Caesar

by Colleen McCullough

  Again in the interests of simplicity, I have not done much with specific septs of the great Gallic confederations: Treveri (Mediomatrices and other septs), Aedui (Ambarri, Segusiavi), and Armorici (many septs from Esubii to Veneti to Venelli).

  Some years after Caesar's death, a man from Gallia Comata turned up in Rome, claiming to be Caesar's son. According to the ancient sources, he resembled Caesar physically. Out of this I have concocted the story of Rhiannon and her son. The concoction serves a twofold purpose: the first, to reinforce my contention that Caesar was not incapable of siring children, rather that he was hardly in anyone's bed for long enough to do so; and the second, that it permits a more intimate look at the lives and customs of the Celtic Gauls. Though a late source, Ammianus is most informative.

  There have been many papers written by modern scholars as to why Titus Labienus did not side with Caesar after he crossed the Rubicon, why Labienus sided instead with Pompey the Great. Much is made of the fact that Labienus was in Pompey's clientele because he was a Picentine from Camerinum and served as Pompey's tame tribune of the plebs in 63 b.c. However, the fact remains that Labienus worked far more for Caesar than he did for Pompey, even during his tribunate of the plebs. Also, Labienus stood to gain more from allying himself with Caesar than with Pompey. The assumption is always that it was Labienus who said no to Caesar; but why, I wondered, could it not have been Caesar who said no to Labienus? There is a logical answer supporting this in the Eighth Book of the Gallic War Commentaries. The Eighth Book was not written by Caesar, but by his fanatically loyal adherent Aulus Hirtius. At one stage Hirtius waxes indignant over the fact that Caesar had refused to record Labienus's plot against King Commius in his Seventh Book; it is up to him, says Hirtius, to record what was, as readers of this novel will have seen, a shabby and dishonorable affair. Not, I would have thought, anything Caesar would have approved of. Caesar's action at Uxellodunum, a horrific business, was nonetheless done right up front and publicly. As Caesar seems to have conducted himself. Whereas Labienus was sneaky and underhanded. To me, the evidence seems to say that Caesar tolerated Labienus in Gaul because of his brilliance in the field, but that he would not have wanted Labienus in his camp after crossing the Rubicon; to Caesar, a political alliance with Labienus might have been a bit like marrying a cobra.

  Evidence favors Plutarch rather than Suetonius in the matter of what Caesar actually said when he crossed the Rubicon. Pollio, who was there, says that Caesar quoted some of a couplet from the New Comedy poet and playwright Menander, and quoted it in Greek, not in Latin. "Let the dice fly high!" Not "The die is cast." To me, very believable. "The die is cast" is gloomy and fatalistic. "Let the dice fly high!" is a shrug, an admission that anything can happen. Caesar was not fatalistic. He was a risk taker.

  The Commentaries on the Civil War required far less adjustment than the Gallic War ones. On only one occasion have I altered the sequence of events, by having Afranius and Petreius return to Pompey earlier than it seems they did. My reason: to keep them in the minds of my non-scholar readers more comfortably.

  Now to the maps. Most are self-explanatory. Only Avaricum and Alesia need some words of explanation.

  What we know about these immortal situations is mostly based upon nineteenth-century maps and models done around the time Napoleon III was immersed in his Life of Caesar, and had Colonel Stoffel digging up France to look at Caesar's camp and battle sites.

  I have departed from these maps and models in certain ways.

  In the case of Alesia, where the excavations proved that Caesar didn't lie about what he accomplished, I differ from Stoffel in two ways (which do not contradict Caesar's reportage, I add). First, Caesar's cavalry camps. These, shown as free-floating and waterless, had to have been connected to Caesar's fortifications. They also had to have incorporated a part of a natural stream at a place the Gauls would find difficult to divert. Riverbeds shift with the millennia, so we have no real idea whereabouts precisely the streams ran at Alesia two thousand years ago. Aerial surveys have revealed that the Roman fortifications at Alesia were as straight and/or regular as was general Roman military custom. I have therefore partially "squared" the cavalry camps, which Stoffel draws most irregularly. Second, I believe that the camp of Rebilus and Antistius formed the closure of Caesar's ring, and have drawn it thus. In Stoffel's maps it "floats," and suggests that Caesar's ring was never closed at all. I can't see Caesar making that kind of mistake. To use the vulnerable camp as his closure, given that he couldn't take the circumvallation up and over the mountain, is good sense. He had two legions there to man the lines along his great weakness.

  As for Avaricum, I depart from the models in four ways. First, that I can see no reason not to make the wall connecting Caesar's two flank walls as high as his flank walls. To have it the same height creates a proper fighting platform fed by troops from everywhere at once. Second, I fail to see why defense towers would have been erected on Avaricum's walls right where the gangplanks of Caesar's towers would have thumped down. In a famously iron-rich tribe like the Bituriges, surely iron shields were more likely opposite Caesar's towers; the Avarican towers would have been more useful elsewhere. Third, I have halved the number of mantlets these models have put outside the flanking walls and going nowhere of much help in getting troops on top of the assault platform. I believe these particular mantlets sheltered the Roman sappers. Fourth, I have not drawn in any shelter sheds or a palisade on top of the assault platform; not because they weren't there, but rather to show what the platform itself looked like.

  The drawings.

  Not so many in this book. The likeness of Caesar is authentic. So too is the likeness of Titus Labienus, which was drawn from a polished marble bust in the museum at Cremona. Very difficult to capture in reflected light. Ahenobarbus is reputed to be authentic. Quintus Cicero's likeness is drawn from a bust said to be of his famous brother, but examination of this bust says it is not Marcus Cicero. The skull shape is completely wrong, and the subject much balder than Cicero is ever depicted. There is, however, a pronounced resemblance to Cicero. Could this not, I asked, be a bust of little brother Quintus?

  Vercingetorix is taken from a coin profile.

  The drawings of Metellus Scipio and Curio are not authenticated likenesses, but taken from portrait busts of the first century b.c.

  This drawing of Pompey the Great is taken from the famous bust in Copenhagen.

  * * *

  I do all the research myself, but there are a number of people to thank for their unflagging help. My classical editor, Professor Alanna Nobbs of Macquarie University in Sydney, and her colleagues; my loyal little band of secretaries, housekeepers, and men-of-all-work; Joe Nobbs; Frank Esposito; Fred Mason; and my husband, Ric Robinson.

  The next book will be called The October Horse.

  Glossary

  ABSOLVO The term employed by a court jury when voting for the acquittal of the accused.

  aedile There were four Roman magistrates called aediles; two were plebeian aediles, two were curule aediles. Their duties were confined to the city of Rome. The plebeian aediles were created first (493 b.c.) to assist the tribunes of the plebs in their duties, but, more particularly, to guard the right of the Plebs to its headquarters, located in the temple of Ceres. Soon the plebeian aediles inherited supervision of the city's buildings, both public and private, as well as archival custody of all plebiscites passed in the Plebeian Assembly, together with any senatorial decrees (consulta) directing the enactment of plebiscites. They were elected by the Plebeian Assembly, and did not have the right to sit in the curule chair; nor were they entitled to lictors. Then in 367 b.c. two curule aediles were created to give the patricians a share in custody of the city's buildings and archives. They were elected by the Popular Assembly, which comprised the whole people, patrician and plebeian, and therefore had the right to sit in the curule chair and be preceded by two lictors. Very soon, however, the curule aediles were as likely to be plebeians as patrician
s. From the third century b.c. downward, all four were responsible for the care of Rome's streets, water supply, drains and sewers, traffic, public buildings, building standards and regulations for private buildings, public monuments and facilities, markets, weights and measures (standard sets of these were housed in the basement of the temple of Castor and Pollux), games, and the public grain supply. They had the power to fine citizens and non-citizens alike for infringements of any regulation appertaining to any of the above, and deposited the moneys in their coffers to

  help fund the games. Aedile—curule or plebeian—was not a magistracy of the cursus honorum (see magistrates), but because of its association with the games was a valuable magistracy for a man to hold just before he stood for office as praetor.

  Agedincum An oppidum belonging to the Senones. Modern Sens.

  agora The open space, usually surrounded by colonnades or some kind of public buildings, which served any Greek or Hellenic city as its public meeting place and civic center. The Roman equivalent was a forum.

  ague The old name for the rigors of malaria.

  Alba Helviorum The main town of the Helvii. Near modern Le Teil.

  Albis River The Elbe.

  Alesia An oppidum of the Mandubii. Modern Alise-Ste.-Reine.

  Alexander the Great King of Macedonia, and eventually of most of the known world. Born in 356 B.C., he was the son of Philip II and one Olympias of Epirus. His tutor was Aristotle. At the age of twenty, he acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination. Regarding Asia Minor as in his purlieus, he determined to invade it. He first crushed all opposition in Macedonia and Greece, then in 334 b.c. led an army of forty thousand men into Anatolia. Having liberated all the Greek city-states therein from Persian rule, he proceeded to subdue all resistance in Syria and Egypt, where he is said to have consulted the oracle of Amon at modern Siwah. The year 331 b.c. saw him marching for Mesopotamia to meet the Persian King, Darius. Darius was defeated at Gaugamela; Alexander went on to conquer the empire of the Persians (Media, Susiana, Persia), accumulating fabulous booty. From the Caspian Sea he continued east to conquer Bactria and Sogdiana, reaching the Hindu Kush after a three-year campaign which cost him dearly. To ensure his treaties he married the Sogdian princess Roxane, then set out for India. Resistance in the Punjab ceased upon the defeat of King Porus on the Hyphasis River, from whence he marched down the Indus River to the sea. In the end his own troops curtailed Alexander's plans by refusing to accompany him eastward to the Ganges. He turned west again, dividing his army; half marched with him overland and half sailed with his marshal Nearchos. The fleet was delayed by monsoons, and Alexander's own progress through Gedrosia was a frightful ordeal. Eventually what was left of the army reunited in Mesopotamia; Alexander settled down in Babylon. There he contracted a fever and died in 323 b.c. at the age of thirty-two, leaving his marshals to divide his empire amid war and dissent. His son by Roxane, born posthumously, never lived to inherit. The indications are that Alexander wished to be worshiped as a god.

  Ambrussum A town in the Roman Gallic Province on the Via Domitia to Narbo and Spain. It was near Lunel.

  Anatolia Roughly, modern Turkey. It incorporated Bithynia, Mysia, the Roman Asian Province, Lycia, Pisidia, Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Pontus, Galatia, Lacaonia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Cappadocia and Armenia Parva (Little Armenia).

  animus The Oxford Latin Dictionary has the best definition, so I will quote it: "The mind as opposed to the body, the mind or soul as constituting with the body the whole person." One must be careful, however, not to attribute belief in the immortality of the soul to Romans.

  Aous River The Vijose River, in modern Albania.

  Apollonia The southern terminus of the Via Egnatia, the road which traveled from Byzantium and the Hellespont to the Adriatic Sea. Apollonia lay near the mouth of the Aous (Vijose) River. Apsus River The Seman River, in modern Albania. In Caesar's time it appears to have served as the boundary between Epirus to its south and western Macedonia to its north.

  Aquae Sextiae A town in the Roman Gallic Province near which Gaius Marius won a huge victory against the Teutonic Germans in 102 b.c. The modern name is Aix-en-Provence. Aquilifer The soldier who bore a legion's silver Eagle.

  Aquitania The lands between the Garumna River (the Garonne) and the Pyrenees.

  Arar River The Saône River.

  Arausio Orange.

  Arduenna The Ardennes Forest.

  Arelate Arles.

  Ariminum Rimini.

  armillae The wide bracelets, of gold or silver, awarded as prizes for valor to Roman legionaries, centurions, cadets and military tribunes of more junior rank.

  Arnus River The Arno River. It served as the boundary between Italian Gaul and Italia proper on the western side of the Apennine watershed.

  Assembly (comitium, comitia) Any gathering of the Roman People convoked to deal with governmental, legislative, judicial, or electoral matters. In the time of Caesar there were three true Assemblies: the Centuries, the People, and the Plebs.

  The Centuriate Assembly (comitia centuriata) marshaled the People, patrician and plebeian, in their Classes, which were filled by a means test and were economic in nature. As this was originally a military assemblage of cavalry knights, each Class gathered outside the sacred city boundary on the Campus Martius at a place called the Saepta. Except for the senior eighteen Centuries, kept to one hundred members, many more than one hundred men were lumped into one Century by Caesar's time. The Centuriate Assembly met to elect consuls, praetors and (every five years) censors. It also met to hear major charges of treason (perduellio) and could pass laws. Under ordinary circumstances it was not convoked to pass laws or hear trials.

  The Assembly of the People or Popular Assembly (comitia populi tributa) allowed the full participation of patricians and was tribal in nature, convoked in the thirty-five tribes into which all Roman citizens were placed. Called into session by a consul or praetor, it normally met in the well of the Comitia, in the lower Forum Romanum. It elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. Until Sulla established the standing courts it conducted trials; in the time of Caesar it met to formulate and pass laws as well as hold elections.

  The Plebeian Assembly (comitia plebis tributa or concilium plebis) was also a tribal assembly, but it did not allow participation of patricians. The only magistrate empowered to convoke it was a tribune of the plebs. It had the right to enact laws (called plebiscites) and conduct trials, though trials were few after Sulla established standing courts. Its members elected the plebeian aediles and the tribunes of the plebs. It usually met in the well of the Comitia. See also tribe and voting,

  atrium The main reception room of a Roman domus, or private house. It generally contained an opening in the roof (compluvium) above a pool (impluvium) originally intended as a reservoir for domestic use. By Caesar's time, the pool had become ornamental only.

  auctoritas A very difficult Latin term to translate, as it meant far more than the English word "authority" implies. It carried nuances of pre-eminence, clout, public importance and—above all—the ability to influence events through sheer public reputation. All the magistracies possessed auctoritas as an intrinsic part of their nature, but auctoritas was not confined to those who held magistracies. The Princeps Senatus, Pontifex Maximus, other priests and augurs, consulars and even some private citizens outside the ranks of the Senate owned auctoritas. Though the plutocrat Titus Pomponius Atticus was never a senator, his auctoritas was formidable.

  augur A priest whose duties concerned divination. He and his fellow augurs constituted the College of Augurs, an official State body which numbered twelve members (six patricians and six plebeians) until in 81 b.c. Sulla increased its membership to fifteen, always thereafter intended to contain one more plebeian than patrician. Originally augurs were co-opted by the College of Augurs, but in 104 b.c. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus brought in a law compelling election of future augurs by an assembly of seventeen tribes chosen from th
e thirty-five by lot. Sulla in 81 b.c. removed election, going back to co-optation, but after his death election was reestablished. The augur did not predict the future, nor did he pursue his auguries at his own whim; he inspected the proper objects or signs to ascertain whether or not the undertaking in question met with the approval of the Gods, be the undertaking a contio, a war, legislation, or any other State business, including elections. There was a standard manual of interpretation to which the augur referred; augurs "went by the book." The augur wore the purple-and-scarlet-striped toga trabea and carried a curved, curlicued staff, the lituus.

  aurochs The progenitor of modern cattle, now extinct, in Caesar's time this huge wild ox still roamed the impenetrable forests of Germania, though it had disappeared from the Ardennes. Auser River The Serchio River in Italy.

  Avaricum The largest oppidum of the Bituriges, and said to be the most beautiful oppidum in Gallia Comata. It is now the city of Bourges.

  ave Hello in Latin.

  Axona River The Aisne River.

  ballista In Republican times, a piece of artillery designed to hurl stones and boulders. The missile was placed in a spoon-shaped arm which was put under extreme tension by means of a rope spring wound up very tightly; when the spring was released, the arm shot into the air and came to rest against a thick pad, propelling the missile a considerable distance depending upon the size of the missile and the size of the machine itself.