A Short History of the World Read Online Free PDF Page B

Plutarch, up to a million Gauls lay dead and another million of them were enslaved. Caesar also launched a minor invasion of the British Isles but Britain had to wait another hundred years before it felt the full force of the Roman Empire under Emperor Claudius.  
    Caesar’s achievements upset the balance of power and threatened to eclipse those of Pompey. The balance of power was further upset by the death of Crassus, who had been killed – along with 30,000 of his men – while attempting to invade neighbouring Parthia. The Parthians were a Persian tribe that had risen to fill the power vacuum left by the weakening Seleucid Empire, and they became a major problem for the Romans.
    With Caesar as a potential threat, Pompey persuaded the Senate to order him back to Rome. Caesar did return, but not as a loyal soldier, deciding instead to wage war on an ungrateful Rome. Caesar marched from Gaul to Italy with his legions and crossed into Roman territory at the river Rubicon in northern Italy, a river that served as the boundary between Rome and the provinces. If any general crossed it uninvited with an army, it was a sign that he entered Italy as an enemy. Since then the phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon’ has survived to refer to any individual committing himself to a risky course of action.  
    Caesar’s action sparked a civil war from which he emerged as the unrivalled leader of the Roman world. In response to Caesar’s invasion, Pompey was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Roman army with instructions to defeat Caesar, only to be assassinated by the Egyptians in Egypt, where he had fled with Caesar in hot pursuit. Before returning to Rome, Caesar was seduced by Cleopatra – a descendant of Alexander’s general, Ptolemy – and had a child with her, whom he named Caesarion. He also helped Cleopatra defeat her brother, the Pharaoh, whom she had been forced to marry, installing her as ruler in his place.
    Upon his return to Rome, Caesar’s victories were celebrated; he was appointed dictator for ten years and the Senate bestowed further honours on him, including a decree that the month of July be named after him 21 and that his image be stamped on coins – a traditional symbol of monarchy, and an action that did not go unnoticed among the notoriously anti-monarchical Romans.  
    Caesar was popular with the people as a reformer, but he was equally if not more unpopular with a number of senators who were keen to maintain the status quo and afraid of losing their wealth and power. It was these senators who conspired to murder Caesar under the pretext that they feared he was trying to become king, an institution that Rome had abolished back in 509 BC. They succeeded in doing so on 15th March 44 BC, otherwise known as the Ides of March, thrusting a dagger into Caesar’s heart and plunging Rome into a succession of civil wars that would end with the collapse of the Roman Republic and lead to the establishment of the Roman Empire.

    Octavian, Mark Antony and Cleopatra
    Before Caesar was murdered he had appointed his grandnephew Gaius Octavius, known as Octavian, as heir to all his possessions, including his name. After much antagonism between Octavian and Mark Antony – Caesar’s former right hand man and an experienced soldier in his own right – the two joined forces to bring Caesar’s murderers to justice.  
    However, the mutual distrust soon resurfaced between them. Antony’s infatuation with the East and with Cleopatra, with whom he had three children, led to his final undoing and his vilification in Rome. Rumours circulated that he was celebrating victories in Alexandria as opposed to Rome, that he wanted to be buried there, and that he was bequeathing parts of the Roman Empire to Cleopatra and her children – including Caesarion, a bequest that effectively challenged Octavian’s place as heir to Caesar.  
    Portraying Antony as an Egyptian pawn, Octavian declared war on Cleopatra and, by implication, on Antony.