Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic – Civil War Era – Caesar

His Early Troubles

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general, politician and writer whose emergence marked a complete turnaround in the Roman state system from the rule of the Senate and democracy to the rule of individuals, and then monarchy. He was born into the patrician family of the Julii, who were not among the most prominent families of Rome, but his aunt was the wife of Gaius Marius, which placed him on the losing side in the civil war, although Caesar himself did not participate in the war. During Cinna’s rule over the city, Caesar was married to his daughter Cornelia.

After the end of the civil war, Sulla demanded that Caesar divorce Cornelia, which he refused and left Rome in fear. His property was confiscated and Caesar was stripped of his religious title. Unexpectedly, by doing so, Sulla opened the way for him to a military career. After some time, and much persuasion, Sulla allowed him to return to Rome, although he warned of Caesar’s similarity to Marius. Although again in favor, Caesar soon went to military service in the East, from where he returned to Rome only after Sulla’s death and engaged in rhetoric and gained the sympathy and affection of the people.

Upon his return to Rome, Caesar was kidnapped by pirates in whose captivity he was for 38 days. During his captivity, he behaved towards his captors as if he were their guest and on his own initiative demanded that they ask for a larger ransom for him since they were apparently unaware of whom they had kidnapped, promising them that, once freed, he would capture and kill them. The pirates were interested in listening to Caesar and attributed the threats to his youth and arrogance, however, as soon as he was released, he equipped a pursuit at his own expense and then fulfilled his promise of revenge on his captors.

After the pirate story, Caesar entered the political life of Rome as a military tribune. During a speech in 69 BC at the funeral of his aunt, he was the first to publicly display images of Gaius Marius, thereby showing that the Marius party still existed in Rome and thus gaining the sympathy of the surviving Marians.

In the same year, he was elected quaestor and then went to Hispania with his second wife, who was Sulla’s granddaughter. There, he in sadness compared himself to Alexander the Great, admitting that he had done nothing important, while Alexander ruled most of the world at his age, which speaks of Caesar’s motives, as well as a complete change of thinking among prominent individuals in Rome.

Upon his return to Rome, he practiced law, and in 65 BC he was elected Aedile. At that time, he invested a lot of his money in circus games, which brought him great popularity with the people, but also great financial problems and debts. During the Catiline conspiracy, Caesar spoke in the Senate in support of the law, which in this case was on the side of the captured conspirators, after which Cato personally accused Caesar of participating in the conspiracy. Cato even demanded that Caesar publicly read a paper with a message he had received during a Senate session, which turned out to contain a love letter from one of Caesar’s mistresses, Cato’s sister.

In that year, he was also in a scandal involving his wife’s alleged infidelity with Claudius Pulcher. During a religious celebration held in Caesar’s house while he was serving as Pontifex Maximus, only women were allowed in. Clodius entered disguised as a woman to meet Caesar’s second wife, Pompeia, but was discovered and accused of blasphemy. Clodius was acquitted after a trial supported by a number of prominent figures, including Caesar himself, who testified that he knew nothing about the incident, in that way gaining Claudius as a political ally. He nevertheless divorced Pompey because Caesar’s wife must not be suspected.

After that, Caesar was elected praetor and again prepared to travel to Hispania, but he used all his money to win supporters and his debts exceeded the value of his property, and creditors prevented him from leaving Rome before paying his debts. Then Crassus came to his aid, who wanted Caesar on his side. He paid all the debts – it is believed that the figure was 830 talents. Caesar arrived in Hispania in 61 BC and immediately gathered an army and defeated the Celtiberians and Lusitanians, returning to Rome crowned with military glory and as a wealthy man ready to engage in a political struggle for power over the city itself.

As a Writer

In addition to his extraordinary political and military career, Caesar is also a first-class historical source for the period of the late Roman Republic, because he was a participant in the events he writes about. Although they were on opposing sides, Cicero also praises him as a writer. Unfortunately, a large number of these literary works have not been preserved, and the most important are the “Commentaries on the Gallic Wars” and the “Commentaries on the Civil Wars”.

Caesar uses his literary works in the service of his political career in order to gain the favor and sympathy of the people, and reduce the influence of his enemies. In order to add a certain amount of objectivity to his works, he writes his works in the third person, but his subjectivity is expressed in the work Anticatones, where he expresses all his hatred for his opponent, who was already deceased by then. Commentaries on his wars are written in a fairly direct manner and represent a kind of diary of his military campaigns, emphasizing military victories and ignoring defeats, the destruction of sanctuaries and taking into slavery for financial gain.

Caesar does not give the reasons for the Gallic Wars, but only a travelogue and the course of the wars, while in his commentaries on the civil wars he tries to justify his participation in the war by explaining that he was forced into it by his rivals. Despite their shortcomings, which are understandable given that the writer is a direct participant and the main actor in the work, the commentaries represent a first-class historical source for the era of the civil wars, with special highlight on the extraordinary geographical description of the areas through which his armies passed.

Sources and Literature:

Appianus, of Alexandria. (1902). Appianou Romaikon Emphylion A = Appian, Civil Wars, book I. Oxford: Clarendon Press,

Morey, W. C. (1900). Outlines of Roman history: For the Use of High Schools and Academies.

The Cambridge Ancient History IX (2008),

Beard, M. (2015). SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.

Cicero, M. T. (2020). Brutus: And, Orator.

Suetonius, approximately 69-approximately 122. (1883). The lives of the twelve Caesars. New York: R. Worthington,

Caesar, Julius. (1953). War commentaries: De bello Gallico and De bello civili. London: New York: Dent; Dutton,

Plutarch. (1859). Plutarch’s Lives: translated from the original Greek, with notes, critical and historical, and life of Plutarch. New York: Derby & Jackson,