Biography of Julius Caesar by Krypto

So, you might have read Gwangi's historical fiction piece that we posted earlier, now, it's Krypto's turn to have his writing up on the blog. His assignment was to pick a Roman figure and write a 5 page biography of them. He picked Julius Caesar. He got extra books from the library, used his own History reading assignments, and looked a bit online for this paper's background and research. Several weeks of reading and note taking then turned into his paper.

Again, I haven't spent as much time this year with editing and reworking the boys' papers as I just haven't had the time, but all in all, I'm pretty proud of their independent work!

So, enjoy, Krypto's biography of Julius Caesar, from a bird's eye point of view -

Chapter 1: Nestling, childhood, and early years

Julius Caesar was born into a large and influential, though not exactly rich, family. His father, Gaius Caesar was a senator, and his aunt was one of the influential, highly respected, and very powerful religious, vestal virgins.

His family even managed to claim that they were the true descendants of Venus, the goddess of love, charisma, and beauty.  

Very little is known about Julius Caesar’s childhood, only that he had an average Roman education, in which he showed great talent. His childhood was probably like every other Roman child’s which is why we have so little information on it, nobody cared to write it down because of its normalness, which would have bored anyone who had read about it.

Even by an early age, Caesar had great power. His father died when he was 16, leaving him, by the Roman law, in charge of his huge family. He did a good job, giving a sense of what was to come with his great talent of leadership already coming into play.

By his late twenties, he had married. His wife’s name was Cornelia and it was a diplomatic marriage to stop the hostility between Caesar’s family and the family of Cornelia. During a bloody civil war they were on opposite sides. But even their marriage was not enough to keep the peace. When Sulla, Caesar’s enemy, won the civil war, Caesar had to flee from Rome, but could return when his aunt, the vestal virgin, intervened on his behalf.

He soon returned and got a job in politics, which he was very good at.

About this time two events happened which caused much chaos and allowed Caesar to go through the ranks from military tribune to Praetor rather quickly. This move allowed him to get elected into the senate and hold his position there.

The two events that caused such chaos were first a massive slave revolt, where thousands of slaves, led by a gladiator named Spartacus rampaged thru Rome. They then made a camp on a nearby mountaintop, where it took the Romans 6 months and 3 assaults to destroy them. The second was when an evil senator by the name of Catiline formed a conspiracy to take over the government, but it was discovered and stopped.

Chapter 2: Hawk, Early career

His early career was a busy one. Soon after being made military tribune both his wife and his aunt Julia (the vestal virgin) died within the same year. He was very sad and spent some time in mourning.

His first step up on the governmental career ladder was to Pontifus Maximus, the supreme high priest. He ran against Catiline (before the conspiracy was revealed) and won. He was in this role for a few years, but then climbed up again to be the Praetor of Spain, where he was governor and leader of all the local, loyal armies.

He did a remarkably good job. His first act was to start a war against the hundreds of bandit bands that lived in Spain, he carried the role well, and within 2 years Spain was bandit-free.

The people of Spain were very happy with his work, and even more so when he cancelled all their debts and then drastically changed the debting laws (which also helped him get out of his own personal debts) and when he left Spain he was incredibly popular.

He faced a challenge when he got back to Rome though. He wanted to run for consul, but he had received a triumph; a triumph was when a general did so well that he is lead thru the streets in a parade. The Senate had voted for Caesar to receive a triumph because of his victory while fighting the bandits. Unfortunately, there was only enough time to either run in the election or to have his triumph parade. He chose to run in the election.

The election was a brutal one, it was Caesar versus Cato the popular speaker and another two elder senators. Everyone but Caesar cheated during the election, with even the noble Cato bribing others to vote against Caesar. Caesar did win, but it was very close.

Caesar remarried, this time to a girl named Calipurnia, the daughter of a powerful senator. This was the first of many things he would do as consul to gain more power with the populous.

He also redistributed much of the government’s land to the poor, gave tons of food and wealth away, and built many public buildings. All of these popular actions gave him full public support. On the senatorial side, he made many alliances, the most powerful of which was when he, Pompey, and Crassius formed the first triumvirate.

The triumvirate was a team of three people who covered each other in areas where that person was weak. Together, they ruled all of Roman territory’s. Caesar came up with the idea in order to help himself get more power.

The members of the triumvirate were him, who had a large amount of the public support. A general named Pompey, who had the military’s support, and a senator by the name of Crassius. He had the wealth the others needed to fund the triumvirate.

The triumvirate was forged when Crassius and Pompey became friends, and then Pompey married Caesar’s daughter.

Caesar now had the power, and he was popular; it was time to make his move.

Chapter 3: Eagle, high career

Even though Caesar was very powerful, and very popular, he was still deeply in debt, and he saw the easiest way to get some money was to be governor of a rich, but not very stable province. He felt that if it was too stable, he wouldn’t gain any popularity by stabilizing it. He thought that Gaul was the best province at this time that fit his requirements. It was a wealthy area, a good trading point, and it was close to Rome, but it was also in a time of chaos. Horde after horde of Germanic tribes had swept through and destroyed everything, and those who survived took advantage of the chaos to revolt against Rome’s rule of law. Caesar, who was already popular in Rome, easily got himself elected as the governor of Gaul. He then sent his four available legions, plus two new ones he raised, to suppress the rebels. He even managed to defeat the northern Gaulish tribes, who had really never surrendered to Rome. He then led his troop to the nearby island of Britain and declared it a Roman province, much to the dismay of the inhabitants.

The put up a much better fight then the Gauls did, even Caesar had trouble with the local tribes, who were rebellious, good fighters, and many in number. In the end, Caesar had to be content with just the lower half of Britain, as he did not have the forces to fortify and maintain it all. 

Unfortunately, bad stuff was happening in Rome; the triumvirate was falling apart, mostly because Caesar’s daughter was dead, thus causing a rift between Caesar and Pompey. It didn’t help much that Caesar’s term of office as governor of Gaul was almost over.  He determined to rebuild his relationship with Pompey and managed to get himself elected for another 5 years; long enough to totally defeat the Gauls and Germanic tribes for a long time to come.

He even managed to write a seven volume-autobiography of his fighting in the Gallic Wars called, “The Gallic Wars.” While he may not off been very original in his is choice of title for his books, it was a very powerful work that interests readers even today. As long as you can read Latin, that is.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, Pompey was getting restless. He was afraid of Caesar now, afraid of how powerful and popular he was becoming. So afraid that he “jumped the gun”, took over Rome, declared himself a dictator, and exiled Caesar. Of course, Caesar did not like being exiled, he responded by taking his loyal men and marching them into Italy where one of the first Roman civil wars began.

In the manpower and equipment departments, the two sides were almost equal, with only a slight advantage to Pompey. What Pompey lacked was loyalty from his troops, youth, charisma, and a tactical brilliance.

These traits showed themselves in Caesar abundantly, and with every battle he won, more of Pompey troops deserted him and joined with Caesar. Pompey was close to despair, so when a major battle, where Caesar was trapped in a fortification with no naval support, was won unexpectedly by Caesar, Pompey lost all hope, he abandoned his troops, and fled to Egypt. Caesar chased him, but got there in time to be presented with Pompey’s head, given to him by the traitorous king of Egypt, who was having a civil war of his own.

An unexpected side effect of Caesar’s arrival was the stabilization of Egypt. Caesar decided to help the king’s older sister, the leader of the rebels, her name was Cleopatra. Over time, Caesar developed a romance with Cleopatra, which produced a son. Caesar and Cleopatra never officially married under Roman law.

This caused some tangles back in Rome, due to the fact Caesar had already named an heir, his nephew Octavian. Cleopatra wanted Caesar to change his will so that Caesarion, their son, would be in charge and be his heir. Caesarion’s name meant little Caesar. The people of Rome wanted a Roman born citizen, not an overseas queen and her son.

Caesar returned to Rome and waited a whole year before summoning Cleopatra to join him. He decided that changing his will would have to wait, because he, the Dictator for life, was going to be crowned king! Little did Cleopatra or anyone else know that this would be the most critical point in his life.

Chapter 4: Vulture, Death and afterwards

The senate was afraid of Caesar, afraid of what he could do. So when they heard he wanted to be king, they panicked and decided to kill him. They tricked him into believing they were really going to crown him, but they were in reality going to stab him to death. He was so surprised at how many of his friends were involved that he didn’t even try to fight back.

When they public found out about the murder, they were furious. They respected Caesar and were horrified that someone, even a senator, would try to kill him.  The army and some of Caesar’s friends had half of the senators involved in the plot killed, but some of the conspirators got away to be hunted down by the remaining good senators.

Due to the fact that Caesar died before he could change his will his nephew, Octavian, got all the wealth and power. Cleopatra retreated to Egypt, pretending to mourn, but in reality preparing her armies and navies for a civil war against Octavian.

The war took place several years later, with Octavian and Rome on one side, and Cleopatra, Egypt, and Marc Antony (who was one of Caesar’s generals who after Caesar’s death fell in love with Cleopatra) on the other side. Octavian won the war.

He then changed his name to Augustus, meaning “powerful one,” and declared him-self the first Roman emperor.

Caesar was a great man, who did great things.  He helped forge one of the most powerful, most feared, and longest lasting empires in history of earth. He was smart, handsome, and cheerful; his people and his soldiers loved him. He brought about a dominating and enduring dynasty, and every emperor after him took “Caesar” as a surname.  Is it any wonder he is remembered as one of the greatest people of all time?