Julius Caesar

I

Introduction

Julius Caesar (100-44 bc), Roman general and statesman whose dictatorship was pivotal in Rome’s transition from republic to empire. Caesar laid the foundations of the Roman imperial system (see Roman Empire).

II

Early Life

Born in Rome on July 12 or 13, 100 bc, Caesar belonged to a prestigious family that had been powerful in Roman politics for more than a century. During childhood he lived through one of the most horrifying decades in the history of Rome. The city was assaulted and captured twice during the decade by Roman armies. The first takeover came from Caesar’s uncle Gaius Marius, leader of the Populares (commoners’ party), along with Lucius Cornelius Cinna. The second attack came from their opponent Lucius Cornelius Sulla, leader of the Optimates (aristocratic party). Each time the victors took power, they took revenge, murdering their opponents and seizing property. Cinna was murdered by his own troops in 84 bc.

Caesar was allied with Marius, his uncle by marriage. Caesar’s own marriage in 84 bc to Cornelia, the daughter of Marius’s associate, Cinna, further cemented the relationship. When Sulla was made dictator in 82 bc, he issued a list of enemies to be executed. Although Caesar was not harmed, he was ordered by Sulla to divorce Cornelia. Refusing that order, Caesar found it wise to leave Rome. He did not return to the city until 78 bc, after Sulla’s resignation.

Caesar was then 22 years old. Unable to gain political office, he left Rome again and went to the island of Rhodes, where he studied rhetoric as the writer and orator Cicero had done before him. Caesar returned to Rome in 73 bc, a very persuasive speaker, to begin his political career. The year before, while still absent, he had been elected to the pontificate, an important college of Roman priests.

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III

Early Political Career

In Rome the political dominance of the Optimates was challenged during the 60s bc by Pompey the Great and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Pompey, a general who had earned his epithet “the Great” in army service under Sulla, returned to Rome in 71 bc, having defeated the rebellious Populares general Sertorius in Spain, then a Roman colony. At the same time Crassus, a wealthy aristocrat, suppressed a slave revolt in Italy led by the gladiator Spartacus. Pompey and Crassus were jointly elected consul (chief magistrate) in 70 bc. Pompey was absent from 67 to 62 bc on military campaigns—first against pirates in the Mediterranean and then against Mithridates, a king in Asia Minor. Crassus, always Pompey’s jealous rival, detected the brilliance of Caesar and fostered an alliance with him.

Caesar was elected quaestor (magistrate) in 69 bc and appointed aedile, official in charge of public works, in 65 bc. He gained great popularity for the lavish gladiatorial games he sponsored. To pay for these, he borrowed money from the wealthy Crassus. As aedile Caesar returned the war trophies of Marius to their former place of honor in the capitol, thus laying claim to leadership of the Populares. In 63 bc Caesar used Crassus’s loans to win election as pontifex maximus (high priest) of the Roman religion.

After Caesar’s wife Cornelia died in 68 bc, he married a second time, to Pompeia, the granddaughter of Sulla. He divorced Pompeia early in 61 bc because of accusations implicating her with a man who had broken into Caesar’s house disguised as a woman during the festival of the Bona Dea, which men were not allowed to attend. “Caesar’s wife,” Caesar is reported to have said, “must be above suspicion.” Caesar then left Rome for a year to serve as governor of Spain. He married a third time, to Calpurnia, in 59 bc.

IV

Triumvirate

When Caesar returned to Rome from Spain in 60 bc, he joined forces with Crassus and Pompey in a three-way alliance later known as the First Triumvirate. His goal was to gain a major military command. To cement the relationship further, Caesar gave his daughter Julia to Pompey in marriage. Thus backed, Caesar was elected consul for 59 bc despite Optimate hostility, and the year after (58 bc) he was appointed governor of three Roman provinces for five years. The provinces were Cisalpine Gaul (Italy north of the Apennine mountains); Transalpine Gaul (Provence), across the Alps in France; and Illyricum, along the coast of Yugoslavia.

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