The+Man+of+Legend,+The+Historic+Julius+Caesar

This is a picture of Julius Caesar. =**The Historical Julius Caesar** = = = Gaius Julius Caesar came from the Julian family of Rome. The Julians claimed to be descended from the goddess Venus, or as the Greeks would call her, Aphrodite. He was apart of the 1st Triumvirate, alongside the senators, Crassus and Pompey. Crassus supplied the majority of money for the Triumvirate while Pompey was a veteran Politician and had lots of fame for his victory over the Mithridates. Back to Caesar The Triumvirate came to an agreement that they would use their influence and power to put Caesar into power in 59 BC. During his year long term, he instated many laws and bills that granted privledges to Pompey and Crassus. Near the end of his term, he manipulated his power to grant him a new office, as Proconsul of most of Europe. This meant he was given command of three legions¹ and also the task of conquering the land he was to govern. =The Gallic War =

= = Caesar started north, conquering much land, and as he conquered more land, he recruited new men to be trained to join his army. After a long, seven year campaign, a final, decisivie battle was in sight. It was the final last ditched effort by Gallic leader Vercingetorix against Caesar. Caesar led his army of less than 100,000 men against Vercingetorix's two armies totaling to an estimated 250,000 men². Caesar's strategies,in addition to his men's strict discipline and training made it possible to defeat Vercingetorix's horde of unorganized barbarians. By the end of his total campaign, approximately 1 out of every 4 Gaul had died. Caesar spent ten years capturing and governing his provinces, building an extremely loyal and experienced army. The love they held for him would become incredibly important when the Civil War broke out. Throughout his campaign, Caesar wrote a journal about the battles and resistance he met. Rome had heard about the vast amounts of land Caesar had taken in the name of Rome, but they did not know the details. There became many public holidays due to Caesar later published these first hand accounts to the public in order to try and gain popular support for the war he knew was to be inevitable = Civil War ³ =

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Back in Rome, Crassus died trying to earn himself glory such as Caesar and Pompey had. He failed miserably, having his legions annilihated and he himself killed. The Triumvirate fell apart. Now, the tension between Caesar, the senators, and Pompey was incredible. The senate became fearful of Caesar and recalled him back to Rome, demanding he disarm his army before reaching Italy. Caesar knew he could not do this because he had the majority of the public supporting him and the senate would not give him any more political offices again. If it came to that, he would be set on trial for all corrupt bargains and self-beneficial gains. The senate, anticipating Caesar's return for power, appointed Pompey to lead the armies left at Rome. = = The campaign between Pompey and Caesar was a long one. Pompey knew Caesar's men were tired from the fight in Gaul, marching back to Italy, and were expecting a quick end once they returned to Rome. Pompey evacuated Rome, taking the armies to Greece where he had allies and could enlarge his army. Caesar boarded his fleet and took his army to Spain, in order to eliminate supporters of Pompey. This took over a year's time. He traveled back to Italy and from there, moved on to Greece where he fought Pompey for the first time. It was a disaster, because Caesar tried tactics he used on the barbarians. The difference was that there was a general of equal cunning fighting him. Caesar was forced to retreat to inland Greece. He knew Pompey would just wait for Caesar's already low supplies dry up and so, Caesar attacked one of Pompey's allied cities. Pompey was forced to confront Caesar outside the city. From there Pompey prevented Caesar from attacking the city, yet did not have to attack him.

It was the influence of senators Cato and Marcellus, the senators who gave Pompey command of the military, who demanded he attack Caesar. It seemed unlikely that Pompey would lose, for he had 45,000 infantry to Caesar's 22,000 and 6,000 calvary to Caesar's 1,000. The Battle of Phrasus started when Caesar's infantry charged Pompey's infantry. After the battle was underway, Pompey ordered the calvary to attacak Caesar's calvary and right flank. Caesar, having known Pompey for many years, knew that Pompey would do that. Before the battle, Caesar secretly pulled men from his lines and hid them in his calvary, imitating a tactic Vercingetorix had used on him before. So instead of Pompey's calvary charging into Caesar's calvary, they charged into a line of spears, making quick work of them. Having seen their calvary crushed, Pompey's army became panicked and broke ranks. Caesar had won.

Four years later, Caesar was killed by conspirators in the senate.

Notes: ¹ The size of a legion was not always exact, but were usually around 4,000- 8,000 soldiers. There are numerous recordings of how many legions Caesar had, but most sources agree that at the Battle of Alesia in the Gallic War he had as many as 40,000 men. ²The Gallic army was guestimated at 240,000 infantry and 8,000 calvary by Julius in his journal. A professionally made video of the conflict leading up to the decisive battle. [] ³ A movie starting as Caesar is leaving Gaul and ending after the Battle of Phrasus []

Works Cited (In the Process of formatting into MLA Citation) Book: __The Caesars__ by Allan Massie Pgs. 15-39. Book: __Caesar's Gallic War__ The literal translations of Caesar's own autobiography of his time during the Gallic Wars.