Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome in 100 BC into the prestigious Gens Julia family. His childhood was spent in the shadow of Italy’s Social War and then a civil conflict between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Caesar’s uncle, Gaius Marius, while the Senate floundered and struggled to respond to the crises facing the Republic. Sulla emerged victorious, forcing a young Caesar to ship out to the military early to avoid facing punishment for his uncle’s actions.

Young Caesar served with distinction in the legions in Greece and Asia. He earned special honors for his bravery at the Siege of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos in 81 BC. Caesar also rubbed shoulders with foreign rulers, most notably King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia with whom he allegedly had a close relationship. Already, Caesar was proving to be charismatic and capable.

He also proved to be uncompromising and fearless. While sailing off the coast of Asia Minor, Caesar was captured by pirates. According to Plutarch, Caesar was outraged that the pirates were ransoming him for twenty talents - he insisted he was worth fifty. Caesar spent several weeks with the pirates, where he joined games with his captors and entertained them with speeches and poetry. They got on so well that Caesar would joke with them and promised that he would crucify them when he was freed. Eventually, the ransom was paid and Caesar was not one to break his promises. He immediately gathered his forces and set out in pursuit of the pirates, captured them, and, true to his word, had them crucified.

Caesar only returned to Rome after Sulla’s death in 78 BC where he became renowned as a legal advocate. He had a respectable political career in a succession of offices, but his ambition was not satisfied. When he was 32, Suetonius tells us that Caesar fell to his knees before a statue of Alexander the Great and lamented that he had achieved only a fraction of what Alexander had done by that age.

However, it wouldn’t be long before Caesar’s life became more exciting. In 63 BC, the senator Lucius Sergius Catilina attempted to assassinate the consuls and seize control of the Republic. The plot failed and the conspirators were caught. Many people wanted them to be executed without a trial. Chief among these voices were Cato the Younger and Marcus Tullius Cicero. It was Caesar who tried to convince the Senate that the men deserved a trial. Although his speech was powerful, Cato and Cicero’s arguments prevailed and the men were executed. Caesar himself was even accused of being aligned with them. Caesar’s argument might have failed, and he made lifelong enemies of Cato and Cicero, but his reputation for powerful oratory and political boldness was clear and he was fast becoming one of the most well-known faces in Rome.