Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar is one of the most famous names in all of history, a general, statesman and writer whose life reshaped Rome and whose death changed it again. He conquered Gaul, seized power in a civil war, and was struck down at the height of it, leaving a republic that would never come back.

A Roman on the rise

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome in 100 BC¹ into an old but not especially powerful patrician family. He climbed the ladder of Roman politics through talent, charm, borrowed money and daring, tying himself to the general Pompey and the financier Crassus in an informal alliance that dominated the Republic. To win the wealth and glory he needed, he took command in Gaul.

The conquest of Gaul

Between 58 and 50 BC Caesar conquered the whole of Gaul², modern France and beyond, in a series of hard campaigns he recorded himself in his famous Commentaries. The climax came in 52 BC at Alesia, where he trapped the Gallic leader Vercingetorix behind a double ring of siege walls³, beat off a huge relief army, and forced his surrender. Gaul was Roman, and Caesar commanded a battle-hardened, devoted army.

Crossing the Rubicon

His success frightened his rivals in Rome, and in 49 BC, ordered to give up his army¹, Caesar instead led it across the river Rubicon into Italy, an act of open civil war. He beat Pompey decisively at Pharsalus in 48 BC and pursued his enemies across the Mediterranean.¹ It was after a swift victory in the east that he sent his famous report⁴: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

The Ides of March

Victorious, Caesar was made dictator and set about reforming the state, even reshaping the calendar into a form we still use. But his growing power convinced a group of senators that he meant to become king. On 15 March 44 BC, the Ides of March, they stabbed him to death in the Senate.² His murder did not save the Republic; it destroyed it, opening the wars from which his heir Octavian emerged as Augustus, the first emperor.

Meet the others in the greatest military commanders in history, or read his defining victory in full at the Battle of Alesia.

Why Caesar won

Caesar combined a first-class army, relentless speed and a politician's grasp of loyalty and image.

• Speed above all. He marched faster than enemies believed possible, arriving before they were ready, a habit that decided campaigns from Gaul to Greece.
• Siegecraft at Alesia. To trap Vercingetorix he built two rings of fortifications, one facing in and one facing out, and beat both the trapped army and the relief force.
• Share the soldiers' risk. He knew his men, fought among them and rewarded them well, which bought an army fiercely loyal to him rather than to the Senate.
• Clemency as a tool. He famously spared many defeated enemies, winning support and dividing his opponents, though it may in the end have cost him his life.
• Control the story. His own accounts of the Gallic and civil wars shaped how Rome, and history, saw him.
• Strike decisively. At the Rubicon and at Pharsalus he staked everything on bold, timely action rather than caution.

Words that became Latin proverbs

Two of his lines, reported by Roman writers, are still quoted today.

From Gaul to the Ides of March

1. 100 BCBorn in Rome into the patrician Julian family, which claimed descent from the goddess Venus.
2. 58 to 50 BCConquers Gaul in a series of campaigns, hugely expanding Roman territory and his own fame and wealth.
3. 52 BCDefeats the Gallic leader Vercingetorix at the siege of Alesia, his masterpiece.
4. 49 BCCrosses the river Rubicon with his army, an act of war against the Senate that begins civil war.
5. 48 BCDefeats his rival Pompey at Pharsalus in Greece.
6. 47 BCWins a lightning victory at Zela and reports it as I came, I saw, I conquered.
7. 44 BCMade dictator for life, he is assassinated by a group of senators⁶ on the Ides of March, 15 March.

The general who broke the Republic

Caesar's conquest of Gaul made him the most powerful man in Rome and alarmed his rivals in the Senate. When they ordered him to give up his army, he crossed the Rubicon instead and won the civil war that followed, ending centuries of the Roman Republic in all but name.

See how his generalship compares in our guide to the greatest military commanders in history.

The Ides of March and after

Fearing he meant to make himself king, a group of senators including Brutus and Cassius stabbed Caesar to death on 15 March 44 BC. Instead of restoring the Republic, his murder triggered new civil wars that ended with his adopted heir Octavian becoming Augustus, Rome's first emperor. Even the calendar much of the world used for centuries descends from his reforms.

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