Timeline: Julius Caesar

July 13, 100 BC

Caesar is Born

84 BC

Marriage to Cornelia & Serves in the Roman Army

75 BC

Caesar is Captured by Pirates

68 BC

Caesar Begins His Political Career

60 BC

First Triumvirate Formed by Caesar, Crassus, & Pompey the Great

59 BC

Caesar is Elected Consul

58-49 BC

Caesar Conquers Gaul

49 BC

Caesar Crosses the Rubicon

48-45 BC

Caesar Wins Victories in Egypt, Pontus, & North Africa

46 BC

Caesar Celebrates Triumphal Procession & Dictatorship

February 15, 44 BC

Caesar Refuses the Kingship Offered by Marc Antony at the Feast of the Lupercalia

March 15, 44 BC

Julius Caesar is Assassinated by 60 Conspirators Led by Brutus & Cassius

March, 44 BC

Caesar's Funeral Takes Place in the Roman Forum

42 BC

Caesar is Deified & a Temple is Built in His Honor in the Roman Forum

Beware The Ides of March!

The evil that men do oft live after them;

the good is oft interred with their bones.

-From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

Some despise Caesar for his ambition, while others praise him for his devotion to Rome. No matter what we think of Caesar, he looms large in our imaginations. Was he "the noblest man / That ever lived in the tide of times" as Marc Antony describes him in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar? Or was he an ambitious tyrant on the verge of destroying the Roman Republic as Brutus believed?

There are no easy answers. And portrayals of Caesar - from Plutarch to Shakespeare to HBO - have presented him in both guises. Opinions about Caesar have shifted through the centuries. In the Middle Ages, Dante and Chaucer condemn Brutus and Cassius for killing Caesar. By the Renaissance, however, opinions changed: Caesar was condemned by Machiavelli and Montaigne.

Good Caesar? Bad Caesar? It’s up to you to decide. Click on the images to the right and update your knowledge of Caesar’s achievements.

Politics & 1st Triumvirate

Assassinated in 44BC

Funeral in Roman Forum

Deification of Caesar