23. =C. Iūlius Caesar=: Gaius Julius Caesar was born July 12, 100 B.C. He was of a patrician family, but from the first sided with the popular party. Many stories of his early youth are told. He became pontifex maximus, military tribune, and quaestor in succession. At this period he was noted chiefly as a dissolute debtor and a demagogue. In 62 B.C. he was elected praetor, and the next year went as propraetor to govern the province of Further Spain. In 60 B.C. he returned to Rome and formed a political coalition with Pompey and Crassus, known as the ‘First Triumvirate.’ In 59 B.C. he was elected consul, and, after the expiration of his year of office, entered on the governorship of Gaul and Illyricum for the period of five years. This was afterwards extended for another period of the same length. While governor of the province he conquered the Helvetians and a wandering band of the Germans who had come over into Gaul, crushed a revolt of the Nervii, defeated the Veneti and the Aquitani, and twice invaded Germany and Britain. It was Caesar’s intention to stand for the consulship a second time as soon as his term of office as governor of Gaul should expire. Pompey, meanwhile, had become jealous of Caesar’s power and had gone over to the senatorial party. A measure was passed by the senate declaring Caesar to be an outlaw unless he should disband his army and come to Rome a private citizen before a certain date. On Caesar’s refusal to do this, he was declared a public enemy, and preparations for war were made. Caesar advanced to Rome. Pompey fled to Greece, where he was defeated the following year at Pharsalus, and afterwards was murdered in Egypt. At the battle of Thapsus in Africa, 46 B.C., Caesar defeated the remaining leaders of the party, Cato and Scipio. This was the end of the war. He returned to Rome and was made imperator and perpetual dictator. He inaugurated several important reforms, among them a reform in the calendar. He formed many other plans which his death prevented him from executing. Finally, when it was thought that he was aiming at the kingly power, a conspiracy was formed, and he was assassinated on the fifteenth day of March, 44 B.C. “While other illustrious men have been reputed great for their excellence in some one department of intellect, the concurrent voice of antiquity has declared that Caesar was great in all. ‘He had genius,’ says Cicero, ‘understanding, memory, taste, reflection, industry, and exactness.’” _The Story of the Romans_, p. 176; Creighton, p. 74; _The Roman Triumvirates_, Ch. 5. =imperāvit=: ‘was emperor’; a late meaning. PAGE 58. 1. =dēcrēta est=: for the number and gender see H. 395, 1 (439, 1); M. 174, 2, 178, 2; A. & G. 187, _a_; G. 285-6; B. 235, A, 2, B, 2, _b_, B.