Cæsar

(Caius Julius), the “foremost man of all this world,” equally renowned as soldier, statesman, orator, and writer, b. 12 July, 100 B.C. , of noble family. His life, the particulars of which are well known, was an extraordinary display of versatility, energy, courage, and magnanimity. He justified the well-known line of Pope, “Cæsar the world’s great master and his own.” His military talents elevated him to the post of dictator, but this served to raise against him a band of aristocratic conspirators, by whom he was a a inated, 15 March, 44 B.C. His Commentaries are a model of insight and clear expre ion. Sallust relates that he questioned the existence of a future state in the presence of the Roman senate. Froude says: “His own writings contain nothing to indicate that he himself had any religious belief at all. He saw no evidence that the gods practically interfered in human affairs.... He held to the facts of this life and to his own convictions; and as he found no reason for supposing that there was a life beyond the grave he did not pretend to expect it.”