The Mighty Caesar: End of A Republic
How a young military conqueror became Rome's dictator for life.
Caesar was a younger contemporary of Pompey and Crassus. He came from one of Rome’s oldest patrician families, which traced their lineage to the Trojan hero Aeneas. His rise through politics was not exceptional, and he aimed to be elected consul. Much of the Senate opposed his candidacy.
The Triumvirate
Because of the Senate’s shared hatred of the three men, an unusual alliance spontaneous formed between Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. They formed the First Triumvirate. The alliance was created to get Caesar elected consul. In turn, Caesar was expected to pass land grants for Pompey’s disgruntled veterans. In this relationship, Caesar was clearly subordinate to Pompey. The two men had plenty of political reasons to despise each other. During Sulla’s dictatorship, the young Caesar barely escaped Rome with his life. He was a proud ally of Marius. Pompey, on the other hand, was a devoted military supporter of Sulla.
Caesar’s ambitions
The young Caesar’s ambitions were simply boundless. He had a massive ego. When captured by pirates in his mid-20s, the pompous Caesar demanded that his ransom be as high as 50 talents. He wept at the thought of not being as glorious as Alexander the Great. In 65 BC, Caesar became an aedile in Rome. Aediles were responsible for hosting public festivals. Caesar cleverly used this function to bolster his popularity among the regular Roman people. He held impressive, wild beast shows. He staged gladiator games. At this point in Rome’s history, gladiator games were normally reserved for funeral ceremonies. But Caesar held his games nominally in his father’s honor, although his dad had already been dead for 20 years. He arranged to have 320 pairs of gladiators fight. The Senate, having recently crushed Spartacus’ slave revolt, was alarmed by Caesar’s gladiatorial games. Caesar’s lavish games won him massive popularity, but it also drove him into debt. This forced him to borrow money from his rich rival Crassus.
Bid for consul
By 59 BC, Caesar was ready to complete his final step up the ladder of Rome’s politics: the consulship. His successes evoked jealousy from the other Roman aristocrats. This drove Julius into a fragile alliance with the other triumvirs, Pompey and Crassus. Caesar successfully won election as consul. But he had to share power with another man, named Bibulus. The charismatic Caesar was not ashamed to use intimidation tactics to outshine and overpower his co-consul. Eventually, the man retired, leaving Caesar effectively the dictator of Rome. As consul, Caesar crammed down legislation without the consent of the Senate. He enacted land grants for Pompey’s veterans, and approved Pompey’s settlements in the east. Cato the Younger became a vocal critic of Caesar, using the filibuster to stall his legislation. Caesar responded by simply ordering his lictors to physically throw Cato out of the Senate.
Caesar, the conqueror
When Caesar stepped down as consul, his enemies began to file lawsuits against him for illegal activity. Julius exploited sovereign immunity to evade prosecution. With the help of Pompey and Crassus, Caesar arranged a proconsulship for himself in Cisalpine Gaul. The region was located nearby various tribes, such as the Belgians, Celts, and Germans. The tribes were fragmented and lacked organization. For Caesar, it was a golden opportunity for military glory. In 58 BC, the Helvetii of modern-day Switzerland sought to migrate into Caesar’s territory. This gave him the pretext for war. He slaughtered tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of them. Caesar then turned his attention toward northern Gaul, where he campaigned for the next several years. Caesar was following Pompey’s playbook to the letter. He rampaged throughout the eastern Mediterranean, expanding endlessly. His wars in Gaul were blatant imperialism, resulting in the death of a million Gauls and the enslavement of another million. Even the Romans were shocked. The Senate prepared to hold Caesar accountable as a war criminal. But with covert help from the tribunes back in Rome, Caesar managed to completely evade any accountability. Although physically absent from Rome, Caesar made sure that ordinary Romans were constantly reminded of him. He wrote an account of his military conquests, and circulated them around Rome. This became The Gallic Wars, a classic text of Latin literature. It served as an early form of political propaganda. Caesar presented himself as an objective thinker, writing in the third-person. He adopted a famously plain, prose style. He portrayed himself as a hero of the Romans. In an impressive feat of engineering, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross the Rhine into Germany. He made sure to write a detailed account of it, in case anyone forget! He boasted of being the first Roman to invade the exotic, distant isle of Britain. In 55 and 54 BC, he crossed the English Channel. All of these feats served as fuel for Caesar’s self-promoting propaganda. Gradually, Caesar gained private command of as many as ten legions. They were fiercely loyal to him personally. But in 52 BC, the Gauls united under a common command, led by tribal leader Vercingetorix. Gaul revolted against Caesar, threatening to undo his conquests entirely. Julius responded by besieging the city of Alesia, in modern-day central France. It was a trap! Caesar was surrounded by several thousand Gauls. Battle broke out for three days. Caesar and his men fought desperately in two directions. In the end, the Romans won. Gaul was finally subdued.
Crossing the Rubicon
As Caesar won glory after glory, Pompey grew increasingly alarmed, and refused to leave the city of Rome. Pompey maintained overseas control of Rome’s Spanish province through the use of legates. Crassus, in a desperate attempt to keep up with his rivals, now sought his own military glory. He wanted to match the conquests of Caesar in Gaul and Pompey in the east. In 54 BC, Crassus embarked on his ill-fated campaign into Parthia, where he died in battle. He was killed by Parthian archers at Carrhae, one of the worst defeats in Rome’s history. This left only two men: Caesar and Pompey. The Eternal City, for all its glory, was not big enough for their two egos. The Triumvirate collapsed, and the two became rivals. Civil war appeared imminent. Caesar, although popular with the people, had many enemies in the Senate. The Senate begrudgingly aligned itself with Pompey, and demanded that Caesar disband his many legions before returning to Rome. Caesar was willing to do so, but he demanded that he be allowed to run for consul. This was his way of evading legal prosecution by his enemies. He further asked that Pompey be required to disband his own troops as well. The Senate was not interested in negotiations. Hardliners successfully convinced the Senate to strip Caesar of his command, giving the troops over to Pompey. Caesar was then declared an enemy of the state, by the Senate’s decree. Caesar’s allies tried to veto the measure in Rome, but they were threatened with bodily harm. Caesar was backed into a corner. The Senate believed that, in the winter, Caesar would have to stay back in Gaul. This would give Rome plenty of time to amass a defensive force, should Caesar invade the city. The Senate wrongly believed that Caesar would comply with their demands. Caesar crossed the Rubicon, marching into Rome itself. He came only with a single legion, but the Senate was caught entirely by surprise. Pompey and his allies fled Italy. They moved to Spain, North Africa, and the Greek East. Caesar defended himself, arguing that the Senate had acted illegally in declaring him an outlaw. He presented himself as the true defender of the Republic.
The war against Pompey
Caesar began with a lightning strike campaign against Pompey’s allies in Spain. In two months, he praised. He became consul back in Rome in 48 BC. To assuage the fears of his political rivals, Caesar adopted a more lenient approach. He did not want to repeat Sulla’s bloody purge. He passed popular legislation. He forgave debts, and encouraged business. He permitted Pompey’s allies to return to Rome. Pompey, meanwhile, continued to amass forces in the east. He personally trained his men, and participated in the drills himself. Caesar decided to force a confrontation with Pompey. He went to Brundisium, crossing over into Greece. This was done in spite of having less naval resources than Pompey. He sailed across the Adriatic in the dead of winter. He tried to assault Pompey’s supply lines at Dyrrhachium, but Caesar was outnumbered. Caesar’s starving army was forced to retreat. Caesar and his men were stuck at Pharsalus. Pompey was encouraged to deal a final death blow to his rival there. They met at their final confrontation on August 9, 48 BC. Pompey had 45,000 troops, compared to Caesar’s 25,000. Through the superior tactics of his cavalry, Caesar managed to win an upset victory against Pompey’s forces. The defeated Pompey fled to Egypt, one of the last independent kingdoms of the Mediterranean. Fearing a confrontation with Caesar’s Rome, the Egyptians promptly murdered Pompey. Pompey was neutralized, but Caesar still had powerful enemies in the Senate. Led by Cato, the Senate sent forces to hunt down Caesar. Caesar confronted the Senate’s forces in North Africa near the town of Thapsus. Caesar led one final campaign, winning the Battle of Munda, where he nearly died. Nevertheless, Caesar’s victory was total.
The God-Emperor
Caesar returned to Rome, where he pressured the Senate into compliance. He held triumphs to honor his conquests in Egypt, Gaul, Asia, and Africa. Elephants carried torches, and Vercingetorix was ritually strangled to death. Veni, vidi, vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”). As Rome’s uncontested leader, Caesar energetically enacted reforms. He reformed taxes and coinage. He increased payment of veterans. He founded colonies across the Mediterranean, and extended citizenship to Rome’s provinces. He oversaw ambitious construction projects, notably the Forum Julium, with a temple to Venus at its center. By this point, Rome’s calendar had been knocked a full three months out of alignment with the seasons. Caesar changed this by producing a new calendar, with 365 days and a leap year every fourth year. The new calendar began in January. With just a few adjustments made by Pope Gregory XIII, the Julian Calendar is still used today. Caesar wanted to be a king, but the Romans won’t let him. So instead of cycling through consulships, he turned to the position of dictator. Every six months, he renewed his role as dictator. Finally, on February 14, 44 BC, he declared himself dictator for life. He required the Senate to pledge their allegiance to him personally. He had a month named after himself, called July. He had statues of himself placed in front of temples, as if he were a god. His house was refitted as a temple. Priesthoods were established in his honor. He treated senators with arrogance and derision. He did not even try to hide his monarchical ambitions. The Senate was fed up. Marcus Junius Brutus, the descendant of the man who famously expelled Rome’s monarchy 500 years before, conspired to kill Caesar. In 44 BC, a conspiracy of 60 senators coalesced around Brutus. They agreed to assassinate on March 15, known to history as the Ides of March. Caesar laid dead, with 23 wounds. The Senate declared that the Republic was restored, and wore red liberty caps. Oddly, the Roman people did not share any of this enthusiasm. Even with Caesar gone, the Late Republic was coming to an unfortunate end.
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