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The frustration over the patrician stranglehold on power and the increasing awareness by plebeians of growing political reforms in the Greek world led the plebeians to organize themselves to fight for reform.
Crucifixion was among the cruelest punishments ever devised. It was used earlier by the Carthaginians, but the Romans employed crucifixion on a wide scale—though it was always considered poor taste to discuss it in proper society. Crucifixion was strictly a punishment for criminals and slaves, being designed as much for torture and terror as killing.
Since gladiators were very expensive to purchase and maintain, death in the arena was rare.
contrary to Hollywood movies—angry spectators encouraged a death blow by raising their thumbs upward, not down.
Rome was ruled by a small elite of noble families who shamelessly manipulated the political system and jealously guarded the executive offices for themselves.
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These fasces were a praetor’s visible symbol of the right to use force (hence our term fascism).
But Caesar—like all educated people in the classical world—knew that the earth was a sphere
Caesar’s response was decisive and immediate. He sent Pompeia a letter of divorce, even though it was unclear whether or not she had been a willing participant in the scandal. When asked why he would put his wife aside without firm proof, he responded that Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.
What ultimately made the Romans unbeatable were not weapons, however, or well-trained leaders (since Roman generals, like politicians, were essentially amateurs), but the Roman genius for fighting as a unit.
No Roman general ever pressed his troops harder than Caesar, but no army ever followed its leader more willingly.
Caesar believed in keeping his friends close and his enemies even closer.
In all of life, but especially in war, the greatest power belongs to fortune. —CAESAR
“Human nature is such that we become either too confident or too fearful when circumstances change.”
If fortune doesn’t go your way, sometimes you have to bend it to your will. —CAESAR
the force behind the throne was his gifted minister Antipater, father of Herod the Great. The Jews of Palestine were natural allies of Caesar since they had suffered greatly at the hands of Pompey, who had defiled the great temple in Jerusalem and stripped Judea of much of its territory during his eastern campaign. A new alliance with Caesar at this crucial moment, Antipater hoped, would strengthen the Jewish state.
Caesar had no objections to peaceful gatherings, but like most Romans he was deeply suspicious of foreign religious organizations.
Caesar was unable to understand how others could not see what was so obvious to him—the Republic was dead. Moreover, it was a death well deserved as it had served only to perpetuate the rule and enrichment of a few powerful families at the expense of everyone else.
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