Historical sources on Julius Caesar’s dictatorship

Extract A

40. "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." 

Extract B

41. "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." 

Extract C

42. "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 Italy for more than three successive years... 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 according to a valuation of their possessions at the price which they had paid for them before the civil war, deducting from the principal whatever interest had been paid in cash or pledged through bankers; an arrangement which wiped out about a fourth part of their indebtedness." 

Extract D

26. "He began a forum with the proceeds of his spoils, the ground for which cost more than a hundred million sesterces." 

Extract E

44. "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 of Mars, greater than any in existence ... to open to the public the greatest possible libraries of Greek and Latin books ... to drain the Pomptine marshes; to let out the water from Lake Fucinus; to make a highway from the Adriatic across the summit of the Apennines as far as the Tiber; to cut a canal through the Isthmus." 

Extract F

82. "As he took his seat, the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their respects, and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer as though to ask something; and when Caesar with a gesture put him off to another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders; then as Caesar cried, 'Why, this is violence!' one of the Cascas stabbed him from one side just below the throat. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, 'You too, my child?'" 

Contextual information:

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (c. 69–122 CE) was a Roman biographer who served as a secretary to Emperor Hadrian and had access to the imperial archives. He wrote the Lives of the Twelve Caesars approximately 170 years after Caesar's death, drawing on earlier historical accounts, documentary records, and oral traditions. His biography of Julius Caesar covers Caesar's life from birth through assassination, making it one of the most detailed ancient accounts of Caesar's dictatorship and reforms. 

Bibliographical reference:

Suetonius. The lives of the twelve Caesars: Life of Julius Caesar (J. C. Rolfe, Trans., 1913). William Heinemann. (Original work published c. 121 CE), pp. 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 101, 117.

Copyright: Public Domain. 

Extract A

56. "After these matters had been finished and he had been declared consul for the fourth time, Caesar made an expedition into Spain against the sons of Pompey. These were still young, but had collected an army of amazing numbers and displayed a boldness which justified their claims to leadership, so that they beset Caesar with the greatest peril. The great battle was joined near the city of Munda, and here Caesar, seeing his own men hard pressed and making a feeble resistance, asked in a loud voice as he ran through the armed ranks whether they felt no shame to take him and put him in the hands of those boys. With difficulty and after much strenuous effort he repulsed the enemy and slew over thirty thousand of them, but he lost one thousand of his own men, and those the very best. As he was going away after the battle he said to his friends that he had often striven for victory, but now first for his life. This was the last war that Caesar waged; and the triumph that was celebrated for it vexed the Romans as nothing else had done. For it commemorated no victory over foreign commanders or barbarian kings, but the utter annihilation of the sons and the family of the mightiest of the Romans, who had fallen upon misfortune." 

Extract B

57. "However, the Romans gave way before the good fortune of the man and accepted the bit, and regarding the monarchy as a respite from the evils of the civil wars, they appointed him dictator for life. This was confessedly a tyranny, since the monarchy, besides the element of irresponsibility, now took on that of permanence. ... And in the effort to surround himself with men's good will as the fairest and at the same time the securest protection, he again courted the people with banquets and distributions of grain, and his soldiers with newly planted colonies, the most conspicuous of which were Carthage and Corinth." 

Extract C

59. "The adjustment of the calendar, however, and the correction of the irregularity in the computation of time, were not only studied scientifically by him, but also brought to completion, and proved to be of the highest utility." 

Extract D

66. "Tullius seized his toga with both hands and pulled it down from his neck. This was the signal for the assault. It was Casca who gave him the first blow with his dagger, in the neck, not a mortal wound, nor even a deep one, for which he was too much confused, as was natural at the beginning of a deed of great daring; so that Caesar turned about, grasped the knife, and held it fast. At almost the same instant both cried out, the smitten man in Latin: 'Accursed Casca, what doest thou?' and the smiter, in Greek, to his brother: 'Brother, help!'" 

Contextual information:

Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 46–120 CE) was a Greek biographer and philosopher who wrote Parallel Lives, pairing famous Greeks with famous Romans to draw moral comparisons. His Life of Caesar was written approximately 150 years after Caesar's death, and he drew on earlier historians such as Livy and Asinius Pollio, many of whose works no longer survive. Plutarch's primary interest was in character and moral conduct rather than precise political chronology, making his account especially vivid in its portrayal of key moments such as the Battle of Munda and the assassination. 

Bibliographical reference:

Plutarch. Life of Caesar (B. Perrin, Trans., 1919). William Heinemann. (Original work published c. 110–115 CE), pp. 563, 565, 567, 569, 601.

Copyright: Public Domain

Extract A

II.48. "After thus quelling the mutiny at Placentia Caesar proceeded to Rome, where the trembling people chose him dictator without any decree of the Senate and without the intervention of a magistrate. But he, either deprecating the office as likely to prove invidious or not desiring it, after holding it only eleven days designated himself and Publius Isauricus as consuls. He distributed corn to the starving people and at their petition he allowed the return of all exiles except Milo. When he was asked to decree an abolition of debts, on the ground that the wars and seditions had caused a fall of prices, he refused it, but appointed appraisers of saleable goods which debtors might give to their creditors instead of money." 

Extract B

II.104. "When battle was joined fear seized upon Caesar's army and hesitation was joined to fear. Caesar, lifting his hands toward heaven, implored all the gods that his many glorious deeds be not stained by this single disaster. He ran up and encouraged his soldiers. He took his helmet off his head and shamed them to their faces and exhorted them. As they abated nothing of their fear he seized a shield from a soldier and said to the officers around him, 'This shall be the end of my life and of your military service.' Then he sprang forward in advance of his line of battle toward the enemy ... each of the tribunes ran toward him and took position by his side, and the whole army rushed forward and fought the entire day, advancing and retreating by turns until, toward evening, Caesar with difficulty won the victory. It was reported that he said that he had often fought for victory, but that this time he had fought even for existence." 

Contextual information:

Appian of Alexandria (c. 95–165 CE) was a Greek-speaking Roman historian who wrote a history of Rome organised by the peoples Rome conquered and the wars it fought. His Civil Wars, covering the period from the Gracchi to the death of Sextus Pompey, is one of the most detailed surviving accounts of the late Republican civil wars. Appian was writing approximately 200 years after Caesar's death, drawing on earlier sources including the lost histories of Asinius Pollio, a contemporary of Caesar who actually fought in the Battle of Munda. 

Bibliographical reference:

Appian. Civil wars: Book II (H. White, Trans., 1913). William Heinemann. (Original work published c. 150 CE), pp. 283, 285, 453, 455.

Copyright: Public Domain.

Extract A

XLI.36. "While he was still on the way Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the man who later became a member of the triumvirate, advised the people in his capacity of praetor to elect Caesar dictator, and immediately named him, contrary to ancestral custom. The latter accepted the office as soon as he entered the city, but committed no act of terror while holding it. On the contrary, he granted a return to all the exiles except Milo, and filled the offices for the ensuing year ... After accomplishing these things he resigned the title of dictator." 

Extract B

XLI.37. "Having obtained this, he at once instituted an important and necessary reform. Those who had lent money, it seems, being now in need of large sums because of the civil strife and the wars, were collecting their loans most relentlessly, and many of the debtors for the same reasons were unable to pay back anything, even if they wished to do so, since they did not find it easy to sell anything or to borrow more. Hence their dealing with each other were marked by much deceit and fraud, and there was fear that they might go to the point of accomplishing some fatal mischief ... Caesar now came to the aid of both so far as he could. He ordered that securities should have a fixed valuation according to their worth, and he provided that arbiters for this purpose should be allotted to persons involved in such a dispute." 

Extract C

XLIII.22. "So after completing this new forum and the temple to Venus, as the founder of his family, he dedicated them at this very time, and in their honour instituted many contests of all kinds." 

Extract D

XLIII.26. "After the passage of these laws he also established in their present fashion the days of the year, which had got somewhat out of order, since they still at that time measured their months by the moon's revolutions ... He ordered that securities should be distributed among seven months these five along with two other days that he took away from one month. The one day, however, which results from the fourths he introduced into every fourth year, so as to make the annual seasons no longer differ at all." 

Extract E

XLIII.47. "Furthermore, he enrolled a vast number in the senate, making no distinction whether a man was a soldier or the son of a freedman, so that the sum of them grew to nine hundred; and he enrolled many also among the patricians and among the ex-consuls and such as had held some other office." 

Extract F

XLIII.50. "But in the case of Corinth and Carthage, those ancient, brilliant, and distinguished cities which had been laid in ruins, he not only colonized them, in that he regarded them as colonies of the Romans, but also restored them in memory of their former inhabitants, in that he honoured them with their ancient names; for he bore no grudge, on account of the hostility of those peoples, towards places that had never harmed the Romans." 

Extract G

XLIV.19. "When the right moment came, one of them approached him, as if to express his thanks for some favour or other, and pulled his toga from his shoulder, thus giving the signal that had been agreed upon by the conspirators. Thereupon they attacked him from many sides at once and wounded him to death, so that by reason of their numbers Caesar was unable to say or do anything, but veiling his face, was slain with many wounds. This is the truest account, though some have added that to Brutus, when he struck him a powerful blow, he said: 'Thou, too, my son?'" 

Contextual information:

Cassius Dio Cocceianus (c. 155–235 CE) was a Roman senator and historian of Greek origin who served as consul twice under emperors Severus Alexander and Pertinax. He spent approximately 22 years researching and writing his Roman History, which originally covered Rome from its founding to 229 CE in 80 books. Writing roughly 270 years after Caesar's death, Dio had access to the Roman senatorial archives and earlier historical works, and his account of Caesar's dictatorship in Books 41–44 is the most detailed surviving treatment of this period from any ancient historian. 

Bibliographical reference:

Cassius Dio. Roman history: Books 41–44 (E. Cary, Trans., 1916; Vols. III–IV). William Heinemann. (Original work published c. 229 CE), pp. 45, 47, 49, 227, 241, 275, 277, 309, 311, 393, 395.

Copyright: Public Domain.