Caesar. Life of a Colossus (Adrian Goldsworthy) Yale University Press

l i f e of a c olo s s u s

a d r i a n g ol d s w ort h y

NEW HAVEN AND LONDON

First published in the United States in 2006 by Yale University Press. First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Copyright © 2006 by Adrian Goldsworthy.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.

Text design: www.carrstudio.co.uk.

Printed in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006922060

ISBN-13: 978-0-300-12048-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-300-12048-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Acknowledgements

vii

Map list

viii

Introduction

1

I – THE RISE TO THE CONSULSHIP, 100–59 BC

1

Caesar’s World

10

2

Caesar’s childhood

30

3

The First Dictator

48

4

The Young Caesar

61

5

Candidate

82

6

Conspiracy

109

7

Scandal

130

8

Consul

152

II – PROCONSUL, 58–50 BC

9

Gaul

184

10 Migrants and Mercenaries:The first campaigns, 58 BC

205

11 ‘The Bravest of the Gaulish Peoples’: The Belgae, 57 BC 233

12 Politics and War: The Conference of Luca

253

13 ‘Over the Waters’: The British and German Expeditions,

55–54 BC

269

14 Rebellion, Disaster and Vengeance

293

15 The Man and the Hour: Vercingetorix and

the Great Revolt, 52 BC

315

16 ‘All Gaul is Conquered’

343

III – CIVIL WAR AND DICTATORSHIP, 49–44 BC

17 The Road to the Rubicon

358

18 Blitzkrieg: Italy and Spain, Winter–Autumn, 49 BC

380

19 Macedonia, November 49–August 48 BC

405

20 Cleopatra, Egypt and the East,

Autumn 48–Summer 47 BC

432

21 Africa, September 47–June 46 BC

448

22 Dictator, 46–44 BC

468

23 The Ides of March

490

512

Chronology

520

Glossary

524

Bibliography

529

Abbreviations

534

Notes

535

Index

565

Acknowledgements

A number of people read through some or part of this book and I should begin by expressing my deep gratitude to them all. Thanks must go to my former undergraduate tutor, Nicholas Purcell, who very kindly agreed to have a look at a draft of the manuscript. Many useful comments came from Philip Matyszak, who knows more than I ever shall about the workings of the Roman Senate in this period. As ever, Ian Hughes was extremely thorough and helpful in checking and commenting on each chapter as it was written. Kevin Powell read the entire thing through and provided a number of useful comments. Ian Haynes was kind enough to look at Part Two for me and raised several points. To these, and anyone else who read some or all of the text, I offer my most sincere thanks. Thanks should also go to my agent, Georgina Capel, who negotiated a contract which gave me the opportunity to do this subject justice. Finally, I must thank Keith Lowe and the other staff at Orion for their work on, and enthusiasm for, this project. vii

M ap List

The Roman Empire in the first century BC, – 12

The City of Rome – central area, Forum etc. – 20

Gaul and its tribes – 198

Battle of Bibracte – 221

Battle vrs Ariovistus – 231

Battle of the Sambre – 245

The coastline of Britain and Gaul – 279

Siege of Alesia – 337

The Italian campaign 49 BC – 386

Battle of Ilerda – 403

The lines at Dyrrachium – 417

Battle of Pharsalus – 426

Alexandria – 436

Battle of Thapsus – 463

Battle of Munda – 484

viii

Intr oduction

The story of Julius Caesar is an intensely dramatic one, which has fascinated generation after generation, attracting the attention of Shakespeare and Shaw, not to mention numerous novelists and screenwriters. Caesar was one of the ablest generals of any era, who left accounts of his own campaigns that have rarely – perhaps never – been surpassed in literary quality. At the same time he was a politician and statesman who eventually took supreme power in the Roman Republic and made himself a monarch in every practical respect, although he never took the name of king. Caesar was not a cruel ruler and paraded his clemency to his defeated enemies, but in the end he was stabbed to death as a result of a conspiracy led by two pardoned men, which also included many of his own supporters. Later his adopted son Octavian

– fully Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus – became Rome’s first emperor. The family line perished with Nero in AD 68, but all later emperors still took the name of Caesar, even though there was no link by blood or adoption. What had simply been the name of one aristocratic family – and a fairly obscure one at that – became effectively a title symbolising supreme and legitimate power. So strong was the association that when the twentieth century opened, two of the world’s great powers were still led by a kaiser and a tsar, each name a rendering of Caesar. Today the Classics have lost their central position in Western education, but even so Julius Caesar remains one of a handful of figures from the ancient world whose name commands instant recognition. Plenty of people with no knowledge of Latin will recall Shakespeare’s version of his dying words,
et tu Brute
(in fact, he probably said something else (see p.508–9) but that is by the way). Of other Romans only Nero, and perhaps Mark Antony, enjoy similar fame, and from other nations probably only Alexander the Great, the Greek philosophers, Hannibal and, most of all, Cleopatra remain so high in the public consciousness. Cleopatra was Caesar’s lover and Antony one of his senior lieutenants, and so both form part of his story.

Caesar was a great man. Napoleon is just one of many famous commanders who admitted that he had learned much from studying Caesar’s campaigns. Politically he had a huge impact on Roman history, playing a key role in ending the Republican system of government, which had endured for four and a half centuries. Although he was fiercely intelligent and highly educated, Caesar was 1

a man of action and it is for this that he is remembered. His talents were varied and exceptional, from his skill as an orator and writer, as framer of laws and as political operator, to his talent as soldier and general. Most of all there was his charm that so often won over the crowd in Rome, the legionaries on campaign and the many women whom he seduced. Caesar made plenty of mistakes, both as commander and as politician, but then which human being has not? His great knack was to recover from setbacks, admit, at least to himself, that he had been wrong, and then adapt to the new situation and somehow win in the long run.

Few would dispute Caesar’s claim to greatness, but it is much harder to say that he was a good man, or that the consequences of his career were unambiguously good. He was not a Hitler or a Stalin, nor indeed a Genghis Khan. Even so one source claims that over a million enemies were killed during his campaigns. Ancient attitudes differed from those of today, and the Romans had few qualms about Caesar’s wars against foreign opponents like the tribes of Gaul. In eight years of campaigning at the very least Caesar’s legions killed hundreds of thousands of people in the region, and enslaved as many more. At times he was utterly ruthless, ordering massacres and executions, and on one occasion the mass mutilation of prisoners whose hands were cut off before they were set free. More often he was merciful to defeated enemies, for the essentially practical reason that he wanted them to accept Roman rule and so become the peaceful tax-paying population of a new province. His attitude was coldly pragmatic, deciding on clemency or atrocity according to which seemed to offer him the greatest advantage. He was an active and energetic imperialist, but having said that he was not the creator of Roman imperialism, merely one of its many agents. His campaigns were not noticeably more brutal than other Roman wars. Far more controversial at the time were his activities in Rome and his willingness to fight a civil war when he felt that his political rivals were determined to end his career. His grievances had more than a little justice, but even so when Caesar took his army from his province into Italy in January 49 BC he became a rebel. The civil wars that followed his assassination finally brought the Roman Republic to an end. Its condition may already have been terminal because of Caesar’s own actions. The Republic fell and was replaced by the rule of emperors, the first of whom was his heir. During his dictatorship Caesar held supreme power and had generally governed well, bringing in measures that were sensible and statesmanlike and for the good of Rome. Previously the Republic had been dominated by a narrow senatorial elite, whose members all too often abused their position to enrich themselves by 2

Intr oduction

exploiting poorer Romans and the inhabitants of the provinces alike. Caesar took action to deal with problems that had been acknowledged as real and serious for some time, but which had not been resolved because of a reluctance to let any individual senator gain the credit for the act. The Republican system was pretty rotten and had been troubled by violence from before Caesar’s birth, and civil war from early in his life. He won supreme power by military force, and we know that he employed bribery and intimidation at other stages in his career. His opponents were no different in their methods and were as willing to fight a civil war to destroy Caesar’s position as he was to defend it, but that is only to say that he was no better or worse than they were. After his victory he ruled in a very responsible manner and in marked contrast to the senatorial aristocracy – his measures were designed to benefit a much broader section of society. His regime was not repressive and he pardoned and promoted many former enemies. Rome, Italy and the provinces were all better off under Caesar than they had been for some time. Yet if he governed responsibly, his rule also effectively meant the end to free elections, and however just his rule was, in the end monarchy would lead to emperors like Caligula and Nero. It was the wealthy elite at Rome who tended to write the histories and Caesar’s rise meant a reduction in the power of this class. Therefore, many sources are critical of him for this reason.

Caesar was not a moral man; indeed, in many respects he seems amoral. It does seem to have been true that his nature was kind, generous and inclined to forget grudges and turn enemies into friends, but he was also willing to be utterly ruthless. He was an inveterate womaniser, disloyal to his wives and his numerous lovers. Cleopatra is by far the most famous of these – and the romance may have been genuine on both sides, but it did not stop Caesar from having an affair with another queen soon afterwards, or from continuing his pursuit of the aristocratic women of Rome. He was extremely proud, even vain, especially of his appearance. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that from a young age Caesar was absolutely convinced of his own superiority. Much of this self-esteem was justified, for he was brighter and more capable than the overwhelming majority of other senators. Perhaps like Napoleon he was so fascinated by his own character that this made it easier to enthral others. Also like the French emperor there were many contradictions in his character. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once wrote of Napoleon that: ‘He was a wonderful man – perhaps the most wonderful man who ever lived. What strikes me is the lack of finality in his character. When you make up your mind that he is a complete villain, you come on some 3

noble trait, and then your admiration of this is lost in some act of incredible meanness.’1 There is something of the same odd mixture with Caesar, although perhaps it was less extreme.

It is striking that while today academics are supposed to be trained to examine the past dispassionately, it is very rare to meet an ancient historian who does not have a strong opinion about Caesar. In the past some have admired, even idolised, him, seeing him as a visionary who perceived the huge problems facing the Republic and realised how to solve them. Others are far more critical and view him as merely another aristocrat with very traditional ambitions who scrambled to the top regardless of the cost to law and precedent, but then had no clear idea of what to do with his power. Such commentators tend to emphasise the opportunism that marked his rise to power. Caesar certainly was an opportunist, but the same has surely been true of virtually every successful politician. He believed strongly in the power of chance in all human affairs and felt that he was especially lucky. With hindsight we know that Octavian – these days more often referred to as Augustus – created the system through which emperors would rule the Roman Empire for centuries. Debate rages over the extent to which Caesar’s years in control of Rome began what Augustus was able to complete, or were a false start and only provided an example that his adopted son consciously avoided in an effort to escape the same fate. Opinion remains fiercely divided and it is unlikely that this will ever change. The truth probably lies somewhere between the extreme views.