The Beginnings of Rome

replied by requiring him on pain of outlawry to disband his legions. Two tribunes who supported him were ejected from the senate house, and the magistrates with Pompey were authorized to take measures to protect the republic. Caesar hesitated no longer; he crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy. The rapidity of his ad vance astounded and bewildered his foes. Pompey, followed by the consuls, by the majority of the senate and a long train of nobles, abandoned Italy as untenable, and crossed into Greece. At the end of March Caesar entered Rome as the master of Italy. Four years later, after the final victory of Munda (45), he became the undis puted master of the Roman world'.

Dictatorship of Caesar, 48-44.

From the very first moment when Pompey's ignominious retreat left him master of Italy, Caesar made it clear that he was neither a second Sulla nor even the reckless anarchist which many believed him to be. The Roman and Italian public were first startled by the masterly rapidity and energy of his movements, and then agreeably sur prised by his lenity and moderation. No proscriptions or con fiscations followed his victories, and all his acts evinced an un mistakable desire to effect a sober and reasonable settlement of the pressing questions of the hour; of this, and of his almost superhuman energy, the long list of measures he carried out or planned is sufficient proof. The "children of the proscribed" were at length restored to their rights, and with them many of the refugees who had found shelter in Caesar's camp during the two or three years immediately preceding the war; but the extreme men among his supporters soon realized that their hopes of novae tabitlae and grants of land were illusory. In allotting lands to his veterans, Caesar carefully avoided any disturbance of existing owners and occupiers, and the mode in which he dealt with the economic crisis produced by the war seems to have satisfied all reasonable men. It had been a common charge against Caesar in former days that he paid excessive court to the populace of Rome, and now that he was master he still dazzled and delighted them by the splendour of the spectacles he provided, and by the liberality of his largesses. But he was no indiscriminate flatterer of the mob. The popular clubs and gilds which had helped to organize the anarchy of the last few years were dissolved. A strict enquiry was made into the dis tribution of the monthly doles of corn, and the number of re cipients was reduced by one-half ; finally, the position of the courts of justice was raised by the abolition of the popular ele ment among the indices. Nor did Caesar shrink from the attempt,

in which so many had failed before him, to mitigate the twin evils which were ruining the prosperity of Italy—the concentration of a pauper population in the towns and the denudation and desola tion of the country districts. His strong hand carried out the scheme so often proposed by the popular leaders since the days of Gaius Gracchus, the colonization of Carthage and Corinth. Allotments of land on a large scale were made in Italy; decaying towns were reinforced by fresh drafts of settlers ; on the large estates and cattle farms the owners were required to find em ployment for a certain amount of free labour ; and a slight and temporary stimulus was given to Italian industry by the reimposi tion of harbour dues upon foreign goods.

The reform of the calendar (q.v.) completes a record of ad ministrative reform which entitles Caesar to the praise of having governed well, whatever may be thought of the validity of his title to govern at all. But how did Caesar deal with what was after all the greatest problem which he was called upon to solve, the establishment of a satisfactory government for the empire? One point indeed was already settled. Some centralization of the executive authority was indispensable, and this part of his work Caesar thoroughly performed. From the moment when he seized the moneys in the treasury on his first entry into Rome down to the day of his death, he recognized no other authority but his throughout the empire. He alone directed the policy of Rome in foreign affairs ; the legions were led, and the provinces governed, not by independent magistrates, but by his legates ; and the title imperator which he adopted was intended to express the absolute and unlimited nature of the imperium he claimed, as distinct the Civil Wars, see CAESAR ; CICERO ; and POMPEY.

from the limited spheres of authority possessed by republican magistrates. In so centralizing the executive authority over the empire at large, Caesar was but developing the policy implied in the Gabinian and Manilian laws, and the precedent he established was closely followed by his successors. It was otherwise with the more difficult question of the form under which this new executive authority should be exercised and the relation it should hold to the republican constitution.