Julius Caesar Biography - Essay Example

Julius Caesar Biography Whenever we look into history, we come across many characters and personalities who leave a strong mark on our memory. Such figures make a strong impact through their actions and wisdom .While some are naturally gifted, others through their efforts and sapience make it to the books of history and are being long remembered ages after they have spent their time in this world .Julius Caesar was one of those personalities who is being remembered and versed even centuries after he has left the world. The study of life of Julius Caesar and events related to it is important in many ways. It can be a leading lesson in more than one ways. It gives us an insight in to the life of a genius yet flawed personality .Julius Caesar was more than a name and an individual, he was an icon, an emblem of struggle, guidance, deterrence, determination, bravery, and wit .Hence it was just one soul that contained all these characteristics. Whatever he achieved in his life were rightly deserved. Amidst all this, it can be safely said, that geniuses at times have a flaw in them, which leads to their downfall and doom. Julius Caesar lived to this category and matched it to perfection. During his life, he managed to attain those heights which many others together could not manage doing so. His life was full of events. He made his way out of trouble and tough times and earned himself the name of being one of the best rulers of his time. Marcus Tullius Cicero the great orator who lived in the same era quite rightly defined Julius Caesar “A realist by his fingertips, not led astray by ideals or ideologies. He was not afraid to temporarily grovel”. (BookRags). Lucan Bellum while defining and writing about Julius Caesar stated that he was more than a name and a figure represented by the military affiliation .He never felt void of energy yet his one flaw was to believe that war could be won without fighting it .He was stern , alert to every call and every battle ,arms in action, always used the sword to the might, never gave up on the success journey ,considered it as an unending journey and followed every success with pursuit of another and through valor and might approached any hurdle that stood in his way “,Lucan, Bellum Civile(McDermott, pg 360) Julius Caesar was born in a family representing a humble background .His childhood days were mostly spent in the neighborhood of Rome .It would not be wrong to say that the political events of unrest taking place in the background of his childhood, left an impact on his mind and guided him taking an inspiration from the unrest and followed the ways in same manner later in his life .Childhood was spent in rough pattern and the entire family found it difficult making both ends meet. This was brought up by various reasons, one of them being the civil war in those days that was going on in the surroundings. Teenage life was one of the toughest times in his life where he was totally broke. While he was still in his teen age, things took turn for the better when he joined the Army and spent some time there. He started showing his abilities soon after and in the battle against Rome he performed above his abilities and saved number of his companions in the battle field. From here on, his life kept taking turns and events kept occurring during his life. In 80 B.C he earned himself the civil crown during the capture of Mytilene (Caesar and Kennedy) .Later on he went on to achieve the distinction of becoming the military tribune. The journey of success continued in various forms of promotion through the ranks till he became the all superior and top ranked. His personal life was never stable and from the beginning kept shifting between dark and light color. Got married at early age yet things were not smooth on this front .The wife was from a rich background and she by chance happened to belong to the family that was in opposition to the then rules, hence his personal peace and marriage landed in the hands of political intrigues and personal enmities and he had to take refuge because of that. An interesting incident took place when he was being imprisoned during one of the battles in 75 B.C .For his release the captives demanded 20 talents in return , he insisted on increasing it to 50 talents .This shows the kind of confidence and self belief the man had in himself . He saw it in himself and was always in command of even the tough times ones like these where he was the prisoner (Colegrove and Colegrove, pg 15). He had warned his captives of dare consequences because they had taken him captive, and standing by his word, he punished them all later on. Julius Caesar grew in stature every growing day and gained confidence over every incidence. He was never afraid of the situation and faced even the most unwelcoming conditions with an open heart and made his way out of the toughest. He was the man of his word and it can deducted from the event of First Triumvirate where he acted to his words and stood by his statements .His honesty earned him another achievement in form of “proconsul of Gaul”. Being the ruler of aggressive nature he was, it can be said that he had a lot of bloodshed from his hands during his days of power and reign. Julius Caesar ranked himself as the most gifted and most noble that was there in those days. While the Romans and their history had only their forefathers and the deceased stamped on their coins, Julius Caesar during his life time put his own picture on the coin of those days.. His life is full of events where he showed true character in terms of gallantry. Success does not come without conditions and obstacles. Julius Caesar went through all this and made it to the day where he stood as the great figure in front of the world. Besides being a soldier, he was a well versed public speaker and socialite .Through his distinguishing characteristics he made it to the Senate in later days and rose another rank higher in his list of achievements that he ended up earning by end of his life. His journey of success lasted till the last few years of his life, and till 60 B.C he kept earning himself distinctions and awards through his abilities and public acclamation. Not all outings were successful and on occasions he tasted defeat, the English Channel was one of them where he couldn’t fix his jaws for long and his attempt at it can’t be termed as a complete success in this particular case. His major achievements include the vogue of Gaul which last for number of years and he managed conquering last area during his mission. It included areas which are now independent countries in the modern Europe, which included namely France, Belgium and River Rhine to name a few. (Roberts) With power comes responsibility, many rulers tend to forget the second part of this very important phrase. Julius Caesar fell victim to the same decay and practiced complete dictatorship which more often than not was negation to the true values and justice .During the last few years where he enjoyed sublime success, he totally dictated the terms and presented himself as the divine personality and more or less compared himself to the gods. He appointed himself as the “Dictator for life”(reference). By then he ignored the words and suggestion of Senate and the Senate body was in place as a mere formality. Major decisions were subject to his approval and his whim and mostly performed and conducted by his favorites’ which included his family, his friends and close ones. The senate in bid to please him and being totally under his command named him as the “unconquerable god”(reference). His words and rulings largely made up the rulings and proceedings in the society and environment at that time and hardly anyone could challenge him. Those who opposed his dictation and domination did not see much of light in the proceedings of governance any more. A number of Senators raised concern over the excessive powers and the use of gold toga, but they were removed from the Senate in no time. It is often being said that” two lions stay together in one den”, this aptly applied to the case of Julius Caesar and his compatriots. His immaculate experience of the Gaul earned him a few enemies from his own camp who could not see his success and domination. These in prime included Crassus and Pompey. They enjoyed quite a might while Caesar had not landed on the scene .His supremacy lead his companions to feel suffocated in his presence and hence the ill feeling started to grow in the ambiance. Crassus was soon blown out of the equation when he met his creator and was killed in one of the battles. The battle and cold war for being soul consul grew intense and both considered each other as the bone of content. He was not the only rival Julius faced, and it is being said that the brave and daring man always faces large number of opposition and opponents, Cato was another one who fled when Julius was dominant in the area .Caesar through his wit and actions defeated number of his opponents, Cato was one out of the list who couldn’t face the shame and killed himself (Rinaldo). His reign over Rome was considerably preferred by the common citizens and he made it to their hearts through his actions and policies .His personality was attractive enough even to capture the mind and heart of those who were little interested in helm of state affairs .He derived policies in a manner that helped the common man and economy in a great way and brought about stability and resurgence in the society in different aspects. Since the wars at any level, be it on domestic level or across the borders, they always affect the economy in an adverse manner. Rome was no exception and it was hit in same amount .However Caesar ensured creating opportunities that gave chance to progress. The common man saw relief in his policies and saw it as an era and duration where they had considerable margin of options in terms of financial openings (Kahan). At times, when the man is strong that no external forces can eliminate him, it’s the internal forces that bring about an end to the event. Julius Caesar fell to the same trap and was killed by his inside man. Often the mercy and forgiveness pays back in a very cruel manner, a similar affair took place with Caesar which resulted in his death. His very own and trusted man Marcus Brutus hatched a plot with several other Senators at that time and stabbed the king in his back which resulted in the death of the legend that once lived . “I came I saw I conquered” (Bowers,pg 8).These were the words being ushered by the man himself we all know as Gaius Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar life can summed up as a mixed bag of success and self obsession and a man who believed in his abilities more than anyone else. The way he went about events and activities in life he considered himself as the blessed one and with divine powers of righteousness and supremacy. His contributions cannot be undermined by the fact that he paved the way for a Roman Empire .He was a man of wisdom and strength along with lots of bravery and brain(Abbot). Bibliography: Abbot, Jacob. The Life of Julius Caesar: A Man Who Virtually Defined Our Concept of Success. CreateSpace, 2009. Balsdon, John Percy Vyvian Dacre. Julius Caesar: a political biography. Atheneum, 1967. Balsdon BookRags, Inc. The Power of Julius Caesar. 2006. 10th April 2012 . Bowers, Kristen. Julius Caesar Literature Guide. Secondary Solutions, 2006. Caesar, Julius and Eberhard Christopher Kennedy. De bello Gallico,. Bristol Classical Press, 1990. Colegrove, Michael B. and Micha Colegrove. Distant Voices: Listening to the Leadership Lessons of the Past. iUniverse, 2007. Kahan, Jeffrey. King Lear: New Critical Essays. Routledge, 2008. McDermott, William Coffman. Readings in the history of the ancient world. Rinehart, 1951. Rinaldo, Denise. Julius Caesar: Dictator for Life. Scholastic Library Pub, 2010. Roberts, P. HSC Ancient History. Pascal Press, 2004. Read More