The date of Caesar the dictator’s birth has long been disputed. The day was July 12 or 13; the
traditional (and perhaps most probable) year is 100 BCE; but if this date is correct, Caesar must
have held each of his offices two years in advance of the legal minimum age. His father, Gaius
Caesar, died when Caesar was but 16; his mother, Aurelia, was a notable woman, and it seems
certain that he owed much to her.
In spite of the inadequacy of his resources, Caesar seems to have chosen a political career as a
matter of course. From the beginning, he probably privately aimed at winning office, not just for
the sake of the honours but in order to achieve the power to put the misgoverned Roman state
and Greco-Roman world into better order in accordance with ideas of his own. It is improbable
that Caesar deliberately sought monarchical power until after he had crossed the Rubicon in 49
BCE, though sufficient power to impose his will, as he was determined to do, proved to mean
monarchical power.In 84 BCE Caesar committed himself publicly to the radical side by marrying
Cornelia, a daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a noble who was Marius’s associate in
revolution. In 83 BCE Lucius Cornelius Sulla returned to Italy from the East and led the
successful counter-revolution of 83–82 BCE; Sulla then ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia.
Caesar refused and came close to losing not only his property (such as it was) but his life as
well. He found it advisable to remove himself from Italy and to do military service, first in the
province of Asia and then in Cilicia.
In 78 BCE, after Sulla’s death, he returned to Rome and started on his political career in the
conventional way, by acting as a prosecuting advocate—of course, in his case, against
prominent Sullan counter-revolutionaries. His first target, Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, was
defended by Quintus Hortensius, the leading advocate of the day, and was acquitted by the
extortion-court jury, composed exclusively of senators.
Caesar then went to Rhodes to study oratory under a famous professor, Molon. En route he was
captured by pirates (one of the symptoms of the anarchy into which the Roman nobility had
allowed the Mediterranean world to fall). Caesar raised his ransom, raised a naval force,
captured his captors, and had them crucified—all this as a private individual holding no public
office. In 74 BCE, when Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, renewed war on the Romans,
Caesar raised a private army to combat him.
In his absence from Rome, Caesar was made a member of the politico-ecclesiastical college of
pontifices; and on his return he gained one of the elective military tribuneships. Caesar now
worked to undo the Sullan constitution in cooperation with Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius), who
had started his career as a lieutenant of Sulla but had changed sides since Sulla’s death. In 69
or 68 BCE Caesar was elected quaestor (the first rung on the Roman political ladder). In the
same year his wife, Cornelia, and his aunt Julia, Marius’s widow, died. In public funeral orations
in their honour, Caesar found opportunities for praising Cinna and Marius. Caesar afterward
married Pompeia, a distant relative of Pompey. Caesar served his quaestorship in the province
of Farther Spain (modern Andalusia and Portugal).
Caesar was elected one of the curule aediles for 65 BCE, and he celebrated his tenure of this
office by unusually lavish expenditure with borrowed money. He was elected pontifex maximu The date of Caesar the dictator’s birth has long been disputed. The day was July 12 or 13; thetraditional (and perhaps most probable) year is 100 BCE; but if this date is correct, Caesar musthave held each of his offices two years in advance of the legal minimum age. His father, GaiusCaesar, died when Caesar was but 16; his mother, Aurelia, was a notable woman, and it seemscertain that he owed much to her.In spite of the inadequacy of his resources, Caesar seems to have chosen a political career as amatter of course. From the beginning, he probably privately aimed at winning office, not just forthe sake of the honours but in order to achieve the power to put the misgoverned Roman stateand Greco-Roman world into better order in accordance with ideas of his own. It is improbablethat Caesar deliberately sought monarchical power until after he had crossed the Rubicon in 49BCE, though sufficient power to impose his will, as he was determined to do, proved to meanmonarchical power.In 84 BCE Caesar committed himself publicly to the radical side by marryingCornelia, a daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a noble who was Marius’s associate inrevolution. In 83 BCE Lucius Cornelius Sulla returned to Italy from the East and led thesuccessful counter-revolution of 83–82 BCE; Sulla then ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia.Caesar refused and came close to losing not only his property (such as it was) but his life aswell. He found it advisable to remove himself from Italy and to do military service, first in theprovince of Asia and then in Cilicia.In