Julius Caesar: Military and Political Strength

Julius Caesar: Military and Political Strength


        Perhaps   no other man in the history of the world symbolizes military
and political strength as much as does Gaius Julius Caesar.   This man became a
legend for his military exploits and an almost global setting, his political
manipulations which covered decades of cycles which covered power and loss of
power, and his personal life which to have been played in the most melodramatic
and theatrical manner.   It is Caesar whose life, betrayal , and death which have
been immortalized in history and in literature.   Caesar who is the focal point
of Shakespeare's most   famous history play the life cycle of Julius Caesar falls
into an obvious organizational scheme.   His early life was spent the training
period for his rise to political power; his middle life was devoted to the
obtaining and consolidation of power, and his death was the final contribution
to studies of power and its affect on man kind.
The Early Life of Julius Caesar is a classical study of the history of
power and wealth in early Rome.   Caesar was born on July 12, 100 BC.   His father
belonged to the prestigious Julian clan.   His uncle by marriage was Gaius Marius,
leader of the Populares which supported agrarian reform and was opposed by the
reactionary Optimates.   Marius saw to it that Julius Caesar was appointed flamen
dialis which is a archaic priesthood with no power. Caesar marriage in 84 BC to
Cornelia, the daughter of Marius's associate was a political match. When Lucius
Cornelius Sulla, Marius's enemy and leader of the Optimates, was made dictator
in 82 BC, he issued a list of enemies to be executed.   Caesar was not harmed but
he was ordered by Sulla to divorce Cornelia.   Caesar refused that order and left
Rome he did not return until Sulla's resignation in 78 BC.   At the age of 22
Caesar was unable to gain office and went to Rhodes where he studied rhetoric.
In 73 BC he returned to Rome as very persuasive speaker.   The year before,
while... [continues]

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