Julius Caesar

For other uses, see Julius Caesar (disambiguation).

Gaius Julius Caesar
Dictator of the Roman Republic
Bust of Julius Caesar.
Reign	October, 49 BC–March 15, 44 BC
Successor	Augustus (as Roman Emperor)
Issue	Julia Caesaris
Names Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Divus
House	Julio-Claudian
Father	Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder
Mother	Aurelia Cotta

Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin pronunciation [ˈgaːius ˈjuːlius ˈkaɪsar]; English pronunciation [ˈgaɪəs ˈdʒuːliəs ˈsiːzəɹ]; July 12 or July 13, 100 BC or 102 BC–March 15, 44 BC), was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men of classical antiquity. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

Partisan of the populares faction, he formed an unofficial triumvirate with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey the Great which dominated Roman politics for several years, but was fiercely opposed by optimates like Cato the Younger. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he also conducted the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC; the collapse of the triumvirate, however, led to a stand-off with Pompey and the Senate.

Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the undisputed master of the Roman world. After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life, and he heavily centralized the bureaucracy of the Republic. These events provoked a hitherto friend of Caesar, Marcus Junius Brutus, and a group of other senators, to assassinate the dictator on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC. The assassins hoped to restore the normal running of the Republic, but they provoked another Roman civil war, which led eventually to the establishment of the autocratic Roman Empire by Caesar's adopted heir, Augustus. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Roman Senate officially sanctified him 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 Caesar's 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.

Life

Early life

Caesar was born circa 100BC (or possibly 102 BC) into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, the son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, himself the son of the goddess Venus. The branch of the gens Julia which bore the cognomen "Caesar" was descended, according to Pliny the Elder, from a man who was born by caesarian section (from the Latin verb to cut, caedo, -ere, caesus sum). The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations of the name: that the first Caesar killed an elephant (caesai in Moorish) in battle; that he had a thick head of hair (Latin caesaries); or that he had bright grey eyes (Latin oculis caesiis).

Although of impeccable aristocratic patrician stock, the Julii Caesares had not historically been especially politically influential, having produced only three consuls. Caesar's father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, perhaps through the influence of his prominent brother-in-law Gaius Marius, reached the rank of praetor, the second highest of the Republic's elected magistracies, and governed the province of Asia. His mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family which had produced several consuls. They lived in a modest house in the Subura, a lower class neighborhood of Rome, where Marcus Antonius Gnipho, an orator and grammarian who originally came from Gaul, 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 two factions, the optimates, who favoured aristocratic rule via the Senate, and the populares, who preferred to bypass the Senate and appeal directly to the electorate. Caesar's uncle Marius was a popularis; Marius' protégé and rival Lucius Cornelius Sulla was an optimas. 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 on Rome. Marius was forced into exile and command was returned to Sulla, but when Sulla 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 faction remained in power.

In 85 BC Caesar's father died suddenly while putting on his shoes one morning, and at sixteen, Caesar was the head of the family. The following year he was nominated for the position of Flamen Dialis (high priest of Jupiter—Lucius Cornelius Merula, the previous incumbent, had died in Marius's purges), and 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 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 the Marian party. After a campaign throughout Italy he finally crushed the Marians at the Battle of the Colline Gate in November 82 BC. He 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 fixed term limit. There followed a series of bloody proscriptions against his political enemies, which dwarfed even Marius' purges. 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. 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 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, who were supporters of Sulla, and the Vestal Virgins. Sulla gave in reluctantly, and is said to have declared that he saw many Mariuses in Caesar.

Early career

Caesar did not return to Rome, but instead joined the army, serving under Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia. Ironically, it had been the loss of his priesthood that allowed him to pursue a military career: the Flamen Dialis was not permitted to ride or even touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed or one night outside Rome, or look upon an army. 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. Nonetheless, he served with distinction, winning the Civic Crown for his part in the siege of Mytilene. He also served briefly under Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia.

Sulla resigned his dictatorship after two years and re-established consular government. He dismissed his lictors and walked unguarded in the forum, offering to give account of his actions to any citizen. Caesar later ridiculed Sulla's relinquishing of the dictatorship—"Sulla did not know his political ABC's". Sulla was elected to a second consulship before retiring to private life, then died two years later of liver failure and was accorded a state funeral.

In 78 BC, on hearing of Sulla's death, Caesar felt it would now be safe for him to return to 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 advocacy, bringing a failed prosecution against Cornelius Dolabella. 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. The great orator Cicero even commented, "Does anyone have the ability to speak better than Caesar?" Aiming at rhetorical perfection, Caesar travelled to Rhodes in 75 BC for philosophical and oratorical studies with the famous teacher Apollonius Molon, who was earlier the instructor of Cicero himself.

On the way across the Aegean Sea, Caesar was kidnapped by Cilician 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 gold, 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. 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 to when in captivity – a promise the pirates had taken as a joke. 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 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. For a contemporary example, Pompey had risen far faster through military conquests than most Roman politicians.

He requested, and was granted, an early discharge from his duties, and returned to Roman politics. On his return he married Pompeia, a granddaughter of Sulla. He was elected aedile, restored the trophies of Marius's victories - a controversial move at the time 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 (largely from Crassus) on public works and games, and outshone his colleague Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. He was also suspected of involvement in two abortive coup attempts.

Caesar comes 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 the event he won comfortably, despite his opponents' greater experience and standing. 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.

While praetor in 62 BC, Caesar supported Caecilius Metellus, 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.

A commission had been set up to investigate Catiline's conspiracy, and Caesar was again accused of complicity, but, relying on Cicero's evidence that he had reported what he knew of the plot voluntarily, he was cleared, and not only one of his accusers, but also one of the commissioners, were sent to prison.

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. 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 implacable 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 and was hailed as imperator by his troops, reformed the law regarding debts, and completed his governorship in high esteem.

Being hailed as imperator entitled him to receive a triumph upon his return to Rome. 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 First Triumvirate

The election was dirty. There were three candidates: Caesar, Lucius Lucceius and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, who had been aedile with Caesar several years earlier. 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".

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. His term of office, 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

Main article: Gallic Wars

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. Meanwhile, the Helvetii were mobilising for a mass migration, and the Romans feared they had warlike intent. In his first year as governor, Caesar raised two new legions and defeated first the Helvetii, then Ariovistus. He then 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.

Over the course of the next eight years, Caesar conquered the whole of Gaul from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, and made expeditions to Britain and Germania. In 52 BC he defeated a union of Gauls led by Vercingetorix at the battle of Alesia. Among his legates were his cousins Lucius Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, Titus Labienus and Quintus Tullius Cicero, the younger brother of Caesar's future political opponent, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Caesar recorded his own accounts of these campaigns in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico ("Commentaries on the Gallic War").

According to Plutarch and the writings of scholar Brendan Woods, 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. Ancient historians notoriously exaggerated numbers of this kind, but Caesar's conquest of Gaul was certainly one of the greatest military invasions since the campaigns of Alexander the Great. The victory was also far more lasting than those of Alexander's: Gaul never regained its Celtic identity, never attempted another nationalist rebellion, and remained loyal to Rome until the fall of the Western Empire in 476.

Fall of the First Triumvirate

Despite his successes and the benefits to Rome, Caesar remained unpopular among his peers, especially the conservative faction, who suspected him of wanting to be king. In 55 BC, his partners Pompey and Crassus had been elected consuls and honored their agreement with Caesar by prolonging his proconsulship for another five years. This was the last act of the First Triumvirate.

In 54 BC, Caesar's daughter Julia died in childbirth, leaving both Pompey and Caesar heartbroken. Crassus was killed in 53 BC during his campaign in Parthia. Without Crassus or Julia, Pompey drifted towards the Optimates. Still in Gaul, Caesar tried to secure Pompey's support by offering him one of his nieces in marriage, but Pompey refused. Instead, Pompey married Cornelia Metella, the daughter of Metellus Scipio, one of Caesar's greatest enemies.

Civil war

Main article: Caesar's civil war

An engraving depicting Gaius Julius Caesar.

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, the Senate forbade Caesar to stand for a second consulship in absentia. Caesar thought he would be prosecuted and politically marginalized 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 January 10, 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon (the frontier boundary of Italy) with only one legion and ignited civil war. Upon crossing the Rubicon, Caesar is reported to have said alea iacta est. This is normally rendered as "The die is cast".

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 capitulated. 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 outnumbering Caesar greatly, since he had only his Thirteenth Legion with him, Pompey had no intention to fight. 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 harbor 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 July 10, 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 resigned this dictatorate after 9 days and was elected to a second term as consul with Publius Servilius Vatia as his colleague.

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, with whom he is suspected to have fathered a son, Caesarion. Caesar and Cleopatra celebrated their victory of the Alexandrine civil war through 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 pharoahs.

Caesar and Cleopatra never married: they could not do so under Roman Law. The institution of marriage was only recognized between two Roman citizens; Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt. In Roman eyes, this did not constitute adultery, and Caesar is believed to have continued his relationship with Cleopatra throughout his last marriage, which lasted 14 years and produced no children. Cleopatra visited Rome on more than one occassion, residing in Caesar's villa just outside Rome across the Tiber.

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). 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

Caesar returned to Italy in September 45 BC. As one of his first tasks, he filed his will, naming his grand-nephew Gaius Octavius (Octavian) as the heir to everything, including his title. Caesar also wrote that if Octavian died before Caesar did, Marcus Junius Brutus would be the next heir in succession. The Senate had already begun bestowing honours on Caesar in absentia. Even though Caesar had not proscribed his enemies, instead pardoning nearly every one of them, there seemed to be little open resistance to him.

Great games and celebrations were held on April 21 to honour Caesar’s great victory. Along with the games, Caesar was honoured with the right to wear triumphal clothing, including a purple robe (reminiscent of the kings of Rome) and laurel crown, on all public occasions. A large estate was being built at Rome’s expense, and on state property, for Caesar’s exclusive use. The title of Dictator became a legal title that he could use in his name for the rest of his life. An ivory statue in his likeness was to be carried at all public religious processions. Images of Caesar show his hair combed forward in an attempt to conceal his baldness.

Caesar was the first living man to appear on a Roman Republican coin.

Another statue of Caesar was placed in the temple of Quirinus with the inscription "To the Invincible God". Since Quirinus was the deified likeness of the city and its founder and first king, Romulus, this act identified Caesar on equal terms with not only the gods, but also the ancient kings. A third statue was erected on the capitol alongside those of the seven Roman Kings and of Lucius Junius Brutus, the man who originally led the revolt to expel the Kings. In yet more scandalous behaviour, Caesar had coins minted bearing his likeness. This was the first time in Roman history that a living Roman was featured on a coin and would set a precedent for emperors to come. It is likely that Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra persuaded this decision as minting coins bearing one's likeness was common practice for Egyptian pharaohs.

When Caesar returned to Rome in October of 45 BC, he gave up his fourth Consulship (which he held without colleague) and placed Quintus Fabius Maximus and Gaius Trebonius as suffect consuls in his stead. This irritated the Senate, because he completely disregarded the Republican system of election, and performed these actions at his own whim. He celebrated a fifth triumph, this time to honour his victory in Hispania. The Senate continued to encourage more honours. A temple to Libertas was to be built in his honour, and he was granted the title Liberator. They elected him Consul for life, and allowed to hold any office he wanted, including those generally reserved for plebeians. Rome also seemed willing to grant Caesar the unprecedented right to be the only Roman to own imperium. In this, Caesar alone would be immune from legal prosecution and would technically have the supreme command of the legions.

More honours continued, including the right to appoint half of all magistrates, which were supposed to be elected positions. He also appointed magistrates to all provincial duties, a process previously done by lot or through approval of the Senate. The month of his birth, Quintilis, was renamed Julius (hence the English July) in his honour, and his birthday, July 12, was recognized as a national holiday. Even a tribe of the people’s assembly was to be named for him. A temple and priesthood, the Flamen maior, was established and dedicated in honour of his family.

Caesar, however, did have a reform agenda, and took on various social ills. He passed a law that prohibited citizens between the ages of 20 and 40 from leaving Italy for more than three years, unless on military assignment. Theoretically, this would help preserve the continued operation of local farms and businesses, and prevent corruption abroad. If a member of the social elite did harm, or killed a member of the lower class, then all the wealth of the perpetrator was to be confiscated. Caesar demonstrated that he still had the best interest of the state at heart, even if he believed that he was the only person capable of running it. A general cancellation of one-fourth of all debt also greatly relieved the public, and helped endear him even further to the common population. Caesar tightly regulated the purchase of state-subsidized grain, and forbade those who could afford privately supplied grain from purchasing from the grain dole. He made plans for the distribution of land to his veterans, and for the establishment of veteran colonies throughout the Roman world.

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.

Additionally, great public works were undertaken. Rome was a city of great urban sprawl and unimpressive brick architecture, and desperately needed a renewal. A new Rostra of marble was built, along with courthouses and marketplaces. A public library under the great scholar Marcus Terentius Varro was also under construction. The Senate house, the Curia Hostilia, which had been recently repaired, was abandoned for a new marble project to be called the Curia Julia. The Forum of Caesar, with its Temple of Venus Genetrix, was built. The city Pomerium (sacred boundary) was extended, allowing for additional growth.

All of the pomp, circumstance, and public taxpayers' money being spent incensed certain members of the Roman Senate. One of these was Caesar's closest friend, Marcus Junius Brutus.

Assassination plot

Ancient biographers describe the tension between Caesar and the Senate, and his possible claims to the title of king. These events would be the principal motive for Caesar's assassination by his political opponents in the Senate.

Plutarch records that at one point, Caesar informed the Senate that his honours were more in need of reduction than augmentation, but withdrew this position so as not to appear ungrateful. He was given the title Pater Patriae ("Father of the Fatherland"). He was appointed dictator a third time, and then nominated for nine consecutive one-year terms as dictator, effectually making him dictator for ten years. He was also given censorial authority as praefectus morum (prefect of morals) for three years.

The Senate named Caesar Dictator Perpetuus, "dictator for life" or "perpetual dictator". Roman mints printed a denarius coin with this title and his profile on one side, and with an image of the goddess Ceres and Caesar's title of Augur Pontifex Maximus on the reverse. While printing the title of dictator was significant, Caesar's image was not for it was customary to print consuls and other public officials on coins during the Republic.

According to Cassius Dio, a senatorial delegation went to inform Caesar of new honors they had bestowed upon him in 44 BC. Caesar received them while sitting in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, rather than rising to meet them. According to Dio, this was a chief excuse for the offended senators to plot his assassination. He wrote that a few of Caesar's supporters blamed his failure to rise on a sudden attack of diarrhoea, but his enemies discounted this in observing that he had walked home unaided.

Suetonius wrote that Caesar failed to rise in the temple either because he was restrained by Cornelius Balbus or that he balked at the suggestion he should rise. Suetonius also gave the account of a crowd assembled to greet Caesar upon his return to Rome. A member of the crowd placed a laurel wreath on the statue of Caesar on the Rostra. The tribunes, Gaius Epidius Marcellus and Lucius Caesetius Flavius ordered that the wreath be removed as it was a symbol of Jupiter and royalty. Caesar had the tribunes censored from office through his official powers. According to Suetonius, he was unable to disassociate himself with the title of monarch from this point forward. His biographer also gives the story that a crowd shouted to him "rex", the Latin word for king. Caesar replied, "I am Caesar, not Rex", a pun on the Roman name coming from the title. Also, at the festival of the Lupercalia, while he gave a speech from the Rostra, Mark Antony, who had been elected co-consul with Caesar, attempted to place a crown on his head several times. Caesar put it aside to be used as a sacrifice to Jupiter Opitimus Maximus.

Plutarch and Suetonius are similar in their depiction of these events, but Dio combines the stories writing that the tribunes arrested the citizens who placed diadems or wreaths on statues of Caesar. He then places the crowd shouting "rex" on the Alban Hill with the tribunes arresting a member of this crowd as well. The plebeian protested that he was unable to speak his mind freely. Caesar then brought the tribunes before the senate and put the matter to a vote, thereafter removing them from office and erasing their names from the records.

Suetonius adds that Lucius Cotta proposed to the Senate that Caesar should be granted the title of "king" for it was prophesied that only a king would conquer Parthia. Caesar intended to invade Parthia, a task which would later give considerable trouble to Mark Anthony during the second triumvirate.

Brutus began to conspire against Caesar with his friend and brother-in-law Cassius and other men, calling themselves the Liberatores ("Liberators"). Many plans were discussed by the group, as documented by Nicolaus of Damascus:

The conspirators never met openly, but they assembled a few at a time in each other's homes. There were many discussions and proposals, as might be expected, while they investigated how and where to execute their design. Some suggested that they should make the attempt as he was going along the Sacred Way, which was one of his favorite walks. Another idea was for it to be done at the elections during which he had to cross a bridge to appoint the magistrates in the Campus Martius; they should draw lots for some to push him from the bridge and for others to run up and kill him. A third plan was to wait for a coming gladiatorial show. The advantage of that would be that, because of the show, no suspicion would be aroused if arms were seen prepared for the attempt. But the majority opinion favoured killing him while he sat in the Senate, where he would be by himself since only Senators would be admitted, and where the many conspirators could hide their daggers beneath their togas. This plan won the day.

Two days before the assassination of Caesar, Cassius met with the conspirators and told them that, if anyone found out about the plan, they were going to turn their knives on themselves.

On the Ides of March (March 15; see Roman calendar) of 44 BC, a group of senators called Caesar to the forum for the purpose of reading a petition, written by the senators, asking him to hand power back to the Senate. However, the petition was a fake. 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 at the steps of the forum. However, the group of senators intercepted Caesar just as he was passing the Theatre of Pompey, and directed him to a room adjoining the east portico.

As Caesar began to read the false petition, the aforementioned Casca pulled down Caesar's tunic and made a glancing thrust at the dictator's neck. Caesar turned around quickly and caught Casca by the arm, crying in Latin "Villain Casca, what do you do?" Casca, frightened, called to his fellow senators in Greek: "Help, brothers!" ("αδελφοι βοήθει!" in Greek, "adelphoi 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 eventually murdering him as he lay, defenseless, on the lower steps of the portico. According to Eutropius, around sixty or more men participated in the assassination. He was stabbed 23 times.

The dictator's last words are, unfortunately, not known with certainty, and are a contested subject among scholars and historians alike. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar's last words are given as "Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar." ("And you, Brutus? Then fell, Caesar."). However, this is Shakespeare's invention. Suetonius reports his last words, spoken in Greek, as "καί σύ τέκνον" (transliterated as "Kai su, teknon?"; "You too, my child?" in English). Plutarch reports that Caesar said nothing, pulling his toga over his head when he saw Brutus among the conspirators.

Regardless, shortly after the assassination the senators left the building talking excitedly amongst themselves, and Brutus cried out to his beloved city: "People of Rome, we are once again free!" 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 neighboring 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 assassination

Deification of Julius Caesar.

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 Gaul and before, were enraged that a small group of high-browed aristocrats had killed their champion. Antony did not give the speech that Shakespeare penned for him more than 1600 years later ("Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..."), but he did give a dramatic eulogy that appealed to the common people, a reflection of public opinion following Caesar's murder. Antony, who had been drifting apart from Caesar, capitalized 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 Caesar had named his grand nephew Gaius Octavian his sole heir, giving him the immensely powerful Caesar name as well as making him one of the wealthiest citizens in the Republic. Gaius Octavian was also, for all intents and purposes, the son of the great Caesar, and consequently also inherited the loyalty of much of the Roman populace. Octavian, only aged 19 at the time of Caesar's death, proved to be dangerous, and while Antony dealt with Decimus Brutus in the first round of the new civil wars, Octavian consolidated his position. Later Mark Antony would marry Caesar's lover Cleopatra.

In order to combat Brutus and Cassius, who were massing an army in Greece, Antony needed both the cash from Caesar's war chests and the legitimacy that Caesar's name would provide any action he took against the two. A new Triumvirate was formed (the second and final one) with Octavian, Antony, and Caesar's loyal cavalry commander Lepidus as the third member. This Second Triumvirate deified Caesar as Divus Iulius and—seeing that Caesar's clemency had resulted in his murder—brought back the horror of proscription, abandoned since Sulla, and proscribed its enemies in large numbers in order to seize even more funds for the second civil war against Brutus and Cassius, whom Antony and Octavius defeated at Philippi. A third civil war then broke out between Octavian on one hand and Antony and Cleopatra on the other. This final civil war, culminating in Antony and Cleopatra's defeat at Actium, resulted in the ascendancy of Octavius, who became the first Roman emperor, under the name Caesar Augustus. In 42 BC, Caesar was formally deified as "the Divine Julius" (Divus Iulius), and Caesar Augustus henceforth became Divi filius ("Son of a God").

The Health of Julius Caesar

Caesar suffered from epilepsy. He had four documented episodes of what were probably complex partial seizures. He may additionally have had absence seizures in his youth. There is family history of epilepsy amongst his ancestors and descendants. The earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer Suetonius who was born after Caesar's death. However, the claim of epilespy is disputed by some historians and is countered by a claim of hypoglycemia, which sometimes causes epileptic-like fits.

Caesar's 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. Unfortunately, the majority of his works and speeches have been lost to history.

Memoirs

• The Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War), campaigns in Gallia and Britannia during his term as proconsul; and
• The Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), events of the Civil War until immediately after Pompey's death in Egypt.

Other works historically attributed to Caesar, but whose authorship is doubted, are:

• De Bello Alexandrino (On the Alexandrine War), campaign in Alexandria;
• De Bello Africo (On the African War), campaigns in North Africa; and
• De Bello Hispaniensis (On the Hispanic War), campaigns in the Iberian peninsula.

These narratives, apparently simple and direct in style— to the point that Caesar's Commentarii are commonly studied by first and second year Latin students— are highly sophisticated advertisements for his political agenda, most particularly for the middle-brow readership of minor aristocrats in Rome, Italy, and the provinces.

Military career

Main article: Military career of Julius Caesar

Historians place the generalship of Caesar as one of the greatest military strategists and tacticians who ever lived along with Alexander the Great, Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte. Although he suffered occasional tactical defeats, such as Battle of Gergovia during the Gallic War and The Battle of Dyrrhachium during the Civil War, Caesar's tactical brilliance was highlighted by such feats as his circumvallation of Alesia during the Gallic War, the rout of Pompey's numerically superior forces at Pharsalus during the Civil War, and the complete destruction of Pharnaces' army at Battle of Zela.

Caesar's successful campaigning in any terrain and under all weather conditions owes much to the strict but fair discipline of his legionaries, whose admiration and devotion to him were proverbial due to his promotion of those of skill over those of nobility. Caesar's infantry and cavalry were first rate, and he made heavy use of formidable Roman artillery; additional factors that made him so effective in the field were his army's superlative engineering abilities and the legendary speed with which he manoeuvred his troops (Caesar's army sometimes marched as many as 40 miles a day). His army was made of 40,000 infantry and many cavaliers, with some specialized units, such as engineers. He records in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars that during the siege of one Gallic city built on a very steep and high plateau, his engineers were able to tunnel through solid rock and find the source of the spring that the town was drawing its water supply from, and divert it to the use of the army. The town, cut off from their water supply, capitulated at once.

Caesar's name

Main article: Etymology of the name of Julius Caesar

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 IPA [ˈgaːius 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. Clearly, this German name was not derived from the Middle Ages Ecclesiastical Latin, in which the familiar part "Caesar" is [ˈtʃeːsar], from which the modern English pronunciation (a much-softened "SEE-zer") is derived.

His name is also remembered in Norse mythology, where he is manifested as the legendary king Kjárr.

Caesar's family

Parents

• Father Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder
• Mother Aurelia (related to the Aurelia Cottae)

Sisters

• Julia Caesaris "Maior" (the elder)
• Julia Caesaris "Minor" (the younger)

Wives

• First marriage to Cornelia Cinnilla, from 83 BC until her death in childbirth in 69 or 68 BC
• Second marriage to Pompeia Sulla, from 68 BC until he divorced her around 62 BC
• Third marriage to Calpurnia Pisonis, from 59 BC until Caesar's death

Children

• Julia with Cornelia Cinnilla, born in 83 or 82 BC
• Caesarion, with Cleopatra VII, born 47 BC. He would become Pharaoh with the name Ptolemy Caesar and was killed at age 17 by Caesar's adopted son Octavian
• Adopted: son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (his great-nephew by blood), who later became Emperor Augustus.

Grandchildren

• Grandson from Julia and Pompey, dead at several days, unnamed

Lovers

• Cleopatra VII
• Servilia Caepionis mother of Brutus
• Eunoë, queen of Mauretania and wife of Bogudes
• Julius Sabinus, a Gaul of the Lingones at the time of the Batavian rebellion of AD 69, claimed to be the great-grandson of Caesar on the grounds that his great-grandmother had been Caesar's lover during the Gallic war.

Notable relatives

• Gaius Marius (married to his Aunt Julia)
• Lucius Cornelius Sulla (possibly through Marriage)

Political rivals and rumours of homosexual activity

Roman society viewed the passive role during sex, regardless of gender, to be a sign of submission or inferiority. Indeed, Suetonius says that in Caesar's Gallic triumph, his soldiers sang that, "Caesar may have conquered the Gauls, but Nicomedes conquered Caesar." According to Cicero, Bibulus, Gaius Memmius (whose account may be from firsthand knowledge), and others (mainly Caesar's enemies), he had an affair with Nicomedes IV of Bithynia early in his career. The tales were repeated by some Roman politicians as a way to humiliate and degrade him. It is possible that the rumors were spread only as a form of character assassination. Caesar himself, according to Cassius Dio, denied the accusations under oath.

Catullus wrote two poems suggesting that Caesar and his engineer Mamurra were lovers, but later apologised.

Mark Antony charged that Octavian had earned his adoption by Caesar through sexual favors. Suetonius described Antony's accusation of an affair with Octavian as political slander. The boy Octavian was to become the first Roman emperor following Caesar's death.

Chronology

Honours

Was voted the title Divus, or "god," after his death.

During his life, he received many honours, including titles such as Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland), Pontifex Maximus (Highest Priest), and Dictator. The many titles bestowed on him by the Senate are sometimes cited as a cause of his assassination, as it seemed inappropriate to many contemporaries for a mortal man to be awarded so many honours.

As a young man he was awarded the Corona Civica (civic crown) for valor while fighting in Asia minor.

Perhaps the most significant title he carried was his name from birth: Caesar. This name was awarded to every Roman emperor, and it became a signal of great power and authority far beyond the bounds of the empire. The title became the German Kaiser and Slavic Tsar/Czar. As the last tsar in nominal power was Simeon II of Bulgaria whose reign ended in 1946; for two thousand years after Julius Caesar's assassination, there was at least one head of state bearing his name.

Note, however, that Caesar was an ordinary name of no more importance than other cognomen like Cicero and Brutus. It did not become an Imperial title until well after Julius Caesar's death.

See also

• Cultural depictions of Julius Caesar
• Nine Worthies
• Caesar cipher
• Julio-Claudian family tree

References

Primary sources

Caesar's own writings

• Forum Romanum Index to Caesar's works online in Latin and translation
• Collected works of Caesar in Latin, Italian and English
• Caesar and contemporaries on the civil wars
• omnia munda mundis Hypertext of Caesar's De Bello Gallico
• Works by Julius Caesar at Project Gutenberg

Ancient historians' writings

• Suetonius: The Life of Julius Caesar. (Latin and English, cross-linked: the English translation by J. C. Rolfe.)
• Suetonius: The Life of Julius Caesar (J. C. Rolfe English translation, modified)
• Plutarch: The Life of Julius Caesar (English translation)
• Plutarch: The Life of Mark Antony (English translation)
• Plutarch on Antony (English translation, Dryden edition).
• Cassius Dio, Books 37–44 (English translation)
• Appian, Book 13 (English translation)

Secondary sources

• Canfora, Luciano. Julius Caesar: The People's Dictator. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0748619364; paperback, ISBN 0748619372). Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 (hardcover, ISBN 0520235029).
• Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar: Life of a Colossus. New Heaven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-300-12048-6).
• Jiménez, Ramon L. Caesar Against Rome: The Great Roman Civil War. Westpoint, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000 (hardcover, ISBN 0-275-96620-8).
• Kleiner, Diana E. E. Cleopatra and Rome. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005 (hardcover, ISBN 0-674-01905-9).
• Meier, Christian. Caesar: A Biography. New York: Basic Books, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 0-465-00894-1); 1997 (paperback, ISBN 0-465-00895-X).

• Niel, Thomas (2005). Rome and Its Legends. New York, NY: Simon and Shuster.

External links

• Julius Caesar Suzanne Cross's site with in‑depth history of Caesar, plus a timeline and links.
• C. Julius Caesar Jona Lendering's in‑depth history of Caesar (Livius. Org)
• Julius Caesar — virgil.org An Annotated Guide to Online Resources categorized into Primary Sources, Background & Images, Modern Essays & Historical Fiction.
• Julius Caesar, page with many links in several languages, including English
• History of Julius Caesar
• The Heart of Change: Julius Caesar and the End of the Roman Republic
• Julius Caesar at BBC History
• Julius Caesar Julius Caesar: A new perspective on his motives. An e-book novel of the young Caesar and his wife Cornelia.

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