Julius Caesar: The Man Who Broke Rome | 100–50 BC

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in July of the year 100 BC, probably on the 12th or the 13th, into one of the oldest families in Rome.

The Julii were patricians, which put them among the original aristocratic houses of the city, the families whose names went back to before the Republic itself.

What they didn't have by this point was much money, and in Roman politics, that was a real handicap, because every step up the ladder of offices cost more than the one before it, and an old name could open a door without paying for anything on the other side of it.

The family did have one connection that mattered.

Caesar's Aunt Julia was married to Gaius Marius, the general we followed a few episodes back, the man who filled his legions with poor volunteers and taught them to look at their commander for their land and their pay.

Marius would hold the consulship seven times, more than anyone before him, and by the time Caesar was a boy, he had also become the leader of one side in a war between Romans.

So Caesar grew up as a nephew of the most famous soldier in the Republic, which was an advantage right up until the other side won.

Around 84 BC, he married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who was Marius' ally, and once Marius was dead, the most powerful man in Rome.

That marriage tied him to the Marian cause about as tightly as a young man could have been tied to anything.

Then Sulla came back from the East with his army, and everything that had protected Caesar turned into a liability more or less overnight.

If you watched the Sulla episode, you'll remember the proscription list going up in the Forum, with rewards paid to anyone who killed the men whose names were on them.

Sulla ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia sometime around 82 BC.

Other men in the same position did what they were told, because a wife from the wrong family seemed like a small price when your life was on the line.

Caesar refused, and went into hiding in the countryside, moving from place to place, and for a while looked like he was going to end up as one more young aristocrat who didn't make it through the purges.

What saved him in the end was the network around him.

Relatives with ties to Sulla's side pleaded for his life, and so did the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses of Vesta, whose requests carried real religious weight in Rome.

Sulla gave in, and according to Suetonius, with Plutarch telling it the same way, he did it with a warning to the men who argued for the boy, telling them that there were many a Marius in this young man.

It's a wonderful line, and I'd love to believe that Sulla said it.

I should be honest, though, that both these writers were working nearly two centuries later, and a prophecy like that is exactly the kind of thing that gets attached to a famous man once everyone already knows how his story ends.

Whether Sulla said it or not, the people around Caesar understood where he came from, and so did Caesar, and when he spent the next 22 years making sure that Rome never forgot it.

Around 75 BC, he was captured by pirates, and Plutarch and Suetonius both tell us the story with obvious pleasure.

In Plutarch's version, Caesar told his captors their ransom was too low.

And had them raise it.

And once he was free, he came back for them, and had them executed.

What it does show, however much of it is true, is the reputation Caesar had by the time the biographers sat down to write about him.

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in July of the year 100 BC, probably on the 12th or the 13th, into one of the oldest families in Rome.

The Julii were patricians, which put them among the original aristocratic houses of the city, the families whose names went back to before the Republic itself.

What they didn't have by this point was much money, and in Roman politics, that was a real handicap, because every step up the ladder of offices cost more than the one before it, and an old name could open a door without paying for anything on the other side of it.

The family did have one connection that mattered.

Caesar's Aunt Julia was married to Gaius Marius, the general we followed a few episodes back, the man who filled his legions with poor volunteers and taught them to look at their commander for their land and their pay.

Marius would hold the consulship seven times, more than anyone before him, and by the time Caesar was a boy, he had also become the leader of one side in a war between Romans.

So Caesar grew up as a nephew of the most famous soldier in the Republic, which was an advantage right up until the other side won.

Around 84 BC, he married Cornelia, the daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who was Marius' ally, and once Marius was dead, the most powerful man in Rome.

That marriage tied him to the Marian cause about as tightly as a young man could have been tied to anything.

Then Sulla came back from the East with his army, and everything that had protected Caesar turned into a liability more or less overnight.

If you watched the Sulla episode, you'll remember the proscription list going up in the Forum, with rewards paid to anyone who killed the men whose names were on them.

Sulla ordered Caesar to divorce Cornelia sometime around 82 BC.

Other men in the same position did what they were told, because a wife from the wrong family seemed like a small price when your life was on the line.

Caesar refused, and went into hiding in the countryside, moving from place to place, and for a while looked like he was going to end up as one more young aristocrat who didn't make it through the purges.

What saved him in the end was the network around him.

Relatives with ties to Sulla's side pleaded for his life, and so did the Vestal Virgins, the priestesses of Vesta, whose requests carried real religious weight in Rome.

Sulla gave in, and according to Suetonius, with Plutarch telling it the same way, he did it with a warning to the men who argued for the boy, telling them that there were many a Marius in this young man.

It's a wonderful line, and I'd love to believe that Sulla said it.

I should be honest, though, that both these writers were working nearly two centuries later, and a prophecy like that is exactly the kind of thing that gets attached to a famous man once everyone already knows how his story ends.

Whether Sulla said it or not, the people around Caesar understood where he came from, and so did Caesar, and when he spent the next 22 years making sure that Rome never forgot it.

Around 75 BC, he was captured by pirates, and Plutarch and Suetonius both tell us the story with obvious pleasure.

In Plutarch's version, Caesar told his captors their ransom was too low.

And had them raise it.

And once he was free, he came back for them, and had them executed.

What it does show, however much of it is true, is the reputation Caesar had by the time the biographers sat down to write about him.