Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- PART I FROM SULLA TO CATILINE
- PART II FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
- 9 The ‘Three-Headed Monster’
- 10 The Consequences of the Triumvirate: The View of Asinius Pollio
- 11 The First Consulship (59 BC)
- 12 An Inconvenient Ally: Clodius
- 13 Semiramis in Gaul
- 14 The Conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC)
- 15 The Black Book of the Gallic Campaign
- PART III THE LONG CIVIL WAR
- PART IV FROM THE CONSPIRACY TO THE TRIUMPH OF CAESARISM
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- Index
13 - Semiramis in Gaul
from PART II - FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- PART I FROM SULLA TO CATILINE
- PART II FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
- 9 The ‘Three-Headed Monster’
- 10 The Consequences of the Triumvirate: The View of Asinius Pollio
- 11 The First Consulship (59 BC)
- 12 An Inconvenient Ally: Clodius
- 13 Semiramis in Gaul
- 14 The Conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC)
- 15 The Black Book of the Gallic Campaign
- PART III THE LONG CIVIL WAR
- PART IV FROM THE CONSPIRACY TO THE TRIUMPH OF CAESARISM
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The process of granting to Caesar the provinces of Gaul and Illyricum was not without its difficulties. The Senate's original decision, a provocative one, taken before Caesar had been elected, had to be annulled and a new allocation made in its place. Plutarch's account is eloquent in its brevity:
Pompey … filled the Forum with armed men and helped the people to pass Caesar's laws and to give him, as his consular province to be held for five years, Gaul on both sides of the Alps, together with Illyricum and an army of four legions.
It is here that Plutarch places his report of the ejection of Cato from the Senate, a scene which Suetonius places in another context (following the expulsion of Bibulus from the Forum). On the allocation of the provinces it is Suetonius who provides the most accurate details:
At first, it is true, by the bill of Vatinius he received only Cisalpine Gaul with the addition of Illyricum; but presently he was assigned Gallia Comata as well by the Senate, since the members feared that even if they should refuse it, the people would give him this also.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Julius CaesarThe People's Dictator, pp. 88 - 97Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2007