Well, that was just about the coolest thing ever. I am however, a little confused about the first part. Sextus is obviously the son of Pompey and Julia mentioned in the prologue, but what is the lineage of Quintus? You say he is descended from Caesar and Pompey, but how exactly?
Glad you like it- and as for who Sextus is, he existed IOTL, as Space Oddity pointed out, and proved a thorn in the side to absolutely everyone through his piracy, until Augustus swatted him. I have something of a soft spot for him- he did rather well given his unpromising circumstances. Quintus did not exist IOTL, and is Julia and Pompey’s child, Caesar’s Grandson.
One nitpick: Reforming the bureaucracy? That seems like a bit of hand waving, because the Republic didn't have anything like a bureaucracy as we'd call it at this point.
(Obviously it had officials, but we're talking about a state that sold the right to tax provinces at auction).
Sorry, yes- I could have finessed that a little more, maybe I should have said “reformed the Government” or similar. Basically, I envisaged Pompey and Caesar enacting many of the reforms that happened IOTL during the latter’s dictatorship- increasing the size of the Senate, term-limits for Provincial Governors, and so on.
Question: Caesar has a biological grandson, although I don't know if Caesarion would exist in TTL since Caesar would not go to Egypt to retrieve the dead Pompey and punish his killers.
FWIW, Caesar definitely takes the opportunity to settle a lot of outstanding disputes and stamp his authority on the East before he marches on Parthia, and this would almost certainly involve spending some time in Egypt.
I'm counting too many sons: Octavian, "Caligula," Brutus, and Anthony makes four, even if my mama did raise a fool. Maybe the Ceasariad takes a good deal of poetic license?
It’s almost as if a whole load of people are going to die at some point!
Well that sets things up nicely for chaos. The successes in Germany and Parthia are probably not yet complete so a civil war, especially a long multi-sided one, could provoke unrest in or attacks on those regions if the garrison is stripped too much.
Quite so- although the Parthians were thoroughly whipped by Caesar and will take quite some time to recover, this doesn’t stop various revolts breaking out.
Also they are a lot closer to Rome so if they decided to move quickly they could secure the west and the capital which would be a huge advantage. However, especially since they won't know for sure about Caesar's death and definitely won't know about what's happening in the eastern army so probably not going to be a rapid move towards what would effectively be a coup.
Things won’t turn into civil war immediately, FWIW- remember there hasn’t been a proper civil conflict since Sulla’s day, which makes people a little less willing to use force as a first resort. Plus, the Pompeians, who have been left in Rome, have pretty much got the city sown up- more on which later.
Not to mention there will probably be people, most especially many in the senate, who will have lost out during the period of Caesarian domination and who might make bids for power and to restore 'ancient freedoms'.
Oh, there certainly will be- and that’s fertile ground if one of the contenders wants to pander to them.
Oh, what a tremendous first chapter! It's too bad that Caesar is dead when the real story begins. I would have loved to read more of your take on him. You probably picked about the best way for him to go, though. At least he got to take out the Parthians. That makes me curious as to which of his other projects he got around to...
I’m determined to keep quite a tight focus on this, and sadly Caesar does have to be dead for the rest of the tale to unfold. We’ll see at least one of his engineering projects along the way though, if that’s any consolation…
My initial thought was that Caesar would want to keep him alive for his triumph, but considering how Crassus was treated in death, vengeance might be justified.
I figured that as Crassus was a friend, Caesar would be tempted to go this route- there’s also the strong political message in there that you don’t mess with Rome. Besides, I bet he’s scooped up literally hundreds of Parthian royalty for the triumph.
I notice there is no mention of Cato, Bibulus, or the Marcelli by Caesar's generals. Have the boni all been marginalized somehow?
Well, while Caesar has been away Pompeius has basically been engaged in political trench-warfare with the boni, amongst other things, and has worn them down to some extent- the passage of time has helped too, although they are still a political force. Bibulus is dead by 38BC, but Cato is still being a massive pain in the arse to everyone and will pop up, as will Marcellus. Cicero plays a rather important role too.
Will they be establishing permanent Roman control in the Mesopotamian plain itself? Or will they let the King of Atropatene remain independent and perhaps create a client-state in Mesopotamia?
The Romans are definitely keen to have direct control over Mesopotamia itself, given its wealth, but I suspect that Atropatene will end up being restored in pretty short order as a vassal, especially given the fact that in the event of civil war the Romans are going to be quite stretched in the region.
No progress in Spain? I'm a bit surprised Pompey or his sons didn't want to finish things up there, since he had a command there in the 50s. Oh, and what's the situation in Dacia? Is Burebista dead as IOTL, or is he still a threat?
Pompeian attention has been mostly focused on Gaul as (I think- haven’t yet fully decided) Caesar wasn’t around to do quite so much of the campaigning against Vercingetorix. This naturally leads them on into Germany, while Spain is something of a backwater, although one that will doubtless be sorted eventually.
As for Dacia, I assumed that Caesar gave Berebista a bit of a spanking on his march east to Syria, and he’s probably dead by now, for the same reasons as OTL.
EdT, this looks really nice, I'll be following it. Keep up the great work! I'd be interested to see the stuff in between 54 BC and the first update, however.
That’s not really something I’m going to focus on I’m afraid- I have my work cut out on doing the main narrative as it is!
Also, Octavian. Such a manipulative bastard, isn't he. Cunning boy. Smart. I like.
Oh, I like him too- in fact he’s my favourite historical figure, let alone Roman. Doesn’t mean I’m not wholly happy to kill him off though if the plot demands it! There will certainly be twists…
Why is Octavian his heir? Is it because Caesar thinks he'd be better able to handle the accompanying political responsibilities than TTL's "Caligula," who is rather young and also comes off as rather emo?
Curious as to why Octavian is Caesar's heir. He is merely Caesar's nephew as opposed to Quintus being Caesar's grandson via his daughter Julia. You would think the grandson would have superior legitimacy in his father's/grandfather's eyes.
I'm also unclear why Caesar made Octavian his heir as TTL there are other obvious alternatives. Unless possibly the will is a forgery, although that will mean Octavian will need to do something about the genuine article in Rome.
Surely, Quintus was seen in the eyes of the Romans as a member of gens Pompeia, so that could means that Caesar didn't had a direct heir AKA sons ( and we didn't know yet if Caesarion existed or not, but probably he will be the Pharaon of Egypt and no more) and the most near in the succesion was Octavius...
Why was he Caesar's heir IOTL? Apparently CJC saw something he liked in the boy, and damn it, was he ever right.
I’m with Space Oddity on this one- IOTL Caesar went with Octavian, and ITTL he’s had the opportunity to spend even more time with him. Frankly, making your successor your 25-year old assistant is more plausible than leaving everything to a 19-year old who you’ve only met a handful of times, and yet the latter is essentially what happened IOTL. As for the competitors, Caesar doesn’t really know Quintus Pompeius, having spent getting on for five or six years in the East, and probably wouldn’t have wanted him to inherit anyway, for reasons I’ll come on to below.
This leaves somebody within the Caesarian camp- just as OTL, he wouldn’t pick Antonius and Decmius Brutus misses out too (Colleen McCullough has Caesar almost plump for him, before going with Octavian). The one fascinating option, which might have been fun for me to go with, would have been if Caesar adopted Agrippa. But I suspect that his low birth would hobble him politically.
One would hope Octavian doesn't murder "Caligula" as a competitor--he's apparently a gifted commander despite being 16 and TTL seems to have avoided the Civil War, so Octavian doesn't really *need* to fear a rival for power.
Plus if Octavian doesn't have children of his own, "Caligula" can be his heir. He can also be a major commander, since Octavian might decide to stay in Rome and handle the political side of things rather than command armies.
Sextus was the best of Pompey's son's OTL, although his fame was largely based on his success at sea. Quintus may be a young military genius or he may be shining in the reflective glow of Sextus and the other generals with the force. Either way, holding an undisputed blood link to both Caesar and Pompey will be a big political strengthen provided he or his advisers are wise enough to do it.
A lot here will depend on Quintus Pompeius’ character. He certainly has military skill, inspirational leadership qualities and personal bravery; however, that only gets you so far without political nouse. If the common soldier adores him but he can’t carry the senate and the people of Rome, that might prove a problem. Or, he might just overturn the lot in a sulk and rule as a warlord before it all comes crashing down, we’ll see…
