Alternate Caesar History

[Jona Lendering]

JFC Fuller, in "Julius Caesar : Man, Soldier, and Tyrant" addresses this very question on page 88 :

"...it took Caesar eight years to subdue Gaul, in extent but a fraction of the Persian empire, which under the Macedonian system was subdued by Alexander in nine."

Fuller has a point, but he is also wrong: we do not know whether the complete submission of the Parthian Empire would have been Caesar's goal. What he needed, was a victory that would allow him to present himself as a king, or would otherwise have given him sufficient credit to establish some kind of one-man rule. Recapturing the eagles lost by Crassus and seizing Ctesiphon may have been sufficient to reach his political aims.

[VespilloAD64]

I am reading Caesar Campaign in Gaul and it was the Parthians who where supposedly to be his next task.But would another 3rd and final crack at Britain have been at the back of his mind.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

A bit out of the way perhaps... :wink:
No I doubt it...he already had some success in the east, he had contacts out there, and there was the need to restore the reputation of Rome in the east as well after the loss of Crassus and his army.
There was more to his aims than personal glory. He already out stripped everyone else, he was thinking longterm.

[Jona Lendering]

would another 3rd and final crack at Britain have been at the back of his mind.

I would not think so. Britain was not ready to be conquered. Typically, the Romans could occupy countries with towns (e.g., Greece), or proto-urban centers (e.g., Spain and Gaul). They ran into trouble when they had to cope with countries without logical points to attack: Britain in the first century BCE, Germany in the first century CE. Caesar, who had visited both countries, may have concluded that an attack on Egypt or the east was a better option.

[Sardaukar]

I seem to recall, that he might have an idea to send Marcus Antonius against Dacians and proceed himself against Parthians.

[Antonius Lupus]

In a documentary Valerio Massimo Manfredi, when commenting on his assasination, mentioned the possibility, among others, that Caesar could be tired of living.

My theory:

He was an old man by those days’ standards, and was probably (very) sick.

On the one side, he had run a very good and successful information/spying net for a long time. On the other, the Liberatores numbered about forty. At least a few of them may not have kept the secret. Even his wife and Mark Antony had heard rumours or tip-offs.

He had already rejected his escort of lictores.

Maybe he never meant another campaign in the East, and just looked for a fitting and tragic end to his life.