Julius Caesar

Held by pirates until his ransom was paid, the young Caesar waits beside their boat. Plutarch says he told them to ask fifty talents, not twenty, and he later had them crucified.

Roman general, statesman and dictator

A Roman noble once held for ransom by pirates^[1], who went on to conquer Gaul^[1], cross the Rubicon into civil war^[1] and die stabbed twenty-three times in the senate-house^[1].

Bio

Who they were

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome in July 100 BC^[2]. The Victorian historian James Anthony Froude gives the day as 12 July^[3]. Caesar was the only son of Gaius Julius and Aurelia^[3]. His father had been a praetor, a senior Roman magistrate, but never rose higher^[3]. His relative Marius was consul, one of Rome's two yearly chief magistrates, that year^[3]. The Julii were an old noble family, and Caesar later said they descended from the goddess Venus^[1]. The year of his birth is not certain, since Mommsen thought he may have been born two years earlier^[4]. Froude judged that his bond with his strict mother Aurelia was affectionate^[3].

Caesar's father died when he was in his sixteenth year^[1]. Caesar then married Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, a leader of the party of Marius^[5]. The dictator Sulla commanded him to put her away, but Caesar refused^[5]. He lost his priesthood, his wife's dowry and his own estates, and was forced to leave Rome^[1]. Sulla is said to have warned that in this one Caesar they would find many a Marius^[1]. Sailing to Rhodes to study, Caesar was captured by pirates and held for nearly forty days until a ransom of fifty talents was paid^[1]. He then hunted the pirates down^[1]. In 63 BC he was elected Pontifex Maximus, Rome's chief priest^[5].

A young Caesar is crowned with the oak-leaf civic crown, the award for saving a fellow citizen's life, for his part in the siege of Mytilene, his first recorded military action.

In 59 BC Caesar was elected consul, after making a pact with the generals Pompey and Crassus^[2]. The following year he was appointed governor of Roman Gaul^[2]. Suetonius says that over nine years he reduced all Gaul to a province, bridged the Rhine and invaded Britain^[1]. The Gallic leader Vercingetorix surrendered to him after the siege of Alesia^[4]. Meanwhile enemies in the senate wanted a successor named before his command ended^[1]. In January 49 BC Caesar reached the Rubicon, the frontier of Italy^[6]. According to Suetonius, he told his men that once they crossed that little bridge, nothing was left but to fight it out in arms^[1]. They crossed, and civil war began.

Caesar addresses a crowd in a Roman forum. He rose through popular politics to chief priest (pontifex maximus) in 63 BC and consul in 59 BC.

Caesar defeated his rival Pompey at the battle of Pharsalus^[1]. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was assassinated^[2]. Caesar went on to win further wars, and Suetonius says he celebrated five triumphs, or victory parades^[1]. In 44 BC he took the dictatorship for life^[2]. On 15 March 44 BC a group led by Cassius and Brutus assassinated him^[2]. He was stabbed twenty-three times in the senate-house built by Pompey^[1]. His body was burned in the Forum^[1]. His will named Gaius Octavius, a grandson of one of his sisters, as chief heir and adopted him^[1].

Caesar's reforms outlived him. The Roman calendar had drifted so far that the harvest festivals no longer fell in summer^[1]. Caesar set the year at 365 days, with an extra day every fourth year^[1]. This Julian calendar stayed in general use until 1582^[1]. After his death Caesar was declared a god by formal decree^[1]. A temple to the deified Julius later rose on the spot where the people had burned his body^[7]. The civil wars that followed his death ended the Republic. They brought his heir Octavian to power as Augustus, the first emperor^[2].

On the Ides of March, 15 March 44 BC, a hand grips Caesar's toga in the senate-house as the conspirators close in. Suetonius counts twenty-three wounds.

Caesar was touchy about going bald. Suetonius says his enemies often mocked him for it^[1]. He used to bring his hair forward from the crown of his head^[1]. Of all the honours given to him by the senate and people, none gave him more pleasure than the right to wear a laurel crown at all times^[1].

Legacy & Reputation

What’s the verdict?

Legacy & Reputation

What's the verdict?

Writers have judged Caesar very differently. The German historian Theodor Mommsen called him the sole creative genius produced by Rome^[4]. Mommsen also wrote that he was a monarch who never played the king^[4]. The Roman biographer Suetonius took a harsher line. He wrote that Caesar’s later words and actions led many to think he had abused his power and was justly cut off^[1]. The BBC says he paved the way for the imperial system^[2].

Myth-buster

Think you know this one?

Myth-buster

Think you know this one?

Caesar is often called Rome’s first emperor, but he ruled as dictator, and Suetonius reports that he answered people who hailed him as king with the words “I am Caesar, and no king”^[1]. The BBC names his heir Octavian, later Augustus, as the first emperor^[2].

Quick Facts

The essentials

Caesar and Cleopatra VII walk together beneath a colonnade lined with Egyptian statues. They became lovers in Alexandria around 48 BC, and in 47 BC she bore a son, Caesarion, and declared Caesar the father; Caesar never formally acknowledged him.

Quick Facts

Born: 12 July 100 BC^[3], Rome^[2] Died: 15 March 44 BC^[2], Senate-house built by Pompey, Rome^[1] Age at Death: 55 Resting Place: Cremated in the Roman Forum, Rome; the Temple of the Deified Julius was later built on the site^[1]^[7] Location: Part of Roman Republic — today, Italy Period: Ancient World Titles: Quaestor (69 BC)^[2]; Aedile (65 BC)^[2]; Pontifex Maximus (63 BC)^[5]; Praetor (62 BC)^[2]; Consul (59 BC)^[2]; Governor of Roman Gaul (from 58 BC)^[2]; Dictator for life (44 BC)^[2] Also known as: Caius Julius Caesar^[1]; Divus Julius, the Divine Julius^[3]

Caesar steps into the Rubicon, the river marking the edge of his province, with his legionaries drawn up behind him. Crossing it with an army in the winter of 49 BC meant invading Italy and began his civil war against Pompey.

Keith found the footnote…

On the morning of the murder, Caesar is said to have joked to the seer Spurinna, "Well, the Ides of March are come." Spurinna replied, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past"^{[8, p. 7]}. Several ancient writers tell the story, so the warning has had an unusually long afterlife.

Keith has spotted the quotation problem…

Suetonius says Caesar uttered only a groan at the first wound, though some authors claim he exclaimed to Marcus Brutus, "Thou, my son!"^[1]. In the editions of Suetonius those words are given in Greek, not as Shakespeare's Latin "Et tu, Brute"^[1].

This sounds invented, but…

Caesar's Gallic triumph nearly ended in a pratfall. In the Velabrum, the axle-tree of his chariot broke, though he escaped a fall. He then climbed the Capitol by torchlight, with forty elephants carrying torches on his right and left^[1].

Caesar has sent a very short message…

In his Pontic triumph, a tablet reading I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED was carried before Caesar. Suetonius says it announced not what was done so much as the dispatch with which it was done^[1]. Three words, one very satisfied general.

Roger would like you to know…

Fixing the calendar meant one gigantic year. According to George Long, the error was corrected by lengthening 46 BC to 445 days, which made it fifteen months^[9]. The reformed calendar then began on 1 January 45 BC. Roger hopes everyone's rent was paid in advance.

Roger has intercepted a secret message…

Suetonius says that when Caesar had anything confidential to tell his friends, he wrote it in cipher by changing the order of the alphabet. To read it, you substitute the fourth letter, D, for A^[10]. Some of his letters to Oppius and Balbus, written in a kind of cipher, survived into Aulus Gellius's day^{[8, p. 7]}.

History gets strange here…

Popular retellings roll Cleopatra up in a carpet, but Plutarch's account says she stretched herself at full length inside a bed-sack, which her friend Apollodorus the Sicilian tied with a cord and carried indoors to Caesar^[11]. Caesar's own account says nothing about Cleopatra^[9].

Keith remains unconvinced…

During Caesar's stay at Alexandria, legend pretends that he swam to safety with one hand, holding his Commentaries above the water with the other. Froude thought this absurd: "As if a general would take his MSS. with him into a hot action!"^[3]. Keith agrees. The manuscripts stay dry in the legend only.

Roger insists this matters…

Caesar bridged the Rhine, a river over a quarter of a mile wide, in ten days from the time his men began cutting timber^[12]. Plutarch adds that drifting tree trunks kept smashing at the supports, so Caesar planted great timber bulwarks across the stream to catch them^[11].

One for the Ageonauts…

Suetonius says that at the first games Augustus held in honour of Julius, a comet appeared. It was taken as a sign that Caesar's soul had been received into heaven, and a star was set on the head of his image^[13]. Even the sky, it seems, got a part in the propaganda.

Caesar works through figures on wax tablets beside a scroll of calculations. He reformed the calendar with the mathematician Sosigenes, and the year of the change ran to 445 days.

All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third.

Julius Caesar

The opening sentence of Caesar's own Commentaries on the Gallic War (De Bello Gallico), in an English translation^[14].

Timeline

How it unfolded

12 July 100 BC

Birth of Julius Caesar

James Anthony Froude gives the date of Caesar's birth as 12 July 100 BC. He was Caius Julius Caesar, the only son of Caius Julius and Aurelia and a nephew of the consul Marius.^[3]

63 BC

Caesar Elected Pontifex Maximus

Caesar was elected Pontifex Maximus, Rome's chief priest, in 63 BC. The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography says he told his mother that morning that he would not return home except in that office.^[5]

59 BC

Consulship and the First Triumvirate

Caesar made a pact with Pompey and Crassus, who helped him win the consulship for 59 BC.^[2] Backed by them, the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography says, he carried all his measures.^{[8, p. 7]}

58 BC - 51 BC

Conquest of Gaul

The year after his consulship Caesar became governor of Roman Gaul and stayed eight years.^[2] Mommsen judged that the fall of Alesia decided the fate of the Celtic nation.^[4]

January 49 BC

Caesar Crosses the Rubicon

Liddell's history says Caesar, stationed at Ravenna, learned of the Senate's decree of 6 January and at nightfall crossed the Rubicon, the stream dividing his province from Italy. Civil war followed.^{[15, p. 21]}

48 BC

Victory at Pharsalus

Caesar was consul for the second time and defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in Thessaly.^[16] Mommsen dates the battle to 9 August, while Dodge gives 29 June.^[4]^[12]

August 48 BC - March 47 BC

Caesar in Alexandria with Cleopatra

Caesar followed Pompey to Egypt and became romantically involved with Queen Cleopatra.^[17] Dodge dates his Alexandrian campaign from August 48 to March 47 BC.^[12]

January - February 44 BC

Caesar Named Perpetual Dictator

Arthur Weigall writes that new honours came to Caesar in January and early February 44 BC. He was named perpetual Dictator, absolute ruler for life, and given the title Imperator.^[18]

15 February 44 BC

Antony Offers the Crown at the Lupercalia

At the Lupercalia festival Antony, in Plutarch's account, ran to the rostra and put a laurel-wreathed diadem on Caesar's head.^[11] Caesar refused the crown.^[16]

15 March 44 BC

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Cassius, Brutus and other conspirators assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March.^[2] The Murray handbook places the attack in Pompey's Curia and says he fell pierced with twenty-three wounds at the foot of Pompey's statue.^{[19, p. 1]}

Dig Deeper

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Roleplay Caesar's very good lawyer defending the 'we were on a break' excuse to the Senate just after his army has crossed the Rubicon.