Will Durant --- Julius Caesar

Caeser 102 44 BC 1 the rake Caius Julius Caesar traced his pedigree to Ulis Ascanius son of Aeneas son of Venus daughter of Jupiter he began and ended as a god the Julian gens though impoverished was one of the oldest and noblest in Italy aquellas Julius had been canceled in 489 another in 482 Ava piscis Julius in 473 the sexes destroy us in 157 another in 91 from his uncle in law Marius he derived by a kind of avuncular heredity an inclination toward radical politics his mother Aurelia was a matron of dignity and wisdom frugally managing her small home in the unfashionable Subura a district of shops taverns and brothels there Caesar was born 100 BC allegedly by the operation that bears his name it was already in ancient mode of birth being mentioned in the laws ascribed to Numa Caesars cog no man was not derived from the operation Kai su sub o taro ma trees long before him there had been Caesars among the Julii I now was this Caesar says Holland's sweet Onias wondrous docile and apt to learn his tutor in Latin Greek and rhetoric was a Gaul with him Caesar unconsciously began to prepare himself for his greatest conquest the youth took readily to oratory and almost lost himself in juvenile authorship he was saved by being made military aid to marcus thermos in asia nikka Metis ruler of Bithynia took such a fancy to him that cicero and other gossips later taunted him with having lost his virginity to a king returning to Rome in 84 he married Co sucia to please his father when soon afterward his father died he divorced her and married Cornelia daughter of that Cinna who had taken over the revolution from Marius when sulla came to power he ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia when Caesar refused sulla confiscated his patrimony and Cornelia's dowry and listed him for death Caesar fled from Italy and joined the Army in Silesia on Salas death he returned it to Rome 78 but finding his enemies in power he left again for Asia pirates captured him on the way took him to one of their Cilician layers and offered to free him for 20 talents $72,000 he reproached them for under estimating his value and volunteered to give them 50 having sent his servants to raise the money he amused himself by writing poems and reading them to his captors they did not like him he called them dull barbarians and promised to hang them at the earliest opportunity when the ransom came he hurried to my Letus engaged vessels and crews chased and caught the Pirates recovered the ransom and crucified them but being a man of great clemency he had their throats cut first then he went to Rhodes to study rhetoric and philosophy back again in Rome he divided his energies between politics and love he was handsome though already worried about his thinning hair when Cornelia died 68 he married pompeia granddaughter of sulla as this was a purely political marriage she did not scruple to carry on liaisons in the fashion of his time but in such number and with such ambi gender diversity that curio father of his later general called him omnium Lully Arum we're at omnium we're hora mulier the husband of every woman and the wife of every man he would continue these habits in his campaigns dallying with Cleopatra in Egypt with Queen Yuna we in Numidia and with so many ladies in Gaul that his soldiers in fond jest called him Moy coos cow Moos the bald adulterer in his triumph after conquering Gaul they sang a couplet warning all husbands to keep their wives under lock and key as long as Caesar was in town the aristocracy hated him doubly for undermining their privileges and seducing their wives Pompey divorced his wife for her intimacy with Caesar Cato's passionate hostility was not all philosophical his half-sisters Servilia was the most devoted of caesar's mistresses when Cato suspecting Caesars complicity with Cataline challenged him in the Senate to read aloud a note just brought to him Caesar passed it to Cato without comment it was a love letter from Servilia her passion for him continued throughout his life and merciless gossip in her later years charged her with surrendering her daughter tirsia to caesar's lust during the Civil War at a public auction Caesar knocked down some confiscated estates of irreconcilable aristocrats to Servilia at a nominal price when some expressed surprise at the low figure Cicero remarked in a pithy pun that might have cost him his life tear tiada Duke de which could either mean a third off or refer to the rumor that Servilia had brought her daughter to Caesar Tricia became the wife of Caesars prime assassin Cassius so the amours of men mingle with the commotions of states probably these diversified investments helped caesar's rise as well as his fall everywoman he won was an influential friend usually in an enemy's camp and most of them remained his devotees even when his passion had cooled to courtesy Crassus though his wife Tortola was reported to be caesar's mistress lent him vast sums to finance his candidacies with bribes and games at one time Caesar owed him eight hundred talents two million eight hundred eighty thousand dollars such loans were not acts of generosity your friendship they were campaign contributions to be repaid with political favors or military spoils Crassus like Atticus needed protection and opportunities for his millions most Roman politicians of the time incurred similar debts Mark Antony owed 40 million sesterces Cicero 60 million Mylo 70 million though these figures may be conservative slanders we must think of Caesar as at first an unscrupulous politician and a reckless rake slowly transformed by growth and responsibility into one of history's most profound and conscientious statesmen we must not forget as we rejoice at his faults that he was a great man notwithstanding we cannot equate ourselves with Caesar by proving that he seduced women bribed ward leaders and wrote books to the console Caesar began as the secret ally of Cataline and ended as the remake er of Rome hardly a year after sulles death he prosecuted Gnaeus dalla bella a tool of the sullen reaction the jury voted against Caesar but the people applauded his democratic offensive and his brilliant speech he could not rival Cicero's Verve and width passionate periods and rhetorical flagellation 'he's indeed Caesar disliked this Asiatic style and disciplined himself to the masculine brevity and stern simplicity that were to distinguish his commentaries on the Gallic and civil wars nevertheless he was soon ranked as second only to Cicero in eloquence in 68 he was chosen Questor and was assigned to serve in Spain he led military expeditions against the native tribes sacked towns and collected enough plunder to pay off some of his debts at the same time he won the gratitude of Spanish cities by lowering the interest charges on the sums that had been lent them by the roman bankers coming at gate ease upon a statue of Alexander he reproached himself for having accomplished so little at an age when the Macedonian had occurred half the Mediterranean world he returned it to Rome and plunged again into the race for office in power in 65 he was elected a dial or Commissioner of Public Works he spent his money ie the money of Crassus in adorning the forum with new buildings and colonnades and courted the populace with unstinted games sulla had removed from the capital the trophies of Marius banners pictures and spoils representing the features and victories of the old radical Caesar had these restored to the joy of Marius as veterans and by that act alone he announced his rebel policy the Conservatives protested and marked him out as a man to be broken in 64 as president of a commission appointed to try cases of murder he summoned to his tribunal the surviving agents of sulles prescriptions and sentenced several of them to exile or death in 63 he voted in the Senate against the execution of Catalans accomplices and remarked casually in his speech that human personality does not outlive death it was apparently the only part of his speech that offended no one in that same year he was elected Pontifex Maximus head of the Roman religion in 62 he was chosen praetor and prosecuted a leading conservative for embezzling public funds in 61 he was appointed propraetor for Spain but his creditors prevented his departure he admitted that he needed 25 million sesterces in order to have nothing Crassus came to his rescue by underwriting all his obligations Caesar proceeded to Spain led militarily brilliant campaigns against tribes with a passion for independence and came back to Rome with spoils enough to pay off his debts and yet so enriched the Treasury that the Senate voted him a triumph perhaps the ultimate ace were subtle they knew that Caesar wished to stand for the consulate that the law for bad candidacy in absence and that the triumphal tour was required by law to remain outside the until the day of his triumph which the Senate had set for after the election but Caesar for went his triumph entered the city and campaigned with irresistible energy and skill his victory was obtained by his clever attachment of Pompey to the liberal cause Pompey had just returned from the east after a succession of military and diplomatic achievements by clearing the sea of pirates he'd restored security to Mediterranean trade and prosperity to the cities it served he had pleased the capitalists of Rome by conquering Bithynia pontus and Syria he had deposed and set up Kings and had lent the money from his spoils at lush rates of interest he had accepted a huge bribe from the king of Egypt to come and quell a revolt there and then had refrained from carrying out the compact on the ground that it was illegal he had pacified Palestine and made it a client state of Rome he had founded 39 cities and had established law order and peace all in all he had behaved with judgment statesmanship and profit now he had brought back to Rome such wealth in taxes and tribute Goods captured and slaves ransomed or sold that he was able to contribute two hundred million sesterces to the Treasury add three hundred fifty million to its annual revenues distribute three hundred eighty-four million among his soldiers and yet keep enough for himself to rival Crassus as one of the two richest men in Rome the Senate was more frightened than pleased at these accomplishments it trembled when it heard that Pompey had landed at Brundusium 62 with an army personally devoted to him and capable at his word of making him dictator he magnanimously relieved its fears by disbanding his troops and entering rome with no other retinue than his personal staff his triumph lasted two days but even that time proved insufficient for all the floats that pictured his victories and displayed his garnering x' the ungrateful Senate rejected his request that state lands begin his soldiers refused to ratify his agreements with conquered kings and restored those arrangements that lucullus had made in the east and which Pompey had ignored the effect of these actions was to break down Cicero's concordia or denim or alliance of the higher classes and throw Pompey and the capitalists into a flirtation with the populares taking full advantage of the situation Caesar formed with Pompey and Crassus the first triumvirate 60 by which each pledged himself to oppose legislation unsatisfactory to any one of them Pompey agreed to support Caesar for the consulate and Caesar promised if elected to carry through the measures in which Pompey had been rebuffed by the Senate the campaign was bitter and bribery flourished on both sides when Cato leader of the Conservatives heard that his party was buying votes he unbent and approved the procedure as in a noble cause the populares selected Caesar the optimatus Bibulus Caesar had hardly entered upon his consulate 59 when he proposed to the Senate the measures asked for by Pompey a distribution of land to 20,000 of the poorer citizens including Pompey's soldiers the ratification of Pompey's arrangements in the east and the one-third reduction of the sum which the publicans had pledged themselves to raise from the Asiatic provinces as the Senate opposed each of these measures by every means Caesar like the grack I offered them directly to the assembly the Conservatives induced Bibulus to use his veto power to forbid a vote and had omens declared unfavorable Caesar ignored the omens and persuaded the assembly to impeach bibulous and an enthusiastic popularise emptied a pot of order upon Bibulus head caesar's bills were carried as in the case of the grok i they combined an agrarian policy with a financial programme pleasing to the business class Pompey was impressed by Caesars performance of his pledges he took Caesars daughter Julia as his fourth wife and the Anton between plebs and bourgeoisie became a feast of love the triumvirate achill wing of their following that they would support Publius Clodius for the Trib unit in the fall of 59 meanwhile they kept the voters in good humor with profuse amusements and games in April Caesar submitted his second land bill by which the area is owned by the state in campaign iya were to be distributed among poor citizens who had three children the Senate was again ignored the Assembly passed the bill and after a century of effort the bracken policy triumphed bibulous kept to his house and contented himself with periodical announcements that the omens were unpropitious to legislation Caesar administered public affairs without consulting him so that the town which referred to the year as the consulate of Julius and Caesar to bring the Senate under public scrutiny he established the first newspaper by having clerks make a record of senatorial and other public proceedings and news and post these octa dianna or daily doings on the walls of the forums from these walls the reports were copied and sent by private messengers to all parts of the Empire toward the end of this historic consulate Caesar had himself appointed governor of sisal pine and narbon ease Gaul for the ensuing five years as no troops could lawfully be stationed in Italy the command over the legions stationed in North Italy gave its possessor military power over the whole Peninsula to guarantee the maintenance of his legislation Caesar secured the election of his friends Gabinius and pi so as consuls for 58 and married peso's daughter Calpurnia to ensure continued support from the plebs he leant his decisive aid to the election of Claudius as Tribune for 58 he did not let his plans be influenced by the fact that he had recently divorced his third wife pompeia on suspicion of adultery with Claudius three morals and politics Publius Clodius poelker the handsome was a sign of the Claudian gens a young aristocrat whose courage knew no fear and his morals no restraint like Cataline and caesar he descended from his rank to lead the poor against the rich to be eligible as a Tribune of the people he had himself adopted into a plebeian family to redistribute the concentrated wealth of Rome and to destroy Cicero who had abused his sister Claudia and stood for the sanctity of property he served as a subaltern to Caesar until he could take power into his own hands he admired Caesars policies and loved Caesar's wife to gain access to her he disguised himself as a woman entered the house of Caesar then 62 high priests took part in the ceremonies offered by women alone to the bone ADEA was detected accused and publicly tried 61 grabbing violated the mysteries of the good goddess Caesar called as a witness said that he had no charge to make against Claudius why then asked the prosecutor had he divorced pompeia because said Caesar my wife must be above suspicion it was a clever answer which neither exonerated nor condemned a valuable political aid various witnesses perhaps bribed told the court that Claudius had had relations with Claudia and had seduced his sister tisha after her marriage to lucullus Claudius protested that he had been away from Rome on the day of the alleged sacrilege Cicero however testified that Claudius had on that day been with him in Rome the populace thought the whole affair a senatorial plot to destroy a popular race leader and cried out for acquittal Crassus some say it Caesars behest bribed a number of judges for Claudius the radicals for once had the more money and clothes was freed Caesar took advantage of the situation to exchange an inconveniently conservative wife for the daughter of a senator allied to the popular cause he had hardly retired from office when some conservatives proposed the complete annulment of his legislation Cato did not conceal his opinion that these Julian laws should be wiped off the statute books the Senate hesitated to fling so open a challenge to Caesar armed with legions and to Clodius wielding the Trib unit in 63 Cato had wooed the populace for the Conservatives by renewing the state distribution of cheap corn now fifty-eight Clodius countered by making the dole completely free to all who came for it he passed bills through the assembly forbidding the use of religious vetoes against legislative procedures and restoring the legality of the collegia which the Senate had tried to disband he reorganized these guilds into voting blocks and one such fealty from them that they provided him with an armed guard fearing that after his year is Tribune had expired Cato or Cicero might attempt to undo Caesars work Claudius persuaded the assembly to send Cato as commissioner to Cyprus and to pass a decree banishing any man who had put Roman citizens to death without securing as law required the Assembly's consent cicero saw that the measure was aimed at him and fled to greece where cities and dignitaries rivaled one another and offering him hospitality and honors the assembly decreed that Cicero's property should be confiscated and his house on the palatine was razed to the ground it was Cicero's good fortune that Claudius overcome with success now attacked both Pompey and Caesar and planned to make himself sole leader of the plebs Pompey retaliated by supporting the petition of Cicero's brother Quintus for the orators recall the Senate appealed to all Roman citizens in Italy to come to the Capitol and vote on the proposal Claudius brought an armed gang into field of Mars to supervise the balloting and Pompey engaged a needy aristocrat Annius Milo to organize a rival band riot and bloodshed ensued many men were killed and Quintus barely escaped with his life but his measure carried and after months of exile Cicero returned in triumph to Italy 57 multitudes greeted him as he passed from Brundusium to Rome there the welcoming crowd was so great that Cicero feigned fear that he would be accused of having contrived his banishment for the sake of this glorious restoration apparently he had pledged himself to Pompey and perhaps to Caesar as the price of his recall Caesar lent him large sums to recoup his finances and refused to take interest for several years now Cicero became the advocate of the triumvir in the Senate when a dearth of grain threatened Rome 57 he secured for Pompey and extraordinary Commission with full power for six years overall the food supply of Rome and overall ports and trade Pompey again acquitted himself well but the Constitution of the Republic suffered another blow and government by men continued to replace government by laws in 56 Cicero persuaded the Senate to vote a substantial amount for the payment of Caesars troops in Gaul in 54 he unsuccessfully defended the extortion at provincial administration of Ollis Gabinius a friend of the triumvir in 55 he canceled all the favor he had gained with Caesar by an abusive attack upon another provincial governor Calpurnia spy so he remembered too vividly that paisa would voted for his banishment he forgot that peso's daughter was Caesar's wife upon caddos return 57 from his brilliant reorganization of Cyprian Affairs the Conservatives reformed their lines Claudius now the enemy of Pompey accepted the invitation of the aristocracy to lend it the assistance of his popularity and his thugs literature took on an anti caesarian tint the epigrams of calvess and Catullus flew like poisoned darts into the camp of the triumvir as cesar moved farther and farther into Gaul the news came of the many dangers that he faced hopes sprung in you in noble breasts after all said Cicero there are many ways in which a man may die if we may believe Cesar's several conservatives open negotiations with Ariovistus the German leader for the assassination of Caesar domitius running for the consulate announced that if elected he would at once move for Caesars recall which meant Caesars indictment and trial veering with the wind Cicero proposed that on May 25th 56 the Senate should consider the abrogation of Caesars land laws for the conquest of Gaul in the spring of 58 Caesar took up his duties as governor of sisal pine and nar Bernie's goal ie northern Italy in southern France in 71 Ariovistus had led 15,000 Germans into Gaul at the request of one Gallic tribes seeking assistance against another he had provided the desired aid and then had remained to establish his rule over all the tribes of northeastern Gaul one of these the edge we appealed to Rome for help against the Germans 61 the Senate authorized the Roman governor of narbon EES called to comply but almost at the same time it listed Ariovistus among rulers friendly to Rome meanwhile 120,000 Germans crossed the rhine settled in Flanders and so strengthened Ariovistus that he treated the native population as subject people's and dreamed of conquering all Gaul at the same time the hell VCI centering about Geneva began migrating westward 368 thousand strong and Caesar was warned that they planned to cross his province of NAR Bernie's goal on their way to Southwest in France from the sources of the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean says Mommsen the German tribes were in motion the whole line of the Rhine was threatened by them it was a movement like that when the alamin eye and the Franks threw themselves upon the falling Empire of the Caesars five hundred years afterward while Rome plotted against him Caesar plotted to save Rome at his own expense and without the authority he should have sought from the Senate he raised and equipped for extra legions besides the four already provided him he sent a peremptory invitation to Ariovistus to come and discuss the situation as he had expected Ariovistus refused deputations came now to caesar from many Gallic tribes asking for his protection Caesar declared war against both Ariovistus and the hell VCI marched northward and met the Helvetia an avalanche in a bloody battle at B Brack T capital of the ed ue near the modern o town Caesar's legions won but by a narrow margin in these matters we must for the most part follow his own account the Helvetia I offered to return to their Swiss homeland Caesar agreed to give them safe passage but on condition that their territory should accept the rule of Rome all Gaul now sent him thanks for its deliverance and begged his aid in expelling Ariovistus he met the Germans near Austin ten miles west of the Rhine a hundred and sixty miles south of Cologne and slew or captured he tells us nearly all of them 58 Ariovistus escaped but died soon afterward Caesar took it for granted that his liberation of Gaul was also a conquest of it he began at once to reorganize it under Roman authority with the excuse that in no other way could it be protected against Germany some Gauls unconvinced rebelled and invoked the aid of the Bell G a powerful tribe of Germans and Celts inhabiting North Gaul between the Sun and the Rhine Caesar defeated their army on the banks of the ain then with the celerity of movement that never allowed his foes to unite he moved in succession against the sweaty oneís and be a nigh nervy I and dad you Attis I conquered them to spoiled them and sold the captives to the slave merchants of Italy somewhat prematurely he announced the conquest of Gaul the Senate proclaimed it a Roman province 56 and the common people of Rome as imperialistic as any general shouted the praises of their distant champion Caesar re-crossed the Alps into Cisalpine Gaul busied himself with its internal administration replenished his legions and invited Pompey and Crassus to meet him at lucca to plan a united defense against the conservative reaction to forestall domitius they agreed that Pompey and Crassus should run against him for the consulate 455 BC the Pompey should be made governor of Spain and Crassus of Syria for five years 54 to 50 that Caesar should be continued for another five years 53 to 49 as governor of Gaul and that at the end of this term he should be allowed to seek a second consulate he furnished his colleagues and friends from the booty of Gaul with funds to finance their campaigns he sent great sums to Rome to provide work for the unemployed commissions for his supporters and prestige for himself by an extensive program of public buildings and he so oiled the palms of the senators who came to sample his loot that the movement to repeal his laws collapsed Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls after the usual bribery and Caesar returned to the task of persuading the Gauls that peace is sweeter than freedom trouble was brewing on the Rhine below cologne two German tribes had crossed into Belgic Gaul as far as the edge and the Nationalist Party in Gaul was seeking their help against the Romans Caesar Matt the invaders near Accountant 55 drove them back to the Rhine and slew such of women and children as well as men as were not drowned in the river his engineers then built in ten days a bridge over the great stream they're fourteen hundred feet wide Caesar's legions crossed and fought long enough on German soil to establish the Rhine as a secure frontier after two weeks he retraced his steps into Gaul we do not know why he now invaded Britain possibly he was lured by rumors that gold or pearls abounded there or he wished to capture the tin and iron deposits of Britain for Roman exportation or he resented the aid that Britons had sent to the Gauls and thought that Roman power in Gaul must be made secure in every direction he led a small force across the channel at its narrowest point defeated the unprepared Britons took a few notes and returned 55 a year later he crossed again overcame the British under kasa Valona s-- reached the thames exacted promise of tribute and sailed back to gaul perhaps he had heard that revolt was once more agitating the Gallic tribes he suppressed the a Bureau knees and marched again into Germany 53 returning he left his main army in northern Gaul while with his remaining troops he went to winter in North Italy hoping to devote a few months to mending his fences in Rome but early in 52 word came to him that verson jet uruk's the ablest of the Gallic chieftains had united nearly all the tribes in a war for independence caesar's situation was precarious in the extreme most of his legions were in the north and the country between them and himself was in rebel hands he led a small detachment over the snow covered seven against Auvergne when verson jet uruk's brought up his forces to defend it caesar left Decimus Brutus in command and with a few horsemen rode in disguise across all Gaul from south to north rejoined his main army and at once led them to the attack he besieged capped and sacked avaricum borscht and Cinnabon or lay all massacred their populations and replenished his depleted supplies with their Treasuries he moved on to assail jogo via their however the balls resisted so resolutely that he was compelled to withdraw the edge way whom he had rescued from the Germans and who heretofore dramaniac into narbon ease goal it was the lowest ebb of Caesars fortunes and for a time he considered himself lost he staked everything upon a siege of Alesia Elise San Fran where verson jet Oryx had gathered 30,000 troops Caesar had hardly distributed a like number of soldiers around the city when word came that 250,000 goals were marching down upon him from the north he ordered his men to raise two concentric walls of earth around the city one before them the other behind them against these walls and the desperate Romans the armies of Vercingetorix and his allies threw themselves in repeated vain attacks after a week the army of relief broke up in disorder for lack of discipline and supplies and melted into ineffectual bands at the very moment when the Romans had reached the end of their stores soon thereafter the starving city sent verson jet uruk's at his own suggestion as a prisoner to caesar and then surrendered to the romans mercy 52 the town was spared but all its soldiers were given to the Legionaries as slaves verson Jetix was led in Chains to rome there he later graced Caesars triumph and paid with his life for his devotion to Liberty the siege of Alesia decided the fate of Gaul and the character of French civilization it added to the Roman Empire a country twice the size of Italy and opened the purses and markets of five million people to Roman trade it saved Italy in the Mediterranean world for four centuries barbarian invasion and it lifted Caesar from the verge of ruin to a new height of reputation wealth and power after another year of sporadic revolts which the angry general put down with uncharacteristic severity all Gaul accepted subjection to Rome once his victory was certain Caesar became again the generous Conqueror he treated the tribes with such lenience that in all the ensuing civil war when he and Rome would have been helpless to retaliate they made no move to throw off the yoke for 300 years Gaul remained a Roman province prospered under the Roman peace learned and transformed the Latin language and became the channel through which the culture of classic antiquity passed into northern Europe doubtless neither Caesar nor his contemporaries for saw the immense consequences of his bloody triumphs he thought he had saved Italy won a province and forged an army he did not suspect that he was the creator of French civilization Rome which had known Caesar only as a spendthrift rake politician and reformer was amazed to find him also a tireless administrator and a resourceful general at the same time it discovered in him a major historian in the midst of his campaigns disturbed by the attacks upon him in Rome he had recorded and defended his conquest of Gaul in commentaries whose military conciseness and artful simplicity raised them despite a thousand mealy opossum from a partisan pamphlet to a high place in Latin literature even Cicero shifting again sang a pian in his praise and anticipated the verdict of history it is not the ramparts of the Alps nor the foaming and flooding Rhine but the arms and generalship of Caesar which I account our true shield and barrier against the invasion of the goals and the barbarous tribes of Germany it is to him we owe it that should the mountains be leveled with the plain and the rivers be dried up we should still hold our Italy fortified not by nature's ball works but by the exploits and victories of Caesar - which should be added the tribute of a great German that there is a bridge connecting the past glory of Hellas and Rome with the prouder fabric of modern history but Western Europe is romantic and Germanic Europe classic all this is the work of Caesar and while the creation of his great predecessor in the East has been almost wholly reduced to ruin by the tempest sub the Middle Ages the structure of Caesar has outlasted those thousands of years which have changed religions and states 5 the degradation of democracy during the second queen quinium of Caesar in Gaul Roman politics had become an unparalleled chaos of corruption and violence Pompey and Crassus as consuls pursued their policies by the bribery of votes the intimidation of juries and occasional murder when their year of office ended Crassus recruited and conscripted a large army and sailed for Syria he crossed the Euphrates and met the Parthian zat carry their superior cavalry defeated him and his son fell in the battle Crassus was withdrawing his forces in good order when the Parthian general invited him to a conference he went and was treacherously slain his head was sent to play the part of Pentheus in a performance of Euripides backi at the Parthian court and his leaderless army long wearied of the campaign disappeared in a disorderly route 53 meanwhile Pompey - had levied an army presumably to complete the conquest of Spain had caesar's plans matured Pompey would have brought farther Spain and Crassus Armenia and parthia within the orbit of Roman power at the same time that Caesar was extending the frontier to the Thames and the Rhine instead of leading his legions to Spain Pompey kept them in Italy except for one which he lent to Caesar in the crisis of the Gallic revolt in 54 the strongest tie that held him to Caesar was cut by the death of his wife Julia in childbirth Caesar offered him his grandniece Octavia now Caesars nearest female relative and asked for the hand of Pompey's daughter but Pompey refused both proposals the debacle of Crassus and his army in the following year removed another balancing force for a victorious Crassus would have opposed the dictatorship of either Caesar or Pompey henceforth Pompey openly elide himself with the Conservatives his plan to secure supreme power through legal forms had now only one obstacle the ambition and army of Caesar knowing that Caesar's command would expire in 49 Pompey secured decrees continuing his own command to the end of 46 and requiring all Italians capable of bearing arms to take an oath of military fealty to him personally in this way he trusted time itself would make him master of Rome while the potential dictators maneuvered for position the capital filled with the odor of a dying democracy verdicts offices provinces and client Kings were sold to the highest bidders in the year 53 the first voting division in the assembly was paid 10 million sesterces for its vote when money failed murder was available or a man's past was raked over and blackmail brought him to terms crime flourished in the city brigandage in the country no police force existed to control it rich men hired bands of gladiators to protect them or to support them in the commedia the lowest elements in Italy were attracted to Rome by the smell of money or the gift of corn and made the meetings of the assembly a desecration any man who would vote as paid was admitted to the rolls whether citizen or not sometimes only a minority of those who cast ballots were entitled to vote the privilege of addressing the assembly had on several occasions to be won by storming the rostrum and holding it by main force legislation came to be determined by the fluctuating superiority of rival gangs those who voted the wrong way were now and then beaten to within an inch of their lives after which their houses were set afire following one such meeting Cicero wrote the Tiber was full of the corpses of citizens the public sewers were stuffed with them and slaves had to mop up with sponges the blood that streamed from the forum Claudius and Milo were Rome's most distinguished experts in this brand of parliament they organized rival bands of ruffians for political purposes and hardly a day passed without some tests of their strength one day Claudius assaulted Cicero in the street another day his warriors burned down Milo's house at last Claudius himself was caught by Milo's gang and killed 52 the proletariat not privy to all his plots honored Claudius as a martyr gave him a mighty funeral carried the body to the Senate house and burned the building over him as his funeral pyre Pompey brought in his soldiers and dispersed the mob as reward he asked from the Senate and received appointment as council without colleague a phrase that Cato recommended is more pleasant than dictator Pompey then put through the Assembly cowed by his troops several measures aimed at political corruption and another repealing the right which his bill of fifty-five had granted to Caesar to stand for the consulate while absent from Rome he impartial II supervised with military force the operation of the courts Milo was tried for the murder of Claudius was condemned despite Cicero's defence and fled to Marseille the speech as it has come down to us was much revised but differed so much from the actual address which had been confused by hostile disturbances that when Milo read it he exclaimed Oh Cicero if you had only spoken as you have written I should not now be eating the very excellent fish of Marseilles Cicero went off to govern Silesia 51 and acquitted himself there with a degree of competence and integrity which surprised and defended his friends all the elements of wealth and order in the capital resigned themselves to the dictatorship of Pompey while the poorer classes hopefully awaited the coming of Caesar six civil war a century of revolution had broken down a selfish and narrow aristocracy but it put no other government in its place unemployment bribery bread and circuses had corrupted the assembly into an ill-informed and passion ridden mob obviously incapable of ruling itself much less an empire democracy had fallen by plato's formula Liberty had become license and chaos begged an end to Liberty Caesar agreed with Pompey that the Republic was dead it was now he said a mere name without body or form dictatorship was unavoidable but he had hoped to establish a leadership that would be progressive that would not freeze the status quo but would lessen the abuses inequities and destitution which had degraded democracy he was now 54 and surely weakened by his long campaigns in Gaul he did not relish a war against his fellow citizens and his former friends but he saw the snares that had been prepared for him and resented them as an ill reward for one who had saved Italy his term as governor of Gaul would end on March 1st 49 he could not run for the consulship until the fall of that year in the interval he would lose the immunity of an officeholder and could not enter Rome without subjecting himself to those prescriptions which were among the favorite weapons of party warfare in Rome already Marcus Marcellus had proposed to the Senate that Caesar should be deposed from his governorship before its expiration which meant self exile or trial the tribunes of the plebs had saved him by their veto but the Senate clearly favored the motion kaito frankly expressed the hope that Cesar would be accused tried and banished from Italy Caesar made every effort at conciliation when at Pompey's suggestion the Senate asked both generals to release to Italy giin for use against Parthia Caesar at once complied though his force was small and when Pompey asked Caesar for the return of the Legion centimeter before Caesar dispatched it to him without delay his friends informed him however that instead of being sent to Parthia these legions were being kept at Capua through his supporters in the Senate Caesar requested a renewal of the Assembly's earlier decree permitting him to stand for the consulship in absence the Senate refused to submit the motion and demanded that Caesar dismiss his troops Caesar felt that his legions were his only protection perhaps he had nourished their personal loyalty with a view to just such a crisis as this nevertheless he proposed to the Senate that both he and Pompey should lay down their commissions an offer which seemed to the people of Rome so reasonable that they garland did his messenger with flowers the Senate favored the plan 372 22 but Pompey balked at it in the last days of the year 50 the Senate declared Caesar a public enemy unless he should abandon his command by July first on the first day of 49 curiyo read to the Senate a letter in which Caesar agreed to disband all but two of his 10 legions if he might retain the governorship till 48 but he spoiled the offer by adding that he would look upon its rejection as a declaration of war cicero spoke for the proposal and Pompey agreed to it but the Consul Lentulus intervened and drove Caesars lieutenants curieux and Antony from the Senate house after a long debate the reluctant Senate persuaded by Lentulus Cato and Marcellus gave Pompey orders and powers to see that no harm should come to the state the Roman phrase for dictatorship and martial law Caesar hesitated more than was his long legally the Senate was right he had no authority to name the conditions under which he would resign his command he knew that Civil War might bring gall to revolt and Italy to ruin but to yield was to surrender the Empire to incompetence and reaction amid his deliberations he learned that one of his nearest friends and ableist lieutenants Titus labienus had gone over to Pompey he summoned the soldiers of his favorite 13th Legion and laid the situation before them his first word won them Kamil Ito nice fellow soldiers they who had seen him share their hardships and perils who had had to complain that he risked himself too readily recognized his right to use this word he had always addressed themselves than with the kurt mille chase of less gracious commanders most of his men came from Cisalpine Gaul to which he had extended Roman citizenship they knew that the Senate had refused to recognize this grant and that one senator had flogged a Cisalpine Gaul just to show his contempt for Caesars and franchise meant it was illegal to flog a Roman citizen they had learned to respect Caesar even in their rough mute way to love him during their many campaigns he had been severe with cowardice and in discipline but he had been lenient with their human faults that winked at their sexual escapades had spared them unnecessary dangers had saved them by skillful generalship had doubled their pay and had spread his spoils among them handsomely he told them of his proposals to the Senate and how these had been received he reminded them that an idle and corrupt aristocracy was unfit to give Rome ordered justice and prosperity would they follow him not one refused when he told them that he had no money with which to pay them they emptied their savings into his Treasury On January 10th 49 he led one Legion across the Rubicon a small stream near a minim that marked the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gaul Lock test Illya is reported to have said the die is cast it seemed an act of folly for the remaining nine legions of his army were still distant in Gaul and could not reach him for weeks to come while Pompey had 10 legions or 60,000 troops authority to levy as many more as he pleased and funds to arm and feed them Caesars twelfth Legion joined him at pie sinem the eighth that korfin iam he formed three legions more from prisoners volunteers and levies upon the population he had little difficulty in getting recruits Italy had not forgotten the social war 88 and saw in Caesar a champion of Italian rights one by one its cities opened their gates to him some turned out on mass to welcome him the towns wrote Cicero salute him as a God korfin iam resisted briefly then surrendered Caesar protected it from sacked by his soldiers freed all captured officers and sent to Pompey's camp the money and baggage that labienus had left behind though almost penniless he refrained from confiscating those estates of his opponents that fell into his hands a characteristically wise measure which one to neutrality most of the middle class it would be his policy he announced to consider all neutrals his friends at every new advance he tried again for reconciliation he sent a message to Lentulus begging him to use his consular influence for peace in a letter to Cicero he offered to retire to private life and leave the field to Pompey provided he should be allowed to live in security cicero labored to affect a compromise but found his logic helpless before the rival dogmatism zuv revolution though his forces still far outnumbered caesar's Pompey withdrew with them from the capital in the disorderly stream of aristocrats followed him leaving their wives and children to Caesars mercy rejecting every overture of peace Pompey declared that he would consider as an enemy and senator who did not abandon Rome and join his camp the majority of the Senate remained in Rome and vacillating Cicero despising Pompey's vacillations divided himself among his rural estates Pompey marched to Brundusium and ferried his troops across the Adriatic he knew that his undisciplined army needed further training before it could stand up to Caesar's legions meanwhile he hoped the Roman fleet under his control would starve Italy into destroying his rival Caesar entered Rome March 16th unresisted and unarmed having left his troops in nearby towns he proclaimed a general amnesty and restored municipal administration and social order the tribunes convoked the Senate Caesar asked it to name him dictator but it refused he asked it to send envoys to Pompey to negotiate peace but it refused he sought funds from the National Treasury the Tribune Lucius Metellus barred his way but yielded when Caesar remarked that it was harder for him to utter threats than to execute them henceforth he made free use of the state's money but with unscrupulous impartiality he deposited in the Treasury the booty from his later campaigns then he returned to his soldiers and prepared to meet the three armies that the Pompeians were organizing in Greece Africa and Spain to secure the grain supply upon which Italy's life depended he sent the impetuous curio with two legions to take Sicily Cato surrendered the island and withdrew to Africa curieux pursued him with the recklessness of Regulus gave battle prematurely was defeated and died in action mourning not his own death but the injury he had done to Caesar meanwhile Caesar had led an army to Spain partly to ensure the renewal of its grain exports to Italy partly to forestall a rear attack when he marched to meet Pompey in Spain as in Gaul he made serious blunders in strategy for a time his outnumbered army faced starvation and defeat but as usual he redeemed himself by brilliant improvisation and personal bravery by altering the course of a river he turned blockade in to counter blockade he waited patiently for the entrapped army to surrender though his troops fretted for action at last the Pompeians gave in and all Spain came over to Caesar August 49 returning toward Italy by land he found his way blocked at Marseilles by an army under Lucius Domitius whom he had captured and released at korfin iam Caesar took the town after a hard siege reorganized the administration of Gaul and by December was back in Rome his political position had been strengthened by this campaign which had reassured the worried bellies of the capital the Senate now named him dictator but he surrendered that title after being elected one of the two consuls 4:48 finding Italy in a credit crisis due to the fact that the hoarding of currency had depressed prices and debtors were refusing to pay in dear money what they had borrowed in cheap money he decreed that debts might be paid in goods valued by state arbitrators at pre-war prices this he thought was the most suitable way both of maintaining the honor of the debtors and of removing or diminishing the fear of that general repudiation of debts which is apt to follow war it is a revelation of how slowly reform had moved in Rome that he was compelled again to forbid enslavement for debt he permitted the interest already paid on debts to be deducted from the principal and limited interest to 1% per month these measures satisfied most creditors who had feared confiscation correspondingly they disappointed the radicals who had hoped that Caesar would continue Cataline by abolishing all debts Andrey dividing the land he distributed corn to the needy cancelled all sentences of banishment except Milo's and pardoned all returning aristocrats no one thanked him for his moderation the forgiving conservatives resumed their plotting against his life and while he was facing Pompey in Thessaly the radicals abandoned him for Caelius who promised them a complete abolition of debts the confiscation of large properties and the relock ment of all land near the end of 49 Caesar joined the troops and fleet that his aides had collected at Brundusium a winter crossing of the adriatic by an army was in those days unheard of the twelve vessels at his disposal could carry over only a third of his 60,000 men at one time and poppies superior squadrons patrolled all islands and harbors along the opposite coast nevertheless Caesar set sail and crossed to a Pyrus with 20,000 men on their way back to Italy his ships were wrecked wondering what delayed the remainder of his army Caesar tried to recrawl in a small skiff the sailors rode out against the surf and were nearly drowned Caesar dauntless amid their terror encouraged them with the possibly legendary exhortation fear not you carry Caesar and his fortune but wind and wave tossed the boat back upon the shore and Caesar had to abandon the attempt meanwhile Pompey with forty thousand men seized durum and its rich stores then with the indecision that marked his obese years he failed to attack Caesars depleted and starving force during this delay Mark Antony gathered another fleet and brought over the rest of Caesars army ready now to join battle but still loath to turn Roman against Roman Caesar sent an envoy to Pompey proposing that both leaders should lay down their commands Pompey gave no reply our only Authority for this embassy is Caesar Caesar attacked and was repulsed but Pompey failed to follow his victory with pursuit against Pompey's advice his officers put all captives to death while Caesar spared his a contrast that raised the morale of Caesars troops and lowered that of Pompey's Caesars men begged him to punish them for the cowardice they had shown in this their first fight against Roman legions when he refused they besought him to lead them back to battle but he thought it wiser to Eitan to Thessaly and let them rest Pompey now made the decision that cost him his life affray meais advised him to return and recapture undefended Italy but the majority of his councillors urged him to pursue and destroy Caesar the aristocrats in Pompey's camp exaggerated the victory of Dura qiyam and supposed that the great issue had there been decided Cicero who had finally joined them was shocked to hear them dispute as to their respective shares in the coming restoration and to see with what luxury they lived in the midst of war their meals served on silver plate their tents comfortable with carpets brilliant with hangings Garland and with flowers excepting Pompey himself cicero wrote the Pompeians carried on the war with such rapacity and breathed such principles of cruelty in their conversation that i could not contemplate even their success without horror there was nothing good among them but their cause the prescription was proposed not only individually but collectively Lentulus had promised himself hortensia's his house caesar's gardens and bey Pompey would have preferred a more Fabian strategy but taunts of cowardice prevailed upon him and he gave orders to march at far Salus August 9th 48 the decisive battle was fought to the bitter end Pompey had 48,000 infantry 7,000 horse Caesar had 22,000 and 1000 some few of the noblest Romans says Plutarch standing as spectators outside the battle could not but reflect to what a past private ambition had brought the Empire the whole flower and strength of the same City meeting here in collision with itself offered plain proof how blind and mad a thing human nature is when passion is aroused near relatives even brothers fought in the opposed armies Caesar bad his men spare all Romans who should surrender as to the young aristocrat Marcus Brutus he said they were to capture him without injuring him or if this proved impossible they were to let him escape the Pompeians were overwhelmed by superior leadership training and morale 15,000 of them were killed or wounded 20,000 surrendered the remainder fled Pompey tore the insignia of command from his clothing and took flight like the rest Caesar tells us that he lost but 200 men which casts doubt upon all his books his army was amused to see the tents of the defeated so elegantly adorned and their tables laden with the feast that was to celebrate their victory Caesar ate pompous supper in Pompey's tent Pompey rode all night to larissa thence to the sea and took ship to Alexandria at Mitylene II where his wife joined him the citizens wished him to stay he refused courteously and advised them to submit to the Conqueror without fear for he said Caesar was a man of great goodness and clemency Brutus also escaped to Larissa but there he dallied and wrote to Caesar the victor expressed great joy on hearing that he was safe readily forgave him and at his request forgave Cassius to the nations of the East which controlled by the upper classes had supported Pompey he was likewise lenient he distributed Pompey's hordes of grain among the starving population of Greece and to the Athenians asking pardon he replied with a smile of reproof how often will the glory of your ancestors save you from self-destruction probably he had been warned that Pompey hoped to resume the contest with the army and resources of Egypt and the forces that Cato labienus and Metellus Scipio were organizing at Utica but when Pompey reached Alexandria piscinas eunuch Vizier of young Ptolemy the 12th ordered his servants to kill Pompey presumably an expectation of reward from Caesar the general was stabbed to death as he stepped upon the shore while his wife looked on in helpless terror from the ship in which they had come when Caesar arrived pathan is's men presented him with the severed head Caesar turned away in horror and wept at this new proof that by diverse means men come to the same end he established his quarters in the Royal Palace of the Ptolemies and set himself to regulate the affairs of the ancient kingdom 7 Caesar and Cleopatra since the death of Ptolemy vi 145 Egypt had rapidly decayed her Kings were no longer able to maintain social order or national freedom the roman senate increasingly dictated their policy and garrisoned alexandria with roman troops by the will of ptolemy xi whom Pompey and Gabinius had established on the throne the government had descended to his son Ptolemy the 12th and his daughter Cleopatra who were to marry each other and reign together Cleopatra was a Macedonian Greek by origin and more probably blond than brunette she was not particularly beautiful but the grace of her carriage the vivacity of her body and her mind the variety of her accomplishments the suavity of her manners the very melody of her voice combined with her royal position to make her a heady wine even for a Roman general she was acquainted with Greek history literature and philosophy she spoke Greek Egyptian Syrian and allegedly other languages well she added the intellectual fascination of anastasia to the seductive abandon of a completely uninhibited woman tradition credits her with a treatise on cosmetics and another on the alluring subject of Egyptian measures weights and coins she was an able ruler and administrator effectively promoted Egyptian Commerce and Industry and was a competent financier even when making love with these qualities went an oriental sensuality an impetuous brutality that dealt out suffering and death and a political ambition that dreamed of Empire and honored no code but success if she had not borne the intemperate blood of the later Ptolemies in her veins she might have achieved her purpose of being the queen of a unified Mediterranean realm she saw that Egypt could no longer be independent of Rome and knew no reason why she should not dominate their union Caesar was not pleased to learn that Pathan as' had banished Cleopatra and now ruled as regent for young Ptolemy secretly he sent for her and secretly she came to reach him she had herself concealed in some bedding which her attendant Apollodorus carried into Caesars apartment the amazed Roman who never let his victories in the field outnumber his conquests in love was captivated by her courage and wit he reconciled her with Ptolemy and re-established her with her brother on the throne of Egypt learning from his barber that bathenosh and the Egyptian general Achilles were plotting to kill him and slaughter the small force that he had brought with him he delicately arranged the assassination of pothinus Achilles escaped to the Egyptian army and roused it to insurrection soon all alexandria was alive with soldiers vowing death to caesar the roman garrison which had been stationed in the city by the senate was inspired by its officers to join in rising against this treasonable interloper who presumed to settle the succession to the throne of the Ptolemies and even to beget an heir for its future in this emergency Caesar acted with his customary resourcefulness he turned the Royal Palace and the nearby theatre into fortresses for himself and his men and sent for reinforcements from Asia Minor Syria and Rhodes when he saw that his defenseless fleet would soon fall into the hands of his enemies he ordered it burned in the fire and uncertain portion of the Alexandrian library was consumed by desperate sally's he captured lost and recaptured the island of Pharos as being essential to the entry of the relief he awaited in one of these engagements he swam for his life amid a storm of arrows when the Egyptians drove him and 400 of his men off the connecting mole into the sea thinking the rebels victorious Ptolemy the 12th left the royal palace joined them and disappeared from history when reinforcements arrived Caesar routed the Egyptians and the senatorial garrison in the Battle of the Nile he rewarded Cleopatra for her fidelity to him in this crisis by making her younger brother Ptolemy the thirteenth co-regent with her which left her in effect the supreme ruler of Egypt it is hard to understand why Caesar remained nine months in Alexandria while hostile armies were being organized against him near Utica and while Rome stirred too radical revolt by Caelius and Milo longed for his fine administrative hand perhaps he felt that he deserved a little rest and play after 10 years of war he often feasted with Cleopatra till daybreak says sweet Onias and would have gone through Egypt with her in her royal barge almost to Ethiopia had not his soldiers threatened mutiny they had not all found Queens perhaps he gallantly waited to share the pains of her confinement a child was born to her in 47 and was named cesarean according to Mark Antony Caesar acknowledged the boy as his son it is not impossible that she whispered to him the pleasant thought of making himself King marrying her and uniting the Mediterranean world under one bed this however is conjectural as well as scandalous nothing but circumstantial evidence supports it certainly Caesar flew to action when he learned that Furnaces son of Mithradates had recaptured pontus lesser armenia and cappadocia and was inviting the east to rise once more against divided Rome his wisdom in pacifying Spain and Gaul before meeting Pompey was now apparent had the West revolted at one time with the East the Empire would probably have broken up the barbarians would have moved southward and Rome might never have known in agustin age reforming his three legions caesar set out in june of 47 marched with care turistic speed along the coast of Egypt through Syria and Asia Minor into pontus defeated pharmacies at Cielo August 2nd and sent to a friend at Rome the laconic report wainy wedi vici I came I saw I conquered at Tarentum September 26th he was met by Cicero who asked forgiveness for himself and other conservatives Caesar consented amiably he was shocked to find that during his 20 months absence from Rome the civil war had become a social revolution that Cicero's son-in-law dalla Bella had joined forces with Caelius and had proposed to the Assembly of Bill canceling all debts that Antony had let loose his soldiers upon dalla Bella's armed prolate air and 800 Romans had been killed in the forum caelius as praetor had recalled Milo together they had organized an army in southern Italy and had invited the slaves to unite with them in a thoroughgoing revolution they have met with small success but their spirit was in the air at Rome the radicals were celebrating the memory of Cataline and again garland in his tomb meanwhile the Pompeian army in africa had grown as large as the one that had been beaten at Pharsalus pompous son sexts had organized a new army in spain and the grain supply of italy was once more hanging in the balance such was the situation in october 47 when caesar reached Rome and Calpurnia bringing with him Cleopatra her boy husband brother and cesarean in the few months permitted him between campaigns he said about restoring order having been reappointed dictator he appeased the radicals for a moment by repealing the last of sulles laws and canceling for a year all rents below two thousand sisters's in Rome at the same time he tried to comfort the Conservatives by making Marcus Brutus governor of sisal Pine Gaul assuring Cicero and Atticus that he would have bet no war against property and ordering the reaction of the statues of sulla which the prolate air had knocked down when he turned his thoughts to the Pompeians he was discouraged to hear that his most trusted legions were in revolt because of long overdue you pay and were refusing to embark for Africa as the Treasury was nearly empty he raised funds by confiscating and selling the property of rebel aristocrats he had learned he said that soldiers depend upon money money upon power and power upon soldiers he suddenly appeared among the rebellious legions called them together and quietly told them that they were released from service and might go to their homes he added that he would make up all arrears to them when he had triumphed in Africa with other soldiers at this expression says a peon shame seized upon them all that they were abandoning their commander in this moment when enemies surrounded him on every side they cried out that they repented of their revolt and besought him to keep them in his service he yielded with charming reluctance and sailed with them for Africa a topsis on April 6th 46 he met the combined forces of Metellus Scipio Cato labienus and Juba the first the Numidian King again he lost the first encounter again he reformed his lines attacked and won his blood-crazed soldiers blaming his clemency at Farr Salus for having to fight this second battle slaughtered 10,000 of the 80,000 Pompeians giving no quarter they did not propose to meet these men again Juba committed suicide Scipio fled and died in an engagement at sea Cato with a small division escaped to Utica when the officers wished to defend the city against Caesar Cato persuaded them that it was impossible he provided funds for those who planned flight but advised his son to submit to Caesar he himself rejected both courses he spent the evening in philosophical discussion then he retired to his room and read Plato's Phaedo suspecting that he would kill himself his friends took his sword from his bedside when they had relaxed their vigil he compelled his servant to bring back the weapon for a while he feigned sleep then suddenly he took the sword and plunged it into his abdomen his friends rushed in a physician put back the extruding intestines and sewed and bandaged the wound as soon as they had left the room Kato removed the bandage tore open the wound pulled out his entrails and died when Caesar came he mourned that he had no chance to pardon Kato he could only pardon the son PU Deacon's gave the dead stoic a magnificent funeral as if knowing that they were burying a republic almost 5 centuries old 8 The Statesman after appointing Sallust governor of new midea and reorganizing the provinces of Africa Caesar in the fall of 46 returned to Rome the frightened Senate recognizing the advent of monarchy voted him the dictatorship for 10 years and such a triumph as Rome had never seen before he paid each of his soldiers 5000 attic drachmas three thousand dollars much more than he had promised them he feasted the citizens at 22,000 tables and for their amusement provided a Shamsi battle involving ten thousand men early in forty-five he left for Spain and at Munda defeated the last Pompeian army when in October he reached Rome he found all Italy in chaos oligarchic misrule and a century of revolution had disordered agriculture industry finance and trade the exhaustion of the provinces the hoarding of capital and the precariousness of investment had disturbed the flow of money thousands of estates had fallen into ruin a hundred thousand men had been drawn from production into war peasants beyond number had been than by the competition of foreign grain or lot ofin DIA slaves to join the proletariat in the towns and listen hungrily to promising demagogues the surviving aristocracy unmelted by Caesars clemency plotted against him in their clubs and palaces he appealed to them in the Senate to recognize the necessity of dictatorship and to cooperate with him in a healing reconstruction they scorned the advances of the usurper denounced the presence of Cleopatra as his guest in Rome and whispered that he was planning to make himself King and move the seat of the Empire to Alexandria or ilium Caesar alone therefore though prematurely old at 55 set himself with Roman energy to remake the Roman state he knew that his victories would be meaningless if he could not build something better than the wreckage that he had cleared away when in 44 his dictatorship for 10 years was extended for life he did not much exaggerate the difference though he could hardly foresee that in five months he would be dead the Senate heaped adulation and titles upon him perhaps to make him odious to a people that hated the very name of King it let him wear the laurel wreath with which he hid his baldness and carry even in peace the Imperator powers through these he controlled the Treasury and as Pontifex Maximus the priesthoods as consul he could propose and execute laws as Tribune his person was inviolable a censor he could make or unmake senators the Assemblies kept the right to vote on proposed measures but Caesars lieutenants dalla Bella and Antony managed the Assemblies which in general favored his policies like other dictators he sought to base his power upon popularity with the people he subordinated the Senate almost to the role of an advisory council he enlarged it from 600 to 900 members and permanently transformed it with 4 new appointees many of these were Roman businessmen many were leading citizens of Italian or provincial cities some had been Centurions soldiers or sons of slaves the patricians were alarmed to see the chieftains of conquered Gaul enter the Senate and joined the rulers of the Empire even the wags of the capital resented this and circulated a satiric couplet gallows Keizer entry on palm do 'quite Edom in Kuriyama gali broca's staple errant Lawton Klum some seront Caesar leads Gaul in his triumph then into the Senate the Gauls have removed their britches and put on the broad rimmed toga of the Senators perhaps Caesar purposely made the new Senate too cumbersome a body for effective deliberation or unified opposition he chose a group of friends balbirr satya smashes and others as an informal executive cabinet and inaugurated the bureaucracy of the empire by delegating the clerical details of his government and the minutiae of administration to his household of freedmen and slaves he allowed the assembly to elect half the city magistrates he chose the rest by recommendations which the assembly regularly approved as Tribune he could veto the decisions of other Tribune's or consuls he increased the praetor's to 16 and the Questers to 40 to expedite municipal and judicial business he kept a personal eye on every aspect of the city's affairs and tolerated no incompetence or waste in the city charters that he granted he placed severe injunctions and penalties against electoral corruption and official malfeasance to end the domination of politics by organized vote buying and perhaps to secure his power against proletarian revolt he abolished the collegia except some of ancient origin and the essentially religious associations of the Jews he restricted jury service to the two upper classes and reserved for himself the right to try the most vital cases frequently he sat his judge and none could deny the wisdom and impartiality of his decisions he proposed to the jurists of his time an orderly codification of existing Roman law but his early death frustrated the plan resuming the work of the graça he distributed lands to his veterans and the poor this policy continued by Augustus for many years pacified the agrarian agitation to forestall the rapid recon centrale and ownership he ruled that the new lands could not be sold within 20 years and to check rural slavery he passed a measure requiring that a third of the laborers on ranches should be Freeman having turned many idle prolly tear into soldiers and then into peasant proprietors he further diminished their ranks by sending 80,000 citizens as colonists to Carthage Corinth Seville Arles and other centers to provide work for the remaining unemployed in Rome he spent a hundred and sixty million sesterces in a great building program he had a new and more spacious meeting place for the assemblies set up in the field of Mars and relieved the congestion of business in the forum by adding near it the forum you liam he embellished likewise many cities in Italy Spain Gaul and Greece having so eased the pressure of poverty he required a means test for eligibility to the state dole of grain at once the number of applicants fell from 320,000 250,000 so far he had remained true to his role as a champion of the populares but since the Roman Revolution was more agrarian than industrial and was aimed chiefly at the landed slave driving aristocracy then at the moneylenders and only mildly at the business classes Caesar continued the bracken policy of inviting businessmen to support the agrarian and fiscal revolution cicero sought to unite the middle classes with the aristocracy Caesar sought to unite them with the plebs many of the great capitalists from Crassus to Balbus helped to finance him as similar men helped the American and French Revolutions nevertheless Caesar ended one of the richest sources of financial profiteering the collection of provincial taxes through corporations of publicans he scaled down debts enacted severe laws against excessive interest rates and relieved extreme cases of insolvency by establishing the law of bankruptcy essentially as it stands today he restored the stability of the currency by basing it upon gold and issuing a golden owl Rios equivalent in purchasing power to the British pound sterling in the 19th century the coins of his government were stamped with his own features and were designed with an artistry new to Rome a novel order and competence entered the administration of the Empire's finances with the result that when Caesar died the Treasury contained 700 million sesterces and his private treasury 100 million as a scientific basis for taxation and administration he had a census taken of Italy and planned a like census of the Empire to replenish a citizenry decimated by war he granted the Roman franchise widely among others to physicians and teachers in Rome long disturbed by the fall in the birthrate he had in 59 given precedence in land allotments to fathers of three children now he promulgated rewards for large families and for bad childless women under 45 to ride in litters or wear jewelry the weakest and most futile part of his varied legislation still an agnostic though not quite free from superstition Caesar remained high priest of the state religion and provided it with the usual funds he restored old temples and built new ones honoring above all his alma mater venus mater of conscience and worship withdrew old prohibitions against the ISIS cult and protected the Jews in the exercise of their faith noting that the calendar of the priests had lost all Concord with the seasons he commissioned at the Alexandrian Greek societies to devise on Egyptian models the Julian calendar henceforth the year was to consist of 365 days with an added day in every 4th February cicero complained that caesar not content with ruling the earth was now regulating the Stars but the Senate accepted the reform graciously and gave the dictators family name Julius to the month Queen tillis which had been fifth when March opened the year as impressive as these things done are the works begun or planned by Caesar but postponed by his assassination he laid the foundations of a great theater and of a temple to Mars proportioned to that God's veracity he appointed vero to head an organization for the establishment of public libraries he designed to free Rome from malaria by draining lake Fusina sand the pontine marshes and reclaiming these acres for tillage he proposed to raise dikes to control the tiburce floods by diverting the course of that stream he hoped to improve the harbour at Ostia periodically ruined by the rivers silt he instructed his engineers to prepare plans for building a road across central Italy and for cutting a canal at Corinth the most resented of his undertakings was to make the freeman of italy equal citizens with those of Rome and the provinces ultimately equal with Italy in 49 he hadn't franchised Cisalpine Gaul now 44 he drew up a municipal charter apparently for all the cities of Italy equalizing their rights with Rome's probably he was planning some representative government by which they would have had a democratic share in his constitutional monarchy he took the appointment of provincial governors out of the hands of the corrupt Senate and himself named to these posts men of proved ability who remained at every moment subject to recall at his will he reduced provincial taxes by a third and entrusted their collection to special officials responsible to himself he overrode ancient curses to restore Capua Carthage and Corinth completing again the work of the RAC I to the colonists whom he sent to found or people a score of cities from Gibraltar to the Black Sea he gave Roman or Latin rites and evidently hoped to extend Roman citizenship to all free adult males in the Empire the Senate was then to represent not a class in Rome but the mind and will of every province this conception of government and Caesars reorganization of Rome and Italy completed the miracle whereby the youthful spendthrift and Royster er had become one of the ablest bravest fairest and most enlightened men in all the sorry annals of politics like Alexander he did not know where to stop contemplating his reordered realm he resented its exposure to attack at the Euphrates the Danube and the Rhine he dreamed of a great expedition to capture parthia and avenge his old pocketbook Crassus of a march around the Black Sea and the pacification of Sathya of the exploration of the Danube and the conquest of Germany then having made the Empire secure he would return to Rome laden with honour and spoils rich enough to end economic depression powerful enough to ignore all opposition free at last to name his successor and to die with the Pax Romana as his supreme legacy to the world 9 Brutus when news of this plan trickled through Rome the common people who loved glory applauded the business classes smelling war orders and provincial loot licked their chops the aristocracy for seeing its extinction on Caesars return resolved to kill him before he could go he had treated these blue bloods with such generosity as to stir Cicero's eloquence in his praise he had forgiven all surrendering foes and had condemned to death only a few officers who defeated and pardoned had fought against him again he had burned unread the correspondence he had found in the tents of Pompey and Scipio he had sent the captured daughter and grandchildren of Pompey to Pompey's son Sextus who was still in arms against him and he had restored the statues of Pompey which his followers had thrown down he had given provincial governorships to brutus and cassius and high office to many others of their class he bore silently a thousand slanders and instituted no proceedings against those whom he suspected of plotting against his life to Cicero who had trimmed his wind to every sale si le he offered not only pardon but honor and refused noting that the orator asked for himself for his Pompey and friends he even forgave at Cicero's urging the unrepentant Marcus Marcellus in a pretty speech for Marcellus 46 Cicero acclaimed Caesars unbelievable liberality and admitted that Pompey victorious would have been more vengeful I have heard with regret he said your celebrated and highly philosophical remark 'i'm sati sweet see I have lived enough weather for nature or for fame put aside I beg you that wisdom of the sage do not be wise at the cost of our peril you are still far from the completion of your greatest labors you have not yet laid their foundations and he solemnly promised Caesar in the name of all the Senate that they would watch over his safety and oppose with their own bodies and he attack upon him Cicero now prospered so well that he planned to buy still another palace no less than that of sulla himself he enjoyed the dinners to which he was invited by Antony bulbous and others of Caesars aides never before had his letters been so gay Caesar was not deceived he wrote to mashes if anyone is gracious it is Cicero but I doubt not that he hates me bitterly when reassured Pompeians resumed their opposition thus anxious Talleyrand of the pen fell in with their hopes and wrote a eulogy of the younger Cato that should have put Caesar on his guard Caesar contented himself with writing a reply the anti Cato which did not show the dictator at his best in this duel he had given Cicero the choice of weapons and the orator at one public opinion praised Cicero's style and the mildness of a ruler who composed a pamphlet when he might have signed a death warrant men who have been deprived of wanted power cannot be mollified by pardoning their resistance it is as difficult to forgive forgiveness as it is to forgive those whom we have injured the aristocrats fretted in a Senate that dared not reject the proposals that Caesar so constitutionally submitted to them they patriotically denounced the destruction of a Liberty that had fattened their purses and would not admit that the restoration of order required the limitation of their freedom they looked with horror upon the presence of Cleopatra and caesarean in Rome it was true that Caesar was living with his wife Calpurnia apparently in mutual affection but who could say who would not say what happened on his frequent visits to the gorgeous Queen rumors persisted that he would make himself King marry her and place the capital of their united empires in the East had he not ordered his statue to be erected in the Capitol next to those of Rome's ancient king had he not stamped his own image upon Roman coins an unprecedented insolence did he not wear robes of purple usually reserved for kings at the Lupercalia on February 15 44 the consul Antony Sasser totally naked and impiously drunk tried thrice to place a royal crown upon Caesars head thrice Caesar refused but was it not because the crowd murmur disapproval did he not dismiss from office the tribunes who removed from his statue the royal diadem placed upon it by his friends when the Senate approached him as he sat in the temple of Venus he did not rise to receive them some explained that he had been overcome by an epileptic stroke others that he was suffering from diarrhea and had remained seated to avoid a movement of his bowels at so unpropitious a moment but many patricians feared that any day might see him proclaimed a king shortly after the Lupercalia Gaius Cassius a sickly man pale and lean as Plutarch describes him approached Marcus Brutus and suggested the assassination of Caesar he had already won to his plan several senators some capitalists whose provincial pillage had fallen with Caesars restriction of the publicans even some of Caesars generals who felt that the spoils and offices awarded them had not quite equalled their desserts Brutus was needed as the front of the conspiracy for he had won a wide reputation as the most virtuous of men he was supposedly descended from the Brutus who had expelled the Kings 464 years before his mother's Servilia was Cato's half-sister his wife Portia was Cato's daughter and the widow of caesar's enemy bibulous it was thoughts as Appian that Brutus was Caesar's son as Caesar was the lover of Servilia about the time of Brutus's birth Plutarch adds that Caesar believed Brutus to be his son possibly Brutus himself shared this opinion and hated the dictator for having seduced his mother and made him in the gossip of Rome a bastard instead of a Brutus he had always been Moody and taciturn as if brooding over a secret wrong at the same time he carried himself proudly as one who in any case or noble blood in his veins he was a master of Greek and a devotee of Philosophy in metaphysics a follower of Plato in ethics of Zeno it was not lost upon him that stoicism like Greek and Roman opinion approved tyrannicide our ancestors he wrote to a friend thought that we ought not to endure a tyrant even if he were our own father he composed a treatise on virtue and was later confused with that abstraction through intermediaries he lent money at 48 percent to the citizens of Cyprian Salamis when they balked at paying the accumulated interest he urged Cicero then proconsul in Silesia to enforce the collection with Roman arms he governed Cisalpine Gaul with integrity and competence and returning to Rome was made urban praetor by Caesar 45 every generous element in his nature rebelled against Cassius as proposal Cassius reminded him of his rebel ancestry and perhaps Brutus felt challenged to prove it by imitation the sensitive youth blushed when he saw affixed two statues of the older Brutus such inscriptions as Brutus are you dead or your posterity is unworthy of you Cicero dedicated to him several treatises written in these years meanwhile it was whispered among the patricians that at the next meeting of the Senate on March 15th Lucius cotta would move that Caesar be made King on the ground that according to the sibylline oracles the Parthian x' would be conquered only by a king a senate half filled with Caesars appointees said Cassius would pass the measure and all hope of restoring the Republic would be lost Brutus yielded in the conspirators then made definite plans or shed drew the secret from her husband by stabbing her thigh to show that no physical injury could make her speak against her will in a moment of unprofitable Brutus insisted that Antony should be spared on the evening of March 14th to a gathering at his home Caesar proposed as topic of conversation what is the best death his own answer was a sudden one the next morning his wife begged him not to go to the Senate saying that she had dreamed of seeing him covered with blood a like-minded servant sought to provide a deterrent omen by causing an ancestral picture to fall from the wall but Decimus Brutus who was one of his closest friends and was also one of the conspirators urged him to attend the Senate if only to adjourn it courteously in person a friend who had learned of the plot came to warn him but Caesar had already left on his way to the Senate he met a soothsayer who had once whispered to him beware the Ides of March Caesar remark smiling that the Ides had come and all was well but they have not passed answered Speer in a while Caesar was offering the usual pre-session sacrifice before Pompey's theater where the Senate was to meet a tablet informing him of the conspiracy was put into his hands he ignored it and tradition says that it was found in his hand after his death these stories of the Ides of March appearance we toniest Plutarch and Appian but they may be legend nevertheless trebonius a conspirator who had been a favored general of Caesar detained Antony from the meeting by conversation when Caesar entered the theatre and took his seat the liberators flung themselves upon him without delay some of written reports sweet o Gnaeus but when Marcus Brutus rushed at him he said in Greek Chi su teknon you too my child when Brutus struck him says Appian Caesar ended all resistance drawing his robe over his face and head he submitted to the blows and fell at the foot of Pompey's statue one wish had been granted to the most complete man that antiquity produced

Channel: Rocky C

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Keywords: Will Durant, Julius Caesar

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Length: 102min 12sec (6132 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 27 2016