Caesar 2 Essay Research Paper Many people

Caesar 2 Essay, Research Paper

Many people associate the Ides of March with the play Julius Caesar. That particular day, March 15th in 44 BC, Rome lost not only a future king, but also a strong political and military leader. Julius Caesar s life, his accomplishments, and his unfortunate assassination have etched out a place in textbooks worldwide. Caesar s childhood was filled with many changes in the Roman Empire.

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Rome, Italy on July 12th or 13th in the year 100 BC. When he was young, Caesar lived through one of the most horrifying decades in the history of the city of Rome. The city was assaulted twice and captured by Roman armies, first in 87 BC by the leaders of the populares, his Uncle Marius and Cinna. Cinna was killed the year that Caesar had married Cinna s daughter Cornelia. The second attack upon the city was carried out by Marius enemy Sulla, leader of the optimates, in 82 BC on Sulla s return from the East. The confiscation of property resulted from the massacre of political opponents on each occasion.

At the time of Caesar s birth, the number of patricians was small, and their status no longer provided political advantage. (Sahlman). Caesar s family was part of Rome s original aristocracy, although they were neither rich nor influential. (Sahlman). Caesar s father died when Caesar was only 16 years old. It was Caesar s mother, Aurelia, who proved to influence young Caesar. (Sahlman). With his mother s blessing, Caesar sought out to gain notoriety for his family name.

To obtain distinction for himself and his family, Caesar sought election to public office. In 86 BC, Caesar was appointed flamen dialis with the help of his uncle by marriage, Gaius Marius. (Sahlman). In 84 BC Caesar married Cornelia, daughter of Lucious Cornelius Cinna. (Sahlman). In 82 BC Caesar was ordered to divorce his wife by Lucious Cornelius Sulla, an enemy of the radicals. (Sahlman). Caesar traveled to Rhodes in 78 BC to study rhetoric and did not return until 73 BC. (Sahlman). During his journey to Rhodes pirates managed to capture him. Caesar convinced his captors to raise his ransom, which increased his prestige. He then raised a naval force, overcame his captors, and had them crucified. In 69 or 68 BC Caesar was elected quaestor. (Sahlman). His wife died shortly thereafter.

Soon after his wife s death, Caesar met and fell in love with Pompeia, a relative of Caesar s then friend, Pompey. Pompey later married Caesar s daughter Julia in 59 BC. Caesar s own attachment to Pompey and Pompey s marriage to Julia ended when she died in 54 BC. The marriage to Pompeia ended in 62 BC. Caesar divorced his wife because of the allegation that she had been implicated in the offense of Publius Clodius, who was awaiting trial for breaking into Caesar s house the previous December. He was disguised as a woman at the festival of the Bona Dea, which no man is allowed to attend.

Caesar had secured for five years the governorship of three provinces. The provinces were Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum. He left Rome and remained in Gaul until his invasion of Italy. He continued north of the Alps each summer and left his armies there in garrison each winter while he came south to conduct the civil administration of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum and to keep in contact with Rome. Caesar became determined to conquer and make a province of the whole of Gaul. After his defeat of the Belgic tribes in the north and the submission of the maritime tribes on the Atlantic seaboard, he believed that the task had all but been accomplished.

Caesar decided to make two short reconnaissance expeditions, one across the Rhine and the other across the Straits of Dover to Britain. In a longer and more serious invasion of Britain he crossed the Thames and received the submission of the supreme commander of the southeastern Britons, Cassivellaunus. Caesar had avoided recall to Rome at the end of the five years of command voted to him by coming to a fresh agreement with Pompey and Crassus at Luca. The optimates in control of the senate, now awake to the immense increase in Caesar s personal power, wealth, and prestige, kept Pompey in Italy, allowing him to govern his Spanish provinces by deputies.

The following year Caesar was made governor of Further Spain. (Sahlman). When he returned to Rome the next year, he joined forces with Crassus and Pompey. After his return from a successful year administrating Spain, Caesar was elected consul in 59 BC through political alliance through Pompey and Crassus. This alliance was called the first triumvirate. Caesar s purpose was to gain a big military command. Pompey, for his part, sought the ratification of his eastern settlement and land allotments for his discharged troops. Crassus sought a revision of the contract for collecting taxes in the province of Asia.

An agrarian bill authorizing the purchase of land for Pompey s veterans was passed in January of 59 BC, at a disorderly public assembly. It was at this assembly that Caesar s fellow consul, Calpurnius Bibulus, was thrown from the platform and his consular insignia was broken. Bibulus tried to stop Caesar and his supporters from passing any further laws, but was only able to postpone the creation of the new laws by saying that the stormy skies would not permit it knowing that they were very superstitious. Caesar disregarded Bi