Gaius Julius Caesar

Roman senator and father of Julius Caesar (c.140 BC - 85 BC)

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Lived -130–-85, aged 45

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Era
-130–-85
Aged 45

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

He was the father of the Caesar — the man whose name became synonymous with absolute power — but his own career stayed inside the bounds of the Roman Senate, aligned with Marius in the civil wars that would crack the Republic open.

Biography

About

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman senator in the late second century BC, born around 140 BC. He married into the populares faction by supporting his brother-in-law Gaius Marius, the general whose rivalry with Sulla turned Rome's political tensions into open war. He died in 85 BC, leaving behind a son who would inherit his name and rewrite the Republic's fate. Through that son, he became great-grandfather to Gaius Octavius — the future Augustus, first emperor of Rome.

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Gaius Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar

saidundated

I assure you I had rather be the first man here than the second man in Rome.

— On passing through a village in the Alps, as attributed in Parallel Lives , by Plutarch, as translated by John Langhorne and William

Gaius Julius Caesar

saidundated

I will not ... that my wife be so much as suspected.

— His declaration as to why he had divorced his wife Pompeia, when questioned in the trial against Publius Clodius Pulcher for sacrilege

Gaius Julius Caesar

saidundated

It is not the well-fed long-haired man I fear, but the pale and the hungry looking.

— As reported in Plutarch's Anthony'; William Shakespeare adapted this in having Caesar declare Cassius as having "a lean and hungry look."

Gaius Julius Caesar

saidundated

Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our [Latin] language Gauls the third.

— Commentarii de Bello Gallico [Commentaries on the Gallic War]

Gaius Julius Caesar

saidundated

[Of England] the coastal areas are inhabited by invaders who crossed from Belgica…settled there…all kept the names of the tribes from where they originated.

— Commentarii de Bello Gallico [Commentaries on the Gallic War]

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