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Gaius Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC, Ides of March) General, Consul, 1st Dictator of the Roman Republic, Chronicler, Author

Statue of Julius Caesar, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Rome

The Death of Caesar, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1867

Marc Antony’s Oration at Caesar’s Funeral by George Edward Robertson

The Chiaramonti Caesar bust, a posthumous portrait in marble, 44–30 BC, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican Museums

Cleopatra and Caesar, 1866 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Reliefs of Cleopatra and her son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, at the Temple of Dendera

The extent of the Roman Republic in 40 BC after Caesar’s conquests

A 1783 edition of The Gallic Wars

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (YouTube video) by Edward VII de Vere, Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604) “Shake-speare” or William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) The Bard

“In the end, it is impossible not to become what others believe you are.”

“The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.”

“Experience is the teacher of all things.”

“No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.”

“Let the die be cast!”

“Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish”

“It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life.”

“All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures. ”

“I love treason but hate a traitor.”

“What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also. ”

“If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.”

“Divide and Conquer.”

“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”

“Veni, Vidi, Vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered).”

“Without training, they lacked knowledge.
Without knowledge, they lacked confidence.
Without confidence, they lacked victory.”

“When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

“Et tu Brute!”

Through his letters and oratory, Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC), his contemporary, paid homage to Julius as an effective and silver-tongued orator.

A prolific author throughout his adulthood, especially concerning his first-hand experience as a general and dictator during the Gallic and Roman civil wars, his literary works, such as The Conquest of Gaul, provide rare insight into the life and times of perhaps the most charismatic and historically significant leader of his era. From a historical perspective, few men of his caliber rivaled him in literary production and leadership skills. Historians indeed owe him a debt of gratitude in several respects, especially considering that nothing, save his first-hand chronicles, was written contemporarily about current events that would prove to be of historical importance. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Emperor of Rome (10 BC – 54 AD), his descendant, rivaled him in historical literary output.

Rome ruled Gaul for over 500 years after Julius conquered the region comprised mainly of a loose confederation of Frankish-Germanic tribes. Had it not been for Tonantius Ferreolus (418 – 476) Roman Praetorian Prefect of Gaul, the Roman Praetorian Prefect of Gaul who managed to unite the Franks under the banner of Roman General Flavius Aetius, the Roman territory would have fallen into the hands of Attila the Hun ( – 453) 59th King of Huns had he won the Battle of Châlons (451). Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, 1st Christian Ruler of Gaul, the grandson of Merovech (411 – 458) who commanded the Franks at the battle, would later drive the Romans out of Gaul in 486.

Six Roman Legions (25,000 soldiers in total) under the command of Julius Caesar defeated Ariovistus ( – 49 BC) and his Germanic allies (around 15,000 warriors) at the Battle of Vosges in 58 BC. The decisive defeat stalled the planned Seubi peoples’ migration into Roman Gaul. Arminius “The Great” (17 BC – 21 AD) Prince of Teutons, his great-grandson, forever ceased Rome’s encroachment ambitions to eventually fully occupy Germania as a result of his army’s total annihilation of three Roman Legions at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. German chieftain Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus, in 476. (He was an agnatic descendant of Arminius “The Great”.)

Roman General Gaius Julius Caesar first invaded Britain in 55 BC. The expeditionary force consisting of only two Roman Legions routed by the army formed by the Britons tribal alliance. He came better prepared for the second invasion almost a year later, but it was rebuffed, although the negotiation for his withdrawal from the island yielded the concession that the Brits would pay Rome an annual tribute to cease all further military incursions. The Britons lived at peace with Rome for nearly a century before Emperor Claudius reneged on the armistice agreement in 43 AD and commenced the eventual conquest of Britain 45 years later.

The assassination of Julius Caesar marked the start of the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty that ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great of Macedonia (356 – 323 BC) when his nephew Ptolemy Soter became his successor as Pharoah of Egypt. Cleopatra VII (69 – 30 BC) was the last of the semi-autonomous dynastic lineage (a Roman Empire vassal state governed by General Marcus Antonius (83 – 30 BC) after her suicide. Soon thereafter, Octavian (later Augustus, Gaius Julius Octavianus, 1st Emperor of Rome (63 – 14 BC) added Egypt as yet another province of the Roman Empire.

Although many regard Julius as the first dictator of Rome, his great-grandnephew Augustus, Gaius Julius Caesar (63 BC – 43 AD) 1st Emperor of Rome was the first to style himself Imperator of Rome (perhaps without much objection).

Julius claimed to be an agnatic descendant of Romulus, Founder and 1st King of Rome (753 – 715 BC).

The eponym of the month of July, he’s ranked #67 in Hart’s Most Influential People in History – Top 500 List (125).

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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