Caesar Julius

Caesar Julius

Introduction

Caesar Julius was born into the Julian gens? one of the oldest patrician families in Rome? Caesar was always a member of the democratic or popular party. He benefited from the patronage of his uncle by marriage? Caius Marius. In 82 B.C.? when Caesar refused to obey Sulla's order to divorce Cornelia? the wealthy daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna? he was proscribed and subsequently fled from Rome (81 B.C.).

Could anyone have predicted that the youngest member of the triumvirate would out-do Pompey, the renown military commander, and change the whole face of the then known world? With only a year's military experience in Spain (61 BC), and already past forty years of age, Julius Caesar's knowledge in military matters, to say nothing of his total lack of handling troops, was very limited. He was an intellectual, trained by Greek tutors, and an eloquent advocate in the Roman Forum. He was also, as were so many other Romans in history, a skilful manager of intrigues. His lavish lifestyle, his entertainments, and his debts were famous, and because he was the nephew of Marius and the son-in-law of Cinna, his road to fame, glory and power was well paved.

On Sulla's death? Caesar returned (78 B.C.) and began his political career. He quickly gained popularity with his party and a reputation for oratory. In 74 B.C. he went into Asia to repulse a Cappadocian army. Upon his return? he agitated for reform of the government on popular lines and helped to advance the position of Pompey? the virtual head of the popular party. Caesar was made military tribune before 70 B.C. and was quaestor in Farther Spain in 69 B.C.; he helped Pompey to obtain the supreme command for the war in the East.

He returned to Rome in 68 B.C.? and in Pompey's absence was becoming the recognized head of the popular party. His praise of Marius and Cinna made him popular with the people? but earned him the hatred of the senate. Rather than returning to Rome, Caesar joined the army, serving under Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia and Servilius Isauricus in Cilicia. He served with distinction, winning the Civic Crown for his part in the siege of Mytilene. On a mission to Bithynia to secure the assistance of King Nicomedes's fleet, he spent so long at his court that rumours of an affair with the king arose, which would persist for the rest of his life.

Ironically, the loss of his priesthood had allowed him to pursue a military career: the Flamen Dialis was not permitted to touch a horse, sleep three nights outside his own bed or one night outside Rome, or look upon an army.

In 80 BC, after two years in office, Sulla resigned his dictatorship, re-established consular government and, after serving as consul, retired to private life. Caesar later ridiculed Sulla's relinquishing of the dictatorship—"Sulla did not know his political ABC's. He died two years later in 78 BC and was accorded a state ...