Preface
“Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana
A
great and mighty people shutter.
Controversial wars, illusive prosperity, elusive victory, unprecedented
extra-constitutional powers, the politics of fear, personal destruction and
jingoism mark the times. The
ambition of one man casts a shadow upon the entire known world. Riots between partisans fill the
streets when once elections decided.
The hearts of patriots stir. The clarion call to arms signals the domestic
menace – revolution and civil war. Winston Churchill wrote “Study history,
study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.” Whether or not history can solve the
riddles of our times is a matter of conjecture.
James A. Bretney
Venice, California
“Cedant
Togae Arma” translated roughly in English means “Let war and violence give way
to the law. Cicero used the
expression as a personal motto inscribing it as his opening to his book De
Officiis[ii]. Cicero wrote the book about duty and
public life in a type of self imposed exile following Caesar’s unbroken
slaughter of his fellow countrymen.
Cicero completed the book one year before his own death and five months
after Caesar’s death in assassination on March 15, 44 BC.
"Veni,
Vidi, Vici" translated roughly in English means “I came I saw I
conquered. Caesar used the
expression to summarize his victory over Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of
Rome’s nemesis Mithridates[iii]. It served as his personal motto. In prosecuting his wars in Gaul, Caesar
liberated one million Gauls by killing another million and enslaving another
million. No doubt the wealth,
industry and plunder of Gaul served to oil the political machine he made for
himself in the years of the first triumvirate. The eradication forever of a second coming of Brennus and
the territorial acquisition of Northern Europe came at a price for the three
hundred twenty thousand souls enrolled in the Roman census roll. By the time of Caesar’s final triumph,
the census rolls counted only one hundred fifty thousand.[iv] Fifty four percent of the population of
Rome, excluding the Italians, provincial and foreign casualties, would die for
a man who dared to call himself a god.
A
historical tally of the Romans who received Caesar’s "Veni, Vidi,
Vici" epitaph can be found here:
|
Battle Name
|
Campaign
|
Result
|
Date
|
Caesar
|
Republic
|
|
Battle of Utica
|
Africa
|
Caesar
|
15-Aug-49
|
|
1,000
|
|
Battle of Bagradas River
|
Africa
|
Republic
|
24-Aug-49
|
15,000
|
1,000
|
|
Battle of Ilerda
|
Spain
|
Caesar
|
2-Sep-49
|
2,000
|
|
|
Siege of Massilia
|
Spain
|
Caesar
|
6-Sep-49
|
4,000
|
1,100
|
|
Battle of Dyrrhachium
|
Greece
|
Republic
|
10-Jul-48
|
2,000
|
1,000
|
|
Pharsalia
|
Greece
|
Caesar
|
9-Aug-48
|
1,200
|
6,000
|
|
Battle of Nicopolis
|
Pontic
|
Republic
|
1-Dec-48
|
10,000
|
|
|
Battle of Zela
|
Pontic
|
Caesar
|
2-Aug-47
|
1,000
|
|
|
Battle of Ruspina
|
Africa
|
Caesar
|
4-Jan-46
|
2,000
|
6,000
|
|
Battle of Thapsus
|
Africa
|
Caesar
|
6-Apr-46
|
1,000
|
30,000
|
|
Battle of Munda
|
Spain
|
Caesar
|
17-Mar-45
|
1,000
|
30,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
39,200
|
76,100
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Estimated casualties
|
115,300
|
||
Cicero
had many correspondents whose contributions to history maybe obscured and some
who had no relationship to Caesar.
They include Quintus Ancharius, Lucius Culleolus, Marcus Curius, Marcus
Fadius Gallus, Titus Fadius, Publius Furius Crassipes, Marcus Marius, Quintus
Metellus Celer, Quintus Metellus Nepos, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Gaius
Munatius, Quintus Philippus, Publius Silius Nerva, Lucius Valerius and Publius
Volumnius Eutrapelus.
Cicero
wrote letters to Gaius Trebatius Testa, a man who won Caesar’s favor. Cicero wrote letters to Gaius Memmius,
a man Caesar disserted for political expediency. Cicero wrote letters to Lucius Aemilius Paullus, a man Caesar
bribed during his Consulship. Cicero wrote letters to Publius Sestius, a man
who Caesar prosecuted unsuccessfully.
Cicero wrote letters to Caius Claudius Marcellus Augur, a man Caesar
tried to separate from his wife. Cicero wrote letters to Marcus Licinius
Crassus, a man who died unceremoniously for attempting to emulate Caesar.
Cicero
wrote letters to Publius Sittius, a man who made war against his countrymen at
Caesar’s request. Cicero wrote letters to Quintus Valerius Orca, a man who made
war against his countrymen at the request of Caesar. Cicero wrote letters to Lucius
Lucceius, a man who made war against his countrymen to oppose Caesar. Cicero
wrote letters to Titus Titius, a man who made war against his countrymen against
Caesar.
Cicero
wrote letters to Caius Claudius Marcellus, a man who opposed Caesar to the
point of freeing and arming gladiators for this aim. Cicero wrote letters to Gaius Antonius, a man who made war
against his countrymen and died in the cause of Caesar. Cicero wrote letters to
Appius Claudius Pulcher, a man who died in opposition to Caesar.
Cicero
wrote letters to Marcus Caelius Rufus, a man Caesar put to death. Cicero wrote
letters to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, a man Caesar had granted clemency only to
be assassinated by his servant on his return from exile. Cicero wrote letters to Publius
Lentulus Spinther, a man Caesar put to death after the battle of Pharsalia.
Cicero
wrote letters to Marcus Porcius Cato, a man who killed himself rather than be
taken alive than beg for mercy at the hands of Caesar. Cicero wrote letters to Caius
Scribonius Curio, a man who led fifteen thousand men to their death in Africa
at the behest of Caesar. Cicero wrote letters to Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, a man
betrayed by those who desired to gain Caesar’s favor. Pompey was married to Julius Caesar’s only child, his
daughter Julia. She died due to
complications from childbirth. She
feared that her father’s supporters killed her husband.
Cicero
wrote letters to his brother Quintus Tullius Cicero, a man Caesar’s avengers
murdered along with his son.
Cicero wrote letters to Marcus Junius Brutus, a man Caesar scandalized
his whole life by taking his mother as his mistress. Marcus Junius Brutus would
later kill Caesar and die at the hands of Caesar’s avengers.
“You
have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your
life.”
Winston Churchill
That
Caesar had enemies is not novel.
His success at disposing them is not entirely reprehensible. But given the scope of such a disposal
and compared by the lights of his contemporaries, even the most practiced
relativist may have some difficulty coming to Caesar’s aid or justifying what
it was he stood for.
Caesar
and Cicero both agreed, “Friendship is the one thing about the utility of which
everybody with one accord is agreed.[v]” Cicero did
not believe that friendship should be “maintained with the most absolute
fidelity, constancy, and integrity.[vi]” Cicero wrote “Virtue (without which friendship
is impossible) is first; but next to it, and to it alone, the greatest of all
things is Friendship.[vii]”
Cicero
wrote letters to Caesar, not many but a few. But Cicero did not serve Caesar in a way a lackey
would. Cicero advised his son to
avoid such conduct. Cicero
described an incident where his protagonist Laelius, the father-in-law to
Cicero’s adopted father Quintus Mucius Scaevola, tried a case against the
associates of Tiberius Gracchus. Blossius
“pleaded for my pardon on the ground that his regard for Tiberius Gracchus had
been so high that he looked upon his wishes as law.”
Laelius: “Even if he had wished you to set fire
to the Capitol?”
Blossius:
“That is a thing, that he never would have wished.
Laelius:
“Ah, but if he had wished it?”
Blossius:
“I would have obeyed.”
“The
wickedness of such a speech needs no comment.” Julius Caesar surrounded himself with lackeys.
A
pupil and a lackey himself to Crassus, Caesar found corrupted men the most
predictable and pliable. He gained
the most clients in paying their debts.
How did these debt slaves re-pay their master? Most of the assassins – the Republican liberators supported
his Caesarian cause with varying enthusiasm. “They did in envy of great Caesar.[viii]”
Cicero
described the indulgence of a man’s faults compliance. Echoing Terence, Cicero wrote, “Compliance
gets us friends, plain speaking hate.[ix]” Cicero avoided plain speaking when more
artful and expedient language served similarly purposes. But Cicero viewed correcting a friend’s
fault a solemn duty in friendship: “compliance is really the cause of much more
trouble, because by indulging his faults it lets a friend plunge into headlong
ruin.” Having explored Cicero’s ideas of friendship and how he measured up to
the ideas he espoused for his son, Anthony Trollope wrote: “Was Cicero sincere
to his party, was he sincere to his friends, was he sincere to his family, was
he sincere to his dependents? Did he offer to help and not help? Did he ever
desert his ship, when he had engaged himself to serve?[x]”
In
what practical ways Cicero used friendship as a means of personal diplomacy in
arguing for the Republic, a cause that Caesar openly detested. Cicero dedicated
his life to the Old Republic. Could
persuasion convince Caesar the error of his ways much the same way Sulla’s
friends convinced him to resign the Dictatorship. In exploring the events from Caesar’s crossing of the
Rubicon in January 49 BC to the aftermath of Caesar’s, five years and eight
months later, the interaction between Cicero and Caesar was spare.
In
the consular year of Gaius Claudius Marcellus Major and Lucius Cornelius
Lentulus Crus, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon, Cicero waited to return to Rome. He completed his pro-consular command
in Cilicia cleaning up the mess that his predecessor Appius Claudius Pulcher.[xi] His virtuous conduct had been crowned
with military victory over tribes allied to the Parthians. The news of this victory buoyed the
hopes of the Roman people after the disaster at Carrhae[xii].
The Senate planned to hold a triumph for him. “When the senators were voting
him a triumph, he said he would more gladly follow in Caesar's triumphal
procession.” The darkened clouds of civil war ended any thought of celebration.
Ambushed
with the news of the Civil War, Cicero chose sides reluctantly and belatedly. Cicero wanted matters settled “if
matters could be settled; and privately he gave much advice to Caesar by
letter, and much to Pompey in person by way of personal entreaty, trying to
mollify and pacify each of them. But when things were past healing, and Caesar
was advancing upon the city, and Pompey did not stay there, but abandoned the
city in the company of many good men, Cicero did not take part in this flight,
and was thought to be attaching himself to Caesar. And it is clear that his
judgment drew him strongly in both directions and that he was in distress.[xiii]”
From
his letters, “he knew not which way he ought to turn, since Pompey had honorable
and good grounds for going to war, while Caesar managed matters better and had
more ability to save himself and his friends; he therefore knew from whom he
should flee, but not to whom he should flee.[xiv]”
Caesar’s
cult of personality compelled him to adhere publicly to the gods of Clemency. Nonetheless, Caesar ceased the charade
of thoughtful reflection and his desire for peace. Caesar discontinued
correspondence with Cicero and communicated by messenger. “Trebatius, one of
the companions of Caesar, wrote [Cicero] a letter stating that Caesar thought
he ought above all things to range himself on his side and share his hopes.[xv]”
Caesar by Trebatius also stated, “but that if he declined to do this by reason
of his age, he ought to go to Greece and take up a quiet life there out of the
way of both.” If Caesar’s many wives were to be above suspicion, Caesar himself
would not stoop to attach his name to his threats and make these threats by
proxy by epistle.
“Cicero
was amazed that Caesar himself did not write, and replied in a passion that he
would do nothing unworthy of his political career.[xvi]” Could Caesar make a similar boast?
Caesar
interviewed Cicero in Formaie in March of 49 BC.[xvii]
Cicero refused Caesar counsel and to accompany him at Rome. Caesar spent less than a week in Rome.
Cicero
maintained contacts within the Caesarian party. He loathed Antony but he loved of Curio, Trebonius, Caelius
and Dolabella. Cicero sought to
mentor these men in the same way Scaevola mentored him after Cicero’s father
died and Laelius mentored Scaevola when Scaevola married Laelius’ daughter.
The
thirty something Curio was a man on the move. Debt relief brought the popular and silver spooned Curio to
Caesar’s standards. Curio’s
attachment to Antony appeared at times unseemly.[xviii] Curio used his influence to get
Antony the office of tribune that precipitated the Civil War. Caesar
commissioned Curio with a 3 legion amphibious force. Curio was to invade Sicily and pursue Cato, guard the
straits of Messina from Republican reinforcement and take the fight to Africa.
Caesar
left the city in the hands of the future triumvir Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Lepidus held the elected office of
praetor. Leaving Antony behind,
Caesar proceeded to dispatch Pompey’s seven Spanish Legions and Labienus in
Cisalpine Gaul[xix].
In
May of that year, Cicero’s favorite child and only daughter, Tullia gave her
husband Dolabella a son. In June
of 49 B.C., Cicero joined Pompey’s camp after Caesar’s interview at Formaie,
Italy.
Upon
Ceasar’s return to the eternal city in September, Lepidus orchestrated the
Senatorial appointment of Dictator to Caesar. Antony was Caesar’s Master of the Horse. Anthony, though loved by the common
soldiers, earned the contempt of everyone else because of his anger “at those who
consulted him” and “his relations with other men’s wives.[xx]”
Caesar, unwilling to speak plainly
with his nephew, overlooked his indiscretions and granted him a command in his
Greek expedition against Pompey.
Caesar’s
friend and father-in-law, Calpurnius Piso would not be compliant to Caesar’s
villainy. He urged peace with
Caesar’s erstwhile son-in-law, Pompey where Caesar held nascent affection. The news of Curio’s annihilation in
Africa colored Caesar’s victories in Spain and popular sentiment urged
reconciliation in mourning the young man they loved. But Caesar did not listen Piso, why would he listen Cicero? Was not Cicero the man who continually
refused to serve him and at present served his enemy Pompey in the enemy’s
camp? This was the lowest point in
the friendship between Cicero and Caesar.
As
Dictator, Caesar presided over the election of himself as Consul. His friend Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus
would be his colleague. Trebonius
served as Caesar’s Praetor. Caelius sat as Caesar’s praetor peregrinus “judge
of suits involving foreigners.”
Dolabella, Cicero’s son-in-law, went with Caesar and Antony to fight
Pompey and Cicero in Greece.
Presumably
Cicero was a combatant at the Battle of Dyrrhachium in July of 48 BC. Caesar
and Cicero came close to meeting at Pharsalus. Cicero was ill[xxi] at the
time of the battle and did not take part in the hostilities of August 9th
in Pharsalia.
The
fortunes and disasters that met the Republic mirrored the misfortunes and
calamities in Cicero’s life. Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, the sole Consul
presided Rome while Caesar faced Pompey in the East. Prices skyrocketed with
the disruptions in trade, the uncertainty and labor shortages. Caesarianism
depended on bribes to the mob. Isauricus and Trebonius fought with Caelius[xxii]
over several debt cancellation schemes to win the urban poor. Cicero’s great personal fortune
collapsed forcing Terentia to sell her jewelry. The correspondence between the two life long partners
reflected this estrangement.
After
Pharsalia, Caesar pardoned Marcus Junius Brutus upon his capture. Pompey took
flight. Cicero refused future
commands in the Republican cause.
He petitioned to return to Rome through Dolabella who would later served
as tribune in 47 B.C.[xxiii] On
September 29, 48 BC, Ptolemy betrayed Pompey killing him under the flag of
diplomacy and hospitality.
In
47 B.C., Caesar had Qunitus Fufius Calenus and Publius Vatinius elected to the
consulship. A bitter political
enemy of Cicero, Publius Vatinius sold his service to Caesar during his first
Consular year in 59 B.C. Antony
mismanaged of Rome. Romans got up
at dawn and worked. Antony did not endear himself to the people with moral
living. Cicero says “he was hated by them. They loathed his ill-timed
drunkenness, his heavy expenditures, his debauches with women, his spending the
days in sleep or in wandering about with crazed and aching head, the nights in
revelry or at shows, or in attendance at the nuptial feasts of mimes and
jesters.” Further Antony moved
into Pompey’s house without paying a fair market price. He surrounded himself with the lowest
elements of society such as Sergius the mime and Cytheris, the actress. Cytheris traveled in a litter followed
by “as many attendants as that of his mother.” The “people were vexed at the sight of golden beakers borne
about on his excursions from the city as in sacred processions, at the pitching
of tents when he travelled, at the laying out of costly repasts near groves and
rivers, at chariots drawn by lions, and at the use of honest men and women's
houses as quarters for harlots and psaltery-players.”
Dolabella,
the tribune, in order to please the mob introduced legislation to abolish
debts. Antony’s advisors Asinius
and Trebellius disagreed with Dolabella’s scheme. The intrigue between Dolabella and Antony’s wife complicated
the matter. The discord between the two Caesarians mimicked the violence
between Isauricas and Caelius of the following year. “Antony, after the senate had voted that arms must be
employed against Dolabella, came up against him, joined battle, slew some of
his men, and lost some of his own. [xxiv]”
Caesar
was all over the place. He did not
stay in one place longer than week.
There was one exception – Egypt. It is hard to persuade a man always on the run. Ask the Cleopatra. The birth of his child by the
twenty-two African Queen could not detain him.
Cicero
asked for Caesar’s pardon upon his return from Egypt in the August and
September of 47 B.C[xxv]. He had again been appointed Dictator
and after he been elected Consul with his puppet Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. Caesar resigned the Dictatorship.
Cicero
did not have the foresight to see what was going on. And when he was able to
see, it was too late. Even in the
spare moments Caesar was in Rome, Cicero did not really lobby Ceasar. He was
distracted. Cicero underwent much
hardship in the last six years of his life including domestic concerns. Among the numerous friends killed on
both sides of the fratricidal conflict, Cicero counted his marriage among his
many great losses. Terentia, his
wife and mother of his adult children, ran up a lot of debts before departing. Cicero
also divorced his wife Terentia for neglect. His daughter, Tullia and Dolabella
divorced that year as well.
Cicero
meanwhile took up the legal defense of Quintus Ligarius “under prosecution
because he had been one of the enemies of Caesar.[xxvi]” The Jury acquitted Quintus Ligarius.
Cicero
remarried. His ex-wife asserted
that Cicero lusted after her youthful beauty. His new wife, Publia "was very wealthy, and Cicero had
been left her trustee and had charge of her property. So since he owed many
tens of thousands he was persuaded by his friends and relatives to marry the
girl, old as he was, and to get rid of his creditors by using her money."
Cicero withdrew from Rome. He
attended to his friends and instead pursued literary pursuits.
When
Cicero entered Rome, it was “only to pay court to Caesar.” In the Senate, the former consuls spoke
first. As many of the former
consuls opposed Caesar, few of the former Consuls lived to Caesar’s fourth
Consulship. Cicero therefore “was
foremost among those who advocated Caesar's honours and were eager to be ever
saying something new about him and his measures.” This the collateral Caesar
demanded in restoring the statues of Pompey. Caesar ordered ordered them to be “set
up again after they had been thrown down and taken away . . . What Cicero said was that by this act
of generosity Caesar did indeed set up the statues of Pompey, but firmly
planted his own also.[xxvii]”
Cicero’s
personal diplomacy paid off. Caesar took the side of Cicero’s former son-in-law
in the Dolabella-Antony feud.
Antony did not see Caesar for two years.
Upon
his return from Africa, Caesar celebrated four triumphs – a victory over the
Gauls, Alexandria, Pontus and Africa.
Caesar
began his fourth consulship without a colleague. In February of 45 B.C., Julius Caesar tendered a letter of
condolence to Cicero. His daughter, Tullia married Lentulus after her divocre
to Dolabella. She died in giving birth to Dolabella’s second son. Publia offended her husband
Cicero. Publia hoped that Tullia’s
death would mean that Cicero would pay more attention to her. Her sentiment however ill expressed
proved to be grounds for divorce which Cicero gave her.[xxviii]
Caesar
returned from Spain. He defeated
the sons of Pompey at the battle of Munda in March 17th. The mob of Rome, which suckled at
Caesar’s breasts, found the celebration of his triumph macabre.[xxix]
In April, “He triumphed nominally over the Gauls, the Egyptians, the Asiatics
of Pontus, over the Africans, and the Spaniards; but his triumph was, in truth,
over the Republic. . . the people of Rome refused to show any pleasure, and
that even his own soldiers had enough in them of the Roman spirit to feel
resentment at his assumption of the attributes of a king.”
Cicero
“applauds the people who would not clap their hands, even in approval of the
Goddess of Victory, because she had shown herself in such bad company. [xxx]”
From
April 45 B.C. to March 15, 45 B.C., Caesar played Antony against
Dolabella. Without friends, he
generally favored the more slavish Antony taking him as his colleague in the
year of his death 44 B.C.
In
this year, Caesar began his most ambitious legislative agenda. Like Tarquin the Proud, Caesar proposed
measures that would benefit the city, but the unreality of Caesar’s life
finally caught up with him. Caesar
won many triumphs. The son upon
whom Fortune favored had been deaf to the whispering of the slave in Caesar’s
ear, “Remember you are mortal,” until the year he sat astride the entire world
as a king in all but name.
Caesar
sought to legitimize his infamy.
He needed to appear popular and loved. The consent of the people defended him against the infamy
that accompanies tyrants. He dispensed with his bodyguard and walked among the
people. His supporters sought to
pay him more honors and went to great lengths to abase themselves before an
untitled king by the name of Caesar.
His opponents abased themselves to inspire hate. Caesar lavished many
gifts on the people. The grant of
stolen goods gave the people little solace or comfort.
Cicero
wrote two letters recommending young men to positions of public trust. Cicero comically helped fill a vacancy
in the Consulship. Cicero had little influence on Caesar preferring to stay in
his country estates and attend to his retirement. Caesar did not want a colleague but a minister who would do
his thinking for him and someone to blame when things went awry. Caesar was not wont for servants and
slaves. While he could escape,
Cicero did. He did not re-enter
the forum until the tyrant’s blood ran cold.
Out
west, there is a saying you lead a horse to water, but choking it won’t make it
drink any water. Cicero could not
convince Caesar to give up the tyranny he so ardently coveted. Perhaps Cicero may have convinced
Caesar if Cicero had only tried harder. To which, Cicero’s book on friendship
concluded “friendship may be thus defined: a complete accord on all subjects
human and divine, joined with mutual good will and affection.” It may be worth
conceding that the Republic and the course of Western civilization may have
been changed forever if Cicero’s friendship with Caesar was more sincere. To which, one cannot help but respond
maybe Cicero did not find Caesar all that charming.
END NOTES
[i] Mohandas Gandhi
[ii] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Officiis. Translated by Walter
Miller.
Loeb edition.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1913. E-book.
[iii] Pharnaces came to the
aid of Pompey defeated a Caesarian lieutenant Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus at the
Battle of Nicopolis. One year later, Caesar returned to avenge not only
Nicopolis. He returned to avenge
the slaughtered Roman citizens and prisoners of war left behind in the
territory Pharnaces seized. In coining the term "Veni, Vidi, Vici,"
Caesar hoped to link himself to the victory gained over Mithridates 44 years
earlier following the Asiatic Vespers.
Julius Caesar, The Alexandrian Wars. The Internet Classics Archive, 1994-2000. E-book.
[iv] Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Julius Caesar. Translated by Bernadotte
Perrin. Loeb Classical Library
edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University of Chicago E-book.
[v] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Friendship. 23. Translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh.
P. F. Collier, 1909. E-book.
[vi] Cicero, ibid. 7.
[vii] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Friendship. 27. Translated by Evelyn S.
Shuckburgh. P. F. Collier, 1909. E-book.
[viii] Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Scholastic
Book Series, 1874. P 139.
[ix] Cicero, Marcus Tullius. On Friendship. 24. Translated by Evelyn S.
Shuckburgh. P. F. Collier, 1909. E-book.
[xi] Cicero maintained a cozy relationship with the
haughty aristocrat, but Pulcher’s governorship with its confirmed bribery,
plunder and corruption. Trollope, Anthony. Life of Cicero, Volume 2. The Project Gutenberg EBook. 2009. E-book.
[xii] Crassus, Pompey and Caesar’s third man in the
triumvirate attempted to ape Caesar’s celebrity by starting a war with
Parthia. Crassus led 35,000 Roman
legionnaires to their death and slavery at Carrhae.
Plutarchus,
Lucius Mestrius. The Life of
Crassus. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The
University of Chicago E-book.
[xiii] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Antony.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xiv] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Cicero.
37. Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xv] Plutarch, ibid.
[xvi] Plutarch, ibid.
[xvii] Pompey escaped to Greece with 2 legions in
tact. Caesar pursued Pompey with 6
legions outnumbering Pompey 3 to 1.
Pompey still managed to control the Roman fleet. His flight from Brundisium would be one
of the rare lights in the Republican cause.
[xviii] Historians have linked a homosexual relationship
between Curio and Antony in their youth.
[xix] Caesar took the defection of Titus Labienus
hard. Labienus had been an early
supporter of Caesar. Caesar
successfully prosecuted Gaius Rabirius, the man who murdered Labienus’ uncle in
the crisis created by Tribune Saturninus of 100 BC.
Labienus served as
one of Caesar’s key leaders in Gaul.
Labienus proved his valor and supreme generalship consistently in the
ten year campaign in Gaul.
Caesar left Labienus
in charge of Cisalpine Gaul while he resolved affairs in Rome.
[xx] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Antony.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xxi] Plutarchus, Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Cicero. Translated
by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb
Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University of Chicago
E-book.
[xxii] Caelius took up with Milo who rebelled against
Caesar. Caesar had both men
executed that year.
[xxiii] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Antony.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xxiv] Plutarch, ibid.
[xxvi] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Cicero.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xxvii] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Caesar.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xxviii] Plutarchus, Lucius
Mestrius. The Life of Cicero.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
[xxix] “This was the last war that Caesar waged; and the
•triumph that was celebrated for it vexed the Romans as nothing else had done.
8 For it commemorated no victory over foreign commanders or barbarian
kings, but the utter annihilation of the sons and the family of the mightiest
of the Romans, who had fallen upon misfortune; 9 and it was not meet for
Caesar to celebrate a triumph for the calamities of his country, priding
himself upon actions which had no defence before gods or men.”
Plutarchus,
Lucius Mestrius. The Life of Caesar.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin.
Loeb Classical Library edition The Text on Lacus Curtius The University
of Chicago E-book.
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