Julius Caesar

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Gaius Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a military leader and politician of the Roman Republic in very early times.

Caesar first took power with two other politicians, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) and Marcus Licinius Crassus. These three men ruled Rome and were called the Triumvirate. With their agreement, Caesar became the governor of Gallia. Gallia is the area which is today North Italy, Switzerland, and France. Caesar was leader during the Gallic War, which was fought between the Gallic people and German people, who wanted to live in Gallia. Caesar wrote about this eight-year war in his book De Bello Galico ("On the Gallic Wars"). This book was written in the Latin language, and is an early history book. Many people think it has the first geographic description of France.

When his time as the governor of Gallia was almost finished, Caesar thought he should return to Rome as soon as possible, or his enemies in the Senate, a group of other important Roman men, would stop him. He and his army entered Rome and took power. This caused a civil war, but in the end Julius Caesar won and became almost a king, a dictator.

Before this time Rome had been a republic, that is, it did not have a king but was ruled by men who had permission from the Senate. Some Romans did not want a king to rule Rome. They were not happy that Caesar had so much power. On the Ides of March - meaning the middle of that month - March 15 44 BC, Caesar was called to the Senate and was killed by a group of people including some Senators who had been his good friends before.

This led to another civil war, which was finally won by an army led by friends of Julius Caeser, including Octavian the son of Caesar's niece. Julius Caesar had been liked very much by the people of Rome who were now unhappy about the wars and deaths. After this, the Roman republic was no more. People wanted a king, perhaps to make things safer. Octavian became the first Roman emperor and took the name Caesar Augustus. Later Roman emperors also used Caesar as their title.

Caesar married three Roman women during his life and had one child called Julia. Caesar travelled to Egypt and met Queen Cleopatra. They fell in love and may have had a son named Caesarion. They could not marry according to the Roman Law. When Caesar died, without any legal children (Julia died in 54 BC), his niece's son, Octavian became his heir. This means Octavian got all the things that Julius Caesar owned, making him very rich.

The Roman empire and its emperors were so important in history that the word Caesar was used as a title in some European countries to mean emperor, even long after the Roman empire was gone. For example, Germany's king was called a Kaiser up to the year 1919 CE and Russia's king was called a Tsar until the year 1917 CE.

In the year 1599 CE, William Shakespeare wrote a drama Julius Caesar about the death of Caesar and what happened next. He told a story of how it may have happened, that a man's good friend helped people to kill him. This type of drama is called a tragedy, that is, a story where sad or bad things happen.