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| The First Triumvirate Gaius Iulius Caesar Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus General Marcus Licinius Crassus The Ancient Republic of Rome Part 3 |
Iulius Caesar, or better known in English with the "J," as Julius Caesar, was born in 100 B.C. in the Republic of Rome, not long before the Roman Republic would become the true Roman Empire, in the sense where an emperor would rule the "empire." Iulius Caesar was legendary even without discussing his rise in political power, as his campaigns to spread the empire as far as Britain are enough to demonstrate his mark in history. Politically speaking, he actually paved the way to the end of the Roman Republic, where the senate ruled in a patrician-based democracy, whereas the more democratic Roman Empire would allow for more plebeian interaction in the government, and the emperor himself would act almost as a president to speak for the smaller people. This, as anyone can tell, obviously did not make the power-mongering patricians shout for joy, as Iulius attempted quite dashingly to wrest control from the senate, empowering himself as the beloved emperor of the people, and then stretch Rome across the entire Earth in his visionary conquest, not entirely unlike Alexander the Great's own conquest for Greek Empire in the 330s B.C.
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| Iulius |
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| Crassus |
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| Pompeius |
At this time, Iulius was known as a proconsul, but he had every motive to change that! And so the union of the three men was born. Because fame and glory was earned in the Roman Republic primarily by grand military conquests, a tradition set by some of the first generals at the beginning of Rome, Iulius marched out for the conquest of Gaul held by the Celtic tribes that settled there after the Roman defeat at the Battle of Allia around 390-387 B.C. At this time, Gaul was a Celtic territory occupying just about all of western Europe, such as France, Belgium, England, and more. This meant great fame for Iulius, as the previous Roman attempts to throw out the Celts failed quite miserably, but he would not. Grand battles ensued for years, close to a decade, and by 51 B.C. Iulius conquered Gaul. He even built a bridge to cross the Rhine during this time and showed the neighboring Germanic tribes known as the Teutones, Cimbri, and Ambrones, that the large river could not protect any of them from Roman retaliation. Up until this point, the Germanic tribes on the eastern side of the Rhine had been attacking Rome in unpredictable waves. Small tribes they were, but they wore Rome down over the decades, as Rome would later attempt to occupy the entire border to protect themselves, and fail. Iulius was conducting the first ever invasion of Britain when bad luck would strike his glorious triumvirate in the ribs.
Although Iulius was victorious in all he did, Crassus, the wealthy general who was funding the entire campaign and the triumvirate itself, was killed in 53 B.C during an arrogant attempt to win more prestige for himself by marching across the Euphrates to conquer Parthia. The Parthians were one of the several ancient Persian tribes that existed prior to the beginning of the Persian entrance into Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau around 2000 B.C. The Parthians were best known for chopping off the heads of men they thought were greedy and pouring molten gold into them, leaving their golden heads on pikes as warnings to the disgusting civilizations that might attempt to invade. To say that Crassus was defeated would be a monstrous understatement, as the Parthian's highly skilled cavalry mowed Crassus' mercenary infantry down like grass. There was no real battle, as Crassus' army served only to irritate these legendary warriors. |
| The Rubicon River |
Being manipulated, Pompey the Great, who in his own right was a legendary general, was pushed by the senate to defect from the triumvirate he entered and defend the Roman senate, no doubt for "very good reasons." Iulius was absolutely brilliant, and some say he may have had some sort of attention disorder, like ADD, as he is always described as a highly energetic personality, always hopping from one task to another with great haste. Following Caesar took people a lot of adjustment. That may have been part of the reason why he immediately chose to literally march across the Rubicon in 49 B.C.! Almost instantaneously a civil war broke out, as his act was no less than pure insurrection. But Iulius Caesar would have it no other way, as he spent 10 years of his life earning glory to rule, why would he simply give up after all of that? The senate was not thinking properly, or perhaps they simply felt too comfortable up there in the senate, because they did not expect Caesar to be so bold.
Immediately Pompey set out against him, and in several glorious battles, Pompey the Great vs. Iulius Caesar conqueror of Gaul, Pompey and Caesar fought bitterly from Rome all the way to Greece and met in the final Battle of Pharsalus in 49 B.C., where Caesar won the civil war. Pompey survived and fled with some trust comrades, also taking his wife and son to Egypt, where Caesar already had his assassins waiting to strike. Pompey was publicly stabbed to death by Illas, Septimius and Salvius.
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| Assassination of Caesar by the senate |
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Up next:
Imperial Rome Part 1: Emperor Nero- The Man Who Fiddled While Rome Burned
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