Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The Roman Emperor - Gaius Julius Cæsar

Gaius Julius Cæsar is a Roman military and political leader. He had four documented episodes of what were probably complex partial seizures. He may additionally have had absence seizures  in his youth. There is family history of epilepsy amongst his ancestors and descendants. The earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer Suetonius who was born after Caesar's death.



Absence seizures:( a form of fits )

In absence seizures , the person may appear to be staring into space with or without jerking or twitching  movements of the eye muscles . These periods last for seconds, or even tens of seconds. Those experiencing absence seizures sometimes move from one location to another without any purpose. Under normal circumstances the tracts in the brain  maintain normal   consiousnessof an individual, however in certain circumstances the normal pattern can become disrupted ; thereby leading to an episode of absence.


About Julius Caesar's Life : 

13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a  Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the  Roman Republic into the Roman Empire .
As a politician, Caesar made use of popularist  tactics. During the late 60s and into the 50s BC, he formed political alliances that led to the so-called First Triumvirate  , an extra-legal   arrangement with Marcus Licinius Crassus  and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus  (Pompey the Great) that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their factional  attempts to amass power for themselves were opposed within the  Roman Senate by the optimates  among them Marcus Porcius Cato  and Marcus calpurnius Bibulus  , with the sometime support of  Marcus Tullius Cicero . Caesar's conquest of Gaul  extended the Roman world to the North Sea , and in 55 BC he also conducted the first Roman invasion of Britain . These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse Pompey's, while the death of Crassus  contributed to increasing political tensions between the two triumviral survivors. Political realignments in Rome finally led to a stand-off between Caesar and Pompey, the latter having taken up the cause of the Senate. With the order that sent his legions across the Rubicon , Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he emerged as the unrivaled leader of the Roman world.
After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed " dictator in perpetuity" . A group of senators, led byMarcus Junius Brutus , assassinated the dictator on the Ides of March(15 March) 44 BC, hoping to restore the normal running of the Republic. However, the result was a series of civil wars , which ultimately led to the establishment of the permanent Roman Empire  by Caesar's adopted heir Octavius (later known as Augustus).
Much of Caesar's life is known from his own Commentaries on his military campaigns, and other contemporary sources such as the letters and speeches of his political rival Cicero , the historical writings of Sallust , and the poetry of Catullus . Many more details of his life are recorded by later historians.

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