how can someone be hugely popular hero worshipped as a brilliant general and reformer yet hated enough to be killed by the people who knew him best that's the enigma thrown up by the mythic figure of julius caesar so i've come here to rome to try to find something of the complex character who by 55 bc had made as many enemies as he'd won over he was 45 years old he'd had five swashbuckling years away from home indeed it was only the diplomatic immunity of his foreign posting that stood between him and prosecution in rome because he'd only got to the top through bribery and corruption over the next 16 years he'd fight a civil war he'd have a passionate affair with cleopatra he'd take on the mantle of emperor and finally he'd meet his destiny and the assassin's knife on the ides of march [Music] as he approached 50 caesar looked back on an epic career achieved through ruthless ambition relentless work and a strange mixture of charm and brutality [Music] in getting to the top he'd already traveled thousands of miles as governor of gaul he'd fought a brilliant campaign cutting his way through northern europe and then publicized his victories in his own books the gallic wars but he had to stay in gaul because of the charge of corruption he faced back in rome he'd formed an alliance with the other two great romans of the age pompey the great and marcus crassus as part of the so-called triumvirate caesar had ridden roughshod over the senate his methods led to the charges of corruption and meant he had to keep away from rome [Music] but now everything he'd done over the last five years was beginning to unravel caesar thought he'd conquered gore but the gaelic tribes were rebelling as caesar crushed one revolt another broke out in 52 bc the problem became a crisis for the first time caesar met a really dangerous opponent a charismatic young gaelic prince was uniting the disparate tribes his name was versin ghettoricks in the 19th century versus became a symbol of french independence they put up this massive statue to celebrate the man who first brought the people of gaul together [Music] at the time the gauls had no sense of being one nation but they all hated the romans in verse and gatorades they had someone who knew how to fight like caesar he'd actually served in caesar's cavalry he knew that the romans main asset was caesar himself [Music] the rebellion started in winter caesar was here in northern italy keeping in touch with politics in rome his main forces were spread across northern gore but verse in ghettoricks was rousing the tribes here in the middle of gall if caesar ordered his main force south they might have to fight the enemy without him in charge with verse in ghettoricks commanding the valleys and the mountain passes blocked with snow caesar seemed powerless if you want to understand caesar you need to think like him one anything is possible to do what the enemy least expects he only had a small bunch of raw recruits but he ordered them to dig a route through a pass that was two meters deep in snow not only that but they did it in 24 hours they broke through and even though it was such a tiny force they completely panicked the enemy it was an act of strategic brilliance first and gatherings retreated rapidly to the safety of the overn and this brought seize a time to head west reunite with the main force and attack the rebels [Music] but versin ghettorix wasn't finished he was on home ground and he used the weather and the terrain to his advantage [Music] for the first time caesar found himself outmaneuvered caesar crossed and re-crossed the land trying to subdue rebel tribes by hitting at their strongholds but versing ghettoricks harried his extended supply lines rarely giving battle then he made his first and last mistake he allowed caesar to trap him into a direct confrontation it took place here at what is now ali's saren two thousand years ago you would have seen the great ramparts of elysia a massive gallic hill fort verson get rich had botched an attack on caesar's cavalry and was forced to withdraw here with his eighty thousand men as caesar closed the net versus getariks sent out a desperate call for reinforcements versus gatorics and his men were crammed into the fort on the top of the hill over there along with the men women and children who lived there and when his reinforcements arrived they set up on that hill over there up to a quarter of a million of them so caesar's 70 000 legionaries in the valley down there were hopelessly outnumbered and they've got two problems they needed to keep versus gatherings in and keep the relieving forces out the solution another vast engineering feat they completely surrounded the town with two immense lines of fortifications first an inner wall to stop anyone getting out then another wall on the outside to defend from outer attack in these infrared photographs you can still clearly see the two lines but it meant the romans were spread terribly thin it wasn't clear who was besieging who elysia was make or break there were no half measures with caesar and no mercy for the gauls trapped in the hill fort the food ran out one of verse and getarich's lieutenants suggested they kill the old people and eat them verse and getrix overruled him and sent all the civilians men women and children down the hill to avoid the final conflict caesar refused to let them through and they starved to death here in no man's land alicia is a terrific danger it must be said um it's a very big force inside the hillthought and there's an even bigger force that's coming to the relief there's a very big army on both sides caesar's gonna have to fight on both sides at once yeah it's a terrific risk but there's terrific amounts to gain as well because if he can win this one it will be clear that he is the master of goal the romans stretched over ten miles of defenses were outnumbered nearly five to one for four solid days the gauls and the romans slogged it out it could have gone either way then caesar himself led a surprise assault and the gauls collapsed after the surrender verson getrix was taken to rome in chains to await his fate [Music] every roman who'd survived was given a prisoner to keep or sell as a slave [Music] there was still mopping up to do but elysia broke the back of resistance all gaul was now roman territory [Music] caesar had rewritten the map of rome's dominions the great gaelic hill forts like elysia were replaced with roman settlements miniature roams with their own forum and temple nice and neat thanks to caesar the french have a latin language and europe is a classical not a celtic [Music] culture caesar had surpassed the achievements of rome's greatest living general his ally pompey but pompey didn't like that they were heading for a showdown by the time he'd conquered gaul caesar was in his late forties after years of hard campaigning he was tough thin and fit although he suffered from mild epilepsy he was also vain he was so embarrassed by his thinning black hair that he'd started to comb it forward from the back to cover the bald patch like a roman comb over but the major crisis of his middle age was only too real back in rome things hadn't been going so sweetly caesar had survived so far because of his alliance with the millionaire crassus and the great general pompey but now relations had grown strained and broken crassus had been killed on campaign in asia while another death had shattered caesar's alliance with pompey [Music] pompey had married caesar's only daughter the two men were united by their devotion to her but she died in childbirth the grieving pompey became distant he was jealous of caesar's success and threatened by his military might he'd been happy to help caesar's career but not at the expense of rome's interests the rivalry soon degenerated into gang warfare fought out on the streets by hired thugs the senate split into factions lining up behind two massive egos each with their own army at their disposal in 50 bc the crisis reached boiling point caesar's time in gaul was up the consuls demanded that he return to rome lay down his post and face the charges that have been hanging over his head for 10 years rome waited to see how caesar would react he was a brooding presence waiting with his forces on italy's northern border if he was to resign everything he would be a private citizen and open to attack for all of his actions like he could be attacked for his actions in 59 bc as consul because they were illegal and all of his actions in waging war in ghaul aren't entirely given the rubber stamp of approval by the senate and people who wrote they're not completely illegal he could also be tried for extortion so in a way he has really one choice which is if he's gonna stay in command of this vast army is to actually just take it with it to rome the boundary between caesar's province and roman soil where troops weren't allowed was the river rubicon if he stayed north of the river caesar retained the power base of his army as soon as he crossed south he'd automatically become a private citizen and if he brought his troops with him he'd be committing treason against the roman people [Music] by crossing the rubicon caesar would give us not one but two phrases meaning no going back caesar could have ducked out of the fight he could have obeyed the law he could have avoided the death of the many many roman citizens who fought each other over the next six years but he didn't he centered his own destiny prevailed on the 11th of january 49 bc he arrived at this little bridge just before dawn in a closed carriage the rest of his men had gone on ahead even now he could have avoided the conflict he thought for a moment and then he said aliyah yaktar est the die is cast he crossed the bridge and when he got to here he was at war the bitter conflict would last five years and cover thousands of miles but caesar started as the second favorite he had his own troops but pompey with the blessing of the senate had the bulk of the roman army and the navy but the sudden ferocity of caesar's move spooked his enemies as he stormed south advancing on rome his reputation alone was enough to cause panic pompey evacuated his troops and fled to the port of brindisiam to escape to greece while caesar came home [Music] he hadn't been to rome for nine years but neither he nor the senate had changed much during that time as a matter of form he requested funds for the prosecution of his war against pompey and when they refused he broke into the treasury and simply helped himself pompey had gone to greece caesar moved 600 miles in the opposite direction to spain trying to ensure that he wouldn't be out flanked by pompey's legion stationed there once he'd quelled pomp his troops there he made the gruelling return and ignoring advice crossed to greece during the winter storms to make an assault on pompey the crucial difference was to be the character of the generals themselves caesar sharp and battle-hardened had utterly loyal troops in contrast pompey hadn't seen active service for 12 years he was 56 suffering from a stomach ulcer caesar came close to defeat in a series of clashes on the west coast but pompey let him escape to the central plains caesar told his men you've survived because you're fighting a man who doesn't know how to grasp victory here outside the town of farsalis pompey the great and julius caesar had their showdown pompey's forces were arrayed under the hills to the west caesar faced him with his back to [Music] farsalis amid the cornfields of greece roman died at the hand of roman pompey was soundly beaten and fled leaving 6 000 dead and 24 000 prisoners he was victorious but caesar knew the real battle was for the hearts and minds of the roman people at the beginning of the civil war pompey declared everyone who's not with me is against me caesar on the other hand is said to have said everyone who's not against me actively is with me and that's a good example of caesar's political awareness because what he did there was open up a way to forgiveness caesar took most of the captured into his own ranks he didn't know it yet but this policy of mercy was to prove fatal among the captured officers he spared was marcus junius brutus the son of caesar's favorite mistress and the man who would have him killed but pompey himself had got away word reached caesar that he was fleeing south across the mediterranean the sensible thing would have been to consolidate his position and return home but the fight with pompey had become a vendetta he set off in hot pursuit against his enemy and they both ended up here in alexandria pompey came seeking asylum but the egyptians knew who'd won and stabbed him in front of his wife when he was being rowed ashore a few days later caesar arrived and was presented with the embalmed head of his enemy and his signet ring caesar might have thought the affair was over in fact it had just begun he'd stepped into a political milestone exotic egypt was run by the ptolemy dynasty because the royal family were thought to be living gods the rulers were always a brother and sister who married each other and ruled jointly although each kept a separate palace incest didn't make them fond of each other there were fierce struggles to get the upper hand when caesar arrived in 47 bc the child king ptolemy xiii was fighting a civil war against his older sister at the time the king had the upper hand he invited caesar to the palace as his guest he wanted to ensure that the man who was now the most powerful roman alive would be his ally a few days later caesar had an unusual visitor a male attendant came in with a laundry sack over his shoulder he dropped it on the floor opened it and out popped the queen she'd come to enlist caesar's help against the king her brother to a man with a robin eye like caesar's this was big time trouble in front of him exotic and available was cleopatra [Music] it's been said that if cleopatra's nose had been shorter the face of the world might have been different 200 years after her time she was the most beautiful woman alive people say but the statues that we have and the coins that we have suggest that what plutarch says about her is closer to the truth what plutarch says it wasn't so much that she was beautiful it was simply her charm it was the way she talked to people that's what made her so captivating that's what really brought man after man with whom she talked into her spell the way she looked well love stories tend always to turn the woman into the most beautiful woman alive she didn't need to be the most beautiful woman alive to achieve what she achieved she was 20 he was 52. there was no real reason for him to stay in egypt but he fell for cleopatra's seductive charms and decided to support her instead of her brother caesar found himself besieged with cleopatra in her palace the war if you could call it that was a desperate struggle all fought round this harbour area of alexandria with both sides trying to get possession of the causeway that ran out to the lighthouse after sending for reinforcements caesar tried to set fire to the egyptian fleet but ended up burning the city's ancient library in another clash he had to jump into the sea to save his life kicking off his heavy clothes he swam back to safety apparently still holding some important documents above the water to keep them dry he nearly lost caesar risked his reputation and his life for cleopatra the seas shifted since caesar's day and the palace where he stayed is submerged in the harbour now archaeologists have begun to reclaim some of the treasures that caesar must have seen daily [Music] with caesar's help cleopatra was the winner of the war once reinforcements arrived there was a decisive confrontation cleopatra's enemies were routed caesar installed her as queen the new king and cleopatra's official husband was her 11 year old brother but the baby cleopatra had later that year was called caesarion after his father proof of what seems to have been a genuine love story because even after the politics were done caesar couldn't bear to leave egypt he joined cleopatra on a romantic cruise down affair with the egyptian queen has fascinated people down the centuries but she gave him a dangerous taste of what it was really like to be a king as they relaxed on their two-month honeymoon cruise down the nile he must have felt he was invincible he'd conquered the world he'd won cleopatra it was cold hard politics that would kill him when he returned to his wife and affairs of state in rome he had no idea that three years later he'd be facing the assassin's knife caesar marched back home in triumph up the appian way but he hadn't come straight from egypt typically when he left cleopatra's arms he diverted to northern turkey where he fought a lightning and devastating campaign against a king who'd been trying to invade the empire in a life crowned with military success he'd surpassed himself to celebrate he wrote one of the most famous sayings of all time vani vidi vici i came i saw i conquered a brilliant epigram from a brilliant man but unfortunately not his own that form of expression is not at all unusual we can find parallels in roman comedy okay and we saw we went away again the greek philosopher democritus said something about the whole of life as being like that we came we lived we went away again what's new about what caesar does is that instead of coming seeing and going away it's i came i saw and i conquered this was early pr caesar wasn't content with mere achievement he wanted to create his own myth at the same time rome is increasingly a political scene where propaganda or images image building of one sort or another is becoming more and more important and the idea of caesar the one who's beloved of his army the man who's always so quick because ariana caleritas on the battlefield the one who carries all before him uh the man who is just got winner printed on the middle of his forehead uh that is very much a caesar creation as soon as he got back to rome he wrote up his own account of the civil war playing on his mercy and his willingness to unite the peoples of rome and he threw the party to end all parties [Music] a returning general was often given an official celebration called a triumph caesar had four all at the same time parading the trophies of his many victories rome had never seen anything like it caesar's legions marched in triumph singing vulgar songs about their oversex general home we bring our bald whoremonger romans lock your wives away all that foreign gold you gave him went his gallic to pay fond insults that you only get after years of affection and respect it wasn't just a show there was prize money for the troops a public feast with 22 000 tables groaning with food gladiators fought to the death athletes ran and wrestled actors performed as a special treat versus ghettoricks who'd been saved up for eight years was paraded in chains before being taken away and strangled quietly in prison no one roman had ever been so powerful and so popular as julius the roman republic was a democracy but for years there'd been a stalemate between charismatic individuals like caesar who wanted reform and conservatives who wanted to keep the status quo the scale of caesar's military success and his public acclaim gave him a popular mandate for a radical change in the senate he swept all before him he was still supposed to be the first amongst equals in practice his power base let him ride roughshod over the opposition caesar rubbed senators noses in his dominance attaching their names to bills without their consent people found themselves credited with putting measures forward when they hadn't even attended the senate everyone is frightened about the future where is this going to take us and the people who say you've got to change things cause great alarm to all the vested interests and when you consider that that two centuries of conquest have created an enormous accumulation of vested interests of people with land and estates and money and so on and they're all hoping to pass them on to their children and they don't want a new political order so one man one of their number rising to supreme power is a terrible threat caesar was a one-man revolution his reforms solved the problems in rome and made the empire a reality rome was overcrowded and there were thousands of retired soldiers without a pension caesar simply took 80 000 people out of the city and resettled them in new towns abroad where he also gave land to army veterans by making romans settle in gall or spain he started to turn them from conquered countries into a true part of the roman system and he reformed the senate expanding the number of senators to include people from the provinces so that they too could have a say in how things were run [Music] one of the jokes that went around rome was if you see a guy in trousers don't point him the way to the senate because a guy in trousers is going to be a gaul and they're saying you know he's he's even appointing these barbarian goals to our senate now that's an exaggeration but but behind that lies if you have fought an enormous campaign in gaul and you've recruited part of your army from gaul you will indeed promote the successful officers up the system he also drained marshes imposed attacks on luxury goods reduced unemployment and made laws of religious toleration across the empire all good solid respectable civic stuff but caesar's most lasting achievement was made with the help of cleopatra's astronomers who trained here at the great library of alexandria he invented july before caesar the roman year was too short their 12 months followed the phases of the moon and were only 28 days long every so often they had to put in an extra month to make up but during the chaos of the civil war mid-summer day had fallen in september caesar understood astronomy he knew the year should be 365 days long he divided up the extra days between the 12 months to get things right he stretched time between november and december 46 bc he put in two extra months then on the 1st of january 45 bc his new 365-day calendar started with minor modifications it's what we have today to mark his achievement the month that contained his birthday was called july [Music] then in the middle of all this activity cleopatra herself arrived in rome with her 12 year old husband and caesar's baby nothing shows caesar's high-handed attitude more than the way he handled her visit he erected a statue of cleopatra in the temple of venus the mother [Music] this was blasphemy having a girlfriend was one thing asking romans to treat her like a goddess was another by 45 bc discontent was seeping round the roman elite caesar's military enemies still had power the civil war was threatening to break out again in spain he'd already had to fight in north africa the year before putting down a resurgence of pompey's supporters there now pompey's sons wanting to avenge their father were assembling an army near cordoba once more caesar rallied his troops for what was to be his last campaign it's 2400 kilometers from rome to cordoba caesar did it in just 27 days in fact he got there before either the enemy or his own men knew he was coming the final battle of the civil war was one of caesar's most desperate struggles it took place just north of cadiz of munda [Applause] the two sets of professional roman soldiers were locked together in classic fashion when suddenly the unthinkable happened caesar's veterans began to give way and fall back leaving a gap between the two armies caesar jumped off his horse threw away his helmet picked up a shield and marched up and down the line dodging enemy javelins and shouting if i'm done for then you're done for two when his tribune saw how exposed he was they formed around him and then the legions rallied [Applause] when the battle was won caesar admitted that he'd contemplated suicide when he saw his men begin to fall back i fought for victory before he said but i've never fought for my own life the civil war was over by the age of 55 caesar had such power that the republic could barely fit him into the existing democracy the senate tried to fit the system to the man giving him the highest office of consul for not one but ten years caesar also took an honorary title which has immense significance this is the room of the emperor's at the capitoline museum they're all here nero augustus caligula but they wouldn't be called empress if it hadn't been for julius caesar his soldiers loved him and gave him the unofficial title of imperator or emperor he hijacked the name and used it as a permanent title so that ever after the boss of rome and its dominions was known as the emperor surely in a sense caesar must be the first emperor imperator is just one of the many titles which these people used and he was the first imperator kaiser do you think that caesar was aware that he was creating something new yes he must have been aware not least because everyone was telling him at the time you are destroying the old system you don't want to do this but he knows that the world has changed in a very significant way and that he has to set a new model [Music] caesar wasn't the sort of character who could play a diplomatic game one day a deputation came to him to tell him about the latest batch of honours the senate had awarded him they were standing he didn't get up this implied he was superior in rank to his fellow senators a great insult his excuse was that he had diarrhea and didn't dare move but it was noted that he still managed to walk home [Music] then in february 44 bc caesar was declared dictator dictators were usually temporary one-man rulers who were appointed to sort out emergencies caesar was given the post for life there was now officially one man more important than his fellow citizens they've been dictators before like sulla who predicted that caesar would bring down the entire system but none had ever had the cult of personality associated with them until caesar look at this coin it was minted in 44 bc and that head is caesar this is the last year of caesar's life and it was the very first time that any roman coin had had the portrait of a living person on it what hubris and see this one this was minted two years later and on it there's a pair of daggers and a cap which symbolizes liberty and these two words three words the ides of march [Music] by 44 bc julius caesar was 56 years old after disregarding the niceties of roman democracy he was now a king in all but name romans hated the very word king 600 years before there had been seven kings of rome and the last tarquin had been such a tyrant they got rid of him and set up the republic instead they never forgot what a disaster kingship would be [Music] in fact when people tried to call caesar king he rejected the title but he'd already gone too far in establishing one person rule i'm quite certain that caesar didn't want to be a king caesar knew roman history extremely well and first steps in roman history is we kill kings we don't like kings we had them once in the past there were seven of them seven's a good round number and seven is enough and roman history from then on is about every time anyone threatens to be a king you're allowed exceptionally to kill him the ringleaders in the assassination plot were two men called brutus and cassius brutus had been spared by caesar after the battle of farsalis cassius harbored a personal grudge caesar had once pinched some lions from him for the public games they started to sound out other people who thought caesar was undermining the republic more and more discontented senators joined in most of rome seemed to know there was something afoot but astoundingly caesar made a move that was typical of his self-belief he sacked his bodyguard to him constantly watching your back was a sign of weakness and fear on the other hand he wasn't going to sit around waiting for something to happen he announced that he was going to launch a new military campaign he would leave rome on the 18th of march that gave the plotters a deadline on the 14th he went out for dinner there was a discussion about what was a good way to die sudden death said caesar one thing's certain 24 hours after he made the flippant remark he was dead two thousand years later we can trace his every move the fifteenth was the ides of march and caesar was due at a meeting of the senate but his wife had a premonition in a dream and urged him not to go caesar wasn't normally superstitious but he got a second opinion from a soothsayer and decided not to tempt fate and to stay at home instead the plotters almost panicked but then they had a master stroke they sent for the man that caesar was least likely to suspect in order to try and lure him to the place where they plan to kill him shrewdly decimus didn't try to persuade caesar to attend the whole meeting just to pop out and adjourn it first and as he spoke he took caesar by the hand and led him out into the street [Music] caesar was as usual surrounded by people asking him favors and giving him scrolls to read which we usually pass straight back to the slave secretary behind him but a greek philosophy teacher who knew all about the plot slipped him a piece of paper and asked him to read it at once it concerns you personally he said caesar took it but couldn't read it because of the press of people around him it was his last chance [Music] he went through to meet the senate and his death [Music] but not here at the senate house in the forum the senate building had been burnt down by fire and they were in temporary accommodation waiting for a new one to be built the fateful meeting took place about half a mile in that direction at the theater of pompey it's shakespeare's play that has the murder taking place on the steps of the senate house it's ironic that it really happened in a theater built by the man who became caesar's arch enemy and although the murder is world famous the real location's pretty difficult to find the theater of pompey is shown on the tourist map but there's no sign at all of it in the street other than the intriguing shape of this building which mirrors the shape of the original theater the only actual remains though around the corner the nearest we can now get to caesar's assassination the two brutae moment is around the back of this curved building in the basement of this restaurant bonjourna caesar was invited into the senate room just a few meters from here as he went to sit down the plotters struck a man called casker stabbed him in the neck caesar spun round and stuck him in the arm with a metal pen but then someone else stabbed him in the side this was to prove the killer blow but by then all 23 plotters were hacking and stabbing in such a frenzy that some of them even stabbed each other caesar never actually said to brute it was all far too confusing lots of blood and screaming instead he just pulled his robe over his face to mask the shame of a dying man [Music] when the coast was clear three slaves carried the body home meanwhile the plotters ran through the streets proclaiming freedom but the people of rome didn't want freedom they loved caesar and turned out in their thousands in the forum to honor him when his body was cremated they wanted another emperor the republic was never restored and in his honor his successors were known as caesar [Music] after more years of civil war it was caesar's adopted son augustus who formalized the role of emperor but julius caesar is the watershed before him rome was a democracy after him it was an empire ruled by one man and all because of the indomitable force of that one personality even following in caesar's footsteps with the benefits of modern travels been a pretty exhausting business but at the end of my 2000 mile quest i can certainly say i hail caesar even if given his ruthless ambition i can't actually say that i like him very much nevertheless he was one of history's truly epic figures he lived life with an energy and a ferocity that is hard to imagine in anyone today and his achievements were really colossal his conquests ensured that european culture would be classical and not celtic and perhaps most important of all he persuaded the roman people that one person ruled could work and this new model of the roman caesar would change roman history forever [Music] [Music] you