Research on the personality of Gaius Julius Caesar: who he was, why we remember him, what was the character of the most famous historical figure of ancient Rome.
Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 100 BC. A singular coincidence: with him a new century began, but with him also a new era of Roman and universal history began. He belonged to the Julii family, which boasted ancient nobility and divine origins, in fact it claimed descent from Aeneas, son of the goddess Venus .
From a very young age he was immediately noticed not only for his military ability, but also for his remarkable oratory skills and for his ability to win the favor of the people with great availability and an ostentatious generosity. Plutarch also affirmed that Caesar had an excellent natural disposition for political oratory and that although he cultivated this inclination with great diligence, he renounced it because he had set himself the goal of achieving primacy in political and military activity , thus not achieving the primacy in eloquence, to which nature led him, because of the military campaigns and the civil activity with which he came to power.
“ He has a splendid and impeccable manner of speaking, solemn and noble in his voice, gestures and demeanor, ” even his rival Cicero admitted , while also maintaining that he was sometimes frightened by it: he said in fact that “ he sees a tyrannical intent in all his thoughts and in all his political actions, but adds, when I see his hair so well-groomed, and I see him scratching his head with his finger, it really does not seem to me that this man could conceive such a fatal thought, namely the destruction of the Roman constitution.”
Caesar had a high opinion of himself and for this reason he devoted himself a lot to the care of his body. This is the portrait that Suetonius paints of him : “It is said that he was tall, very light-coloured, well-built, with a face a little too full, black and lively eyes, a broad forehead, a dazzling gaze like a hawk, a noble appearance, a vibrant voice and a healthy constitution, apart from the fact that in recent times he happened to faint and even to be frightened in his sleep. Twice, during the action, he was struck by epileptic fits, a little too insistent in the care of his person, so much so that he had not only his hair carefully cut and shaved, but also depilated – as some reproached him – and he accepted the inconvenience of baldness very badly, also because he had repeatedly seen it exposed to the jokes of his detractors. He had therefore acquired the habit of bringing forward from the top of his head the hair that was falling out, and of all the honours decreed to him by the senate and the people, none did he accept and exploit more willingly than the right to always wear a laurel wreath.”
JULIUS CAESAR: BIOGRAPHY
They say that he was also distinguished in his clothing: in fact he wore a laticlavius with fringes up to his hands , constantly girdling himself over it, moreover with a somewhat loose belt
Gaius Julius Caesar demonstrated throughout his life great valor, intelligence and strategy , both in the military and political fields.
Upon his return from Hispania Ulterior, where he had been governor, he began his political ascent, setting himself the office of consul; since the forces on which he could count were not sufficient to guarantee his election, he worked to reconcile the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and Crassus, and used their unchallenged and authoritative support to obtain the office and then their endemic disagreements to act as an indispensable needle in the balance. As Plutarch states: “By persuasion and reconciliation, he united their parties and constituted an invincible power of three, by means of which he took power from the senate and the Roman people, making the other two not so much great by the support of each other, as he made himself very great by the support of both .”
In addition to his great ability as a military strategist, which he demonstrated from a very young age, and as a far-sighted politician, Caesar held his adversaries in high regard. This characteristic emerged in situations of great tension such as when he decided to cross the Rubicon , thus unleashing another civil war; on that occasion, however, both great leaders would have preferred not to reach such an extreme situation, but they were probably prey to mechanisms larger than themselves.
Caesar also disdained the cowardly act of Ptolemy XIII who treacherously killed Pompey, hoping to gain his favor.
After eliminating Ptolemy XIII and after numerous other military campaigns to definitively defeat his opponents, Caesar had now become the undisputed master of Rome.
Thus he obtained, in addition to the office of Pontifex Maximus which he had already held since 63 BC, the title of imperator (victorious general) and the office of dictator for life, and he also had tribunician inviolability conferred upon him, which made him sacrosanctus . The republican institutions were formally still in existence, but in substance all civil, military and religious powers were concentrated in the hands of a single person. However, Caesar not only did not abuse them, but behaved with magnanimity and with an unprecedented sense of government, at the same time initiating an organic reformist policy.
JULIUS CAESAR: PERSONALITY
It must be said, however, that neither in military nor in political offices did he show himself disinterested . As some attest in their writings, when he was proconsul in Spain, he first took money from the allies, begging to pay off debts, and then as an enemy he sacked some cities of the Lusitanians, although they did not refuse his orders and opened their gates to him on his arrival. In Gaul he plundered the sanctuaries and temples, filled with votive gifts, and he destroyed cities more often for the sake of plunder than for any fault of theirs; it was thus that he found himself in possession of a great deal of gold, which he put on sale, in Italy and in the other provinces, at three thousand sesterces a pound.
During his first consulship he stole three thousand pounds of gold from the Capitol and replaced it with the same amount of gilded bronze. He also made many alliances and granted kingdoms for a fee; from Ptolemy alone he extorted almost six thousand talents in his own name and that of Pompey. Later he supported the burdens of the civil wars and the expenses of the triumphs and spectacles with undeniable robberies and pillages, as Suetonius himself states.
In eloquence and military activity he equaled or surpassed the glory of the greatest men. He was very skilled in the use of arms and in riding, and could bear fatigue incredibly. On marches, sometimes on horseback, sometimes on foot, he went ahead of everyone, and bareheaded, whether it was sunny or raining. He made very long journeys with incredible speed, without baggage, in a hired carriage, sometimes covering a hundred miles a day. If there were rivers that impeded his progress, he crossed them by swimming or leaning on inflated wineskins, so that very often he arrived before the messengers who were supposed to announce his arrival.
Caesar was much loved by the people whom he had always tried to defend and favor with his reforms. Even in his will he had left three hundred sesterces to each member of the urban proletariat and to the legionaries.
