Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman whose dictatorship was pivotal in Rome's transition from republic to empire. When he was young Caesar lived through one of the most horrifying decades in the history of the city of Rome. The city was assaulted twice and captured by Roman armies, first in 87 BC by the leaders of the populares, his uncle Marius and Cinna. Cinna was killed the year that Caesar had married Cinna's daughter Cornelia. The second attack upon the city was carried our by Marius' enemy Sulla, leader of the op

In the Roman political world of the sixties the dominance of the optimates was challenged by Pompey and Crassus. The optimates, led by Quintus Lutatius Catulus and Lucius Licinius Lucullus , were chiefly men whose careers had been made by Sulla. Pompey and Crassus were consuls in 70 BC and had rescinded the most offensively reactionary measures of Sulla's legislation. During Pompey's absence from 67 to 62 BC during his campaigns against the Mediterranean pirates, Mithridates, and Crassus, his jealous rival. Caesar married Ponpeia after Cornelia's death and was appointed aedile in 65 BC As aedile , Caesar returned to Marius' trophies to their former place of honor in the Capitol, thus laying claim to leadership of the populares.

Caesar had avoided recall to Rome at the end of the five years of command voted to him by coming to a fresh agreement with Pompey and Crassus at Luca. The optimates in control of the senate, now awake to the immense increase in Caesar's personal power, wealth, and prestige, kept Pompey in Italy, allowing him to govern his Spanish provinces by deputies. Pompey's own attachment to Caesar was broken when Caesar's daughter Julia to whom Pompey had been happily married since 59 BC died in 54 BC Crassus was killed by the Parthians at Carrhae in Mesopotamia. In planning Caesar's return to civil life in Rome he could assume that as soon as he lost the immunity from prosecution which his military command conferred, his political enemies would endeavor to secure his exile by prosecuting him in the courts either for bribery or for the use of force in politics. In Rome there was support in the senate for a negotiated compromise when Curio put forth the proposal by which Caesar would give up his military command and stand in person at the consular election on condition that Pompey abandon his military command at the same time. On January 7, 49 BC Antony and one of his fellow tribunes were warned that their lives would be in danger if they sustained their veto and the proclamation of military law was passed. Caesar was told to leave his troops behind and cross the Rubicon into Rome alone. Caesar knew that this was a death sentence for him so he did not leave his troops but marched into the city and caused a civil war. He defeated Pompey's troops in many battles and became the dictator of Rome.

timates, in 82 BC on the latter's return from the East. On each occasion the massacre of political opponents was followed by the confiscation of their property. The proscriptions of Sulla, which preceded the reactionary political legislation enacted during his dictatorship left a particularly bitter memory that long survived.

When Caesar was a praetor, he supported a tribune who wanted Pompey recalled to restore order in Rome. As a result, Caesar was suspended from office for a period and antagonized Catulus. Before leaving Rome to govern Further Spain for a year, Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia because of the allegation that she had been implicated in the of

Some common words found in the essay are:
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