Gaius Julius Caesar

1. Gaius Julius Caesar January 19th, 2012

2. Keys to Political Survival In Republican Rome • Please the Senate (i.e. High offices and commissions; deferential treatment; consultation etc.; victories). • Extraordinary Powers under a Constitutional Façade; Pompey’s Imperium Maius (Greater Imperium) • Please the People (Bread and Circuses; victories). • Please the Army (Land for veterans; good pay; good terms of service; victories). • The position of the emperors prefigured in the careers of Pompey and Caesar.

3. Extant Sources • Caesar, Gallic Wars and Civil Wars. • Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Life of Julius Caesar). • M. Tullius Cicero (Letters and Speeches). • Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar.

4. Suetonius’ Sources. • Historiographical Sources: Tanusius Geminus, Caesar’s memoirs, M. Varro, M. Actorius Naso. • Other Sources: Edicts of Marcus Bibulus, Speeches of Gaius Curio, Speeches and letters of Marcus Cicero, Caesar’s letters and edicts, Acta Senatus, Popular verse.

5. Caesar’s Early Years • Born to old patrician family (Gens Julia) in 100 BCE. • Uncle, Gaius Marius, in his 6th consulship; Optimates/Populares tensions very high. • 90-89 BCE – The Social War. • 88-82 BCE – Marius (i.e. Populares) vs. Sulla (Optimates); Caesar’s absence from Rome. • 81-79 BCE – Dictatorship of Sulla; Caesar’s return. • 78 BCE – Death of Sulla.

6. The Progress of Caesar’s Career to the Consulship. • Relatively normal progress through the ranks to the consulship. • 81-78 BCE – First military service in Asia. • 77 BCE – Prosecutes Dolabella, governor of Macedon, for extortion; Study at Rhodes; Captured by Pirates. • 70 BCE – Caesar’s operations against Mithridates. • 68 BCE – Elected military tribune; campaigned against Sulla’s legislation. • 67 BCE – Elected quaestor; service in Spain. • 65 BCE – Aedile; Caesar’s games; defense of C. Cornelius on treason charges; attempt to secure governorship in Egypt. • 63 BCE – Caesar elected pontifex maximus; Conspiracy of Catiline (Caesar seeks clemency for the conspirators). • 62 BCE – Praetor; Caesar’s wife commits adultery with P. Clodius. • 61 BCE – Governor of Spain. • 60 BCE – Caesar stands for the consulship (of 59 BCE); the first triumvirate (Gn. Pompeius Magnus, M. Licinius Crassus, C. Julius Caesar); marriage of Pompey and Julia • Note: Rise to the consulship unremarkable; suspicion of Caesar’s ambitions; discontent over Caesar’s tactics.

7. Signs of Caesar’s Ambitions • The judgment of Sulla. • Expressions of Ambition. • Caesar and Conspiracy. • Caesar’s Methods.

8. Sulla’s Opinion of Caesar • “It is well known that, when the most devoted and eminent members of the aristocratic party pleaded Caesar’s cause and would not let the matter drop, Sulla at last gave way. ‘Very well then, you win! Take him! But never forget that the man whom you want me to spare will one day prove the ruin of the party which you and I have so long defended. There are many Marius’s in this fellow Caesar.’” (Suetonius, Caesar 1. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

9. Signs of Ambition • “During his quaestorship he made the customary funeral speeches in honour of his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia; and while eulogizing Julia’s maternal and paternal ancestry, did the same for the Caesar’s too. ‘Her mother,’ he said, ‘was a descendant of kings, namely the royal Marcians, a family founded by the Roman king AncusMarcius; and her father, of gods – since the Julians (of which we Caesars are a branch) reckon descent from the goddess Venus. Thus Julia’s stock can claim both the sanctity of kings, who reign supreme among mortals, and the reverence due to gods, who hold even kings in their power.’” (Suetonius, Caesar 6. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

10. Caesar in Spain • “At Cadiz he saw a statue of Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules, and was overheard to sigh impatiently: vexed, it seems, that at an age when Alexander had already conquered the whole world, he himself had done nothing in the least epoch-making. Moreover, when on the following night, much to his dismay, he had a dream of raping his own mother, the soothsayers greatly encouraged him by their interpretation of it: namely, that he was destined to conquer the earth, our Universal Mother.” (Suetonius, Caesar 7. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

11. Caesar and Conspiracy • Suggestion that Caesar was involved in several conspiracies. • 78 BCE – The conspiracy of Lepidus. • 65 BCE – The conspiracy of M. Crassus, P. Sulla, L. Autronius. • 63 BCE – Conspiracy of Catiline.

12. Caesar’s Methods • Populares politician. • Bread and Circuses. • Secure the loyalty of his troops. • Bribery, corruption, and violence.

13. Caesar and the Populares • “On Caesar’s return to Rome, the commons voted him the rank of colonel, and he vigorously helped their leaders to undo Sulla’s legislation by restoring the tribunes of the people to their ancient powers.” (Suetonius, Caesar 5. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

14. Securing the Loyalty of the People • “During his aedileship, Caesar filled the Comitium, the Forum, the adjacent basilicas, and the Capitol itself with a display of the material which he meant to use in his public shows, building temporary colonnades for the purpose. He exhibited wild-beast hunts and stage-plays; some at his own expense, some in co-operation with his colleague, Marcus Bibulus – but took all the credit in either case….Caesar also put on a gladiatorial show, but collected so immense a troop of combatants that his terrified political opponents rushed a bill through the house, limiting the number of gladiators that anyone might keep in Rome; consequently far fewer pairs fought than had been advertised.” (Suetonius, Caesar 10. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

15. Bribery and Corruption • “He also bribed a man to bring charges of hight treason against Gaius Rubrius who, some years previously, had earned the senate’s gratitude by checking the seditious activities of Lucius Saturninus, a tribune.” (Suetonius, Caesar 12. Trans. R. Graves, 1957). • “Obliged to abandon his ambitionof governing Egypt, Caesar stood for the office of Chief Pontiff, and used the most flagrant bribery to secure it….he defeated his two prominent rivals, both of whom were much older and more distinguished than himself, and the votes he won from their own tribes exceeded those cast for them in the entire poll.” (Suetonius, Caesar 13. Trans. R. Graves, 1957). • “The province of Western Spain was now allotted to Caesar. He relieved himself of the creditors who tried to keep him in Rome until he had paid his debts, by providing sureties for their eventual settlement. Then he took the illegal and unprecedented step of hurrying off before the Senate had either formally confirmed his appointment or voted him the necessary funds. (Suetonius, Caesar 18. Trans. R. Graves, 1957). • “There were two other candidates: Lucius Lucceius and Marcus Bibulus. Caesar now approached Lucceius and suggested that they should join forces: but since Lucceius had more money and Caesar greater influence, it was agreed that Lucceius should finance their joint candidacy by bribing voters. (Suetonius, Caesar 19. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

16. Reining Caesar In • “Caesar and Bibulus were elected Consuls, but the aristocrats continued to restrict Caesar’s influence by insuring that when he and Bibulus had completed their term, neither would govern a province garrisoned by large forces; they would be sent off somewhere ‘to guard mountain pastures and keep forests clear of brigands.’” (Suetonius, Caesar 19. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

17. Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus:The First Triumvirate • 60 BCE – Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus form an alliance “jointly swearing to oppose all legislation of which any one of them might disapprove.” (Suetonius, Caesar 1. Trans. R. Graves, 1957). • Bribery, violence, and corruption. • Secured the addition of Transalpine Gaul to Cisalpine Gaul as his province. • Caesar faces corruption and bribery inquiry; leaves for Gaul before inquiry takes place.

18. Caesar’s Consulship (59 BCE) • “Next, he introduced an agrarian law, and when Bibulus delayed its passage…[Caesar] drove him from the Forum by force of arms. On the following day Bibulus launched a complaint in the House, and when no one dared move a vote of censure, or make any observations on this scandalous event – though decrees condemning minor breaches of the peace had often been passed – he felt so frustrated that he stayed at home for the rest of the term…Caesar was thus able to govern alone and do very much as he pleased. It became a joke to sign and seal bogus documents: ‘Executed during the Consulship of Julius and Caesar,’ rather than ‘…during the Consulship of Bibulus and Caesar.’” (Suetonius, Caesar 20. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

19. Caesar in Gaul (58-52 BCE) • Manufactured Gallic threat. • Avoid prosecution. • Protected by his troops. • Plunder used for: 1. Increase popularity in Rome. 2. Secure wealth to spend on bribes and shows at home.

20. Manufacturing a Gallic Menace • “He now lost no opportunity of picking quarrels – however flimsy the pretext – with allies as well as hostile and barbarous tribes, and marching against them; the danger of this policy never occurred to him. At first the Senate set up a commission of inquiry into the state of the Gallic provinces, and some speakers went so far as to recommend that Caesar should be handed over to the enemy. But the more successful his campaigns, the more frequent the public thanksgivings voted; and the holidays that went with them were longer than any general before him had ever earned.” (Suetonius, Caesar 24. Trans. R. Graves, 1957).

21. In Caesar’s Own Words • “Among the Helvetii, Orgetorix was by far the most distinguished and wealthy. He, when Marcus Messala and Marcus Piso were consuls, incited by lust of sovereignty, formed a conspiracy among the nobility, and persuaded the people to go forth from their territories with all their possessions, [saying] that it would be very easy, since they excelled all in valor, to acquire the supremacy of the whole of Gaul. To this he the more easily persuaded them, because the Helvetii, are confined on every side by the nature of their situation; on one side by the Rhine, a very broad and deep river, which separates the Helvetian territory from the Germans; on a second side by the Jura, a very high mountain, which is [situated] between the Sequani and the Helvetii; on a third by the Lake of Geneva, and by the river Rhone, which separates our Province from the Helvetii. From these circumstances it resulted, that they could range less widely, and could less easily make war upon their neighbors; for which reason men fond of war [as they were] were affected with great regret. They thought, that considering the extent of their population, and their renown for warfare and bravery, they had but narrow limits, although they extended in length 240, and in breadth 180 [Roman] miles.” (Julius Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.2, Trans. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn - http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.1.1.html) • “It is again told Caesar, that the Helvetii intended to march through the country of the Sequani and the Aedui into the territories of the Santones, which are not far distant from those boundaries of the Tolosates, which [viz. Tolosa, Toulouse] is a state in the Province. If this took place, he saw that it would be attended with great danger to the Province to have warlike men, enemies of the Roman people, bordering upon an open and very fertile tract of country.” (Julius Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 1.10)

22. The Growing Crisis: 56-48 BCE • 56 BCE: Caesar’s command in Gaul extended for 5 years through agents in Rome; trying to avoid indictment. • 58-54 BCE: Pompey working behind the scenes in Rome to protect Caesar. • 54 BCE - Julia dies; Crassus killed in Parthia. • 52 BCE: Relations between Pompey and Caesar increasingly strained. • 51 BCE: Attempts to deprive Caesar of his command are blocked by Caesar’s tribune, Curio • 50 BCE: Pompey won over by Caesar’s enemies; Factional struggle erupts in senate between Pompeians and Caesarians • 49 BCE: Caesar’s agents in Rome (i.e. the Tribune M. Antonius) flee to Caesar; Pompey empowered to bring Caesar in; Caesar strikes preemptively and chases Pompey out of Italy; Destroys Pompeians in Spain; Returns to Rome and is declared dictator • 48 BCE; Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus; Chases him to Egypt; Dictatorship renewed

23. The Dictatorship of Caesar (48-44 BCE) • 49 BCE – Caesar seizes power; declared dictator (renewed in 48 BCE). • Reforms constitution (creates new senators; oversees/manipulates elections etc.). • Dispenses largesse among the people. • Extends citizenship to Cisalpine Gauls. • Abusive toward to nobles. • Ended in Caesar’s assassination – March 15th, 44 BCE

24. Controlling the System • “He brought the Senate up to strength by creating new patricians, and increased the yearly quota of praetors, aediles, and quaestors, as well as of minor officials….Also, he arranged with the commons that, apart from the Consul, half the candidates should be popularly elected and half nominated by himself.” (Suetonius, Caesar 41. Trans. R. Graves, 1957)

25. Always the Populares:Suetonius, Caesar 38-39 • “To each and every foot-soldier of his veteran legions he gave twenty-four thousand sesterces by way of booty, over and above the two thousand apiece which he had paid them at the beginning of the civil strife. He also assigned them lands, but not side by side, to avoid dispossessing any of the former owners. To every man of the people, besides ten pecks of grain and the same number of pounds of oil,he distributed the three hundred sesterces which he had promised at first, and one hundred apiece to boot because of the delay. 2 He also remitted a year's rent in Rome to tenants who paid two thousand sesterces or less, and in Italy up to five hundred sesterces. He added a banquet and a dole of meat, and after his Spanish victory two dinners; for deeming that the former of these had not been served with a liberality creditable to his generosity, he gave another five days later on a most lavish scale…. He gave entertainments of divers kinds: a combat of gladiators and also stage-plays in every ward all over the city, performed too by actors of all languages, as well as races in the circus, athletic contests, and a sham sea-fight…. For the races the circus was lengthened at either end and a broad canalwas dug all about it; then young men of the highest rank drove four-horse and two-horse chariots and rode pairs of horses, vaulting from one to the other. The game called Troy was performed by two troops, of p55younger and of older boys. 3 Combats with wild beasts were presented on five successive days, and last of all there was a battle between two opposing armies, in which five hundred foot-soldiers, twenty elephants, and thirty horsemen engaged on each side. To make room for this, the goals were taken down and in their place two camps were pitched over against each other. The athletic competitions lasted for three days in a temporary stadium built for the purpose in the region of the Campus Martius. 4 For the naval battle a pool was dug in the lesser Codeta and there was a contest of ships of two, three, and four banks of oars, belonging to the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, manned by a large force of fighting men. Such a throng flocked to all these shows from every quarter, that many strangers had to lodge in tents pitched in streets or along the roads, and the press was often such that many were crushed to death, including two senators.” (Trans. J.C. Rolfe 1913 - http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Julius*.html)

26. Alienating the Senate and People • Dictator for Life. • Censor for Life. • “Imperator” added to his name. • Received cult worship. • Magistrates chosen several years in advance. • Granted citizenship to Gauls. • Admitted Gauls to the Senate. • Showed no deference toward senators.

27. The Cosnpiracy • “More than sixty conspirators banded together against him, led by Gaius Cassius and his lieutenants Marcus and Decimus Brutus. A suggested plan was to wait until the Consular elections, when Caesar would take his stand on the wooden bridge along which voters walked to the poll; one group of conspirators would then topple him over, while another waited underneath with daggers drawn. An alternative was to attack him in the Sacred Way or at the entrance to the theatre. The conspirators wavered between these plans until Caesar called a meeting of the Senate in the Pompeian Assembly room for the Ides of March, which fall on the fifteenth day; they then decided at once that this would be by far the most convenient time and place.” (Suetonius, Caesar 80. Trans. R. Graves, 1957)

28. The Assassination of Caesar • “As soon as Caesar took his seat the conspirators crowded around him as if to pay their respects. TilliusCimber, who had taken the lead, came up close, pretending to ask a question. Caesar made a gesture of postponement, but Cimber caught hold of his shoulders. ‘This is violence!’ Caesar cried, and at that moment one of the Casca brothers slipped behind and with a sweep of his dagger stabbed him just below the throat. Caesar grasped Casca’s arm and ran it through with his stylus; he was leaping away when another dagger caught him in the breast. Confronted by a ring of drawn daggers, he drew the top of his gown over his face, and at the same time ungirded the lower part, letting it fall to his feet so that he would die with both legs decently covered. Twenty three dagger thrusts went home as he stood there. Caesar did not utter a sound after Casca’s blow had drawn a groan from him; though some say that when he saw that Marcus Brutus about to deliver the second blow, he reproached him in Greek with: ‘You too my son?’” (Suetonius, Caesar 82. Trans. R. Graves. 1957).

29. Caesar’s Will • “…he …left three-quarters, after certain legacies had been deducted to Gaius Octavius, afterwards Augustus, and one-eighth each to LuciusPinarius and Quintus Pedius. These were his three sororal grand-nephews. At the close of the will he also adopted Gaius Octavius into the Caesar family, but provided for the possibility of a son being subsequently born to himself and appointed several of the assassins as guardians to the boy. Decimus Brutus even figured among his heirs in the second degree….Caesar left the commons his gardens on the banks of the Tiber for use as a recreation ground, and three gold pieces a man.” (Suetonius, Caesar 83. Trans. R. Graves, 1957)

30. Discussion Question • Is Suetonius pro- or anti- Caesar? • Does Suetonius mythologize his narrative of Caesar’s life in any way? Explain. • Is Suetonius’ account, on balance, believable? Explain. • What does Suetonius see as the personal qualities that led to Caesar’s success and his demise?