Sextus Iulius Caesar (Quaestor 48 BC)

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Sextus Iulius Caesar (* before 78 BC; † 46 BC ) was a politician and military officer in the late phase of the Roman Republic and a relative and close friend of Gaius Iulius Caesar .

Sextus was either the son or the grandson of the consul of the same name in 91 BC. In the year 57 BC He was made a flamen Quirinalis by Gaius Iulius Caesar . He accompanied his famous relative in 49 BC. BC probably as a military tribune to Spain and accepted the surrender of the Pompeian legate Marcus Terentius Varro . At the latest in the year 48 BC. He was quaestor .

That Caesar trusted him is shown by the fact that, after he died in July 47 BC. From Alexandria to Tarsus was appointed governor of Syria . In this position, Sextus Caesar worked closely with Antipater and his son Herod . He supported the latter against the high priest John Hyrcanus II , appointed by Pompey as the ethnarch of Judea, and helped him to become governor of Samaria and Koile Syria . He was also supposed to prepare Caesar's planned Parthian campaign . Luciano Canfora suspects that Caesar Sextus was born after the final break with Pompey in 49 BC at the latest. In his will to heir.

According to Appian , however, Sextus was so hated by his legions that in the spring of 46 BC. Units under the leadership of Quintus Caecilius Bassus mutinied and murdered him. Canfora attributes this negative portrayal of Sextus 'character in Appian to Augustus ' autobiography . According to other sources, namely, to which Appian himself points out and which agree with Flavius ​​Josephus and Cassius Dio , Bassus was a (former) follower of Pompey. According to Cassius Dio, after a direct attack on Sextus had failed, Bassus had incited parts of his troops to rebellion and to murder their commander by means of a forged letter according to which Gaius Julius Caesar had fallen in Africa. The death of the relative was a severe blow for Caesar, as he lost a close friend and possible heir. In addition, with the murder of Sextus Julius Caesar, a crisis that had been smoldering for years began in the Asian provinces of Rome.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gaius Iulius Caesar, Commentarii in bello civili 2:20 .
  2. ↑ Flavius ​​Josephus, Jüdischer Krieg 1,10,205; 1,10,211-213 [1] ; Josephus, Jüdische Antiquities 14,160–180; 14.268-270.
  3. ↑ Luciano Canfora: Caesar. The democratic dictator. A biography. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-51869-9 , p. 240 f.
  4. ^ Appian, Civil War 3.77; 4.58 (English).
  5. ↑ Canfora: Caesar. P. 253 f.
  6. ^ Appian, Civil War 3.77.
  7. ↑ Josephus: Jewish War 1,10,216.
  8. ↑ Cassius Dio 47, 26: 3-7 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Iulius Caesar, Sextus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caesar, Sextus Iulius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Politician of the late Roman Republic
DATE OF BIRTH before 78 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 46 BC Chr.