Divus Julius

1. He lost his father at the age of fteen. 1 During the next consulship, after being nominated to be the next amen of Jupiter,

he broke an engagement, made for him while he was still a boy, to

marry one Cossutia, for, though rich, she came of only equestrian

family. Instead, he married Cornelia, daughter of that Cinna who had been consul four times, and later she bore him a daughter named Julia. The dictator Sulla tried to make Caesar divorce

Cornelia, and when he refused he stripped him of the priesthood, his

wife’s dowry and his own inheritance, treating him as if he were a

member of the opposing party. 2 Caesar disappeared from public view and, though su ering from a virulent attack of quartan fever,

was forced to nd a new hiding place almost every night and bribe

householders to protect him from Sulla’s secret police. Finally he won Sulla’s pardon through the intercession of the Vestal Virgins and his near relatives Mamercus Aemilius and Aurelius Cotta. It is

well known that, when the most devoted and eminent men pleaded

Caesar’s cause and would not let the matter drop, Sulla at last gave

way. Whether he was divinely inspired or showed peculiar foresight

is an arguable point, but these were his words: ‘Very well then, you

win! Take him! But never forget that the man whom you want me to spare will one day prove the ruin of the party of optimates which

you and I have so long defended. There are many Mariuses in this

fellow Caesar.’3

2. Caesar rst saw military service in Asia, where he went as aide–de–camp to Marcus Thermus, the praetorian governor of the

province. When Thermus sent Caesar to raise a eet in Bithynia, he

wasted so much time at King Nicomedes’ court that a homosexual

relationship between them was suspected, and suspicion gave place

to scandal when, soon after his return to headquarters, he revisited

Bithynia, ostensibly collecting a debt incurred there by one of his freedmen. However, Caesar’s reputation improved later in the

campaign, when Thermus awarded him the civic crown at the

storming of Mytilene. 4

3. He also campaigned in Cilicia under Servilius Isauricus, but not for long, because the news of Sulla’s death sent him hurrying back to Rome, where a revolt headed by Marcus Lepidus5 seemed to o er prospects of rapid advancement. Nevertheless, though Lepidus

made him very advantageous o ers, Caesar turned them down; he

had small con dence in Lepidus’ capacities, and found the political

atmosphere less promising than he had been led to believe.

4. After this revolt was suppressed, Caesar brought a charge of

extortion against Cornelius Dolabella, a man of consular rank who

had once been awarded a triumph; but he failed to secure a

sentence, so he decided to visit Rhodes until the resultant ill feeling

had time to die down, meanwhile taking a course in rhetoric from Apollonius Molon, the best living exponent of the art. Winter had already set in when he sailed for Rhodes and was captured by pirates o the island of Pharmacussa. They kept him prisoner for nearly forty days, to his intense annoyance; he had with him only a

physician and two valets, having sent the rest of his sta away to

borrow the ransom money. As soon as the stipulated fty talents arrived and the pirates duly set him ashore, he raised a eet and went after them. He had often smilingly sworn, while still in their

power, that he would soon capture and crucify them, and this is exactly what he did. Then he continued to Rhodes, but Mithridates

was now ravaging the nearby coast; so, to avoid the charge of showing inertia while the allies of Rome were in danger, he raised a

force of auxiliaries and drove Mithridates’ deputy from the province

– which con rmed the timorous and half–hearted cities of Asia in

their allegiance.

5. On Caesar’s return to Rome, the people voted him the rank of

military tribune, and he vigorously helped their leaders to undo Sulla’s legislation by restoring the tribunes of the people to their ancient powers. Then one Plotius introduced a bill for the recall from exile of Caesar’s brother–in–law, Lucius Cinna, and the others

who had supported Lepidus and then joined Sertorius6 after Lepidus’

death. Caesar himself spoke in support of the bill, which was passed.

6. During his quaestorship he made the customary funeral

speeches from the Rostra in honour of his aunt Julia and his wife

Cornelia, and while eulogizing Julia’s maternal and paternal ancestry he did the same for his own ancestry too. ‘Her mother’, he

said, ‘was a descendant of kings, since her family, the Marcii Reges,

was founded by Ancus Marcius; and her father, of gods – since the

Julii (of which we Caesars are a branch) reckon descent from the goddess Venus. 7 Thus Julia’s stock can claim both the sanctity of kings, who reign supreme among mortals, and the reverence due to

gods, who hold even kings in their power.’ He next married

Pompeia, Quintus Pompeius’ daughter, who was also Sulla’s

granddaughter, but divorced her on a suspicion of adultery with Publius Clodius; indeed, so persistent was the rumour of Clodius’

having disguised himself as a woman and seduced her at a public

religious ceremony that the Senate ordered a judicial inquiry into

the alleged desecration of these sacred rites.8

7. As quaestor, Caesar was appointed to Further Spain, where the

praetorian governor sent him o on an assize circuit. At Gades he

saw a statue of Alexander the Great in the Temple of Hercules, and

was overheard to sigh impatiently – vexed, it seems, that at an age

when Alexander had already conquered the whole world, he himself

had done nothing in the least epoch–making. Moreover, when on

the following night, much to his dismay, he had a dream of raping

his own mother, the soothsayers greatly encouraged him by their interpretation of it, namely that he was destined to conquer the earth, our universal mother.

8. At all events, he laid down his quaestorship at once, bent on performing some notable act at the rst opportunity that o ered. He

visited the Latin colonies, which were bitterly demanding Roman

citizenship, 9 and might have persuaded them to revolt, had not the consuls realized the danger and garrisoned the district with the legions recently raised for the Cilician campaign.

9. Undiscouraged, Caesar soon made an even more daring

attempt at revolution in Rome itself. A few days before taking up his

aedileship he was suspected of plotting with Marcus Crassus, a man

of consular rank; also with Publius Sulla and Lucius Autronius, who

had jointly been elected to the consulship but been found guilty of

bribery and corruption. These four had agreed to wait until the new

year, and then attack the Senate House, killing as many senators as

convenient. Crassus would then proclaim himself dictator and

Caesar his master of the horse; the government would be

reorganized to suit their pleasure; Sulla and Autronius would be appointed consuls. Tanusius Geminus mentions their plot in his

history; more information is given in Marcus Bibulus’ edicts and in

the speeches of Gaius Curio the elder. Another reference to it may

be detected in a letter of Cicero to Axius, where Caesar is said to

have ‘established in his consulship the monarchy which he had

planned while only an aedile’. Tanusius adds that Crassus was

prevented, either by scruples or by nervousness, from appearing at

the appointed hour, and that Caesar therefore did not give the agreed signal, which, according to Curio, was letting his toga fall and expose the shoulder. Both Curio and Marcus Actorius Naso state

that Caesar also plotted with Gnaeus Piso, a young nobleman suspected of raising a conspiracy in Rome and for that reason appointed governor of Spain, although he was not quali ed for the

position. Caesar, apparently, was to lead a revolt in Rome as soon as

Piso did so in Spain; the Ambrani and the Latins who lived beyond

the Po would have risen simultaneously. But Piso’s death cancelled

the plan. 10

10. During his aedileship, Caesar lled the Comitium, the Forum,

its adjacent basilicas and the Capitol itself with a display of the material which he meant to use in his public shows, building

temporary colonnades for the purpose. He exhibited wild–beast

hunts and stage plays, some at his own expense, some in

cooperation with his colleague Marcus Bibulus – but took all the credit in either case, so that Bibulus remarked openly, ‘The temple

of the heavenly twins in the Forum is always simply called

“Castor’s”;11 and I always play Pollux to Caesar’s Castor when we give a public entertainment together.’ Caesar also put on a

gladiatorial show, but had collected so immense a troop of

combatants that his terri ed political opponents rushed through a bill limiting the number of gladiators that anyone might keep in Rome; consequently far fewer pairs fought than had been

advertised.

11. After thus securing the goodwill of the people, Caesar

worked through the tribunes to be put in charge of Egypt by popular

vote. His excuse for demanding so unusual an appointment was an

outcry against the Alexandrians who had just deposed their king, although the Senate had recognized him as an ally and friend of Rome. 12 However, the optimate party opposed the measure; so Caesar took vengeance by replacing the public monuments –

destroyed by Sulla many years ago – that had commemorated

Marius’ victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri and the Teutones.

Further, as president of the court concerned with murder, he

prosecuted men who had earned public bounties for bringing in the

heads of Roman citizens during the proscriptions, although they had

been exempted by the Cornelian laws. 13

12. He also bribed a man to bring a charge of high treason

against Gaius Rabirius, who some years previously had earned the

Senate’s gratitude by checking the seditious activities of Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people. Caesar, chosen by lot to try Rabirius, pronounced the sentence with such satisfaction that, when

Rabirius appealed to the people, the greatest argument in his favour

was the judge’s obvious prejudice.

13. Obliged to abandon his ambitions concerning Egypt, Caesar

stood for the o ce of pontifex maximus, and used the most agrant

bribery to secure it. The story goes that, reckoning up the enormous

debts thus contracted, he told his mother, as she kissed him goodbye

on the morning of the poll, that if he did not return to her as pontifex he would not return at all. However, he defeated his two

prominent rivals, both of whom were much older and more

distinguished than himself, and the votes he won from their own tribes exceeded those cast for them in the entire poll.

14. When the Catilinarian conspiracy14 came to light, the whole Senate, with the sole exception of Caesar, then praetorelect,

demanded the death of those involved. Caesar proposed merely that

they should be imprisoned, each in a di erent town, and their estates con scated. What was more, he so browbeat those senators

who took a sterner line, by suggesting that the people would

conceive an enduring hatred for them if they persisted in their view,

that Decimus Silanus, as consul–elect, felt obliged to interpret his own proposal – which, however, he could not bring himself to recast

– in a more liberal sense, begging Caesar not to misread it so savagely. And Caesar would have gained his point, since many

senators (including the consul Cicero’s brother) had been won over

to his view, had Marcus Cato not kept the irresolute Senate in line.

Caesar continued to block proceedings until a body of Roman

equites, serving as a defence force, threatened to kill him unless he ceased his violent opposition. They even unsheathed their swords and made such passes at him that most of his companions ed and

the remainder huddled around, protecting him with their arms or their togas. He was su ciently impressed not only to leave the Senate House, but to keep away from it for the rest of that year.

15. On the rst day of his praetorship, Caesar ordered Quintus

Catulus to appear before the people and explain why he had made

so little progress with the restoration of the Capitol, demanding that

Catulus’ commission should be taken from him and entrusted to someone else. However, the senators of the optimate party, who were escorting the newly elected consuls to their inaugural sacri ce

in the Capitol, heard what was afoot and came pouring downhill in

a body to o er obstinate resistance. Caesar withdrew his proposal.

16. Caecilius Metellus, a tribune of the people, then proposed some highly in ammatory bills despite his colleagues’ veto, and Caesar stubbornly championed them until at last they were both suspended by a senatorial decree. Nevertheless, he had the

e rontery to continue holding his court, until warned that he would

be removed by force. Thereupon he dismissed the lictors, took o

his praetorian toga, and went quickly home, where he had decided

to live in retirement because the times allowed him no other

alternative. On the following day, however, a crowd of people made

a spontaneous move towards Caesar’s house, riotously o ering to put him back on the tribunal; but he restrained their ardour. The Senate, who had hurriedly met to deal with this demonstration, were so surprised by his unexpectedly correct attitude that they sent

a deputation of high o cials to thank him publicly; they then summoned him to the Senate House, where with warm praises they

revoked their decree and con rmed him in his praetorship.

17. The next danger that threatened Caesar was the inclusion of

his name in a list of Catilinarian conspirators handed to the special

commissioner, Novius Niger, by an informer named Lucius Vettius,

and also in another list laid before the Senate by Quintus Curius,

who had been voted a public bounty as the rst person to betray the plot. Curius claimed that this information came directly from

Catiline, and Vettius went so far as to declare that he could produce

a letter written to Catiline in Caesar’s own hand. Caesar would not

lie down under this insult, and appealed to Cicero’s testimony that

he had voluntarily come forward to warn him about the plot and that Curius was not therefore entitled to the bounty. As for Vettius,

who had been obliged to produce a bond when he made his

revelations, this was declared forfeit and his goods were seized; the

people, crowding around the Rostra, nearly tore him in pieces.

Caesar thereupon sent Vettius o to jail, and Novius Niger, the commissioner, as well, for having let a magistrate of superior rank

to himself be indicted at his tribunal.

18. The province of Further Spain was now allotted to Caesar.

He relieved himself of the creditors who tried to keep him in Rome

until he had paid his debts by providing sureties for their eventual

settlement. Then he took the illegal and unprecedented step of hurrying o before the Senate had voted him the necessary funds.

He may have been afraid of being taken to court while still a private

citizen, or he may have been anxious to respond as quickly as possible to the appeals of our Spanish allies for help against aggression. At any rate, he rapidly paci ed the province and

returned to Rome with equal haste – not waiting until he had been

relieved – to demand a triumph and stand for the consulship. But

the day of the consular elections had already been announced. His

candidacy could therefore not be admitted unless he entered the city

as a civilian, and when a general outcry arose against his intrigues to be exempted from the regulations governing candidatures, he was

forced to forgo the triumph so as not to be excluded from the consulship.

19. There were two other candidates: Lucius Lucceius and

Marcus Bibulus. Caesar now approached Lucceius and suggested

that they should join forces; since Lucceius had more money and Caesar greater in uence, it was agreed that Lucceius should nance

their joint candidacy by bribing the voters. The optimates got wind

of this arrangement and, fearing that if Caesar were elected consul

with a pliant colleague by his side he would stop at nothing to gain

his own ends, they authorized Marcus Bibulus to bribe the voters as

heavily as Lucceius had done. Many men contributed funds, and

Cato himself admitted that this was an occasion when even bribery

might be excused for the sake of the commonwealth. Caesar and Bibulus were elected consuls, but the optimates continued to restrict

Caesar’s in uence by ensuring that, when he and Bibulus had

completed their term, neither should govern a province of any

signi cance; they would be put in charge of the forests and public

pasturelands in Italy. Infuriated by this slight, Caesar exerted his charm on Gnaeus Pompey, who had quarrelled with the Senate

because it was so slow in approving the steps that he had taken to

defeat Mithridates. He also succeeded in conciliating Pompey and Marcus Crassus – they were still at odds after their failure to agree

on matters of policy while sharing the consulship. Pompey, Caesar

and Crassus now formed a triple pact, 15 jointly swearing to oppose all public policies of which any one of them might disapprove.

20. Caesar’s rst act as consul was to rule that a daily record of

proceedings in the Senate and before the people should be taken and published; he also revived the obsolete custom of having an orderly walk before him, during the months in which his colleague

held the fasces, while the lictors followed behind. Next he

introduced an agrarian law, and when Bibulus delayed its passage

by announcing that the omens were unfavourable he drove him

from the Forum by force of arms. On the following day Bibulus lodged a complaint in the Senate, and when nobody dared move a

vote of censure or make any observation on this scandalous event –

though decrees condemning minor breaches of the peace had often

been passed – he felt so frustrated that from then on he stayed at

home, satisfying his resentment with further edicts about

unfavourable omens.

Caesar was thus enabled to govern alone and do very much as he

pleased. It became a joke to sign documents ‘in the consulship of Julius and Caesar’ rather than ‘Bibulus and Caesar’, naming the same man twice, with nomen and cognomen. And this lampoon

went the rounds:

The event occurred, as I recall, when Caesar governed Rome – Caesar, not Marcus Bibulus, who kept his seat at home.

Caesar partitioned two districts of Campania, a plain called Stellas

that our ancestors had consecrated and an agricultural district that

was farmed on behalf of the commonwealth, among citizens with three or more children, selecting the candidates through

commissioners rather than by lots. When the publicans asked for relief, he cancelled one–third of their obligations, but gave them frank warning not to bid too high for their contracts in future. He

freely granted all other pleas whatsoever, and either met with no opposition or intimidated anyone who dared intervene. Marcus Cato

once tried to delay proceedings by talking out the debate, but Caesar had him forcibly ejected by a lictor and led o to prison.

Lucius Lucullus went a little too far in opposing Caesar’s policy, whereupon Caesar so terri ed him by threats of legal proceedings

that Lucullus fell on his knees and begged his pardon. Hearing that

Cicero had been making a doleful speech in court about the evils of

his times, Caesar at once granted the long–standing request of Cicero’s enemy Publius Clodius to be transferred from patrician to

plebeian rank, 16 rushing the measure through at the ninth hour of the very same day. Finally, he began an attack on the opposing faction by bribing Vettius to announce that some of them had tried

to make him assassinate Pompey. As had been arranged, Vettius was

brought before the Rostra and mentioned a few names, but the

whole a air was so suspicious that it led to nothing, and Caesar, realizing that he had been too hasty, is said to have poisoned his agent.

21. Caesar then married Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, his

successor in the consulship, and at the same time betrothed his own

daughter Julia to Gnaeus Pompey, thus breaking her previous

engagement to Servilius Caepio, who had recently given him a great deal of support in the struggle against Bibulus. He now always called on Pompey to open debates in the Senate, though having hitherto reserved this honour for Crassus, thereby outing the

tradition that a consul should continue, throughout the year, to preserve the order of precedence established for speakers on the Kalends of January.

22. Having thus secured the goodwill of his father–in–law Piso

and his son–in–law Pompey, Caesar surveyed the many provinces

open to him and chose Gaul as being the likeliest to supply him with

wealth and triumphs. True, he was at rst appointed governor only

of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum – the proposal came from Vatinius –

but afterwards the Senate added Transalpine Gaul to his

jurisdiction, fearing that if this were denied him the people would

insist that he should have it. His elation was such that he could not

refrain from boasting to a packed Senate House, some days later, that having now gained his dearest wish, to the annoyance and grief

of his opponents, he would proceed to ‘stamp upon their persons’.

When someone interjected with a sneer that a woman would not nd this an easy feat, he answered amicably, ‘Why not? Semiramis was

supreme in Syria, and the Amazons once ruled over a large part of

Asia.’17

23. At the close of his consulship the praetors Gaius Memmius

and Lucius Domitius demanded an inquiry into his o cial conduct

during the past year. Caesar referred the matter to the Senate, which

would not discuss it, so after three days had been wasted in idle recriminations he left for Gaul. His quaestor was at once charged with various irregularities, as a rst step towards his own

impeachment. Then Lucius Antistius, a tribune of the people,

arraigned Caesar, who, however, appealed to the whole college of

tribunes, pleading absence on business of national importance, and

thus staved o the trial. To prevent a recurrence of this sort of trouble he made a point of putting the chief magistrates of each new

year under some obligation to him, and refusing to support any candidates or allow them to be elected unless they promised to defend his cause while he was absent from Rome. He had no

hesitation in holding some of them to their promises by an oath or

even a written contract.

24. But eventually Lucius Domitius stood for the consulship and

openly threatened that, once elected, he would remove Caesar from

his military command, having failed to do this while praetor. So Caesar called upon Pompey and Crassus to visit Luca, which lay in

his province, and there persuaded them to prolong his governorship

of Gaul for another ve years and to oppose Domitius’ candidature

by seeking the consulship themselves. This success encouraged

Caesar to expand his regular army with legions raised at his own expense – one even recruited in Transalpine Gaul and called by the

Gallic word ‘Alauda’, which he trained and equipped in Roman

style. Later he made every Alauda legionary a full citizen. He now

lost no opportunity of picking quarrels – however imsy the pretext

– with allies as well as hostile and barbarous tribes, and marching

against them. At rst the Senate set up a commission of inquiry into the state of the Gallic provinces, and some speakers went so far as to

recommend that Caesar should be handed over to the enemy. But

the more successful his campaigns, the more frequent were public

thanksgivings voted for him, and they lasted more days than those

which any general before him had ever earned.

25. Brie y, his nine years’ governorship produced the following

results. 18 He reduced to the form of a province the whole of Gaul enclosed by the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Cevennes, the Rhine and the

Rhône – about 32,000 miles in circumference – except for certain allied states which had given him useful support, and exacted an annual tribute of 40 million sesterces. Caesar was the rst Roman to

build a military bridge across the Rhine and cause the Germans on

the further bank heavy losses. He also invaded Britain, a hitherto unknown country, and defeated the natives, from whom he exacted

a large sum of money as well as hostages for future good behaviour.

He met with only three serious reverses: in Britain, when his eet

was all but destroyed by a gale; in Gaul, when one of his legions was routed at Gergovia; and on the German frontier, when his

legates Titurius and Aurunculeius were ambushed and killed.

26. During this time Caesar lost, one after the other, his mother,

his daughter and his grandson. Meanwhile, the assassination of

Publius Clodius had caused such an outcry that the Senate voted for

the appointment of only a single consul, naming Pompey as their choice. When the tribunes of the people wanted Caesar to stand as

Pompey’s colleague, Caesar asked whether they would not persuade the people to let him do so without visiting Rome; his governorship

of Gaul, he wrote, was nearly at an end, and he preferred not to leave until his conquests had been completed. Their granting of this

concession so red Caesar’s ambitions that he neglected no expense

in winning popularity, both as a private citizen and as a candidate

for his second consulship. He began building a new forum with the

spoils taken in Gaul, and paid more than 100 million sesterces for

the site alone. Then he announced a gladiatorial show and a public

banquet in memory of his daughter Julia – an unprecedented event

– and to create as much excitement as possible he had the banquet

catered for partly by his own household, partly by the market contractors. He also issued an order that any well–known gladiator

who failed to win the approval of the spectators should be forcibly

rescued from execution and reserved for the coming show. New

gladiators were also trained, not by the usual professionals in the schools, but in private houses by Roman equites and even senators who happened to be skilled at arms. Letters of his survive, begging

these trainers to give their pupils individual instruction in the art of ghting. He xed the daily pay of the regular soldiers at double what it had been. Whenever the granaries were full he would make

a lavish distribution to the army, without measuring the amount, and occasionally gave every man a Gallic slave.

27. To preserve Pompey’s friendship and renew the family ties,

he o ered him the hand of his sister’s granddaughter Octavia,

though she had already married Gaius Marcellus, and in return he

asked leave to marry Pompey’s daughter, 19 who was betrothed to Faustus Sulla. Having now won all Pompey’s friends and most of the

Senate to his side with loans at a low rate of interest or interest free, he endeared himself to persons of less distinction too by handing out valuable presents, whether or not they asked for them. His bene ciaries included even the favourite slaves and freedmen of prominent men. Caesar thus became the one reliable source of help

to all who were in legal di culties, or in debt, or living beyond their means, and he refused help only to those whose criminal record was so black, or whose purse so empty, or whose tastes so

expensive, that even he could do nothing for them. He frankly told

such people, ‘What you need is a civil war.’

28. Caesar took equal pains to win the esteem of kings and

provincial authorities by o ering them gifts of prisoners, a thousand

at a time, or lending them troops whenever they asked and without

rst obtaining o cial permission from the Senate and People. He also presented the principal cities of Asia and Greece with

magni cent public works, and did the same for those of Italy, Gaul

and Spain. Everyone was amazed by this liberality, and wondered

what the sequel would be.

At last Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the consul, announced in an

edict that he intended to raise a matter of vital public interest; he

then proposed to the Senate that, since the war had now ended in

victory, Caesar should be relieved of his command before his term

as governor expired, that a successor should be appointed, and that

the armies in Gaul should be disbanded. He further proposed that Caesar should be forbidden to stand for the consulship without appearing at Rome in person, since Pompey had not subsequently annulled the decree of the people. Pompey, when he introduced a

bill regulating the privileges of magistrates, had forgotten to make a

special exception for Caesar in the clause debarring absentees from

candidacy, and had corrected this oversight only after the law had

been engraved on a bronze tablet and registered at the public treasury. 20 Nor was Marcellus content to oust Caesar from his command and cancel the privilege already voted him, namely to

stand for the consulship in absentia. He also asked that the colonists whom Caesar had settled at Novum Comum under the Vatinian Act

should lose their citizenship. This award, he said, had been intended

to further Caesar’s political ambitions and lacked legal sanction.

29. The news infuriated Caesar, but he had often been reported

as saying, ‘Now that I am the leading Roman of my day, it will be

harder to put me down a peg than degrade me to the ranks.’ So he

resisted stubbornly, persuading the tribunes of the people to veto Marcellus’ bills and at the same time enlisting the help of Servius Sulpicius, Marcellus’ colleague. When, in the following year,

Marcellus was succeeded in o ce by his cousin Gaius, who adopted

a similar policy, Caesar again won over the other consul, Aemilius

Paulus, with a heavy bribe, and also bought Gaius Curio, the most

energetic tribune of the people. Realizing, however, that his

opponents had made a determined stand and that both the new

consuls–elect were unfriendly to him, he appealed to the Senate,

begging them in a written address not to cancel a privilege voted him by the people without forcing all other military leaders to resign their commands at the same time as he did. But this was read

as meaning that he counted on mobilizing his veteran troops sooner

than Pompey could his raw levies. Next, Caesar o ered to resign command of eight legions and quit Transalpine Gaul if he might keep two legions and Cisalpine Gaul, or at least Illyricum and one

legion, until he became consul.

30. Since the Senate did not intervene and his opponents refused

to make any deal where the public good was concerned, Caesar

crossed into Cisalpine Gaul, where he held his regular assizes, and

halted at Ravenna. He was resolved to defend the rights of the tribunes by war if the Senate took any serious action against the ones who were working in his interests. And this was in fact Caesar’s pretext for launching the civil war. Additional motives are

suspected, however. Pompey’s comment was that, because Caesar

had insu cient capital to carry out his grandiose schemes or give

the people all that they had been encouraged to expect on his return, he chose to throw everything into confusion. Another view is

that he dreaded having to account for the irregularities of his rst

consulship, during which he had disregarded auspices and laws and

vetos, for Marcus Cato had often sworn to impeach him as soon as

the legions were disbanded. Moreover, people said at the time, frankly enough, that should Caesar return from Gaul as a private citizen he would plead his case like Milo in a court ringed around

with armed men. 21 This sounds plausible enough, because Asinius

Pollio records that when Caesar, at the battle of Pharsalus, saw his opponents slaughtered and routed, he said, in these very words,

‘They brought it on themselves. They would have condemned me

regardless of all my victories – me, Gaius Caesar – had I not appealed to my army for help.’ It has also been suggested that constant exercise of power gave Caesar a love of it, and that, after

weighing his enemies’ strength against his own, he took this chance

of ful lling his youthful dreams by making a bid for absolute rule.

Cicero seems to have come to a similar conclusion: in the third book

of his On Duties, he records that Caesar repeatedly quoted some lines of Euripides, which Cicero himself translated as follows:22

Is crime consonant with nobility?

Then noblest is the crime of tyranny –

In all things else obey the laws of heaven.

31. Accordingly, when news reached him that the tribunes’ veto

had been disallowed and that they had ed the city, he at once sent

a few cohorts ahead with all secrecy, and disarmed suspicion by attending a public show, inspecting the plans of a school for gladiators which he proposed to build, and dining as usual among a

crowd of guests. But at dusk he borrowed a pair of mules from a nearby bakery, harnessed them to a carriage, and set o quietly with a few of his sta . His lights went out, he lost his way, and the

party wandered about aimlessly for some hours, but at dawn found

a guide who led them on foot along narrow lanes until they came to

the right road. Caesar overtook his advanced guard at the river

Rubicon, which formed the boundary of his province. Well aware how critical a decision confronted him, he turned to his sta , remarking, ‘We may still draw back but, once across that little bridge, we shall have to ght it out.’

32. As he stood, in two minds, an apparition of superhuman size

and beauty was seen sitting on the riverbank playing a reed pipe. A

party of shepherds gathered around to listen, and, when some of Caesar’s men broke ranks to do the same, the apparition snatched a

trumpet from one of them, ran down to the river, blew a thunderous

blast, and crossed over. Caesar exclaimed, ‘Let us accept this as a sign from the gods and follow where they beckon, in vengeance on

our double–dealing enemies. The die is cast.’23

33. He led his army to the further bank, where he welcomed the

tribunes of the people who had ed to him from Rome. Then he tearfully addressed the troops and, ripping open his tunic to expose

his breast, begged them to stand faithfully by him. The belief that he

then promised to promote every man present to the equestrian order

is based on a misunderstanding. He had accompanied his pleas with

the gesture of pointing to his left hand, as he declared that he would

gladly reward those who championed his honour with the very ring

on his nger; but some soldiers on the fringe of the assembly, who

saw him better than they could hear his words, read too much into

the gesture and put it about that Caesar had promised them all the

right to wear a gold ring and the 400,000 sesterces that went with

it.

34. Here follows a brief account of Caesar’s subsequent

movements.24 He occupied Picenum, Umbria and Etruria; captured Lucius Domitius, who had been named as his emergency successor

in Gaul and was holding Cor nium; let him go free; and then

marched along the Adriatic coast to Brundisium, where Pompey and

the consuls had ed from Rome with the intention of crossing the

straits as soon as possible. When his e orts to prevent this proved

ine ective, he marched on Rome, entered it, summoned the Senate

to review the political situation, and then hurriedly set o for Spain, where Pompey’s strongest forces were stationed under the command

of his legates Marcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius and Marcus Varro.

Before leaving, Caesar told his household, ‘I am o to meet an army

without a leader; when I return I shall meet a leader without an army.’ Though delayed by the siege of Massilia, which had shut its

gates against him, and by a severe lack of supplies, he won a rapid

and overwhelming victory.

35. Caesar returned by way of Rome, crossed over into

Macedonia, and after blockading Pompey for nearly four months

behind immense containing works, routed him at Pharsalus. Pompey

ed to Alexandria; Caesar followed, and, when he found that King

Ptolemy had murdered Pompey and was planning to murder him as

well, declared war. This proved to be a most di cult campaign, fought during winter within the city walls of a well–equipped and

cunning enemy; but, though caught o his guard and without

military supplies of any kind, Caesar was victorious. He then handed

over the government of Egypt to Cleopatra and her younger brother,

fearing that, if it were made a Roman province, some independent–

minded governor might one day launch a bid for power from there.

From Alexandria he proceeded to Syria, and from Syria to Pontus,

news having come that Pharnaces, son of the famous Mithridates, had taken advantage of the confused situation and already gained

several successes. Five days after his arrival and four hours after catching sight of Pharnaces, Caesar crushed him in a single battle,

and commented drily on Pompey’s good fortune in having built up

his reputation for generalship by victories over such poor stu as this. Then he beat Scipio and Juba in Africa, where they were reorganizing the remnants of the Pompeian party, and Pompey’s

sons in Spain.

36. Throughout the civil war Caesar was never defeated himself,

but, of his legates, Gaius Curio died in Africa, Gaius Antonius was

captured in Illyricum, Publius Dolabella lost a eet also o

Illyricum, and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus had his army destroyed in

Pontus. Yet, though invariably successful, he twice came close to disaster: at Dyrrhachium, where Pompey broke his blockade and

forced him to retreat – Caesar remarked when Pompey failed to pursue him, ‘He does not know how to win wars’– and in the nal

battle in Spain, where all seemed lost and he even considered suicide.

37. After defeating Scipio, Caesar celebrated four triumphs in

one month with a few days’ interval between them, and, after

defeating Pompey’s sons, a fth. These triumphs were the Gallic –

the rst and most magni cent – the Alexandrian, the Pontic, the African and lastly the Spanish. Each di ered completely from the others in its presentation. As Caesar rode through the Velabrum on

the day of his Gallic triumph, the axle of his chariot broke, and he

nearly took a toss; but afterwards he ascended to the Capitol between two lines of elephants, forty in all, which acted as his torch–bearers. In the Pontic triumph one of the decorated wagons

carried a simple three–word inscription:

C A M E , S A W , C O N Q U E R E D !

This referred not, like the rest, to the deeds of the war, but to the

speed with which he had won it.

38. Every infantryman of Caesar’s veteran legions earned a

reward of 24,000 sesterces, in addition to the 2,000 paid at the outbreak of hostilities, and a farm as well. These farms could not be

grouped together without evicting the current owners, but were

scattered all over the countryside. Every citizen received ten pecks

of grain and ten pounds of oil, besides the 300 sesterces which Caesar had promised at rst and now raised to 400, by way of interest on the delay in payment. He also waived the annual rent: in

Rome, up to 2,000 sesterces; in Italy, no more than 500. He added a

public banquet and a distribution of meat, and also a dinner to celebrate his Spanish victory; but he decided that this had not been

splendid enough, and ve days later he served a second, more

succulent, one.

39. His public shows were of great variety. They included a gladiatorial contest, stage plays for every quarter of Rome

performed in several languages, chariot races in the Circus, athletic

competitions, and a mock naval battle. At the gladiatorial contest in

the Forum, a man named Furius Leptinus, of praetorian family,

fought Quintus Calpenus, an advocate and former senator. The sons

of petty kings from Asia and Bithynia danced the Pyrrhic war dance.

In the theatrical performances, Decimus Laberius, a Roman eques, acted in his own play; but afterwards, having been given 500,000

sesterces and a gold ring, he walked straight from the stage through

the orchestra to sit in the rst fourteen rows. 25 The racecourse at the Circus was extended at either end, and a broad ditch was dug

around it; the contestants were young noblemen who drove four–

horse and two–horse chariots or rode pairs of horses, jumping from

back to back. The Troy Game was performed by two troops of boys,

one younger than the other. Wild–beast hunts took place ve days

running, and the entertainment ended with a battle between two armies, each consisting of 500 infantry, 20 elephants and 30

cavalry. To let the camps be pitched facing each other, Caesar removed the central barrier of the Circus, around which the chariots

ran. Athletic contests were held in a temporary stadium on the Campus Martius, and lasted for three days. The naval battle was fought between heavily manned Tyrian and Egyptian biremes,

triremes and quadriremes on an arti cial lake dug in the Lesser Codeta. Such huge numbers of visitors ocked to these shows from

all directions that many of them had to sleep in tents pitched along

the streets or roads, and the pressure of the crowd often crushed people to death. The victims included two senators.

40. Caesar next turned his attention to domestic reforms. First he

reorganized the calendar, which the ponti ces had allowed to fall

into such disorder, by intercalating days or months as it suited them, that the harvest and vintage festivals no longer corresponded

with the appropriate seasons. He linked the year to the course of the

sun by lengthening it to 365 days, abolishing the intercalary

month26 and adding an entire day every fourth year. But to make the next Kalends of January fall at the right season, he drew out this

particular year by two extra months, inserted between November

and December, so that it consisted of fteen, including the

intercalary one inserted in the old style.

41. He brought the Senate up to strength, created new patricians,

and increased the yearly quota of praetors, aediles and quaestors, as

well as of minor o cials; he reinstated those degraded by the censors or condemned for corruption by a jury. Also, he arranged with the people that, apart from the consuls, half the magistrates should be popularly elected and half nominated by himself.

Allowing even the sons of proscribed men to stand, he circulated brief directions to the voters. For instance, ‘Caesar the dictator to such–and–such a tribe of voters: I recommend so–and–so to you for

o ce.’ He limited jury service to equites and senators, disqualifying the treasury tribunes. 27 Caesar conducted a census in a novel way: he made landlords help him to complete the list, street by street,

and reduced from 320,000 to 150,000 the number of householders who might draw free grain. To do away with the nuisance of having

to summon everyone periodically for enrolment in the register, he

made the praetors keep it up to date by replacing the names of dead

men with those of others not yet listed.

42. Since the population of Rome had been considerably

diminished by the transfer of 80,000 men to overseas colonies, he

forbade any citizen between the ages of twenty and forty who was

not on military service to absent himself from Italy for more than

three years in succession. Nor might any senator’s son travel abroad

unless as a member of some magistrate’s household or sta , and at

least a third of the cattlemen employed by ranchers had to be freeborn. Caesar also granted the citizenship to all medical

practitioners and professors of liberal arts resident in Rome, thus inducing them to remain and tempting others to follow suit. He disappointed popular agitators by cancelling no debts, but in the end he decreed that every debtor should have his property assessed

according to pre–war valuation and, after deducting the interest already paid directly or by way of a banker’s guarantee, should satisfy his creditors with whatever sum that might represent; as a result, creditors lost about a fourth of what they had lent. Caesar dissolved all private associations except the ancient ones, and increased the penalties for crime; and since wealthy men had less compunction about committing major o ences, because they could

simply go into exile with their property intact, he punished

murderers of close relatives (as Cicero records) by the seizure of their entire property, and others by seizure of half.

43. In his administration of justice he was both conscientious and severe, and went so far as to degrade senators found guilty of

extortion. Once, when a man of praetorian rank married a woman

on the day after her divorce from her husband, he annulled the union, although adultery between them was not suspected. He

imposed a tari on foreign manufactures; he forbade the use of litters, except on stated occasions, and the wearing of either purple

robes28 or pearls by those below a certain rank and age. To implement his laws against luxury he placed inspectors in di erent

parts of the market to seize delicacies o ered for sale in violation of his orders; sometimes he even sent lictors and guards into dining rooms to remove illegal dishes, already served, which his watchmen

had failed to intercept.

44. Caesar was continually planning great new works for the

embellishment of the city and for the empire’s protection and

enlargement. His most notable projects were a temple of Mars, the

biggest in the world, to build which he would have had to ll up

and pave the lake where the naval sham ght had been staged, and

an enormous theatre sloping down from the Tarpeian Rock. Another

task he set himself was the reduction of the civil law to manageable

proportions, by selecting from the unwieldy mass of statutes only the most essential, and publishing them in a few volumes. Still another was to provide public libraries, by commissioning Marcus

Varro to collect and classify Greek and Latin books on a comprehensive scale. His engineering schemes included the draining

of the Pomptine Marshes and of the Fucine Lake, the building of a

highway from the Adriatic across the Apennines to the Tiber, and

the cutting of a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. In the military

eld he planned an expulsion of the Dacians from Pontus and

Thrace, which they had recently occupied, and then an attack on Parthia by way of Lesser Armenia; but he decided not to risk a pitched battle until he had familiarized himself with Parthian

tactics.

All these schemes were cancelled by his assassination. Before

describing that, I should perhaps give a brief description of his appearance, personal habits, dress, character, and conduct in peace

and war.

45. Caesar is said to have been tall, fair and well built, with a

rather broad face and keen, dark eyes. His health was sound, apart

from sudden fainting spells and a tendency to nightmares which troubled him towards the end of his life, but he twice had epileptic