Caesar was an incredible military leader and politician. He is probably the best known for a few of reasons. Firstly, his actions set into motion a series of events that brought about the end of the Roman Republic. By declaring himself dictator for life he took the unprecedented step of, as the senate at the time saw it, basically making himself king. The Romans had a deep hatred for Monarchs, to the point that there was a law that said if any man made themselves king of Rome anyone had the right to kill them on the spot.

This can be seen by the fact even the emperors tended to call themselves first citizen, rather than king.

We also have books actually written by him giving first hand accounts of many of his campaigns and actions. So we get a lot of the story of that time period from him directly. Another reason why he is the most well known.

I think another reason is actually a common misconception. Most people tend to think of Julius Caesar as the first emperor of Rome. He was not. He was, as I said, a dictator of Rome. But because most emperors after him took the name Caesar, no matter the leaders were we them of them as Caesar, and so we think back to Julius Caesar.

And of course we have Shakespeare to thank for at least some of his notoriety.