Death of Caesar : The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination (9781451668827)

by Strauss, Barry

  his chosen governor of Italian Gaul Cicero, Letters to Friends 6.6.10.

  possibly a symptom of the epilepsy Plutarch, Caesar 17.2, 53.5–6, 60.7; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 45.2; Appian, Civil Wars 2.110; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.32.6. Since Caesar’s friends and enemies both used reports of his health to their advantage, the ancient evidence has to be treated with caution.

  He personified talent, strategy, memory Cicero, Second Philippic 2.116.

  Brutus had leading-man looks Sheldon Nodelman, “The Portrait of Brutus the Tyrannicide,” Occasional Papers on Antiquities 4: Ancient Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum 1 (1987): 41–86.

  they put up a statue of him in Mediolanum Plutarch, Brutus 6.11, Comparison of Dion and Brutus 5.

  Caesar and Brutus traveled together through Italian Gaul Plutarch, Brutus 6.12; cf. Taylor, “On the Chronology of Cicero’s Letters,” 238–39.

  The alternative to the optimates or “Best Men” was the populares or “Populists” Such terms were imprecise and fluid. See W. K. Lacey, “Boni atque Improbi,” Greece & Rome, 2nd ser., 17.1 (1970): 3–16.

  In private, he called him a king Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.37.2.

  “Where would he find them?” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.40.1.

  “he knows on which side his bread is buttered” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.40.1. This translation of this difficult sentence is suggested as a possibility by D. R. Shackleton Bailey, ed. and trans., Cicero, Letters to Atticus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), vol. 5: 241, and note ad loc., 388 (with discussion of another relevant comment of Cicero on Brutus at 13.41.2).

  “speaks Latin the most eloquently of nearly all the orators” The speaker is Cicero’s friend Atticus at Cicero, Brutus 252.

  “almost the pioneer and inventor of eloquence” Cicero, Brutus 253, translated by G. L. Hendrickson in Brutus / Cicero; with an English translation by G. L.Hendrickson. Orator / Cicero, with an English translation by H. M. Hubbell, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962), 219.

  “it was a greater thing to have advanced” Pliny, Natural History 7.117, translated by Elizabeth Rawson, Cicero: A Portrait, rev. ed. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 254.

  “Liberty,” wrote Cicero, “has been lost” Cicero, Letters to Friends 9.16.3.

  “some sort of a constitutional system” “aliquam rem publicam,” Cicero, Letters to Friends 13.68.2, maybe October 46 B.C.; cf. 6.10b.2.

  “What else can he do?” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.40.4.

  “immortal fame” achieved by his “godlike courage” Cicero, For Marcellus 26, 28.

  he caught a glimpse of a reviving republic Cicero, Letters to Friends 4.4.3.

  how wise men bore regna (singular, regnum) Cicero, Letters to Friends 9.16.6.

  In Roman eyes, monarchy had a suggestion Andrew Erskine, “Hellenistic Monarchy and Roman Political Invective,” Classical Quarterly n.s. 41.1 (1991): 106–20.

  So Cicero complained Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.40.1.

  “But before all other women” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 50.2.

  the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in today’s terms Today the average active-duty service member in the U.S. Army receives an annual benefits and pay compensation package worth $99,000, http://www.goarmy.com/benefits/total-compensation.html. The Hope Diamond, one of the world’s most expensive diamonds, is valued perhaps at $250 million, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond, accessed June 25, 2014.

  financiers and political operators Like Titus Pomponius Atticus (110–32 B.C.), a Roman knight who was wealthy, well connected, andpowerful.

  “very knowing and careful lady” Cicero, Letters to Brutus 1.18.1.

  sometimes found herself at home surrounded by eminent men Cicero, Letters to Atticus 15.11.1–3. On Servilia as Caesar’s confidante and agent, see Richard A. Bauman, Women and Politics in Ancient Rome (London and New York: Routledge, 1992), 73.

  “every care begins and ends with you” Cicero, Letters to Brutus 1.18, in D. R. Shackleton Bailey, ed. and trans., Cicero: Letters to Quintus and Brutus (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 283.

  a serious, pensive, and faraway look See the bust of Cato the Younger from the Archaeological Museum of Rabat, Morocco. Found in the House of Venus, Volubilis. Frederick Poulsen, “Caton et le Jeune Prince,” Acta Archaeologica 18 (1947) 117–139.

  “the only man to try to overturn the Republic while sober” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 53.1; Plutarch, Cato the Younger 24.1, Brutus 5.2, Caesar 17.9–10; Velleius Paterculus, The Roman History 41.2.

  a passionate note from his half sister Servilia Plutarch, Cato the Younger 24.1–2, Brutus 5.2.

  a favor to Servilia Plutarch, Brutus 5.1.

  Caesar’s supposed fear that Brutus was his son Appian, Civil War 2.112.

  “What this man wants, is a major problem” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.1.2, trans. A. W. Lintott, in Cicero as Evidence: A Historian’s Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 341.

  dropped everything and headed to Egypt Plutarch, Brutus 6.3–5.

  Caesar tells a different story in the Commentaries Caesar, Civil War 3.105–6.

  He considered Caesar a tyrant Plutarch, Cato the Younger 66.2.

  He told his son that he had been raised in liberty Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.10.4–5.

  Cato took a dagger Plutarch, Cato the Younger 70.1; Appian, Civil Wars 2.98; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.11.4.

  “O Cato, I begrudge you your death” Plutarch, Cato the Younger 72.2; cf. Appian, Civil Wars 2.99.

  Brutus disapproved of his uncle Cato’s act Plutarch, Brutus 40.7.

  “Romans, watch your wives, see the bald adulterer’s back home” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 51, trans. Mary Beard, in The Roman Triumph (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2007), 247.

  “tearing himself apart like a wild animal” Appian, Civil Wars 2.101

  He considered Cato a great man Cicero, Letters to Atticus 12.4.2.

  “first in manly courage among all peoples” Cicero, Philippics 13.30.

  Elite opinion followed For example, Papirius Paetus in Cicero, Letters to Friends 9.18.2.

  she had a new estate near Naples to enjoy Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.21.3; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 50.2.

  Porcia once stabbed herself deeply in the thigh Plutarch, Brutus 13.

  Servilia and Porcia were not getting along Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.22.4.

  CHAPTER 3. DECISION IN A VILLA

  He didn’t enter the city until October Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome 2.56.3.

  Labici The remains of a Republican villa found at modern San Cesareo about eighteen miles southeast of Rome might possibly belong to Caesar’s villa. It is plausible but not certain that Caesar stayed there. See “San Cesareo (RM). Scavi in località Colle Noci (c.d. Villa di Massenzio),” http://www.archeologia.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/142/scavi_/scaviarcheologici_4e048966cfa3a/356, accessed July 28, 2014; Carlo Alberto Bucci, “Vandali e incuria salviamo la villa di Cesare,” La Repubblica Roma.it, June 10, 2011, http://roma.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/06/10/news/vandali_e_incuria_salviamo_la_villa_di_cesare-17479575/, accessed July 28, 2014.

  tranquility of Italy Caesar, Civil War 3.57.

  nothing in the world was comparable to it Cicero, Republic 1.70.

  “strengthen the Republic for the future” Pseudo-Sallust, “Letter to Caesar,” translation modified from John C. Rolfe, Sallust (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 447, 1.8.

  because he paid too much attention to his hairstyle Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 4.9. On the date see Pelling, Plutarch Caesar 148–49. On the joke, see Anthony Corbeill, Nature Embodied: Gesture in Ancient Rome (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004), 134–35.

  “a nothing, a mere name without form or substance” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 77.

 
; a pamphlet by an enemy of Caesar Suetonius, Julius Caesar 77.

  VENI VIDI VICI, “I came, I saw, I conquered” Suetonius, Caesar 37.2; Plutarch, Caesar 50.3; Appian, Civil Wars 2.91.

  what Aristotle called a great-souled man Nicomachean Ethics 4.3.

  “the imperator Gaius Caesar deserved well of the republic” Caesar, Civil War 1.13.

  his mother’s knee Aurelia Cotta, Caesar’s mother, was later held up as a model of good parenting. Tacitus, Dialogue on Oratory 28.

  the first man in Rome Plutarch, Caesar 11.3–4.

  a refuge for the poor Sallust, War with Catiline 54.3.

  if it took thugs and murderers Suetonius, Julius Caesar 72.

  a dangerous crossing of the Adriatic in a small boat Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome 2.43.2. This incident took place in 73 B.C.

  a trap on the River Sabis Caesar, Gallic War 2.15–28; Plutarch, Caesar 20.4–10; Appian, Gallic Wars Epitome 4; Cassius Dio, Roman History 39.3.1–2. The Battle of the River Sabis took place in 57 B.C.

  he said that his enemies were in charge of the Senate Caesar, Civil War 1.7.

  surrender of Vercingetorix at Alesia Caesar, Gallic War 7.89.5; Florus Epitome of Roman History 1.45.26; Plutarch, Caesar 27.9–10; Cassius Dio, Roman History 40.41.

  Cleopatra had great physical presence Duane Roller, Cleopatra: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 3; Plutarch, Antony 27.2.

  “certain Greek writers” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 52.2.

  lamented the fact that Alexander Suetonius, Julius Caesar 7.1; Cassius Dio, Roman History 37.52.2; Plutarch, Caesar 11.5–6.

  Power, he once said, depended on only two things Cassius Dio, Roman History 42.29.4.

  he sent the officers’ horses away Caesar, Gallic War 1.25.

  leaving his hair and beard unshaven Caesar, Gallic War 7.88.1.

  “absolutely attached to him and absolutely steadfast” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 68.1.

  “He was more pleasing to the masses than to the Senate” Livy, History of Rome 1.15.8; Zvi Yavetz, Plebs and Princeps (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), 58, n. 4.

  “If you do right, you will be punished” Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.20.3.

  “Make the soldiers rich” Cassius Dio, Roman History Epitome 77.15.2.

  usually tight-lipped Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.21.2.

  Balbus was drawing up decrees Cicero, Letters to Friends 9.15.4.

  helmsman on the Republic’s ship of state Cicero, Letters to Friends 9.15.4.

  if a man like Cicero had to wait to see him Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.1.2.

  The real estate alone cost a fortune The land cost over 100 million sesterces (=25 million denarii). Suetonius, Julius Caesar 26.2. A legionary’s annual wage was 225 denarii.

  “I have lived long enough for nature or glory” “satis diu vel naturae vixi vel gloriae,” Cicero, For Marcellus 25.

  Some of his friends thought Suetonius, Julius Caesar 86.1.

  fainting spells and night terrors Suetonius, Julius Caesar 45.1.

  Caesar was an epileptic Plutarch, Caesar 17.2, 53.5–6, 60.7; Suetonius Julius Caesar 45.2, Appian Civil Wars 2.110; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.32.6. Since Caesar’s friends and enemies both used reports of his health to their advantage, the ancient evidence has to be treated with caution.

  the Ides of September—September 13, 45 B.C. Suetonius, Julius Caesar 83.1. According to the traditional Roman calendar, the Ides fell on the 13th of the month except for March, May, July, and October, when it fell on the 15th.

  The key to the document was Suetonius, Julius Caesar 83.1; Nicolaus, Life of Caesar Augustus 17.48; Appian, Civil Wars 2.143; Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.35.2–3.

  rumor that Antony hoped to be adopted by Caesar Cicero, Philippics 2.71; Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 21.74.

  Antony’s charge that Octavian sold his body to Caesar Suetonius, Augustus 68.

  CHAPTER 4. CAESAR’S LAST TRIUMPH

  lost his estate near Naples Cicero, Letters to Atticus 14.21.3.

  “Ask me for the Republic back, Tribune Aquila!” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 78.2.

  “That is, if Pontius Aquila will let me” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 78.2.

  Herophilus Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 9.15.1, cf. Appian, Civil Wars 3.2.

  Apollo Wolfgang Helbig, Fuehrer durch die oeffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertuemer in Rom, 4th ed., vol. 2 (Tuebingen: E. Wasmuth, 1963), 614, no. 1846.

  son of Niobe MC Inv 3027; Helbig, Fuehrer durch die oeffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertuemer in Rom, 553, no. 1783. See Marina Bertoletti, Maddalena Cima, and Emilia Talamo, Centrale Montemartini. Musei Capitolini (Electa: Milano, 2007), 75, fig. 70 for a color illustration.

  “They say he [Caesar] wouldn’t go against the Parthians” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.31.3.

  as the historian Tacitus wrote many years later Tacitus, Histories 3.37.

  Cicero also wrote that it was hard to hold back the tears Cicero, Letters to Atticus 7.30.2; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.46.4.

  the Senate named Caesar DICTATOR IN PERPETUO Plutarch, Caesar 57.1.

  “We should actually call King the man whom we in fact had as king” Cicero, On Divination 2.110: “quem re vera regem habebamus appellandum quoque esse regem.”

  Asinius Pollio Cicero, Letters to Friends 10.31.3; possible echo in Appian, Civil Wars 2.111.1.

  “Sulla didn’t know his ABCs when he laid down his dictatorship” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 77—from T. Ampius Balbus, an enemy of Caesar.

  Every senator promised to maintain Caesar’s safety Suetonius, Julius Caesar 84.2, 86.1; Livy, Periochae 116; Appian, Civil Wars 2.144; Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.5.3.

  Caesar named him as the Dictator’s formal second-in-command Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.51.7; Appian, Civil Wars 3.9.30.

  “Father of the Fatherland” Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.4.4.

  People joked that this was Caesar’s favorite honor Suetonius, Julius Caesar 45.2.

  share a temple with the god Cicero, Letters to Atticus 12.45.2, cf. 12.48; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.45.3.

  tradition stated that the senators killed Livy, History of Rome 1.16; Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.45.2–4.

  he erased the inscription calling him a “demigod” Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.14.6, 43.21.1–2; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 37.2.

  the “odious” procession, as he called it Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.44.1.

  “I hate the Queen” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 15.15.2.

  They also said he would take the wealth Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 20.68; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 79.3.

  Caesar wanted to settle things in Rome first Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.31.3.

  He said he was concerned about his laws being disregarded Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.7.

  In fact, if the men he left behind fell short of his standards Martin Jehne, Der Staat des Dictators Caesar (The State of the Dictator Caesar) (Cologne, Germany: Böhlau, 1987), 457–61.

  Caesar claimed that he already had enough glory “satis diu vel naturae vixi vel gloriae,” Cicero, For Marcellus 25.

  He complained about his rich and apathetic neighbor, Lucius Marcius Philippus According to Macrobius [Satires 3.15.6], Philippus was one of the unnamed wealthy men of leisure who, complains Cicero, cared more about fishponds than the republic, Cicero, Letters to Atticus 1.19.6; 1.20.3.

  Cicero describes the whole thing in a breathless letter Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.52.

  Caesar wrote from Hispania Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.20.1.

  A friend wrote archly Servius Sulpicius; see Cicero, Letters to Friends 4.5.6.

  Cicero thought better of it and gave up the idea Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.26.2, 12.51.2, 52.2.

  “Once was enough” Cicero, Letters to Atticus 13.52.2.

  three in
cidents Livy, Periochae 6.2–3. There is some doubt about the order of the incidents. What follows is what, on balance, appears to me to be the likeliest order.

  he also made a joke about their news Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.8; Plutarch, Caesar 60.3–4; Appian, Civil Wars 2.107; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 78.1; Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 78; Livy, Periochae 116.

  The sources are full of commentary Suetonius, Julius Caesar 78.1; Plutarch, Caesar 60.4–5; Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.8.2; Appian, Civil Wars 2.107.

  “I am Caesar, not Rex” Suetonius, Julius Caesar 6.1.

  He wanted to grant his usual clemency but Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome 2.68.3.

  Caesar demanded that the tribune Caesetius’s father disinherit his son Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings 5.7.2.

  some people accused Caesar of blaming the messengers Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 20.69, 22.76; Livy, Periochae 116.2; Suetonius, Julius Caesar 79.2, 80.3; Appian, Civil Wars 2.108–9; Plutarch, Caesar 61.10; Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.10.1–4, 11.4.

  In 49 B.C., he said that one of the main reasons Caesar, Civil War 1.7–8.

  The result was to generate invidia—ill will Livy, Periochae 116.2.

  But Caesar actually indulged in the finery of Rome’s ancient kings Cassius Dio, Roman History 43.43.2; Gelzer, Caesar: Politician and Statesman, 316, n.1.

  “The People give this to you through me” Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.11.2.

  a groan and gloomy look Cicero, Philippics 5.38.

  “Jupiter alone of the Romans is King” Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.11.2–3.

  “the Consul Mark Antony had offered the Kingship” Cicero, Philippics 2.85–87.

  The sources buzz with speculation See, for example, Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 21.71–74; Cicero, Philippics 2.85; Cassius Dio, Roman History 44.11.3.

  Later on it was claimed that Antony Cassius Dio, Roman History 46.19.1–8.

  two opponents of Caesar They were Cassius and Publius Casca, Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Caesar Augustus 21.72. Nicolaus is not credible. See Jane Bellemore, edited with introduction, translation and commentary, Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press, 1984) comm. ad loc., 106.