Julius Caesar

Gaius or Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin: Gaius Iulius Caesar; July 12 or 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC) was a Roman politician and military officer of the 1st century BC. C. member of the patrician Julius Caesars who reached the highest magistracies of the Roman State and dominated the politics of the Republic after winning the civil war that confronted him with the most conservative sector of the Senate.

Born into the gens Julia, a patrician family of little fortune, he was related to some of the most influential men of his time, such as his uncle Gaius Mario, who would have a decisive influence on his political career, in 84 BC, at the age of 16, the popular Lucio Cornelio Cinna named him flamen Dialis, a religious charge from which he was relieved by Sila, with whom he had conflicts because of his marriage to Cinna's daughter. After escaping death at the hands of dictator Sila's henchmen, he was pardoned thanks to the intercession of his mother's relatives. Transferred to the province of Asia, he fought in Mytilene as a legate of Marcus Minutius Thermos. He returned to Rome on Sulla's death in 78 BC, and practiced law for a time. in 73 a. C. he succeeded Gaius Aurelius Cota as pontiff, and soon came into contact with the consuls Pompey and Crassus, whose friendship would enable him to launch his own political career.In 70 a. C. Caesar served as quaestor in the province of Hispania Ulterior and as curule aedile in Rome. During the performance of that magistracy he offered some shows that were remembered for a long time by the people.

in 63 a. C. he was elected urban praetor by obtaining more votes than the rest of the candidates. That same year, Quintus Cecilio Metelo Pío died, appointed pontifex maximus during the Sulla dictatorship, and Caesar won the elections held to replace him. At the end of his pretura he served as propraetor in Hispania, where he led a brief military campaign against the Lusitanians. in 59 a. C. he was elected consul thanks to the support of his two political allies, Pompey and Crassus, the men with whom Caesar formed the so-called First Triumvirate. His colleague during the consulate, Marco Calpurnio Bíbulo, withdrew in order to hinder the work of César, who, however, managed to carry out a series of legal measures, among which an agrarian law that regulated the distribution of land among the veteran soldiers.

After his consulate he was appointed proconsul of the provinces of Transalpine Gaul, Illyria and Cisalpine Gaul, the latter after the death of its governor, Céler. His government was characterized by a very aggressive policy with which he subdued practically all of the Celtic peoples in several campaigns. This conflict, known as the Gallic War, ended when the republican general defeated the last pockets of opposition in the Battle of Alesia, led by an Arverni chief named Vercingetorix. His conquests extended Roman rule over the territories that today make up France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and part of Germany. He was the first Roman general to penetrate the uncharted territories of Britain and Germany.

While Caesar finished organizing the administrative structure of the new province that he had annexed to the Republic, his political enemies in Rome tried to strip him of his army and position using the Senate. Caesar, knowing that if he entered the capital he would be tried and exiled, he attempted to present himself to the consulship in absentia , to which the optimates refused. This and other factors prompted him to defy senatorial orders and star in the famous Rubicon crossing, at which time he, it seems, pronounced the immortal phrase alea iacta est("the die is cast"). He thus started a new civil war, in which he faced the optimates, who were led by his former ally, Pompey. His victories at the battles of Pharsalia, Thapsus and Munda over the conservatives made him the master of the Republic. The fact that he was in the midst of civil war did not prevent him from facing Pharnaces II in Zela and Cleopatra's enemies in Alexandria. Upon his return to Rome he appointed himself consul and perpetual dictator, and initiated a series of economic, urban and administrative reforms.

Although the Republic experienced a brief period of great prosperity under his rule, some senators saw Caesar as a tyrant who wanted to restore the monarchy. In order to eliminate the threat posed by the dictator, a group of senators made up of some of his trusted men such as Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus and former lieutenants such as Gaius Trebonius and Tenth Junius Brutus Albinus hatched a conspiracy in order to remove it. This plot culminated when, on the Ides of March, the conspirators assassinated Caesar in the Senate. His death caused the outbreak of a long period of wars, in which the supporters of Caesar's regime, Marco Antonio, Octavio and Lepidus, defeated their assassins, led by Brutus and Cassius, in the double battle of Philippi. At the end of the conflict, Octavio.

Apart from his political and military career, César stood out as a speaker and writer. He wrote at least one treatise on astronomy, another on the Roman republican religion, and a study on Latin, none of which have survived to the present day. The only surviving works are his Commentaries on the Gallic War and his Commentaries on the Civil War . The development of his military career and a large part of his life are known through his own works and the writings of authors such as Suetonius, Plutarch, Veleyo Patérculo or Eutropius.

Family

Julius Caesar was a member of the Julius Caesars, a patrician family of the gens Julia that first appears in historical records in the late 3rd century BC. C. , during the Second Punic War. However, it is not until the late Republic, when they had divided into two branches — attached to different tribes — that the Julius Caesars are among the leading aristocratic families .

His father, his namesake, was a senator of praetorian rank who retired from politics after a provincial government in Asia. His mother was Aurelia, a member of the Aurelios Cotas, a prominent family of plebeian nobility. Various members of this family reached the consulate at the end of the 2nd century BC. C. and the beginning of the next, which would be a notable help for the political progression of the future dictator. More decisive would be the relationship with Gaius Mario, who married Julia, the paternal aunt of Julius Caesar. Mario and his followers ( the Marian party ) dominated Roman politics in the late 2nd century BC. C. and it was this relationship that Julius Caesar took advantage of in his political beginnings.​

In addition to his aunt Julia, the consul of the year 91 a. C., Sixth Julius Caesar, may also have been his father's brother. His two sisters, of whom little is known, married into wealthy members of the Italic aristocracy: the eldest to a member of the gens Pedia; The youngest with Marco Acio Balbus, related to the Pompeys. Lucio Pinario Escarpus descended from another marriage of the eldest of his sisters .

Julius Caesar was married at least three times. First to Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, from a patrician family. Cinna was a supporter of Mario and an enemy of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, so Julius Caesar strengthened his ties with the main leaders of Rome in the eighties of the 1st century BC. However , after the death of Cornelia, he married Pompeii, granddaughter of Sulla himself and from a consular family, from whom he divorced after a scandal during the Bona Dea celebrations. His last marriage was with Calpurnia, daughter of Lucio Calpurnio Piso Cesonino, a leading member of the Senate, as part of the marriage policy of the first triumvirate .

From his first marriage, he had a daughter, Julia, married to his triumviral colleague Gnaeus Pompey the Great  and who died in childbirth. With no direct heirs, he adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius, the future emperor Augustus, by will. .

Birth

Julius Caesar was born in Rome on July 12 or 13, 100 BC. Following classical sources, most modern scholars agree on the year, except Theodor Mommsen (102 BC) and Jérôme Carcopino (101 BC), who relied on presuppositions from the leges annales . As for the day, while some authors support the 13th, others prefer the 12th and still others do not opt ​​for any. The doubts come from a quote by Cassius Dion in which he says that Julius Caesar was born on the 13th, but it was changed to 12 by a triumviral law.This change was due to the fact that games in honor of Apollo were held on July 13 and, according to an oracle, no other festival in honor of a divinity could take place on the same day. All other classical sources refer to July 12 as July as date of birth .

Early years

Julius Caesar enters history in the year 84 BC. C., when Cinna chose him to be flamen Dialis and married him to her daughter Cornelia after breaking the young man's previous engagement with Cosucia. By then Cinna controlled the Republic. However, the civil war that followed his death ended with Sulla's triumph and the annulment of his entire program. Julius Caesar was ordered to divorce Cornelia. His refusal prompted Sulla to outlaw him and forced him to flee Rome. It was the intervention of his relatives, and the backing of the Vestal Virgins, that enabled the young Caesar to avoid the fate of other outlaws, agreeing that he would keep his marriage. and would resign the priesthood.According to Suetonius and Plutarch, on that occasion Sulla said that there were many Marios in the young man .

Realizing that Sulla's pardon could be revoked at any time, Caesar judged that it was safest to stay away from Rome for a time and decided to travel to the East to participate in the war against Mithridates VI of Pontus under the orders of the propraetor, Marcus. Minute Thermo. During the siege of Mytilene he was ordered to Bithynia to petition Nicomedes IV for a small fleet to assault the rebellious city. Apparently, the Asian king was so dazzled by the beauty of the young Roman messenger that he invited him to rest in his room and participate in a feast where he served as royal cupbearer during the banquet. Caesar's adventure in Asia soon reached the ears of the citizens of Rome. In Roman politics, accusing someone of passive homosexual relations was a common strategy,Because passive homosexuality, unlike active homosexuality, was considered a shameful practice. Her political enemies proclaimed that she had prostituted herself to a barbarian king and dubbed her "the queen of Bithynia", thus causing great damage to her reputation. However, Caesar always denied this fact. The rest of the campaign earned him a better reputation, because he showed a great capacity for command and a commendable courage and courage, for which Minutius Thermus, after the capture of Mytilene, would grant him the civic crown, the highest decoration for valor that was granted in the Roman Republic.

After Sulla's death in 78 B.C. C., César returned to Rome and began a career as a lawyer in the Roman Forum, with which he became known for his careful oratory. His first case was directed against Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella, a Sulla protégé who in 81 B.C. C. had been elected consul and then, the following year, proconsul in Macedonia, and where he had allegedly embezzled state funds. Dolabela, upon learning of the process against him, hired for his defense one of the most illustrious lawyers of the time, Quinto Hortensio (called "The Dancer" for his way of moving on the bench), and the eminent Lucio Aurelio Cota — Caesar's own uncle, but this was normal. Despite these formidable enemies, Caesar showed his quality as an orator, which, although it did not help him win the cause, did bring him the fame he sought.​

The following year, some Greek cities that had been sacked by Cayo Antonio Híbrida during Sulla's campaign in Greece, entrusted him with the defense of their cause. Caesar spoke before the praetor Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus very eloquently and won the trial, but Híbrida appealed to the tribunes of the plebs, who exercised their right of veto, and suspended the sentence passed against him. In the year 73 to. C. the death of his uncle opened the doors for him to be elected pontifex in his place and thus entered the College of Pontiffs, a religious body of great importance in the pious life of Rome.

Despite this success, César decided to travel to Rhodes to broaden his training by studying philosophy and rhetoric with the grammarian Apolonio Molón, who was considered the best of the time. However, during the trip, his ship was assaulted off Farmacusa Island by pirates, who kidnapped him. When they demanded a ransom of 20 talents of gold (a talent was equivalent to approximately 26 kilos), Caesar laughed and challenged them to ask for 50. In his captivity he dedicated himself to composing some speeches, having as listeners the pirates, whom he tried to ignorant and barbaric when they did not applaud. Thirty-eight days later, the ransom arrived and Caesar was released after a fairly comfortable captivity, during which, despite treating his kidnappers kindly, he repeatedly warned them of his dark future. A) Yes, Once his freedom was restored, he organized a naval force that sailed from the port of Miletus, captured the pirates in their refuge and took them to prison in Pergamon. Once captured, he went in search of Junius, ruler of Asia, because he was responsible for punishing those imprisoned. June became more interested in the loot and left the bandits to the judgment of Caesar, who had them crucified, as he had promised them, although in a gesture of "compassion" he ordered that they be slaughtered first.​​

In 69 BC C., Cornelia died while she was giving birth to a stillborn child and shortly after César lost his aunt Julia, Mario's widow, to whom he had felt very close. Contrary to the customs of the time, César insisted on organizing two public funerals. Both funerals also served to defy Sulla's laws, as images of Gaius Marius and the son he had had with her and who had also fought against Sulla were displayed at Julia's funeral: her late cousin, Gaius Marius the Younger; and at Cornelia's funeral, the image of her father Lucio Cornelio Cinna. All of them had been banned and the dictator's laws prohibited showing their images in public, but César did not hesitate to break the rules. This challenge was greatly appreciated by the commoners and those who formed the faction of thepopular , and, to the same extent, repudiated by the optimates .

Political rise

Caesar was chosen quaestor by the Comitia in 69 a. C., with 30 years of age, as stipulated by the Roman cursus honorum . In the subsequent lottery, he was awarded a position in the Roman province of Hispania Ulterior, situated in what is now Portugal and southern Spain. According to a local legend, in the Temple of Hercules Gaditano (Herakleion) in the city of Gades, located on what is now the Islet of Sancti Petri, Julius Caesar had a dream that predicted world domination after crying before the bust of Alexander the Great for having reached his age without having achieved significant success .There, as quaestor, he met Lucius Cornelius Balbus the Elder, who later became an adviser and friend to the future dictator and propraetor of Hispania Ulterior in 61 BC. C. Gades provided great support to the Roman fleet in its Lusitania campaign, where Balbus was already praefectus fabrum , that is, a kind of chief engineer, belonging to the staff of the legions.

Back in Rome, Caesar continued his career as a lawyer until he was elected curule aedile in 65 BC. C., the first position of the cursus honorumthat was exercised within Rome. The functions of a mayor can be compared, in a certain way, to those of a modern president of a municipal board, and included the regulation of constructions, traffic, commerce and other aspects of daily life, among others the functions of police officer. But the position, the first public step to reach the supreme magistracy of the consulate, could also be the last to be held, since it included the organization of the games in the Circus Maximus, which, due to the limited public budget, required to the mayor the use of personal funds. This was especially true in the case of César, who intended to put on some memorable games to further his political career. And, in fact, he used all his ingenuity to get it, coming to divert the course of the Tiber and flood the Circus to offer a naumaquia (a combat between ships). He ended the year with debts on the order of several hundred gold talents.​

However, his success as aedile was an important help so that, after the death of Quinto Cecilio Metelo Pío in the year 63 a. C., Caesar was elected Pontifex Maximus dignity that endowed the elect with enormous auctoritas and dignitas . On the day of his election there were suspicions of an attack against him, which forced Julius Caesar to tell his mother:Mother, today you will see your son dead in the Forum or wearing the toga of the Supreme Pontiff.Suetonius

The position involved a new house in the Forum, the Domus Publica , the presidency of the College of Pontiffs, and a certain preeminence in the religious life of Rome, as well as the assumption of the duties and rights of the paterfamilias over the Vestal Virgins .

His debut as Pontifex Maximus was marked by scandal. After Cornelia's death, Caesar had married Pompeii (daughter of Cornelia Sulla and Quintus Pompey Rufus), Sulla's granddaughter. As the wife of the Pontifex Maximus and one of the most important women in Rome, Pompeii was responsible for the organization of the Bona Dea rites.in December, an exclusively female liturgy, where men could not participate. But during the celebrations of the year 62 a. C., Publio Clodio Pulcro (a young demagogue leader, considered dangerous) managed to enter the house disguised as a woman, apparently moved by the lewd purpose of lying with Pompeii. In response to this sacrilege, of which she was probably not guilty, Pompeii received a divorce order. César declared in public that he did not consider her responsible for her, but he justified her action with her famous maxim:Caesar's wife must not only be honored; she besides she must look like it.Plutarch

Clodius was pardoned by the will of the people, since nothing had been proven and Caesar himself did not want to testify against him.

In the elections for 63 a. C., Marcus Tullius Cicero was elected senior consul. It was a particularly difficult year not only for Caesar, but also for Rome. During his consulship, Cicero revealed a conspiracy to remove the elected magistrates and reduce the functionality of the Senate, a plot led by Lucius Sergius Catilina, a patrician frustrated by his lack of political success. Although no trial was held against them, in the strict sense of the term, the truth is that almost all the defendants in the conspiracy, and certainly Catilina, were present at the sessions of the Senate in which they were "tried". In the third meeting, Cicero discharged his responsibility on the curia by having the senators debate the penalty to which the conspirators would be sentenced. The result was a death sentence for five prominent Roman allies of Catilina and for Catilina himself.All these extremes were left for posterity in the famous Catilinarias written by Cicero himself.

Caesar opposed the death penalty using his best oratory for that purpose, but was defeated by the insistence of Marco Porcio Cato the Younger and the five men were executed that same day. It was also at this dramatic meeting of the Senate that Caesar's affair with Servilia, sister of Marcus Porcius Cato, came to light. Caesar's political opponents accused him of being part of Lucius Sergius Catilina's conspiracy, which it was never tested or hurt his career.

Caesar was elected urban praetor for 62 BC. C., the most distinguished position of praetor, since he was the one who dealt with affairs between Roman citizens. He supported the tribune of the plebs Quintus Cecilio Metelo Nepos when he presented some laws in favor of Pompey. However, these laws were vetoed by Cato and street fights broke out between the two sides. After his difficult year as praetor, Caesar was appointed propraetor of Hispania Ulterior .

The first triumvirate

Caesar's rule in the province of Hispania is not well documented; it is known that he led a small and quick war in the north of Lusitania that perhaps provided him with some loot to pay off some of the debts generated by his management as aedile, and earn good credit as a military leader. Without a doubt, the military success was important, since the Senate granted him a triumph .

Caesar left his province even before the arrival of his replacement and hurried to Rome. Arriving at the Champ de Mars, he had to stop at the entrance to the city —since he still held the imperium— until he had celebrated his triumph. Faced with the impossibility of entering Rome, he settled in the Villa Pública and hastened to present his candidacy for the consulate by an interposed person or by means of a letter to the senate, since there is no evidence that the senate met extra-pomerium , that is "outside the pomerium", to hear the petition. After taking a day, it seemed that the Senate would have no problem validating it .

Cato, spokesman for the most conservative optimate faction , was reluctant for a popular politician to obtain the consulate and even more so if this politician was Caesar, whom he detested, and knowing that a vote had to be taken before sunset, he continued speaking until late at night, so the above motion could not be passed. Given this, César decided to dispense with the laurels of his triumph and present himself personally as a candidate .

Having failed to neutralize Caesar's entry into the election, the optimates moved quickly to find a candidate who balanced the balance, and who belonged to the sphere of conservative ideas, in order to counteract the measures that Caesar might take. Pompey meanwhile had begun doling out money to his clientele and voters, spending whatever was necessary to purchase the two consulates. Meanwhile, Cato chose as his candidate his son-in-law Marco Calpurnio Bibulo, who for the optimates played the role of savior of the Republic. In the elections of the year 59 a. C. César was first by far and Bíbulo was in second place .

Everything seemed to pass naturally for the conservatives, who, after politically blocking Pompey, and faced with the unacceptable prospect of allowing a man like Caesar, so thirsty for glory and with military skills, to be governor of a province, began maneuvers to avoid it. Cato proposed to the Senate that once the mandate of the consuls ended, and Italy being plagued by outlaws and bandits only ten years after the rebellion of Spartacus, it would be in the interest of the Republic to order the consuls to finish them off on a mission of one year duration. The Senate welcomed the idea, which became law. Cato's will was carried out perfectly and it seemed that Caesar would end his consulate as a policeman, among Italian villagers and shepherds .

It was a risky decision, however, but by making it the Senate ensured that if Caesar did not accept it he would have to resort to force to overturn it and would be declared a criminal, a second Catilina. Cato's strategy was always to identify with tradition and corner his enemies against it until they were forced to take on the role of revolutionaries. In the Senate, the allies of the optimates led by Cato held a solid majority, counting on Crassus and his powerful bloc, as everyone expected him to oppose any measure by Pompey .

At the first meeting of the Senate during Caesar's consulship, Caesar tried to offer a generous deal to reward Pompey's veterans. Cato was unwilling to let it pass and began to use his favorite tactic: he talked and talked until Caesar stopped him from going any further, nodding to his lictors to take him away. Seeing him, some senators began to abandon their posts; When questioned by Caesar to find out why they were leaving, one of them replied that "I prefer to be in prison with Cato, than in the Senate with you" .

Given this, he was forced to rectify, but his withdrawal was purely strategic: he took the campaign of his agrarian law directly before the Elections. Rome began to fill with veterans of Pompey, which alarmed conservatives. However, Caesar could get the bill passed by the people with the force of law, but going against the will of the Senate was an unorthodox tactic, one that would ruin his credit among his colleagues and his career would be over. . Caesar's strategy was revealed in the final stretch of the vote: it surprised no one that the first person to speak in favor of his veterans was Pompey; but the identity of the second person who supported the motion was surprising: Marcus Licinius Crassus. The optimates, overwhelmed, saw how all their hopes fell. Together the three menHistorians designate this union as the first triumvirate, or the three-man rule . To confirm the alliance, Pompey married Julia, Caesar's only daughter, and despite the difference in age and social background, the marriage was a success .

The reasons why these three personalities of Roman public life decided to unite should be sought only in the interests of each one. Pompey needed Caesar to pass the agrarian laws that would endow his veterans with land; Crassus wanted a proconsular command that would bring him true glory, which he had not achieved in his suppression of Spartacus's revolt, and Caesar needed Pompey's prestige and Crassus's funds in order to get the province he craved . To think that the rapprochement of these three great figures of the Republic was sudden, even though it was a surprise to their contemporaries, it was a political maneuver whose existence they realized rather gradually .

Marcus Bibulus and the conservatives who supported him initiated a rearguard strategy: they began to use the veto to oppose Caesar's proposals; but César was not willing to not be allowed to legislate, and took his projects directly to the elections, where they were approved, among other things, by the determined physical support of Pompey's veterans. However, when in an altercation some elements of the populus threw a basket of dung at Bibulus's head, he chose to withdraw from all political life, although without giving up his magistracy, under the pretext of dedicating himself to observing the skies in search of omens .This decision, apparently religious in spirit, was intended to prevent Caesar from passing laws during his consulship, but Caesar systematically ignored the unfavorable omens published daily by Bibulus and relied for decision-making on the tribunes of the plebs and the Comitia. .

As is known, the Romans called the years by the name of the two consuls who governed that period. The year 59 a. C., after the non-participation of Bibulus, it was called by the Romans themselves (with a sense of humor) the "year of Julius and Caesar" .

The Gallic Wars

After his consular year, Caesar received proconsular powers to govern the provinces of Transalpine Gaul (now southern France) and Illyria (the Dalmatian coast) for five years, thanks to the support of the other two members of the triumvirate, who fulfilled their the given word. Cisalpine Gaul was added to these two provinces after the unexpected death of its governor, Quinto Cecilio Metelo Céler. They were very good provinces for someone who, like Caesar, and following the typical mentality of the Roman proconsul, had no intention of ruling peacefully, since he was in need of goods to pay the fabulous sums he owed .

The opportunity presented itself to him through a theoretical threat from the Helvetii, who planned to emigrate to the west of Gaul. Determined to prevent it and with the political excuse that they would get too close to the province of Cisalpine Gaul - the Helvetii wanted to settle in Santo Santo, north of Aquitaine - he recruited troops and began the war operations that, in the end, would lead to to what was later called the Gallic War (58-49 BC), in which he conquered the so-called Gaul Comatao Hairy Gaul (now France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and parts of Belgium and Germany), in various campaigns. Caesar made a show of strength by twice building a bridge over the Rhine and twice invading Germania with no intention of conquering it, and made another show of strength by crossing the English Channel also twice to the British Isles, although it is It is true that these two incursions had a more strategic than colonial sense .

His legates (legion commanders) included Lucius Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Marcus Licinius Crassus, son of his fellow triumvirate Titus Labienus, a client of Pompey, and Quintus Tullius Cicero, the younger brother of Marcus Tullius Cicero, all men who were to be important figures in the years to come.

In matters of tactics, Julius Caesar used to great effect what became known as celeritas caesaris , or "Caesarian swiftness" (which can be compared, saving the distances, to the so-called blitzkrieg of the 20th century ), apart from his military genius both in pitched battles as in sieges of cities. In addition, he knew how to wisely combine strength, diplomacy and the handling of the internal quarrels of the Gallic tribes, to separate and defeat them .

Caesar defeated peoples like the Helvetii in 58 BC. C., to the Belgian confederation and to the nerves in 57 a. C. and to the Veneti in 56 a. C. Finally, in 52 a. C., Caesar defeated a confederation of Gallic tribes led by Vercingetorix at the Battle of Alesia. His personal campaign chronicles are recorded in his Commentaries on the Gallic War ( De bello Gallico ).

According to Plutarch, the war ended with a balance of eight hundred cities taken, three hundred tribes subjugated, one million Gauls reduced to slavery, and another three million dead on the battlefields. Pliny the Elder speaks of more than a million dead and more or less the same prisoners and Veleyus Paterculus says that four hundred thousand Gauls died and many more were taken prisoner, although the figures of the ancient historians must be taken with great caution, including those of the Julius Caesar himself .

On several occasions he used the tactic of surprising the enemy by appearing before him as if by magic and, despite the days of marching, he made his soldiers face the adversary directly, despite the fact that he considered that fatigue would invalidate the thrust of his forces. legions. He was equally brilliant in the sieges of cities, culminating in the siege of Alesia, where he ordered the construction of a double line of fortifications several kilometers long, to shield themselves against the almost three hundred thousand Gauls who tried to help the eighty thousand soldiers of Vercingetorix besieged, whom Caesar had harassed inside the stronghold. Caesar, with less than fifty thousand troops corresponding to ten legions never complete after eight years of wars in Gaul,​

Political crisis

But despite his successes and the benefits that the conquest of Gaul brought to Rome, Caesar remained unpopular with his peers, particularly with conservatives who feared his ambition.

In 56 a. C., the triumvirate was reeling, because Pompey did not trust Crassus and believed that he was the one who kept Clodius and his henchmen in the shadows, who were sowing violence in Rome. Faced with this situation, which threatened his proconsulate, Caesar he summoned his two allies to a meeting in the city of Lucca, for he could not go to Rome without renouncing his imperium . Apparently, not only they attended this meeting, but about two hundred senators (two thirds of the Senate); at this council it was agreed that both Pompey and Crassus would present themselves to the consulship the following year and that, once consuls, they would promulgate a law by which Caesar's proconsulship would be extended for five more years. This pact is known in history as the "Lucca Agreement".The following year, predictably, his allies Gnaeus Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus were elected consuls and honored their agreement with Caesar.

However, in 54 a. C., Julia died during childbirth, leaving her father and husband very sad. Marcus Licinius Crassus, for his part, died in 53 BC. C. in the battle of Carrhae, against the Parthians, during the disastrous Persia campaign, doomed to failure from the start due to poor planning. Still in Gaul, Caesar tried to secure the alliance with Gnaeus Pompey Magnus by proposing marriage to one of his nieces, but he preferred to marry again Cornelia, daughter of Quintus Cecilio Metelo Escipión, belonging to the optimate faction.

The disaster of the battle of Carrhae in which Crassus died with his legions facing the Parthians and the death of Julia ended up breaking the triumvirate. Days later, after Caesar's victory at Alesia, Caelius, as tribune, launched an additional bill: Caesar would be relieved of the obligation to go to Rome to present his candidacy to the consulship. This measure meant that Caesar's opponents and enemies who sought to prosecute him for the alleged crimes of his first consulship would lose any chance of judging him, since Caesar would never cease to hold office. As long as he was proconsul, Caesar would have immunity from prosecution, but if he were forced to enter Rome to present himself to the consulship he would lose his office and, for a time, he might be attacked with a whole battery of demands from his enemies. .​

Caesar's power was seen by many conservative senators as a threat. If Caesar returned to Rome as consul, he would have no trouble getting laws passed that would give his veterans land, and him a troop pool that would exceed or rival Pompey's. Cato and Caesar's enemies fiercely opposed each other, and the Senate became involved in lengthy discussions about the number of legions he should have under his command and who should be the future governor of Cisalpine and Illyrian Gaul.

Pompey ultimately sided with the traditionalists and delivered a clear verdict: Caesar was to relinquish his command the following spring, with the consular election still months away, more than enough time to put him on trial. Tribune of the plebs was elected Curio, who revealed himself to be a Caesarian, and vetoed all attempts to remove Caesar from his command in Gaul. Legally, all consular attempts to remove Caesar from his troops were nullified by the tribunicia potestas .

At the end of the same year, Caesar camped at Ravenna with the XIII legion. Pompey took command of two legions at Capua and began illegally recruiting levies, an act predictably exploited by the Caesarians to his advantage. Caesar was informed of Pompey's actions personally by Curio, who by this time had already completed his term. In the meantime, his position as tribune was filled by Antony, who held it until December.

But when the Senate gave him a definitive answer by preventing him from going to the consulate and putting him in the dilemma of discharging his legions or being declared a public enemy, he understood that, whatever alternative he chose, he was surrendering himself defenseless into the hands of his political enemies. On January 1, 49 B.C. C., Marco Antonio read a letter from Caesar in the Senate, in which the proconsul declared himself a friend of peace. After a long list of his many deeds, he proposed that both he and Pompey relinquish command of him at the same time. The Senate hid this message from public opinion .

Metellus Scipio dictated a date by which Caesar should have abandoned command of his legions or considered himself an enemy of the Republic. The motion was immediately put to the vote. Only two senators opposed it, Gaius Scribonius Curion and Marcus Celius Rufus. Marco Antonio, as tribune, vetoed the proposal to prevent it from becoming law. Following Marco Antonio's veto of the motion forcing Caesar to abandon his post as governor of Gaul, Pompey reported not being able to guarantee the safety of the tribunes. Antonio, Celio and Curio were forced to leave Rome disguised as slaves, harassed by street gangs.

On January 7, the Senate proclaimed a state of emergency and granted Pompey exceptional powers, appointing him consul sine collega . Cato and Marcellus urged the Senate to pronounce the famous phrase

Caveant consules ne quid detrimenti res publica capiat (Let the consuls take care that the republic does not suffer any damage).

which amounted to martial law, and urged Pompey to immediately move his troops to Rome. The crisis had reached its peak .

Civil war

In view of the turn that events were taking, Caesar harangued one of his legions, the thirteenth, and explained the situation to its components, asking them if they were willing to face Rome in a war where they would be described as traitors if they lost it. The legionnaires responded to their general's harangue by deciding to accompany him .

Between January 7 and 14, 49 B.C. In 30 BC—most likely on January 10— Caesar received news of Pompey's granting of exceptional powers, and immediately ordered a small contingent of troops to cross the border south and seize the nearest town. At nightfall, together with the Legio XIII Gemina, Caesar advanced to the Rubicon, the border between the province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy and, after a moment's hesitation, gave his legionnaires the order to advance. Some sources have suggested that it was then that he famously uttered: Alea iacta est ("The die is cast") .

When the optimates heard the news, they left the city, declaring anyone who stayed behind to be an enemy of Rome. They then marched south, unaware that Caesar was accompanied only by his Thirteenth Legion. Caesar pursued Pompey to the southern Italian port of Brundisium, with some hope of rebuilding their alliance, but he fell back to Greece. with his followers. Then, he had to make a decision: either he pursued Pompey to Greece, leaving his back unguarded and exposed to an attack by the Pompeian legions established in Hispania or, letting Pompey organize himself in Greece, he went to Hispania to secure his rear. .

After pondering the situation, Caesar went to Hispania in a forced march of just 27 days, to defeat Pompey's followers in that powerful province. There he had established several legions under the command of pro-Pompeian legates, to which it was necessary to add that the majority of the native populations had sworn allegiance to Pompey himself (who was still Proconsul of that province). After several skirmishes and battles, Caesar measured himself against his enemies at the Battle of Ilerda, near present-day Lérida, where he definitively defeated them .

Only when he considered the rearguard safe, and after organizing the political institutions in Rome, which had fallen into anarchy, did Caesar turn to Greece. On July 10, 48 a. C., César was defeated in the battle of Dirraquium. However, Pompey was unable or unable to take advantage of this victory to finish off Caesar, and Caesar managed to flee with his army mostly intact to fight another time. The final encounter came soon after, on August 9, at the Battle of Pharsalia. Caesar won a landslide victory, thanks to a tactical ruse. However, his political enemies managed to flee: Gnaeus Pompey Magnus left for Rhodes and from there to Egypt; Fifth Cecilio Metelo Escipión and Marco Porcio Catón marched towards North Africa.

Back in Rome, he was appointed dictator, with Antony as Magister equitum , and was, along with Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus as junior colleague, elected consul for the second time.

in 47 a. C., Caesar went to Egypt in search of Pompey, but he was surprised by the fact that his old ally and enemy had been assassinated the previous year. Upon learning of his fate, Caesar was saddened by his murder and for having missed the opportunity to offer him his forgiveness.Perhaps because of this and Rome's interests in Egypt, Caesar decided to intervene in Egyptian politics and replaced King Ptolemy XIII of Egypt, who already had the dignity of pharaoh, with his sister Cleopatra who he believed was more akin to Rome. During his stay, he burned his ships to prevent them from being used against him, which seems to have set fire to a book store attached to the Library of Alexandria. Caesar had an affair with the queen of Egypt and from the relationship it seems that a child was born, the future Ptolemy XV of Egypt (Caesarion), who would be the last pharaoh of Egypt, although Caesar never officially recognized him as his son .

After the Egyptian campaigns, Caesar went to Asia Minor, where he quickly defeated Pharnaces king of Pontus at the Battle of Zela, after which he famously uttered the phrase: Veni, vidi, vici . He then headed for North Africa to attack the leaders of the conservative faction sheltered there. At the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC. C., César won another victory and saw two of his fiercest enemies disappear: Quinto Cecilio Metelo Escipión and Marco Porcio Catón. But Pompey's sons, Gnaeus and Sextus Pompey, as well as his former chief legate in Gaul, Titus Labienus, managed to flee to the provinces of Hispania .

After the victory

Caesar returned to Rome at the end of July 46 BC. The total victory of his faction gave Caesar enormous power, and the Senate was quick to legitimize his victory by appointing him dictator for the third time in the spring of 46 BC. C., for an unprecedented period of ten years.

In September, he celebrated his triumphs, offering four triumphal parades that took place between September 21 and October 2. Gauls, Egyptians, Asians and Africans paraded in chains before the crowd, while giraffes, British war chariots and battles in artificial lakes they left their fellow citizens speechless. The war between Romans was masked by victories against foreigners and the celebrations were unprecedented in their dimensions and duration.

During the celebrations Vercingetorix, who had lain in a silver prison since his capture after Alesia, was ritually executed; in that same parade, he broke the axle of his float and was about to fall to the ground. The triumphal parade against Farnaces II featured a float bearing the motto " Veni, vidi, vici " .

Caesar did not forget to reward his troops, giving each legionnaire five thousand denarii, equivalent to what they would earn in 16 years of compulsory service, each centurion ten thousand, and each tribune and prefect twenty thousand denarii. In addition, he also assigned them land, although not close to Rome, so as not to dispossess citizens and thus establish Roman colonies in recently conquered territories. He distributed to the people ten modes of wheat per head and as many pounds of oil with 300 sesterces, in fulfillment of an old promise he had made to them, to which he added 100 more for the delay. He lowered the rent on houses: in Rome to the sum of 2,000 sesterces, in the rest of Italy to five hundred. To all this he added the distribution of meats, and after the triumph over Hispania two public feasts,It also gave shows of various kinds, including gladiatorial combat and comedies in every quarter of the city, performed by actors from all nations and in all languages. Games in the circus, athletes and a naumachia completed the program .

In the Forum, they fought between the gladiators Furio Leptino, whose family included praetors, and Quinto Calpeno, who had been part of the Senate and defended causes before the people. The sons of many princes of Asia and Bithynia danced the Pyrrhic. The Roman citizen Tenth Liberius performed a mime of his composition at the games, receiving five hundred thousand sesterces and a gold ring, and later went from the stage, through the orchestra, to sit among the equites .

In the Circus the arena was widened on both sides; They opened a moat around it, which they filled with water, and noble young men ran chariots and chariots in that enclosure, or jumped on horses trained for that purpose. Children divided into two groups, according to the difference in age, played the games called Trojans. There were 5 days of fierce fighting, and finally there was a battle between two armies, each comprising 500 foot soldiers, 30 horsemen and 20 elephants. In order to give the troops more space, they had removed the barriers of the circus, forming a camp at each end .

For 3 days athletes fought in a purpose-built stadium near the Champ de Mars. A lake was made in the minor Codeta (a place on the other side of the Tiber) and there they engaged in naval combat: biremes, triremes, quadriremes, featuring two fleets, one Tyrian and one Egyptian, loaded with soldiers. The announcement of these spectacles had attracted a large number of foreigners to Rome, most of whom slept in tents, in the streets and squares, and many people, including two senators, were crushed or suffocated by the crowd .

In the winter of the year 46 a. C., a new rebellion broke out in Hispania, led by the sons of Pompey. Using their father's ancient influence and the resources of the province, the brothers Pompey and Titus Labienus managed to raise a new army of thirteen legions made up of the remnants of the army constituted in Africa, the two legions of veterans, a legion of Roman citizens of Hispania, and the enlistment of the local population. At the end of 46 a. C. took control of almost all of Hispania Ulterior, including the Roman colonies of Italica and Corduba, the capital of the province. Caesar, faced with danger, returned to Hispania and after some skirmishes, finally defeated them at the Battle of Munda.

The construction activity of César deserves a special mention, who during his dictatorship undertook numerous projects to reform public buildings in Rome and created many new ones, generally around the Field of Mars and the new Forum complex. Noteworthy among them is the Foro Julio or Foro de César, built in 46 BC. C. on the slopes of the Capitol and finished by Augustus; In the center of the square stood the equestrian statue of Caesar, before the temple of his divine ancestor, Venus Genetrix, an equally outstanding work. In this temple was the statue of the goddess, installed in the apse of the temple, and which was the work of Arcesilas, whose sketches reached astronomical prices according to Pliny .

The absolute power

It should be noted that it is not historically proven that Caesar's intention was to proclaim himself king; and, if he wanted to be, it is not possible to know what kind of king, if a rex in the Etruscan manner, as Servius Tullius or Lucius Tarquinius Priscus had been, one in the likeness of the Egyptian pharaoh or, simply, in the style of the "Basileus " Hellenics. The truth is that a balanced analysis of the facts, as they have come from the sources, seems to indicate that he was thinking of establishing an autocratic regime of some kind, or, at least, they were thinking about it in the spheres closest to him .

Caesar, after winning after the last attempt by the Pompeians, led by Gnaeus Pompey, son of Pompey the Great, was distrustful, thinking of the possibility of an imminent assassination attempt. Proof of this is that in December of the year 45 a. C., on the eve of Saturnalia, he went to spend a few days with the father-in-law of Gaius Octavius ​​(his great-nephew of his) in the residence that he owned near Puteoli (today Pozzuoli) and had an escort of 2000 accompany him. mens.

Cicero, whose villa adjoined that of Lucius Marcius Philippus, had asked Caesar to do him the honor of dining with him. The dictator accepted. The events of that night were recorded in a famous letter from Marcus Tullius Cicero to Titus Pomponius Atticus. According to Cicero, Caesar arrived at the villa accompanied by the entire guard. Three special rooms received Caesar's entourage. The dinner was a great success. "As he [Caesar] had purged himself," Marcus Tullius Cicero specifies, "he drank and ate with both appetite and energy." Cesar was a brilliant and witty conversationalist. "On the other hand," adds his host, "not a word of serious business. Entirely literary conversation." The next day, December 20, he left for Rome .

The Senate had taken advantage of Caesar's absence to vote en bloc on the decrees relating to the honors conferred on him. "Thus", Cassius Dio explains, "this work should not seem the result of coercion, but the expression of his free will". When Caesar was already back in Rome, before placing the decrees at the feet of Capitoline Jupiter as was traditional, the senators decided to present them to him personally. In this way, the importance of the tribute that the Senate paid him was further underlined .

Caesar was in the vestibule of the temple of Venus Genetrix, busy discussing the plans for the works that the architects and artists had come to submit to him. When it was announced to him that the Senate in corpore had come to see him, preceded by the incumbent magistrates and a crowd of citizens of various ranks, he pretended not to give it any importance and continued, without interrupting, the conversation with his collaborators.​

One of the senators stepped forward to make a speech appropriate to the circumstances. Then Cesar turned to him and prepared to listen, not even deigning to get up from his seat. It was probably to show his disgust with the affront inflicted on him by the tribune Aquila three months before. Likewise, his response stunned the senators: Instead of lengthening the list of honors accorded to him, he rather insisted on reducing them... But, nevertheless, he accepted them. This attitude produced tremendous indignation among the members of the Senate and in the crowd that attended this solemnity .

Caesar did not limit himself to accepting the honorary distinctions with which the Senate had showered him, but, at the same time, he knew how to seize multiple prerogatives of a more realistic nature that allowed him to gather in his hands the totality of governmental power. He demanded and obtained that all his acts be ratified by the Senate, public officials were forced to take an oath, from their entry into office, never to oppose any measure emanating from him and he had himself attributed the privileges of the tribunes of the plebs , with which he obtained the tribunicia potestas and the sacrosanct immunity that distinguished them .

As a consequence, the Senate lost its power, remaining as a consultative assembly that passed resolutions, resolutions that the dictator could ignore, without even giving an explanation for doing so. Henceforth it would be César who would have the exclusive right to dispose of state finances, and who would prepare the list of candidates for the consulate and other magistracies .

Thus, in fact, he already possessed all the powers of a monarch. He lacked nothing but the title. In this regard, he began an insinuating propaganda undertaken by certain agents to prepare public opinion, which was very hostile to the idea of ​​returning to the monarchy. His enemies hoped that they could more easily ruin him by exploiting his ambition and organized to act. As a result, an underhanded but relentless war would follow.

This began when the gold statue of Caesar that had just been erected on the rostra was crowned with a diadem wearing a white ribbon, a royal distinction. It was a first attempt, still very discreet, to sound the ground and simulate a popular desire in favor of Caesar's coronation as king. Two tribunes of the people ordered the diadem to be torn off and thrown far away, in doing so they pretended to set themselves up as defenders of Caesar's civic reputation .

In the last days of January, the traditional Latin festivals took place on Monte Albano, near Rome. Caesar was called to attend either as Pontifex Maximus or as dictator. He opted for the latter quality, which enabled him, using the privilege granted him by the Senate, to appear at these ceremonies wearing the purple toga and wearing the high red boots. At the conclusion of the festivities, Caesar made his entry into Rome on horseback. In the midst of the crowd that was waiting for him, and since he was seen appearing, cheers resounded, hearing voices greeting him with the title of king, perhaps coming from duly instructed satellites. Immediately the opposing party intervened and cries of protest were heard. Cesar saved the situation by replying, "My name is Cesar and not Rex," which, strictly speaking,Marcci Reges , to which his mother belonged .

Another act was scheduled for February 15, the day of the Lupercal festivities. To attend them, Caesar wore the same clothing that he had worn in the Latin festivals and occupied a golden seat located in the middle of the harangue tribune, in front of which the procession led by Marco Antonio had to pass. Next to the dictator stood the body of exercising magistrates: his cavalry chief Marco Aemilius Lepidus, the praetors, the aediles... While the college of Julian priests paraded in front of the tribune, one of them, Licinius, appeared at the level of the dais and placed at Caesar's feet a laurel wreath entwined with the ribbon of the royal diadem, at which point applause broke out.​

Gaius Cassius Longinus stepped forward and, removing the crown from Caesar's head, placed it on his knees, but Caesar pushed it back. At the last minute, Marco Antonio tried to patch things up. He scaled the rostra, seized the crown and placed it back on the dictator's head, but Caesar this time removed the crown himself and flung it away. This earned him applause from the crowd, but some spectators asked him to accept the people's offering. Antony seized the moment to pick up the emblem, trying to put it on again, and cries of Salud, oh rey!but mixed with them were indignant protests. Caesar took off his crown and ordered it to be taken to the temple of Jupiter "where it will be better placed", and required the editor of the public acts to record there "that the people having offered him royalty from the hands of the consul, he had rejected it".​

Meanwhile, recourse was had to the Sibylline books which, having been consumed by flames in the time of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, had since been replaced by spurious copies. Those in charge of the custody of these books announced that certain passages implied that the Roman armies would not obtain victory over the Parthians in the war that was going to begin at any moment, until they were commanded by a king. The rumor soon circulated in Rome that in the next session of the Senate, which was to take place on March 15, the fifteenth-century Lucio Aurelio Cota, uncle of the dictator, would take the floor to propose that the title of king be conferred on his nephew.​

Planned campaign against Parthia and Dacia

Caesar, shortly before his death, had planned two military campaigns: one against the Dacian kingdom of Berebistas and the other against the Parthian Empire of Orodes II. There was no doubt that both peoples represented a potential danger to Roman power , however, it cannot be forgotten that a war of conquest of such magnitude was born more from a desire to dominate the world. Now Caesar felt invincible and wanted to emulate Alexander the Great by conquering the East. He could also be motivated simply by seeking revenge for the defeat and death of Crassus. This is how two ancient historians described his ambition:His continuous victories were not part so that his greatness of spirit and his ambition were satisfied with enjoying what had already been achieved, but rather, being an incentive and encouragement for the future, they produced plans for greater undertakings and the love of a new glory, as that he had already had enough of the present; thus, his passion was then nothing other than an emulation with himself, as it could be with another, and a contest of his future deeds with those previously executed. He therefore meditated and prepared to wage war against the Parthians, and, defeated by Hyrcania, they circumvented the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, crossed to Pontus, invaded Scythia, and then traveled to the neighboring regions of Germania and Germania itself, through Gaul to return to Italy and close this circle of Roman domination with the Ocean, which circumscribes it on all sides.​Caesar conceived the idea of ​​a long campaign against the Getae [Dacians of Berebists] and the Parthians. The Getae are a nation that loves war and a neighboring nation that were to be attacked first, the Parthians had to be punished for the treachery used against Crassus ...

Already in the autumn of the year 45 a. Caesar began with intense preparations for war and establishing his political control over the tribunes, as the dictator was expected to be away for a long time. A huge army of sixteen legions and ten thousand horsemen . (altogether about ninety thousand men) and the campaign was expected to begin in the spring of 44 BC. C., three days after the Ides of March. With Caesar's death the project was cancelled, although Marco Antonio would try to continue it unsuccessfully years later and would be partially completed by Trajan with the Dacian wars and the annexation of Mesopotamia.

Plot and assassination

It is not possible to know with certainty what conditions led a group of senators to think about the assassination of Caesar. The attempts to establish an autocratic regime may have had a lot to do with it, but it cannot be ruled out that there were other, less noble motivations.

The very fact that a relatively large number of senators were prepared to participate in the plot and to kill Caesar in the Senate itself - which was sacrilege - shows the state of affairs that had arrived.

The conspiracy

The latest events and, in particular, the rumor of what was being prepared for March 15 in the Senate, motivated what was left of the optimate faction and, among them, Gaius Cassius Longinus, decided to take action. Gaius Cassius Longinus addressed some men whom he believed he could trust, and who in his opinion shared his idea of ​​putting the dictator to death, thus freeing Rome from the fate he believed awaited it: a new cosmopolitan empire, ruled from Alexandria.​

However, Gaius Cassius Longinus was probably not the right man to be the head of this type of action, and it was agreed to sound out Marcus Junius Brutus, considered the right character for this role .

It is speculated that, after a series of meetings, both agreed that the freedom of the Republic was at stake, but they did not have the same views on how to act; Marcus Junius Brutus did not intend to attend the Senate on the 15th, but advocated passive protest (abstention); but Gaius Cassius Longinus replied that since they were both praetors, they could be forced to attend. Then Brutus replied: "In that case, my duty will be, not to shut up, but to oppose the bill, and die before seeing freedom expire." Gaius Cassius Longinus completely rejected this solution, since he understood that killing himself was not how the Republic was going to be saved, and he exhorted him to fight, to take action. His eloquence ended up convincing his interlocutor .

The name of Marcus Junius Brutus attracted several valuable adhesions, not in vain he was said to be a descendant of that other Brutus (Lucius Junius Brutus) who had directed the expulsion of the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC. C.; Among other accessions to the plot, there was that of Tenth June Bruto Albino, a relative of the dictator, in whom he had complete confidence. Altogether, the number of the conspirators seems to have been about sixty. During the preliminary meetings an action plan was drawn up. It was unanimously decided to attack Caesar in full Senate. In this way, it was hoped that his death would not appear to be an ambush, but an act for the salvation of the country, and that the senators, witnesses to the assassination, would immediately declare their solidarity.The plans of the conspirators not only foresaw the assassination of Caesar, but also wanted to drag his body to the Tiber, award his assets to the State and annul his provisions .

It must be taken into account that the motivations of the assassins were very heterogeneous, since they had been moved by an authentic sense of saving the Republic and they had been joined by other people moved by rancor, envy, or by the idea of that if Caesar monopolized the magistracies, it would never be their turn to come to power .

It should also be noted that many of the conspirators were recognized ex-Pompeians, whose lives and property had been spared by Caesar, even trusting them for the administration of the State (Casius and Brutus were provincial governors, appointed by Caesar) .

The assassination

On the Ides of March in the year 44 B.C. C., a group of senators, belonging to the aforementioned conspiracy, summoned Caesar to the Forum to read him a petition, written by them, in order to return effective power to the Senate. Marcus Antony, who had received dim news of the possibility of the plot through Servilius Casca, fearing the worst, ran to the Forum and attempted to stop Caesar on the stairs before he entered the Senate meeting .

But the group of conspirators intercepted Caesar just as he passed Pompey's Theatre, where the Roman Curia was meeting, and led him to a room off the east porch, where the petition was handed to him. As the dictator began to read it, Tulio Cimber, who had handed it to him, tugged at his tunic, causing Caesar to furiously blurt out Ista quidem vis est? "What kind of violence is this?" (It should not be forgotten that Caesar, having the sacrosanctity of the tribunicia potestas , and, being Pontifex Maximus , was legally untouchable). At that moment, the aforementioned Casca, drawing a dagger, struck him a cut on the neck; the victim turned quickly and, sticking his writing stylus into the arm of his attacker,He told him: "What are you doing, Casca, villain?", since it was sacrilege to bear arms in Senate meetings .

Casca, frightened, shouted in Greek ἀδελφέ, βοήθει !, ( adelphe, boethei ! = "Help, brothers!"), and, in response to this request, everyone threw themselves on the dictator, including Marcus Junius Brutus. Caesar , then, tried to leave the building to get help, but, blinded by blood, tripped and fell. The conspirators continued to attack him while he lay helpless on the lower steps of the porch. According to Eutropius and Suetonius, at least 60 senators participated in the assassination. Caesar received 23 stab wounds, of which, if we believe Suetonius, only one, the second received in the chest, was fatal .

Caesar's last words are not really established, and there is a controversy around them, the best known being:

• Καὶ σὺ τέκνον . Kai sy, teknon? (Greek: 'you too, my son?'). Suetonius .
• Tu quoque, Brute, filii mi! (Latin translation of the previous sentence: 'You too, Brutus, my son!').
• Et tu, Brute? (Latin, 'You too, Brutus?', version immortalized in Shakespeare's play .
• Plutarch tells us that he said nothing, but covered his head with his toga after seeing Brutus among his aggressors .

Following the assassination, the conspirators fled, leaving Caesar's corpse at the foot of a statue of Pompey, where it lay on display for a time. From there, he was picked up by three public slaves who carried him to his house in a litter, from where Antony picked him up and showed him to the people, who were shocked by the sight of the corpse. Soon after, the soldiers of the thirteenth legion, so close to Caesar, brought torches to cremate the body of their beloved leader. Then the inhabitants of Rome, in great uproar, threw into that bonfire everything they had at hand to fuel the fire further .

Legend has it that Calpurnia, Caesar's wife, after having dreamed of a terrible omen, warned Caesar to be careful, but Caesar ignored her warning saying: "Only fear is to be feared . " In others it is told how a blind seer had warned him against the Ides of March; When the day came, Caesar amusedly reminded him on the steps of the Senate that he was still alive, to which the blind man replied that the ides were not over yet .

Consequences of the assassination

The consequences of Caesar's death are numerous, and are not limited to the subsequent civil war. The name "Caesar", for example, became common to all subsequent emperors, because Augustus, named Gaius Octavian, when officially adopted by the dictator, changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar. Since all the emperors after Augustus up to Nero were adopted, the cognomen Caesar ended up being a kind of title rather than a name, and thus from Vespasian onward the emperors held it as such without having been adopted by the Caesar family. The cognomen accumulated so much prestige that the names Kaiser and Tsar come from Caesar .

Many of his initiatives were put on hold at his death, including:

• Suppress the Dacians, who under the reign of the Berebists had spread to Pontus Euxine and Thrace; immediately take the war to the Parthian Empire, passing through Armenia Minor, and not fight them in pitched battle until they had measured their strength .
• The construction of a temple to Mars, larger than any other in the world, filling up to ground level the lake in which the naumachia was offered .
• The construction of a gigantic theater at the foot of the Tarpeya Rock .
• Reduce all civil law to a fair proportion, and enclose in very few books the best and most indispensable of the immense and diffuse number of existing laws .
• Form Greek and Latin public libraries, as numerous as possible, and entrusted Marcus Terentius Varro with the care of acquiring and classifying the books .
• It was proposed to dry up the Pontine lagoons, to open an outlet to the waters of Lake Fucino, to build a road from the Adriatic Sea to the Tiber, through the Apennines, and to open the Isthmus of Corinth .

In the place of cremation of his body an altar was built that would serve as the epicenter for a temple dedicated to him, because in the year 42 a. C. the Senate deified him with the name of Divine Julio ( Divus Iulius ), Action that would become custom from that moment, with which all the emperors from Augustus were deified to his death. This practice is what, apparently, inspired the last words of Vespasian, that when he felt himself dying, it seems that he said " I think I am becoming a god " .

After Caesar's death, a power struggle broke out between his great-nephew Caesar Augustus, whom he had appointed universal heir in his will, and Mark Antony, which would culminate in the fall of the Republic and the birth of a kind of Monarchy, which has been called the Principality , with which the conspiracy and assassination ultimately proved useless, since they did not prevent the establishment of an autocratic system.

Caesar the seducer

The women of Roman high society

According to the Latin historian Suetonius, Caesar seduced numerous women throughout his life, especially those belonging to high Roman society .

According to the author, Caesar would have seduced Postumia, wife of Servius Sulpicius Rufo, Lolia (Lollia), wife of Aulus Gabinius and Tértula (Tertulla), wife of Marcus Licinius Crassus. He also seems to have frequented Mucia, Pompey's wife. Likewise, Caesar maintained relations with Servilia, Brutus's mother, whom he seemed to particularly appreciate. Thus, Suetonius refers to the different gifts and benefits he offered his beloved, of which a magnificent pearl worth six million sesterces stands out. Servilia's love for Caesar was publicly known in Rome and their relationship lasted from the time they met in 63 BC. C. until the death of the general in 44 a. c.

Caesar's inclination towards the pleasures of love has also been confirmed by the verses sung by his soldiers on the occasion of his triumph in Rome for the campaigns in Gaul, referred to by Suetonius:Citizens, watch your women: we bring a bald adultererYou have fornicated in Gaul with the gold you borrowed in Rome .

The Queens

Caesar had a romantic relationship with Eunoë, wife of Bogud, King of Mauretania .

However, his most famous relationship was with Cleopatra VII. Suetonius tells that Caesar went up the Nile with the Egyptian queen in a ship provided with cabins; and he would thus have traversed all of Egypt and penetrated as far as Ethiopia, if the army had not refused to follow them. He made her go to Rome showering her with honors and gifts. For him it was a good way of holding Egypt, where three legions remained present, and whose role in supplying grain to Italy was beginning to be preponderant. Be that as it may, Cleopatra was present in Rome at the time of Caesar's assassination and she promptly returned to her country after the crime.

Caesar as ruler

According to Francisco Pina Polo, César "developed a policy of national reconciliation based on clemency ( clementia ) towards his enemies", and points out that "in practice, there were no massive proscriptions or confiscations, but rather, on the contrary, César forgave openly to leading Pompeiians—Cicero among them—" .

Caesar's government work, as consul and as dictator, was very extensive, despite the fact that the time he was actually in power was relatively short. However, and as Adrian Goldsworthy points out, a detailed analysis of each measure or possible measure that he took would be excessively extensive, since his legal work was arduous; even so, we can get an idea of ​​his work in this field from the list of legal provisions found in Suetonius and other authors:

• He corrected, advised by the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria, the calendar in use, in which there was such disorder due to the fault of the pontiffs and due to the ancient abuse of intercalations, that the harvest festivals no longer fell in summer, nor the vintages in autumn. He adjusted the year to the course of the sun, and composed it of 365 days, suppressing the intercalary month and increasing one day every four years. So that this new order of things could begin on the calends of January of the following year, he added two months, between November and December, thus making this year fifteen months, counting the old intercalary that occurred in it.This transcendental reform, which we know today as the Julian Calendar, consisted in the fact that, starting from the year 153 a. C. January 1 was taken as the beginning of the year, instead of the traditional March 1, in order to plan the year's campaigns in advance. It consists of 365 days divided into 12 months, except for leap years which have 366 days, and add an extra day to the month of February. The Julian calendar counts as leap years one in four years, even secular ones. With this calendar, an error of 7.5 days is made every 1000 years. It was used in the West until the end of the 16th century ., when a new reform to correct the problem of leap years gave way to the modern Gregorian calendar. Even so, the Julian calendar will continue to be used for its festivals and liturgy by the Eastern Christian churches and the Orthodox Church.

The order of the months and the distribution of the days was as follows: januarius (31 days); februarius (28, or 29 on leap years); martius (31); April (30); mayus (31); June (30); julius (31) (previously known as quintilis and named after Julius Caesar himself, who was born during this month); sextilis (30) (renamed August ( augustus ) for the same reason in the reign of his adopted son and his successor Octavian Augustus); september (31); October (30); november (31); december(30)

• He rounded out the Senate, decimated by the civil war, increasing the number of senators to 900 and filling it with his supporters, especially knights ( equites ), provincial elites, and the occasional scribe, centurion, and even son of a freedman. Among the most prominent and powerful were the Balbos .
• He created new patricians, increased the number of praetors, aediles, quaestors and lower magistrates, for example expanding the vigintivirate to 26 magistrates ( vigintisexviratum ); he rehabilitated some whom the censors had stripped of their dignity or condemned the judges for bribery. He shared with the people the right to elect magistrates; so that, with the exception of his competitors for the consulate, the other candidates designated them in half, the people and him. His people were designated on tablets sent to all the tribes containing this brief inscription: «César dictator, to such and such a tribe. I recommend so-and - so and mengano to obtain their dignity through your suffrage.” He admitted to honors the sons of outlaws.​
• He established the hiring of foreigners in the legions and created the position of Imperator, who would be the commander of the army .
• He restricted the judicial system to two classes of judges, senators and knights, and abolished the tribunes of the Treasury (tribuno aurearii), who formed the third jurisdiction .
• He carried out the census of the town, not in the usual way, nor in the ordinary place, but by neighborhoods and according to the registers of the owners of the houses: he reduced the number of those to whom the State supplied wheat, from 320,000 to 150,000; and so that the formation of these lists could not be the cause of new disturbances in the future, he decreed that the praetor could replace those who died, by means of a lottery, with those who were not registered .
• He distributed 80,000 citizens in the overseas colonies, and so that the population in Rome would not be exhausted, he decreed that no citizen over 20 years of age and under 60 years of age, who was not bound by public office, should remain more than three years. outside of Italy; that no son of a senator undertook distant trips, if he was not in the company or under the patronage of some magistrate; and lastly, that those who raised cattle had among their shepherds, at least, the third part of free men of puberty age .
• He granted the right of citizenship to those who practiced medicine in Rome or cultivated the literary arts, owing this favor to fix them in the city and attract others .
• As for the debts, instead of granting the abolition, eagerly awaited and constantly demanded, he decreed that the debtors would pay according to the estimation of their properties and according to the price of these goods before the civil war, and that it would be deducted from the capital everything that would have been paid in money or in written promises as usury, with whose disposal about a quarter of the debts would disappear .
• He dissolved all associations, except those that had origins in the early days of Rome .
• He increased the penalty for crimes, and since the rich committed them without losing any of their wealth, he decreed complete confiscation against parricides and half of their assets against criminals .
• He deprived convicts of concussion of senatorial order .
• He declared null the marriage of a former praetor who had married a woman on the second day after separation from her husband, even though she was not suspected of adultery .
• He established taxes on foreign goods. He sent guards to the markets to seize the forbidden articles and take them to his house, sometimes lictors and soldiers going to collect in the dining rooms what had escaped the watch of the guards .
• He forbade the use of litters, purple and pearls, except for certain people, certain ages and on certain days. These measures derived from a law against luxury ( lex sumptuaria ), and seem to have been unsuccessful, although " It connected with what had been a growing concern within the aristocracy regarding the excessive increase in their debts" .
• As for the currency, he increased to four the number of tresviri auro argento aere flando feriundo ("triumvirs responsible for the foundry and minting of gold, silver and bronze"), entrusting the direction of the mint of the temple of Juno Moneta (as well as public revenues) to some of his own slaves. He also created a private mint with which he minted regularly, from 48 to 44 BC. C., the gold he obtained in the Gallic Wars and looting the public treasury (15,000 ingots) He fixed the weight of the aureus at 1/40 of the Roman pound (approximately the equivalent of 8 grams). They were very successful as they were similar in weight and grade to the Macedonian staters.He also fixed the aureus at 25 denarii, so that a pound of gold was equivalent to 1,000 denarii, after the drop in the price of gold (to 750 denarii per pound) caused by the flow of booty brought from Gaul . also that Julius Caesar was the first living Roman leader whose face appeared on a coin in circulation (44 BC), by authorization of the Senate. However, there was no substantial issue of bronze under his rule, so he continued the scarcity of numeraire typical of the  1st century  BC. c.In an attempt to restore liquidity, he passed a law prohibiting anyone from hoarding more than 15,000 denarii, intending to put the hoarded coins into circulation. This law, as can be assumed, must have been without a doubt as ineffective as it was inapplicable .
• With regard to the birth rate, “it offered compensation to all those who had a large number of children”, although in any case “the increase in the birth rate had been since the second half of the second century [  a. C.] a matter of interest to the Roman aristocracy (agrarian reform of Tiberius Gracchus, speech by the censor Metellus Macedonicus in 131), linked to the survival of the Republic" .
• To avoid trouble, he was the first Roman legislator to settle his veterans in colonies outside of Italy .

Caesar as a soldier

Unquestionably, one of the most recognized aspects of Julius Caesar's personality is, without a doubt, his military genius. This genius was put to the test many times throughout his eventful military life, and César almost always responded to challenges with tactical innovations or tricks that surprised his opponents and made him gain advantages in one field or another.

According to Suetonius, Caesar was a true soldier, who shared the fatigues of war with his milites ; he was an expert in arms and horsemanship. We also know that he was a brave general, who led his troops from the battlefront itself, so that his example would instill courage in the soldiers, and he was prone to harangues and maintainer of a iron discipline. However, his soldiers revered him and cases of desertion were very rare, perhaps due to Caesar's magnanimous character. He also rode a horse that was born in the stables that the general had in his house. The horse had atavism in the legs, so it had several long toes ending in a hoof in addition to a central hoof,Something caused by the deactivation of the inhibitor gene that prevents the growth of more toes in horses apart from the third during embryonic development.

In order to offer the widest possible vision of Caesar's tactical capacity, it has been chosen to offer brief reviews of some of his battles; perhaps not the most representative or fundamental, but those that involved some tactical innovation or an example of how Caesar directed his troops: the battle of Bibracte as an example of a battle against non-Roman forces, the battle of Alesia as an example of a siege, the the Battle of Pharsalia as an example of fighting between Romans, the Battle of Ruspina for the manner in which it turned from almost certain defeat to an orderly retreat, and the Battle of Thapsus in Africa, which saw the defeat of the Pompeian forces established in that province and, ultimately, the death of Cato and other leading figures in opposition to Caesar.

The Battle of Bibracte

In the year 58 a. C., Caesar had just taken possession of his position as proconsul of Gaul, when he was warned that a confederation of Germanic peoples, composed of the Helvetii, the Boios and the Tulingios, had decided to leave their ancestral lands and emigrate to Gaul Eat.

Both forces coincided in the vicinity of the town of Bibracte, where Caesar had taken up positions on top of a hill. He had four veteran legions, the VII, VIII, IX and X, which he ordered to form in triplex acies at the foot of the ascent; the 11th and 12th legions, rookies, and auxiliaries were deployed under a rise in the ground at the top.

The Helvetian forces, perhaps as many as 77,000 warriors if Caesar himself is to be believed in his Comentarii , advanced on the Romans in a formation that Caesar describes as "a phalanx," meaning that they probably formed a compact mass grouped behind the Romans. the shields, not a Macedonian-type formation .

When the Helvetian formation was at the proper range, that is, about 15 meters, the first salvo of pila came from the Roman ranks. This heavy javelin was designed to twist as it pierced the shield, thus leaving the attacking warrior the option of carrying a heavy shield with a javelin stuck in it that was difficult to handle, or throwing the shield off and fighting unprotected.

The rain from the pile had the effect of undoing the formation of the Helvetii, so the Romans took the opportunity to charge, protected behind their shields, with their gladius, taking advantage of the unevenness and running down the hill; Without shields and poorly armed, the Helvetii were driven back to a hill about a mile away.

The legions followed them, hoping for a quick victory, when suddenly the Boii and the Tulingians appeared on the battlefield, numbering some 15,000 warriors, threatening the right flank of the Roman army. The right flank was the more dangerous, because it was the one that did not carry a shield, which was carried on the left arm.

Caught thus between the sword of the Helvetii, who, seeing their allies appear, launched themselves into the attack with renewed courage, and the wall of the Boii and Tulingii, Caesar ordered that the third line of the triplex acies rotate to the right, placing itself in right angles to the new attackers, while the remaining forces, formed in duplex acies , faced the renewed attack of the Helvetii.

Lacking the element of surprise they had hoped for, less well armed than the Romans and the Helvetii already battle-weary, they were overwhelmed by the legions.

Caesar's tactical innovation was the speed with which, calculating the problem, he had converted the traditional legionary arrangement in triplex acies into a novel formation, with a front in duplex acies , which was responsible for stopping the Helvetii, and one in simplex acies , which held off the attack from the flank and eventually led him to win the battle.

The Battle of Alesia

Alesia was located on top of a hill surrounded by valleys and rivers and had important defenses. Since a frontal assault on the fortress would be suicidal, Caesar considered it best to force a siege of the plaza to starve his enemies out. Considering that there were about 80,000 men fortified inside Alesia along with the civilian population, hunger and thirst would quickly force the Gauls to surrender. To guarantee a perfect blockade, Caesar ordered the construction of a circular perimeter of fortifications. Details of the engineering work are found in the Commentaries on the Gallic Wars ( De Bello Gallico) of Julius Caesar and have been confirmed by archaeological excavations in the area. Walls 18 km long and 4 meters high with regularly spaced fortifications were built in a record time of 3 weeks. This line was followed inland by two dikes four and a half meters wide and about half a meter deep. The one closest to the fortification was filled with water from nearby rivers. Likewise, painstaking fields of traps and pits were created in front of the palisades in order to make them even more difficult to reach, plus a series of towers equipped with artillery and regularly spaced throughout the fortification .

Vercingetorix's cavalry often counterattacked the Roman works to avoid being completely hemmed in, attacks that were answered by the German cavalry who again proved their worth in keeping the attackers at bay. After two weeks of work, part of the Gallic cavalry was able to escape from the city through one of the unfinished sections. Caesar, anticipating the arrival of reinforcement troops, ordered the construction of a second outer defensive line protecting the troops from him. The new perimeter was 21 km, including four cavalry camps. This series of fortifications would protect them when the Gallic liberation troops arrived: now they were besiegers preparing to be besieged .

By these times, the living conditions in Alesia were getting worse and worse. With the 80,000 soldiers and the local population, there were too many people inside the fortress for so little food. This caused part of the civilian population to leave the city and ask Caesar's army for food, and even work as slaves in the constructions. rather than starve. Caesar, realizing his own lack of provisions in case of feeding them, sent them back to the city, and when this happened, Vercingetorix ordered the gates of the walls to be closed, since there was too much population for the shortage of provisions. This part of the civilian population died within a few days.

At the end of September the Gallic troops, led by Commius, came to reinforce the fortified ones in Alesia, and attacked the outer walls of Caesar. Vercingetorix ordered a simultaneous attack from within. However, none of these attempts were successful and by sunset the fighting was over. The next day the Gallic attack was under the cover of the dark of night, and they achieved greater success than the day before. Caesar was forced to abandon some sections of his fortified lines. Only the quick response of the cavalry, led by Antony and Gaius Trebonius, saved the situation. The inner wall was also attacked, but the presence of trenches, the fields planted with " lilies " and " ceppos", which Vercingetorix's men had to fill in order to advance, slowed them down enough to avoid surprise. By this time, the situation of the Roman army was also difficult .

The next day, on October 2, Vercasivellauno, a cousin of Vercingetorix, launched a massive attack with 60,000 men, targeting the weak point of the Roman fortifications, which Caesar had tried to hide until then, but had been discovered by the Romans. Gauls. The area in question was an area with natural obstructions where a continuous wall could not be built. The attack was made by combining forces from outside with those from within the city: Vercingetorix attacked the inner fortifications from all angles. Caesar trusted the discipline and courage of his men, and ordered to hold the lines. He personally walked the perimeter cheering on his legionnaires .

Labienus's cavalry was sent to hold the defense of the area where the breach in the fortifications had been located. Caesar, with the pressure increasing, was forced to counterattack the internal offensive, and succeeded in driving Vercingetorix's men back. However, by then the section defended by Labienus was about to give way. Caesar took a desperate measure, taking 13 cavalry cohorts (about 6,000 men) to attack the enemy reserve army (about 60,000) from the rear. The action surprised both attackers and defenders .

Seeing their general face such tremendous risk, Labienus's men redoubled their efforts. Panic soon began to spread in the Gallic ranks, and they tried to withdraw. However, as was often the case in ancient times, a disorganized retreating army is easy prey for the pursuit of the victors, and the Gauls were massacred. Caesar noted in his Commentaries that only the fact that his men were completely exhausted saved the Gauls from complete annihilation .

In Alesia, Vercingetorix witnessed the defeat of the outside army. Facing both starvation and morale, he was forced to surrender without a last battle. The following day, the Gallic leader presented his arms to Julius Caesar, ending the siege of Alesia and the Roman conquest of Gaul .

The Battle of Pharsalia

After being defeated at the Battle of Dyrrachium, the Caesarians finally engaged Pompey and his allies in pitched battle near Pharsalia.

Caesar had with him the VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, and XIII legions, greatly reduced in strength, probably numbering no more than 2,750 legionnaires each, and, in addition, the VIII and IX legions. , who had held the front lines at Dyrrachium and had been seriously depleted, were ordered to act as one and protect each other; in addition, it had a small contingent of cavalry. On the other side, Pompey commanded a force of eleven legions, possibly 4,000 men each, and a cavalry of 7,000 cavalry, along with a strong detachment of archers and slingers .

Both generals formed their armies in triplex acies , one in front of the other, and the cavalry stationed in the respective left wings, since the right flanks of the formations were supported by the Enipeus river, which thus protected the right wing. Caesar placed the IX and VIII legions on the right flank, leaning on the river, and later he successively placed the XI, XII, XIII, VI, VII and X. But behind the line of cavalry, hidden behind a small elevation of the ground, he drew back and placed a fourth rank, composed of six cohorts, obliquely to the cavalry and who received strict orders not to move under any circumstances until signaled by a vexillum .

Pompey had formed up in a more classical system, with all his legions alike and the cavalry supported by a dense formation of archers and slingers, positioned behind them; however, he had arranged them in a more static formation, with the tactical idea that they would provide a retaining wall for the Caesarian infantry, as Pompey had pinned his hopes on the superiority of the cavalry.

The battle, if Caesar is to be believed, opened with the suicidal charge of a primipal centurion, that is, the centurion who commanded the first century of the first cohort, a position of great prestige. Said centurion, named Crastinus, dragged 120 volunteers with him to charge into Pompey's lines, where they were, not surprisingly, obliterated .

As this happened, the first and second lines of the Caesarian formation charged, but stopped halfway to catch their breath when Pompey's legions did not counter-charge (perhaps because Pompey hoped they would tire beforehand). The Caesarians recomposed their lines and at that moment, Pompey ordered his cavalry to charge.

The Pompeian cavalry galloped out, divided into their individual turmas, followed by the archers, in order to outflank the left wing of Caesar's formation, thus to attack from the rear and form a hammer (cavalry) and an anvil (infantry). ) to crush cesareans. The charge was successful with the Caesarean cavalry, which scrambled out.

But at that moment, Caesar ordered his hidden line of six cohorts to attack. The Pompeian cavalry found that, instead of taking the Caesarian legions by surprise from the rear and disrupting them, a new line of battle was bearing down on them with ferocity.

The turmas leading the charge panicked and fled, but likely ran into unsuspecting squadrons on the way, causing confusion. Caesar's legionnaires did not throw their pila, but used them, by order of his general, more like pikes, holding them in the face of the horsemen and their horses, thus increasing panic and confusion; thus, a force of just 1,650 legionnaires put the Pompeian cavalry to flight and could devote themselves to tearing apart the lightly armed archers and slingers .

They then launched an attack on the now unprotected left flank of the Pompeians, now supported by a furious attack from the third line of the Caesarian legions, which, replacing the tired first and second lines, pressed the battlefront.

Attacked by fresh troops in the center, flanked on the left and in the rear, the Pompeian troops first faltered and then made a full-fledged breakout, leaving 15,000 dead on the field, compared with 200 for the Caesarians .

Caesar's genius was foreseeing that Pompey was going to use his cavalry to attack, that his own did not have the strength to resist it, and arbitrate a completely new method with the line of 6 cohorts, laying a trap for his enemy, in which fell, and that served to win the battle and destroy the main forces of the Pompeians.

The Battle of Ruspina

After Pharsalia, a good number of Pompeian troops and notable figures of the faction, such as Cato the Younger, Quintus Cecilio Metelo Pio Escipión Nasica Corneliano and the former main legate of Caesar in Gaul, Titus Labienus, withdrew to the province of Africa , to reorganize and stand up to the dictator again; It was the year 46 a. c.

This one persecuted to them, and after disembarking, it fixed its real ones in Ruspina, near the present Al Munastir. After a series of incidents, he set out in search of wheat with a force of 30 "lightly" armed cohorts, that is, some 13,000 men or so, two thousand horsemen and one hundred and fifty archers .

Suddenly, about five kilometers from the camp, Caesar's scouts warned him that a large force of infantry was approaching them: they were Pompeian troops under the command of Labienus. Aware of his inferiority, Caesar orders his meager cavalry and the few archers he had to leave the camp and follow him at close range.

While Caesar was placing his men, who, given the smallness of this "expeditionary" force, were formed in simplex acies with cavalry on wings, Labienus deployed his forces, which turned out to be made up overwhelmingly of cavalry and not infantry. . It was a clever ambush laid by the Pompeian commander, who had drawn his lines together as much as possible, interspersing a large troop of Numidian light infantry between the horsemen to give that effect from a distance .

While the Pompeians advanced in a single line of extreme length, Caesar had deployed his troops so as not to be outflanked by his enemy. But this was precisely what happened: while the few cavalry troops struggled in vain to avoid being overwhelmed, the center of Caesar's formation was hit by the mass of Pompeian cavalry and Numidian light infantry, attacking and retreating. successively.

The Caesarian infantry responded as best they could, but began to break up. Seeing him, Caesar ordered that no soldier move more than four paces away from his unit. But the superior numbers of the enemy, the scant Caesarian cavalry, the wounded and lost horses, caused Caesar's formation to begin to collapse. At that time, Caesar ordered his troops to adopt a defensive formation, called orbis (literally: orb ), basically a circle formation whose mission was not to offer the flank to the enemy.

But he found himself surrounded on all sides by the much more numerous and mobile troops of Labienus - in a distant echo of the disastrous battle of Cannae - and some of his most recent recruits began to fail; before it Caesar made a decision: he ordered to extend the line of battle in close order as far as possible. This maneuver was always highly discouraged by Roman tacticians because it took too long to carry out; however, this time Caesar's forces did it quickly and once they were spread out in a single line, Caesar gave another order: that each The pair's cohort stepped back and faced their enemy head-on, transforming the simplex acies into a duplex acies .

At that moment, the Caesarian cavalry appeared to definitively break the circle, forcing the Pompeians to form two battle lines separated by the Caesarian troops. Then the surprised Pompeians were subjected to a barrage of rain from both sides of the opposing formation, causing them to falter and fall back a distance, not far enough to break up, but enough for Caesar to order a turn. to camp in battle order.

As they returned to their camps, the Pompeians were bolstered by the unexpected arrival of a force of 1,600 cavalry and a large number of infantry, under the command of Marcus Petreius and Gnaeus Piso, who caused them to attack again with renewed force, once again surrounding to the Caesarians, but now from further away so that Caesar would not repeat the maneuver, and launching a rain of projectile weapons on his troops. Caesar's troops stopped and, in the face of the avalanche, perhaps formed a " testudo " (tortoise), a formation in which the legionnaires covered themselves with shields .

As the Pompeian troops ran out of javelins and their fighting energy dwindled against Caesar's tight formation, Caesar realized that the time had come to break it and attack suddenly, so he issued orders that at a signal his, the shield wall was raised to let select cohorts through, who, adopting a wedge formation, struck at the Pompeian troops . a massive attack on a single point, but the truth is that it had the desired effect and the Pompeian troops opened up, giving way to Caesar and his men who retreated in formation to their camp, where they fortified themselves.

The truly brilliant thing about this battle is not Caesar's actual defeat, but how through a series of tactical decisions and varied battle formations, he managed to turn what could have been a massacre into an organized retreat, in which he retained control. greatest possible number of troops .

The Battle of Thapsus

After the battle of Farsalia, the Pompeian troops had taken refuge in the province of Africa, where, under the command of prominent members of the conservative faction, such as Cato the Younger and Quintus Cecilio Metelo Escipión, they had managed to reorganize and were willing to continue the fight. The Conservatives gathered their forces at an impressive speed. His army included 40,000 men (about 10 legions), a powerful cavalry led by Caesar's former right-hand man in Gaul, Titus Labienus, and allied forces of local kings, including the Numidian Juba I and 60 elephants of war. Caesar had with him at least 5 legions, although we cannot know how complete they were, and an estimable force of cavalry.

After the Ruspina incident, a series of indecisive encounters between the troops of the two factions followed, small battles to test their strength, during which time two legions of the Tories defected to Caesar. Meanwhile, Caesar awaited reinforcements from Sicily .

In early February, Caesar reached Thapsus and surrounded the city, blocking the southern entrance with three rows of fortifications. The Conservatives, under the command of Metellus Scipio, could not afford to lose that position, so they were forced to engage in battle .

Scipio spread out his troops, forming the legions in the center in quadruplex acies , put the cavalry on the wings, in front of which he placed half his war-elephants (thirty on the right wing and thirty on the left wing); behind the legionary ranks, he placed a formation of light troops and a mixed cavalry and light infantry formation on the left wing, and a mixed cavalry and light infantry formation on the right wing .

Caesar formed with the legions in the center, in triplex acies , (the X and VII to the right and the VIII and IX to the left), placed the cavalry on the wings, and in front of the elephants he deployed his archers and slingers. But he divided Legio V Alaudae into two groups of five cohorts each, and placed them behind the formations of archers and slingers .

Although the battle began earlier than Caesar would have wished, due to the impatience of his soldiers on the right wing, he quickly took command of the situation and ordered the attack. The archers and slingers of the right wing fired their projectiles at the elephants of the Pompeians' left wing, who, receiving the rain of arrows and stones, were frightened and turned, charging against their own ranks. At that moment, the Numidian light cavalry stationed by Scipio on that wing charged forward as the wall of elephants was unprotected, but they were disbanded by the charging legions, and the Legio X took possession of the Pompeian camp, thus preventing the attack. escape from enemies .

With nowhere to return, with troops routed, surrendered, or dead, the Pompeian leaders abandoned the battlefield to Caesar, thus giving up the war .

Caesar's genius in battle was the tactical movement of placing legionary infantry protecting the archers and slingers from the elephants, and promptly assuming its development, using the haste with which he had begun to his advantage.

Caesar as historian and writer

The written work that reaches our days places César among the great masters of the Latin language. Known works of his include:

• De bello Gallico – Commentaries on the campaigns of Gaul
• De bello civili – Comments on the civil war

It cannot be ensured that the authorship of the so-called " Corpus Cesariano " or " Tria Bella ", that is, the War of Alexandria , the War of Africa and the War of Hispania , belongs to Caesar and among its translators there is a general consensus that they were not written by him, although they are possibly based on his notes .

Both the Gallic Wars and the Civil War are indisputably the work of Caesar and are written in a Latin of great syntactic perfection. Both are proof of the erudition of their author and were used, above all, as propaganda before the Senate and the people of Rome. In them he makes very important references to multiple aspects of daily life in the Roman army of the late republic, its organization, tactics, techniques and weapons .

Likewise, he made ethnographic descriptions of Celtic and Germanic peoples including topics such as social and military organization, religion or language that even today are required study for experts in different subjects .

He also described geographical places, such as the Selva Hercinia, and describes in his writings important aspects that allow a better understanding of the politics of the Roman Republic in the last years of the  1st century  BC. C. and figures such as Pompey, Cicero, Cato and others .

It is also known that he was curious about many subjects, from Greek philosophy to astronomy, passing through sacred or linguistic subjects. From references in other classical authors, it is known that Caesar composed a treatise on astronomy, another on linguistics and another on omens, but they have been lost and not even a paragraph of them is known.

It is also known from Suetonius that he composed a treatise in his defense called the Anticaton , two books on the Analogy , and at least one poem called The Way ; in his youth he wrote the Praises of Hercules , a tragedy under the title Oedipus , and a Collection of Selected Phrases , his letters to the Senate, his letters to Cicero, and his private correspondence seem to have been preserved. However, Augustus forbade his librarian to copy or publish all these documents, so they ended up being lost . this opinion.It is also known that he used a Latin of great perfection .

Caesar's known work cannot be taken as that of a modern historian, since that was not his intention. The works that survive and whose authorship is not disputed, that is, the Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars, were an instrument of propaganda and a progress report for the Senate, not a work like those of Tacitus or Polybius, so that all his statements, especially the political ones, must be analyzed critically.The fact that most of Caesar's literary work has been lost is an inconvenience that, not usually in most classical authors, is unfortunate and has prevented a reasoned criticism of Caesar as an author, since historians can only rely on books that, despite being among the most important in Western history, were no more an instrument of propaganda than a display of scholarship .

Even so, with all its limitations, on many occasions, his writings are the only ancient testimony that we have on many aspects of the peoples, uses and customs of the time .

Julius Caesar in literature and film

Julius Caesar has been frequently depicted in literary and cinematographic works. In the literature, they include:

• The tragedy Julius Caesar , by William Shakespeare, probably Caesar's most famous appearance in literature.
• His appearance in Cleopatra , by Emil Ludwig, which depicts Julius Caesar as warrior and lover.
• The play Caesar and Cleopatra , by the British playwright George Bernard Shaw.
• The historical novel The Ides of March , by Thornton Wilder, written in epistolary form, which was praised by Jorge Luis Borges himself .
• Likewise, Jorge Luis Borges, in Los conjurados (1985), dedicated a poem to him that, referring to his murder, begins with: Here what the daggers left... . The text concludes by predicting his historical footprint with the phrase "... whose great shadow will be the entire world .
• "The plot", a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, included in his book The Maker , alludes, in the first of its two paragraphs, to the assassination of Julius Caesar.
• The novel César , by Allan Massie, which Adrian Goldsworthy himself recommends for its fidelity to historical facts .
• In the fourth canto of Dante 's Divine Comedy , Caesar appears in Limbo alongside Hector and Aeneas in his capacity as a hero of pagan antiquity, who was not baptized but was distinguished for his clemency .
• Caesar is one of the characters that appears in Colleen McCullough's series of historical novels.
• Caesar is also the protagonist of the opera Julius Caesar in Egypt , by Georg Friedrich Händel, premiered in London in 1724.

As for the cinema, the character has appeared in numerous films, from the big screen to television, either as a protagonist or as a secondary character.

One of the most renowned, both for the quality of the film and for that of its actors, is the 1953 film Julius Caesar , directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and whose main roles were played by Marlon Brando (as Marco Antonio), Louis Calhern (as Caesar), Deborah Kerr (as Portia), and James Mason (as Brutus). With music by Miklós Rózsa, the script is an adaptation of Shakespeare's play. It was nominated for five Oscar Awards, of which it won one .

Another of the most awarded and well-known films, in which César is the protagonist, is the 1963 film Cleopatra . Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with photography by Leon Shamroy and music by Alex North, the main roles were played by Elizabeth Taylor , as Cleopatra, Richard Burton as Mark Antony, and Rex Harrison as Caesar. It was nominated for eight Oscars, of which it won four .

In the world of comics, without a doubt one of the most famous representations of César is the character from the pen and brush of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, antagonist (superb, proud, but in the end, always fair) of his famous character Asterix.

In the fourth season of the Spartacus series, Cesar is played (in a very loose and unhistorical version) by actor Todd Lasance.

On Netflix, the series The Roman Empire describes, simultaneously as a documentary and as a television series, the periods of Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius and Caligula .

Filmography about the character

Year	Film	director	Actor
1908	Julius Caesar	James Stuart Blackton/William V. Ranous	charles kent
1911	Julius Caesar	Frank R Benson	Guy Rathbone
1917	Cleopatra	J. Gordon Edwards	Fritz Leiber
1934	Cleopatra	Cecil B. DeMille	warren-william
1945	Caesar and Cleopatra	Gabriel Pascal	claude rains
1950	Julius Caesar	David Bradley	Harold Tasker
1953	Julius Caesar	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	louis calhern
1960	Spartacus	Stanley Kubrick	John Gavin
1963	Cleopatra	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	Rex Harrison
1970	Julius Caesar	stuart burge	John Gielgud
1979	Julius Caesar	michael langham	Sonny Jim Gaines
1999	Cleopatra	Frank Roddam	Timothy Dalton
Asterix and Obelix vs Caesar	claude zidi	Gottfried John
2001	Vercingetorix	Jacques Dorfman	Klaus Maria Brandauer
2002	Julius Caesar	uli edel	Jeremy Sisto
Asterix and Obelix: Cleopatra Mission	Alain Shabat	Alain Shabat
2003	Augustus: The First Emperor	Roger Young	Gerard Klein
2005	Rome	Various	Ciarán Hinds
2008	Asterix at the Olympics	Frederic Forestier and Thomas Langmann	Alain Delon
2012	Asterix and Obelix at the service of his majesty	Laurent Tirard	Fabrice Lucini
2018	Asterix and the secret of the magic potion	Alexandre Astier, Louis Clichy	Animation

Chronology

• July 12/13 100 BC C. – Born in Rome.
• 82 a. C. – Escape from Sulla's persecutions
• 81/79 BC C. – Military service in Asia and Cilicia
• 70s BC C. – Career as a lawyer
• 69 a. C. – Quaestor in Hispania Ulterior
• 65 a. C. – Mayor
• 63 a. C. – Elect pontifex maximus and urban praetor; Catiline conspiracy
• 59 a. C. – Consul for the first time; start of the first triumvirate
• 58 a. C. – Proconsul: the campaign in Gaul begins
• 54 a. C. – Death of Julia
• 53 a. C. – Death of Crassus: end of the triumvirate
• 52 a. C. – Battle of Alesia
• 49 a. C. – Crosses the Rubicon, civil war begins, Dictator for the first time.
• 48 a. C. – Defeat Pompey in Greece; becomes Roman dictator for the second time
• 47 a. C. – Campaign in Egypt, meet Cleopatra
• 46 a. c.
  • January 1: Caesar is appointed dictator for the third time.
  • April 16: Defeat of the Pompeians in Africa at the Battle of Thapsus. Cato and Metellus Scipio die
• 45 a. c.
  • January 1: Caesar is appointed dictator for the fourth time
  • March 17: In the Munda, Caesar defeats the Pompeians of Hispania, commanded by Tito Atio Labienus, who died in battle, and the sons of Pompey, Gnaeus and Sextus.
  • Return to Rome, dictator for the fourth time
• 44 a. c.
  • January 1: Caesar is appointed dictator for life, power similar to that of an emperor
  • February, refuse the diadem offered by Marco Antonio
  • March 15, assassinated

Eponymy

Astronomy

• The lunar crater Julius Caesar is named in his memory.
• The name of Caesar's comet (reference C/-43 K1 of the UAI), one of the brightest of which there is evidence, is linked to the story of the deification of Julius Caesar promoted by Augustus.