Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. It was evident that the misgovernment of the Roman state and the Greco-Roman world by the Roman nobility could not continue indefinitely and it was fairly clear that the most probable alternative was some form of military dictatorship backed by dispossessed Italian peasants who had turned to long-term military service. From 133 bce onward there had been a series of alternate revolutionary and counter-revolutionary paroxysms. The Roman governing class had consequently come to be hated and discredited at home and abroad. This class had been partly dispossessed by an economic revolution following on the devastation caused by the Second Punic War. Military manpower was supplied by the Roman peasantry. The whole Mediterranean world was, in fact, at the mercy of the Roman nobility and of a new class of Roman businessmen, the equites (“knights”), which had grown rich on military contracts and on tax farming. One of the perquisites of the praetorship and the consulship was the government of a province, which gave ample opportunity for plunder. The requirements and the costs of a Roman political career in Caesar’s day were high, and the competition was severe but the potential profits were of enormous magnitude. Rome’s victory over Carthage in the Second Punic War (218–201 bce) had made Rome the paramount power in the Mediterranean basin an influential Roman noble family’s clients (that is, protégés who, in return, gave their patrons their political support) might include kings and even whole nations, besides numerous private individuals. This was a difficult task for even the ablest and most gifted noble unless he was backed by substantial family wealth and influence. The western Mediterranean during the Punic WarsĪ Roman noble won distinction for himself and his family by securing election to a series of public offices, which culminated in the consulship, with the censorship possibly to follow. Caesar’s calendar, the Julian calendar, is still partially in force in the Eastern Orthodox Christian countries, and the Gregorian calendar, now in use in the West, is the Julian, slightly corrected by Pope Gregory XIII. The old Roman calendar was inaccurate and manipulated for political purposes. This name has survived, as has Caesar’s reform of the calendar. Even people who know nothing of Caesar as a historic personality are familiar with his family name as a title signifying a ruler who is in some sense uniquely supreme or paramount-the meaning of Kaiser in German, tsar in the Slavonic languages, and qayṣar in the languages of the Islamic world.Ĭaesar’s gens (clan) name, Julius (Iulius), is also familiar in the Christian world, for in Caesar’s lifetime the Roman month Quintilis, in which he was born, was renamed “ July” in his honour. But Caesar’s name, like Alexander’s, is still on people’s lips throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds. The Greco-Roman society has been extinct for so long that most of the names of its great men mean little to the average, educated modern person. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!ĭiscover how the tactics and discipline of the Roman army enabled the Roman Empire to expand and endure See all videos for this articleĬaesar changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world decisively and irreversibly.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.
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