Key Points and Summary – This piece uses a quote attributed to Julius Caesar about enduring pain to frame a brisk biography of Rome’s most famous strongman.
-It traces his early alliances, defiance of Sulla, military service, and the pirate kidnapping episode that helped build his legend.
-From there, it covers his ascent through Roman politics, the conquest of Gaul, and the break with the Senate that led to crossing the Rubicon and civil war with Pompey.
-Caesar returns triumphant, reshapes Rome with sweeping reforms like the Julian calendar, and is ultimately killed on the Ides of March—yet his death fails to stop Rome’s imperial destiny.
Caesar’s Leadership Lesson Summed Up in 1 Quote: Patience Beats Heroics
“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”—That quote belongs to Gaius Julius Caesar.
The title “Caesar” came to be generically applied to any and all of the Roman emperors succeeding Augustus Caesar.
But it goes without saying that Julius is the most famous of the bunch.
Early Life
Gaius Julius Caesar was born into a patrician family, the gens Julia, circa 12/13 July 100 BC, in the Subura neighborhood of Ancient Rome.
According to the Biography.Com Editors, “When he was 16, his father, an important regional governor in Asia, also named Gaius Julius Caesar, died. He remained close to his mother, Aurelia. Around the time of his father’s death, Caesar made a concerted effort to establish key alliances with the country’s nobility, with whom he was well-connected.”
As part of that “concerted effort,” young Julius shrewdly married up: in 84 BCE, he married Cornelia, the daughter of a nobleman.
This didn’t sit well with the Roman dictator Sulla, as Cornelia’s father was Sulla’s political rival. Sulla ordered Caesar to divorce his newlywed wife or risk losing his property.
Initial Military and Political Career
Instead of obeying Sulla’s divorce decree, Julius escaped and joined the military. Julius presumably returned to Rome after Sulla’s death in 79 BCE, and with the relative personal peace brought on by Sulla’s absence, Julius and Cornelia were able to conceive a daughter, Julia Caesaris, who was born in 76 BCE. Sadly, Cornelia passed away in 69 BCE, leaving her husband as a widower when Julia was just 7 years old.
Meanwhile, Caesar began his political career as a prosecuting advocate, relocating temporarily to Rhodes to study philosophy.
During that travel, he was kidnapped by pirates.
Undeterred, Caesar put his negotiation skills and counter-insurgency tactics to good use; he convinced his captors to raise his ransom and then organized a naval force to attack them.
The corsairs were captured and executed.
He further built upon his reputation by assembling a private army to combat Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, who had declared war on Rome.
“Life begins at forty,” as the saying goes, and at the age of 40, Julius Caesar was elected to consul, which was the highest-ranking position in the Roman Republic, but only for a 1-year term. At the end of that term, he became governor of the province of Gaul, taking charge of four Roman legions, thus giving him dual duties as governor and general.
He proved himself up to the task, conquering all of Gaul (encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy), thus gaining respect and honor from his army, and soon was ranked alongside Pompey as the greatest general in the Roman army.
Continuing Military Conquests and Dictator of Rome: “Veni, Vidi, Vici”
In other words, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” If Julius Caesar’s military accomplishments had to be summed up in a single sentence, that would be the one to go with.
Alas, not all of the Roman elite were appreciative of Caesar’s successes.
Indeed, no less than the aforementioned Pompey became one of Julius’s rivals; Pompey had the support of the aristocrats, whilst Julius had the support of the common people (the “hoi polloi,” if you will).
Caesar announced his intent to return to Rome and run for consul again. The Roman Senate replied that he must give up the command of his army first. Caesar refused and was branded a traitor by the Senate.
Vercingetorix throws down his arms at the feet of Julius Caesar, painting by Lionel Royer in 1899. Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay, France. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Showing the same defiant spirit he had displayed when dealing with Sulla all those years prior, Caesar began marching his army to Rome, crossing the Rubicon and taking control of Rome in 49 BC.
He spent the next 18 months fighting Pompey, which culminated in the latter literally losing his head (courtesy of Egypt’s young Pharaoh, Ptolemy XIII).
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar returned to Rome as the most powerful man in the world. Perhaps out of a sense of self-preservation, the Roman Senate made him dictator for life.
During this kinglike rule, Julius Caesar made many changes to Rome, one of which was the creation of the now-ubiquitous Julian calendar with 365 days and a leap year.
However, nothing lasts forever, and even the most powerful man in the world was still a mortal human being.
Fearing that Caesar’s rule would spell the end of the Roman Republic, several of the elites, led by Cassius and Brutus, plotted his assassination.
On March 15 (“Beware the Ides of March!”), 44 BC, the plot was put into action: as Caesar entered the Senate, a number of his countrymen rushed him and stabbed him 23 times, fatally wounding him.
Julius Caesar’s dictatorial reign lasted only five years.
As was customary back then, his body was cremated instead of being buried.
However, the assassins’ long-term goal of preventing the Roman Republic from becoming an Empire went unrealized.
Lasting Legacy of Julius Ceaser
Gee, where to begin?
For starters, there’s Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar,” which the great English bard chose as his title even though the titular character gets killed off fairly early on.
That play generated so many memorable quotes, from “Et tu, Brute? [And you, Brutus?]” to “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”
Fast-forwarding to modern-day pop culture, there’s this morbidly witty line from the late great Sir Sean Connery in his 1987 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award-winning role as Chicago Metro PD Officer Jimmy Malone in “The Untouchables”: “He’s as dead as Julius Caesar!”
For the benefit of my fellow non-fiction book lovers, the late, great historian William Manchester chose “American Caesar” as the title of his bestselling 1978 biography.
Last but not least, for my fellow “Sin City” aficionados, Caesar’s Palace remains one of the most enduringly popular luxury hotels & casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
