Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Two

An impression is what young Julius seems to have done immediately. Julius Caesar was known as something of a dandy and had a sense of fashion. In the modern era he would be thought of as "GQ" or a clothes horse. Sulla had remarked disapprovingly on the young man's habit of wearing his belt loosely. Romans were not a people who were slaves to fashion and style-although there was very much in Julius Caesar's day a young "smart set" who were trendsetters in eveything from clothing, food and lifestyles in general. The young folks who were into these new ways infuriated the pro-Sullan conservatives. The courts of the East, however, were places were stylish dressers were much admired. Caesar was sent to Nicomedes, King of Bithynia. Nicomedes was quite delighted by the prescence of his young Roman guest. In fact, many believed the king had taken Julius Caesar as a lover. This rumor, whether true or false, was to provide Caesar's enemies with delicious gossip and political slanders for decades. A great deal of the fuel to the fire in this story is that Caesar was said to have been the passive partner to Nicomedes' sexual advances. Had it been the other way around, the scandal would not have been near as damaging.

For the immediate future, whatever the status of the relationship between the two men, it helped jump-start young Caesar's career. Caesar managed to borrow much of Nicomedes' fleet, and sailed to Lesbos where he joined the assault on Mytilene. He showed great bravery and rescued a number of fellow soldiers in battle. For this he was awarded a great honor-the civic crown-a wreath of oak leaves that was similar to the "Purple Heart" in the US military. This was an honor of which men dreamed of attaining. From this point on, whenever Caesar entered the Circus Maximus to watch the games, even senators would have to rise to their feet to salute him. Caesar finally returned to Rome in 73 BC with Sulla safely dead, but the dictator's fearful spectre casting a long shadow over Rome. Caesar had an easy way of talking to the people in the tradition of men who called themselves populares-the crowd pleasers. "He had a talent for being liked in a way remarkable in one of his youth, and since he had an easy man-of-the-people manner, he made himself hugely popular with the average citizen." (Plutarch, Caesar, 4.). Julius Caesar had shown a great array of abilities, and was a man with the potential for a great future. He had been invited to join an uprising against the entire Sullan regime that a consul plotted very shortly after Sulla's death. Very wisely, Caesar chose not to partake in the coup. The uprising was quickly and brutally put down. By deciding to stay with constitutional boundaries-at this time anyway-Caesar kept a career on track that otherwise would have been gone in a heartbeat.

Caesar had travelled to Rhodes in 75 BC to study under Appolonius Molon, who had taught Cicero. On his return he had been kidnapped by pirates in the Aegean who demanded 20 talents for his release. Scornfully, Julius Caesar said he was worth at least 50 talents. When the ransom was paid he made good on his promise to have his captors crucified who had thought he was joking. On his return to Rome he was elected tribune. He was elected to the quaestorship in 69 BC and delivered an oration at the funeral of his aunt Julia who was the widow of Marius and included images of Marius unseen since the days of Sulla in the funeral procession. Caesar's own wife Cornelia died that year. In the spring or early summer of 69 BC he went to serve his quaestorship in the province of Hispania under Antiystius Vesta . Caesar requested an early discharge and returned to Roman politics. On his return, in 67 BC, he married Pompeia-a granddaughter of Sulla! This is one of the many examples that show how treacherous the twists and turns of Roman politics and life were after the civil war-not that they hadn't always been full of compromises, backroom dealing, bribery, blood feuds and every manner of arm twisting under the sun.

Julius Caesar was elected aedile, a not critical post in the political world, but one where a young up and coming politican could truly make his mark and be a crowd pleaser extraordinare.The aediles were responsible for the public games. Caesar bribed the electorate to the maximum in this position. For the first time ever gladiators were adorned in silver and there were 300 pairs of them fighting at one time. The number fighting would have been even higher, but the Senate stepped in and limited the number as that august body could recognize a naked bribe perhaps better than any other. One day the people of Rome awoke to find the trophies of Marius's victories back in place. The pro-Sullan establishment was outraged. One senator even accused him of using a battering ram against the Republic. Smartly, Julius Caesar turned the tables and asked-was it not time for the two rival sides in the civil war to bury the hatchet? To this,the mob he worked so well responded with an ecstatic "Yes!" The senator could only sit and fume.

Caesar also brought prosecutions against men who had benefited from Sulla's proscriptions. 63 BC was an eventful year for Julius Caesar. He persuaded a tribune, Titus Labienus, to prosecute the optimate senator Gaius Rabirius for the political murder 37 years previously of tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and had himself appointed as one of the two judges to try the case. Rabirius was defended by both Cicero and Quintus Hortensius (the two highest orators in the Republic), but was convicted of treason-perdullio. While he was excercising his right to appeal to the people, the praetor Quintus Metellus Celer adjourned the assembly by taking down the military flag from the Janiculum Hill. Labienus could have resumed the prosecution at a later session, but the point had been made and the matter dropped. Labienus was to remain important to Caesar as an ally over the next decade. That same year of 63 BC was also the year Caesar bet his whole political life on winning the election to the office of Pontifex Maximus-chief priest of the Roman state religion after a pro-Sullan appointee died. He was up to debt to his eyeballs now and was running against two very high powered men-Quintus Lutatius Catulus and Publius Servilus Vatia Isauricus. To run for this office was unheard of for an up and coming politcian -but since when had Julius Caesar cared for precendent? With massive bribery of the electorate Caesar did indeed win the post. He is reported to have told his mother, Aurelia, that morning, "Mother today you will either see me win the election or go into exile." This election was the typical dashing and daring stunt Julius Caesar would continue to pull all his life-and luckily for him he would be moving into the high priest's official mansion on the via Sacra.

Cicero was consul in 63 BC and when he exposed the 'Cataline conspiracy', Catalus and other conservative senators and enemies accused Caesar of involvement in it. Caesar, who had been elected to be praetor the following year had asked for the novel punishment of life imprisonment for anyone guilty in the conspiracy instead of execution. This was a completely new idea in Rome as far as punishments went. During debate about the conspiracy a note was passed to Caesar and Marcus Porcius Cato, who had accused him of corresponding with the conspirators demanded the message be read out loud. Julius Caesar passed the note to Cato, which embarrassingly turned out to be a love letter from Cato's half-sister Servilia! While praetor in 62 BC, Caesar supported Metellus Celer, now tribune, in proposing constitutional legislation and the pair were so stubborn they were suspended from office by the Senate. Caesar continued to attempt to perform his duties, only giving way when violence was threatened. The Senate was persuaded to reinstate him after he quelled public demonstrations in his favor.

The image is a bust of a very young Julius Caesar. Thanks to anyone who reads or comments on this blog! Commenter benjibopper brought up a great point in his last comment about "ifs" in history in his latest comment. Once the story is told of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Octavian, I would like to do a post or two about some of the "ifs" in the story of Rome that I think are fascinating to ponder that eminent historians have asked. We are getting there slowly-but hopefully surely. I am not going into as much detail as I had previously wanted to on two different events that happened in the timeline of this post, the slave rebellion of Spartacus and the Cataline conspiracy. These events were very interesting and showed how the Republic was still convulsing, even in the aftermath of the civil war-I feel bad for skipping over them somewhat and may even try to find a way to touch on them later-it is just so hard to cover everything in great detail and keep to the central story and purpose of this blog. Slavery is definitely a topic that will come up here as it was very important to the Roman Republic and Empire, and much of the 'glory' that was Rome was bought with the horrific exploitation of human beings. Thanks again to anyone who reads and comments here!! Here are some links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catiline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus