Gaius Julius Caesar, the man who changed Rome.
As the Roman Republic grew in size and strength, changing politically, socially, economically and culturally, the one factor that always held true was the endless struggle of the figures that brought about these changes. After the fall of the Republic, Octavian was the first de jure Emperor of Rome. However, one could argue that the person who actually laid the foundations for this change was Gaius Julius Caesar, who could be considered the de facto emperor before him. He was in part responsible for changing the Republic completely and creating what we know today as the Roman Empire. The information we have for this particular period comes from Caesar himself as well as accounts by Suetonius, the Greek writer Plutarch, and Cicero. Using these texts I wish to account for the aforementioned changes in the Roman Republic in the time of Caesar. However one must point out that the stories told by the four individuals often seem to portray Caesar in different ways, mainly due to personal preferences or the time in which they were written.
Gaius Julius Caesar was a formidable military and political leader, and perhaps one of the most influential people in history. He was born in Rome in 100 B.C. to a patrician family of great lineage, though not much wealth, which affected him greatly early on in his political career. He had strong family ties with influential political figures such as Gaius Marius which definitely affected his upbringing. However little is known of his childhood, other than the fact that he lived through the hard years of civil unrest during the Social Wars. Thus our knowledge of his climb to the top starts with his being appointed high priest of Jupiter in 83 B.C., at which point Caesar married Cornelia. However due to his uncle Marius’ rivalry with Sulla, Caesar faced a number of hardships before being left alone again because of family ties, this time on the side of his mother.
Caesar however chose to join the staff of Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia Minor where he was awarded the civic crown. After Sulla‘s death, he returned to Rome where he practiced law, and became know as a great orator and a prosecutor of corrupt governors.
Caesar’s rise to power, though gradual, was not without obstacles. However, he managed to come out on top. In 72 B.C. he was elected military consul. According to Suetonius (Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, ch. 1, part 6) Caesar gave eulogies at his aunt Julia’s as well as his wife Cornelia’s funeral praising their ancestry along with his own, as descendants of kings as well as gods. He was a determined and calculating man who always managed to work out his problems and find solutions. In 68 B.C. he was elected quaestor and got a seat in the Senate.
That same year he married Pompeia, the daughter of Quintus Pompeius and, interestingly, granddaughter of Sulla. However he soon divorced her, after she had been accused of adultery with Publius Clodius. According to Plutarch (Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, ch. 5, part 10) Caesar claimed he knew nothing of the subject but said that his wife should be above suspicion, as at the time he was also Pontifex Maximus and had to set an example.
On the other hand he could have just done it “to please the people”. His campaign of bribery was such that the debt followed him until later on in his career, often affecting his political decisions as well as his methods of ruling the provinces assigned to him as consul. An example of this was his rule over the province of Spain, given to him after his praetorship in 62 B.C. There, according to Plutarch (Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, ch. 5, part 12), he put together an army and through his military campaigns made himself and his soldiers rich; more importantly, they saluted him as “Imperator”, a term not used in those days. However, Plutarch also states that these successes “were followed up by equally good work in civilian administration” (Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, ch. 5, part 12).
After the end of his term he faced another obstacle that he again managed to deal with successfully. He had wanted to run for consul that year but also wanted to get his Triumph for the military successes in Spain. However, due to the opposition of Cato, Caesar was forced to choose between the two, and so he partnered up in order to win the consulship, forming the first Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus in 60 B.C. During the same period he married his daughter Julia to Pompey in order to further strengthen the alliance while he himself married Calpurnia, the daughter of his successor in the consulship. After a while the triumvirs grew in contempt of the Senate and Caesar as consul passed the demands of his two partners and secured a five-year term as proconsul of Gaul after his consulship ended.
In 58 B.C. Caesar went off to Gaul, to return after 9 years. While there he conquered most of modern day central Europe and in doing so spread the Roman civilization even further. However, one must realize that many of these conquests were due to personal ambition, to enlarge his wealth as well as his auctoritas and dignitas, and not just as defensive moves. Even from Gaul though, Caesar managed to play a role in Roman politics, as he fought in the summers, then returned to Cisalpine Gaul and, through his supporters in Rome, took part in the political scene.
According to Suetonius at the end of his first consulship in Gaul, two praetors, Gaius Memmius and Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, threatened his position by demanding “an official inquiry into his official conduct during the past year.” (Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, ch. 1, parts 23-24) To counteract this attack and prevent it from happening again, Caesar made a point of gaining control over the chief magistrates, by putting them under some kind of obligation to him or by just refusing to support anyone who did not promise to defend his cause. Finally when Domitius stood for consulship, threatening Caesar’s military command, he arranged a meeting with Pompey and Crassus at Luca in 56 B.C. There he managed to secure his own “governorship of Gaul for another five years”, to take care of the issue of Domitius and, more importantly, strengthen the ties of the Triumvir. The three were on shaky ground as Pompey was being courted by the optimates party in Rome and his relationship with Crassus was troublesome.
However, despite his great military successes over these 9 years, Caesar lost three members of his family, including his daughter Julia, which severed his family ties with Pompey. Although Caesar did manage at first to keep a good relationship with Pompey and the Senate, Publius Clodius’ assassination and the civil unrest in Rome lead the Senate to elect Pompey as sole consul (Crassus had been killed in a battle against the Pirannese). Yet Caesar managed to set up an efficient provincial government over the vast territories he had conquered and still remain in favor of the people, at least for a while.
At around 49 B.C. though, Caesar faced a real threat in the form of the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus who not only proposed the relief of Caesar from his post and the disbanding of his armies. Furthermore he declared that Caesar should not be allowed to stand for consulship in absentia, forcing him to return to Rome as a citizen without the exemption privileges of an official, thus becoming susceptible to prosecution. This attack on his person, as well as his military successes, caused Caesar to march onto Rome, thus taking his troops across the Rubicon River, something not done since Sulla and, more importantly, an automatic declaration of civil war. With Pompey’s troops in Spain an no one that could stand up to Caesar, Pompey and the Senate fled to Brundisium. After the battle at Pharsalus and his crushing defeat Pompey fled to Egypt.
Caesar followed, only to find that upon his arrival in Egypt, Pompey had been killed. It is said that he was grief stricken by the death and took his signature ring, but more importantly offered help and friendship to those who remained from Pompey’s companions (Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, ch. 5, part 48).
His war on Egypt may have started for a number of reasons as to why it started. According to Suetonius (Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, ch. 1. part 35) when he arrived in Alexandria, he discovered that King Ptolemy XII had murdered Pompey and had plans to kill Caesar as well. According to Plutarch, however (Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, ch. 5, part 48), the war occurred because of Caesar’s passion for Cleopatra. Furthermore the King’s party and more specifically the eunuch Pothinus, who was responsible for Pompey’s death, “had driven out Cleopatra” and was plotting against Caesar as well. Whatever the reason though, he won the Egyptians, aided Cleopatra in regaining her throne and did away with any opposition while setting up the government, and allegedly having an affair with Cleopatra which resulted in a child.
After leaving Alexandria, in 47 B.C. he returned to Rome by way of Asia Minor, settling any disturbances and dealing with Pharnaces, son of the King Mithridates. Caesar entered Rome victorious once again, at which point he is said to have famously declared “Veni. Vidi. Vinci”, a clear indication of his military successes. Although, when he had first marched on Rome, Caesar had declared himself Dictator and rebuilt the Senate, before leaving for Greece he had been elected consul, legalizing somewhat his position. Thus upon returning he managed to settle any mismanagement issues on the part of Marc Antony who had taken over for Caesar in his absence. After the final victory over the optimates at Thapsus and the suicide of Cato (whom however it was said that Caesar had really wanted to have pardoned) Caesar was now not only victorious but also unchallenged and free to celebrate his four Triumphs.
As such, in 46 B.C., Caesar began a series of reforms most of which benefited the middle and lower classes, such as debt relief (although only partial), restoring to power those proscribed under Sulla and settling the war veterans in the provinces abroad thus not burdening other citizens by confiscating lands. Furthermore he diverted the Tiber to be able to better use it as a byway, he rebuilt the harbor of Rome, as well as the senate house (which had been burned down after the death of Claudius) and other public structures which also created many new jobs for the common people. Furthermore, he restructured the Roman calendar (which had been neglected with all the sociopolitical changes that had occurred) and rebuilt the body of the Senate, enlarging it to a total of 900 senators, up 300 from Sulla’s last reform, and more importantly included a large number of people from the provinces. This last change in the Senate did not go over well with the upper class and existing senators but was another way to ensure that Caesar could have “his own” people to carry out and support his decisions in the Senate. The same went for many other offices as well. Thus, although Caesar’s organization and methodology did benefit many, and on a whole could be considered successful, it did alienate many of the nobles. Furthermore, in spite of appearances, as a dictator, Caesar did actually rule rather autocratically, more like a general than a politician, with but a nominal use of the preexisting political structure; he pretty much declared his decisions and often appointed individuals to political offices again ensuring their support, instead of allowing the electoral system to choose.
The interesting part in this all is that despite his conduct and his adoption of customs of the ruler cult of eastern Hellenistic monarchies, he still managed to remain in the favor of the Senate who voted him new honors. However not everyone was friendly toward Caesar. For example, when two tribunes opposed him, he had them removed from office; in the revolt in Spain, led by the two sons of Pompey, he ended up dealing with them personally and winning the victory at Munda. There one brother was killed, while the other escaped, to latter become a pirate of the Mediterranean (a great irony, as it was his own father who had wiped the pirate threat from the Mediterranean a few years back).
Another proof of Caesar’s popularity and excellence in manipulation of the senate as well as the people, was that after returning from Munda he chose to celebrate his victory (something not normally done if the opponents were also Romans) which complicated things and brought about discontent. In 44 B.C. at the feast of Lupercalia, Caesar wore a purple garb for the first time in public. He did though, manage to regain the people’s favor and to end the suspicion that he was trying to become King, when turning down the diadem offered by Mark Antony. Also his preparation for the military campaign against the Parthians for the death of Crassus and the retrieval of the Legionary Eagles, which he never managed to completed due to his assassination, did actually help his image greatly. Finally the ultimate proof of his excellence in manipulating the system as well as the people of Rome was the title of “Dictator Perpetus” given to him.
Thus Caesar’s public success and popularity lead him to become the first de facto emperor of Rome. However, even while acquiring more and more power and glory, he did rebuild and expand the Senate and other institutions of the Republic. But in spite of his efforts and astute manipulation that won him popular support, he still managed to alienate many of the nobles, which killed him. On the historical date of the Ides of March in 44 B.C., sixty conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Conginus and a few others assassinated him at a meeting of the senate, allowing for the appearance of the first de jure Emperor of Rome. Octavian thus built on the foundations established by Gaius Julius Caesar.
Bibliography:
1) The Romans: From Village to Empire, Boatwright, Gargola, and Talbert
2) Cicero: Selected Political Speeches, trans. Grant
3) Suetonius: The Twelve Caesars, trans. Graves
4) Plutarch: Fall of the Roman Republic, trans. Warner