If there is one man from the classical world who laid the foundations of the secular order of modern humanity, that man is Caius Julius Caesar. Politician, commander, warlord and Imperator and Dictator, his very name is still a byword for absolute sole rule. His name has been used within living memory as an imperial title; the German title of Kaiser is nothing more than the proper pronunciation of his name, known from its familiar Greek spelling "KAICAPOC" (the pronunciation "Seize-er", while more familiar, is inaccurate). He was the model for future European emperors and "wanna-be" emperors, from Charlemagne to Wilhelm II, and through the spread of European-style modernization has influenced cultures the world over.

Caesar in his third consulship. Gold Aureus. Lot 234.

     We are fortunate that the period in which Caesar and his rivals operated is one of the best documented periods of ancient history. We have, in many ways, an embarrassment of riches: the histories of Sallust, Appian and Livy, to say nothing of Caesar's own accounts; as well as so many other supporting documents. One important source is the vast output of Cicero; speeches, letters and philosophical treatises, carefully preserved as relics of "the last of the true Romans", can tell us a lot. Inscriptions, coins, and an assortment of small objects all have their story to tell. And a dramatic story it is.

     It all started with a woman. Not Cleopatra, who hadn't as yet made her first appearance. The lady in question was Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, who had been the main rival of the dictator Sulla.

     Caius Julius Caesar himself was born in 100 BC, the latest production of the gens Julia. This family was a part of the old Roman aristocracy, being descended - so they claimed - from the Trojan Aeneas, who was himself the son of Venus, hence the appearance of the seductive goddess on Caesar's coins. In practice this meant that the Julian gens was "old Roman", rather than general Italian "new men". Despite his aristocratic background, however, Caesar was generally inclined toward the plebian cause.

     He was born during the iron rule of Marius, the plebian general who rose to the consulship due to his defeat of powerful foreign enemies. His colleague, Cinna, was the politician, as Marius was the opposite of a statesman. These two instituted a veritable reign of terror; unfortunately for them, the "big fish" Sulla escaped the net. Marius having died in 86, Cinna lacked the military muscle to oppose Sulla, and was assassinated by one of his officers. He was, if anything, a worse tyrant than Marius.

     Sulla had little trouble defeating his rivals' successors and seizing power himself. He went after his own enemies by proscription, in the best style of Cinna. One of these enemies was an obscure fellow named Caesar, who was especially odious mainly as Cinna's son in law. Sulla, preferring both Caesar and Pompey in his own family, insisted that both divorce their wives in favor of his relatives; Pompey complied, Caesar refused.

     Whether this was principle or foolhardiness is debatable; Sulla took it amiss, and did his best to destroy this upstart. His assassins nearly claimed their victim; some of Caesar's friends in Sulla's faction begged Sulla to spare Caesar. Sulla allowed himself to be persuaded; adding, however, the famous line, "Very well, he is spared; however, he will be the ruin of our cause, for in this man there are many Mariuses". Prophetic, perhaps; or perhaps Sulla was simply a good judge of character.

     Caesar was spared, for the moment; however, deeming it best that he stay out of the way, he decided to join the military establishment as a career officer. The Roman army was at this time changing from a militia with civilian generals to a standing army with career officers, and it was therefore the perfect sort of exile for a supremely ambitious young man like Caesar. His career took off rapidly, as he was both ambitious and competent. Serving in various capacities in Asia Minor, mainly on the governor's staff, he quickly gained a formidable reputation for valor; when the army took Mytilene, for example, Caesar earned the "civic crown", made from oak leaves, for saving the life of a fellow soldier. He earned his; later on, his successors in power were awarded such crowns for "putting a stop to civil strife" or by getting rid of some tyrant. Caesar got his the hard way.

     Another of his adventures was his spell of captivity among pirates. While traveling to Rhodes he fell into the hands of pirates at Pharmacussa; they held him to ransom for the sum of twenty talents; he, insulted at the paltry sum demanded, insisted on their raising it to fifty. To him it didn't matter; he promised to return and exterminate the lot of them and recover his cash. They thought he was joking. They soon learned that he wasn't.

     After quashing one of many attempts of Mithradates of Pontus to stir up trouble in Asia, Caesar returned to Rome now that Sulla had resigned and his party was out of power. He was awarded the rank of military tribune, and plunged into politics as a good Marian. In 69 he was appointed Quaestor, and made the most of his speaking opportunities.

     As he was in the position, nearly unique in Rome, of having connections with both factions, his next move was to mend fences with Sulla's party. Accordingly he married again; this time the lady was the daughter of Quintus Pompeius, Pompey's brother; and the lady, being Sulla's grand-daughter, had all sorts of connections. Using these connections, he gained various offices, being appointed Quaestor in Spain, then elected Pontifex Maximus, then praetor in 62.

Brutus, as consul, with accensus and lictors. AR Denarius. Lot 239.

     Before he took office as Praetor Caesar found himself having to deal with a serious conspiracy. The plot of Catiline, whose ambition to become Consul having been frustrated and who as a result attempted to overthrow the Republic by force of arms, had to be dealt with; Catiline's associates were arrested. The Senate, lead by Cicero as consul, demanded that the conspirators be executed; Caesar alone holding out for clemency.

     He was so obstinate that he was threatened with penalties as a conspirator, or at least as an enemy of the state, and the conspirators were executed; nonetheless Caesar gained by this, not only obtaining a weapon to use against his opponents later - the executions were technically illegal - but also he gained the good will of that portion of the people sympathetic to Catiline's aims. In this he showed himself to be a master politician; he often supported one side of a proposal until he deemed its passage certain, then switched to the other side. As most people tend to remember those things which are favorable, and ignore those which are not - hence the popularity of so many so-called "prophets", whose few true predictions are remembered, while their vast output of false ones are forgotten - Caesar soon became one of those figures regarded as a friend by all sides.

     As Consul Caesar was allotted a province to govern; his, allotted by drawing lots, was Further Spain. He was happy enough to go; in Rome he was under siege from his creditors, and in Spain the Romans were likewise besieged by Celtiberic enemies. The latter he disposed of quickly; out of the province he managed to collect enough cash to deal with the most pressing of his creditors. On his return he tried his best to celebrate a triumph for his victories in Spain - for which he would appear as a general with his army - and also stand as a candidate for another consulship - which military men who had not disbanded their armies were prohibited by law from doing. To gain his end Caesar joined forces with one of his opponents, Lucceius, who had ample funds, and they set about bribing the voters. The third candidate, Bibulus - there were two positions - in response distributed bribes as lavishly, and in the end Caesar and Bibulus were elected.

     Once installed Caesar had no scruples about using force to deal with Bibulus's objections to his policies; finally Bibulus was forced to retire to his house, supposedly to "watch the sky" for omens - under Roman custom, no official business could be transacted at this time - leaving Caesar to act alone. It got to the point where people were referring to the period as "during the consulship of Julius and Caesar". One act of political genius which helped in this case was his alliance with his two natural opponents, Pompey and Crassus - they had their own quarrels with Caesar's opponents - and nobody could stop them. Cato tried, but when he tried one day to filibuster one of Caesar's measures out Caesar had him hauled off to prison.

     At the end of this consulship he chose his own province. This time he decided on Transalpine Gaul as the best place for his ambitions. Gaul was at the time inhabited by Celtic tribes who were generally very quarrelsome among themselves, and at the same time were settled sufficiently to have lost that edge of military skill their ancestors had when they took Rome itself. Caesar set out to bring them under control.

     Caesar raised an army on his own initiative, consisting of several standard Roman legions and many troops raised from friendly Gallic tribes. With this army he set about picking fights with the natives. His account of the warfare is a masterpiece of simple, direct Latin prose, as much a masterpiece as his campaigning: "Gallia est omnis divisa in parteis tres ..." (All Gaul is divided into three parts ...) is more than familiar to beginning Latin students. Although his army suffered a few setbacks, mainly due to his frequent neglect of his logistical requirements, his military skills allowed him to eventually subdue his Gaulish enemies. He attacked Britain in 54, hoping to subdue one source of support for his enemies; but a token submission from a few of the chiefs had no lasting effect. Caesar's political skills did not make quite the same impression, however, and his ruthless administration provoked a very serious rebellion in 52.

     The Gauls, though defeated, were not entirely subdued, and one of the chiefs, Ambiorix, decided that as the Romans were in widely scattered winter quarters and moved slowly on foot it was time to get rid of them. He lured one of the armies out of its camp and destroyed it, but soon learned that Caesar was able to move very quickly when he needed to. Caesar was able to deal the rebels a series of nasty shocks, and Amiorix soon disappears from the records.

Head of Vercingetorix. Silver Denarius. Lot 228.

     The revolt was petering out, as it was not going quite as expected, but Caesar's harsh treatment of his defeated enemies ensured that it was simply waiting for a better leader. It found one in Vercingetorix, a son of a chief of the Arverni, who nearly won. His final defeat was caused not so much by his failings as by his followers' dislike of losing their property, and hence they refused to carry out the guerrilla tactics necessary. They could not win in open warfare; they insisted on fighting set battles and sustaining sieges; hence they lost, and Gaul became a province.

     Caesar's aim in all this was to use his success as a stepping-stone to advancement at home. In the meanwhile, with Cicero exiled and Caesar out of town, politics in Rome had gone from bad to worse. The two "aristocrats", Cicero and Cato, probably the two most honest politicians in this last century of the Republic, had both been exiled; the first on the pretext of an appointment, the second was exiled by his enemies on the excuse of his irregular proceedings against Catiline's fellow conspirators. With even this restraint gone, the factions in Rome were battling it out, sometimes literally - Cicero's main enemy, the notorious Clodius, tried to get his agenda passed by intimidation with a large band of roughs, and in response one Milo set up his own gang of ruffians - and typically they refused to make any deals with anyone. Pompey and Crassus were then at odds, with each trying to get the support of all sorts of dubious allies.

     Caesar's enemies were active against him as usual. One item of interest was an attempt to put a stop to any distribution of public land for his veterans as a sort of military pension, from publicly owned lands within Italy. Nominally the bill would affect all parties; but Pompey's troops, long back from Asia, were already settled, hence would lose nothing, but Caesar's troops would be deprived of their customary benefits. This was Cicero's proposal; Caesar persuaded him of the error of his ways through the mediation of Cicero's brother Quintus, one of Caesar's subordinates, and the crisis was for the moment averted.

Caesar's fourth dictatorship. AR denarius. Lot 235.

     Pompey meanwhile was doing his best to get himself appointed as dictator. Given that there was at the time no outstanding national crisis he was doing his best to create one. The idea was to cow the Senate with an army, raised and stationed in Italy, ostensibly raised to serve in Spain, while fomenting constant civil unrest.

     As his only real rival, Caesar, was away in Gaul - he took his governorship sufficiently seriously to actually reside in the province - Pompey felt himself assured of success. Crassus, third partner in the triumvirate, was in Asia, where his inferiority complex - he was a money man, not a soldier - led him to disaster in a Parthian campaign in 53 - was no threat in any case.

     By 52 Caesar had become aware that, with Crassus gone, Pompey was looking to get him out of the way. The chaos in Rome had progressed to the point where riots were a constant occurrance, senators were attacked - Cicero barely escaped one such - and eventually Milo's mob caught and killed Clodius. As Pompey had hoped, the Senate - meeting in improvised housing, since the Senate House had been burned down - offered the necessary authority to Pompey; however, Pompey was at Cicero's suggestion voted sole consul rather than dictator, which somewhat limited his legal authority.

     With the limitations Pompey wasn't able to accomplish much. Perhaps in addition he was a bit too much of a soldier to mutiny against his commanders. It was obvious to all, however, that he intended to get rid of Caesar either by superseding him in Gaul with some puppet or by letting him stand for the consulship, but for the latter he would have to give up his army and would hence be vulnerable. Caesar had no intention of falling for any of this so he got his friends to introduce legislation to let him stand for election "in absentia", as well as providing for his discharged troops. Pompey wasn't about to either agree or refuse, since he would lose either way.

Æ As of Sextus Pompey. Head of Janus with features of Pompey. Lot 232.

     The elections of 50 decided the issue. Both consuls were bitter enemies of Caesar, and insisted on removing him from his command. Knowing that his doom would follow his removal by a month or so Caesar not surprisingly bought every possible vote in Rome, managing to escape immediate danger through the veto power of the tribunes, one of which - Curio - he had bought with a very large bribe. The final event in this drama was the vote on 1 December, when the consuls introduced motions to formally remove Caesar from command. The only bill which passed, however, was one requiring both Caesar and Pompey to disband their armies, which didn't suit Pompey at all.

     Anticipating trouble, Caesar was by this time camped in Ravenna with a legion. As it was in his province of Cisalpine Gaul it was well within his authority. He was, however, expecting things to happen, and sent a message to the Senate asking that he be allowed to retain his troops until his consulship began; then, failing that, that both commanders be relieved of command. After all, Pompey's promise to disband at some later date was unlikely to be enforceable if he chose not to disband, so some sort of mutual disarmament was necessary.

     The term of the tribune Curio, who was Caesar's agent, expired on 31 December, and he was replaced by Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius. These two were agents by choice rather than by bribery, and were active on his behalf. Thus when they vetoed a measure of dubious legality demanding that Caesar resign his command by 1 March they were chased from the Senate House with threats by Pompey's agents.

     With these two expelled Pompey was easily able to force through a measure authorizing him to "see that the state suffers no harm"; this vague decree authorized him to do whatever he saw fit, and with the tribunes expelled it was entirely illegal.

Caesar as Perpetual Dictator. AR Denarius of 44 BC. Lot 236.

     Given this situation Caesar decided to act quickly. He sent his troops to occupy the city of Ariminium, to secure northern Italy. On the way he had to cross the river Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province, and within which no commander was allowed by law to bring an army. He hesitated for a moment, according to the sources, then with his famous statement "The die is cast!" he crossed. The Civil War had begun.

     Caesar advanced against Pompey with his usual combination of lightning speed and methodical consolidation. While we can discount many of Caesar's exaggerated claims about his own brilliance, nonetheless his campaign against Pompey was sound, based largely as it was on the fact that Caesar had better troops at his disposal, and he knew how to gain and hold their loyalty. One such method, which cost him nothing, was to borrow large sums of money from his officers and give it as a bonus to his troops; this tied the former to his cause, as they would be repaid only if Caesar won, and the soldiers always preferred to fight for a generous commander. Another was to readily dismiss troops who were insubordinate; he quelled a mutiny by the single word "citizens", they were so put out by the implication that they were no more use to him than ordinary civilians that they clamored for reinstatement.

     Caesar first moved to consolidate his power in the center of the Republic, namely in Italy. He had the satisfaction of defeating his named successor for Gaul, namely Domitius Ahenobarbus, who he captured and, with characteristic clemency, released. After securing Italy he went overland to Spain where Pompey had left a strong army under his lieutenants. The "army without a general", as Caesar put it, was no match for him, since most of it consisted of men with little military experience against Caesar's veterans, and its commanders men of little skill, and Caesar disposed of it without much trouble.

     After Spain, Caesar sailed to Greece to meet Pompey, the "general without an army". He blockaded Pompey in Dyrrachium; Pompey broke out, but failed to follow up his advantage; hence Caesar's comment that Pompey did not know how to use a victory. Caesar rallied his troops and pursued, catching Pompey at Pharsalos and defeating him in a decisive battle. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was promptly murdered. The Egyptians took Pompey's head off, embalmed it, and presented it to Caesar in the expetation of a reward; Caesar was appalled, and had the assassins executed.

     Caesar's character can best be summed up in his comments while reviewing the aftermath of the battle of Pharsalos; he commented that "this they brought on themselves; this cruel necessity, since they would have condemned me as a criminal, who had won so many victories". He probably meant it in the sense of "this is how these people treat a public benefactor, and they could hardly expect me not to defend myself". He later claimed that "the chief enjoyment he had of his victory was in saving every day one or other of his fellow citizens, who had borne arms against him".      He pardoned most of his opponents, and even entrusted many of them with positions of importance. Some of them proved ungrateful; more than one plotted his assassination.

     He soon after was called upon to arbitrate in a succession dispute in Egypt between Ptolemy XIII and his more famous sister Cleopatra VII under the terms of their father's will - Ptolemy XII Auletes, the "flute-player", as his subjects nicknamed him, was indebted to Rome for his restoration to his throne, as well as for a great deal of money . Caesar landed with a small army - actually a large honor guard - and all the trappings of a Roman consul. Neither side, however, was disposed to submit to arbitration, and he found the truth of the proverb that "he that interferes in a quarrel not his own is like a man who seizes a dog by the ears", he unites both parties against himself.

     Both factions objected to Caesar's interference, and Caesar barely escaped with his life when Ptolemy's army attacked. His impartiality was soon compromised by the sudden appearance of Cleopatra, smuggled past her brother's besieging troops rolled up in a carpet.

     Not surprisingly Caesar found her much more persuasive than her thirteen-year-old brother, and had no trouble forming an alliance with her. Nonetheless Caesar had his work cut out for him in dealing with this new ally; at one time he was reduced to swimming in the Alexandrian harbor, holding some important papers up to keep them dry, all the while being shot at from the shore. Ultimately he triumphed, and settled things to his - and Cleopatra's - satisfaction.

Portrait of Cleopatra, from Æ 40 Drachms of Alexandria. Lot 161.

     Indeed, things in Egypt were certainly satisfactory. Cleopatra found a protector; indeed, more than a protector, since she produced a child not long after which everyone claimed was Caesar's; certainly Octavius took the claim seriously enough to have the child done away with soon after Actium.

     Space fails to do more than touch on the factors leading up the Ides of March, 44 BC. Caesar fought and won wars in Pontus, after the decisive battle of which war he summed his action up by the famous phrase "Veni, vidi, vici", viz. "I came, I saw, I conquered", at the same time remarking that Pompey was fortunate in being able to build up a reputation by victories over such pathetic opponents, and in North Africa, where the remnants of Pompey's army stirred up trouble.      Caesar's only regret in the African war was that Cato, commanding the garrison at Utica, committed suicide when his situation became hopeless, thus depriving Caesar of an opportunity to show mercy to a respected enemy.

     Caesar introduced many civil reforms, notably in 46 BC his calendar, which replaced the old year with its shortfalls and make-up months with one of 365 days and a leap day every four years. His public works projects were considerable without being grandiose. Still, he was a dictator without an emergency.

     Most of Caesar's reforms were moderate, and his chief opponent, Cicero, was a moderate, so initially the chief leaders were essentially "friendly enemies". Cicero proposed that the Senate vote Caesar reasonable Roman honors. Others objected, wanting to curry favor by extravagance. They voted all sorts of things: a triumph with a statue of Caesar accompanying that of Victory, as if Caesar were on the same divine level; a temple to Caesar's "divinitas", and similar things. Various of his flatterers, notably Antony, tried to offer him a royal diadem; he refused, saying that he was not a king, merely Caesar.

     Some people regarded his objections to some of the flattery as an insult to the Senate which proposed it; others regarded his refusal of kingship as insincere, especially when his portrait was on so many of the coins; to Romans this was in itself a claim to royalty. Accordingly, when the Senate voted him perpetual dictator many of the "champions of liberty" decided to act.

     Not that they had any personal grudge; in the ranks of the so-called "liberators" were many who regarded him as their best friend or patron. Cicero summed it up best: when Caesar arrived for a dinner party his presence - with 2000 soldiers - was onerous, but most pleasant, according to the host. Nonetheless Cassius, Brutus (two of them, actually) and company decided that Caesar was a threat to the Republic and, whatever their personal opinions, he had to go.      

     Accordingly, Marcus Junius Brutus saw himself as a fit successor to his ancestor Lucius, who led the rebellion against the last of the Tarquin kings. As is well known, they succeeded on the Ides of March, and the Republic had a brief final existence. They did whatever they could to face the threat of Caesar's heirs, named as well as self-styled. The Liberators found themselves fighting Antony; they did well so long as Octavius supported them, but he was too shifty for them. He came to an agreement with Antony against the "Liberators"; the new allies defeating Caesar's assassins at Philippi.

Emergency Senatorial coinage. Gold Aureus with head of Africa in elephant-skin. Lot 238.

     What the "Liberators" failed to realize was that by 44 BC the question was not one of the Republic versus a monarchy, but rather, who the monarch was to be. They jumped from Caesar's frying pan into Octavius's fire, and by Actium nothing was left of the Republic but ashes, which often look substantial but crumble to powder at a touch.

     The general ancient verdict on Caesar was somewhat hostile. Perhaps a fairer verdict was that he was like an honest but overzealous policeman, who knew where the trouble was, but had no patience with annoying constitutional restrictions. As most of what we know comes either from opponents like Cicero, or from authors of Imperial times who looked on late republican Rome as a sort of "golden age", Caesar does not come across in a sympathetic light. Certainly he was less unscrupulous than Sulla or Pompey. Whether he intended to set himself up as a king is a question which will never be answered. He was certainly the least of the possible evils of his time.

Denarius of Augustus showqing the comet which appeared after Caesar's death. Lot 248.