So, you might have read Gwangi's historical fiction piece that we posted earlier, now, it's Krypto's turn to have his writing up on the blog. His assignment was to pick a Roman figure and write a 5 page biography of them. He picked Julius Caesar. He got extra books from the library, used his own History reading assignments, and looked a bit online for this paper's background and research. Several weeks of reading and note taking then turned into his paper.
Again, I haven't spent as much time this year with editing and reworking the boys' papers as I just haven't had the time, but all in all, I'm pretty proud of their independent work!
So, enjoy, Krypto's biography of Julius Caesar, from a bird's eye point of view -
Chapter 1: Nestling,
childhood, and early years
Julius Caesar was born
into a large and influential, though not exactly rich, family. His father,
Gaius Caesar was a senator, and his aunt was one of the influential, highly
respected, and very powerful religious, vestal virgins.
His family even
managed to claim that they were the true descendants of Venus, the goddess of
love, charisma, and beauty.
Very little is known
about Julius Caesar’s childhood, only that he had an average Roman education, in
which he showed great talent. His childhood was probably like every other Roman
child’s which is why we have so little information on it, nobody cared to write
it down because of its normalness, which would have bored anyone who had read
about it.
Even by an early age,
Caesar had great power. His father died when he was 16, leaving him, by the
Roman law, in charge of his huge family. He did a good job, giving a sense of
what was to come with his great talent of leadership already coming into play.
By his late twenties,
he had married. His wife’s name was Cornelia and it was a diplomatic marriage
to stop the hostility between Caesar’s family and the family of Cornelia.
During a bloody civil war they were on opposite sides. But even their marriage
was not enough to keep the peace. When Sulla, Caesar’s enemy, won the civil
war, Caesar had to flee from Rome, but could return when his aunt, the vestal
virgin, intervened on his behalf.
He soon returned and
got a job in politics, which he was very good at.
About this time two
events happened which caused much chaos and allowed Caesar to go through the
ranks from military tribune to Praetor rather quickly. This move allowed him to
get elected into the senate and hold his position there.
The two events that
caused such chaos were first a massive slave revolt, where thousands of slaves,
led by a gladiator named Spartacus rampaged thru Rome. They then made a camp on
a nearby mountaintop, where it took the Romans 6 months and 3 assaults to
destroy them. The second was when an evil senator by the name of Catiline
formed a conspiracy to take over the government, but it was discovered and
stopped.
Chapter 2: Hawk, Early career
His early career was a
busy one. Soon after being made military tribune both his wife and his aunt
Julia (the vestal virgin) died within the same year. He was very sad and spent
some time in mourning.
His first step up on
the governmental career ladder was to Pontifus Maximus, the supreme high
priest. He ran against Catiline (before the conspiracy was revealed) and won.
He was in this role for a few years, but then climbed up again to be the Praetor
of Spain, where he was governor and leader of all the local, loyal armies.
He did a remarkably
good job. His first act was to start a war against the hundreds of bandit bands
that lived in Spain, he carried the role well, and within 2 years Spain was
bandit-free.
The people of Spain
were very happy with his work, and even more so when he cancelled all their debts
and then drastically changed the debting laws (which also helped him get out of
his own personal debts) and when he left Spain he was incredibly popular.
He faced a challenge
when he got back to Rome though. He wanted to run for consul, but he had received
a triumph; a triumph was when a general did so well that he is lead thru the
streets in a parade. The Senate had voted for Caesar to receive a triumph
because of his victory while fighting the bandits. Unfortunately, there was
only enough time to either run in the election or to have his triumph parade.
He chose to run in the election.
The election was a
brutal one, it was Caesar versus Cato the popular speaker and another two elder
senators. Everyone but Caesar cheated during the election, with even the noble
Cato bribing others to vote against Caesar. Caesar did win, but it was very
close.
Caesar remarried, this
time to a girl named Calipurnia, the daughter of a powerful senator. This was
the first of many things he would do as consul to gain more power with the
populous.
He also redistributed
much of the government’s land to the poor, gave tons of food and wealth away,
and built many public buildings. All of these popular actions gave him full
public support. On the senatorial side, he made many alliances, the most
powerful of which was when he, Pompey, and Crassius formed the first triumvirate.
The triumvirate was a
team of three people who covered each other in areas where that person was
weak. Together, they ruled all of Roman territory’s. Caesar came up with the
idea in order to help himself get more power.
The members of the
triumvirate were him, who had a large amount of the public support. A general
named Pompey, who had the military’s support, and a senator by the name of
Crassius. He had the wealth the others needed to fund the triumvirate.
The triumvirate was forged
when Crassius and Pompey became friends, and then Pompey married Caesar’s
daughter.
Caesar now had the power,
and he was popular; it was time to make his move.
Chapter 3: Eagle, high career
Even though Caesar was
very powerful, and very popular, he was still deeply in debt, and he saw the
easiest way to get some money was to be governor of a rich, but not very stable
province. He felt that if it was too stable, he wouldn’t gain any popularity by
stabilizing it. He thought that Gaul
was the best province at this time that fit his requirements. It was a wealthy
area, a good trading point, and it was close to Rome, but it was also in a time
of chaos. Horde after horde of
Germanic tribes had swept through and destroyed everything, and those who
survived took advantage of the chaos to revolt against Rome’s rule of law. Caesar, who was
already popular in Rome, easily got himself elected as the governor of Gaul. He
then sent his four available legions, plus two new ones he raised, to suppress
the rebels. He even managed to defeat the northern Gaulish tribes, who had
really never surrendered to Rome. He then led his troop
to the nearby island of Britain and declared it a Roman province, much to the
dismay of the inhabitants.
The put up a much
better fight then the Gauls did, even Caesar had trouble with the local tribes,
who were rebellious, good fighters, and many in number. In the end, Caesar had
to be content with just the lower half of Britain, as he did not have the
forces to fortify and maintain it all.
Unfortunately, bad
stuff was happening in Rome; the triumvirate was falling apart, mostly because
Caesar’s daughter was dead, thus causing a rift between Caesar and Pompey. It
didn’t help much that Caesar’s term of office as governor of Gaul was almost
over. He determined to rebuild his
relationship with Pompey and managed to get himself elected for another 5
years; long enough to totally defeat the Gauls and Germanic tribes for a long
time to come.
He even managed to
write a seven volume-autobiography of his fighting in the Gallic Wars called, “The
Gallic Wars.” While he may not off been very original in his is choice of title
for his books, it was a very powerful work that interests readers even today.
As long as you can read Latin, that is.
Meanwhile, back in
Rome, Pompey was getting restless. He was afraid of Caesar now, afraid of how
powerful and popular he was becoming. So afraid that he “jumped the gun”, took
over Rome, declared himself a dictator, and exiled Caesar. Of course, Caesar
did not like being exiled, he responded by taking his loyal men and marching
them into Italy where one of the first Roman civil wars began.
In the manpower and
equipment departments, the two sides were almost equal, with only a slight
advantage to Pompey. What Pompey lacked was loyalty from his troops, youth,
charisma, and a tactical brilliance.
These traits showed
themselves in Caesar abundantly, and with every battle he won, more of Pompey
troops deserted him and joined with Caesar. Pompey was close to despair, so
when a major battle, where Caesar was trapped in a fortification with no naval support,
was won unexpectedly by Caesar, Pompey lost all hope, he abandoned his troops,
and fled to Egypt. Caesar chased him, but got there in time to be presented
with Pompey’s head, given to him by the traitorous king of Egypt, who was
having a civil war of his own.
An unexpected side
effect of Caesar’s arrival was the stabilization of Egypt. Caesar decided to
help the king’s older sister, the leader of the rebels, her name was Cleopatra.
Over time, Caesar developed a romance with Cleopatra, which produced a son.
Caesar and Cleopatra never officially married under Roman law.
This caused some tangles
back in Rome, due to the fact Caesar had already named an heir, his nephew
Octavian. Cleopatra wanted Caesar to change his will so that Caesarion, their
son, would be in charge and be his heir. Caesarion’s name meant little Caesar.
The people of Rome wanted a Roman born citizen, not an overseas queen and her
son.
Caesar returned to
Rome and waited a whole year before summoning Cleopatra to join him. He decided
that changing his will would have to wait, because he, the Dictator for life,
was going to be crowned king! Little did Cleopatra or anyone else know that this
would be the most critical point in his life.
Chapter 4: Vulture,
Death and afterwards
The senate was afraid
of Caesar, afraid of what he could do. So when they heard he wanted to be king,
they panicked and decided to kill him. They tricked him into believing they
were really going to crown him, but they were in reality going to stab him to
death. He was so surprised at how many of his friends were involved that he
didn’t even try to fight back.
When they public found
out about the murder, they were furious. They respected Caesar and were
horrified that someone, even a senator, would try to kill him. The army and some of Caesar’s friends had half
of the senators involved in the plot killed, but some of the conspirators got
away to be hunted down by the remaining good senators.
Due to the fact that
Caesar died before he could change his will his nephew, Octavian, got all the
wealth and power. Cleopatra retreated to Egypt, pretending to mourn, but in
reality preparing her armies and navies for a civil war against Octavian.
The war took place
several years later, with Octavian and Rome on one side, and Cleopatra, Egypt,
and Marc Antony (who was one of Caesar’s generals who after Caesar’s death fell
in love with Cleopatra) on the other side. Octavian won the war.
He then changed his
name to Augustus, meaning “powerful one,” and declared him-self the first Roman
emperor.
Caesar was a great
man, who did great things. He helped
forge one of the most powerful, most feared, and longest lasting empires in
history of earth. He was smart, handsome, and cheerful; his people and his
soldiers loved him. He brought about a dominating and enduring dynasty, and
every emperor after him took “Caesar” as a surname. Is it any wonder he is remembered as one of
the greatest people of all time?
