# Julius Caesar  ## Metadata - Author: [[Philip Freeman ]] - Full Title: Julius Caesar - Category: #books ## Highlights - Enormous financial resources, popular military victories, impeccable ancestry, and one of the finest minds the ancient world had yet produced were enough to terrify Caesar’s political enemies. ([Location 109](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=109)) - The frustration over the patrician stranglehold on power and the increasing awareness by plebeians of growing political reforms in the Greek world led the plebeians to organize themselves to fight for reform. ([Location 197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=197)) - The plebeians devised a clever method to exact change from the patrician rulers. In 494 B.C. they marched out of town en masse and settled themselves on a nearby hill. Without the plebeians to provide labor and service, the patricians were at a loss to run the city. ([Location 205](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=205)) - Since Caesar lived in his family house in the Subura for over thirty years, he must have gained a familiarity with the rough-and-tumble life of the Roman streets that few of his upper-class peers could have known. His later populist politics may in fact be due to his childhood friends and surroundings as much as political opportunism. ([Location 221](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=221)) - At about the age of twelve, students moved on to a grammaticus who continued their instruction in literature and especially poetry. The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer were favorites, but pupils also studied early Latin poetry by masters such as Ennius and Livius Andronicus. ([Location 304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=304)) - Students would study speeches from the past, then compose their own to address real or imagined situations. The art of rhetoric was subtle and intricate, emphasizing proper delivery, structure, and use of evidence—all without notes. A favorite assignment was to compose a persuasive speech in a historical situation, such as taking the role of Hannibal addressing his troops before crossing the Alps. Thorny legal cases were also common—a man has seduced two virgins in one night. One wants to marry him, but the other justly seeks his death. What do you say to the jury? ([Location 308](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=308)) - Physical education was also a key component of Caesar’s training, but not in the same manner as Greek youth. Young Athenians practiced sporting events at a gymnasion (“naked place”), but Romans viewed this as indulgent, favoring instead a more practical training for the rigors of war. Roman students learned to fight, ride a horse, and swim in the Tiber—a ([Location 326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=326)) - At last Sulla gave way, perhaps with a sneaking admiration for the young man who had dared to stand up to him. But Sulla then prophetically declared: Remember—this young man who you have been so desperate to save will one day destroy the aristocracy you have worked with me to preserve. For in this Caesar I see many a Marius. ([Location 436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=436)) - His personal bravery in the face of imminent danger became a hallmark of his fighting style that would serve him on battlefields from Britain to Egypt. Even in later years as conqueror of Gaul and ruler of Rome, he never hesitated to join his men on the front lines. ([Location 459](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=459)) - His speech was a tremendous success and was considered a masterpiece of oratory by none other than soon-to-be-famous Cicero, who was in the crowd that day. Cicero says that Caesar’s style was perfect and his delivery vivid, like seeing a beautiful portrait painted in words. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=504)) - Caesar again set sail for Rhodes, but it seems fate didn’t intend him for a scholarly life. Mithridates soon rose in arms against Rome yet again, so Caesar quickly left his studies and sailed across to Asia Minor to offer his services. ([Location 554](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=554)) - He was once more showing a characteristic disregard for playing by the rules when he believed rapid action was needed. ([Location 557](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=557)) - Caesar achieved great popularity at Rome through his skill as a speaker, while the common people loved him because of his friendliness in dealing with them. He was most endearing for someone so young. ([Location 576](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=576)) - An ambitious plebeian could also campaign for election by the Plebeian Assembly as one of ten tribunes. In this office a tribune, whose person was sacrosanct, was charged with protecting the rights of all plebeians. In one of the most powerful actions of Roman government, a tribune could overrule any magistrate or assembly by uttering a single word—veto (“I forbid”). With this statement, laws, Senate decrees, and elections were invalidated. ([Location 657](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=657)) - The final magistrate of the Roman Republic, the dictator, served only in the most dire circumstances. When the state faced the gravest of dangers, the Senate could recommend a dictator to serve for up to six months. The dictator held supreme civil and military power, was not subject to any appeal, and could not be held accountable for his actions after his term of service. The dictator appointed a master of the horse to assist him, but all magistrates remained in office subject to his command. The legendary paradigm of a Roman dictator was the patrician Cincinnatus, who according to tradition was summoned from his fields to serve as dictator during a desperate war in 458 B.C. He reluctantly agreed, led the army to victory, then lay down his dictatorship after sixteen days to return to his plough. ([Location 676](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=676)) - With Pompey’s army breathing down their necks, the senators in desperation turned to Crassus, who also still had his veteran forces on Italian soil. It was an ideal situation for Crassus. If he defeated Pompey, which was quite possible, he could enter Rome as a hero and the optimates of the Senate would hail him as savior of the Republic. But Crassus was a clever businessman who weighed the risk and took a most unexpected path—he joined Pompey. The Senate was left without a defender and watched helplessly as Pompey and Crassus were elected consuls together in 70 B.C.. ([Location 690](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=690)) - As Caesar entered the temple of Hercules, he saw a statue of Alexander the Great, who had died more than two centuries earlier while still in his early thirties. Caesar was now about the same age and lamented that he himself had done nothing noteworthy at an age when Alexander had already conquered all the lands from Greece to India. He left the temple in despair and was troubled even more deeply the following evening when he dreamed that he, like Oedipus, had engaged in sex with his own mother. Not normally a superstitious man, Caesar sought out a local soothsayer who interpreted his disturbing dream in a most favorable light. His mother, said the seer, was in fact the earth itself, so that his dream foretold he would one day rule the world—as Alexander the Great had. ([Location 757](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=757)) - Unless prevented by impassable mountains or impregnable swamps, the Romans built their roads straight as an arrow across the landscape. They were in fact a sermon in stone to the world—Romans do not yield. ([Location 787](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=787)) - The lesson was not lost on Caesar. Freed from interference by the Senate, a capable general could accomplish magnificent deeds that would assure his status at Rome and place in history, in addition to making him fabulously wealthy. ([Location 840](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=840)) - The rebellious natives were learning that Caesar was maddeningly persistent in war. ([Location 1247](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1247)) - Caesar had a very kind nature and was not easily angered, but he nevertheless struck back at many of his enemies…His vengeance pursued most of his opponents without them even knowing it. ([Location 1321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1321)) - Caesar struggled with poor health, regularly suffering crippling headaches and recurring bouts of epilepsy. ([Location 1332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1332)) - Caesar’s epilepsy did not strike him until adulthood, and then it seemed to have been particularly frequent during military campaigns. But as Plutarch says: He never allowed his weakened health to slow him down, but instead used the life of a soldier as therapy. He marched endlessly, ate simple food, slept outside, and endured every hardship. In this way, he strengthened his body against illness. ([Location 1335](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1335)) - At this point Caesar lost his patience. He had introduced the best land reform bill in Roman history, only to find that the nobility preferred an untenable status quo to the slightest innovation. Caesar ordered one of his lictors to seize Cato and haul him off to jail. As a consul, he was within his legal rights to do this, but it was a foolish move on Caesar’s part. The optimates, in a show of solidarity, immediately followed Cato to prison. Even some of the more moderate members of the Senate were shocked at Caesar’s breach of Senate protocol and rose to leave. ([Location 1374](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1374)) - As wave after wave of cheers swept over the platform where the three men stood, Cato watching from afar suddenly realized what Caesar had done. The populist consul had formed an unprecedented alliance right under his nose with the two most powerful men in Rome. Aside from the support of thousands of clients and the enormous wealth Pompey and Crassus had to offer Caesar, their backing would nullify any optimate attempt to paint Caesar as a dangerous revolutionary bent on destroying Roman tradition. The man on the street, already sympathetic to Caesar, would now see him not as a lone voice of radical reform but as the leader of a powerful political team with broad support. ([Location 1390](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1390)) - Bibulus was incensed by his treatment at the hands of Caesar’s mob and appealed to the Senate the next day to stand up to his fellow consul. But the senators were hesitant to act against the triumvirate backed by an angry mob. In bitter frustration and embarrassment, Bibulus withdrew to his own house and was not seen in public for the rest of the year. His conspicuous absence as junior consul became a joke to all of Rome—documents normally dated according to the names of both consuls for the year were wittily amended to read, “Done in the consulship of Julius and Caesar.” ([Location 1410](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1410)) - All the legislative successes of Caesar, in spite of their practical benefit for Rome, sent a shiver down the spine of Cicero. “We should all be very afraid,” said the orator in a contemporary letter to his friend Atticus. “He is surely making himself into a tyrant.” ([Location 1466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1466)) - Caesar recognized that this was a moment of crisis for the triumvirate because Pompey might well decide he no longer needed to throw his considerable political weight behind the remaining goals of Caesar and Crassus. To counter this possibility, Caesar came up with a plan to bind Pompey to him that strikes modern readers as more at home in the courts of medieval Europe than the Roman Forum. Caesar offered his daughter, Julia, now about twenty years old, to Pompey as his bride, even though the general was almost thirty years her senior. ([Location 1470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1470)) - As many far-thinking Romans had realized since the time of Hannibal, no empire spanning thousands of miles and containing millions of people could be safe and prosperous if it were run for the exclusive benefit of a few wealthy citizens. Caesar determined to change this once and for all—not because of any altruistic love for the oppressed natives, but because Rome would fail miserably to live up to its tremendous potential as a world power unless it revolutionized how it controlled the lands beyond Italy. ([Location 1512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1512)) - The ancient republic founded by Romulus had ceased to exist when the little village on the Tiber took control of a vast domain stretching across the Mediterranean. The Senate was still trying to govern this realm as a private fiefdom based on archaic rules, ignoring the fact that the most powerful force in Rome was now generals with professional armies behind them. Future leaders in the mold of Marius, Sulla, and Pompey would soon make the Senate irrelevant unless it opened its eyes and agreed to a reformed and responsible governance of the empire. Caesar had tried to effect some of the changes to bring about this new order—painful changes, yes, but they were absolutely necessary and only the beginning. Much more needed to be done to establish a new form of constitutional rule or Rome would inevitably collapse into a tyranny led by ruthless generals. ([Location 1532](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1532)) - The keys to the legendary power of the Roman military were flexibility and organization. The Romans dearly loved tradition and might celebrate religious rituals long after their meaning was forgotten, but they were quick to learn new ways of fighting and to discard outdated military techniques. If the Parthians defeated them in battle using a new type of spear, Roman forges would soon be glowing bright as they copied the new weapon for themselves. What ultimately made the Romans unbeatable were not weapons, however, or well-trained leaders (since Roman generals, like politicians, were essentially amateurs), but the Roman genius for fighting as a unit. Homer might sing of individual heroes challenging each other to battle on the plains of Troy, but the Roman army was a machine. ([Location 1702](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1702)) - There was no time for a leisurely march along the Mediterranean past Massalia and up the Rhone to the land of the Allobroges. Instead, in a move typical of Caesar, he led his troops west past the modern Italian city of Turin into the snow-covered Alps by paths and passes no other Roman general would have even considered. ([Location 1771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1771)) - Caesar was not interested in Gaulish notions of heroic warfare—he was heavily outnumbered and determined to win by any means necessary. ([Location 1789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=1789)) - What no one seems to have noticed at the time—and which Caesar never mentions—is that his force of eight legions was twice the number the Senate had actually authorized for the army of Gaul. Since Caesar had paid for half of these with his own money, they significantly felt more loyalty to Caesar than to the state. Although Celtic by birth and culture, the recruits from northern Italy were equipped with the best Roman arms and thoroughly trained in Roman tactics and discipline. They were proud to call themselves Romans and would one day be rewarded by Caesar with the coveted citizenship. ([Location 2100](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2100)) - During the first two years of the war in Gaul, Caesar was quite consciously training his troops to a new standard of military performance and personal loyalty. No Roman general ever pressed his troops harder than Caesar, but no army ever followed its leader more willingly. ([Location 2181](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2181)) - Caesar had been rushing madly to every corner of the battlefield, but when he saw the dire threat at the camp, he leapt from his horse, grabbed a sword, and joined the fray: He rushed to the front lines, calling the centurions by name and urging on the troops. He told them to spread out so they might have more room to use their weapons. His presence breathed a new life into his soldiers. ([Location 2243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2243)) - Caesar inserts an amazing statement in his Gallic War just before he begins the campaign against the Veneti, in which he describes why the maritime tribes revolted against Rome: “Human nature everywhere yearns for freedom and hates submitting to domination by another.” This kind of refreshing honesty is typical in Roman writers from the earliest days of the Republic to the fall of the empire. The Romans never pretended that they were bringing freedom or a better way of life to the peoples they conquered. They frankly admitted that they were only interested in increasing their own power, wealth, and security through conquest. They had no particular desire to spread classical culture throughout the world unless it served their own plans to better control a province. Caesar freely admits that the Veneti were simply fighting for liberty, just as he would have done in their place. Nevertheless, he was determined to crush them. ([Location 2384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2384)) - As Caesar himself commented: The Gauls are by nature very eager to begin a war, but they have no perseverance. If a setback or calamity befalls them, they cannot carry on. ([Location 2447](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2447)) - The one reason Caesar doesn’t give for crossing the Rhine was probably the most compelling of all—it would be a spectacular publicity stunt. In the decades since the Cimbri and Teutones had threatened to overrun Italy, the barbaric Germans had become the ultimate bogymen in the Roman imagination. Senators and commoners alike lived in fear of the day the next wave of German hordes would cross the Rhine and sweep south to pillage and burn their land. But no one—until Caesar—had ever considered the possibility of actually taking the fight to the Germans. ([Location 2557](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2557)) - One lesson Caesar had learned from Roman military history was that the best commanders knew how to recover from disaster. He was suddenly everywhere at once organizing and encouraging his men. Well-armed foraging parties were dispatched to nearby fields to gather grain, while timber and bronze was stripped from the most severely damaged ships to repair those that could be saved. The few transports that were still in working order were dispatched to Gaul to bring supplies, sails, rigging, and anchors. With only a few days of diligent work, Caesar was confident that most of the damaged ships would be sufficiently seaworthy to limp back across the channel. ([Location 2664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=2664)) - The experience of leading an army in a distant war for eight years also shaped Caesar into someone very different from the senators of Rome. Almost all the leading men in Rome had served in the army at some point and many had led soldiers into battle, but none, with the possible exception of Pompey, had achieved the autonomy that Caesar gained in Gaul. Beyond the Alps he was a virtual king, unhampered by factions, politics, and courts. ([Location 3306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3306)) - More than once in these troubled months Caesar was heard to say: Now that I am the greatest man in Rome, it will be more difficult to push me down to second place than it would be to push a second-rank man to the bottom. ([Location 3358](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3358)) - Caesar realized that Pompey and the Senate would now gather their forces and march on him in northern Italy. It would take them time to organize their enormous army from across the Mediterranean world, but when they did it would be almost impossible to beat them. Caesar therefore chose to risk everything on what the optimates were least expecting—an invasion of Italy with his single legion. ([Location 3486](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3486)) - as Caesar says: “Human nature is such that we become either too confident or too fearful when circumstances change.” ([Location 3760](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3760)) - Most generals would have called the mutinous leaders together and worked out a compromise—but not Caesar. Instead, he ordered the whole army to assemble and then began to speak. He said he felt like a father faced by spoiled and unruly children. He had always seen to their needs before his own and had provided them with everything he had promised. Did they really want to see Italy laid waste like Gaul or Germany? Did they think they were better than their fellow Romans on the other side? They were proud soldiers fighting a war of principle, not a horde of ravaging barbarians sacking cities for plunder. They demanded their own way? They would not get it. Armies, he declared, cannot exist without discipline. He would therefore decimate the entire ninth legion, executing every tenth man among them as punishment and a warning to any who might question him in the future. ([Location 3777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3777)) - If fortune doesn’t go your way, sometimes you have to bend it to your will. —CAESAR ([Location 3831](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3831)) - When Rufus finally reached Pompey’s headquarters and began to present Caesar’s offer, Pompey immediately cut him off and declared: What is the point of my life or citizenship if I hold them by the grace of Caesar? ([Location 3884](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3884)) - Pompey’s troops began to look on Caesar’s army as adversaries who could endure any hardship. ([Location 3942](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3942)) - Caesar withdrew to his camp and prepared for the worst. He spent the night in his tent berating himself for his poor judgment and failed leadership. He knew that Pompey could annihilate his dispirited army that very night and end the war in one blow. But amazingly, Pompey did nothing. As dawn rose the next day, Pompey’s army returned to camp. Caesar knew he had escaped only by the grace of Pompey’s excessive caution: Today the enemy would have won the war if only they had a commander who knew how to conquer. ([Location 3961](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3961)) - At last Pompey yielded to the overwhelming pressure from the optimates and agreed to meet Caesar on the battlefield even though it was against his better judgment. Pompey was a gifted general, but as Plutarch says, his leadership suffered from a fatal flaw: “He was a man who craved glory and hated to disappoint his friends.” ([Location 3993](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=3993)) - Although he was in a terrible hurry, Caesar took time to visit the ancient city of Troy, the ancestral home of the Julian clan. The visit was much more than a sightseeing tour as Caesar was deliberately imitating a similar visit to the town made by Alexander the Great three centuries earlier. He also wanted to publicize to Greeks and Romans alike his connections to the ancient founders of Rome and through them his mandate to restore the Republic. ([Location 4058](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4058)) - Machiavelli himself would have approved of Caesar’s straightforward explanation of his actions: There are two things that create, protect, and increase a sovereign’s rule—soldiers and money—both being dependent on each other. Armies need money and money is acquired by the strength of arms. If you lose one, you lose the other. ([Location 4454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4454)) - Caesar was so pleased with the speedy and successful outcome of the war that he allowed his men to plunder the royal fortress and keep all the booty for themselves. He then summed up the campaign for his friends in Rome with words of immortal brevity: Veni. Vidi. Vici. (I came. I saw. I conquered.) ([Location 4487](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4487)) - The advocates of loan forgiveness hoped Caesar would at last issue a general cancellation of debts, especially as he owed more money to creditors than any man in Rome. Instead, Caesar again sided with Rome’s powerful financial community and demanded full repayment. He appeared to be the model of justice, claiming that it would be unfair to issue a decree that would benefit himself more than any other. But in fact he forced everyone else to repay their loans while he neglected to settle his own debts. To curry the favor of the lower classes, however, he greatly reduced rents for a full year and increased free food distribution. ([Location 4503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4503)) - The elderly Laberius, however, had his revenge for this humiliation by pointedly emphasizing a few of his lines with a wink to the audience: “Come, citizens, for we have lost our freedom!” And more ominously: He whom many fear must fear many. ([Location 4740](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4740)) - Caesar had not begun to understand the depths of the enmity against him until Cicero published a eulogy entitled Cato in praise of the slain optimate soon after the African campaign. In this work Cato was held up as the ideal of Roman virtue, a martyr to the ancient Republic. Caesar was furious with Cicero, but greater than his anger was his bafflement at the warm reception of the book among the public. As always, Caesar was unable to understand how others could not see what was so obvious to him—the Republic was dead. Moreover, it was a death well deserved as it had served only to perpetuate the rule and enrichment of a few powerful families at the expense of everyone else. To make Cato the shining hero of a failed and corrupt system was unforgivable. ([Location 4923](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4923)) - But the greatest reason for an eastern campaign was Caesar’s unquenchable ambition—or as Plutarch puts it, the rivalry between what he had done and what he hoped to do. Caesar, now in his mid-fifties, still dreamed of conquering new worlds. ([Location 4984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=4984)) - Although it might be possible to waylay him on the streets, the conspirators were determined to slay Caesar in a public place. This was not to be a tawdry back-alley murder as if they were thugs stealing a rich man’s purse. This was a political statement, the restoration of power to the Senate and people of Rome—it had to be done in the open, yet in a setting they could control. ([Location 5106](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=5106)) - It was then that he saw Brutus approaching, with his dagger raised to strike. Until that point Caesar had been ready to fight for his life against the senators, but as the younger man drew near he could only stare at him in shocked disbelief. Contrary to Shakespeare’s immortal question—Et tu, Brute?—the last words of Caesar were in fact whispered to Brutus in Greek: Kai su, teknon? (Even you, my child?) With that, Caesar wrapped his toga about his face and died at the foot of Pompey’s statue. ([Location 5147](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0018OO43G&location=5147))