The Handy Military History Answer Book. Samuel Willard Crompton
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of the River Rubicon, in northern Italy. To cross that river was to break the law, and Caesar knew this quite well. He had just received letters from the Roman Senate, telling him to lay down his command and return to Rome, where he could have possibly been put on trial.
Caesar pondered the matter for a day or so and then ordered his men to cross the Rubicon. He told his generals that “the die is cast,” and—ever since—we have employed that expression, as well as the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” to refer to a major life decision, one from which there is no turning back.
Why was the Roman Civil War fought in Spain and Greece, rather than Italy?
It happened by chance, because Caesar’s foe, Gaius Pompey, fled to Greece, while two of his sons, with their armies, went to Spain. This formed a precedent, however, and for hundreds of years to come, Romans showed a marked tendency to fight civil wars in the provinces rather than the Italian homeland.
Caesar followed Pompey to Greece, and after months of maneuvering, the two armies clashed at the Battle of Pharsalus. Pompey had perhaps twice as many men (55,000) as Caesar, but his troops were not as battle tested. In one of the worst Roman-on-Roman collisions, Caesar prevailed, in part because he ordered his men to thrust their javelins at the faces of Pompey’s cavalrymen rather than the horses. A Roman aristocrat could bear many difficulties and indignities, Caesar declared, but he was much too proud of his face to risk injury to it. Following his defeat, Pompey fled the field, and thousands of his men went over to Caesar.
How did Caesar wind up in control of Egypt?
In 47 B.C.E., Egypt was one of the few parts of the Mediterranean world that still was independent of Rome. Its ruler, King Ptolemy XI, was wedded to his sister Queen Cleopatra. Soon after his arrival at the city of Alexandria—named for the great Macedonian conqueror—Caesar was handed a basket in which he found the head of his Roman rival Pompey. The Egyptians had done this in order to please Caesar and to persuade him to leave Egypt alone.
Caesar, however, allied with Cleopatra to fight against King Ptolemy. Though the fighting was touch and go, Caesar prevailed as usual, and King Ptolemy and many of his men died in the Battle of the Nile. Caesar then chose to remain in Egypt for several months, during which time Cleopatra became his lover as well as his political ally. By the time Caesar departed, Cleopatra was pregnant with his son, and Egypt had moved at least halfway into the Roman camp.
What happened to all the rest of Caesar’s foes: Pompey’s sons, the king of Numidia, the Spanish tribesmen?
They were all beaten. Caesar came close to defeat only once, in southern Spain, and he recovered in time. By the time he returned to Rome in 46 B.C.E., he was the world conqueror, and everyone realized it.
Caesar had proved himself a fine administrator as well as a great general. He established new overseas colonies for his veterans, altered the Roman calendar to the one that was the basis for the Western world until the 1580s, and seemed on the verge of making himself king or emperor. He, very likely, knew that there was no need to do so: he already possessed more power than any person prior to his time. His political foes, however, insisted that he was on the cusp of destroying the Roman Republic and creating a new Roman Empire. They, therefore, assassinated him on March 15, 44 B.C.E.
Who were the candidates to succeed Caesar as leader of the Roman world?
At the moment of Caesar’s death, it was obvious that there were only two men who could possibly succeed him. Marc Antony was his best subordinate general, and Octavian was both his nephew and his adopted son. One of these two men would clearly be the new leader.
Which of these two possessed the initial advantage?
Because he was so well known to the legionnaires, Marc Antony had the advantage at the beginning of the rivalry. Over time, however, Antony became identified with the concerns of the Eastern Mediterranean, and when he joined forces with Cleopatra (she bore him several children), Antony sealed his doom. Octavian was very young—only eighteen when Julius Caesar died—but he proved an able statesman and was successful in portraying Antony as a fallen man to the Roman public. When the two clashed in battle in 31 B.C.E., Octavian had most of the advantage.
How decisive was the Battle of Actium?
Fought in and just outside the harbor of Actium on the west coast of Greece, this was one of the most significant battles of that century. Both sides entered with roughly 175 galleys and transport vessels; by late afternoon, Antony and Cleopatra had lost all but twenty. Roman discipline was one reason for Octavian’s victory; the rest of the cause can be assigned to his admiral, Agrippa.
The 1754 painting Le repas de Cléoptre et de Marc-Antoine by Charles-Joseph Natoire has Marc Antony and Cleopatra dining in luxury. Lovers and political allies, Antony and Cleopatra would lose the battle against Octavian and, consequently, both committed suicide.
Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, which had become something of a haven for runaway Romans. Octavian took his time in pursuit, but the day he landed in Egypt, Marc Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra stayed alive long enough to look upon Octavian’s face; he gave her the stark choice of suicide or execution (she chose to have a servant bring a poisonous snake to her chamber). Actium was not terribly exciting in its presentation, but it was an extremely important battle. Rome had—by virtue of Octavian’s victory—completely eclipsed Alexandria, and from that point on Rome was the city of the Mediterranean world, with no rival or even close second.
How did Augustus reorganize the legions?
In 27 B.C.E., four years after winning at Actium, Octavian took the new name of Augustus, meaning the revered one. He never put a crown on his head or called himself king or emperor, but those symbols were unnecessary: he was the emperor, whether anyone said so or not.
Augustus was primarily a political leader rather than a military one, but he saw the need to reorganize the legions. He limited, or capped, their number at thirty and worked to bring all of them up to full strength: until his reign, many legions numbered between 4,000 and 5,000 rather than the expected 6,000. Augustus saw, too, that the frontiers of the empire needed defining, and he worked many years to create a defensible line of borders. He made only one major military mistake, but it haunted him until the end of his days.
What did Augustus mean by “Quintus Varrus, give me back my legions”?
In 9 C.E., Augustus sent General Varrus with three legions across the Rhine to chastise the Germanic tribes. Varrus knew the way quite well, and he and his men did fine for the first fifty miles or so, but when they entered the Teutoburger Forest they lost their way and were ambushed by Germans. A three-day battle ended in the destruction of all three legions. Varrus died, as did the great majority of his officers. For Augustus, this was the greatest disaster of his reign and a distressing indication that the empire needed to remain on the defensive on its northern frontiers.
What was the military situation like at the time of Augustus’ death?
Much as he desired, the Roman Empire had taken on the configuration that would last for centuries. Rome and the towns of northern Italy were the heart of the empire, from which the legions were mobilized and dispatched. The entire rim of the Mediterranean Sea was now Roman, with Roman warships controlling the waterways. The empire extended north to the English Channel and west to the River Rhine. From the Rhine, the imperial boundaries made a sharp right-hand turn to the Danube and then to the Black Sea.
This was a truly enormous amount of land to govern and defend, but it was possible just so long as the emperors attended to business and the legions responded to trouble areas. There would be times, however, when the emperors were completely off the job—or out to lunch—and when the governors of the various provinces had to handle things themselves.