What reforms did Julius Cesar introduce to Rome?

Answer 1

Julius Caesar instituted a number of reforms, some of which seem to have been aimed at increasing his own power. But one thing he did that had lasting and important effect was to turn Italy into a single province and tie the provinces more closely to the central government.

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Answer 2

Caesar's reforms were the most extensive in Roman History to that date, inspired by populists such as the Gracchi brothers and Marcus Drusus, but much more comprehensive. They fall into economic, political and social realms, but very much overlap.

Economic:

He canceled a 1/4 of the debt, largely owed by the lower classes who were victimized by usurious aristocrats. For the rest, interest rates were fixed at 12% (based on pre-war levels), a major blow to the creditors who were in large part responsible for breaking the backs of Rome's workers. Usury was prosecuted energetically. One reason Caesar was called a "traitor" to his class.

He reduced the number of citizens on the free grain dole (a type of welfare) from 300,000 to around 180,000. Many of those who were taken off the dole were in fact not in the lower classes and simply abusing the system.

He once and for all rid the provinces of "Tax Farmers", private citizens given contracts to collect taxes from exploited provincials, setting up a clear tax system based on set land value to be collected by the provinces themselves, giving them a freedom and sense of economic security.

He passed a tax on foreign ships doing business in Rome's harbor.

He drained marshlands around Rome while at the same time expanding the city borders allowing for easier trade and more commerce.

Social

Connected to the tax farmers, provincial governors were given fixed terms, one year for propraetors and two for proconsuls. The governors and collectors were often working together. Combined with an earlier law of Caesar's consulship, the governors now had to follow very strict rules and were not given the time to set up any kind of exploitation racket.

He ordered that all large Roman estates had to employ freemen as 1/3 of their workforce, He essentially reduced slavery by a third and created a kind of government stimulus for the workers. Caesar is rumored to have planned ending slavery entirely within Italy.

Connected to this: No Italian male could be forced for any reason to live outside of Italy for more than three years. This was one of the reasons "middle-class" Roman farmers lost everything in times past. Now, their farms were safe from land stealing creditors.

Stable provinces in Spain, Gaul, and all around the Mediterranean were either given full Roman citizenship or the Latin rights (a goal of the most forward thinking Roman populares). Now, people who were considered outsiders had all legal rights that those living within Rome had. Moreover, people now had a stake in Rome, not simple subjects.

Doctors, Teachers, and Architects were given full citizenship and economic incentives to come live in Rome. It was Caesar's goal for Rome to rival Athens and Alexandria as a place of learning and culture. This was combined with a building program of libraries, a new Curia (still standing today) and other projects.

To reduce over-population and unemployment (with concurrent crime) he set up new colonies, rebuilt old ones (such as Carthage) and passed laws giving both ex-soldiers and poor Romans their own land and farms. This, combined with the mass citizenship laws, was one of the MOST important social and economic reforms bringing stability to the empire. The seeds of the Pax Romana are here!

He began ending the use of private police forces, which were the only ones used in Rome to that date. The goal being that police were bound to the public and not to the magistrate who was paying them.

He outlawed a number of trade guilds that had been used for political intimidation and violence. Not troubled by the fact that he used many of these guilds himself; however, everyone used guilds as fronts. Caesar just played the game.

He gave economic incentives to couples to marry.

Political

Caesar enlarged the Senate from 600 to 900. But, more importantly, he opened the Senate to non-Romans. With the enfranchisement mentioned above, non-Romans not only had legal rights, they could be Senators! Of course, they would all be clients of Caesar. But power and justice are not mutually exclusive.

He granted clemency to his defeated civil war enemies on a scale unheard of at the time. Not just their lives, but their estates were, for the vast majority, returned to them. While he seems to have been genuinely concerned with ending internal strife, it was clear they owed him everything. And they hated him for it.

His reform of the calendar is his most famous (though perhaps too famous). This was primarily a political reform as it didn't allow priests to change important dates at their whim, almost always because of the interests of the powerful senators.

Combined with an earlier law on daily Senate meetings, proceedings in the Senate were more transparent than they had ever been.

He essentially practiced a form of autocracy that, while not technically kingship, made the Senate essentially his servants. They in turn gave him the office of Dictator for Life. Senatorial equality was nonexistent.

He created a smaller, municipal government that concerned itself chiefly with affairs within Rome itself.

For the ancient Roman nobility, all of these reforms drew their enmity, making Caesar forever a villain. Many moderns still take this view; however, most today admire Caesar's economic and social reforms while condemning how he did them, i.e. the political.

Finally, many of the reforms of Augustus are properly Julian. While Augustus certainly should be credited with keeping most of Julius Caesar's reforms in place and enacting those that were planned, it was in Augustus' interest to give himself credit for being the "father of his country". The first emperor is certainly admirable politically, but at heart he was no populist and used his adopted father's name to advance his own popularity.

Answer 3

Julius Caesar instituted a number of reforms, some of which seem to have been aimed at increasing his own power. But one thing he did that had lasting and important effect was to turn Italy into a single province and tie the provinces more closely to the central government.

There is a link below for more information.

Answer 4

Julius Caesar's most enduring reform was the calendar. He switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. Apart from some minor changes introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1478, this is the calendar we still use today.

Caesar introduced a land reform to distribute land to the poor and to retiring soldiers. He created a police force. He passed a law which wrote off 1/4 of all debts. Another law rewarded families with many children to encourage the re-population of Italy. He put a limit on the purchase of luxury items by the rich as conspicuous consumption was a problem. He banned professional guilds, except for the old ones, because many of them were subversive political factions. He abolished the exiting tax system and returned 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.

On the political front he weakened the senate. He replaced the senators who had died in the civil war with his supporters and increased its size from 600 to 900 to fill it with more of his supporters. He ended the election of the officers of state and started appointing them instead. He abolished the practice of electing the officers of state who became his appointees, transforming them from being representatives of the people to being representatives of the dictator. This was a practice which continued by the emperors. He set the precedent, which the emperors followed, of requiring the senate to bestow various titles and honours on him. Finally, he had himself appointed dictator for one year (the normal term for this officer was six months), for ten years, and then for life. The dictator was an extraordinary officer of state who was usually appointed briefly to deal emergencies. He had more powers than ordinary officers. Caesar changed this into a permanent post for himself.

Answer 5

Julius Caesar issued large quantities of the aureus, a gold coin which had been previously minted infrequently (usually to make large payments from captured booty). This paved the way for the central role the aureus played in the currency system of the imperial period. He was also the first to put his image on coins. Caesar set the maximum interest rate for loans to 12% to curtail usury and wrote off ¼ of all debts. He passed a law prohibiting any citizens between the ages of 20 to 40 to leave Italy for more than 3 years, unless on military assignment. He carried out a census and, based on the findings, reduced the number of people entitled to the grain dole from 320,000 to 150,000. To alleviate the problems this would cause he large estates to hire at least 1/3 of their labour from free citizens instead of using slaves to give work to the landless poor. He ordered the reconstruction of Carthage and Corinth and the foundation of new Roman colonies around the empire. Nearly 80,000 poor people were given land this way.

Constitutionally, Caesar introduced some reforms which his successor, Augustus, would retain to establish absolute rule by emperors. He took the powers of the plebeian tribunes (the representatives of the plebeians), which allowed him to control the plebeian tribunes and the Plebeian Council and to veto the senate. He also took the title of "Prefect of the Morals" which was a new office which replaced that of the censors. This gave him the same powers and those of the censors, but exempted him from the checks the censors had been subjected to. Augustus also took tribunician powers and made himself prefect of the Morals. Caesar also ended the privilege of the senate to appoint the governors of the provinces (conquered territories) and appointed them and the other officials of the provinces himself. He increased the seats of the senate from 600 to 9oo so that he could fill it with his supporters. In 45 B.C. when he was preparing for a war against the Persians, he passed a law which allowed him to appoint all the magistrates (officers of state) for 43 B.C. and the Consuls for 42 B.C. Such officers were mean to be elected annually - apart from the censors who were elected every 18 months.

Julius Caesar's most enduring legacy is his reform of the calendar. Caesar switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. On the advice of the Alexandrian scholar Sosigenes, he added 10 days per year, bringing it in line with the solar cycle. He added 67 days to the year of the reform to align the calendar with the winter solstice. This has been called the Julian calendar. Apart from some minor modifications introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the 15th century, it is the calendar we still use, which is now called the Gregorian calendar.