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By far one of the most outstanding politicians and generals of the Roman age, Julius Caesar brought about the shift from Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. As an orator, he was recognized by Cicero himself. As a general he brought Roman control to Gaul, he subdued the German tribes for a generation, he marched on and into Rome with a single legion, and marched in triumphant. Through his own civil war, driven by his narcissism, Julius Caesar created an Empire.
Like all men, great and small, Gaius Julius Caesar was born and raised in the fashion of his own culture. Born on the 13th of July, 100 B.C.E., to a moderately successful patrician aristocrat and a plebian mother, his father did hold the praetorship he never attained the highest seat of consulship. This alone was not particularly impressive compared to the lineage of many other leading Romans of this period. Both arrogant of his intellect and vain about his appearance to the extreme, the young Caesar always strived to outdo the accomplishments of his father. (Encyclopedia of World Biography)
The political climate of Caesar’s youth was tremulous, a civil war brewing between one aristocratic party favoring, of course, aristocratic rule, and another calling for more power being shared with the larger plebian base. Marius, leading this popular party, was a relative of Caesar’s through marriage, and then Caesar himself cemented his alliance through marriage to the daughter of Marius’ ally Cinna, Cornelia. When Sulla marched his armies in to Rome in 88 B.C.E., he ordered the divorce of Caesar and his wife. Refusing, and thereby endangering his life and yet unrealized career, Caesar entered the Roman Army and as he did he entered into a period of hiding. As a young officer, he served and was decorated with high military honors for his bravery in Asia Minor. (Plutarch, EoWB)
Upon Sulla’s death in 77 (78) B.C.E., Caesar finally deemed it safe to return to Rome. Then to perfect his...