Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, and author whose role in the late Roman Republic produced one of the foundational figures of ancient Roman political-and-military history — particularly his 58–50 BC Gallic Wars conquest, his January 49 BC crossing of the Rubicon River and subsequent civil war, and his March 15, 44 BC assassination by approximately 60 senators on the Ides of March. He was born Gaius Julius Caesar on July 12 or 13, 100 BC, in Rome, Roman Republic, into the Roman patrician Julii family. His father Gaius Julius Caesar Sr. was a Roman praetor (provincial governor), and his mother Aurelia Cotta was a Roman patrician.

His early career across 81–69 BC — across multiple Roman military-and-political offices, particularly his service under Roman general Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia Minor and his pirate-captivity-and-ransom episode of 75 BC (across which he was captured by Cilician pirates and held for 38 days, after which he subsequently captured and executed his pirate captors) — preceded his 60 BC formation of the First Triumvirate with Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus.

His 58–50 BC Gallic Wars conquest — across which he conquered Gaul (modern France, Belgium, Switzerland, and parts of Germany) and expanded the Roman Republic's territorial control to the Rhine River — produced his ancient Roman military public profile. His 58–49 BC Commentarii de Bello Gallico ("Commentaries on the Gallic War") — his eight-book autobiographical military narrative — produced one of the foundational documents of ancient Roman military literature.

His January 10–11, 49 BC crossing of the Rubicon River — with his Legio XIII Gemina, in defiance of the Roman Senate's order to disband his Gallic Wars-era army — launched the 49–45 BC Roman civil war between Caesar and Pompey the Great. The August 9, 48 BC Battle of Pharsalus victory in Greece (across which Caesar's outnumbered army defeated Pompey's larger Roman senatorial army) produced Caesar's military victory.

His 46–44 BC dictatorial reforms — particularly the 46 BC introduction of the Julian calendar (the foundational pre-1582 Western calendar that the Gregorian calendar replaced) — produced his ancient Roman political public profile. He was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC, at age 55, in the Theatre of Pompey in Rome, by approximately 60 Roman senators including Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

His name Julius derives from the Latin Julius (the family name of the ancient Roman Julii family). Julius has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names since 1880.