Caesar
Julius Caesar (100-44) was one of the most influential men in all of Western Civilization. He was part of the great generation born around 100 B.C. (Caesar, Pompey, Cicero) that changed Rome and changed all of Europe. Caesar's role in the history of Roman government is central but even more important was his leadership in the conquest of Gaul and the extension of Roman culture into France, Belgium, and England. This conquest created "Europe." What had been a sprawling land of various Celtic tribes became a unified entity called Europe. The German historian Theodore Mommsen says: "That there is a bridge connecting the past glory of Hellas and Rome with the prouder fabric of modern history, that western Europe is Romanic, and Germanic Europe Classic . . .all this is the work of Caesar; and while the creation of his great predecessor in the East has been almost wholly reduced to ruin by the tempests of the Middle ages, the structure of Caesar has outlasted those thousands of years which have changed religions and states."
