ABSTRACT
Julius Caesar was born to a patrician family in Rome in 100 B.C. An initial opportunity to enter politics was lost, however, when his patron, Consul Marius, was overthrown by a powerful general named Sulla in c. 82–83 Caesar was forced to flee into exile. Julius Caesar's rule was a watershed in the history of ancient Rome. His military expansion, dictatorial rule, and claims to divinity undermined the republic and laid the groundwork for an imperial system of government that lasted centuries. Caesar's aggressive military expansion influenced both the development of Western Europe and the Roman state. Rome had already claimed much of Spain before Caesar's rise, but the Gallic Wars under his command brought even greater territorial gains in northern Europe. Finally, Caesar's pretensions to divine lineage introduced a principle of emperor worship that would repeatedly alienate the empire's non-Roman population and, in the case of some rulers, invite gross abuses of power.
