Julius Caesar began as one of the members of the Triumvirs along with two other men, Crassius and Pompey. Deciding three men were too many for senates, Caesar and Pompey teamed up to destroy Crassius. This left Caesar and Pompey as the senates. After many disagreements, Caesar and Pompey went to war where Pompey fell and Caesar claimed Rome.
Pompey was a Patrician and had stoic philosophy like many of plebs. Stoic’s believed that something came from nothing, which was a god. For Stoic’s to participate in anything other than work, there would have to be good reason for it and the reason would be god. They also thought that they had immortal souls and that being miserable on earth would mean happiness in the after life. One of the major things that Stoic’s believed was that they didn’t have free will. Their will belonged to god therefore they did not own their will.
Julius Caesar had the philosophy of an epicurean like many of the other Patricians. Epicurean’s believed that nothing could come from nothing; it had to have already been made for it to become something else. Another philosophy of the Epicuean’s was that everything happened by chance. The fact that humans are here was purely by chance. For human’s to have a soul, the soul would have to be made of atoms or anything else but not nothing. The major belief epicurean’s was that they believed they had free will. They lived by the words ” if it feels good do it” because they didn’t believe in a god and heavan.
Whether or not human’s had free will or not was what caused the majority of the disagreements. The Epicurean’s could do whatever they wanted without needing a reason. For the Stoic’s, if there wasn’t a good reason to do it, they wouldn’t.
When Julius Caesar wanted to rule Rome on his own, he tempted the pleb’s with Epicurean ways. He convinced them they didn’t have to be miserable anymore and there didn’t have to be a reason for everything. By bribing the pleb’s he was able to defeat Pompey and rule Rome on his own until he was later assassined.
