Julius Caesar ‘s Young Life

Julius Caesar was not Rome's first emperor , but his name still reins as it is a name that is remembered by the world to this day. Julius is a an exceptional role model in leadership. Throughout his fifty-six years of life, he has accomplished an astronomical amount of achievements, one of them is becoming the dictator of Rome. The four main milestones are his early life, becoming political, the civil war, and when he became the dictator of Rome.

It was said that son of Gaius and Aurelia Caesar, Julius, was born on July 12 or 13 on the year 100 BC in Subura, Rome. Julius had some advantages over his peers growing up. His dad gained moderate political success and the Caesar family had a long line of noble history, which inturned had the Caesar family form some entitlement to some traditional and or sacred privileges no other experiences on a daily basis. Despite the privileges he had growing up, he still had a normal education. Once he completed school, at the age of 25 he was abducted by Cicilian pirates in the Aegean sea. The pirates asked for a ransom of 20 talents of silver (approximately 620 kg of silver, or $600,000 in today's silver values), Caesar laughed at their faces. They didn't know who they had captured, he said, and demanded that they ask for 50 (1550 kg of silver, or $1,500,000), because 20 talents was simply not enough. Of Course they took his significant upgrade of an offer. It took Caesar's associates about 38 days to gather the money and take it to the pirates.

Meanwhile Caesar was left alone with two servants and a trusted individual to guard him. Caesar refused to cower and treated the ones responsible for maintaining supervision on him as if they were his own subordinance. He went as far as demanding that no one shall talk whenever he decided to sleep. To keep himself occupied, Caesar would write and make his poetry. He would often recite it to the pirates. Caesar also participated in games and exercises with the pirates, generally acting as if he wasn't a prisoner, but rather, their leader. The pirate quickly learned to respect Caesar and let him do more or less what he wanted on the island and ships. Even though Caesar was friendly to the pirates he announced to them that once the ransom was paid he would hunt them down and have them crucified. Once Caesar was released, the first thing he did was gather up some people to form a small fleet for his retaliation. The pirates did not take his threats seriously, so they chose to stay making it easy for Caesar to find them one more. Once he found them he took his 50 talents back, along with their belonging of the spoils that they could find on all of the ships. Caesar showed some leniency and cut their throats instead. That act alone shows compassion and mercy to not only his enemies, but also those who follow him in footsteps. It show that even though you have bad blood, there will always be respect especially with your enemies.

Becoming Political

Caesar was elected military tribune and, his wife Pompeia, a wealthy Optimate granddaughter of the Emperor Sulla. Rising now in prominence in Rome, Caesar had enough prestige to effectively support Gnaeus Pompeius (later known as Pompey the Great) for a generalship. During this time frame he established a friendship with Marcus Licinius Crassus, the wealthiest man in Rome. it is thought that Crassus helped fund Caesar's campaign in becoming Chief Priest (Pontifex Maximus) which he won in 63 BCE. he was elected a praetor in 62 BCE (lower than a councilman). Not long after, Julius Caesar form the first triumvirate. A triumvirate is a informal alliance between three leaders. In this case it was Gaius Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great), and Marcus Licinius Crassus between the years 60 BCE- 53 BCE. Whether one looks to the unification of Sparta and Athens against the Persians in the 5th century BCE or the allied forces of the Triple Entente in World War I, nations and individuals - even former enemies - have sought assistance for one reason or another to overcome a common foe.

Ancient Rome was no different. The brink of being in a civil war and an unstable Republic brought three superiors to set their differences aside and comfrom into an alliance and dominate the Roman government, to the point where they were controlling the elections for nearly a decade. One of the three would eventually rise above the other two and become dictator of Rome. His name was Julius Caesar. However that would be years down the road. The Roman Empire was so that each member of the triumvirate took charge of a province. Pompey was in charge of modern day Spain to modern day Southern modern day France. Julius Caesar was in charge of modern day Italy to modern day Croatia. Crassus was in charge of modern day Bulgaria to the other side of the Black Sea. Crassus was also in charge of the Army. In 53 BCE Crassus was in the battle of Carrhae and he was defeated by the Parthians. His death symbolized the death of the first triumvirate. Following these events a civil war sparked between Pompey and Caesar lasting 4 years 3 months and 7 days (Jan 10, 49 BCE - March 17, 45 BCE).

Dictatorship

After winning the Roman Civil war in 45 BCE he declared himself dictator, for a couple of months to give Rome time to reconstruct. After the time came he wanted to extend his throne. He managed to extend his rule for a year. Once the year mark hit, he basically said, since i've been dictator for this long might as well make me dictator for life. That made the Roman Republic controversial. The Romans believed in the republic and not a king. No only were the citizens mad at this decision, but politicians were especially fearful. They thought that Caesar had a plan to overthrow the Senate and make the Roman Republic a totalitarian government. In fear of losing control of the government, they senators took it upon themselves to assassinate the dictator of the Roman Republic by stabbing him 23 adjacent to the Pompey Theatre. Unfortunately Julius Caesar died on March 15 on the year 44 BCE. The significance of his name is still prevalent in 2018 as it was back in 44 BCE. not only were his accomplishments uniquely conquered, but it took great courage to foresee them.

Works Cited:

https://www.ancient.eu/First_Triumvirate/

https://web.archive.org/web/20170402081306/https://piavindex.wordpress.com/2017

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/caesar_julius.shtml

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler

/04/01/caesar-courage-and-charisma/

https://www.livius.org/articles/person/caesar/

https://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caesar.html

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