Pompey and Crassus as consuls. Full powers are restored to the tribunate, after their abolition by Sulla. The prosecution of Verres.
69
The battle and sack of Tigranocerta.
68
Lucullus’ army mutinies. The birth of Cleopatra.
67
Pompey sweeps the seas clear of pirates.
66
Lucullus is replaced by Pompey as proconsul of the East. Cicero as praetor.
65
Caesar as aedile.
64
Pompey establishes Syria as a new Roman province. Cato as quaestor.
63
Cicero as consul. Caesar becomes
Pontifex Maximus.
Lucullus celebrates his triumph. Pompey storms Jerusalem. The death of Mithridates. The Catilinarian conspiracy, and execution of the ringleaders. Catiline raises an army in northern Italy. The birth of Octavian.
62
Caesar as praetor. The defeat and death of Catiline. Pompey returns to Italy. Clodius profanes the rites of the Good Goddess.
61
Caesar as governor in Spain. The trial and acquittal of Clodius. Pompey’s third triumph.
60
Caesar returns to Rome. The formation of an informal alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus.
59
Caesar and Bibulus as consuls. ‘The First Triumvirate’. Pompey marries Julia, Caesar’s daughter. Clodius becomes a plebeian, and is elected to the tribunate.
58
Caesar campaigns against the Helvetians. Clodius as tribune. Cicero leaves Rome for exile, Cato for Cyprus.
57
Caesar campaigns against the Belgae. Street fighting between the gangs of Clodius and Milo. Cicero returns from exile.
56
The trial and acquittal of Caelius. The conference of Lucca, and the renewal of the Triumvirate. Cato returns to Rome from Cyprus.
55
Pompey and Crassus as consuls. Pompey dedicates his stone theatre. Caesar crosses the Rhine, then leads an expedition to Britain.
54
Domitius and Appius as consuls, Cato as praetor. Crassus leaves for Syria. Caesar leads a second expedition to Britain. The death of Pompey’s wife, Julia.
53
The battle of Carrhae, and the death of Crassus.
52
The murder of Clodius, and conviction of Milo. Pompey as sole consul until August. He marries Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio. Caelius as tribune. Vercingetorix leads Gaul in revolt against Caesar, but is defeated at Alesia, and surrenders.
50
Curio as tribune. The death of Hortensius. Pompey is called upon by the consul Marcellus to ‘rescue the Republic’.
49
Caesar crosses the Rubicon. The Senate evacuates Rome. Domitius surrenders Corfinium. Pompey leaves Italy for Greece. The defeat and death of Curio in Africa. Caesar defeats the Pompeian armies in Spain, and is elected dictator.
48
The deaths of Milo and Caelius. The battle of Pharsalus. The murder of Pompey. Caesar trapped in Alexandria.
47
Caesar’s cruise with Cleopatra down the Nile. The birth of Caesarion. Caesar defeats Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, returns to Italy, then crosses to Africa.
46
Caesar defeats Scipio. Cato commits suicide, Scipio drowns. Caesar celebrates four triumphs. Cleopatra arrives in Rome. Caesar leaves for Spain.
45
Caesar defeats the sons of Pompey, and returns to Rome. He publishes his
Anti-Cato.
44
Caesar is appointed dictator for life. Antony as consul. Caesar is assassinated on the ides of March. Octavian arrives in Rome. Brutus and Cassius leave for the East. Cicero delivers a series of speeches against Antony.
43
Hirtius and Pansa as consuls. They are killed in battle with Antony. The formation of the Second Triumvirate: Antony, Octavian and Lepidus. Octavian’s first consulship. The proscriptions. The death of Cicero.
42
The deification of Caesar. The battle of Philippi: the suicides of Brutus and Cassius.
41
Antony meets Cleopatra, then winters with her at Alexandria. Land sequestrations in Italy. War between Octavian and Fulvia.
40
Fulvia flees Italy, and dies. Antony and Octavian make peace, and Antony marries Octavian’s sister, Octavia. Cleopatra gives birth to twins.
37
Antony marries Cleopatra.
36
Lepidus is dropped from the Triumvirate. Sextus Pompeius is defeated, and flees to the East.
35
Death of Sextus Pompeius.
34
Antony hands out kingdoms and provinces to his children in Alexandria.
32
Octavia is divorced by Antony. Octavian seizes his will, and presents it to the Senate.
31
The battle of Actium.
30
The suicide of Antony and Cleopatra. Octavian captures Alexandria, and executes Caesarion. Ptolemaic rule in Egypt is brought to an end.
29
Virgil starts work on
The Aeneid.
27
Octavian is given the title ‘Augustus’. The Republic is ‘restored’.
19
The death of Virgil.
AD
14
The death of Augustus.
Notes
Unless otherwise stated, author citations refer to the following texts: Appian, The Civil Wars; Asconius, Commentaries of Five Speeches by Cicero; Aulus Gellius, The Attic Nights; Cassius Dio, The Roman History; Catullus, Poems; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History; Florus, The Epitome of Roman History; Livy, The History of Rome; Lucan, The Pharsalia; Lucretius, On the Nature of Things; Macrobius, The Saturnalia; Orosius, The History against the Pagans; Petronius, The Satyricon; Pliny the Elder, The Natural History; Polybius, The Histories; Publilius Syrus, Maxims; Quintilian, The Education of an Orator; Strabo, The Geography; Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings; Velleius Paterculus, The Roman Histories.
Preface
1
Hobbes,
Leviathan
, chapter 29.
2
Hitler’s Table-Talk
, introduced by Hugh Trevor-Roper (1988, Oxford), p. 10.
3
In a review of Hughes-Hallett’s book
Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions
for the
New York Times
(1990).
4
Niccolò Machiavelli,
Discourses on the First Decade of Livy
, 3.43.
5
Sallust,
Catiline
, 8.
6
Velleius Paterculus, 2.36.
1: The Paradoxical Republic
1
Polybius, 6.56.
2
Cicero,
Concerning the Manilian Law