All language subtitles for BBC.Julius.Caesar.The.Making.of.a.Dictator.1080p.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

The Roman Republic is mourning the
death of its most senior priest,

the Pontifex Maximus.

It's a religious position of enormous prestige,

that also brings political authority
and influence.

Now, the people of Rome must vote for
their next Pontifex.

Candidates are expected to be senior
politicians,

with established careers.

Two elder statesmen have put
themselves forward.

But so too has a politician half their
age...

..Julius Caesar.

- This is an outrageous move. It is

a blatant flouting of convention, it
is arrogant, it is improper.

But the thing is, that Caesar doesn't
really care for convention,

Caesar is a gambler. Throughout his
life, he is always rolling the dice.

And I think it's actually pretty clear
what Caesar wants

right from the beginning. He wants to
be the greatest man in Rome.

- At the heart of the most powerful
empire in the ancient world,

stands Rome.

For 500 years, it was ruled by elected
government.

But in a little over a decade,

this republic was overthrown by the
ambitions of one man.

- The story of Caesar is an incredibly
enduring one.

The resonance of it is so powerful. It
remains the most

thrilling, the most extraordinary
political story in western history.

- Now, historians and experts who
understand

the nature of political power will
chart his rise...

- He's so smart. He just knows how to
use his opportunities.

- ..and ask how an individual can bend
a centuries-old political

system to breaking point.

- Julius Caesar is the most dangerous
kind of demagogue.

- This is the story of how ambition
turns to tyranny...

- He's a disgrace in every single way.

He's immoral, he's irreligious and
he's a potential tyrant.

- ..and how a dictator is born.

- The awful lesson is that, in the
end,

a populist can corrupt an entire
state.

- For every other political system
that values stability and justice

and liberty, that should be, at the
very least, a wake-up call.

- Democracy has to be constantly
fought for.

If we take it for granted, a new
Caesar will come.

- The election of the new High Priest
of Rome is imminent.

A surprise contender is 37-year-old
Julius Caesar, a mid-ranking

politician in the government at the
heart of Rome and its Empire.

- In 63 Caesar is, relatively
speaking,

a junior magistrate.

In British terms, perhaps a kind of
junior

member of the Cabinet, perhaps on the
margins of the Cabinet.

Caesar is very cool, I think in almost
every sense of the word.

He is very dandyish, he wears his toga
in a distinctive way.

To stand out from the crowd, to set
aside conventions,

he's making a statement about the kind
of man,

the kind of politician that he wants
to be.

- Caesar lives in a time when most
countries are ruled by Kings.

Rome prides itself on being a
Republic.

Here, elected representatives share
power.

- Five centuries earlier, the Roman
people had risen up

and expelled their King, a haughty
tyrant, and brought

the monarchy to an end and the
Republic was designed precisely

with the aim of ensuring that there
would never be a King again.

And there's a kind of collective
memory among the Roman people,

a deep-seated dread of tyranny.

- The basic principle of the Republic
is that no individual can

dominate the system. It's a
fundamental part of their rhetoric.

We just don't do monarchy.

- At the heart of the Republic is the
Senate, the seat of Government

presided over by an elite body of
wealthy, aristocratic men.

- They never call what they have
"democracy", but they absolutely

have the principle of the freedom of
the citizen to vote to rule his

country. His, of course, women have no
vote, let alone poor slaves.

The Senate, not unlike our parliament,

is of several hundred people.

All members are from the aristocracy.

Senators are elected in very sharp and
bitter competition

with each other...

..and Caesar has been making his way
up the ladder.

- Caesar's ambition is to manoeuvre
his way up the strict

hierarchy of the Senate.

The higher the rank, the fiercer the
competition.

Right now, Caesar's a mid-ranking
aedile.

The ultimate prize is the consulship,

a year-long post shared by two men.

- To make your way in politics in Rome
brings you status,

and the key Roman word for that is
"dignitas", your dignity.

Caesar says, repeatedly, that dignity
was dearer to him

than life itself - "my reputation is
everything".

- And so to win the Consulship, this
is what dignitas is all about.

That is the kind of, the sweetest
fulfilment for a Roman. I mean

this is why, basically, Caesar wants
to be Pontifex Maximus,

it's not an end, it's a stepping stone
to an end.

- Putting himself forward for the role
High Priest is brazen,

but Caesar is willing to gamble.

Winning would fast-track his political
career.

- To hold the most eminent of all the
priesthoods is a very great thing

indeed. It marks you out as a figure
of incredible authority.

It's absolutely not the kind of role
that someone like Caesar,

a dandyish, slightly louche man,
notorious as someone who,

who only has to see a woman to sleep
with her, should be going for.

Only someone of supreme
self-confidence, and a readiness

to play fast and loose with the rules,
who actually enjoys tweaking

the tails of the conservative
establishment, could do that.

- CROW CAWS

But Caesar can't do it alone.

He needs a backer to finance his
campaign.

- Caesar is aristocratic, but by the
standards of many

in the Senate, he's not particularly
rich.

Not only is he not rich,

he's essentially mortgaged up to the
hilt.

- Caesar's solution is to broker a
dangerous alliance.

GROWLING

- If you want to borrow an enormous
sum of money,

there's only one person you go to...

..and this is a figure who's notorious

as the richest man in the city.

A man called Crassus.

- Marcus Licinius Crassus, the
wealthiest man in Rome.

He has a real estate empire, owns
significant stretches

of the city and Crassus likes to have
people in his debt.

He uses his money to develop,

consolidate and expand his network of
support.

- Think of the figure of a Godfather,

a mafia boss, the most

intimidating, the most powerful.

Everyone sees Crassus as a kind of

rather menacing spider at the centre
of a web that spreads everywhere.

- It can be very dangerous to be in
Crassus' debt.

He can be, according to some ancient
reports, pretty brutal.

Crassus sees in Caesar an extremely
capable individual.

He knows that he has all the talent,

all the potential, to do extremely
well in the Roman political game.

Caesar is a tremendously valuable
asset

and one very much worth investing
into.

- It's a gamble.

Caesar knows that by borrowing from
Crassus there is

a risk that he will end up as a fly
wrapped up in the web.

- The High Priest will be elected by a
public vote.

Caesar plans to appeal to the ordinary
people of Rome,

by exploiting their plight.

Rome is increasingly divided.

Over 100 years of violent conquest,
it's grown from a small city

to a vast Empire, stretching across
the Mediterranean.

And the spoils of war have brought a
handful of men outrageous wealth.

- The scale of conquest is producing

enormous influx of money,

influx of slaves.

Rome is richer than it's ever been
before.

And yet, the wealth of the wealthy in
Rome,

the greater the poverty of the poor in
Rome.

The people of Rome are half-starved,
ill-housed.

There are hundreds of thousands of
people who are not

sharing in the wealth that they can
see.

And Caesar says, how do you win the
support of the Roman people?

By being their friend, by being their
supporter

and be recognised as someone who is on
their side.

- In his current political position,

Caesar's in charge of public festivals
and gladiatorial games.

It gives him a direct line to the
impoverished masses.

- Games in Rome are entertainment,
they're something to do

and they're free.

Not only do you get some way to escape
the mundane

reality of your life, but also there's
some really vital

food as part of that package as well.

Caesar makes a decision to spend a
considerable

amount of money on the games that he
throws.

He makes them bigger and better than
those who have gone before him.

- Great tables groaning with food,
supply with wine,

all kinds of dazzle, of spectacle.

- The accounts we have of Caesar's
games suggests that he did

extraordinary things with gladiators
in silver armour.

These kinds of things would be
memorable.

- It's about branding, so that your
name is on everybody's lips...

..and it's a kind of policy, I think,

that perhaps has echoes of the way
that in Italy, Silvio Berlusconi,

say, would buy football teams or own
TV channels.

It's a way of wooing potential voters
by entertaining them.

- I don't think there's necessarily
any evidence that Julius Caesar

really cares for the day-to-day
welfare of the people of Rome.

Rather, his tactics are very
successful for getting him

where he wants to go, politically.

- CROW CAWS

It's the day of the Pontifex Maximus
vote.

All Caesar can do is hope his
financial

and political gamble will pay off.

- Caesar is getting ready to leave his
house to go and hear

the election result and there's a
famous story told about this that

he kisses his mother goodbye, and he
says to her, "Mother, either

"I come back as Pontifex Maximus, or I
won't be coming back at all."

- He knows the stakes are that high...

..that he either wins, or he faces
bankruptcy and political ruin.

- CROWS CAWING

- He's rolled the dice, he has wooed
the voters,

he has convinced them he's their man.
He has won, he wins the office.

It is a very key moment for Caesar. It
lifts him up

out of this mass of aristocrats like
him

and it gives him a kind of dignity
that he hadn't previously had.

And now the path stretches ahead of
him.

- High Priest of Rome and popular with
the voting public, Caesar is

now a rising star in the Senate.

- Julius Caesar is very much in tune
with how politics is developing.

Caesar recognises that the people are
going to be an important

part of politics going forward.

- There are no political parties in
Rome,

but politicians fall into two camps.

Caesar is a Populares,

a politician who believe decisions
should be

placed in the hands of the people.

Populares stand in bitter opposition
with the Optimates, who believe

government ought to rest solely in the
hands of a conservative elite.

- Caesar absolutely hates the
Optimates.

Optimus means the best, these are the
best people and undoubtedly,

the Optimates in Rome think of
themselves in those terms.

What Rome needs is not this mob rule,

this horrendous appeal to the unwashed
masses.

- A Populares politician, on the other
hand, thinks that the people

have been neglected in the bigger
picture of Rome.

- Caesar's contempt for the
conservatives in the Senate

is entirely genuine.

I think he feels that their
perspective is old-fashioned,

it's hypocritical,

it ignores the needs of a people

in a great imperial capital.

- The population of Rome is in a
really agitated condition.

Poverty of the masses can lead to
revolution.

It's dynamite.

It can blow up at any moment.

- Caesar's brazen wooing of the people

has angered conservative Optimates...

..so when, just a few months later, a
conspiracy to violently

overthrow the Senate comes to light,
Caesar is dangerously exposed.

- In the same year as we get a new
Pontifex Maximus,

we also have a conspiracy in Rome,
known as the Catiline

conspiracy, and this rocks the
political establishment.

A man named Lucius Sergius Catilina
allies himself with those

who are disenfranchised, the poor in
Rome, who do have

resentment against the Senate, and
decides that actually

revolution and the overthrow of the
Senate is the way forward.

- Catiline does a sort of organisation
of the crowd,

and he can use that to, effectively,
make a little army for himself.

It is a very, very frightening moment.

- Rumours begin to circulate that
Caesar may have had

a hand in the plot.

- Caesar may be increasingly popular
with the people but that, of

course, just means that his rivals in
the Senate are watching him with

ever greater suspicion, and those who
want to thwart his rise are,

therefore, unsurprisingly,

very, very keen to implicate him in
the coup.

- The conspirators are betrayed before
they can act.

Five senators, one a former consul,
are arrested

and await their fate.

The current consuls want to send a
clear message -

execute the conspirators without
trial.

- I think what's actually scaring the
Senate absolutely witless is

the prospect of the Roman masses

actually organising against them.

They're not really frightened of these
conspirators.

They're frightened of the masses.

- The Senate debate what can

and should be done with the
conspirators,

with speakers taking turns, according
to their rank.

- The people who speak before Caesar
are those who outrank him,

almost all of whom are Optimates. They
state, let's put

Catiline and his fellow conspirators
to death.

- They all say, "Yes, yes, we agree,
we agree," and there is Caesar,

"What is your opinion, Gaius Julius?"

- Caesar knows that his enemies are
trying to tar him

as someone who perhaps had been taking
part in the conspiracy.

So by taking part in the debate,
Caesar is repudiating that.

This is an opportunity for him to sway
the Senate and he's not

going to let it go to waste and he
does it very, very brilliantly.

- Caesar launches into a most moving
speech,

and he says what these conspirators
have done is the most

appalling crime, for which there
should be no mercy,

but our ancestors have established
laws.

If we start executing Roman citizens,

what will the Roman people make of it?

- He points out that it is against
every law of the Roman state

to put to death fellow citizens.

- Therefore, ie, Caesar proposed that
rather than execute them,

we hand them over and imprison them.

- This is something that is unheard
of, the Romans don't have a

kind of prison system, so he's doing
something radical,

thinking outside the box, but at the
same time, and this is the

genius of it, he's casting himself as
the defender of tradition.

- Everyone has said, "Oh, yes, we
agree, they should be executed."

Now, they say, "Oh, Caesar's right. Of
course,

"it's much better not to execute them
and to have them imprisoned."

- Caesar appears to have swayed the
Senate,

but the Optimates have one young
senator yet to speak.

- Rising to his feet, a man who will
become his nemesis,

a man called Cato.

- Cato and Caesar come from similar
backgrounds,

but they're total polar opposites.

Caesar is known for his flamboyant
fashion,

rickety finances, bribing electors.

Cato is somebody who represents the
very most old-fashioned

ideal of a Roman gentleman.

Very, very austere, very simple, he
actually walks around barefoot.

But above all, what he stands for is
the old Roman constitution.

And he sees Caesar

a bit like you might today see Donald
Trump, or Bolsonaro, as

a populist. In other words, somebody
who claims to be speaking on behalf

of the people, but is, in fact, just
using that as a way to destroy

the constitution and take power for
themselves, and he's disgusted.

- He too knows how to speak
powerfully, and he puts exactly

the opposite case, which is this is no
time to show mercy, preserving

the Republic is the ultimate priority,
these people are planning

to burn our houses, to rape our wives,

to end our civilisation.

This is the worst threat you could
have, we must execute them now.

- One of the people that they are
trying to decide what to do

with is an ex-consul. That's a very,
very big deal.

And these are people from very
powerful families, and Cato

is saying they are common criminals,
they deserve the death penalty,

they deserve it more than anyone else
because they are committing the

ultimate acts of treason in trying to
destroy the Republic and I don't

care that this man's a consul, these
are criminals, justice must be done.

- Cato is also convinced that Caesar
is in on the plot.

But he has no proof.

- Cato is in full flow, the great
conservative,

the man of dignity

and he looks round and he sees that
Caesar has been given a message.

- And Cato, put off his speech, thinks
What on earth is going on?!

And his first thought is, wait a
second, this is a letter

from one of the conspirators and
here's Caesar smirking at me.

- The letter has been sent by Cato's
half-sister, Servilia.

- Caesar, who's having affairs with
everybody else,

is also sleeping with Cato's sister.

- Caesar is dragging Cato down into a
kind of dimension of

tawdry humiliation and smut

that is calculated to infuriate him.

- And this is the moment he gives an
astonishing, blistering speech.

He takes no prisoners and says, "These
people, these populists,

"you can't see it yet, but I promise
you, these people pose an

"existential threat to the survival of
the Republic and unless you

"act against them now, and by the way,
I want to include Caesar in

"that, these people are ultimately
going to

"bring the whole house crashing down."

- THEY APPLAUD

- The Senate swings right round behind
Cato.

- CHEERING

- Caesar is obviously disappointed,
I'm sure.

It confirms him in his contempt, both
for the mass of his

conservative opponents and most
specifically, of course, for Cato.

- Caesar, above all, is ambitious, he
wants to become consul,

he wants to rule Rome.

Standing in his way is this
infuriating man that he

despises, called Cato.

- This young man shouldn't be one of
the leading figures, but somehow

his speech has established him as a
man with enormous moral authority.

- This is the moment where he realises
that he's standing for something

and that is, and I was a politician,

it's an incredibly powerful moment in
a politician's life,

when you find a cause, and from then
on,

the cause in Cato's life

is the cause of defending the Republic
against tyranny.

- The time will come when historians
of the age look at this

as a defining moment because the
tension between Caesar and Cato is

clearly expressive of deep tensions
within the fabric of the Republic.

- THEY CHEER AND APPLAUD

- Cato wins the day.

- The order is given, the conspirators
will be put to death.

I suspect that the lesson that Caesar
takes from the whole

Catilinarian debacle is that it's fine
to play the Popularis,

that Caesar is brilliant at that,

but that ultimately just doing that is
not enough.

He has to have allies in the Senate
because if you push too hard

against them, people in the Senate
still have the power, they have the

will to close ranks.

He too could end up with a noose
around his neck.

- MYSTERIOUS WHISPERS

As Rome reels from the Catiline
conspiracy, some Senators

demand extreme measures to guarantee
their safety -

a military presence on the streets of
Rome.

They call for Rome's greatest General
to return

with his army from campaign in the
East.

- Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus was born into
a military family.

Pompey grew up on his father's
military campaigns.

When he was young, his enemies call
him the teenage butcher,

and he becomes the most powerful
General in Rome.

- The Roman Empire has expanded so far

and fast, it's had to hand huge powers
to men like Pompey

to command armies and govern
territories

far beyond the reach of Rome.

Pompey has single-handedly conquered
huge swathes of what is now

Turkey and Syria.

His reward - enormous wealth,
popularity and prestige.

- Pompey, at this point in time,

is "the man".

He's the one.

Pompey has as much power,

if not more,

than the Senate.

The best modern equivalent is a
warlord.

- Caesar sees in Pompey a kind of
harbinger of the Republic's

future, because what Pompey has done
with the scale of his conquests

is essentially to put the whole of the
Republic in his shade.

Pompey is a disruptor,

and his return will set the
kaleidoscope spinning and that

offers opportunity for someone with
Caesar's abilities and talents.

- Caesar backs the call for Pompey's
return.

But not all in the Senate agree.

For many Optimates,

the idea that one man should take
charge of Rome is unthinkable.

- The Senate is extremely worried

about the power that Pompey has.

At their core,

they are very distrustful

of one man with too much power.

- But by supporting calls for Pompey's
return,

Caesar's not just rankling his
political opponents,

he's risking his alliance with his
financial backer, Crassus.

- Marcus Lucinius Crassus

has good reason not to love Pompey.

- Crassus fought alongside Pompey
against the slave rebellion

led by Spartacus.

Crassus secured the decisive victory,

but Pompey took the credit.

- There is a degree of bitterness on
Crassus' part.

- Let's be clear, Crassus hates
Pompey.

- Caesar pushes ahead.

The law prohibits armed soldiers from
entering Rome,

so Caesar backs a new law that would
allow Pompey to enter

the city with his troops.

Like all new bills, it must first be
debated in the Senate.

If the majority agree, only then will
it be presented

in the Forum, Rome's public square,

for the people to have their vote.

- Caesar, ever unconventional,

sees an opportunity here to play the
Populares card again and so what he

does, he just bypasses the Senate, he
takes the bill directly to the

Forum, which is obviously greeted with
fury by conservatives in the

Senate. And particularly, of course,
Caesar's great adversary, Cato.

- Cato walks out and sees, to his
disgust,

that Caesar is trying to whip up a mob
in favour of Pompey

and that Caesar has surrounded himself
with gladiators,

and gladiators are basically hired
ruffians.

Cato doesn't care, he walks absolutely
alone,

straight up the steps, and tells
Caesar

and the crowd that they should be
ashamed of themselves.

- Cato does this nonsensical speech.

We don't need to put this much power
into the hands of one man.

- Cato's fundamental point is the
Republic should defend itself

through the constitution and asserts
that the Senate will continue

to rule the country as it should.

- And bedlam breaks out.

- He's hit from every side.

The crowd throw stuff at him, the
gladiators beat him up,

but he doesn't care.

Cato senses that by allowing himself
to be beaten up, he's showing

the public what is happening to
Rome...

..and he will wear those bruises as a
source of pride

because what he's saying is, "Look at
these people, look at how

"they battered me, look at the kind of
leaders that you are going to let

"come into Rome. How can you possibly
support a man

"who's done this to me?"

- Cato's tactic works.

- In the end, it's Cato and his
followers

who have the better of the whole
occasion.

For Caesar, obviously, infuriating.

- THUNDERCLAP

CROW CAWS

The Senate, horrified by Caesar's
brazen use of violence,

have him immediately suspended.

And the public vote on the bill to
recall Pompey is aborted.

- Caesar is staring down the barrel,
potentially,

of the ruin of his career, having
worked so hard.

But actually, what might seem a
humiliation, a defeat, can be

turned around and this is something
that Caesar does again

and again over the course of his
career.

- Caesar uses his sway with the people

to show the Senate he won't bow down.

- Two days later, a crowd
"spontaneously"

manifests itself outside Caesar's
house.

People in the Senate fear that this is
potentially an armed mob

that, before you can say it, will be
marching on the Senate house.

It's very clear to all concerned that
everyone has

a stake in deescalating this.

- Caesar stands down his angry mob.

The Senate decide it's better to keep
him on side,

and allow him back.

- Caesar is always alert to new ways
of doing politics,

and his use of intimidation and
combining it with violence, is a

way to make things happen in Rome.

- From Cato's point of view

the Senate is being weak.

They're worried by his popularity, but
they're also trying to convince

themselves they can somehow control
him, and Cato is increasingly

convinced that the Senate must act
against Caesar before it's too late.

- CROWS CAWING

Rome is in turmoil,

and Caesar's place in the Senate,
precarious.

But his role as High Priest offers him
a chance to regain trust

amongst his peers.

His household must host an important
ritual

in honour of the goddess Bona Dea,

who looks after the safety of Rome.

- In the case of the Bona Dea, Caesar
himself is not personally

in charge because the Bona Dea is a
female-only ritual and so, on this

occasion, Caesar is going to have to
rely on the women in his family.

- So on the scene, hosting this
mysterious

and incredibly important party is
Caesar's wife - Pompeia.

Caesar's mother Aurelia is part of the
ceremony and there's no direct

evidence that Caesar's daughter Julia
is present,

but it's impossible to imagine that
she isn't,

given the importance of this ritual.

I suspect that Julia and Caesar are
quite close.

Julia is, in a way, his most valuable
possession,

she's his only legitimate heir.

Ultimately, she'll be there to make a
very useful political

alliance for him through her own
marriage.

I think Julia realises, at a very
young age,

how important her own comportment as a
woman of Caesar's family is.

Julia would've watched the older women
in her life

and I think she would've seen that
those women had their own

ways of exerting power, of swaying
their husband,

of having some kind of clout within
Rome.

- The ritual sacrifice is overseen by
one the sacred

order of Priestesses,

the Vestal Virgins.

- Everybody who is anyone in Roman
elite society,

who was also female, would be part of
the ceremony.

So there's a lot of pressure on his
household to perform this

ceremony right, to perform it well,

so that the gods that take care of
Rome will be placated.

Suddenly, the word comes to Aurelia
that a mysterious stranger

has entered, disguised as a harp
player.

It turns out this is a man in drag
trying to

sneak into the house of Caesar, as
Pontifex Maximus.

- It's a serious violation.

The women go home,

and gossip about Caesar and his wife
spreads like wildfire.

- I mean, there's no question,

this is a pretty serious setback for
Caesar.

The man who had desecrated the rites
of the Bona Dea by going into

Caesar's house had, it was said, this
is the rumour that is buzzing

around Rome, had been conducting an
affair with Caesar's wife.

This is not the kind of thing

that a Roman man wants to have said
about him.

- If he can't control his women, if he
can't control

his family, it would reflect very,
very badly on the Pontifex Maximus.

- After the setbacks of the Catiline
trial, and the failure

of the bill to recall Pompey,

this is a scandal that Caesar could do
without.

To minimise the damage, he's willing
to sacrifice his marriage.

- If there's one thing that Caesar
hates, it's the idea that people

might be laughing at him, he doesn't
want to seem a figure of ridicule.

So, what he does is brilliantly
ruthless and brilliantly witty,

he proclaims that he is going to
divorce his wife,

not because she had actually been
conducting an affair,

but because, as he puts it, Caesar's
wife must be above suspicion.

- There is no way that young Julia
could've been

unaware of the trouble that this
scandal causes for her family.

Julia fully recognises the
responsibility that

falls on her shoulders, not just to be
a good wife,

to be beyond suspicion in her own
marriage,

but also to ensure that she's
protecting the Julian family name.

Caesar's entire genetic future and
some of his political

future are going to rest on little
Julia's shoulders.

- Caesar's reputation has been
damaged.

He needs to take back control.

Now, the conquering General Pompey has
stood down his army,

and is due to return to Rome.

It offers Caesar a fresh chance for a
powerful alliance.

Pompey's return to Rome is marked by a
spectacular Triumphal

parade through the city's streets.

- In a Triumph, the commander parades,

right, literally on floats,

everything that screams,

"I am the conqueror".

Animals, captives, gold.

The people of Rome adore Pompey,

he is Rome's greatest success story.

- Pompey has more power than any
citizen in the entire

history of the Republic has wielded.

- One of the spectators at the Triumph
is Julius Caesar.

- Caesar, looking at him, sees in
Pompey the face of the future,

that this is what it is to be great in
what the Republic has become.

- Running through his head is,

"I want that."

- For Caesar, Pompey is the model of
success.

But whilst everyone welcomes the
wealth

he brings to Rome, many in the Senate
are wary.

- There's a fear, always the fear,
that the

conquering General may set himself up
as the new tyrant of Rome.

- But Pompey has just one thing on his
political agenda.

- The huge challenge that Pompey faces

when he comes back is to provide land
for his veterans, the

legions who've been following him,
this is what Pompey has promised.

- The demand for land by the veterans
of the great campaigns is

persistent through time.

What they need is a plot of land to
live off.

- Land means independence,

you're not dependent on granaries

in Rome for your little ration.

It means dignity.

Pompey is a man of integrity,

he gives his word,

you will have a farm. He is going to
see that through.

- Pompey puts forward a bill to award
land to his veterans,

but many Optimates, including Cato,
are keen to cut him

down to size and reject it.

- Cato still sees Pompey as a danger
to the Republic,

he's a billionaire celebrity, coming
in and throwing his weight around.

It's vital to Cato that these big,

overweening men are marginalised.

- When he sees Pompey facing major
difficulties in the Senate,

on the Roman political scene,

surely Crassus must be taking a good
deal of pleasure?

- Caesar sees the astonishing
spectacle that Pompey,

the conqueror of the gorgeous east,
he's frustrated,

he doesn't know what to do, he's
absolutely paralysed.

- Pompey realises that he's becoming
an increasingly isolated figure

and that presents him, Pompey, with a
very real strategic challenge,

how to get out of this...impasse.

- Pompey realises that

one way to win

over the opponents is through
marriage.

Marriage was a tool for a Roman
politician, everybody knew it.

- Pompey is probably the most eligible
bachelor in Rome at this time.

He's known to be beloved by the
ladies,

but also has a strange sense of sexual
fidelity for a man.

He's not gadding about bed hopping,
playing the field, like Caesar is.

- Pompey, this billionaire celebrity
General, comes to Cato

and says he wants to marry his niece.

This is a big moment of decision for
Cato

because if Cato allies himself with
Pompey, there's a possibility

that through that compromise he can
keep

Pompey on the side of the Republic
against people like Julius Caesar.

But in the end, he won't compromise.

- Flat out...

Flat out rejects it.

- He's not prepared to sully his
family by allying with Pompey.

He says, "I'm not going be
outmanoeuvred

"by the bedroom of a girl."

- This is purely political.

Pompey feels like he has no control

over what is happening politically.

And Cato is thinking...

.."I've got him."

- Watching the great commander Pompey
belittled by conservatives

in the Senate, Caesar sees an
opportunity that could serve

both of their ambitions.

- Caesar recognises, in the problems
that Pompey is facing,

massive opportunity.

What Pompey clearly needs is a consul
who will be able to

force through the reforms and the laws
that Pompey wants,

namely land granted to his veterans.

Who better to serve the great man than
Caesar himself?

- Pompey needs Caesar,

Caesar needs Pompey.

Nothing was going to happen for either
one of them,

unless they joined forces.

- Caesar knows the consulship election
is imminent,

when the public will vote for two men
to share

the most prestigious and powerful
political

position in Rome.

With Pompey backing him, Caesar is
certain

their combined popularity will win him
the highest seat in the Senate.

- To be a consul, to be known by the
Roman people as someone who

has served as a consul, this is the
dream that every ambitious

citizen in the Republic nurtures.

- Caesar wins the election by a
landslide.

- It's only a few years since he was
facing the potential utter

ruin of his career. Had he failed to
win

election for the Pontifex Maximus, he
might have ended up a Catiline.

But now he's won the consulship, it is
a great, great thing.

- But two consuls are elected,

and Caesar is expected to share power.

- The only consolation that Cato's got
at this stage is that the

second consul is one of Cato's allies,
but Cato must already be

beginning to suspect that he's maybe
not the man to stand up to Caesar.

- Now he's consul, Caesar needs to
make good on his promise to

Pompey, by proposing a bill to award
land to his veterans.

Convention dictates that the Senate
must debate it first,

and if the majority agree, it will be
put to a public vote.

- It's at this point that Caesar's
familiar nemesis,

Cato, stands up.

- Cato filibusters, it's something
that's still done in

the House of Commons, it's something
that's done a lot in the US Senate.

He speaks and speaks and speaks and
speaks

and he speaks out the debate.

- It looks as though the bill has been
defeated.

Caesar's defeat, however, turns out to
be only a seeming defeat.

- Caesar knows conservatives in the
Senate will do everything

they can to obstruct him.

So he decides to play Populares once
again

and bypass the Senate entirely.

CHEERING

He takes the bill straight to the
public Forum...

..for the people to have their vote.

- What Caesar does, and the echoes
with Trump are obvious,

is that he moves out of the Senate,
and he goes back to the people.

- He takes the bill into the Forum,

and there in the Forum, gangs of
heavies, gangs of Caesar's

supporters, Pompey's veterans,

a very, very menacing atmosphere.

- He stands on the rostra,

and he basically whips up a mob to try
to get through what he wants.

- Then Caesar brings out his celebrity
support...

..Pompey the Great.

- It's absolutely political theatre.

The crowd goes crazy. Yay!

- The real jaw-drop is when Caesar
reveals his second celebrity backer.

- And the people go...

..wait a minute. What is going on
here?

- And that second celebrity backer

is Pompey's deadliest enemy,

Crassus.

- Crassus. Crassus, a disgusting
billionaire who made his money in

the most unscrupulous fashion

has now allied himself with Caesar and
Pompey.

- Crassus sees the opportunity to make
himself central in Roman

politics by forging an alliance with
two rather unlikely

but extremely effective partners.

- Cato and his supporters gaze in
horror as they realise what

this means, that Caesar, somehow,

has brought together the two most
powerful men in Rome.

- Three men, take it from the Latin,
triumvirate.

Whether the Senate likes it or not,
whether Cato likes it or not,

it doesn't matter, they are going to
control Rome.

- It is Cato's nightmare coming to
fruition.

- Cato had the power to nip this
triumvirate before it was

even a twinkle in the three men's
eyes.

All he had to do was agree to Pompey's
marriage proposal.

Playing over and over in his head is,

"What in Jupiter's name have I done?"

- Caesar presents the land bill to the
people,

but before they take their vote,

there is one voice of opposition.

- The second consul, the elected
co-consul of Rome,

effectively the elected Prime Minister
of Rome...

..steps forward onto the rostra

to try once more to argue against this
bill.

- I mean, Caesar's not having any of
that.

- CROWD GASPS AND SCREAMS

- Caesar's heavies pile in...

..they attack him, they beat him up.

- They pour a bucket of shit over the
consul's head.

He's literally dripping in shit.

It's that moment, I think, when the
shit is literally dripping from the

head of the elected leader of Rome,

Cato must sense that he's lost.

- Caesar just smiles, he laughs,

leaves his colleague to crawl off

and leave Rome to Caesar.

- Caesar will ensure Pompey's veterans
get their land,

and that Crassus gets lucrative tax
breaks.

For himself, he's lining up the
command of Gaul,

now modern France, a vast unconquered
province

that promises him even greater power
and glory.

And he's securing this future with a
marriage.

- Pompey, as we know, was rejected by
Cato...

..but that's a blessing in disguise

because now,

he can accept Caesar's proposal

that he marry Julia.

- All these years, Caesar has been
holding on to Julia

as his ace in the hole for maintaining

and creating political alliances and
opportunities.

Caesar sees the perfect moment to play
that card.

Pompey's marriage to Julia is
absolutely essential to

Caesar's ambitions.

It's really this event that solidifies
that alliance

as more than just political.

Both Pompey and Caesar are really
putting their skin in the game

by committing to this relationship.

- Caesar has really been adopting a
kind of two pronged strategy.

The first strategy is to accumulate
honours,

so he's become Pontifex Maximus, he's
become consul,

but it's that fusion of the
traditional statesmanship

and a readiness to play fast and loose
with the rules that marks

him out as someone, by the standards
of the Republic, of menace.

He's won the highest political
position in the land,

he is effectively the master of Rome,

but here is the question -

what next?

- Next time, Caesar seeks glory in Gaul...

..until events beyond his control

turn allies into enemies

and the future of Rome hangs in the balance.

It's the spring of 58 BC.

The people of Gaul face a new and
grave threat.

GALLOPING HOOVES

BABY CRIES

HORSE NEIGHS

Julius Caesar has completed his year
as consul of Rome

and set his sights on conquest.

In this foreign land, there are few
rules to constrain him.

BABY CRIES

His army is carving its way through
the country,

subduing or slaughtering its people.

No-one will stand in Caesar's way.

- Times are changing in the Roman
world.

Generals with their own armies

are able to win unprecedented
popularity, wealth, power,

and these warlords are able to put the
entire Republic in their shadow.

Caesar understands this. He knows that
only sweeping conquest

can make him the greatest man in
Rome...

..and he will stop at nothing.

- BABY CRIES

SWORD PLUNGES, CRYING STOPS

- It's brutal,

it's punishing,

it's genocidal in scale...

..but the reward of glory would
burnish Caesar's name forever

and put absolute rocket fuel into
Caesar's political career.

- At the heart of the most powerful
empire in the ancient world

stands Rome.

For 500 years, it was ruled by elected
government.

But in a little over a decade,

this Republic was overthrown by the
ambitions of one man.

- The story of Caesar is an incredibly
enduring one.

The resonance of it's so powerful, it
remains the most thrilling,

the most extraordinary political story
in western history.

- Now historians and experts who
understand

the nature of political power will
chart his rise...

- He's so smart, he just knows how to
use his opportunities.

- ..and ask how an individual can bend

a centuries-old political system to
breaking point.

- Julius Caesar is the most dangerous
kind of demagogue.

- This is the story of how ambition
turns to tyranny...

- He's a disgrace in every single way.
he's immoral,

he's irreligious, and he's a potential
tyrant.

- ..and how a dictator is born.

- The awful lesson is that, in the
end,

a populist can corrupt an entire
state.

- For every other political system
that values stability and justice

and liberty, that should be, at the
very least, a wake-up call.

- Democracy has to be constantly
fought for.

If we take it for granted, a new
Caesar will come.

- For two years, Julius Caesar has
waged war on the people of Gaul,

capturing territory, slaves, and
bounty.

With his new-found wealth, he has
enlarged his army

and made rich men of his supporters
back in Rome.

- Caesar, throughout his political
career,

has always been an opportunist,

but I think that opportunist is
inadequate to convey the scale

of what Caesar is aiming at.

The idea of conquering the whole
expanse of Gaul,

essentially what is now France, is
stupefyingly ambitious.

- Gaul is a vast region,

stretching from Northern Italy to the
English Channel.

Caesar is Governor of a narrow strip
of Roman territory in the South.

From here, he's begun his quest to
conquer more land for Rome,

and to subdue the Gaulish tribes.

- For the Romans, the Gaul is the
essence of the barbarian.

It's the figure of their worst
nightmare.

Caesar himself says of the people that
they are the least

effeminate, the most masculine, the
most dangerous

and yet, he's perfectly happy to take
them on.

- Caesar believes he is the man

to bring all of Gaul under Roman
control.

Beyond the wealth he's winning for
Rome,

he's seeking not just fortune, but
fame.

- Caesar cannot possibly win the kind
of status that he wants

without a great feat of conquest, I
think.

War is the great testing ground for
Rome's leading men.

Caesar is pursuing the blaze of glory,
so the defeat,

particularly of barbarians and of
Gauls, I mean, this is

something that will make his name echo
down the centuries.

- Caesar ensures news of his conquest
reaches the people of Rome.

They delight in his success.

But the Senate, the body of men who
govern Rome, is divided.

Caesar's opponents see his growing
power as a threat,

but he still has allies.

His main backers are Rome's richest
man, Crassus,

and its greatest General, Pompey,

now married to Caesar's daughter,
Julia.

Caesar had persuaded Pompey and
Crassus into a powerful alliance -

the Triumvirate.

They secured Caesar the top job in
Rome, the consulship,

and the opportunity to conquer Gaul...

..leaving Crassus and Pompey

to take care of their shared interests
in the Senate.

But now, fuelled by jealousy and
resentment,

tensions are rising between Pompey and
Crassus,

and they are losing their grip on
Rome.

- Crassus still hates Pompey.

The Triumvirate looks like

it's kind of wobbly.

It's not sustainable, the way it's
going.

- The risk for Caesar is that,

if the Triumvirate proves to be
utterly broken,

then his capacity to hold his position
in Rome is broken as well,

and that means that his enemies can
start moving in for the kill.

- Caesar's main opponents in the
Senate, the Optimates,

see him as a threat to the Republic,

and are desperate to find a way to cut
him down.

Now they plan to prosecute him for his
shocking

and violent behaviour during his
year-long tenure as consul.

- Caesar's consulship sent ripples of
shock through Rome.

He treated his fellow consul with a
measure of violence,

so the consul ends up with a bucket of
manure emptied over his head.

Caesar's enemies said absolutely
explicitly we believe that

you should be prosecuted, you have
behaved illegally.

- His opponents see him as a criminal,
and they are determined,

in the long run, to prosecute him, to
convict him,

to destroy him utterly, and this
becomes stronger

and stronger, the more glory that
Caesar wins for himself in Gaul.

- Leading the conservative charge to
bring a prosecution

against Caesar is his long-standing
enemy Cato.

- In the minds of people like Cato,

Caesar represents two very dangerous
things.

He represents populism,

he's somebody who unashamedly tries to
present himself as the people

against the elite, and he represents
the danger of tyranny, he's somebody

trying to promote themselves at the
expense of the constitution, which

stands for balance of power and no one
person taking too much power.

Cato is going to try to do everything
he can

within the Roman law to defeat Caesar.

- Caesar's ultimate nightmare, the one
thing that could drag him down,

even after all he's achieved, is
prosecution

because if you can prosecute someone
and convict them,

then that person will have no choice
but to go into exile.

You suffer a kind of political death,
and that, for Caesar,

would be a fate worse than death.

- As long as Caesar is in Gaul,

his position as Governor grants him
immunity from prosecution.

But the Senate still has the power to
recall him.

In Rome, the Optimates ask the Senate
to vote on removing

Caesar's governorship.

But with many senators sharing in the
riches Caesar's sending back

to Rome, they fail to win the majority
they need.

Caesar's command is safe,

but it's a warning.

He calls Pompey and Crassus

to an urgent meeting in the Northern
Italian town of Lucca.

CROW CAWS

- For Caesar, it's absolutely
essential

that the Triumvirate holds together.

The strains on the relationship
between Pompey and Crassus

is a real threat to Caesar.

He can't come to Rome and knock their
heads together,

so the conference in Lucca is
crucially important in keeping

the triumviral show on the road.

- Caesar's plan is to persuade Pompey
and Crassus to reunite

by promising them each something they
desire.

- Pompey, at this point, is in a
peculiar situation

because of his rapid rise to power.

On the back of military successes,

he is much loved by the people,

but deeply mistrusted by the Roman
Senate.

He's always been on the outside
looking in.

- While Pompey craves the kind of
influence in the Senate

enjoyed by Crassus, Crassus is jealous
of Pompey

and Caesar's military success.

- Crassus has a influential presence
in the Senate, but he lacks,

at this point, the sort of major
military undertaking

that will provide status that he feels
entitled to.

Caesar is conquering Gaul, and there
is, no doubt,

a sense of burning competition in
Crassus' mind.

- In Rome, the annual election of the
two consuls who lead the Senate

is imminent.

Caesars's plan is simple - use the
collective might

of the Triumvirate to once again sway
the voting public.

But this time, Pompey and Crassus
would become co-consuls,

giving them the power to deliver what
each of them wants.

- Pompey feels that, if he can be
consul, the leading politician

and statesman in the city of Rome,

he will gain the respect of the
Senate.

- And Crassus realises that the
consulship

and provincial command, afterwards,

for a major military undertaking,

will bring the sort of outstanding
status that he feels entitled to.

- What does Caesar want in return?

He wants an extension of his command,
and he wants that, firstly

so that he can complete his conquest
of Gaul, but also because the longer

he has his command, the longer he is
immune to prosecution back in Rome.

- The meeting at Lucca is
unprecedented.

Three men meeting secretly deciding
the future of the

Roman Republic goes against the idea
of a republican form of government.

- It's hard to think of any parallel
in our democracy

to what happens at Lucca.

It's a convergence of rival Mafia
bosses.

It's The Joker, The Riddler, The
Penguin coming together

to carve up Gotham City.

- The Triumvirate agree to renew their
alliance and combine their powers.

CROW CAWS

But for their plan to work,

Pompey and Crassus must win the
consulship election.

- Roman consuls typically don't run as
a ticket,

but when those two men start
campaigning,

it becomes very clear that there is

a joint political operation unfolding.

- The news that the Triumvirate is
once again

putting Rome in its shadow is greeted
by its opponents

with simultaneous shock and horror.

- There is one man who will obviously
stand against them.

Cato.

He's not senior enough or old enough
himself to stand to be consul.

Instead, he gets his brother-in-law to
run.

- When word reaches the Triumvirate

that the Optimates will stand against
them,

Caesar deploys a political tactic he's
used with some success before -

violence.

- Caesar ensures that men from his
legions who are serving in Gaul

are able to go back to Rome to
register their votes

to boost the backing for his
triumviral partners.

Caesar's men, battle-hardened, unleash
great bouts of thuggery

and intimidation onto the streets of
Rome.

- Pompey and Crassus are prepared to
resort to intimidation, to violence,

in the run-up to the election,
including, indeed, on election day.

- It's the morning of the consulship
vote.

Rome waits to discover whether the
Optimates or the Triumvirate

will take charge.

Cato heads out to cast his vote.

- Predictably, by this stage,

because things are getting completely
out of control...

..hired ruffians of Crassus and Pompey
start beating Cato up.

And in the most incredible plethora of
violence,

Cato effectively martyrs himself.

He allows himself to be beaten up
because he wants people to see,

in every scar on his body,

the injustice and the horror that's
happening in Rome.

- The Triumvirate's strategy proves
effective.

Pompey and Crassus stand unopposed and
win by a landslide.

- One of the perks of being consul in
Rome

is that you have special chairs at the
front of the Senate.

When they take those seats...

..it sends a very clear message...

..that the Republic is being
controlled...

..by the Triumvirate.

- Once Pompey and Crassus have become
consuls, you know,

they play their bit - they secure
Caesar another five years in Gaul.

Caesar can know that everything that
he has achieved

in bringing the Triumvirate back
together again,

that it is absolutely paying off for
him.

- Over the next year, Pompey, Crassus
and Caesar carve up the Roman world.

Each takes control of a foreign
province,

with the military might, wealth and
prestige that brings.

Caesar keeps Gaul.

Crassus departs for Syria,

with plans to invade Rome's greatest
rival -

the Parthian Empire, now modern Iran.

Pompey takes Spain, but will govern it
from Rome,

allowing him command of an army

whilst remaining at the heart of the
Senate.

- It's become clear that the
partnership,

the three-headed monster, as a writer
at the time calls it,

is achieving a degree of influence and
power that is unprecedented

and that is against the spirit,

the, shall we say, deep-seated
political culture of the Republic.

There's no question about that.

- With the Triumvirate firmly in
control of Rome,

Caesar sets his sights on even greater
glory.

- Caesar, as though to celebrate,

embarks on his most spectacular
exploits yet.

He embarks on an expedition to
Britain.

One historian compared it to man
landing on the moon.

It is a land so savage and barbarous

that its inhabitants not only paint
themselves blue,

but even most revoltingly of all,
drink milk.

But there's no point in Caesar
achieving great things

if his fellow citizens back in Rome
are unaware of them.

- One of the most brilliant things
that he does

is to write a work of literature in
his reports.

Everyone in Rome is reading the Gallic
War as it comes out.

"Have you read the latest episode?" So
they're all really fascinated.

- The dispatches he sends back are
read out to the people.

He tells them about the kinds of feats
he is achieving,

and these are almost superhuman
conquests

for the people back in Rome.

Caesar has gone beyond the limits of
what they had known before.

- In fact, he signally fails to
conquer Britain.

But he's such a good publicist, he
manages to turn it into,

"Look, I actually sailed across the
Channel

"and I frightened these woad-coloured
barbarians witless."

So he can dress it up as more of a
success than it was.

- Winston Churchill famously said that
history would be kind to him

because he would write the history.

History, I think, has been kind to
Caesar

by and large because Caesar definitely
wrote the history.

- Determined not to let this failure
hinder him,

Caesar accelerates his conquest of
Gaul.

At the head of a now vast army,

and with the Senate under the
Triumvirate's control,

Caesar revels in autonomy,

and his tactics become ever more
brutal.

- It's claimed that Caesar slaughtered
a million people in Gaul,

that he enslaved another million,

and this, to us, might seem a
monstrous atrocity...

..but to the Romans, it's a
demonstration of the capacity

for violence and force that upholds
the dignitas of the Roman name.

- Conquest is in-built into the Roman
psyche.

The Romans see themselves as descended
from the God of War,

which is Mars.

And all through Rome's history, it
really has been at war.

- Caesar, in conquering this remote
and barbarous land,

feels he has no choice but to deploy
extreme terror,

so those tribes who resist him are
utterly annihilated.

Did he feel guilt about it?

I don't think so.

The Roman people had always thrilled
to narratives of bloodshed,

and Caesar, in Gaul, is giving them
the kind of stories that,

precisely because they are stained in
blood,

are, in the opinion of the Roman
people, all the more admirable...

..and Caesar feels himself very much
the hero of this narrative.

- For his opponents in Rome,

Caesar off the leash in Gaul is
terrifying.

Cato is lying in wait for any
opportunity to take him down.

Finally, he sees his chance.

Caesar breaks a peace treaty,

and is said to slaughter over 400,000
men, women and children.

It's a sacrilegious contravention of
Roman law.

Cato leads a heated attack against
Caesar in the Senate.

- Cato tries to point out that Caesar
is literally committing war crimes.

So Caesar is just a disgrace,

and Cato tries to demand the
punishment for that war crime,

which is that Caesar should be handed
over to the enemy,

but his demand is simply brushed
aside.

Caesar is becoming so successful

that nobody now wants to stand with
Cato against Caesar.

- Caesar really doesn't need to worry.

He knows that everything about his
conquests

is boosting his status, is boosting
his prestige.

- Cato is now in a horrifying
position.

Caesar, this man he despises, is now
becoming so successful

and popular that he's almost
untouchable, whatever he does.

- By the end of 55 BC, Caesar is
riding high.

The Roman people love him.

He's relishing glory in Gaul and his
allies control the Senate.

Now news arrives that further secures
his bond with Pompey.

It's been three years since Pompey
married Caesar's only daughter,

Julia, and now she's pregnant with
their first child.

- Julia's baby represents the
possibility of a lasting alliance

between Pompey and Caesar.

Marriages in Rome come and go.

The divorce rate is actually pretty
high.

But having a child, that's something
that will bind two families together

in perpetuity.

As Julia's due date approaches, the
entire Roman world is looking on.

But when Julia starts her labour, she
suffers a great deal,

and she is in a great deal of physical
pain.

- Julia dies in childbirth...

..and her baby dies a few days later.

- Pompey, I mean, he was besotted with
Julia,

and so losing her must have been
unbearable.

- In Gaul, Caesar is awaiting news of
his grandchild's birth.

Instead, he receives notice of his
daughter and her baby's death.

- She was his only child, and when
Julia dies,

it's doubly a catastrophe for
Caesar...

..both on the personal level, but also
the political.

- It's conventional to say that Roman
women...

..had no political power.

I think that loses the point.

Women like Julia had a lot of
political power.

She was the link between Caesar and
Pompey.

With her gone,

she's not there to mediate any
differences between them.

- A crucial bond between the two
greatest men in Rome

has been severed...

..and Caesar knows that the
foundations of his power

are a good deal more unstable than
they had been previously.

- A few short months later, Caesar
receives a second devastating blow.

The invasion of Parthia by Crassus has
ended in disaster.

- He took a huge risk, and he paid the
ultimate price.

He is beheaded, and there are stories
about melted gold

being poured down his throat by the
Parthians in mockery

of his legendary wealth, but also in
what could be seen

as a denunciation of Roman... of Roman
greed.

- It's a catastrophic defeat for Rome.

He loses legions.

It's a massacre of Romans.

It's a dreadful humiliation.

And that, of course, affects the way
that we see Crassus.

He really is a loser.

- The death of Crassus is an absolute
disaster for Caesar.

The Triumvirate depends on it being an
alliance of three men, not two.

An alliance of two men - much, much
easier for it to fall apart.

- His death reshapes, quite literally
overnight,

the political scene in Rome,

because now, well, you no longer have
three great men.

We have these two extraordinary
individuals, Pompey and Caesar...

..with no-one else in between.

No mediator, no buffer. It's them.

Are they going to co-exist or are they
going to fight it out?

- For Caesar, the absolute priority is
to reaffirm his relationship

with Pompey, to maintain his ability
to continue as Governor in Gaul,

so Caesar does what Romans,
aristocrats,

conventionally do when they want to
forge an alliance - he looks around

for another female member of his
family to marry off to Pompey.

- So he offers his great-niece.

And so Pompey says, "That's OK.

"Thanks for offering, but no."

And now Pompey finds himself in a
position

where he can choose which way he goes.

He can move closer to the Optimates in
the Senate,

and at the same time he knows that
Caesar needs him.

This is what Pompey has always wanted.

All the balls are in his court now.

- Caesar can no longer absolutely rely
on their alliance holding together.

If there are other people who can
offer more than Caesar can,

then Pompey is absolutely in the
market for accepting that.

- Caesar's position is certainly
weakening...

..and it looks as though things may be
going back in Cato's direction.

And it may be suddenly possible for a
new world to emerge

in which Caesar will finally collapse.

- THUNDER

Crassus is gone...

CROW CAWS

..Caesar and Pompey's alliance hangs
by a thread...

CROWS CAW

..and Caesar is no longer pulling the
strings in Rome.

The Senate turns inward as men vie to
reposition themselves.

Rome descends into chaos.

Violent gangs rule the streets.

And one man is making the most of it -

an errant senator called Clodius.

- He's a skunk.

There's nothing good about Clodius.

He's a manipulator, a sociopath, a
psychopath.

Any path you can think of, Clodius is
it.

- Clodius holds a powerful position in
the Senate -

one of ten tribunes of the people.

Tribunes serve as a check on the
Senate's authority

to protect the interests of ordinary
Romans.

With special powers, tribunes can veto
proposals

or bypass the Senate and take bills
directly to the people.

By pushing through a law entitling
every citizen to free grain,

Clodius has won huge popular support.

- Clodius essentially creates himself
a private army.

- There are people who are grateful to
Clodius because he is providing them

with bread, and they are ready to be
recruited to his paramilitary gangs.

- Clodius uses his gangs to beat up
anyone who stands in his way,

a trick he learned from Caesar
himself.

- Clodius, for years, had served as
Caesar's agent,

enforcing Caesar's interests in Rome,
and Clodius learned

from Caesar that power can come
directly from the people.

Clodius elevates this to a whole new
level.

Political order in the streets of the
capital

rapidly starts to collapse.

- The behaviour of Clodius makes Rome
virtually impossible

to function properly.

It's become a dysfunctional city.

And he turns into a figure of terror
for the Roman establishment.

- Desperate to regain control of Rome,
some conservative senators

hire gladiators and thugs to fight
back against Clodius.

Then, on a road outside Rome...

..Clodius is discovered in a ditch.

His body is carried back into the city

and taken to his wife, Fulvia.

- When the body comes, Fulvia receives
it,

and she does not do what should
properly be done.

For a proper Roman aristocratic
funeral,

she should wash the body and dress it
before displaying it publicly,

but she allows the crowd that has
gathered to see his broken

and wounded body, his bloody clothes,

and she weeps in front of them.

Several of Clodius' allies address the
crowd...

..and so Fulvia's weeping,

and these speeches drive the crowd
into a rage.

- Rome is a powder keg.

It won't even take a spark.

It's going to be spontaneous
combustion.

- A rumour spreads that Clodius has
been murdered

by a prominent senator.

Fulvia leads an angry mob into the
heart of Rome,

where they stage an impromptu funeral

right outside the Senate House.

- The unruly, angry mob break into the
Senate House,

and in a rampage, they heap up benches
and anything else

they could get their hands on that
would burn,

and they heap it all up and they put
Clodius on the top of the heap.

The choice to build Clodius' pyre out
of items from the Senate House

is an indication of anger directed at
the Senate.

Clodius' murderer is sort of the front
man

for the conservative faction within
the Senate,

and so populist anger will have been
directed at the elite.

The pyre burns, and it burns so well

that it also burns down the Senate
House,

which is truly symbolic of the state
of the Republic in that moment.

The city is ungovernable, it is
uncontrollable.

- The spectacle of the Senate House
burning,

it's absolutely horrifying.

It's as terrifying as the spectacle of
the Capitol

being invaded by an angry mob under
Trump.

It marks the system - the Republic -
not in any sense working any longer.

- For Cato, this was a moment of
mounting horror,

a sense of all the standards
collapsing,

and now we have the Senate House
literally burnt to the ground,

mobs rampaging through the streets.

I mean, everything that he treasures
about Rome

and the Republic is now in ruins or in
flames.

- With violence consuming the city,
senators need to act fast.

A military general could help them
quell the unrest.

But even Cato knows that the only
candidates

with enough popular support are Caesar
or Pompey.

- The thing that worries Cato most at
this moment

is that Caesar is going to be able to
come back.

He sees Julius Caesar as the
embodiment of the threat,

as an immoral man and a potential
tyrant.

And so Cato decides, in increasing
desperation, to do something

that he'd refused to do years
earlier...

..which is to try to ally with Pompey,

and Cato has to gamble that Pompey is
the lesser of the two evils.

- In times of crisis, the Senate have
special powers at their disposal.

They could make Pompey what they call
a Dictator -

an emergency office that gives one man
sole control of Rome

for a strictly limited period.

But the Optimates hate the idea.

It goes against everything the
Republic stands for.

So Pompey is offered a compromise.

- What they come up with is a sole
consulship for Pompey.

Extraordinary means and extraordinary
measures.

- Pompey's position as sole consul is
a watershed moment.

This has never happened before.

Pompey is overjoyed.

"The Senate loves me."

- After months of turmoil in Rome,

Pompey's soldiers bring calm to the
city streets.

Then Pompey relinquishes his power at
the end of his term,

much to the approval of the Optimates.

In Gaul, Caesar is nearing the end of
his term as Governor.

For years, this position has protected
him

against his enemies in Rome.

- As his ten-year period of office
starts to come towards its close,

the big question is what will his
enemies do

once he is a private citizen,

in other words, once he is liable for
prosecution.

- But Caesar has a plan.

Although he has opponents in the
Senate,

he knows his success in Gaul has won
him the love of the Roman people.

With the annual consulship election
coming round again,

Caesar plans to stand, certain he will
win the popular vote.

- This, of course, is crucial for
Caesar's ambitions,

not just because it offers him the
chance of a second consulship

but also because he will go straight
from his governorship in Gaul

to becoming consul.

- Cato is now very concerned that
Caesar,

flushed with his victories in Gaul,

will be able to get himself elected as
consul

and by becoming consul, become immune
to prosecution,

so Cato will not be able to get him
for all his lawbreaking.

- For Caesar's enemies, there's a
window of opportunity.

The Senate still have the power to
terminate Caesar's governorship.

If they can be persuaded to recall
him,

he could be forced to face trial

before he has a chance to win the
consulship.

The idea divides the Senate.

- The Senate starts to split into two
violently opposed factions -

the faction that supports Caesar, and
those on the other side

who are absolutely determined to bring
him down.

- Caught in the middle is Pompey.

He is forced to choose between his
new-found favour with the Optimates

and his old alliance with Caesar.

- Trying desperately to reconcile
these two irreconcilable blocks

is Pompey, who wants to be the friend
of both blocks of men.

- Pompey decides that the approval of
the Senate

is more important than his
relationship with Caesar.

- Pompey stands with the Optimates,
and backs the debate about

terminating Caesar's governorship in
Gaul.

- For Caesar, the fact that Pompey
decides to move against him

is a disastrous development...

..because Cato's faction now
absolutely has

the wind in their sails.

This, of course, stirs up Caesar's
deepest worry...

..that all his astonishing conquests
will be as nothing.

He is staring down the barrel of
political oblivion.

- On the 1st of March, 50 BC,

the debate over Caesar's governorship
begins.

It will end with a vote.

The Optimates need a majority to
recall Caesar to Rome.

But Caesar is prepared.

He's banking on a man he's bribed,
another tribune of the people.

Caesar's man uses his power as a
tribune to obstruct the debate.

- The tribune vetoes and vetoes and
vetoes every proposal

that is put by the Senate to try and
strip Caesar of his command.

- The tribune not only blocks the
proposal

to revoke Caesar's governorship,

he has a counter-demand direct from
Caesar.

- He puts a proposal to the Senate
that if Caesar is stripped

of his command, then Pompey should be
stripped of HIS command in Spain.

And this, of course, ups the stakes,

because it now means that Pompey's
command as well is in play.

- Pompey isn't going to give up his
army. Are you kidding?

His power lies in having an army at
his command.

He is not going to give that up.

- Rome's two most powerful generals
are now in a dangerous game

of brinkmanship.

If they cannot resolve their stand-off
peacefully,

everyone fears where it might lead.

- The tension between Caesar and
Pompey at this point is escalating

because of the back and forth they're
having via the Senate.

The problem is, the Romans know very
well the logical outcome

of this could be civil war.

- In a frantic bid to de-escalate,

the Senate again debates the proposal
that both Caesar and Pompey

give up their armies,

and that Caesar be allowed to stand
for the consulship.

For the Optimates,

this would mean abandoning their bid
to prosecute him.

But even Caesar's opponents are eager
to avert catastrophe.

- The vote was 370 for,

to 22 against,

and it's clearly because the Senate
wants to avoid civil war.

- And it might appear at that point
that peace is around the corner,

but, of course, Caesar's enemies
aren't going to let that happen.

- Despite the overwhelming vote,

one of the current consuls is a
die-hard Optimate.

Loathe to compromise with Caesar,

he uses his power as consul to do
something reckless and radical.

- It's absolutely outrageous for a
consul to ignore

the expressed will of the Senate,

but the Consuls are very powerful
people.

They have imperium - the right to
control military strength,

and in their determination to block
Caesar,

the consul actually takes a sword to
Pompey and says,

"Here, the command is yours and you
must protect us from Caesar."

- This is a signal that he has been
appointed

as Commander of Armed Forces

on behalf of the Senate.

- Pompey should refuse.

If he had his head screwed on, Pompey
should refuse.

But the diabolical thing that the
senators do

is to persuade Pompey that he's their
hero

and that Caesar is the enemy.

- He accepts the sword...

..and this is then a declaration

that he is willing to take up arms...

..against Caesar.

- This raises the stakes once again.

Pompey now has the authority to bring
Rome's legions down on Caesar.

- Pompey has both symbolically and
literally

taken up the sword against him,

and so Caesar now has absolutely no
illusions as to what he's facing.

But, you know, he makes one final
gambit.

He sends a letter to the Senate.

- Caesar's letter is brought before
the Senate

by one of his most loyal soldiers - a
man called Mark Antony.

- Antony is one of those figures from
antiquity

that gets almost nothing but bad
press.

Antony is a womaniser and he's a
drunkard.

What's easy to overlook is that Antony
is interested in literature,

he's interested in art, he's one of
the best educated men of his time,

which is why he's a terrific orator.

He joins Caesar's army as an officer,

and they've become friendly, they've
become close,

all during the context of the Gallic
War.

- Caesar has used his popularity to
get Antony elected as a tribune.

His role is to protect the interests
of the Roman people,

but Antony is really serving Caesar.

- When Mark Antony comes to the Senate
with a letter from Caesar,

the Senate won't even let him read the
letter out,

and they're simply putting their
fingers in their ears

and saying, "La, la, la, la, la. We
don't want to hear you, Caesar."

- But they're forced to hear it by
Mark Antony...

..and the letter appears to be just
another letter

which says, "Let's disarm, let's find
a way toward peace."

But in addition to that sentiment,
Antony will then go on to say,

speaking for Caesar, that if this is
impossible,

if the Senate insists on being so
aggressive,

then Caesar must defend his prestige,

he must protect the freedom of the
Roman people.

They take it to mean that Caesar is
threatening civil war.

- I think for Caesar, it's very clear.

Either his enemies in the Senate back
down,

or else, with reluctance,

Caesar will have no choice but to
defend Rome by marching on Rome.

- Some people believe that it's
possible to compromise with Caesar

and avoid civil war.

But Cato thinks that Caesar is a
fundamental threat

to the Republic and a stand must be
taken,

so he pushes very, very hard for an
aggressive response towards Caesar.

In the heart of all politics,

it doesn't matter whether you're
dealing with Putin and Ukraine

or you're dealing with Hitler, the
question is,

is compromise and peace possible with
a tyrant,

or is trying to compromise just a form
of appeasement?

It just encourages the other side.

- The Senate must now decide -

compromise with Caesar or confront
him.

For Caesar's enemies, backing down is
not an option,

so they bring a radical bill to the
chamber.

- It's called the Ultimate Decree of
the Senate,

which would make Caesar an outlaw of
the state.

This is as far from compromise...

..as one can get.

We're talking about a decree that says
you have permission to murder

Caesar if he crosses the boundary into
Rome, with or without an army.

This is huge. It is absolutely huge.

- And it's effectively a declaration
of war on Caesar.

- The Senate are persuaded that this
is the Republic's last chance.

The emergency decree is passed.

- Antony is told in advance that if he
interposes his veto

against the Senate's Ultimate Decree,

if he exercises his rights as a
tribune,

he should be concerned for his
personal safety.

And so he flees Rome because of the
menace of the Senate.

He makes quite a show of disguising
himself as a slave

so he won't be recognised, and he goes
on to send Caesar in advance

the notice that he is in peril.

- The moment Caesar gets the news, he
acts decisively,

he acts with his customary speed,

but, of course, to act he needs an
army at his back.

But he knows exactly how to press
their buttons.

He says to them that the insult that
is being done to his tribune,

Mark Antony, this is an insult to his
men too.

- The legions know the tribunes cannot
be threatened,

they cannot be harmed.

- That's good propaganda for Caesar.

Turn against the tribunes of the Roman
people,

you're turning against the Roman
people.

- If you side with Julius Caesar...

..you side with freedom.

- On the 9th of January, 49 BC,

just north of the Rubicon - the river
separating Gaul from Italy,

Caesar hosts a dinner.

- Caesar faces a choice.

He could lay down his command,

risk prosecution and the very strong
possibility of exile,

or plunge Rome into a bloody civil
war.

He has been pushed into a corner by
his enemies.

We're told that he hesitates in a kind
of...an anguish of indecision.

But in the end, he's a gambler...

..and, as he has done throughout his
career,

he is ready to roll the dice.

On the 10th of January, he gives the
command.

His legion crosses the Rubicon,

and the Roman Republic...

..collapses into civil war.

- Next time....

..Caesar triumphs in war...

..but as he takes ever more power for himself,

he leaves his enemies little choice.

For three years, Julius Caesar has
been fighting a bloody civil war

for control of the Roman Republic,

against his former ally Pompey the Great.

But now, Pompey is dead.

And Caesar gives thanks to the gods
for his victory.

He will soon return to Rome.

- At stake is how Rome is going to be
governed from now on.

It's one thing to win,

but what's he going to do with his
victory?

- Caesar has grand plans.

He wants to rule Rome's vast empire

and restore the city of his birth to
greatness.

But, in less than two years,

Caesar will be dead...

..and the Roman Republic will lie in
ruins.

At the heart of the most powerful
empire in the ancient world

stands Rome.

For 500 years, it was ruled by elected
government.

But, in a little over a decade,

this republic was overthrown by the
ambitions of one man.

- The story of Caesar is an incredibly
enduring one.

The resonance of it is so powerful.

It remains the most thrilling, the
most extraordinary

political story in Western history.

- Now, historians and experts who
understand the nature

of political power will chart his
rise...

- He's so smart, he just knows how to
use his opportunities.

- ..and ask how an individual can push
a centuries-old

political system to breaking point.

- Julius Caesar is the most dangerous
kind of demagogue.

- This is the story of how ambition
turns to tyranny...

- He's a disgrace in every single way.

He's immoral, he's irreligious,

and he's a potential tyrant.

- ..and how a dictator is born.

- The awful lesson is that, in the
end,

a populist can corrupt an entire
state.

- For every other political system
that values stability and justice,

and liberty, that should be, at the
very least, a wake-up call.

- Democracy has to be constantly
fought for.

If we take it for granted,

a new Caesar will come.

- Caesar is planning his victorious
return to Rome.

To demonstrate his greatness,

he makes his defeated enemies an
offer.

- As the man who is in the process of
winning the civil war,

he could have murdered his enemies,

he could have launched a bloodbath.

But he doesn't.

He tries to win his defeated enemies
over to him

by showing them mercy.

But mercy is something that a superior
shows to an inferior,

a master can show a slave.

It broadcasts Caesar's magnanimity.

It also broadcasts Caesar's greatness.

- Caesar also knows he needs his
erstwhile enemies on side.

Rome has been devastated by civil war.

To revive it, he'll need the support
of republican senators

who have survived the war.

- If he can persuade his opponents to
rally to his cause,

and to work for the good - both of
Caesar and of the republic -

Caesar would be unchallenged as the
ruler of Rome.

- The problem is that Caesar's enemies
think that what

Caesar stands for is tyranny.

Total takeover of the system by one
man,

backed by military strength.

Caesar doesn't see it that way at all.

Caesar says, "Of course you can be
friends with me.

"I forgive you. Come on.

"We all have, at heart, the same
cause,

"which is the Roman Republic, the good
of Rome."

- But for Caesar,

one man matters above all others.

From the beginning of his career,

Cato has defended the republic

and obstructed Caesar's ambitions.

- Cato has seen, in Caesar,

corruption, the pride, the envy.

He was predicting from the very
beginning that,

unless people moved against Caesar,

Caesar would try to turn himself into
some kind of mini-emperor.

Cato is fighting for the domination of
the Senate,

the old constitution.

He is fighting to preserve the dream
of Rome.

- Caesar's army has defeated
republican legions

led by Cato in North Africa.

And now, he has Cato cornered.

- If Caesar can get Cato to accept his
mercy,

it will give him authority as the
master of Rome,

the master of Rome's empire.

- Cato understands that Caesar will
want to pardon him,

and he'll want to bring him in behind
Caesar.

And that's necessary for Caesar,

because Cato is a very powerful
politician.

Cato has to now make a decision.

And he probably could convince
himself,

as many people convince themselves,

"Maybe I can do more good on the
inside than the outside."

But for Cato, any compromise with a
tyrant...

..is the destruction of the Roman
Republic.

The idea of compromising with Caesar
feels emotionally to him

as it might do for somebody in the
1930s being asked

to compromise with Hitler.

And, alone, he does something
extraordinary.

He takes his sword...

..plunges it into his chest.

His son comes running in,

tries to beg him, get doctors.

And he must be in the most extreme and
astonishing agony.

But Cato, looking into the eyes of his
son,

reaches his hands into his bowels,
into his guts,

and rips out his own entrails

and dies.

- Cato's suicide is a very deliberate
and planned action,

with heavy symbolism and

absolute lack of compromise.

- Cato had always had a perhaps unique
ability to get under Caesar's skin.

And, even with Cato dead, his ghost
continues to haunt Caesar.

As a spirit in the underworld, Cato
remains undefeated.

- Cato's death is the ultimate
statement.

No real Roman should ever compromise
with a man like Caesar.

No real Roman should ever accept the
way this state is going.

And the message that he sends is,

"Shame. Shame on you."

- Cato is able to establish himself as
a martyr,

and Caesar as a tyrant.

- Caesar finally returns to Rome,

where Cato's martyrdom threatens to
reinvigorate republican opposition.

Caesar faces a battle to persuade
everyone he's not a tyrant,

but the saviour Rome needs.

- The civil war has caused food
shortages.

People are very hungry, and there is
violence on the streets.

Rome is in a state of crisis,

it does need significant intervention,

and it does need people to take action
immediately.

- When Caesar comes back, there are
two great questions facing him.

One is, what can he do, as a man who
is now wielding greater power

than any man has ever had before,

to solve the manifold crises that are
facing Rome?

And the other, can the Republic be put
back together again?

If it can't, then what should replace
it?

- Since the start of the civil war,

the Senate has been barely
functioning.

For centuries, it's been the heart of
republican government,

founded on the principle that the
people elect officials

who use their seat in the Senate to
propose laws

that are put back to the Roman
citizens for their vote.

Caesar must decide whether to revive
the system or abandon it.

- Caesar wants to find a way of making
the Roman state work.

- He has no choice but to get the
Senate back up,

and he knows as well that the key to
this is to get conservatives

who have opposed him on his side.

- Caesar needs his opponents to trust
him.

To help persuade them,

he courts a young man held in high
regard by republicans.

Marcus Junius Brutus.

- Brutus is the descendent of the
founder of the Republic,

the man who expelled Rome's final king
500 years before.

And he led the people to swear

an oath that they would never again
suffer one-man rule.

So, Brutus is the poster boy of the
Roman Republic,

and those who are more
conservative-minded

look up to Brutus.

But what's really fascinating is that
he's also connected to Caesar.

Caesar's long-term lover and great
friend is Brutus's mother.

And so, Caesar looks out for Brutus
throughout his life.

There's even a rumour that, er, Brutus
may actually be

Caesar's love child.

- With Brutus on his side, Caesar
could win the legitimacy

he needs to get the Senate working for
him.

He offers Brutus a powerful position -

the governorship of one of Rome's
territories.

- Brutus isn't going to turn that
down.

He still has reservations about what
Caesar's up to,

but, like many of his generation, he
wants to get to the top,

he wants great political prestige and
power.

As soon as Brutus jumps onto Caesar's
bandwagon,

he's got the authority and the cachet,

and he convinces other senators to
accept Caesar's pardon

and to join him.

- Amongst the old guard that Brutus
needs to persuade

are senior republican statesmen.

- Marcus Tullius Cicero is an orator,
he's a lawyer,

he's the consummate politician.

He is political to his core,

and he stands for the Republic,

he stands for the senatorial system,

and he believes that this is the way
in which Rome will thrive.

Although Cicero has high political
principles, he's a realist.

He can see that the Senate has not
given the leadership

that Rome needs, and he hopes that he
can lead Caesar towards

being somebody who rebuilds the
Republic.

Caesar has power, and maybe that power
can be used for good.

- By the Autumn of 46 BC, Brutus has
helped bring old

opponents like Cicero over to Caesar's
side.

The Senate is reconvened...

..but Caesar has no intention of
restoring its full authority.

- Caesar is the man who has been in
the saddle for years and years.

His instincts are those of a military
commander -

he gives orders, they're obeyed.

And so, it's unsurprising that he
should find the requirements of

a republican system of government
frustrating,

and I suspect also a little beneath
him.

- Caesar promises he's restoring the
Republic,

whilst also seeking a way to
legitimately take

full command of the Senate.

- Caesar, by Roman standards -

and the Romans are an inherently
conservative people -

is incredibly radical.

And yet, he looks back to the past,
which is what Romans had

always done whenever they were faced
with a crisis.

And in this lumber box of Rome's
constitutional past,

there's an office called the
dictatorship.

- The position of dictator had a very
established place within

the Roman system of government, as an
extraordinary power

in a period where Rome was in
particular crisis.

- The Roman Republic is founded on the
idea of power being shared.

Only in extreme crisis can the office
of dictator give one man

temporary control of Rome.

- In an emergency, you should only be
a dictator for

a maximum of six months.

You take Rome out of that emergency,
and then hand power back.

- Now Caesar pushes the limits of
constitutional propriety

even further - he demands that he be
made dictator,

not for six months...

..not for a year...

..but ten years.

- The Senate reluctantly agree,

but on the condition they will review
his position every year.

- Men like Brutus are willing to give
Caesar these powers because

they think they're temporary.

But it's a huge gamble - it's
expecting Caesar

not to be corrupted by power.

- Cicero is open to the idea that
maybe Caesar is a necessary evil.

When a society is going through really
great strains,

when the political system doesn't seem
to be delivering for people,

then having a strong leader can be a
very seductive idea.

- The Republic is in a state of ruin.

The predominant feeling in Rome is a
kind of exhausted hope

that perhaps Caesar will be able to
use these exceptional powers

to bring Rome back to life.

- So, Caesar is made a dictator.

And they give him the permission to
sit between the consuls,

ie, superior to both of the consuls,

give him a special seat to sit on,

give him a throne.

- Using his newly-sanctioned
authority,

Caesar expands the powers a dictator
can hold.

He creates a new title for himself -
the Prefect of Morals.

- Praefectus Morum - the man in charge
of morals.

That's a really, really scary title.

But what's really important is that
gives him a power

to get people in and out of the
Senate.

- Caesar increases the size of the
Senate

from 600 to 900 men.

Caesar loyalists now outnumber
conservative opponents.

For centuries, the Republican system
has given people

the right to vote for magistrates -

men who hold powerful roles in the
Senate.

Now, Caesar decides he will appoint
all of the magistrates himself.

- Caesar's new power - to choose the
magistrates -

is a very serious abandonment of
Republican tradition,

because it's precisely the power of
the Roman people to choose,

each year, who are going to be its
magistrates that gives

the Roman people its voice.

And Caesar, the Popularis,

Caesar, the man who believes in the
power of the Roman people,

is now, paradoxically,

removing one of the central powers of
the Roman people.

- In just a few months, Caesar
centralises five centuries

of Republican powers in the office of
dictator.

He takes control of Rome's laws,
finances, armies,

and elected officials.

As long as he is dictator,

Caesar alone controls Rome.

- Caesar is taking power as his own
personal possession

and handing it out as he wishes.

And that is a huge challenge to the
whole concept of the Republic.

- You're talking about the suspension
of all the normal rules of

how Roman political life works.

- For senators of a conservative
inclination, Caesar's reforms

seem wanton vandalism.

But this is not how Caesar sees it.

Caesar is bringing in policies that
are designed to heal Rome.

- Caesar uses his power to put other
radical policies into action.

- Caesar has got a hell of a lot to do
to deal with

all the problems that have been
bubbling away,

and try to get Rome back on an even
kilter.

Er, it's astonishing how much he could
do so quickly.

- A lot of things aren't working,

and a lot of things need repair -

roads, infrastructure, aqueducts.

There are food shortages.

- But he's in a position now to ensure
that the mass of

the Roman people will be fed.

He feels that he alone has the ability
and the vision to solve

problems that his contemporaries had
manifestly been unable to solve.

He sponsors the rebuilding and
beautification of the Senate house.

He draws up plans to build the largest
temple of the world

on the Campus Martius.

He even has an astonishing scheme to
divert the very course of

the Tiber, as though he is a man so
divine that, with his finger,

he can, you know, reorder the course
of rivers.

Nothing is beyond the reach of Caesar
to correct,

to regulate, to improve -

even the dimension of time.

The Roman calendar, by Caesar's
lifetime,

is in a state of chaos.

It doesn't synchronise at all with the
rhythms of the seasons,

the patterns of the years.

And so, amid all the many other things
that Caesar is doing,

he orders a recalibration of the
calendar.

- He gives us a calendar which we have
continued to use

for the next two millennia!

- It probably seems like life is going
to get better under Caesar.

He offers the people a little bit of
stability,

an improvement to their day-to-day
lives.

- Rome begins to prosper.

But Republican senators remain anxious
that Caesar won't

willingly relinquish his power at the
end of his term.

Their hands aren't completely tied.

Just as the Senate can grant him the
dictatorship,

if enough turn against him,

they could vote to take it away.

Caesar wants to make it clear who
holds the reigns.

He temporarily moves the base of power
to his own villa,

20km outside Rome.

- What Caesar does, by taking power
outside of Rome,

is demonstrating that, instead of
power being where Rome is,

power is where Caesar is.

- Caesar decides to fill all
influential positions in the Senate

with those loyal to him.

He summons Rome's elite to find out if
they have a place in his plan.

- So, you have this extraordinary
spectacle -

the great and the good of Rome
effectively queueing

at Caesar's door.

- To ensure conservatives stay loyal,

Caesar meets a man they all look up to
- Brutus.

- He sees Brutus as if he's a son who
he's looked after,

cherished and promoted.

Now, Caesar promises Brutus fantastic
things.

He's going to get a key appointment
this year,

and this will all put him on track for
a consulship

in the future, as well.

It's a really bittersweet moment for
Brutus.

On the one hand, he is climbing that
ladder of offices.

The consulship is in reach.

But at the same time, he doesn't like
the fact that Caesar

is centralising all of this power
around himself.

But in the end, he's able to shrug it
off because,

at the moment, he's benefitting from
the system.

- Another man Caesar wants at his side
is his most loyal general,

Mark Antony.

- Antony has been Caesar's right-hand
man throughout the civil war.

- Mark Antony is one of the

best-educated men of his time,

which is why he's a terrific orator,

as well as a talented, valorous
general.

But he's also inclined to drink too
much...

..had sex too often.

And these are vices that don't
necessarily sit well with a man

who's a distinguished Roman noble.

But one of the reasons Caesar is able
to succeed is that,

throughout his career, he has a talent
for drawing people

into intimate associations with
himself.

And so Caesar can exploit the talents
of ambitious men

who are centred around him.

- Caesar promises Mark Antony the
consulship.

- Caesar becomes the focus of
attention for many

ambitious young men who see in Caesar
an opportunity to become

either wealthy or powerful, or
influential ahead of their time.

Caesar is it. He is how you
participate in this new Republic.

- Caesar is convinced the men he's
chosen will help him

maintain control of the Senate.

But there are many he simply
overlooks.

- Seeing Caesar handing the power to
his own underlings,

Cicero is sitting outside waiting.

This is definitely not the way that
former consuls should be treated.

Caesar is not using his position for
the public good.

He is using it to belittle somebody
who had great respect in the Senate.

- Caesar ignores some of Rome's most
senior statesmen...

..but he also offends some of its most
ambitious men.

- Looking in on all of this is
Cassius.

Cassius is 41, in his prime.

He is a successful soldier and a very
skilled politician.

He comes from an elite Roman family

who've produced seven consuls in the
last 100 years.

And he does go to Caesar asking for
promotion.

He gets something, but not enough.

Cassius is not happy with Caesar
personally,

and certainly not politically.

Everything now is increasingly going
through Caesar himself.

- TOM HOLLAND:
- There is, of course, a problem for
Caesar.

Whereas before, people who were
defeated in elections really

only had themselves to blame,

now it is possible for them to blame
Caesar.

And this, of course, is storing up
quite a reservoir of resentment.

- Back in Rome, senators who want a
seat at Caesar's table

contrive ways to ingratiate
themselves.

- Caesar's ability to choose the
magistrates changes

the nature of political life.

And now, you've got to earn his
favour.

So, the Senate dream up honour after
honour, after honour,

give him a special wreath in gold leaf
to put around his head.

But the more you honour Caesar,

the more invidious you make his
position.

- While resentment towards Caesar
festers,

he grows increasingly impatient with
petty Roman politics.

And when a delegation approaches him
with more honours,

he doesn't do what's expected of him.

- A whole body of senators go into
Caesar's forum,

and there he is, enthroned, looking as
grand as could be.

And there's the Senate saying,

"Caesar, we would like to honour you."

And Caesar doesn't stand up.

- In Rome, equals stand to greet each
other.

It's as if he's saying, in plain view,

that the entire Senate is beneath him.

- The problem that both Caesar and the
Senate face

is that Caesar's preponderance has
made the traditional function

of the Senate, the role of the
helmsmen guiding the ship of state,

essentially irrelevant.

Caesar is too impatient,

too unsubtle not to let his fellow
senators know

that he knows this.

- For Cicero, if Caesar is willing to
disregard the basic rules of

the Senate, in terms of how people
treat each other,

then what does that mean for any other
rules that

the Senate may have?

This is a shocking moment.

And Cicero gives up his hope in
Caesar.

- It's a massive shock and must really
irk men like Brutus.

He's still been holding out hope that
Caesar is going

to restore the Republic.

But is Caesar going to restore
authority to a Senate

that he doesn't seem to care much for
any more?

- For some senators, Caesar's blatant
disregard for the unwritten rules

is a step too far.

As a constitutional lawyer in Britain,
I have spent many years

believing in the beauty of unwritten
constitutions.

But they have their weakness, too.

If that constitution is really just a
gentlemen's agreement,

what happens when one of them decide
that everything's going

to change in their favour?

- Political process is dependent upon
integrity and mutual respect.

If those rules break down,

it's very difficult to see the way
forward for a democracy.

- If you believe in a system of
government that is designed

to balance power,

you have a moral duty to defend it.

- As Caesar shows increasing disregard
for republican conventions,

it's Cassius who dares to speak up.

- Cassius really does try to challenge
Caesar openly,

in plain view.

- Rather perceptively, he says,

"All these honours are getting us into
really dangerous territory.

"We are creating a monster here."

- Cassius is an idealist, and he does
care about the Republican ideal.

But the more powerful Caesar becomes,

the more dangerous speaking out is for
people like Cassius.

Cassius knows the tide is turning.

It's time to act but, of course,
Cassius can't act alone.

He must suspect that people are
feeling as he does,

but will they be as brave?

- What's happening is that the
opposition to Caesar is

becoming more coherent.

It's crystallising -

crystallising around a number of
people, a number of ideas.

- Whatever else he is, Caesar is not
an idiot.

Of course he understands the
resentments that are festering away

in the Senate.

He's a Roman - I mean, every Roman is
aware that the resentment

of your fellow senators is part of the
deal for greatness.

Is he afraid, though? Is he anxious?

Is he alarmed by this? I think not.

- Caesar has better things to do than
indulge his detractors.

His ambitions reach beyond Rome.

Caesar plans to conquer the one great
foe Rome has

so far failed to subdue.

The Parthian Empire.

It was in Parthia nine years earlier

that Caesar's old ally, Crassus, lost
many Roman legions...

..and his own life.

Caesar believes he is the man to bring
Parthia to heel.

- What Caesar has in mind is to launch
the most formidable

and massive invasion the Romans have
ever launched.

If Caesar is successful, he will
return to Rome

the greatest conqueror in history.

- Caesar announces he'll leave for
Parthia in three months' time...

..shortly after the middle of March -

known to the Romans as the Ides.

- He's always happiest at the head of
an army

defeating visible foes.

The toughest foe of all is the foe you
can't see,

is your old friends and your old
enemies plotting together

and sinking a knife in your back.

- Before he leaves for Parthia,

Caesar uses supporters in the Senate
to create him a role that will

consolidate his power indefinitely.

- They offer to make him dictator, not
just for ten years

but perpetuous, forever.

Which means that, if he accepts,

no-one will ever be able to take his
dictatorship away.

- It's a quite extraordinary thing - a
really, really explicit

contravention of Roman customary
practice.

The entire idea of the non-monarchical
state is that

no-one has power in perpetuity.

- There is a moment when Caesar dooms
himself.

It's when he accepts the office of
dictator in perpetuity,

dictator for life.

Because, up until that moment,

it had been possible for other
senators to envisage a time when

the normal rhythms of the Republic
would be restored to them.

- Step by step, Caesar is being
corrupted by this power he's got.

The moment he accepts the title
"dictator for life",

the mask comes off.

He is not going to restore the
Republic.

The Roman Republic, as the Romans have
known it for so long,

is on the brink of collapse.

- Cassius saw this coming.

He said, "I told you so when he wanted
to appoint the magistrates.

"I told you so when he wanted to be a
dictator for six months,

"let alone ten years,

"and now, in perpetuity - I saw this
coming."

- A month before Caesar's planned
departure for Parthia,

a festival called Lupercalia gives him
a chance to gauge

the people's appetite for the rule of
one man.

Caesar presides over sacred rituals

that celebrate the King who founded
Rome.

- The Lupercalia begins with a
sacrifice performed by

the priests for this festival.

They sacrifice goats, and they
sacrifice puppies.

And the chief priest is Mark Antony.

He has to smear blood on his body

and exhibit his sweaty masculinity to
the people.

- The main spectacle takes place in
front of a large crowd

in the public forum.

- Antony comes to Caesar, and he
presents Caesar

with this diadem.

- Which is the symbol of kingship.

This is the kind of public drama that
has been choreographed

by Caesar and Antony together.

- It's an incredibly bold manoeuvre.

- Some of our sources say this was a
test.

That Caesar was trying to decide
whether or not monarchy was going

to be a route that he could take going
forward

in his political regime.

However, as Antony offers Caesar the
diadem,

the crowd show their extreme
displeasure.

And the response shows him, in no
uncertain terms,

that the people do not want a king.

- And so, he very ostentatiously
removes the diadem.

He tells Antony, "Take it away! Give
it to Jupiter.

"For in Rome, there can be only the
one king -

"Jupiter, King of the Gods."

- The Lupercalia is really the tipping
point for Brutus.

His family history has been geared
towards saving the Republic,

and not allowing any man to become the
king.

Yet here is Antony offering Caesar a
crown,

and Brutus is powerless to stop it.

He now realises that Caesar is the
tyrant that Cato predicted

he'd become, and now, he's got to be
stopped, whatever the cost.

- Later that same day, Caesar attends
a ritual sacrifice

where the omens will reveal the mood
of the gods.

- A part of the Lupercalia is a
sacrifice to Jupiter,

which was overseen by a man named
Spurinna,

the priest in charge of reading the
entrails.

He's one of the people in Rome who
performed a really important

function in reading the signs to
determine whether the omens

were approved by the gods.

- Spurinna must be alert to whispers,
to rumours of conspiracy.

He will have picked up the threat,

the danger that was closing in on
Caesar.

- Spurinna can't say out loud to
Caesar that he might be

causing political unrest,

but he does find a way to show him.

- Spurinna is consulting the entrails,

reaching around inside the slaughtered
animal.

And he is looking for the heart of the
bull...

..and there is no heart.

It's hard to imagine a more terrifying
or ominous portent.

"Beware," Spurinna says, "of the Ides
of March."

Why does Caesar ignore these warnings?

I mean, he absolutely could have acted
on them.

But I think Caesar is convinced by a
sense of his own destiny.

It is his authority, his rule that is
preserving peace in Rome.

He thinks that no-one could possibly
be so stupid as

to conspire against him.

- In the wake of the Lupercalia,

there's this real hotbed of discontent
towards Caesar.

People are really now starting to see
what Cato had seen all along.

- For the first time ever,

Cassius now sees ordinary people

expressing their revulsion for
Caesar's ego.

Cassius needs to organise senatorial
forces against Caesar.

He needs a figurehead.

He really needs Brutus.

- People, senators, are calling on
Brutus to do something, to act.

We see graffiti plastered over Rome,

and it says things like, "Brutus, are
you asleep?"

"Brutus, live up to your name."

He has to get himself into gear,

to free Rome from this new threat of a
monarchy.

- Brutus will know that the tide is
turning on Caesar.

This is the right moment.

Cassius will be able to persuade
Brutus that his better interests

lie with the plotters.

- And they finally meet.

There's a big question in our sources
about

who instigated the plot,

but the meeting of these two minds is
crucial.

They can now test the waters.

What are they going to do about the
problem of Caesar?

- As Caesar prepares to leave for
Parthia,

Cassius and Brutus invite some of
Rome's most influential men

to a dinner party.

- They can't ask questions like,

"What do you think we should do with
Caesar?"

They use philosophical discourse.

- Abstract, hypothetical, even amusing
discussions.

- To discuss what one should do in the
case of a tyranny

over one's country.

- So, this is a conspiracy of
conversations.

Cassius and Brutus manage to bring
together some

long-standing enemies and sceptics of
Caesar -

but also, it's possible to turn even
friends and associates

of Caesar now.

His power grab is just so shameless
and out of control.

- One of the things that they agree on
quite quickly is that there aren't

really many options left.

Caesar has the entire Roman army at
his beck and call,

and it seems the only option is to
kill the tyrant.

- Brutus and Cassius succeed in
recruiting more than

20 like-minded senators,

who agree to play their part in the
tyrannicide.

- To succeed, they really have to
convince everyone that

they're not just trying to take power
for themselves,

but they're liberating Rome from
tyrannical rule.

And, for this message to work, they
can't just stab Caesar in

some street or some shady setting.

He has to be killed in the Senate.

- But Caesar is only due at the Senate
once more

before he departs for Parthia.

That will be in the middle of the
month -

the Ides of March.

Either the conspirators act then,

or it will be too late.

- The Ides of March, 44 BC,

is probably the day for which we have
more information

than any other day in the whole of
ancient history.

- Caesar is woken that morning by his
wife, Calpurnia,

in a state of dread.

- Not only has Spurinna warned him
about the Ides of March,

but also, his wife had a dream in
which Caesar is assassinated.

- Leaving his house that morning,

it's his responsibility to preside
over a sacrifice.

Spurinna is there officiating.

And Caesar smiles and says to
Spurinna,

"Well, the Ides of March have
arrived."

To which Spurinna responds, "They have
arrived, Caesar,

"but they have not yet gone."

- So, these two things combined do
have an effect on Caesar.

- He is asked by his wife, "Just stay
for the Ides of March.

"Don't go to the Senate house."

And he is persuaded by this, and he
decides he won't go.

- Word reaches Brutus and Cassius

that Caesar is not coming to the
Senate after all.

The stakes are really high.

They've gambled everything on this
being successful.

- The urgent necessity is to make
Caesar come to

the meeting of the Senate.

The conspirators send one of their
number -

the one they thought he would trust
most -

Decimus, one of his loyal generals.

- Decimus has been with Caesar from
the start.

He had served under Caesar as a
military general,

and he'd been a lifelong supporter.

Yet, like Brutus and Cassius,

he was now feeling disenchanted by
Caesar's regime.

- Decimus says to Caesar, "This is
behaviour unbecoming of you.

"What am I supposed to go and tell the
Senate?

"That you're scared of shadows?

"That you're obedient to a woman's
importunities?

"This is not behaviour appropriate to
Caesar."

Caesar's whole career had been built
on courage,

on a readiness to confront risk.

And so, the idea that he, of all men,
would start at shadows,

I think it's unthinkable.

And so Caesar is shamed, and he goes
to the Senate.

- When Caesar finally leaves his
house,

the plan kicks into action.

The conspirators have planned
everything in detail,

and they know that they have to
isolate Caesar from his supporters.

They need to stop anyone from
springing to his defence,

and they need to make it clear that
it's only Caesar's tyranny

that they are targeting.

That this isn't going to turn into a
bloodbath of all of his supporters.

The one man that they need to prevent
from being

at Caesar's side is Mark Antony.

- Antony is a big, strong, powerful
man

who's devoted to Julius Caesar.

Antony is kept out of the Senate by
way of conversation,

by way of dialogue.

- Caesar goes in as the most important
person in Rome.

All kind of senators come up and start
asking him for favours,

asking him questions.

- Cassius watches this.

He watches Caesar heading for his,
well,

what is effectively his throne,

and sees before him the vindication of
why this is necessary.

- As the first conspirator approaches
Caesar,

Brutus must be in turmoil.

This is a man he's known his entire
life, he has supported him.

In many respects, he's treated him
like a son.

And yet, he also poses the greatest
threat to the Republic

in its entire 500-year history.

- Caesar is approached by a
particularly importunate senator

with a petition.

He pays attention to it...

..and suddenly, he's feeling a searing
pain on his neck.

And he looks round, and he sees a man
with a dagger.

It's dripping with blood - his blood -
and he cries out,

"This is violence! What are you
doing?"

There is an authentic tone of shock,
of surprise.

- It's deeply shocking to see knives
drawn in the Senate.

It's one of the most extraordinary
historical moments.

- The blows continue to rain down on
Caesar

because it has been agreed by the
assassins that all of them must

dip their fingers in Caesar's blood,

all of them must inflict a wound.

The moment when Caesar irrevocably
accepts his fate

and surrenders to it...

..is when he sees the face of the man
who perhaps

he had most loved, most trusted.

Caesar says to Brutus,

"And you, my boy?"

- As Brutus looks upon the bloody
corpse of Caesar,

he's hoping the Senate are going to
rush to his side to

show that this was a tyrannicide,
justly executed.

But actually, it's a pandemonium.

There's panic and everyone flees.

- As the liberators come out of the
Senate house,

they're covered in blood - and
understandably,

the people are quite confused about
what's happened.

Brutus and Cassius think that they'll
be paraded through

the streets as the liberators.

But the people are scared.

It throws Rome into a state of
violence once again.

- Brutus and Cassius thought they were
saving the Republic.

But all they really achieved was the
creation of more chaos.

- The very chaos which Caesar had been
trying desperately

to bring under control

is unleashed again.

- And Caesar's body is left there on
the marble floor,

surrounded by his own blood.

I think the tragedy of the Roman
Republic is that

its greatest man - the man who, in so
many ways,

exemplified all its qualities to an
absolute pitch of achievement -

those achievements brought the Roman
Republic crashing down into rubble.

- Caesar had greatness in many ways.

He was a brilliant military leader, he
was a great politician.

But ultimately, the power that he had
taken unto himself

corrupted him.

- When Julius Caesar commenced his
political career,

he could never have imagined that the
Roman Republic

would come to an end.

And he certainly couldn't have
imagined that he would be

the agent that brought that about.

And yet, that's what happened in a
very short time.

What are the lessons for modern
representational systems

that aren't nearly so old?

Could modern democracy collapse?

Perhaps we simply take our political
norms for granted.

- There was a moment where the Roman
Republic seemed the most

perfect political state on Earth.

Then it had got itself into trouble.

And this reminds us a bit of our own
period.

From about 1989, democracy was on the
rise.

The number of democracies in the world
doubled.

And then, a period of deep, deep
uncertainty began,

including the rise of populism.

And it's in that environment
authoritarianisms rise,

that strong men come forward to
challenge democracy.

- I think the Caesar story really is a
wake-up call.

Democracy has to be constantly fought
for.

If we take it for granted, a new
Caesar will come.

- After 500 years,

the Roman Republic dies with Julius
Caesar,

and Rome is plunged once more into
civil war.

In the decades that follow,

it will be fought over by Brutus,
Cassius,

Mark Anthony, and a boy -

named in Caesar's will as his heir,

Octavian.

Ultimately, Caesar's death marks the
beginning of an era of emperors

that will endure for the next 500
years.

- We know that Romans were keen to
imagine that people might talk

about them long into the future.

But, of course, 2,000 years on,

we're definitely still talking about Caesar.

And I'm sure that Caesar would be
absolutely delighted to know

that his glory, his fame, endures into
the present day.