What problems did Rome face during the time of Julius Caesar why?

Answer 1

The main issues facing Rome during the time of Julius Caesar were:

1) Veteran resettlement

In the leadup to Julius Caesar's life changes were made to Rome's military referred to as the Marian reforms. Due to severe losses in conflict with the German tribes migrating south new armies were required but Rome did not have enough men left who met the criteria of land and money to be allowed to serve in the army and who had to fund their own equipment. On top of this Rome's Italian allies were unwilling to see their remaining men die under poor leadership in the name of Rome leaving them without men to work their land - as a result their land was being bought by wealthy Romans and Roman slaves were getting the jobs on that land.

To resolve this Marius created a professional army from the capite censi - the Roman 'head count' who had neither land, wealth or employment. With these new armies Rome crushed the German invasion.

However, the dilemma remained of what to do with these professional soldiers when they were no longer required or had reached retirement age. A long running issue on granting land to former soldiers for them to settle on and farm raged in the senate for decades and was a key factor in Julius Caesar's garnering support from the people during elections.

2) Egyptian plague, civil war and grain shortage

During the time before Julius Caesar's affair with Cleopatra Egypt was in turmoil. Plague had ravaged the people of the Nile delta, the Nile had not risen enough to water the the plains that allowed crops to flourish and civil war was brewing between the indigenous Egyptians and the Macedonian Egyptians. The result of all this impacted Rome in the form of grain shortages which Rome depended on heavily.

3) Resistance to change and corruption in the Senate.

Julius Caesar lived at the tail end of the Republic of Rome, for a long time the politics in Rome had descended into chaos and corruption. Around the time Julius Caesar rose to power a faction in the senate under the leadership of Marcus Porcius Cato called the Boni or "good" men believed in resisting change and keeping the old ways of the Roman Republic. This would lead to a civil war because Julius Caesar faced faced being branded a traitor and exiled losing all property in Rome for not heeding the demands of the Boni in the senate to disband his armies and returning to Rome to face the senate over his 'illegal' invasion of Gaul.

4) Buildup of armies in Parthia

The Parthians (modern day Syria/Iraq/Iran were developing to become a major threat at the time of Julius Caesar and at the time of his death Julius Caesar was planning to invade Parthia. Rome had previously failed to invade Parthia under the leadership of Marcus Crassus whose motivation was to glorify himself to the people of Rome and attain the gold and riches Parthia was famous for - resulting in the loss of his complete army and the irony of the Parthians pouring molten gold down the throat of Crassus.

Marcus Antonius would eventually lead Roman Armies to a second defeat against the Parthians before the civil war that ended the Roman Republic once and for all. Luckily for Rome, in-fighting within the Parthian royal family put an end to the threat posed to the lands around the Mediterranean.