Volta
Person100 BC – 44 BC

Julius Caesar

Also called: Gaius Julius Caesar

Statesman and general of the late Roman Republic who conquered Gaul, won the civil war and became dictator for life, and was assassinated in 44 BC

Though of patrician birth, he rose as a leader of the populares. His own account of the conquest, the Gallic War, is a model of Latin prose. During the civil war he placed Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt and announced a victory in Asia Minor with the words “I came, I saw, I conquered”. His Julian calendar, based on the Egyptian solar year, is the root of today’s Gregorian calendar. His name came to mean “emperor”, living on in the German Kaiser and the Russian tsar.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    60 BC – 44 BCCaesar’s Rise and Assassinationkey figure

    Having conquered Gaul, Caesar won a civil war and became dictator for life, but was assassinated in a meeting of the Senate on 15 March 44 BC by Brutus and others who sought to save the republic.

  2. 2
    48 BC – 47 BCCleopatra and Caesarcommander

    Caesar, pursuing Pompey to Alexandria, took the side of Cleopatra, who had been ousted in a struggle for the throne. After the Alexandrian War she regained the crown of Egypt.

Related works

  • Film: CleopatraDramatizedFilm · 1963 · Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • TV drama: RomeDramatizedTV drama · 2005 · Bruno Heller, John Milius, William J. MacDonald · HBO, BBC
  • Book: Commentaries on the Gallic WarBook · 50 BC · Julius Caesar · Commentarii de Bello Gallico
  • Book: Parallel LivesBook · 100 · Plutarch · Βίοι Παράλληλοι

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

People who appear alongside

  • Augustus63 BC – AD 14

    First Roman emperor (r. 27 BC – AD 14); as Octavian, Caesar’s adopted heir, he won at Actium and founded the principate

  • Cleopatra VII69 BC – 30 BC

    Last queen of Ptolemaic Egypt (r. 51–30 BC); she sought to preserve her kingdom through alliances with Caesar and Antony, but after defeat at Actium took her own life, and Egypt became a Roman province

Themes this person appears in

  • Greece and Rome2000 BC – AD 476

    From the Aegean civilisation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire — the classical civilisation built by the democracy of the polis and the Roman republic and empire