Ancient Rome
This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Ancient Rome
Periods
Roman Kingdom 753 BC – 509 BC Roman Republic 509 BC – 27 BC Roman Empire 27 BC – AD 1453 Principate Western Empire Dominate Eastern Empire
Roman Constitution
Constitution of the Kingdom Constitution of the Republic Constitution of the Empire Constitution of the Late Empire History of the Constitution Senate Legislative Assemblies Executive Magistrates
Ordinary Magistrates
Consul Praetor Quaestor Promagistrate Aedile Tribune Censor Governor
Extraordinary Magistrates
Dictator Magister Equitum Consular tribune Rex Triumviri Decemviri
Titles and Honours
Emperor Legatus Dux Officium Praefectus Vicarius Vigintisexviri Lictor Magister militum Imperator Princeps senatus Pontifex Maximus Augustus Caesar Tetrarch
Precedent and Law
Roman Law Imperium Mos maiorum Collegiality Roman citizenship Auctoritas Cursus honorum senatus consultum (senatus consultum ultimum)
Other countries · Atlas Politics portal view talk edit

Caesar (plural Caesars; Latin: Caesar, plural: Caesares) is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator. The change from being a familial name to a title adopted by the Roman Emperors can be dated to about AD 68/69, the so-called "Year of the Four Emperors".

Onomastic root[link]

Bust of Julius Caesar from the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Although the etymology of the name of Julius Caesar is not known with certainty, many scholars believe that it was simply a use of the Latin expression caesar meaning hairy.^[1] The Julii Caesares were a specific branch of the gens Julia. The first known bearer of the name was one Numerius Julius Caesar (born before 300 BC), who might have been conspicuous for having a fine head of hair (alternatively, given the Roman sense of humour and Julius Caesar's own receding hairline, it could be that the family branch was conspicuous for going bald).^[2] It is probably^{[Is this a fact or an opinion?]} not related to the root "to cut", a hypothesized etymology for Caesarian section^{[citation needed]}.

The first Emperor, Caesar Augustus, bore the name as a matter of course; born Gaius Octavius, he was posthumously adopted by Caesar in his will, and per Roman naming conventions was renamed "Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus" (usually called "Octavian" in English when referring to this stage of his life).

Sole Roman Emperor[link]

For political and personal reasons Octavian chose to emphasise his relationship with Caesar by styling himself simply "Imperator Caesar" (whereto the Roman Senate added the honorific Augustus, "Majestic" or "Venerable", in 27 BC), without any of the other elements of his full name. His successor as emperor, his stepson Tiberius, also bore the name as a matter of course; born Tiberius Claudius Nero, he was adopted by Caesar Augustus on June 26, 4 AD, as "Tiberius Iulius Caesar". The precedent was set: the Emperor designated his successor by adopting him and giving him the name "Caesar".

The fourth Emperor, Claudius, was the first to assume the name "Caesar" upon accession, without having been adopted by the previous emperor; however, he was at least a member by blood of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, being the nephew of Tiberius and the uncle of Caligula. Claudius in turn adopted his stepson and grand-nephew Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, giving him the name "Caesar" in the traditional way; his stepson would rule as the Emperor Nero. The first emperor to assume the position and the name simultaneously without any real claim to either was the usurper Servius Sulpicius Galba, who took the imperial throne under the name "Servius Galba Imperator Caesar" following the death of the last of the Julio-Claudians, Nero, in 68. Galba helped solidify "Caesar" as the title of the designated heir by giving it to his own adopted heir, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus.

Galba's reign did not last long and he was soon deposed by Marcus Otho. Otho did not at first use the title "Caesar" and occasionally used the title "Nero" as emperor, but later adopted the title "Caesar" as well. Otho was then defeated by Aulus Vitellius who acceded with the name "Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus." Vitellius did not adopt the cognomen "Caesar" as part of his name, and may have intended to replace it with "Germanicus" (he bestowed the name "Germanicus" upon his own son that year).

Nevertheless, Caesar had become such an integral part of the imperial dignity that its place was immediately restored by Titus Flavius Vespasianus ("Vespasian"), whose defeat of Vitellius in 69 put an end to the period of instability and began the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian's son, Titus Flavius Vespasianus became "Titus Caesar Vespasianus".

Minor dynastic title[link]

By this point the status of "Caesar" had been regularised into that of a title given to the Emperor-designate (occasionally also with the honorific title Princeps Iuventutis, "Prince of Youth") and retained by him upon accession to the throne (e.g., Marcus Ulpius Traianus became Marcus Cocceius Nerva's designated heir as Caesar Nerva Traianus in October 97 and acceded on January 28, 98 as "Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus"). After some variation among the earliest Emperors, the style of the Emperor-designate was NN. Caesar before accession and Imperator Caesar NN. Augustus after accession; starting with Publius Septimius Geta, it became customary to style the Emperor-designate as NN. Nobilissimus Caesar ("NN. Most Noble Caesar") rather than simply NN. Caesar.

Late Empire[link]

The use of Caesar for the junior partner in a consortium imperii naturally occurred also in break-away 'empires', eager to copy the Rome-proper original; e.g. the last Gallic emperor, Tetricus I, granted the title to his son, Tetricus II.

Tetrarchy[link]

On March 1, 293, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus established the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by two senior Emperors and two junior sub-Emperors. The two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as Imperator Caesar NN. Pius Felix Invictus Augustus ("Elagabalus" had introduced the use of Pius Felix, "the Pious and Blessed", while Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" introduced the use of Invictus, "the Unconquered"), and were called the Augusti, while the two junior sub-Emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as NN. Nobilissimus Caesar. Likewise, the junior sub-Emperors retained the title "Caesar" upon accession to the senior position.

The Tetrarchy was quickly abandoned as a system (though the four quarters of the empire survived as praetorian prefectures) in favour of two equal, territorial emperors, and the previous system of Emperors and Emperors-designate was restored, both in the Latin-speaking West and the Greek-speaking East.

Byzantine Empire[link]

The Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople

In the Eastern Roman Empire (called "Byzantine Empire" by later historians), Caesar (Greek: Καῖσαρ) continued in existence as a title marking out the heir-apparent, although since the time of Theodosius I, most emperors chose to solidify the succession of their intended heirs by raising them to co-emperors. Hence the title was more frequently awarded to second- and third-born sons, or to close and influential relatives of the Emperor: thus for example Alexios Mosele was the son-in-law of Theophilos, Bardas was the uncle and chief minister of Michael III, while Nikephoros II awarded the title to his father, Bardas Phokas.^[3][4] An exceptional case was the conferment of the dignity and its insignia to the Bulgarian khan Tervel by Justinian II, who had helped him regain his throne in 705.^[5] The title was awarded to the nephew of Empress Maria of Alania, George II of Georgia in 1081.

According to the Klētorologion of 899, the Byzantine Caesar's insignia were a crown without a cross, and the ceremony of a Caesar's creation (in this case dating to Constantine V), is included in De Ceremoniis I.43.^[6] The title remained the highest in the imperial hierarchy until the introduction of the sebastokratōr (a portmanteau word meaning "majestic ruler" derived from sebastos and autokratōr, the Greek equivalents of Augustus and imperator) by Alexios I Komnenos and later of despotēs by Manuel I Komnenos. The title remained in existence through the last centuries of the Empire. In the Palaiologan period, it was held by prominent nobles like Alexios Strategopoulos, but from the 14th century, it was mostly awarded to foreign rulers of the Balkans such as the princes of Wallachia, Serbia and Thessaly.^[4] In the mid-14th century Book of Offices of pseudo-Kodinos, the rank comes between the sebastokratōr and the megas domestikos.^[4]

Ottoman Empire[link]

Mehmed II and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadios. After the Fall of Constantinople, Mehmed claimed the title of "Caesar" of Rome (Kayser-i Rûm), although this claim was not recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople, or Christian Europe. Mehmed's claim rested with the concept that Constantinople was the seat of the Roman Empire, after the transfer of its capital to Constantinople in 330 AD and the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Mehmed also had a blood lineage to the Byzantine Imperial family; his predecessor, Sultan Orhan I had married a Byzantine princess, and Mehmed may have claimed descent from John Tzelepes Komnenos.^[7] He was not the only ruler to claim such a title, as there was the Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe, whose emperor, Frederick III, traced his titular lineage from Charlemagne who obtained the title of Roman Emperor when he was crowned by Pope Leo III in 800 - although never recognized as such by the Byzantine Empire.

In the Middle East, the Persians and later the Arabs continued to refer to the Roman and Byzantine emperors as "Caesar" (in Persian قیصر روم Qaisar-e-Rūm). Thus, following the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the victorious Ottoman sultan Mehmed II was the first of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire to assume the title "Caesar of the Roman Empire" (Ottoman Turkish Kayser-i-Rûm). Here, the Caesar title should not be understood as the minor title it had become, but as the glorious title of the emperors of the past, a connotation that had been preserved in Persian and Arabic. The adoption of the title also implied that the Ottoman state considered itself the continuation, by absorption, of the Roman Empire, a view not shared in the West. Acting in his capacity as Caesar of the Roman Empire, Mehmed reinstated the defunct Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Legacy[link]

Name[link]

The history of "Caesar" as an imperial title is reflected by the following monarchic titles, usually reserved for "Emperor" and "Empress" in many languages (note that the name Caesar, pronounced see-zer in English, was pronounced kai-sahr in Classical Latin):

Germanic languages:

• Danish: Kejser & Kejserinde;
• Dutch: Keizer & Keizerin;
• German: Kaiser & Kaiserin;
• Icelandic: Keisari & Keisaraynja;
• Faroese: Keisari & Keisarinna;
• Norwegian: Keiser & Keiserinne;
• Swedish: Kejsare & Kejsarinna
• Old English: cāsere

Slavic and Baltic languages:

• Belarusian: Цар & Царыца (Tsar & Tsarytsa)
• Bulgarian: Цар & Царица (Tsar & Tsaritsa);
• Croatian: Car & Carica (c is read ts);
• Czech: Císař & Císařovna;
• Latvian: Ķeizars & Ķeizariene;
• Macedonian: Кајсар & Кајсарица (Kajsar & Kajsarica c is read ts)
• Polish: Cesarz & Cesarzowa;
• Russian: Царь & Царица, Czar & Czaritsa (archaic transliteration), Tsar & Tsaritsa (modern transliteration); however in the Russian empire (also reflected in some of its other languages), which aimed to be the "third Rome" as successor to the Byzantine empire, it was abandoned (not in the foreign language renderings though) as imperial style - in favor of Imperator and Autocrator - and used as a lower, royal style as within the empire in chief of some of its parts, e.g. Georgia and Siberia
  • In the United States and, more recently, Britain, the title "czar" (from the Russian title) is a slang term for certain high-level civil servants, such as the "drug czar" for the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and "terrorism czar" for a Presidential advisor on terrorism policy. More specifically, a czar refers to a sub-cabinet level advisor within the executive branch of the U.S. government.
• Serbian: Цар & Царица / Car & Carica (pronounced Tsar & Tsaritsa)
• Slovak: Cisár & Cisárovná;
• Slovene: Cesar & Cesarica;

Afro-Asiatic languages:

• Arabic: Qaysar قيصر
• Hebrew: Keisár קיסר & Keisarít קיסרית;

Indo-Iranian languages:

• Persian: Ghaysar قيصر
• Urdu: Qaysar قيصر used in the title "Kaiser-i-Hind" ("Emperor of India") during the British Raj

Kartvelian languages

• Georgian: კაიზერი (Keisari)

Turkic languages:

• Turkish: Kayser (historical), Sezar (modern). Kayser-i-Rûm "Caesar of [Constantinople, the second] Rome", one of many subsidiary titles proclaiming the Ottoman Great Sultan (main imperial title Padishah) as (Muslim) successor to "Rum" as the Turks called the (Christian) Roman Empire (as Byzantium had continued to call itself), continuing to use the name for part of formerly Byzantine territory (compare the Seljuk Rum-sultanate)

Uralic languages:

• Estonian: Keiser & Keisrinna;
• Finnish: Keisari & Keisarinna or Keisaritar;
• Hungarian: Császár & Császárnő;

Austronesian languages:

• Bahasa Indonesia: Kaisar;

Albanian:

• Albanian: Çezar & Qesarinë;

Armenian:

• Armenian: կայսր Kaysr, and կայսրություն Kaysrutiun meaning empire;

In various Romance and other languages, the imperial title was rather based on the Latin Imperator (in fact a military mandate or a victory title), but Caesar or a derivation is then still used for both the name and the minor ranks (still perceived as Latin)

There have been other cases of a noun proper being turned into a title, such as Charlemagne's Latin name, including the epithet, Carolus (magnus) becoming Slavonic titles rendered as King: Kralj (Serbo-Croat), Král (Czech) and Król (Polish), etc.

However certain languages, especially Romance languages, also commonly use a 'modernized' word (e.g. César in French) for the name, both referring to the Roman cognomen and modern use as a first name, and even to render the title Caesar, sometimes again extended to the derived imperial titles above.

Historiography[link]

Oswald Spengler used the term, Caesarism, in his book, The Decline of the West.

See also[link]

• Augustus (honorific)
• Caesaropapism

References[link]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Pauly-Wissowa – Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft

Look up Caesar, Caesars, or Cæsar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Caesar or Cæsar may refer to:

People[link]

• Julius Caesar (100–44 BC), Roman general and dictator
• Augustus Caesar (63 BC – 14 AD), adoptive son of the above and first Roman Emperor
• Gaius Julius Caesar (proconsul) (140–85 BC), father of the dictator
• Other members of the Julii Caesares, the family from which the dictator came
• Caesar (title), a title used by Roman and Byzantine Emperors and also at times by the Ottoman Turkish Emperors
• Caesar, duc de Choiseul (1602–1675), French marshal and diplomatist
• Caesar the Geezer (born 1958), British radio personality

Given name[link]

• Caesar Cardini (1896–1956), Italian hotel owner, restaurateur, and chef in Tijuana, Mexico
• Caesar Lvovich Kunikov (1909–1943), officer in the Soviet Union
• "Caesar" Li Mao, member of Mandopop boy band Top Combine
• Caesar Rodney (1728–1784), signer of the American Declaration of Independence 1776
• Caesar Takeshi, Japanese kickboxer
• Cesar Romero (1907–1994), Cuban-American film and television actor

Surname[link]

• Arthur Caesar (1892–1953), American screenwriter
• Bill Caesar (1899–1988), English cricketer
• David Caesar, Australian television/film director and writer
• Gus Caesar (born 1966), English footballer
• Irving Caesar (1895–1996), American lyricist and theater composer
• Ivan Caesar (1967–2008), American football player
• Pogus Caesar, British artist, television producer and director
• Shirley Caesar (born 1938), American singer
• Sid Caesar (born 1922), American comedian and television personality

Media and entertainment[link]

• Caesar (novel), by Colleen McCullough
• "Caesar" (song), the debut single from I Blame Coco featuring Robyn
• Caesar (band), an indie rock band from Amsterdam
• Caesars (band), a Swedish indie rock band
• Caesar (video game), the first in a series of city-building games
• The Caesars (TV series), a 1968 British television series
• Caesar: An Empire Without End, a series of radio plays for the BBC by Mike Walker
• Caesars Entertainment (disambiguation)

Characters[link]

• Caesar (Planet of the Apes)
• Caesar (Xena), a character in Xena: Warrior Princess loosely based on Julius Caesar
• King Caesar, a monster in the Godzilla series
• Caesar, the leader of Caesar's Legion in Fallout (series)
• Caesar Flickerman, a character in The Hunger Games

Military[link]

• HMS Caesar, several ships of the Royal Navy
• CAESAR self-propelled howitzer, a French artillery gun
• Operation Caesar, a German World War II mission

Food[link]

• Caesar (cocktail), a Canadian cocktail
• Caesar salad
• Little Caesars, a pizza chain

Science, technology and research[link]

• Caesar cipher, an encryption technique
• Ctgf/hcs24 CAESAR, a cis-acting RNA element
• Euroradar CAPTOR, a radar system
• Center of Advanced European Studies and Research
• Clean And Environmentally Safe Advanced Reactor, a nuclear reactor design
• Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion
• Caesarean section (often simply called "a caesar"), surgically assisted birth procedure

Other uses[link]

• Caesar (dog), a Fox Terrier owned by King Edward VII
• Caesar, Zimbabwe
• Caesar cut, a hairstyle
• Nottingham Caesars American Football Team

See also[link]

• Julius Caesar (disambiguation)
• Caesarea (disambiguation)
• Cesar
• Cesare, a given name
• Seasar, open source application framework

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010)

Shirley Ann Caesar (born October 13, 1938, Durham, North Carolina) is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned six decades. A multi-award winning artist, with eleven Grammy Awards and seven Dove Awards to her credit, she is known as "First Lady of gospel".

Beginning recording at the age of 13 in 1951,^[1] Shirley Caesar has released over forty albums, exploring her gift and spreading messages of faith. She has participated in over 16 compilations and three gospel musicals, Mama I Want to Sing, Sing: Mama 2 and Born to Sing: Mama 3.

Her credits also include a series of commercials for MCI Communications and several awards for her recordings. She has won or received 11 Grammy Awards, 13 Stellar Awards, 18 Doves, 1 RIAA gold certification, an Essence Award, McDonald's Golden Circle Lifetime Achievement Award, NAACP Achievement Award, SESAC Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. According to Soundscan, she has sold 2.2 million albums since 1991.^[2] Pastor Shirley has made several notable appearances including the televised Live from Disney World Night of Joy, the Gospel According to VH1, a White House performance for George Bush, and a speech on the Evolution of Gospel Music to the US Treasury Department ^[3]

Musical career[link]

Early years[link]

Caesar first began singing and performing for family and friends. They loved her and knew she was going to be great. She first began recording in 1949, at age 11. Her professional adult 'career' began when she was 18, when she approached Albertina Walker about joining The Caravans, one of the most popular gospel groups at that time.

She sang with the legendary late Queen of Gospel Dr. Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Delores Washington and James Cleveland while in the Caravans. She recorded and performed with The Caravans from 1958 until 1966, then she began pursuing a solo career and making a name for herself in the gospel music circuit. Caesar credits Albertina Walker as her mentor and "Queen of Gospel Music". After singing with the Caravans, she started her solo career, making guest appearances on the Bobby Jones gospel show and other popular television shows.

Between 1981 and 1995, she received seven Dove Awards for Black Gospel Album of the Year for Live at the G.M.W.A., Celebration, Christmasing, Sailin‘, Live ... In Chicago, Go and Rejoice. She received two Black Gospel Song of the Year Awards for "He's Working It Out for You" and "Hold My Mule". She has performed with such performers as Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Dorothy Norwood, Faith Evans, Dottie Peoples, Arnold Houston, Kim Burrell, John P. Kee, Kirk Franklin and Tonex, Tye Tribbett among others.

Education[link]

Caesar graduated from Shaw University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1984. She also spent time studying at the Divinity School of Duke University and has received honorary doctorates from Shaw University and Southeastern University.

Personal life[link]

Caesar pastors Mount Calvary Holy Church Word of Faith Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, which seats 1,500. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and has been married to her husband Bishop Harold Williams since 1983. "I never dreamed the Lord would bring my ministry to where it is, and I feel that I have not yet reached the zenith because we've got such wonderful things planned!" She cites her mother as a strong influence in her decision to give so selflessly of herself. The pastor has committed a sizeable portion of all concert sales to her Outreach Ministries. She continues to deliver weekly sermons and also leads an annual Outreach Ministries conference. She notes, "I cannot sweeten the Atlantic Ocean, but I can take a pitcher out of the ocean and sweeten that."^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

• Live in Chicago (1988)
• I Remember Mama (1992)
• He's Working It Out For You(1993)
• Stand Still (1994)
• Live...He Will Come(1995)
• Just A Word (1996)
• Miracle In Harlem (1997)
• Christmas with Shirley Caesar (1998)
• Hymns (2001)
• "You Can Make It (2001)"
• Greatest Gospel Hits
• Shirley Caesar & Friends(2003)
• The Gospel Legends(2005)
• I Know The Truth(2005)
• Still Sweeping Through The City After 40 Years (2009)
• A City Called Heaven (2009)

References[link]

Gaius Julius Caesar
Dictator of the Roman Republic
The "Tusculum portrait", possibly the only surviving bust of Caesar made during his lifetime
Reign	October 49 BC – 15 March 44 BC (as dictator and/or consul)
Full name	Gaius Julius Caesar
Born	July 100 BC
Birthplace	Subura, Rome
Died	15 March 44 BC (aged 55)
Place of death	Curia of Pompey, Rome
Consort	Cornelia Cinna minor 84 – 69 BC Pompeia 68 – 63 BC Calpurnia Pisonis 59 – 44 BC
Offspring	Julia Caesaris c. 73 – 54 BC Caesarion 47 – 30 BC Augustus 63 BC – 14 AD (grand-nephew, posthumously adopted as Caesar's son in 44 BC)
Royal House	Julio-Claudian
Father	Gaius Julius Cæsar
Mother	Aurelia Cotta[1]

These articles cover the Ancient Roman Comitium of the Republican era
Structures-	Rostra, Curia Hostilia, Curia Julia, Lapis Niger
Politicians-	Cicero, Gaius Gracchus, Julius Caesar
Assemblies-	Roman Senate, comitia curiata

Gaius Julius Caesar^[2] (Classical Latin: [ˈɡaː.i.ʊs ˈjuː.lɪ.ʊs ˈkaj.sar],^[3] July 100 BC^[4] – 15 March 44 BC)^[5] was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed a political alliance that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed by the conservative elite within the Roman Senate^{[citation needed]}, among them Cato the Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar's conquest of Gaul, completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of Britain.

These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse Pompey's standing. The balance of power was further upset by the death of Crassus in 53 BC. Political realignments in Rome finally led to a standoff between Caesar and Pompey, the latter having taken up the cause of the Senate. Ordered by the Senate to stand trial in Rome for various charges, Caesar marched on Rome with one legion—legio XIII—from Gaul to Italy, crossing the Rubicon in 49 BC.^[6] This sparked a civil war from which he emerged as the unrivaled leader of the Roman world.

After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed "dictator in perpetuity". A group of senators, led by Marcus Junius Brutus, assassinated the dictator on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, hoping to restore the constitutional government of the Republic. However, the result was a series of civil wars, which ultimately led to the establishment of the permanent Roman Empire by Caesar's adopted heir Octavius (later known as Augustus). Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources.

Early life and career[link]

Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

Bust of Caesar from the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Caesar was born into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, supposedly the son of the goddess Venus.^[7] The cognomen "Caesar" originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born by caesarean section (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere, caes-).^[8] The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations: that the first Caesar had a thick head of hair (Latin caesaries); that he had bright grey eyes (Latin oculis caesiis); or that he killed an elephant (caesai in Moorish) in battle.^[9]

Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favored this interpretation of his name. Despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential. Caesar's father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia,^[10] while his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little is recorded of Caesar's childhood.^[11]

Caesar's formative years were a time of turmoil. There were several wars from 91 BC to 82 BC, although from 82 BC to 80 BC, the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla was purging Rome of his political enemies. Domestically, Roman politics was bitterly divided. In 85 BC, Caesar's father died suddenly^[12] so at sixteen Caesar was the head of the family. The following year he was nominated to be the new high priest of Jupiter.^[13]

Since the holder of that position not only had to be a patrician but also be married to a patrician, he broke off his engagement to a plebeian girl he had been betrothed to since boyhood, and married Lucius Cinna's daughter Cornelia.^[14] Meanwhile, having brought Mithridates to terms, Sulla returned to Rome and had himself appointed to the revived office of dictator.^[15]

Sulla's proscriptions saw hundreds of his political enemies killed or exiled. Caesar, as the nephew of Marius and son-in-law of Cinna, was targeted. He was stripped of his inheritance, his wife's dowry and his priesthood, but he refused to divorce Cornelia and was forced to go into hiding. The threat against him was lifted by the intervention of his mother's family, which included supporters of Sulla, and the Vestal Virgins. Sulla gave in reluctantly, and is said to have declared that he saw many a Marius in Caesar.^[11]

Caesar left Rome and joined the army, where he won the Civic Crown for his part in an important siege. On a mission to Bithynia to secure the assistance of King Nicomedes's fleet, he spent so long at his court that rumors of an affair with the king arose, which Caesar would vehemently deny for the rest of his life.^[16] Ironically, the loss of his priesthood had allowed him to pursue a military career, as the high priest of Jupiter was not permitted to touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed or one night outside Rome, or look upon an army.^[17]

Hearing of Sulla's death in 78 BC, Caesar felt safe enough to return to Rome. Lacking means since his inheritance was confiscated, he acquired a modest house in a lower-class neighborhood of Rome.^[18] Instead, he turned to legal advocacy. He became known for his exceptional oratory, accompanied by impassioned gestures and a high-pitched voice, and ruthless prosecution of former governors notorious for extortion and corruption.

On the way across the Aegean Sea,^[19] Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and held prisoner.^[20] He maintained an attitude of superiority throughout his captivity. When the pirates thought to demand a ransom of twenty talents of silver, he insisted they ask for fifty.^[21][22] After the ransom was paid, Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and captured the pirates, and imprisoned them. He had them crucified on his own authority, as he had promised while in captivity^[23]—a promise the pirates had taken as a joke. As a sign of leniency, he first had their throats cut. He was soon called back into military action in Asia, raising a band of auxiliaries to repel an incursion from the east.^{[citation needed]}

On his return to Rome, he was elected military tribune, a first step in a political career. He was elected quaestor for 69 BC,^[24] and during that year he delivered the funeral oration for his aunt Julia. His wife, Cornelia, also died that year.^[25] After her funeral, in the spring or early summer of 69 BC, Caesar went to serve his quaestorship in Spain.^[26] While there he is said to have encountered a statue of Alexander the Great, and realized with dissatisfaction he was now at an age when Alexander had the world at his feet, while he had achieved comparatively little. On his return in 67 BC,^[27] he married Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla, whom he later divorced.^[28]

In 63 BC, he ran for election to the post of Pontifex Maximus, chief priest of the Roman state religion. He ran against two powerful senators. There were accusations of bribery by all sides. Caesar won comfortably, despite his opponents' greater experience and standing.^[29] When Cicero, who was consul that year, exposed Catiline's conspiracy to seize control of the republic, several senators accused Caesar of involvement in the plot.^[30]