The Emperor Series Books 1-5. Conn Iggulden

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      There is very little historical information on the earliest years of Julius Caesar’s life. As far as possible, I have given him the sort of childhood that a young boy from a minor Roman family could have had. Some of his skills can be inferred from later accomplishments, of course. For example, swimming saved his life in Egypt, when he was fifty-two years old. The biographer Suetonius said that he had great skill with swords and horses as well as surprising powers of endurance, preferring to march rather than ride and going bareheaded in all weathers. I am sorry to say that Renius is fictional, though it was customary to employ experts in various fields. We know of one tutor from Alexandria who taught Caesar rhetoric and we can read Cicero’s reluctant praise of Caesar’s ability to speak skilfully and movingly when needed. His father died when Julius was only fifteen and it is true that Julius married Cinna’s daughter Cornelia shortly afterwards, apparently for love.

      Although Marius was an uncle on his father’s side rather than Aurelia’s as I have it, the general was very much the sort of character presented here. In flagrant opposition to law and custom, he was Consul seven times in all. Where previously it was possible to join a legion only if a man owned land and had an income from it, Marius abolished that qualification and enjoyed fanatical loyalty from his soldiers. It was Marius who made the eagle the symbol of all Roman legions.

      The civil war between Sulla and Marius forms a major part of this book, but I found it necessary to simplify the action for dramatic purposes. Cornelius Sulla did worship Aphrodite and parts of his lifestyle scandalised even the tolerant Roman society. However, he was an extremely able general who had once served under Marius in an African campaign for which they both claimed credit. The two men disliked each other intensely.

      When Mithridates rebelled against Roman occupation in the east, both Marius and Sulla wanted to move against him, seeing the campaign as an easy one and a chance to gain great riches. In part from personal motives, Sulla led his men against Rome and Marius in 88 BC, claiming that he would ‘free it from tyrants’. Marius was forced to flee to Africa, returning later with the army he had gathered there. The Senate were simply unable to cope with such powerful leaders and allowed him back, declaring Sulla an enemy of the state while he was away fighting Mithridates. Marius was elected Consul for the last time, but died during his term, leaving the dithering Senate in a difficult situation. They sought peace at first, but Sulla was in a strong position, after a crushing victory in Greece. He did let Mithridates live, but confiscated vast wealth, looting ancient treasures. I compressed these years, having Marius dying in the first attack, which may be an unfairly quick ending for such a charismatic man.

      When Sulla returned from the Greek campaign, he led his armies to quick victory against those loyal to the Senate, finally marching on the city again in 82 BC. He demanded the role of Dictator and it was in this role that he met Julius Caesar for the first time, brought before Sulla as one of those who had supported Marius. Despite the fact that Julius flatly refused to divorce Cornelia, Sulla did not have him killed. The Dictator is reported to have said that he saw ‘Many Mariuses in this Caesar’, which if true is something of an insight into the man’s character, as I hope I have explored in this book.

      Sulla’s time as Dictator was a brutal period for the city. The unique position he held and abused had been designed as an emergency measure for times of war, similar in concept to Martial СКАЧАТЬ