Julius Caesar - Breakup of the Coalition

In the meantime, while campaigning in foreign lands, Caesar's own position at home was becoming critical.

In 56 B.C., at the conference of Luca (Lucca), Caesar, Pompey and Crassus had renewed their agreement, and Caesar's command in Gaul, which would have expired on the 1st of March 54 B.C., was renewed, probably for five years, i.e. to the 1st of March 49 B.C., and it was enacted that the question of his successor should not be discussed until the 1st of March 50 B.C., by which time the provincial commands for 49 B.C. would have been assigned. This allowed Caesar to retain imperium, and, with it, immunity from persecution, until the end of 49 B.C. He was to be elected consul for 48 B.C., and, as the law prescribed a personal canvass, he was by special enactment dispensed from its provisions. However, in 54 B.C. Julia, the daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, died, and in 53 B.C. Crassus was killed at Carrhae. Pompey now drifted apart from Caesar and became the champion of the senate.

In 52 B.C. Pompey passed a fresh law de jure magistratuum which cut the ground from beneath Caesar's feet by making it possible to provide a successor to the Gallic provinces before the close of 49 B.C. This meant that Caesar would become for some months a private person, and thus liable to be called to account for his unconstitutional acts. Caesar had no resource left but instant and uncompromising obstruction, which he sustained by enormous bribes. His representative in 50 B.C., the tribune C. Scribonius Curio, served him well, and induced the lukewarm majority of the senate to refrain from extreme measures, insisting that Pompey, as well as Caesar, should resign the imperium.

In that long run, however, all attempts at negotiation failed, and, in January 49 B.C., martial law having been proclaimed on the proposal of the consuls, the tribunes Antony and Cassius fled to Caesar, who crossed the River Rubicon (the frontier of Italy) with a single legion, exclaiming "Alea jacta est."

Julius Caesar - Civil War and Death

Julius Caesar

Rome the Eternal City

Sitemap

Travel