I | INTRODUCTION |
Julius
Caesar (100-44 bc), Roman general and statesman whose
dictatorship was pivotal in Rome’s transition from republic to empire. Caesar
laid the foundations of the Roman imperial system (see Roman Empire).
II | EARLY LIFE |
Born in Rome on July 12 or 13, 100 bc, Caesar belonged to a prestigious
family that had been powerful in Roman politics for more than a century. During
childhood he lived through one of the most horrifying decades in the history of
Rome. The city was assaulted and captured twice during the decade by Roman
armies. The first takeover came from Caesar’s uncle Gaius Marius, leader of the
Populares (commoners’ party), along with Lucius Cornelius Cinna. The second
attack came from their opponent Lucius Cornelius Sulla, leader of the Optimates
(aristocratic party). Each time the victors took power, they took revenge,
murdering their opponents and seizing property. Cinna was murdered by his own
troops in 84 bc.
Caesar was allied with Marius, his uncle by
marriage. Caesar’s own marriage in 84 bc to Cornelia, the daughter of Marius’s
associate, Cinna, further cemented the relationship. When Sulla was made
dictator in 82 bc, he issued a
list of enemies to be executed. Although Caesar was not harmed, he was ordered
by Sulla to divorce Cornelia. Refusing that order, Caesar found it wise to leave
Rome. He did not return to the city until 78 bc, after Sulla’s resignation.
Caesar was then 22 years old. Unable to gain
political office, he left Rome again and went to the island of Rhodes, where he
studied rhetoric as the writer and orator Cicero had done before him. Caesar
returned to Rome in 73 bc, a very
persuasive speaker, to begin his political career. The year before, while still
absent, he had been elected to the pontificate, an important college of Roman
priests.
III | EARLY POLITICAL CAREER |
In Rome the political dominance of the
Optimates was challenged during the 60s bc by Pompey the Great and Marcus
Licinius Crassus. Pompey, a general who had earned his epithet “the Great” in
army service under Sulla, returned to Rome in 71 bc, having defeated the rebellious
Populares general Sertorius in Spain, then a Roman colony. At the same time
Crassus, a wealthy aristocrat, suppressed a slave revolt in Italy led by the
gladiator Spartacus. Pompey and Crassus were jointly elected consul (chief
magistrate) in 70 bc. Pompey was
absent from 67 to 62 bc on
military campaigns—first against pirates in the Mediterranean and then against
Mithridates, a king in Asia Minor. Crassus, always Pompey’s jealous rival,
detected the brilliance of Caesar and fostered an alliance with him.
Caesar was elected quaestor (magistrate) in
69 bc and appointed aedile,
official in charge of public works, in 65 bc. He gained great popularity for the
lavish gladiatorial games he sponsored. To pay for these, he borrowed money from
the wealthy Crassus. As aedile Caesar returned the war trophies of Marius to
their former place of honor in the capitol, thus laying claim to leadership of
the Populares. In 63 bc Caesar
used Crassus’s loans to win election as pontifex maximus (high priest) of the
Roman religion.
After Caesar’s wife Cornelia died in 68
bc, he married a second time, to
Pompeia, the granddaughter of Sulla. He divorced Pompeia early in 61 bc because of accusations implicating
her with a man who had broken into Caesar’s house disguised as a woman during
the festival of the Bona Dea, which men were not allowed to attend. “Caesar’s
wife,” Caesar is reported to have said, “must be above suspicion.” Caesar then
left Rome for a year to serve as governor of Spain. He married a third time, to
Calpurnia, in 59 bc.
IV | TRIUMVIRATE |
When Caesar returned to Rome from Spain in
60 bc, he joined forces with
Crassus and Pompey in a three-way alliance later known as the First Triumvirate.
His goal was to gain a major military command. To cement the relationship
further, Caesar gave his daughter Julia to Pompey in marriage. Thus backed,
Caesar was elected consul for 59 bc despite Optimate hostility, and the
year after (58 bc) he was
appointed governor of three Roman provinces for five years. The provinces were
Cisalpine Gaul (Italy north of the Apennine mountains); Transalpine Gaul
(Provence), across the Alps in France; and Illyricum, along the coast of
Yugoslavia.
A | Gallic Wars |
Caesar left Rome for Gaul in the spring of
58 bc and remained there until his
invasion of Italy in 49 bc. He
conducted military campaigns north of the Alps each summer, leaving his army
there each winter while he came south to administer Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum
and learn what was happening in Rome. Each winter he wrote up his account of the
previous summer’s campaigns. These superbly clear accounts, published as De
bello Gallico (The Gallic Wars), cover the years 58 to 52 bc.
Caesar is our prime informant about his
campaigns in Gaul. That he minimized, or even concealed, his own mistakes is
certain. But these mistakes were infrequent. The events of 58 to 52 bc revealed to Caesar himself and to the
Roman world that he was a soldier of genius. Moreover, he emerged from these
years an immensely wealthy man as well as an extremely powerful man with a large
army at his command.
The country north of Transalpine Gaul was
divided, as Caesar said, into three parts, inhabited by the Belgae, Aquitani,
and Celts. The Aedui, a Gallic tribe just north of the frontier, had become
Roman allies, and they appealed to Caesar for help against two invaders, the
Helvetii and the Suebi. Caesar first defeated the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe, and
forced them to return to their home area. Next, he crushed the Germanic Suebi
led by Ariovistus.
Caesar then resolved to conquer the rest of
Gaul. By 57 bc he believed he had
completed the task. However, early in 52 bc, while Caesar was still south of the
Alps, the conquered peoples in Gaul, including the Aedui, revolted. Caesar had
taken advantage of the disunity among the Gauls. To resist Roman rule, they had
come together under an intelligent general, Vercingetorix. After suffering
several setbacks, Caesar finally defeated Vercingetorix in what was the most
spectacular of his military achievements.
B | Power Play |
In 56 bc Caesar won agreement from Pompey and
Crassus that he would continue in Gaul for another five years, after Pompey and
Crassus won election again as consuls in 55 bc. Following the election Caesar went
off to raid Britain and put down a revolt in Gaul. Crassus, ever eager for
military glory, was given a command in Syria. Provoking a war with the Parthian
Empire, Crassus was defeated and killed at Carrhae in 53 bc. This removed the last buffer between
Caesar and Pompey; their family ties had been broken by the death of Julia in 54
bc.
V | CROSSING THE RUBICON |
In 52 bc, with Crassus out of the way, Pompey
was made sole consul. Combined with his other powers, this gave him a formidable
position. Jealous of his younger rival, he determined to break Caesar’s power.
To achieve this objective, he first needed to deprive Caesar of the forces he
commanded in Gaul. Pompey ordered him to return to Rome without his troops. To
protect himself, Caesar suggested that he and Pompey both lay down their
commands simultaneously, but this proposal was rejected. Goaded by Pompey, the
Senate called upon Caesar to resign his command and disband his army, or else be
considered a public enemy. The tribunes (officials) who supported Caesar vetoed
this motion, but they were driven out of the Senate chamber. The Senate then
entrusted Pompey with providing for the safety of the state. His forces far
outnumbered Caesar’s, but they were scattered throughout the provinces, and his
troops in Italy were not prepared for war.
Early in 49 bc Caesar and one of his legions crossed
the Rubicon, a small stream separating Cisalpine Gaul from Italy. They moved
swiftly southward to be met by additional forces. By bringing an army into
Italy, Caesar was breaking the law. He quite possibly expected to persuade the
Senate, through Pompey, to negotiate a settlement. But Pompey refused to meet
Caesar. Pompey fled to Brundisium (now Brindisi) and from there to Greece.
VI | CIVIL WAR |
The civil war that began after Caesar
crossed the Rubicon lasted four years. Caesar provided an account of the first
two years in his De bello civili (Civil Wars). In three months Caesar was
master of all Italy; his forces then took Spain and the key port of Massalia
(now Marseille). Early in 48 bc he
landed in Greece to take on Pompey. In August he smashed Pompey’s forces at
Pharsalus. Pompey escaped to Egypt, where he was assassinated upon his arrival.
Caesar followed Pompey to Egypt, where he fought the forces of King Ptolemy XIII
and triumphed. He then made Cleopatra, sister of Ptolemy and Caesar’s mistress,
queen of Egypt. In 47 bc he moved
into Asia Minor and defeated Pharnaces, who had taken control of the province of
Pontus. Caesar later referred to this victory with the phrase, “Veni, vidi,
vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”). The last battle of the civil war took
place in Spain against Pompey’s sons in 45 bc. Caesar then returned to Rome.
VII | DICTATORSHIP AND ASSASSINATION |
Caesar was appointed dictator for life in the
winter of 45 bc. According to the
constitution of the Roman republic, the office of dictator was to be held only
for six months and only during a dire emergency. That rule, however, had been
broken before. Sulla had ruled as dictator for several years, and Caesar now
followed suit. In addition, he was made consul for ten years in 45 bc. He also obtained a series of honors
that were out of keeping with Roman tradition, and a statue of Caesar was placed
in one of the oldest temples in Rome. Caesar renamed the month Quintilis in the
Roman calendar Julius (July), after himself. Above all, he was in total command
of the armies, and this remained the backbone of his power.
As a ruler Caesar instituted various
reforms. In the provinces he eliminated a highly corrupt tax system, sponsored
colonies of veterans, and extended Roman citizenship. At home he negotiated a
reasonable settlement of the large debts due to moneylenders, and he
reconstituted the courts and increased the number of senators. His reform of the
calendar gave Rome a less confusing means of recording time.
A number of senatorial families, however,
felt that Caesar threatened their position, and his honors and powers made them
fear that he would become a rex (king), a title they hated as
republicans—believers that a republic, with an elected government, is the best
form of government. Accordingly, in 44 bc, an assassination plot was hatched by
a group of senators, including Gaius Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus. The
respect felt for Brutus’s integrity ensured the success of the plot. On March 15
of 44 bc, when Caesar entered a
meeting of the Senate, the conspirators killed him. After a provocative funeral
speech by Mark Antony, Caesar’s body was burned in the Roman forum.
Because Caesar had no male heirs, he
stipulated in his will that his grandnephew, Octavius, whom he had adopted,
become his successor. Octavius became Rome’s first emperor under the name of
Augustus.
VIII | ACHIEVEMENTS |
Several difficulties stand in the way of a
final judgment on Caesar. The first is that Cicero, who provides so much of our
information on Caesar, hated him as the enemy of republican government. The
second is that Augustus, Caesar’s successor, found it prudent to draw a veil
over Caesar’s career as a dictator. For this reason the poets who wrote during
Augustus’s reign hardly mention Caesar. Livy, who wrote the standard history of
the republic, was scolded, in the friendliest way, by Augustus for being a
supporter of Pompey.
Scholarly opinion of Caesar’s
accomplishments is divided. Some regard him as an unscrupulous tyrant, with an
insatiable lust for power, and blame him for the demise of the Roman Republic.
Others, admitting that he could be ruthless, insist that the Republic had
already been destroyed. They maintain that to save the Roman world from chaos a
new type of government had to be created. In fact, Caesar’s reforms did
stabilize the Mediterranean world. Among ancient military commanders, he may be
second in achievement only to Alexander the Great.
See also Ancient Rome: The First
Triumvirate.
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