How did Julius Caesar change rome?
Julius Caesar
implemented reforms which would later lay the foundations for the
subsequent establishment of rule by emperors. They helped Augustus
to dismantle the intuitions of the republic and establish his
absolute personal rule after he won the civil wars which followed
Caesar's death. Augustus retained these reforms because they
concentrated power in the hands of one man.
Caesar took on 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 assume the tribunician power 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. These powers included the
enrolling of the senators, the oversight of public morals, carrying
out the census and commissioning public works). Caesar used thrse
powers to to increase the seats of the senate from 600 an==to 900
and to fill them with his supporters; to carry out a census himself
and to commission public works himself. Augustus also took the
tribunician powers and made himself prefect of the Morals. He
brought the number of seats in the senate to 600.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. 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 BC 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. Under Augustus, the magistrates continued to be appointees
of the ruler.
Caesar claimed that his
family descended from the goddess Venus and created a cult of
himself. Augustus, who was Caesar's adaptive son, retained this
claim. Caesar was also the first leader who placed his image on
Roman coins. The emperors followed this precedent. Julius Caesar
issued large quantities of the aureus, a gold coin which had
previously been 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 subsequent imperial
period. 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. Augustus retained this change. To alleviate the problems
this measure would cause Caesar ordered 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.
Another important
change introduced by Caesar was the reform of the Roman calendar.
He 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 in1582, it is the
calendar we still use, which is now called the Gregorian
calendar.
Other changes made by
Caesar were the setting of maximum interest rate for loans to 12%
to curtail usury and wrote off ¼ of all debts, a law which
prohibited any citizens between the ages of 20 to 40 to leave Italy
for more than 3 years, unless on military assignment. 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.
Another change was
Caesar's conquest of Gaul, which added to Rome an area twice the
size of Italy.