Son of C. Julius Caesar and Aurelia. Dolabella for extortion. Elected tribunus militum. Helped to carry Lex Gabinia, giving Pompey command against the Mediterranean pirates.
Spoke in the Senate in the debate on the fellowconspirators of Catiline. Married 3 Calpurnia, daughter of L. Calpurnius Piso. Defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in Thessaly. Dictator II till end of 46 B. Settlement of Egypt: Caesar nearly killed at Alexandria. Dictator III for ten years. Reforms in administration, and in the calendar. Refused the crown. This tabulated outline may serve to indicate how Caesar leapt into prominence in 60 B.
At forty, he had passed through the round of public offices, and was consul elect for 59 B. Pompey had done wonders in Asia; but for all his successes, military and diplomatic, accepted grudgingly by the Senate, regarded jealously by the popular party, he found himself practically powerless on his return to Rome. In a spirit of true citizenship, he had disbanded his army; and with his army he lost the chance of sovereignty. Doubtless, before the return of Pompey, Caesar had realised that for him too the only path to power lay through conquests that should enlarge the Empire and open up fresh fields for Roman enterprise.
Pompey had gone eastward, Caesar sought his fortune in the west. His uncle Marius had checked the stream of barbarian invasion in Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul: danger was threatening again beyond the Alps, and Caesar saw that his duty and his opportunity lay there.
A tribune of his own party, Vatinius, proposed his appointment as governor for five years of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricumβthe province adjoining Cisalpine Gaul at the north-east corner of the Adriatic: the Senate added Transalpine Gaul.
