Matt Roer 5/18/15 Did Julius Caesar rule through power or authority during his political reign? During Caesar’s political reign, he ruled through authority because he was able to deliver the needs of the majority populares group while satisfying the optimates by building public works projects, creating reforms that benefitted foreigners and the populares, and conquering the land of other regions. Caesar convinced others that it was in their best interest to be ruled because he provided Romans and outsiders with opportunities to be financially successful. When Caesar first got into power, he decided to stack his supporters by doling out citizenship to people from regions where he used to live such as the Alps (B). Because of this, Caesar was able to …show more content…
He attempted to achieve this goal by creating opportunities for the populares group to benefit such as land distribution that would be mainly for the populares. Caesar was a master reformer and that helped him gain the support of many Romans as well as foreigners. One of the first issues inside of Rome that Caesar set out to accomplish was the issue of mob violence inside of the city of Rome. Caesar solved the mob violence problem in Rome by giving the mob grain doles as well as trying to start the lives of the poor off in different areas such as Carthage and Sicily (E). Caesar also reformed the tax system in Asia Minor and the island of Sicily so that the people that were living there were not susceptible to extortion by the Roman government. This helped to quell the riots and the bloodshed that occurred before Caesar became the ruler. In 45 BC, 9 older legions, that didn’t belong to Caesar, were gotten rid of and as a result Caesar’s legion was payed extra silver (E). Caesar wanted to reward his army for sticking with him through all of the wars they went into together. To address the issue of debt in Rome, Caesar decided not to put in place a radical solution in