Caesar, Cicero, and the End of the Republic

“Hail Caesar”:
Caesar, Cicero,
and the End of
the Republic
Lecture 31
Gnaeus Pompey
- general under Sulla
- elected consul in 70 B.C.
- sent to the East, with
imperium infinitum
- Defeats king of Pontus
- Annexes Syria
- Visits Temple of the Jews
Parthian
Empire
Pompey’s reorganization of the East
After his victory over Mithradates, King of Pontus, in 63 B.C., Pompey was able to annex
to the Roman Empire southern Anatolia (modern Turkey) and Syria, leaving Ptolemaic
Egypt as the last independent Hellenistic kingdom. The border with the Parthian Empire,
however, remained unclear.
While Pompey campaigned in the East, there was new turmoil in Rome as a disaffected
aristocrat named Catiline seized the Forum by force.
Cataline Conspiracy, 63 B.C.
- an aristocrat who had twice failed to be elected
- called for abolition of ALL debts
- mixed group of supporters, many poor, but
also Crassus (apparently as counterweight to Pompey)
- seizes Forum with armed supporters
- staunchly opposed by Senatorial “Old Guard”
The Senatorial opposition to
Catiline was led by the muchrespected aristocrat Cato the
Younger and the consul that year,
the famous orator Marcus Tullius
Cicero. Here, an artist’s rendering
of Cato in the Senate house.
Cato the Younger, defender of the Senate
Cicero denounces Catiline in the Senate
Cicero’s literary legacy:
- political oratory
- philosophy
- almost 1000 letters
- even some poetry
Cicero was not only a master of the Latin
language, but also a remarkably versatile
intellectual. In later Roman and especially
European tradition, his works were widely copied,
read, imitated, and admired. At left, the
frontispiece of a 18th century (?) edition of all of
Cicero’s works with notes prepared by a learned
Humanist.
In 56 B.C., Caesar received authority from
the Senate to lead the Roman legions into
Gaul. Caesar meticulously detailed the
progress of his conquests in self-laudatory
reports, which he sent back to Rome. He
later compiled these reports into a history of
his “Gallic wars,” which has long served, both
in Europe and America, as a textbook for
teaching Latin.
Caesar requests command for
campaigns in Gaul
In 52 B.C., Caesar faced one of his greatest challenges, a rebellion
in the recently conquered territories led by the Gallic chieftain
Vercingetorix. After the Roman victory, Vercingetorix was
paraded in Rome as part of Caesar’s triumph and then executed.
The surrender of Vercingetorix (painted in 1899)
Meanwhile, the second member of the
Triumvirate, Crassus, faced a much greater enemy,
when he brought his legions to Syria in 53 B.C. to
initiate the campaign against the Parthian Empire
(shown here in green).
Modern Harran (ancient Carrhae),
where the Parthians crushed the army of Crassus
Near this dusty town, at the top of the Mesopotamian
plain (in modern Turkey, just north of the Syrian border),
the Parthian cavalry made mincemeat of Crassus’
legions. The Parthians captured the legionary standards
and carried Crassus’ head back to Parthia, where, with a
bit of black humor, they used it as a prop in a local
production of a Classical Greek play (Euripides’ Bacchae)!
With Crassus removed
from the picture, civil
war bet ween Pompey
and Caesar became
inevitable. Rallying his
troops behind him,
Caesar marched on Italy
in 49 B.C. As he crossed
the Rubicon, a small
river (really just a
stream) in NE Italy, he is
reported to have said:
“The die is cast (alea
iacta est),” i.e., there
was no turning back.
Caesar crosses the Rubicon
“Alea acta est”
The die has been cast
Pompey fled Rome as Caesar advanced. His forces were no
match for Caesar’s hardened veterans from the Gallic
wars. Pompey was defeated at Pharsalus in Greece the
following year. He retreated to Egypt, but was executed
as he stepped ashore. Pompey’s death left Caesar “the last
man standing” from the First Triumvirate.
Caesar’s dalliance
with Cleopatra,
the final Ptolemaic
queen of Egypt
After his victory at Pharsalus, Caesar toured the East, where he enjoyed, among other highlights,
the company of the charming Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra VII. When he left, Cleopatra, though
married to her own brother, was pregnant with Caesar’s child. The sketch above left depicts her
surprise arrival in Rome the following year (46 B.C.).
Cleopatra’s story has often been
retold in cinema. The lavish 1963
production starring Elizabeth Taylor
cost 44 million (more than 300
million in 2008 dollars) to make and
nearly bankrupted 20th century Fox.
Cleopatra returned to
Egypt in 44 B.C., where she
continued to be venerated
in the traditional manner,
though now also as the
mother of Caesarion
(“little Caesar”).
Cleopatra and little Caesar
dedicate to the Egyptian gods
at the temple in Dendur
“Hail Caesar!”
Caesar’s policies as
dictator and rumors
of possible kingship
As sole ruler of Rome, Caesar
instituted a number of bold changes,
including the reform of the Roman
calendar. The new “Julian calendar”
consisted of 365 days divided into
12 months with a leap day added
every fourth February. This
remained the standard calendar of
Western Europe until the
introduction of the Gregorian
calendar in 1582.
Silver coin
of Julius Caesar,
45 B.C.
The legend
reads (in Latin):
“To Caesar, dictator
for life”
Caesar’s adoption of the title
“perpetual dictator“ was the last
straw for his opponents in the Roman
Senate. Within months, a plot was
hatched to murder him. On the Ides of
March in 44 B.C., a group of Senators
and their supporters, led by Brutus and
Cassius, stabbed Caesar to death at
the Theater of Pompey. In
Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” the dying
dictator looks up at the friend he had
trusted and asks “Et tu, Brute?” (i.e.,
and you too, Brutus, were part of this
plot). The line has become a classic way
to refer to betrayal.
Caesar’s assassins minted coins
celebrating the day of the
dictator’s murder. The head of
Brutus, one of the assassins,
appears on the front.