Rome #3: First Emperor

Refer to my previous blog to see how Julius Caesar got eyeball to eyeball with Rome. Based on Simon Baker’s Ancient Rome, the questions were: would Caesar topple the government? Or could a compromise be worked out?

The Senate turned to Pompey the Great for help, and granted him sole consulship. It meant that the earlier alliance between Pompey and Caesar was now broken. Meanwhile, spotting the opportunity created by the Roman v/s Roman standoff, the Gauls revolted. Caesar responded with lightning speed. He rode back to Gaul and with his usual ruthless, single-minded, tactical genius as a general, put down the revolt. And then he returned to the outskirts of Italy again.

Caesar offered a deal: since he was not eligible to stand for consul again until 10 years from his first tenure, he asked that his tenure in Gaul be extended. Upon his return, he would then stand for consul again. The people’s assemblies OK’ed the legislation: his popularity after the Gaul conquest was sky high. But the Senate had veto powers, which they exercised.

Meanwhile, the propaganda war had started. Caesar’s supporters within Rome swung the common man’s view to prefer “fair, generous masters” over “freedom”. The Senate, in turn, portrayed Caesar as a “would-be tyrant, as the man bent on destroying the republic, the man whose grotesque greed and ambition were driving him to seize power”. A civil war seemed imminent.

Caesar tried to negotiate again: He was willing to give up Gaul and its 10 legions; in return, he asked for the province of Illyricum and its one legion. But on no account was he going to walk unarmed into Rome only to be prosecuted. The Senate turned him down. How dare he dictate policy to the Senate, they fumed.

It was against Roman law for commanders to bring in their troops from the provinces into Italy. The Rubicon marked the boundary between Italy and Gaul. Caesar crossed it, amounting to an “irrevocable declaration of war”. Or at least that’s how historians tell it: Caesar’s own autobiography, exceptionally detailed though it was, never even mentions the Rubicon!

While his enemies expected a full blown “proper” war, Caesar’s forces struck like lightning, swiftly and clinically. True to the name he gave his campaign, Clemency, he forgave those who surrendered without a fight. As a result, his blitzkrieg faced little opposition. The Senate and its backers were caught unaware and unprepared for this form of battle.

Pompey suggested that the smart thing to do was to leave Rome; to regroup and fight later. As they beat a hasty, embarrassing retreat, Caesar chased them and bitter fighting ensued. When Caesar finally entered Rome triumphantly, he was met by terrified citizens who wondered if he would treat it as a foreign city, a conquest to be looted. Instead, Caesar tried to create a semblance of legitimate government, but eventually he ran out of patience.

Caesar forgave those fought against him; and took steps to heal the republic. His war veterans were given a lifetime’s salary. He honoured his pledges to reform the republic in many ways. Elections, however, were a farce: he was voted for 4 consulships and 4 dictatorships. Eventually, he was voted to the post of dictator in perpetuity. He had become Rome’s first emperor.

That elevation, in turn, fanned the flames of liberty once more. A group of Senators went on to assassinate Caesar, marched to Capitoline Hill and announced, “Liberty had been restored”.

But it was too late: the era of emperor rule in Roman civilization had begun.

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