Julius Caesars Civil War?

Question

Im writing a biography on Caesar and I just finished writing a little paragraph of when he became Consul. The problem is that the bio has to be no more than 1 page and I want to write about his Civil War. But theres only a little bit room left and after the Civil War, if I do it, I have to write about his dicatatorship and assasination and then a conclusion.

Im also having trouble were to start on the Civil war because everywhere I look online its all messy. (I have no other sources).

If someone could tell me what caused Caesars Civil War and what was the outcome (who won), I would really appreciate it because I just cant find it anywhere. (10 points). Im gonna use my own words though.

Or should I just skip the Civil war and move to the dictatorship? I believe after the war he became dictator so i'm gonna have to a write a really short paragraph to do this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Do you want a brief description so that it will fit in your bio? If so, here it is:

Caesar's enemies wanted to prosecute him for illegal actions while he was consul. He would have been exiled and his political life would be over. So he crossed the Rubicon with his army. Pompey, leading the Senatorial forces, was not ready for war and fled to Greece. Caesar defeated Pompey's men in Spain, then followed him, defeated him at Pharsalus, and pursued him to Egypt, where Pompey was killed by order of the Pharaoh. Caesar settled affairs in Egypt, becoming involved with Cleopatra. Then he defeated the remainder of this enemies in Africa and Spain before returning to Rome.

You should have at least a little about the Civil War, as it was a really important event. You could even trim down what I wrote to make it fit. Also, between when he was Consul and the Civil War, he also had the Gallic Wars, which were really important. If you just want to go over the Gallic Wars quickly you could just write something like: Caesar fought a six year war during which he conquered all of Gaul and went on two expeditions to Britain.

If you want good sources, Caesar actually wrote books about his wars.  His book on the Civil War, "Commentarii de Bello Civili" (the later parts were not written by Caesar, but they are still useful), may help. Here's an online translation: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Civil_...