Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC and grew up in a turbulent period of corruption and violence in Ancient Rome. After an unspectacular beginning he was elected consul in 59 BC, when the Romans suddenly realised that this rising politician harboured sweeping ambitions that would ultimately transform the state. For ten years Caesar's plans were put on hold while he conquered the whole of Gaul, laying the foundations of his military reputation. After the civil wars with Pompey the Great and his sons, Caesar turned his attention to the government, and it became clear that he entertained grandiose schemes for reform. He worked rapidly to put these schemes into effect, sweeping aside conventional procedures and senatorial debate. It was his methods rather than his political programme that made men turn against him, and strike him down on the Ides of March 44 BC. The conspirators planned nothing beyond the assassination, and in the civil wars that followed, Caesar's great nephew Octavian took up where Caesar left off, and turned the Republic into the Empire.