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The Roman Revolution

Conquests and Triumphs

Victorious at Pharsalus in 48, Caesar spent the next three years putting down rebellions and invasions. While he was away at war, his friend Marc Antony was seeing to the business of governing the Senate and people in the city itself.

Caesar left Egypt in 47 and marched north to Syria and Asia Minor, where a number of kings had taken advantage of the civil war to break their treaties with Rome. In a memorable series of battles over the course of five days, Julius Caesar defeated one army after another and quashed every rebel.

In 46, he was in Africa, dealing with another ambitious general who sought to test his strength against Caesar. Having dealt with that, Caesar went to Spain in 45 and defeated the last of the Roman resistance. He then returned to Rome, the undisputed master of the empire.

He celebrated an extraordinary triple triumph for his victories. In the triumph for his victory in Asia, a placard was carried before him that read "veni, vidi, vici": I came, I saw, I conquered. That, to me, captures Julius Caesar best -- brilliant generalship combined with brilliant politicking, all in the context of deeds played out on a stage grander than anything that had gone before, and with a sharp eye for publicity.