The interesting point was not so much Caesar’s extravagant claims for his family but that he made them in the context of Julia’s marriage to Marius, a man of humble birth. Many of the aristocracy in a similar position, just as today, would have been happy to conceal such a mesalliance, but Caesar, it seems, was eager to stress that the noble blood from which he was descended was also allied with one who had, as it were, “risen from the ranks.” It was yet another statement of his membership of the popular party, and also perhaps a first claim to the leadership of it.

The third major event of this year was the death of Caesar’s wife Cornelia. She was probably only in her late twenties and she remains a shadowy figure, although Caesar’s action in refusing to divorce her at the orders of the dictator Sulla does indeed seem to suggest that he had really loved her. But apart from bearing his daughter Julia we know nothing of her and can only surmise, in view of Caesar’s long list of known mistresses, that her marriage can hardly have been a happy one—unless one accepts what is probably true, that a Roman wife did not expect a faithful husband.

Perhaps Caesar felt some qualms about his treatment of Cinna’s daughter—some uneasiness about the years that he had left her when he was abroad, and his constant absence with other women when at home. At any rate, she was accorded a funeral somewhat like the one he had arranged for his aunt Julia. This was most unusual, since normally such obsequies were only offered to older women, and those who had been the wives of famous or distinguished men. Plutarch observes: “This also procured him some favor, and by this show of affection he won upon the feelings of the people, who looked upon him as a man of great tenderness and kindness of heart.” Yes, even here he achieved some political capital.

 

 

 

5

 

The Shape of Ambition

 

CAESAR was now appointed as quaestor to a post in Farther Spain. This cannot have suited him at all. Farther Spain was as far west as anyone could then be sent, and a quaestorship there was far from influential: all the important posts were in Rome. It seems very probable the ruling party had decided that Caesar had gone quite far enough in his recent activities, and the greater the distance which separated him from Rome the better.

His duties were onerous, for he had to be entirely at the service of the controlling magistrate and undertake whatever tasks he was given. For a whole year, under the propraetor (a kind of governor-general) he was sent on what amounted to an assize-circuit, visiting the four main cities of this western province—Gades (Cadiz), Corduba (Cordova), Hispalis (Seville) and Astigi (Ecija)—as well as many of the other lesser towns. Becoming a quaestor had suited Caesar in so far as it admitted him to the senate, but service so far away from the capital was certainly not to his taste. Clearly he neither liked the job, nor possibly the place, for it is noticeable that he left Spain ahead of the official termination of his appointment. There was nothing to keep him in the area as there had been in Asia Minor, where he seems to have enjoyed himself.

Suetonius relates a suspect story relating to Cadiz which can hardly be omitted from any biography:

 

Being at Gades he saw a statue of Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules and was heard to give a great sigh. It would seem that he was despondent because, at an age when Alexander had already conquered the whole world, he himself had done nothing of any importance.

 

Spain was still a somewhat barbarous province, but Caesar must constantly have been reminded of its importance—particularly in view of its mineral wealth—and that it was the riches of Spain which had enabled the Carthaginian Hannibal to mount his famous campaign against Rome. There was a more recent instance of the strength that was latent in Spain: this was the revolt begun by Sertorius, a former lieutenant of Marius, which had aroused the Spanish desire for freedom and had raged almost uncontrollably for eight years. It was only extinguished in 72. Throughout his future career Caesar never forgot Spain in the context of Mediterranean power. After his time as quaestor there he was possessed by a fury of ambition, driving him into open action that threatened the state—or the status quo in Rome. Those who had once suspected that he might aim like Marius at a dictatorship—and then had dismissed him as a pleasure-loving philanderer—found their earlier suspicions reinforced.

Leaving the province in 68 he did not go, as might reasonably have been expected, straight to Rome, but made his way to the Latin colonies north of the Po which were agitating for full civic rights such as were enjoyed by their fellows south of the river. This area, long dominated by the Gauls who had settled there, had become increasingly Romanized and the aspirations of the citizens of towns such as Milan and Cremona could no longer be limited by the old framework. Caesar knew this well, knew too that it would be a “popular” move to secure city rights for them and would make them in the future beholden to him if he could achieve this aim. The oligarchy dominating the senate, the Optimates, opposed any extension of citizenship, since it might weaken their position. Now Caesar seemed prepared even to incite the cities north of the Po to civil war (something which he had refused to be party to in the days of Lepidus). His gambler’s nature stood clearly revealed, and the throw might well have come off but for the fact that there were two legions available in Italy which had been readied for transport to the East for the war against Mithridates. Seeing the danger, the senate held them back and Caesar’s aim was thwarted. He had, however, secured many new friends in the north—a potential power base upon which he would one day draw.

A year after the death of his wife Caesar married again. This time there could be no question of sentiment, since he married Pompeia, whose mother was the daughter of Sulla and whose father was the son of one of the two pro-Sulla consuls who had done so much to reduce the power of the tribunes in 88. He had, then, married right into the heart of the Optimates. Moreover his new wife’s family were extremely wealthy and Caesar still required money to pursue his ambitions.

The prime political consideration in Rome at this moment was the appointment of someone to take over command of the Mediterranean sea and rid it once and for all of piracy. Caesar, as we have seen, had personal knowledge of this scourge, which had now reached such proportions that the whole trade of the empire was at risk.