The Roman People Favor Caesar

When I was a Praetor-elect, the Catilinarian conspiracy was known to the Republic and to the Senate. Catiline brought a group together to overthrow our great Republic, but Consul Cicero discovered the plot, and Catiline fled Rome. The senate wanted the deaths of all involved, but I proposed a different course. Each wrong-doer should be imprisoned, but in different towns that each other. Their ultimate punishment should be that their estates will be confiscated to the Republic they wanted destroyed. I insisted upon the Senate that if they pressed their views or ideas of prosecuting the Catilinarians, the people would gain a hatred to them. Most people had the same view as I, but the consul-elect, Decimus Silanus, had his own ideas. I blocked the proceedings, believing that my view was the right one, until Roman equites threatened my life. I had to give up my opposition, especially when they came armed, unsheathing their swords at me until most of my companions fled my side, leaving a few to huddle against me as my last line of defense against these equites. It wasn't that I was afraid of them, but I feared more foul play. I kept away from the senate house for whole year.
My first day of my praetorship was a busy one. Quintus Catulus was in charge of restoring the Capitol, and he had made so little progress that I felt in my power to question Catulus that answers are to be made to the Roman people. I made a decision that his commission should be taken from Catulus and given to someone who could get the restoration done. The Optimate party and the newly elected consuls heard me speaking to Catulus, and they offered Catulus dogmatic resistance to me. Of course, I had to withdraw my proposal.
Caecilius Metellus, a tribune, proposed bills that I believed should have been put through the senate. Of course, they were vetoes, but Metellus and I were behind the bill until the Senate suspended us. However, I kept my position, but I was warned I would be removed by force, if needed. I was fed up with the whole situation. I took off my Praetorian toga, and I went home, in a quicker pace. Since the Catilinarian incidents, politics seemed more of a nuisance to me. I decided to retire from politics. However, it didn't last long. The next day, a crowd of my fellow Romans appeared at my residence. They were up in arms because of how the senate wanted me out. My fellow Romans offered to put me back on the tribunal. I waved at them, humbled by their admiration for my position. The Senate were so surprised by the people's demonstration in front of my house that they hurriedly dealt with the situation. They sent a deputation of high officials of Rome to thank me, publically. After the thanks by the high officials, they asked for my presence in the Senate House. They showered praises on me, and they revoked their decree. Furthermore, they confirmed my praetorship. The people have spoken...

Sources Used:

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print

The Will of the People: Quaestor to Pontifex Maximus

To my dismay, the night after I had visited the statue of Alexander, I had a dream. In the dream, I raped my mother. I didn't know how to take this dream. I went to the soothsayers, and to my disbelief, they told me that the dream was a sign that I would one day rule the earth, "our universal mother." It was very encouraging for a dream that seemed so crazed.
I wasn't a Quaestor long. I laid down my position for better opportunities. I took up the position of Aedileship. I filled the Forum, the Comitium, and adjacent buildings, including the capitol with material for public shows, temporary colonnades. I exhibited shows, at my expense and of my colleague Marcus Bibulus, such as plays and exotic animal hunts. I put together a show of gladiators that terrified most of my political opponents to where they passed a bill that would limit the number of gladiators a Roman citizen could hold in the city of Rome. Most of my advertisements showed more gladiators were to fight in the shows, and it was a let down to most spectators to find fewer gladiators fighting than advertised.
The goodwill of the people and tribunes put me in charge of Egypt. It made it even more worth it that I obtained the position through popular vote. I wanted this position because of recent developments that the King in Alexandria had been forcibly removed from his thrown. The Senate and the people of Rome had known him to be an ally of the republic. The Optimates party opposed the matter. However, I took vengeance by replacing public monuments that were destroyed by Sulla many years ago. The statues commemorated my uncle Marius' victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, and the Teutones. I became president of the courts concerned with murder, and I prosecuted the barbaric behaved men who took bounties on heads of Roman citizens during the proscriptions, regardless if these men were exempt from Cornelian Laws. I bribed a man to bring a charge of treason against Gaius Rabirius. I was chosen by many to try Rabirius. I pronounced his sentence with too much satisfaction. In fact, my tone gave Rabirius an attempted appeal to the people. Regardless of my prejudice, Rabirius was convicted, and the Roman people ignored his appeal.
I was much obliged to leave my position in Egypt. I went for the office of "Pontifex Maximus." In all honesty, I used a lot of bribery to obtain this position. I had racked up so much debt that the morning that the voting poll was conducted, I told my mother if I hadn't become a Pontifex, I wouldn't return. Venus graced her descendant with a victory over my two rivals. It seemed that my opponents were much more distinguished and much older. The votes cast to me tallied way more than those who were cast for my rivals. Needless to say, I was able to return home that night a Pontifex, but in debt.


Sources Used:

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print

The Legend Arises: Subrara, Crucifying Priates, and Hispani

My return to Rome meant that I had to start over. Sulla had my inheritance, Cornelia's dowry, and my position of priesthood taken away from me. I bought a house in Subrura. Compared to my previous living, the house in Subrura was fit for a peasant, not a patrician and not a descendent of Aeneas. I chose to begin legal advocacy, and I became versed in speech.
(According to Suetonius) I was on my way to the Aegean Sea. Pirates along my path kidnapped me and took me for ransom. This kidnapping did not faze me. I was above these criminals. The whole thing seemed like a waste of my time. These petty thieves asked a ransom of twenty talents for me! TWENTY TALENTS! Pathetic! I told the pirates that twenty talents was a waste, and that they should make it fifty talents. No matter the cost of my ransom, I would take my revenge on these low-life thieves, and I promised the pirates I would crucify them. The pirates laughed and must have thought that I was not a man of my word. After my ransom was paid, I raised a fleet to go after the pirates. My fleet caught up with the pirates, and I imprisoned them for the crimes they committed against me. I had each pirate crucified. People criticized me for taking authority, but wasn't it I who the pirates kidnapped? It should be I who puts an end to these pirates. Romans should not be disgusted with me. The pirates are not Romans. We are above these people. I returned to military service in the East after I had gotten my revenge.
When I returned to Rome, I was elected Quaestor (69 B.C.E.). However, I lost my aunt Julia, and shorty after, I lost my Cornelia. I delivered an oration at my aunt Julia's funeral where I spoke about Marius and Julia. Most Romans were surprised to hear my uncle's name after a time when he was defeated by Sulla.
After the funerals of my aunt and my Cornelia, I took the opportunity to serve my new office as Quaestor in Hispani. It was there that I became angry with myself. I had come upon a statue of Alexander the Great. All of my life, I had read the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great had the world in his hand at the age of 33. I was so angry that I wept because I was disappointed in myself. I was 33, but I was no where near the prowess of Alexander.
When I returned to Rome, I married my second wife, Pompeia, who was a granddaughter of Sulla. I despised the marriage. I only did it to ease what tensions were left from Sulla. Later, I divorced her.

Sources Used:

Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus, Orion Publishing, April 18, 2013.

Plutarch, Lives: Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Caesar, Harvard University Press, January 31, 1919. Print.

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print

Gaius Julius Caesar: The Early Years

I am Gaius Julius Caesar. I was born to the house of the Julii, decedents of Aeneas and son of the goddess Venus. My parents were Gaius Julius Caesar, the first, and Aurelia Cotta, who raised me after my father died when I was 15 years of age. I became head of my family at 16. My aunt married Gaius Marius, who would later be known as Marius the Great. At the same time, my uncle Marius was fighting a civil war with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Marius gained influence over the Rome, and it was then that I became a high priest of Jupiter. After becoming high priest, I married my first wife, Cornelia, who was the daughter of my uncle’s ally by the name of Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Lucius and Marius’ influence did not last long, and eventually, Sulla defeated them. Because I was family to the defeated, I became a threat to Sulla’s new regime. Sulla took everything from me from my inheritance to Cornelia’s dowry. Moreover, I lost my position as a high priest of Jupiter. I did not divorce Cornelia, which forced me to seek refuge. Thanks to some of my family and the Vestal Virgins who were supporters of Sulla, I was no longer considered a threat in Sulla’s eyes. Some say that Sulla still felt threatened by me because he sensed much of my uncle in me. It was after this incident that I left Rome to join the army. I gained recognition in King Nicomedee’s court after assisting the king’s fleet in Bithynia, and I spent awhile there. However, I deny any rumors that I had an affair with the king. I believe the defeat of my uncle and Lucius Cornelius Cinna to be fate. If I had remained a high priest of Jupiter, I would not been able to have a military career. I did not return to Rome until years later (78 B.C.E.) after I obtained word that Sulla had died, and I knew that it was safe to return.

Sources Used:

 

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print.

Plutarch, Lives: Demosthenes and Cicero, Alexander and Caesar, Harvard University Press, January 31, 1919. Print.