Now this is the popular view which the world has taken of Caesar.  Shakspeare may have been unjust in his verdict; but it is a verdict which has been sustained by most writers and by popular sentiment during the last three hundred years.  It was also the verdict of Cicero, of the Roman Senate, and of ancient historians.  It is one of my objects to show in this lecture how far this verdict is just.  It is another object to point out the services of Caesar to the State, which, however great and honestly to be praised, do not offset crime.

Caius Julius Caesar belonged to one of the proudest and most ancient of the patrician families of Rome,—­a branch of the gens Julia, which claimed a descent from Iules, the son of Aeneas.  His father, Caius Julius, married Aurelia, a noble matron of the Cotta family, and his aunt Julia married the great Marius; so that, though he was a patrician of the purest blood, his family alliances were either plebeian or on the liberal side in politics.  He was born one hundred years before Christ, and received a good education, but was not precocious, like Cicero.  There was nothing remarkable about his childhood.  “He was a tall and handsome man, with dark, piercing eyes, sallow complexion, large nose, full lips, refined and intellectual features, and thick neck.”  He was particular about his appearance, and showed a studied negligence of dress.  His uncle Marius, in the height of his power, marked him out for promotion, and made him a priest of Jupiter when he was fourteen years old.  On the death of his father, a man of praetorian rank, and therefore a senator, at the age of seventeen Caesar married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, which connected him still more closely with the popular party.  He was only a few years younger than Cicero and Pompey.  When he was eighteen he attracted the notice of Sulla, then dictator, who wished him to divorce his wife and take such a one as he should propose,—­which the young man, at the risk of his life, refused to do.  This boldness and independence of course displeased the Dictator, who predicted his future.  “In this young Caesar,” said he, “there are many Mariuses;” but he did not kill him, owing to the intercession of powerful friends.

The career of Caesar may be divided into three periods, during each of which he appeared in a different light:  the first, until he began the conquest of Gaul, at the age of forty-three; the second, the time of his military exploits in Gaul, by which he rendered great services and gained popularity and fame; and the third, that of his civil wars, dictatorship, and imperial reign.