Did Julius Caesar contribute to history?

Answer 1

Yes, Julius Caesar gave a big contribution to history. He conquered Gaul north of the Roman territories in its south, bringing France, Belgium, Holland south of the river Rhine and Germany west of the Rhine under the Roman Empire. This is the root of the Latinity of the French-speaking peoples.

Caesar concentrated power in his hands by winning his civil war against the forces of the senate and by implementing reforms which were used by his successor, Augustus, to create the rule by emperors which followed the fall of the Roman Republic. Indeed, his actions were the beginning of the process which led to the demise of the Republic and he laid foundations which were used for the creation of rule by emperors.

Caesar turned the senate into an instrument for his power, ended the election of the officers of state and turned them into his appointees, weakened their power and increased their numbers because these posts were turned into rewards for his supporters.. These changes were retained by Augustus to make the emperor an absolute ruler. Caesar also assumed permanent tribunician powers, which allowed him to control the plebeian council and the plebeian tribunes. Control over these institutions which represented the plebeians was retained by Augustus. They disappeared shortly after the reign of Tiberius. Caesar gave himself the title of "Prefect of the Morals" which gave him the same powers as the censor, but without the checks censors were subjected to. This enabled to increase the membership of the senate from 600 to 900 and to enrol the new senators (a power previously held by the censors) from among his supporters. Augustus retained this prerogative, but returned the size of the senate to 600. Caesar also turned the popular assemblies into rubber stamp bodies.

Caesar granted full Roman citizenship to the various Italic peoples. This issue had previously caused war between Rome and her Italian allies. He took steps to turn Italy into a province. He reduced the term of provincial governors to one and two years to re-establish Rome's control over the provinces which had turned into fiefs of the governors. The process of reasserting the control of the central government was completed by Augustus by establishing the emperor as an absolute ruler.

Caesar set the precedent for the imperial tradition of getting the senate to bestow titles on the ruler. He was given the titles of "Father of the Fatherland" ("pater patriae") and imperator. This title was not the same as the modern title of emperor. Originally imperator was a title of the consuls, proconsuls, preators and propraetors; that is, the officers of state of the Republic who had imperium, which was the power to command an army. Later it became an honorary title given to military commanders who were acclaimed imperator (winner) by their troops after a victory. The commanders retained the titles only until he celebrated a triumph in Rome. Imperator was one of the titles Augustus got the senate to give him.

Caesar created a personality cult and a personal religion which was taken up later by the emperors. He deified himself by claiming to be the son of Venus and created a semi-official a religious cult centred on his person with Mark Antony as his high priest. At first, such human divinity was rejected by the masses, but his popularity changed this. This the way for Augustus and other emperors to create religious cults centred on themselves. Caesar was also the first ruler to have coins issued bearing his image. The later emperors did the same. He was also allowed to wear triumphal dress whenever he liked, which set the precedent for the imperial purple.

Other important reforms by Caesar were a land reform to distribute land to the poor and to retiring soldiers, a law which wrote off 1/4 of all debts, a law which rewarded families with many children to encourage the re-population of Italy, a limit on the purchase of luxury items by the rich as conspicuous consumption was a problem, the banning professional guilds, except for the old ones, because many of them were subversive political factions, the creation of a police force, and the abolition the exiting tax system and return to the practice of allowing the cities to collect taxes directly, without needing Roman intermediaries. This ended tax farming, the exploitation of tax collecting by corrupt Roman tax collectors who used it to line their pockets. He increased the size of the senate by 1/3. He ended the practice of electing the officers of state, who became his appointees.

Caesar's most enduring legacy was the reform of the Roman calendar. He switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. Apart from some modifications introduced by pope Gregory XIII in 1582, his calendar, the Julian calendar, is the calendar we use today.

Julius Caesar was also the greatest general in Roman History. He wrote the De Bello Gallicus, a chronicle of his battles in his Gallic War. It is widely read by military historians and in military academies.

Answer 2

yes