Download Julius Caesar - Prep World History I

Julius Caesar
Hooker, Ricahrd. “Julius Caesar.” 1998. Web. August 1, 2004. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ROME/JULIUS.HTM
The First Triumvirate, consisting of Julius Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, came to power in 59 BCE when
Caesar was elected consul. The Triumvirate reform program was enacted and Caesar got himself appointed
governor of Illyricum and Gaul [two significant Roman provinces]. The way to power in Rome was through
military conquest; this gave the general a loyal army, wealth (from the conquered), and popularity and
prestige at home. So the governorship of Illyricum and Gaul allowed Caesar to become the general and
conqueror he so desperately desired to become.
Now the Romans really had no reason to conquer northern and central Europe; the people who lived there,
the Germans and the Celts, were tribal, semi-nomadic peoples. The province of Illyricum provided enough of
a territorial buffer to defuse any threat from these people. But Julius embarked on a spectacular war of
conquest anyway. In a series of fairly brilliant campaigns, Julius added a considerable amount of territory to
the Roman Empire in northern France, Belgium, and even southern Great Britain, subjugating the Celts in all
these territories. When he had finished his conquests, however, the Triumvirate had dissolved. Crassus had
died in a war against the Parthians in the Middle East, and Pompey had turned against Julius and had roused
the Senate against him. The Senate declared Julius an enemy of the state and demanded that he hand over his
generalship and province. Julius, however, decided on a different course of action. His troops were fiercely
loyal to him; so in 49 BCE, Caesar ordered his troops to cross the Rubicon River, which separated his
province from Italy, thus committing a grave crime against the state.1 The Civil War started the minute the
first of his legions had finished crossing the Rubicon.
The war was fought between these two great generals, Pompey and Caesar, but in 48 BCE, Caesar defeated
Pompey at Pharsalus in Greece. Shortly thereafter Pompey was assassinated by the Egyptians among whom
he had sought refuge.2 Caesar then turned his forces towards Asia Minor in a conquest that was so swift that
Caesar described it in three words: "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered").
Caesar returned to Rome in 46 BCE and had the Senate appoint him dictator3 for ten years; he was given
imperium4 over the Roman Empire and was, for all practical purposes, above the law and the constitution.
Two years later he was appointed dictator for life, and he quickly assumed all the important offices in the
government. He reformed the government in many ways, but these reforms were functionally meaningless
considering his absolute power. Caesar's absolute power, imperium for life (which made him imperator, or
Emperor, of Rome), looked suspiciously like a monarchy, which, for all practical purposes, it was. The
Romans, proud of their Republican tradition, deeply resented his power, and in 44 BCE, on the Ides of
March (March 15), a group of conspirators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus,
assassinated Caesar as he entered the Senate in his usual manner: with no bodyguards or protection.
The conspirators were striking a blow for the Republic, fully confident that the Republic would magically
reconstitute itself. Caesar had, after all, ruled Rome for a mere two years. Their dreams, however,
disappeared in a brutal civil war that would last for thirteen years. At the end of the war, the Roman Republic
would come to a shattering end and never again appear on the stage of history.
1
A general was not allowed to bring his own troops within the boundaries of the Italian province. In doing this Caesar is
committing treason against the state and is essentially declaring civil war.
2
Cleopatra’s brother, Ptolemy XIII, was in a conflict of his own with his sister for control of Egypt, and hoped to win
Caesar’s favor by assassinating Pompey.
3
Literally, “one who speaks [the law, power, etc.].” In Latin at the time the term had the sense of “sole ruler” as it does
today, but not quite the profoundly negative sense as does our modern use of the word.
4
Imperium was originally a military concept, the power of the imperator (general in the army) to command. The word
derives from the Latin verb imperare, to command. The title imperator was later applied to the emperor, who, like the
president of the United States, was the commander of the armed forces. In fact, the Latin word imperator gives us the
English word emperor.