There is a letter by Marcus Tullius Cicero, dated 18 December 50 B.C. This letter was written to his friend Atticus on the eve of the Roman Civil War. He wrote as follows: "The political situation alarms me deeply, and so far I have found scarcely anybody who is not for giving Caesar what he demands rather than fighting it out." To explain the situation in brief, G. Julius Caesar had demanded the right to circumvent the Roman constitution, to break laws with impunity, to extend his command over a large army by using that army to threaten the Senate of Rome. "And why should we start standing up to him now?"
Pompey was pro-republic and thus Cicero ended up taking his side, we know Cicero felt he had a duty to the republic because of his writings (De re publica) and clearly his refusal to stay neutral was of no surprise to many, even Caesar. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE, Cicero fled Rome, but remained in Italy. Caesar continuously wrote Cicero, hoping to woo the popular and respected former consul to his camp, but Cicero refused to yield. By 48 BCE, Cicero had joined the Pompeians at Pharsalus. Clearly this was quite a vigorous act, Cicero undertook this in full knowledge it could perhaps lead to his death as Caesar’s army, though lacking numbers, was full of war veterans.
Octavian was in total control of Rome after Antony and Cleopatra both committed suicide. The first thing Octavian had to do before being able to make any changes in Rome was to restore order. He called himself, princeps, or first citizen carefully avoiding the title of emperor, so the new government was officially called the Principate. In 27 BC, the Senate gave Octavian the name Augustus as a title of honor. Augustus ruled for about 40 years bringing great change to the empire.
“He ran for pontifex maximus… Caesar won by a comfortable margin. As a result, Caesar’s political career left him heavily in debt” (Keko). After the bona dea scandal, Caesar was forced to divorce Pompeia (as mentioned before) to sustain his reputation he had built so far. Still in debt, Caesar aligned with Crassus to pay his debts in return for political support and securely “assumed the governorship of Spain”. Now at 60BC, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey had secured an uncomfortable alliance – the First Triumvirate - but was necessary for any future
e The Roman Empire is one the worlds great ancient civilization ,and a lot there ideas and ways of thinking are still being use today .Also there where many great leaders however none more famous than Julius Caesar . In February 44BC he declared himself dictator for life , because of this ,and his lust for all the trappings of power , this turned most of the senate members against him. So the question at hand is , was his murder justified under Roman traditions? To answer this question in the best way possible , first we must look at Roman traditions concerning kings , the Roman senate , and final Julius Caesar’s actions and see if it was
The emperor now had “right to declare war, ratify treaties, negotiate with foreign leaders, and chose their own successor” (Laffery, The Fall of Rome). Since the republic was the form of government that was ruled by elected citizens (senate, assemblies, etc..) once the empire emerged, the emperor became a supreme ruler that took over the power that the senate and assemblies once held and by the 3rd century, the senate had little to no power and very little influence. Thankfully, the Empire actually did see that they could gain peace for a short while with good emperors, one that had the
As told by Tacitus, a Roman historian, first taking place in 60 AD we are introduced to Suetonius who is the new governor of Briton. Suetonius’, whose military talents gave him pretensions, decided that he wanted, during his reign as king, to conquer all. He plans to do so first by taking over the Isle of Mona. This was actively the refuge place for Britons who are avoiding Rome. However, taking place on the Isle of Mona at the time is a complete abomination of people, food, land and supplies.
The people avoided having a king when they first established the Republic. "Perscio, let's go, it is time." Brutus, my good friend, I do fear for him. He is one of those that would radically oppose the crowning of Caesar. "I'm on my way," I replied.
By the time of Julius Caesar's dictatorship and subsequent assassination at the hands of the Senate, the Roman Republic was in a virtual free-fall of corruption and struggle for power. The Roman people were tired of the turmoil brought on by decades of war and needed a leader that could and would restore peace, order, and prosperity. Nonetheless, thirteen years of civil war followed Caesar's assassination and during this time Octavian, the grand-nephew and heir of Caesar, came into his sizable inheritance. He entered into a military-dictatorship (the Second Triumvirate) of Rome with supporters of his late great-uncle, was given a senate seat, and was elected consul and granted imperium, all before the age of twenty. Before he was 32 years
They would lead until Caesar had enough military experience out of France to come in and defeat both their armies to become dictator. This would eventually lead to his death along with civil wars after bringing the Roman Empire down. It seemed to be a step backward for civilization due to the fact when the Roman Empire was at its peak there was free elections, new finding in science, art, literature and other fields of education. Along, with a stable government where people could pick their senators. However during the middle ages this all seemed to come crashing down, due to civil wars and peoples push for power over the entire Empire.