Dictator for Life: Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar was the first emperor of Rome, born in July 100BC in Rome. Although he has many good memories from the people, in many ways he stopped them from questioning the switch to dictatorial power by giving them free food and entertainment, keeping them free from rebelling against something which had upheld the values of the Roman Republic – the strong Roman love for freedom and not rule by kings. Caesar would later join a triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey the Great, but eventually became the single dictator of Rome, before being painfully murdered and massacred in the Senate.

Gaius Julius Caesar was born in Subdura, one of the many suburbs of Rome. He was a patrician and from an aristocratic family which had heritage from the founding of Rome. His uncle, Gaius Marius, had famously reorganised the Roman army. Caesar went to school and became a master of public relations. This would play into his later career and help him in becoming very powerful, as he could convince the people. Especially after years of toil in Civil War, Caesar would later become somewhat of a hero and a saviour from the tumultuous times of the Roman Republic. Caesar was taught by the sophist Marcus Antonius Gnipho and greatly focused on public speaking.

Caesar didn’t have an easy start to life. His father died when he was 16, leaving hum to have to look after his mother, Aurelia, and his sister, Julia. At 17, he decided to make a strategic decision. Like many other historical figures, Caesar married for strategic reasons (such as political ties, expansion of territory etc.) rather than love. Caesar married a powerful Roman politician, Cornelia. However, not only did he have issues, but Rome at the time was ruled by the dictator Sulla, an enemy of Caesar’s family. To avoid capture and death, Caesar joined the army and left Rome, to return when Sulla had died. Caesar rose in the ranks of the army quickly and formed the First Triumvirate. One important lesson learned by dictators throughout history is that ruling with 2 or more people often results in conflict. Although this didn’t happen to Caesar at the beginning, it soon would.

When he was 40, Caesar became the consul of Rome. To make sure that he kept his power after his year for which he was elected was over, Caesar made himself the governor of Gaul, a Roman province in France. While in the position of consul, Caesar realized that there was little power in the role of consul, and instead much of the power was held by individual governors, so he now had a stronghold of power when his term finished. Caesar was an effective governor of Gaul. He was also a general over 4 legions which were there. As with many other great military generals turned rulers, Caesar made sure that his army in Gaul was not loyal to the state, but instead to himself. However, as Caesar increased in power, the Senate and other political institutions in Rome became worried about Caesar’s increasing power.

By the time Caesar had rose too much power in Gaul and was well-known among the Roman public as a military hero, Crassus had already died. Pompey was jealous of Caesar’s power, and took the advantage of Caesar’s distance from Rome to garnish support from Roman aristocrats. Eventually, the Senate commanded Caesar to come to Rome and separate his army and leave it to come back slowly to Rome. Caesar marched the army to Rome and immediately decided that he would not separate from his army, as, if he did, he knew he would be stripped of his power within Rome. He started a civil war in Rome which he won in 49BC. As with many other leaders and dictators, Caesar had a strong obsession with obliterating his rivals, even with much extra cost. He spent 18 months in chasing Pompey to Egypt, where he made allies with Ptolemy XIII, the current emperor of the Ptolemaic Egypt. Ptolemy had Pompey killed.

Caesar returned to Rome and the Senate made him dictator for life, putting an end to the Republic, Although institutions such as the Senate were kept, they were there mainly to convince people that the Republic was still there and make them less aware of the shift in power to a single dictator. Caesar made sure his decisions were all supported by the Senate by staffing it with his loyal supporters. To keep the people of Rome happy, Caesar built large buildings and hosted entertainment. He also gave out free food rations to everyone. This established peace within his empire and the people felt like the seemingly never-ending conflict of warring military leaders in the Republic had come to the end. Not only did Caesar keep people happy by giving them food, but he hosted so much entertainment that they had little time to think about how the political system had changed.

Caesar made sure to keep people happy with gladiator games by organizing them in ways in which everyone’s hero would always win in the end. Through staging all of the performances, Caesar could provide people with lots of free entertainment and make sure that they never went home sad due to their hero being killed. To make people feel the power of the Roman Empire, Caesar organised large processions for each battle he won. Although this was common practice before Caesar, Caesar made many more of these processions, making people feel the extent to which the Roman Empire was growing and helping them feel a sense of growing nationalism and nationalistic pride.

However, Caesar, like many other emperors was growing full of himself. He, like Alexander, began to think he was above other humans – divine. A group of people decided to plot to kill Caesar, led by Brutus and Cassius. On March 15, 44BC, Caesar was stabbed in the Senate 23 times. Here comes one of Caesar’s most famous lines “Et tu, Brute?” meaning “You too, Brutus?” because Brutus was originally a friend of Caesar and had been a fake friend to that very day.

Bibliography:

“From Republic to Empire” (p162-p169). World History: Our Human Story.

“Days of Empire” (p373-p391). Human Odyssey Volume 1.

“Han Dynasty China and Imperial Rome” (p237-p273). Worlds Together Worlds Apart 5th Edition.

“The Internal Effects of Foreign Conquests” (p249-p250). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic Primary Source Collection.

“Caesar’s Dictatorship”. The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius)