THE CIVIL WAR 49-46 BC

Consuls of 49 BC passed senatus consultum ultimum to declare Caesar a renegade general and to give Pompey command against Caesar. M. Antonius tr. Pl. tried to exercise his veto and was driven from the city.

“Let the magistrates take whatever steps are necessary to preserve the republic.”

SCU was used against G. Gracchus in 121, against Appuleius Saturninus and Glaucia in 100; against M. Aemilius Lepidus in 78; used against Cataline in 63 BC

Two issues: what did this power actually entail? Why not dictatorship?

Caesar invaded Picenum in Jan. 49 BC; issued his proclamation of clementia

He told everyone his conflict was with a few disgruntled, jealous aristocrats, the pauci potentes. If people surrendered on the battlefield, he would offer them clemency; they would be free to return to their homes. He would guarantee their safety once; he could not guarantee their safety a second time.

Having expelled Pompey from the peninsula, Caesar returned to Rome. He had M. Antony call for the appointment of a dictator for the purpose of holding the elections for 48 BC; Caesar was elected dictator and then had himself elected consul for 48. Pompey meanwhile withdrew to Greece where he trained his army and organized a large navy. In 49 Caesar eliminated the threat of encirclement by marching first to Spain to defeat Pompey’s legate, M. Terentius Varro. He then returned to Italy and advanced his army to Epirus where he attempted to encircle Pompey’s superior position at Dyrrachium.

Battle of Pharsalus (Aug. 9, 48 BC) a resounding victory for Caesar. Pompey retreated to Egypt and was killed by agents of the Ptolemaic king; Caesar arrived to find the young king and queen at war. Cleopatra was 16; her brother was 12.

Caesar’s Civil War – Alexandrian War; African War, Spanish War; Caesarion, child of Cleopatra by Caesar. Caesar became besieged by the mob of the city of Alexandria. He awaited reinforcements from his army in Greece and from supporters in Syria. This caused a pronounced delay in his return to Rome. Having defeated the Alexandrians he then sojourned with young Cleopatra on an extended boat tour of the Nile River. He did not return to Rome until September of 47 BC. He was appointed dictator by the Roman people during the interim, and M. Antony commanded the city as his Master of Horse. On his return he held elections and had himself elected consul for 46 with M. Aemilius Lepidus. He then left for North Africa where the Pompeian resistance was regrouping, and included Q. Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (Pompey’s former father-in-law), Cato, King Juba of Numidia, and the two sons of Pompey. Caesar defeated these forces in 46 BC at the Battle of Thapsus (April 6, 46 BC). Metellus and Juba were killed in battle; Cato committed suicide, and the Pompey brothers fled to his father’s supporters in Spain.

Caesar returned to a hero’s welcome at Rome and celebrated his 5 triumphs (Gaul, Greece, Egypt, Asia, Africa). He was elected sole consul for 45 BC. Toward the end of the year he learned that resistance in Spain had overwhelmed his forces there. The resistance was led by the two sons of Pompey who proudly displayed the bust of their father on their coinage. Die-hard oligarchs in Italy were slipping away to Spain to join the resistance, causing the situation to become too serious to ignore. Caesar left Rome in December 46 without appointing a co-consul, leaving Mark Antony as his Master of Horse to run the city in his absence. He defeated the Pompey brothers at the Battle of Munda on March 17, 45 BC, earning yet another triumph. He returned to Rome in October.