Veni, vidi, vici. 'I
came, I saw, I conquered.' These are the words of the man who changed the
course of Greco-Roman history.
Julius Caesar was born in
Rome on July 12 or 13, in the year 100 B.C.. His father Gaius Caesar, died when
Caesar was 16 years old, and it was his mother Aurelia, who proved to be quite
influential in his life. Caesar's family was part of Rome's original
aristocracy, called patricians, although they were not rich or particularly
influential. At the time of Caesar's birth, the number of patricians was small,
and their status no longer provided political advantage.
To obtain distinction for
himself and his family, a Roman nobleman sought election to public office. In
86 B.C., Caesar was appointed flamen dialis with the help of his uncle by
marriage, Gaius Marius. The position was one of an archaic priesthood and held
no power. Nevertheless, it identified Caesar with extremist politics. Ceasar
committed himself further to the radical side when he married Cornelia,
daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna in 84 B.C.
In 82 B.C., Caesar was
ordered to divorce his wife by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, an enemy of the
radicals. Caesar refused and prudently left Rome for military service in Asia
and Cilicia. He returned in 78 B.C. when Sulla died and began his political
career as a prosecuting advocate. Caesar then traveled to Rhodes to study
rhetoric and did not return to Rome until 73 B.C. During his journey to Rhodes,
Caesar was captured by pirates. While in captivity, Caesar convinced his
captors to raise his ransom, which increased his prestige. He then raised a
naval force, overcame his captors, and had them crucified.
In 69 or 68 B.C., Caesar
was elected quaestor. His wife died shortly thereafter. In a purely political
maneuver, Caesar seized the opportunity to praise his uncle, Cinna and
father-in-law, Marius during the funeral orations for his deceased wife. He
then married Pompeia, a relative of Pompey. Caesar was elected curule aedile in
65 B.C., pontifex maximus in 63 B.C., and a praetor in 62 B.C. By this time,
Caesar was making a name for himself as a political figure. He divorced Pompeia
after a scandal.
Caesar was made governor
of Farther Spain in 61 B.C. When he returned to Rome the next year, he joined
forces with Crassus and Pompey and formed the first triumvirate. The alliance
between Pompey and Ceasar was solidified further when Pompey married Julia,
Caesar's only child.
Caesar's next step up the
political ladder was to be elected consul in 59 B.C. During that year he also
married Calpurnia. The following year, Caesar was appointed governor of Roman
Gaul. During the next 8 years, Caesar successfully conquered Gallic Gaul to the
north. In 49 B.C., Caesar was instructed by the Senate to lay down his command.
Roman politics had changed following the death of Crassus in 53 B.C., and
Pompey was appointed sole consul in 52 B.C.. In addition, Pompey's wife Julia
died in 54 B.C., breaking the family ties between Pompey and Caesar.
On January 10-11, 49
B.C., Caesar crossed the Rubicon, a small river separating Gaul from Italy,
signifying the start of the Roman Civil War. Pompey fled and within three
months, Caesar ruled of all Italy. He then took Spain and continued to pursue
Pompey all the way to Egypt. In 48 B.C., Pompey was murdered by an officer of
King Ptolemy. Caesar remained in Egypt throughout the winter and dallied with
Queen Cleopatra.
In 48 B.C., Caesar
assumed the title of dictator. He returned to Rome for a short time in 47 B.C.
but then left for Africa to crush his opponents. Caesar departed for Farther
Spain in 46 B.C. to put down resistance there. In 45 B.C., Caesar returned to
Rome to put his empire in order.
On March 15, 44 B.C., a
day known as the Ides of March, Caesar entered the Senate House. An
assassination plot had been hatched by a group of 60 senators, including Gaius
Cassius and Marcus Junius Brutus. As Caesar entered the Senate, he was stabbed
23 times. After Ceasar was assassinated, Rome experienced another 13 years of
civil war.
When the Roman Republic
was first set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge were two men called consuls.
Women were not allowed to be consuls. The consuls controlled the army, and they
decided whether to start a war and how much taxes to collect and what the laws
were. They both had to agree in order to change anything; if one of them said
“veto”, Latin for “I forbid it”, then nothing would be done.
The consuls got advice
from the Senate, which was made up of men from wealthy families in Rome. Women
were not allowed in the Senate, either. Once you got into the Senate, you
stayed in for the rest of your life. Most consuls eventually joined the Senate,
and most senators were from families where their fathers and grandfathers had
been in the Senate. Most of the time, the consuls did what the Senate advised.
There were also prefects
in Rome, whose job it was to run the city – some heard court cases, some ran
the vegetable markets or the meat markets or the port.
There were tribunes, who
were supposed to speak for the poorer people in the Senate. Tribunes were
elected by the Assembly, and they could veto (forbid) anything the Senate voted
for that affected the poor (which ended up being pretty much anything the
Senate voted on). These, too, were all men.
Finally, there was also
an Assembly of all the men (not women) who were grownup and free and had Roman
citizenship. They voted on some big issues, if the consuls asked them to –
things like whether to go to war. And they elected the consuls and prefects and
the Senators. But the Assembly was set up so that richer people got more votes
than poorer people.
Once the Romans began
conquering other places, far away from the city of Rome, they also had a system
of provincial governors – men who took charge of a province of the Empire, and
who heard court cases there. They were also in charge of the army while it was
conquering places.
