Caesar

NPC Description

Type: Merchant

Beyond Atlantica, history and legend:

Gaius Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 B.C.E. – March 15, 44 B.C.E.) was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he was also responsible for the first Roman invasion of Britannia (Great Britain), in 55 B.C.E. Caesar is widely considered to be one of the foremost military geniuses of all time, as well as a brilliant politician and one of the ancient world's strongest leaders. In 42 B.C.E., two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified him as one of the Roman deities.

Caesar fought in a civil war that left him undisputed master of the Roman world, and after assuming control of the government began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. Ironically, this forced the hand of a friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, who then conspired with others to murder the great dictator and restore the Republic. This dramatic assassination on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 B.C.E. sparked a new civil war in Rome. However, he also extended Roman Citizenship to all within the Empire, introduced reforms that protected marriage by making adultery a punishable offense, reduced the national debt, and showed genuine concern for the welfare of ordinary Romans.

Caesar's military campaigns are known in detail from his own written Commentaries (Commentarii), and many details of his life are recorded by later historians, such as Appian, Suetonius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio, and Strabo. Other information can be gleaned from other contemporary sources, such as the letters and speeches of Caesar's political rival Cicero, the poetry of Catullus, and the writings of the historian Sallust.

Source: New World Encyclopedia