His future success was foreshadowed, when he was captured by pirates on the way to Rhodes. They intended to ransom him; but he managed to talk them into upping their demanded amount (thus adding to his prestige). They treated him with some derision, but in response, he calmly assured them that he would have his revenge & destroy them. The pirates laughed at this "geek's" boast. But he was true to his word: After being ransomed, he gathered some forces, went after the pirates, & had them all crucified.
In 61 BCE, Caesar's meanderings through the Republic's bureaucracy paid off, & he was appointed governor of Farther Iberia (Spain). This gave him his first real taste of power. Military governors in remote districts exerted a great deal of influence over their territories, and Caesar liked the power he had in Iberia.
He returned to Rome the next year, & formed the " first triumvirate," in partnership with two other military governors, Crassus & Pompey. This first triumvirate carried with it no actual power, but rather the three promised to work with each other, to build a strong faction in common, within the Republic.
In 59, Caesar was elected consul. After serving his year in this position, he was appointed governor of Roman Gaul.
He had a worthy adversary in Vercingetorix, the "high king" of the Gauls. The Gauls were Celts who had harried the borders of Rome for centuries. They had even once sacked Rome (about 390 BCE). Vercingetorix, moreover, had managed to subdue some of the Germanic tribes to the east of Gaul, and had begun to build for himself a strong monarchy (which was a novelty, among the Celtic tribes, who were clannish & tended away from centralized authority). He was charismatic, though, and able to entice the cooperation of a number of Celtic tribes. In this, he succeeded, where prior aspirants to the High Kingship of the Gauls — including his father — had failed. But this was almost as much due to the fact that the Gaulic tribes had a common enemy in Caesar, than in the Gauls' desire to centralize power in Vercingetorix.
In any event, the campaign to take Gaul took Caesar several years, during which he had one small victory after another. The Celtic warriors were simply no match for better-armed, and armored, Roman legions. Caesar did not know the terrain as well as the Gauls did, but militarily speaking, he had the advantage, and used it.
He eventually chewed away at Vercingetorix's forces and boxed him in on a hillside. Rather than ordering a charge up the hill — in which Caesar would likely have been victorious, but at a cost of many casualties — he ordered the construction of a palisade around the hill. In other words, he built an inside-out fortification, with the defenders — his legions — on the outside, rather than inside!
When the Gauls finally attacked, it was a slaughter. Part of Caesar's fortification had been stakes in the ground at an angle which would impale the charging Gauls before they even reached the legions. The stakes held the Gauls' front ranks back, while the legions swarmed in around them. Vercingetorix was captured, his army demolished, and Caesar sent him back to Rome as a prisoner.
This done, Casear turned northward. He knew of the Celts in Britain and were concerned they might be a threat to Rome, now that Gaul was entirely in Rome's hands. He led an expedition into Britain, crossing the Thames, and setting up an encampment. After some skirmishing he met with Cassivellaunus, a respected Briton chieftain, and obtained his submission. Cassivellaunus & the rest of the Britons were no fools. They knew they were no match for the Roman legions. It was best to accommodate, rather than fight, them. Besides, they were on an island, and making an agreement not to infringe on Roman territory meant little to them — so they risked nothing.
Caesar returned to Gaul without making Britain a protectorate of Rome. Some call it a failed expedition — but he succeeded in what he wanted to do, which was to "feel the Britons out," as it were, & ensure their allegiance. He felt that, in time, Britain could easily be conquered & incorporated into Rome. This was not his typical boastfulness — for which Caesar is well-remembered — but simply, to his mind, a fact: Any competent Roman general could conquer Britain, he believed. (He turned out to be correct, on this score: southern Britain was incorporated into the Empire during the 1st century.)
The problem for him was, it was a rather inconvenient time, for that.
Caesar's success in conquering Gaul made him immensely popular, both with his own troops, and with the populace of Rome. The Senate had allowed him more than the usual stint as a military governor of one district, and after his victory in Gaul & expedition into Britain, they grew gravely concerned about him. They knew that the military governors had become the true "powers" of Rome, & furthermore that Caesar's immense popularity — added to his military authority — might catapult him even higher in power.
By this time Caesar had broken ties with the other triumvirs, mostly because his success in Gaul had made him believe he no longer needed them. Moreover, his wife, Julia, Pompey's daughter, had died in 54 BCE.
The Senate's order was unconditional. But Caesar knew it was a death sentence. The Senate would try him for some charge — most likely bribery — & have him executed. Caesar was no idiot, & was not about to walk into such a trap. Moreover, he had come to believe he was destined for greatness, so the Senate's order that he come alone, without his army, was of no account, to him.
By this time, Caesar did as Caesar willed. Period.
On January 10 & 11 of 49 BCE, Caesar and most of his legions — he left only minimal garrisons behind in Gaul — crossed the Rubicon River, which marked the Roman "homeland." He felt he had no choice, & morever, it seems he never entertained any other option.
His return to "Rome proper," with an army at his back, under orders not to do so, was, essentially, an act of war. The Senate was ready, though, & dispatched Pompey & his forces to stop him. In a series of battles, Pompey was routed by his former partner, and eventually feld Italy. Caesar returned triumphantly to Rome and became dictator.
Periodically Caesar returned to Rome, to be re-appointed dictator & to see that things were being run his way, then he would leave on an expedition to rout rival factions. During his absenses, some sixty Senators conspired to kill him; among these were Gaius Cassius & Marcus Junius Brutus.
On the occasion of one of his return visits to Rome, in 44 BCE, on the Ides of March (i.e. March 15), these conspirators set upon Caesar as he entered the Senate to address them. They stabbed him 23 times, in unusually brutal fashion, even by the standards of the brutal Romans. Moreover, it was done by the Senators themselves — not by soldiers or mercenaries in their pay. They wanted to send a clear message to future dictators — but this message was lost, since the making of one dictator showed that it could be done, & of course, someone could always be found who wanted to be dictator.
For these reasons, the young Octavian found himself with a growing faction & had the backing of many Senators. Eventually, Octavian, Antony, and another former partisan of Caesar, Lepidus, formed a "second triumvirate," designated this time to restore the old Roman government. The consuls were re-installed & many of the old offices were restored.
But this situation didn't last. Again the triumvirs grew distrustful of one another. Eventually, Lepidus's support faltered. Antony spent a great deal of time in the east — having been seduced by Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt — & became embroiled in war against the Parthians. This left Octavian in the position of having "home court advantage." Many "insiders" in Rome began to favor him. When war finally broke out, it was a naval engagement at Actium, & Marc Antony was defeated. Rather than become Octavian's prisoners, he & Cleopatra committed suicide, in 30 BCE.
Octavian soon mopped up the rest of the resistance & renamed himself Augustus. In 27 BCE he was named imperator, or Emperor. While the consuls still existed, & ran the government of Rome, the real order-giver was Augustus (formerly Octavian).
With the death of Augustus in 14 AD, another battle ensued for the title of Emperor, & it was won by Tiberius, son of Augustus's wife Livia. This would be a common pattern in subsequent Roman history — the death of an emperor meant a sudden power-grab by everyone close to the Imperial crown, & it wasn't always the heir of the deceased Emperor who won (though in both of these cases, it turned out that way).
Roman government lurched into a true empire, ruled by an absolute dictator, pushed — initially — by Julius Caesar. Later, Caesar would inspire many other would-be Caesars — and in fact, his name is synonymous with an abolute monarch (the Russian title tsar and the German title kaiser both come from "Caesar").
But in many ways, that was its flaw, & led inevitably to Caesar's coup & Rome's move toward a true Empire. The complicated government designed to pit one office against another, pit patricians against plebeians, and pit rival factions against each other, had become totally ineffective, administratively. Buildings & roads fell apart, crops deteriorated due to inadequate irrigation, droughts occurred because potable water couldn't be obtained. All this happened while the bureaucrats & Senators quarreled & bargained against each other.
Caesar, & indeed many others, even before him, knew this was a situation that couldn't last. The famed sage & orator Cicero, to whom most of the rest of the Senate & Roman government deferred, appears to have come to that conclusion — although he was convinced that Caesar was the wrong man for the job of dictator. He, & others, including Marc Antony & Brutus, had tried to restore the Republic, desperately trying to set up a system which worked, yet did not grant any one man too much power.
But Caesar's seizure of power had broken a dam in Rome, a dam which could not be repaired. Cicero & others could only put their fingers in the dike. After a while, all pretense of restoring the Republic vanished — & that is why Augustus, Caesar's heir, was named imperator.
With the rise of Rome, however, and especially Caesar's rise to the office of dictator, came the notion of a head of state empowered by the military. This was a fundamental change in how government was viewed. (Even so, Caesar, while on his rise to the pinnacle of Rome, managed to get himself named pontifex maximus, or high priest of the state.) Later Emperors of Rome were generals who got their power from their loyal legions, & they used the legions to enforce their rule. While this change saved Rome from total collapse in the 1st century AD, ultimately, it could not last, as I pointed out in an essay on Rome's fall.
Later during the Middle Ages, these two views of heads of state — as religious figures & as military figures — would merge into a single ideal, known as "the divine right of kings." That is, kings are annointed by God to their offices, & as such command the civilian government as well as the military.
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