ABSTRACT
Gaius Julius Caesar, scion of an old patrician family which could trace its origins back to Aeneas, the Trojan forefather of the Romans, was unquestionably a special man. This is a point all historians can agree on. In his public as well as his private life he was a bundle of contradictions. Sometimes he was merciful like no other, while at other times he displayed immense cruelty. He preached moral virtue but regularly flouted the rules of decorum. In the power struggle among the elite in the later years of the Roman Republic, he took risks his political opponents were afraid to take, and that was what made him so dangerous to them.
