Great Books: Plutarch's Biography of Caesar (Part 3 of 4)

The first two parts of this essay can be read here and here.

Before Julius Caesar left for Gaul, he had been and done many things. He was from a noble (if not celebrated) patrician family. He had become the high priest of the Temple of Jupiter and, years later, the chief priest of all Rome. He had gained considerable rhetorical skills studying under Apollonius at Rhodes and had put those skills to the test advocating for both himself and others in very high profile cases before the senate. He had been elected to a number of high-ranking positions within the Roman government. It can be said, in these areas, that in Rome, Caesar had few peers and no equals. The same could not be said, however, about his military exploits. Despite his early stint in the military while hiding from Sulla and his successful conquests in Spain that earned him the title of Imperator but no triumph, Pompey was the great general of Caesar’s day and, had Caesar not gone to Gaul, that is probably still the way that history would remember him. With four legions under his command and a five year mandate, Caesar forsook all of his other identities and poured himself into becoming a new man in the eyes of the Roman people; a man fit, ultimately, to rule them not as first among many but as one above all.

Despite the ambition he displayed, it is valuable to remember that unrest in Gaul actually posed an existential threat to the Romans. The fragmented nature of the Gallic culture made it impossible for Rome to make one peace with one leader in order to settle the issue. Thus, the early history of Caesar’s conquest of Gaul reads almost like a laundry list of the various tribes and kingdoms that he had to bring to heel. As Plutarch notes,

For he had not pursued the wars in Gaul full ten years when he had taken by storm above eight hundred towns, subdued three hundred states, and of the three millions of men, who made up the gross sum of those with whom at several times he engaged he had killed one million and taken captive a second. [583]

Plutarch is quite thorough in his accounting of Caesar’s time in Gaul but, for the sake of brevity, we can narrow his accomplishments down to three. First, he brought the peoples of Gaul who were sympathetic to Roman interests (and influence) firmly under Roman authority whether by means of diplomacy, intimidation or promise of security. Second, he galvanized those who were not under one leader and, in time, defeated them outright, taking that king, Vercingetorix, prisoner and ritually killing him at the climax of his later triumph in Rome. Finally, he repelled the Germanic tribes that threatened Roman interests in Gaul and, in fact, pushed them back further into their own homelands than every before, expanding Rome’s boundaries, unifying a large swath of what is now Europe under one banner. These, along with a host of other minor victories, are the unvarnished facts of what Caesar accomplished during his time in Gaul.



Those facts, however, don’t underscore plainly enough the effect that his victories had back in Rome itself. Plutarch trumpets Caesar’s generosity throughout this section, leaving the reader with the distinct impression that, back home, certain people were becoming very wealthy as Caesar slowly bled Gaul dry of all of its accumulated riches, both material and human. Thus, the intended purpose of giving Caesar his legions and his mandate in the first place (to remove him from the day-to-day of Roman politics and to diminish his memory among the people) had the exact opposite effect. Caesar, by the people’s account, made Rome safer by not only eradicating the threat of a Gallic invasion but by pushing the Germanic tribes further away and taking part of their lands as a buffer against future attacks. He flooded certain channels of the city with riches and slaves, creating the impression that Caesar sought not to enrich himself but enrich Rome through his efforts. Most damningly for his enemies (present and future), he established an impeccable reputation as a brilliant and visceral general who could credibly be compared to any of Rome’s great military leaders, living or dead.

Near the end of his first five year mission, Caesar acquired, through his influence with Pompey and his allies in the senate, a second five year mandate to continue his war. In all, Caesar spent about eight years in Gaul and would no doubt have continued campaigning for the final two had external events not dictated another course of action. Plutarch writes that, upon returning from his expedition to Britain, Caesar:

…found letters which lay ready to be conveyed over the water to him from his friends at Rome, announcing his daughter’s death, who died in labour of a child by Pompey. Caesar and Pompey both were much afflicted with her death, nor were their friends less disturbed, believing that the alliance was now broken, which had hitherto kept the sickly commonwealth in peace, for the child also died within a few days after the mother. [587]

Crassus, we later discover, had died in Parthia some time before and so, as Plutarch puts it, “if the one of them wished to make himself the greatest man in Rome, he had only to overthrow the other.” With the senate so long having been weakened by the influence of the First Triumvirate on the people, Rome’s actual governance fell into the hands of fewer and fewer people until only two remained. Pompey, being in actual possession of the city, threw his influence behind that of the senate, believing reasonably that their efforts combined would be enough to quell Caesar’s threat to their sovereignty. Once achieved, it would have been a simple enough matter to finally extinguish the senate’s authority and establish himself as king of the new Roman empire. Plutarch, more lyrically, paints the situation with unmistakable verity.

So that after so many times stained the place of election with blood of men killed upon the spot, they left the city at last without a government at all, to be carried about like a ship without a pilot to steer her; while all who had any wisdom could only be thankful if a course of such wild and stormy disorder and madness might end no worse than in a monarchy. Some were so bold as to declare openly that the government was incurable but by a monarchy, and that they ought to take that remedy from the hands of the hands of the gentlest physician, meaning Pompey, who, though in words, he pretended to decline it, yet in reality made his utmost efforts to be declared dictator. [589]

Emboldened by this new found prestige, Pompey prematurely ended Caesar’s term in Gaul, demanding he return the legions with which Pompey had supplied him in order to continue his efforts. Seeming at first to be compliant, Caesar returned the legions but sent a generous gift with each soldier, creating something of a fifth column within Pompey’s troops; men under Pompey’s banner but sworn in their hearts to his enemy. From there, the two began a game of offering compromises that neither would desire, each trying to seem more magnanimous in his mercy than the other. In time, though, the senate brought an end to this game and declared that Caesar would be considered an enemy of Rome unless he surrendered his troops and returned to Rome for trial. Caesar immediately mustered his troops and rode for Rome. Caught surprised by the swiftness of his advance, Pompey and his optimates compatriots from the senate were forced to leave the city in order to muster the troops necessary to eventually meet Caesar on the battlefield. And so it was that Julius Caesar made himself “the master of all Italy without bloodshed in the space of sixty days” [591].

Great Books: Plutarch's Biography of Caesar (Part 2 of 4)

Part One of this essay can be read here.

Not long after his aunt’s death, Caesar’s first wife, Cornelia, died in childbirth. Plutarch writes that Caesar gave a lyrical and moving eulogy to her memory in the Forum, a practice not often afforded to young women (as opposed to older ones like his aunt, Julia) and one that endeared him to the people of Rome once again. Not long after, he accepted an administrative position in Spain that seems to have bee his first transition into mainstream Roman politics. Upon his return to Rome, Caesar married Pompeia, the granddaughter of his former persecutor, Sulla. It is impossible to mistake, even from this distance, the calculated maneuvering in which Caesar is engaged in his transition from his marriage with Cornelia (the daughter of Cinna, one of Marius’ chief con-conspirators) to Pompeia. As a result, more doors began to open for him politically. Plutarch mentions him working as the “surveyor of the Appian Way” for some period before being appointed to the position of aedile, an administrator in charge of public works and for organizing the games and festivals beloved by the Roman people. About this, Plutarch writes that:

When he was aedile, he provided such a number of gladiators, that he entertained the people with three hundred and twenty single combats, and by his great liberality and magnificence in theatrical shows, in processions, and public feasting, he threw into the shade all the attempts that had been made before him, and gained so much upon the people, that every one was eager to find out new offices and new honours for him in return for his munificence. [579]

At the height of his popularity as aedile, Caesar one-upped the spectacle he perpetuated at his aunt’s funeral by having images and statues celebrating Marius’ military victories on behalf of Rome placed in the public Forum. While this act enraged the Senate, it sent a clear message to those sympathetic to the populares cause that it had found a new champion in Gaius Julius Caesar as well as to the people of Rome that the unchecked authority of the patricians in the Senate was not impervious to criticism. Caesar was brought before the Senate to defend his actions and received from him an apology but old battlelines had been unmistakably re-sketched into dirt for all to see.

It was along these lines that Caesar gained advantage over his enemies as he ran for the office of Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of Rome. He was opposed in election by two men, both allied with the optimates cause and, after acquiring immense debt in the act of bribing anyone and everyone he thought might aid his cause, Caesar won the election that he told his mother would make him either “high priest or an exile.” The effect on the political landscape in Rome was unmistakable, leading his enemies in the Senate to step up their efforts to stop his political elevation any further. When a man named Catiline was discovered, after his flight from Rome, to have been conspiring “not only to change the present state of affairs, but to subvert the whole empire,” a great investigation was launched to uncover all who may have joined in this cause. As his co-conspirators were brought before the Senate for trial and punishment, all who spoke called for a sentence of execution until Caesar, in his role as the High Priest, said that it was “without precedent and not just to take away the lives of persons of their birth and distinction before they were fairly tried” [580].

This statement questioned the veracity of the trial that had just taken place and, according to Plutarch, influenced many who spoke after him to reverse their certainty in seeing the men put to death. Cato, the functional head of the optimates in the Senate, reproached Caesar in his closing argument, accusing him of being involved himself in the conspiracy and, ultimately, the men were sentenced to be executed. By Plutarch’s account, the optimates were so incensed by Caesar’s opposition to them that:

As Caesar was going out of the senate, many of the young men who at that time acted as guards to Cicero ran in with their naked swords to assault him. But, Curio, it is said, threw his gown over him, and conveyed him away, and Cicero himself, when the young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a sign not to kill him, either for fear of the people or because he thought the murder unjust and illegal. [580]

Caesar was eventually exonerated by the Senate for any involvement with Cataline’s rebellion and, indeed, was elected to be the praetor of Rome for one year. While he was praetor, Caesar divorced his wife, Pompeia, under rather unusual circumstances. During a festival where the women were sequestered from the men in accordance with the rite, it was discovered that a young man named Clodius, disguised as a young woman, had made his way into Caesar’s home with the intention of coupling with Pompeia, whom Plutarch describes as having “no aversion to him.” Though Caesar immediately divorced Pompeia, Plutarch does note that Caesar made no attempt to revenge himself upon Clodius and, in fact, appointed him to positions of status within the government later. The inclusion of these details suggests that Plutarch believes that Caesar may have, in fact, orchestrated his wife’s public disgrace in order to sever the now unneccesary ties their marriage created between him and the optimates.

When Caesar’s term as praetor expired, he was given the province of Spain to administer similarly. While in Spain, Caesar polished his credentials as an effective general by subduing long rebellious tribes in the area and earning, from his legions, the title of Imperator. It was customary, after receiving this title, for a general to return to Rome for a triumph. However, at the same time, Caesar was vying to become co-consul of Rome. This presented a problem as any general being honored with a triumph was expected to remain outside of Rome until the Senate summoned him home. However, it was also custom that anyone petitioning for the consulate must be in Rome to do so. After failing to persuade the Senate to bend the rules in order to overcome this paradox of tradition, Caesar gave up his right to a triumph and returned to Rome to begin his campaign to become consul. Had the Senate known the means by which Caesar planned to gain the consulate, they might have pushed harder for him to accept his triumph instead.

Upon returning to Rome, Caesar reconciled to long-standing foes, Crassus and Pompey, and then bound the three of them together in an alliance that rendered the Senate nearly impotent. With Crassus’ money and Pompey’s military prowess backing him, Caesar could not be stopped in his quest to attain the position of consul and, upon his appointment, began introducing a variety of controversial bills designed to please the people and further weaken the aristocracy. When the Senate became enraged by his agenda, he turned then to the people to ratify his legislation. Plutarch writes that:

He hurried out of the senate, and presenting himself to the people, and there placing Crassus and Pompey, one on each side of him, he asked them whether they consented to the bills he had proposed. They owned their assent, upon which he desired them to assist him against those who had threatened to oppose him with their swords. They engaged they would, and Pompey added further, that he would meet their swords with a sword and buckler too. These words the nobles much resented, as neither suitable to his own dignity, nor becoming the reverence due to the senate, but resembling rather the vehemence of a boy or the fury of a madman. But the people were pleased with it. [582]

As Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey moved to consolidate the power of their new alliance (sometimes called the First Triumvirate), there was a flurry of marriages to cement the bonds. Pompey married Caesar’s daughter, Julia (born from his first marriage) and, some time after, Caesar married Calpurnia, the daughter of one of Crassus’s allies named Piso who was named consul when Caesar’s term had ended. Pompey, through the threat of force, got Caesar appointed to govern Gaul and got the Senate to allow him four legions to subdue it. It might have seemed like a good deal for both the Senate and Pompey for Rome would be rid of his ambitions for at least five years and Pompey would preside in his stead as the man of the people. Little could they have known that, by the time he returned, he would be positioned to master them all.

Great Books: Plutarch's Biography of Caesar (part 1 of 4)

Great Books: Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans: Caesar
Written by Plutarch sometime in the latter part of the 1st century CE
Place: Chaeronea in the province of Boeotia (Greece)

The complete text for Plutarch's biography of Julius Caesar can be found online at http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/caesar.html

There is only one life story in the Western culture more mythologized and still culturally accessible than that of Gaius Julius Caesar and the more celebrated owes a greater debt to Caesar’s legacy for his own persistence than either could have imagined while still living. Caesar’s biography has been pored over and debated upon endlessly since the moment of his death and has since passed through the hands of each ascending segment of the Western culture in turn. The purpose of exploring of this particular biography is not to reconcile or fact-check Plutarch’s version against the others, but to examine the singular filter through which Plutarch sees the historical Julius Caesar and how it shapes the way that his life and death are reported.

Plutarch opens his story of Caesar’s life as many of his biographers do, in his late teens. To understand how he set out on the path he did, it is essentially appreciate the complexities of the political environment in which he was raised. When Caesar, at the age of sixteen, suddenly found himself the head of his family, Rome was in the midst of a great political upheaval. Two former allies, Marius and Sulla, had turned Rome into a battlefield for their dueling ambitions. Sulla eventually vanquished and murdered Marius and ordered his images to be banned from the city and his family and allies to be murdered. Marius was Caesar’s uncle and, by the time Sulla had defeated him, Caesar had married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, a former consul of the Republic and of one Marius’s early supporters in the conflict against Sulla.

Assuming all of that information as common knowledge unworthy of repetition, Plutarch begins Caesar’s biography with the observation that “at the beginning, while so many were to be put to death, and there was so much to do, Caesar was overlooked by Sulla and yet he would not keep quiet” [577]. Despite his youthful bravado, Caesar quickly recognized the value of survival over defiance and escaped Sulla’s wrath by leaving the city. Plutarch either doesn’t know or has a reason for omitting the fact that Caesar joined the military though he does record the “short stay” he spent at Bithynia (in modern day Northern Turkey) with its king, Nicomedes. In recounting another tale about Caesar’s having been kidnapped by pirates, Plutarch does allude to the authority that he had somehow acquired, though still technically being hunted by Sulla.

As soon as his ransom was come from Miletus, he paid it, and was discharged, and proceeded at once to man some ships at the port of Miletus, and went in pursuit of the pirates, whom he surprised with their ships still stationed at the island and took most of them…[he later] went off to Pergamus, where he ordered the pirates to be brought forth and crucified; the punishment he had often threatened them with whilst he was in their hands, and they little dreamt he was in earnest. [577]

Sulla only ruled Rome for about two years before retiring from the city, opening the way from Caesar to begin plotting his way back. He had already pursued two paths of increasing his status, the first in the Temple of Jupiter and the second, in the military. Before returning to Rome, he set off on a third, studying rhetoric with Apollonius in Rhodes. While Plutarch rightly notes that Caesar would ultimately choose to be “first rather amongst men or arms and power,” one should not overlook the importance of his training as a public speaker. It was this set of skills, in fact, that he first employs upon finally returning to Rome, advocating for a number of Greek interests in the city and increasing his favor among its people “by the affability of his manners and address, in which he showed a tact and consideration beyond what could have been expected at his age.” [578]

The first sign of the people’s love for Caesar, according to Plutarch, was his election as a soldiers’ tribune. This was a rank of some importance that gave him command over a portion of the consul’s legions and, no doubt, added considerably to his knowledge of the military as it related to both warfare and politics. Armed with this newly elevated status and his considerable rhetorical skills, Caesar seized upon the death of his aunt, Julia to engage in an act of provocative political showmanship.

… making a magnificent oration in praise of his aunt Julia, wife to Marius, publicly in the Forum, at whose funeral he was so bold as to bring forth the images of Marius, which nobody had dared to produce since the government came into Sulla’s hands, Marius’s party from that time having been declared enemies of the state. [578]

Without going to far off into the weeds regarding the conflict between Sulla and Marius, each had reached the summit of their power via two different political avenues that might, today, be thought as analogous to political parties. Marius, like Caesar after him, was a populares or a person elevated to the various positions of power via the people’s assembly. Sulla belonged to the optimates, a political interest that sought to keep the authority in the hands of a narrow band of families long associated with the Senate. As the optimates rule reached its highest point under Sulla’s dictatorship, this act of re-introducing Marius into the city posthumously marked the beginning of a return for the populares, whose own power would reach its height under that of Julius Caesar himself. Ironically, both parties and the distinctions between them became functionally meaningless under the Imperial authority established under Augustus after Caesar’s death.

Though Sulla had abdicated power and, soon thereafter, died, it can be said that, in Caesar’s time, the old guard of the Senate had retained much more authority than it had enjoyed previous to his dictatorship. With the memory of Sulla’s troops marching in to sack the city and murderously taking its revenge of Marius’ allies, there was little incentive for the populares to re-emerge as a counterbalance to this unchecked power as long as it lacked a strong leader with the bonafides (in this case, the admiration of the people) to wield their collective authority. By having images of Marius’ prominently displayed in the Forum for the first time since his death, Caesar was sending out a rallying cry to those sympathetic to the cause of the populares that he was the heir to Marius’ legacy.