Roman Republic's Civil Wars and End
Slavery and Rome's First Servile War | Violence against the Gracchi Bothers | Reformers, Conservatives and Bloodshed | Sulla to Julius Caesar | Caesar 's Reforms and Assassination | The Assassination Fails Politically | Antony and Cleopatra Offend | Octavian becomes Augustus Caesar......
Slavery and Rome's First Servile (slave) War
With a growing supply of slaves, on some days in Rome thousands of them might be put on the market. They were forced to stand naked with a placard around their neck to advertise their qualities, and their flesh was inspected and felt. For a pretty boy or girl a Roman might have to pay more, but a Sardinian, Gaul or Spaniard cost very little – far less than it cost to breed a slave.
Plantation owners placed male slaves in barracks or housed them in underground dungeons, leaving them separated from their families they might never see again. These slaves worked in gangs ordered about by men with lashes. They were chained at night. They could be killed by their master without the master suffering any punishment, but if a slave killed a master a number of them could be held accountable and put to death.
To appear affluent, a Roman family had to have at least ten slaves. Families had slaves for just about every task. And the power that a master and his family had over their domestic slaves encouraged some slaves to wheedle their way into favor through flattery or sexual favors.
Most Romans saw slavery as a natural part of life, a result of their being favored by the gods and defeat and slavery as the fate of inferior peoples. For some Romans, looking at a creature more wretched than they bolstered their pride, and many Romans made slaves the objects of their ridicule.
Runaway slaves roamed the countryside, surviving by banditry and making travel dangerous. Slaves sometimes revolted in groups, one of the larger of such revolts coming in 196 BCE, a revolt that ended with the Romans executing approximately 7,000 of them. A generation later the Romans crushed another rebellion, involving around 4,000.
In 135 BCE, about 400 slaves in Sicily revolted after being encouraged to do so by a slave-priest from Syria named Eunus, who had announced favor from the gods. Historians call this the First Servile War. The slaves massacred most of their masters, sparing only a few who had been most humane to them. This uprising encouraged other slaves in Sicily, and as many as 60,000 joined the revolt. They seized a number of Sicilian towns, and they defeated the first of the armies that Rome sent against them.
Slave unrest intensified on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea. There, inPergamum, slave unrest was accompanied by a wider social unrest. The king, Attalus III, near death and childless, willed his empire to Rome, believing perhaps that only Rome would be able to maintain law and order there. And when Attalus died in 133, Rome accepted Pergamum as its inheritance. Before Rome established its rule there, someone claimed the throne as the legitimate successor to Attalus. This was Aristonicus, who took the name Eumenes III. He appealed to slaves and serfs in a common cause against Roman authority. Eumenes III warred against Rome's allies to his northeast and east in Asia Minor – the rulers of Pontus, neighboring Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Cappadocia – and he easily defeated them.
In Sicily, after three years of struggle, the Romans finally broke the back of the slave uprising there, leaving them only mopping up operations. Roman legions went to Asia Minor where they defeated Eumenes and isolated him in Caria. Eumenes surrendered, and, in the year 129, the Romans took him and the treasure of Pergamum's ruling family to Rome, where Eumenes III was paraded through the streets, thrown into prison and executed by strangulation
Slave unrest intensified on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea. There, inPergamum, slave unrest was accompanied by a wider social unrest. The king, Attalus III, near death and childless, willed his empire to Rome, believing perhaps that only Rome would be able to maintain law and order there. And when Attalus died in 133, Rome accepted Pergamum as its inheritance. Before Rome established its rule there, someone claimed the throne as the legitimate successor to Attalus. This was Aristonicus, who took the name Eumenes III. He appealed to slaves and serfs in a common cause against Roman authority. Eumenes III warred against Rome's allies to his northeast and east in Asia Minor – the rulers of Pontus, neighboring Bithynia, Paphlagonia, and Cappadocia – and he easily defeated them.
In Sicily, after three years of struggle, the Romans finally broke the back of the slave uprising there, leaving them only mopping up operations. Roman legions went to Asia Minor where they defeated Eumenes and isolated him in Caria. Eumenes surrendered, and, in the year 129, the Romans took him and the treasure of Pergamum's ruling family to Rome, where Eumenes III was paraded through the streets, thrown into prison and executed by strangulation
Violence against the Gracchi Brothers
133 BCE, Tiberius Gracchus was elected by a people's assembly (Comitus Plebis) as one of ten tribunes. He was a military veteran known for his bravery, and he had an enthusiastic following among Rome's urban poor. He was from one of Rome's most prestigious families and the brother-in-law of the brilliant General Scipio, under whom he had served. But he complained that those who had borne arms for their country enjoyed nothing more than air and light and that they had fought and died to maintain the luxury and wealth of others. He spoke of the restless poor being a threat to political stability and complained that the small farmer, who had been the backbone of the republic, was disappearing – their farms often going bankrupt and bought by those with wealth. Tiberius claimed that for justice and the safety of all it was urgent that as many families as possible be restored to the land. Restoring land to the poor, moreover, would make more Romans eligible for military service.Senators accused Tiberius of attempting to usurp the Senate's prerogatives, and they complained about what they called his ambition and called him a dangerous revolutionary.
The conflict over land reform dragged on through much of 133. That year, during Tiberius' campaign for re-election, a riot broke out between his supporters and his opponents. News of the riot reached the Senate, and one of the Senators, also Rome's chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus, quickly gathered a mob that included servants and clients of prominent city leaders. The mob rushed the supporters of Tiberius, clubbing and stoning to death three hundred of them. They found Tiberius, tore his toga from his body, bludgeoned him to death and threw him and the bodies of the other dead into the Tiber River.
It was the first recorded political murder in Rome since the Republic's founding 376 years before. The Senate attempted to legalize the killings: it set up a court that tried surviving supporters of Tiberius, and it posthumously charged Tiberius with having planned an attempt to become king – a most serious charge in republican Rome. Many Romans viewed the Senators as august and honorable men and believed the charges against Tiberius. They reasoned that if Tiberius wanted to become king then he deserved to die. Many others believed the charges against Tiberius were false and that he had died for the common people. The court found some of Tiberius' followers guilty of having supported Tiberius and had them executed. Then, concerned with public opinion, the Senate sent thePontifex Maximus to the East, ostensibly on business but in fact into exile.
The younger brother of Tiberius was elected tribune annually in the years 123 and 122, and he carried on the struggle for reforms. He successfully challenged the power of the Senate by passing legislation that outlawed proceedings such as those the Senate had used to persecute his brother's supporters. The new law forbade trials with the power of capital punishment that did not have the approval of a people's assembly. Gaius sought Roman citizenship for those Italians who had fought with Rome's armies, and for the landless among them he founded a colony where Carthage once stood. Among those opposed to giving citizenship to Italian veterans were Roman businessmen, who feared lost advantage and more competition. Roman citizens were warned that the spread of citizenship would jeopardize their good seats at shows and festivals. They disseminated false rumors about the failure of Gaius' project at Carthage, and they managed to turn enough of Rome's citizens against Gaius that he lost his bid for a third term as tribune.
A scuffle broke out between supporters of Gaius and opponents that left dead the servant of a consul who was a vociferous enemy of Gaius. The consul used this incident to persuade the Senate to create martial law, which enabled the Senate to create an armed force with which the consul could combat civil unrest. Knowing they were the targets of the Senate's martial law, Gaius and as many as three thousand of his supporters withdrew to the city's southern-most of seven hills, Aventine Hill, about 1.8 kilometers (1.14 miles) from the city center. Before the year 121 was over, the consul's army overran and killed them. A reward had been offered for Gaius' head, and he was decapitated. A soldier, it is said, scooped out the brains and filled the skull with lead and then turned it in for the reward: an equal weight in gold.
Reformers, Conservatives and Bloodshed, to 81 BCE
From the years 112 to 106 BCE the Romans fought the Jurguthine War in Numidia in North Africa. A commoner soldier, Gaius Marius, became a military hero leading armies during that war. Then in the years 104-02 the Romans fought blondish tribes of Cimbri and Teutons who had been threatening Rome from the north. In one battle against these tribes the Romans lost as many as 80,000 dead – Rome's greatest defeat since Cannae. Fear and panic swept through Italy, and in Rome frightened people mobbed and stoned senators. In 101 the Cimbri invaded Italy. Marius decisively defeated them, and Romans saw him as their savior. In Rome's annual elections for its two consuls, Marius in the year 100 was elected again as consul, as he had been in 107 and for the fifth consecutive year since 104.
Military heroism, in the person of Marius, was again on the side of reforms. A tribune named Saturninus and his praetor friend, Glaucia, were political allies of Marius, and for Marius they wrote a program of reforms. The program called for Marius' Italian veterans to receive Roman citizenship, and his veterans were to receive lands that had been taken from the Cimbri. Also for Marius' veterans, colonies were to be created in Sicily, Macedonia and Greece. And for people in general, there was to be a reduction in the price of grain. From some opposed to reform came a renewed threat of violence, and Marius countered these threats by calling his veterans into the streets. The Senate vetoed the reforms, and one of the tribunes sided with the senators, preventing the people's assembly (Comitias Plebis) from overriding the veto. But by threatening the Senate with Marius' veterans, Saturninus coerced it into changing its position. Violence was still a major political force within in the city of Rome.Backers of Saturninus and Glaucia murdered a recently elected tribune whom they disliked, and Rome's business class – the equites – joined the aristocrats in the Senate. The Senate ordered Marius to restore order. Marius was shamed by the tribune's murder. Using his veterans, he had Saturninus and Glaucia and some of their followers arrested and locked in the Senate house for safekeeping. But a group hostile to Saturninus and Glaucia tore a hole in its roof and stoned the two men and their followers to death.
In 95 BCE the Senate attempted to punish those who had supported Marius' reforms, many of whom were Marius' Italian veterans. The Senate passed a law that ordered all non-Roman Italians in Rome to move out of the city. Italians, meanwhile, were becoming fed up with the Romans taking advantage of them. And they were fed up with the imperious attitudes of visiting Roman officials – as when the wife of a visiting senior Roman official had all the men turned out of a bath so she could use it and then complained that the bath was not clean. The Italians had fought alongside the Romans, paid taxes to Rome and shared the financial burden of Rome's wars, but they had been given no corresponding increase in rewards and were without equal protection under Roman law. A Roman soldier could not be summarily executed by an officer, but an Italian soldier could. In warfare, Romans got a greater share of booty, and the Italians were often sent against the tougher enemies. Now the Italians wanted equality, and they wanted their votes to count concerning vital issues decided in Rome.
A senator who supported the Italians, Druses, was assassinated, and when word of his assassination spread through Italy it was a signal to Italians that relief from Rome would not be forthcoming. Various Italian cities increased communications with each other and took steps that to Rome suggested conspiratorial alliances. Rome sent officials to Italian cities to spy and to persuade. In the city of Asculum, in the northeast, a visiting Roman official berated a crowd. The crowd became enraged and killed him and his aides. Fearing retaliation from Rome, the crowd closed their city's gates, and they hunted down and killed all the Romans they could find. Other Italian cities joined Asculum in an open revolt against Rome. And Rome sent its legions against the rebel cities. A civil war had begun, and in the first year of the war, Rome moved to prevent more cities from joining the rebellion, and they did so by extending citizenship to their inhabitants, pretending they were doing so as a reward for their loyalty. What the Romans had resisted before the war, they were now offering because of the war.
By the second year of the war, Rome gained the upper hand. A Roman army attacked Asculum, and it was written that only a handful of that city's 60,000 people survived. Anxious to end the war, Rome offered citizenship to those cities that would agree to stop fighting. Many cities accepted, and the war began winding down.
By now the war had damaged Italy's economy. Debt had become more widespread. Uncertain about the future, financiers had begun refusing to make more loans, and they were demanding payment. Those Romans angered by the money-lenders had begun a movement against usury. A praetor responded favorably to the movement and invoked an ancient law against usury that had long been ignored. This infuriated financiers, and a gang of men mobbed the praetor and cut his throat, and some who had spoken in favor of the praetor and against usury were lynched.
Amid continuing discord between reformers and conservatives, the Senate chose as a consul a man who had become a personal enemy of Marius: Lucius Cornelius Sulla (pronounced SÜ-lah). He had fought alongside Sulla in the Jurguthine War and had been on Marius' staff against the Cimbri and Teutons. He became renowned as a general during the war against the Italians. He was a conservative, dismissing grievances and viewing the political turmoil in Rome of recent years as the product of anarchical inclinations among common people.
Sulla left Rome to take command of the six legions in Italy to stop expansions by a descendent of Seleucus, Mithridates VI, ruler of Pontusin Asia Minor. The appointment of Sulla instead of Marius to fight Mithridates disturbed those who favored reforms. Political violence again erupted in Rome. In violation of a sacred prohibition against a military leader marching troops into Rome, Sulla returned there with his army. He defeated the army that Marius had hastily assembled, and he and his troops overwhelmed others who supported Marius and his political ally, the orator Rufus. Rufus' severed head was nailed up for public display. Marius and others fled the city, and Sulla had them declared outlaws, which allowed anyone to kill them.
As Consul, Sulla decreed that the Senate would have the power to veto any bill or election it pleased and that tribunes would be unable to initiate legislation. Sulla did not run again for consul, and in the year 87, the Military Assembly elected one consul who supported Sulla and another consul who was popular among the common people: a man named Cinna. Sulla and his troops were looking forward to going East again to combat Mithridates, and, before they departed, Sulla had Cinna swear that he would not try to subvert the new order.
Soon after Sulla and his troops left for the East, political violence erupted again in Rome. To save himself from the conservatives, Cinna fled Rome, and the Senate took away his consulship. Cinna raised an army among Italians, and Marius joined him with a force he had gathered from among his veterans and some local shepherds and runaway slaves. To counter Cinna and Marius, the Senate raised a force, but to no avail. Cinna and Marius marched their armies into Rome and they won control of the city. Marius, almost seventy, sought vengeance for his years of humiliation, and he and Cinna sought to secure their standing against any possible future vengeance. Their troops butchered all supporters of Sulla that they could find. They murdered various senators and nailed their heads up for public display while much of the rest of the Senate fled the city. The violence and disrespect for a rule by law that Rome's conservatives had initiated in the days of the Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, had come full circle.
Cinna was made consul again, and Marius became the other consul, a consul for the seventh time, as a prophet had told him he would. But the prophecy was apparently only a tease: Marius died after only a month in office. Cinna was left with control of the city, enjoying the support of most of the city's commoners. He repealed Sulla's laws, reduced all debts by seventy-five percent, gave complete equality to Italians, declared Sulla a public enemy, confiscated Sulla's property and persecuted Sulla's family and friends.
In the East, Mithridates agreed to withdraw from all territories he had conquered, to surrender part of his navy, and to pay Rome an indemnity. Sulla restored various kings that Mithridates had deposed, and he punished those Greek cities that had been prominent in their support of Mithridates. Then in the year 84 BCE, two years after Cinna had taken power in Rome, Sulla began his return. He landed in Italy in the spring of 83. Cinna sent an army against him, to no avail. Many of Cinna's soldiers deserted to Sulla's side. Mutinous soldiers assassinated Cinna. Sulla's army took power in Rome and slaughtered 8,000 Romans that it had taken prisoner.
Sulla drew up an enemies list: forty insufficiently conservative or insufficiently loyal senators and a list of sixteen hundred members of the equites. He gave rewards to informers who helped round up the enemies. Men were taken by surprise in their homes, in the streets and in temples. Some were killed outright. Some were dragged through the streets as frightened spectators dared not protest. Sulla had the property of the executed distributed to his soldiers, which inspired some to accuse and attack anyone with property. And Sulla set free the nearly forty thousand slaves of the executed, giving them his name and winning a new source of support and new recruits for repressing and terrorizing those considered enemies of his rule. Then, with dictatorial powers, he sought to undo the political failings of the previous fifty years.
ulius Caesar, reformer
Sulla to Julius Caesar
Sulla created a political constitution that he believed would restore order and dignity to Rome. Believing in firm government by leaders of the upper classes, he reduced the powers that had been given the tribunes and the people's assembly (Comitia Plebis) more than a three centuries earlier, when Rome was holding to a spirit of compromise. He gave seats in the Senate to members of the business class, the equites, believing that they too should be a part of the ruling elite. He made it law that one had to hold a lower office before being elected to a higher office, and he reorganized administration of the provinces. He created term limits, making it law that one had to wait ten years before running for another term for the same office. He ended the distribution of free grain among Rome's poor, hoping this would encourage some of them to leave the city. He moved against what he saw as subversive religions, prohibiting what he viewed as magic, nocturnal rites and witchcraft. Those found guilty of performing these were to be crucified or thrown to wild beasts. In the year 79 BCE he retired, and after one year of peace and contentment he died
Spartacus and Slavery
It is said that a soldier from Thrace named Spartacus deserted and become an outlaw, and for survival he joined drifters in bandit raids, and he was caught. For punishment, Roman authorities sold him as a slave. He became a prisoner at a training school for gladiator contests in the city of Capua. And there, in 73 BCE, he and seventy-seven other prisoners and slaves escaped and seized control ofMount Vesuvius, 9 kilometers southeast of Neapolis (Naples). As before, news of the revolt encouraged other slaves to revolt, and they joined Spartacus on Vesuvius – an army of from 50,000 to 100,000. Thus began what historians called the Third Servile War.
The slaves on Vesuvius were too diverse for any one leader to control. Some wished to go north across the Alps and disperse. Others wished to remain in Italy and plunder. Despite their disorganization they managed to hold off the first legions sent against them, which were incompetently led. Rome sent more legions, led by the talented Marcus Crassus, an ambitious aristocrat. He had amassed a great fortune, much of it by buying estates cheaply from Sulla's victims and reselling later for a big profit. He had acquired political position by lending money to young aristocrats with political ambitions, and he had made money by operating a fire brigade in Rome that would rush to the scene of a fire and buy the property at a bargain price before agreeing to put the fire out.
Pompey. His opportunism put him at odds with Caesar, his former ally. One of Rome's big heroes
Pompey went to the East where, at the head of an army, he intended to create peace and stability. In Syria, Seleucid princes had been feuding. Pompey defeated Jewish resistance and put that area under Roman authority. Then he went toJudea to end civil war there. In the year 63, Rome annexed Syria and Judea. In 62, Rome annexed Pontus (in Asia Minor), and it put the island of Crete under Roman authority.
Benefiting from an alliance with Crassus and Pompey, Caesar was elected consul in 58. And as consul he proposed to the Senate a land bill for Pompey's veterans. The legislation failed. Back from the East, Pompey's veterans were a dominant force in Rome. Threatened with violence the Senate acquiesced and passed Caesar's bill. Caesar supported legislation that Crassus sought, and Caesar's alliance with Pompey was reinforced by Pompey marrying his daughter, Julia.
Forbidden by law to run for a second term as consul, Caesar won a five-year appointment as governor of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. In Rome, news of each of Caesar's victories against the Gauls inspired a celebration. The more glory that Caesar won the more conservative senators feared him as another Marius. They described his victories as cheap aggressions against inoffensive peoples. The death of Caesar's daughter, Julia, ended a tie between him and Pompey. And Crassus was jealous of Caesar's successes in Gaul.
In Rome, a popular gang leader, Clodius, supported Caesar, and he fought for legislation that would give more free food to Rome's poor. His gang clashed with a rival gang led by Milos, a friend of Pompey. A clash between these two gangs in the year 57 left some dead. Another clash in 52 left Clodius dead, killed by order of Milos. Irate supporters of Clodius carried his body into the Senate, where they made a funeral pyre from Senate benches and burned his corpse along with the Senate building.
The Senate allowed Pompey to raise an army to restore order and supress the gangs that roamed Rome's streets. Pompey was delighted by the opportunity. The Senate established special courts to prosecute those responsible for the recent disorders. Milos was convicted and given lenient punishment: exile to the port city of Massilia in Roman controlled southern Gaul. Then, despite its illegality, Pompey won another term as consul, leading one Senator to quip that any government was better than no government.
Sulla's constitutional law was of little account. The Senate passed a bill that called for Caesar to be replaced as governor of Gaul. A tribune ally of Caesar's vetoed the bill. The Senate ignored the veto and demanded that Caesar disband his army and resign unconditionally. Rather than accept an end to his career and perhaps death, Caesar chose to attack. With his army he crossed the Rubicon River, another illegal move. Some Italians and other soldiers rushed to join his forces. Faced with a popular rising and the might of Caesar's army, most of the Senate fled the city in panic, leaving behind their wives and children. Pompey believed his force too meager to combat Caesar and his supporters, and, comparing himself to Sulla, he fled with his army to the East – his place of recent victories and power – in hope of gathering to his side the troops stationed there.
Caesar entered Rome triumphant. People throughout Italy cheered his success. Caesar and his army confronted Pompey in Greece, Pompey having twice as many infantrymen as Caesar and seven thousand cavalry to Caesar's one thousand. But Caesar was brighter and his troops more experienced. His army crushed Pompey's army. Pompey fled in the direction of Egypt. Continuing his policy of reconciliation, Caesar offered a pardon to those whom Pompey left behind, and many of them joined Caesar's armies, while others fled. The young Egyptian king, Ptolemy XII, saw Pompey as a loser and a danger. He had Pompey stabbed to death soon after he stepped ashore.
In the autumn of 47, Caesar returned to Rome to a torchlight parade that included forty elephants and delirious crowds. Then Caesar turned his attention to creating a stable government and solving economic and social problems. He gave land in Gaul and Spain to his veterans. Seeking order, he announced that the revolution was over. He began to create a politics of consensus and a government of laws – but not democracy, which was commonly believed to be an unruly form of government. He banned the gangs that had created turmoil in Rome's streets. He restored the Senate, which now consisted of many new members and fewer aristocrats. And he accepted the title of "Dictator for Life."
Caesar laid plans for economic improvements across the empire. Marshes south of Rome were drained, business districts of various cities were improved, and new theaters and temples were built. He proposed construction projects for improving trade by sea and for improving harbors. He laid plans for a new canal for the city of Corinth. Caesar began enlisting men of talent into public service, and he saw the need for improvement in the organization of municipal governments throughout Italy. He started standardizing and streamlining cumbersome local governmental operations. He sought to bind citizens in the provinces closer to Rome by doing away with laws that made distinctions between them and the citizens of Rome. He gave Roman citizenship to Gauls who had fought alongside him when he was governor there. He created better government in territories governed by Rome, including Judea. He gave Jews there a greater autonomy, reduced their taxes, exempted them from having to serve in Rome's armies, and he allowed them freedom again to worship their god Yahweh.
Caesar placed a learned man in charge of Rome's library, and he laid plans for an increase in government involvement in Rome's public education. He gave Roman citizenship to Greek teachers in hope of encouraging them to come to Rome. Caesar also had the calendar revised. The old calendar was a hodgepodge of contributions by various priests. Caesar was an Epicurean and closer to its materialism than he was to traditional religion. He wanted a calendar that was organized around considerations not colored by religion. He drew from the expertise of astronomers and mathematicians, the result being the basic calendar of today.
Some among Rome's privileged saw Caesar as responsible for an end to the republic, and rather than exhibiting patience or attempting argument and compromise, they opted for a return to the politics of violence: assassination. Like most assassins they had little grasp of what would follow their deed.
Some of the conspirators were former supporters of Caesar who hoped to advance their careers. Some were from families as distinguished as Caesar's who resented his condescending air of superiority. Toward them and others, Caesar had been acting like a parent: chiding, urging them to get along, caring about them all and seldom asking for their opinions.
The conspiracy to assassinate Caesar was led by a former first commander under Pompey, Gaius Cassius, whom Caesar had pardoned and made a legate. Another conspirator, Marcus Brutus, was a senator and a former follower of Pompey whom Caesar had pardoned. He was also a Stoic – a montheistic philosophy about endurance, patience and god's will – and he had a reputation as an idealist. When he joined the conspiracy his prestige inspired twelve other senators to join. Another Stoic and senator, the great, voluble Cicero, was aware of the plot to murder Caesar. He continued to pretend friendship with Caesar while seeing the conspiracy as patriotism that would rid Rome of despotism.
Caesar was preparing to go east to do battle against the Parthians, who were creating trouble for Rome on the border if its empire, and those plotting Caesar's assassination wanted to strike before he left. Caesar had heard rumors of a plot, but he had not surrounded himself with spies, and he knew nothing of whom the plotters were or when they might strike.
On the morning of March 15, 44 BCE, five years after having crossed the Rubicon, Caesar went to a meeting at the Forum to ratify his using the title of king when outside Italy – a title for dealing with foreign peoples who understood authority mainly by that name. As he often did, he went without his bodyguards, but he was accompanied by a rugged companion: one of his former generals and Rome's other consul, Marcus Antonius, a name to be anglicized to Mark Antony.
Brutus believed that killing Antony would be an injustice; so another conspirator detained Antony in conversation as Caesar made his way to his seat. It appeared that people were approaching Caesar, as usual, to exchange words and ask for favors. Alongside a statue of Pompey, someone pulled at Caesar's cloak. Someone else stabbed him from behind in the neck. Caesar turned and wrestled with the assailant. As many as sixty others joined in the attack, wounding one another in the fray. Nearby senators looked on, some of them stunned. Caesar saw Brutus with his knife raised and asked him: "You too my son?" Brutus plunged his knife into Caesar and shouted congratulations to the Senate's leader, Cicero. Stabbed twenty-three times, Caesar fell to the floor and died.
News of Caesar's assassination spread fast in Rome and struck terror into Caesar's close associates, who believed that they too might be targeted for death. With some others, the commander of Caesar's military guard, Lepidus, had a failure of nerve and did not mobilize his troops against the assassins. Two days after the assassination, Mark Antony, seeing no reign of terror, emerged in public with a personal guard that he had organized. Still afraid, he was ready and willing to compromise with the Senate, and he made his now famous speech about burying rather than praising Caesar – his ability as a speaker to be exaggerated by Shakespeare. As the surviving consul he accepted power and spoke favorably of the powers of the Senate.
The Senate was glad to be rid of Caesar but wished to avoid civil war, and in a show of conciliation it voted for a public funeral for Caesar. The funeral was spectacular, with frenzied people packing surrounding streets. Into the funeral pyre women threw their jewelry, some threw their robes, and soldiers their weapons. Foreigners in the crowd, including Jews, joined the mourning. Some believed that Caesar's death was the signal of the end of the world. And some believed that Caesar's assassins should be punished. From the crowd of mourners came the retaliation that had failed to come from Caesar's top lieutenants. Packs of outraged people rushed to the vacated homes of those rumored to be the assassins
Octavian would eventually ally himself with Caesar's old companion, Mark Antony, who was pursuing an accord with the Senate. But that accord would soon end. As consul, Antony canceled the Senate's appointment of one of Caesar's assassins, Decimus Brutus (no relation to Marcus Brutus), to the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul. With Antony's position as consul soon to expire, he appointed himself to that governorship. Still conciliatory, the Senate approved. Senator Cicero feared Antony's influence. He made a speech with an undertone of criticism against Antony. Antony took offense and attacked Cicero verbally. And before the year 44 ended, a war of words was on between the two.
Antony thought Cicero's good manners were hypocritical and stuffy. He saw himself as in tune with traditional male directness and simplicity. In manner and dress Antony was intentionally casual, and he had a coarseness and boyishness that appealed to soldiers. Some complained that he was sloppy in eating and noisy in drinking. Cicero described him as vulgar and as a drunken, lusting debaucher and described Antony's speeches as little more than bombast. Cicero saw Antony's choosing to go to Cisalpine Gaul as governor as an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Caesar, and he accused Antony of preparing to create a military dictatorship.
Antony did now what he could have done just after the assassination: he rallied an army against Caesar's assassins. Cicero called on the governors in Spain, Transalpine Gaul and Narbonensis Gaul to side with the Senate. But these commanders chose instead to side with Antony. The commander in Narbonensis Gaul, Lepidus, had Caesar's best troops, and Antony agreed to recognize him as having equal in rank with himself.
With Brutus and his allies established outside of Rome, Octavian with an army of his own took power in Rome – a military coup that nullified the powers of the Senate. He instituted elections for the two consulships, winning one seat for himself and one for a second cousin, and he abolished the law that had made Antony an outlaw.
A victorious Antony returned to Rome with his army. Antony, Lepidus and Octavian formed a ruling triumvirate. They enlarged the Senate with their supporters, and as a formality a people's assembly passed a law that gave the triumvirate dictatorial powers for five years.
Against those who had conspired against Caesar, the triumvirate launched a massacre as terrible as Sulla's. Three hundred former senators and two thousand equites were killed, destroying much of what had been Rome's old governing elite. Cicero was among those executed – his severed head and hands presented to his debate antagonist, Antony. Julius Caesar was declared a god of the Roman state.
The two most prominent of Caesar's assassins, Cassius and Marcus Brutus, had fled and were in command of armies in Macedonia. In the year 42, armies under the combined command of Antony and Octavian waged war against them successfully, and Brutus and Cassius marked their failures by committing suicide.
Marcus Antonius Cleopatra of Egypt
In Rome, Octavia presided with dignity over Antony's household, caring for Antony's children by a previous marriage and her own. The Romans still associated marriage with morality, and many looked upon Anthony's association with Cleopatra with disgust and saw Octavia as a mistreated heroine. Octavian was outraged by what he saw as Antony's mistreatment of his half-sister. But conflict between them was delayed while Octavian made war against Pompeius. And Antony was occupied by war against the Parthian Empire, an empire ruled by an Iranian dynasty that had wrested rule from the Seleucids way back in 247 BCE and were now expanding into Mesopotamia nand Asia Minor.
Octavian triumphed against Pompeius, which expanded his military to include five to six hundred warships and forty-five legions – a force greater than Antony's. Italians were impressed by Octavian's victory. Encouraged by their response, Octavian began to care more about support from the people of Italy. He promised everyone that eventually he would restore the Republic. Lepidus claimed Sicily, but he lacked support among his troops, who deserted him. Octavian took away Lepidus' triumviral powers but allowed him to retain his position as Pontifex Maximus, and he made Lepidus a tribune. Octavian then began to clear the Adriatic Sea of pirates and to send troops into the Balkans in a successful move to advance the interests of Rome there.
Octavian was not using his intellect, power and prestige to take Rome into an era of new politics, at least politics that would be respected in the 21st century. Instead, he was moving from where he was as one of the two consuls, with his trusted aide Agrippa as the other consul. He used his power as consul to make the Senate more to his liking. Building on the purge of 43, in which about three hundred senators had been eliminated, Octavian purged two hundred more, and in their place he added some whom he had elevated to the rank of nobility, and the Senate became a body of eight hundred.
In 27 BCE, Octavian began his seventh term as consul. He renounced his consulship and declared that he was surrendering all powers to the Senate and other bodies, including control of the army. It was a bogus withdrawal from power. As Octavian expected, the Senate, packed with his supporters, responded by returning much of his power, claiming that it was doing so for the sake of unity and relief from factionalism and civil strife. The Senate granted Octavian a ten-year governorship over those areas where the bulk of Rome's armies were stationed: Spain, Gaul and Syria. This gave Octavian control over foreign policy, and it left him with authority over Rome's military.
The Senate voted that Octavian be given the crown of oak leaves that signified service to Rome, and it made him consul again. From the triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, Octavian still held the title of Princeps, which could be translated as Leader (or, in German, Führer). In keeping with his great prestige, the Senate gave him a title that had the ring of his being divinely chosen: Augustus Caesar. And the Senate made it law that he be included in the prayers of Rome's priests. With the Senate there was an appearance of Rome as still a republic, but in reality the republic had ended, not with a bang but with a centuries-long fading away. What was ahead was more of the worse kind of authoritarianism
Pompey. His opportunism put him at odds with Caesar, his former ally. One of Rome's big heroes
Julius Caesar
The two generals credited with defeating the slave revolt, Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Pompey, became consuls. Their friend, a young aristocrat named Julius Caesar, acquired a position as quaestor in Spain – a position responsible for government finances.Pompey went to the East where, at the head of an army, he intended to create peace and stability. In Syria, Seleucid princes had been feuding. Pompey defeated Jewish resistance and put that area under Roman authority. Then he went toJudea to end civil war there. In the year 63, Rome annexed Syria and Judea. In 62, Rome annexed Pontus (in Asia Minor), and it put the island of Crete under Roman authority.
Benefiting from an alliance with Crassus and Pompey, Caesar was elected consul in 58. And as consul he proposed to the Senate a land bill for Pompey's veterans. The legislation failed. Back from the East, Pompey's veterans were a dominant force in Rome. Threatened with violence the Senate acquiesced and passed Caesar's bill. Caesar supported legislation that Crassus sought, and Caesar's alliance with Pompey was reinforced by Pompey marrying his daughter, Julia.
Forbidden by law to run for a second term as consul, Caesar won a five-year appointment as governor of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. In Rome, news of each of Caesar's victories against the Gauls inspired a celebration. The more glory that Caesar won the more conservative senators feared him as another Marius. They described his victories as cheap aggressions against inoffensive peoples. The death of Caesar's daughter, Julia, ended a tie between him and Pompey. And Crassus was jealous of Caesar's successes in Gaul.
In Rome, a popular gang leader, Clodius, supported Caesar, and he fought for legislation that would give more free food to Rome's poor. His gang clashed with a rival gang led by Milos, a friend of Pompey. A clash between these two gangs in the year 57 left some dead. Another clash in 52 left Clodius dead, killed by order of Milos. Irate supporters of Clodius carried his body into the Senate, where they made a funeral pyre from Senate benches and burned his corpse along with the Senate building.
The Senate allowed Pompey to raise an army to restore order and supress the gangs that roamed Rome's streets. Pompey was delighted by the opportunity. The Senate established special courts to prosecute those responsible for the recent disorders. Milos was convicted and given lenient punishment: exile to the port city of Massilia in Roman controlled southern Gaul. Then, despite its illegality, Pompey won another term as consul, leading one Senator to quip that any government was better than no government.
Sulla's constitutional law was of little account. The Senate passed a bill that called for Caesar to be replaced as governor of Gaul. A tribune ally of Caesar's vetoed the bill. The Senate ignored the veto and demanded that Caesar disband his army and resign unconditionally. Rather than accept an end to his career and perhaps death, Caesar chose to attack. With his army he crossed the Rubicon River, another illegal move. Some Italians and other soldiers rushed to join his forces. Faced with a popular rising and the might of Caesar's army, most of the Senate fled the city in panic, leaving behind their wives and children. Pompey believed his force too meager to combat Caesar and his supporters, and, comparing himself to Sulla, he fled with his army to the East – his place of recent victories and power – in hope of gathering to his side the troops stationed there.
Caesar entered Rome triumphant. People throughout Italy cheered his success. Caesar and his army confronted Pompey in Greece, Pompey having twice as many infantrymen as Caesar and seven thousand cavalry to Caesar's one thousand. But Caesar was brighter and his troops more experienced. His army crushed Pompey's army. Pompey fled in the direction of Egypt. Continuing his policy of reconciliation, Caesar offered a pardon to those whom Pompey left behind, and many of them joined Caesar's armies, while others fled. The young Egyptian king, Ptolemy XII, saw Pompey as a loser and a danger. He had Pompey stabbed to death soon after he stepped ashore.
In the autumn of 47, Caesar returned to Rome to a torchlight parade that included forty elephants and delirious crowds. Then Caesar turned his attention to creating a stable government and solving economic and social problems. He gave land in Gaul and Spain to his veterans. Seeking order, he announced that the revolution was over. He began to create a politics of consensus and a government of laws – but not democracy, which was commonly believed to be an unruly form of government. He banned the gangs that had created turmoil in Rome's streets. He restored the Senate, which now consisted of many new members and fewer aristocrats. And he accepted the title of "Dictator for Life."
Caesar's Reforms and Assassination
Caesar outlined a program for the reorganization of the courts, and for the sake of order he increased the penalties for crimes committed by the rich and the poor. He renewed old laws long ignored against extravagance. He upheld property rights and took steps toward the restoration of Rome's system of finances and the creation of economic stability. To prevent the kind of profiteering that had taken place under Sulla and to ease the burden of debt, he put restrictions on lending and borrowing. He gave Romans temporary relief from rents and began a program of improving housing for the poor. He began welfare reform, reducing the number of those on the dole in Rome from 320,000 to 150,000 (the latter roughly fifteen percent of Rome's population). He ruled that to go onto welfare in Rome one had to wait for someone else to leave the program – a move designed to discourage people from coming to Rome to take advantage of welfare there. And the roughly 80,000 he disqualified from welfare he sent to new, overseas colonies.Caesar laid plans for economic improvements across the empire. Marshes south of Rome were drained, business districts of various cities were improved, and new theaters and temples were built. He proposed construction projects for improving trade by sea and for improving harbors. He laid plans for a new canal for the city of Corinth. Caesar began enlisting men of talent into public service, and he saw the need for improvement in the organization of municipal governments throughout Italy. He started standardizing and streamlining cumbersome local governmental operations. He sought to bind citizens in the provinces closer to Rome by doing away with laws that made distinctions between them and the citizens of Rome. He gave Roman citizenship to Gauls who had fought alongside him when he was governor there. He created better government in territories governed by Rome, including Judea. He gave Jews there a greater autonomy, reduced their taxes, exempted them from having to serve in Rome's armies, and he allowed them freedom again to worship their god Yahweh.
Caesar placed a learned man in charge of Rome's library, and he laid plans for an increase in government involvement in Rome's public education. He gave Roman citizenship to Greek teachers in hope of encouraging them to come to Rome. Caesar also had the calendar revised. The old calendar was a hodgepodge of contributions by various priests. Caesar was an Epicurean and closer to its materialism than he was to traditional religion. He wanted a calendar that was organized around considerations not colored by religion. He drew from the expertise of astronomers and mathematicians, the result being the basic calendar of today.
Some among Rome's privileged saw Caesar as responsible for an end to the republic, and rather than exhibiting patience or attempting argument and compromise, they opted for a return to the politics of violence: assassination. Like most assassins they had little grasp of what would follow their deed.
Some of the conspirators were former supporters of Caesar who hoped to advance their careers. Some were from families as distinguished as Caesar's who resented his condescending air of superiority. Toward them and others, Caesar had been acting like a parent: chiding, urging them to get along, caring about them all and seldom asking for their opinions.
The conspiracy to assassinate Caesar was led by a former first commander under Pompey, Gaius Cassius, whom Caesar had pardoned and made a legate. Another conspirator, Marcus Brutus, was a senator and a former follower of Pompey whom Caesar had pardoned. He was also a Stoic – a montheistic philosophy about endurance, patience and god's will – and he had a reputation as an idealist. When he joined the conspiracy his prestige inspired twelve other senators to join. Another Stoic and senator, the great, voluble Cicero, was aware of the plot to murder Caesar. He continued to pretend friendship with Caesar while seeing the conspiracy as patriotism that would rid Rome of despotism.
Caesar was preparing to go east to do battle against the Parthians, who were creating trouble for Rome on the border if its empire, and those plotting Caesar's assassination wanted to strike before he left. Caesar had heard rumors of a plot, but he had not surrounded himself with spies, and he knew nothing of whom the plotters were or when they might strike.
On the morning of March 15, 44 BCE, five years after having crossed the Rubicon, Caesar went to a meeting at the Forum to ratify his using the title of king when outside Italy – a title for dealing with foreign peoples who understood authority mainly by that name. As he often did, he went without his bodyguards, but he was accompanied by a rugged companion: one of his former generals and Rome's other consul, Marcus Antonius, a name to be anglicized to Mark Antony.
Brutus believed that killing Antony would be an injustice; so another conspirator detained Antony in conversation as Caesar made his way to his seat. It appeared that people were approaching Caesar, as usual, to exchange words and ask for favors. Alongside a statue of Pompey, someone pulled at Caesar's cloak. Someone else stabbed him from behind in the neck. Caesar turned and wrestled with the assailant. As many as sixty others joined in the attack, wounding one another in the fray. Nearby senators looked on, some of them stunned. Caesar saw Brutus with his knife raised and asked him: "You too my son?" Brutus plunged his knife into Caesar and shouted congratulations to the Senate's leader, Cicero. Stabbed twenty-three times, Caesar fell to the floor and died.
News of Caesar's assassination spread fast in Rome and struck terror into Caesar's close associates, who believed that they too might be targeted for death. With some others, the commander of Caesar's military guard, Lepidus, had a failure of nerve and did not mobilize his troops against the assassins. Two days after the assassination, Mark Antony, seeing no reign of terror, emerged in public with a personal guard that he had organized. Still afraid, he was ready and willing to compromise with the Senate, and he made his now famous speech about burying rather than praising Caesar – his ability as a speaker to be exaggerated by Shakespeare. As the surviving consul he accepted power and spoke favorably of the powers of the Senate.
The Senate was glad to be rid of Caesar but wished to avoid civil war, and in a show of conciliation it voted for a public funeral for Caesar. The funeral was spectacular, with frenzied people packing surrounding streets. Into the funeral pyre women threw their jewelry, some threw their robes, and soldiers their weapons. Foreigners in the crowd, including Jews, joined the mourning. Some believed that Caesar's death was the signal of the end of the world. And some believed that Caesar's assassins should be punished. From the crowd of mourners came the retaliation that had failed to come from Caesar's top lieutenants. Packs of outraged people rushed to the vacated homes of those rumored to be the assassins
The Assassination Fails Politically
The assassination of Julius Caesar failed politically. Enough support for Caesar remained as a counterforce to destroy what the assassins wanted to accomplish – and it would destroy the assassins themselves.
A month after Caesar's death, his eighteen year-old grand-nephew, Gaius Octavianus, to be known as Octavian, arrived in Italy from the East where he had been waiting to serve Caesar in the war that was planned against the Parthians. Octavian (also known as Octavius) had served with Caesar in Spain, and Caesar had adopted him and made him his heir.Octavian would eventually ally himself with Caesar's old companion, Mark Antony, who was pursuing an accord with the Senate. But that accord would soon end. As consul, Antony canceled the Senate's appointment of one of Caesar's assassins, Decimus Brutus (no relation to Marcus Brutus), to the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul. With Antony's position as consul soon to expire, he appointed himself to that governorship. Still conciliatory, the Senate approved. Senator Cicero feared Antony's influence. He made a speech with an undertone of criticism against Antony. Antony took offense and attacked Cicero verbally. And before the year 44 ended, a war of words was on between the two.
Antony thought Cicero's good manners were hypocritical and stuffy. He saw himself as in tune with traditional male directness and simplicity. In manner and dress Antony was intentionally casual, and he had a coarseness and boyishness that appealed to soldiers. Some complained that he was sloppy in eating and noisy in drinking. Cicero described him as vulgar and as a drunken, lusting debaucher and described Antony's speeches as little more than bombast. Cicero saw Antony's choosing to go to Cisalpine Gaul as governor as an attempt to follow in the footsteps of Caesar, and he accused Antony of preparing to create a military dictatorship.
Antony did now what he could have done just after the assassination: he rallied an army against Caesar's assassins. Cicero called on the governors in Spain, Transalpine Gaul and Narbonensis Gaul to side with the Senate. But these commanders chose instead to side with Antony. The commander in Narbonensis Gaul, Lepidus, had Caesar's best troops, and Antony agreed to recognize him as having equal in rank with himself.
With Brutus and his allies established outside of Rome, Octavian with an army of his own took power in Rome – a military coup that nullified the powers of the Senate. He instituted elections for the two consulships, winning one seat for himself and one for a second cousin, and he abolished the law that had made Antony an outlaw.
A victorious Antony returned to Rome with his army. Antony, Lepidus and Octavian formed a ruling triumvirate. They enlarged the Senate with their supporters, and as a formality a people's assembly passed a law that gave the triumvirate dictatorial powers for five years.
Against those who had conspired against Caesar, the triumvirate launched a massacre as terrible as Sulla's. Three hundred former senators and two thousand equites were killed, destroying much of what had been Rome's old governing elite. Cicero was among those executed – his severed head and hands presented to his debate antagonist, Antony. Julius Caesar was declared a god of the Roman state.
The two most prominent of Caesar's assassins, Cassius and Marcus Brutus, had fled and were in command of armies in Macedonia. In the year 42, armies under the combined command of Antony and Octavian waged war against them successfully, and Brutus and Cassius marked their failures by committing suicide.
Marcus Antonius Cleopatra of Egypt
Antony and Cleopatra
It was agreed that Antony would be the authority over most of Gaul and over all of Rome's eastern empire. Octavian was to rule in Italy and Cisalpine Gaul. Lepidus was left with only the promise of rule in northern Africa west of Egypt. A naval force hostile to this ruling Triumvirate, meanwhile, was still at large, led by the son of Pompey: Sextus Pompeius.
Touring in the eastern part of the empire, Antony exacted indemnities from those provinces that had given support to Brutus and Cassius – despite this support having been forced upon them. He ordered Egypt's ruler, Cleopatra, to journey north and appear before him in Cilicia (southern Asia Minor) to explain her having aided Cassius. She arrived in her gilded ship with purple sails and silver-lined oars, and with her many attendants, and to Antony she exonerated herself. She invited him to pass the winter in Alexandria, and there (in the winter of 41-40 BCE) Antony is said to have reveled in the pleasures of the Ptolemaic court and the company of Queen Cleopatra. Antony left Egypt in the spring of 40, and that year he married Octavian's sister, Octavia.
In the year 38 the Plebeian Assembly extended the Triumvirate's dictatorship another five years. Antony renewed his contacts with Cleopatra. The two apparently hoped to gain from each other, Antony needing Cleopatra's wealth to pursue military activities and Cleopatra wanting to revive boundaries of the old Ptolemy kingdom of her forefathers. Within a year, Antony sent his pregnant wife, Octavia, Otavian's half-sister, back to Rome. Antony lived in opulence with Cleopatra. He acknowledged publicly that he had fathered twins by Cleopatra – a boy and girl.
Octavian triumphed against Pompeius, which expanded his military to include five to six hundred warships and forty-five legions – a force greater than Antony's. Italians were impressed by Octavian's victory. Encouraged by their response, Octavian began to care more about support from the people of Italy. He promised everyone that eventually he would restore the Republic. Lepidus claimed Sicily, but he lacked support among his troops, who deserted him. Octavian took away Lepidus' triumviral powers but allowed him to retain his position as Pontifex Maximus, and he made Lepidus a tribune. Octavian then began to clear the Adriatic Sea of pirates and to send troops into the Balkans in a successful move to advance the interests of Rome there.
In 36 BCE – the same year that Octavian defeated Pompeius – Antony attacked the Parthians through Armenia. He and his troops arrived at what is now Azerbaijan, and for months he laid siege to its major city: Phraaspa. Parthian attacks on Antony's supply lines left him facing a winter without shelter or adequate provisions. Antony fell back, through Armenia again, returning with most of his troops but losing some 22,000 men in the retreat. Cleopatra met him in Syria, bringing him money and supplies. It took until the year 34 for his forces to regain strength for an assault against the king of Armenia, who had helped the Parthians.
In the autumn of 34, after defeating the king of Armenia, Antony returned to Egypt. In Egypt, at Alexandria, he celebrated his Armenian victory with a grand pageant. Although Antony had been fighting for the Roman Empire, his tarnished reputation left many Romans visualizing the pageant as an impious parody of their traditional celebrations of triumph
Antony's funds were now depleted, and he was more dependent on the wealth of Cleopatra. To please her, he staged a ceremony at which he pronounced her "Queen of Kings," and he distributed to her children the titles that were traditionally given to children of royalty. Antony declared Cleopatra's thirteen year-old son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, as Julius Caesar's legitimate son and as heir to the rule of Egypt, Cyprus and part of Syria. Antony declared Cleopatra's six-year old boy as king of Armenia and its neighbor, Media. He gave the boy's twin sister titles toCyrenaica and Libya in North Africa. And he declared Cleopatra's two year-old son as king of Cilicia and Phoenicia.
Caesar's son by Cleopatra as Caesar's legitimate son was equivalent to putting the boy ahead of Octavian, who was merely Caesar's nephew and adopted son. This increased Octavian's displeasure with Antony. Antony, in turn, remained upset with Octavius for not having given him a share of Sicily. Antony gave word that he wanted Octavia and her children out of his house. This severed the final bond between Octavian and Antony. A war of words erupted between the two, with Antony trying to discredit Octavian for what he described as Octavian's past acts of disloyalty.
In the autumn of 34, after defeating the king of Armenia, Antony returned to Egypt. In Egypt, at Alexandria, he celebrated his Armenian victory with a grand pageant. Although Antony had been fighting for the Roman Empire, his tarnished reputation left many Romans visualizing the pageant as an impious parody of their traditional celebrations of triumph
Antony's funds were now depleted, and he was more dependent on the wealth of Cleopatra. To please her, he staged a ceremony at which he pronounced her "Queen of Kings," and he distributed to her children the titles that were traditionally given to children of royalty. Antony declared Cleopatra's thirteen year-old son by Julius Caesar, Caesarion, as Julius Caesar's legitimate son and as heir to the rule of Egypt, Cyprus and part of Syria. Antony declared Cleopatra's six-year old boy as king of Armenia and its neighbor, Media. He gave the boy's twin sister titles toCyrenaica and Libya in North Africa. And he declared Cleopatra's two year-old son as king of Cilicia and Phoenicia.
Caesar's son by Cleopatra as Caesar's legitimate son was equivalent to putting the boy ahead of Octavian, who was merely Caesar's nephew and adopted son. This increased Octavian's displeasure with Antony. Antony, in turn, remained upset with Octavius for not having given him a share of Sicily. Antony gave word that he wanted Octavia and her children out of his house. This severed the final bond between Octavian and Antony. A war of words erupted between the two, with Antony trying to discredit Octavian for what he described as Octavian's past acts of disloyalty.
Octavian. His grand uncle, Julius Caesar, had adopted him
Toward the end of 33, the second five-year rule of Octavian and Antony expired, and it was not renewed. Octavian professed legal rectitude by disclaiming that he still had the powers given by the expired law. He remained a consul. But Antony continued as if he were still Rome's designated ruler in the East. In the summer of 32, Antony's divorce from Octavia was announced along with Antony's will, which included his wish to be buried alongside Cleopatra. And the will reaffirmed the claim that Caesar's son by Cleopatra was Caesar's legitimate son. Antony, without a formal office, appeared to some Romans as in the employ of a foreign queen. Rumor spread that Antony wanted to make Cleopatra queen of Rome and to transfer Rome's government to Egypt. By now many Romans saw him as a renegade from Roman tradition. They disliked him for wearing the royal clothing of the Ptolemies and for what they heard of his fondness for luxuries.
Backed by opinion across Italy and much of Rome's western provinces, Octavian, as consul, obtained a declaration of war against Cleopatra – but not against Antony. It was to be a war against a foreigner, putting Antony in a position of treason. The morale of Antony's troops was low, and some high ranking officers among them deserted to Octavian. Another war was on, with the advantage of hearts and minds and militarly might to Octavian
Backed by opinion across Italy and much of Rome's western provinces, Octavian, as consul, obtained a declaration of war against Cleopatra – but not against Antony. It was to be a war against a foreigner, putting Antony in a position of treason. The morale of Antony's troops was low, and some high ranking officers among them deserted to Octavian. Another war was on, with the advantage of hearts and minds and militarly might to Octavian
Octavian becomes Augustus Caesar
Antony, with Cleopatra at his side, moved with his army and navy to a strong point in western Greece. There, on September 2nd, 31, outside the Gulf of Actium, his fleet met Octavian's. Antony's fleet included 230 large war galleys of eight or ten banks of oars, furnished with towers full of armed men. Octavian had about 250 warships. Octavian's talented commander, Agrippa, defeated Antony in a great sea battle, and Antony and Cleopatra fled back to Egypt. Octavian's forces moved across the southern coast of Asia Minor, and down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean to Egypt. Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra became Octavian's prisoner, and fearing that Octavian would take her back as display for his triumphant entry to Rome, she sent herself as a goddess into the world of the dead – using the bite of what was probably a cobra – death from cobra venom said to be painless.
Octavian saw both Caesarion and Cleopatra's eldest son by Antony as dangerous rivals and had them executed, but he adopted into his own family the other children of Cleopatra and Antony, including the daughters of Antony and his sister, Octavia.
In the summer of 29, Octavian returned to Rome. He was thirty-four and in command of all of Rome's sixty legions, and respected by the legions' rank and file. He brought with him from Egypt a wealth of treasure and two annexations: Egypt and Illyricum (opposite Italy across the Adriatic Sea). His fellow Romans believed they had seen the end of war and strife, and they hailed him as the Prince of Peace and benefactor of mankind. Celebrations lasted for days. Animals were sacrificed to Rome's gods. The Senate gave Octavian the permanent title "Commander Imperitor" – from which the English word emperor is derived.
After returning to Rome, Octavian fortified support from those who had fought for him by giving them some of the wealth from Egypt. He gave them land in Italy and abroad. And some of Egypt's treasure he gave as prizes to the people of Rome.
Thirty years had passed since Rome's republican government had functioned normally, and Octavian considered what the nature of his rule was to be. He theorized that a republic was better than a monarchy, that the sons of kings often became incompetent rulers. He believed that Rome's republican government had helped make Rome great, but he falsely attributed chaos during the republic to the republican system of government, and he decided that although the republic was suited to Rome when Rome was small, it was inadequate in meeting Rome's task as the leader of the world's greatest empire. He believed that democracy could not achieve the political stability that the Senate had failed to achieve, and therefore he remained opposed to giving more power to the people's assembly. He decided also that clinging to absolute power would appear evil. He did not want to appear to be the autocrat that his uncle Julius Caesar had appeared to be, and he recalled that after having won against Sextus Pompeius in 36 he had promised that he would restore the republic.
After returning to Rome, Octavian fortified support from those who had fought for him by giving them some of the wealth from Egypt. He gave them land in Italy and abroad. And some of Egypt's treasure he gave as prizes to the people of Rome.
Thirty years had passed since Rome's republican government had functioned normally, and Octavian considered what the nature of his rule was to be. He theorized that a republic was better than a monarchy, that the sons of kings often became incompetent rulers. He believed that Rome's republican government had helped make Rome great, but he falsely attributed chaos during the republic to the republican system of government, and he decided that although the republic was suited to Rome when Rome was small, it was inadequate in meeting Rome's task as the leader of the world's greatest empire. He believed that democracy could not achieve the political stability that the Senate had failed to achieve, and therefore he remained opposed to giving more power to the people's assembly. He decided also that clinging to absolute power would appear evil. He did not want to appear to be the autocrat that his uncle Julius Caesar had appeared to be, and he recalled that after having won against Sextus Pompeius in 36 he had promised that he would restore the republic.
Octavian was not using his intellect, power and prestige to take Rome into an era of new politics, at least politics that would be respected in the 21st century. Instead, he was moving from where he was as one of the two consuls, with his trusted aide Agrippa as the other consul. He used his power as consul to make the Senate more to his liking. Building on the purge of 43, in which about three hundred senators had been eliminated, Octavian purged two hundred more, and in their place he added some whom he had elevated to the rank of nobility, and the Senate became a body of eight hundred.
In 27 BCE, Octavian began his seventh term as consul. He renounced his consulship and declared that he was surrendering all powers to the Senate and other bodies, including control of the army. It was a bogus withdrawal from power. As Octavian expected, the Senate, packed with his supporters, responded by returning much of his power, claiming that it was doing so for the sake of unity and relief from factionalism and civil strife. The Senate granted Octavian a ten-year governorship over those areas where the bulk of Rome's armies were stationed: Spain, Gaul and Syria. This gave Octavian control over foreign policy, and it left him with authority over Rome's military.
The Senate voted that Octavian be given the crown of oak leaves that signified service to Rome, and it made him consul again. From the triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, Octavian still held the title of Princeps, which could be translated as Leader (or, in German, Führer). In keeping with his great prestige, the Senate gave him a title that had the ring of his being divinely chosen: Augustus Caesar. And the Senate made it law that he be included in the prayers of Rome's priests. With the Senate there was an appearance of Rome as still a republic, but in reality the republic had ended, not with a bang but with a centuries-long fading away. What was ahead was more of the worse kind of authoritarianism
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