Julius Caesar- Fame and Fate Part Thirteen

Again quoting from Dr Tom Holland's, RVBICON: "Here, from the pen of the Republic's most eloquent spokesman, was an echo of prophecies at least a century old. Cicero's imaginings had caught an apocalyptic fever long endemic among Rome's subject peoples. Had not the sibyl foretold that Italy would be raped by her own sons? And Mithridates himself that a great monarch armed with the dominion of the world would emerge triumphant from the East? No wonder, then, when men back in Italy heard news of Pompey's preparations that they shuddered, despairing of the Republic." In an interesting incident that showed just how used to being obeyed Caesar was, a tribune, Caecilius Metellus, imposed his veto when Caesar called the rump Senate before him (the few senators that came), and demanded the right to Rome's emergency funds. Even after Caesar's troops broke into the temple of Saturn to seize the loot, the pugnacious tribune persisted in trying to stop the sacrilege. Caesar lost his temper and told Metellus to step aside or be killed. Metellus did as Caesar asked and he got his hands on the funds. Caesar returned to his troops after two weeks in Rome. He was preparing to fight Pompeian forces in Spain. He left Marcus Lepidus, a praetor friendly to his cause in charge of the capital. Lepidus was from a very noble family and an elected magistrate, but this did very little to hide the unconstitutional nature of his appointment.

When Caesar got to Spain in the summer of 49 BC to engage three Pompeian armies, he was able to push his men to the utter limits of exhaustion and endurance. In a short matter of months the enemy had been totally destroyed. There hadn't been any general more able to inspire passion and loyalty from his troops than Julius Caesar. It is a small wonder then that he mocked the limits placed on other citizens when backed by such fierce men. Cicero would later tell Caesar, "Your spirit has never been content within the narrow confines which nature has imposed upon us." The new order Caesar was creating was having the effect of making the social rules of Roman society easier to follow. With the checks and balances going out the window, so too were some of the old complexities and subtleties that bespoke of life and social mores in the Republic. Some of our old friends we met in earlier posts came to grisly ends when they reached too far in Caesar's "new" Rome. Curio had led two legions to defeat in Africa, and rather than flee, he decided to die with his men. Caelius, who was no stranger to political intrigue, tried to revive Catiline's old program of canceling debts. He was expelled from Rome and tried to start a pro-Pompeian revolt in the countryside and was captured and killed.

Mark Antony was the only one of the three friends who had fled to Caesar that managed not to get killed. This wasn't due to any political acumen on his part, but instead an interest in more earthy pursuits. Caesar had given Antony command of Italy, but he spent his time assembling a harem of actresses for senators, vomiting in the popular assembly and last but not least-a favorite show he liked to put on of dressing up as the god Dionysus and driving a chariot pulled by lions. Caesar could easily forgive Antony these frivolities. Mark Antony was one of the ablest and most dashing soldiers the Republic had ever seen-and Rome had seen quite a great number of brilliant soldiers and generals. He was worthy of the soldiers he led and he shared with them their own interests, jokes and pursuits. Caesar crossed the Adriatic in 48 BC in the middle of winter to bring the fight to Pompey. Antony also served him well in this endeavor and drummed up four extra back-up legions for Caesar and he was always in the middle of the fighting during the times when the two armies would timorously jab at each other like two boxers trying to take each others measure. There was something quite extraordinary that Julius Caesar had imbued his men with. They seemed to have an almost supernatural resilience and stamina. Marcus Bibulus, in charge of Pompey's Adriatic fleet, had pushed his own body to the limits of endurance in his efforts to keep Caesar from running through his blockade, refusing to delegate even the smallest tasks. Yet once again, Caesar succeeded in running the blockade and the crushed and exhausted Bibulus died of a fever.

The image is a Roman cameo of the goddess Athena. I hope to post the next segment very soon-perhaps tonight, but I need to break for awhile as once again my back is killing me. After the next post (number 50 yay!:-) I will probably be doing work for my other blog for several days-but I will definitely try not to get behind on this one. I am still very happy to be doing this blog and have found some great history books at various sales and discount places-I need to work on a way to not be so overly-wordy and stay concentrated on the most important events. I would also like to do something to give a thumbs up to several fantastic books, of which Tom Holland's RVBICON is one, that have helped me both enjoy and understand this extremely interesting era of ancient history.