By Philip Katz the Author of IMPERATOR copyright 2011

Caesar’s great accomplishments during his governorship of
the Roman Gallic Province(Southern France) and Illyria(Balkans) were unmatched, even by his friend and fellow Triumvir, Pompey
the Great. Caesar had amassed unprecedented honors and added all of Western
Europe to Rome’s growing Empire. His achievements in politics, oratory,
literature, the law and in war brought immense power and wealth to an adept
political operator and statesman. In a society where republican government was
cherished and regal ambition violently opposed, it was easy to brand a man such
as Caesar as tyrant and of having aspirations of kingship, by his political enemies.

As had been demonstrated time and time again, nothing was
impossible in Roman politics. An innocent man, a hero in fact, could be exiled
from his country by his political enemies on trumped up charges of extortion or
bribery. Camillus, second founder of Rome and the conqueror of the invading
Gauls was exiled, and Caesar, nephew of the third founder of Rome Gaius Marius
conqueror of the invading Germans himself declared an enemy of the state and
hunted down like a criminal, was not going to let that happen to him.

Caesar, his officers and his legions, numbering about 40,000
over a nine year period succeeded in subduing and pacifying all of Gaul (modern
France and Belgium) at one point defeating the combined armies of all the
Gallic nations under the great Gallic General and Statesman Vercingetorix,
believed to number in excess of 200,000 well equipped infantry and heavy
cavalry. In Gaul Caesar rewarded his friends and allies with positions of trust
within the native Gallic tribes, installing regimes favorable to Rome. These
client kings brought with them the client ship of their entire nation. No Roman
had ever had that kind of political influence both at home and abroad with one
notable exception, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great. Pompey was one of
the Triumvirs (“Three Men” Caesar, Pompey and Crassus) that held immense power
within Rome and her electorate. Indeed Caesar continuously rewrote the book on
Roman politics and foreign policy long after Pompey’s best days had passed.
Caesar was the junior member of the Triumvirate and was the political glue that
held the volatile group together. He delivered the “Goods” so to speak,
ultimately collecting a five year governorship of Roman Gaul and Illyria as his
cut. In exchange for this unusual but not unheard of command (The dictator
Sulla governed Rome’s Cilician Province for five years early in his career to
contain the Pontic King Mithredates) Caesar had Pompey’s veteran colonies established
and Crassus was awarded the command of an expeditionary force sent against the
Parthian Empire in the East.

Caesar’s governorship was extended for another five year
period by law with the support of Pompey the Great. However as Pompey’s best
years were behind him and Caesar seeming to have no limit to his achievements
in the name of Rome, began to eclipse his old friend and fellow Triumvir. It was
through Pompey’s jealousy and somewhat gullible nature that Caesar’s opponents
began their campaign against him by swaying Pompey’s feelings. The final break
between them came upon the death of Caesar’s daughter Julia, the wife of
Pompey, in childbirth.

From this point misinformation and guile made political
enemies of former friends. With Pompey’s support some in the Senate moved to
have Caesar’s command ended before its legal term had expired. Caesar was
ordered to lay down his command and return to Rome to face charges related to
voting impropriety during his consulship some 9 years before. Caesar resisted
the Senate on constitutional grounds and by citing precedent. Had Caesar retained his
command for its full term he would return to Rome eligible after ten years to
stand once again for the consulship making him immune to prosecution for the
term of office giving Caesar time back in Rome to defend his interests properly
rather than return to Rome for the first time in 9 years with no protection
under the law.

The course for Caesar was clear. Resist. And with one
undermanned legion, the Thirteenth (unlucky number then too) Caesar took all of
Italy, bloodlessly from the combined forces of the “senate” and of Pompey the
Great.

Still retaining the immense talent for organization that was
Pompey’s hallmark, he evacuated his entire army and the Senators who wished to
follow from Brundisium (Modern Brindisi) retreating East to Greece where Pompey
retain immense political power and prestige. Pompey ruled the seas and had vast
resources in men and materiel available to him in the East. Caesar, the
conqueror of Gaul had his fanatically loyal veteran legions. Blooded and
hardened by 9 years of hard fighting in hostile territory, they were unequalled
in history, save for Alexander’s Army.

I believe it was Caesar’s intention to reconcile with Pompey
and restore the Republic under their guidance. Instead Pompey was betrayed and
murdered in Egypt following Caesar’s victory at Pharsalus, Greece.

The war between the Pompeians and Caesar’s supporters went
on for years in which the Pompeians showed their true savage nature time and
time again while Caesar’s Clemency became known to all. In Spain the men in the
camps of the two sides began to fraternize between battles, particularly near
the river where bathing was a common practice for both sides, both being Roman.
The men of both armies frequented each other’s camps freely to visit with
friends and relatives. Upon hearing of this the Pompeian commander had the
Caesarian soldiers arrested and executed. Caesar allowed the Pompeians safe
passage back to their camp, those that wanted to go that is. Pompeian
commanders taken prisoner under arms against Caesar were granted clemency and
allowed to go in peace. They were rarely accorded the same treatment twice.

Following Caesar’s final victory against the Pompeians at
Munda, Spain, he returned to Rome instituting many massive public works
projects at his own expense and prepared an expeditionary force to Parthia to
recover his fellow fallen Triumvir, Marcus Crassus lost Golden Eagles.

On March 15, 44 BC Caesar was assassinated by a group of
senators, men who he had pardoned on the battlefield and allowed to return to
Rome and assume their former places in Roman society. The Great Caesar was
murdered in Pompey’s Senate House beneath the statue of his friend.

In his will each and every Roman received a cash payment. Much
of Caesar’s property in Rome was donated to Rome for the benefit of the people
for their recreation and enjoyment. But most significant of all was that
Caesar’s young nephew Gaius Octavian was posthumously adopted as Caesar’s son had
inherited all that was Caesar’s in terms of wealth and the command of the loyal
legions.

In my humble opinion, Caesar was betrayed because he had so
far out done anyone in all aspects of what it was to be a Great Roman, achieved
every endeavor no matter how great, and when his political enemies tried to
destroy him it was at their own peril. As a result of Caesar’s political
enemies’ conspiracies to destroy him and his “rival” Pompey the Great in a destructive
civil war, all of Rome lived at Caesar’s pleasure, their offices and honors
granted by him and his Freedman deputies in the uncertain period following the
civil war. Truly an intolerable condition for Haughty Roman Nobles.

In my heart I feel Caesar had committed “Suicide by
Senate”. Had the spineless senators failed, the Parthians Probably would
have done it. His failing health and constant betrayals made life not worth living.
He is quoted as saying, “Caesar has lived long enough for history and long
enough for Caesar.” He sent his heir Octavian then 17 away for safe keeping
with the army he would inherit according to Caesar’s will. It just seems like
like he planned it.

-Philip Katz

Get the Historical
Adventure Novel IMPERATOR by Philip Katz

Imperator (Victorious General) is
the story of Julius Caesar’s youth before he appears in the historical record.
The reader witnesses the collapse of the four centuries old Roman Republic that
ruled the World but could not govern its self, through the eyes of young
Caesar. It’s a young adult, action/adventure/ political intrigue story where
the reader is intimately introduced to the personalities that shaped the modern
world we live in. The great events are recreated and great personalities are
reborn as flesh and blood people struggling with the day to day decisions that
would resonate through the millennia. Imperator details the political
struggles, the lust for power and the ideological fight to preserve Rome by a
small group of pragmatic reformers that would result in Civil War on an epic
scale time and time again.

Imperator gives the reader a fresh
perspective on the life story of the man that would rise from the streets
of Rome to the pinnacle of power and world domination. Witness the youth and
adventures of a man whose very name would come to symbolize unrivaled
power and become the coveted title every Roman Emperor to follow would assume,
a man whose policy of Clemency toward his enemies would seal his fate on the
“Ides of March”.

Meet the Caesar you never knew! IMPERATOR.

Advertisement

Imperator

The Life of Gaius Julius Caesar

A Novel for Young Adults by Philip Katz

“Imperator – The Life of Gaius Julius Caesar” by Philip Katz is a fictional recreation of the life of the greatest of all Romans, Gaius Julius Caesar. It is a personal memoir, the inside story of his world as viewed through his eyes, written in the first person, suppressed by Caesar’s successors, only to be rediscovered in modern times. [More...]

Available in all good bookstores and Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and more.