Why do yiu think julius caesers rule in rome was so significant?

Answer 1

When Caesar seized power in 49 B.C., he radically reformed the state of the Roman Republic and concentrated power in his hands. He did so because with imperial expansion the Republic had become dysfunctional. The central government lost control over the provinces (conquered territories). The governors of the provinces became unruly and treated their provinces as if they were their personal fiefs. Corruption was rampant. There were military commanders who used military violence or the threat of it to get what they wanted. Caesar wanted to create a strong central government capable or restoring order in the empire.

Caesar was a pupularis. This was a political faction which championed the cause of the poor and wanted reforms to improve the lot of the poor. It was opposed by the optimates, a conservative political faction which supported the interests of the aristocracy and opposed reforms. Caesar continued to pursue his land reforms to redistribute land for farming to the landless poor which he had legislated years earlier. He forced large farm owners to hire at least one third of their labour from free citizens rather than slaves, ensuring work for the landless poor. New colonies (settlements) were founded in the provinces, which gave land to nearly 80,000 poor people poor. He wrote off one quarter of all debts, and gave some of his money to his veterans and to every Roman citizen. Many Greek doctors and teachers were granted full citizenship, to encourage medicine and education.

Caesar scrapped the Roman tax collectors in the provinces who were corrupt and practiced 'tax farming' (the exploitation of tax collection to line one's pockets through extortion) and resumed the old system of allowing the cities in the provinces to raise the taxes themselves without needing Roman intermediaries. He introduced a law which rewarded families with many children to encourage the re-population of Italy. Another law limited the purchase of luxury items by the rich as conspicuous consumption was a problem. Caesar the banned professional guilds, except for the old ones, (many of them were subversive political factions) and created a police force. He 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 1 year for pro-praetors and 2 for pro-consuls to re-establish Rome's control over the provinces. The process of reasserting the control of the central government over the provinces was completed by Augustus.

Caesar effected constitutional reforms which enabled him to concentrate power in his hands which were used by his successor, Augustus, to create the rule by emperors which followed the fall of the Roman Republic. Indeed, Caesar's actions paved the way for Augustus' creation of rule by emperors.

In 48 B.C., Caesar was given permanently the powers of the plebeian tribunes powers (the representatives of the plebeians), which made him sacrosanct (inviolable) and allowed him to veto the senate, and to control the plebeian tribunes and the Plebeian Council. In 47 B.C., Caesar assumed 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, with a term of office of 3 and a half years, but exempted him from the checks the censors had been subjected to. .The censors had been officials elected with a term of 18 months. This gave Caesar the power to enrol senators. He used this to turn the senate into an instrument for his power. 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. In 44 B.C. Caesar obtained the right to appoint half of the magistrates (executive officers of state) for the next three years. This eroded the Republican system of elections. Under the republican constitution the magistrate were elected. 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. These changes were maintained by Augustus (except that it brought the size of the senate back to 600) and used them to create absolute rule by emperors

Caesar set some precedents, which were followed by the emperors. One was that of the senate bestowing tradition titles on the ruler, which then became a tradition for the emperors. He was given the titles of "Father of the Fatherland" ("pater patriae") and imperator, which did not mean emperor. Originally it was a title for the officers of state of the Republic who had imperium, which was the power to command an army (consuls, proconsuls, praetors and propraetors). Later it became an honorary title given to military commanders who were acclaimed imperator (winner) by their troops after a victory and which they retained only until he celebrated a triumph. Caesar retained this title. Imperator was one of the titles Augustus got the senate to give him. Caesar was also given the right to speak first during senate meetings, a right the emperors replicated. Caesar created a religious personality cult 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 which had Mark Antony as his high priest. At first, such human divinity was largely rejected by the masses, but Caesar's popularity paved the way for the future emperors to create religious cults centred on themselves. Caesar was 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 and the purple toga, which set the precedent for the ruler wearing purple. This toga had been previously worn by the monarchs and was later worn by the emperors which set the precedent for the imperial purple. These were the accessories for Julius Cesar's creation of his own powerful personal rule, which were a precursor of the absolute personal rule of the emperors.

The most enduring legacy of Julius Caesar is the reform of the calendar. Caesar switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. Apart from some minor modifications introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in the 15th century, it is the calendar we still use.