10d: Fall of the Roman Republic

Late in 50 BC, the Senate ordered Caesar to arrive in Rome minus his proconsular imperium and minus his soldiers. Civil war was Caesar's only viable option. Aware that outside of a few Senatorial diehards, nobody actually relished this war, he wanted to limit collateral damage to the Roman state. Although there were dire rumors of upcoming proscriptions and other assorted nastiness, Caesar announced that any combatant surrendering to him could return home unharmed. This policy of clementia or "clemency" allowed many Pompeian supporters to escapee. But it also won Caesar a great deal of popular support: most Romans just wanted to be left alone. Caesar also worked to pretend that he was not a warlord at the head of a client army, but merely seeking a peaceful solution to Rome's political problem. Even so, he worked quickly. Pompey was beaten at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC; in 47 BC Cleopatra was established as queen of Ancient Egypt and King Pharnabazus of Pontus was overthrown in 47 BC. The last nest of optimates was cleared out in Africa in 46 BC. Returning to Rome in July of that year, Caesar celebrated four triumphs (Gaul, Egypt, Asia, and Africa, but none over Pompey) and assumed a ten-year dictatorship for the purpose of "restoring the republic" much as Sulla had once done. At this point Caesar still appeared serious about maintaining the old Republican political institutions. He helped campaign for magistrates, and encouraged young nobles (such as young Marcus Junius Brutus) to consider careers in public service. But in 45, Pompey's two sons stirred up a rebellion in Spain, forcing Caesar to head there and stamp the rebellion out. It is probable that the experience led Caesar to think the Republic could no longer be fixed. If Caesar's old enemies were bound and determined to get back at him, there was no point in his sharing power with anyone else.

On his return from Spain Caesar was a different man. He now worked hard to secure his supreme authority in the Roman state. The popular assembly, which had always been on his side, piled honor after honor on him, such as the right to use the title Imperator as his first name, lifetime tribunician power (that is, the right to veto), and the establishment of a formal cult for his "genius," or guardian angel. Caesar packed the Senate with his supporters, doubling it in size, and rigged the annual elections for 5 years in advance. His excuse for this breach of the mos maiorum was his planned campaign against the Parthian Empire, finishing the job that Crassus had so ineptly begun. He expected to be gone for a while and had to make sure that Rome would remain secure in his absence. Early in 44 BC coinage appeared portraying Caesar as dictator for life. At the Lupercalia festival in mid-February, Mark Antony suddenly appeared with a crown which he tried to put on Caesar's head. Sensing a bad vibe, Caesar refused the offer, but he certainly seemed interested - at least - in being the actual king of Rome. The few remaining optimates certainly saw it that way. If that wasn't bad enough, Caesar's mistress - Queen Cleopatra of Ancient Egypt - moved in to Caesar's house, along with their infant son Caesarion or "Little Caesar." It seemed as though Caesar was laughing not only at the state but at the entire mos maiorum.

On the eve of his Parthian campaign, Caesar attended a senate meeting called for on the Ides of March, 44 BC. It was in Theater of Pompey because the Senate House was still being rebuilt. There he was assassinated by a group of 67 senators, including some, such as the noble Brutus and the lean and hungry Cassius, whom he had personally forgiven for serving with Pompey. These so-called "republicans" believed they were striking a noble blow for truth, justice, and the mos maiorum. Unfortunately, they had no constructive ideas for saving the Roman Republic other than killing Caesar. Whatever Caesar's ultimate intentions, he had made a fatal error in even seeming to be interested in monarchy. Perhaps he decided that he would never be able to restore the republic as he saw fit, and that an "enlightened monarchy" was the only realistic solution. As we will see in the next unit, this proved to be the case. Or perhaps Caesar was not acting of his free will - pushed instead toward monarchy by followers like Marc Antony and Queen Cleopatra of Ancient Egypt who hoped to profit from their connections with the King of Rome. Or perhaps the kingship had always been his goal, from his impoverished aristocratic youth. Even though Caesar was undoubtedly the greatest man of the Roman Republic's latest years, he was not great enough to solve Rome's political problems.

It didn't look like anyone else was great enough, either. On one side was the Caesarian faction, headed by the late great Julius's comrade in arms and boon companion, Marc Antony. On the other side were the Senatorial optimates, allied with the assassins of Caesar or so-called "republicans," and led by the silver-tongued old statesman Cicero. It looked like yet another worldwide civil war was on tap, complete with marches upon Rome and new lists of proscriptions. Nobody seemed to notice that Caesar's will had actually listed as heir and adopted son his 18 year old grand nephew, one Gaius Octavius. Young Gaius's mother advised him to stay back in Greece and keep studying philosophy. But nobody, as it turned out, told Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus what to do. Within a year and a half, young Octavian Caesar had formed the Second Triumvirate with Marc Antony and a nitwit named Lepidus. Within two years, by 42 BC, the assassins and the Senatorial faction had been defeated once and for all. By 31 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus was master of the entire Roman world - and free at last to begin solving Rome's political  problems.