History about Caesar:
3923b AM, 4633 JP, 81 BC
4059. Julius Caesar was sent by Marcus Thermus to be the praetor of Asia.
4064. When Gaius Julius Caesar captured Mitylene, he was rewarded by Marcus Thermus with the Civic Crown. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 2. 1:39} Mitylene was demolished to the ground, when it had been the only city still in arms after Mithridates was defeated. {*Livy, l. 89. 14:113} So, by the law of war and right of conquest, this noble city was brought under the jurisdiction of the people of Rome. {*Cicero, Agrarian Law II, l. 1. c. 15. 6:413}
3929b AM, 4639 JP, 75 BC
4108. When Julius Caesar was twenty-five years old, he planned to sail to Rhodes to study under Apollonius Molon, who was the most eminent teacher of oratory at that time. While he was on his way in the winter time, the pirates captured him near the island of Pharmacussa, which was near the Asian shore, north of Miletus. These pirates were so well-equipped with ships, that they controlled the seas. When the pirates demanded twenty talents from him for his ransom, Caesar laughed at them, because they did not know how important a man he was. He promised that he would give them fifty talents. He immediately sent his companions and servants to the cities of Asia to get the money for his release. He only kept a physician and two others with him, to attend to his personal needs. He was alone with these three for thirty-eight days in a company of Cilicians who were the most savage people in the world. He behaved himself so well that he filled them with both terror and reverence. He did not remove his shoes or unclothe himself, in case this should happen to cause some extraordinary change of appearance and they would suspect him of something. He had no guard other than their watchful eyes. Whenever he went to rest, he sent someone to them to tell them to be quiet. He would play and exercise with them as if they had been in his retinue and not he a prisoner of theirs. He wrote verses and orations which he recited to them. If any of them did not admire and applaud them, he would publicly call them dull fellows, barbarians, and often in jest, would threaten to crucify them. His humour pleased them greatly and they attributed his free-spokenness to his simplicity and youth. {*Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. c. 41. 1:141} {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 4. 1:39,41} {*Plutarch, Caesar, l. 1. c. 3. 7:447} It was reported that, while he was in custody, he cried out: {*Plutarch, Crassus, l. 1. c. 7. s. 5. 3:333}
"Oh Crassus, how great a pleasure will you taste, when you hear of my captivity."
4109. The money from all the cities was brought to Caesar from Miletus. Caesar would not pay the fifty talents until he had forced the pirates to release the hostages to the cities. After this, he was put ashore. The next night, he got as large a fleet as he could quickly assemble and sailing out from the port of the Milesians, he went toward the same island where the pirates were still anchored. He forced part of their fleet to flee while he sank most of the other ships. He captured the remaining ships with their crews. He was overjoyed with the victory of the night's expedition and handed over to his company the pirates' money he had seized as his own booty. He imprisoned the pirates at Pergamum. When he had finished that, he went to Junius, the proconsul of Asia, who was in Bithynia. Junius had command of Asia and Bithynia, which had recently been established as a province. [K180] Demanding that justice be done to the captives, he had them crucified. This he had foretold the pirates while he was a prisoner, but they had thought he was just joking. {*Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. c. 41. 1:141} {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 4. 1:39,41} {*Plutarch, Crassus, l. 1. c. 7. s. 5. 3:333} Before he captured them, he had sworn that he would crucify them. He ordered that their throats be cut first and they then be fastened to the crosses. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 74. s. 1. 1:125}
3938b AM, 4648 JP, 66 BC
4393. Farther Spain was allocated to Gaius Julius Caesar when he was a quaestor. He was ordered by the praetor to travel around the various countries and decide matters of law. When he came to Gades, he saw Alexander the Great's statue in Hercules' temple. He was grieved that he had done nothing of note by the time he was thirty-four, the age at which Alexander had conquered the world. He became greatly depressed and begged that he might be sent back to Rome so that he could attempt some noble thing at the first opportunity. He left before his time expired and went to some Italian colonies that were in rebellion. He would have stirred them to do something had not the consuls kept them under control with their legions which had been raised to go into Cilicia. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 7,8. 1:43,45}
3939a AM, 4648 JP, 66 BC
4428. A few days before Gaius Julius Caesar assumed the office of aedile, he was suspected of involvement in a conspiracy with Marcus Crassus, the consul. Publius Sulla and Lucius Antronius were also suspected, when their term as consuls expired. They were condemned for having tried to overthrow the republic at the beginning of the year. (January 1st corresponded to October on the Julian calendar, when Cotta and Torquatus entered the consulship.) They had planned to invade the Senate and kill whomever they pleased, while Crassus was to become the dictator and Caesar would be called the master of his cavalry. The whole state would be run as they saw fit and the consulship would be restored to Sulla and Antronius. It was with reference to this that Cicero, in a letter to Axius, stated that when Caesar was consul, he settled the kingdom as he had planned to do when he was an aedile. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 9. s. 1,2. 1:45}
3944b AM, 4654 JP, 60 BC
4613. Meanwhile, Gaius Julius Caesar came to Rome to demand the consulship. [K275] Pompey allied himself with him and promised that he would do his best to help Caesar become a consul. By so doing, Pompey hoped that the acts he had done in the provinces beyond the seas, which were opposed by so many, would finally be confirmed by Caesar when he was consul. Pompey and Crassus had been at great odds ever since they had held the consulship together. Caesar reconciled them and entered into an alliance with both of them. According to this contract, nothing would be done in the state which displeased any of the three. This conspiracy proved destructive to the city, to all the world and to themselves, also. {*Livy, l. 103. 14:127} {*Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. c. 44. 1:145,147} {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 19. s. 2. 1:57} {*Plutarch, Lucullus, l. 1. c. 42. s. 6. 2:607} {*Plutarch, Crassus, l. 1. c. 14. s. 1,2. 3:355} {*Plutarch, Pompey, l. 1. c. 47. s. 1,2. 5:237} {*Plutarch, Caesar, l. 1. c. 13. s. 2,3. 7:471,473} {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 2. (9) 3:245,247} {*Dio, l. 37. (54,55) 3:187,189}
3956a AM, 4665 JP, 49 BC
4869. Julius Caesar was made dictator. After eleven days, he and Publius Servilius Isauricus were declared consuls and so Caesar resigned his dictatorship. {*Caesar, Civil Wars, l. 3. (1,2) 2:197,199} {*Plutarch, Caesar, l. 1. c. 37. s. 1. 7:531,533} {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 7. (48) 3:317}
4870. It was from this first dictatorship of Caesar that the Macedonians of Syria began their reckoning of the time of the Caesars. (This fact was mentioned on an old marble monument. {Gruter, Inscriptions, p. 287.}) The date was the 24th of the Julian September. {Ussher, Macedonian and Asiatic Year} From that day, not only the Macedonian, but also the Roman, emperors began their indictions, or their cycle of fifteen years.
3960a AM, 4669 JP, 45 BC
5082. In the month of October Caesar, who had now conquered all, entered Rome and pardoned all who had fought against him. {*Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. c. 56. s. 1. 1:173} After he had performed the triumph for Spain, at the beginning of this month, he retired from the consulship. He instituted a new order by substituting honorary consuls. He made Quintus Fabius Maximus and Gaius Trebonius the consuls for three months. {*Dio, l. 43. (46) 4:293} {Gruter, Inscriptions, p. 298.} The former of these had been consul and had triumphed for Spain on the 3rd of the Ides of October (October 13th.) {Gruter, Inscriptions, p. 297.} Thereupon, when Chrysippus had seen the ivory towns carried before Caesar in his triumph, and then, a few days later, the wooden ones of Fabius Maximus, he said the latter were nothing more than the cases for Caesar's towns. {Quintilian, l. 6. c. 4.}
5083. Very many and great honours were decreed to Caesar by the Senate. He was declared to be the perpetual dictator and was called Imperator, or Emperor. {*Livy, l. 116. 14:145} {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 76. s. 1. 1:129} This was not in the sense in which, both before and after, the title was given to generals for any victory they had obtained in the wars. This signified the highest power and authority in the state, for it was granted to him that he alone should have soldiers and the command of the militia; {*Dio, l. 43. (44) 4:289} he alone was to take charge of the public money, and it would not be lawful for any other person to make use of either of these. All the magistrates were to be subject to him, including the magistrates of the common people. They were to swear that they would never infringe on any of his decrees. {*Dio, l. 43. (45) 4:291} {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 16. (106) 3:423} Velleius declared the time from this point to his last return to the city to have been: {*Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. c. 56. s. 3. 1:173} [K364]
"His five months of his supreme power."
3960b AM, 4670 JP, 44 BC
5090. The next day, Caesar assumed his fifth and last consulship. He made an edict that thanks should be expressed to Hyrcanus, the high priest and prince of the Jews, as well as to the country of the Jews, for their affection toward him and the people of Rome. Caesar also decreed that Hyrcanus should have the city of Jerusalem and should rebuild its walls and govern it after his own will. He also granted to the Jews that every second year there should be a reduction in their rents and that they should be free from impositions and tributes.
5091. In the same fifth consulship, in the second Julian year, the month of Quintilis was renamed July, in honour of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony, his colleague in the consulship, proposed this law, because Julius was born on the 4th of the Ides of Quintilis. (July 12th) {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 16. (106) 3:423} {*Dio, l. 44. (5) 4:317} {Censorinus, De Die Natali, l. 1. c. 9.} {Macrobius, Saturnalia, l. 1. c. 12.} Thereupon, in the following month of Sextilis, Marcus Brutus, who was the city's praetor and was to hold the games in honour of Apollo after Caesar had been murdered by him, wrote Nonis Jul., the Nones of July. Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus: {*Cicero, Atticus, l. 16. c. 1. 24:369}
"I could go on cursing all day. Could they have insulted Brutus worse than with their July?"
5091. In the same fifth consulship, in the second Julian year, the month of Quintilis was renamed July, in honour of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony, his colleague in the consulship, proposed this law, because Julius was born on the 4th of the Ides of Quintilis. (July 12th) {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 16. (106) 3:423} {*Dio, l. 44. (5) 4:317} {Censorinus, De Die Natali, l. 1. c. 9.} {Macrobius, Saturnalia, l. 1. c. 12.} Thereupon, in the following month of Sextilis, Marcus Brutus, who was the city's praetor and was to hold the games in honour of Apollo after Caesar had been murdered by him, wrote Nonis Jul., the Nones of July. Cicero wrote to his friend Atticus: {*Cicero, Atticus, l. 16. c. 1. 24:369}
"I could go on cursing all day. Could they have insulted Brutus worse than with their July?"
5103. Caesar prepared to leave the city as soon as he could without having given any thought to where he would go. However, four days before he had intended to leave, he was stabbed in the Senate. {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 16. (111) 3:431} Sixty senators and equestrians were involved in this conspiracy. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 80. s. 4. 1:135,137} {Eutropius, l. 6. fin.} {Orosius, l. 6. c. 17.} Marcus Brutus, Gaius Trebonius and Gaius Cassius, as well as Decimus Brutus, one of Caesar's party, were the leaders in the conspiracy. {*Livy, l. 116. 14:147} Caesar had come into the Senate on the Ides of March, (March 15th) with the intention of advocating the Parthian war, but as he sat in the ivory chair, the senators stabbed him and he received twenty-three wounds. {*Livy, l. 116. 14:147} {*Florus, l. 2. c. 13. s. 94,95. 1:299} He was fifty-six years old. {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 81. s. 4. 1:139} {*Suetonius, Julius, l. 1. c. 88,89. 1:147,149} {*Plutarch, Caesar, l. 1. c. 69. s. 1. 7:605} {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 21. (149) 3:503} {*Appian, Civil Wars, l. 2. c. 16. (117) 3:445}
5104. Thus he, who had fought in fifty battles, was killed in that Senate by a number of the senators he himself had chosen. {*Pliny, l. 7. c. 25. 2:565} He was killed in Pompey's hall, in front of the statue of Pompey, and many of his own centurions witnessed this. So he fell at the hands of the noblest citizens, many of whom also had been promoted by him. None of his friends and none of his servants dared approach his body. {*Cicero, De Divinatione, l. 2. c. 9. 20:395}
Annals of the World, James Ussher.
09 Mar 2008, 12:53 pm
