In history it is rare to find truly great leadership, but every once in a while someone comes along so charismatic that even his enemies cannot but admire him. Rome in the first century B.C. was replete with statesmen, generals and leaders who to this day are remembered as being among the greatest and most fascinating that ever lived. But there is no doubt as to the most memorable of these. Gaius Julius Caesar lived from 100 to 44 B.C. and though his life began and ended with Rome beset by internal strife and the threat of civil war, he did more than anyone to consolidate the power of Rome and facilitate the rise of the Roman empire. It is true that the political and social climate of Rome had been changing rapidly for two hundred years before Caesar, but it is a moot point whether Rome would have proceeded towards monarchy without Caesar. The important thing is that he did live and reshape the Roman world; the life of Caesar was the catalyst for four centuries of the most extensive and influential empire in human history.
Aside from his legendary military prowess, shrewd political mind, oratorical and literary brilliance, reputation for even handedness and demagogic appeal, part of what fascinates us even today about Caesar is that his assassination in 44 B.C. by a group of short sighted senators left a feeling of inconclusiveness to the story of Caesar. Was his ultimate goal a monarchy or did he simply wish to drastically reform Rome to ensure control of its conquests? Did he really aspire to conquer the whole earth as Alexander had? What would he have accomplished in the years after 44 B.C.? What he did manage to accomplish was extraordinary. In his conquests as a general Plutarch ranks him as the greatest in the history of Rome. His domestic reforms were no less outstanding and included the reformation of the calendar, the restructuring of welfare and census systems, increasing the number of senators and elected officials, assessment of debts at a pre-war rate to satisfy both debtors and creditors, and the beginning of public works such as temples and theaters.
