Julius Caesar: The People's Dictator

Julius Caesar has always been an important, well-known figure in history. His name still lives on, two thousand years after his death. Even the terms "Kaiser" and "Tsar" are renditions of "Caesar." To this day, the name "Caesar" conjures images of ancient Rome, conspiracies, intrigue, and murder. Thanks to William Shakespeare, most people know that he was betrayed and killed by his friends. But what made Caesar so fascinating that Shakespeare would choose to write about Caesar over fifteen hundred years after his death? Why do we remember Caesar? He was a great military leader, and a master politician. He was murdered. But there have been others in history like Caesar, yet we do not remember their names. We remember Caesar because the common Romans adored him. Caesar was able to empathize with them, and they loved him, even to the point of elevating him to the status of a god. It is because of the people that he led that we remember Caesar's name.

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 100 B.C. to Aurelia and Julius Caesar, in the neighborhood of Subura, just a short distance from the heart of Rome. Although the Caesars were patrician nobility, much of the family's money had run out by the time that Caesar was born. It was for this reason that Aurelia and Julius lived in the less prosperous Subura area. Because he was raised in this area, the young Caesar had a unique perspective. He was "A patrician descendant of kings who knew intimately the lives and sorrows of common Romans" (Freeman 19). Therefore, when he became an adult, he was able to identify with the less-affluent plebeian class better than most Romans in politics at the time.

As with most Roman families, the elder Caesar was often away from ...

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...ed? True, he was a great military leader, and a great leader of men. Yet that is only a part of why he has been remembered. There have been other great leaders that have not been as remembered throughout history as Caesar has. We remember him because the people whom he governed immortalized him throughout history. The commoners of Rome adored Caesar, and they made sure that his name would endure.

Works Cited

Canfora, Luciano. Julius Caesar: The Life and times of the People's Dictator. Trans. Marian Hill and Kevin Windle. Berkeley: University of California, 2007. Print.

Freeman, Philip. Julius Caesar. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. Print.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar. New Haven: Yale UP, 2006. Print.

Suetonius. The Twelve Caesars: The Lives of the Roman Emperors. Trans. John Carew Rolfe. St. Petersburg, FL: Red and Black Pub., 2008. Print.