The History of Julius Caesar | What You Need to Know - Part 1

Julius Caesar is a man that everyone has heard of from his great military achievements to how he was able to win over the hearts and minds of the people of Rome. You may know of his darker side, of his brutality, and how he ruled Rome as a dictator. It makes him one of the most interesting historical figures in all of human history. In this video, we'll be covering Caesar's early life, how he was able to use his speechcraft to make his way up the political ladder, to his possible involvement in grand conspiracies. We'll also be learning about other important concepts like how the Roman Republic was first founded, Rome's first civil war between Marius and Sulla, and how the division of social classes played a big role in how Caesar rose to power. Before we get started, I just want to say a lot of people are not subscribed to the channel. For those that are interested in the content I make, take a moment and subscribe, and if you haven't already, leave a like and share the video, it greatly helps me out. Now with that said, let's jump into the video. To start, I want to set the stage for some important events that took place before Caesar's time, as it shows how much of an impact Caesar had in the ancient world. For that, we need to jump back to the founding of Rome. So let's get started. The founding of Rome happens to be the least documented period of Roman history. It is generally accepted by historians that Rome was founded around 753 BC. Around this time, Rome was a lot different, as it was ruled by seven kings. The first six kings were kind rulers. This is according to the stories that were passed down. One of those kings was Severus Tullius, who was the sixth king. He is normally credited with the Severus Constitution, which divided the population into five classes. Two of these classes will be important throughout the video. They are the patricians and the plebeians. It is important to note that the Severus Constitution may not only be Severus' doing, but more of a long process that likely started by previous kings. One of the reforms of the constitution was that the plebeian class, who were small landowners or owned no land at all, were unable to vote based on their status, ancestry, or ethnicity. The plebeians were to join the military as a form of public service. The patricians, on the other hand, were once plebeian families but have since gained a lot of power. They own a lot of land and were able to position themselves as advisors to the kings. The public service of the patricians was serving in the senate. Another rule of the constitution was that the plebs and patricians were not allowed to marry one another, which would further divide the classes, but the law would be thrown out eventually. This is but a simple explanation of the Severus Constitution. The main takeaway is the patricians are the ruling class and the plebs are the commoners. Moving ahead, King Severus' reign ended when he was killed by his daughter and her husband, who would then take the throne. The seventh king was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, who was said to be an absolute tyrant. Tarquin reigned from 534 to 509 BC. His reign of terror ended when a group led by the senator Lucius Junius Brutus started a revolt that was sparked by Tarquin's son Sextus, who did something horrible to a noblewoman. You can guess what that may be. As a result of the revolt, the entire Tarquin family was expelled from Rome. The revolt turned out to be quite popular. Who would have thought? The next king was supposed to be an Etruscan king, Porcena, but he was forced to leave Rome. Now the Romans were able to crown their king, yet they didn't. I guess you could say the Romans were tired of living under a monarchy. Instead of a king, the Romans opted for two consuls, who held the two highest positions of the newly established Roman Republic. The consul's power was limited. They had to be elected by the senate and the people of Rome. The consuls could veto the other and they only held the position for one year. Now that we talked about the founding of Rome, the seven kings, and the creation of the Roman Republic, we can now talk about how the class reform back then caused division between the patricians and the plebeian classes, an important social issue that Julius Caesar would take advantage of in his lifetime. The patricians for the longest time controlled all aspects of the plebeians daily life. They held the senate and the priesthood and did whatever benefited their own interests. This unequal treatment from the patricians eventually reached a boiling point. As the plebs were fed up with being suppressed and demanded a voice, the patricians knew this was a losing battle. Seeing as the plebeians were the majority of the Romans, this included the city's poor, the tradesmen, and even the farmers who had now become wealthy. Not to mention the republican army who were plebs. The patricians were scared of a plebeian revolt, so they had to give up some of their power to appease them. As a result, the Tribune of the Plebs was created in 494 BC, which was a legislative assembly to pass laws based on the concerns of the plebs. 200 years later, in 287 BC, the patricians continued to lose more ground as the Lex Hortensia was passed, which made all the laws of the Tribune of the past apply to the patricians. Over time, the patricians lost most of their power, to a point that being one was no longer beneficial. One such family was the Julius Caesars. They were one of the few surviving patrician families left, and were no longer rich, with nothing to their family name. One of the family members was Gaius Julius Caesar, who had a wife named Aurelia Cota. Around 100 BC, possibly on the 12th or 13th of July, Aurelia gave birth to a boy that they named Gaius Julius Caesar, named after his father. Little did they know that their son would play a big part in the fall of the Roman Republic, which thrived for 400 years at this point. With all that being said, let's jump into the life of Julius Caesar, starting with his early years. Not much is known about Julius Caesar's early life, but what we do know is that he grew up at a time when there was great civil unrest. In 91-88 BC, Roman allies revolted against Rome due to not getting Roman citizenship. This is known as the Social War. After the Social War ended, Rome would go to war with one of the biggest enemies to date, the Kingdom of Pontus, ruled by King Mithridates. These wars were called the Mithridatic Wars, which were three separate conflicts that lasted from 88-63 BC. While these wars were going on, there was a social conflict brewing in Rome that the young Julius Caesar was stuck in the middle of. This conflict was a series of civil wars between Caesar's uncle, Gaius Marius, a famous Roman general, and commander Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Marius was likely jealous that he was replaced by the younger Sulla, and that Sulla was known as a hero for defeating the rebellion in the Social War. Marius went back into politics, and passed a law that ordered Sulla to give up his troops in 88 BC. Sulla refused, and an all-out civil war ensued. This conflict can be seen as a symptom of a greater issue, and leads back to the plebs versus the patricians. You have Marius and his supporters, who were populares, who supported the plebeian class, and you had Sulla and his supporters, who were optimates, who believed in taking away the plebs' political power. While the civil war was happening, Caesar's uncle Gaius Marius died suddenly in 86 BC. The cause of death was likely pneumonia. A year later, Caesar's father died of natural causes in 85 BC, when he was just 16 years old, leaving Caesar in charge of the household. It is at this point that we get a clearer picture of Caesar's life. In 84 BC, Caesar married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a man who was Marius' comrade in the revolution. Caesar and Cornelia had one child, a daughter named Julia. In 82 BC, the civil war finally ended, and with Sulla in victory, he was made dictator by the senate. At the end of 82, or possibly the start of the following year, in 81 BC, while Sulla was dictator, he punished those who opposed him, such as Marius' allies. Caesar made himself a target when he married the daughter of one of Sulla's enemies, so Sulla ordered Caesar to divorce her, but Caesar refused. He would have been executed if it was not for his family that intervened and convinced Sulla to spare him, although he would not go unpunished, as his inheritance was stripped from him. After Sulla's pardon, Caesar thought it would be best to join the Roman military, maybe to get as far away from Sulla as possible. He headed off to the province of Asia, and after to Cilcia, an ancient district of southern Anatolia. In 81 BC, Caesar fought in the siege of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos. Mytilene was the capital city, and the reason the siege was taking place was that they revolted against Rome, and they were suspected of aiding the local Sicilian pirates, which had been a serious problem for the Romans as the pirates kept pillaging coastal towns and controlled the Mediterranean Sea since as early as the 2nd century BC. The siege of Mytilene led to a Roman victory, and Caesar was awarded the civic crown, the second highest award from the Roman army, which is earned for saving a citizen. In 79 BC, Sulla died, which was a sigh of relief for many Roman people. Some written accounts from around the time said he could have died from liver failure from overdrinking. With Sulla gone, Caesar could now safely return to Rome. In Rome, Caesar moved to a poor district, as he wasn't able to reclaim his inheritance. Caesar became a lawyer and turned out to be quite good as he successfully prosecuted many corrupt officials. In 75 BC, Caesar made a name for himself and went to the island of Rhodes to further improve his speaking skills by studying under the prestigious Professor Molin, but before Caesar was able to arrive, he was attacked by Sicilian pirates. Caesar and his companions were held captive on the small island of Cilcia, where they were forced to pay a ransom of 20 talents of silver or to be sold off as slaves. To truly know how much money 20 talents of silver were back in Caesar's time, we can do these simple conversions. One talent of silver is worth 6,000 denarii, which the denarius was the standard Roman silver coin in Caesar's time. A Roman soldier back then was paid an annual salary of 225 denarii, so if my math is right, 20 talents of silver is equal to 120,000 denarii, which is roughly the annual salary of 533 Roman soldiers, which is quite a lot of money. Here's the thing though, it is said that Caesar laughed at the thought of 20 talents of silver and suggested they raise the ransom to 50 talents, which was worth 300,000 denarii, or the annual salary of 1,333 Roman soldiers. Truly insane. That is more than one third of a Roman legion. Caesar probably thought that his family name was worth more and found the initial ransom insulting. The pirates agreed to the new ransom and let go of some of Caesar's friends to gather the silver. It is said that Caesar vowed to crucify every one of them when he was set free. The pirates, seeing as they held all the cards, probably laughed off such a threat, but little did they know, Caesar wasn't bluffing. For 38 days, Caesar was claimed to make many demands, like telling the pirates to be quiet while he was sleeping and demanding them to listen to his poems and speeches. Caesar's demands seemed to have earned the respect of the pirates and when the money was raised, the pirates let him go at the abandoned port city of Miltus, south of present-day Sok in Turkey. In a short amount of time, Caesar managed to gather some mercenaries and set sail back to the small island where the pirates were and captured most of them. Caesar had the pirates' throats slit and then crucified them. The scary thing is, Caesar slit their throats as an act of mercy because they treated him well when he was held captive. He In 75 BC, the Third Mithridatic War broke out. As King Mithridates wasn't done just yet, Caesar played a part in the war in 74 BC, where he gathered a private army to fight, a demonstration of his leadership skills. Around this time, Caesar decided to make his way into politics. It is not known if this was a sudden career change or if it was his intention all along. In 73 BC, Caesar was made a member of the College of Pontifices when he was in the Eastern Mediterranean. This title holds honor, but isn't that important. In 72 BC, when Caesar returned to Rome, he was elected to be the military tribune, where six tribunes would be posted to a Roman legion. This was more of a political position than a military rank and established Caesar's political career. In 72-71 BC, Julius Caesar meets Guinus Pompeius, also known as Pompey, one of the great statesmen and generals of the late Roman Republic. Caesar worked with Pompey to fix the problems caused by Sulla's decrees as dictator. In 70 BC, Caesar's colleague Pompey was elected as consul, and the other position of consul was designated to a man named Marcus Licinius Crassus, another politician. Crassus was responsible for taking down a massive slave revolt that was led by a man named Spartacus, yet Pompey managed to take credit for it, so you could say their partnership is not great. Taking note of Pompey and Crassus, as it will be important later on, is also important to mention that Crassus and Pompey were supporters of Sulla during the civil war. Pompey's case is interesting as he was Mario's supporter originally, and just switched sides. I guess he had a reason to. In 69 BC, Caesar moved up in the political world as he was elected Quaestor, the lowest-ranking judge of ancient Rome. It was Caesar's job going to different towns and dealing with taxes and making rulings on local disputes. Although this was a low position, it allowed him to get noticed for his deeds and got him a seat in the senate. In that same year, Caesar's aunt Julia died, a sad time for him, but also an opportunity. He held a grand funeral where he honored his aunt in a public speech. It is important to note that this funeral was seen as controversial by the more traditional-minded senate, as women were not usually allowed such large funerals. It also didn't help that Caesar paraded images of his uncle Gaius Marius, who was an enemy of Sulla and his supporters. Not long after his aunt's funeral, his wife Cornelia passed away, and a public funeral was held for the senate members that supported the ruling class, and not the people, known as optimates. It was extremely insulting to give such a funeral to a young woman who was seen as unimportant to them. Caesar also praised her father Sina, who was also an enemy of Sulla. As you can see, with these funerals, Caesar demonstrated that he wasn't on the side of the optimates, and the people of Rome loved him for it. In 67-66 BC, Caesar served his term as Quaestor in further Spain, known as modern Andalusia, and Portugal. This is also around the time Caesar married his second wife, Pompeia, who was a granddaughter of Sulla, and a relative to Pompey. It is possible that this marriage was entirely political. In 65 BC, Caesar became one of two curio-ediles. The other was a man named who was on the side of the ruling class. The position of a curio-edile was to maintain temples and other public buildings, and maintain the water and food supply, but one of the most honorary tasks was to put on a grand show to please the Roman public, and one such spectacle Caesar put on. He showed off 320 silver-clad gladiators as a way to honor his father, which was extremely expensive. The funny thing is that his spectacles that Caesar and Bibulus put on were supposed to be credited to both of them, but since Caesar made it clear to the public it was his ideas. Apparently, Bibulus complained that the entire year's edileship was credited only to Caesar. Caesar continued to be liked by the Roman public, but to the optimates he was a controversial figure. We can see this with his aunt's and wife's public funeral, but that doesn't compare to what happens later that year. Caesar found himself in a conspiracy, known as the Catiline Conspiracy. There was a rumor about the influential politician named Catiline, and that he plotted to assassinate the consuls, and Caesar was implicated in this plan. But luckily for him, the conspiracy was just a rumor, and not much came out of it. In 63 BC, Caesar was elected Pontifex Maximus by the people of Rome. It is thought that he was aided financially by the former consul, Crassus, who became the richest man in Rome by selling property. For Caesar, the title of Pontifex Maximus made him the Roman High Priest. This position was held for a lifetime, and he led the Roman state cult. Caesar was now the Republic's most interesting religious figure. The funny thing is, the Pontifex Maximus is not needed to be consul, so it may have been a political way to save face, but it didn't matter in the end, as Caesar found himself in yet another conspiracy involving Catiline. One of the consuls at the time was Cicero, who had spies that told him of a plot by Catiline and his followers to overthrow the government. But Cicero could not do anything about it at the time, as Catiline was well liked and had powerful connections. When the right moment arrived on October 21st, 63 BC, Cicero enacted martial law through the Senate, but Catiline fled Rome. On December 3rd, Cicero found evidence of the conspiracy with several signed documents that exposed some of the main conspirators. They were rounded up and executed. Caesar and Crassus were accused of working with Catiline, but there wasn't enough evidence to suggest that they did. Caesar did do something that made him stand out. He motioned against the death penalty for the conspirators, but his motion was struck down in an uproar. It found it interesting that Caesar was against the execution despite what he did to the pirates in 75 BC, so it may be possible that the two were involved somehow. In January of 62 BC, Catiline and his army attempted to cross the Apennines into Gaul, but they were caught and outnumbered. Catiline and most of his co-conspirators were executed. Later that same year, Caesar was elected a praetor, despite being implicated in two conspiracies. His political career was very much intact, but the optimates at this point were likely scared of Caesar's rise to power. On December 5th, 62 BC, Caesar's home was selected to host a religious festival known as the Bonadia, which means good goddess. The goddess was known as Demia. She was the deity of fertility. Demia was a Greek name, so the Romans likely repurposed the Greek goddess for their deity. To honor the goddess, only women could attend the festival, which was held at night once a year. Caesar's wife Pompeia was tasked with hosting the festival, and things didn't go as planned. A man named Publius Claudius Pulcher violated the purity of the festival when he is said to have dressed as a woman to get in. The question is, why do such a thing? Claudius was an ally to Caesar. Well, it is possible that Claudius and Pompeia were having an affair. It is hard to say for sure, but the consequence of this was another controversial stain on Caesar's political career, so whether he wanted to or not, he divorced Pompeia for the disaster. Caesar, at this point, was now broke with the amount of money he spent on his aedileship, Pontifus Maximus, his election as praetor, and the recent Bonadia debacle. Luckily, the richest man in Rome, Crassus, would bail him out. Caesar was now allowed to leave Rome for his governorship in Spain from 61 to 60 BC. During this time in Spain, Caesar and his army were tasked with restoring order, as revolts were happening in the province. Caesar and his army captured towns, working their way up the west coast through modern Portugal. Caesar defeated the rebelling tribes, and proved to his troops that he was a brilliant tactician. Caesar then returned to Rome in 60 BC, quite wealthy from all the spoils of war. When in Rome, Caesar ran for the consulship of 59 BC, and was elected. The other consul position was given to Caesar's rival Bibulus, who was on the side of the optimates, and likely bribed the senate to get in. In early 59 BC, Caesar and Pompey allied. They sealed this alliance, when Caesar married his daughter Julia off to Pompey, and Caesar married a woman named Calpurnia, whose father would be elected consul in 58 BC. His name was Lucius Piso, another populist politician, allied to Caesar. Crassus would join them in the alliance as well, but seeing Crassus and Pompey were rivals, Caesar had to convince them to be on good terms. Together, they formed the first triumvirate, the term coined by modern historians. This unofficial alliance made them the most powerful men in all of Rome. When Caesar was consul, he worked to benefit his two allies. For example, Caesar introduced a bill that would redistribute land to the poor, and funny enough, the first to benefit were to be Pompey's veteran soldiers. Caesar's bill was blocked by three tribunes of the plebs, so when the public assembly convened, Caesar had Pompey's veterans start a riot, and the bill was passed out of fear. Another act was ratifying Pompey's settlement to the east, but this was negotiated through one of Caesar's political connections, Publius Vantius, who was a member of the tribune of the plebs. Vantius was able to give Cisalpine Gaul to Caesar, and Transalpine Gaul was given to Caesar when the assigned governor suddenly dropped dead. What a coincidence, with the Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul in Caesar's hands, he would then be able to conquer the rest of Gaul. I think we'll leave it there for part one. In conclusion, Caesar was born for the leadership position, his experience in the military showed he was a brilliant tactician. His unmatched charisma and politics made him a natural politician, but he was no saint. He showed his brutality with the pirates, and was implicated in multiple conspiracies, and we still don't know if he was involved in them or not. Later in his political career, he abused his power and was made untouchable by the first triumvirate. All that being said, it makes Julius Caesar a very interesting historical figure to learn about. We'll continue the life of Julius Caesar in part two of this series, which will be out in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys in the next video.