Events in Roman History: 49-46 BCE, especially Cicero and Caesar

When Julius Caesar refused to lay down his arms and surrender his armies at the behest of the Senate early in 49 BCE, the Roman Republic, though endangered, was not "lost." Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, allegedly saying "alea iacta est" ("the die is cast") as he did so, has been taken as the quintessential act of "burning one's bridges" in history, but still there were negotiations between him and Pompey over the next few months about some kind of an accommodation between the two.

As you probably know, these two men, along with one of the wealthiest men of Rome, Marcus Crassus, had concluded an agreement (secret at first) in 60 BCE, later referred to as the First Triumvirate, where they "divided power" among themselves and turned the Senate, a once proud deliberative body, into little more than a useless body. Caesar tried to make the ties with Pompey more secure by arranging for Pompey to marry his daughter Julia in 59. It seemed that all was secure for the three.

But then, disaster struck. Julia died during childbirth in 54, Crassus was killed in a battle in the East (Carrhae) in 53 and the relationship between Caesar and Pompey cooled dramatically. Pompey, with his troops maintaining his influence in Spain, North Africa and Greece, hung out a good deal in Italy, cultivating the approval of the Senate. When Caesar then entered illegally into Italy in January 49 BCE, he was entering into Pompey's territory, even though he had about 10 Legions, the battle-scarred and experienced troops from the Gallic campaigns of the 50s, in his wake. The months from January-March 49 were crucial in determining if these long-time allies could be brought together to avoid a conflict. But such was not to be; Cicero at one point tried to intervene, but his standing, though significant, couldn't bring the two together.

Pompey Leaves Italy

In June 49, Pompey and a few troops shipped across the Adriatic to the Greek Peninsula near Durazzo (ancient Dyrrachium). Caesar was "left alone" in Italy to try to win some good will; the results were a rather mixed bag, according to contemporaries. Caesar tried to win people over by a lenient policy, which would characterize his method of dealing with political foes until his death in 44 BCE. Yet, at first, this insidiosa clementia (or "calculated magnanimity," as Cicero called it) yielded little. Cicero, for one, decided that he must side with Pompey. Why? As he explained in answer to the question "What do you mean to do, then?" posed to him by his long-time friend Atticus, he said:

"What cattle do when they are stampeded...run after their own kind. Like a bullock following the other bullocks, I'll run after the conservatives, or those to whom I give that name, even if they fall into a ditch," (quoted in Furhmann, Cicero and the Roman Republic, 135-36).

Thus, Cicero dutifully set off for Greece after Pompey, though we don't know his precise whereabouts for about a year (June 49-June 48 BCE) because we have few letters from that period from him. We know, however, that he was in Dyrrachium in August 48 when Pompey and Caesar fought at Pharsalus, a valley about 50 miles to the East. Caesar's men were outnumbered 2:1, but Pompey's consisted primarily of undisciplined troops he had just recruited from the multi-lingual East in the previous several months. Caesar won a dramatic victory.

After Pharsalus (August 48 BCE)

Events for Caesar, but not for Cicero, sped up considerably after August 48. Let's begin with Cicero. He retreated from Dyracchium, where he was more of a pain in the butt than a helper to Pompey (Cicero had no interest or ability in military affairs) and crossed the Adriatic to Brundisium in Italy. Caesar had given orders to Marcus Brutus, who eventually would assassinate him, that all Pompey's supporters entering Italy had to be personally approved by him. Brutus didn't throw Cicero out of Brundisium, but Cicero was, as it were, under "house arrest." Cicero didn't leave that coastal city until Oct. 47 BCE, after a personal meeting with Caesar late in Sept. 47. This year of his life, from Sept. 48-Sept. 47 was among the most difficult and harried of them all. He wrote lots of letters from Brundisium, some of which are in my little reader I mentioned in the previous essay.

While Cicero was holed up in Brundisium, Caesar was on the move. First, as another example of his magnanimity, he ordered that Pompey's correspondence, which was captured at Pharsalus, be destroyed before it was read lest Caesar be forced by the new knowledge he gained to have to avenge himself. Then, he took off after Pompey, who was making his way toward Egypt. The Pompeians weren't going to give up just because they had lost one, though a very significant, battle. So, Pompey retreated to Egypt but was killed on the order of the boy king Ptolemy XIII's advisors. The killing took place, supposedly on Pompey's 58th birthday, in September 48 BCE, by people familiar to Pompey. The Egyptians decided it would be better to try to placate Caesar by this action than to protect a long-time ally. When Caesar arrived in Egypt shortly after this event, Pompey's head and ring were presented to him in a basket. Plutarch, the famous biographer from antiquity, says that when a slave offered these items to Caesar,

"he turned away from him with loathing, as from an assassin; and when he received Pompey's signet ring on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paws, he burst into tears," quoted in this article.

Caesar, now in a fit of anger and passion, deposed the young king, killed his chief advisor, replaced him on the throne by Cleopatra VII and, promptly, fell in love with Cleopatra. Well, the dynamics of that relationship are beyond the scope of this essay; suffice it to say that Caesar was the first of the illustrious Romans to be wooed by her youthful charms (she was about 21 at the time). She had one child by Caesar (Caesarion) and three by Marc Antony several years later. Maybe she had something for men in uniforms...

Conclusion

While Caesar was engaging in this "curricular" as well as "extra-curricular" activity, Cicero was still stewing in Brundisium, unsure of how he would be received by Caesar and feeling vulnerable on several other fronts. The next essay will continue our story.

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