Julius Caesar: Difference between revisions

Gaius Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman military leader and dictator. His military conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world to the Atlantic ocean, an achievement whose consequences are visible to this day. He became dictator for life and began many reforms in Roman society and government, work that was cut short by his assassination. Many of these reforms were later implemented by Augustus Caesar. His establishment of government was the precursor of the end of the Roman Republic. Caesar's military achievements are known to us in detail from his own written accounts and later writers like Suetonius and Plutarch.

Caesar was born in Rome to a well known and ancient patrician family (gens Julia) which supposedly traced its ancestry to Julus, the son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who according to myth was the son of Venus. At the height of his power in 45 BC, Caesar began building a temple to Venus Genetrix at Rome, signifying his link to the goddess. His father was his namesake, Gaius Julius Caesar, and achieved the rank of praetor (see cursus honorum). His mother was an Aurelia from the Cottae branch, a rich and influential family of plebeian stock. As a young boy, he lived in a modest house in the Subura quarter, where he apparently learned to speak several languages, including Hebrew and Gallic dialects.

The Julii Caesarii, although of impeccable aristocratic (patrician) stock, were not rich by the standards of the Roman nobility. Due to this, no member of his family had achieved any outstanding prominence in recent memory, though in his father's generation there was a renaissance of their fortunes. His paternal aunt Julia married Gaius Marius, a talented general and reformer of the Roman army. Marius was also the leader of the Populares faction of the Roman senate, frequently opposed to the Optimates conservatives. Towards the end of Marius' life in 86 BC, internal politics reached a breaking point. Several disputes of the Marius faction against Lucius Cornelius Sulla led to civil war and eventually opened the way to Sulla's dictatorship. Caesar was tied to the Marius party through family connections. Not only he was Marius' nephew, he was also married to Cornelia Cinnilla, the youngest daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Marius' greatest supporter and Sulla's enemy. Thus, when Sulla emerged as the winner of this civil war and began its program of proscriptions, Caesar not yet 20 years old, was in a bad position. Sulla ordered him to divorce Cornelia in 82 BC, but Caesar refused and prudently left Rome to hide. Only the intervention of his family and closest friends saved him from certain proscription and death. Despite Sulla's pardon, Caesar did not remain in Rome and left for military service in Asia and Cilicia. During this campaigns he served under the command of Lucius Licinius Lucullus and distinguished himself for bravery in combat.

Back in Rome in 78 BC, when Sulla died, Caesar began his political in the Forum career as an advocate, known for his oratory and ruthless prosecution of former governors notorious for extortion and corruption. Aiming at rhetorical perfection, Caesar travelled to Rhodes for philosophical and oratory studies with the famous grammar Apollonius Molo. On the way, Caesar was kidnapped by pirates. When they demanded a ransom of twenty talents, he laughed at them, saying they did not know who they had captured. Instead, he ordered them to ask for fifty. They accepted, and Caesar sent his followers to various cities to collect the ransom money. Thirty-eight days later, they returned with the ransom and Caesar was set free. As soon as he was ransomed, he organised a naval force, captured the pirates and their stronghold and put them to death by crucifixion.

In 69 BC, Caesar became a widow after Cornelia's death trying to deliver a still born son. In the same year, he lost his aunt Julia, to whom he was very attached. Contrary to the tradition, Caesar insisted in public funerals for both and delivered eulogy speeches from the rostra. Julia's funeral was filled with political connotations, since Caesar insisted in parade Marius' funeral mask. This was the first attack to the Sullan proscription laws of the former decade. Also, despite the fact that Caesar was very fond of both women (cf. Suetonius), these speeches were interpreted by his political opponents as propaganda for his upcoming election for quaestor.

Caesar was elected quaestor by the Assembly of the People in 69 BC, at the age of 30, as stipulated in the Roman cursus honorum. He drew the lots and was assigned with a questorship in Hispania Ulterior (a Roman province roughly situated in modern Portugal and southern Spain.

On his return to Rome, Caesar pursued his judicial career until his election as curule aedile in 65 BC. This political office was the first of the cursus honorum to held imperium. The functions were similar to a present day mayor and included regulation of construction, traffic, commerce and other aspects of Rome's daily life. It was also a dangerous office because it included the organization of the Roman games in the Circus maximus. The public funding for this event was limited and, if the aedile wanted to offer the city magnificent games, in order to push forward his political career, this meant heavy expenses in their own purse. Caesar throw spectacular games that included the diversion of the Tiber river for a specific representation in the Circus. Caesar ended the year in glory but in bankruptcy. His debts reached several hundreds gold talents (millions of euros in today's currency) and threatened to be an obstacle for his future career.

His success as aedile was however an enormous help for his election for pontifex maximus in 63 BC, following the death of the previous holder Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius. This office meant a new house – the Domus Publica (public house) – in the Forum, the responsibility of all Roman religious affairs and the custody of the Vestal virgins under his roof. For Caesar practical life, it also meant a relief of his debts. Caesar's debut as the pontifex maximus was however marked by a scandal. Following the death of his wife Cornelia, he had married Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla. As the wife of the pontifex maximus and an important matrona, Pompeia was responsible for the organization of the Bona Dea festival in December. These rites were exclusive to women and considered very sacred. However, Publius Clodius Pulcher managed to get in the house disguised as a woman. This was absolute sacrilege and Pompeia received a letter of divorce. Caesar himself admitted that she could be innocent in the plot, but, as he said: Caesar's wife, like the rest of Caesar's family, must be above suspicion.

63 BC was a specially difficult year, not only for Caesar, but for the Roman Republic herself. Marcus Tullius Cicero was senior consul and Caesar had been elected urban praetor by the Centuriate Assembly. During his consulship Cicero revealed a conspiracy to overthrow the elected magistrates organized by Lucius Sergius Catilina, a patrician aristocrat frustrated about his own political failure. The result was the conviction to death of five notable Roman men, Catiline's allies, without a trial. This was anathema for the democratic Roman society and Caesar opposed this violent measure with all his strength. His views were eventually defeated in a famous meeting of the senate, due to Cato the younger's insistence and the men executed in the same day. (This was also the day when Caesar saw his affair with Servilia Caepionis exposed to the public eye.) Caesar opposition granted him accusations – never proved – of involvement on the conspiracy. And if it is true that he was implicated in the Catiline affair, it did him no lasting damage.

In 61 BC, after his praetorship, Caesar served as governor of the province of Hispania Ulterior. This term permitted him to pay part of his debts.

In 59 BC Caesar was elected senior consul of the Roman Republic by the Centuriate Assembly. His junior partner was his political enemy Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, a member of the Optimates faction and personal friend of Marcus Porcius Cato. The first act of Bibulus as consul was retire from all political activity in order to search the skies for omens. This apparently pious decision was designed to make Caesar life difficult during his consulship. Indeed, he need allies and he found them were none of his enemies expected.

In this year, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) was fighting in the Senate for farmlands for his veterans, without success. Former consul Marcus Licinius Crassus, allegedly the richest man in Rome was also having problems in obtaining his long-desired command against the Parthian Empire. Caesar the consul was in desperate need of Crassus' money and Pompey's influence so an informal alliance was created. Historians call this union the First Triumvirate, or rule by three men. To confirm the alliance, Pompey married Julia Caesaris, Caesar only daughter. Despite the differences in age and upbringing, this political arrangement would prove to be a love match.

Following a difficult year as consul, Caesar was given proconsul powers to govern the Gallia and Illyricum provinces for five years. He was not going to settle with a pacific governorship. Instead, he started the Gallic Wars (58 BC-49 BC) in which the all Gaul and parts of Germania were annexed to Roman dominion. Among his legates were his cousins Lucius Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius, Titus Labienus and Quintus Tullius Cicero (Cicero's younger brother). He waged war against various peoples, defeating the Helvetii in 58 BC, the Belgic confederacy and the Nervii in 57 BC and the Veneti in 56 BC. In 55 BC he attempted an invasion of Britain and, in 52 BC he defeated a union of Gauls led by Vercingetorix at the battle of Alesia. His accounts of these campaigns were recorded in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars (De bello galico). According to Plutarch, the whole campaign resulted in 800 conquered cities, 300 subdued tribes, one million men sold to slavery and another three million dead in battle fields.

Despite his successes and the benefit they brought to Rome, Caesar remained unpopular among his peers, especially with the conservative faction, who always suspected him of wanting to become king. In 55 BC, his partners Pompey and Crassus are elected consuls and honour their agreement with Caesar by prolonging his proconsulship for another five years. This was to be the last act of the first triumvirate. In 54 BC, Julia Caesaris died in childbirth, leaving both Pompey and Caesar heartbroken. Crassus was killed in 53 BC during his ill-fated campaign in Parthia. Without Crassus or Julia, Pompey began to drift towards the Optimates faction. Still away in Gaul, Caesar tried to secure Pompey's support by marrying him to one of his nieces, but he refused. Instead, Pompey married Cornelia Metella, the daughter of Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest enemies.

In 50 BC, the senate led by Pompey ordered Caesar to return to Rome and disband his army because his term as proconsul had finished. Moreover, he forbid Caesar to stand for a second consulship in absentia. Caesar knew that he would be prosecuted and politically eliminated the minute he entered Rome without the imperium of a consul or the power of his legions. So Caesar refused to act as ordered and crossed the Rubicon river (the frontier with Italy) on January 10, 49 BC saying iacta alea est (meaning that "the die is cast") and civil war broke out. A soothsayer named Alex Spampano warned Caesar of his conquest. The Optimates, including Metellus Scipio and Cato the younger fled to the south, not knowing that Caesar had only his tenth legion with him. Caesar pursued Pompey to Brundisium, hoping to patch up their deal of ten years before. Pompey eluded him, however, and Caesar made an astonishing 27-day route-march to Spain to knock out Pompey's lieutenants in the Hispania provinces. He then went back east, to challenge Pompey in Greece where on July 10, 48 BC at the battle of Dyrrhachium Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat to Pompey. Having finally defeated Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus, Greece, in 48 BC, he was given a five-year term as consul, whilst Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered by an officer of king Ptolemy XIII of Egypt. In Rome, Caesar is given a ten-year term as dictator, with Marcus Antonius as his Master of the horse. He is also elected consul for the second time in this year, with Publius Servilius Isauricus as partner.

Not content with the advantage he had gained, Caesar went on to Egypt, where he camped his army in Alexandria. On discovering Pompey's fate, Caesar is reported to have cried because the assassination took away the opportunity of offering Pompey his pardon. Perhaps because of this event, Caesar involved himself in Egyptian politics and substituted Ptolomy XIII by his older sister, Cleopatra VII of Egypt already a pharaoh. He involved himself with the queen too and by Cleopatra he had his only son, future Ptolomy XIV of Egypt (Caesarion).

After the first months of 47 BC spent in Egypt, the year that saw his first epileptic attack, Caesar went to the Middle East, where he defeats king Pharnaces of Pontus in the battle of Zela. Afterwards, Caesar went to the North of Africa to defeat the remaining Pompey supporters. In the battle of Thapsus in 46 BC won a significant victory against Metellus Scipio (killed in combat) and Cato the younger (who committed suicide) afterwards. But Pompey's sons Gnaeus and Sextus Pompeius and Titus Labienus, Caesar's former cavalry commander, managed to escape to the rich provinces of Hispania. Caesar went in pursuit and in March 45 BC he defeats the last focus of opposition in the Battle of Munda.

With all the Roman world in his control, Caesar goes again to Rome where his made Dictator and Consul for life and called Father of his Country (Pater Patriae). He then started a series of reforms that included a change in the Roman calendar for the Julian calendar. The month of Quintilis was re-named in his honour, and continues to be known as July. In February, Marcus Antonius publicly offered Caesar a diadem, symbol of a king. The dictator refused the honour but the question of whether or not Caesar intended to accept the title of King, to settle for the title of Dictator, still causes scholarly debate. It is certain, however, that his apparent arrogance and ambition brought him great unpopularity and the suspicion of his peers.

Shortly afterwards, Caesar was assassinated in the Theatre of Pompey (where the Senate met after the Senate House was burnt down in a recent incident), on the Ides of March (March 15) 44 BC. He was stabbed by a group of conspirators who believed in preserving the republic against his alleged monarchical ambitions. Among these were Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Longinus Cassius. Caesar fell at the feet of a statue of Pompey and his famous last words are variously reported as:

• Kai su, teknon? (Greek, "And thou, my son?")
• Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi! (Latin, "You also, Brutus, my son!")
• Et tu, Brute? (Latin, "You too, Brutus?", the version reported by Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar.)

Legend has it that Caesar's wife Calpurnia (whom he had married in 59 BC) had warned him of a premonition just the night before, but Caesar answered "There's nothing we must fear but fear."

After Caesar's death, a power struggle broke out among his great-nephew and adopted son Octavianus, his chief lieutnant Marcus Antonius and his assassins Brutus and Cassius. Octavianus prevailed and became the first Roman emperor, taking the name Augustus Caesar.

His surviving oeuvre of writings place Caesar among the greatest masters of Latin prose style. Work includes:

• De bello Gallico - Commentaries on his campaigns to subdue the Gauls during the Gallic Wars
• De Bello Civili [1] - Commentaries on Caesar's refusal to obey to Senate (Rubicon's crossing) and the following Civil War, against the forces of Pompeius and the Senate

Other works are:

• De Bello Hispaniensis [2], campaigns in modern Spain
• De Bello Africo [3], campaigns in the North of Africa
• De Bello Alexandrino [4], campaign in Alexandria

These narratives, apparently simple and direct in style, are in fact highly sophisticated advertisements for his political agenda, most particularly for the middle-brow readership of minor aristocratic persons in Italy and the provinces of the Empire.

As a military commander, Caesar is placed by historians in equal terms of strategic and tactical geniuses as Alexander the Great (to whom he is compared by Plutarch) or Napoleon. He was successful throughout his campaigns, despite time of the year (he often fought in winter) or nature of the terrain. His versatility allowed him victories both in pitched battles and in sieges. The battle of Alesia, one of his master pieces, was both. Caesar's success was based in strict discipline in the ranks, a fair treatment of the legionaries that loved him and in an innovative use of the Roman cavalry. The legendary speed his army could achieve on forced marches – sometimes 40 Roman miles a day – was also a fundamental weapon in a time when there were no means of locomotion. His Commentaries on the several campaigns are still studied today by military historians.

He levied several Roman legions and most of them remain strategically important until the 5th century. They were:

• Legio I Germanica - Legio III Gallica - Legio IV Macedonica - Legio V Alaudae - Legio VI Ferrata - Legio VII Claudia - Legio VIII Augusta - Legio IX Hispana – Legio X Gemina (his favourite legion, accompanied him in the Rubicon) - Legio XI Claudia – Legio XII Fulminata – Legio XIII Gemina

Roman battles fought by Caesar:

• 58 BC -
  • June - Battle of the Arar (Saone), defeats the migrating Helvetians
  • July - Battle of Bibracte, defeats the Helvetians again
• 57 BC -
  • Battle of the Axona (Aisne), defeats the forces of the Belgae
  • Battle of the Sabis (Sambre) - Caesar defeats the Nervii.
• 52 BC - Battle of Alesia, defeats the Gallic rebel Vercingetorix, completing the Roman conquest of Gaul.
• 48 BC -
  • July 10 - Battle of Dyrrhachium, barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia
  • August 9 - Battle of Pharsalus, decisively defeats Pompey
• 47 BC -
  • February - Battle of the Nile, defeats the forces of the Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII
  • May - Battle of Zela, defeats Pharnaces II of Pontus
• 46 BC, February - Battle of Thapsus, defeats the Pompeian army of Metellus Scipio in North Africa.
• 45 BC March 17 - Battle of Munda, defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Gnaeus Pompey the Younger in Spain

The cognomen Caesar is a nickname that refers to a person, although not bold, with sparse hair. Despite this origin, the name Caesar remained in many languages as a synonym and a title of commander and leader: the German Kaiser and the Russian czar titles are derived from the name Caesar, as were several subsequent Roman emperors. Latin classical pronunciation for Caesar sounded like "kai-sahr".

Other explanations suggest that the root itself may not be of Latin origin: on the Rosetta Stone there is a hieroglyphic cartouche that has been transcript as k-e-s-r-s and supposed as related to the Latin sense. More interesting, it has been said that Latin Caesar could be a derivation of the Persian Kasrá=Chosroës and its plural form Akásirah (the title of four great dynasties of Persian Kings), through Ahasuerus or Khshayarsha (Xerxes I, grandson of Cyrus the Great); eventual relationships with kisri and kasra have been seen as less meaningful, also because mostly referred to later times (Sassanides).

Note: the name Gaius is completely equivalent to Caius, so Caesar's name is found in both forms.

• First marriage to Cornelia Cinnila
  • Julia Caesaris, married to Pompey
  • still born son
• Second marriage to Pompeia
• Third marriage to Calpurnia
• Affair with Cleopatra
  • Ptolomy Caesar (Caesarion), Egyptian pharaoh

• July 13 100 BC – Birth in Rome
• 82 BC – Escapes the Sullan persecutions
• 81/79 BC – Military service in Asia and Cilicia
• 70s – Career as an advocate
• 69 BC – Quaestor in Hispania Ulterior
• 65 BC – Curule aedile
• 63 BC – Elected pontifex maximus and praetor urbanus; the Catiline conspiracy
• 59 BC – First consulship; beginning of the First Triumvirate
• 54 BC – Death of Julia
• 53 BC – Death of Crassus: end of the first triumvirate
• 52 BC – Battle of Alesia
• 50 BC – Crossing of the Rubicon, the civil war starts
• 48 BC – Defeats Pompey in Greece; made dictator; second time consul
• 47 BC – Campaign in Egypt; meets Cleopatra
• 46 BC – Defeats Cato and Metellus Scipio in northern Africa; third time consul
• 45 BC –
  • Defeats the last opposition in Hispania
  • Returns to Rome; fourth time consul
• 44 BC –
  • February, Refuses the diadem offered by Antony
  • March 15, Assassinated

Julius Caesar, page with many links in several languages, including English

Quotes from Julius Caesar on Wikiquote

Life of Caesar, by Plutarch; Oxford Classics

The Twelve Caesars – Julius Caesar, by Suetonius; Penguin Classics

See also: Gallic Wars – Roman invasion of Britain – Famous military writers

For the William Shakespeare play based on the life of Julius Caesar, and the movies derived from it, see Julius Caesar (play)

For the 16/17th Century English judge and politician, see Sir Julius Caesar