Caesar's dictatorship

Dio 42.54.1 Creating veteran settlements outside of Rome to romanise provincial empire

He assigned his Quirites all land from the public holdings and from his own, settling them in different places, and separating them far from one another, so that they should not, by living somewhere together, either be a source of terror to their neighbours or, again, be ready for rebellion

Dio 43.47.4 Vet settlement on his own estates and land purchased, not confiscated. Lands widely separated to prevent seditious movements.

he also put up at auction all the public lands, not only the profane, but also the consecrated lots, and sold most of them. Nevertheless, he granted ample gifts to some persons in the form of money or the sale of lands

Suet, Jul 42.1 redistributed land to freedmen/urban poor for reorganisation of the settlements

those who made a business of grazing should have among their herdsmen at least one-third who were men of free birth [Agrarian Law 59BC] Allocating land in Campania to 20,000 individuals

Dio 41.36.3 Reformed Roman citizenship to expand Rome

‘to the Gauls living south of the Alps and beyond the Po he gave citizenship because he had once governed them’ [Lex Roscia 49BC]

Suet, Jul 76.3 Some Gallic magnates rising to political power: Caesar’s supporters were senators

‘With the same disregard of law and precedent he named magistrates for several years to come, bestowed the emblems of consular rank on ten ex-praetors, and admitted to the House men who had been given citizenship, and in some cases half-civilised Gauls‘

Julius coinage 44BC Caesar envisaged large-scale improvements to Rome’s infrastructure

Silver Denarius Julius Caesar, Imperator and Dictator, October 49-15 March 44BC. The reverse depicts Aeneas carrying his father and the palladium away from burning Troy and refers to the mythical descent of the Julia gens from Iulus, the son of Aeneas

Ephesos Honours 48BC SIG 760 Strentghened/improved Rome’s connection with its provinces

‘The cities and peoples and tribes in Asia honour Gaius Julius caesar, son of Gaius, the high priest and imperator and consul for a second time, the manifest god descended from Ares and Aphrodite, and the common saviour of humankind’. 

Dio 42.6.3 Generous to communties who had supported Pompey [part of his Clemency act]

‘he did away with the tax-gatherers, who had been abusing the people most cruelly, and he converted the amount accruing from the taxes into a joint payment of tribute”

e.g Ephesos

Dio 43.47.4

widely separated to prevent seditious movements as they had just mutinied.

avoid the dislocation and hostility caused by Sulla’s settlements,

occurred by maintaining the existing municipal framework and drafting the veterans. 

Suet jul 42.1

slave-herdsman who were often armed and might be dangerous. 

precaution against the endemic slave unrest on the drove-roads and in the far south.

similar provision was made in Lincinian Law in 367 BC with regard to farm-slaves, 

 Caesar informing traditional Republic organisation. 

cut rural unemployment. 

overall effect of reorganisation and settlement must have been to promote uniformity and mix the population, and to create gratitude as well as grievance.

Dio 41.35.3

49, by a Lex Roscia, Caesar gave full citizenship to the Latin colonies beyond the Po,

provided material support and man-power for the Gallic War. 

end to Pompey’s clientela in these colonies. 

not include Cisalpine Gaul and it remained a province because he perhaps wanted an army close to Italy. 

reformed Ulterior’s laws in 60-61 home of his trusted agent Balbus; it expelled Varro’s garrison. So these colonies in the west also became a part of Caesar military provisions for Rome.  

West was r4latively less Romanised before Caesar’s time.

 nwly ocnquered or recently pacified trritories with populatitons tha twere not fully yet integrated into the Roman poltiical cultural system.

helping to bring these regions into the Roman orbit. 

 grants create dloyalty to cAesar perosnally and to Rome more broadly, reinforcing Roamn control.