# Julius Caesar Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE) was the Roman general and statesman whose career broke the Roman Republic's constitutional order (see [[Ancient Rome]]). After conquering Gaul, he crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE in defiance of the Senate, won the ensuing civil war, and had himself made dictator — concentrating power in a single man and provoking the senatorial conspiracy that assassinated him on the Ides of March, 44 BCE. His heir [[Augustus]] completed the transformation into empire. Caesar's name became the very word for supreme ruler (*Kaiser*, *Tsar*) and the root of [[Caesarism]] — the recurring model of the strongman who ends republican gridlock by force. The Roman precedent of the would-be Caesar versus the defenders of the Republic remains a live rhetorical frame on the contemporary right. See [[Antiquity in Right-Wing Thought Hub]]. ## See also [[Ancient Rome]] · [[Augustus]] · [[Caesarism]] · [[Antiquity in Right-Wing Thought Hub]]