|
The Reforms of Caesar
The Man of the People
Caesar spent little time in Rome, during the years in which he was master
of Rome. Despite this, he managed to institute a large number of reforms in
the short time he was granted.
Like all the other Populists, Caesar had used the people of Rome on his way
to power. He was not alone in this.By his time, the citizens of Rome had
evolved into a proletariat which subsisted on electoral bribery, feast,
triumphs and above all the free corn dole. But although Caesar used the
people, he never trusted them, being all too aware of how fickle they were.
During the years of the Gallic Wars, he had often sent his soldiers home to
vote during the elections.
In addition, people like Clodius and Milo had organized armed bands,
organized in collegia (clubs), to disturb elections and terrorize the
populace. The sum total of this was violence, unrest and social distress,
and Caesar initiated radical reforms to deal with these problems.
He instituted a grand program of colonization to fulfil his goals: the
social conditions in Rome were to be improved and the citizenship spread
throughout the empire. He began by forbidding those collegia that were
suspected of having political aims. The Jews where exempted from this,
probably in thanks for their help during the Alexandrine Wars.
He then carried out a census of the civic lists, reducing the recipients of
free corn from about 320,000 to 150,000. This was not so much to save
money, as it was to prevent the citizens of Italia from coming to the city.
Life in Italia and the provinces was to be made more attractive for the
broad majority of citizens. To further this aim, a third of the workers on
the large estates were freed -- slavery was to be reduced to decrease
unemployment. As for the corn dole, families with children were given
additional privileges. In general, Caesar attempted to carry out just
reforms.
About 80,000 families were offered a new life in more than twenty newly
founded roman colonies, among them the rebuilt Carthage and Corinth. To
these settlers he added veterans of the civil wars, who were allotted farms
and a bonus. At the same time he put in motion a comprehensive Romanization
policy, particularly in the important provinces of Gaul, Spain and Africa,
where he lavishly granted citizenship (and thereby a share in the benefits
of the Empire) to a large number of people.
To round off this substantial work, he drew up laws affecting how these new
towns were to be governed. This law, Lex Julia municipalis, would become
the cornerstone and foundation not only for municipal but also provincial
administration which were to last until the fall of the Empire.
The Empire
Alone among his contemporaries, Caesar seems to have realized that Rome as
a city-state could no longer survive. It was no use confining the
citizenship |