His increasing power and great ambition agitated many senators who feared Caesar aspired to be king. In 44 B.C., Caesar declared himself dictator for life. He also granted citizenship to foreigners living within the Roman Republic.

At the same time, he sponsored the building of the Forum Iulium and rebuilt two city-states, Carthage and Corinth. He wielded his power to enlarge the senate, created needed government reforms, and decreased Rome’s debt. Returning to Italy, Caesar consolidated his power and made himself dictator. This sparked a civil war between Caesar’s forces and forces of his chief rival for power, Pompey, from which Caesar emerged victorious. When his rivals in Rome demanded he return as a private citizen, he used these riches to support his army and marched them across the Rubicon River, crossing from Gaul into Italy. Throughout his eight-year governorship, he increased his military power and, more importantly, acquired plunder from Gaul. His Roman troops conquered Gallic tribes by exploiting tribal rivalries. Regardless of the legitimacy of the original treason charge, the tribunes had vetoed, and the disregard for the law involved in violating the tribunes' sacrosanctity, the moment Caesar stepped across the Rubicon river, he had, in legal fact, committed treason. Returning to Rome, he formed political alliances that helped him become governor of Gaul, an area that included what is now France and Belgium. Julius Caesar returned to Rome with his army. Seizing the opportunity, Caesar advanced in the political system and briefly became governor of Spain, a Roman province. During his youth, the Roman Republic was in chaos. Caesar is one of the most famous and easily recognized names in the history of ancient Rome, both due to his remarkable career, and his shocking. Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, a rule that lasted less than one year before he was famously assassinated by political rivals in 44 B.C.Ĭaesar was born on July 12 or 13 in 100 B.C. Gaius Julius Caesar (12 July 100 BC 15 March 44 BC) was an important Roman general and politician who played a crucial role in the fall of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire.

Julius caesar