Young Caesar, Roman Empire

Now, a talented young man who claims descent from the goddess Venus enters our story: Gaius Julius Caesar. In his youth, Caesar is a member of Marius’ faction, married to his daughter Cornelia, and is named in Sulla’s proscriptions. Luckily for Caesar, the dictator reluctantly agrees to spare Caesar on account of his youth and familial connections.

Caesar’s early career takes him to Bithynia, today the western part of Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Here, he is tasked with convincing King Nicomedes III to provide Rome with a fleet of warships to control the coast of modern-day Turkey. Caesar and the king are said by the historian Suetonius to have fallen in love (or, as Plutarch euphemistically puts it, "he tarried with him a short time").

After Caesar leaves Nicomedes, he heads to Rhodes to learn oratory. According to a famous (and likely apocryphal) story by Plutarch, he is captured by pirates on the way. When his captors set his ransom at 20 talents, Caesar bursts out laughing, tells the pirates they obviously don’t know who they’ve captured, and asks them to bump the price up to 50.

For the next few weeks, Caesar spends his time reciting Latin poetry to the baffled pirates and scolding them, promising them a gruesome death after his release. Caesar gets his liberty, and, true to his word, immediately tracks down the pirates and crucifies them.

Caesar returns to Rome on the advice of his friends; Sulla’s regime is now a memory, and he is safe from persecution. He is soon elected to his first political position, becoming a member of the College of Pontiffs, a junior religious office. Next, he receives a military command in Spain, where he acquits himself admirably. Plutarch gives a brilliant example of Caesar’s ambition: on his return, while passing a tiny barbarian village in the Alps, his friends jokingly ask him, "Can it be that here too there are ambitious strifes for office, struggles for primacy, and mutual jealousies of powerful men?" Caesar responds, "I would rather be first here than second at Rome."

Once back in the city, Caesar begins a charm offensive with the common people. Upon election as aedile, a magistrate's office, he goes into serious debt organising sumptuous public festivals, where banquets, music, and wine are served to all citizens. Caesar is electioneering Roman-style, building a reputation as a true populares.

After this, Caesar’s rise is meteoric. He moves from one high office to the next, outwitting his rivals and winning the enduring loyalty of his friends. This all culminates after his return from a second command in Spain, where he is offered either a triumph for his victories or, if he enters the city without his troops, the consulship (Rome's highest office). Caesar chooses the latter.

With Julius Caesar assuming the highest office of state, the scene is set. From now on, powerful personalities dominate Rome’s politics, and their alliances and enmities, struggles and stratagems will shape the course of history. Rich men and aristocrats appeal to the people to undermine their enemies, gathering popular power around themselves and challenging the very foundations of the Republic.