Julius Caesar, commander and politician. Brief biography of Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar (lat. Gaius Iulius Caesar). Born July 12 or 13, 100 BC. e. - died March 15, 44 BC. e. Ancient Roman statesman and politician, commander, writer. Consul of 59, 48, 46, 45 and 44 BC. e., dictator 49, 48-47 and 46-44 BC. e., Pontifex Maximus from 63 BC. e.

Gaius Julius Caesar was born into the ancient patrician Julian family.

In the V-IV centuries BC. e. Julia played a significant role in the life of Rome. Among the representatives of the family came, in particular, one dictator, one master of cavalry (deputy dictator) and one member of the college of decemvirs, who developed the laws of the Ten Tables - the original version of the famous laws of the Twelve Tables.

Like most families with an ancient history, the Julias had a common myth about their origins. They traced their lineage to the goddess Venus through Aeneas. The mythical version of the origin of the Julians was already well known by 200 BC. e., and Cato the Elder recorded a version about the etymology of the family name Yuliev. In his opinion, the first bearer of this name, Yul, received his nickname from the Greek word “ἴουλος” (fluff, the first hair on the cheeks and chin).

Almost all Julias in the V-IV centuries BC. e. wore the cognomen Yul, who was probably originally the only one in their family. The branch of the Julius Caesars most certainly descended from the Julius Iuli, although the links between them are unknown.

The first known Caesar was a praetor in 208 BC. e., mentioned by Titus Livy.

The etymology of the cognomen "Caesar" is not known with certainty and was forgotten already in the Roman era. Aelius Spartian, one of the authors of the lives of the Augustans, recorded four versions that existed by the 4th century AD. e.: “The most learned and educated people believe that the first one who was so named received this name from the name of the elephant (which in the language of the Moors is called caesai), which he killed in battle; [or] because he was born from a dead mother and was cut out from her womb; or because he came out of his mother’s womb with long hair; or because he had such brilliant gray-blue eyes, which do not exist in people".

Until now, the reliable etymology of the name is unclear, but more often the origin of cognomen is assumed to be from the Etruscan language (aisar - god; The Roman names Cesius, Caesonius and Caesennius have a similar origin).

By the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. Two branches of the Julius Caesars were known in Rome. They were closely related to each other, but not clearly established. Two branches were recorded in different tribes, and by the 80s BC. e. they also had a completely opposite political orientation, focusing on two warring politicians.

The future dictator's closest relatives were guided by Gaius Maria (Julia, Gaius's aunt, became his wife), and the Caesars from another branch supported Sulla. Moreover, the latter branch played a greater role in public life than the one to which Guy belonged. Guy's relatives on the side of his mother and grandmother could not boast of kinship with the gods, but they all belonged to the elite of Roman society - the nobility. Caesar's mother, Aurelia Cotta, belonged to the wealthy and influential plebeian family of the Aurelians. The relatives of Guy's grandmother, Marcia, traced their line back to the fourth Roman king, Ancus Marcius.

Caesar's date of birth remains a matter of debate among researchers. Sources' evidence on this issue varies. Indirect indications from most ancient authors allow us to date the birth of the dictator to 100 BC. BC, although Eutropius mentions that at the time of the Battle of Munda (March 17, 45 BC) he was 56 years old. In two important systematic sources about the life of the dictator - his biography of authorship and - the beginning of the text with stories about the circumstances of his birth has not been preserved.

The reason for the discrepancies in historiography was, however, the discrepancy between the timing of Caesar's master's degrees and the known practice: Caesar held all the master's degrees earlier than the normal sequence (cursus honorum) by about two years.

Because of this, Theodor Mommsen proposed to consider the date of birth of Caesar as 102 BC. e. Since the beginning of the 20th century, other options for solving the discrepancy began to be proposed. Guy's birthday is also causing debate - July 12 or 13. The fourth day before the Ides quintile (July 12) is mentioned by Macrobius in his Saturnalia. Dio Cassius, however, says that after the death of the dictator, the date of his birth was moved from July 13th to July 12th by a special decree of the second triumvirate. Thus, there is no consensus on the date of birth of Caesar. The year of his birth is most often recognized as 100 BC. e. (in France it is more often dated to 101 BC, as suggested by Jerome Carcopino). The dictator's birthday is equally often considered to be July 12 or 13.

The house where Caesar grew up was in the Subura area of ​​Rome., who had a reputation for trouble. As a child, he studied Greek, literature, and rhetoric at home. Physical exercises, swimming, and horse riding were practiced. Among the teachers of young Guy, the great rhetorician Gniphon is known, who was also one of Cicero’s teachers.

Around 85 BC. e. Caesar lost his father: according to Pliny the Elder, he died bending down to put on his shoes. After the death of his father, Caesar, who had undergone the initiation rite, actually headed the entire Julian family, since all his closest male relatives older than him had died. Soon Guy became engaged to Cossucia, a girl from a wealthy family from the equestrian class (according to another version, they managed to get married).

In the mid-80s BC. e. Cinna nominated Caesar to the honorary position of Flaminus of Jupiter. This priest was bound by many sacred restrictions that seriously limited the possibilities of pursuing master's degrees. To take office, he first needed to marry a girl from a patrician family according to the ancient rite of confarreatio, and Cinna offered his daughter to Guy Cornelia. Young Julius agreed, although he had to break off his engagement to Cossucia.

However, Caesar's accession to office is questioned. According to Lily Ross Taylor, the Pontifex Maximus Quintus Mucius Scaevola (the enemy of Marius and Cinna) refused to perform the inauguration ceremony for Guy. Ernst Badian, however, believes that Caesar was nevertheless inaugurated. As a rule, Caesar's appointment is considered in historiography as an insurmountable obstacle to his further political career. However, there is also an opposite point of view: occupying such an honorable position was a good opportunity to strengthen the authority of the ancient family for this branch of the Caesars, not all of whose representatives achieved the highest magistracy of the consul.

Soon after his wedding to Cornelia, Cinna was killed by mutinous soldiers, and the following year a civil war began, in which Caesar probably did not participate. With the establishment of the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and the beginning of proscriptions, Caesar's life was in danger: the dictator did not spare political opponents and personal enemies, and Gaius turned out to be the nephew of Gaius Marius and the son-in-law of Cinna. Sulla demanded that Caesar divorce his wife, which was not a unique case of proof of loyalty, but he refused to do so.

In the end, Sulla added Caesar's name to the proscription list, and he was forced to leave Rome. Sources report that Caesar hid for a long time, distributing bribes to the Sullans who were looking for him, but these stories are implausible. In the meantime, Guy's influential relatives in Rome managed to obtain a pardon for Caesar. An additional circumstance that softened the dictator was Caesar’s origins from the patrician class, representatives of which the conservative Sulla never executed.

Soon Caesar left Italy and joined the retinue of Marcus Minucius Terma, governor of the province of Asia. The name of Caesar was well known in this province: about ten years ago his father was its governor. Guy became one of the contubernals of Terme - the children of senators and young horsemen who studied military affairs and provincial government under the supervision of the current magistrate.

First, Therm entrusted the young patrician with negotiations with the king of Bithynia, Nicomedes IV. Caesar managed to convince the king to place part of his fleet at the disposal of Therma so that the governor could capture the city of Mytilene on Lesbos, which did not recognize the results of the First Mithridatic War and resisted the Romans.

Guy's stay with the Bithynian king subsequently became the source of many rumors about their sexual relationship. After successfully completing this assignment, Therm sent troops against Mytilene, and the Romans soon took the city. After the battle, Caesar was awarded the civil crown (lat. corona civica) - an honorary military award, which was awarded for saving the life of a Roman citizen. After the capture of Mytilene, the campaign in Lesbos ended. Soon Termus resigned, and Caesar went to Cilicia to its governor Publius Servilius Vatia, who was organizing a military campaign against the pirates. However, when in 78 BC. e. News came from Italy about the death of Sulla, Caesar immediately returned to Rome.

In 78 BC. e. Consul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus tried to raise a rebellion among the Italians in order to repeal the laws of Sulla. According to Suetonius, Lepidus invited Caesar to join the rebellion, but Gaius refused. In 77 BC. e. Caesar brought the Sullan Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella to trial on charges of extortion during his governorship in Macedonia. Dolabella was acquitted after major court speakers came out in his support. The indictment delivered by Caesar turned out to be so successful that it was distributed in handwritten copies for a long time. The following year, Gaius began the prosecution of another Sullan, Gaius Antonius Hybrida, but he requested protection from the tribunes of the people, and the trial did not take place.

Soon after the failure of the trial of Anthony, Caesar went to improve his oratory skills in Rhodes with the famous rhetorician Apollonius Molon, Cicero's mentor.

During Caesar's journey, he was captured by pirates who had long traded in the Eastern Mediterranean. He was held on the small island of Farmakussa (Farmakonisi) in the Dodecanese archipelago. The pirates demanded a large ransom of 50 talents (300 thousand Roman denarii). Plutarch’s version that Caesar, on his own initiative, increased the ransom amount from 20 talents to 50 is certainly implausible.

Ancient authors colorfully describe Guy's stay on the island: he allegedly joked with the kidnappers and recited to them poems of his own composition. After the ambassadors of the cities of Asia ransomed Caesar, he immediately equipped a squadron to capture the pirates themselves, which he managed to do. Having captured his captors, Guy asked the new governor of Asia, Mark Yunk, to judge and punish them, but he refused.

After this, Guy himself organized the execution of the pirates - they were crucified on crosses.

Suetonius adds some details of the execution as an illustration of Caesar's gentle character: “He swore to the pirates who had him captive that they would die on the cross, but when he captured them, he ordered them to be stabbed first and only then crucified.”.

During his repeated stay in the East, Caesar once again visited the Bithynian king Nicomedes. He also participated at the very beginning of the Third Mithridatic War at the head of a separate auxiliary detachment, but soon left the combat zone and returned to Rome around 74 BC. e. The following year he was co-opted to the priestly college of pontiffs in place of his deceased uncle Gaius Aurelius Cotta.

Soon Caesar wins election to military tribune. The exact date of his tribunate is unknown: 73 is often suggested, but 72 or 71 BC is more likely. e. What Caesar did during this period is not known for certain. It is suggested that Caesar may have been involved in suppressing the rebellion of Spartacus- if not in combat, then at least in training recruits. It is also suggested that it was during the suppression of the uprising that Caesar became close friends with Marcus Licinius Crassus, who in the future played a significant role in Guy’s career.

At the beginning of 69 BC. e. Cornelia, Caesar's wife, and his aunt Julia die almost simultaneously. At their funeral, Guy made two speeches that attracted the attention of his contemporaries.

Firstly, public speeches in memory of dead women were practiced only from the end of the 2nd century BC. e., but in them they usually remembered elderly matrons, but not young women. Secondly, in a speech in honor of his aunt, he recalled her marriage to Gaius Marius and showed the people his wax bust. Probably, Julia's funeral was the first public display of the general's image since the beginning of Sulla's dictatorship, when Maria was effectively forgotten.

Same year Caesar becomes quaestor, which guarantees him a seat in the Senate. Caesar performed the duties of a quaestor in the province of Further Spain. The details of his mission are unknown, although the quaestor in the province usually dealt with financial matters. Apparently, Guy accompanied the governor of Gaius Antistius Vetus on trips around the province, carrying out his instructions. It was probably during the quaestor that he met Lucius Cornelius Balbus, who later became Caesar's closest ally.

Soon after returning from the province, Guy married Pompey, the granddaughter of Sulla (she was not a close relative of the influential Gnaeus Pompey the Great in those years). At the same time, Caesar began to openly lean toward supporting Gnaeus Pompey; in particular, he was perhaps the only senator who supported Gabinius’ law on transferring emergency powers to Gnaeus in the fight against pirates.

Caesar also supported the law of Manilius granting a new command to Pompey, although here he was no longer alone.

In 66 BC. e. Caesar became the caretaker of the Appian Way and repaired it at his own expense (according to another version, he repaired the road in 65 BC, being an aedile). In those years, the main creditor of the young politician, who did not skimp on spending, was probably Crassus.

In 66 BC. e. Caesar was elected curule aedile for the next year, whose duties included organizing urban construction, transport, trade, daily life in Rome and ceremonial events (usually at his own expense). In April 65 BC. e. new aedile organized and held the Megalesian Games, and in September the Roman Games, which surprised even the most experienced Romans with their luxury. Caesar shared the costs of both events equally with his colleague Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus, but only Gaius received all the glory.

Initially, Caesar planned to show a record number of gladiators at the Roman Games (according to another version, gladiatorial fights were organized by him in memory of his father), but the Senate, fearing a rebellion by many armed slaves, issued a special decree prohibiting one person from bringing more than a certain number of gladiators to Rome . Julius obeyed the restrictions on the number of gladiators, but gave each of them silver armor, thanks to which his gladiatorial fights were still remembered by the Romans.

In addition, the aedile overcame the resistance of conservative senators and restored all the trophies of Gaius Marius, the display of which had been prohibited by Sulla.

In 64 BC. e. Caesar headed a permanent criminal court in cases of robbery accompanied by murder (quaestio de sicariis). In the courts under his chairmanship, many participants in Sulla's proscriptions were convicted, although this dictator passed a law that did not allow criminal prosecution against them. Despite Caesar's active efforts to convict the dictator's accomplices, the active perpetrator of the murders of the proscribed Lucius Sergius Catilina was completely acquitted and was able to nominate his candidacy for consul the next year. The initiator of a significant part of the trials, however, was Caesar's opponent, Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger.

Caesar - Pontifex Maximus:

At the beginning of 63 BC. e. Pontifex Maximus Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius died, and the highest position in the system of Roman religious magistrates became vacant. At the end of the 80s BC. e. Lucius Cornelius Sulla restored the ancient custom of co-opting high priests by the College of Pontiffs, but shortly before new elections, Titus Labienus restored the procedure for electing the Pontifex Maximus by voting in 17 tribes out of 35.

Caesar put forward his candidacy. Alternative candidates were Quintus Lutatius Catulus Capitolinus and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus. Ancient historians report numerous bribes during elections, due to which Guy's debts grew greatly. Since the tribes that voted were determined by lot immediately before the elections, Caesar was forced to bribe representatives of all 35 tribes. Guy's creditors were sympathetic to spending on a prestigious but unprofitable position: his successful election testified to his popularity in the run-up to the elections of praetors and consuls.

According to legend, leaving home before the announcement of the results, he told his mother “Either I will return as pontiff, or I will not return at all.”; according to another version: “Today, mother, you will see your son either as a high priest or as an exile.”. The vote took place, according to various versions, either on March 6, or at the end of the year, and Caesar won. According to Suetonius, his advantage over his opponents turned out to be enormous.

Julius's election as Pontifex Maximus for life brought him into the spotlight and almost certainly guaranteed a successful political career. Unlike the flamen of Jupiter, the great pontiff could participate in both civil and military activities without serious sacred restrictions.

Although people who were former consuls (consuls) were usually elected great pontiffs, there were also cases in Roman history when relatively young people occupied this honorary position. Thus, Caesar could not be accused of becoming great pontiff only because of exorbitant ambitions. Immediately after his election, Caesar took advantage of the right to live in the state house of the great pontiff and moved from Subura to the very center of the city, on the Sacred Road.

Caesar and the Catiline conspiracy:

In 65 BC. e., according to some contradictory evidence from ancient historians, Caesar participated in the unsuccessful conspiracy of Lucius Sergius Catilina to seize power. However, the question of the “first conspiracy of Catiline” remains problematic. Evidence from sources varies, which gives some researchers grounds to completely deny the existence of the “first conspiracy.”

Rumors about Caesar's participation in Catiline's first conspiracy, if it existed, were spread by opponents of Crassus and Caesar already in the 50s BC. e. and are probably not true. Richard Billows believes that the spread of rumors about the "first conspiracy" was beneficial to Cicero, and then to Caesar's political opponents.

In 63 BC. e., after his failure in the elections of consuls, Catiline made a new, more famous attempt to seize power. Caesar's possible involvement in the conspiracy was discussed back in ancient times, but reliable evidence was never provided. During the culmination of the crisis, Catulus and Piso demanded that Cicero arrest Caesar for complicity in the conspiracy, but to no avail. According to Adrian Goldsworthy, by 63 BC. e. Caesar could count on legal means of occupying new positions and was not interested in participating in the conspiracy.

December 3, 63 BC e. Cicero presented evidence of the dangers of the conspiracy, and the next day a number of the conspirators were declared state criminals. On December 5, the Senate, meeting in the Temple of Concord, discussed a preventive measure for the conspirators: in emergency circumstances, it was decided to act without court approval. Decimus Junius Silanus, elected consul the following year, advocated the death penalty, a punishment applied to Roman citizens in the rarest of cases. His proposal was met with approval.

Caesar spoke next.

His speech in the Senate, recorded by Sallust, is certainly based on the actual speech of Julius. Sallust's version of the speech contains both a common appeal to Roman customs and traditions and an unusual proposal to sentence the conspirators to life imprisonment - a punishment almost never used in Rome - with confiscation of property.

After Caesar, Cicero spoke, objecting to Guy's proposal (an edited recording of his fourth speech against Catiline has survived). However, after the speech of the current consul, many were still inclined to Julius’s proposal, but Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger took the floor and resolutely opposed Caesar’s initiative. Cato also hinted at Caesar's involvement in the conspiracy and reproached the wavering senators for their lack of determination, after which the Senate voted to put the conspirators to death. Since the meeting on December 5 was held with open doors, people listening attentively outside reacted violently to Cato's speech, including his hint of Caesar's connections with the conspirators, and after the end of the meeting they saw off Guy with threats.

Barely taking office as praetor on January 1, 62 BC. e., Caesar took advantage of the magistrate’s right of legislative initiative and proposed that the people’s assembly transfer the authority to restore the Temple of Jupiter Capitoline from Quintus Lutatius Catulus to Gnaeus Pompey. Catulus took about 15 years to restore this temple and almost completed the work, but if this proposal had been accepted, the dedicatory inscription on the pediment of this most important sanctuary of Rome would have mentioned the name of Pompey, and not Catulus, an influential opponent of Caesar.

Guy also accused Catulus of embezzling public funds and demanded an account of his expenses. After protest from the senators, the praetor withdrew his bill.

When on January 3, the tribune Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos proposed recalling Pompey to Rome to defeat Catiline’s troops, Guy supported this proposal, although the conspirators’ troops were already surrounded and doomed to defeat. Apparently, Nepos, Gnaeus's brother-in-law, hoped with his proposal to give Pompey the opportunity to arrive in Italy without disbanding his troops. After a mass brawl provoked by Nepos in the forum, the determined Senate passed an emergency law removing Nepos and Caesar from office, but a few days later Guy was reinstated.

In the fall, at the trial of Lucius Vettius, a member of the Catiline conspiracy, the accused told the judge that he had evidence of Caesar’s involvement in the conspiracy - his letter to Catiline. In addition, during interrogation in the Senate, witness Quintus Curius stated that he had heard personally from Catiline about Caesar’s participation in preparing the rebellion. However, Cicero, at the request of Guy, testified that he told the consul everything he knew about the conspiracy, and thereby deprived Curius of the reward for information and refuted his testimony. Caesar acted very decisively against the first accuser, arresting both Vettius (he did not appear at the next meeting and did not present evidence of the praetor’s guilt) and the judge Novius Niger (he accepted a denunciation of the senior magistrate).

In December 62 BC. e. In Caesar's new house, a festival was held in honor of the Good Goddess with the participation of only women, but it was interrupted after a man, Publius Clodius Pulcher, secretly entered the house. Senators, having learned about the incident, decided to consider the incident sacrilege, and also demanded that the holiday be held anew and the perpetrators punished. The latter meant inevitable publicity of Caesar's personal life, since there were rumors that Clodius arrived at Caesar's house in a woman's dress precisely for his wife.

Without waiting for trial, The pontiff divorced Pompeia Sulla. The trial took place the following year, and Clodius was acquitted because Caesar refused to testify against him. Adrian Goldsworthy believes that Pompeii really had an affair with Clodius, but Caesar still did not dare to testify against the politician who was quickly gaining popularity.

In addition, the majority of judges on the panel voted with signs with illegible inscriptions, not wanting to incur the wrath of Clodius' supporters and opponents. During the trial, when Caesar was asked why he divorced his wife if he knew nothing about what happened, he allegedly replied that Caesar's wife should be above suspicion(different sources give different versions of this phrase. According to Michael Grant, Caesar meant that the wife of the great pontiff - the high priest of Rome - should be above suspicion. The British historian points to another possible reason that accelerated the divorce - the absence of children after several years of marriage .

At the beginning of 61 BC. e. Caesar was supposed to go to the province of Further Spain, the westernmost in the Roman Republic, to rule it as propraetor, but numerous creditors ensured that he did not leave Rome without paying off his huge debts. Nevertheless, Crassus vouched for Caesar with the sum of 830 talents, although it is unlikely that this huge sum covered all the debts of the governor. Thanks to Crassus, Guy went to the provinces even before the end of the trial of Clodius. On his way to Spain, Caesar allegedly said, passing through a remote village, that “I would rather be first here than second in Rome”(according to another version, this phrase was uttered on the way from Spain to Rome).

By the time of Caesar's arrival, there was great dissatisfaction with Roman power and large debts in the underdeveloped northern and northeastern parts of the province. Caesar immediately recruited a local militia to subdue the dissatisfied regions, which was presented as an extermination of the bandits.

According to Dio Cassius, thanks to the military campaign, Caesar hoped to equal Pompey with his victories, although it was possible to establish a lasting peace without military action.

Having at his disposal 30 cohorts (about 12 thousand soldiers), he approached the Herminian Mountains (the modern Serra da Estrela ridge) and demanded that the local tribes settle on the flat territory in order to deprive them of the opportunity to use their fortifications in the mountains in the event of an uprising.

Dio Cassius believes that Caesar hoped for a refusal from the very beginning, since he hoped to use this answer as a motive for an attack. After the mountain tribes refused to submit, the governor's troops attacked them and forced them to retreat to the Atlantic Ocean, from where the mountain tribes sailed to the Berlenga Islands. Caesar ordered several detachments to cross to the islands on small rafts, but the Lusitanians killed the entire Roman landing force.

After this failure, Guy summoned a fleet from Hades and with its help transported large forces to the islands. While the commander was conquering the mountainous Lusitanians on the Atlantic coast, the neighbors of the expelled tribes began preparing to repel a possible attack by the governor. All summer, the propraetor subjugated the scattered Lusitanians, storming a number of settlements and winning one fairly large battle. Soon, Caesar left the province and headed to Brigancia (modern La Coruña), quickly capturing the city and its surroundings. In the end, the troops declared him emperor, which in the terminology of the mid-1st century BC. e. meant recognition as a victorious commander. Even then, Caesar showed himself to be a decisive commander, capable of quickly moving his troops.

Having completed his campaign, Caesar turned to solving the daily problems of the province. His energetic activity in the administrative field was manifested in the revision of taxation and in the analysis of court cases. In particular, the governor abolished the tax imposed as punishment for the Lusitanians' support of Quintus Sertorius in the recent war. In addition, it ruled that creditors could not recover from debtors more than two-thirds of their annual income.

In the difficult situation with the repayment of loans and interest by residents of the province, such a measure turned out to be beneficial for both borrowers and creditors, since Caesar still confirmed the need for mandatory repayment of all debts. Finally, Caesar may have banned human sacrifice, which was practiced in the province.

Some sources claim that the governor extorted money from wealthy residents of the province and robbed neutral tribes, but this evidence is probably based only on rumors. Richard Billows believes that if Caesar had actually openly plundered the province, he would have been immediately brought to justice by his political opponents upon his return to Rome. In fact, there was no prosecution or even hints of its beginning, which at least indicates Caesar’s caution.

Roman legislation of the 1st century BC. e. provided for the responsibility of the governor for extortion, but did not establish clear boundaries between a gift and a bribe, and therefore sufficiently careful actions could not be qualified as bribery.

Caesar could count on substantial gifts, since the inhabitants of the province (especially the rich south) saw in the young aristocrat a potentially influential patron - a defender of their interests in Rome.

Masinta's extremely vigorous defense showed them that Caesar would do anything to protect his clients. Apparently, Caesar received the greatest income precisely from civil activities in the southern part of the province, since the main military operations were carried out in the impoverished northern and northeastern regions of Further Spain, in which it was hardly possible to get rich. After becoming governor of the province, Caesar significantly improved his financial situation, and creditors no longer bothered him. Guy probably did not pay off all his debts, but he proved that he was able to repay his loans by taking on new positions. As a result, the creditors could temporarily stop disturbing Caesar, counting on a new, more profitable appointment, which Guy’s opponents subsequently tried to use.

At the beginning of 60 BC. e. Caesar decided to return to Rome, without waiting for his successor. The early termination of the governor's powers with the delegation of powers to a junior magistrate (probably a quaestor) was considered unusual, but was sometimes practiced.

Having received reports of Caesar's victories, the Senate considered him worthy of triumph. In addition to this honorable celebration, in the summer of 60 BC. e. Caesar hoped to take part in the election of consuls the following year, since he had reached the minimum age for holding a new position and had completed all previous magistrates in the cursus honorum system.

However, the candidate for triumph was not allowed to cross the sacred boundaries of the city (pomerium) before the event began, and personal presence in Rome was required to register a candidate for consul. Since the election date had already been set, Caesar asked the senators to grant him the right to register in absentia. There was already a precedent for such a decision in Roman history: in 71 BC. e. The Senate allowed Gnaeus Pompey, who was also preparing a triumph, to put forward his candidacy.

Caesar's opponents were not in the mood to meet him halfway. By presenting Guy with a choice between triumph and consulate, they may have hoped that Caesar would choose triumph, hoping that Guy's creditors would not wait another year, but would demand their money immediately. However, Caesar had another reason not to postpone participation in the elections until the next year: election to a new position in “his year” (Latin suo anno), that is, in the first year when this was permissible by law, was considered especially honorable.

At the last meeting of the Senate before the elections, when it was still possible to pass a special resolution, Cato took the floor and spoke all day, until the very end of the meeting. Thus, Caesar did not receive special permission, and he entered the city, choosing to take up a new position and abandoning triumph.

By the summer of 60 BC. e. Caesar agreed to cooperate with the rich and educated, but little-known Roman Roman Lucius Lucceus, who also put forward his candidacy. According to Suetonius, "they agreed that Lucceus would promise his own money to the centuries on behalf of both." The Roman author mentions that his rival Bibulus also bribed voters with the approval of the senators: his father-in-law Cato called this “bribery in the interests of the state.” According to the results of the elections of consuls for 59 BC. e. became Caesar and Bibulus.

Around this time, Caesar entered into secret negotiations with Pompey and Crassus to create a political alliance: in exchange for the support of Gaius by two of the most powerful and wealthy Romans, the new consul undertook to pass several laws in their interests that had previously been blocked by the Senate.

The fact is that Pompey, who returned from the Third Mithridatic War back in 62 BC. e., has not yet achieved the ratification of all orders made in the eastern provinces. He also could not overcome the resistance of the Senate on the issue of granting land plots to veterans of his army. Crassus also had reasons for dissatisfaction with the Senate, who defended the interests of the publicans (tax farmers), who unsuccessfully asked to reduce the amount of taxation for the province of Asia.

By uniting around Caesar, both politicians hoped to overcome the resistance of the senators and pass laws beneficial to themselves. It is unclear what Caesar received from the alliance. Undoubtedly, he benefited from the very rapprochement with two influential politicians and their equally high-ranking friends, clients and relatives.

There is a version that when organizing the triumvirate, Caesar hatched plans to seize power with its help(a similar point of view was shared, in particular, by Theodor Mommsen and Jerome Carcopino).

Despite the fact that Pompey and Crassus had long been at odds and even interfered with the implementation of laws in each other's interests, Caesar managed to reconcile them. Suetonius claims that Caesar first entered into an alliance with Pompey, but Christian Meyer believes that he first agreed to cooperate with Crassus, who was closer to him. It is possible that it was planned to include a fourth member - Cicero - in the political union.

The union of three politicians is currently known as the first triumvirate (Latin triumviratus - “union of three husbands”), but this term arose by analogy with the later second triumvirate, whose members were officially called triumvirs.

The exact date of the creation of the triumvirate is unknown, which is a consequence of its secret nature. Following the contradictory versions of ancient writers, modern historians also offer different versions: July-August 60 BC. e., the period shortly before or shortly after the elections, after the elections or 59 BC. e. (in final form).

At the very beginning of the consulate, Guy ordered the daily publication of the minutes of the meetings of the Senate and the National Assembly: apparently, this was done so that citizens could monitor the actions of politicians.

Caesar, on behalf of the Roman Republic, recognized Ptolemy XII Auletes as pharaoh of Egypt, which was tantamount to renouncing claims to Egypt using the will (probably forged) of Ptolemy XI Alexander II, widely known in Rome. According to this document, Egypt was to come under the rule of Rome, just as, according to the will of Attalus III, the Kingdom of Pergamum was transferred to the Roman Republic. Ancient historians report that the issue was settled for a huge bribe, which was shared among the triumvirs.

Despite significant support for Caesar's initiatives at the beginning of the year, by the end of 59 BC. e. the popularity of the triumvirs fell sharply.

By the beginning of Caesar's proconsulate, the Romans controlled the southern part of the territory of modern France, where the province of Narbonese Gaul was formed. At the end of March 58 BC. e. Guy arrived in Genava (modern Geneva), where he entered into negotiations with the leaders of the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii, who began to move due to the onslaught of the Germans. Caesar managed to prevent the Helvetii from entering the territory of the Roman Republic, and after they entered the lands of the Aedui tribe allied with the Romans, Guy pursued and defeated them. In the same year, he defeated the troops of the German leader Ariovistus, who was trying to gain a foothold in the Gallic lands of the left bank of the Rhine.

In 57 BC. e. Caesar, without a formal cause of war, attacked the Belgae tribes in northeastern Gaul and defeated them at the battles of Axon and Sabis. The commander's legate, Publius Licinius Crassus, bloodlessly subjugated the lands in the lower Loire. However, the next year the Gauls conquered by Crassus united against the Roman conquest. Caesar was forced to divide his forces between Titus Labienus, who was supposed to subjugate the Treveri tribe in Belgica, Publius Crassus (who was entrusted with the conquest of Aquitaine) and Quintus Titurius Sabinus, who suppressed the peripheral tribes of the rebels. Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus began building a fleet on the Loire capable of fighting the coastal tribes, and Caesar himself went to Luca, where the triumvirs met and discussed current issues.

Returning to his troops, Caesar led an attack on the rebel Gauls. Gaius and Sabinus captured all the rebel settlements, and Decimus Brutus destroyed their fleet in a naval battle.

In 55 BC. e. the commander defeated the German tribes that crossed the Rhine. He then crossed to the right bank of the river using a 400-meter bridge built near the camp "castellum apud confluentes" (modern Koblenz) in just ten days.

The Roman army did not stay in Germany (during the retreat, the first bridge in history across the Rhine was destroyed), and already at the end of August Caesar undertook a reconnaissance expedition to Britain - the first trip to this island in Roman history. However, due to insufficient preparation, within a month he had to return to the continent.

Next summer Caesar led a new expedition to Britain, however, the Celtic tribes on the island continuously retreated, weakening the enemy in small clashes, and Caesar was forced to conclude a truce, which allowed him to report victory to Rome. After his return, Caesar divided his troops between eight camps concentrated in northern Gaul.

At the end of the year, the Belgian tribes rebelled against the Romans and almost simultaneously attacked several of their wintering grounds. The Belgas managed to lure the XIV Legion and five more cohorts (about 6-8 thousand soldiers) from the fortified camp and kill them in an ambush. Caesar managed to lift the siege from the camp of Quintus Tullius Cicero, the brother of the orator, after which the Belgae abandoned the attack on Labienus' camp. In 53 BC. e. Guy carried out punitive expeditions against the Belgian tribes, and in the summer he made a second trip to Germany, again building (and again destroying during the retreat) a bridge across the Rhine. Faced with a shortage of troops, Caesar asked Pompey for one of his legions, to which Gnaeus agreed.

At the beginning of 52 BC. e. Most of the Gallic tribes united to fight the Romans. The leader of the rebels was Vercingetorix. Since the Gauls cut off Caesar in Narbonese Gaul from the bulk of his troops in the north, the commander, with the help of a deceptive maneuver, lured Vercingetorix to the lands of his native Arverni tribe, and he himself united with the main troops. The Romans took several fortified Gallic cities, but were defeated when attempting to storm Gergovia. In the end, Caesar managed to block Vercingetorix in the well-fortified fortress of Alesia and begin a siege.

The Gallic commander called all the Gallic tribes for help and tried to lift the Roman siege after their arrival. A fierce battle broke out in the most poorly defended area of ​​the fortifications of the siege camp, in which the Romans won victory with some difficulty. The next day Vercingetorix surrendered to Caesar, and the rebellion as a whole was over. In 51 and 50 BC. e. Caesar and his legates completed the conquest of distant tribes and individual groups of rebels. By the end of Caesar's proconsulate, all of Gaul was subordinate to Rome.

Throughout his stay in Gaul, the commander was aware of the events taking place in Rome and often intervened in them. This became possible due to the fact that two of Caesar’s confidants remained in the capital, with whom he constantly corresponded - Gaius Oppius and Lucius Cornelius Balbus. They distributed bribes to the magistrates and carried out his other orders from the commander.

In Gaul, several legates served under Caesar, who later played a significant role in Roman history - Mark Antony, Titus Labienus, Lucius Munatius Plancus, Gaius Trebonius and others.

Consuls 56 BC e. Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus and Lucius Marcius Philippus were unkind to the triumvirs. Marcellinus prevented the implementation of laws by Caesar's supporters and, more importantly, managed to achieve the appointment of a successor to Caesar from among the not yet elected consuls for the next year. Thus, no later than March 1, 54 BC. e. Guy had to cede the province to his successor.

The most likely candidate to replace Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul was considered Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, a staunch opponent of the triumvirate. In addition, Caesar's opponents hoped to take Narbonese Gaul from him. The first attempts to bring Caesar to court date back to this time, but failed due to the judicial immunity of the proconsul before the end of his powers.

In mid-April 56 BC. e. triumvirs gathered in Luka(modern Lucca; the city belonged to Cisalpine Gaul, which allowed Caesar to be present) to coordinate further actions.

They agreed that Pompey and Crassus would nominate their candidacies for consul the following year in order to prevent the election of opponents (in particular, Ahenobarbus). Since the outcome of the elections, held in full accordance with the law, was not obvious, the triumvirs decided to influence the elections by attracting legionnaires. Supporters of the triumvirs had to push for a postponement of the elections to the end of the year, and Caesar promised to send all his soldiers to participate in the vote. Once elected, Pompey and Crassus were to secure a five-year extension of Caesar's term in exchange for Caesarian support for the distribution of several other provinces in their favor.

In the spring of 55 BC. e. the new consuls fulfilled their obligations adopted at the meeting in Luca: Caesar extended his powers in all three provinces for five years. In addition, Pompey received control of Far and Near Spain for the same period, and Crassus received Syria. In May or June 55 BC. e. Cicero, who became close to the triumvirate, actively supported, and possibly initiated, a bill to compensate for the costs of maintaining Caesar's four new legions at public expense. This proposal was accepted. In exchange for Cicero's services to Caesar, the proconsul responded by including Quintus Tullius Cicero, the orator's brother, among his legates.

In August or September 54 BC. e. Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died during childbirth. However, the death of Julia and the failure of attempts to conclude a new dynastic marriage did not have a decisive impact on the relationship between Pompey and Caesar, and for several more years the relationship between the two politicians remained quite good.

A much greater blow to the triumvirate and to all Roman politics was dealt by Death of Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae. Although Crassus was considered more of a “junior” triumvir, especially after Caesar’s successful conquests in Gaul, his wealth and influence smoothed over the contradictions between Pompey and Caesar.

At the beginning of 53 BC. e. Caesar asked Pompey for one of his legions to use in the Gallic War, and Gnaeus agreed. Caesar soon recruited two more legions to make up for the losses of his troops due to the Belgian uprising.

In 53-52 BC. e. the situation in Rome was extremely tense due to the struggle (often armed) between supporters of two demagogues - Clodius and Milo. The situation worsened significantly due to the murder of Clodius by the slave Milo in January 52 BC. e. By this time, elections of consuls had not been held, and in Rome there were calls to elect Pompey as consuls along with Caesar to restore order.

Caesar invited Pompey to organize a new dynastic marriage. According to his plan, Pompey was to marry Octavia the Younger, a relative of Caesar, and he himself intended to marry Pompeia, the daughter of Gnaeus. Pompey refused the offer, marrying after some time Cornelia Metella, the daughter of Caesar's longtime enemy Metellus Scipio. When it became clear that Caesar would not be able to return from Gaul to restore order in Rome, Cato (according to another version - Bibulus) proposed an emergency measure - the appointment of Gnaeus as consul without a colleague, which allowed him to make the most important decisions alone. However, the Senate probably viewed Pompey as a temporary coordinator to quell unrest, and not as a long-term ruler.

Soon after his appointment, the new consul initiated adoption of laws on violent acts (lex Pompeia de vi) and on electoral bribery (lex Pompeia de ambitu). In both cases, the wording of the laws was clarified to meet new requirements, stricter preventive measures were established, and court hearings in these cases had to be held under armed guard. Both decisions had retroactive effect. The law on bribery extended until 70 BC. e., and Caesar's supporters considered this decision a challenge to their patron.

At the same time, the tribunes of the people, with the approval of Pompey, passed a decree allowing Caesar to nominate his candidacy for consul while absent from Rome, which he failed to achieve in 60 BC. e. However, soon, at the proposal of the consul, laws on magistracy and provinces were adopted. Among the provisions of the first decree was a ban on seeking office in the absence of the candidate in Rome.

The new legislation was not only directed against Caesar, but also came into conflict with the recent decree of the tribunes. However, soon Pompey, who allegedly forgot to make an exception for Caesar, ordered the addition of a clause to the law on magistracy on the possibility of special permission to apply without being present in the capital, but did this after the law was approved.

Pompey's decrees brought uncertainty into Caesar's future after the end of his proconsulship. It is unclear when he could nominate his candidacy for consul for the next year in accordance with special permission - in 50 or 49 BC. e.

Due to the fact that Gnaeus amended the law on magistrates after its approval, Caesar's opponents had the opportunity to protest the effect of this clarification and demand the mandatory presence of Caesar as a private citizen at the elections. Guy was seriously afraid that immediately after his arrival in Rome and the termination of his immunity, Caesar’s opponents, led by Cato, would bring him to trial.

Because Pompey's laws were retroactive, Gaius could be held accountable for his actions in 59 BC. e. and before. In addition, it was unclear whether Caesar's successor should be appointed under the old law or under the new one. If the priority of Pompey's decree was recognized, the successor could replace Caesar in the province as early as March 1, 49 BC. e., and it was supposed to be one of the consuls five years ago. However, since the second consul Appius Claudius Pulcher managed to receive an appointment to Cilicia, Gaius's successor was to be his irreconcilable opponent Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Although Cato failed in this election of consuls, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, an enemy of Caesar, was elected. At the very beginning of the year Marcellus demanded that Caesar leave the province and disband all ten legions, citing the completion of active military operations after the capture of Alesia. However, the rebels continued to operate on the periphery of Gaul, and Marcellus’ colleague Servius Sulpicius Rufus refused to support this proposal. Pompey tried to maintain the appearance of neutrality, but his statements indicated a rapid cooling of relations with Caesar.

Consuls 50 BC e. after Cato refused to participate in the elections, Gaius Claudius Marcellus, Marcus’s cousin and comrade-in-arms, and Lucius Aemilius Paulus began to take part in the elections. The latter was not a staunch opponent of Caesar, and therefore Guy took advantage of his difficult financial situation and persuaded him to cooperate for a huge bribe of 1,500 talents (approximately 36 million sesterces, or slightly less than the annual tax revenues from conquered Gaul).

In addition, one of his longtime opponents, Gaius Scribonius Curio, unexpectedly went over to Caesar’s side. Later sources attribute this change of political position to another bribe comparable to the one received by Aemilius Paulus. It was Curio who used the tribunician veto to repeal the laws with which the senators tried to legalize the removal of Caesar. However, the tribune carefully concealed his defection. In his public speeches, he positioned himself as an independent politician and defender of the interests of the people, and not Pompey or Caesar. In May 50 BC. e. The Senate, under the pretext of the Parthian threat, immediately recalled two legions from Caesar, including the one lent to him by Pompey.

As the end of the proconsul's powers drew near, Caesar and his Roman opponents began vigorous efforts to defend their position in accordance with their vision of legislation.

By 50 BC. e., when Caesar's break with Pompey became obvious, Caesar had significant support from the inhabitants of Rome and the population of Cisalpine Gaul, but among the nobles his influence was small and often relied on bribes.

Although the Senate as a whole was not inclined to trust Caesar, the idea of ​​​​a peaceful resolution of the dispute was supported by the majority of senators. Thus, 370 senators voted in support of Curio’s proposal on the need for the simultaneous disarmament of both commanders, and 22 or 25 voted against. However, Marcellus closed the meeting before the voting results were entered into the protocol. According to another version, the decision of the Senate was vetoed by the tribune Guy Furnius.

Other proposals were also made, although neither Caesar nor Pompey and his supporters were willing to give in. In particular, even before the elections of magistrates, Gnaeus suggested that Caesar return to Rome on November 13, 50 BC. e., surrendering proconsular powers and troops, so that on January 1, 49 BC. e. take up the post of consul. However, contemporaries noticed that Pompey clearly did not want reconciliation. Soon false rumors spread in Rome that Caesar had already crossed the borders of Italy and occupied Arimin, which meant the beginning of a civil war.

In 50 BC. e. Caesar managed to get Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius Longinus into the tribunes of the plebeians the following year, but his candidate for consul, Servius Sulpicius Galba, failed. Based on the voting results, staunch opponents of the proconsul were elected - Gaius Claudius Marcellus, the full namesake and cousin of the previous year's consul, as well as Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Cruz.

From the second half of the year Caesar begins to make persistent attempts to negotiate with the Senate, offering mutual concessions.

In particular, he agreed to renounce Narbonese Gaul and retain only two legions and two provinces - Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum - subject to immunity and absentee participation in elections.

The senators refused to accept Caesar's proposal. In response, January 1, 49 BC. e. In Rome, Caesar’s letter was read, in which the proconsul’s determination to defend his right to absentee participation in the elections was already heard by all available means.

In response, the Senate decided that Caesar should be considered an enemy of the state if he did not resign and disband the troops by a certain date, but Antony and Longinus, who took office, vetoed it, and the resolution was not adopted. Several people, including Cicero, tried to mediate a reconciliation between the two generals, but their attempts were unsuccessful.

On January 7, at the initiative of a group of senators led by Cato, an emergency law (lat. senatusconsultum ultimum) was issued calling citizens to arms, which actually meant a complete refusal of negotiations. Troops began to gather in the city, and Antony and Longinus were made to understand that their safety could not be guaranteed.

Both tribunes and Curio, who had already surrendered his powers, immediately fled from Rome to Caesar’s camp - according to Appian, they left the city “at night, in a hired cart, disguised as slaves.”

On January 8 and 9, the senators decided to declare Caesar an enemy of the state if he did not resign. They also approved his successors - Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Marcus Considius Nonianus - transferring to them Cisalpine and Narbonese Gaul. They also announced the recruitment of troops.

Caesar, back in December 50 BC. e. summoned the VIII and XII legions from Narbonese Gaul, but by the beginning of January they had not yet arrived. Although the proconsul had only about 5 thousand soldiers of the XIII Legion and about 300 cavalry at his disposal, he decided to act.

After the arrival of the tribunes who had fled from Rome at Caesar's camp, the commander gathered the troops at his disposal and addressed them with a speech. In it, he informed the soldiers about the violation of the sacred rights of the tribunes and the reluctance of the senators to recognize his legal demands. The soldiers expressed full support for their commander, and he led them across the border river Rubicon(according to legend, before crossing the river, Caesar said the words “the die is cast” - a quote from Menander’s comedy).

However, Caesar did not move towards Rome. On January 17, after receiving news of the outbreak of war, Pompey tried to start negotiations, but they failed, and the commander sent his troops along the Adriatic coast. Most of the cities along the way did not even try to resist. Many supporters of the Senate retreated to Corfinium (modern Corfinio), where Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was stationed.

Soon he had 30 cohorts, or 10-15 thousand soldiers, under his control. Due to the lack of a unified command (since Ahenobarbus had previously been appointed governor, Gnaeus had no authority to order him) Domitius found himself locked in Corfinia and cut off from Pompey's troops. After Caesar received reinforcements and the siege could not be lifted, Ahenobarbus decided to flee the city with only his friends. His soldiers became aware of the commander’s plans, after which the dissatisfied troops opened the gates of the city to Caesar and handed over Ahenobarbus and their other commanders to him.

Caesar annexed the troops stationed in Corfinia and the surrounding area to his army, and released Ahenobarbus and his comrades.

Upon learning of the surrender of Corfinius, Pompey began preparations for the evacuation of his supporters to Greece. Pompey counted on the support of the eastern provinces, where his influence had been great since the Third Mithridatic War. Due to a shortage of ships, Gnaeus had to transport his forces to Dyrrachium (or Epidamnus; modern Durres) in parts.

As a result, by the time Caesar arrived (March 9), not all of his soldiers had crossed over. After Gnaeus refused to negotiate, Gaius began a siege of the city and tried to block the narrow exit from the harbor of Brundisium, but on March 17, Pompey managed to leave the harbor and leave Italy with the remaining troops.

The rapid development of events in the first stage of the war took the population of Rome and Italy by surprise. Many residents of Italy supported Caesar, since they saw in him the successor of the work of Gaius Marius and hoped for his patronage. The Italians' support for Caesar greatly contributed to Caesar's success in the first stage of the civil war.

The attitude of the nobility towards Julius was mixed. The gentle treatment of commanders and soldiers in Corfinia was aimed at persuading both opponents and hesitant members of the nobility not to oppose Caesar.

Caesar's supporters Oppius and Balbus made every effort to present Caesar's actions to the entire republic as an act of outstanding mercy (lat. clementia). The principle of encouraging the neutrality of all those who waver also contributed to the pacification of Italy: “While Pompey declared his enemies all those who did not defend the republic, Caesar declared that he would consider those who abstained and did not join anyone as friends.”.

The widespread belief that the bulk of the senators fled Italy along with Pompey is not entirely true. It became famous thanks to Cicero, who subsequently substantiated the legitimacy of the “Senate in Exile” by the presence of ten consulars (former consuls) in its composition, but kept silent about the fact that there were at least fourteen of them left in Italy. More than half of the senators chose to remain neutral, holed up in their estates in Italy.

Caesar was supported by many young people from noble but poor aristocratic families, many representatives of the equestrian class, as well as various outcasts and adventurers.

Caesar was unable to immediately pursue Pompey into Greece because Gnaeus had requisitioned all available warships and transport ships. As a result, Guy decided to secure his rear by heading through Gaul, loyal to him, to Spain, where from 54 BC. e. There were Pompey's legates with seven legions.

Before leaving, Guy entrusted the leadership of Italy to Mark Antony, who received from him the powers of propraetor, and left the capital in the care of praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and the senators. In dire need of money, Guy took possession of the remnants of the treasury. The tribune Lucius Caecilius Metellus tried to prevent him, but Caesar, according to legend, threatened to kill him, adding that it was “much more difficult for him to say than to do.”

In Narbonne Gaul, where all of Caesar's Gallic troops had gathered, Caesar encountered unexpected resistance from the richest city of Massilia (modern Marseille). Not wanting to linger halfway, Caesar left part of his troops to wage the siege.

By the beginning of the campaign in Spain, according to the Notes on the Civil War, the Pompeians Lucius Afranius and Marcus Petreius had approximately 40 thousand soldiers and 5 thousand cavalry against Caesar's approximately 30 thousand soldiers and 6 thousand horsemen.

Caesar's troops, with skillful maneuvers, drove the enemy out of Ilerda (modern Lleida/Lleida) into the hills, where it was impossible to find either food or water. On August 27, the entire Pompeian army surrendered to Caesar. Caesar sent all the soldiers of the enemy army home, and allowed those who wished to join his army. After the news of the capitulation of the Pompeians, most of the communities of Near Spain went over to Caesar's side.

Soon Guy went to Italy by land. At the walls of Massilia, Caesar received news of his appointment as dictator on the initiative of the praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. In Rome, Caesar exercised his rights as a dictator and organized elections of magistrates for the following year.

Caesar himself and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus were elected consuls; other positions went mainly to supporters of the dictator. In addition, Guy took advantage of his right of legislative initiative and passed a number of laws designed not only to mitigate the consequences of the war (for example, the law on loans), but also for the long term (providing full Roman citizenship to residents of individual cities and territories).

While Caesar was in Spain, Caesar's generals suffered defeat after defeat in Illyricum, Africa and the Adriatic Sea. However, Caesar was able to derive some benefit from Curio's defeat in Africa: it allowed him to claim that Pompey's situation had become so desperate that he was forced to call on the barbarians to help him. The unsuccessful actions of the legates on the Adriatic coast left Caesar with only one option for crossing to Greece - by sea.

Apparently, Caesar feared that Pompey would cross over to Italy in the spring, and therefore began preparations for the landing in the winter of 49-48 BC. e. However, this idea was considered risky due to the unfavorable season for navigation, the dominance of the Pompeians at sea and the lack of food for a large army in Epirus. In addition, Guy was unable to assemble a sufficient number of ships to cross the entire army.

Nevertheless, January 4 or 5, 48 BC. e. Caesar's fleet with about 20 thousand soldiers and 600 cavalry landed in Epirus, avoiding a meeting with the Pompeian fleet, led by Bibulus. Another part of Caesar's army, led by Mark Antony, managed to break into Greece only in April.

Immediately after the landing, Caesar sent envoys to Pompey with a proposal to conclude a truce, but at the same time began to capture cities on the coast, which discredited any attempts to negotiate an end to the war.

Skillfully maneuvering, Caesar, after uniting with Antony, managed to encircle the superior forces of Gnaeus on a coastal hill near Dyrrhachium and erect strong fortifications that were supposed to protect the camp and troops of Gaius from attacks both from the besieged and from outside. This siege is notable not only for the superiority of the besieged over the besiegers, but also for the hunger in the latter’s camp, in contrast to the normal supply situation for the besieged Pompey: according to Plutarch, by the summer Caesar’s soldiers were eating bread from roots. Gnaeus soon took advantage of his access to the coast and his advantage at sea, landing part of his troops at the weakest point of the enemy fortifications.

Caesar threw all his forces into repelling the attack, but in a battle known as the Battle of Dyrrhachium (around July 10), Pompey put his enemy to flight. For some reason, Pompey did not dare to strike a decisive blow against Caesar - either because of the advice of Labienus, or out of caution against the possible tricks of Gaius. After the battle, Caesar, according to Plutarch and Appian, said “Today victory would remain with the opponents if they had someone to defeat”.

Gathering his defeated troops, Caesar marched southeast to fertile Thessaly, where he was able to replenish food supplies. In Thessaly, Caesar was joined by two legions of troops that he had previously sent to Macedonia for auxiliary operations. However, Pompey's soldiers outnumbered Caesar's by approximately two to one (approximately 22 thousand versus approximately 47 thousand).

The opponents met at Farsal. Pompey for some time did not want to start a general battle in open terrain and decided to give battle to Caesar only under pressure from the senators. According to legend, on the day before the battle, senators confident of victory began to distribute magistracy among themselves. It is likely that Titus Labienus prepared the battle plan for Pompey, but Caesar was able to unravel the plans of the Pompeians and prepare countermeasures (after the battle, Gnaeus suspected that someone from his entourage had conveyed the plans to Caesar). On August 9, a decisive battle took place, the outcome of which was decided by Caesar’s counterattack on the right flank. In total, 15 thousand soldiers died in the battle, including 6 thousand Roman citizens. More than 20 thousand more Pompeians surrendered the day after the battle, and among them were many nobles, including Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

Soon after the battle Caesar set out in pursuit of Pompey, but Gnaeus disoriented his pursuer and went through Cyprus to Egypt. Only when Caesar was in the province of Asia did news of his enemy's new preparations reach him, and he went to Alexandria with one legion (probably the VI Iron).

Caesar arrived in Egypt a few days after the assassination of Pompey by the Egyptians. Initially, his stay in Egypt was prolonged due to unfavorable winds, and the dictator tried to take advantage of the opportunity to solve his urgent need for money. Guy hoped to recover from King Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator 10 million denarii of debts left by his father Ptolemy XII Auletes (a significant part of the debt was an incompletely paid bribe for non-recognition of the will of Ptolemy XI Alexander II).

For this purpose the commander intervened in the struggle of supporters of Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra. Initially, Caesar probably hoped to mediate the dispute between brother and sister in order to obtain the greatest benefit for himself and for the Roman state.

After Cleopatra secretly entered Caesar's camp (according to legend, the queen was taken to the palace wrapped in a carpet), Guy went over to her side. Those surrounded by Ptolemy decided to take advantage of the small number of Guy's troops to expel him from the country and overthrow Cleopatra. The majority of the inhabitants of Alexandria supported the king, and the general uprising against the Romans forced Caesar to lock himself in the royal quarter, putting his life in great danger.

During the battle with the Egyptians, a fire started that spread to the Library of Alexandria- the largest book collection of the ancient world. However, a large branch of the library in the Serapeum with copies of the scrolls was preserved, and most of the collection was soon restored.

In the winter, Caesar withdrew his troops from the besieged palace and, after uniting with arriving reinforcements, defeated the troops of Ptolemy’s supporters. After Gai's victory placed Cleopatra and the young Ptolemy XIV Theos Philopator II on the royal throne(Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator drowned in the Nile after a battle with the Romans), who, according to tradition, ruled jointly.

Then the Roman commander spent several months with Cleopatra in Egypt, going up the Nile. Ancient authors considered this delay in the war to be caused by an affair with Cleopatra. It is known that the commander and queen were accompanied by Roman soldiers, so Caesar may have been simultaneously engaged in reconnaissance and a show of force to the Egyptians. Before leaving in July 47 BC. e. Caesar left three Roman legions to maintain order in Egypt. In the summer of the same year, Cleopatra's son Caesarion was born, and the dictator is often considered the father of the child.

While Caesar was in Egypt, supporters of the defeated Pompey gathered in Africa. After leaving Alexandria, Caesar headed not to the west, where his opponents concentrated their forces, but to the northeast. The fact is that after the death of Pompey, the population of the eastern provinces and the rulers of neighboring kingdoms tried to take advantage of the situation in their own interests: in particular, Pharnaces II, the son of Mithridates VI, relying on the remnants of the Pontic kingdom, which Pompey assigned to him, tried to restore the empire of his father, invading Roman lands.

Having settled urgent matters in Syria, Caesar arrived in Cilicia with a small force. There he united with the remnants of the troops of the defeated Gnaeus Domitius Calvin and with the ruler of Galatia, Deiotarus, who hoped to receive forgiveness for supporting Pompey. Guy met with Pharnaces at Zela, and on the third day defeated him. Caesar himself described this victory in three catchphrases: veni, vidi, vici (came, saw, conquered). After the victory over Pharnaces, Guy crossed to Greece, and from there to Italy. After his return, Caesar managed to restore the favor of several legions that had rebelled in Italy, making generous promises to them.

Having brought the legionaries into order, Caesar set out from Lilybaeum for Africa in December, again defying the unfavorable shipping conditions and sailing with only one legion of experienced troops. After transporting all the troops and organizing supplies, Caesar lured Metellus Scipio and the Numidian king Juba (the latter was once publicly humiliated by Gaius by pulling his beard during his trial) to battle in the vicinity of Thapsus.

April 6, 46 BC e. A decisive battle took place at Thapsus. Although in Notes on the African War the development of the battle is characterized as rapid and the nature of the victory as unconditional, Appian describes the battle as extremely difficult. In addition, Plutarch cites the version that Caesar did not participate in the battle due to an epileptic seizure.

Many commanders of Scipio's army fled from the battlefield, but contrary to the declared policy of mercy, they were caught up and executed on Caesar's orders. Marcus Petreius and Juba committed suicide, but Titus Labienus, Gnaeus and Sextus Pompey fled to Spain, where they soon organized a new center of resistance to Caesar.

After the victory at Thapsus, Caesar moved north to the well-fortified Utica. The commandant of the city, Cato, was determined to hold the city, but the inhabitants of Utica were inclined to surrender to Caesar, and Cato disbanded the troops and helped everyone to leave the city. When Guy approached the walls of Utica, Mark committed suicide. After returning to the capital Caesar led four triumphal processions in a row - for victories over the Gauls, Egyptians, Pharnaces and Juba. However, the Romans understood that Caesar was partly celebrating victories over his compatriots.

Caesar's four triumphs did not end the civil war, since the situation in Spain remained tense: the abuses of the Caesarian governor of Further Spain, Quintus Cassius Longinus, provoked a rebellion.

After the arrival of the defeated Pompeians from Africa and their organization of a new center of resistance, the temporarily calmed Spaniards again opposed Caesar.

In November 46 BC. e. Guy decided to go to Spain personally to suppress the last center of open resistance. By this time, however, most of his troops had already been disbanded: there were only two legions of experienced soldiers in the ranks (V and X legions), all other available troops consisted of newcomers.

March 17, 45 BC e., soon after arriving in Spain, the opponents clashed in Battle of Munda. In the most difficult battle, Guy won. According to legend, after the battle Caesar declared that he “I have often fought for victory, but now for the first time I fought for life”.

At least 30 thousand Pompeian soldiers died, and Labienus was among those killed on the battlefield; Caesar's losses were significantly smaller. The dictator retreated from his traditional practice of mercy (clementia): Gnaeus Pompey the Younger, who fled from the battlefield, was overtaken and killed, and his head was delivered to Caesar. Sextus Pompey barely managed to escape and even survived the dictator. After the victory at Munda, Caesar celebrated his fifth triumph, and it was the first in Roman history to celebrate the victory of the Romans over the Romans.

In the autumn of 48 BC. e., after receiving news of the death of Pompey, Caesar's colleague in the consulate Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus organized the second appointment of Guy as dictator in absentia. This time the justification for the appointment of an extraordinary magistrate was probably the conduct of the war (the formulation used was rei gerundae causa). The chief of the cavalry was Mark Antony, whom Caesar sent to govern Italy during his stay in Egypt. According to sources, Guy received unlimited power for one year instead of the usual six months for a dictator.

In the autumn of 47 BC. e. The dictatorship expired, but Caesar retained his proconsular powers, and on January 1, 46 BC. e. took up the post of consul. According to the testimony of Dio Cassius, Caesar also received the powers of a plebeian tribune (tribunicia potestas), but some researchers (in particular, H. Scullard) doubt the veracity of this message.

After the Battle of Thapsus, Caesar became dictator for the third time.

The new appointment had a number of unusual features: firstly, there was no formal justification for holding the position, and secondly, the position was for ten years, although it was apparently to be renewed annually. In addition to unlimited power, Guy's supporters organized his election to the special position of "prefect of morals" (praefectus morum or praefectus moribus) for three years, which effectively gave him the powers of a censor.

Since Caesar was already 54 years old at the time of his appointment, the ten-year magistracy of the dictator, taking into account the low average life expectancy in the ancient era, was actually considered as lifelong.

In 45 BC. e. Guy, in addition to the powers of the dictator, became a consul without a colleague, which did not allow the collegiality inherent in this magistracy to be realized, and only in October did he refuse the consulate, appointing two successors in his place - consul-suffects.

In the same year, Guy expanded his name to include the title "emperor", used to designate a victorious commander (from now on, his full name became Imperator Gaius Iulius Caesar).

Finally, at the beginning of 44 BC. e. (no later than February 15) Caesar received another appointment to the post of dictator. This time he received an extraordinary magistracy for life (lat. dictator perpetuus).

Caesar began to make new use of the dictator's magistracy, which had previously been used in exceptional cases. Traditionally, the dictator was appointed for six months, and in the event of a more rapid resolution of the crisis situation, he was expected to resign early. Less than forty years ago, Sulla first awarded the magistracy for an indefinite period, but after the reforms were carried out, he resigned the position and died as a private citizen.

Caesar was the first to directly declare his intention to rule indefinitely. However, in reality, Caesar led the republic by the right of the strong, relying on troops and numerous supporters, and his positions only gave the appearance of legitimacy.

The cult of personality and the sacralization of Caesar:

Caesar strengthened his power not only by occupying new positions, reforming the political system and suppressing the opposition, but also by sacralizing his personality.

First of all, the legend about the relationship of the Julius Caesar family with the goddess Venus was actively used: in accordance with ancient ideas, the descendants of the gods stood out from the general mass of people, and Caesar’s claims as a direct descendant were even more serious.

Wanting to publicly show his connection with the gods, which went beyond simple kinship, the dictator erected a luxuriously decorated temple of Venus in the Forum. It was dedicated not to Venus the Victorious (lat. Venus Victrix), as Caesar originally intended (this was his vow given before the battle of Pharsalus), but to Venus the Progenitor (lat. Venus Genetrix) - the legendary ancestor and Julia (in a straight line) , and at the same time all the Romans. He founded a magnificent cult in the temple and gave it one of the most important places in the hierarchy of Roman organized rituals.

The dictator also organized magnificent games at the temple and ordered them to be held in the future, appointing for this purpose young men from noble families, one of whom was Gaius Octavius. Even earlier, on some coins minted by monetaries from among the representatives of the Julian family, an image of the god Mars was placed, to whom the family also tried to trace their family, although less actively.

Caesar planned to build a temple of Mars in Rome, intended to popularize the lesser-known legend of descent from this god. However, the dictator did not have time to implement this idea, and Octavian put it into practice. Caesar received some of the attributes of sacred power through his position as great pontiff.

From 63 BC e. Caesar not only enjoyed numerous priestly powers, but also enjoyed enormous prestige.

Even before Caesar's first triumph, the Senate decided to grant him a number of honors, which began preparations for the sacralization of the dictator's personality and the establishment of a new state cult. The successful implementation of this decision by the Senate was due to the flight of the majority of adherents of Roman traditions with Pompey and the dominance of “new people” in the Senate. In particular, in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus the dictator's chariot and his statue in the image of the conqueror of the world were installed, and thus the most important temple of Rome became dedicated to both Jupiter and Caesar.

The most important source reporting this honor, Cassius Dio, used the Greek word for "demigod" (ancient Greek ἡμίθεος - hemitheos), which was usually applied to mythological heroes born from the connection of gods and people. However, the dictator did not accept this honor: soon, but not immediately, he canceled this decree.

The news of the dictator's victory at the Battle of Munda reached Rome on the evening of April 20, 45 BC. e., on the eve of the Parilium holiday - according to legend, it was on this day (April 21) that Romulus founded Rome. The organizers decided to hold games the next day in honor of the winner, as if he were the founder of the city. In addition, in Rome it was decided to build a sanctuary of Liberty in honor of Caesar the Liberator (lat. Liberator). The Senate also decided to install on the rostral tribune in the forum, from where the magistrates usually made speeches, a statue of Caesar, facing the people listening to the speakers.

Soon new steps were taken towards the deification of Caesar. First, after the dictator's return to Rome in May, his statue was placed in the temple of Quirinus, a deity identified with Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. The dedicatory inscription on the statue read: “To the undefeated god.”

At state expense, construction began on a new house for Caesar, and its shape had a significant resemblance to temples - the houses of the gods. At circus performances, an image of Caesar made of gold and ivory was among the images of the gods. Finally, in 45 BC. e. coins were minted with the image of Caesar in profile, although before this, images of living people had never been placed on coins.

At the beginning of 44 BC. e. The Senate, and then the People's Assembly, inspired by Mark Antony, issued a series of decrees granting Caesar new privileges and giving him new honors. Among them - title of father of the fatherland (lat. parens patriae) with the right to place it on coins, the introduction of an oath by the genius of Caesar for the Romans, turning his birthday into a holiday with sacrifices, renaming the month of Quintile to July, introducing a mandatory oath to preserve all his laws for magistrates taking office.

In addition, annual sacrifices were introduced for the safety of Caesar, one tribe was renamed in his honor, and all temples in Rome and Italy were required to install his statues. A college of Julian Luperci (younger priests; lat. Luperci Iuliani) was created, and in Rome the construction of the Temple of Concord was to begin in honor of the pacification of the state. Eventually, the Senate authorized the start of construction of the Temple of Caesar and his Mercy (Latin: Clementia) and created a new priestly position specifically for organizing the worship of the new deity, appointing Mark Antony to it.

The creation of a special position of a priest of the highest level for the veneration of Gaius put him on a par with Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. The other gods of the Roman pantheon were served by priests and colleges of a lower level. The deification of Caesar completed the creation of a new state cult. Lily Ross Taylor believes that in early 44 BC. e. The Senate decided to consider Caesar a god. His deification was finally confirmed posthumously by a special decree of the Second Triumvirate in 42 BC. e.

By 44 BC. e. Caesar also received a number of honors that brought him closer to the Roman kings. So, he constantly wore the clothes of a triumphant and a laurel wreath, which also created the impression of constant triumph.

Suetonius, however, notes that Caesar enjoyed the right to constantly wear a laurel wreath due to baldness.

In addition, he refused to rise from his throne when senators approached him. The latter circumstance caused particular indignation in Rome, since only absolute monarchs enjoyed such privileges. Nevertheless, he stubbornly refused the old Roman title of king (lat. rex), although this could be a consequence of calculation.

February 15, 44 BC e. At the Lupercalia festival, he rejected the diadem proposed by Mark Antony - a symbol of monarchical power. After his assassination, rumors spread that at the meeting on March 15 it was planned to declare him king, but only for the provinces - territories outside Rome and Italy.

Perhaps Caesar did not want the restoration of royal power in its Roman form, since this presupposed the election of a new ruler after the death of the previous one. Lily Ross Taylor has suggested that Guy wanted to create a system in which the transfer of power would be carried out by inheritance, as was customary in Hellenistic monarchies.

In the process of sacralizing his power, the dictator clearly focused on having adopted the traditions of governance from the conquered Persians. In addition, the first steps towards the deification of the Macedonian ruler appeared after a visit to Egypt, as in the case of Caesar, where both rulers could personally become acquainted with monumental evidence of the sacralization of the power of the pharaohs, although Guy was much more cautious in announcing the final deification.

It is possible that for Caesarion, born of Cleopatra - the last living heiress of Alexander's empire - Caesar had further plans that he did not have time to implement. However, the paternity of the dictator was questioned back in ancient times, and Caesarion was never declared the official heir of Gaius.

Reforms of Julius Caesar:

Using a combination of various powers and without encountering open opposition in the Senate and the People's Assembly, Caesar carried out a series of reforms in 49-44 BC. e.

The details of the dictator's activities are known mainly from the works of authors of the Empire era, and there is very little evidence from contemporaries on this issue.

In the sphere of government, Caesar increased the number of most colleges of curule (senior) magistrates. The number of praetors elected annually increased from 8 first to 14 and then to 16. The number of quaestors was increased by 20 people annually, and aediles by 2 due to the aediles ceriales, who controlled the supply of grain.

The number of augurs, pontiffs and members of the college of quindecemvirs also increased.

The dictator arrogated to himself the right to nominate candidates for major positions: at first this was done unofficially, and then he officially received such a right. He removed undesirable candidates from elections. Guy often nominated people of humble origin to high positions: it is known that more than half of the consuls elected under the patronage of Caesar were “new people” (homines novi), among whose ancestors there were no consuls.

The dictator also replenished the Senate, which was empty as a result of civil strife in the 50s BC. e. and civil war. In total, Caesar revised the lists of senators three times and, according to Dio Cassius, eventually brought their number to 900 people, but this number was hardly accurate and constant. Many of the people included in the Senate did not belong to the old Roman families, but to the provincial aristocracy and the equestrian class. Contemporaries, however, spread rumors that the children of freedmen and barbarians were included among the senators.

The dictator revised the system of staffing judges for permanent criminal courts (quaestiones perpetuae), giving half the seats to senators and equestrians instead of the previous third of the seats, which became possible after the exclusion of the Erary tribunes from the collegiums.

Caesar also legislatively replenished the ranks of the patrician class, whose representatives traditionally occupied some important positions in the religious sphere. Most of the patrician families had already died out, and by the middle of the 1st century BC. e. there are only a little more than ten of them left.

Dissolved many public colleges (collegiae), a considerable part of which in the 50s BC. e. used to recruit armed supporters of demagogues and to bribe voters at the polls.

Assessments of Caesar's political reforms vary. A number of researchers see in his political activities the actual establishment of a “democratic monarchy” (Theodor Mommsen), a Hellenistic or Eastern type monarchy (Robert Yurievich Wipper, Eduard Meyer) or the Roman version of an absolute monarchy (Matthias Geltzer, John Balsdon).

In an effort to enlist the support of the inhabitants of the provinces, Caesar actively granted them various benefits and privileges. Residents of several cities (in particular, Gades and Olisipo) received full Roman citizenship, and some others (Vienna, Tolosa, Avennio and others) received Latin law.

At the same time, only the cities of the western provinces received Roman citizenship, while the Hellenized policies of Greece and Asia Minor did not receive such privileges, and the Greek cities of Sicily received only Latin law.

Doctors and teachers of the liberal arts living in Rome received full Roman citizenship.

The dictator reduced taxes from Narbonese Gaul, and also transferred the provinces of Asia and Sicily to direct payment of taxes, bypassing tax farmers. The dictator made adjustments to the process of distributing free bread, which took up a significant portion of state budget expenditures. Firstly, the lists of recipients of free bread were halved - from more than 300 to 150 thousand (this reduction is sometimes associated with a drop in the total population due to civil wars). Secondly, some of the previous recipients were able to move to new colonies in various provinces of the Roman state. Caesar's demobilized soldiers also received land plots and did not create additional burden on the grain distribution system.

Among other colonization measures, Caesar repopulated Carthage and Corinth, which had been destroyed simultaneously by the Romans in 146 BC. e. To solve the important task of increasing the number of people suitable for military service, Caesar took various measures to support fathers with many children.

In an effort to limit uncontrolled emigration in the provinces, Caesar forbade full residents of Rome and Italy between the ages of 20 and 40 from leaving the Apennines for more than three years in a row, and the children of senators could go to the provinces only as soldiers or members of the governor's retinue.

To replenish the budgets of urban communities, Caesar decided to return trade duties on imported goods to Italy.

Finally, to partially solve the problem of unemployment, the dictator decreed that at least a third of the shepherds in Italy should be recruited from free people, not slaves.

The task of reducing unemployment was also pursued by Caesar's extensive construction projects both in Rome and outside the capital. By 46 BC. e. The construction of the new Forum of Caesar, which began during the Gallic War, was completed (only the ruins of the temple of Venus the Progenitor, which was founded according to a vow made before the Battle of Pharsalus, have survived to this day). The dictator took it upon himself to rebuild the Senate building, which burned down in 52 BC. BC: Faustus Sulla, to whom the Senate had previously entrusted this mission, was killed during the civil war.

As punishment for a number of crimes, Caesar established exile, and also ordered the confiscation of half of the wealth of the rich.

He also issued new laws against luxury: the use of personal biers, pearl jewelry, and purple-dyed clothing was prohibited, in addition to which the trade in fine products was regulated and the luxury of tombstones was limited.

Guy also planned to create a large library in Rome on the model of Alexandria and Pergamon, entrusting the organization to the encyclopedist Marcus Terence Varro, but the death of the dictator upset these plans.

Finally, in 46 BC e. Caesar announced reform of the Roman calendar. Instead of the previous lunar calendar, a solar calendar was introduced, developed by the Alexandrian scientist Sosigenes and consisting of 365 days with one additional day every four years. However, to carry out the reform it was necessary to first bring the current calendar into line with astronomical time. The new calendar was used everywhere in Europe for sixteen centuries, until the development, on behalf of Pope Gregory XIII, of a slightly refined version of the calendar, called the Gregorian calendar.

Assassination of Julius Caesar:

At the beginning of 44 BC. e. In Rome, a conspiracy arose among the Roman nobles, dissatisfied with the autocracy of Caesar and fearing rumors about his impending naming him king. The masterminds of the conspiracy are considered to be Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. In addition to them, many other prominent persons were involved in the conspiracy - both Pompeians and supporters of Caesar.

The conspiracy that developed around Brutus, apparently, was not the first attempt to kill the dictator: the conspiracy of 46 BC is known, although without details. e. and preparations for the assassination attempt by Gaius Trebonius. At this time, Caesar was preparing for war with Parthia, and rumors spread in Rome about his impending appointment as king and about the transfer of the capital to Troy or Alexandria.

The implementation of the plans of the conspirators was scheduled for a meeting of the Senate in Pompey's curia near his theater on March 15 - the Ides of March according to Roman time. Ancient authors accompany the description of the events preceding the Ides of March with a list of various signs and indications that well-wishers tried to warn the dictator, but by coincidence he did not listen to them or did not believe their words.

After the meeting began, a group of conspirators gathered around Lucius Tillius Cimber, who asked Caesar for forgiveness for his brother, and another group stood behind Caesar. When Cimbri began to pull the toga from Caesar’s neck, signaling to the conspirators, Publius Servilius Casca, who was standing behind, struck the first blow to the dictator’s neck. Caesar fought back, but when he saw Marcus Brutus, he, according to legend, said, “And you, my child!” in Greek (ancient Greek καὶ σὺ τέκνον).

According to Plutarch, Guy fell silent at the sight of Brutus and stopped resisting. The same author notes that Caesar’s body accidentally ended up near the statue of Pompey standing in the room or was deliberately moved there by the conspirators themselves. A total of 23 wounds were found on Caesar's body.

After funeral games and several speeches, the crowd burned Caesar's corpse in the forum, using the benches and tables of market traders for the funeral pyre: “Some proposed to burn it in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, others in the Curia of Pompey, when suddenly two unknown men appeared, belted with swords, waving darts, and set the building on fire with wax torches. Immediately the surrounding crowd began to drag dry brushwood, benches, judge's chairs, and everything that was brought as a gift into the fire. Then the flutists and actors began to tear off their triumphal clothes, worn for such a day, and, tearing them apart, threw them into the flames; the old legionnaires burned the weapons with which they decorated themselves for the funeral, and many women burned the headdresses that they were wearing, bullas and children’s dresses.”.

According to Caesar's will, each Roman received three hundred sesterces from the dictator, and the gardens over the Tiber were transferred to public use. The childless dictator unexpectedly adopted his great-nephew Gaius Octavius ​​and gave him three-quarters of his fortune. Octavius ​​changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar, although he is better known in historiography as Octavian. Some Caesarians (notably Mark Antony) tried unsuccessfully to have Caesarion recognized as heir instead of Octavian. Subsequently, Antony and Octavian formed a second triumvirate together with Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, but after a new civil war, Octavian became the sole ruler of Rome.

Shortly after the assassination of Caesar, a bright comet appeared in the sky. Since it was very bright (its absolute magnitude is estimated at - 4.0) and appeared in the sky during Octavian’s ceremonial games in honor of Caesar, a belief spread in Rome that it was the soul of the murdered dictator.

Family and personal life of Julius Caesar:

Caesar was married at least three times.

The status of his relationship with Cossucia, a girl from a wealthy equestrian family, is not entirely clear, which is explained by the poor preservation of sources about Caesar’s childhood and youth. It is traditionally assumed that Caesar and Cossutia were engaged, although Gaius's biographer, Plutarch, considers Cossutia to be his wife.

The dissolution of relations with Cossutia apparently occurred in 84 BC. e.

Very soon Caesar married Cornelia, daughter of the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna.

Caesar's second wife was Pompeia, the granddaughter of the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla (she was not a relative of Gnaeus Pompey). The marriage took place around 68 or 67 BC. e. In December 62 BC. e. Caesar divorces her after a scandal at the festival of the Good Goddess.

For the third time, Caesar married Calpurnia from a rich and influential plebeian family. This wedding apparently took place in May 59 BC. e.

Around 78 BC e. Cornelia gave birth to Julia. Caesar arranged his daughter's engagement to Quintus Servilius Caepio, but then changed his mind and married her to Gnaeus Pompey.

While in Egypt during the civil war, Caesar cohabited with Cleopatra, and presumably in the summer of 46 BC. e. she gave birth to a son known as Caesarion (Plutarch clarifies that this name was given to him by the Alexandrians, not the dictator). Despite the similarity of names and time of birth, Caesar did not officially recognize the child as his own, and contemporaries knew almost nothing about him before the assassination of the dictator.

After the Ides of March, when Cleopatra's son was left out of the dictator's will, some Caesarians (in particular, Mark Antony) tried to get him recognized as heir instead of Octavian. Due to the propaganda campaign that unfolded around the issue of Caesarion's paternity, it is difficult to establish his relationship with the dictator.

According to the unanimous testimony of ancient authors, Caesar was distinguished by sexual promiscuity. Suetonius gives a list of his most famous mistresses and gives him the following description: “He, by all accounts, was greedy and wasteful for love pleasures.”

A number of documents, in particular, the biography of Suetonius, and one of the epigram poems of Catullus, sometimes make it possible to classify Caesar as one of the famous homosexuals.

Robert Etienne, however, draws attention to the extreme paucity of such evidence - as a rule, the story of Nicomedes is mentioned. Suetonius calls this rumor "the only blemish" on Gaius's sexual reputation. Such hints were also made by ill-wishers. However, modern researchers draw attention to the fact that the Romans reproached Caesar not for homosexual contacts themselves, but only for his passive role in them. The fact is that in Roman opinion, any actions in a “penetrative” role were considered normal for a man, regardless of the gender of the partner. On the contrary, the passive role of a man was considered reprehensible. According to Dio Cassius, Guy vehemently denied all hints about his connection with Nicomedes, although he usually rarely lost his temper.

One of the greatest statesmen and commanders in human history was Gaius Julius Caesar. During his reign, he included Britain, Germany and Galia, on the territory of which modern France and Belgium are located, into the Roman state. Under him, the principles of dictatorship were laid down, which served as the foundation for. He also left behind a rich cultural heritage, not only as a historian and writer, but also as the author of immortal aphorisms: “I came, I saw, I conquered,” “Everyone is the smith of his own destiny,” “The die is cast,” and many others. His very name has become firmly established in the languages ​​of many countries. From the word “Caesar” came the German “Kaiser” and the Russian “Tsar”. The month in which he was born is named in his honor - July.

The beginning of the political struggle

Caesar's youth passed in an atmosphere of intense struggle between political groups. Having fallen out of favor with the then-ruling dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Caesar had to leave for Asia Minor and serve his military service there, while simultaneously carrying out diplomatic assignments. The death of Sulla again opened the way for Caesar to Rome. As a result of successful advancement through the political and military ladder, he became consul. And in 60 BC. formed the first triumverate - a political union between Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus.

Military victories

For the period from 58 to 54 BC. The troops of the Roman Republic, led by Julius Caesar, captured Galia, Germany and Britain. But the conquered territories were restless, and revolts and uprisings broke out every now and then. Therefore, from 54 to 51 BC. these lands had to be constantly recaptured. Years of wars significantly improved Caesar's financial condition. He easily spent the wealth he had, giving gifts to his friends and supporters and thereby gaining popularity. Caesar's influence on the army that fought under his command was also very great.

Civil War

During the time that Caesar fought in Europe, the first triumverate managed to disintegrate. Crassus died in 53 BC, and Pompey became close to Caesar's eternal enemy - the Senate, which on January 1, 49 BC. decided to remove Caesar's powers as consul. This day is considered the day the civil war began. Here, too, Caesar was able to show himself as a skilled commander, and after two months of civil war, his opponents capitulated. Caesar became dictator for life.

Reign and death

During his reign, Caesar carried out a number of important reforms and was active in lawmaking. The Romans bowed to their ruler, but there were also dissatisfied ones. A group of senators did not like the fact that Caesar effectively became the sole ruler of Rome, and on March 15, 4 BC. the conspirators killed him right at the Senate meeting. The death of Caesar was followed by the death of the Roman Republic, on the ruins of which arose the great Roman Empire, which Julius Caesar so dreamed of.

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Family

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome, into a patrician family from the Julius family, which played a significant role in the history of Rome since ancient times.

The Yuliev family traced its ancestry back to Yul, the son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, who, according to mythology, was the son of the goddess Venus. At the height of his glory, in 45 BC. e. Caesar founded the temple of Venus the Progenitor in Rome, thereby hinting at his relationship with the goddess. Cognomen Caesar made no sense in Latin; the Soviet historian of Rome A.I. Nemirovsky suggested that it comes from Cisre, the Etruscan name for the city of Caere. The antiquity of the Caesar family itself is difficult to establish (the first known one dates back to the end of the 3rd century BC). The father of the future dictator, also Gaius Julius Caesar the Elder (proconsul of Asia), stopped in his career as a praetor. On his mother's side, Caesar came from the Cotta family of the Aurelia Aurelius family with an admixture of plebeian blood. Caesar's uncles were consuls: Sextus Julius Caesar (91 BC), Lucius Julius Caesar (90 BC)

Gaius Julius Caesar lost his father at the age of sixteen; He maintained close friendly relations with his mother until her death in 54 BC. e.

A noble and cultured family created favorable conditions for his development; careful physical education later served him considerable service; a thorough education - scientific, literary, grammatical, on Greco-Roman foundations - formed logical thinking, prepared him for practical activity, for literary work.

First marriage and service in Asia

Before Caesar, Julia, despite her aristocratic origins, were not rich by the standards of the Roman nobility of that time. That is why, until Caesar himself, almost none of his relatives achieved much influence. Only his paternal aunt, Julia, married Gaius Marius, a talented general and reformer of the Roman army. Marius was the leader of the democratic faction of the populares in the Roman Senate and sharply opposed the conservatives from the optimates faction.

Internal political conflicts in Rome at that time reached such intensity that they led to civil war. After the capture of Rome by Marius in 87 BC. e. For a time, the power of the popular was established. The young Caesar was honored with the title of flamen of Jupiter. But, in 86 BC. e. Mari died, and in 84 BC. e. During a mutiny among the troops, Cinna was killed. In 82 BC e. Rome was taken by the troops of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and Sulla himself became dictator. Caesar was connected by double family ties with the party of his opponent - Maria: at the age of seventeen he married Cornelia, the youngest daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, an associate of Marius and the worst enemy of Sulla. This was a kind of demonstration of his commitment to the popular party, which by that time had been humiliated and defeated by the all-powerful Sulla.

In order to perfectly master the art of oratory, Caesar specifically in 75 BC. e. went to Rhodes to the famous teacher Apollonius Molon. Along the way, he was captured by Cilician pirates, for his release he had to pay a significant ransom of twenty talents, and while his friends collected money, he spent more than a month in captivity, practicing eloquence in front of his captors. After his release, he immediately assembled a fleet in Miletus, captured the pirate fortress and ordered the captured pirates to be crucified on the cross as a warning to others. But, since they treated him well at one time, Caesar ordered their legs to be broken before the crucifixion in order to alleviate their suffering. Then he often showed condescension towards defeated opponents. This is where “Caesar’s mercy”, so praised by ancient authors, was manifested.

Caesar briefly participates in the war with King Mithridates at the head of an independent detachment, but does not remain there for long. In 74 BC e. he returns to Rome. In 73 BC e. he was co-opted into the priestly college of pontiffs in place of the deceased Lucius Aurelius Cotta, his uncle.

Subsequently, he wins the election to the military tribunes. Always and everywhere, Caesar never tires of reminding of his democratic beliefs, connections with Gaius Marius and dislike for aristocrats. Actively participates in the struggle for the restoration of the rights of the people's tribunes, curtailed by Sulla, for the rehabilitation of the associates of Gaius Marius, who were persecuted during the dictatorship of Sulla, and seeks the return of Lucius Cornelius Cinna - the son of the consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna and the brother of Caesar's wife. By this time, the beginning of his rapprochement with Gnaeus Pompey and Marcus Licinius Crassus began, on a close connection with whom he built his future career.

Caesar, being in a difficult position, does not say a word to justify the conspirators, but insists on not subjecting them to the death penalty. His proposal does not pass, and Caesar himself almost dies at the hands of an angry crowd.

Spain Far (Hispania Ulterior)

(Bibulus was consul only formally; the triumvirs actually removed him from power).

Caesar's consulate is necessary for both him and Pompey. Having disbanded the army, Pompey, for all his greatness, turns out to be powerless; none of his proposals pass due to the stubborn resistance of the Senate, and yet he promised his veteran soldiers land, and this issue could not tolerate delay. Supporters of Pompey alone were not enough; a more powerful influence was needed - this was the basis of Pompey’s alliance with Caesar and Crassus. The consul Caesar himself was in dire need of the influence of Pompey and the money of Crassus. It was not easy to convince the former consul Marcus Licinius Crassus, an old enemy of Pompey, to agree to an alliance, but in the end it was possible - this richest man in Rome could not get troops under his command for the war with Parthia.

This is how what historians would later call the first triumvirate arose - a private agreement of three persons, not sanctioned by anyone or anything other than their mutual consent. The private nature of the triumvirate was also emphasized by the consolidation of its marriages: Pompey to Caesar’s only daughter, Julia Caesaris (despite the difference in age and upbringing, this political marriage turned out to be sealed by love), and Caesar to the daughter of Calpurnius Piso.

At first, Caesar believed that this could be done in Spain, but a closer acquaintance with this country and its insufficiently convenient geographical position in relation to Italy forced Caesar to abandon this idea, especially since the traditions of Pompey were strong in Spain and in the Spanish army.

The reason for the outbreak of hostilities in 58 BC. e. in Transalpine Gaul there was a mass migration to these lands of the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii. After the victory over the Helvetii in the same year, a war followed against the Germanic tribes invading Gaul, led by Ariovistus, ending in the complete victory of Caesar. Increased Roman influence in Gaul caused unrest among the Belgae. Campaign 57 BC e. begins with the pacification of the Belgae and continues with the conquest of the northwestern lands, where the tribes of the Nervii and Aduatuci lived. In the summer of 57 BC e. on the bank of the river Sabris took place a grandiose battle of the Roman legions with the army of the Nervii, when only luck and the best training of the legionnaires allowed the Romans to win. At the same time, a legion under the command of legate Publius Crassus conquered the tribes of northwestern Gaul.

Based on Caesar's report, the Senate was forced to decide on a celebration and a 15-day thanksgiving service.

As a result of three years of successful war, Caesar increased his fortune many times over. He generously gave money to his supporters, attracting new people to himself, and increased his influence.

That same summer, Caesar organized his first, and the next, 54 BC. e. - second expedition to Britain. The legions met such fierce resistance from the natives here that Caesar had to return to Gaul with nothing. In 53 BC e. Unrest continued among the Gallic tribes, who could not come to terms with oppression by the Romans. All of them were pacified in a short time.

After the successful Gallic Wars, Caesar's popularity in Rome reached its highest point. Even such opponents of Caesar as Cicero and Gaius Valerius Catullus recognized the great merits of the commander.

Conflict between Julius Caesar and Pompey

Ancient Roman coin with a portrait of Julius Caesar.

The brilliant results of the first expeditions enormously raised Caesar's prestige in Rome; Gallic money supported this prestige no less successfully. Senate opposition to the triumvirate, however, did not sleep, and Pompey in Rome experienced a number of unpleasant moments. In Rome, neither he nor Crassus felt at home; both wanted military power. Caesar, in order to achieve his goals, needed continued powers. Based on these desires in winter - gg. A new agreement of the triumvirs took place, according to which Caesar received Gaul for another 5 years, Pompey and Crassus - a consulate for the 55th year, and then proconsulates: Pompey - in Spain, Crassus - in Syria. The Syrian proconsulate of Crassus ended with his death.

Pompey remained in Rome, where, after his consulate, complete anarchy began, perhaps not without the efforts of Julius Caesar. Anarchy reached such proportions that Pompey was elected in 52 BC. e. consul without a panel. The new rise of Pompey, the death of Pompey's wife, Caesar's daughter (54 BC), and a series of intrigues against Caesar's growing prestige inevitably led to a rift between the allies; but the uprising of Vercingetorix temporarily saved the situation. Serious clashes began only in 51 BC. e. Pompey appeared in the role that he had long sought - as the head of the Roman state, recognized by the Senate and the people, uniting military power with civil power, sitting at the gates of Rome, where the Senate (Ancient Rome) was meeting with him, possessing proconsular power and controlling a strong seven-legion army in Spain. If earlier Pompey needed Caesar, now he could only be a hindrance for Pompey, which had to be eliminated as soon as possible, due to the fact that Caesar’s aspirations were incompatible with Pompey’s position. The conflict, which had already matured personally in 56, was now also mature politically; his initiative should have come not from Julius Caesar, whose position was incomparably worse politically and in relation to the rule of law, but from Pompey, who had all the trump cards in his hands, except military ones, and even the latter were few only in the first moments. Pompey set things up in such a way that the conflict between him and Caesar turned out to be not a personal clash, but a clash between the revolutionary proconsul and the Senate, that is, the legal government.

Cicero's correspondence serves as a documentary touchstone showing the accuracy of Caesar's own account of events in his historical political pamphlet entitled De bello civili. The 109th book of Titus Livy would have been of great importance if it had come to us in the original and not in extracts by Florus, Eutropius and Orosius. The basis of Livy's presentation was preserved for us, perhaps, by Cassius Dio. We also find a lot of data in a brief sketch of an officer from the time of Emperor Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus; Suetonius gives a lot, something - the author of a historical poem from the time of the civil war, a contemporary of Nero, Lucan. Appian and Plutarch's account of the civil war probably goes back to the historical work of Asinius Pollio.

According to the agreement of Caesar and Pompey in Lucca 56 and the subsequent law of Pompey and Crassus 55, Caesar's powers in Gaul and Illyricum were to end on the last day of February 49; at the same time, it was definitely stated that until March 1, 50, there would be no speech in the Senate about a successor to Caesar. In 52, only the Gallic unrest prevented a break between Caesar and Pompey, caused by the transfer of all power into the hands of Pompey, as a single consul and at the same time proconsul, which upset the balance of the duumvirate. As compensation, Caesar demanded for himself the possibility of the same position in the future, that is, the union of the consulate and the proconsulate, or, rather, the immediate replacement of the procoxulate with the consulate. To do this, it was necessary to obtain permission to be elected consul for 48 without entering the city during 49, which would be tantamount to renouncing military power.

A plebiscite in 52, held in March by the entire tribunal college, gave Caesar the requested privilege, which Pompey did not contradict. This privilege, according to customs, also contained a silent continuation of the proconsulate until January 1, 48. The success of Julius Caesar in the fight against Vercingetorix made the government regret the concession made - and in the same year a number of martial laws were passed against Caesar. Pompey continued his power in Spain until 45; to eliminate the possibility of Caesar immediately renewing his proconsulate after the consulate, a law was passed that prohibited sending to the provinces earlier than 5 years after the completion of the magistracy; finally, in direct reversal of the privilege just given, a decree was confirmed that prohibited seeking magistracy without being in Rome. To the law already passed, contrary to all legality, Pompey added, however, a clause confirming Caesar's privilege.

In 51, the happy ending of the Gallic wars gave Caesar the opportunity to once again act actively in Rome. He asked the Senate, seeking from it formal recognition of the privilege, the continuation of the proconsulate in at least part of the province until January 1, 48. The Senate refused, and this put the question of appointing a successor to Julius Caesar on the line. However, the trial of this case was legal only after March 1, 50; Until this time, any intercession of tribunes friendly to Caesar was formally completely solid. Caesar sought to personally settle his relations with Pompey; the extremes in the Senate did not want to allow this; the middle ones were looking for a way out, finding it in Pompey standing at the head of the army assigned to the Parthian War, which was urgently necessary in view of the defeat and death of Crassus. Pompey himself was seriously ill and spent most of his time away from Rome.

In 50, the matter was supposed to take a more acute turn, especially since Caesar found himself an agent brilliant in political intrigue - Curio, who was elected tribune for that year. Of the consuls, one - Aemilius Paulus - was on the side of Caesar, the other - C. Marcellus - was completely against him, as the leader of the Senate ultra-conservatives. Curio's goal was to quarrel between the Senate and Pompey and force the latter to again enter into relations with Caesar. To do this, he opposed any resolution of the Senate on the provinces and demanded that legality be fully restored, that is, that both Pompey and Caesar renounce their powers. In the spring Pompey became very ill; During his recovery, he agreed in writing to Curio's terms and, having finally recovered, moved towards Rome. He was accompanied by continuous triumph; meetings, prayers, etc. gave him confidence that all of Italy was for him. Despite this, even at Rome he did not take back the consent he had given. It is very possible that at the end of 50 there was a new diplomatic campaign by Caesar, calling Pompey to an agreement; Parthia was probably pointed to as a means of reconciliation. Pompey could be there in his sphere and renew his eastern laurels. An indicator of Caesar's peaceful mood and the possibility of an agreement is that Caesar gave up, at the request of the Senate, two of his legions (one loaned to him by Pompey) and sent them to Italy in the direction of Brundusium.

In the autumn of 50, Caesar finally appeared in Northern Italy, where he was greeted by a copy of the celebrations given to Pompey. In November he was again in Gaul, where the political demonstration that had just taken place in Italy was followed by a military one in the form of a review of the legions. The year was drawing to a close, and the situation was still extremely uncertain. The reconciliation between Caesar and Pompey finally failed; a symptom of this is that Caesar's legions, sent in November to Brundusium, were detained in Capua and then awaited events in Luceria. In the Senate, G. Marcellus energetically sought to have Julius Caesar declared illegally possessing power and an enemy of the fatherland, for which there was no legal basis. The majority of the Senate, however, was peaceful; The Senate most wanted Caesar and Pompey to both resign. Marcellus's main opponent was Curio. On December 10, he could no longer function as a tribune: on that day new tribunes entered. But even now Marcellus failed to attract the Senate with him; then he, not wanting to transfer the matter into the hands of the new consuls, accompanied by several senators, without any authority, appeared on December 13 at Pompey's Cuman villa and handed him a sword to defend the free system. Pompey, having decided to go to war, takes advantage of the opportunity and goes to join the legions in Luceria. Caesar quite correctly considers the act of December 13 to be the beginning of unrest - initium tumultus - on the part of Pompey. Pompey's actions were illegal and were immediately (21 December) declared as such in a speech by Antony, one of Julius Caesar's legates and tribunes that year. Curio personally informed Caesar, who was in Ravenna at that time, about what had happened. The situation remained uncertain, but Pompey had two excellent legions in his hands, he enlisted the support of one of the people closest to Caesar - T. Labienus; Caesar had only one legion of veterans in Italy and, in the event of an offensive, had to act in a country hostile to him - so, at least, it seemed to Pompey - a country. However, by now Pompey probably had in mind to settle the final scores not in Italy, but in the provinces.

For Caesar, the most important thing was to gain time; the pretext for starting hostilities was already in his hands, but there was little strength for war. In any case, it was to his advantage that the start of action would be a surprise to his enemies. Curio presented Caesar's ultimatum to the Senate on January 1. Caesar announced his readiness to relinquish power, but together with Pompey, and threatened otherwise with war. The threats caused open opposition from the Senate: Pompey should not resign, Caesar should resign before July 49; both were, however, completely legal. The tribunes M. Antony and Cassius protested against the Senate Consult. After this, however, discussions continued about how to find a modus vivendi without war. Caesar also wanted the same. Before January 7, its new, softer conditions were received in Rome. Pompey was to go to Spain; For himself, Caesar asked for the continuation of power until January 1, 48, at least only in Italy, with an army of only 2 legions. Cicero, who appeared on January 5 under the walls of Rome after returning from his Cilician proconsulate, achieved a further concession: only Illyria and 1 legion were demanded by Caesar. Pompey, however, did not agree to these conditions.

On January 7, the Senate met and made every effort to get the tribunes to take back the intercession of January 1. Antony and Cassius were unshakable. The consul then demanded their removal from the Senate. After Antony's heated protest, Cassius, Caelius Rufus and Curio left the Senate and, dressed as slaves, secretly, in a hired cart, fled to Caesar. After the removal of the tribunes, the consuls were given extraordinary powers by the Senate in order to prevent unrest. In a further meeting outside the city walls, in the presence of Pompey and Cicero, the decretum tumultus was voted, that is, Italy was declared under martial law; provinces were distributed and money allocated. The commander-in-chief was actually Pompey, named after four proconsuls. The whole point now was how Caesar would react to this, whether the grandiose preparations for war with him would intimidate him.

Caesar received news of the actions of the Senate from the fugitive tribunes on January 10. He had about 5,000 legionary soldiers at his disposal. Half of this force was stationed on the southern border of the province, near the Rubicon River. It was necessary to act as quickly as possible in order to take the Senate by surprise, before official news arrived about the Senate’s demands of January 1 having finally been carried out in a legal manner. Caesar secretly devotes the day of the 10th to the necessary orders, at night - again secretly - with several relatives he rushes to the army, crosses the border of his province - the Rubicon - and captures Ariminum, the key of Italy. At the same time, Anthony with another part of the army goes to Arretium, which also captures with an unexpected onslaught. In Ariminum, Caesar is caught by the Senate ambassadors recruiting new troops. Caesar tells them that he wants peace and promises to clear the province by July 1, as long as Illyria remains behind him, and Pompey retires to Spain. At the same time, Caesar persistently demands a meeting with Pompey. Meanwhile, terrible rumors are spreading in Rome. The Senate, upon the return of the ambassadors, having forced Pompey's consent, sends them again to Caesar. There should be no meeting with Pompey (the Senate could not allow an agreement between them); Caesar was promised a triumph and a consulate, but first of all he must clear the occupied cities, go to his province and disband the army. Meanwhile, Ancona and Pisaurus were occupied by Caesar on January 14 and 15. The hopes of the Senate and Pompey that Caesar would give them time to prepare were dashed.

Pompey, with his recruits and two Caesar's legions, found it difficult to go on the offensive, and it was difficult to put everything on the line defending Rome. In view of this, without waiting for the return of the embassy, ​​Pompey leaves Rome on January 17 with almost the entire Senate, sealing the treasury, in terrible haste. From now on Capua becomes Pompey's main residence. From here he thought, taking legions in Luceria, to capture Picenum and organize a defense there. But already on January 27-28, Picenum, with his main point Auximus, found himself in the hands of Caesar. The garrisons of the occupied cities passed to Caesar; his army grew, his spirit rose. Pompey finally decided to abandon Italy and organize resistance in the East, where he could command alone, where there was less interference from all sorts of colleagues and advisers; the senators did not want to leave Italy. They left the treasury in Rome, hoping to return, against the will of Pompey. Meanwhile, the embassy returned from Caesar with nothing; there was no longer any hope for negotiations. It was necessary to force Pompey to defend Italy. Domitius Ahenobarbus with 30 cohorts locks himself in Corfinia and calls Pompey to the rescue. For the proceeds, the Senate promises the treasury demanded by Pompey. But Pompey takes advantage of the time while Yu. Caesar is besieging Domitius to concentrate forces in Brundusium and organize a crossing. In mid-February, Corfinium was captured; Yu. Caesar hurries to Brundusium, where everything is ready for defense. March 9, the siege begins; On the 17th, Pompey, with a clever maneuver, distracts the enemy’s attention, puts the army on ships and leaves Italy. From this moment on, the struggle moves to the provinces. During this time, the Caesarians managed to occupy Rome and establish some semblance of a government there.

Caesar himself appeared in Rome only for a short time in April, seized the treasury and made some orders regarding the actions of his legates during his absence. In the future, he was presented with two courses of action: either to pursue Pompey, or to turn against his forces in the west. He chose the latter, apparently because Pompey's eastern forces were less scary to him than the 7 old legions in Spain, Cato in Sicily and Varus in Africa. What made his actions in Spain easier was the fact that his rear was covered by Gaul, and success at the very beginning was especially important and dear. The main danger was Spain, where Pompey's three legates - Afranius, Petreius and Varro - commanded. In Gaul, Caesar was detained by Massilia, who sided with Pompey. Caesar did not want to waste time here; He left three legions to besiege the city, while he himself quickly moved to the Sicoris River, where his legate Fabius, who was camped opposite the fortified Pompeian camp near the city of Ilerda, was waiting for him. After long and tedious operations, Caesar managed to force the Pompeians to abandon their strong camp. With a quick march and ingenious detour, he made the position of the enemy retreating to the Ebro so difficult that Pompey’s legates had to surrender. Varro also had no choice. Here, as in Italy, Yu. Caesar did not resort to executions and cruelties, which greatly facilitated the possibility of surrender of troops in the future. On the way back, Caesar found Massilia completely exhausted and accepted her surrender.

During his absence, Curio ousted Cato from Sicily and managed to cross to Africa, but here, after ephemeral successes, he could not withstand the onslaught of the Pompeian troops and the Moorish king Juba and died with almost his entire army. Caesar now had a difficult task ahead of him. Pompey's forces were, however, weaker, but he had complete control of the sea and managed to thoroughly organize the quartermaster unit. His strong cavalry and allied contingents of Macedonians, Thracians, Thessalians and others also gave him a great advantage. The land route to Greece, where Pompey established himself, was closed; G. Anthony, who occupied Illyria, was forced to surrender with his 15 cohorts. Here, too, we could only hope for speed and surprise of action. Pompey's main apartment and his main supplies were in Dyrrhachium; he himself stood in Thessalonica, his army in Peraea. Quite unexpectedly, on November 6, 49, Caesar sailed with 6 legions from Brundusium, captured Apollonia and Oricum and moved to Dyrrachium. Pompey managed to warn him, and both troops faced each other at Dyrrhachium. Caesar's position was unenviable; The small number of troops and the lack of provisions made themselves felt. Pompey, however, did not dare to fight with his not very reliable army. Around spring, M. Anthony managed to deliver the remaining three legions, but this did not change the situation. Fearing the arrival of Pompey's reserve from Thessaly, Caesar sent part of his army against him, and with the rest tried to block Pompey. Pompey broke the blockade and inflicted a strong defeat on Caesar. After this, Caesar could only lift the blockade and go to join his Thessalian army. Here Pompey caught up with him at Pharsalus. The Senate party in his camp insisted that a decisive battle be fought. The superiority of forces was on the side of Pompey, but training and spirit were entirely on the side of the 30,000th army of Yu. Caesar. The battle (June 6, 48) ended in the complete defeat of Pompey; the army almost completely surrendered, Pompey fled to the nearest harbor, from there to Samos and finally to Egypt, where he was killed by order of the king. Caesar pursued him and appeared after his death in Egypt.

With a small army, he entered Alexandria and intervened in the internal affairs of Egypt. He needed Egypt as a rich country and attracted him with its complex and skillful administrative organization. He was also delayed by his relationship with Cleopatra, the sister and wife of young Ptolemy, the son of Ptolemy Auletes. Caesar's first act was to install Cleopatra, driven away by her husband, into the palace. In general, he ruled in Alexandria as a sovereign master, as a monarch. This, due to the weakness of Caesar’s army, raised the entire population in Alexandria; At the same time, the Egyptian army approached Alexandria from Pelusium, proclaiming Arsinoe queen. Caesar was locked in the palace. An attempt to find a way out to sea by capturing the lighthouse failed, and also to appease the rebels by sending Ptolemy away. Caesar was rescued by the arrival of reinforcements from Asia. In the battle near the Nile, the Egyptian army was defeated, and Caesar became the master of the country (March 27, 47).

Late in the spring, Caesar left Egypt, leaving Cleopatra as queen and her husband the younger Ptolemy (the elder was killed in the Battle of the Nile). Caesar spent 9 months in Egypt; Alexandria - the last Hellenistic capital - and the court of Cleopatra gave him many impressions and a lot of experience. Despite urgent matters in Asia Minor and the West, Caesar went from Egypt to Syria, where, as the successor of the Seleucids, he restored their palace in Daphne and generally behaved like a master and monarch.

In July, he left Syria, quickly dealt with the rebel Pontic king Pharnaces and hurried to Rome, where his presence was urgently needed. After the death of Pompey, his party and the party of the Senate were far from broken. There were quite a few Pompeians, as they were called, in Italy; They were more dangerous in the provinces, especially in Illyricum, Spain and Africa. Caesar's legates managed with difficulty to subjugate Illyricum, where M. Octavius ​​led resistance for a long time, not without success. In Spain, the mood of the army was clearly Pompeian; All the prominent members of the Senate party gathered in Africa, with a strong army. There were Metellus Scipio, the commander-in-chief, and the sons of Pompey, Gnaeus and Sextus, and Cato, and T. Labienus, and others. They were supported by the Moorish king Juba. In Italy, the former supporter and agent of Yu. Caesar, Caelius Rufus, became the head of the Pompeians. In alliance with Milo, he started a revolution on economic grounds; using his magistracy (praetour), he announced a deferment of all debts for 6 years; when the consul removed him from the magistracy, he raised the banner of rebellion in the south and died in the fight against government troops.

In 47 Rome was without magistrates; M. Antony ruled it as magister equitum of the dictator Julius Caesar; the troubles arose thanks to the tribunes L. Trebellius and Cornelius Dolabella on the same economic basis, but without the Pompeian lining. It was not the tribunes that were dangerous, however, but Caesar’s army, which was to be sent to Africa to fight the Pompeians. The long absence of Yu. Caesar weakened discipline; the army refused to obey. In September 47, Caesar reappeared in Rome. With difficulty he managed to calm the soldiers who were already moving towards Rome. Having quickly completed the most necessary matters, in the winter of the same year Caesar crossed over to Africa. The details of this expedition of his are poorly known; a special monograph on this war by one of his officers suffers from ambiguities and bias. And here, as in Greece, the advantage was initially not on his side. After a long sitting on the seashore awaiting reinforcements and a tedious march inland, Caesar finally succeeds in forcing the battle of Tatzsus, in which the Pompeians were completely defeated (April 6, 46). Most of the prominent Pompeians died in Africa; the rest escaped to Spain, where the army took their side. At the same time, fermentation began in Syria, where Caecilius Bassus had significant success, seizing almost the entire province into his own hands.

On July 28, 46, Caesar returned from Africa to Rome, but stayed there only for a few months. Already in December he was in Spain, where he was met by a large enemy force led by Pompey, Labienus, Atius Varus and others. The decisive battle, after a tiring campaign, was fought near Munda (March 17, 45). The battle almost ended in Caesar's defeat; his life, as recently in Alexandria, was in danger. With terrible efforts, victory was snatched from the enemies, and the Pompeian army was largely cut off. Of the party leaders, only Sextus Pompey remained alive. Upon returning to Rome, Caesar, along with the reorganization of the state, prepared for a campaign in the East, but on March 15, 44 he died at the hands of the conspirators. The reasons for this can only be clarified after analyzing the reform of the political system that was started and carried out by Caesar in the short periods of his peaceful activity.

The power of Yu. Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar

Over the long period of his political activity, Yuri Caesar clearly understood that one of the main evils causing a serious illness of the Roman political system is the instability, impotence and purely urban nature of the executive power, the selfish and narrow party and class nature of the power of the Senate. From the early moments of his career, he openly and definitely struggled with both. And in the era of the conspiracy of Catiline, and in the era of extraordinary powers of Pompey, and in the era of the triumvirate, Caesar consciously pursued the idea of ​​​​centralization of power and the need to destroy the prestige and importance of the Senate.

Individuality, as far as one can judge, did not seem necessary to him. The agrarian commission, the triumvirate, then the duumvirate with Pompey, to which Yu. Caesar clung so tenaciously, show that he was not against collegiality or the division of power. It is impossible to think that all these forms were for him only a political necessity. With the death of Pompey, Caesar effectively remained the sole leader of the state; the power of the Senate was broken and power was concentrated in one hand, as it once was in the hands of Sulla. In order to carry out all the plans that Caesar had in mind, his power had to be as strong as possible, as unconstrained as possible, as complete as possible, but at the same time, at least at first, it should not formally go beyond the framework of the constitution. The most natural thing - since the constitution did not know a ready-made form of monarchical power and treated royal power with horror and disgust - was to combine in one person powers of an ordinary and extraordinary nature around one center. The consulate, weakened by the entire evolution of Rome, could not be such a center: a magistracy was needed, not subject to intercession and veto of the tribunes, combining military and civil functions, not limited by collegiality. The only magistracy of this kind was the dictatorship. Its inconvenience compared to the form invented by Pompey - the combination of a sole consulate with a proconsulate - was that it was too vague and, while giving everything in general, did not give anything in particular. Its extraordinaryness and urgency could be eliminated, as Sulla did, by pointing to its permanence (dictator perpetuus), while the uncertainty of powers - which Sulla did not take into account, since he saw in the dictatorship only a temporary means for carrying out his reforms - was eliminated only through the above connection . Dictatorship, as a basis, and next to this a series of special powers - this, therefore, is the framework within which Yu. Caesar wanted to place and placed his power. Within these limits, his power developed as follows.

In 49 - the year of the beginning of the civil war - during his stay in Spain, the people, at the suggestion of the praetor Lepidus, elected him dictator. Returning to Rome, Yu. Caesar passed several laws, assembled a comitia, at which he was elected consul for the second time (for the year 48), and abandoned dictatorship. The next year 48 (October-November) he received dictatorship for the 2nd time, in 47. In the same year, after the victory over Pompey, during his absence he received a number of powers: in addition to the dictatorship - a consulate for 5 years (from 47) and tribunic power, that is, the right to sit together with the tribunes and carry out investigations with them - in addition, the right to name the people their candidate for magistracy, with the exception of the plebeians, the right to distribute provinces without drawing lots to former praetors [Provinces to former consuls are still distributed by the Senate.] and the right to declare war and make peace. Caesar's representative this year in Rome is his magister equitum - assistant to the dictator M. Antony, in whose hands, despite the existence of consuls, all power is concentrated.

In 46, Caesar was both dictator (from the end of April) for the third time and consul; Lepidus was the second consul and magister equitum. This year, after the African war, his powers are significantly expanded. He was elected dictator for 10 years and at the same time the leader of morals (praefectus morum), with unlimited powers. Moreover, he receives the right to be the first to vote in the Senate and occupy a special seat in it, between the seats of both consuls. At the same time, his right to recommend candidates for magistrates to the people was confirmed, which was tantamount to the right to appoint them.

In 45 he was dictator for the 4th time and at the same time consul; his assistant was the same Lepidus. After the Spanish War (January 44), he was elected dictator for life and consul for 10 years. He refused the latter, as, probably, the 5-year consulate of the previous year [In 45 he was elected consul at the suggestion of Lepidus.]. The immunity of the tribunes is added to the tribunician power; the right to appoint magistrates and pro-magistrates is extended by the right to appoint consuls, distribute provinces among proconsuls and appoint plebeian magistrates. In the same year, Caesar was given exclusive authority to dispose of the army and money of the state. Finally, in the same year 44, he was granted lifelong censorship and all his orders were approved in advance by the Senate and the people.

In this way, Caesar became a sovereign monarch, remaining within the limits of constitutional forms [For many of the extraordinary powers there were precedents in the past life of Rome: Sulla was already a dictator, Marius repeated the consulate, he ruled in the provinces through his agents Pompey, and more than once; Pompey was given by the people unlimited control over the funds of the state.] All aspects of the life of the state were concentrated in his hands. He disposed of the army and provinces through his agents - pro-magistrates appointed by him, who were made magistrates only on his recommendation. The movable and immovable property of the community was in his hands as a lifelong censor and by virtue of special powers. The Senate was finally removed from financial management. The activities of the tribunes were paralyzed by his participation in the meetings of their collegium and the tribunician power and tribunician sacrosanctitas granted to him. And yet he was not a colleague of the tribunes; having their power, he did not have their name. Since he recommended them to the people, he was the highest authority in relation to them. He disposes of the Senate arbitrarily both as its chairman (for which he mainly needed the consulate), and as the first to answer the question of the presiding officer: since the opinion of the almighty dictator was known, it is unlikely that any of the senators would dare to contradict him .

Finally, the spiritual life of Rome was in his hands, since already at the beginning of his career he was elected great pontiff and now the power of the censor and the leadership of morals were added to this. Caesar did not have special powers that would give him judicial power, but the consulate, the censorship, and the pontificate had judicial functions. Moreover, we also hear about constant court negotiations at Caesar’s home, mainly on issues of a political nature. Caesar sought to give the newly created power a new name: this was the honorary cry with which the army greeted the winner - imperator. Yu. Caesar put this name at the head of his name and title, replacing his personal name Guy with it. With this he gave expression not only to the breadth of his power, his imperium, but also to the fact that from now on he leaves the ranks of ordinary people, replacing his name with a designation of his power and at the same time eliminating from it the indication of belonging to one family: the head of state cannot be called like any other Roman S. Iulius Caesar - he is Imp (erator) Caesar p(ater) p(atriae) dict(ator) perp (etuus), as his title says in the inscriptions and on coins.

On the power of Yu. Caesar and especially on his dictatorships, see Zumpt, “Studia Romana”, 199 et seq.; Mommsen, Corp. inscr. latinarum", I, 36 et seq.; Gunter, "Zeitschrift fur Numismatik", 1895, 192 et seq.; Groebe, in the new edition of Drumann "Geschichte Roms" (I, 404 et seq.); Wed Herzog, "Geschichte und System". (II, 1 et seq.).

Foreign policy

The guiding idea of ​​Caesar's foreign policy was the creation of a strong and integral state, with natural borders, if possible. Caesar pursued this idea in the north, south, and east. His wars in Gaul, Germany and Britain were caused by the need he realized to push the border of Rome to the ocean on one side, to the Rhine, at least on the other. His plan for a campaign against the Getae and Dacians proves that the Danube border lay within the limits of his plans. Within the border that united Greece and Italy by land, Greco-Roman culture was to reign; the countries between the Danube and Italy and Greece were supposed to be the same buffer against the peoples of the north and east as the Gauls were against the Germans. Caesar's policy in the East is closely related to this. Death overtook him on the eve of the campaign to Parthia. His eastern policy, including the actual annexation of Egypt to the Roman state, was aimed at rounding out the Roman Empire in the East. The only serious opponent of Rome here were the Parthians; their affair with Crassus showed that they had a broad expansive policy in mind. The revival of the Persian kingdom ran counter to the objectives of Rome, the successor to the monarchy of Alexander, and threatened to undermine the economic well-being of the state, which rested entirely on the factory, money-laden East. A decisive victory over the Parthians would have made Caesar, in the eyes of the East, the direct successor of Alexander the Great, the legitimate monarch. Finally, in Africa, Yu. Caesar continued a purely colonial policy. Africa had no political significance; Its economic importance, as a country capable of producing huge quantities of natural products, depended to a large extent on regular administration, stopping the raids of nomadic tribes and re-establishing the best harbor in northern Africa, the natural center of the province and the central point for exchange with Italy - Carthage. The division of the country into two provinces satisfied the first two requests, the final restoration of Carthage satisfied the third.

Reforms of Yu. Caesar

In all of Caesar's reform activities, two main ideas are clearly noted. One is the need to unite the Roman state into one whole, the need to smooth out the difference between the citizen-master and the provincial-slave, to smooth out the differences between nationalities; the other, closely related to the first, is the streamlining of administration, close communication between the state and its subjects, the elimination of intermediaries, and a strong central government. Both of these ideas are reflected in all of Caesar’s reforms, despite the fact that he carried them out quickly and hastily, trying to use the short periods of his stay in Rome. Because of this, the sequence of individual measures is random; Caesar each time took on what seemed most necessary to him, and only a comparison of everything he did, regardless of chronology, makes it possible to grasp the essence of his reforms and notice a harmonious system in their implementation.

Caesar's unifying tendencies were reflected primarily in his policy towards parties among the ruling classes. His policy of mercy towards his opponents, with the exception of irreconcilable ones, his desire to attract everyone to public life, without distinction of party or mood, his admission of his former opponents among his close associates, undoubtedly testifies to the desire to merge all differences of opinion about his personality and his regime . This unifying policy explains the widespread trust in everyone, which was the reason for his death.

The unifying tendency also has a clear effect in relation to Italy. One of Caesar's laws concerning the regulation of certain parts of municipal life in Italy has reached us. True, it is now impossible to assert that this law was the general municipal law of Yu. Caesar (lex Iulia municipalis), but it is still certain that it immediately supplemented the statutes of individual Italian communities for all municipalities and served as a corrective for all of them. On the other hand, the combination in the law of norms regulating the urban life of Rome and municipal norms, and the significant likelihood that the norms of urban improvement of Rome were mandatory for municipalities, clearly indicates a tendency to reduce Rome to municipalities, to elevate municipalities to Rome, which from now on should was only the first of the Italian cities, the seat of central power and a model for all similar centers of life. A general municipal law for all of Italy with local differences was unthinkable, but some general norms were desirable and useful and clearly indicated that in the end Italy and its cities represented one whole united with Rome.

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC. e. , on the way to a Senate meeting. When friends once advised the dictator to beware of enemies and surround himself with guards, Caesar replied: “It is better to die once than to constantly expect death.”

People are legends. Ancient world

The Making of Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar (102?-44 BC) - the great Roman commander and statesman - was born on July 12, 102 BC. e. This statement by the German historiographer Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903) contradicts the testimony of such ancient historians as Suetonius, Plutarch and Appian, who wrote that Caesar was killed at the age of 56 and, therefore, was born in 100 BC. e. However, Mommsen seems to be more right. His statement is based on the fact that Caesar successively passed through all republican government positions and already in 65 BC. e. was elected aedile, and according to Roman law, a person holding the post of aedile cannot be younger than 37-38 years old.

Gaius Julius Caesar came from an old patrician family, which traced its origins back to the legendary Yul, son of Aeneas and grandson of Venus and Anchises. Later, having already become the dictator of Rome, Caesar paid tribute to his ancestors and built the temple of Venus the Progenitor in the forum. Plunging into politics from a young age, he became one of the leaders of the popular party of the populari, but his patrician origin prevented him from taking the position of tribune of the people, which Caesar aspired to. At the same time, the Julius family, belonging to the Roman nobility, promoted from its ranks several statesmen who occupied the highest positions in the magistrates. Caesar's uncles were consuls: Sextus Julius Caesar (91 BC), Lucius Julius Caesar (90 BC), and his father, whose name (Gaius Julius) passed to his son, served as praetor . Most of the members of his family belonged to the senatorial party of the optimates, representing the interests of the old aristocracy, but Caesar from the very beginning joined the populares. The reason for this, no doubt, was his relationship with Gaius Marius, the husband of his aunt Julia. Caesar was born in the year when Mari won his first great victory over the Germanic Teutonic tribes. He grew up and was brought up, seeing before him the brilliant career of a great warrior, and, of course, joined both his party and his success. We know little about what kind of education Caesar received. His mother Aurelia came from a noble patrician family, and Tacitus mentions her name next to the name of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi brothers, as an example of a Roman matron whose severity and exactingness helped to raise a true warrior and statesman in her son. Caesar's teacher was a certain Antony, a native of Gaul (obviously, Cisalpine Gaul is meant). According to contemporaries, Anthony was equally well versed in both Greek and Latin literature and a few years later founded a school of rhetoric, which in 66 BC. e., already being a praetor, Cicero visited. Perhaps it was thanks to his teacher that Caesar became interested in Gaul, its people, and began to sympathize with the demands for political rights of the Gauls who lived in the lands conquered by the Romans in Northern Italy.

In his sixteenth year (87 BC), Caesar lost his father and at the same time donned a one-color toga (toga virilis) as a symbol of maturity. The allied war (90-89 BC) with the Italian communities, in which Rome, although victorious, nevertheless granted the inhabitants of Italy, although not all, Roman citizenship and, therefore, voting rights. The civil war that soon broke out, in which two parties opposed each other, brought temporary success to the popularists, led by Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna (the leader of another party, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, was fighting at that time in the East with the Pontic king Mithridates). Marius and Cinna resorted to massacres of their political opponents, in which both of Caesar's uncles were killed. But Caesar himself was supported, and he became (flamen Dialis) a priest of Jupiter, the supreme god of Rome. The next year (the year of Mary's death), Caesar broke off his engagement to Cossutia, a girl from an equestrian but very wealthy family, although he needed money, and asked for the hand of Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna. Having received consent, he strengthened his position in the ruling party.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla

However, his political career was soon interrupted by the triumphant return of Sulla (82 BC), who seized power in Rome. The new ruler ordered him to divorce his wife, but upon hearing a refusal, he deprived him of his property and removed him from the post of priest, and only the intercession of relatives who were part of Sulla’s inner circle and the college of virgin Vestal Virgins saved the young man’s life.

Having resigned his priestly duties (81 BC), Caesar headed to the East and took part in his first campaign under the leadership of Minucius (or Marcus, as in Suetonius) Termus, who was engaged in suppressing the last centers of resistance to Roman power in the province of Asia . During the storming of Mytilene, a city on the island of Lesbos, for saving the life of a Roman citizen, a soldier, he received an award (corona civica) - an “oak wreath.” In 78 BC. e. Caesar served under Servilius Isauric and fought against Cilician pirates, but when news of Sulla's death reached him, he immediately returned to Rome. Caesar did not allow himself to be drawn into the conspiracy of Marcus Lepidus, who came up with extravagant plans to abolish all Sulla’s innovations by force, and used another method of political struggle. Gaius Julius brought to trial (77 BC) two prominent senators, the Sullans Gnaeus Cornelius Dolabella and Gaius Antony, on charges of robbery and extortion during their administration of the provinces of Macedonia and Greece. Caesar lost both cases, but was able to show the people the corruption of the senatorial court. After these failures, Caesar decided not to take an active part in politics for some time and went to the island of Rhodes to study the art of eloquence from the famous Apollonius Molon. During this voyage he was captured by pirates and, while awaiting ransom, kept himself in their midst with amazing composure and even threatened to return and crucify them. As soon as the ransom arrived and he was released, Caesar was not slow in fulfilling his threat.

While Gaius Julius was studying in Rhodes, the third war began with Mithridates VI Eupator. Caesar immediately gathered an army of volunteers and helped keep the wavering Asian provinces loyal to Rome. When Lucullus arrived to command the Roman troops in Asia, the future ruler returned to Rome, where he was informed that he had defeated his rivals in the election for the position of pontiff, which had been vacant since the death of his maternal uncle Gaius Aurelius Cotta. Caesar also became the first of six (tribuni militum a populo) military tribunes elected by the people, but there is no record of his service in this position. Suetonius says that Caesar eagerly rushed to restore the rights of the tribunes of the people, significantly limited by Sulla, and managed to pass a law on amnesty for citizens who fled to Sertorius in the civil war and fought in Spain. He was not such an ardent fighter for the cause of the popularists, but he did everything in his power to collapse the Sullan regime.

The crisis in the country, provoked by a slave uprising led by Spartacus, led to the concentration of legislative and administrative functions in the hands of Pompey and Crassus, who in 70 BC. e. limited the power of the Senate, returned the former rights and opportunities for the people's tribunes to speak out with legislative initiatives, and returned priority to the equestrian class in the administration of judicial offices. Judicial reform (or rather, compromise) was the result of the work of Caesar's maternal uncle Lucius Aurelius Cotta. However, Caesar himself did not receive any benefit from this relationship. In 69 BC. e. he served as quaestor under Anistius Vets, governor of the province of Near Spain. Returning to Rome (according to Suetonius), Gaius Julius Caesar led a real revolutionary agitation among the inhabitants of Transpadania to obtain all the political rights that had been denied to them by Sulla.

Caesar and Pompey

Everyone knew Caesar as a man who loved to enjoy life, a man famous for his debts and intrigues. In politics, Gaius Julius Caesar had no other support than the popular party, which had lost confidence (now its role was reduced to weak support for Pompey and Crassus). But soon after the Senate again showed its shortsightedness by sending Pompey to the East, and the consuls of 67-66. BC e. Gabinius and Manilius gave Pompey unprecedented powers. Caesar plunged into a web of political intrigue that is now impossible to unravel. In his speeches, the future ruler did not miss the opportunity to speak out for democracy. Already in 68 BC. e., at the funeral of his aunt Julia, he exhibited busts of her husband Maria, and in 65 BC. e., fulfilling the position of curule aedile, Caesar returned the trophies of Marius to the temple on the Capitol. In 64 BC. e., presiding over a commission investigating the murders, he brought to trial three executioners appointed by Sulla during the proscriptions, and in 63 BC. e. During the investigation of the murder of Saturninus, he took the initiative to revive the ancient procedure for holding a trial by the people's assembly. These measures, as well as the generosity lavished by Caesar in decorating the city and organizing the games and spectacles that were the duties of the aediles, won him such popularity among the plebs that in 63 BC. e. he was elected great pontiff, defeating such famous rivals as Quintus Lutatius Catulus and Publius Servilius Isauricus. But all this was just the outer shell of his activity. No doubt Caesar was aware of at least some of the conspiracy that was going on during Pompey's campaign in the East.

Gnaeus Pompey

According to one eyewitness, the party of conspirators - Catiline, Autronius and others - decided on January 1, 65 BC. e. kill the consuls, declare Crassus a dictator, and make Caesar commander of the cavalry. We have also received information that it was proposed to give Caesar emergency military powers in Egypt, which at that time had no legitimate king and was under the protection of Rome. At the end of 64 BC. e. an attempt to create a counterbalance to Pompey's power, which ended in failure, was made by the tribune Servilius Rull. He proposed creating a land commission with broad rights, which would in fact be headed by Caesar and Crassus. Rullus's proposal did not pass thanks to Cicero, who became consul in 63 BC. e. In the same year, Catiline's conspiracy was discovered. Along with others, Caesar was accused of complicity in the crime; in a heated discussion in the Senate, one of the leaders of the old aristocracy, Marcus Porcius Cato, pointed him out. But Caesar could not do otherwise because of his party affiliation and until the end resisted the decision to execute the conspirators. Crassus, who also came under suspicion of complicity with the conspirators, was the richest man in Rome, and it seemed too implausible to his accusers that he supported the anarchist plans of the rebels. However, both Caesar and Crassus, no doubt, only pretended to know nothing about the affairs of the left wing of their party and the conspirators. All this only contributed to the deterioration of the situation within the government.

As praetor (62 BC), Caesar supported the proposals made by Pompey's supporters. This led to a violent clash between him and the Senate. Caesar’s tactics were carefully thought out by him, since Pompey’s return was close. When he finally landed on the coast of Italy and disbanded his army, he met an ally in Caesar. After the praetorship, the creditors did not allow Caesar to leave Rome until he returned the money to them. However, Crassus lent him 200 thousand pounds, giving him the opportunity to go to the provinces. Finally, Gaius Julius Caesar left Rome and went to Far Spain, where he hoped to improve his financial situation and create a reputation as an excellent commander. Upon returning to Rome in 60 BC. e. Caesar discovered that the Senate had sacrificed the support of the equestrian class (which Cicero had been so keen to preserve). In the end, the stubborn Senate finally turned against itself and Pompey, refusing to ratify his bills and distribute lands to his soldiers. Caesar immediately began to become close to Pompey and Crassus, who equally, but in their own way, hated the existing system of government. He managed to convince them to forget the quarrel and create a coalition that would put an end to the rule of the oligarchy. The future ruler even made a noble, albeit unsuccessful, attempt to enlist the support of Cicero. The so-called first triumvirate was created, and the constitutional government virtually ceased to exist.

Caesar's first reward was his victory in the elections, where he was elected consul. For her sake, Caesar had to give up the triumph, the right to which he received in Spain. Marcus Bibulus, who belonged to the irreconcilable part of the Senate oligarchy and, with the support of his party, used the constitution in every possible way to prevent the passage of bills proposed by Caesar, was elected second consul. However, Caesar was able to defeat the opposition by convincing Pompey's veterans of the need to expel his colleague from the forum. Bibulus found himself a prisoner in his own house, and Caesar began to decide all the affairs of the republic at his own discretion. Thus, the goal of the coalition was achieved. The Senate finally approved Pompey's orders in the East. A proposal was accepted to purchase land plots in Campania using funds from the exploitation of new lands and distribute them to Pompeian veterans. This, however, prevented the aspirations of the richest Romans, mainly horsemen, whose interests Crassus expressed, to lease lands that had passed to Rome as a result of the conquests of Asian lands. Ptolemy Auletes' right to the Egyptian throne was confirmed (for a reward of £1,500,000), and a new law was passed to prevent extortion by local rulers.

Conquest of Gaul

The goal that Caesar set for himself was to stand at the head of the army. He understood perfectly well that in this way he would receive almost everything and enormous power would be concentrated in his hands. Taking advantage of the exclusive right granted by the constitution, the Senate instructed Caesar after the end of the consulate in 59 BC. e. instead of provincial government, oversight of Italy's public roads and forests. But Caesar ensured that the Senate passed a bill that gave him control of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years.

Gaius Julius Caesar

He also secured annexation to his province of Transalpine Gaul, where he knew a storm was brewing that threatened to sweep away Roman civilization beyond the Alpine ridge. The enmity of the Gallic tribes among themselves allowed the Germans to first conquer a stronghold on the left bank of the Rhine, and then seize a dominant position in Central Gaul. In 60 BC. e. the leader of the Germanic tribes, Ariovistus, defeated the Aedui tribe, which was an ally of Rome, and conquered most of their territory from the Sequani tribe. Caesar undoubtedly understood that the Germans wanted to strengthen their dominance in Gaul and oust the Romans from there, but they needed to buy time, and in 59 BC. e. Ariovistus signed a treaty of friendship with Rome.

In 58 BC. e. The Helvetians, a tribe of Celts who lived within what is now Switzerland, decided to leave their country and go to the shores of the Atlantic. To do this, they asked Rome to let them pass through their land. According to Caesar, there were 386 thousand Helvetii, and at all costs it was necessary to prevent their resettlement and save the Roman province from invasion. Caesar at that moment had only one legion under his command. It was with him that he moved to Geneva, destroyed the bridge over the Rodan (now the Rhone) along the way, strengthened the left bank of the river and forced the Helvetians to change the direction of movement and go along the right bank. Hastily returning to Italy, Caesar withdrew three of his legions from Aquileia, collected two more and made a quick transition through the Alps. Caesar's troops arrived in the vicinity of Lugdunum (modern Lyon) when three-quarters of the Helvetii had already crossed the Arar River (now the Saone) and were heading west. In the area of ​​Tigurin, Caesar overtook and defeated their rearguard, who did not have time to cross the river. In twenty-four hours he crossed with his army to the other side, pursuing the Helvetii moving north, and finally defeated them at Bibract. Of the surviving settlers, a small part remained to live among the Aedui, and the rest had to return to Switzerland so as not to fall into the hands of the Germans.

After the victory over the Helvetii, deputations from almost all the Gallic leaders came to Caesar and began to persistently ask him to repel the threat of invasion by the tyrant Ariovistus. Caesar invited the leader of the Germans to come to him for negotiations, but was refused. Hearing that fresh enemy forces were crossing the Rhine, he hastily headed to Vesontio (now Besançon), and from there to the modern province of Alsace, where he won a decisive victory over the Germans. Only minor remnants of the enemy forces, including Ariovist, managed to reach the right bank of the Rhine. Caesar's successes caused fair alarm among the Belgae, a union of tribes in the northeast of Gaul. In the spring of 57 BC. e., without waiting for the Belgians to attack, Gaius Julius Caesar headed north to the lands of the Reims (near modern Reims). This tribe, the only one in the entire territory, was friendly towards Rome. Caesar successfully stopped the enemy's advance in the hilly terrain (between modern Laon and Reims), and the loosely organized Belgae army literally melted away as soon as it encountered his legionaries. But the Romans still had to meet the Nervii tribe and their neighbors who lived further to the northwest. The armies of these tribes were defeated only after a desperate battle on the banks of the Sambre River, in which Caesar himself participated in hand-to-hand combat. The rebellious Aduatuci tribe (near modern Namur) was eventually forced to surrender. For their treachery, Caesar sold every single representative of this tribe into slavery. At this time, Publius Crassus, Caesar's legate, conquered the tribes of Northwestern Gaul. Thus, by the end of the campaign, almost the entire territory of Gaul, with the exception of Aquitaine in the southwest, was under Roman domination.

However, in 56 BC. e. The Veneti in Brittany rebelled and took two of Crassus' commanders hostage. Caesar, who was hastily sent for to Illyricum, crossed the Loire and invaded Brittany. However, he soon realized that he could not move forward until he defeated the powerful Veneti fleet, which consisted of sailing, flat-bottomed ships with high sides. At the mouth of the Loire, by order of Caesar, a fleet was quickly built, and Decimus Brutus became its leader. The decisive battle probably took place in the Gulf of Morbihan. The Romans won only thanks to the witty invention of the fleet commander: attaching sickles to long poles, they cut the ropes holding the sails of the enemy ships. The sails fell and the ships became almost motionless. For betrayal, Caesar brutally dealt with the Veneti. He ordered the execution of the tribe's elders and the inhabitants' sale into slavery. Meanwhile, another legate, Sabinus, won an important victory on the northern coast, and Crassus subjugated Aquitaine. At the end of the year, Caesar traversed the entire territory inhabited by the Morini and Menapii in the extreme northwest.

In 55 BC. e. two Germanic tribes, the Usipetes and Tencteri, crossed the Rhine near the mouth and occupied the lands of modern Flanders. Caesar immediately went to meet them and, under the pretext that they had violated the truce, captured their leaders who had arrived for negotiations, and then unexpectedly attacked the enemy forces and practically destroyed them. Julius' enemies in Rome accused him of treachery, and Cato even offered to hand him over to the Germans. Meanwhile, Caesar built a pile bridge across the Rhine in ten days and, crossing to the right bank, demonstrated the strength of Rome to the surrounding tribes. That same summer, Caesar made his first expedition to Britain. The second was undertaken in 54 BC. e. The first time, Caesar took only two legions with him and was only able to land on the coast of Kent. The second expedition already involved five legions and two thousand cavalry. They set out on a campaign from the harbor of Itia (the modern port of Boulogne or Visan). This time Julius managed to go deeper into Middlesex and cross the Thames. But the British leader Cassivellaunus put up such fierce resistance to the Romans that Caesar had to return to Gaul, imposing a tribute on the inhabitants of Britain, which, however, they never paid.

The next two years testify: the Gauls have not resigned themselves and are waging a fierce struggle for freedom. Before Caesar's second expedition to Britain, Dumnorix, the leader of the Aedui, was exposed as betraying the interests of the Romans. While trying to escape from Caesar's camp, he was killed. At the end of the campaign, Caesar placed legions throughout Gaul quite far from each other. Two of his camps were treacherously attacked. At Aduatuca, the newly assembled legion was defeated by the Eburons, led by Ambiorix. At the same time, Quintus Cicero was besieged in the vicinity of Namur, and the Gauls retreated only when Caesar arrived, forced to spend the entire winter in Gaul to pacify the rebellions that broke out here and there. The initiator was Indutiomar, the leader of the Treveri, who rebelled, attacked the legions of Labienus, but was defeated and died. Campaign of 53 BC e. was marked by the second crossing of the Rhine and the victory over the Eburones, whose leader Ambiorix managed, however, to escape. In the fall, Caesar convened a meeting in Durocortorum (modern Reims), at which Accon, the leader of the Senones, was accused of treason and whipped to death.

At the beginning of 52 BC. e. in Kenabum (now Orleans), several Roman traders were brutally murdered. Hearing about this, the Arverni, led by Vercingetorix, rebelled.

Coin depicting Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls

They were quickly joined by other tribes, in particular the Biturigs, whose capital was Avaricum (modern Bordeaux). Caesar returned hastily from Italy, slipped past the forces of the Arverni leader and reached Agedincum (now Sen), the headquarters of his legions. Vercingetorix understood that it was impossible to meet Caesar in open battle and decided to concentrate his forces in several fortified places. Caesar's first step was the siege and capture of Avaricum and brutal reprisals against the inhabitants. He then marched on Gergovia, the capital of the Arverni (near the Puy de Dome), but here he encountered fierce resistance, so the Romans had to besiege the city. Having received news that the Roman province was under threat of invasion, Caesar headed west, defeated the forces of Vercingetorix near modern Dijon and locked him in Alesia, surrounding the city with an earthen fortification with a rampart and a ditch.

Vercassivelaunus's attempt to free Vercingetorix was accompanied by a desperate struggle and was unsuccessful, and in the end he was forced to surrender. In 51 BC. e. The Gauls' struggle for liberation practically ceased, only isolated uprisings broke out here and there. They were brought to an end by the siege and capture of Uxellodunum, whose defenders had their hands cut off as punishment. Gaul was finally conquered. Its position was reduced to that of a province, and its inhabitants were obliged to pay an annual tribute of 40 million sesterces (350 thousand pounds) to the Roman treasury. Caesar treated the conquered tribes generously and allowed them to maintain the existing state division.

Civil War

Meanwhile, Caesar's own position was becoming critical. In 56 BC. e. At a meeting in Luca (now Lucca), Caesar, Pompey and Crassus confirmed their agreement. Caesar's powers to govern Gaul, which expired on March 1, 54 BC. e., were extended for another five years, i.e. until March 1, 49 BC. e. It was decided that until March 1, 50 BC. e. the question of Caesar's successor will not be raised. By this time, military leaders in the provinces would have been appointed for 49 BC. e. Thus, Caesar will retain full power (imperium), and therefore, will retain immunity from prosecution under the law until the end of 49 BC. e. According to the plan approved at the meeting, in 48 BC. e. he will be taken to the consuls. By law, the candidate for consul had to personally participate in the election campaign, but Caesar was exempted from this necessary condition by a special document. However, when in 54 BC. e. Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died, and in 53 BC. e. Crassus was killed at Carrhae, Pompey moved away from Caesar and began to occupy a dominant position in the Senate. In 52 BC. e. he passed a new law on the powers of officials (de jure magistratuum), which cut the ground from under Caesar's feet, making it possible to appoint a successor to govern the Gallic provinces until the end of 49. This meant that for several months Caesar became a non-state person, which means he could be subject to prosecution for actions contrary to the constitution. Caesar had no choice but to pursue an uncompromising policy of obstruction in the Senate by paying huge bribes. His representative in 50 BC. e. tribune Gaius Scribonius Curio helped Caesar and convinced the wavering majority in the Senate to refrain from emergency measures, pointing out that Pompey, like Caesar, would have to leave the post of governor of the provinces and lose his powers. However, all attempts at negotiations were unsuccessful. In January 49 BC. e., after martial law was introduced at the proposal of the consuls, the tribunes of the people Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius fled to Caesar, who with only one legion crossed the Rubicon (Italian border) with the words:“The die is cast” (“Alea jacta est”).

Pompey's forces consisted of two legions stationed in Campania and eight in Spain, led by his legates, Lucius Afranius and Marcus Petreius. Both sides, Pompey and Caesar, began to recruit recruits for their troops throughout Italy. Caesar added two legions from Gaul to the army and, quickly moving along the Adriatic coast, caught up with Pompey in Brundisium (now Brindisi), but was unable to prevent his troops from being sent to the East, where Pompey’s authority was very high. After this, Caesar, according to his contemporaries, exclaimed: “I am going to Spain to fight an army without a commander, and then to the East to fight a commander without an army.” The first part of this plan was carried out with extraordinary speed. Guy Julius Caesar reached Ilerda (modern Lleida) on June 23, skillfully maneuvered his army out of a very dangerous situation, gave battle to Pompey’s commanders and forced them to surrender on August 2. Returning to Rome, he established a dictatorship for eleven days, then was elected consul for 48 BC. e. and on January 4th sailed from Brundisium to Epirus. Near Dyrrhachium (modern Durres in Albania), Caesar attempted to encircle Pompey's army, although it was twice his size, but was defeated and suffered heavy losses. Then he moved east to, if possible, cut off Pompey from the reinforcements that his father-in-law Scipio was sending him. And yet Pompey managed to unite with the army sent to him and went to the lands of Thessaly, where in the battle near the city of Pharsalus his army was completely defeated, and Pompey himself fled to Egypt. Caesar decided to pursue Pompey at all costs, but, having landed in Alexandria, he learned of the murder of his enemy. Caesar stayed in Egypt for nine months, enchanted by Cleopatra, and almost died at the hands of the conspirators. In June 47 BC. e. he moved to the East, to Asia Minor, where, at the Battle of Zela, Caesar “came, saw, defeated” Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates the Great.

Returning to Italy, Caesar suppressed the rebellion of the legions that broke out in Campania (the tenth legion loyal to him also took part in it), and headed to Africa, where on April 6, 46 BC. e. at the Battle of Thapsus, he completely defeated the Republican army under the command of Scipio, consisting of fourteen legions. Most of the Republican leaders were killed in this battle, and Cato committed suicide. From June 26 to 29, Caesar celebrated four triumphs in honor of all the victories won in Gaul, Egypt, Asia Minor and Africa, and received the powers of dictator for ten years. However, in November he was forced to sail to Spain, where power still belonged to the sons of Pompey. March 17, 45 BC e. they were defeated at the Battle of Munda. Caesar returned to Rome in September, and six months later (March 15, 44 BC) he was killed in the Senate, at the foot of the statue of Pompey.

Marcus Junius Brutus - one of the main conspirators against Caesar

Caesar's dictatorship

The famous Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca noted that among Caesar's killers there were more friends than enemies. This statement can only be explained by the fact that over time, the reign of Gaius Julius Caesar took on more and more pronounced forms of absolutism. The honors given to him seemed to be aimed only at elevating him above humanity. Another source says that Caesar’s power was exercised in the form of a dictatorship.

Gaius Julius Caesar - dictator

At first (in the autumn of 49 BC) Caesar received dictatorial powers, since this was the only solution to the constitutional crisis that arose as a result of the flight of the magistrate and the Senate. He was given these powers so that the elections (including the election of Caesar himself to the post of consul) took place in the proper manner. It should be noted that there were precedents for the establishment of a dictatorship in Rome. In 48 BC. e. Caesar was appointed dictator for a second time, possibly for an indefinite period, although voters still had fresh memories of Sulla's formidable and unpopular rule. In May 46 BC. e. Gaius Julius Caesar became dictator for the third time, this time for ten years, and, apparently, this position was confirmed annually, so in May 45 BC. e. Caesar became dictator for the fourth time. Finally, by February 15, 44 BC. e. Caesar becomes dictator for life. This not only changed the term of office of the dictator, since, according to tradition, dictatorship was established as a temporary measure only in those moments when the state was experiencing a serious crisis, but the appointment of a dictator for life in Rome meant the introduction of military order in Italy and violated constitutional norms such as intercessio and provocatio (revival and appeal), which guaranteed the freedoms of the Romans. In addition to the title of dictator for life, Caesar annually received the title of consul, excluding 47 BC. e. (when curule magistrates were not elected, except for the last three months of the year). By special orders, Caesar was endowed with a number of other privileges and powers. One of the most important was the tribunician powers (tribunicia potestas), which were apparently not limited by time and place (for example, Rome) and were exercised without a colleague. Thus, Caesar received the unique right to make peace, wage war and manage the state treasury. Roman historians Dion and Suetonius claimed that in 46 BC. e. Caesar also received powers to supervise laws and morals (praefectura legum et morum), that is, censorship, although Mommsen did not agree with this. Perhaps some basis for this assertion was in the articles of the law establishing the third dictatorship. According to Dion, Caesar became censor for life in 44 BC. e. Except for the title of dictator, which undoubtedly had unpleasant associations and was formally abolished at the suggestion of Antony after the death of Caesar. He concentrated such power and authority in his hands that his rule was not much different from the Principate of Augustus. The adoption of a dictatorship for life itself is unlikely to explain the murder of Caesar. But it is indisputable that in the last six months of his life Caesar sought not only to become a monarch in the full sense of the word, but also to create around himself an aura of deity that would be recognized by both the Romans and Greeks, and the Easterners and barbarians. The statue of Caesar was installed next to the statues of the seven kings of Rome. He sat on a throne of gold, his scepter was made of ivory, and his dress was embroidered with rich ornaments. All this, according to tradition, belonged to the kings.

Coin depicting Gaius Julius Caesar

He gave his supporters the opportunity to propose that he be given the title of king, allowing them to spread rumors throughout the city that ancient books said that only a king could defeat the Parthians. And when one day at Lupercalia on February 15, 44 BC. e. Antony placed the diadem on his head, Caesar only reluctantly refused it after hearing the discontent of the crowd. During the solemn procession in the circus (Pompa circensis), among the statues of immortal gods, a statue of Caesar was carried. In the temple of Quirin, his statue was erected with the inscription: “To the Invincible God.” The College of Luperci bore his name - Yulieva. Satisfying his ambitions, flamens were also appointed as priests of his deity. All this outraged the Republican aristocrats, to whom it seemed natural that victorious military leaders could receive divine honors from some Greeks and Asians, but it was unforgivable that the Romans should receive the same honors and worship from the Romans.

Caesar's work remained unfinished, and this must be kept in mind when considering reforms in the field of lawmaking and government. One of the sources gives an assessment of everything that was done, but perhaps it would be correct to single out from the whole list of measures taken by Caesar those that were subsequently of great importance and indicated that Caesar had a keen sense of the problems of the empire and knew how to solve them. The allied war led to the extension of the right of Roman citizenship to the territory of Italy up to the Po River (now Padus). All that remained was to grant this right to the inhabitants of Transpadan Italy, to establish a unified system of local administration and to create representative institutions. As a result, the interests of all Italian citizens will be represented in the government of Rome by at least several votes. Caesar never reached a final understanding of the importance of this step, like other statesmen of antiquity. But the first measure to establish control over Italy was to grant civil rights to the inhabitants of Transpadania, whose claims Caesar consistently defended. In 45 BC. e. he enforced the Lex Iulia Municipalis (Julius' law on municipalities), a piece of legislation, some important fragments of which are written on two bronze tablets found at Heraclea, near Tarentum.

This law also applies to the law enforcement and sanitary conditions of Rome. Based on this, Mommsen argued that the assertion that Caesar intended to reduce the status of Rome to a municipal city was incorrect. It is unlikely that this was the case; Caesar did not make any far-reaching changes in the management of the capital. They were made later by Augustus. But the presence of the mentioned articles in the Lex Iulia Municipalis can be considered as an amendment to the bill. The law stipulates the structure of local senates; their members had to be at least thirty years old and perform military service. People sentenced to punishment for various crimes, insolvents or those who discredited themselves by immoral behavior did not have the right to be elected senators. The law obliged local magistrates to conduct a census at the same time as in Rome, and within sixty days to send the census data to the capital. Existing excerpts from the law say little about the decentralization of government functions, but from the Lex Rubria (Rubrian law), which was written for the transpadan areas, whose inhabitants Caesar gave the right to Roman citizenship (at the same time it must be remembered that Cisalpine Gaul remained a province until 42 BC), we can conclude that municipal magistrates retained the right to act independently in many cases. However, Caesar was dissatisfied with the unified system of local authorities that took shape in Italy. He was the first to carry out large-scale colonization of lands that extended beyond the sea. This began with the people's tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. As consul, in 59 BC. e. Caesar established veteran colonies in Campania, enacting the Lex Iulia Agraria (Julian Agrarian Law), and even established rules for the founding of such settlements. Having become dictator, he created numerous colonies in both the eastern and western provinces, in particular in Corinth and Carthage. Explaining this policy of Caesar, Mommsen emphasized that “the dominance of the urban communities of Rome on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea was coming to an end,” and said that the first step of the “new Mediterranean state” was “to atone for the two gross violations of the law that this urban community committed over civilization." However, we cannot agree with this point of view. The sites for the founding of Caesar's colonies were chosen based on the location of trade routes, and the idea that the citizens of Rome should cease to occupy a dominant position in the Mediterranean basin could not occur to the dictator. Many residents of the colonies were veterans who fought under Caesar. The majority also consisted of the urban proletariat. There is a document establishing a colony at Urso in southern Spain. This colony was called Colonia Iulia Genetiva Urbanorum. The penultimate word in the name comes from Venus the Mother, the ancestor of the house of Julia, the last word indicates that the colonists came from ordinary townspeople. Accordingly, for municipalities, freedom at birth is not a necessary condition, as in Italy. By founding colonies, Caesar spread Roman civilization to them. During the Republic, it existed only within the borders of the Apennine Peninsula. Lack of time prevented Caesar from implementing other projects, such as digging a canal across the Isthmian (Corinthian) Isthmus. The purpose of this plan was to establish trade and communication between all Roman dominions. Caesar's contemporaries said that before his death, the dictator planned to restore the empire within its natural borders and was going to start a war with the Parthian kingdom. If victorious, the Roman army would reach the Euphrates. Among other acts of Caesar, one should highlight the decision to ensure that the empire was governed in the true sense of the word and was no longer exploited by the rulers. The dictator exercised strict control over his governors (legati), who, due to military subordination, were responsible to him for the administration of their provinces.

Caesar's works and character

Of those works of Caesar that have come down to us, seven books of Commentarii de bello Gallico (Notes on the Gallic War) were apparently written in 51 BC. e. and contains descriptions of the campaigns carried out in Gaul up to the end of the previous year (the eighth book, written by Hirtius, is an addition, telling about the events of 51-50 BC). Caesar's three books "De bello civili" ("On the Civil War") tell about the struggle between Caesar and Pompey (49 - 48 BC). The reliability of the facts presented in the book was questioned by Asinius Pollio back in ancient times. A number of questions arise no less often among modern researchers. The book “Notes on the Gallic War” generally stands up to critical scrutiny, but even in it the accuracy of the narrative raises certain doubts. (This book was published at a very good time to show the Romans what a great service Caesar had done for Rome). "On the Civil War", especially in the initial chapters, suffers from distortions. Caesar's account of the beginning of the struggle and peace negotiations at the end of hostilities diverges from the testimony of Cicero, which has survived to this day in his correspondence.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sometimes Caesar gives incorrect geographical information about certain events. Historians have very few fragments of Caesar's other works, his political pamphlets (Anticato - "Against Cato"), works on Latin grammar (De Analogia - "On Analogy") or poems. All the authorities of that time wrote about Caesar as an unsurpassed orator. Cicero (Brutus, 22) wrote: “De Caesare ita iudico, illum omnium jere oratorum Latine logui elegantissime” (“I believe that of all Latin orators Caesar speaks the most elegantly”). Quintilian says that if Caesar had studied oratory, he would have been Cicero's only rival.

The attitude of historians towards Caesar has always depended on their political sympathies. Everyone recognized his genius as a military leader. Only a few did not pay tribute to his charm and generosity. It was these traits that won Cicero's favor. Only in a few cases did his appeal to Caesar for mercy fail to find an answer. Indeed, Caesar treated everyone with amazing tolerance except ideological rivals. Caesar's personal life was not a role model, especially in his youth. But it is still difficult to believe the terrible stories about him that were invented by his opponents, for example about his relationship with the king of Bithynia Nicomedes. As to the character of Caesar as a public figure, there may never be an agreement reached between those who consider Caesarism the greatest phenomenon in political life, and those who believe that, by destroying freedom, Caesar missed a unique opportunity and suppressed the sense of dignity in man. The latter point of view, unfortunately, is confirmed by the indisputable fact that Caesar treated with insufficient attention and respect the historical institutions of Rome, which, having excellent traditions, could still be the organs of real political life. Caesar increased the number of senators to nine hundred and introduced the inhabitants of the province into the senate, but instead of transforming this body of government into a great council of the empire, which would represent the different races and nations, the dictator treated it with deliberate disrespect. Cicero writes that Caesar was called the initiator of decrees of which he knew nothing, and his name was used in conferring the title of king on rulers of whom he had never heard. Caesar treated the ancient magistrates of the republic in a similar way. This was the origin of the practice of underestimating the self-esteem of the dictator's subordinates, and all this ultimately led to the fact that future emperors began to rule over a nation of slaves. Few people knew how to use inspiration as easily as Gaius Julius Caesar; few people have suffered more than Gaius Julius Caesar from the illusions of genius.

Gaius Iulius Caesar - commander, politician, writer, dictator, high priest. He came from an ancient Roman family of the ruling class and consistently sought all government positions and led a line of political opposition to the senatorial aristocracy. He was merciful, but sent a number of his main opponents to execution.

The Yuliev family originated from a noble family, which, according to legend, descended from the goddess Venus.

Julius Caesar's mother, Avrelia Kotta, was from the noble and wealthy Aurelian family. My paternal grandmother came from the ancient Roman family of Marcii. Ancus Marcius was the fourth king of Ancient Rome from 640 to 616. BC e.

Childhood and youth

We have not received exact data about the time of birth of the emperor. Today it is generally accepted that he was born in 100 BC. e., however, the German historian Theodor Mommsen believes that it was 102 BC. e., and the French historian Jerome Carcopino points to 101 BC. e. Both July 12 and July 13 are considered birthdays.

Dear reader, to find an answer to any question about holidays in Italy, use. I answer all questions in the comments under the relevant articles at least once a day. Your guide in Italy Artur Yakutsevich.

Gaius Julius spent his childhood in the poor ancient Roman region of Subura. Parents gave their son a good education, he studied Greek, poetry and oratory, learned to swim, rode horseback and developed physically. In 85 BC. e. the family lost its breadwinner and Caesar, after initiation, became the head of the family, since none of the older male relatives remained alive.

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Beginning of a career as a politician

In Asia

In the 80s BC. e. The military leader Lucius Cornelius Cinna proposed the person of Gaius Julius to replace the flamenes, priest of the god Jupiter. But for this he needed to marry according to the solemn ancient rite of confarreatio, and Lucius Cornelius chose his daughter Cornelia Cinilla as his wife for Caesar. In 76 BC. e. The couple had a daughter, Julia (Ivlia).

Today, historians are no longer sure about the inauguration ceremony of Julius. On the one hand, this would prevent him from engaging in politics, but, on the other, the appointment was a good way to strengthen the position of the Caesars.

After the betrothal of Gaius Julius and Cornelia, there was a riot in the troops and the military attacked Cinna, he was killed. The dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla was established, after which Caesar, as a relative of the opponent of the new ruler, was outlawed. He disobeyed Sulla, refused to divorce his wife and left. The dictator searched for the disobedient man for a long time, but, as time passed, he pardoned him at the request of his relatives.
Caesar soon joined Marcus Minucius Thermus, governor of the Roman province of Asia Minor - Asia.

Ten years ago, his father held this position. Julius became an equites (equites) of Marcus Minucius, a patrician who fought on horseback. The first task that Therm gave to his contubernal was to negotiate with the Bithynia king Nycomed IV. As a result of successful negotiations, the ruler transfers Thermae a flotilla to take the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesvos, which did not accept the results of the First Mithridatic War (89-85 BC) and resisted the Roman people. The city was successfully captured.

For the operation on Lesbos, Gaius Julius received a civilian crown - a military award, and Marcus Minucius resigned. In 78 BC. e. Lucius Sulla dies in Italy and Caesar decides to return to his homeland.

Roman events

In 78 BC. e. The military leader Marcus Lepidus organized a revolt of the Italians (Italici) against the laws of Lucius. Caesar then did not accept the invitation to become a participant. In 77-76. BC e Gaius Julius tried to sue Sulla's supporters: the politician Cornelius Dolabella and the commander Antonius Hybrida. But he failed, despite his brilliant indictments.

After this, Julius decided to visit the island of Rhodes (Rhodus) and the school of rhetoric of Apollonius Molon, but on the way there he was captured by pirates, from where he was later rescued by Asian ambassadors for fifty talents. Wanting revenge, the former captive equipped several ships and himself took the pirates prisoner, executing them by crucifixion. In 73 BC. e. Caesar was included in the collegial governing body of the pontiffs, where his uncle Gaius Aurelius Cotta had previously ruled.

In 69 BC. e. Caesar's wife Cornelia died during the birth of her second child; the baby also did not survive. At the same time, Caesar's aunt, Julia Maria, also dies. Soon Gaius Julius becomes a Roman ordinary magistrate (magistratus), which gives him the opportunity to enter the Senate. He was sent to Far Spain (Hispania Ulterior), where he took upon himself the resolution of financial issues and the execution of orders from the propraetor Antistius Vetus.

In 67 BC. e. Caesar married Pompeia Sulla, Sulla's granddaughter. In 66 BC. e. Gaius Julius becomes caretaker of the most important public road in Rome, the Appian Way (Via Appia), and finances its repair.

College of Magistrates and elections

In 66 BC. e. Gaius Julius is elected magistrate of Rome. His responsibilities include expanding construction in the city, maintaining trade and public events. In 65 BC. e. he held such memorable Roman games with gladiators that he managed to amaze his sophisticated citizens.

In 64 BC. e. Gaius Julius was the head of the judicial commission (Quaestiones perpetuae) for criminal trials, which allowed him to bring to account and punish many of Sulla's henchmen.

In 63 BC. e. Quintus Metellus Pius died, vacating the lifelong seat of Pontifex Maximus. Caesar decides to put forward his own candidacy for her. The opponents of Gaius Julius are the consul Quintus Catulus Capitolinus and the commander Publius Vatia Isauricus. After numerous bribes, Caesar wins the election by a large margin and moves to live on the Sacred Road (via Sacra) in the state housing of the pontiff.

Participation in the conspiracy

In 65 and 63 BC e. one of the political conspirators, Lucius Sergius Catilina, twice attempted a coup. Marcus Tullius Cicero, being an opponent of Caesar, tried to accuse him of participating in conspiracies, but could not provide the necessary evidence and failed. Marcus Porcius Cato, the informal leader of the Roman Senate, also testified against Caesar and ensured that Gaius Julius left the Senate persecuted by threats.

First triumvirate

Praetura

In 62 BC. BC, using the powers of praetor, Caesar wanted to transfer the reconstruction of the plan of Jupiter Capitolinus (Iuppiter Optimus Maximus Capitolinus) from Quintus Catulus Capitolinus to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, but the Senate did not support this bill.

After the proposal of the tribune Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos, supported by Caesar, to send Pompey with troops to Rome to pacify Catiline, the Senate removed both Quintus Caecilius and Gaius Julius from their posts, but the second was quickly restored.
In the fall, the trial of the Catiline conspirators took place. One of its participants, Lucius Iulius Vettius, who spoke out against Caesar, was arrested, as was the judge Novius Nigerus, who accepted the report.

In 62 BC. e. Caesar's wife Pompey organized a festival in their house dedicated to the Good Goddess (Bona Dea), which could only be attended by women. But one of the politicians, Publius Clodius Pulcher, came to the holiday; he dressed up as a woman and wanted to meet Pompeii. Senators found out about what happened, considered it a shame and demanded a trial. Gaius Julius did not wait for the outcome of the trial and divorced Pompeia so as not to expose his personal life to the public. Moreover, the spouses never produced any heirs.

In Farther Spain

In 61 BC. e. The trip of Gaius Julius to Far Spain as propraetor was postponed for a long time due to the presence of a large number of debts. The general (Marcus Licinius Crassus) vouched for Gaius Julius and paid off part of his loans.

When the new propraetor arrived at his destination, he had to deal with the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants with the Roman authorities. Caesar gathered a detachment of militia and began to fight the “bandits.” The commander with an army of twelve thousand approached the Serra da Estrela mountain range and ordered the local residents to leave there. They refused to move and Gaius Julius attacked them. The highlanders went across the Atlantic Ocean to the Berlenga Islands, killing all their pursuers.

But Caesar, after a series of thoughtful operations and strategic maneuvers, still conquers the popular resistance, after which he was awarded the honorary military title of emperor, victor.

Gaius Julius was also active in the daily affairs of the subordinate lands. He presided over court hearings, introduced tax reforms, and eradicated the practice of sacrifice.

During his period of activity in Spain, Caesar was able to pay off most of his debts thanks to rich gifts and bribes from residents of the wealthy south. At the beginning of 60 BC. e. Gaius Julius relinquishes his assigned powers ahead of schedule and returns to Rome.

Triumvirate

Rumors about the victories of the propraetor soon reached the Senate and its members considered that Caesar's return should be accompanied by a triumph (triumphus) - a ceremonial entry into the capital. But then, before the triumphant event, Gaius Julius was not allowed, by law, to enter the city. And since he also planned to take part in the upcoming elections for the post of consul, where his personal presence was required for registration, the commander abandoned his triumph and began to fight for a new position.

By bribing voters, Caesar nevertheless becomes consul, and with him the military leader Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus wins the elections.

In order to strengthen his own political position and existing power, Caesar enters into a secret conspiracy with Pompey and Crassus, uniting two influential politicians with opposing views. As a result of the conspiracy, a powerful alliance of military leaders and politicians appears, called the First Triumvirate (triumviratus - “union of three husbands”).

Consulate

In the first days of the consulate, Caesar began to submit new bills to the Senate for consideration. The first agrarian law was adopted, according to which the poor could receive plots of land from the state, which it bought from large landowners. First of all, land was given to large families. To prevent speculation, new landowners had no right to resell their plots for the next twenty years. The second bill concerned the taxation of farmers in the province of Asia; their contributions were reduced by one third. The third law dealt with bribes and extortion; it was adopted unanimously, unlike the first two.

To strengthen the connection with Pompey, Gaius Julius married his daughter Julia to him. Caesar himself decides to marry for the third time, this time his wife is Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus.

Proconsul

Gallic War

When Gaius Julius, after the expiration of his term, resigned as consul, he continued to conquer lands for Rome. During the Gallic War (Bellum Gallicum), Caesar, displaying extraordinary diplomacy and strategy, skillfully took advantage of the disagreements of the Gallic leaders. In 55 BC. e. He defeated the Germans who crossed the Rhine (Rhein), after which in ten days he built a bridge 400 meters long and attacked them himself, the first in the history of Rome. He was the first of the Roman commanders to invade Great Britain, where he carried out several brilliant military operations, after which he was forced to leave the island.

In 56 BC. e. A regular meeting of the triumvirs took place in Lucca, at which it was decided to continue and develop political support for each other.

By 50 BC. e. Gaius Julius suppressed all the uprisings, completely subjugating his former territories to Rome.

Civil War

In 53 BC. e. Crassus dies and the triumvirate ceases to exist. A struggle began between Pompey and Julius. Pompey became the head of the republican government, and the Senate did not extend the powers of Gaius Julius in Gaul. Then Caesar decides to revolt. Having gathered soldiers, with whom he was extremely popular, he crosses the border river Rubicone and, seeing no resistance, captures some cities. Frightened Pompey and his close senators flee the capital. Caesar invites the rest of the Senate to rule the country together.

In Rome, Caesar is appointed dictator. Pompey's attempts to prevent Gaius Julius failed, the fugitive himself was killed in Egypt, but Caesar did not accept the enemy's head as a gift; he mourned his death. While in Egypt, Caesar helps Queen Cleopatra, conquers Alexandria, and in North Africa annexes Numidia to Rome.

Murder

The return of Gaius Julius to the capital is accompanied by a magnificent triumph. He does not skimp on awards for his soldiers and commanders, arranges feasts for the citizens of the city, organizes games and mass spectacles. Over the next ten years, he is proclaimed "emperor" and "father of the fatherland." He issues many laws, including laws on citizenship, on the structure of the state, against luxury, on unemployment, on the issuance of free bread, changes the time system and others.

Caesar was idolized and given great honor by erecting his statues and painting his portraits. He had the best security, he was personally involved in the appointment of people to government positions and their removal.

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