Historical Lives

I heard voices in a garden when I was thirteen and let them lead me out of my father's fields to a king who had lost his kingdom. I rode at the head of armies, put a crown on a hesitant prince, and was sold, tried, and burned by nineteen. I signed a paper to save my life, then took it back, and chose the fire.

I conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon against my own Republic, and broke Pompey on the field at Pharsalus to become master of Rome. I pardoned my enemies, took the title dictator for life, and let those same pardoned men put twenty-three blades into me at the foot of my rival's statue. My name outlived the Republic I buried and became the word every Roman ruler after me would wear.