Caesar's planned invasion of the Parthian Empire
| Caesar's planned invasion of Parthia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Roman-Parthian Wars | |||||
 The invasion was to begin in Parthia then move to Scythia. Dacia is located to the west of Scythia. | |||||
| |||||
| Belligerents | |||||
 Roman Republic | Parthian Empire | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
|
Julius Caesar | Orodes II | ||||
Caesar's planned invasion of the Parthian Empire refers to Gaius Julius Caesar's plan in 44 BC for conquest of the Parthian Empire (also known as the Arsacid Empire). However, due to his assassination, the invasion never took place.[1][2] The majority of our information about the planned invasion comes from Plutarch, whose accuracy has been questioned.[3]
Invasion plan and preparations[edit]
The expedition was planned to take multiple years. The army was to initially invade Parthia from Armenia. Once Parthia had been conquered the army would move through the Caucasus, to attack Scythia and return to Italy after conquering Germania.[4] The construction of a canal through the isthmus of Corinth, for which Anienus had been placed in charge,[5] and the pacification of Dacia were to occur during the expedition.[6] It was speculated by Christopher Pelling in his translation of Plutarch's work that Dacia was going to be Caesar's first and main target.[7]
By 44 BC Caesar had begun a mass mobilization, sixteen legions and ten thousand cavalry had been sent to Macedonia to train.[8][9] Octavius was sent to Apollonia (within modern Albania), ostensibly as a student, to remain in contact with the army.[9] As Caesar planned to be away for some time be reordered the senate[9] and also insured that all magistrates, consuls, and tribunes would be appointed by him during his absence.[10]
Motivation for invasion[edit]
The public pretense for the expedition was that less than ten years prior in 53 BC an invasion of the Parthian Empire had been attempted by the Roman concul Marcus Crassus.[9] It ended in failure and his death at the Battle of Carrhae. This required revenge in order to satisfy the Roman sense of honor.
As Rome in 45 BC was still politically divided after the Civil War, Marcus Cicero tried to lobby Caesar to postpone the Parthian invasion and solve his domestic problems instead. Following a similar line of thought in June of that year Caesar temporarily wavered in his plans to leave with the expedition.[11] However, Caesar wished to outdo his prior career of successful military enterprises for a variety of reasons.[12] A victorious campaign would have secured Caesar's lifelong dictatorship and as Plutarch wrote he would have "completed this circuit of his empire, which would then be bounded on all sides by the ocean".[13] It has also been proposed that Caesar knew of the threats against him and felt that leaving Rome and being in the company of a loyal army would be safer, personally and politically.[11]
Consequence[edit]
In order to support a royal title for Caesar a rumor was spread in the lead up to the planned invasion. It alleged that it had been prophesied that only a Roman king could defeat Parthia.[9] As Caesar's greatest internal opposition came from those that believed he wanted royal power, this strengthened the conspiracy against him.[14] The assassination occurred on 15 March 44 BC on the day the senate was to debate granting Caesar the title of king, for the war with Parthia.[9] Some of these aspects of Caesars planned kingship may have been invented after the assassination in order to justly the act.[3]
After Caesar's death Mark Antony successfully vied for control of the legions from the planned invasion, still stationed in Macedonia and he temporarily took control of that province in order to do so.[10] From 40 to 33 BC Rome and Antony in particular would wage an unsuccessful war with Parthia.[15]
Plutarch's reliability[edit]
Plutarch's Parallel Lives was written with the intention of finding correlations between the lives of famous Romans and Greeks,[16] for example Caesar was paired with Alexander the Great.[17] Some academics have theorized that this pairing led to exaggerations in the presented invasion plan in order to criticize Caesar for his unbridled ambition.[17] The deployment of the army to Macedonia near the Dacian frontier and lack of military preparation in Syria have also been used to lend support for this hypothesis.[18][7]
References[edit]
- ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 58.6
- ↑ Vakili, Sherwin. Political History of the Parthian Empire. pp. 681, 682, 683. Search this book on
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Townend, G. B. (1983). "A Clue to Caesar's unfulfilled Intentions". Latomus. 42: 601–606.
- ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 58.6,7
- ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 58.8
- ↑ Freeman, Philip. Julius Caesar. Simon and Schuster (2008) ISBN 978-0743289542 Search this book on ., p.347-349
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pelling, Christopher (2011). Plutarch Caesar: Translated with an Introduction and Commentary. OUP Oxford. pp. 438–439. ISBN 9780198149040. Search this book on
- ↑ "46- Sic Semper Tyrannis". The History of Rome. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Heitland, W. E. (2013). A Short History of the Roman Republic. Cambridge University Press. pp. 469–471. ISBN 9781107621039. Search this book on
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Abbott, Frank Frost (1901). A History and Description of Roman Political Institutions. Adegi Graphics LLC. pp. 137–139. ISBN 9780543927491. Search this book on
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Griffin, Miriam (2009). A Companion to Julius Caesar. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9781444308457. Search this book on
- ↑ Campbell, Brian (2002). "War and diplomacy: Rome and Parthia, 31 BC–AD 235". War and Society in the Roman World. Chapter 9. doi:10.4324/9780203075548.
- ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 58.7
- ↑ Plutarch, Caesar 60
- ↑ Bunson, Matthew (2014-05-14). Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 9781438110271. Search this book on
- ↑ Stadter, Philip A. "Plutarch's Comparison of Pericles and Fabius Maximus". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. 16(1): 77–85.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Buszard, Bradley (2008-07-11). "Caesar's Ambition: A Combined Reading of Plutarch's Alexander-Caesar and Pyrrhus-Marius". Transactions of the American Philological Association. 138 (1): 185–215. doi:10.1353/apa.0.0004. ISSN 2575-7199.
- ↑ Mcdermott, W. C. (1982). "Caesar's Projected Dacian-Parthian Expedition". Ancient society (13): 223–232. ISSN 0066-1619.
Sources[edit]
- Perrin, Bernadotte (1919), Plutarch's The Parallel Lives (Caesar), Loeb Classical Library edition, p. 609
External Links[edit]
- History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan : contextualizing and describing invasion plans
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