It influences our lives before our birth and will continue to exude its power long after

we are gone.

So much rides on fortune's whims.

She can be quick to give generously, and often even quicker to ravage terribly.

In history, the Mongols seemed to have had Fortune on their side, when nearly the whole

world was at their feet.

They were even able to gather a force of 140,000 men to cross the sea and take Japan.

Yet, Fortune does no man's bidding forever.

Her fickle hand decided to strike a blow against the Mongols in the form of a monstrous typhoon.

Japan had expected an enormous invasion, but instead Fortune delivered thousands of dead,

bloated bodies.

Because of this, Fortune appears an almost paranormal force.

The ancient Romans recognized this, choosing to see luck in the form of the goddess Fortuna.

For her they built temples, worshipping her in the hopes of winning her whimsical favour.

Animals were sacrificed and their entrails scrutinised, all with the aim of decoding

a message from her.

Yet, Fortuna was not so easily amused.

Earthquakes, famines and pestilence still visited the Romans as they did elsewhere.

The legendary figures of Roman genius would have come to nought without Fortune's favour.

These characters were lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

Without these rare instances of fate, Rome would have fallen to dust, joining the remnants

of so many other nameless nations.

This, therefore, is the story of how two men acted out the roles assigned to them by the

goddess Fortuna, to the extent that they would build a new stage for Western civilization

to play out all of its spectacular dramas.

The legend goes that Rome, through its founders Romulus and Remus, was born on the teat of

a wolf.

Both the inhabitants of the city-state and the world accepted this as historical truth.

After all, there was definitely something of the wolf in the Romans.

A restlessness nature that beckoned them to conquer and devour everything in their path.

In fact, it was believed that Rome was destined to conquer the entire world.

One man believed that it was only through him that Rome could achieve its rightful glory.

This man was Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar was a scion of an ancient, noble family.

A family which, in spite of its proud pedigree, had little more than a few sliverings of gold

and a dubious claim to be a descendant of the goddess Venus to show for it.

This distasteful fact would fester in Caesar's breast like a sickness throughout his life.

This sickness had but one cure: success in all things.

Yet, Caesar was a Roman.

And, in Rome, a free republic, all citizens were considered equal.

And so, how can one rise to the top, when there is no top to rise to?

However, as is often the case, some citizens were more equal than others.

As a member of the old nobility, that had existed since the ancient time of Kings, Caesar

was amongst these men.

Yet, their capacity for wielding power was equal to that of the lowliest street urchin.

In this, Rome found its pride: here, a citizen was only worth his merit.

Merit usually being quite crudely counted in the number of heads cut off and enemies

crucified.

So be it.

Julius Caesar would use his reputation and genius to excel in this way, and in doing

so create a legacy which would take nearly one thousand years to match in the inexorable

deeds of Genghis Khan.

As a young man, though, Caesar's career prospects were bleak to say the least.

His family, though noble, was associated with the losing side of a bloody civil war.

This meant that Caesar spent the first few decades of his life dredging through the monotony

of civil service.

At the age of 31, whilst serving as a treasury secretary in Spain, he is said to have cried

underneath a statue of Alexander the Great.

A lamentable image considering that Alexander had the world at his feet by Caesar's age,

whereas he was but a frustrated, middling civil servant.

He was meant for so much more than his current lot in life.

Undeniably, Caesar's ego was immense.

Thus, the Republic's lack of appreciation for his talents was intolerable.

And, it was not just the Republic who failed to recognise his worth.

Sometime before his time in Spain, when he was but a young man, Caesar was kidnapped

by pirates.

Knowing that they had a noble prisoner in Caesar, the pirates demanded the great sum

of 20 talents, a contemporary unit of measurement, in exchange for his safe return.

By all standards, this was a princely ransom.

After all, a single talent was the equivalent of around 30kg of silver.

Such a fee was not to be taken lightly.

Any other man from a down-on-their-luck noble family might have worried over their ability

to source such an amount.

But not Caesar.

Rather, he was outraged.

20 talents of silver was a pitiful sum for a man of his quality.

He demanded that he was worth 50 at the very least.

The pirates took the chastisement with good cheer, even when their uppity captive promised

in no uncertain fashion that he would crucify them all.

The ransom was duly paid and another profitable kidnapping concluded.

However, it would soon be clear that Julius Caesar was not a man to make idle threats.

He quickly assembled a small fleet in Greece and pursued the pirates.

One can only imagine their surprise when their one-time captive and haughty aristocrat surrounded

them with a flotilla of ships.

Outmanned and enveloped, the pirates surrendered to Caesar.

Eager to save their lives, all dropped onto bended knee and begged for mercy.

Caesar, steely eyed and sharp of mind, was the sort of man who understood the balance

between abject slaughter and clemency.

The handing out of mercy could make a man more powerful.

After all, such was the prerogative of a king to his subjects.

So, the pirates got their mercy: as their bodies were hammered to crosses, their throats

were slit.

A quick death.

That was Caesar's mercy, a mercy which the Republic would feel soon enough.

It had always been Caesar's ambition to be the very best.

The incident with the pirates was just a taster of his capabilities, and of his wrath.

However, let it not be doubted that Caesar was anything less than a man of charisma.

In fact, it was his charisma which allowed him to progress through the fearlessly competitive

society of the Romans.

Threats and bribery, the more heavy-handed methods of forging alliances, were not the

only ways to get things done.

Factional friendships, familial alliances and even finding your way into the right women's

beds were ways which an ambitious citizen could put his charisma to good use.

Not to forgot the blessing of the Goddess Fortuna.

It was through these methods that a middle-aged Caesar gained the ultimate position within

the Republic, Consul, a role equivalent to that of a modern day president or prime minister.

Yet, even that was not good enough for Caesar.

By using the power that position bestowed upon him, he was able to acquire for himself

a governorship for when his term in office was over.

This governorship would allow him to be free of legal prosecution.

For as a Consul Caesar had made many enemies: beatings and ritual humiliations were all

part of his political programme.

One time, when in disagreement with his co-Consul, Marcus Bibulus, Caesar had ordered a bucket

of excrement to be poured over his head during a speech.

The last thing that Caesar wanted was for these unfortunate incidents to come back to

haunt him later.

After all, he was by no means finished.

Now well into his forties, Caesar was about to embark upon his life ambition - the one

which, even as a child, he had known he had been destined for - global conquest.

Through a series of antagonizing moves, Caesar managed to provoke the tribes of Gaul into

attacking him.

Gaul, situated north of Rome, encompassed an area similar to that of modern day France.

By luring them into an attack, Caesar had the excuse he needed to initiate a massive

campaign of conquest.

Within just a few years, Caesar and his armies burned 800 cities to the ground, indiscriminately

slaughtering all those within their walls.

For those who escaped the blow of the sword, enslavement followed.

It has been estimated that these slaves numbered more than one million during the initial conquest

alone.

The area would subsequently be opened up as a new slave market for Rome, which provided

its rapacious citizens a stable stream of servants, gladiators and prostitutes.

His legions, in the course of the war, killed over one million men and enslaved a million

more.

A bloody mid-life crisis if ever there was one.

Thus, with the conquest of Gaul complete, there was nothing left but for Caesar to finally

have his triumph, and for the festivities to begin.

This was the moment Caesar had been waiting for.

Little did he know that fate would once more test his resolve.

On his way back to Rome, Caesar and his legions camped on the banks of the Rubicon river.

This was the boundary to the sacrosanct Roman city, where no army was allowed to march except

with the consent of the Senate.

This permission Caesar requested, so that he may parade his men through the streets

of him home city and bask in the glory of his success.

Messengers hurried letters to the gates of Rome.

Denial of such a request was unusual.

However, Caesar's enemies had been busy in his absence.

The foremost of Caesar's enemies was a man called Marcus Cato.

As a leading member of the Senate, he had amassed a strong following who regarded Julius

Caesar's personal ambitions as dangerous to the Republic.

Their concerns were made all the more justified when Caesar had attempted to secure the re-election

to Consul in absentia whilst fighting the Gauls.

Why should they allow this overmighty citizen to proclaim his greatness in a city where

equality was prized?

So, when the messengers returned to Caesar's camp, the response of the Senate echoed these

very sentiments.

Julius Caesar was to return to the capital as a private citizen, alone.

Or, be declared an enemy of the state.

Caesar understood the intimate maneuverings of Roman politics better than most.

This was a stunt meant to humble him.

Such had been the fate proscribed in the past to all men who had become too great for the

likings of the Senate.

Thoughts of a future marred by legal harassment, defamation, financial bankruptcy and eventual,

ignominious, retirement coloured Caesar's mind.

But, unlike those before him, Caesar refused to see his honours come to nothing.

Looking out