Discussion The Utterly Awful Completely Contemptible Please God Make The Suffering Stop Rumors Thread

We are here to discuss the collusion of the boni to secure the benefits of the aristocracy against any and all Caesars. And/or Transylvanian and Walachian Voivods; preferably those not named Vlad Tepes or Bathory.
Although any and all Voivodeships are open for dissertation dependent on their individual undermining of the Habsburgs and Turks.

You'll do grand.

 

Rome's most valiant opponents were Hannibal of Carthage and a raging sea which a great Emperor commanded his Legion to attack.

 

There were actually three Servile Wars. Spartacus’ was the final and most successful of them. It’s amazing how close they actually came to overthrowing Rome and then when it became clear they wouldn’t win they almost escaped. If it weren’t for some pirates betraying them they would have made it to Sicily and then who knows what would have happened. Also as he was serving as a military tribune during the time it’s likely Julius Caesar served in the war. It’s possible this is where he became a patron of Crassus who bankrolled his early career.

 

He in all likelihood died in battle or was crucified afterwards. Crassus had all the survivors crucified and lined them up all the way down the Appian Way toward Rome as a warning to any other slaves who might revolt. It’s highly unlikely that he escaped somehow.

 

No. There are several sources who say he died in battle and some that say his body was never found so it isn’t at all clear either way. However, there are no sources who say he survived.

 

The late Republican period is actually one of the most well documented periods in Roman history given the extensive writings that still exist from people like Caesar himself and Cicero. Anyway, this is sidetracking us from the lovely conversation we were all having.

 

We know a lot about Caesar’s entire life. We know he was born in 100 BC and was raised in the Subura which was a lower class neighborhood (Caesar’s family was relatively poor), we know he was proscribed by the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla for refusing to divorce his wife who was the daughter of Cinna (an enemy of Sulla), we know he was saved from death by his mother who appealed to Sulla herself, we know he then served under Marcus Minucius Thermus during the Siege of Mytilene where he won the Civic Crown, we know he was kidnapped by pirates as he was sailing across the Aegean Sea, that he stopped an incursion from Pontus around this time, we know he became a lawyer once he returned to Rome and served as a Military Tribune in either Spain or the Third Servile War, we know his first wife died around this time and that he married Pompeia whom he would later divorce because of rumors that she had been unfaithful and that when asked why he divorced her he uttered the now famous saying, “The wife of Caesar must be above suspicion”, we know he ran and won the position of Pontifex Maximus in a race that saw widespread bribery on both sides, we know that he then served as Praetor and was declared Imperator by his legions in Spain which would have entitled him to a Triumph in Rome, we know he then gave up that Triumph so he could run for Consul, we know he, Crassus and Pompey then cemented their partnership with Pompey marrying Caesar’s daughter and that Caesar himself married for a third time, and that finally at the end of his Consulship he went off to Gaul and the rest is history!

So yeah we know a lot.

 

As a hobby, yes. Anyone looking to know more about Caesar (read the ancient sources first!) I cannot recommend Adrian Goldsworthy’s Life of a Colossus highly enough. If you want a fictional account of the Late Republican period then Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series is a must read. It’s incredibly detailed and spans the time from the rise of Gaius Marius (Caesar’s uncle by marriage) and Lucius Cornelius Sulla to the civil war between Octavius and Antonius. She takes some liberties to make it more dramatic (most notably Sulla marrying a second aunt of Caesar’s) but it’s one of the most historically accurate depictions of the time I’ve read. It’s practically begging to be made into an HBO or Netflix series.

 

Just to answer this Caesar’s family was of the patrician class which meant they were part of the aristocracy. His family claimed descent from the Trojan hero Aeneas. Their lineage likely traced back to the kings of Alba Longa which was an Italian city state that was conquered and assimilated into Rome early in its history.

So his family was quite prestigious but like many patrician families it had hit hard times during the Late Republican period. Caesar himself took on enormous debt in his rise up the political ladder and was consistently hounded by his creditors. He was on the verge of financial ruin until he made a fortune on the plunder of Gaul.

 

It won’t be anything related to Star Wars because Taika Waititi is directing Thor: Love and Thunder first. It’s likely for that film if the report is even true. And excuse me but you’re interrupting a very productive conversation on Roman history!