![]() After more than four years of hard fighting, Caesar returned to Rome triumphant in 45 B.C., with Decimus at his side. ![]() A grateful Caesar named Decimus acting governor of Gaul while Caesar went off to challenge his enemies elsewhere. Once again, Decimus won a victory at sea, this time on Gaul’s Mediterranean coast. It was civil war and Decimus chose Caesar. Later, his enemies in the Roman senate tried to strip Caesar of power but he fought back. Julius Caesar laying siege to Alesia, Gaul, 52 BC. Decimus won an important naval battle off Brittany and served with Caesar in the siege at Alesia (in today’s Burgundy) that sealed Rome’s victory in Gaul. In his mid-twenties Decimus joined Caesar’s forces that were fighting to add Gaul (roughly, France and Belgium) to Rome’s empire. “I waged war against the most warlike peoples, captured many strongholds and destroyed many places.” He did all that, he wrote, to impress his men, to serve the public, and to advance his reputation.ĭecimus warmed to Caesar, a great commander and a war hero to boot. “My soldiers have experienced my generosity and my courage,” Decimus wrote. Then Caesar came along and offered Decimus the chance to restore his house’s name.ĭecimus was a soldier at heart, educated but rough and ambitious, as his surviving correspondence shows. But Decimus’s father had a mediocre career and his mother dabbled in revolution. His grandfather extended Rome’s rule to the Atlantic, in Spain. He always fought for Caesar, never against him, and so he held a place in Caesar’s inner circle.ĭecimus belonged to the Roman nobility, the narrow elite that ruled both Rome and an empire of tens of millions of people. Caesar pardoned Brutus and Cassius and rewarded them with political office but he didn’t trust them. ![]() Only when he started winning the war did they defect to his cause. In fact, they opposed Caesar during his bloody rise to power in a civil war. But often-overlooked ancient sources make clear that Decimus was a leader of the conspiracy.ĭecimus was closer to Caesar than either Brutus or Cassius was. Shakespeare mentions Decimus but misspells his name as Decius and downplays his role. Shakespeare puts two men in charge of the plot to kill Caesar, Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus (he of the famous “lean and hungry look”). Because Shakespeare all but leaves him out of the story, Decimus is the forgotten assassin. Decimus was a distant cousin of Marcus Brutus. The worst traitor was another man: Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus. The 10 Biggest Comebacks in Military History
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