Julius CaesarEverything you need to know about Julius Caesar.
Renaissance miniature attributed to Giovanni Pietro Birago, c. 1490: Francesco Sforza with Julius Caesar and Hannibal among the great warriors of antiquity
Miniature attributed to Giovanni Pietro Birago, c. 1490 — Francesco Sforza shaking hands with Caesar and Hannibal (public domain scan). A Renaissance artistic imagining, not a documentary depiction.

Key Deeds & Writings

The conqueror's record and the author's shelf: what Caesar did, what he wrote that survives, and what was lost.

Key deeds

The conquest of Gaul (58–50 BC)

Eight years of campaigning that brought all of Celtic Gaul under Roman control — roughly modern France and Belgium. The decisive moment was the siege of Alesia (52 BC) and the surrender of Vercingetorix. Full account: The Gallic Wars.

Winning the civil war (49–45 BC)

After crossing the Rubicon, Caesar defeated Pompey’s forces in Spain, crushed Pompey himself at Pharsalus (48 BC), survived the Alexandrian War, and finished the Pompeians in Africa (Thapsus, 46) and Spain (Munda, 45). Full account: The Civil War Against Pompey.

The calendar reform (46–45 BC)

With the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, Caesar replaced Rome’s broken lunar calendar with a 365¼-day solar calendar — the Julian calendar, the ancestor of the modern one. Full account: The Calendar Reform.

Debt, land, and citizenship reforms

Debt relief, land allotments for veterans and the urban poor, colonies across the Mediterranean, citizenship extended to provincials in Gaul and Spain, enlargement of the Senate, and reorganization of the courts. Full account: Caesar’s Reforms.

Building Rome

The Forum Julium (with the Temple of Venus Genetrix), the Basilica Julia, and the new Senate house — the Curia Julia, still standing today (completed by Augustus).

Surviving writings

Caesar was one of the finest Latin prose stylists — Cicero himself praised the Commentarii for their “bare, straight, and graceful” elegance (Brutus 262).

Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Gallic War) — 7 books

Year-by-year account of the Gallic Wars, 58–52 BC, written in the third person (“Caesar decided…”). Published as annual dispatches; part military report, part political advertisement. Book 8 was added by his officer Aulus Hirtius.

Commentarii de Bello Civili (Civil War) — 3 books

Caesar’s account of the civil war down to the Alexandrian War, breaking off unfinished in 48–47 BC. His justification: he was defending his dignitas against a faction that left him no choice.

The Corpus Caesarianum (by his officers)

The Alexandrian, African, and Spanish wars — written by officers, not Caesar, but transmitted with his works.

Lost writings

A substantial body of work is gone: the grammatical treatise De Analogia (dedicated to Cicero), the polemic Anticato (against Cato’s memory, written in Spain), poems (including a youthful Laudes Herculis), tragedies, speeches, and a huge correspondence — only fragments quoted by later authors survive. Full account: Caesar’s Lost Writings.

How to read the Commentarii

  1. They are Caesar’s case for himself. Every battle is won by his judgment; every enemy is treacherous or doomed; clemency is always his choice.
  2. They are third-person by design. “Caesar” the character is calm and inevitable; the author disappears behind him.
  3. They are still evidence. Archaeology broadly confirms the campaigns’ geography; where Caesar had no reason to lie (logistics, ethnography), he is often our best source.

Source notes