C. Julius Caesar, the conqueror of Gaul and dictator of 48-44 BC. He rose to power as a politician 'of
the left', but achieved his ultimate triumph through brilliant generalship. Subsequently, however, his
accumulation of powers and honours alarmed even his own supporters, and he was assassinated in the
famous Ides of March conspiracy.
Related by marriage to Marius and Cinna, he had escaped the proscriptions because of family
connections on the other side. But tradition credited Sulla with the prediction that he would eventually
destroy the Optimates for 'he harbours in him many a Marius.' In 70 he supported the restoration of the
tribunes' powers and the amnesty granted to the followers of Lepidus, one of whom was his wife's
brother. In youth Caesar had refused Sulla's request to divorce Cornelia, who was Cinna's daughter;
when she died in 67 he delivered a public eulogy of her. In the same year, at the funeral of his aunt Julia,
he displayed the images of her husband Marius, not seen since the days of Sulla. Then, as aedile in 65,
Caesar restored to public view the trophies that Marius had brought back from his victories, and in 64 he
countenanced the prosecution of Sulla's agents.
To the development of his popularis image Caesar brought all his considerable talent for publicity. In 63