Caesar drove Pompey out of Italy and chased him to Greece. Pompey fled to Egypt, but he was betrayed and killed when he came ashore. As Caesar pursued Pompey loyalists in North Africa, he became politically and romantically entangled with the queen Cleopatra and had a son with her named Caesarion. Caesar returned, triumphant, to Rome in 46 B. As ruler, he enacted several beneficial measures for Rome. He increased the size of the Senate for broader participation and opened citizenship to more foreigners.
He also was magnanimous to his opponents, including Marcus Junius Brutus, a supporter of Pompey. When he declared himself dictator for life in 45 B. On the Ides of March March 15 , 44 B. Though the conspirators eliminated Caesar himself, they neither thwarted his plans nor saved the republic. The Senate posthumously granted him the title Divine Julius, making him the first historical Roman to be deified. All rights reserved.
Culture Reference. Who was Julius Caesar? After his ransom was paid, the pirates let him go. But Caesar hired a private fleet to hunt them down and had the pirates crucified for their crimes.
Caesar soon began his political career in earnest. He became military tribune and then quaestor of a Roman province in 69 B. In 67 B. In 65 B. Two years later, he was elected Pontifex Maximus.
Caesar divorced Pompeia in 62 B. One year later, Caesar became governor of Spain. A series of successful military and political maneuvers, along with the support of Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus known as the richest man in Rome , helped Caesar get elected as senior Roman consul in 59 B. The union terrified the Roman Senate who knew that a partnership between three such powerful men would prove unstoppable.
They were right, and the triumvirate soon controlled Rome. Caesar was appointed governor of the vast region of Gaul north-central Europe in 58 B. During the subsequent Gallic Wars, Caesar conducted a series of brilliant campaigns to conquer and stabilize the region, earning a reputation as a formidable and ruthless military leader. But his great successes in the region caused Pompey to resent him and complicated the already-strained relationship between Pompey and Crassus. As Caesar conquered Gaul, the political situation in Rome became increasingly volatile, with Pompey its lone consul.
Caesar refused and, in a bold and decisive maneuver, directed his army to cross the Rubicon River into Italy, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of Pompey. Caesar and his armies pursued Pompey to Spain, Greece and, finally, Egypt.
Caesar soon found himself in the middle of a civil war between Ptolemy and his Egyptian co-regent Cleopatra. Three years later, however, Crassus was killed in a battle in Syria.
Around this time, Pompey—his old suspicions about Caesar's rise reignited—commanded that Caesar disband his army and return to Rome as a private citizen. Rather than submit to Pompey's command, on January 10, 49 B.
As Pompey further aligned himself with nobility, who increasingly saw Caesar as a national threat, civil war between the two leaders proved to be inevitable. Pompey fled Rome and eventually landed in Greece, where his troops were defeated by Caesar's legions. By late 48 B. The Egyptians, however, knew of Pompey's defeats and believed the gods favored Caesar: Pompey was assassinated as soon as he stepped ashore in Egypt. Caesar claimed to be outraged over Pompey's murder. After having Pompey's assassins put to death, he met with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.
Caesar and Cleopatra forged an alliance and a sexual relationship that ousted her brother and co-regent, Ptolemy XIII, and placed Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt. A skilled political tactician, she and her son by Caesar, Caesarion, proved instrumental in international affairs for years, culminating in her liaison with Roman general Mark Antony.
Upon his triumphant return to Rome, Caesar was hailed as the father of his country and made dictator for life. Caesar greatly transformed the empire, relieving debt and reforming the Senate by increasing its size and opening it up so that it better represented all Romans. He altered the Roman calendar and reorganized the construction of local government. Caesar also resurrected two city-states, Carthage and Corinth, which had been destroyed by his predecessors. And he granted citizenship to a number of foreigners.
A benevolent victor, Caesar even invited some of his defeated rivals to join him in the government. At the same time, Caesar was also careful to solidify his power and rule.
He stuffed the Senate with allies and required it to grant him honors and titles. He spoke first at assembly meetings, and Roman coins bore his face. While Caesar's reforms greatly enhanced his standing with Rome's lower- and middle-class populations, his increasing power was met with envy, concern and angst in the Roman Senate. A number of politicians saw Caesar as an aspiring king. And Romans had no desire for monarchical rule: Legend has it that it had been five centuries since they'd last allowed a king to rule them.
Caesar's inclusion of former Roman enemies in the government helped seal his downfall. Caesar was assassinated by political rivals on the Ides of March March 15th , 44 B. Pompey, their leader, fled to Egypt where he was assassinated. Caesar followed him and became romantically involved with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra. Caesar was now master of Rome and made himself consul and dictator.
He used his power to carry out much-needed reform, relieving debt, enlarging the senate, building the Forum Iulium and revising the calendar. Dictatorship was always regarded a temporary position but in 44 BC, Caesar took it for life.
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