The Queen of Bithynia (Latin : Bithynica regina) was a mock ancient epithet of Julius Caesar referencing his alleged homosexual relationship with King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. The epithet and related rumour were repeatedly invoked by several of Caesar's contemporaries, such as Cicero, Licinius Calvus, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and Gaius Memmius. [1] Caesar himself denied such allegation under oath. [2]
Around 80 BC, Caesar, then a young man, joined the staff of Marcus Minucius Thermus in Asia for military training. [1] Thermus had been engaged in bringing Mytilene under Roman control via a siege, and dispatched Caesar to solicit a fleet from allied Bithynian king Nicomedes IV. According to Suetonius, Caesar dawdled at the Bithynian court, so that a rumour emerged of sexual relationship with Nicomedes. [1] Caesar successfully completed his task of summoning an allied fleet. The rumour was spread further when a few days after his task, Caesar returned to Bithynia. [1]
In Roman rhetoric, with modesty ( pudicitia ) at the forefront, allegations of passive homosexual activity, along with other sexual misconduct, were commonly used against young men, or the youthful period of a man's life. [1] Another example was the trial of Marcus Caelius Rufus, where one of the prosecutors, Sempronius Atratinus, called him a "pretty-boy Jason" (pulchellus Iason). [1]
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus used the epithet in the edicts he issued during his joint consulship with Caesar. [1] A man named Octavius, at a public assembly, addressed Pompey as "king" and Caesar as "queen" in their presence. [3] At a debate in the Senate, when Caesar recalled some benefits Rome had received from Nicomedes, Cicero interrupted him with "we all know what he gave you and what you gave him in return". [3] Consul Gaius Scribonius Curio called Caesar "every man's wife and every woman's husband". [4] Caesar's own soldiers upon victorious return from the Gallic Wars sang in parade that "Caesar conquered Gaul, but Nicomedes conquered Caesar". [3]
Modern biographers of Caesar, such as Matthias Gelzer, Christian Meier or Antony Kamm acknowledge the episode, mainly supporting Suetonius' notion that Caesar's stay at the Nicomedes' court directly caused allegations of a sexual relationship. [1] Adrian Goldsworthy characterized it as "a very good piece of gossip, playing on well-established Roman stereotypes". [1]
This article concerns the period 49 BC – 40 BC.
This article concerns the period 69 BC – 60 BC.
This article concerns the period 79 BC – 70 BC.
Year 59 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Bibulus. The denomination 59 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Nicomedes IV Philopator was the king of Bithynia from c. 94 BC to 74 BC. He was the first son and successor of Nicomedes III of Bithynia.
Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was a conservative and upholder of the established social order who served in several magisterial positions alongside Julius Caesar and conceived a lifelong enmity towards him. In 59 BC, he was consul alongside Julius Caesar. Their partnership was contentious to the extent that Caesar's supporters assaulted Bibulus in Rome's main forum on the eve of an important vote. Bibulus withdrew from public politics for the rest of his term.
Lucius Tillius Cimber was a Roman senator. He was one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, creating the diversion that enabled the conspirators to attack.
Marcus Minucius Thermus was an ancient Roman soldier and statesman. He was praetor in 81 BC and governor of Asia the following year, succeeding Murena. The capture of Mytilene occurred during his governorship; Mytilene had been in revolt against Rome and was suspected of actively or tacitly aiding so-called pirates in the region. Suetonius credits Thermus with the victory, but the siege may have been conducted by or in coordination with Lucius Licinius Lucullus. Little else is known of his life or career.
The gens Calpurnia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which first appears in history during the third century BC. The first of the gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Calpurnius Piso in 180 BC, but from this time their consulships were very frequent, and the family of the Pisones became one of the most illustrious in the Roman state. Two important pieces of Republican legislation, the lex Calpurnia of 149 BC and lex Acilia Calpurnia of 67 BC were passed by members of the gens.
The October Horse is the sixth novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.
Bithynia and Pontus was the name of a province of the Roman Empire on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia. It was formed during the late Roman Republic by the amalgamation of the former kingdoms of Bithynia and Pontus. The amalgamation was part of a wider conquest of Anatolia and its reduction to Roman provinces.
The career of Julius Caesar before his consulship in 59 BC was characterized by military adventurism and political persecution. Julius Caesar was born on 12 July 100 BC into a patrician family, the gens Julia, which claimed descent from Iulus, son of the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, supposedly the son of the goddess Venus. His father died when he was just 16, leaving Caesar as the head of the household. His family status put him at odds with the Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who almost had him executed.
The military campaigns of Julius Caesar constituted both the Gallic Wars and Caesar's civil war. The Gallic War mainly took place in what is now France. In 55 and 54 BC, he invaded Britain, although he made little headway. The Gallic War ended with complete Roman victory at the Battle of Alesia. This was followed by the civil war, during which time Caesar chased his rivals to Greece, decisively defeating them there. He then went to Egypt, where he defeated the Egyptian pharaoh and put Cleopatra on the throne. He then finished off his Roman opponents in Africa and Hispania. Once his campaigns were over, he served as Roman dictator until his assassination on 15 March 44 BC. These wars were critically important in the transition of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
The gens Domitia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, consul in 332 BC. His son, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus Maximus, was consul in 283, and the first plebeian censor. The family produced several distinguished generals, and towards the end of the Republic, the Domitii were looked upon as one of the most illustrious gentes.
Gaius Cassius Parmensis was a Roman politician and a Latin writer of the late Roman Republic, who belonged to the circle of conspirators against Gaius Julius Caesar.
Young Caesar is an opera written in 1970 by Lou Harrison which depicting the younger years of Roman dictator Julius Caesar, such as his relationship with his first fiancée Cossutia and his flight from Rome to escape the wrath of Dictator Sulla, but it focuses most of all on Caesar's sexual relationship with the Bithynian king Nicomedes IV of Bithynia. Harrison originally designed it as a puppet opera.
Lucius Vettius was a Roman equestrian informer who informed on the Second Catilinarian conspiracy in 63 BC and later, in 59 BC, denounced a supposed plot of many conservative-leaning senators to murder Pompey. He was jailed and then found dead.