Julius Caesar Dictator of Roman Republic
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Coin of:
Julius Caesar - Roman Dictator -
Coin of:
Julius Caesar - Roman Dictator -
LIFETIME ISSUE PORTRAIT
Silver Denarius (18mm, 3.01gm.) Rome: February-March 44 B.C.
P. Servillius Macer, moneyer.
Reference: CRI 107D; RRC 480/13
CAESAR DICT PERPETVO - Wreathed and Veiled head of Julius Caesar right.
P. SEPVLLIVS MACER, Venus standing left, holding victory in palm of
right and and grasping scepter with left, shield on ground leaning
against scepter, dotted border.
Venus
was a
Roman
goddess principally associated with
love,
beauty and
fertility, who played a key role in
many
Roman religious festivals and myths.
From the third century BC, the increasing
Hellenization of Roman upper classes
identified her as the equivalent of the
Greek goddess
Aphrodite.
 Her
cult began in
Ardea and
Lavinium,
Latium. On August 15, 293 BC, her
oldest known
temple was dedicated, and August 18
became a festival called the
Vinalia Rustica. After
Rome's
defeat at the
Battle of Lake Trasimene in the opening
episodes of the
Second Punic War, the Sibylline oracle
recommended the importation of the Sicillian Venus of Eryx; a temple to
her was dedicated on the
Capitoline Hill in 217 BC: a second
temple to her was dedicated in 181 BC.
Venus seems to have played a part in household or private religion of
some Romans. Julius Caesar claimed her as an ancestor (Venus Genetrix);
possibly a long-standing family tradition, certainly one adopted as such
by his heir
Augustus. Venus statuettes have been
found in quite ordinary household shrines (lararia). In fiction,
Petronius places one among the
Lares
of the
freedman
Trimalchio's household shrine.
 Gaius
Julius Caesar (13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a
Roman
military and
political leader. He played a critical
role in the transformation of the
Roman Republic into the
Roman Empire.
As a politician, Caesar made use of
popularist tactics. During the late 60s
and into the 50s BC, he formed political alliances that led to the
so-called
First Triumvirate, an
extra-legal arrangement with
Marcus Licinius Crassus and
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the
Great) that was to dominate Roman politics for several years. Their
factional attempts to amass power for
themselves were opposed within the
Roman Senate by the
optimates, among them
Marcus Porcius Cato and
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, with the
sometime support of
Marcus Tullius Cicero. Caesar's
conquest of
Gaul extended the Roman world to the
North Sea, and in 55 BC he also
conducted the first
Roman invasion of Britain. These
achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to
eclipse Pompey's, while the
death of Crassus contributed to
increasing political tensions between the two triumviral survivors.
Political realignments in Rome finally led to a stand-off between Caesar
and Pompey, the latter having taken up the cause of the Senate. With the
order that sent his legions across the
Rubicon, Caesar began a
civil war in 49 BC from which he
emerged as the unrivaled leader of the Roman world.
After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of
Roman society and government. He centralised the bureaucracy of the
Republic and was eventually proclaimed "dictator
in perpetuity" (dictator
perpetuo). A group of senators, led by
Marcus Junius Brutus, assassinated the
dictator on the
Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, hoping
to restore the normal running of the Republic. However, the result was
another
Roman civil war, which ultimately led
to the establishment of a permanent
autocracy by Caesar's adopted heir,
Gaius Octavianus. In 42 BC, two years
after his assassination, the Senate officially sanctified Caesar as one
of the
Roman deities.
Much of Caesar's life is known from his own
Commentaries (Commentarii)
on his military campaigns, and other contemporary sources such as the
letters and speeches of his political rival
Cicero, the historical writings of
Sallust, and the poetry of
Catullus. Many more details of his life
are recorded by later historians, such as
Appian,
Suetonius,
Plutarch,
Cassius Dio and
Strabo.
Early life
Caesar was born into a
patrician family, the
gens
Julia, which claimed descent from
Iulus, son of the legendary
Trojan prince
Aeneas, supposedly the son of the
goddess
Venus. The
cognomen "Caesar" originated,
according to
Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who
was born by
caesarean section (from the Latin verb
to cut, caedere, caes-). The
Historia Augusta suggests three
alternative explanations: that the
first Caesar had a thick head of hair (Latin caesaries); that he
had bright grey eyes (Latin oculis caesiis); or that he killed an
elephant (caesai in Moorish) in battle. Caesar issued coins
featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favoured this
interpretation of his name.
Despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not
especially politically influential, having produced only three
consuls. Caesar's father, also called
Gaius Julius Caesar, reached the rank
of
praetor, the second highest of the
Republic's elected magistracies, and governed the province of
Asia, perhaps through the influence of
his prominent brother-in-law
Gaius Marius. His mother,
Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential
family which had produced several consuls.
Marcus Antonius Gnipho, an orator and
grammarian of
Gaulish origin, was employed as
Caesar's tutor. Caesar had two sisters, both called
Julia. Little else is recorded of
Caesar's childhood.
Suetonius and
Plutarch's biographies of him both
begin abruptly in Caesar's teens; the opening paragraphs of both appear
to be lost.
Caesar's formative years were a time of turmoil. The
Social War was fought from 91 to 88 BC
between Rome and her Italian allies over the issue of
Roman citizenship, while
Mithridates of
Pontus threatened Rome's eastern
provinces. Domestically, Roman politics was divided between politicians
known as
optimates and
populares. The optimates
were conservative, defended the interests of the upper class and used
and promoted the authority of the Senate; the populares advocated
reform in the interests of the masses and used and promoted the
authority of the Popular Assemblies. Caesar's uncle Marius was a
popularis, Marius' protégé
Lucius Cornelius Sulla was an
optimas, and in Caesar's youth their rivalry led to civil war.
Both Marius and Sulla distinguished themselves in the Social War, and
both wanted command of the war against Mithridates, which was initially
given to Sulla; but when Sulla left the city to take command of his
army, a
tribune passed a law transferring the
appointment to Marius. Sulla responded by marching his army on Rome (the
first time ever this had happened and a pointer for Caesar in his later
career as he contemplated crossing the Rubicon), reclaiming his command
and forcing Marius into exile, but when he left on campaign Marius
returned at the head of a makeshift army. He and his ally
Lucius Cornelius Cinna seized the city
and declared Sulla a public enemy, and Marius's troops took violent
revenge on Sulla's supporters. Marius died early in 86 BC, but his
followers remained in power.
In 85 BC Caesar's father died suddenly while putting on his shoes one
morning, without any apparent cause, and at sixteen, Caesar was the head
of the family. The following year he was nominated to be the new
Flamen Dialis, high priest of
Jupiter, as
Merula, the previous incumbent, had
died in Marius's purges. Since the holder of that position not only had
to be a patrician but also be married to a patrician, he broke off his
engagement to Cossutia, a plebeian girl of wealthy
equestrian family he had been betrothed
to since boyhood, and married Cinna's daughter
Cornelia.
Then, having brought Mithridates to terms, Sulla returned to finish
the civil war against Marius' followers. After a campaign throughout
Italy he seized Rome at the
Battle of the Colline Gate in November
82 BC and had himself appointed to the revived office of
dictator; but whereas a dictator was
traditionally appointed for six months at a time, Sulla's appointment
had no term limit. Statues of Marius were destroyed and Marius' body was
exhumed and thrown in the Tiber. Cinna was already dead, killed by his
own soldiers in a mutiny. Sulla's
proscriptions saw hundreds of his
political enemies killed or exiled. Caesar, as the nephew of Marius and
son-in-law of Cinna, was targeted. He was stripped of his inheritance,
his wife's dowry and his priesthood, but he refused to divorce Cornelia
and was forced to go into hiding. The threat against him was lifted by
the intervention of his mother's family, which included supporters of
Sulla, and the
Vestal Virgins. Sulla gave in
reluctantly, and is said to have declared that he saw many a Marius in
Caesar.
Early career
Feeling it much safer to be far away from Sulla should the Dictator
change his mind, Caesar quit Rome and joined the army, serving under
Marcus Minucius Thermus in
Asia and
Servilius Isauricus in
Cilicia. He served with distinction,
winning the
Civic Crown for his part in the siege
of
Mytilene. On a mission to
Bithynia to secure the assistance of
King
Nicomedes's fleet, he spent so long at
his court that rumours of an affair with the king arose, which would
persist for the rest of his life. Ironically, the loss of his priesthood
had allowed him to pursue a military career: the Flamen Dialis
was not permitted to touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own
bed or one night outside Rome, or look upon an army.
At the end of 81 BC,
Sulla resigned his dictatorship,
re-established consular government and, after serving as consul in 80
BC, retired to private life. In a manner that the historian
Suetonius thought arrogant, Julius
Caesar would later mock Sulla for resigning the Dictatorship—"Sulla did
not know his political ABC's". He died two years later in 78 BC and was
accorded a state funeral. Hearing of Sulla's death, Caesar felt safe
enough to return to Rome. Lacking means since his inheritance was
confiscated, he acquired a modest house in the
Subura, a lower-class neighbourhood of
Rome. His return coincided with an attempted anti-Sullan coup by Marcus
Aemilius Lepidus but Caesar, lacking confidence in Lepidus's leadership,
did not participate. Instead he turned to legal advocacy. He became
known for his exceptional oratory, accompanied by impassioned gestures
and a high-pitched voice, and ruthless prosecution of former governors
notorious for
extortion and
corruption. Even
Cicero praised him: "Come now, what
orator would you rank above him...?" Aiming at
rhetorical perfection, Caesar travelled
to
Rhodes in 75 BC to study under
Apollonius Molon, who had previously
taught Cicero.
On the way across the
Aegean Sea, Caesar was kidnapped by
Cilician (not to be confused with
Sicilian)
pirates and held prisoner in the
Dodecanese islet of
Pharmacusa. He maintained an attitude
of superiority throughout his captivity. When the pirates thought to
demand a ransom of twenty
talents of silver, he insisted they ask
for fifty. After the ransom was paid, Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and
captured the pirates, and imprisoned them in
Pergamon. Marcus Junctus, the governor
of
Asia, refused to execute them as Caesar
demanded, preferring to sell them as slaves, but Caesar returned to the
coast and had them crucified on his own authority, as he had promised
while in captivity—a promise the pirates had taken as a joke. As a sign
of leniency, he first had their throats cut. He then proceeded to
Rhodes, but was soon called back into military action in Asia, raising a
band of
auxiliaries to repel an incursion from
Pontus.
On his return to Rome he was elected military
tribune, a first step on the
cursus honorum of Roman politics.
The
war against
Spartacus took place around this time
(73–71 BC), but it is not recorded what role, if any, Caesar played in
it. He was elected
quaestor for 69 BC, and during that
year he delivered the funeral oration for his aunt Julia, widow of
Marius, and included images of Marius, unseen since the days of Sulla,
in the funeral procession. His own wife Cornelia also died that year.
After her funeral, in the spring or early summer of 69 BC, Caesar went
to serve his quaestorship in
Hispania under Antistius Vetus. While
there he is said to have encountered a statue of
Alexander the Great, and realised with
dissatisfaction he was now at an age when Alexander had the world at his
feet, while he had achieved comparatively little. He requested, and was
granted, an early discharge from his duties, and returned to Roman
politics. On his return in 67 BC, he married
Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla. He
was elected
aedile and restored the trophies of
Marius's victories; a controversial move given the Sullan regime was
still in place. He also brought prosecutions against men who had
benefited from Sulla's proscriptions, and spent a great deal of borrowed
money on public works and games, outshining his colleague
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. He was also
suspected of involvement in two abortive coup attempts.
Coming to
prominence
63 BC was an eventful year for Caesar. He persuaded a tribune,
Titus Labienus, to prosecute the
optimate senator
Gaius Rabirius for the political
murder, 37 years previously, of the tribune
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, and had
himself appointed as one of the two judges to try the case. Rabirius was
defended by both
Cicero and
Quintus Hortensius, but was convicted
of
perduellio (treason). While he was
exercising his right of appeal to the people, the praetor
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer
adjourned the assembly by taking down the military flag from the
Janiculum hill. Labienus could have resumed the prosecution at a later
session, but did not do so: Caesar's point had been made, and the matter
was allowed to drop. Labienus would remain an important ally of Caesar
over the next decade.
The same year, Caesar ran for election to the post of
Pontifex Maximus, chief priest of the
Roman state religion, after the death of
Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, who
had been appointed to the post by Sulla. He ran against two powerful
optimates, the former consuls
Quintus Lutatius Catulus and
Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus.
There were accusations of bribery by all sides. Caesar is said to have
told his mother on the morning of the election that he would return as
Pontifex Maximus or not at all, expecting to be forced into exile by the
enormous debts he had run up to fund his campaign. In any event he won
comfortably, despite his opponents' greater experience and standing,
possibly because the two older men split their votes. The post came with
an official residence on the
Via Sacra.
When Cicero, who was consul that year, exposed
Catiline's conspiracy to seize control
of the republic, Catulus and others accused Caesar of involvement in the
plot. Caesar, who had been elected praetor for the following year, took
part in the debate in the Senate on how to deal with the conspirators.
During the debate, Caesar was passed a note.
Marcus Porcius Cato, who would become
his most implacable political opponent, accused him of corresponding
with the conspirators, and demanded that the message be read aloud.
Caesar passed him the note, which, embarrassingly, turned out to be a
love letter from Cato's half-sister
Servilia. Caesar argued persuasively
against the death penalty for the conspirators, proposing life
imprisonment instead, but a speech by Cato proved decisive, and the
conspirators were executed. The following year a commission was set up
to investigate the conspiracy, and Caesar was again accused of
complicity. On Cicero's evidence that he had reported what he knew of
the plot voluntarily, however, he was cleared, and one of his accusers,
and also one of the commissioners, were sent to prison.
While praetor in 62 BC, Caesar supported Metellus Celer, now tribune,
in proposing controversial legislation, and the pair were so obstinate
they were suspended from office by the Senate. Caesar attempted to
continue to perform his duties, only giving way when violence was
threatened. The Senate was persuaded to reinstate him after he quelled
public demonstrations in his favour.
That year the festival of the
Bona Dea ("good goddess") was held at
Caesar's house. No men were permitted to attend, but a young patrician
named
Publius Clodius Pulcher managed to gain
admittance disguised as a woman, apparently for the purpose of seducing
Caesar's wife
Pompeia. He was caught and prosecuted
for sacrilege. Caesar gave no evidence against Clodius at his trial,
careful not to offend one of the most powerful patrician families of
Rome, and Clodius was acquitted after rampant bribery and intimidation.
Nevertheless, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not
even to be under suspicion."
After his praetorship, Caesar was appointed to govern
Hispania Ulterior (Outer
Iberia), but he was still in
considerable debt and needed to satisfy his creditors before he could
leave. He turned to
Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome's
richest men. In return for political support in his opposition to the
interests of
Pompey, Crassus paid some of Caesar's
debts and acted as guarantor for others. Even so, to avoid becoming a
private citizen and open to prosecution for his debts, Caesar left for
his province before his praetorship had ended. In Hispania he conquered
the
Callaici and
Lusitani, being hailed as
imperator by his troops, reformed
the law regarding debts, and completed his governorship in high esteem.
Being hailed as imperator entitled Caesar to a
triumph. However, he also wanted to
stand for
consul, the most senior magistracy in
the republic. If he were to celebrate a triumph, he would have to remain
a soldier and stay outside the city until the ceremony, but to stand for
election he would need to lay down his command and enter Rome as a
private citizen. He could not do both in the time available. He asked
the senate for permission to stand in absentia, but Cato blocked
the proposal. Faced with the choice between a triumph and the
consulship, Caesar chose the consulship.
First consulship and triumvirate
Three candidates stood for the consulship: Caesar, Marcus Calpurnius
Bibulus, who had been aedile with Caesar several years earlier, and
Lucius Lucceius. The election was
dirty. Caesar canvassed Cicero for support, and made an alliance with
the wealthy Lucceius, but the establishment threw its financial weight
behind the conservative Bibulus, and even Cato, with his reputation for
incorruptibility, is said to have resorted to bribery in his favour.
Caesar and Bibulus were elected as consuls for 59 BC.
Caesar was already in
Crassus's political debt, but he also
made overtures to
Pompey, who was unsuccessfully fighting
the Senate for ratification of his eastern settlements and farmland for
his veterans. Pompey and Crassus had been at odds since they were
consuls together in 70 BC, and Caesar knew if he allied himself with one
he would lose the support of the other, so he endeavoured to reconcile
them. Between the three of them, they had enough money and political
influence to control public business. This informal alliance, known as
the
First Triumvirate (rule of three men),
was cemented by the marriage of Pompey to Caesar's daughter
Julia. Caesar also married again, this
time
Calpurnia, daughter of
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, who
was elected to the consulship for the following year.
Caesar proposed a law for the redistribution of public lands to the
poor, a proposal supported by Pompey, by force of arms if need be, and
by Crassus, making the triumvirate public. Pompey filled the city with
soldiers, and the triumvirate's opponents were intimidated. Bibulus
attempted to declare the omens unfavourable and thus void the new law,
but was driven from the forum by Caesar's armed supporters. His
lictors had their
fasces broken, two tribunes
accompanying him were wounded, and Bibulus himself had a bucket of
excrement thrown over him. In fear of his life, he retired to his house
for the rest of the year, issuing occasional proclamations of bad omens.
These attempts to obstruct Caesar's legislation proved ineffective.
Roman satirists ever after referred to the year as "the consulship of
Julius and Caesar".
This also gave rise to this lampoon-
The event occurred, as I recall, when Caesar governed Rome-
Caesar, not Bibulus, who kept his seat at home.
When Caesar and Bibulus were first elected, the aristocracy tried to
limit Caesar's future power by allotting the woods and pastures of
Italy, rather than governorship of a province, as their proconsular
duties after their year of office was over. With the help of Piso and
Pompey, Caesar later had this overturned, and was instead appointed to
govern
Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) and
Illyricum (the western Balkans), with
Transalpine Gaul (southern France)
later added, giving him command of four legions. The term of his
proconsulship, and thus his immunity from prosecution, was set at five
years, rather than the usual one. When his consulship ended, Caesar
narrowly avoided prosecution for the irregularities of his year in
office, and quickly left for his province.
Conquest of Gaul
Caesar was still deeply in debt, and there was money to be made as a
provincial governor, whether by extortion or by military adventurism.
Caesar had four legions under his command, two of his provinces,
Illyricum and
Gallia Narbonensis, bordered on
unconquered territory, and independent Gaul was known to be unstable.
Rome's allies the
Aedui had been defeated by their Gallic
rivals, with the help of a contingent of
Germanic
Suebi under
Ariovistus, who had settled in
conquered Aeduan land, and the
Helvetii were mobilising for a mass
migration, which the Romans feared had warlike intent. Caesar raised two
new legions and defeated first the Helvetii, then Ariovistus, and left
his army in winter quarters in the territory of the Sequani, signaling
that his interest in the lands outside Gallia Narbonensis would not be
temporary.
He began his second year with double the military strength he had
begun with, having raised another two legions in Cisalpine Gaul during
the winter. The legality of this was dubious, as the Cisalpine Gauls
were not Roman citizens. In response to Caesar's activities the previous
year, the
Belgic tribes of north-eastern Gaul had
begun to arm themselves. Caesar treated this as an aggressive move, and,
after an inconclusive engagement against a united Belgic army, conquered
the tribes piecemeal. Meanwhile, one legion, commanded by Crassus' son
Publius, began the conquest of the tribes of the
Armorican peninsula.
During the spring of 56 BC the Triumvirate held a conference at Luca
(modern
Lucca) in Cisalpine Gaul. Rome was in
turmoil, and
Clodius' populist campaigns had been
undermining relations between Crassus and Pompey. The meeting renewed
the Triumvirate and extended Caesar's proconsulship for another five
years. Crassus and Pompey would be consuls again, with similarly
long-term proconsulships to follow: Syria for Crassus, the Hispanian
provinces for Pompey. The conquest of Armorica was completed when Caesar
defeated the
Veneti in a naval battle, while young
Crassus conquered the
Aquitani of the south-west. By the end
of campaigning in 56 BC only the
Morini and
Menapii of the coastal Low Countries
still held out.
In 55 BC Caesar repelled an incursion into Gaul by the Germanic
Usipetes and
Tencteri, and followed it up by
building a bridge across the Rhine and making a show of force in
Germanic territory, before returning and dismantling the bridge. Late
that summer, having subdued the Morini and Menapii, he crossed to
Britain, claiming that the Britons had aided the Veneti against him the
previous year. His intelligence was poor, and although he gained a
beachhead on the Kent coast he was unable to advance further, and
returned to Gaul for the winter. He returned the following year, better
prepared and with a larger force, and achieved more. He advanced inland,
establishing
Mandubracius of the
Trinovantes as a friendly king and
bringing his rival,
Cassivellaunus, to terms. But poor
harvests led to widespread revolt in Gaul, led by
Ambiorix of the
Eburones, forcing Caesar to campaign
through the winter and into the following year. With the defeat of
Ambiorix, Caesar believed Gaul was now pacified.
While Caesar was in Britain his daughter Julia, Pompey's wife, had
died in childbirth. Caesar tried to resecure Pompey's support by
offering him his great-niece
Octavia in marriage, alienating
Octavia's husband
Gaius Marcellus, but Pompey declined.
In 53 BC Crassus was killed leading a failed
invasion of
Parthia. Rome was on the edge of
violence. Pompey was appointed sole consul as an emergency measure, and
married
Cornelia, daughter of Caesar's
political opponent Quintus Metellus Scipio, whom he invited to become
his consular colleague once order was restored. The Triumvirate was
dead.
In 52 BC another, larger revolt erupted in Gaul, led by
Vercingetorix of the
Arverni. Vercingetorix managed to unite
the Gallic tribes and proved an astute commander, defeating Caesar in
several engagements including the
Battle of Gergovia, but Caesar's
elaborate siege-works at the
Battle of Alesia finally forced his
surrender. Despite scattered outbreaks of
warfare the following year, Gaul was
effectively conquered.
Titus Labienus was Caesar's most senior
legate during his Gallic campaigns,
having the status of
propraetor. Other prominent men who
served under him included his relative
Lucius Julius Caesar, Crassus' sons
Publius and
Marcus, Cicero's brother
Quintus,
Decimus Brutus, and
Mark Antony.
Plutarch claimed that the army had fought against three million men
in the course of the
Gallic Wars, of whom 1 million died,
and another million were
enslaved. 300 tribes were subjugated
and 800 cities were destroyed. Almost the entire population of the city
of
Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000 in all) was
slaughtered. Julius Caesar reports that 368,000 of the
Helvetii left home, of whom 92,000
could bear arms, and only 110,000 returned after the campaign. However,
in view of the difficulty of finding accurate counts in the first place,
Caesar's propagandistic purposes, and the common gross exaggeration of
numbers in ancient texts, the totals of enemy combatants in particular
are likely to be far too high. Furger-Gunti considers an army of more
than 60,000 fighting Helvetii extremely unlikely in the view of the
tactics described, and assumes the actual numbers to have been around
40,000 warriors out of a total of 160,000 emigrants. Delbrück suggests
an even lower number of 100,000 people, out of which only 16,000 were
fighters, which would make the Celtic force about half the size of the
Roman body of ca. 30,000 men.
Civil war
In 50 BC, the Senate, led by
Pompey, ordered Caesar to disband his
army and return to Rome because his term as Proconsul had finished.
Moreover, the Senate forbade Caesar to stand for a second consulship
in absentia. Caesar thought he would be prosecuted and politically
marginalised if he entered Rome without the immunity enjoyed by a Consul
or without the power of his army. Pompey accused Caesar of
insubordination and treason. On 10 January 49 BC Caesar crossed the
Rubicon river (the frontier boundary of
Italy) with only
one legion and ignited
civil war. Upon crossing the Rubicon,
Plutarch reports that Caesar quoted the Athenian playwright
Menander in Greek, saying ἀνερρίφθω
κύβος (let the dice be tossed). Suetonius gives the Latin
approximation
alea iacta est (the die is tossed).
The Optimates, including Metellus Scipio and Cato the Younger, fled
to the south, having little confidence in the newly raised troops
especially since so many cities in northern Italy had voluntarily
surrendered. An attempted stand by a consulate legion in Samarium
resulted in the consul being handed over by the defenders and the legion
surrendering without significant fighting. Despite greatly outnumbering
Caesar, who only had his
Thirteenth Legion with him, Pompey had
no intention of fighting. Caesar pursued Pompey to
Brindisium, hoping to capture Pompey
before the trapped Senate and their legions could escape. Pompey managed
to elude him, sailing out of the harbour before Caesar could break the
barricades.
Lacking a
naval force since Pompey had already
scoured the coasts of all ships for evacuation of his forces, Caesar
decided to head for Hispania saying "I set forth to fight an army
without a leader, so as later to fight a leader without an army."
Leaving
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as prefect of
Rome, and the rest of Italy under
Mark Antony as tribune, Caesar made an
astonishing 27-day route-march to
Hispania, rejoining two of his Gallic
legions, where he defeated Pompey's lieutenants. He then returned east,
to challenge Pompey in Greece where on 10 July 48 BC at
Dyrrhachium Caesar barely avoided a
catastrophic defeat when the line of fortification was broken. He
decisively defeated Pompey, despite Pompey's numerical advantage (nearly
twice the number of infantry and considerably more cavalry), at
Pharsalus in an exceedingly short
engagement in 48 BC.
In Rome, Caesar was appointed
dictator, with
Mark Antony as his
Master of the Horse; Caesar presided
over his own election to a second consulate (with
Publius Servilius Vatia as his
colleague) and then, after eleven days, resigned this dictatorate.
He pursued Pompey to
Alexandria, where Pompey was murdered
by a former Roman officer serving in the court of
King Ptolemy XIII. Caesar then became
involved with the Alexandrine civil war between Ptolemy and his sister,
wife, and co-regent queen, the
Pharaoh
Cleopatra VII. Perhaps as a result of
Ptolemy's role in Pompey's murder, Caesar sided with Cleopatra; he is
reported to have wept at the sight of Pompey's head, which was offered
to him by Ptolemy's chamberlain
Pothinus as a gift. In any event,
Caesar defeated the Ptolemaic forces in 47 BC in the
Battle of the Nile and installed
Cleopatra as ruler. Caesar and Cleopatra celebrated their victory of the
Alexandrine civil war with a triumphant procession on the Nile in the
spring of 47 B.C. The royal barge was accompanied by 400 additional
ships, introducing Caesar to the luxurious lifestyle of the Egyptian
pharaohs.
Caesar and Cleopatra never married, as Roman Law only recognised
marriages between two Roman citizens. Caesar continued his relationship
with Cleopatra throughout his last marriage, which lasted 14 years – in
Roman eyes, this did not constitute adultery – and may have fathered a
son called
Caesarion. Cleopatra visited Rome on
more than one occasion, residing in Caesar's villa just outside Rome
across the
Tiber.
Late in 48 BC, Caesar was again appointed Dictator, with a term of
one year. After spending the first months of 47 BC in Egypt, Caesar went
to the Middle East, where he annihilated King
Pharnaces II of Pontus in the
Battle of Zela; his victory was so
swift and complete that he mocked Pompey's previous victories over such
poor enemies. Thence, he proceeded to Africa to deal with the remnants
of Pompey's senatorial supporters. He quickly gained a significant
victory at
Thapsus in 46 BC over the forces of
Metellus Scipio (who died in the battle) and Cato the Younger (who
committed suicide). After this victory, he was appointed
Dictator for ten years.
Nevertheless, Pompey's sons
Gnaeus Pompeius and
Sextus Pompeius, together with
Titus Labienus, Caesar's former
propraetorian legate (legatus
propraetore) and second in command
in the Gallic War, escaped to Hispania. Caesar gave chase and defeated
the last remnants of opposition in the
Battle of Munda in March 45 BC. During
this time, Caesar was elected to his third and fourth terms as consul in
46 BC (with
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) and 45 BC
(without colleague).
Aftermath
of the civil war
While he was still campaigning in
Hispania, the Senate began bestowing
honours on Caesar in absentia. Caesar had not proscribed his
enemies, instead pardoning almost all, and there was no serious public
opposition to him.
Great games and celebrations were held on 21 April to honour Caesar’s
victory at Munda. Plutarch writes that many Romans found the triumph
held following Caesar's victory to be in poor taste, as those defeated
in the civil war had not been foreigners, but instead fellow Romans.
On Caesar's return to Italy in September 45 BC, he filed his will,
naming his grandnephew
Gaius Octavius (Octavian) as the heir
to everything, including his name. Caesar also wrote that if Octavian
died before Caesar did,
Marcus Junius Brutus would be the next
heir in succession.
Caesar tightly regulated the purchase of state-subsidised grain and
reduced the number of recipients to a fixed number, all of whom were
entered into a special register. From 47 to 44 he made plans for the
distribution of land to about 15,000 of his veterans.
In 63 BC Caesar had been elected
Pontifex Maximus, and one of his roles
as such was settling the calendar. A complete overhaul of the old
Roman calendar proved to be one of his
most long lasting and influential reforms. In 46 BC, Caesar established
a 365-day year with a leap year every fourth year. (This
Julian calendar was subsequently
modified by
Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 into the
modern
Gregorian calendar.) As a result of
this reform, a certain Roman year (mostly equivalent to 46 BC in the
modern calendar) was made 445 days long, to bring the calendar into line
with the seasons. The month of July is named after Julius in his honour.
The
Forum of Caesar, with its
Temple of Venus Genetrix, was built
among many other public works.
Assassination
On the
Ides of March (15 March; see
Roman calendar) of 44 BC, Caesar was
due to appear at a session of the Senate.
Mark Antony, having vaguely learned of
the plot the night before from a terrified Liberator named
Servilius Casca, and fearing the worst,
went to head Caesar off. The plotters, however, had anticipated this
and, fearing that Antony would come to Caesar's aid, had arranged for
Trebonius to intercept him just as he
approached the portico of
Theatre of Pompey, where the session
was to be held, and detain him outside. (Plutarch, however, assigns this
action to delay Antony to
Brutus Albinus.) When he heard the
commotion from the senate chamber, Antony fled.
According to
Plutarch, as Caesar arrived at the
Senate
Tillius Cimber presented him with a
petition to recall his exiled brother. The other conspirators crowded
round to offer support. Both Plutarch and
Suetonius say that Caesar waved him
away, but Cimber grabbed his shoulders and pulled down Caesar's
tunic. Caesar then cried to Cimber,
"Why, this is violence!" ("Ista quidem vis est!"). At the same
time, Casca produced his dagger and made a glancing thrust at the
dictator's neck. Caesar turned around quickly and caught Casca by the
arm. According to
Plutarch, he said in Latin, "Casca, you
villain, what are you doing?" Casca, frightened, shouted "Help,
brother!" in Greek ("ἀδελφέ, βοήθει!",
"adelphe, boethei!"). Within moments, the entire group, including
Brutus, was striking out at the dictator. Caesar attempted to get away,
but, blinded by blood, he tripped and fell; the men continued stabbing
him as he lay defenceless on the lower steps of the portico. According
to
Eutropius, around sixty or more men
participated in the assassination. He was stabbed 23 times. According to
Suetonius, a physician later established that only one wound, the second
one to his chest, had been lethal.
The dictator's last words are not known with certainty, and are a
contested subject among scholars and historians alike. Suetonius reports
that others have said Caesar's last words were the Greek phrase "καὶ
σύ, τέκνον;"(transliterated as "Kai su, teknon?": "You
too, child?" in English). However, Suetonius himself says Caesar said
nothing. Plutarch also reports that Caesar said nothing, pulling his
toga over his head when he saw Brutus among the conspirators. The
version best known in the English-speaking world is the
Latin phrase "Et
tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?", commonly rendered as
"You too, Brutus?"); this derives from Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, where it actually
forms the first half of a
macaronic line: "Et tu, Brute?
Then fall, Caesar." It has no basis in historical fact and Shakespeare's
use of Latin here is not from any assertion that Caesar would have been
using the language, rather than the Greek reported by Suetonius, but
because the phrase was already popular at the time the play was written.
According to Plutarch, after the assassination, Brutus stepped
forward as if to say something to his fellow senators; they, however,
fled the building. Brutus and his companions then marched to the Capitol
while crying out to their beloved city: "People of Rome, we are once
again free!". They were met with silence, as the citizens of Rome had
locked themselves inside their houses as soon as the rumour of what had
taken place had begun to spread.
A wax statue of Caesar was erected in the forum displaying the 23
stab wounds. A crowd who had amassed there started a fire, which badly
damaged the forum and neighbouring buildings. In the ensuing chaos
Mark Antony,
Octavian (later Augustus Caesar), and
others fought a series of five civil wars, which would end in the
formation of the Roman Empire.
Aftermath of the assassination
The result unforeseen by the assassins was that Caesar's death
precipitated the end of the Roman Republic. The Roman middle and lower
classes, with whom Caesar was immensely popular and had been since
before Gaul, became enraged that a small group of high-browed
aristocrats had killed their champion. Antony, who had been drifting
apart from Caesar, capitalised on the grief of the Roman mob and
threatened to unleash them on the
Optimates, perhaps with the intent of
taking control of Rome himself. But, to his surprise and chagrin, Caesar
had named his grandnephew Gaius
Octavian his sole heir, bequeathing him
the immensely potent Caesar name as well as making him one of the
wealthiest citizens in the Republic. The crowd at the funeral boiled
over, throwing dry branches, furniture and even clothing on to Caesar's
funeral pyre, causing the flames to spin out of control, seriously
damaging the Forum. The mob then attacked the houses of Brutus and
Cassius, where they were repelled only with considerable difficulty,
ultimately providing the spark for the
Liberators' civil war, fulfilling at
least in part Antony's threat against the aristocrats. However, Antony
did not foresee the ultimate outcome of the next series of civil wars,
particularly with regard to Caesar's adopted heir. Octavian, aged only
18 at the time of Caesar's death, proved to have considerable political
skills, and while Antony dealt with
Decimus Brutus in the first round of
the new civil wars, Octavian consolidated his tenuous position.
In order to combat Brutus and Cassius, who were massing an enormous
army in Greece, Antony needed soldiers, the cash from Caesar's war
chests, and the legitimacy that Caesar's name would provide for any
action he took against them. With the passage of the lex Titia on
27 November 43 BC, the
Second Triumvirate was officially
formed, composed of Antony, Octavian, and Caesar's loyal cavalry
commander
Lepidus. It formally
deified Caesar as
Divus Iulius in 42 BC, and Caesar
Octavian henceforth became Divi filius ("Son of a god"). Seeing
that Caesar's clemency had resulted in his murder, the Second
Triumvirate brought back the horror of
proscription, abandoned since
Sulla. It engaged in the
legally-sanctioned murder of a large number of its opponents in order to
secure funding for its forty-five legions in the second civil war
against Brutus and Cassius. Antony and Octavius defeated them at
Philippi.
Afterward, Mark Antony married Caesar's lover, Cleopatra, intending
to use the fabulously wealthy Egypt as a base to dominate Rome. A third
civil war broke out between Octavian on one hand and Antony and
Cleopatra on the other. This final civil war, culminating in the
latter's defeat at
Actium, resulted in the permanent
ascendancy of Octavian, who became the first Roman emperor, under the
name Caesar Augustus, a name that raised him to status of a deity.
Julius Caesar had been preparing to invade
Parthia, the
Caucasus and
Scythia, and then swing back onto
Germania through Eastern Europe. These
plans were thwarted by his assassination. His successors did attempt the
conquests of Parthia and Germania, but without lasting results.
Health
Based on remarks by Plutarch, Caesar is sometimes thought to have
suffered from
epilepsy. Modern scholarship is
"sharply divided" on the subject, and it is more certain that he was
plagued by malaria, particularly during the Sullan proscriptions of the
80s.
Caesar had four documented episodes of what may have been complex
partial seizures. He may additionally have had
absence seizures in his youth. The
earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer
Suetonius who was born after Caesar
died. The claim of epilepsy is countered among some medical historians
by a claim of
hypoglycemia, which can cause
epileptoid seizures.
Literary works
Caesar was considered during his lifetime to be one of the best
orators and authors of prose in Rome—even Cicero spoke highly of
Caesar's rhetoric and style. Among his most famous works were his
funeral oration for his paternal aunt
Julia and his
Anticato, a document written to
blacken
Cato's reputation and respond to
Cicero's Cato memorial.
Poems by Caesar are also mentioned in
ancient sources. His works other than his war commentaries and his
speeches have been lost.
Memoirs
Other works historically attributed to Caesar, but whose authorship
is doubted, are:
These narratives were written and published on a yearly basis during
or just after the actual campaigns, as a sort of "dispatches from the
front". Apparently simple and direct in style—to the point that Caesar's
Commentarii are commonly studied by first and second year Latin
students—they are in fact highly sophisticated tracts, aimed most
particularly at the middle-brow readership of minor aristocrats in Rome,
Italy, and the provinces.
Name
Using the
Latin alphabet as it existed in the day
of Caesar (i.e., without lower case letters, "J", or "U"), Caesar's name
is properly rendered "GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR". The form "CAIVS" is also
attested using the old Roman pronunciation of letter C as G; it is an
antique form of the more common "GAIVS". It is often seen abbreviated to
"C. IVLIVS CAESAR". (The letterform "Æ" is a
ligature, which is often encountered in
Latin
inscriptions where it was used to save
space, and is nothing more than the letters "ae".) In Classical Latin,
it was pronounced
[ˈɡaːius ˈjuːlius ˈkaisar]. In
the days of the late
Roman Republic, many historical
writings were done in Greek, a language most educated Romans studied.
Young wealthy Roman boys were often taught by Greek slaves and sometimes
sent to
Athens for advanced training, as was
Caesar's principal assassin,
Brutus. In
Greek, during Caesar's time, his family
name was written Καίσαρ, reflecting its contemporary
pronunciation. Thus his name is pronounced in a similar way to the
pronunciation of the German
Kaiser. This German name was
phonemically but not phonetically derived from the
Middle Ages
Ecclesiastical Latin, in which the
familiar part "Caesar" is
[ˈtʃeːsar], from which the modern English pronunciation is
derived, as well as the title of
Tsar. His name is also remembered in
Norse mythology, where he is manifested
as the legendary king
Kjárr.
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