Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Four

Wanting to prove himself as a general, Caesar went to rule Cisalpine Gaul and Transalpine Gaul (northern Italy and southern France). From here he launched an invasion of the rest of Gaul (central and northern France and Belgium). Julius Caesar found he needed more time to complete the conquest of Gaul, so he arranged, in a very Caesar like fashion for a second five year term as governor. By 49 BC, he added and enormous new province to the empire. He also had a "blooded," experienced army that would follow him to the ends of the earth in their loyalty to their general-not the Republic itself. In 53 BC, Crassus, wanting to win glory of his own commanded an expedition against the Parthian empire. The Parthians were skilled and fierce as fighters and invented the famed "Parthian shot," where they would ride up to an enemy, abruptly gallop away, while turning around in their seats to loose an arrow. They had become the dominating force on the Iranian plateau by the third century BC, and from about 190 BC they governed Mesopotamia (the heartland of the old Assyrian and Babylonian empires in modern Iraq) on and off. The Romans were dependent of infantry and found these skilled and agile warriors hard to defeat.

The Parthians were a problem for Rome because they had a tendency to meddle in Rome's eastern provinces and in the client kingdoms that acted as buffer regions between the two empires. Armenia was the great prize that both empires sought to control. Armenia was strategically important as it looked both eastward and westward. Parthia would have been an even more aggressive power prone to foreign adventurism were it not for murderous dynastic disputes that flared up frequently. A few years prior, the proconsul of Syria had supported a claimant to the Parthian throne that had not succeeded and needless to say angered the current ruling monarch. Relations between Rome and the Parthian empire were rocky and each side felt it had plenty of good reasons to launch a preemptive war against the other. Crassus and Pompey had always been enemies at heart-only cooperating because of opportunistic reasons. In large part it seems that Pompey engendered in Crassus an inferiority complex and most of the hatred seems to have been from Crassus towards Pompey. Now was Crassus' chance to win honors and glory that would rival Caesar and most importantly Pompey. This was not to be.

Crassus had an army of about 35,000 men and marched into Mesopotamia. Near Carrhae his army clashed with about 10,000 mounted Parthian archers. The terrain was open downland and ideal for the Parthians to pick off the helpless Roman legionaires one by one. Both Crassus and his son were killed in the fighting and only about 10,000 of his men survived. It was the most humiliating defeat ever for the proud Romans and many legionary standards were also captured. This was a debacle that demanded retribution from Rome when the political situation permitted it. The First Triumvirate took away quite a few men's blinders that Sulla's "restoration" of the Republic had worked. The pact between the three men was secret and illegal -but of course it didn't take a genius -especially for the higher-ups in Roman society to figure out what was going on. The trio had shown that if you had boatloads of money, soldiers loyal to you instead of the Republic that you could ignore the ruling class and in effect create a new government. The support of many citizens especially in Caesar's and Pompey's cases also helped in the takeover. As the 50's BC drew to a close the alliance started to crack despite Caesar's wishes and maneuverings. Crassus was dead and Pompey was jealous of Caesar's military triumphs in Gaul, and started becoming more accomodating to the optimates (conservative hard-liners in the Senate such as Cato).

Caesar had intended to stand for the consulship in 48 BC when his term of office was over as governor of Gaul which was set to end in late 50 BC or 49. Caesar wanted both an extension of his governorship and permission to stand for consul in abstentia. It was crucial to Caesar's plans that there was no interim of private citizenship during his office seeking. This was because Cato and his friends in the Senate were chomping at the bit to prosecute him for crimes he had committed when he was consul ten years previously. Certain of Pompey's support, Cato and his bloc of senators pressed for Caesar's early recall. Obviously Julius Caesar was willing to do anything to prevent this from happening, as he would certainly be found guilty of constitutional crimes. In 50 BC the Senate, led by Pompey and Cato ordered Caesar to disband his army and return to Rome because his term in Gaul had ended. The Senate also forbade Caesar to stand for consul in abstentia. Caesar had bought the support of poor, young tribunes of the people who vetoed any hostile senatorial decrees. The most important of these men was the 33 year old Marcus Antonius-better known to us as Mark Antony. He is a central figure in upcoming posts and also in the upcoming "What If" questions and hasn't had much exposure on this blog whatsoever, so in the next post it would be a good time to introduce him.

The image is a silver Roman denarius showing the head of a defeated Gaul, from approximately 48 BC. Continuing to slowly plug along here. After the "What If " series of posts I am trying to decide if it would be a good idea to backtrack somewhat before heading into the lifetime of Octavian-Rome's first emperor. There are so many fascinating personalities from the era of the late Republic-and also background events going on that I think anyone reading this blog would find them interesting. I am working on an essay of one of my favorite Romans from this era and will at the very least post this at some point. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!!