Examples Of Greed In Julius Caesar

In Ancient Rome, noble families grew tiresome of their kings’ have hasty behavior. Due to this, they revolted in 509 BCE, establishing the creation of the Roman Republic. The Republic was not strong enough to withhold the force that accompanied influential men and that led the creation of an Empire. The Roman Republic fell into crisis because of the internal unrest provoked by various leader’s reckless behavior and greed.

Tiberius Gracchus became a tribune in 133 B.C.E. He caused strife within Rome by breaking many political traditions and soon became rapacious . When he became tribune, a position in which had been put in place in order to protect the interests of the common people, he introduced a program that many politicians did not agree

Pompey was a popular general who had a devoted private army, and Caesar was a gem in the public’s eye. Pompey and Caesar's greed can be illustrated by Pompey joining “the senate in opposing Caesar” (179). Pompey joined the senate in making the decision to get rid of Caesar so that he could take total rule. When Pompey was asked to exile or execute him, Caesar ordered his armies to advance across a river that “marked the first act of the a civil war” (179) that at the end of which, was when “the republic received its final burial.” (179). Here, their greed is displayed by the fact that they both craved more power than what was divided among them. In a quest to get rid of this division of power and have it all for themselves, Pompey and Caesar's separate aspirations eventually led to the tension between the two politicians. When Pompey asked the public’s favorite political mongul to step down, Caesar's response marked the first step to a war that was fatal to the republic. These two men who wanted to attain selfish individual goals “further undermined the future of the republic” (179). Two Roman politicians, Caesar and Pompey, furthered the weakening and destruction of the republic by causing internal conflict through their