Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar rose through Roman politics as a general and statesman, most famously conquering Gaul (roughly modern France and Belgium) in a nine-year campaign chronicled in his own Commentarii de Bello Gallico. His crossing of the Rubicon River in 49 BC with his army — defying the Senate's order to disband — triggered a civil war he won decisively, after which he was declared dictator, eventually dictator perpetuo ("in perpetuity") in 44 BC.

His accumulation of personal power, seen by many senators as a fatal threat to the centuries-old Roman Republic, led directly to his assassination on the Ides of March (March 15), 44 BC, by a group of senators including Brutus and Cassius. His death did not restore the Republic — it triggered another round of civil wars that ended with his adopted heir Octavian (later Augustus) becoming the first Roman emperor, closing the Republic for good.