By Steve Price
Welcome back to another installment of the history series that seeks to bring important life lessons out from between the lines in the pages of the history books, the Cultivar of Knowledge. For our second cultivar, we are looking to a well-known figure of history that led a rebellion against ancient Rome, sparking a Civil War that created socio-cultural and political changes so vast and sweeping, it changed the entire course of western civilization. Through one simple, seemingly insignificant act – crossing a tiny little river – he provides for us in modern times a cautionary tale of letting our personal ambition run amok without being checked. Join us as we explore the vanity of one Julius Caesar and the danger that pride casts upon those around us.
The Rising Tide of Unchecked Hubris
In 49 BCE, a Roman military commander and politician named Gaius Julius Caesar marched elements of the Legio XIII Gemina, popularized as the Thirteen Twin Legion in English across the River Rubicon in northern Italy. The Rubicon, an inconsequential physical body of water, was symbolically the gateway to the Italian peninsula for the Romans, and no military commander was lawfully allowed to cross the Rubicon under arms without special dispensation from the governing body of the Roman Republic, the Senate. By crossing the Rubicon under arms, Caesar was initiating the genesis of a bloody civil war that would last for four years. In those four years however, the upheaval created by the ambition and hubris of great men would create sociopolitical tidal waves that would forever change the face of western civilization.
Today, most have some inkling of who Caesar was, though many erroneously peg him as an Emperor of Rome, a title he never held. Many others simply handwave any reference to the man away, content to consume Caesar salads thinking the historical Caesar was some sort of legendary gardener. In truth, Caesar found himself in a political tempest not unlike what Americans and many Europeans find themselves in today. A skilled politician, Caesar was a pivotal mover in a growing populist movement whereby many of Rome’s lower castes were beginning to advocate against the aristocratic Optimates, those of a conservative persuasion who held to the traditions of the Senate with its legal and religious significance to the function of daily Roman life. The growing divide between reformers and traditionalists is not unlike the political strife between progressives and conservatives in modern times.
Issues such as the grain dole, an early form of welfare designed to help feed the poorest Roman families, and debt forgiveness, were contentious political issues that led to growing chasms between the various factions. In a vain attempt to try and control an increasingly uncontrollable beast, three powerful men – Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, otherwise known to us as Pompey – formed a political alliance, the First Triumvirate, in an effort to attempt to steer the powerful state through troubled waters. To solidify their political alliance, Caesar even married off his only daughter, Julia to Pompey. His ambition led him into the field as a military commander, where he conquered much of Gaul (modern France). He even led several brief campaigns into Britain, the first Roman military general to do so.
As his power and wealth grew, so too grew his ambitions, and his political maneuvers kept apace. His supporters in Rome successfully argued to allow Caesar to stand for political office in absentia while campaigning in Gaul, a violation of Roman law. Violations of the law were becoming more and more common among both sides of the political divide, as those in fear of Caesar’s growing power began to attempt to move to strip him of the legal protections afforded him by his role as a governor, which gave him legal immunity. Legal battles ensued throughout 51 and 50 BCE over the true end date of Caesar’s governorship, at which point his enemies in the Senate were prepared to charge him with multiple crimes, some of which may have levied the penalty of exile or worse. The death of Julia in childbirth broke the personal alliance between Caesar and Pompey, and the friendship between the two men disintegrated rapidly as the conservative faction of Senators led by Cato increasingly pulled Pompey to their camp.
By 49 BCE, Caesar was ordered to surrender the legions under his command and return to Rome to stand trial, or else be declared an enemy of the Republic. Several attempts to broker mutual disarmament between the Caesarian and Pompeian factions (Pompey too had military legions under his command by this point) failed, despite the efforts of men such as the senator Cicero. Unwilling to risk a trial in the Senate and the potential for exile or execution at the hands of corrupt political enemies, and unable to see through his own personal hubris after years of successful campaigning around Gaul, Caesar determined to take a single legion south into Italy, where he would force the issue militarily by marching on Rome. Word spread like wildfire up and down the Italian peninsula once the Rubicon had been broached; Pompey, now charged by the Senate to put down the rebel Caesar, marched with much of the Senate south out of Rome to Brundisium, where the Pompeian faction would sail east to Greece and meet up with legions loyal to Pompey. Caesar marched into Rome virtually uncontested, but Civil War had now begun.
The Cost of Personal Ambition
The story of Caesar and Pompey’s war is a cautionary tale against tribalism, political extremism, and corruption as much as it is the story of great military leaders waging war for the heart and soul of Rome. Truthfully, there were multiple off-ramps along the proverbial road that could have led to the avoidance of the war and the extensive years of bloodshed that followed throughout the reach of the Republic. Though Pompey does not escape some of the blame for what transpired, much of the culpability falls upon the shoulders of one man and his lofty ambition: Caesar. It was Caesar that campaigned illegally in Gaul against some of Rome’s allies during the years leading up to the war. It was Caesar that had flooded the Senate with so much money in bribes to help sway votes in his favor. And it was Caesar that had chosen to initiate the death knell of the Roman Republic by marching his legion across the Rubicon in open rebellion against the Senate. Caesar was governed by an intense personal ambition for glory, and he would orchestrate the ground like a master tactician in order to achieve said glory at all costs.
In this instance however, ‘all costs’ became the ultimate destruction of the Republic, the rise of a new autocratic Empire and years of more bloodshed, political upheaval and strife. Caesar would indeed succeed for a time in “restoring his rights” by defeating Pompey at the Battle of Pharsalus in August 48 BCE. With his army destroyed, Pompey attempted to flee to Egypt, but the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy XIII is thought to have had him executed in an attempt to win Rome’s favor. Caesar would spend a considerable amount of time in the Egyptian capital of Alexandria, taking part in the Egyptian Civil War between Ptolemy and his sister, Cleopatra. Caesar would also spend the next several years chasing down the remnants of the Pompeian faction in north Africa and modern-day Spain before finally returning to rule Rome as dictator-for-life after winning the final battle of the Civil War at Munda.
It was at Munda where the cost of Caesar’s personal ambition first took its toll in the form of his military counterpart on the field, Titus Labienus. For most of his military career, few men were as indispensable to Caesar as Labienus; the two men were close friends, and Labienus was arguably just as important to Caesar’s success as Caesar himself was. When Caesar marched on Rome to initiate his civil war, Labienus stayed loyal to the Republic and fought against Caesar, becoming as fierce an enemy as he had been a friend. Munda ended with the death of Labienus, a personal blow to Caesar and a reminder to us through history that unchecked ambition can often create casualties where we least expect them. Caesar himself was to be a casualty of the evil machinations he had put into motion five years prior in March 44 BCE, when a group of senators conspired to assassinate him. His death would lead to a power vacuum in Roman politics, and the Republic would never manage to recover. A Second Triumvirate under the leadership of Caesar’s new second Marc Antony, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Caesar’s nephew and adopted son Gaius Octavius (Octavian) would form, but political infighting between Antony and Octavian would ultimately lead to another Civil War, Antony’s death, and the crowning of Octavian as Rome’s first Emperor, Augustus. A democracy that had lasted for almost five centuries was dead, thanks in no small part to one man’s personal quest for glory and the unforeseen ramifications his conquests unleashed.
Lessons from Caesar’s Folly
Personal ambition is not inherently a destructive force; it can motivate us to better ourselves to live a more perfect existence: a life Well-Sewn. But ambition must always be checked with temperance, patience, and understanding for the thoughts, opinions and needs of others around us. While Caesar prospered for a short season through the pursuance of his unchecked avarice and lust for power, it was that lust that ultimately ended his life prematurely at the hands of a group of assassins on the Senate floor. So too can unchecked personal ambition cause destruction in our personal lives today through the loss of friendships, the destruction of business relationships and contacts that could otherwise advance our careers beyond their present station. No one would ever argue against being proactive in achieving goals in our personal or professional lives; just never sacrifice the whole of the world for the sake of the day.
