A Quick Update!

Rest assured that there are more articles on the way! I’ve spent the weekend hard at work on my long-term project, a translation of Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius.

Suetonius is a fun subject because he wasn’t really a historian in the traditional sense of the word, and as a result, his writing is gossipy, scandalous, and informal.

It’s my first big attempt at translating something as major as one of the great works, and it’s a slightly daunting prospect, not least because my Latin is being stretched to breaking point. It would be easy to simply narrate Suetonius’ accounts, but that would lose some of his narrative voice, and you’d be reading my account, not his. However, I’m aware that I can’t simply turn Latin into English and have done with it, and as such, I am trying to produce a translation that uses more modern language.

Anyway. I thought you might like to read a little bit, so here you go -

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Book One

The Deified Julius

1 - When Julius Caesar was fifteen years old, his father died. The following year, after being nominated as a priest of Jupiter, he broke off his engagement to Cossutia, a woman only of equestrian rank but of considerable wealth, to whom he had been betrothed while he still wore the toga praetexta. Instead, he married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, who had been consul four times. She later bore him a daughter, Julia. When the dictator Sulla demanded that Caesar divorce her, he refused. As a result, he lost his priesthood, his wife’s dowry, and his family inheritance and was marked as a member of the opposition.

Forced into hiding, he endured a severe bout of malaria while flitting from one hiding place to another almost every night to evade Sulla’s spies. He only survived by bribing his way to safety. Eventually, through the intervention of the Vestal Virgins and his relatives, Mamercus Aemilius and Aurelius Cotta, he was granted pardon.

It is well known that Sulla, after long resisting the pleas of Caesar’s most devoted and eminent supporters, finally relented and declared, either by divine inspiration or shrewd foresight: “Have your way and take him; only bear in mind that the man you are so eager to save will one day deal the death blow to the cause of the aristocracy, which you have joined with me in upholding; for in this Caesar there is more than one Marius.”

2 - Caesar’s first military campaign was in Asia, where he served on the personal staff of Marcus Thermus, the governor of the province. Sent by Thermus to Bithynia to secure a fleet, he lingered so long at the court of King Nicomedes that rumours began to circulate about an improper relationship between the two. These rumours only gained traction when, just days after returning, he went back to Bithynia - ostensibly to collect a debt owed to one of his freedmen, a follower of his. However, his reputation improved as the campaign progressed. At the storming of Mytilene, Thermus awarded him the civic crown for saving the life of a fellow soldier.

3 - He also served in Cilicia under Servilius Isauricus, though only briefly. When news reached him of Sulla’s death, and with it the hope of gaining advantage from a revolt led by Marcus Lepidus, he rushed back to Rome. Despite being offered highly favourable terms, he chose not to join Lepidus’ cause. Caesar lacked confidence in Lepidus’ abilities and found the overall situation less promising than he had anticipated.

4 - Once the civil unrest had been quelled, he brought an extortion charge against Cornelius Dolabella, a former consul who had been honoured with a triumph. When Dolabella was acquitted, he decided to leave Rome for Rhodes. His aim was twofold: to escape the ill-will he had earned and to take time to study oratory under Apollonius Molon, the most renowned rhetoric teacher of the time.

During his voyage to Rhodes, which began as winter set in, he was captured by pirates near the island of Pharmacussa. He remained their prisoner for nearly forty days, deeply frustrated and attended only by a single physician and two servants. He had sent the rest of his companions and staff ahead to raise money for his ransom. After fifty talents were paid and he was released, he didn’t waste a moment. He quickly assembled a fleet, pursued the fleeing pirates, and once he had them in his grasp, carried out the punishment he had threatened them with in banter with his captors - crucifixion.

Caesar then continued to Rhodes. However, hearing that Mithridates was ravaging nearby regions, he crossed into Asia to avoid appearing idle while Rome’s allies were in danger. There, he raised a force of auxiliaries, drove out Mithridates’ prefect, and secured the loyalty of the wavering cities in the province.

5 - After returning to Rome, he was elected to his first official position as military tribune by popular vote. In this role, he vigorously supported efforts to restore the powers of the tribunes of the plebs, which had been severely weakened under Sulla’s dictatorship. Through a bill proposed by one Plotius, he effected the recall of his brother-in-law Lucius Cornelius Cinna, as well as of the others who had taken part in the rebellion with Lepidus and who had fled to Spain and joined Sertorius after Lepidus’ death and he personally spoke in favour of the measure.

6 - During his term as quaestor, he delivered the traditional funeral orations from the Rostra for his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia, both of whom had passed away. In his eulogy for his aunt, he spoke of her lineage and that of his own family, saying: “The family of my aunt Julia is descended on her mother’s side from kings, tracing back to Ancus Marcius through the Marcii Reges, and on her father’s side is connected to the immortal gods, as the Julii - the family to which we belong - are descended from Venus. Thus, our lineage holds both the sanctity of kings, who reign supreme among mortals, and the reverence owed to the gods, who hold power even over kings.”

After Cornelia’s death, he married Pompeia, the daughter of Quintus Pompeius Rufus and granddaughter of Lucius Sulla. However, he later divorced her amid rumours of adultery with Publius Clodius Pulcher. The scandal claimed that Clodius had disguised himself as a woman to seduce Pompeia during the sacred festival of Bona Dea. The rumours grew so persistent that the Senate launched an official inquiry into the alleged desecration of the religious rites.

7 - As quaestor, he was assigned to serve in Hispania Ulterior. While travelling through the assize towns to hold court on behalf of the praetor, he arrived in Gades. There, he noticed a statue of Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules. Overcome with frustration at his own lack of significant achievements - especially when compared to Alexander, who had conquered the world by the same age - Caesar sighed deeply. He immediately requested his discharge, eager to return to Rome and seize the first opportunity for greater endeavours.

The following night, he was troubled by a dream in which he had violated his mother. Disturbed at first, he consulted soothsayers, who interpreted the dream as a highly auspicious sign. They explained that the mother he had seen in his power was none other than the Earth, the universal parent of all mankind, and that this meant he was destined to rule the world.

8 - Leaving Spain before his term was complete, he travelled to the Latin colonies beyond the River Po, which were in a state of unrest and agitating for full citizenship rights. He might have incited them to take drastic action, but the consuls, anticipating this very risk, had temporarily stationed the legions - originally recruited for service in Cilicia - in the region to maintain order.

9 - Soon after, he made an even bolder move in Rome itself. Just days before assuming his role as aedile, he was suspected of conspiring with Marcus Crassus, a former consul, as well as with Publius Sulla and Lucius Autronius, who had been elected consuls but later convicted of electoral corruption. Their plan was to launch an attack on the Senate at the start of the new year, killing as many senators as they deemed necessary. Crassus would then seize the dictatorship, appointing Caesar as his Master of Horse, and once the government was reorganized to their liking, Sulla and Autronius would be reinstated as consuls.

This conspiracy is mentioned by Tanusius Geminus in his History, by Marcus Bibulus in his edicts, and by Gaius Curio the Elder in his speeches. Cicero also seems to allude to it in a letter to Axius, where he writes that Caesar “established during his consulship the dominion he had planned as an aedile.” Tanusius adds that Crassus, either out of guilt or fear, failed to appear on the appointed day of the massacre, causing Caesar to withhold the agreed-upon signal - which, according to Curio, was to let his toga fall from his shoulder.

Both Curio and Marcus Actorius Naso also claim that he conspired with Gnaeus Piso, a young nobleman suspected of political intrigue in Rome. Piso had been assigned the governorship of Spain in an unusual and unsolicited appointment. The plan was for Piso to incite a rebellion abroad while Caesar stirred uprisings in Rome, supported by the Ambrani and the peoples beyond the Po River. However, Piso’s death brought their schemes to an abrupt end.

10 - As aedile, Caesar went all out to impress. He adorned not only the Comitium and the Forum, along with its surrounding basilicas, but also the Capitol, constructing temporary colonnades to showcase part of the materials he had gathered for his public spectacles. He organized wild beast hunts and theatrical performances, both in collaboration with his colleague, Marcus Bibulus, and on his own. However, Caesar ended up taking all the credit, even for the expenses they shared. Bibulus famously lamented that he had suffered the fate of Pollux, saying: “Just as the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum bears only Castor’s name, so too is our joint generosity credited solely to Caesar.”

He also hosted a gladiatorial show, though with fewer pairs of fighters than he had originally planned. The massive troop of gladiators he had assembled from across the region alarmed his political opponents so much that they passed a law limiting the number of gladiators anyone could keep within the city.

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That’s a brief update on what I’m doing. I will be back to the day job soon, so if you have any questions, please fire away!

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll love my latest book, Black Magic Baby, crammed full of interesting answers to all the questions you ever had about Roman history that will keep you turning pages long into the night. They make rather cool gifts for nerdy types who go mad for that sort of thing!

Print or ebook versions are available at the link below!