Life and Legacy of Julius Caesar

In the expansion that followed the Punic wars, Rome annexed Syria, Greece, and the territory northward toward the Danube, as well as Spain, the African coastline. The results of this expansion included a tendency toward thinking of Rome as the Roman Empire. It was not until after the death of Julius Caesar, however, that imperial Rome was formally designated as such. The monuments to Roman engineering still extant unavoidably convey the impression of Roman sturdiness, at least during the period of republic and empire. But in fact, the political environment of republican Rome was never entirely stable. The same victory that allowed Rome to acquire huge territory brought with it as well pride, greed, avarice, and taste for power as such. As a practical matter, power and wealth were concentrated in the Roman senate, which was the political wing of the oligarchic ruling class. Meanwhile, owing to competition within that class and a variety of pressures from the lower classes, Rome wavered between civil war, republic, and monarchy for decades before Julius Caesar successfully assumed the role of

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irst election. Caesar shored up his position by arbitrating a political reconciliation between his two mentors, Pompey and Crassus, who were both popular-faction leaders but who despised each other. This reconciliation accomplished, Caesar obtained the prestigious endorsement of both, taking care to marry his daughter Julia to Pompey in the meantime. He was overwhelmingly elected consul with one Calpurnius Biblius, who seems to have been an ineffectual politico and who in any case was forced into the background as Caesar set about consolidating his power and vision of governance. On the other hand, Caesar invited Cicero to join the coalition; Cicero refused. In this regard, Hamilton says that Caesar always wanted Cicero as a friend but was always rebuffed because Cicero did not trust Caesar; the rebuff wound up costing Cicero's political career dearly. Caesar's actions as consul were controversial, and as they had during his tenure as aedile, they turned on the tension between the people and the aristocracy. Caesar pushed land reform through the senate, inciting the people against the aristocrats when the oligarchy balked and enforcing both those measures and the promise of granting Caesar governorship of strategically important p
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