Views on Caesar by Freeman

I just finished Caesar by Phillip Freeman.  Interesting book.  It does a nice job for a biography.  The end felt rushed, like I have to finish this book in 350 pages or else!  And it's the Ides of March and Caesar dies. Overall, it was very good.  

It was interesting to find out that Caesar was unusually tall and fair skinned.  He was quite vain according to several sources.  He didn't like his balding head.  He sported a comb over or a crown of laurels to cover his receding hair line.  He was also a ladies man as evidenced by his 20 year affair with Servilla, Brutus's mother.

Thoughts on Caesar:

• He was a Popularist from birth - this trend carried through his life.
• He was a great orator, general and administrator (government)
• He understood the constitution, the people (the mob) and how to manipulate them both
• Cato was his arch enemy until his death
• He was not superstitious and he was very vain (eg. about his receding hair line)
• Married 3 times and a notorious ladies man (eg. Servilla, Cleopatra)
• Buried inside of the city walls - this was not done until the Christian times

The Women - 

Servilla - Caesar has an affair with her from 64 BC to 44 BC when he was murdered.  Servilla was  married to Decimus Janius Silanus, a consul elect, at the time.  (Her first husband, Brutus's father, died in war.)  Servilla was Brutus's mother, had 3 daughters with Janius, and Cato's step-sister.  In 65 BC, Cato reads Caesar's love letter to Servilla to the Senate with disgust during a speech to have the conspirators in the Catiline revolt put to death.  This was a huge scandal in Rome.  After the Gallic campaign, Caesar presented Servilla with a large black pearl.    

Cleopatra - I think Caesar had this liaison for political reasons.  She was lovely, but in a different way.  She was still a barbarian.  Cleopatra needed Caesar for control of her lands and to get power from her brother/husband, Ptolemy, and sister, Arsinoe.  Her son with Caesar, Ptolemy Philadelphius, or Caesarian, kept the ties there too.  

Roman Schooling - 3 Stages [Supplemented with information from Cicero by Everitt] - "A household slave, paedagogus, would accompany the young students to school and carry his/her bag.  Classes were conducted on an open porch or shop.  Students used wax tablets," for their lessons.  p 27  "Knowledge was acquired through repetition.  Ludus means 'game' in Latin.  Classes would begin at dawn, without breakfast, and went on into the afternoon.  There were no sports during the day.  The day might end with a steam bath." p28  Summer vacation July - October, otherwise the kids were in class.

1. Ludi Magister/Ludus Litterarius - Private schooling from age 7-12 at home with tutors girls could also attend primary school
• Reading
• Writing
• Elementary mathematics
2. Grammaticus - Literature, Grammar and Poetry in Greek and Latin from age 12-15 or 16
• Homer
• Twelve Tablets - Rome's primary code of laws established in 450 BC
3. Rhetoric or the art of public speaking- Before colleges for public speaking for Age 15 or 16 to when they started their careers.  The study of rhetoric was broken into five areas:
• Inventio - Seeking out ideas or lines or argument
• Collecocatio - Structure and Organization
• Elocutio - Diction and Style
• Actio - Physical Delivery
• Memoria - Memorizing

Gymnasium - Sports, athletics for the rigors of war.  Both rhetoric and literature gave students a grounding in Ethics:  the virtues of Fortitude, Justice and Prudence.  Many students also studied with patrons or mentors to lean the ropes for when they assumed the mantle of responsibility.  

Roman Path of Honors -

• Military Tribune
• Serving a legion
• Quaestor - unpaid position, must rely on family for monies
• Mundane tasks of government
• Military Treasurer
• Monitoring Food Supply
• Aedile - 1 year                                        - Tribune of the Plebes -10
• Public Infrastructure Maintenance
• Temples
• Water Supply 
• Police Functions
• Public Games
• Praetor - possessed Imperium - Power of Command
• Military Service
• Serving Rome Abroad
• Judicial Functions
• Consul - 2
• Elected by Centuriate Assembly and held Imperium
• ProConsuls - Governors of Provinces - money makers
• Censors - every 5 years a census would be conducted of the citizens (population) 
• Dictator - in times of dire emergency (eg. Sulla)

Roman Government -

• Centuriate Assembly
• Military Assembly met on the Field of Mars outside the city walls
• Pomerium - Scared boundary of the city
• Military affairs had to be conducted outside of the city
• Tribal Assembly
• Could pass laws, but must be present to vote
• 35 Tribes of Rome
• Urban 
• Rural
• Plebian Assembly - 10 Tribunes of the Plebes
• Empowered to pass legislation binding on the state
• Senate - Patrician Advisers to the Consul(s)

The Narritive - 
The book goes into my generals Marius (marries Caesar's Aunt Julia), Cinna and Sulla (Optimate).  The Italian War.  My man Marcus Lucinius Crassus too, the man who took down Spartacus!  I need more information on these topics as they are treated in a summary manner.  For me it gets confusing to keep all the ducks in a row, so I will just concentrate on Caesar at this juncture.

• Italian War - 89 BC - grants citizenship to most of Italian lands south of the Po Valley, but not Cisalpine Gaul on the Italian side of the Alps.
• Pompey
• Pompey spends 6 years in the Far East in conquest of lands for Rome
• Pompey is supposedly quite handsome and looks like Alexander the Great

69 BC Caesar becomes a Quaestor

His first wife Cornelia suddenly dies as does his Aunt Julia who was married to Marius

67 BC marries Pompeia - Pompey's granddaughter - they stay married until the fiasco of the Bona Dea Festival.  She 'supposedly' gives the appearance of having a liason with Publius Clodius Plucher.  (Clodius sneaks into the female only festival.)  And Caesar divorces her for the mear thought of infidelity.  

65 BC Aedile for 1 year - curator of Rome

63 BC Caesar's niece Atia gives birth to Octavian [Augustus] - Caesar's future successor and creator of the Roman Empire after 17 years of eliminating his enemies.  (Holy Cow, I read an entire book on this guy.  He was good.  He succeed where Caesar failed.)

Caesar ran for Ponitfex Maximus.  He bribed many to win.  There were 17 voting tribes in Rome.  Caesar only needed to bribe 9, the majority of them, to win.  He did win and moved his family from Subura to the Domus Publica where the Ponitfex Maximus lived.  (The early Christian Church took their organization structure from the Roman structure.)

Catiline Revolt - this bugs me like the Gracchi Bros bugs me.  Catiline tries to over throw the Roman government and replace it with his own.  He had the help of the Allobroges tribe from Gaul who were in town at the time.  (What a coincidence...)  Catiline gets found out.  Revolt gets put down.  Everybody involved gets killed.  Endastory.

First Triumvariate - 60 BC
Caesar
Pompey*
Crassus*
*Do not get along - Cicero also disliked Crassus

59 BC Consulship with Balbus - whom Caesar put on equal footing with himself.  Balbus was a Spainish native made a citizen by Pompey, but he was a supporter of Caesar.

• Introduce a land reform bill that was detailed and reasonable to include land for Pompey's veterans and families with more than 3 children.  (Rome was over crowded at this time and the grain dole was becoming expensive for the state to support.)
• Optimates, including Cato, were initially against the bill
• Got the Senate to record the minutes of the proceedings

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Social Reforms made in 43/44 BC -

1. Census - to eliminate massive fraud by ineligible residents obtaining grain from the state.  Putting more money back into the state's budget for other things.
2. Restrictions on Roman Men Traveling - due to a population decrease, men needed to stay put to increase the population.  The only exception being men in military service.
3. Increased the Number of Senators - to 1000 to govern the increase of size of the republic (Spain, Gaul, Egypt)
4. Banned Guilds - except traditional or long standing guilds
5. Public Library in Rome - since the library was burnt down in Alexandria, Caesar re-created one in Rome
6. Composition of Juries - to exclude members of the lower class
7. New Harbor in Ostia - to facilitate & increase trade in Rome
8. Infrastructure Improvements in Rome - draining the swamp which was malaria infested and digging a canal across the isthmus of Corinth, Greece
9. Expanding Citizenship* - 89 BC The Italian War granted full citizenship granted to Northern Italians, but in 46 BC Spain and Gaul were granted citizenship (those of standing who co-operated with Rome) and to physicians and teachers who settled in Rome.
10. Citizen Colonies - established by Caesar to move craftsmen & idle poor from the slums of Rome and to increase Roman influence in these areas.  (Moving the idle poor also decreased the amount of people on the grain dole in Rome.)
11. Reduce Dependency on Slaves - for security purposes. (One quarter of Rome's population were supposedly slaves) and to give those jobs to free-born unemployed Romans - Economic stimulation
12. Creation of Julian Calendar - perhaps Caesar's most biggest and long lasting accomplishment!

*Contributing factor to Caesar's assassination?

Factors Leading to Caesar's Downfall:

• Cato by Cicero, Anti-Cato by Caesar & Brutus's pamphlet on Cato
• General unease & political confusion in Rome
• Anthony's poor management of Italy during Caesar's absence as he was putting the final end to Pompey's troops/Civil War
• Optimates trying to get power back from Populares
• Increased government expenditures by the Populares to keep the people happy
• Return to traditional Roman Values or Roman Constitution