CÆSAR, C. JULIUS, the illustrious Roman general and military historian, was the son of C. Julius Cæsar, who held the office of prætor, and of Aurelia, who is conjectured to have been the daughter of M. Aurelius Cotta. He was born July 12 B.C. 100, and was thus six years younger than Cicero and Pompey. His aunt had married the great Marius; and through the influence of this powerful connection, he was raised to the dignity of flamen dialis while still in his thirteenth year. Not long afterwards he married Cossutia, a lady of good family, with whom he received a large fortune; but before he had completed his seventeenth year he divorced her, and took to wife the daughter of Cornelius Cinna, one of the leaders of the popular party. This marriage drew down upon him the anger of Sulla, who ordered him to put away his young wife. Cæsar refused, and was immediately proscribed, losing at the same time his office and his fortune. Though his life was spared, it was not till after the death of Sulla that he began to take a prominent part in public affairs. He first became famous as an orator, and it is agreed that if he had confined himself solely to oratory, he would have taken rank among the best speakers of Rome. His powers of persuasion were always employed in the cause of the people, with whom he spared no effort to ingratiate himself. His popularity soon became unbounded, and from this time till his death his career was uniformly progressive. He obtained in rapid succession the highest civil and military honours that his country had to bestow; and having defeated his rival Pompey on the plains of Pharsalia B.C. 48, he remained undisputed master of the whole Roman empire. He caused himself to be chosen perpetual dictator, and had actually consented to accept the imperial crown, when he was murdered by the remnant of the republican party, who hoped by his death to restore the old constitution. He fell in the senate-house on the 15th of March B.C. 44. Cæsar wrote many works, the majority of which have been lost, but their titles, which have been preserved, are proofs of his great mental activity and varied accomplishments. The purity of his diction and the clearness of his style were acknowledged by the ancients themselves, whose testimony is amply confirmed by the Commentarii, which have descended to us entire. In this work is given a detailed history of the first seven years of the Gallic war, and of the first three of the civil war. The best editions of this work are those of Jungermann (with the Greek translation of Planudes), Frankfurt, 1606 and 1669; of Grevius, Amsterdam, 1697; of Davis, Cambridge, 1706; of Oudendorp, Leyden, 1737; and of Morus, Leipzig, 1780. The history of this illustrious man is given in detail under the head ROMAN HISTORY.