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PART II-D: Julius Caesar (100 - 44 B.C. )
Youth to Consulate
Descended from an impoverished patrician family which had long been attached to the senatorial clique, Caesar's immediate forbears had fallen from prominence in the decades before his birth and there had been no  Consuls in his immediate family for generations. The office of Consul - one of two men who, for a year, guided the Roman Republic at the pinnacle of power - was dearly sought by all noble families. Perhaps these factors influenced the ambitious young Roman in his drive for personal preeminence. Almost from the first, he turned against the established senatorial party and sought out the popularis or people's party. Caesar's father, C. Julius Caesar, was something of a pleasant nonentity; he died when Caesar was 15, having only reached as high as praetor, next to the Consulship. Little is known about him. Caesar's mother, Aurelia, was of the prominent family of Cotta and was apparently an exemplar of the disciplined Roman matrona of her time. Unusually, even for down-at-luck patricians, the family lived in an insula (multistory apartment house) in the Subura, the seething polyglot area of Rome renowned for poor streets, multicultural neighborhoods and vice. We can never know what influence growing up in the Subura had upon Caesar; it is interesting that at least one of his immediate servants was a Gallic slave, in view of what was to come. Political clout returned to the Caesars when Julia, Caesar's paternal aunt, married Gaius Maruis, renowned general and six times Consul between 107 and 100 BC. and sometimes called the "Third Founder of Rome." Marius was, until Caesar surpassed him, one of the most successful generals in Roman history and had fought and destroyed combined armies of Celts from Gaul and Germania. Although a "new man" (one without prestigious family), Marius was notorious for having forced through reforms in the Roman army: for the first time in Republican history, men without property were encouraged to serve as soldiers. In creating an army of poor men who followed their generals for plunder and advancement, Marius added another ingredient to what would become Caesar's own fortunes. In addition, his tremendous wealth and influence were invaluable on setting the family fortunes back on track. Marius was also a powerful, ruthless, often inept politician. From the time Caesar was about ten, Marius and his party became increasingly involved in bloody struggles with other parties, including that of Marius' younger protégé, Sulla. It is impossible to overestimate the effect on the young Caesar of the turbulent degeneration of the Roman Republic in which he grew up. From the time of the Gracchi 30 years before his birth, Republican politics had slid step by step into riot and chaos; the young Caesar had never known a time when the Republic appeared stable until he reached manhood. In the midst of factional strife, sources suggest that, in 87 BC, the teenage Caesar was named Flamen Dialis (high priest of Jupiter) by either Marius or his ally in the Consulship, L. Cornelius Cinna. The Flamen Dialis, a lifetime appointment, held a taboo-rich ritualistic priesthood. It is hard to imagine a worse candidate, based on Caesar's later life. The Flamen Dialis could never touch metal, see a corpse, or ride a horse, among many other exclusions; self-evidently, he could not serve in the army. Whether Caesar served in the position is disputed; however, at some point during this turbulent decade, Sulla apparently rescinded his nomination or appointment. As Sulla was now the all-powerful dictator of Rome after the deaths of Marius and Cinna, he thus gave the young Caesar the chance for military immortality.
As the violence between the parties of Marius and Sulla accelerated after the chaos of the "Social War," Caesar became dangerously embroiled with Sulla. In 84, he had married Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, Sulla's bitter enemy. In 81, after Sulla overthrew the Marian party and assumed the dictatorship, Caesar was proscribed. In great danger, Caesar left his mother and young wife and, disguised, went into hiding outside Rome. Some sources suggest he barely escaped Sulla's thugs with his life following a hefty bribe. Caesar's relatives and the College of Vestal Virgins eventually persuaded Sulla not to kill the young Julian (although Sulla allegedly warned that, in setting Caesar free, the world would later find him as dangerous as Gaius Marius). Sulla also demanded that Caesar divorce his young wife. By all accounts, in a face-to-face confrontation, Caesar refused and Sulla impounded her dowry instead. Although pardoned, Caesar thought it prudent to leave Italy for Asia in 80. Hardly 20, he joined the governor's staff and did not return to Rome until after Sulla's death in 78 BC. He had survived childhood and adolescence in one of the most violent periods in the Republic's history, with riotous factions literally and repeatedly slaughtering each other, mass proscriptions and enemy lists, the heads of conquered faction leaders placed on the Rostra, and informers working everywhere for and against the leading men of Rome. He had fled for his life, defied a dictator, and paid the political price. These horrors must have permanently altered his conception of the Roman state. 
Caesar served with the Governor of Asia before transferring in 78 to military service with P. Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia. After Sulla's death, he returned to Rome. Thus, in his early 20's, Caesar had won the highest military decoration for personal courage the Roman state could bestow upon a soldier and gained valuable experience in provincial warfare and administration. Politically, he had a leg up on the ladder of Roman success, just now beginning.
THE CURSUS HONORUM Caesar returned to Rome and, in his twenties, gained a reputation as an legal advocate and popular sympathizer, prosecuting several prominent Romans for corruption and carefully developing a grateful clientela (clients, men and women who accepted his protection and help, and from whom he could expect political support). He was considered in his own time to be an superb advocate and orator, second only to Cicero for skill and eloquence. Caesar spoke Greek fluently, sign of the educated upper-class Roman; he was knowledgeable and discerning about Greek philosophy, literature and art. He was apparently possessed of great magnetism, personal charm, and a vibrant sense of humor and wit. He knew everyone in the tightly knit Roman centers of power and quickly gained a reputation for being extravagant with money, somewhat rebellious in dress and attitude, and determined to make a name for himself. After a sensational trial in 77 in which he successfully and tactlessly prosecuted Dolabella, the ex-consul, for extortion during his governorship, Caesar left Rome to study rhetoric at Rhodes; a good knowledge of rhetoric was considered to be essential for a political career. He also managed to prove himself useful to the state in the opening stages of what would become the Third Mithradatic War in 74-73. On the way to Rhodes in 75, Caesar was captured by pirates. This famous story reveals, in miniature, the man he was becoming. At the time, the eastern end of the Mediterranean was swarming with pirates; Roman citizens (the higher rank, the better) were tempting prey for ransom. Caesar's ship was captured near Rhodes; he was held captive for 40 days. Sending away his staff to borrow his ransom (50 talents or 12,000 gold pieces which he had insisted his merits warranted), Caesar joked easily with his captors, ordering them about with amused disdain. He "had often smilingly sworn, while still in their power, that he would soon capture and crucify them; and this is exactly what he did." [Suetonius]. As soon as he was released, Caesar begged forces from local officials and, returning, neatly captured all the pirates and arranged for their prompt crucifixion. Other sources suggest that, with a hint of his later mercy to opponents, he had them killed before the full horrors of crucifixion could be felt. Returning to Rome in 73 BC, Caesar was elected to the College of Pontiffs, another politically acute step in the dance for advancement. He then returned to the life of social gaiety out of all proportion to his slender financial means. He was alleged to have built an expensive country house on Lake Nemi, only to find it disappointing: he had it pulled down. He was an avid collector of fine art and fine slaves. His debts were rumored to approach over 8 million denarii, a fabulous sum for a young man without means. He also began acquiring the reputation for another form of art, the alleged seductions of wives of men in his own social class. It is difficult to find one of Caesar's later enemies, including Cato, Pompey, Cato and Bibulus, who were not allegedly cuckolded by him. From this time, until he became governor of Gaul 15 years later, Caesar's debts in pursuit of his political aims range from prodigious to staggering. Plutarch claims that, in 59, he gave his mistress, Servilia (the mother of Brutus) a pearl worth 1 1/2 million denarii. 
Whether because of or in spite of his extravagant reputation, Caesar was elected Military Tribune in 72, the first office assigned him by popular vote of the people. He served quaestor in 69 under the governor of Further Spain, an unsettled area only recently brought under Rome's authority. Suetonius recounts that, in Gades (modern Cadiz), Caesar wept when he saw a statue of Alexander the Great; Caesar said Alexander's deeds had far outstripped his own by the same age. Soon thereafter, his aunt Julia died. Caesar delivered the funeral oration, not only praising his aunt's descent from gods and kings (the same as his own) but carrying the prohibited images of his uncle Marius in the funeral procession, which caused a buzz of consternation. Soon thereafter his wife, Cornelia, died and he was left with an infant daughter, Julia. While serving in Spain, Caesar championed the cause of citizenship rights of northern Italians (a cause he would support all his life). As a quaestor, he was also able to attend meetings of the Senate beginning in 67. In 67, Caesar also remarried, choosing Pompeia, Quintus Pompey's daughter and Sulla's granddaughter. His first marriage had aligned him with the popular, Marian party; his second with the conservative Optimates. While in the Senate, Caesar voted for the Lex Gabinia,which sought unprecedented powers for GnaeusPompeius Magnus to destroy the pirates terrorizing Roman trade in the eastern Mediterranean; as Pompey's command was extremely controversial, Caesar thus showed himself a supporter of the "great man." He was also named Curator of the Appian Way, a post in which good administration could win significant popularity. In spite of his enormous debts, Caesar paid for visible improvements to this Roman artery out of his own funds. In 66, Caesar again supported Pompey (together with Cicero) in the Lex Manilia, which sought to give Pompey unprecedented powers to conclude the unsuccessful eastern war against Mithridates, securing political capital with Pompey (although not with his opponent Optimates). In 65, Caesar (with Bibulus) was elected as curule aedile, an urban magistracy involving police control of market trade, care of temples and public buildings, and the additional duty of holding public games on holidays. This was a popular position for crowd-pleasing; Caesar threw spectacular public entertainments and funded lavish building projects, meanwhile strengthening his clients among the northern Italian Latin colonies. He honored his father with spectacular gladiatorial games in which 320 pairs of gladiators fought, clad in silver armor. The growing dislike between him and Bibulus led to Bibulus complaining that Caesar got all the credit for their aedile year, as "The joint liberality of Caesar and myself is credited to Caesar alone." [Suetonius].
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These work great in the sand! We can cover a lot of miles in the desert!
In 63, Caesar staged a stunning electoral upset, being elected Pontifex Maximus [highest of all priests] against several elder members of the Optimates who had complacently expected the honor. The position was for life. Allegedly Caesar's debts were so extreme that, when he left home on the morning of the election, he told his mother, Aurelia, that he would either return as Pontifex or not return at all. He returned having polled more votes than all the other candidates combined.