Julius Caesar 46-44 BC

In 46 BC Caesar led his troops to meet Scipio’s at the Battle of Thapsus, Caesar won this after realizing that Scipio’s troops were in between two bodies of water allowing Caesar to move his troops in eliminating Scipio’s ability to retreat, thus inspiring many military tactics used today.

Julius Caesar, alarmed that the calendar is growing out of whack with the seasons, adds an extra day to the month of February every four years.Caesar was reforming a calendar based on 364 days, with an occasional extra leap month. But the Roman religious officials in charge of minding the calendar had been asleep at the switch, chronologically speaking. Caesar consulted with Egypt's top astronomers, who told him the year was 365¼ days long. While he was making the fix, Julius also decided to give his name to the month of July.

In April 46, Caesar had celebrated four battle wins. The four wars that were celebrated were: The war in Gaul, The war is Egypt, The war against Pharnaces of Pontus and The war against King Juba and Numidia. He was careful not to label anything because the Civil Wars were dishonorable to himself and bad for the Romans. In a parade, he carried twenty varied pictures from the triumphs showing the events and who were involved in them, except for Pompey because he was missed by everyone. Everyone was thrilled over Achillas and Pothinus and laughed at Pharnaces. 65,000 talents were shown in the parade and also there was 2,822 golden crowns weighing 20,414 pounds. He gave 5,000 denarii to each soldier, to each centurion double that amount, military and cavalry double, and each member of Plebs one hundred denarii. There was various shows, horse-racing, musical contests, and combats. He built the temple of Venus Genetrix and around it he laid out a square for the Romans where people could meet for business.

In the Battle of Munda during 45 BC, Caesar was fighting with many disadvantages. He was outnumbered, Gnaeus had his army set up on top of the hill and there was a stream at the base of the hill that stopped an from army charging at their enemy. The fighting started in the mid-to late-morning. We aren’t sure how their armies were set up but we known that their formations were right and left flanks and a center. Both ends of the battle knew this was the last battle of the Civil War. Staying with the Roman strategy, Caesar put his experienced Tenth Legion troops to the right of him. The enemy fought as hard as his army did but the battle had followed into the afternoon, neither side getting closer to winning. Until finally, Pompeian left flank were failing under the blows from Caesar’s Tenth Legion and while Pompey was telling his right flank to move to his left, Caesar had launched an attack. This turned the way of battle around. Horsemen attacked the Pompeian right flank and others charged the enemy's camp. The enemy lost heart, dropped their weapons and ran from the field. Caesar had won and the Roman Civil War was over.

After his death, his nephew, Octavian, was named his heir. Octavian was only 19 years old at the time and was studying for Caesar's campaign against Parthia. One his uncle died, he was the new heir after Caesar's son, who was killed by octavian died. His mother and step father, L. Marcius Philippus, wanted him to return to Rome as a citizen and not take rule Rome out of fear for his personal safety. If he had become the ruler, his parents feared the same would happen to him that happened to Caesar.

During his short rule, Julius ordered a reduction in grain per person and declared jurors could only come from the upper classes of society. He established a police force, appointed officials to carry out his land reforms, and passed his laws that restrict certain luxuries.

After Caesar was assassinated, the assassins forgot to make a plan of what to do after Caesar was dead, therefore accidentally leaving Marc Antony, Caesar’s second-hand man to live. Marc Antony turned the Roman popular opinion against the conspirators and joined Octavian in defeating Brutus and Cassius in the battle of Philippi in 42 BCE. After this battle Marc Antony allied with Cleopatra VIII of Egypt, but Octavian thought that this alliance was a threat to the Roman empire. Cleopatra VIII and Marc Antony’s forces were stopped by Octavian’s forces in the Battle of Actium. A year later they killed themselves.

Julius caesar died of assassination by one of his senators, and although he knew lots of them hated caesar, he dismissed his security shortly before his assassination. Caesar had apparently received a letter before a meeting with his senators, but he did not read it. After he walked into the assembly hall , he was surrounded by the senators that were all holding daggers. Servilius Casca stabbed him first in the neck, followed by many others.