in Gaul he had

hired people to do his job politically on his behalf. Pompey then began to grow

envious of the power and prestige that Caesar was receiving. Then they all patched

things up at a conference in Luca. However, three years later Crassus was killed in

battle after this Pompey revisited old concerns about Caesar. Through series of events

Caesar went to war against Pompey and this made a civil war inevitable. But

Pompeys army was no match for Caesar and his army pushed them out of Rome and

into Egypt, where Pompey eventually is killed. While Caesar was there he married, a

woman named Cleopatra and had a son named Caesarion. When Caesar returned to

Rome he was made dictator for life and was said to be the Father of his Country. In

Egypt, Cleopatra had hoped that Caesar would name their son as his successor but

then he said his grandnephew Octavian would eventually become his successor as

dictator. But he also gave Cleopatra and her son a home in Rome and Caesar visited it

frequently. During Caesars time of rule, he impacted it in many ways. To relieve most

of Romes debt Caesar ordered that property must be accepted at its pre-war value,
made a law that states no person can hold more than 60,000 sesterces. These measures

did not really get rid of Romes debt but it really helped everyone in a way that

satisfied the lenders and the buyers. Caesar also had to deal with the amount of

unemployment in Rome, for this issue he offered for some people to go to overseas

colonies. The people who stayed in Rome lived off a monthly supply of free grain.

They suffered severely when Caesar cut the rations of grain in half. Overall Caesar

impacted the city in many positive ways and, he made a lot of public buildings. Even

doing this was a great thing because it created more jobs for the citizens of Rome.

Some of those buildings were a grand temple for mars, a theater that would rival

Pompeys, and a library that would rival Alexandrias. Although Caesar never saw any

of these projects completed because of his death in 44 BC. Even after Caesars death

he still impacted Rome in great ways for example he made all his property into a

public area and he gave each citizen some of his own wealth. Caesar tried his best to

make Rome a very cultural place and to attract doctors, intelligent people, and lawyers

to the city. Overall even though he sought the power of dictator you can see his

loyalty to Rome because of him trying so hard to make Rome a more stable place to

live and so that Rome would be known as one of the greatest civilizations of all time.
 Work Cited

1. http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/julius-caesar
2. http://www.biography.com/people/julius-caesar-9192504#synopsis
3. http://www.ancient.eu/Julius_Caesar/