Julius Caesar

This post is about Julius  Caesar. Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC. Julius Caesar was a very powerful man. He took over many countries. His full name was Gaius Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was so famous that they named the fifth month of the Roman calendar, Quintilus, July after him! One thing that made him famous besides all that war was that he created the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar had 365 days and every 4th year was a leap year.  We do not use the Julian calendar today. Today we use the Gregorian calendar (made by Pope Gregory the XIII).  Julius Caesar was the first person to get his face printed on a Roman coin. 

Julius Caesar was a great leader in war. He crossed the English channel twice. He extended the Roman Empire a lot.  Julius Caesar was the leader of all the Roman legions and had lots of success winning wars all over Europe and some parts of Africa. The senators got scared that Julius Caesar would take over Rome so they told him to  leave the legions and come back to Rome. But Julius Caesar did not want to, so he crossed the Rubicon with his army (which was illegal) and said “Alea iacta est”, which means “The die has been cast”.  And he said these words because he did not know if he was going to win the war that he knew he was going to start.

At the end of that war he won and Rome pretty much belonged to him. One thing that made him popular to the common people was that he said if you lived in a  country that Rome took over, you do not have to pay taxes to Rome. But the senators did not like that because he was taking away their money and power.  In 44 BC Julius Caesar was killed.  A group of 60 senators plotted to kill him.  He said that if he died that Octavius would take his place. Also if some thing happens to both Julius Caesar and Octavius then Brutus would take his place. But Brutus was one of the people trying to kill him. His famous last words were “Et tu, Brute?” Which means “You too, Brutus?”

3 thoughts on “Julius Caesar”

  1. Hi Neil,
    Julius Caesar sure was a fascinating person! It was interesting reading about the Julian calendar. I am familiar with the Lunar calendar, as many of the traditional Chinese celebrations still utilize the lunar cycle to determine the date(s) of certain holidays, but I have to admit, I had never heard of the Julian calendar! I wonder how someone tracked the small differences year by year to determine that a more accurate calendar was needed. Recent research indicates that the Gregorian calendar is still not as accurate as it could be and that the Revised Julian Calendar would be the most accurate calendar. After reading your post, I did a quick search about different calendars. Here is something I found on timeanddate.com that I found interesting:

    This Revised Julian calendar uses even more complex rules to determine when to add a leap day. With an error of only about two seconds per year (or one day in 31,250 years), it is roughly 10 times more accurate than today’s Gregorian calendar and one of the most accurate calendar systems ever devised. However, it is not used by any country, only by certain orthodox churches.

    Do you think we should shift to the Revised Julian calendar? The current Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 in some European countries. It took until January 1, 1927 for Turkey, the last country, to make the switch. If we started to move toward the Revised Julian calendar, how many years do you think it would take for the world to recognize the change?

    It is amazing to me how much science has shaped our lives, routines and thinking. Thanks for sharing your learning with me. I’ll be sure to add the Julian calendar to my Lunar calendar lesson.
    Best,
    Mrs. Strub

    1. Dear Mrs. Strub,
      Thank you for commenting on my blog. I did not know about the revised Julian calendar. Before the Julian calendar the Romans also used a lunar calendar. I would like to learn more about your lunar calendar lesson.
      Thank you,
      Neil

  2. Dear Neil and Mrs. Strub,
    Wow! Wow! Wow! I’ve never done triple wows in my comments but I wanted to award them to both of you. What learning partners you are together! That’s what blogging is all about!

    Wow again and such a big smile,
    Mrs. Fordyce

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *