Caesar's Public Character

Shakespeare called Julius Caesar's assassin, Marcus Brutus, the "noblest Roman of them all," but there is no doubt that Julius Caesar himself is the most renowned Roman of them all probably the only Roman, apart perhaps from Pontius Pilate, whom the man in the street could identify. Caesar established no enduring political regime, but in popular memory he has overshadowed his nephew and (posthumously) adopted son Octavian, or Augustus, who was the actual founder of the Roman Empire. His very name has become the word for "emperor" in several languages (e.g., Kaiser; Czar). The following pages examine Caesar's public character and his role as military leader and politician in the last days of the Roman republic.

Gaius Iulius Caesar, to give him his proper Roman name, was born into an aristocratic Roman family in the turbulent later days of the Roman Republic, and his career cannot be understood without some grasp of the development of Roman political life through his lifetime, which culminated thirteen years after his death with the triumph of Augustus. Caesar himself was born at the beginning of the 1st century BC, traditionally in 100 BC, though some scholars have argued in favor of 102 BC (Fuller 56-59).

When Caesar was born, Rome was legally a city-state, though Roman power already extended around the Mediterranean. Most of Italy was grouped into nominally independent "allies," while outside Italy Roman control was exerted through a mixture of direct rule of provin

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when he wanted to sleep, partied with them, and lambasted them when they failed to appreciate his poetry or oratory. Throughout, he told them that after his release he would hunt them down and crucify them. When he was ransomed he requisitioned some warships and proceeded to do exactly that, though with typically Caesarian mercy he cut their throats to spare them the agony of a slow death on the cross. In 67 BC, when he was in his middle thirties, Caesar was elected to his first important office in Rome, that of quaestor. From the beginning of his active political career, Caesar tended to align himself with the broader populace against the "optimates," or wealthiest members of the old oligarchy (Kahn 101). While the broadening of citizenship after the Social War had eased the tensions between Rome proper and the rest of Italy, the "social issue" remained unresolved. Debt relief and land reform were vital concerns to large segments of the population, ranging from aristocrats whose position was slipping to the masses of the poor (Yavetz 133-143). This Roman political crisis has elements in common with twentieth-century struggles between Right and Left, but it is important not to overstretch the analogy. Champions of the o

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