Civil War and Caesar

Question 1

illegal, prosecution, accepting power

Pre Civil War situation (1) x3

Answer 1

The Gallic Wars (58–50 BC) – military success, but contravening law

o Cato and Ahenobarbus wanted to prosecute him (Suet 30) for attacking German tribes far outside his imperium

o Cicero Ad Atticum 7.6.2 - terribly worried about the republic ‘virtually no one’ who thinks we shouldn’t cede to Caesar
also ‘great problem for the res publica that for me…there is something wrong in going against Pompey’

Question 2

Reason for war - Senate

Question 3

Disarm

Pre Civil War situation (2) x3 main +2

Answer 3

Refusal to Disarm (as unequal terms with Pompey)

Plutarch Caesar 30 - willing to disarm if both do it
Plutarch Caesar 31 - Cicero ‘working to broker reconciliation’
Ad Atticum 9.7 letter from Caesar ‘conduct myself in the mildest possible way…endeavour to reconcile Pompey’

anti Caesar consuls and faction not senate pushing to war- Bellum civile 1.1 + Plutarch Caesar 31 (Lentulus preventing Pompey from taking peace)

All proposals rejected due to personal reasons of Cato ‘long-standing feud’ and Letntulus ‘deeply in debt’,
- Bellum civile 1.4
Pompey ‘driven on by Caesar’s enemies’
contradiction ‘army to support his despotism…thus eager for civil war’

Question 4

Beginning of War x4

Answer 4

treatment of tribunes (Bellum civile 5) (Appian 33) – ‘lest they should suffer some harm, tribunes though they were’

o ‘Caesar’s pretext for civil war’ - Suet 30 - lacked resources so ‘he chose to throw everything into confusion’ - fearing impeachment
(Then tribunes gave him ‘prextext for action’ (P 31)

o Paints it as saving the republic
‘All the laws of gods and men were confounded’ - money from shrines and free towns - Bellum civile 6

Caesar ‘endeavour to reconcile Pompey’, releasing prefects – Letter from Caesar (forwarded to Cicero letters to Atticus (9.7)

Question 5

Civil War Events - Battles x3
+ 1

Answer 5

Brundisium
1st march 49 ‘if he has come upon our Gneaus, there is a faint hope for peace…[otherswise] deadly war’ 8.13

Caesar’s victories
Pharsalus 48BC – Pompey)
Thapsus (Africa) 46BC – Cato and Scipio suicide,
Munda (45BC – pompey’s sons)

Clementia Policy
Cicero Ad Atticum 8.16
People ‘delighted with his artful clemency’

Question 6

Caesar Dictatorship propaganda x2

Answer 6

Dictator for Life - Jan 44 (Plutarch 57)

Coins painting him as having divine lineage (Denarius of Caesar x2)

Question 7

Dictatorship and plebs x1

Answer 7

Games and largesse recorded by Suetonius 38 and plutarch 57 such as naval games, grain and rent remission

Question 8

Dictatorship as model for empire x3

Answer 8

‘monarchy as a respite from the evils of civil wars’ - Plutarch 57

Model for empirical rule - people’s good will was…the best protection he could have’ Plutarch 57

Large public works only could happen under a dictatorship, providing jobs for plebs