Beware the Ides Of March
Beware the Ides of March, which is now. The 15th of March. The day that Gaius 'Julius Caesar' was assassinated by a group of Roman Senators. Typcially Roman motives of Greed and political Power dressed up in the desire for Liberty. Caesar dominated Rome up to his assassination following his victory in the Civil War. He had been appointed Dictator of Rome a few times, but had either resigned or had a set time period (Dictator in Rome was usually a position allowed for a set time, or until the emergency had passed). A month before his death, a subservient Senate filled with newly promoted Senators helped to refill the Senate after its gutting in the civil war, and friends or allies of Caesar, voted their master the office of Dictator for life. Caesar had become king in all but name. Indeed, he had refused the offer of King of Rome three times. For all their flaws, the Romans had a massive grudge, for good reasons, against Monarchy (Mainly the Etruscans, expelled in the 500b.c's). But Caesar had the power of the King but not the name and he avoided it like the Plague. He didn't actually need the name, he had power beyond the imagination of any man before him, perhaps only Alexander the Great wielded comparable wealth and armed forces like Caesar could and perhaps Alexander could claim to be the better general. They were though both, rightly viewed by their peers and the future theorists as two of the greatest generals of the classical age. But I digress.
One of the main reasons for Caesar' assassination was his control of the honours system that underpined the political power in Rome. The 'cursus honorus', from Quaestor to Consul it was the ladder leading to power and glory, two virtues Roman Patricians believed made the man, and the family greater in the now and equally as important, in the future. Roman Patricians searched for immortality of reputation through actions in their lifetime. This ambitious drive built a republic that conquered most of the known world when their was enough positions for a competing and cooperative elite of Patrician and then a Plebian elite of families. When, in the late republic that balance of power and influence could be destroyed by private armies funded by wealth garnered from becoming world conqueror's this fabric that built Roman became distorted. Romans, like Pompey who in the East found himself unlimited wealth and to be fetted like Kings and also Gods, that when returning to Rome they where now expected to assume leave it all and resume a place as a normal Roman in a Senate of equals, became difficult. The proverb, 'Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely' rings true. They had become giants and were expected to be equal to dwarfs.
After the Civil War, Caesar stood alone in the Roman world as the colosssi, Pompey the Great, his nearest and most dangerous rival had lost his head. All power and patronage flowed from Caesar to those he chose. The road to power and glory for a Roman Senator was to a certain extent curtailed. The obstacle was the man named Dictator, now for life, and he began appointing the Roman magistrates years ahead and the rivals and enemies in the Senate knew there would be no political powers for them until he had been removed. Caesar had to die. And he did, under a hail of daggers within the Roman Forum, at the time the centre of Roman Life, therefore the centre of the world. It would be the equaivalent of the US president dying on the lawn of the white house, if he had unlimited powers and ruled the known world that is. One of the hardest things to translate for modern readers is just how all powerful Late Republican Romans and early Emperors (Princeps) were. They literally, owned the world. A power beyond our imagination.
Caesar's assassination does lead to the big, what if? question that haunts us about his death. The military genius of the man. Prior to his death and one of the reasons he had lined up his magistrates in power for the foreseeable future was that Caesar was not staying in Rome. He was a man of wild ambition (and yes, equal arrogance) and was planning his next great expedition; the Invasion of Rome's latest challenger, that ever more irritant kingdom of Parthia (who after Carrhae now possessed Roman Legion standards and the Roman's never forgot this. It took over a 100 years to get them back) was the next target for Caesar.
When 9,000 Horse archer annihilated over 40,000 Roman Legionnaires under Crassus sent shockwaves through the Roman nation. Would Caesar, quite easily a superior general to Crassus in every detail, have been able to conquer the Parthian nation. He had conquered all other opponents. It would have been an interesting contest. A contest when fought between later armies has always pretty much gone the way of the horsemen, please see the conquests of Genghis Khan's generals in Europe when western civilisation was saved by the death of a man, otherwise they would have ridden unmolested to the english channel.
Caesar was a flawed man, flawed in the sense that all Roman Patrician's and Dynast's in the First century BC were flawed. But he was also a great man, a great statesman, a great speaker, thinker and writer. He, of all the Roman's and there were those whose achievements could have equalled his, has ensured immortality for his own name. The ambition of the Roman elite at the time of their deaths. Others haven't and their names have been lost to time. Indeed there is a blog today that discussed who, of the two most famous Roman's is most known to us now. Pontius Pilate or Caesar. Pilate wasn't really even famous in his day, a nobody's made infamous by another man. Yet, he is there with Caesar, a man who was a somebody, in fact he was THE body in his day. He took out all the other giants and stood alone in the world, which lived in his shadow.
One of the main reasons for Caesar' assassination was his control of the honours system that underpined the political power in Rome. The 'cursus honorus', from Quaestor to Consul it was the ladder leading to power and glory, two virtues Roman Patricians believed made the man, and the family greater in the now and equally as important, in the future. Roman Patricians searched for immortality of reputation through actions in their lifetime. This ambitious drive built a republic that conquered most of the known world when their was enough positions for a competing and cooperative elite of Patrician and then a Plebian elite of families. When, in the late republic that balance of power and influence could be destroyed by private armies funded by wealth garnered from becoming world conqueror's this fabric that built Roman became distorted. Romans, like Pompey who in the East found himself unlimited wealth and to be fetted like Kings and also Gods, that when returning to Rome they where now expected to assume leave it all and resume a place as a normal Roman in a Senate of equals, became difficult. The proverb, 'Power corrupts and absolute Power corrupts absolutely' rings true. They had become giants and were expected to be equal to dwarfs.
After the Civil War, Caesar stood alone in the Roman world as the colosssi, Pompey the Great, his nearest and most dangerous rival had lost his head. All power and patronage flowed from Caesar to those he chose. The road to power and glory for a Roman Senator was to a certain extent curtailed. The obstacle was the man named Dictator, now for life, and he began appointing the Roman magistrates years ahead and the rivals and enemies in the Senate knew there would be no political powers for them until he had been removed. Caesar had to die. And he did, under a hail of daggers within the Roman Forum, at the time the centre of Roman Life, therefore the centre of the world. It would be the equaivalent of the US president dying on the lawn of the white house, if he had unlimited powers and ruled the known world that is. One of the hardest things to translate for modern readers is just how all powerful Late Republican Romans and early Emperors (Princeps) were. They literally, owned the world. A power beyond our imagination.
Caesar's assassination does lead to the big, what if? question that haunts us about his death. The military genius of the man. Prior to his death and one of the reasons he had lined up his magistrates in power for the foreseeable future was that Caesar was not staying in Rome. He was a man of wild ambition (and yes, equal arrogance) and was planning his next great expedition; the Invasion of Rome's latest challenger, that ever more irritant kingdom of Parthia (who after Carrhae now possessed Roman Legion standards and the Roman's never forgot this. It took over a 100 years to get them back) was the next target for Caesar.
When 9,000 Horse archer annihilated over 40,000 Roman Legionnaires under Crassus sent shockwaves through the Roman nation. Would Caesar, quite easily a superior general to Crassus in every detail, have been able to conquer the Parthian nation. He had conquered all other opponents. It would have been an interesting contest. A contest when fought between later armies has always pretty much gone the way of the horsemen, please see the conquests of Genghis Khan's generals in Europe when western civilisation was saved by the death of a man, otherwise they would have ridden unmolested to the english channel.
Caesar was a flawed man, flawed in the sense that all Roman Patrician's and Dynast's in the First century BC were flawed. But he was also a great man, a great statesman, a great speaker, thinker and writer. He, of all the Roman's and there were those whose achievements could have equalled his, has ensured immortality for his own name. The ambition of the Roman elite at the time of their deaths. Others haven't and their names have been lost to time. Indeed there is a blog today that discussed who, of the two most famous Roman's is most known to us now. Pontius Pilate or Caesar. Pilate wasn't really even famous in his day, a nobody's made infamous by another man. Yet, he is there with Caesar, a man who was a somebody, in fact he was THE body in his day. He took out all the other giants and stood alone in the world, which lived in his shadow.
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