Ancient Rome: An Introductory History (41 page)

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after all, Pompey and Caesar had put Ptolemy on the throne of Egypt. Yet Pompey was killed by the ministers of the king, as his rowboat was nearing the Egyptian shore. "A corpse doesn't bite," explained the king's adviser, grinning, as he recommended that Pompey be killed. Pompey's head was cut off, to be taken to Caesar; one of his former slaves and a former soldier later found his headless body, washed its wounds, and, on a pyre constructed from the wood of an old wrecked fishing boat, cremated Pompey the Great.

When Caesar landed in Egypt, Pompey's head and signet ring were brought to him. Seeing them, Caesar wept and had Pompey's murderers found and killed. Not content with killing Pompey, the king's ministers also attacked Caesar, probably because he demanded payment of 10 million of the 17 million drachmas that the king owed him. Caesar also wanted Ptolemy to receive Cleopatra back into the palace (he had driven her away) and to rule the kingdom jointly with her. Caesar was accompanied by only a few hundred soldiers, and with great difficulty saved his life; at one point he had to escape through the water, holding important documents above the water with one hand and swimming with the other, all the time clenching his scarlet cloak between his teeth, to keep it from becoming a trophy for the Egyptians. Eventually he conquered Ptolemy, made Cleopatra queen of Egypt, and spent some time with her. Later Cleopatra bore a son, whose father was supposedly Caesar; she named the child Caesarion, or Little Caesar.

Caesar next went to Asia Minor, where Pharnaces, the king of Pontus (son of Mithridates), was taking advantage of Rome's troubles by attacking its allies. Caesar and his soldiers defeated Pharnaces in 47
B.C.
at Zela; that was the battle that inspired Caesar's famous line, "Veni, vidi, vici" (I came, I saw, I conquereda testament to Caesar's legendary speed. Five days after arriving in Pontus, and four hours after catching sight of Pharnaces, Caesar defeated him in battle and destroyed his army. Caesar then commented that Pompey had been very lucky to have had such weak enemies on which to build his military reputation.

Caesar then returned to Rome, where his victorious troops were mutinying. They were tired of waiting both for their general, who had been away for more than a year, and for the lavish gifts that he

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had promised them. Caesar had only to address them as
quirites
, "citizens" (that is, no longer soldiers), and they then begged him to allow them to continue serving in his army.

Caesar then went to Africa, where some remaining Pompeians, under the leadership of Cato and Scipio, were making preparations to take over Italy and restore the republic. Caesar defeated them at Thapsus (close to Carthage) in 46; after that battle Cato, one of the diehard republicans, committed suicide, much to Caesar's disappointment, for he wanted the glory of extending clemency to this hated enemy. Romans later admired Cato for his dedication and devotion to constitutional government and for his high moral principles, in an age of government by the sword and election by bribery. For example, Cato knew very well that Pompey was not much preferable to Caesar; while making an accusation of bribery against Gabinius, one of Pompey's allies (who as tribune had rewarded Pompey with the command against the pirates), Cato was assaulted and dragged from the rostrum. As he was being dragged away, he called Pompey
privatus dictator
, "a self-appointed dictator." While fleeing to Greece, Pompey appointed Cato to Sicily, knowing that Cato would immediately call upon him (if victorious over Caesar) to disband his army, since the common enemy of the republic had been destroyedneedless to say, Pompey had no intention of rescuing the republic only to leave himself a private citizen, like anybody else. After Pharsalus, Cato joined with Metellus Scipio in Utica; there Scipio decided to execute all the inhabitants of the town for supporting Caesar, but Cato would not allow it and thus saved many thousands of lives. Later, after Scipio was defeated by Caesar, Cato put the safety of the citizens of Utica before his own and allowed them to surrender rather than fight a losing and destructive battle against Caesar. To those men who embraced republican principles during the empire and who were disenchanted with one-man rule and the exclusion of the nobles from positions of power and glory, Cato appeared a martyr for the republic. The poet Lucan (living under the tyranny of Nero) wrote a fine line of poetry about Cato: "victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni" ("The winning cause [that is, the principate, tyranny] pleased the gods, but the losing cause [the republic, justice] pleased Cato"; Lucan I.128).

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In 45 Caesar went to Spain, where he conquered the last remnants of the Pompeian opposition at the Battle of Munda, which he almost lost. Sextus Pompey, the last son of Pompey, survived the battle and continued to cause problems for Caesar's successors. By March 45 Caesar was master of Rome.

Caesar As Dictator

Caesar's enemies were happy to learn that Caesar did not return to Rome as Sulla did, driven by a desire for revenge. He recalled those who had been driven out during Sulla's proscriptions. Those men who had opposed him before and during Pharsalus were not punished or deprived of their estates; many were given political appointments or received advancement in their careers. Brutus and Cassius, both of whom had fought against Caesar at Pharsalus, received praetorships. Caesar forgave the orator Cicero and later even the ex-consul Marcellus, who had stridently opposed attempts to work with Caesar in 50. So grateful was the Roman populace that it dedicated a temple
clementiae Caesaris
, "to the clemency of Caesar." Those Pompeians who resisted after Thapsus were punished by exile and confiscation of their estates.

With no significant opposition, and having been appointed dictator for ten years, Caesar set himself to solving the many problems in the government. He first relieved the treasury of a burden by reducing the number of those eligible for free grain, from 320,000 to 150,000; 80,000 of those disqualified from free grain were sent to work for their food at overseas colonies. Caesar also sent skilled freedmen as colonists, wishing them to make colonies that would be industrial and mercantile, not just agricultural. To settle his soldiers, Caesar made extensive use of land outside of Italy, a policy with far-reaching consequences. He settled his soldiers in Africa, Spain, and Gaul, thus establishing more outposts of Roman and Latin civilization, in addition to ensuring the stability of those regions. Caesar also granted citizenship to people of Transpadane Gaul and to certain nobles from other towns of Spain and Gaul. Caesar also made certain Gallic supporters senators; jokes of the time reported Gauls, wearing trousers, becoming senators. Caesar made the rulers of Roman lands more truly represent those lands

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and gave the provincial peoples more of a stake in the survival of the empire.

One of Caesar's most famous endeavors was the reform of the Roman calendar. The Romans used a lunar calendar, which had 355 days in a year. Whenever the seasons had gotten out of synch with the calendar year, the priests would insert a month to realign the seasons with the calendar (this is called an intercalation). Caesar changed that. First, he started using an Egyptian solar calender. Since only one intercalation had been made since 52, he brought the calendar year 46 into harmony with the seasons by adding sixty-seven days between November and December; he added the ten extra days of the solar year throughout the twelve remaining months (
Cambridge Ancient History
9:696). The calendar remained unchanged until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII made some minor changes to it.

Another of Caesar's reforms called for at least one-third of the shepherds and herdsmen in Italy to be freedmen. He wanted to minimize the number of slaves in Italy, and he doubtless wanted also to improve the quality of recruits for the army. He also gave citizenship to doctors and teachers living in Rome.

Caesar had great plans. He planned one more epic military exploit, the conquest of Parthia and, on the return trip back to Italy, the conquest of Germany. He planned to organize the code of civil law, which had become chaotic. He wanted to create one library for Greek literature and another for Latin, and even commissioned the scholar Varro to classify Greek and Latin works. He wanted to create more farmland by draining marshes, to build a highway from the Adriatic to Rome, across the Apennines, and to cut a canal through the isthmus of Corinth. He did not live to carry out his plans.

''Et Tu, Brute?"

After being appointed dictator for life early in 44, Caesar became increasingly unpopular. His triumph after the Battle of Munda angered many, for he was celebrating a victory over fellow Romans, not over barbarians. Another time, the consuls and praetors came to him in the Senate, as he was sitting above the rostrum on his

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Bust of Julius Caesar, first century B.C. (Courtesy of the Archer M.
Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, William J. Battle
Collection of Plaster Casts)

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golden throne, to present him with more honors; he did not stand to greet them and even told them that the number of honors given him ought to be decreased, not increased. (We are told that the honor that most pleased him was permission to wear a crown of leaves, for it covered his bald head; otherwise, Caesar tried to comb his few remaining hairs over his bald spot.) This was seen as an insult to all. Then there was the scene at the Lupercalia (a festival held on February 15, in which nearly naked young menthe Luperciran around striking people with strips of goatskin; women struck by them were supposed to become more fertile). Three times Marcus Antonius presented Caesar with a crown, and each time Caesar turned it down. Later, tribunes arrested and jailed the individuals who urged Caesar to accept the crown; Caesar had those tribunes deposed from office. Once Caesar was addressed as king; his famous reply was, "Non sum Rex [a cognomen of the Servilii family], sed Caesar" (I am not a King, but a Caesar). The rumor spread that, according to the Sibylline oracles, Parthia could be conquered by none but a king, and that Caesar should be called a king, so he could conquer Parthia. There was also a rumor that he was planning to move the capital to Alexandria and transfer all the wealth and power there. Caesar was also designating those whom he wanted to be consuls and praetors years in advance and was rewarding his friends with such positions. When the consul of 45 died on the last day of his term, Caesar insulted the dignity of the position by appointing another friend consul for the rest of the day. This last episode occasioned the joke of Cicero, when the new consul's friends hurried to the Forum to congratulate him, "Let's hurry, before his term of office expires!" (Plutarch,
Caesar
LVIII). Caesar also angered many by commenting that the republic was just a name without substance or form and that whatever he said should be considered the law.

A conspiracy against his life arose. The conspirators had to act quickly, before Caesar started for Parthia with his legions. Among the conspirators were men whom Caesar had forgiven for fighting against him at Pharsalus and Thapsus, and to whom he had given important posts in the government. They felt it necessary to lure Brutus into joining the conspiracy, for he had a reputation for uprightness and just dealing. Graffiti were written on the statue of

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Brutus' remote ancestor, Junius Brutus ("If only you were here now, Brutus!" and "How helpful it would be, if Brutus were alive!"), and on Brutus' own tribunal chair (''Brutus, are you sleeping?" and "You aren't really a Brutus!"), to remind him of his ancestor's famous deed. Brutus joined the conspiracy and opposed plans to assassinate Antony too, arguing that killing Caesar would be a just deed, but that killing Antony was unnecessary, and they must act only with strict justice. Caesar had recently decided that it was better to die than to live his life in fear and accordingly had dismissed his Spanish bodyguard; he also knew that many people wanted him to remain alive, since a worse civil war would erupt upon his death. It was probably simple weariness that prompted Caesar frequently to say, "I have lived long enough either for nature or for glory." (He was fifty-six years old.) In a conversation with friends, concerning the best type of death, Caesar said that the best death is one that comes swiftly and unexpectedly.

Plutarch describes the fateful Ides of March of 44
B.C.
(students of Shakespeare will recognize this description):

The Senate rose at Caesar's entrance and a great crowd immediately surrounded him once he had taken his seat. They sent Tillius Cimber, one of their fellow conspirators, to plead on behalf of his brother, who was in exile. The others also started pleading, grasping Caesar's hands and kissing his chest and head. At first Caesar rejected their requests, and then, as they would not stop begging, he used force to stand up. Tillius, with both hands, tore Caesar's cloak from his shoulders; Casca, who was standing behind Caesar, drew his sword and was the first to stab him, next to the shoulder, but the wound was not deep. Caesar grabbed the handle of the sword and shouted loudly, "Damn you, Casca, what are you doing?" Casca shouted in Greek for his brother to come help. By now Caesar was being stabbed by the many men surrounding him and, thinking of breaking through the crowd around him, he saw Brutus drawing his sword against him; he then let go of Casca's hand, covered his head with his cloak, and gave up his body to be stabbed by them. (Plutarch,
Brutus
17)

According to another source (the biographer Suetonius), when Caesar saw Brutus about to stab him, he said in Greek, "You too, my child?" (Kai su, teknon?).

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