How and why did Julius Caesar rise to dominate the Roman state, and what was his impact on the Republic?
The career, methods and impact of Julius Caesar as a significant individual in the late Republic
A focused answer to the WACE ATAR Ancient History Unit 3 Rome option on Julius Caesar, covering his rise, the conquest of Gaul, the civil war and dictatorship, and his impact and assessment, grounded in Caesar's Commentarii, Cicero, Suetonius and Plutarch.
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What this dot point is asking
SCSA requires you to study one individual who had a significant impact on their society, and for the Rome option Julius Caesar is the obvious choice. You need to explain his rise to power, the methods he used, his exercise of power as dictator, and his impact on the Republic, while evaluating the very different ways the sources portray him. This is a question about an individual's role in historical change. The Rome option is examined through source analysis and essays, so you must name and evaluate evidence such as Caesar's own Commentarii, Cicero's letters, Suetonius and Plutarch.
Caesar came from an old but not recently prominent patrician family, the Julii, and built his early career through populist politics, spectacular spending and useful connections. He won the prestigious post of pontifex maximus in 63 BC through heavy borrowing and bribery, served as praetor and governor in Spain, and reached the consulship for 59 BC. Crucially, in 60 BC he formed the informal First Triumvirate with Pompey, Rome's greatest general, and Crassus, its richest man, an alliance that let the three bypass the Senate to control elections, legislation and provincial commands.
His consulship secured him a long extraordinary command in Gaul, and it was there that Caesar made himself. The conquest of Gaul from 58 to 50 BC was a war of immense scale, recorded in his own Commentarii de Bello Gallico, a third-person account written in clear, self-justifying prose. The campaigns gave him fabulous plunder to fund his political ambitions, a battle-hardened army intensely loyal to him personally, and a reputation as Rome's foremost commander. The Commentarii are a precious primary source but also a work of self-promotion, and students must read them critically as propaganda as well as record.
The civil war pitted Caesar against Pompey, now allied with the Senate. Caesar's speed and his soldiers' loyalty proved decisive: he defeated Pompey at Pharsalus in Greece in 48 BC, after which Pompey fled to Egypt and was murdered. Caesar pursued his enemies across the Mediterranean, intervening in Egypt alongside Cleopatra VII and crushing the remaining opposition in Africa and Spain. By 45 BC he was master of the Roman world, and the Republic's institutions survived only as forms he controlled.
As dictator Caesar concentrated power and pushed through wide-ranging reforms. He held the dictatorship for ever longer terms, culminating in the title dictator perpetuo (dictator for life) in early 44 BC, an office that made his supremacy permanent and undisguised. He reformed the calendar in 46 BC, enlarged the Senate with his own supporters, settled veterans and the urban poor in colonies, extended citizenship, and undertook public works. These measures were often practical and popular, but they also bypassed the traditional aristocracy and made plain that the Republic was now ruled by one man.
Caesar's accumulation of honours and apparent monarchical ambition alarmed a group of senators who saw themselves as defenders of liberty (libertas). On 15 March 44 BC, the Ides of March, a conspiracy led by Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius assassinated him in the Senate. Their hope of restoring the Republic failed completely: Caesar's murder unleashed renewed civil war between his heir Octavian, his lieutenant Mark Antony and the assassins, ending in the triumph of Octavian and the establishment of the monarchy the conspirators had feared. Caesar was deified as Divus Iulius, and his name became a title of power.
Historiographically, Caesar is a study in contested portrayal. His own Commentarii present a measured, merciful, providentially successful commander. Cicero's contemporary letters show admiration, fear and despair at the loss of the Republic. The later biographers Suetonius and Plutarch combine genuine information with anecdote, scandal and moralising, writing under the empire he helped create. Modern historians debate whether Caesar aimed at monarchy or merely accumulated power pragmatically, and whether he destroyed the Republic or merely exposed that it was already dead. Strong answers weigh these perspectives rather than choosing a single verdict.