Julius Caesar: The Dictator

Modern Americans in the United States take a dim view of autocratic rule. Americans are indoctrinated into the idea that representative government, democracy, is the only legitimate form of government. This ideal is often promoted with the use of military force. However, throughout history, the most successful form of government has been that of a single ruler. Autocracy does not always mean malevolent dictatorship. Certainly, the assumption of power in the hands of a single individual can promote political stability and national growth. After emerging victorious from civil war, Gaius Julius Caesar consolidated the power of the Roman Republic into a single individual: himself. This was not a personal act of hubris on the part of Caesar; rather it was the only necessary means of securing stability in Rome.

The Roman Republic had expanded its power and influence over the course of several centuries. It was, in all things but name, an empire. The Republic, essentially an overgrown oligarchy, was limping along under a constitutional system that had served well when the Roman state was confined to the Italian peninsula. That the Republic still functioned was largely the result of "an elaborate system of checks and balances" and "the principle of collegiality" whereby the various leaders (magistrates, senators, consuls) could reign in the ambitions of a single individual (Dickinson, 13). Julius Caesar came to age during the Age of Sulla, who had emerged from a period of civil strife to take over the position of dictator. Caesar was already an ambitious young man, seeking out important positions in the government and military. Within a decade of Sulla's death, Caesar sensed that the political arrangements left by the dictator were faltering, and aligned himself with the parties that had opposed Sulla (Grant 24-7).

Eventually, Caesar aligned himself with Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) and Marcus Licinius Crassus, creating the first triumvirate. By 60 BC, common interests brought Caesar and Pompey together, with Caesar making overtures to the wealthy Crassus (49). The arrangement was purely one of convenience for the three parties. Caesar, in many respects the junior partner, used the power of the other two to rise to their equality. According to Plutarch, it was Caesar who appealed to the masses, physically placing himself between Pompey and Crassus in public appearances (Plutarch, 582).

In 59 BC, Caesar assumed the consulship and set about remaking the Roman government. In many respects, this reform had one chief aim: to serve the purposes of the triumvirs (Dickinson, 79). Caesar "trimmed down the governmental processes to the point where he could employ them promptly and efficiently" as he saw fit (79). However, Caesar's bypass of the Senate should not be seen as an anti-democratic move. Caesar made numerous political moves designed to strengthen his position with the people, often using the Assembly (Grant, 51). Caesar correctly saw that the Roman Senate had become an obstructionist body of aristocrats.

The First Triumvirate succeeded in not only securing political dominance in Rome, but in enriching the individual members of the triad. For example, Caesar and Pompey maneuvered to have the Senate recognize Ptolemy XII as Pharaoh of Egypt in exchange for thirty-six million denarii, a sum "so gigantic that even Ptolemy, with all his wealth, could only raise by borrowing" (Grant 53). Caesar's desire for greater wealth then took him to Gaul. Following the death of Crassus, only the naked ambition opposing ambition of Caesar and Pompey remained. Plutarch wrote that "the fear" of Crassus "had hitherto kept them in peace" but "if one of them wished to make himself the greatest man in Rome, he had only to overthrow the other" (Plutarch, 588).

In the context of Roman history of the time, the conflict between Pompey and Caesar appears inevitable. The Roman Republic had disintegrated to the point where any notion of senatorial guidance was a myth. Roman politics had become a series of personal conflicts within the wealthy and powerful. "The whole tone and organization of Roman society...had the effect of dividing the state into powerful selfish groups" (Dickinson, 17). These self-serving groups sought out power for its own sake. The atmosphere under which Caesar and Pompey rose to power was "a continual series of contests between individuals" (21). Factions sprang up around these two men, much like cults of personality, because Roman politics was nothing more than "individual ambitions seeking expression in the attainment of personal power and prestige" (21).

With his next move, Caesar went to Gaul to serve as Governor-General. "The only way he could become even richer still...as by securing a lucrative province when his consulship came to an end" (Grant, 56). It was in Gaul that Caesar gained a type of immortality. Plutarch writes that Caesar conquered "above eight hundred towns, subdued three hundred states, and of the three million men...he engaged, he had killed one million and taken captive a second" (Plutarch, 583). Whether these numbers are exaggerated does not matter. Caesar accomplished everything he wanted in Gaul, and became the most famous Roman of his day. This combination of wealth and military force made him a very dangerous threat to Pompey.

In many respects, the alliance between Caesar and Pompey disintegrated with the death of Julia, Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife. Plutarch saw seeds of their quarrel in the very way that their ambitions came together. "For it was not the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar...which was the origin of the civil wars, but their union, their conspiring together at first to subvert the aristocracy" (Plutarch, 582). This was the true Rubicon that needed to be crossed. For Caesar, sparking civil war was the only way to save the state of Rome.

Given the history of dictatorship in Rome, and also given the way in which the men of the First Triumvirate enriched themselves, one would expect that Gaius Julius Caesar would have proven to be a greedy tyrant, raping the treasury and slaughtering his enemies wholesale. Such was not the case. Almost immediately following a period of games and spectacle for the entertainment of the masses of Rome, Caesar "turned his attention to domestic reforms" (Suetonius, 31). According to Suetonius, Caesar's first action included reforming the calendar, followed by the creation of new Senators, as well as other officials. "Also, he arranged with the commons that, apart from the Consul, half the magistrates should be popularly elected and half nominated by himself" (32). Next, Caesar took the extraordinary step of forgiving his enemies. "For he not only pardoned many of those who fought against him, but, further, to some gave honors and offices" (Plutarch, 599). Among those pardoned and installed in high office were Brutus and Cassius, followers of Pompey and future conspirators in Caesar's assassination.

Julius Caesar, dictator for life, "continually undertook great new works for the embellishment of the city, or for the Empire's protection and enlargement" (Suetonius, 33). "Another task he set himself was the reduction of the Civil Code to manageable proportions," eliminating many unnecessary laws and publishing a new, concise code (33). Caesar also attempted to address the problem of unemployment in Italy. First, he had the problem of numerous discharged legionaries roaming about the city of Rome without jobs. Caesar developed a program of colonization, largely in Spain and North Africa, which established numerous Roman towns, breaking down barriers between Romans and conquered people (Grant, 183). An immediate direct result of Caesar's colonization program was to reduce by half the number of people in Rome receiving free grain from the government (183). Next, Caesar attempted to solve the rural unemployment problem in Italy, requiring larger ranch holders to employ free men, and not slaves, for up to one third of their workforce (183).

Caesar was a practical politician, and these reforms were not undertaken as part of a systematic theory of governance. Rather, Caesar used the power of absolutism granted to him in order to administer to the needs of the people of Rome (Dickinson, 332). The massive program of public works, for example, proposed monuments on a grand scale, such as building a road through the Apennine Mountains, connecting Rome with the Adriatic or cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth (335). Plutarch notes that "these things were designed without being carried into effect" (Plutarch, 599). One modern historian doubts that Caesar intended to carry out these grandiose plans, but there mere proposal was intended to enhance Caesar's prestige and personal power among the masses (Dickinson, 335). However, Michael Grant aptly points out that the Corinth Canal was not realized until 1893, and second of Caesar's projects, that of draining the Pontine marshes, was not successfully completed until 1939 (Grant, 173). It would perhaps be more logical to conclude that Caesar's assassination put many of these plans on hold.

Historians ancient and modern agree that Caesar's reformation of the calendar was his greatest achievement. The old Roman calendar was based on the lunar month, and was 355 days long. Caesar "called in the best philosophers and mathematicians" in order to rectify the situation (Plutarch, 600). Caesar's new Julian Calendar "linked the year to the course of the sun by lengthening it to 365 days, abolishing the short extra month and adding an entire day every fourth year" (Suetonius, 31). In order to bring the new calendar in line with the seasons, the year 46 BC was lengthened to 445 days (Bradford, 266). The Julian calendar was modified in the Middle Ages by Pope Gregory XIII, but it basically still used by the Western World.

Julius Caesar was born into the highest ranks of Roman society. No commoner could have risen to such prominence. The myth of the self-made man was several thousand years away. Certainly, Caesar's personality had a great deal to do with his rise to fame and power. One historian lists off the praise given to Caesar by modern historians, including several who ranked him as "the greatest man the earth has ever produced" (Dickinson, 327). In looking at his life, Julius Caesar has the uncanny ability to achieve success at every undertaking. He can perhaps best be characterized by "his overwhelming competence and efficiency in everything he undertook, his exhibition of almost unparalleled skill and ability in so many different lines of thought and action,