Well he was dictator for life at the time of his assassination. Caesar Augustus never held the title of dictator either yet he ruled Rome for more than 40 years. Emperors didn't go by the title emperor at that time. It's a title history gave them.
Julius Caesar isn't why the republic fell. The republic fell because it represented the interests of the wealthy elites and ignored the interests of the people. Caesar had the full support of the Roman people. He couldn't have become dictator without them. The senatorial/wealthy class was screwing over the people so badly, they preferred having an emperor.
If you actually knew history, and not just the cliff notes version they teach in schools, you would too.
Caesar wasn't even aware of Christianity. He did not persecute the Christians. They were a cult of probably a couple dozen people at the time. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of cults just like the Christians at the time.
Seems like those blue pills are making you ignorant.
How about infrastructure and jobs programs. That's what Caesar did in reality. Maybe in your comic book version of history it was about circuses, but in reality it was about food and jobs. People were starving in the streets because they wealthy owned all the land and rather than hire Roman citizens to do the work of the city, they outsourced and brought in slaves to do all the jobs. The Roman people had no way of supporting themselves. When ever they demanded the Roman government addressed that problem the government would spout off cheap rhetoric about how it was their money and they didn't owe people any of it. So the people took matters into their own hands and supported Caesar.
Yes. The people were starving to death so the wealthy could profit more. Giving starving people bread is actually a good thing to do.
Most Americans know nothing of "means of production" and believe that dollars are the same as wealth. You are just blindly anti-Obama which is different from if you were anti-Obama based on facts.
As has every dominant civilization in the history of the world. If empires didn't fall we'd all still be speaking English right now. oh wait...
What dictators 'OFFICIALLY' earned the title 'dictator' among dictators? What percentage would you say?
You don't mean Shakespear do you?
At the very least, He was pagan and he killed people.
Agreed Caesar did a lot for the ROMAN STATE a STATE which enslaved and murdered people. The economy was slave based. They had starving people because of the government, They farmed less because they were taxed for farming extra.
Some Guy I don't remember his name said:
100%. In Rome, a dictator was a dictator. It was an official and legal office in Rome. It was very common in the early republic during major wars. The office fell out of common use during the second punic war (Fabian) , but was brought back into use by Sulla when Caesar was a teenager. The difference between Sulla/Caesar and other dictators is that there was a law saying a dictator could only serve one year terms, with no one being allowed to serve the same office for 10 years after their term ended. But Rome used the office quite successfully for 500 years without any problems. It was very effective. But when Sulla opened the pandora's box by ignoring the law and declaring himself dictator for life, they couldn't put the toothpaste back in the tube at that point. Even though Sulla didn't abuse the office (retiring after a year if I remember), after he did that every powerful man in Rome was positioning himself to be dictator for life.
Ahhh. My bad. That makes sense. While Shakespeare was based on history, it was fiction. Caesar never said "eh tu Brute?" or anything like that. Caesar was only able to do what he did because he had full support of the people. While the Roman people did love their games, Caesar's popularity was largely due to his economic policies and infrastructure projects. He reduced the amount of slaves the senatorial/patrician classes were able to have as laborers on farms. He gave away much of the farm land from the provinces he conquered to the poor. Started free grain programs. Took teachers and doctors from around the provinces and paid them to live in Rome to take care of the lower classes. He built aqueducts, baths, etc. He was probably the best thing that ever happened to the common Roman person up to that point. He completely turned around the Roman economy and made it work for the people rather than just the senate. Before Caesar the attitude in the Roman government was that Rome existed for the benefit of the Senate and everyone else was just the help.
He was a pagan, he definitely killed people, he was the most successful generals of all time, you can't be a successful general without killing people. But what he did not do was murder people outside of war. That's actually why he ended up murdered. Caesar was famous for his clemency. He would forgive all his enemies, even the ones who had raised armies against him, and brought them all back to rejoin the senate. So they killed him for it.
Actually that last part was not true. The people of Rome were not taxed until hundreds of years after the republic fell. They taxed their conquered lands, but Romans themselves did not pay taxes until I believe Septimius Severus was emperor (could be wrong about that, but it was definitely long after they were an empire). The government ran primarily on money/stuff they pillaged from other countries during the republic. Until Marius, I don't believe they actually even taxed the provinces, just asked for soldiers instead.
Me. He took apart a brutal oligarchy that was strangling the people to the point they were starving to death and fed the people, cleaned up the city, and created jobs for them.
That never happened. But whatever.
Which was necessary. People were starving to death in the streets while people like Marcus Crassus were worth what is estimated to be the equivalent of several hundred billion dollars. A small group of people owned everything and the majority of people were reduced to being beggars. Free market economics at it's finest.
When remembering the past it's important to try and remember what actually happened, and not just story book versions of it.
That is simply false.
And it seems you've forgotten why people like the Gracchi brothers, Marius, Sulla, then the Caesars became necessary and supported by the people. It was due to the massive inequalities that came with free market economics. No one supports autocratic rule when they are being represented in government and have economic opportunity. Romans had neither representation in government nor economic opportunity. They had the ultra-wealthy owning everything and making all the rules. Caesar was incredibly popular with the people. When the senate murdered him, they didn't cheer "the liberators". They rioted and then tried to hunt them down. They had to flee the city before the people killed them. Then those same people demanded that Caesar's adopted son take Caesar's place.
You are correct. I'd put us somewhere before the Gracchi brothers, as OWS and the tea party are exactly what was happening in the streets when Tiberius co-oped the movement. That's where the government started to collapse. And it all happened due to economic inequality.
When the topic is brought up, I immediately go into full on geek mode. My bad.
Well your missing the point but I was kind of missing your poitn at the same time, still I think my error is a bit more minuscule. The Point I was making is that:
Not really. I get what you're saying though. It is true that the Roman government didn't ever actually collect taxes themselves until the Diocletian reforms. Rather than that they'd have people bid to collect taxes, and the bid would be the tax money the government collected. Then the tax collectors would go out collecting taxes, keeping as profit any amounts they could collect higher than that bid. But Roman citizens themselves at that time were not subjected to taxes. So when a Roman senator had a massive slave run farm, he didn't pay any taxes on that at all. No property nor income taxes. Taxes were for the people in the territories they conquered, but they did not tax Roman citizens like that.
