I hope that this analysis will settle the matter. Its most important contribution: this book provides a precise and definite chronology for the year 59, a problem scholars have debated for decades. Two, an in-depth study of the year 59 will answer many of the important historical questions surrounding this year. This book will not have the onerous job of following the course of Roman history over a period of decades or a century instead, it will provide a snapshot of one specific moment in time by exploring the year in appropriate detail. One, though many elements in the story have been examined previously, these works did not have nearly enough space to investigate these topics properly. There are two things that set this book apart from previous works on the period. My book provides a detailed reconstruction of that fateful day in April, something that no previous scholar has supplied before, and then proceeds to discuss the episode’s dramatic ramifications, which ultimately brought about the republic’s fall. The attack and Bibulus’ subsequent absence also provided part of the title for this book: Romans began referring to the year 59 (their year 695) not as the year of the consuls Caesar and Bibulus as was proper, but instead as the year of Julius and Caesar. As a result of the assault Bibulus retired to his house for the rest of the year allowing Caesar and his allies the freedom to pass numerous laws which would have an enormous impact on the republic. With this attack 59 abruptly took an entirely new path. Second, I wanted the book to use Caesar’s violent attack on Bibulus and his followers in the forum on April 4 as the year’s (and the republic’s) defining moment. I wanted to put the reader in the middle of the action, in the Forum during moments of tension, in the Senate during an important debate, or in a senator’s home during critical surreptitious negotiations. The “game” of course was often played for enormous stakes and affected many people in Rome and throughout the ancient world. The book follows the political “game” that played out in an attempt to understand how the process worked (or did not work as was often the case), and why the players acted as they did. First and foremost I wanted this book, The Year of Julius and Caesar, to be about politics in the late Roman Republic, tracing how the players (whether individuals, groups, or “parties”) accumulated power, how that power was exercised, and how it could be used to thwart others. I believed that this particular year cried out for an extended study, something no historian had attempted before, to examine the rich tapestry of people and events in the detail not possible in a general history of the late Republic. It was a dramatic and momentous year of political intrigue, violence and murder, which boasted some of the most famous personalities ever to grace the Roman historical stage including Cato the Younger, Clodius, Pompey “The Great,” Crassus, Cicero, Lucullus, and especially Caesar. Their year in office would mark a major turning point in the history of the republic and the “Revolution”-and even the ancients recognized its historical significance. By the year 59, the 695th since Romulus founded the city and the 451st since Lucius Junius Brutus banished the last king and established the republic, the Romans ruled most of the known world, and, on January 1 of that year, Rome’s two new consuls Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus officially began their terms as Rome’s highest elected magistrates. They offer a behind-the-scenes look at Roman politics, something we are rarely privileged to glimpse. Even more significant is the survival of copious letters the senator Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote to some of Rome’s most important figures. The abundance of literary evidence means that this year is as well documented as any in ancient history. At first, I thought of writing about the entire period, but then decided instead to focus on what I considered to be the pivotal year of the “revolution”: 59B.C. This was the era of the Roman “Revolution,” a long period of political violence and civil war inaugurated by the assassination of a tribune (133) and completed by the Battle of Actium (31), that transformed the republic into a monarchy. The focus of my research and teaching during the past 36 years, though, has been the Roman Republic (509-31B.C.), specifically the last century of the republic. I have always been fascinated by politics in democratic societies both ancient and modern.
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