Yesterday, I wrote about the Roman Senate or the Cursus Honorum. I briefly spoke about the various offices that could be held in the Senate, so today let us look at Caeser's rise through the Senate.
Julius Caeser is remembered to this day for his contributions to the rise of Rome as an Empire. His military campaigns in Gaul are legendary, but few people know about the politics except for his eventual assassination.
Quaestor
Becoming a politician in Rome was very similar to modern politics in that every citizen had the opportunity to make it to the Senate. Though rare, even plebians (Lower class) could gain a seat in the Senate. Julius Caeser came from a fairly wealthy background so getting into politics was an obvious choice for him. Caeser had a hard time in politics from the start as his family had enemies, but Caeser was brilliant at manoeuvring using the people to gain support. (Think threats and Bribery)
Becoming Quaestor had little power but being a member of the Senate, it meant that service to Rome was expected. Each year, 20 Quaestors would be elected and would be assigned various roles. Most Quaestors were nothing more than glorified beaurocrats. Caeser was assigned to Hyspania Ulterior to serve as a deputy for the Governor of the time. As a newly conquered province, unrest was still quite high so Caeser took full advantage of the situation. As the governor was constantly leading an army to quell a rebellion, the job of administering the province fell solely on Caeser. His success was limited at best but he gained a great knowledge of the area and the tribes during his term. He later used this knowledge when he became governor to subjugate the province completely!
Aedile
An Aedile was a unique position in the Senate as it was only an optional step in becoming a Praetor, but few rose further without this invaluable position. Aediles were in charge of the maintenance of the temples, but more importantly, festivals to the gods! Festivals were important in Rome as it not only celebrated the gods, it offered many distractions from the problems of the day. Naturally, Aediles could easily leverage this position to gain favour amongst the citizenry...
As only 4 positions were open per year, Caeser got lucky when he gained this office. Although the Senate would supply a budget to each Aedile for festivities, the budget was often supplemented from the Aediles own wealth in order to throw even more lavish festivals. This was an extremely populous move and since Caeser's wealth was quite meagre compared to other Senators, his enemies thought it a strange move that he would try serve as an Aedile. He was granted the position to mock him...
Caeser was not the type to let this get to him though. He had wealthy friends that were eager to help him in rise to power. By almost bankrupting himself, Caeser was able to not only please the public, but surpassing all expectation, he gained an incredible amount of popularity.
To be continued...
Tommorow I will discuss Caeser's time as Praetor and Consul.
Here is my article discussing the offices of the Cursus Honorum: https://steemit.com/history/@dracosalieri/roman-politics-the-senate