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| 54–53 |
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| In Rome, optimates opposed the agents of the triumvirate. Violence ensued and Rome moved toward anarchy. Crassus's invasion of Parthia ended in disaster when he and his army were wiped out at Carrhae (53). | 1 |
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| 52 |
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| Milo's gang murdered Clodius and rioting broke out in Rome. Elections could not be held, and the senate appointed Pompey sole consul for 52. Pompey began to move away from Caesar by marrying the daughter of the optimate, Metellus Scipio, whom he had elected as his consular colleague. | 2 |
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| 51–50 |
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| Caesar, as long as he held office, was immune to optimate attempts to prosecute him for illegal acts as consul in 59. Caesar's attempts to extend his command and canvass in absence as proconsul in 49 (so he could proceed directly to the consulship in 48) were thwarted by the optimates, who were encouraged by Pompey's growing support. | 3 |
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| 49 |
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| Negotiations with Caesar broke down, and the senate passed the SCU, declaring Caesar a public enemy unless he disbanded his army. Caesar initiated CIVIL WAR by leading his army over the Rubicon River, the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy. Caesar's swift march forced Pompey and the optimates to abandon Italy for Greece, leaving Caesar between Pompeian forces in the east and in Spain. Caesar averted the danger with a lightning-fast campaign in Spain, defeating Pompey's commanders and securing the two provinces. | 4 |
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| 48 |
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| Caesar landed in Greece and defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in Thessaly. Pompey fled to Egypt where he was murdered. Caesar arrived in Alexandria where, after defeating a native army (48–47), he made Cleopatra ruler of Egypt (See 47–30). | 5 |
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| 47 |
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| In Asia Minor, Caesar defeated Pharnaces, a son of Mithridates, at Zela (veni, vidi, vici). | 6 |
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| 46 |
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| After returning to Rome, Caesar crossed to Africa and defeated the Pompeians, led by Pompey's son Sextus, at Thapsus. M. Cato committed suicide at Utica (hence he was called Uticensis). After four simultaneous triumphs in Rome, Caesar went to Spain where Sextus Pompey had joined his brother Gnaeus. | 7 |
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| 45 |
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| Caesar defeated the Pompeians at Munda, ending armed opposition. Caesar's Reforms. Caesar restored the rights of those proscribed by Sulla; reformed the calendar according to the nearly correct basis of 35614 days per year; provided moderate debt relief; reduced the numbers of those receiving free grain; raised the pay of the army; transferred the collection of Asian taxes from publicani to state officials; raised the numbers of praetors to 16, aediles to 6, and quaestors to 40; increased the size of the senate to 900 (?) by enrolling Italians as well as Roman citizens from Spain and Narbonensis; granted Roman citizenship to all Cisalpine Gaul; and founded some 20 extra-Italian colonies for veterans and the poor. Caesar's constitutional position was eventually that of a monarch. He held the consulship in 48, 46, 45 (alone), and 44. He was dictator in 48 and 47 and in 46 was madepraefectus morum and dictator for ten years; in 44, dictator for life. | 8 |
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| 44 |
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| The Assassination of Caesar. Once in power, Caesar faced a dilemma. The Roman aristocratic tradition of competition, patronage, and exclusivity had led to two generations of violence and war and had to be curbed. But to govern, Caesar also needed the administrative experience of the senatorial class. He knew his autocratic behavior offended, so he attempted to win over senatorial sentiment with his friendship, money, and clemency—to no avail. A broadly based senatorial conspiracy, which included some of Caesar's old comrades and friends and was led by C. Cassius Longinus and M. Junius Brutus, murdered the dictator at a meeting of the senate on the Ides (15) of March. The conspirators had no plan, and the situation soon passed to men who controlled troops—M. Ameilius Lepidus, Caesar's magister equitum, and M. Antonius (Antony), Caesar's co-consul. But Antony's attempt to gain power without bloodshed, by compromising with the conspirators, was foiled by the appearance of Caesar's eighteen-year-old great nephew, heir, and adopted son, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. Octavian publicly attacked Antony for treating with Caesar's killers and privately negotiated with optimate senators. Supported by Cicero and others, who hoped to use him against Antony, Octavian illegally raised an army among Caesar's veterans in Campania. Meanwhile, Brutus and Cassius had left Italy to raise an army in the east. When Antony marched north to claim his province of Cisalpine Gaul, Cicero attacked him in a series of speeches (the Philippics). | 9 |
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| 43 |
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| The consuls Hirtius and Pansa proceeded against Antony, and the senate gave Octavian a special propraetorian command. Antony was bested at Mutina and forced to retire north, but the consuls were killed, leaving Octavian in command. The nineteen-year-old Octavian then demanded the vacant consulship. When refused, he marched his army on Rome, where he forced a special election. As consul, Octavian abandoned his optimate friends, passed laws calling for the arrest of Caesar's assassins, and began to negotiate with Antony, who had joined Lepidus in northern Italy. | 10 |
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| 43, Nov |
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| The Second Triumvirate. A lex Titia made Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian a commission of three to reform the state for five years. In essence, they were three dictators who would control elections, legislation, and armies. The triumvirs instituted widespread proscriptions inspired by political enmity and the need for money. Three hundred senators, including Cicero, and 2,000 equestrians were executed. | 11 |
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| 42 |
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| Lepidus remained in the west, while Antony and Octavian crossed to Thrace and defeated the armies of Cassius and Brutus at Philippi. Antony was the hero of a battle in which some 40,000 Romans died. The victors divided the Empire, giving Africa to Lepidus; Gaul, the east, and the prospect of a glorious Parthian war to Antony; Spain, Sicily, and the problem of settling 50,000 veterans in Italy to Octavian. | 12 |
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