Was Julius Caesar Responsible For The Civil War

The Civil War between Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Julius Caesar broke out in 49Bc and to a significant extent Caesar is responsible for the outbreak of war. However, responsibility for The Civil War cannot be limited to one person or event. Numerous factors come into play when discussing the responsibility. In fact the responsibility falls on three groups of people. The first being Caesar, the second - a small faction of optimates in the senate lead by Cato and Gaius Claudius Marcellus and finally Pompey are also responsible for the war.

It was a war Caesar would have avoided, but a war he had started himself. He bears the first responsibility; the dice had fallen from his hand. When Caesar crossed the River Rubicon he committed Rome to war.

The start - Caesar's first consulship in 59BC. Bradley (1990,pg.340) (credential on board) comments that during his first consulship "Caesar's use of force and his failure to pay any attention to his colleague's legal methods of blocking legislation made his measures technically illegal. His opponents now had a legitimate excuse to threaten him with prosecution as soon as he became a private citizen. This made it imperative that Caesar retain the imperium of either a consul or proconsul in the future". As a result, Caesar's war causing actions stemmed from these mistakes. Everything he did was to protect his dignitas he worked so hard for during his proconsulship in Gaul. Sir Ronald Syme a historian and classicist, long associated with Oxford University and widely regarded as the 20th century's greatest historian of ancient Rome;(in massie, pg.28, 1983) saw that "Caesar was the aggressor; he was fighting not for no nobler cause

No nobler cause, but none more dearer to a Roman noble who could not conceive life without a public career, or life wherein his digintas was degraded." Caesar had no difficulty exculpating himself. Only no one had believed in his concessions; they were suspect, tainted fruit. His enemies believed that his second consulship in 48 would give him the opportunity to order the state according to his will. He would make himself a tyrant. Cicero, Roman orator and politician who was writing during Caesar's time in office and close friend to Pompey recorded, that Caesar had often quoted Euripides' lines "is crime consonant with nobility? Then the noblest crime of tyranny - in all things else obey the laws of heavan" (in Massie, pg.28, 1983). From Cicero we can gather that Caesar's need to protect his career and dignitas was a large factor in causing The Civil War and can account for why Caesar crossed the River Rubicon. Historian, Taylor (2008, pg.231) articulates "with just a single legion Caesar reached the banks of the River Rubicon. There he paused and considered the gravity of the situation