Mr Giant Reacts: His Year: Julius Caesar (59 B.C.E.) (REACTION)

Who was Julius Caesar? How did his political life get started. This is the first reaction in the series of Julius Caesar his life.

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Big ups for watching the video.

[BuxtonsWater]

Historia Civilis is great, I hope you do some more reacts to the rest of the His Year series.

[LightxHeaven]

Historia Civilis makes some awesome videos. Keep watching his stuff!

[timothystamm]

On who the Bonii (Conservatives) were likely working for when rejecting land reform, they were either plantation owners themselves, bankrolled by them, or, likely in Cato's case, so fiscally conservative that they wouldn't support any outlay that was not strictly guaranteed to give a return or necessary for the immediate survival of the state they wouldn't support it, or they were concerned that the Senate was not choosing the commission.

[jamescameron]

Love your video and I appreciate your taking the time to try and learn history of Europe. As a European.

[Steve]

The channel KingsandGenerals also does a series on Julius Caesar that does a better job focusing on his military campaigns. Historia Civilis' channel does a better job focusing on the geo-political conflicts of the late Roman Republic. But they're both worth watching to try to get a more complete picture of the story.

[fraso]

They simplify a lot. And they have to, because the video is short.
1- Parties in modern sense did not exist in Rome. But there were the Optimates ("the best ones") and the Populares (roughly "the popular ones"). The Optimates, in the video called conservatives, wanted to do, what's good for the Republic, while the Populares wanted to do, what's good for the people. To some degree this was still true, for which Cicero and Cato are good examples. Others just wanted power. Every citizen had the right to vote. But the right could only be executed in Rome itself. The citizens gathered and the votes were counted. Therefore a poor man in Rome had a betterchance to vote than a slightly wealthy merchant or craftsman from southern Italy. It was forbidden, but votes were purchased. And since elections took place every year, it was an important part of the income of poor citizens. In some instances they could make a living of it.
2- A Triumph meant, that your name would never be forgotten as long as Rome exists. Even today the names are known. There were two main targets for the men of the upper classes: to become Konsul and to get a triumph. And the most Konsuls never got a triumph. Caesar gave up eternal glory for his name to become Konsul, since he didn't knew, if he could earn another triumph in the future.
3- The Romans could be very pragmatic to get something done. But yes, there were ways to block something, which was a 'no go' for one side or another. But when there was a real problem, they worked together.
4- Filibuster is prohibited in many constitutions by limiting the time for a speech. And if such a rule is introduced, they usually mention Cato. There were many other tricks to stop the senate or an assembly from doing something. In one case during the Konsulship of Cicero guards were even ordered to warn, that there is an attack on Rome...
5- "Acta Diurnae" ("Daily Acts") was the name of the daily reports Caesar ordered to be given to the people. Sometimes historians refer to it as the first newspaper. They were read allowed and hung out. Rich people send slaves to write a copy.
6- One important thing, that he didn't mention is, that Ariovist, the King of the Suevi (a germanic tribe) was given the title "Friend of Rome" by the Senate. As Konsul Caesar was the one to ask for it. We don't know exactly, how Ariovist achieved this honour, but he had invaded Gaul and settled a war between some celtic tribes. Perhaps Rome wanted peace near its borders. But being Governer of transalpine Gaul Caesar attacked Ariovist. He said, that he wanted him to go back to Germania. The true bachground of this title is another mystery, which will probably never be solved.
5- A lot historians think, that Caesar had his men within the crowd, which attacked Bibulus. But Caesar and the Landreform were very popular at this point. So may be Caesar is not guilty of doing that. And probably he couldn't hear Balbulus' veto. But he certainly, he knew, what Balbulus was saying. Like he did it in the most parts of his books: No direct lie, but...
6- Bibulus not only went home, but did a campaign against Caesar. His men hung up posters with lies about Caesar and his plans. He organized mobs to applaud or boo to his whishes. Once the whole audience in a theater was bribed and booed on Caesar and Pompeius, while applauding their enemies. And the actors made jokes about Caesar. Bibulus managed, that Caesars popularity decreased and Caesar never forgot.
7- Serving as governor meant, that you could exploit your province. It was forbidden, but a lot of politician ignored this, since only few of them were accused of it in court. And Caesar had made large depts because of all the bribes he had to pay to become Konsul. He needed a province. And not a poor one. And, of course, every single Senator knew it. (Caesar was a patrician from an old family and traced his ancestory back to the goddess Venus. But his family was poor and of less political influence. The patricians were the old nobility of Rome. In this time plebians (normal people), who made it into the senat, were seen like a kind of new nobility. Usually this plebians were 'equites', which meant very wealthy people. Equites at first meant cavalrymen. The richer ones had to serve as cavalrymen. Since Rome had only little cavalry, you had to be very wealthy to be an 'eques'. At Caesars time there was a certain ammount of money, you had to own, to be an eques and the equites got more privileges.)
8- The Vettius-Plot is far more complicated. For example Vettius died in prison and Curio said, that Vettius asked him to kill Pompeius.

[spyrostrik]

I mean left and right politics do this all the time. Whoever is in power the other side always tries to block any decisions they make. Same thing happens to my country with the left political parties against the right wing goverment.