Gauis Julius Caesar

[Devils_Advocate]

Was Julius Caesar a hero?

Surely, he did some good things. He brought peace and stability to a country being fraught with internal instability. He expanded a great civilization into places like Gaul. He expanded citizenship in the empire. He founded what would become London. He decreased corruption in the government, and moved toward a system of government that did not give the political class considerably more power and "justice" than the lower classes. And, contrary to popular opinion, he was not emperor of Rome. He was declared Dictator in Perpetuity two months before his assassination.

Of course, it's hard to overlook the fact that he continued to centralize an already massive state bureaucracy. He did sell those he conquered into slavery. And being an all powerful dictator, even if only for two months, is something that's really hard to justify.

So - was Caesar a hero? Can his faults be overlooked in the light of his achievements? Or were his faults just too deep to be ignored? Was he a great man who saved a civilization that would become famous for it's achievements - or a power luster who was to become a tyrannical dictator by overthrowing a republic?

[themadkat]

From a historical perspective, Caesar was the beginning of the end of Rome's glory. The first few emperors, especially the first one (Augustus Caesar), weren't bad. But they got progressively worse with time and more and more of Rome's wealth was destroyed with each successive failure, causing them to be increasingly dependent on looting their conquered neighbors, expanding the empire beyond the range at which it could effectively operate.

What Caesar ultimately did was move Rome away from a Republic and towards mob rule. Appeasing the masses became more and more of a central focus of each succeeding emperor. I think that this ultimately led to Christianity becoming predominant in Rome as that started with the masses and ended up reaching all the way to the Emperor, with the upper classes being the most reluctant to adopt or tolerate Christianity.

I give Julius Caesar a thumbs-down, and not just because I've watched too many episodes of Xena.

Was Julius Caesar a hero?

Surely, he did some good things. He brought peace and stability to a country being fraught with internal instability. He expanded a great civilization into places like Gaul. He expanded citizenship in the empire. He founded what would become London. He decreased corruption in the government, and moved toward a system of government that did not give the political class considerably more power and "justice" than the lower classes. And, contrary to popular opinion, he was not emperor of Rome. He was declared Dictator in Perpetuity two months before his assassination.

Of course, it's hard to overlook the fact that he continued to centralize an already massive state bureaucracy. He did sell those he conquered into slavery. And being an all powerful dictator, even if only for two months, is something that's really hard to justify.

So - was Caesar a hero? Can his faults be overlooked in the light of his achievements? Or were his faults just too deep to be ignored? Was he a great man who saved a civilization that would become famous for it's achievements - or a power luster who was to become a tyrannical dictator by overthrowing a republic?

[Maximus]

Politically, he was a Populist, so he fails in that regard. Militarily, I would give him a big thumbs up. His organizational skills and tactics were first-rate.