Now we're gonna talk about one of the most significant figures in Western history, and that's Gaius Julius Caesar. Now, what we'll see is his life really marks the transition from official Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. And I say official Roman Republic because it's important to keep in mind, even at the time of Julius Caesar's birth, at the beginning of the first century BCE, the Roman Republic already looked something like an empire. You might remember that during the Punic Wars, they were able to take over Carthage's possessions in Africa and in Spain. At the end of the third Punic War, they were also, and this wasn't part of the Punic War, but they were separately in 146 BCE, were also able to take over Greece. So any state that has conquered these people that have different languages, cultures, and they don't have the same rights as the citizens of that state, well, this is, by most definitions, what would constitute an empire. But during Julius Caesar's birth and during his life, Rome was still officially a republic, and that's referring more to its form of government.