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Gaius Julius Caesar is one of the most famous generals in history. He was very ambitious and eventually made himself master of the Roman empire, though he could not enjoy that for very long.
Caesar was born in 100 BCE into a patrician family, the Julii. Despite their pedigree, they were somewhat impoverished and lived in the Subura district of Rome. Young Caesar grew up in a rough neighborhood, but benefited from it, at ease both among the upper class and commoners. When Caesar was 16, his father died, so at the time he came of age he became head of the family also. He married Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, ally of the general Gaius Marius, who for a time was one of the leading people of Rome. Marius used his contacts to get Caesar a position as priest of Jupiter. When Sulla, Marius' enemy, made himself dictator of Rome, everybody related to Marius was suspect. Sulla demanded that he divorced Cornelia, but Caesar stubbornly refused. To escape Sulla's wrath he fled the city.
Ironically, he was now freed of religious taboos that applied to priesthood, like riding a horse, sleeping three nights outside his own bed and looking upon an army. He joined the Roman army, serving as a staff officer in Asia and Cilicia, gaining valuable prestige and military experience. He was awarded a civic crown for rescuing a number of citizens during the assault on Mythilene. When Sulla died in 78 BCE Caesar returned back to Rome, but on the Aegean sea was kidnapped by pirates. They wanted to ransom him for 20 talents of silver, but he haughtily insisted they raised the sum to 50. After the ransom was paid, he hired a fleet, hunted the pirates down and executed them.
Back in Rome he skillfully started to navigate his way upwards in the political arena. He was first elected tribune, then made quaestor of Spain and in 63 BCE bribed himself to a position as pontifex maximus, high priest of Rome. In the years before he had heavily borrowed and built up great debts, but the priesthood provided the basis for income that allowed him to start paying those off. He served as praetor in Spain and allied himself with two of the most powerful men in Rome, the rich Crassus and popular Pompey, through political support and marriage. In 59 BCE he reached the highest position, that of consul. After that the three men effectively ruled the Roman republic as the First Triumvirate.
Caesar still had debts to pay off, prestige and power to gain. With four legions under his command, he saw an opportunity in Gaul. Deliberately interpreting a move from the Helvetii tribe as an incursion into Roman territory, he provoked war. The conflict steadily grew and Caesar defeated one Gallic tribe after another, eventually conquering all of Gaul. In 56 BCE he even briefly landed in Britain, though withdrew quickly. The Gauls were not happy with Roman rule and rebelled several times, until Caesar broke their resistance at the Battle of Alesia in 52 BCE. Caesar himself wrote a book about the wars, the "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", which is still read today.
His victories brought him great wealth and prestige, but also mistrust from his former allies. In 50 BCE Pompey coerced the senate to order Caesar to disband his army and to return to Rome, as his office, already extended, had ended. Caesar, fearing persecution by his rivals, did not and a year later crossed the Rubicon river with an army, uttering his famous statement "Alea iacta est" and started a civil war. He was proclaimed dictator in Rome, but his great rival Pompey had withdrawn to the east, where he gathered a large army. Caesar pursued his adversary and in the Battle of Dyrrhachium managed to defeat him, though the outcome may well have been the reverse. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was assassinated. Caesar, pursuing him, fell in love with queen Cleopatra, got entangled in Egyptian politics and civil war and disentangled himself from it only a year later. He went on to defeat the king of Pontus; Cato, another rival in Africa and Pompey's sons in Iberia.
On his return to Rome in 47 BCE, he was proclaimed dictator for 10 years. He carried out a number of reforms, changed the calendar and started the construction of several public buildings in Rome. But resistance to his rule had not disappeared. On the Ides of March in 44 BCE a group of rivals stabbed him to death on the stairs to the Theater of Pompey. Afterwards the power of the senate was not restored; other powerful men established a second triumvirate. After 11 years Caesar's grandnephew Gaius Octavius eliminated all his rivals and a few years later became the first Roman emperor, Augustus.
Though he was a very famous conqueror, Caesar's abilities as a general are somewhat in doubt. It seems that he relied much on his battle-hardened veterans and that his primary contribution was to morale, not to tactics. Nonetheless his string of victories inspires awe and his bravery, capabilities as an orator and politician are beyond doubt.