Julius Caesar’s role in literature
N J Wickramage
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, statesman, Consul and
notable author of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the events
that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman
Empire. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed a political alliance
that was to dominate Roman politics for several years.
Their attempts to amass power through populist tactics were opposed
by the conservative elite within the Roman Senate, among them Cato the
Younger with the frequent support of Cicero. Caesar's conquest of Gaul,
completed by 51 BC, extended Rome's territory to the English Channel and
the Rhine. Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both when he
built a bridge across the Rhine and conducted the first invasion of
Britain.
These achievements granted him unmatched military power and
threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, who had realigned himself
with the Senate after the death of Crassus in 53 BC. With the Gallic
Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to lay down his military
command and return to Rome. Caesar refused, and marked his defiance in
49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with a legion to march into the city
itself. Civil war resulted, from which he emerged as the unrivaled
leader of Rome.
After assuming control of government, Caesar began a program of
social and governmental reforms, including the creation of the Julian
calendar. He centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was
eventually proclaimed "dictator in perpetuity".
But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on
the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by a group
of senators led by Marcus Junius Brutus. A new series of civil wars
broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never
restored. Caesar's adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose
to sole power, and the era of the Roman Empire began.
Much of Caesar's life is known from his own accounts of his military
campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and
speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later
biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources.
Caesar is deemed to be one of the greatest military commanders of
history.
Caesar was born into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which
claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas,
supposedly the son of the goddess Venus. The cognomen "Caesar"
originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born
by caesarean section (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere, caes-). The
Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations: that the first
Caesar had a thick head of hair (Latin caesaries); that he had bright
grey eyes (Latin oculis caesiis); or that he killed an elephant (caesai
in Moorish) in battle.
Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he
favored this interpretation of his name. Despite their ancient pedigree,
the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential. Caesar's
father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia,
while his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little
is recorded of Caesar's childhood.
Caesar's formative years were a time of turmoil and "savage
bloodshed". There were several wars from 91 BC to 82 BC, although from
82 BC to 80 BC, the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla was purging Rome of
his political enemies. Domestically, Roman politics was bitterly
divided. In 85 BC, Caesar's father died suddenly so at sixteen Caesar
was the head of the family. The following year he was nominated to be
the new high priest of Jupiter.
Since the holder of that position not only had to be a patrician but
also be married to a patrician, he broke off his engagement to a
plebeian girl he had been betrothed to since boyhood, and married Lucius
Cinna's daughter Cornelia. Meanwhile, having brought Mithridates to
terms, Sulla returned to Rome and had himself appointed to the revived
office of dictator.
Sulla's proscriptions saw hundreds of his political enemies killed or
exiled. Caesar, as the nephew of Marius and son-in-law of Cinna, was
targeted. He was stripped of his inheritance, his wife's dowry and his
priesthood, but he refused to divorce Cornelia and was forced to go into
hiding. The threat against him was lifted by the intervention of his
mother's family, which included supporters of Sulla, and the Vestal
Virgins. Sulla gave in reluctantly, and is said to have declared that he
saw many a Marius in Caesar.
Caesar left Rome and joined the army, where he won the Civic Crown
for his part in an important siege. On a mission to Bithynia to secure
the assistance of King Nicomedes's fleet, he spent so long at his court
that rumors of an affair with the king arose, which Caesar would
vehemently deny for the rest of his life.
Ironically, the loss of his priesthood had allowed him to pursue a
military career, as the high priest of Jupiter was not permitted to
touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed or one night
outside Rome, or look upon an army.
Hearing of Sulla's death in 78 BC, Caesar felt safe enough to return
to Rome. Lacking means since his inheritance was confiscated, he
acquired a modest house in a lower-class neighborhood of Rome. Instead,
he turned to legal advocacy.
He became known for his exceptional oratory, accompanied by
impassioned gestures and a high-pitched voice, and ruthless prosecution
of former governors notorious for extortion and corruption.
On the way across the Aegean Sea, Caesar was kidnapped by pirates and
held prisoner. He maintained an attitude of superiority throughout his
captivity. When the pirates thought to demand a ransom of twenty talents
of silver, he insisted they ask for fifty. After the ransom was paid,
Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and captured the pirates, and imprisoned
them. He had them crucified on his own authority, as he had promised
while in captivity - a promise the pirates had taken as a joke. As a
sign of leniency, he first had their throats cut. He was soon called
back into military action in Asia, raising a band of auxiliaries to
repel an incursion from the east.
On his return to Rome, he was elected military tribune, a first step
in a political career. He was elected quaestor for 69 BC, and during
that year he delivered the funeral oration for his aunt Julia. His wife,
Cornelia, also died that year. After her funeral, in the spring or early
summer of 69 BC, Caesar went to serve his quaestorship in Spain.
While there he is said to have encountered a statue of Alexander the
Great, and realized with dissatisfaction he was now at an age when
Alexander had the world at his feet, while he had achieved comparatively
little. On his return in 67 BC, he married Pompeia, a granddaughter of
Sulla, whom he later divorced. |