Julius Caesar, Roman Statesman, General, Dictator.
Born Gaius Julius Caesar in Rome 100 B.C. He was a brilliant soldier and an administrator of impressive wisdom and foresight. He pacified the state, racked by a century of disorder and dissension, and laid the foundations for the Roman Empire. His conquests in Gaul not only extended the territories of Rome but opened western Europe to Roman civilization.
He lived when Roman politics were for the most part dominated by greed and self interest. The authority of law and politics was gradually being undermined, threatening the republic's status and influence.
Caesar was descended from a patrician family which had long been attached to the senatorial clique; but from the earliest years of his public life he sided with the popular party. This was due to the influence of Marius, who was his uncle by marriage and had created him priest of Jupiter in 86.
In 83, at the age of 17, Caesar incurred the wrath of Sulla by his marriage to Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, and he was proscribed.
Cinna led the Marian group, followers of Gaius Marius, a great popular leader. Lucius Sulla, the aristocratic dictator of Rome, demanded that Caesar sever all ties with the popular party by divorcing Cornelia. But Caesar refused to do so.
His aristocratic relatives and the college of vestal virgins persuaded the dictator to spare his life; but he deemed it prudent to leave Italy for the time being. He then went to Greece to study philosophy and oratory and served with distinction in the Roman army.
Caesar returned to Rome after Sulla's death in 78 B.C. In 77 B.C. he prosecuted the governor of Macedonia for extortion in his province and won considerable popular acclaim. The next two years he spent studying rhetoric on the island of Rhodes under Molon and played a useful part in the opening stages of the third Mithridatic War. Returning to Rome in 74 or 73, he found that he had been elected to a place in the college of pontiffs. His ambition had no doubt already been awakened; but the time was not yet ripe for political advancement. After his return to Rome he set out in earnest to establish a political career.
Caesar became increasingly interested in public affairs, and tried always to gain the favor of the people. He identified with the popular party and its fight against the reactionary program of the senatorial oligarchy. In the next few years he rose to political prominence. He was made quaestor, or deputy to the consul, in 69 B.C., and aedile, a city magistrate responsible for public works and games, in 65 B.C. He won favor because he spent much money to provide recreation for the people, although he went heavily into debt to do so.
Two years later he became pontifex maximus and in 62 B.C. he became praetor, the office next in rank to consul.
Meanwhile Cornelia had died, and Caesar had married Pompeia, daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus (67). He had also exhibited his goodwill towards Pompey by supporting the Gabinian and Manilian laws. After serving as praetor in 62 he went in the following year as propraetor to Farther Spain, thereby enabling himself to reduce his debts, and to win a considerable military reputation by victories over the Lusitanians.
During his early career, Caesar succeeded politically through a combination of bribery and popular support. Although regarded with suspicion by conservative senators he was propelled to a position of power with the help of only two politicians, Crassus and Pompey, who provided the necessary money and influence.
In 60 B.C., after a year as governor of Spain, Caesar returned to Rome. There he joined the Roman general Pompey, newly returned from a victorious campaign in Asia, and Marcus Licinius Crassus, a wealthy, ambitious politician, in an alliance, later called the First Triumvirate.
The three took power when, through violence and bribery, Caesar was elected a consul in 59 B.C. He used force to push through the triumvirate's agenda, and won the hatred of the conservatives. He took the post of proconsul of several provinces north of Italy. In 59 B.C., Caesar married Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso of Rome. Also that year, Pompey married Caesar's daughter, Julia.
This coalition, renewed in 56 B.C., combined the forces of three of the most powerful men of Rome and gave them effective control of the government. As consul, Caesar put through an agrarian law, won the favour of the EQUITES by certain financial measures, and secured the ratification of Pompey's eastern settlement.
In return, the people voted him the governor of Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul for a period of five years, to which the Senate were obliged by popular opinion to add Transalpine Gaul. He spent the next nine years conquering the area that is present day France. He crossed the English Channel to Britain twice, in 55 and 54.
It was about this time also that Caesar divorced Pompeia, on account of a supposed liaison with Clodius, and married his third wife, Calpurnia.
From 58 to 49 B.C., Caesar remained in Gaul in command of four legions. He defended the original Roman territories there against invasion and extended Roman rule throughout Gaul, to the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Rhine River on the north. His conquest of Gaul not only strengthened all Rome but brought Caesar unquestioned recognition for his military and administrative abilities. It also brought him considerable wealth and, most important, a large, well-trained, and loyal army.
The years 58-50 were spent mostly in Transalpine Gaul, which he subdued by a series of brilliant campaigns. In the first two campaigns of the war, Caesar drove two invading groups out of Gaul. He defeated the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe from Switzerland that had attempted to settle in southwestern Gaul. He then forced the Germanic Suebi to withdraw across the Rhine River, establishing for the first time the boundary between Rome and Germany. Caesar went on to subdue all of Gaul. The numerous battles, first of conquest and then of securing his victories against frequent rebellions, are described in Caesar's famous work The Gallic Wars.
By 56 B.C. the initial conquest of most of non-Roman Gaul had been accomplished, and Caesar turned his attention to Britain. In 55 B.C. he explored the area briefly and the following year launched an invasion. He defeated the Britons and took hostages and money. But at no time did he make provisions for a permanent Roman occupation. Revolts in Gaul called him back from Britain. By 52 B.C. the Gallic tribes from central, eastern, and western Gaul had joined forces under the leadership of the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix. For the first time, Caesar faced a unified Gallic army.
News of the massive insurrection reached Caesar while he was wintering in Cisalpine Gaul. With considerable difficulty he reached and mustered his army, north of the Cevennes mountains. After pursuing his adversary and suffering defeat in several minor engagements, Caesar finally besieged Vercingetorix in a hill town near Dijon. He ordered two rings of earthworks built around the town, one to keep Vercingetorix and his men inside, the other facing outward against an approaching relief army of Gauls. The Gallic reinforcements were driven back, Caesar laid siege to the city, and Vercingetorix was forced to surrender. After six years in captivity he was led through the streets of Rome in Caesar's triumphal march and then executed.
Caesar's victory over Vercingetorix largely ended the resistance to Roman control in Gaul. Except for pacifying isolated tribes, Caesar concentrated on trying to heal the wounds of war. The rule he imposed on the Gauls was moderate. He did not exact heavy tributes, and he left their individual tribal institutions undisturbed. Although Caesar had fought ruthlessly in Gaul, his conquest and the wisdom of his surrender terms brought peace, as well as the benefits of Roman civilization, to the new province.
Caesar's army, at the end of the Gallic Wars, had grown to number 11 legions, almost three times its size when he took command in Gaul. It was not only well disciplined and fully armed, but unshakably loyal to its commander. With the pacification of Gaul, Caesar was able to withdraw nearly all of his troops from the conquered territory and to use them to support his political ambitions in Italy.
During this period he wrote a commentary, The Gallic War, justifying his military campaigns.
The new arrangement with Pompey and Crassus (55) had given Caesar an extension of his command for another five years to 30 December 49. But Pompey's jealousy had been aroused; the death of his wife Julia (Caesar's daughter) in 54 dissolved one of the few remaining bonds between the two leaders, and the death of Crassus at Carrhae in 53 left them without a mediator. Towards the end of 52 Pompey, after being sole consul for that year, was granted the governorship of Spain for five years, which he proceeded, against all constitutional practice, to exercise by deputy since he dared not leave Rome. Caesar asked for election to the consulate for 49 notwithstanding his absence from the capital; the Senate refused.
Although great public thanksgiving celebrations were held in Rome for his victories, not everyone rejoiced over Caesar's conquests. Pompey became alarmed at Caesar's success. Pompey's growing jealousy threw him into an alliance with the conservatives, who ordered Caesar to give up his army in 49 B.C.
Caesar offered to relinquish his military power if Pompey would yield command of his armies in Spain. This compromise was rejected by the senate, which instead called on Caesar to lay down his arms unconditionally. Two tribunes in the senate, Mark Antony and Q. Cassius Longinus, vetoed this measure. They were expelled from the senate and subsequently fled Rome to join Caesar in Gaul.
He led 5,000 soldiers across the Rubicon, a stream that separated his provinces from Italy. After this hostile act, there was no turning back. Caesar had provoked a civil war, his greatest step toward grasping supreme power. As Caesar dashed south, he met little opposition. Pompey's troops surrendered, forcing Pompey to flee to the Balkans. The conservatives who had ordered Caesar to give up his army fled with Pompey.
Within 60 days, Caesar became master of Italy. But it took him nearly five years to complete his conquest of the rest of the empire. In 49 B.C., Caesar had himself appointed dictator and consul, as well as tribune for life.
The Senate's armies were led by Pompey whom Caesar defeated in 48 but fighting continued in Africa until 46 and in Spain until 45. Caesar also wrote an account of the military conflict, in which he attributed responsibility to his opponents.
He drove the Pompeian forces from Italy to Greece; hurried to Spain, where he defeated Africanius and Petreius in the bitterly fought campaign. Returning to Rome, where he had been appointed dictator, Caesar was reelected consul in 48 B.C.
With a small fleet and army, Caesar sailed to Dyrrhachium (now Durazzo, Albania), where he attacked Pompey's army, who was defeated and forced to retreat southeast into Thessaly. There on the plain of Pharsala, in August 48 B.C., Caesar's army of about 20,000 routed Pompey's force of more than twice that number. Pompey fled to Egypt, and Caesar followed. However, he learned that when Pompey had landed at Alexandria, he had been killed by order of Ptolemy XII, who ruled Egypt with his sister, Cleopatra.
Caesar did not immediately return to Rome. Enamored of Cleopatra, he lived some months with her in Egypt. During the winter of 48 and 47 B.C. he fought on her behalf against the forces of Ptolemy and finally made Cleopatra sole ruler of Egypt. He then proceeded to Asia Minor to put down an uprising by the Pontic king, Pharnaces II, at Zela. This five-day campaign was later celebrated in his triumph with a poster that read: "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered").
Caesar had two important battles yet to fight before all Rome was firmly in his control. The first was at Thapsus, in Tunisia, where he defeated senatorial forces under Pompey's allies, Marcus Porcius Cato and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio. The final campaign of the civil war was fought in 45 B.C., when Caesar soundly defeated the sons of Pompey at Munda, in Spain.
In complete command of the army and of the provinces, Caesar returned to Rome in the autumn of 45 B.C. He pardoned many of his former enemies and received many honors. The fifth month of the Roman year was renamed for him. The title of dictator was bestowed on him, and he was elected to his fifth consulship for 44 B.C. At that time he assumed the title of dictator, usually regarded as a temporary one, for life. The role of the senate became that of an advisory body. The magistrates and other officers of the state were responsible to Caesar, who in effect now ruled as absolute monarch. In short, the oligarchy that had been ruling Rome was replaced by an autocracy. The long-doomed republic was finally dead.
Caesar's accomplishments in the short time that he governed Rome were remarkable. The power that he had won through force and through sometimes ruthless calculation he used with wisdom and restraint. He provided for his veterans and took little vengeance on his former foes. He granted citizenship to Cisalpine Gaul and allowed Gauls to serve in the senate. He also drew up elaborate plans, later used by Augustus, for the general consolidation and rule of the empire.
In Rome, Caesar built a public library and planned the construction of other public buildings. He improved the social conditions of the people by agrarian and financial reform. He also put into effect a new calendar, devised with the help of the astronomer Sosigenes, which, except for a minor modification, is still in use.
Caesar used wisely the power he had won, and made many important reforms. He established a plan for reorganizing city government in Italy. He tried to reconcile his opponents by appointing them to public office. He replaced dishonest governors with honest ones, and granted Roman citizenship to many persons who lived in the provinces.
Caesar encouraged poor people in Rome to improve their way of living by establishing colonies, notably at Carthage and Corinth. He continued to distribute free grain, but gave it only to those who were in need. He is said to have planned many other reforms, such as the founding of public libraries, the draining of marshes, and the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth.
Caesar had proved he was capable of governing Rome and its vast possessions. Yet many of Caesar's actions offended Roman pride. Caesar treated the Senate as a mere advisory council, and the Romans resented this disrespect. He also did not try to disguise the fact that he was a dictator. In addition, the Romans considered themselves conquerors of the world, and objected to measures that gave full citizenship to peoples they regarded as their subjects.
Caesar had now become undisputed master of the Roman world. He pardoned the followers of Pompey. The people honored Caesar for his leadership and triumphs by granting him the powers of dictator for 10 years. Later, he was made dictator for life. At a public festival, Mark Antony tested popular feeling by offering Caesar the crown of a king. Because the Romans hated kings, Caesar refused the crown.
Caesar's assumption of dictatorial powers aroused resentment among many Romans. Even though Caesar refused the crown, the conservatives suspected that he intended to make himself king someday. It was they, notably Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who led the conspiracy, both of whom Caesar had pardoned after the battle of Pharsalus, led a group of aristocrats in a plot to kill the dictator.
On March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 B.C., Caesar was surrounded by the conspirators and stabbed to death as he entered a Senate meeting. He received more than 20 wounds from men who had accepted his favors and who he had believed were his friends.
His death resulted in a period of political chaos in which the Republic was replaced, by a new form of government created by Caesar's heir, Octavian (Augustus), the Roman Empire.
Born Gaius Julius Caesar in Rome 100 B.C. He was a brilliant soldier and an administrator of impressive wisdom and foresight. He pacified the state, racked by a century of disorder and dissension, and laid the foundations for the Roman Empire. His conquests in Gaul not only extended the territories of Rome but opened western Europe to Roman civilization.
He lived when Roman politics were for the most part dominated by greed and self interest. The authority of law and politics was gradually being undermined, threatening the republic's status and influence.
Family Ties
Caesar was descended from a patrician family which had long been attached to the senatorial clique; but from the earliest years of his public life he sided with the popular party. This was due to the influence of Marius, who was his uncle by marriage and had created him priest of Jupiter in 86.
In 83, at the age of 17, Caesar incurred the wrath of Sulla by his marriage to Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, and he was proscribed.
Cinna led the Marian group, followers of Gaius Marius, a great popular leader. Lucius Sulla, the aristocratic dictator of Rome, demanded that Caesar sever all ties with the popular party by divorcing Cornelia. But Caesar refused to do so.
His aristocratic relatives and the college of vestal virgins persuaded the dictator to spare his life; but he deemed it prudent to leave Italy for the time being. He then went to Greece to study philosophy and oratory and served with distinction in the Roman army.
Early Political Career
Caesar returned to Rome after Sulla's death in 78 B.C. In 77 B.C. he prosecuted the governor of Macedonia for extortion in his province and won considerable popular acclaim. The next two years he spent studying rhetoric on the island of Rhodes under Molon and played a useful part in the opening stages of the third Mithridatic War. Returning to Rome in 74 or 73, he found that he had been elected to a place in the college of pontiffs. His ambition had no doubt already been awakened; but the time was not yet ripe for political advancement. After his return to Rome he set out in earnest to establish a political career.
Caesar became increasingly interested in public affairs, and tried always to gain the favor of the people. He identified with the popular party and its fight against the reactionary program of the senatorial oligarchy. In the next few years he rose to political prominence. He was made quaestor, or deputy to the consul, in 69 B.C., and aedile, a city magistrate responsible for public works and games, in 65 B.C. He won favor because he spent much money to provide recreation for the people, although he went heavily into debt to do so.
Two years later he became pontifex maximus and in 62 B.C. he became praetor, the office next in rank to consul.
Meanwhile Cornelia had died, and Caesar had married Pompeia, daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus (67). He had also exhibited his goodwill towards Pompey by supporting the Gabinian and Manilian laws. After serving as praetor in 62 he went in the following year as propraetor to Farther Spain, thereby enabling himself to reduce his debts, and to win a considerable military reputation by victories over the Lusitanians.
During his early career, Caesar succeeded politically through a combination of bribery and popular support. Although regarded with suspicion by conservative senators he was propelled to a position of power with the help of only two politicians, Crassus and Pompey, who provided the necessary money and influence.
First Triumvirate
In 60 B.C., after a year as governor of Spain, Caesar returned to Rome. There he joined the Roman general Pompey, newly returned from a victorious campaign in Asia, and Marcus Licinius Crassus, a wealthy, ambitious politician, in an alliance, later called the First Triumvirate.
The three took power when, through violence and bribery, Caesar was elected a consul in 59 B.C. He used force to push through the triumvirate's agenda, and won the hatred of the conservatives. He took the post of proconsul of several provinces north of Italy. In 59 B.C., Caesar married Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso of Rome. Also that year, Pompey married Caesar's daughter, Julia.
This coalition, renewed in 56 B.C., combined the forces of three of the most powerful men of Rome and gave them effective control of the government. As consul, Caesar put through an agrarian law, won the favour of the EQUITES by certain financial measures, and secured the ratification of Pompey's eastern settlement.
In return, the people voted him the governor of Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul for a period of five years, to which the Senate were obliged by popular opinion to add Transalpine Gaul. He spent the next nine years conquering the area that is present day France. He crossed the English Channel to Britain twice, in 55 and 54.
It was about this time also that Caesar divorced Pompeia, on account of a supposed liaison with Clodius, and married his third wife, Calpurnia.
Gallic Wars
From 58 to 49 B.C., Caesar remained in Gaul in command of four legions. He defended the original Roman territories there against invasion and extended Roman rule throughout Gaul, to the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Rhine River on the north. His conquest of Gaul not only strengthened all Rome but brought Caesar unquestioned recognition for his military and administrative abilities. It also brought him considerable wealth and, most important, a large, well-trained, and loyal army.
The years 58-50 were spent mostly in Transalpine Gaul, which he subdued by a series of brilliant campaigns. In the first two campaigns of the war, Caesar drove two invading groups out of Gaul. He defeated the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe from Switzerland that had attempted to settle in southwestern Gaul. He then forced the Germanic Suebi to withdraw across the Rhine River, establishing for the first time the boundary between Rome and Germany. Caesar went on to subdue all of Gaul. The numerous battles, first of conquest and then of securing his victories against frequent rebellions, are described in Caesar's famous work The Gallic Wars.
By 56 B.C. the initial conquest of most of non-Roman Gaul had been accomplished, and Caesar turned his attention to Britain. In 55 B.C. he explored the area briefly and the following year launched an invasion. He defeated the Britons and took hostages and money. But at no time did he make provisions for a permanent Roman occupation. Revolts in Gaul called him back from Britain. By 52 B.C. the Gallic tribes from central, eastern, and western Gaul had joined forces under the leadership of the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix. For the first time, Caesar faced a unified Gallic army.
News of the massive insurrection reached Caesar while he was wintering in Cisalpine Gaul. With considerable difficulty he reached and mustered his army, north of the Cevennes mountains. After pursuing his adversary and suffering defeat in several minor engagements, Caesar finally besieged Vercingetorix in a hill town near Dijon. He ordered two rings of earthworks built around the town, one to keep Vercingetorix and his men inside, the other facing outward against an approaching relief army of Gauls. The Gallic reinforcements were driven back, Caesar laid siege to the city, and Vercingetorix was forced to surrender. After six years in captivity he was led through the streets of Rome in Caesar's triumphal march and then executed.
Caesar's victory over Vercingetorix largely ended the resistance to Roman control in Gaul. Except for pacifying isolated tribes, Caesar concentrated on trying to heal the wounds of war. The rule he imposed on the Gauls was moderate. He did not exact heavy tributes, and he left their individual tribal institutions undisturbed. Although Caesar had fought ruthlessly in Gaul, his conquest and the wisdom of his surrender terms brought peace, as well as the benefits of Roman civilization, to the new province.
Caesar's army, at the end of the Gallic Wars, had grown to number 11 legions, almost three times its size when he took command in Gaul. It was not only well disciplined and fully armed, but unshakably loyal to its commander. With the pacification of Gaul, Caesar was able to withdraw nearly all of his troops from the conquered territory and to use them to support his political ambitions in Italy.
During this period he wrote a commentary, The Gallic War, justifying his military campaigns.
Civil War
The new arrangement with Pompey and Crassus (55) had given Caesar an extension of his command for another five years to 30 December 49. But Pompey's jealousy had been aroused; the death of his wife Julia (Caesar's daughter) in 54 dissolved one of the few remaining bonds between the two leaders, and the death of Crassus at Carrhae in 53 left them without a mediator. Towards the end of 52 Pompey, after being sole consul for that year, was granted the governorship of Spain for five years, which he proceeded, against all constitutional practice, to exercise by deputy since he dared not leave Rome. Caesar asked for election to the consulate for 49 notwithstanding his absence from the capital; the Senate refused.
Although great public thanksgiving celebrations were held in Rome for his victories, not everyone rejoiced over Caesar's conquests. Pompey became alarmed at Caesar's success. Pompey's growing jealousy threw him into an alliance with the conservatives, who ordered Caesar to give up his army in 49 B.C.
Caesar offered to relinquish his military power if Pompey would yield command of his armies in Spain. This compromise was rejected by the senate, which instead called on Caesar to lay down his arms unconditionally. Two tribunes in the senate, Mark Antony and Q. Cassius Longinus, vetoed this measure. They were expelled from the senate and subsequently fled Rome to join Caesar in Gaul.
He led 5,000 soldiers across the Rubicon, a stream that separated his provinces from Italy. After this hostile act, there was no turning back. Caesar had provoked a civil war, his greatest step toward grasping supreme power. As Caesar dashed south, he met little opposition. Pompey's troops surrendered, forcing Pompey to flee to the Balkans. The conservatives who had ordered Caesar to give up his army fled with Pompey.
Within 60 days, Caesar became master of Italy. But it took him nearly five years to complete his conquest of the rest of the empire. In 49 B.C., Caesar had himself appointed dictator and consul, as well as tribune for life.
The Senate's armies were led by Pompey whom Caesar defeated in 48 but fighting continued in Africa until 46 and in Spain until 45. Caesar also wrote an account of the military conflict, in which he attributed responsibility to his opponents.
He drove the Pompeian forces from Italy to Greece; hurried to Spain, where he defeated Africanius and Petreius in the bitterly fought campaign. Returning to Rome, where he had been appointed dictator, Caesar was reelected consul in 48 B.C.
With a small fleet and army, Caesar sailed to Dyrrhachium (now Durazzo, Albania), where he attacked Pompey's army, who was defeated and forced to retreat southeast into Thessaly. There on the plain of Pharsala, in August 48 B.C., Caesar's army of about 20,000 routed Pompey's force of more than twice that number. Pompey fled to Egypt, and Caesar followed. However, he learned that when Pompey had landed at Alexandria, he had been killed by order of Ptolemy XII, who ruled Egypt with his sister, Cleopatra.
Caesar did not immediately return to Rome. Enamored of Cleopatra, he lived some months with her in Egypt. During the winter of 48 and 47 B.C. he fought on her behalf against the forces of Ptolemy and finally made Cleopatra sole ruler of Egypt. He then proceeded to Asia Minor to put down an uprising by the Pontic king, Pharnaces II, at Zela. This five-day campaign was later celebrated in his triumph with a poster that read: "Veni, vidi, vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered").
Caesar had two important battles yet to fight before all Rome was firmly in his control. The first was at Thapsus, in Tunisia, where he defeated senatorial forces under Pompey's allies, Marcus Porcius Cato and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio. The final campaign of the civil war was fought in 45 B.C., when Caesar soundly defeated the sons of Pompey at Munda, in Spain.
Caesar's Government of Rome
In complete command of the army and of the provinces, Caesar returned to Rome in the autumn of 45 B.C. He pardoned many of his former enemies and received many honors. The fifth month of the Roman year was renamed for him. The title of dictator was bestowed on him, and he was elected to his fifth consulship for 44 B.C. At that time he assumed the title of dictator, usually regarded as a temporary one, for life. The role of the senate became that of an advisory body. The magistrates and other officers of the state were responsible to Caesar, who in effect now ruled as absolute monarch. In short, the oligarchy that had been ruling Rome was replaced by an autocracy. The long-doomed republic was finally dead.
Caesar's accomplishments in the short time that he governed Rome were remarkable. The power that he had won through force and through sometimes ruthless calculation he used with wisdom and restraint. He provided for his veterans and took little vengeance on his former foes. He granted citizenship to Cisalpine Gaul and allowed Gauls to serve in the senate. He also drew up elaborate plans, later used by Augustus, for the general consolidation and rule of the empire.
In Rome, Caesar built a public library and planned the construction of other public buildings. He improved the social conditions of the people by agrarian and financial reform. He also put into effect a new calendar, devised with the help of the astronomer Sosigenes, which, except for a minor modification, is still in use.
Caesar used wisely the power he had won, and made many important reforms. He established a plan for reorganizing city government in Italy. He tried to reconcile his opponents by appointing them to public office. He replaced dishonest governors with honest ones, and granted Roman citizenship to many persons who lived in the provinces.
Caesar encouraged poor people in Rome to improve their way of living by establishing colonies, notably at Carthage and Corinth. He continued to distribute free grain, but gave it only to those who were in need. He is said to have planned many other reforms, such as the founding of public libraries, the draining of marshes, and the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth.
Caesar had proved he was capable of governing Rome and its vast possessions. Yet many of Caesar's actions offended Roman pride. Caesar treated the Senate as a mere advisory council, and the Romans resented this disrespect. He also did not try to disguise the fact that he was a dictator. In addition, the Romans considered themselves conquerors of the world, and objected to measures that gave full citizenship to peoples they regarded as their subjects.
Caesar had now become undisputed master of the Roman world. He pardoned the followers of Pompey. The people honored Caesar for his leadership and triumphs by granting him the powers of dictator for 10 years. Later, he was made dictator for life. At a public festival, Mark Antony tested popular feeling by offering Caesar the crown of a king. Because the Romans hated kings, Caesar refused the crown.
Assassination
Caesar's assumption of dictatorial powers aroused resentment among many Romans. Even though Caesar refused the crown, the conservatives suspected that he intended to make himself king someday. It was they, notably Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, who led the conspiracy, both of whom Caesar had pardoned after the battle of Pharsalus, led a group of aristocrats in a plot to kill the dictator.
On March 15 (the Ides of March), 44 B.C., Caesar was surrounded by the conspirators and stabbed to death as he entered a Senate meeting. He received more than 20 wounds from men who had accepted his favors and who he had believed were his friends.
His death resulted in a period of political chaos in which the Republic was replaced, by a new form of government created by Caesar's heir, Octavian (Augustus), the Roman Empire.
References
- Merit Students Encyclopedia, Volume 16, P.F. Collier Inc, 1979. Page 201.
- Merit Students Encyclopedia, Volume 3, P.F. Collier Inc, 1979. Page 592.
- New Knowledge Library - Universal Reference Encyclopedia, Volume 15, Bay Books, 1981. Page 1425.
- New Knowledge Library - Universal Reference Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Bay Books, 1981. Page 184.
- The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 3, World Book Inc, 1985. Page 12.
- List of Roman Emperors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_emper ors - Julius Caesar
http://www.squidoo.com/caesar - The Roman Empire
http://hubpages.com/hub/roman-empire
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