Main Factors that Led to Caesar's Rise and his Ultimate Demise

Main Factors that Led to Caesar's Rise and his Ultimate Demise 

Plutarch, who is regarded as the first modern biographer and the greatest biographer of the ancient world, was born in central Greece a hundred years after the death of Julius Caesar. His main interest was the characters of the most powerful and popular figures and how these figures made history. Plutarch's interest was the story of the collapse of the Roman Republic, which occurred between around 100 and 30 B.C. With his great interest in these famous figures, he carried out a lot of research and did a lot of reading, which enabled him to write a biography of ten powerful and famous figures in Rome who lived during the collapse of Rome. Some of these powerful people were Pompey, Caesar, Cicero, Brutus, and Antony. Thus, this essay main factors that led to Caesar's ascendancy to power and his ultimate demise, as narrated in the biography of Julius Caesar, "Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar," written by Plutarch. 

According to Julius Caesar's biography written by Plutarch, Caesar is well known for his military successes and his shameful death. He is as well regarded as the most powerful figure in Roman history. Similarly, he is depicted as the most formidable figure and the most powerful in Roman history. His rise to power and the ultimate leadership of the Roman is itself is a quite interesting subject that unfolds a lot regarding the social and political state of the Republic during the Late Republic. The primary factors that led to the rise and demise of Julius Caesar include his political alliance, being victorious in the Gallic Wars, his leadership and triumphs during Civil wars caused his ascendancy in power, while greed and misuse of power led to his demise that resulted to his assassination (Dobesch 496-506). The primary factor ascended to being a powerful ruler in Rome was his political alliance, and specifically, the First Triumvirate had the most significant impact in the determination of his rise into power. Just as once stated by Philanthropist Auliq Ice "the highest mode of corruption is the abuse of power" Caesar began abusing his power by turning senators against himself and compelled the Senate to take action by intervening (Dobesch 496-506). 

As he ascended to power, Caesar faced a lot of challenges in the Roman Republic. In his life story, as narrated by Plutarch, Caesar came from a royal family that had some leadership heritage; however, Caesar's family did not have high authority in Roman society when he was still young. After the death of his father, Caesar took responsibility as a patriarch of his family at the age of sixteen years (Townend 325-342). Such an elevated sense of responsibility at such a young age could have played a role in modeling Caesar for leadership later in his life. However, Plutarch narrates that he still faced resistance from Lord Cornelius Sulla, who was then a powerful Roman general as a result of Caesar's relation with Gaius Marius. As explained by Plutarch, Caesar was "was accordingly forced to go into hiding… [and] to change from one covert to another almost every night, and save himself from Sulla's detectives by bribes" (Pelling 1-53). As a result, Caesar is forced to leave Rome for the military, during which he has to distinguish himself for his wit and tactics in military experiences. After his return to Rome in around 60 B.C., he formed a political alliance that ultimately prepared him for the leadership of the Republic of Empire. 

As depicted in Plutarch's life of Caesar biography, Julius Caesar's popularity came from his association with the Marian party. Although the party is governed by the elite class, the party was popular among the lower classes. At that time, Rome was under political turmoil because of competing interests that sought to seize one another and take control of the state (Townend 325-342). People of Rome became frustrated due to the constant political antagonism among various entities that stimulated the hunger for change that would lead to political stability. Additionally, the First Triumvirate was instrumental in this sense since it represented an informal alliance among formidable figures with common desires to stabilize Rome though while in pursuit of their own underlying political interests. This alliance involved Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. While Pompey being a powerful general and Crassus a wealthy politician, respectively, other than being a powerful leader in his own right, Caesar was as well a shrewd strategist who had strong political power due to his popularity with the masses (Pelling 1-53). 

As stated in Plutarch's biographical work of the three powerful figures, Pompay, Crassus, and Caesar, within that year of Ceasar's establishment of an alliance with Pompey and Crassus, Caesar was chosen as the consul of Rome. As a result of this action, the three were given a chance to wield more authority over policies in Rome which they greatly utilized for their own political interests. The triumvirate, for example, as stated in Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar biography, succeeded in securing endorsements for land requests that enabled Pompey to provide settlement for his war veterans. As explained by Suetonius, "Caesar's very first enactment after becoming consul was that the proceedings both of the senate and the people should day by day be compiled and published" (Townend 325-342). With this, Caesar came out as a unifying symbol for the ordinary people of Rome since he was successful in passing policies and reforms that related well with the masses, which had been a problem in the previous tumultuous political environment in the Republic of Rome. 

Similarly, as shown in his life story written by Plutarch, there is no doubt Caesar's military achievements and success were the significant factors that led to his ascendancy to power, making him popular and the most powerful leader in Rome. Plutarch affirms Caesar was even greater than Pompey and Crassus in sheer political, economic, and military stature (Pelling 1-53). However, his exemplary achievements led him to his demise. He ended up forming powerful enemies, including his own ally Pompey. Consequently, the Roman State made a conspiracy to strip him off his military duties and prosecuted him. In reaction to this, Caesar took a proactive measure to confront the authorities, and this marked one of his momentous decisions in his career as a leader. As explained by Suetonius, Caesar told his followers that, "Even yet we may drawback, but once cross you little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword" (Dobesch 496-506). As such, the decision to march into Rome was a calculated move with very high stakes for Caesar and the rest of Rome. Thus, success in seizing his enemies, Caesar could be the most powerful figure in the Empire. However, in cases of failure, Caesar himself and his followers would face inevitable doom. 

In the life story of Julius Caesar, as narrated by Plutarch, Caesar became the most powerful person in the Roman Empire; however, his success costed him as he accrued a lot of enemies who later orchestrated his demise. Even though his military achievements played a role in his rise in power, Caesar's alliance that he formed in his early years with Pompey and Crassus was the primary factor that ascended to power (Pelling 1-53). Without alliances with other formidable figures such as Pompey and Crassus, together with other political figures in Rome, Caesar could have never achieved such a great success. Additionally, his wit and charm determined his success as both a military and a political expert; however, they were not enough to reinforce him assuage the rivalries he made on his ascendance to power. 

Plutarch also narrates how the Senate was forced to take action after constant undermining from Caesar. At first, the Senate was unable to reveal his true motives because of the high regard the public held for Caesar. They then resorted to devious ways to show his objectives which they tried by making him "envied and disliked as quickly as possible, that he might the sooner perish" (Pelling 1-53). By giving him privileges that were non-typical of a consul, without being aware, he fueled his antagonists by accepting them. Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar biography showed that as a result of Caesar's ego, he was given opportunities on the pretense of the Senate's admiration as opposed to their disdain. This is seen when Caesar is voted by the senators to wear the Roman triumphal garb, which was previously worn by the first king of Rome, Romulus, when he made public appearances. Furthermore, Caesar was authorized to offer the "spalia opima" to the temple Jupiter Feretrius, which was the general's opposing amour (Dobesch 496-506). Such a task was regarded as a high honor which Caesar was not close to offering such an offer to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius; however, the Senate till made a decision to present such an opportunity to him. 

The Senate further made an arrangement for all cities and temples to hold a statue of Caesar. All these efforts were made to ridicule Caesar diplomatically. For instance, among the statues of Caesar on the Rostra, one of them fashioned from gold with a diadem around the head where orations were performed symbolized slavery. Upon being seen by Gaius and Lucius, the diadem was removed under their command; however, Caesar charged them with treason. As written in his biography by Plutarch, Caesar believed that the diadem was placed on the statue for disrespect towards him. However, the public perceived this as an effort to represent his hope of ruling as a monarch, which was what the Senate had been hoping to see it happen. As a way to seal their objective, they ordered Caesar to build a new senate-house with the new name of Julian. Sources from the biography of Ceasar as written by Plutarch shows that the motive of this goal was to brand Caesar as a new Sulla since the old senate-house carried the name Sula (Pelling 1-53). Since most Romans were against the autocratic government, the Senate succeeded in playing to their strength. While using compliments and privileges, their real motive behind the privileges and compliments was to eliminate Caesar from the government and exterminate the possible danger of a dictator. 

Conclusively, having read the life history of Julius Ceasar from the text "Plutarch's Life of Caesar," it can be concluded that the assassination of Julius Caesar was as a result of the power threat he posed to the Roman state. As a result of his ambitious nature, Caesar misused his power that led to senators turning against him. The threat that Caesar posed to the senator forced them to look for ways to intervene through offering privileges and opportunities foreign to that of a consul with the aim of fueling the citizens' envy and disgust towards him. However, if Caesar had not been blinded by his ego and had not desired to rule as a monarch, the chances are high that he could not have been murdered. Augustus Caesar, his adopted son, learned from his father's mistakes and prioritized the needs of the citizens instead of his own. Since monarchic governments have not been successful in Rome, it shows that Caesar's aspirations of becoming a monarchy would as well failed. History has proved again that obtaining too much power and authority corrupts a person's rationality and good nature. Thus, Caesar, who was popularly known as a revolutionary figure for his statesmanship and legendry conquests, was able to realize and pinpoint humans' weaknesses; however, he failed to realize his own and hence succumbed to his ego and greed. 

Work Cited 

Dobesch, G., 2016. Plutarch, Caesar. Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by Christopher Pelling. Gnomon, 88(6), pp.496-506. 

Pelling, Christopher. “Plutarch Caesar”. Oxford University Press, (2011): pp. 1-53. 

Townend, Gavin B. "C. Oppius on Julius Caesar." The American Journal of Philology 108.2 (1987): 325-342.

 Tranquillus, C. Suetonius. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. 1896.