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Who was Caesar? |
Born into a wealthy family, Caesar joined the military as a young man and became a talented commander, inspiring devotion in his soldiers and becoming extremely popular with the Roman people. He then decided to give politics a try and, because he was so well-liked, was soon elected into office.
Caesar was just as good at politics as he was at leading soldiers, which made the Roman Senate (a part of the government) nervous. They worried that maybe now he had too much power, and ordered him to hand over control of his army. Caesar refused to do so and instead marched right into Rome with his army to confront his enemies — in less than two months he had taken control of the city and declared himself dictator of all of Italy! Caesar ruled for five years before his enemies had finally had enough and, on March 15 44 BC, members of the Senate who thought he had become too power-hungry to be a good leader had him killed.
Though he was a dictator, Caesar was a revolutionary leader with many impressive achievements! He traveled all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and was a talented writer whose works are still read today! While in Rome he founded libraries and promoted the arts, rearranged the government to be more efficient, and gave the poor more rights. He even created a new calendar to better track time, which was the basis of the calendar we use now!
Did you know?
Julius Caesar was such a powerful man that, even after he died, his name has continued to live on. Various languages' word for "leader," such as kaiser in German, tsar in Russian, and qayṣar in Arabic, all stem from the word "Caesar," while the month of July was named for "Julius!"
Gaius Julius Caesar (Julius was his clan name or extended family name, Caesar was his family name like your last name.) was a roman general who lead successful military campaigns that expanded the roman republic, fought and won a civil war, took over the republic of Rome naming himself "dictator for life", and was assassinated by a group of senators on march 15 44 B.C. in Rome. His nephew Octavian, later became the first roman emperor who called himself Augustus. Today we know much about his life because he himself and others who lived in his time wrote a lot about what he did.
Later roman emperors admired him so much that they used "Caesar" as their title. Today there are words that come from "Caesar" that also mean ruler or boss such as "kaiser" "czar" and "tsar". Originally the name meant "hairy".
Gaius Julius Caesar (Julius was his clan name or extended family name, Caesar was his family name like your last name.) was a roman general who lead successful military campaigns that expanded the roman republic, fought and won a civil war, took over the republic of Rome naming himself "dictator for life", and was assassinated by a group of senators on march 15 44 B.C. in Rome. His nephew Octavian, later became the first roman emperor who called himself Augustus. Today we know much about his life because he himself and others who lived in his time wrote a lot about what he did.
Later roman emperors admired him so much that they used "Caesar" as their title. Today there are words that come from "Caesar" that also mean ruler or boss such as "kaiser" "czar" and "tsar". Originally the name meant "hairy".