14.3 Europe: 100 b.c. to 0  (Page 2/5)

Gaius Julius Caesar was the youngest ruler of the late Republic. By 58 B.C. he had been a high priest, staff officer, finance minister, military governor, senator and consul. He had married three times, had countless love-affairs, led campaigns and been involved in various intrigues

Although meeting some opposition in the Senate led by Cato the Younger, a follower of Greek ideals and standing for an honest financial policy in government, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed an extra-legal coalition called "the First Triumvirate". Each soon went his separate way, however, with Caesar conducting his victorious campaigns in Gaul

Meanwhile Crassus had obtained command of the eastern forces and prepared to emulate the glories of Lucullus and Pompey in Asia Minor and Armenia, but Crassus ran into the Parthians. These fierce Iranians, perhaps with Turanian Mongolian mercenaries, killed 20,000 Roman soldiers along with Crassus and captured 10,000 more at the Battle of Carrhae (53 B.C.) in Syria. The hold of the Romans on Mesopotamia was never very secure.

After Crassus' death Caesar and Pompey faced each other as antagonists and as the months went by definite lines of battle and forces were drawn up and actual civil war followed. Caesar soon won control of all Italy and gained Sardinia, Sicily and North Africa. After defeating Pompey's forces at Ilerda in Spain he returned to Rome to be made dictator. Pompey fled to the east where he built up a loyal military establishment but all for naught as Caesar caught up to him in Thessaly in 48 B.C. and defeated him. Pompey fled to Egypt only to be assassinated by the teen-aged Ptolemy XIII. After having been made dictator "for life" by the Senate in 45 B.C., Caesar was assassinated by "friends" to whom his divine aspirations were intolerable. The extent of the Roman Republic at the death of Caesar is shown in the map below.

NOTE: Insert Map 28: THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AT THE DEATH OF CAESAR