Titans of History

CAESAR

100–44 BC

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

Gaius Julius Caesar, possessed of all the talents of war, politics and literature, was born of a noble but no longer rich family. Ruthless, cold and irrepressibly energetic, (yet an epileptic), he climbed the cursus honorum of Roman republican politics with astonishing speed, a rise made possible by the brutal civil war between Marius and Sulla. At age nineteen and keeping his distance from Sulla, he first distinguished himself in the wars of the east (where he was accused of a gay affair with the king of Bithynia). Caesar was captured by pirates, who ransomed him. Typically, once he was freed, he put together a flotilla and returned to hunt them down, killing all of them. Caesar was a keen practitioner of the adventurous school of politics and a serial seducer of married women—a sexual adventurer, nicknamed the bald adulterer who slept with the wives of his rivals Crassus and Pompey as well as the mother of his future assassin, Brutus. And then there was Cleopatra.

As a nephew of Marius, Caesar was almost murdered by Sulla—and was only able to begin his career after the dictator’s death. His rise was initially limited by the supremacy of Pompey the Great, the conqueror of Syria and Rome’s greatest soldier and wealthiest statesman, who had been awarded an exceptional three triumphs. Elected consul in 61 BC, Caesar managed to form the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus to rule Rome peacefully. But he really made his name with his astounding nine-year conquest of Gaul and the west for Rome, a campaign he later recounted (in the third person) in his Commentaries, revealing his expertise as a historian. He personally fought fifty battles. It was in Gaul that Caesar made his reputation—and his fortune.

Caesar was forty-one. It was late in life for a conqueror—Alexander was dead at thirty-three, Hannibal fought his last battle at forty-five, Napoleon and Wellington both fought their last battle, Waterloo, at forty-six.

In 54 and 55 BC he invaded, but did not occupy, Britain. In 53 the Triumvirate fell apart; Pompey dominated Rome and the Senate ordered Caesar to resign his command. Caesar refused. Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, the river that separated his own Gallic provinces from Italy itself, marked his bid for power. Pompey retreated to rally his forces in Greece, and Caesar took Rome, where he was appointed dictator. Caesar defeated his enemies at Pharsalus in 48 BC. Pompey was afterward murdered in Egypt, where Caesar fell in love with the young queen Cleopatra and fought to establish her rule. They celebrated and rested on a luxurious cruise down the Nile. On the way home, he stopped in Asia to defeat King Pharnaces of Bosporus at the Battle of Zela, his quickest victory, which he celebrated with the laconic “Veni, vidi, vici”—“I came, I saw, I conquered.” Caesar fought and defeated the Pompeyans not only in Greece but in Italy, Spain and then in Africa. He finally returned to Rome in 46 BC to celebrate a record four triumphs. In 44 BC he planned new campaigns in the Balkans and against Parthia. In Rome, he was politically supreme, his power absolute and nearly monarchical, but though his supremacy was feared and resented, he did not rule by terror and was forgiving and clement, using his power for the greater good. Caesar turned down the throne but received the titles Father of the Country, imperator, dictator for life and consul for ten years, and he was declared to be sacred.

Caesar’s monarchical powers led to an assassination plot under his erstwhile supporters Brutus and Cassius. Caesar was warned that he might be assassinated on the Ides of March, but he ignored the warnings. On the Ides of March 44 BC, sixty senators attacked and stabbed Caesar as he received petitioners at a Senate meeting. When he lay dead, he was found to have 23 wounds. After the conspirators were defeated in a civil war, the empire was divided uneasily between Caesar’s commander Mark Antony and his heir, great-nephew and adopted son, Octavian. In 31 BC, however, Octavian defeated Antony at Actium, thereby uniting the Roman empire and emerging as its first emperor: Caesar became a title synonymous with “emperor” or his heir. “Caesar” came to signify legitimate power, the German “Kaiser” and Russian “Tsar” being its derivatives.