Julius Caesar

Paavo Kivikoski
February 6, 2019
 Cultural Studies S02/Writing E06
Mr. O'Connell/Ms. Correa

How many people can say that they’ve been captured by pirates, yet managed to escape?

Not many, but Julius Caesar is one of them. Julius Caesar was the person who transformed Rome

from a republic into an empire. Although a hateable person, Julius Caesar was a very efficient

and smart leader. Targeted by many, Caesar stayed smart and tactical to finally be known as the

most efficient leader the world has ever seen. This is his story.

Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar was born on July 12th, 100 BC in Rome. His

father, also Gaius Julius Caesar, was a Roman senator who Julius looked up to in his early years.

His mother’s name was Aurelia Cotta. Not much was known about her, other than that Julius and

her had a great relationship. Julius attended school around Rome and Rhodes, and after he

finished school, he became an officer in Asia Minor, a part of land that is Turkey today. In 84

BC, Julius married Cornelia. He lived peacefully for nine years until in 75 BC, when a group of

Cicilian pirates captured and held Julius hostage during his travel across the Mediterranean Sea

(The Time Julius Caesar Was Captured by Pirates). The pirates used an inexperienced technique

that included them leaving Caesar free to do what he wished, which led to him ruling them

around. 38 days later he was freed and brought back to Asia Minor while the pirates had their
throats cut open and some were even crucified. He worked as an officer until 62 BC, before he

was promoted to a praetor, a Roman official. They were ranked slightly higher than officials

from Asia Minor. He worked for only three years, before many people realized how efficient and

powerful of a leader he was. Due to this, he was finally promoted to the head consul of Rome in

59 BC. Not only was he in charge of many people, but he also had power of Rome. Caesar later

signed an alignment with Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Both were officials and

politicians. They became known as First Triumvirate (Mark). Some years later, Caesar started an

expedition against Britain. He left Rome, which led to chaos. Without Caesar’s leadership, or

dictatorship, as many called it, Rome looked like a horrible place. Clodius, a Roman politician,

was murdered during the chaos. When Julius returned to Rome, he had two choices. He could

either start a civil war or have the Senate shut down and be hated significantly over all lands.

Caesar took the logical solution and started war. Over the years of the war, Julius conquered

Gaul, but wanted to make sure he caught Pompey, who had ran away to Egypt. As Julius

followed Pompey to Egypt, he met Cleopatra, one of the rulers of Egypt, and built a strong

relationship with her. Julius caught Pompey and finally eliminated his enemy. Caesar and

Cleopatra later got married and Cleopatra gave birth to Caesarion. When Caesar returned back to

Rome, the Senate was unhappy with his laws and actions and therefore, they created a plan to

replace him in the Senate. On March 15, 44 BC Julius Caesar was “stabbed 23 times” (The ides

of March: Julius Caesar is Murdered) by his own Senate. Only one of these stabs was lethal, but

Julius was later confirmed dead. Caesar’s last words were ‘et tu Brute’, which translates to ‘you

too, Brutus’. Brutus was another Roman politician that took part in Caesar’s assassination. There

is no doubt, many believed that he was the best and most efficient leader, but him getting

betrayed by his own Senate could mean that he was very hated.
 Julius Caesar had many life experiences, but three of them were the most important.

These events taught him important ideas that got him to reach the dominance he was once at.

One important event that Julius experienced was when his father died. He died of natural causes.

Although a sad moment for all of his family, this taught him responsibility and leadership.

Before his father’s death, Julius made a promise that he would take care and be head of their

family once his father died. That is exactly what he did. He took great care of his mother and

made critical decisions without his father. This prepared him for his important roles as a consul

and leader of Rome. This experience built him to be a productive leader. Another experience

which was important to Julius was when he was captured by pirates. Now looking back we all

know that Julius Caesar was hated by many, but the pirates basically taught him how to handle

stressful and dangerous situations. Caesar, in this case handled the situation very well, since he

was able to escape. This proved how powerful he really was. The last experience that affected

Julius Caesar significantly was when he decided to begin the civil war. After this point, no matter

what, he was targeted by many other leaders and was in a lot of danger overall. At that point, he

could not trust anyone, nor could be he trusted because many people lost their lives during the

time of the civil war. This could have been a big lead to him being betrayed and killed by his

own senate.

Julius Caesar was respected and disliked by many. Most of his relationships were

positive, but he also had some rivals and enemies that he had negative relationships with. Mark

Anthony, a Roman politician, was a good friend of Caesar. Anthony and Caesar signed an

alliance and had similar political thoughts which led them to work together (Julius Caesar).

Anthony was extremely loyal to Julius; when many tried to convince him to help them murder

Julius, he ignored them and stayed loyal. Anthony did end up committing suicide, which was a
very devastating moment of Caesar’s life. On the other hand, Brutus and Julius had a very

interesting relationship. Brutus and Caesar were very close, until they fought against each other

in the Civil War. Brutus surrendered, but instead of Caesar punishing him, he decided to give

him a chance to live. Members of the Senate later convinced Brutus that Julius was turning into a

tyrant, which is why he took part in Ides of March, or Julius Caesar’s murder. The last, and one

of Caesar’s best relationships was with Cassius. Years before Cassius had saved Julius from

drowning, which reminded him how much he appreciated him. Caesar also felt safe and trusted

when around Cassius, which made them have a very strong connection. Over the years Cassius

grew jealous of Caesar’s fame and dominance, which led to Cassius being the “prime mover in

conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar in 44 BC” (The ides of March: Julius Caesar is

Murdered). Caesar had many small relationships, but the ones mentioned were the three most

important to his life and leadership.

Many people nowadays have questioned what Julius’ personality was really like, but

there are some opinions that seem accurate for the kind of acts and decisions of Julius Caesar.

Firstly, he was incredibly smart. Many claim he was the one to turn Rome into an empire, which

makes sense. When he was in power, Rome became feared which led to their dominance. He was

able to accomplish so many things in a short time period that many leaders couldn’t have. He

also came up with the imperial system, which would take a long time to come up with for

someone ancient like Caesar. He was able to think logically and base his units out of ten and 100.

Julius Caesar was also caring, especially for his own people. For example, people who had

attacked Rome, he made sure they were punished. Although many Romans believed that Julius

was a brilliant and smart leader, he was also hated across many countries and other parts of the

world. Some hated Julius because of his success, while others thought he treated people poorly.
He was known for being demanding, and giving people “a taste of their own medicine” (Mark).

For example with the pirates he was captured by, he made sure they were punished and killed.

This could have been an example of treating people unfairly, but the pirates basically did it to

themselves by capturing a brilliant young man.

Although it is debatable whether Julius was a horrible person or not, one thing we know

for sure is that he was a significant figure to not just Rome, but the entire world and its

development. Ancient and modern leaders look up to his style of leadership and follow his path,

hopeful to have found the success he had when he had power over Rome. Julius Caesar

committed acts that were crucial to his leadership and keeping his people safe. When he decided

to start a civil war, he got targeted by people from Rome, even his own senate. He understood

that many were upset, which is why he made an action to hopefully win his Romans back.

Before the attack from Gaul, Julius was already preparing for an attack, as it was ought to come.

He prepared well and managed to stop the attack, leaving Gaul embarrassed. To keep Rome safe,

he later conquered Gaul to stop any future attacks from them. Another act he committed to help

later generations was becoming a writer and journalist. He documented experiences such as the

attack and conquering of Gaul to show people his perspective on how to handle things tactically.

An example of one of his writing pieces is a book called The Gallic Wars. This book shares his

and others’ points of view of the huge civil war between Rome and Gaul.

Caesar’s influence to others was a huge part of his life. He helped, inspired, and was very

significant to many people who look or looked up to him. A significant detail that has been

passed on for generations is how he was “the greatest military leader in the world” as many

called him. Julius Caesar was a natural born leader, in fact he became the leader of his family at

the age of 16. He made crucial decisions in the military to keep Romans and himself safe.
Another example of his significance is his idea and invention of the imperial system. Without the

imperial system today, who knows where we would be today? The idea was brilliant because

Julius based the system around hundreds. An example would be 100 centimeters is one meter

and 1000 meters is one kilometer and etc. This system is the most important system in the world

today, in fact the only countries in the world that don’t use this system are the US and Liberia.

This is a huge part of the world today, and Caesar was the one who created it. Julius Caesar is

someone who is very famous around the world, especially around Rome and Italy, but why? One

of the reasons that Julius is so well known is how he lifted Rome into an empire. After Caesar

had done this, other nations and countries noticed their dominance and backed off from them.

Rome was also aware of this change and felt safer, as no country was looking to attack Rome.

This helped Rome a lot, and lowered other countries’ confidence levels.

Julius Caesar was a great influence to who had any relations to him, including all

Romans. He treated everyone equally, and for people in need, he offered money and jobs. This

gave Romans confidence and power. One drastic change which happened when Caesar was in

power was the economy. He conquered places like Gaul to earn resources, money, and valuable

farming land. He also formed Rome into an empire from what had recently been an unsuccessful

republic. The Romans used a smart way of fighting in battles. Julius Caesar created a formation

called the phalanx formation. It would include gathering in a rectangular formation and using

weaponry such as shields, knifes, spheres, etc. This is a famous formation that was taken on for

loads of time and was used frequently until gunpowder and automatic weapons were invented.

No doubt Julius Caesar was an intelligent person. No doubt he was a hateable person.

These opinions are not as important as the fact that he was efficient. He invented a measurement

system that is used by billions of people today; Julius Caesar was created a leader from his
youth, up until his assassination. All of these details were added up to make one of the most

efficient and greatest leaders of all time.

Works Cited

Abbott, Jacob. Julius Caesar. Moscow, Canon Press, 1849.

Caesar, Julius. The Gallic Wars. Rome, Julius Caesar, ND.

Harris, Ray. “The Life of the Caesars.” Life of Caesar, 2019, www.notablebiographies.com

/Br-Ca/Caesar-Julius.html#b. Accessed January 21st, 2019.

“Julius Caesar (100 BC-44 BC).” BBC, 2004, www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cae

sar_julius.shtml. Accessed January 18th, 2019.

Mark, Joshua. “Julius Caesar.” Ancient History, www.ancient.eu/Julius_Caesar/. Accessed

 on January 18th, 2019.

Ricketts, Colin. “The Life of Julius Caesar in 55 Facts.” HISTORYHIT, July 24th, 2018, www

.historyhit.com/the-life-of-julius-caesar-in-55-facts/. Accessed on January 19th, 2018.

“The Ides of March: Julius Caesar is Murdered.” HISTORY, Updated December 13th, 2018,

www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-ides-of-march-julius-caesar-is-murdered.

Accessed on January 18th, 2019.

Toynbee, Arnold. “Julius Caesar.” Britannica, January 23rd, 2018, www.britannica.com

/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler. Accessed on January 20th, 2019.