Lucius Iulius Caesar (Consul 90 BC)

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Lucius Iulius Caesar (* around 135 BC; † 87 BC ) was a politician of the late Roman Republic and a relative of the later dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar . He fought in the Social War (during which he 90 v. Chr. As consul officiated) and tried to Rome's allies by the award of Roman citizenship to regain. After the end of the war, as censor , he headed the division of new citizens into electoral districts . He died like his brother Gaius during the conquest of Rome by the troops of Marius . His daughter Julia was the mother of Mark Antony , his son of the same name was 64 BC. Chr. Consul .

Life

Caesar was born around 135 BC. Born as the son of a Roman patrician of the same name and a Popilia. His younger brother Gaius Iulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus was also a politician and also emerged as a tragedy poet and a skilled speaker. Sextus , the 91 BC The consulate, and Gaius Iulius Caesar , father of the dictator of the same name, were probably his nephews. The family of the Iulii Caesares , which traced their origins to Iulus , the son of Aeneas , and thus to the goddess Venus , had achieved political importance during the troubled times after the attempts at reform by the Gracchi and the rise of Marius . Lucius Julius Caesar also embarked on a political career that would lead him to a consulate and censorship .

The beginning of his career is in the dark, all that is known is that he fell into the fall of the Tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus in 100 BC. Was involved and initially unsuccessfully applied for the bursary . He could also have been a mint master . Nevertheless, he was most likely quaestor and also aedile , since he was 95 BC. BC (possibly not until 94 BC) was praetor and thus held an office that follows bursary and aedility in the cursus honorum , the traditional Roman official career. As praetor, Lucius Julius Caesar was governor of the province of Macedonia with the rank of proconsul and finally 90 BC. As the successor of his nephew full consul. His brother Gaius was aedile that year.

These were difficult times for Rome. His allies rose against Roman supremacy and had to be defeated in a four-year war of allies, during which Sextus Julius Caesar fell during a siege. Lucius successfully fought the rebellious Samnites , to whom his nephew Sextus had previously been defeated, and was able to persuade the allied cities, which had not yet revolted against Rome, to stand still by granting Roman citizenship . In the following year, this offer was even expanded to include opponents who were willing to compromise. The war of allies was finally ended victoriously, albeit at the price of considerable concessions. Lucius Julius Caesar, together with Publius Licinius Crassus , the father of the triumvir , was entrusted with the task of assigning the many new citizens to their constituencies as censor .

In the east, King Mithridates of Pontus had usurped control of large parts of Asia Minor . The Romans first commissioned the general Sulla , then his rival Marius to fight him (see Mithridatic Wars ). The Sulla, deprived of his command, marched to Rome and expelled the followers of Marius, who had to go into exile. Caesar's brother Gaius, apparently supported by the new strong man Sulla, applied for the consulate without having previously been praetor. This irregular request caused a lot of bad blood in the Roman upper class. No sooner had Sulla left Rome than Marius conquered in 87 BC. BC with the help of the likewise banished Lucius Cornelius Cinna the city. This led to bloody street fighting, which Lucius and his brother Gaius fell victim to. Her young great-nephew Gaius Iulius Caesar, on the other hand, sided with the new rulers and married Cinna's daughter two years later. Iulia , the daughter of Lucius Julius Caesar, married the plebeian Marcus Antonius Creticus and had three sons with him, including the later triumvir Marcus Antonius .

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Remarks

  1. ↑ On the latter, Cicero , Pro Cn. Plancio 51.
  2. ↑ However, it is unclear whether the corresponding denarii refer to him or another Lucius Julius Caesar, cf. Friedrich Münzer: Iulius 142 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, Col. 465-468, here Col. 466.
  3. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae 12,8,232; 12,8,241.
personal data
SURNAME Julius Caesar, Lucius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caesar, Lucius Iulius; Julius Caesar, Lucius; Caesar, Lucius Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician of the late Roman Republic, great-uncle Julius Caesar
DATE OF BIRTH around 135 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 87 BC Chr.
Place of death Rome