When Caesar reached Gaul in March of 58, he was not unpracticed in the arts of war, but it is important to understand the nature and extent of his preparation to lead a Roman army. Prior to the age of Caesar, military glory paved the way for a young aristocrat seeking to make his mark at Rome (Rosenstein 2006a, 2007). Although a relatively small group of noble families (and a few outsiders) dominated the Republic’s highest offices, entry into the ruling elite was not strictly speaking hereditary. Rather, the members of each family’s new generation had to validate their claims to the offices and honors their ancestors had held by measuring up to the standards the latter had set. Foremost among these was adherence to an aristocratic ethos that stressed an intense dedication to the welfare of the res publica and the relentless pursuit of honor in its service. During the third and second centuries, this meant striving to win a reputation for bravery and valorous deeds on the field of battle. The gloria and fama that accrued were universally judged to demonstrate the superior virtus that was the aristocracy’s hallmark and that fit a man to lead his fellow citizens and conduct the Republic’s weightiest affairs. Ten years of military service were required before young aristocrats could stand for public office, and this period not only provided ample scope for them to demonstrate their prowess at war but also an opportunity at least to observe how campaigns were organized and military operations conducted. During this period, young aristocrats served in the cavalry and typically won election once or twice to the post of military tribune where, as junior officers of the legions, they undertook a number of important responsibilities. Success during this military service in time led to success in future competition to win election to public offices, including those that would entail leading Roman armies to war - the consulate and at least occasionally the praetorship.
By the early first century, when Caesar was coming of age, this system had changed. Roman citizens no longer formed the Republic’s cavalry, and ten years of military service no longer constituted a prerequisite to public office. These developments had their roots in the practicalities of Roman warfare but stemmed also from alterations in the aristocratic ethos itself (McCall 2002). However, the cachet of military glory remained strong, and young aristocrats still sought it even though they now spent less time at war than their forebears. Since they no longer served as cavalrymen, and infantry service would have been beneath their dignity, they were attached to an army’s commander as ‘‘tentmates’’ (contubernales) where they might function as quasi-staff officers and where proximity enabled them to observe closely how a general went about his business (Badian, chapter 2, p. 17). This sort of learning by close observation was very much in keeping with Roman traditions of education.
Caesar’s early career falls very much into this pattern. In 81, at the age of 19, he became the ‘‘tentmate’’ of the praetor M. Minucius Thermus, who was at that time besieging Mytilene in Asia Minor. Thermus dispatched him to bring a naval contingent from Rome’s ally Nicomedes, the king of Bithynia, to assist in the siege. The following year when Roman forces at last stormed the city Caesar took part in the attack, in the course of which he won the ‘‘civic crown’’ (corona civica) (Suet. lul. 2). The decoration was not trivial. A wreath of oak leaves, it was awarded to a Roman citizen for saving the life of a fellow citizen in battle with exceptional gallantry: the recipient had to have stood his ground without retreating by as much as a step and killed the enemy threatening the citizen being rescued (Gell. NA 5.6.13). Caesar’s feat is our earliest indication of the extraordinary personal bravery he was later to display time and again in command. We next catch sight of him two years later, again in the East, when he served briefly under P. Servilius Vatia in the campaign against the Cilician pirates (Suet. lul. 3). Pirates perhaps also figured in his next military assignment, for he may have served as a senior staff officer ( legatus) for M. Antonius who in 73 was battling sea robbers in Crete (Syll. 748.22: see chapter 2, p. 19). Finally, in 71 Caesar won election to the military tribunate, although we do not know where or under whom he served, or whether he saw combat (Suet. Iul. 5; Plut. Caes. 5.1). In all, Caesar spent perhaps a little over six years learning to wage war, assuming he remained with the armies in the East during 79 and 72. During this time (and perhaps subsequently) he may also have been reading military treatises by Greek and Roman authors and imbibing their precepts (Lendon 1999).
Of equal or perhaps greater note are two further episodes abroad. One was the sequel to his capture by pirates in 75. After he was ransomed and released and despite being a civilian and a comparatively young man by Roman standards, he quickly raised a naval force from Roman allies in the region and with it attacked and captured his former captors, whom he put to death (Suet. Iul. 4.1-2; Plut. Caes. 1.4-2.4). In the following year while Caesar was studying rhetoric on the island of Rhodes, King Mithridates of Pontis invaded the Roman province of Asia Minor, which encompassed Rhodes. In response, Caesar organized local forces, once again on his own initiative, and drove off the contingent of Mithridates’ army threatening the region (Suet. Iul. 4.2; see chapter 2, p. 19). Both episodes reveal that Caesar had absorbed important lessons about the organization and conduct of campaigns during his apprenticeships with Thermus, Vatia, and Antonius and perhaps from his reading. More importantly, they are our earliest evidence of the boldness and speed that were to be the hallmarks of Caesar’s conduct of military operations in Gaul and elsewhere.
However, it was not his military laurels that brought Caesar his first command but politics. The key to becoming a general at Rome lay in election to high public office, and to win required far more than a good or even an outstanding service record. As noted above, the ways in which aristocrats defined themselves and won renown were changing in the later second and first centuries, and martial virtus, while always respected, no longer trumped other claims to preferment. Sallust in his famous description of Caesar prior to his election to the consulate conspicuously omits any mention of his military achievements (Cat. 53.6-54.5). Throughout his twenties, when he was not at war Caesar was laying the non-military foundations of future political success. He honed his skill as a public speaker, undertook high-profile prosecutions, lavished money and favors, and in a variety of other ways made himself conspicuous and won favor with the great many people, both powerful and humble, on whose support his hopes for election to the praetorship and ultimately the consulate depended (see Gruen, chapter 3 of this volume).
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