Conquest of Gallia
The Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis and in particular
the southern part of the Rhone Valley was under constant threat of raids made by German tribes
coming from the north: also the Helvetians, the inhabitants of today's Switzerland, were a
source of trouble for the Roman settlements.
In 58 Caesar started a series of campaigns, which, from the initial objective
of protecting Gallia Narbonensis, year after year expanded the territories controlled by the Romans
until they reached what later on became the "natural" border of the Roman Empire: the river Rhine.
Caesar narrated in a very factual manner his campaigns in De Bello Gallico (about the war in Gallia).
He first defeated the Helvetians, then
forced back the Germans beyond the Rhine; to consolidate his victories he moved further north in today's Belgium and
from there twice landed in Britain. He often relied on the divisions among the various tribes who
lived in the area: the saying Divide et impera or Divide ut imperes is generally attributed to Machiavelli,
but certainly Caesar had it in mind when one by one, either in the
battlefield or by diplomatic means, he managed to make the local chiefs
accept the Roman authority.
In 53 however, taking advantage of the temporary
absence of Caesar, the Gauls decided to forget their differences and rebelled. Their leader
was Vercingetorix, a young warrior, chief of the tribes living in today's Auvergne, a mountain region in the
centre of France.
At first the Romans were surprised by the impetus of their enemies, but Vercingetorix
made the mistake to retreat after a victory to the town of Alesia. Caesar laid siege
to it and the hopes of Vercingetorix to receive help from his allies soon faded away.
The Romans had a superior knowledge in digging trenches, erecting palisades and in general in fortifying their camps.
The Gauls vainly tried to unlock the Roman defensive system; in the end they gave up and Vercingetorix surrendered.
By the year 51 Caesar restored the authority of Rome over the whole of Gallia.
(left) Clivus Capitolinus, the street linking Foro Romano
with Campidoglio; (right) Basilica Julia (behind it Tempio di Castore e Polluce)
We usually take for granted that streets are paved; it was not so in the ancient
times: this explains why the pavement by Caesar of Clivus Capitolinus, a short winding street linking the Campidoglio hill with the
Roman Forum, was regarded as one of his most laudable initiatives for the embellishment of Rome.
The large worn out stones are no longer well aligned and there are wide gaps
between them:
modern passers-by, who complain about the risk of twisting their ankles on them, ought to think about how many modern buildings will look in another 2,000 years.
Caesar gave his name (or to be more precise Julia, the name of his gens, family)
to the largest building of the Roman Forum, a basilica which replaced a previous one. In addition to law courts, it contained many tabernae (taverns, but also shops). The rows of columns divided the basilica into five naves:
a pattern which
was later on followed in the design of one of the earliest Christian churches, S. Giovanni in Laterano.
Civil War
In May 53 the triumvirate agreement lost one of its subscribers.
Crassus, who was proconsul in Syria, moved with seven legions against the
Parthians. He had a small cavalry of 1,000 Gauls under the command of his son Publius who had been an assistant of Caesar: the rest of the cavalry was
provided by the allied local kings. In the desert near Carrhae, in northern Mesopotamia
(today's Harran in Turkey at the border with Syria), the Romans attacked the
Parthians whose army was mainly composed
of cataphracts (armoured cavalry, hence the name of a crocodile) and mounted archers. The Roman light infantry was
forced back to its initial position by clouds of arrows. Crassus to gain time to reorganize
his troops sent his cavalry against the enemy, but the allied kings fled the battlefield:
Publius and his Gauls forced the mounted archers to retreat, but the Parthians were
able to throw their arrows backwards (so a Parthian shot is a remark or glance reserved for the moment of departure; over time the saying became parting shot).
The Roman cavalry suffered heavy losses and it was eventually surrounded by the
enemy: Publius, fearing to fall prisoner, killed himself. Crassus made a last
attempt to deploy his troops in an attacking scheme, but the armoured Parthian
cavalry put them in disarray. Crassus lost his life and with him most of his army:
the Parthians managed to take the legion insignia, a very shameful event
for the Romans, whose eastwards expansion was blocked for more than 150 years.
After the death of Crassus, Caesar and Pompey gradually moved from alliance to
confrontation. Pompey returned to Rome and gained the support of the Senate: in 52 he was appointed
consul sine collega (sole consul) and given wide powers; for a while the confrontation between Caesar
and Pompey remained in the legal/political framework; Caesar did not move from his provinces, but through his envoys
and supporters challenged the decisions of the Senate and of Pompey; in January 49 the Senate ordered him to disband his legions and entrusted the defence of the
Republic to Pompey.
Caesar's reaction was swift: in a matter of days he crossed with his army the Rubicon, a small stream near Rimini which marked the
boundary between the province of Gallia Cisalpina and the extended metropolitan territory of Rome:
by doing this he violated the orders of the Senate: an act he could not undo, therefore to cross the Rubicon means becoming committed to a certain enterprise.
Pompey had no time to arrange a defence of Rome and preferred to leave the city for Greece with the majority of the senators to organize there
a counter-offensive.
Caesar established in Rome a government he could rely upon. He then
showed his ability to make quick decisions and rapidly move from one province to the other. Pompey had been
for years proconsul in Spain and had there many supporters:
in a matter of a few months Caesar subdued them and in January 48 he turned his attention towards Greece,
where Pompey had gathered a large army. The final battle took place at
Pharsalus, in Thessaly: Pompey was defeated and sought refuge in Egypt, the last large
Mediterranean country which had not yet been touched by the Roman expansion.
Caesar decided to chase Pompey even there. With a small army he
landed in Alexandria (the site of his camp is still remembered
by the French name Camp de Cesar of a quarter), where to his great disgust, he was offered by Pharaoh
Ptolomy XIII (*) the head of Pompey.
The rhetorician Theodotos of Chios had persuaded Ptolomy to kill Pompey, thus
violating the laws of hospitality, to
gain Caesar's support in his quarrel with his sister and wife Cleopatra. Caesar tried
to reconcile the two, but eventually, after falling in love with Cleopatra who bore him a child, he sided
with her and defeated Ptolomy. Cleopatra, who wished to become the sole ruler of Egypt,
was however advised by Caesar to marry another brother (Ptolomy XIV).
Caesar had to leave Egypt to quell the last threats to his uncontested rule:
a rebellion in Pontus was so quickly quenched that Caesar summarized this campaign
in three words Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered); he then defeated
the last supporters of Pompey in Africa.
In 46 Caesar celebrated in Rome four triumphs for his victorious campaigns and received the following
additional names Gallicus, Ponticus, Alexandrinus and Africanus.
Remaining portico of Foro di Cesare; (behind it some tabernae)
Caesar gained a lot from being the proconsul of Gallia and while he still was busy there he
bought through an intermediary the buildings and the land to the north of the Roman Forum:
his aim was to dedicate a temple to Venus Genitrix (parent/mother), as his family claimed to directly descend
from Aeneas and therefore from his mother Venus; the temple was preceded by a rectangular
square flanked by two porticoes, one of which is still clearly identifiable.
On his return to Rome in 46 the temple was solemnly inaugurated.
The First Imperator
Caesar was aware that, behind the apparent enthusiasm with which his triumphs
had been greeted, there were some long standing contrasts in the Roman society, due to
different economical interests, which could undermine his power.
He therefore introduced several changes in the Roman institutions: he granted Roman
citizenship to Gallia Cisalpina (northern Italy), the faithful province which had supported
him when he was in conflict with the Senate; he diluted the authority of this body by increasing
its membership to 900 and by establishing that some of its members should represent
the provinces; he reduced the maximum time of incumbency of proconsuls in a province to prevent
them from following his example and building there a personal power.
He forced the Senate to endorse beforehand his decision and to appoint him consul
for then years and give him for his lifetime the title of imperator, a word
which originally meant great military commander and did not correspond to a specific
authority (imperium = command/order).
Caesar's reforms were not limited to politics;
he extended the application of Roman laws to the provinces,
thus favouring trade and other businesses which were supported by a common set of rules;
he more severely punished the civil servants who extorted bribes to grant
authorizations which were due; his more lasting reform was the introduction of a new calendar (named after him Julian), based
on the astronomical calculations of the Egyptians and which is still
used by some Christian churches which have refused the changes to the calendar
made by Pope Gregory XIII in 1573.
He behaved like a monarch and although he refused the crown three times, the fact
that he had received the senators remaining seated before the Temple to Venus, as if he were a god himself,
was highly criticized by the most conservative part of the Roman society.
Under the pretence of restoring the old republican institutions a
group of senators and other citizens, dissatisfied with the way Caesar had assigned
positions and favours, plotted to kill him.
Caesar maybe suspected what was going on, but (on the ides (**) of March of the year 44) he discarded the warnings of Calpurnia, his wife, not to go
to a meeting with the Senate; he had also been told to beware of the ides of March;
at the entrance to Curia Pompea, a large courtyard leading to Teatro di Pompeo, Caesar was stabbed to
death, right
under a statue of Pompey, his former ally and rival. When he saw among the conjurators Junius Brutus, whom he regarded as a child of his own, he cried:
Quoque tu, Brute, fili mi (you too Brutus, my child): these were his last words.
(left) Ruins of the entrance to Curia Pompea a large courtyard
leading to Teatro di Pompeo,
behind the Republican temples in Area Sacra di Torre
Argentina: here Caesar was stabbed; (right) flowers on Ara di Cesare,
an altar in the Roman Forum near Regia, the former royal palace: the site where Caesar's funerals took place
THE IDES OF MARCH
Guard. O my soul, against pomp and glory.
And if you cannot curb your ambitions,
at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously.
And the higher you go,
the more searching and careful you need to be.
And when you reach your summit, Caesar at last -
when you assume the role of someone that famous -
then be especially careful as you go out into the street,
a conspicuous man of power with your retinue;
and should a certain Artemidoros
come up to you out of the crowd, bringing a letter,
and say hurriedly: "Read this at once.
There are things in it important for you to see."
be sure to stop; be sure to postpone
all talk or business; be sure to brush off
all those who salute and bow to you
(they can be seen later); let even
the Senate itself wait - and find out immediately
what grave message Artemidoros has for you.
Constantin Kavafis - translation by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
Antony
O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well!
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar's death hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die:
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
William Shakespeare - The Tragedy of Julius Caesar - Act III
Iconography
The following external links show works of art or other visual media portraying characters and events
mentioned in this page:
Spartacus was totally ignored for centuries until due to his rebellion he was seen as a
forerunner of the XIXth century fight of the working class for better living conditions.
See Kirk Douglas as Spartacus and Spartak Moskow, one of the many soccer teams named after Spartacus.
Cicero was portrayed
while unveiling Catilina's plot by Cesare Maccari (1840-1919) in the Italian Senate,
Palazzo Madama.
Several events of Caesar's life inspired artists and film-makers:
Caesar accepting the surrender of Vercingetorix 1899 painting by Lionel-Noël Royer (it opens in a separate window).
Cleopatra before Caesar by Jean-Leon Gérôme (1824-1904).
Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh as Caesar and Cleopatra.
Sir John Gielgud, Marlon Brando and Greer Garson as Caesar, Antony and Calpurnia.
Death of Julius Caesar 1798 painting by Vincenzo Camuccini (in the background the statue of Pompey - it opens in a separate window).
(*)The numbering of the Ptolomies varies: some sources indicate Ptolomy XIV as the first husband of Cleopatra (who should be more precisely called Cleopatra VII) and Ptolomy XV as his second husband.
(**) In the Roman calendar calendae indicated the first day of month, nones the 5th or the 7th day, ides the 13th or 15th of the month. In March, May, July, October the ides indicated the 15th. Because the Greeks
did not use the Roman approach for naming the first day of month, the saying on the Greek calends is a roundabout
expression meaning never.
Previous pages:
I - The foundation and the early days of Rome
II - The early republican period
III - The Romans meet the elephants
IV - Expansion in the eastern Mediterranean
Next page:
VI - Augustus
