Rome

Adeeb Noorani

Comp. Civ.

Nov. 27                                                   

The death of Julius Caesar done by the Senate was a precaution they had to make. Caesar was getting too powerful and the well being of the Republic was at stake so like with a mother with her child the Senate decided to eliminate the threat. His death and the way it happened surely wasn’t the most moral way it could have been done but it was something they had to do.

Gaius Julius Caesar was a very good military strategist and tactician but the qualities he had such as his arrogance and thirst for power were too overwhelming.

In 60 B.C. when he joined the First Triumvirate with Crassus and Pompey he gained control of Cisalpine Gaul and southern Gaul. This was when the Senate started to feel worried about the power he possessed. In 53 B.C. Crassus was killed so this left just Pompey and Caesar as the two rulers of Rome, of course they each wanted it for themselves. The Senate wanted Caesar to return to Rome as a private citizen but with his fear of losing power he would not, he then did what was illegal, that is crossing the Rubicon. Caesar started a civil war, he fought and defeated Pompey, and this aggressive act he did is what gave the Senate even more reason to collude a plan together. By him taking Rome by force he destroyed the system in which he wanted to flourish in.

In 46 B.C. Caesar appointed himself dictator for life, this was unheard of he was slowly gaining more and more power. And later on he became Pontifex Maximus, resulting in him essentially being in charge of all the decision making, at this point it was thought that he was more of a king than conservator of the republic and Rome still held hatred for its old kings. Not only was he gaining control in the government but with the people as well. Caesar was wining control of the entire Rome world and didn’t seem to be stopping his expansion of power, this gave panic to the Senate as they thought he would come for their power next.

The Senate was beginning think that the power would get to his head and he would soon forget about Rome. Even thought he was a great leader he was becoming too powerful, almost god-like. So by then conspiring together and killing him they utterly saved Rome while there was time left. If they had just sat back and watched him grow it would be the same as if they destroyed Rome itself and they could not live with that.

Caesar was a great and powerful leader and even though he was killed it does not mean that he didn’t do good things for the empire. He led Rome to become a very powerful city, but his obsession with his own importance is what led him to his death. The conspirators including Brutus did an honorable thing, they sacrificed a great leader for the sake of the Roman empire.