Julius Caesar Gains Power in Rome

The Emergence of Rome as an Imperial Power Becomes Inevitable

One of the great pre-Second World War catch-phrases was the German term Lebensraum, living-space. It was an invention of Hitler to excuse the expansionist policy by which he hoped to create German Nazi world supremacy and the setting up of a German Reich destined to last a thousand years. He argued that the territory inhabited by his eighty million subjects was overcrowded and lacking in sufficient resources to provide a reasonable standard of living. As their paternalistic ruler it behoved him to supply what they lacked for true national happiness.

Genghis Khan Khagan of the Mongol Empire (Khan of the Mongols)

Basically, it was an ancient cry, and represented what historians refer to as Land-hunger. Certain nations, it would seem, have an innate compulsion which drives them to acquire more and more territory, regardless of the fact that that which they traditionally and nationally own is sufficient for their needs to survive. From the moment that they became firmly welded into one nation, the English began to display these tendencies. The great empires of Genghis Khan, of Assyria, of Persia and of Babylonia are all manifestations of the same compulsion. Hitler had a real though slight justification for needing more elbow-room for his teeming millions, but it was the desire to achieve world hegemony which really motivated him, as it motivated the ancient Romans.

As was pointed out in the article on the foundation of Rome, that event is shrouded in the deep mists of legend. So, too, are the early years of Rome’s history; but the earliest factual glimpses that we do get of the Romans show them to have been a community whose existence depended on agriculture and war.

Volscian settlements.

Early Rome must have been engaged in almost incessant warfare. The right bank of the Tiber was in the possession of the Etruscans, alien to all the other races of Italy, and the mountains in all directions were beset by turbulent raiders, the Volscians, the Aequians and others. The inhabitants of the plains of Latium, the Latins, were closely akin to the Romans. Rome was originally a member of a confederation of Latin-speaking communities, of which she was a principal defensive outpost. Nothing but a very closely knit military and civil organization could have enabled Rome to exist in the earliest period.

The Roman polity rested on an idea of authority which, in many respects, was unlike anything found in any other ancient state. They had a word for it, Imperium; and the possessor of it in the early days, referred to historically as the King, exercised absolute sway over all affairs, military, civil and religious.

The changes from the Monarchy to the Republic took place when the nation revolted at last against the tyrant Tarquinius Superbus in 509 B.C. The revolt took very much the same course as the English “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. It took Superbus by surprise; he fled the city without a struggle, but presently returned with reinforcements only to meet eventual and humiliating defeat.

Tarquinius Superbus makes himself King.

The Romans, determined to have no more kings, instituted a Republic, and although this inevitably meant changes, the quality of the Imperium, we have it on the authority of Cicero, in no way changed. The changes were of a practical nature. Instead of the Imperium being wielded by an hereditary despot, it was put into commission, and held jointly by two persons, two chief magistrates, first called Praetors (headmen) and later Consuls (colleagues), by which title they are more usually known.

The Consuls held office for one year only. They were elected by the whole body of Burgesses; that is to say, the whole body of warriors had a voice in the appointment, as was natural, since it was, first and foremost, a choice of commanders over the army.

This principle of having colleagues of equal privilege was extended to all offices subsequently created, with one notable exception. It seems to have been foreseen that this system of collegiality, as it is called, would give rise to certain difficulties, for allowance was made for either of the two Consuls to nominate a dictator, who held supreme authority for six months over citizens and ordinary magistrates. To assist him the dictator appointed a subordinate called Magister Equitum, master of the horse.

Bust of Caesar Augustus

The first significant step which Rome took towards Empire was when she obtained control over the League of Latin Cities, of which she had at first been an equal member. This did not take place as a result of one battle or campaign, but only after many generations of strife; but it was certainly a fact by 338 B.C. Control of the Greek city-colonies in Campania was obtained about the same time, and within a short period the Etruscan power was also subjugated. By the beginning of the third century B.C., Rome had control of all the Italian peninsula, though complete domination over some parts of it was not finally achieved until later; for example, the Ligurians in the mountain regions above the Riviera, and the Gallic tribes on the Alpine slopes were not completely subjugated until the reign of Caesar Augustus some three hundred years later.

In the course of this conquest of Italy, Rome adopted a policy towards the conquered peoples which was continued outside Italy and was’ the principal cause of her rise to Empire. She kept control of all foreign relations in her own hands, but interfered as little as possible in the internal government of the subject communities or tribes.

In addition she was most moderate in the burdens she placed upon her tributaries. The chief requirement was military service, which the primitive peoples were ready to give. Taxation was seldom imposed upon Italians, at all events. This politic moderation on the part of Rome explains why she was the only city-state which succeeded in founding a stable Empire.

The Greek city-colonies of southern Italy maintained a continual struggle against the Italian barbarians, and from time to time summoned Greek generals to their aid. In the article on the Battle of Zama it has been described how the Tarentines sent out a call to Pyrrhus early in 280 B.C. The eventual winning of this struggle by Rome completed her ascendancy in Italy. It also caused a rupture between the Romans and the Carthaginians, and after three great struggles Carthage was utterly destroyed.

The first of these struggles, the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.), was chiefly fought out at sea, and resulted in the first Roman annexations outside the peninsula. She seized the Carthaginian possessions in Sicily, and a little later Sardinia and Corsica, then dependants of Carthage.

In 230 and 219 B.C. wars were waged against the famous pirates of Illyria, and bases were set up on the shores of the eastern Adriatic. This brought Rome into political contact with Greece proper.

Coin of Titus Quinctius Flamininus.

In the Second Punic War, Philip V of Macedon allied himself with Hannibal, and after the defeat of the latter at Zama in 202 B.C., Rome turned her attention to Philip, who was overthrown by Flamininus at the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 B.C. In the following year, Flamininus declared the ‘liberation of Greece”, and by following the traditional custom of Rome towards her subject peoples crippled Philip, despite the fact that he annexed none of his territory.

This campaign began a series known as the Macedonian Wars which spread over the next half-century or so. With various other wars engaged in on other fronts, such as the Third Punic War of 149-146, Rome’s military resources were kept in constant use, and it is not surprising that the experience so gained brought to Roman arms a succession of victories which could not fail to enhance Rome’s influence in the Mediterranean.

At the end of the contests with Hannibal only a narrow band of territory in Africa had been annexed; in 146 B.C. it was enlarged. The Third Macedonian War made an end of Macedonia as a monarchy; it became, instead, a province of Rome. From the time of the Second Punic War (which ended with Zama) the Romans had been engaged in strenuous struggles to establish their ascendancy in Spain, from time to time suffering great disasters. Now the capture of Numantia in 133 by the younger Scipio gave them more security there. In the same year, the last King of Pergamon bequeathed his territories to Rome, and they became the first Roman province in Asia. At the same time the first steps were taken towards the conquest of Gaul. In 124 Aquae Sextiae (now Aix-en-Provence) was founded, and six years later the Roman colony of Narbo (modern Narbonne) became the first organized Roman settlement outside the peninsula.

The latter part of this period, 133-121 B.C., was marked by the political developments which all their military activities made necessary. The measures introduced by the Gracchi brothers, and especially by the elder Tiberius Sempronius, were revolutionary, and one result was that the supremacy of the compact ring of noble families which had controlled the Senate was undermined.

The chief of these measures were the vindication of public ownership in the national estates, the constitution of the equites (knights) as a separate order, and the attempt to found great Roman colonies overseas. The younger Gracchus, Caius, proposed the enfranchisement of Rome’s Italian allies. The Senate, however, refused to pass this measure, an act which was to have important consequences a generation later when, as a result of the Social War, all the cities of Italy acquired Roman citizenship by the Lex Julia of 90 B.C. The conception that men of Italian birth formed a people apart from the rest of the Empire was now definitely established.

Bust of Julius Caesar

By the beginning of the first century B.C., when Julius Caesar was still in his infancy, Rome’s overseas possessions comprised parts of Spain and southern France, bases on the Dalmatian coast, Macedonia and Pergamon, in Asia Minor, various strips along the North African coast, and Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. They were, in fact, extensive enough to make imperial development an easy achievement, for all that was needed was a powerful leader with certain ambitions to be fulfilled, for Rome to stretch out her tentacles to embrace more and more of the known world. No foreign power could hope to resist her encroachment; only internal dissensions could hold up the march of progress. Somewhat paradoxically it was the internal struggle for power which eventually made Rome the greatest imperial power the world has ever known. The chief protagonist in the struggle was Caius Julius Caesar.

Caesar was born on 12 July, 102 B.C., the only son of parents who both belonged to the old Roman nobility. Through his aunt, who had married the great democratic leader Caius Marius, he was, by Roman custom, the nephew of that outstanding man, and this fact doubtless influenced Caesar in his support of the popular party. The connexion with democracy was later strengthened when, in 83, he married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cinna, on whom the mantle of Marius had fallen.

Caesar displayed no special ability in his early years, but with the Democratic Party in power he started his public career under favourable auspices. His refusal to divorce his young wife at the command of the tyrannical Sulla nearly cost him his life, and as his family considered Rome to be too unhealthy for him, they arranged that he should enter military service in Asia in 81. At the capture of Mitylene in 80, he won the Civic Crown, the Roman V.C., for saving the life of a fellow-soldier at grave risk to his own.

Bust of Sulla

The death of Sulla in 78, opened the way for a return to Rome, and Caesar grasped the opportunity to gain some experience in the law courts of the capital. This he followed by a period of study under the famous rhetorician, Apollonius Molo of Rhodes, in order to improve his oratory. After another spell of military service in the war with Mithradates, he returned to Rome and plunged into politics in earnest as a consistent supporter of popular measures.

In 68 he became Quaestor (state treasurer) and in 65 Curule Aedile (magistrate) when he spent such enormous sums on the public games and buildings that he almost bankrupted himself, but greatly increased his favour with the people, which he was never to lose. He was now well set on his upward career, the first peak of which he reached in 59 by his election to the Consulship.

By allying himself with the two most powerful men on his side, Pompey and Crassus, Caesar introduced a number of far-reaching reforms all of which further integrated him with the people and powerful Equites, so that he obtained the government of those provinces which he believed would help him best in the next step in his grand design, the command of an army which would be firmly attached to him by victories and rewards, with whose help he would achieve his ultimate goal, the supreme power in Rome. During the next nine years he occupied himself with the subjugation of Gaul with this object in mind, completing this part of his plan in three campaigns, the last in 55.

Now, his government of the Cisalpine and Transalpine Provinces and of Gaul was due to end in 54. In 55 he arranged with his two chief rivals, but at present his allies, Pompey and Crassus, that they should be Consuls for the following year, while his own period of government should be extended for another five years. Having settled that, he crossed the Rhine to strike terror into the Germans. He remained on the further bank of the river only eighteen days, but in that short period he was guilty of atrocities which it is impossible ever to condone.

Later in the summer of 55 he invaded Britain on a fact-finding mission. In the following year he devoted himself chiefly to a second invasion of Britain which ended with the submission of the natives. Their subjection was only nominal, however, for Caesar left behind no garrisons, and for nearly a century more the Britons remained independent of Rome.

By 53 the Roman “overseas” possessions, the Empire, had been greatly extended, and now included all Gaul, the greater part of Asia Minor, which had been subjugated by Pompey, Syria, the greater part of Spain. Gaul, however, was a continuing sore in the side of Rome, its peoples being in constant rebellion against the authority of Rome. It was Caesar’s responsibility to subdue them, and it was in carrying out this duty that he showed himself to be one of the greatest military geniuses of all time.

A map of Gaul in the 1st century BC, showing the relative positions of the Celtic tribes.

Coincidentally, his prestige and popularity among the Romans increased, and Pompey was now beginning to realize that his own position was being seriously undermined. With the removal of Crassus by death in the Parthian campaign of 53, a straightforward struggle for power now began to develop between the two men, which came to a head in 48.

Chiefly on account of his flouting of the constitution to gain his ends, Caesar had made many enemies in the Senate. To these enemies Pompey allied himself and one result was his election in 52 as sole Consul. Caesar’s Imperium was now approaching its end, and could not be legally renewed. He knew that as soon as his armies were disbanded and he returned to Rome as a private citizen he would be impeached by the Senate.

To avoid this he demanded the Consulship for 48. But not daring to trust himself in Rome, for by the law no commander might bring his armies into Italy proper, but must keep them north of a little stream called the Rubicon, he also demanded relief from the customary personal canvass made by candidates for high office.

Pompey opposed this, and as the refusal to grant Caesar the concession he asked automatically put an end to his candidature for the Consulship, Caesar now committed his greatest breach of the law—he put his legions across the Rubicon and marched on Rome.

Civil war was now inevitable. But everywhere Caesar defeated Pompey, finally routing him at the battle of Pharsalia in August, 48. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was treacherously murdered.

Having had himself elected Consul in 48, and appointed dictator, Caesar set about implementing a great programme of administrative reform. While so engaged he had to wage campaigns against Pompey’s surviving allies, but with the defeat of Pompey’s two sons in Spain in 45, the civil war ended.

In this year Caesar was made dictator for life. He had now achieved his ambition, but he had not quelled nor appeased all his enemies. A plot against his life led by Cassius came to fruition when he was assassinated in the Senate on 15 March, 44.

Caesar had destroyed the Republic. Fortunately, he was succeeded by a man of tremendously constructive spirit, which he himself had never had.

A statue of Augustus as a younger Octavian, dated c. 30 BC

Octavian, his great-nephew, had been adopted by Caesar as his heir shortly before his death. Absent from Rome when his uncle was murdered, he returned at once to the city to demand only Caesar’s private property and to swear vengeance against his benefactor’s assassins. Among his chief enemies eventually was Mark Antony, Caesar’s erstwhile lieutenant, who saw in him the chief obstacle to his own ambitions. Octavian took up the challenge, and by 30 B.C. had defeated Antony and all his other enemies.

He was now master of the Roman world, but avoiding the unpopular title of king, he accepted the new title of Augustus. In other words he was the sole ruler of Rome and all her possessions, and in everything but name an absolute monarch and the first Roman Emperor. With this recognition of their ruler came the recognition of Rome as an Empire.

Whereas Julius Caesar had extended Rome’s rule merely for personal ends, Augustus did so for the national interest, and set a trend followed by his successors, until by the reign of Trajan, A.D. 98-117, the Empire reached its greatest extent, embracing the greater part of the known Western world. It is doubtful whether but for the personal ambition of Julius Caesar Rome would ever have achieved her tremendous role and her inestimable influence on the future generations of those who came under her sway.