Was Julius Caesar A Success Or A Failure

While Caesar was in Briton, tragedy struck again. Pompey's wife and Caesar's daughter Julia, had passed away at the hands of childbirth in 54 BC. Caesar, conscious that the Triumvirate was fading Tattempted to regain Pompey's support. Caesar offered him Octavia (his great-niece) in marriage, yet Pompey declined. Then in 53 BC, Crassus was killed in the battle against the Parthians which further impacted to the Triumvirate’s fading friendship and also meant that the invasion on the East had failed. Suetonius and Plutarch paint the scene with little detail: Pompey is appointed as the sole consul in an emergency as Rome is on the brink of the civil war. With no financial support from Crassus and non-existent political backing from Caesar (coupled
The conquest of Gaul wasn’t complete. The crisis of Caesar’s Gallic war came in 52 BCE. The peoples of Gaul had found a promising leader in the Arvernian Vercingetorix. He planned to cut off the Roman forces from Caesar, who’d been wintering on the opposite side of the Alps.. Vercingetorix wanted to avoid pitched battles and sieges and to defeat the Romans by cutting off their supplies—through: cavalry missions and “scorched earth”—but he could not persuade his countrymen to adopt this painful policy. Though the Gallic tribes were just as strong as the Romans militarily, it was this internal division between Vercingetorix and his countrymen that guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar. It was Caesar's elaborate siege-works at the Battle of Alesia finally forced his surrender- Gaul was essentially conquered. Plutarch asserted that during the Gallic Wars the army had fought against three million men. He approximated that one million had died and another million were enslaved. Caesar’s conquest of Gaul was to improve his status and riches, yet in retrospect the outcome exacerbated his original position in 58
This meant that Caesar had to disband his legions. Pompey also disallowed Caesar to stand for re-election in absentia (in absence). Caesar made his next decision due to the thoughts that he could be prosecuted if he entered Rome as he was now accused of ‘insubordination’ and ’treason’ by Pompey. Thus, on January 10 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon River (the main boundary of Italy) which automatically suggested civil war. He had only a single legion, the Legio XIII Gemina and was said to have quoted (according to Plutarch and Suetonius) the Athenian playwright Menander when crossing the river, saying ”alea iacta esto”- let the die be cast. Despite Pompey outnumbering Caesar immensely had little faith in his newly raised troops and with only his Thirteenth Legion accompanying him, he did not intend to fight. Pompey and several members of the Senate, fled to Brindisium (a city to the south) and escaped by sea. Pompey managed to escape before Caesar was able to capture him. Heading for Hispania, Caesar left Italy under the authority of Mark Antony. Their journey to Spain was to defeat a majority of Pompey’s lieutenants- weakening Pompey’s defence. Caesar’s patience gave him the upper hand- rather than directly pursuing Pompey he rendered his forces so that when he eventually fought Pompey, triumph would be easier. Following Hispania, Caesar