Gaius Julius Caesar came from a poor but respectable family. His uncle Lucius 01Julius Caesar became consul in 90 BC and his father Gaius 02Julius Caesar became a praetor. His aunt 01Julia Caesaris (d.69 BC) married Marius (1); and when Caesar began his career he found himself in the middle of the conflicts between Marius and Cornelius (32) Sulla.
In 84 BC consul Cornelius (34) Cinna gave his daughter Cornelia (2) to Caesar in marriage and made him a flamen dialis (high priest) of Jupiter. In 81 BC Sulla proscribed his enemies and when Caesar’s name appeared on the list his mother Aurelia Cotta persuaded Sulla to remove it.
In 80 BC Caesar went to Asia to work for its governor 10Minucius Thermus, where he received the corona civica (‘civic crown’), an oak crown awarded for saving the life of a fellow citizen in battle. In 78 BC he served under 13Servilius Isauricus, governor of Cilicia, who was campaigning against the pirates. When the news came of Sulla’s death and the insurrection of 14Aemilius Lepidus against the Sullan order, Caesar returned to Rome and served as a trial lawyer.
In 75 BC on his way to Rhodes to study rhetoric under Apollonius Molon, Caesar was kidnapped by Cilician pirates off the island of Pharmacusa and held for about five weeks until a ransom of fifty talents arrived. The story of Caesar gathering a force and hunting down his captors is doubtful. In 73 BC, following the death of a relative 04Aurelius Cotta (cos.75 BC), Caesar returned to Rome and replaced Cotta as pontifex.
Caesar usually lived beyond his means, and his debts mounted quickly. He and 13Licinius Crassus, by now one of Rome’s richest men, became close friends and Crassus began funding Caesar’s lavish lifestyle.
In 72 BC Caesar was elected military tribune, and in 69 BC he was elected a quaestor. When his aunt Julia (1) (Marius’ wife) died, Caesar violated Roman tradition by making her funeral a public laudation, an act usually reserved for historic figures. Caesar praised Marius, who the optimates vilified, and drew attention to his family’s alleged descent from the kings of Rome (from Ancus Marcius) and the gods (from Venus, through Iulus, Aeneas’ son). After his wife Cornelia died, Caesar again violated Roman tradition by having a public laudation, and using the opportunity this time to honour Cinna (Cornelia’s father), another man whom the optimates hated.
In 69/8 BC Caesar left Rome to serve under Gaius 01Antistius Vetius, propraetor in Hispania Ulterior. In 67 BC Caesar married his second wife, Pompeia, the daughter of Quintus 04Pompeius Rufus (cos.88 BC) and the granddaughter of Sulla. Caesar was now a senator, and in the Senate he supported the lex Gabinia and lex Manilia that gave Pompey the extraordinary powers to deal with the Cilician pirates and Mithridates.
In 65 BC Caesar and 10Calpurnius Bibulus (c.54; fl.65-48 BC) were elected curule aediles, responsible for maintaining temples and public buildings and staging public games. Caesar borrowed large sums of money to ensure that the entertainment he provided was the best money could buy. As a result, he became very popular with the poor of Rome.
The pontifex maximus was the titular head of the religion of the state. As an appointment for life it was the most prestigious office in the constitution and it was usually held by a senior statesman of long political experience. Early in 63 BC its holder 11Caecilius Metellus Pius (cos.80 BC) died. In the election for his successor, Caesar, who was only halfway through the cursus honorum, defeated two senior consulares (ex-consuls): 13Servilius Vatia (cos.79 BC) and 03Lutatius Catulus (cos.78 BC). In order to win the election Caesar had borrowed so much money to bribe the voters (seventeen of the thirty-five tribes chosen by lot on the day) that failure would have meant his ruin and exile; but now his new position with its high pay, lifetime tenure and political advantages would insulate him somewhat from his debts.
In 67 BC the consuls 09Calpurnius Piso and 03Acilius Glabrio had passed the lex Acilia Calpurnia mandating permanent exclusion from office in cases of electoral corruption. In 66-64 BC Piso was assigned to both Gauls where he defeated the Allobroges (on the upper Rhone) and repressed trouble in Transpadana (north of the Po). In 63 BC he was accused of extortion and of unjustly executing a Transpadane Gaul. Caesar, who was their patron at Rome, conducted the prosecution, but Piso was successfully defended by Cicero.
In 63 BC Caesar and the tribune Titus Labienus (1) brought charges of high treason against an aged senator and optimas named Gaius Rabirius who had participated in the killing of the ‘sacrosanct’ tribune Saturninus nearly forty years earlier, the Senate having authorised Marius to restore order by any means necessary. It was not that Caesar or Labienus really cared what had happened long ago – their action was intended as a direct challenge to the Senate’s power to condemn citizens without due process.
To avoid a drawn-out court case which they might lose, Caesar and Labienus resorted to an ancient form of trial conducted by only two judges chosen by lot, one of which happened to be Caesar. Rabirius was of course found guilty and sentenced to crucifixion. This ancient form of judgement allowed an appeal to the Centuriate Assembly. Most of lower-class Romans who made the bulk of the assembly were angry enough to confirm the death sentence against Rabirius, but 13Caecilius Metellus Celer (c.42; fl.66-59 BC), one of the senator’s defenders, remembered another archaic custom.
During the early republic a red flag had been flown on the Janiculum Hill when an assembly was in session. If the flag was lowered it showed that the city was under attack and that all public meetings should cease. When Metellus Celer lowered the flag the assembly was adjourned and Rabirius was saved from the cross. He was tried again in a more standard court and with Cicero defending him he was soon acquitted. However, Caesar and Labienus had made their point.
Labienus, almost certainly at Caesar’s instigation, now had a bill passed restoring to the constitution the lex Domitia de sacerdotiia of 104 BC, by which priests were elected by popular vote rather than appointed by their college as been decreed by Sulla with his de sacerdotiis.
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