But since there were more pressing matters at hand such as defeating Caesar’s murderers who had escaped to Greece, official construction began only in 34 BC. On the deification of Julius Caesar by the senate in 42 BC, the second triumvirate decreed the construction of a temple dedicated to him in the forum. For at the first of the games which his heir Augustus gave in honour of his apotheosis, a comet shone for seven successive days, rising about the eleventh hour, and was believed to be the soul of Caesar, who had been taken to heaven and this is why a star is set upon the crown of his head in his statue.” Temple of the deified Caesar The deification of Caesar is recounted by Suetonius: “He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was numbered among the gods, not only by a formal decree, but also in the conviction of the common people. Known as the Sidus Iulium or Caesar’s Comet, this was hailed as a sign that Caesar had taken his place amongst the gods. But his divine status had been accepted by the people of Rome soon after his death when a comet appeared in the sky during the funeral games held in his honor by Augustus in 44 BC. The official deification of Julius Caesar in Rome took place in 42 BC when the senate had him deified posthumously. Upon his death he received an honor that rarely any man in Rome had achieved before him: apotheosis. But even a brutal death could not halt his progress. From a politician belonging to a patrician family, to general and finally the dictator of Rome: Julius Caesar was an ambitious man who steadily advanced his career until he was mercilessly murdered in 44 BC.
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