(Cato, Cicero, Pompey, Brutus, Caesar, Crassus, Cleopatra, Mark Antony)
The 1st century
BCE was a bloody time in history. This was especially the case for people who
were involved in Julius Caesar’s rise and fall in Rome. Assassination, death in
battle and suicide were common ends for the numerous people playing the
dangerous game of imperial politics.
One of the first deaths of
Caesar’s political partners was that of Crassus in 53 BCE, who died under a
volley of arrows launched by skilled Parthian archers. That was the first death
of a member of the First Triumvirate between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. From
there, Caesar’s alliances only continued to deteriorate. One of his best
generals, Labienus, left his side to the faction of Pompey and the conservative
senators, Cato and Cicero.
Caesar fought an intense war
against Pompey, in which he was continuously outnumbered in battles from one
side of the Mediterranean to the other. Despite the setbacks, Caesar’s ability
to always do the unexpected, and the resolve of his elite, veteran troops
allowed him to repeatedly put Pompey on the defensive. When Pompey lost a major
battle to Caesar at Pharsalus, he fled to Egypt. When Pompey arrived, the
Egyptians, wishing to gain the support of Caesar, had Pompey assassinated in 48
BCE.
Though Pompey was dead, the
war was not over for Caesar. He invaded North Africa and defeated a combination
of Roman and Numidian forces. Hearing of Caesar’s victories, Cato felt his
cause was hopeless. Rather than be pardoned or punished by Caesar he attempted
suicide—he gutted himself with a knife in 46 BCE, but his friends found him and
were somehow able to stitch him back together. Cato survived that attempt, but
when he regained consciousness, he tore at his stitches and succeeded in
killing himself.
There were still legions
hostile to Caesar in Spain. Caesar defeated them, and in the process, killed
his former war friend, Labienus, at the Battle of Munda in 45 BCE. With Spain
pacified, Caesar could enjoy power. He had very little time to experience sole
rule of Rome, however, for he was assassinated in 44 BCE.
Upon Caesar’s death, his admirers
and loyalists took power in a Second Triumvirate. Octavian, Caesar’s
grand-nephew (and adopted son), allied with Caesar’s trusted military aid, Mark
Antony and the politician Marcus Aemilius Lepidus.
The Second Triumvirate hunted
down the assassins who killed Caesar and also eliminated some of the people who
criticized the deceased dictator. The great statesman and orator, Cicero, was
assassinated in 43 BCE, and the main conspirators, Brutus and Cassius, who
killed Caesar, were hunted down and driven to commit suicide after being
defeated in battle at Philippi in 42 BCE.
The bloodshed continued in 31
BCE, when Octavian declared war on Cleopatra and Mark Antony. After Octavian’s
victory in the Battle of Actium, Mark Antony committed suicide, and Cleopatra
followed his example, soon after. With his competitors to power dead, Octavian
named himself Augustus and became the first emperor of Rome.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
thehistorianshut.com
Source:
- Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2008.
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