To the Ends of the Earth by Raimund J. Schulz;

Author:Raimund J. Schulz;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2024-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

To the Elbe and the Baltic

Ruler and Conqueror of the World: The New Order of Augustus

Caesar’s decision not to press ahead with an invasion of the territories on the right bank of the Rhine also owed something to the situation in Gaul. In 53–52 bce the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix led a coalition of tribes in revolt against Roman rule. The brutal war that ensued concentrated on the enemy’s supply lines and fortifications, culminating after numerous setbacks in the siege of Alesia. At the climax of hostilities, legionaries spent four days holding their position in a dual front made up of defenders and a relief army. The Romans emerged victorious despite suffering horrendous casualties. Vercingetorix capitulated. A million of his compatriots were said to have perished in the war, a million more sent off in chains.

Caesar could not rest on his laurels for long. Once again, the remorseless machinery of late Republican political rivalry cranked into gear; having once driven the dynamic of imperial expansion, it now turned inward. With his victories in Gaul, Caesar had done serious damage to Pompey’s reputation as the greatest military commander of his age. For a time, the love match between Pompey and Caesar’s daughter Julia staved off conflict. But when the third member of the triumvirate, Crassus, fell against the Parthians in 53 after Julia’s death the previous year, the two great conquerors were no longer bound by personal ties. Caesar’s enemies sensed an opportunity. Caesar had treated the nobliles with such open disdain during his consulship, and had built up such a formidable military power base in Gaul, that his removal from power now seemed necessary. Besides, Caesar was laying claim to a status that far exceeded the legitimate bounds of aristocratic striving for honour and influence (dignitas). Only another consulship could have sheltered him from a flood of prosecutions. But when the Senate insisted that he would have to stand for office as a private man in Rome, he saw this as more than just a political ploy. From his perspective, his compeers were denying him the honours he so richly deserved. He chose war. His opponents had since given Pompey supreme command over troops in Italy and the provinces.

Caesar prevailed in a power struggle lasting two years, yet he could not find a way to maintain his one-man rule indefinitely and reconcile it with the nobiles’ claim to equality. His assassination on the Ides of March in 44 bce was followed by more than a decade of bloody civil war, occasionally interrupted by peaceful interludes. Grand foreign campaigns in the style of Pompey and Caesar were off the table; Mark Antony, residing in Alexandria with Cleopatra, came closest when he launched the Parthian War. The military decision would fall in the Mediterranean heartlands. In 31 bce Octavian defeated Antony at Actium. For the first time in antiquity, one man could unite the entire Mediterranean under his rule.

His first task was to consolidate the power he had usurped on the battlefield and win over the surviving aristocrats, without whose help the Empire could not be governed.

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