Julius Caesar: Difference between revisions

{{Redirect2|Gaius Julius Caesar|Caesar|the name|Gaius Julius Caesar (name)|text=For other uses, see [[Gaius Julius Caesar (disambiguation)]], [[Caesar (disambiguation)]], and [[Julius Caesar (disambiguation)]]}}

{{For|the German politician|Cajus Julius Caesar}}

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{{Infobox person

| name = Julius Caesar

| image_upright = 1.1

| alt = The Tusculum portrait, a marble sculpture of Julius Caesar

| birth_date = 12 July 100&nbsp;BC<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gzOXLGbIIYwC&pg=PA16 16]|ps=. All ancient sources place his birth in 100&nbsp;BC. Some historians have argued against this; the "consensus of opinion" places it in 100&nbsp;BC. {{harvnb|Goldsworthy|2006|p=30}}.}}</ref>

| birth_place = [[Suburra]], Rome

| occupation = {{hlist|Politician|soldier|author}}

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In 60 BC, Caesar, [[Marcus Licinius Crassus|Crassus]], and [[Pompey]] formed the [[First Triumvirate]], an informal political alliance that dominated [[Roman politics]] for several years. Their attempts to amass political power were opposed by many in the [[Roman Senate|Senate]], among them [[Cato the Younger]] with the private support of [[Cicero]]. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a string of military victories in the [[Gallic Wars]], completed by 51&nbsp;BC, which greatly extended Roman territory. During this time he both [[Caesar's invasions of Britain|invaded Britain]] and [[Caesar's Rhine bridges|built a bridge across the river Rhine]]. These achievements and the support of his veteran army threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, who had realigned himself with the Senate after the [[Battle of Carrhae|death of Crassus]] in 53&nbsp;BC. With the [[Gallic Wars]] concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. In 49 BC, Caesar openly defied the Senate's authority by [[crossing the Rubicon]] and marching towards Rome at the head of an army.<ref>{{cite book |last=Keppie |first=Lawrence |chapter=The approach of civil war |title=The Making of the Roman Army: From Republic to Empire |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |location=Norman, OK |date=1998 |page=102 |isbn=978-0-8061-3014-9}}</ref> This began [[Caesar's Civil War|Caesar's civil war]], which he won, leaving him in a position of near-unchallenged power and influence in 45 BC.

Caesar's father did not seek a consulship during the domination of [[Lucius Cornelius Cinna]] and instead chose retirement.{{sfn|Badian|2009|p=16}} During Cinna's dominance, Caesar was named as ''[[flamen Dialis]]'' (a priest of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]]) which led to his marriage to Cinna's daughter, [[Cornelia (wife of Caesar)|Cornelia]]. The religious taboos of the priesthood would have forced Caesar to forgo a political career; the appointment – one of the highest non-political honours – indicates that there were few expectations of a major career for Caesar.<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|p=16|ps=. Badian cites {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=1.2}} arguing that Caesar was actually appointed; because a divorced man could not be ''flamen Dialis'', the assertion that Caesar married one Cossutia then divorced her to marry Cornelia and become ''flamen'' in {{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=5.3}} is incorrect.}}</ref> In early 84&nbsp;BC, Caesar's father died suddenly.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=34}} After [[Sulla]]'s victory in the [[Sulla's civil war|civil war]] (82&nbsp;BC), Cinna's ''acta'' were annulled. Sulla consequently ordered Caesar to abdicate and divorce Cinna's daughter. Caesar refused, implicitly questioning the legitimacy of Sulla's annulment. Sulla may have put Caesar on the [[Proscription of Sulla|proscription lists]], though scholars are mixed.<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|pp=16–17}}, stating Caesar was placed on the lists. Cf, stating Caesar was only summoned for interrogation, {{cite book |last=Hinard |first=François |title=Les proscriptions de la Rome républicaine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3UaAAAAIAAJ |publisher=Ecole française de Rome |date=1985 |pages=64 |isbn=978-2-7283-0094-5 |oclc=1006100534 |language=fr}}</ref> Caesar then went into hiding before his relatives and contacts among the [[Vestal Virgins]] were able to intercede on his behalf.<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|pp=16–17|ps=, also rejecting claims that Caesar hid by bribing his pursuers: "this is an example of how the [Caesar myth] pervades our accounts and makes it difficult to get at the facts... [that he bribed his pursuers] cannot be true, since confiscation of his fortune went with his proscription".}}</ref> They then reached a compromise where Caesar would resign his priesthood but keep his wife and chattels; Sulla's alleged remark he saw "in [Caesar] many Mariuses"<ref>{{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=1.4}}; {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=1.3}}.</ref> is apocryphal.<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|p=17|ps=, noting also that Sulla never killed any fellow patricians.}}</ref>

 

 

Caesar then left Italy to serve in the staff of the governor of Asia, [[Marcus Minucius Thermus]]. While there, he travelled to Bithynia to collect naval reinforcements and stayed some time as a guest of the king, [[Nicomedes IV of Bithynia|Nicomedes IV]], though later invective connected Caesar to a homosexual relation with the monarch.{{sfn|Badian|2009|pp=17–18}}<ref>{{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=2–3}}; {{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=2–3}}; {{harvnb|Dio|loc=43.20}}.</ref> He then served at the [[Siege of Mytilene (81 BC)|Siege of Mytilene]] where he won the [[civic crown]] for saving the life of a fellow citizen in battle. The privileges of the crown – the Senate was supposed to stand on a holder's entrance and holders were permitted to wear the crown at public occasions – whetted Caesar's appetite for honours. After the capture of Mytilene, Caesar transferred to the staff of [[Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus|Publius Servilius Vatia]] in Cilicia before learning of Sulla's death in 78&nbsp;BC and returning home immediately.{{sfn|Badian|2009|p=17}} He was alleged to have wanted to join in on the consul [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul 78 BC)|Lepidus]]' revolt that year<ref>{{harvnb|Badian|2009|p=18}}, citing {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=3}}.</ref> but this is likely literary embellishment of Caesar's desire for tyranny from a young age.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=35}}

In the initial years from the end of Caesar's consulship in 59&nbsp;BC, the three so-called triumvirs sought to maintain the goodwill of the extremely popular [[Publius Clodius Pulcher]],<ref>{{harvnb|Gruen|1995|p=98|ps=. "It should no longer be necessary to refute the older notion that Clodius acted as agent or tool of the triumvirate". Clodius was an independent agent not beholden to the triumvirs or any putative popular party. {{cite journal |last=Gruen |first=Erich S |title=P. Clodius: Instrument or Independent Agent? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1086053 |journal=Phoenix |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=120–30 |date=1966 |issn=0031-8299 |jstor=1086053 |doi=10.2307/1086053}}}}</ref> who was [[plebeian tribune]] in 58&nbsp;BC and in that year successfully sent Cicero into exile. When Clodius took an anti-Pompeian stance later that year, he unsettled Pompey's eastern arrangements, started attacking the validity of Caesar's consular legislation, and by August 58 forced Pompey into seclusion. Caesar and Pompey responded by successfully backing the election of magistrates to recall Cicero from exile on the condition that Cicero would refrain from criticism or obstruction of the allies.{{sfn|Ramsey|2009|pp=37–38}}<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=194|ps=, noting Caesar's opposition – in early 58&nbsp;BC – to Cicero's banishment. Caesar offered Cicero a position on his staff which would have conferred immunity from prosecution but Cicero refused. {{harvnb|Ramsey|2009|p=37}}.}}</ref>{{sfn|Ramsey|2009|p=39}}

 

 

The three allies' relations broke down in 57&nbsp;BC: one of Pompey's allies challenged Caesar's land reform bill and the allies had a poor showing in the elections that year.{{sfn|Ramsey|2009|pp=39–40}} With a real threat to Caesar's command and {{lang|la|acta}} brewing in 56&nbsp;BC under the aegis of the unfriendly consuls, Caesar needed his allies' political support.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=229}} Pompey and Crassus too wanted military commands. Their combined interests led to a renewal of the alliance; drawing in the support of [[Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 54 BC)|Appius Claudius Pulcher]] and his younger brother Clodius for the consulship of 54&nbsp;BC, they planned second consulships with following governorships in 55&nbsp;BC for both Pompey and Crassus. Caesar, for his part, would receive a five-year extension of command.{{sfnm|Ramsey|2009|1pp=41–42|Morstein-Marx|2021|2p=232}}

Caesar, as far as is attested in evidence, did not intend to restructure Roman society. Ernst Badian, writing in the ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'', noted that although Caesar did implement a series of reforms, they did not touch on the core of the republican system: he "had no plans for basic social and constitutional reform" and that "the extraordinary honours heaped upon him... merely grafted him as an ill-fitting head on to the body of the traditional structure".{{sfn|Badian|2012}}<ref>Similarly, {{harvnb|Meier|1995|p=470}}, "However restlessly active [Caesar] was, we still hear of nothing that could be construed as a move towards the consolidation of the commonwealth... We have no evidence that he intended to set up a monarchy".</ref>

 

 

He also took further administrative actions to stabilise his rule and that of the state.{{sfn|Wilson|2021|p=318}} Caesar reduced the size of the grain dole from 320,000 down to around 150,000 by tightening the qualifications; special bonuses were offered to families with many children to stall depopulation.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=447}} Plans were drawn for the conduct of a census. Citizenship was extended to a number of communities in Cisalpine Gaul and to [[Cádiz]].{{sfn|Wilson|2021|pp=319, 321}} During the civil wars, Caesar had also instituted a novel debt repayment programme (no debts would be forgiven but they could be paid in kind), remitted rents up to a certain amount, and thrown games distributing food.{{sfn|Wilson|2021|p=319}} Many of his enemies during the civil wars were pardoned – Caesar's clemency was exalted in his propaganda and temple works – with the intent to cultivate gratitude and draw a contrast between himself and the vengeful dictatorship of Sulla.{{sfn|Wilson|2021|pp=321–22}}

Attempts in January 44&nbsp;BC to call Caesar {{lang|la|rex}} ({{lit|king}}) – a title associated with arbitrary oppression against citizens – were shut down by two tribunes before a supportive crowd. Caesar, claiming that the two tribunes infringed on his honour by doing so, had them deposed from office and ejected from the Senate.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=476}} The incident both undermined Caesar's original arguments for pursuing the civil war (protecting the tribunes) and angered a public which still revered the tribunes as protectors of popular freedom.{{sfnm|Morstein-Marx|2021|1p=522 (noting attempts to restore the tribunes to office after Caesar's death)|Tempest|2017|2p=81}} Shortly before 15 February 44&nbsp;BC, he assumed the dictatorship for life, putting an end to any hopes that his powers would be merely temporary.{{sfn|Meier|1995|pp=474, 476}} Transforming his dictatorship, even with a decadal appointment, into one for life clearly showed to all contemporaries that Caesar had no intention to restore a free republic and that no free republic could be restored so long as he was in power.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Badian |first=Ernst |date=1990 |title=Review of "Caesar" |jstor=27690364 |journal=Gnomon |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=35 |issn=0017-1417 |quote=At this point, some time in early February 44, no one could persuade himself that the ''res publica'' would ever be restored as long as Caesar lived. }}</ref>

 

 

 

Brutus, who claimed descent from the [[Lucius Junius Brutus]] who had [[Overthrow of the Roman monarchy|driven out the kings]] and the [[Gaius Servilius Ahala]] who had freed Rome from incipient tyranny, was the main leader of the conspiracy.{{sfnm|Tempest|2017|1p=41|Meier|1995|2pp=480–81}} By late autumn 45&nbsp;BC, graffiti<ref>{{harvnb|Morstein-Marx|2021|pp=524–25}} gives a number of examples:

* {{harvnb|App. ''BCiv.''|loc=2.112}}: "[Lucius Brutus,] your descendants are unworthy of you", challenging Marcus Brutus to act.

* {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=80.3}}: "Brutus became the first consul, since he had expelled the kings; This man [Caesar] at last became king, since he had expelled the consuls", on a statue of Caesar.

 

While some news of the conspiracy did leak, Caesar refused to take precautions and rejected escort by a bodyguard. The date decided upon by the conspirators was 15 March, the [[Ides of March]], three days before Caesar intended to leave for his Parthian campaign.{{sfn|Meier|1995|p=485}} News of his imminent departure forced the conspirators to move up their plans; the Senate meeting on the 15th would be the last before his departure.{{sfn|Morstein-Marx|2021|p=563}} They had decided that a Senate meeting was the best place to frame the killing as political, rejecting the alternatives at games, elections, or on the road.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|pp=99–100}} That only the conspirators would be armed at the Senate meeting, per Dio, also would have been an advantage. The day, 15 March, was also symbolically important as it was the day on which consuls took office until the mid-2nd century BC.{{sfn|Tempest|2017|p=100}}

A line from [[Julius Caesar (play)|Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'']] has sometimes been taken to mean that he was deaf in one ear: "Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf."<ref>William Shakespeare, ''Julius Caesar'' I.ii.209.</ref> No classical source mentions hearing impairment in connection with Caesar. The playwright may have been making metaphorical use of a passage in Plutarch that does not refer to deafness at all, but rather to a gesture Alexander of Macedon customarily made. By covering his ear, Alexander indicated that he had turned his attention from an accusation in order to hear the defence.{{sfn|Paterson|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gzOXLGbIIYwC&q=julius+caesar+deaf&pg=PT150 130]}}

 

 

 

===Name and family===

Using the [[Latin alphabet]] of the period, which lacked the letters ''J'' and ''U'', Caesar's name would be rendered GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR; the form CAIVS is also attested, using the older Roman representation of ''G'' by ''C''. The standard abbreviation was C.&nbsp;IVLIVS CÆSAR, reflecting the older spelling. (The letterform ''Æ'' is a [[ligature (typography)|ligature]] of the letters ''A'' and ''E'', and is often used in Latin [[inscription]]s to save space.){{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

 

 

 

Caesar's [[cognomen]] itself became a [[Caesar (title)|title]]; it was promulgated by the [[Bible]], which contains the famous verse "[[Render unto Caesar]] the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". The title became, from the late first millennium, ''[[Kaiser]]'' in [[German language|German]] and (through [[Old Church Slavic]] ''cěsarĭ'') [[Tsar]] or Czar in the [[Slavic languages]]. The last Tsar in nominal power was [[Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha|Simeon II of Bulgaria]], whose reign ended in 1946, but is still alive in 2023. This means that for approximately two thousand years, there was at least one head of state bearing his name. As a term for the highest ruler, the word Caesar constitutes one of the earliest, best attested and most widespread Latin loanwords in the Germanic languages, being found in the [[Text corpus|text corpora]] of [[Old High German]] (''keisar''), [[Old Saxon]] (''kēsur''), [[Old English]] (''cāsere''), [[Old Norse]] (''keisari''), [[Old Dutch]] (''keisere'') and (through [[Koine Greek|Greek]]) [[Gothic language|Gothic]] (''kaisar'').<ref>M. Philippa, F. Debrabandere, A. Quak, T. Schoonheim en N. van der Sijs (2003–2009) Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands, Amsterdam</ref>

[[Catullus]] wrote a poem suggesting that Caesar and his engineer [[Mamurra]] were lovers,<ref>[[Catullus]], ''Carmina'' [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/029x.html 29] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080420062543/http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/029x.html |date=20 April 2008}}, [http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/057x.html 57] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304045130/http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/057x.html |date=4 March 2008}}</ref> but later apologised.{{sfn|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=73}}

 

 

==Literary works==

Many rulers in history became interested in the [[Roman historiography|historiography of Caesar]]. [[Napoleon III]] wrote the scholarly work ''[[Histoire de Jules César]]'', which was not finished. The second volume listed previous rulers interested in the topic. [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]] ordered a monk to prepare a translation of the ''Gallic Wars'' in 1480. [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] ordered a topographic study in France, to place the Gallic Wars in context; which created forty high-quality maps of the conflict. The contemporary Ottoman sultan [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] catalogued the surviving editions of the ''Commentaries'', and translated them to Turkish language. [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]] and [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] of France translated the first two commentaries and the last two respectively; [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]] re-translated the first one afterwards.<ref>{{harvnb|Canfora|2006|pp=11–12}}</ref>

 

 

===Politics===