Suetonius  (c.69-after 122 CE):
De Vita Caesarum, Divus Iulius
(The Lives of the Caesars, The Deified Julius), written c. 110 CE

trans. by J.C. Rolfe.  Edited and rearranged by C. Oldstone-Moore

Caesar, the Man

       He is said to have been tall of stature, with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a somewhat full face, and keen
       black eyes; sound of health, except that towards the end he was subject to sudden fainting fits and to nightmare as
       well. He was twice attacked by the falling sickness [morbus comitialis, so-called because an attack was considered
       sufficient cause for the postponement of elections, or other public business. This is thought to have been epilepsy.]
       during his campaigns. He was somewhat overnice in the care of his person, being not only carefully trimmed and
       shaved, but even having superfluous hair plucked out, as some have charged; while his baldness was a
       disfigurement which troubled him greatly, since he found that it was often the subject of the gibes of his detractors.
       Because of it he used to comb forward his scanty locks from the crown of his head, and of all the honors voted
       him by the senate and people there was none which he received or made use of more gladly than the privilege of
       wearing a laurel wreath at all times.

        That he drank very little wine not even his enemies denied. There is a saying of Marcus Cato that Caesar was
       the only man who undertook to overthrow the state when sober.

       In eloquence and in the art of war he either equalled or surpassed the fame of their most eminent
       representatives. After his accusation of Dolabella, he was without question numbered with the leading advocates.
       At all events, when Cicero reviews the orators in his Brutus, he says that he does not see to whom Caesar ought to
       yield the palm, declaring that his style is elegant as well as transparent, even grand and in a sense noble. Again in a
       letter to Cornelius Nepos he writes thus of Caesar: "Come now, what orator would you rank above him of those
       who have devoted themselves to nothing else? Who has cleverer or more frequent epigrams? Who is either more
       picturesque or more choice in diction?"

       He was highly skilled in arms and horsemanship, and of incredible powers of endurance. On the march he
       headed his army, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, bareheaded both in the heat of the sun and in rain.
       He covered great distances with incredible speed, making a hundred miles a day in a hired carriage and with little
       baggage, swimming the rivers which barred his path or crossing them on inflated skins, and very often arriving
       before the messengers sent to announce his coming.

       No regard for religion ever turned him from any undertaking, or even delayed him. Though the victim
       escaped as he was offering sacrifice, he did not put off his expedition against Scipio and Juba. Even when he had a
       fall as he disembarked, he gave the omen a favorable turn by crying: "I hold you fast, Africa." Furthermore, to
       make the prophecies ridiculous which declared that the stock of the Scipios was fated to be fortunate and invincible
       in that province, he kept with him in camp a contemptible fellow belonging to the Cornelian family, to whom the
       nickname Salvito had been given as a reproach for his manner of life.

Caesar as Consul [60 BCE]

       Caesar's very first enactment after becoming consul was, that the proceedings both of the senate and of the
       people should day by day be compiled and published.  He brought forward an agrarian law too, and when his
       colleague announced adverse omens [Business could be interrupted or postponed at Rome by the announcement
       of an augur or a magistrate that he had seen a flash of lightning or some other adverse sign; sometimes an opponent
       merely announced that he would 'watch the skies' for such omens], heresorted to arms and drove him from the
       Forum; and when next day Bibulus made complaint in the senate and no one could be found who ventured to make a
       motion, or even to express an opinion about so high-handed a proceeding (although decrees had often been passed
       touching less serious breaches of the peace), Caesar's conduct drove him to such a pitch of desperation, that from
       that time until the end of his term he did not leave his house, but merely issued proclamations announcing adverse
       omens.

       From that time on Caesar managed all the affairs of state alone and after his own pleasure; so that sundry witty
       fellows, pretending by way of jest to sign and seal testamentary documents, wrote "Done in the consulship of
       Julius and Caesar," instead of 'Bibulus and Caesar."

       The plain called Stellas, which had been devoted to public uses by the men of by-gone days, and the Campanian
       territory, which had been reserved to pay revenues for the aid of the government, he divided without casting lots
       [through a special commission of twenty men] among twenty thousand citizens who had three or more children
       each. When the publicans asked for relief, he freed them from a third part of their obligation, and openly warned
       them in contracting for taxes in the future not to bid too recklessly. He freely granted everything else that anyone
       took it into his head to ask, either without opposition or by intimidating anyone who tried to object. Marcus Cato,
       who tried to delay proceedings, was dragged from the House by a lictorat Caesar's command and taken off to prison.

       At about the same time he took to wife Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who was to succeed him in the
       consulship, and affianced his own daughter Julia to Gnaeus Pompeius [a powerful general], breaking a previous
       engagement withServilius Caepio, although the latter had shortly before rendered him conspicuous service in his
       contest with Bibulus. And after this new alliance he began to call upon Pompeius first to give his opinion in the
       senate, although it had been his habit to begin with Crassus, and it was the rule for the consul in calling for opinions
       to continue throughout the year the order which he had established on the Kalends of January.

       Backed therefore by his father-in-law and son-in-law, out of all the numerous provinces he made Gallia his
       choice, as the most likely to enrich him and furnish suitable material for triumphs.

       When at the close of his consulship the praetors Gaius Memmius and Lucius Domitius moved an inquiry
       into his conduct during the previous year, Caesar laid the matter before the senate; and when they failed to take it
       up, and three days had been wasted in fruitless wrangling, went off to his province. Whereupon his quaestor was at
       once arraigned on several counts, as a preliminary to his own impeachment. Presently he himself too was
       prosecuted by Lucius Antistius, tribune of the commons, and it was only by appealing to the whole college that he
       contrived not to be brought to trial, on the ground that he was absent on public service.

 
 Caesar as proconsul of Gaul [58-49 B.C.]

       During the nine years of his command this is in substance what he did. All that part of Gallia
       which is bounded by the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Cévennes, and by the Rhine and Rhone rivers, a circuit of
       some 3,200 miles [Roman measure, about 3,106 English miles], with the exception of some allied states which had
       rendered him good service, he reduced to the form of a province; and imposed upon it a yearly tribute of
       40,000,000 sesterces. He was the first Roman to build a bridge and attack the Germans beyond the Rhine; and he
       inflicted heavy losses upon them. He invaded the Britons too, a people unknown before, vanquished them, and
       exacted moneys and hostages. Amid all these successes he met with adverse fortune but three times in all: in
       Britannia, where his fleet narrowly escaped destruction in a violent storm; in Gallia, when one of his legions was
       routed at Gergovia; and on the borders of Germania, when his lieutenants Titurius and Aurunculeius were
       ambushed and slain.

       Within this same space of time he lost first his mother, then his daughter, and soon afterwards his
       grandchild. Meanwhile, as the community was aghast at the murder of Publius Clodius, the senate had voted that
       only one consul should be chosen, and expressly named Gnaeus Pompeius. When the tribunes planned to make
       him Pompeius' colleague, Caesar urged them rather to propose to the people that he be permitted to stand for a
       second consulship without coming to Rome, when the term of his governorship drew near its end, to prevent his
       being forced for the sake of the office to leave his province prematurely and without finishing the war. On the
       granting of this, aiming still higher and flushed with hope, he neglected nothing in the way of lavish expenditure or
       of favors to anyone, either in his public capacity or privately. He began a forum with the proceeds of his spoils, the
       ground for which cost more than a hundred million sesterces. He announced a combat of gladiators and a feast for
       the people in memory of his daughter, a thing quite without precedent. To raise the expectation of these events to
       the highest possible pitch, he had the material for the banquet prepared in part by his own household, although he
       had let contracts to the markets as well. He doubled the pay of the legions for all time. Whenever grain was plentiful,
       he distributed it to them without stint or measure, and now and then gave each man a slave from among the captives.

       Moreover, to retain his relationship and friendship with Pompeius, Caesar offered him his sister's
       granddaughter Octavia in marriage, although she was already the wife of Gaius Marcellus, and asked for the hand
       of Pompeius' daughter, who was promised to Faustus Sulla. When he had put all Pompeius' friends under
       obligation, as well as the great part of the senate, through loans made without interest or at a low rate, he lavished
       gifts on men of all other classes, both those whom he invited to accept his bounty and those who applied to him
       unasked, including even freedmen and slaves who were special favorites of their masters or patrons. In short, he
       was the sole and ever ready help of all who were in legal difficulties or in debt and of young spendthrifts,
       excepting only those whose burden of guilt or of poverty was so heavy, or who were so given up to riotous living . .
 
       He took no less pains to win the devotion of princes and provinces all over the world, offering prisoners
       to some by the thousand as a gift, and sending auxiliary troops to the aid of others whenever they wished, and as
       often as they wished, without the sanction of the senate or people, besides adorning the principal cities of Asia and
       Graecia with magnificent public works, as well as those of Italia and the provinces of Gallia and Hispania. At last
       [51 B.C.], when all were thunder-struck at his actions and wondered what their purpose could be, the consul
       Marcus Claudius Marcellus, after first making proclamation that he purposed to bring before the senate a matter of
       the highest public moment, proposed that a successor to Caesar be appointed before the end of his term, on the
       ground that the war was ended, peace was established, and the victorious army ought to be disbanded; also that no
       account be taken of Caesar at the elections, unless he were present. . .

       Greatly troubled by these measures, Caesar stoutly resisted Marcellus, partly through vetoes of the tribunes and partly
       through the other consul, Servius Sulpicius. When next year Gaius Marcellus, who had succeeded his cousin
       Marcus as consul, tried the same thing, Caesar by a heavy bribe secured the support of the other consul, Aemilius
       Paulus, and of Gaius Curio, the most reckless of the tribunes. But seeing that everything was being pushed most
       persistently, and that even the consuls elect were among the opposition, he sent a written appeal to the senate, not to
       take from him the privilege which the people had granted, or else to compel the others in command of armies to
       resign also . . . 

       But when the senate declined to interfere, and his opponents declared that they would accept no
       compromise in a matter affecting the public welfare, he crossed to Gallia Citerior, and after hearing all the legal
       cases, halted at Ravenna, intending to resort to war if the senate took any drastic action against the tribunes of the
       commons who interposed vetoes in his behalf. Now this was his excuse for the civil war, but it is believed that he
       had other motives. Gnaeus Pompeius used to declare that since Caesar's own means were not sufficient to
       complete the works which he had planned, nor to do all that he had led the people to expect on his return, he
       desired a state of general unrest and turmoil. Others say that he dreaded the necessity of rendering an account for
       what he had done in his first consulship contrary to the auspices and the laws, and regardless of vetoes; for
       Marcus Cato often declared, and took oath too, that he would impeach Caesar the moment he had disbanded his
       army. It was openly said too that if he was out of office on his return, he would be obliged, like Milo [who had
       been accused and tried for the murder of Publius Clodius], to make his defence in a court hedged about by armed
       men.

        [Caesar defeats armies defending Rome and also his great rival Pompeius]

       Caesar as Dictator

       Having ended the wars, he celebrated five triumphs, four in a single month, but at intervals of a few days,
       after vanquishing Scipio; and another on defeating Pompeius' sons.

       To each and every foot-soldier of his veteran legions he gave twenty-four thousand sesterces by way of
       plunder, over and above the two thousand apiece which he had paid them at the beginning of the civil strife. He
       also assigned them lands, but not side by side, to avoid dispossessing any of the former owners. To every man of
       the people, besides ten pecks of grain and the same number of pounds of oil, he distributed the three hundred
       sesterces which he had promised at first, and one hundred apiece because of the delay. He also remitted a year's
       rent in Rome to tenants who paid two thousand sesterces or less, and in Italy up to five hundred sesterces. He
       added a banquet and a dole of meat, and after his Hispanic victory two dinners; for deeming that the former of
       these had not been served with a liberality creditable to his generosity, he gave another five days later on a most
       lavish scale.

       He gave entertainments of divers kinds: a combat of gladiators and also stage-plays in every ward all
       over the city, performed too by actors of all languages, as well as races in the circus, athletic contests, and a sham
       sea-fight. In the gladiatorial contest in the Forum Furius Leptinus, a man of praetorian stock, and Quintus
       Calpenus, a former senator and pleader at the bar, fought to a finish. A Pyrrhic dance was performed by the sons
       of the princes of Asia and Bithynia. During the plays Decimus Laberius, a Roman eques, acted a farce of his own
       composition, and having been presented with five hundred thousand sesterces and a gold ring. For the races the
       circus was lengthened at either end and a broad canal was dug all about it; then young men of the highest rank drove
       four-horse and two-horse chariots and rode pairs of horses, vaulting from one to the other. The game called Troy
       was performed by two troops, of younger and of older boys. Combats with wild beasts were presented on five
       successive days, and last of all there was a battle between two opposing armies, in which five hundred
       foot-soldiers, twenty elephants, and thirty horsemen engaged on each side. To make room for this, the goals were
       taken down and in their place two camps were pitched over against each other. The athletic competitions lasted for
       three days in a temporary stadium built for the purpose in the region of the Campus Martius. For the naval battle a
       pool was dug in the lesser Codeta and there was a contest of ships of two, three, and four banks of oars, belonging
       to the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, manned by a large force of fighting men. Such a throng flocked to all these
       shows from every quarter, that many strangers had to lodge in tents pitched in the streets or along the roads, and
       the press was often such that many were crushed to death, including two senators.

       Then turning his attention to the reorganisation of the state, he reformed the calendar, which the negligence of
       the pontiffs had long since so disordered, through their privilege of adding months or days at pleasure, that the
       harvest festivals did not come in summer nor those of the vintage in the autumn; and he adjusted the year to the
       sun's course by making it consist of three hundred and sixty-five days, abolishing the intercalary month, and
       adding one day every fourth year [the year had previously consisted of 355 days, and the deficiency of about
       eleven days was made up by inserting an intercalary month of twenty-two or twenty-three days after February].
       Furthermore, that the correct reckoning of seasons might begin with the next Kalends of January, he inserted two
       other months between those of November and December; hence the year in which these arrangements were made
       was one of fifteen months, including the intercalary month, which belonged to that year according to the former
       custom.

       He filled the vacancies in the senate, enrolled additional patricians, and increased the number of praetors,
       aediles, and quaestors, as well as of the minor officials; he reinstated those who had been degraded by official
       action of the censors or found guilty of bribery by verdict of the jurors. He shared the elections with the people on
       this basis: that except in the case of the consulship, half of the magistrates should be appointed by the people's
       choice, while the rest should be those whom he had personally nominated. And these he announced in brief notes
       like the following, circulated in each tribe: 'Caesar the Dictator to this or that tribe. I commend to you so and so, to
       hold their positions by your votes." He admitted to office even the sons of those who had been proscribed. He
       limited the right of serving as jurors to two classes, the equestrian and senatorial orders, disqualifying the third
       class, the tribunes of the treasury. He made the enumeration of the people neither in the usual manner nor place,
       but from street to street aided by the owners of blocks of houses, and reduced the number of those who received
       grain at public expense from three hundred and twenty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand.

       Moreover, to keep up the population of the city, depleted as it was by the assignment of eighty thousand
       citizens to colonies across the sea, he made a law that no citizen older than twenty or younger than forty, who was
       not detained by service in the army, should be absent from Italia for more than three successive years; that no
       senator's son should go abroad except as the companion of a magistrate or on his staff; and that those who made a
       business of grazing should have among their herdsmen at least one-third who were men of free birth. He conferred
       citizenship on all who practiced medicine at Rome, and on all teachers of the liberal arts, to make them more
       desirous of living in the city and to induce others to resort to it. As to debts, he disappointed those who looked for
       their cancellation, which was often agitated, but finally decreed that the debtors should satisfy their creditors . . .

       He administered justice with the utmost conscientiousness and strictness. Those convicted of extortion he
       even dismissed from the senatorial order.

       In particular, for the adornment and convenience of the city, also for the protection and extension of the
       Empire, he formed more projects and more extensive ones every day; first of all, to rear a temple to Mars, greater
       than any in existence, filling up and levelling the pool in which he had exhibited the sea-fight, and to build a theater
       of vast size, sloping down from the Tarpeian Rock; to reduce the civil code to fixed limits, and of the vast and
       prolix mass of statutes to include only the best and most essential in a limited number of volumes; to open to the
       public the greatest possible libraries of Greek and Latin books. . .