Caesar & Rome
Use the internet resources below to answer the following questions. Good Luck and Happy
Hunting!
CAESAR
What year does this story take place?
●
75 A.C.E.
How did Julius Caesar become the dictator of the Roman Empire?
● At the age of 40 Julius Caesar was elected to consul. Consul was the highest ranking position in the Roman Republic. The consul was like a president, but there were two consuls and they only served for one year. At the end of his year as consul, Caesar became governor of the province of Gaul.
●
● As governor of Gaul, Caesar was in charge of four Roman legions. He was a very effective governor and general. He conquered all of Gaul. He gained the respect and honor from his army and soon was considered alongside Pompey as the greatest general in the Roman army. When the high priest (pontifex maximus) died, Caesar stood for election to the post. He borrowed huge sums to bribe the voters. In 65 bc, he took his next step in the cursus honorum. He continued to run up his debts, putting on shows of unheardof splendor.
These included plays, public feasts, processions, and single combats between 320 pairs of gladiators. This made Caesar extremely popular with the people, and at the height of his popularity he had the old statues of marius and the trophies of his victories gilded and set up again at the capitol, from which sulla had removed them. The people viewed him as their savior and later became the dictator in 62 BC
What were his major weaknesses? Did he have any physical infirmities?
●
For he was a spare man, had a soft and white skin, was distempered in the head and subject to an epilepsy, which, it is said, first seized him at Corduba. But he did not make the weakness of his constitution a pretext for his ease, but rather used war as the best physic against his indispositions; whilst, by indefatigable journeys, coarse diet, frequent lodging in the field, and