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Caesar
Caesar's full name was gaius julius caesar (BC 102~ 44), and he was an active politician and strategist in ancient Roman politics.
Julius family, originally an ancient aristocrat born and raised in Rome; However, as time goes on, family wealth gradually decreases. When Caesar was born, only Caesar's family claimed to be julius.
In 75 BC, Caesar followed the example of Roman aristocrats and went to Rhode Island to study rhetoric and debate.
The first three-headed politics
Soon after, Caesar began to enter politics. But at this time, Rome was still in a harmonious era, and politics was in the hands of the Senate composed of the older generation, which was not a place where young and poor Caesar could play. In 60 BC, Caesar was invited by crassus (BC 1 14~ 53) and Pompeii (BC 106~ 48) to form a political alliance, which was later called "the first three-headed political alliance system". However, crassus and Pompeii had secretly formed an alliance before, and it was at this time that Caesar was invited to join. In 56 BC, they met again and agreed that crassus would develop its influence in the Syrian region, with Pompeii in Spain and Caesar in Gaul.
According to the agreed plan, Caesar began his expedition to Gaul (now northern Italy, France, Belgium and other places) in nearly eight years from 58 BC. Caesar first defeated the Gauls living in present-day Switzerland, and then made an alliance with them against the more powerful Gauls in the north. In 52 BC, salter in Gaul rebelled, and Caesar spent two years suppressing it. Gaul was completely incorporated into the territory of Rome. The Battle of Gaul, published in 5 1 BC, is a record of Caesar's conquest of Gaul. 1~7 volumes were written by Caesar in his military affairs, and only the eighth volume was written by his subordinates.
After crassus's death, only Pompeii and Caesar remained in the three-person alliance. Due to the spoils captured and taxes collected in the Gaul War, Caesar was able to repay his previous loan, became a millionaire and won the love of the Roman people. As an ally, Pompeii was jealous of Caesar's achievements and tried to unite with the Senate to exile Caesar from Rome. In 65438+49 AD 10, Caesar learned about this in Lavaine, east of Bronn in northern Italy and near the Adriatic Sea, and immediately led his troops to the Rubicon River. The Rubicon River is the boundary river between Gaul and Italy, where Caesar has military command. If Caesar leads an army across the river, he will violate Roman law. However, Caesar made up his mind, shouted "It's a foregone conclusion" and led his army across the Rubicon River and into Rome. Pompeii hurried across the Adriatic Sea and fled to the Balkans where Greece was located. After Caesar pacified Rome, before the decisive battle with Pompeii, in order to prevent future troubles, he first sent troops to Spain, which belonged to Pompeii's sphere of influence.
Caesar and Cleopatra
At that time, Egypt was ruled by King Ptolemy 13, who was only 13 years old, and his 20-year-old sister Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC). The two brothers and sisters fought against each other because of discord. Cleopatra VII, with both talent and color, turned to Caesar for help. Caesar was fascinated by his charm and helped her fight against the hostile citizens of Alexandria. But Caesar led only a few soldiers at that time, and his strength was weak, but he was imprisoned in the palace. Soon after, reinforcements from Asia Minor (Turkey) arrived, and Caesar and Cleopatra VII finally defeated King Ptolemy's army. King Ptolemy fell into the sea and drowned on his way to escape. Around March 47 BC, Caesar defeated Farnak Sai, the son of Mitridati, the king of suffering, in Zela, Asia Minor, and sent back the good news of "I came, I saw, I conquered (veni, vidi, vici)" to Rome. In April 46 BC, Caesar defeated the remnants of Pompeii at the Battle of Tapsus in Tunisia. In March 45 BC, the ruins of Pompeii were completely destroyed in Monda, Spain.
Caesar's death
In 44 BC, Caesar became a dictator for life, but in the same year she was assassinated, ending her 56-year life. Before the assassination of Caesar, these people who planned to assassinate Caesar tried to persuade Caesar's good friend Marcus junius brutus (85-42 BC) to join, because Brewster was honest and could win the respect and trust of Roman citizens. Brewster was Pompey's deployment and was captured by Caesar in the war, but Caesar not only pardoned him, but also promoted him. Brewster was too grateful to betray Caesar. The assassin who planned the assassination wrote a letter that said, "Brewster, are you still sleeping?" "Letter to Brewster. This letter changed Brewster's mind. Brewster agreed to join the assassination, and the number of assassinations exceeded 60. Caesar planned a crusade against Persia, which defeated crassus in 53 BC. Three days before his departure, the Senate invited Caesar to the Senate in 15 BC. One of them prevented Caesar from coming to the Senate and pretended to ask for forgiveness for his brother who had committed a crime and was exiled overseas. After being rebuffed by Caesar, the man grabbed Caesar's clothes, which was a secret signal agreed by the assassination team in advance. Then about 40 men immediately rushed out and attacked Caesar with daggers. Caesar, who only fought back with a notebook in his hand, found his favorite Brewster among the attacking crowd and said painfully, "Are you in on it?" "Brewster! Then I covered myself with clothes and stopped resisting. After being stabbed 23 times, Caesar lay on the ground and died soon. It is said that there stood a statue of Pompeii beside Caesar at that time, and Pompeii was once his ally.
Political architecture
Promulgate certain tax rules to prohibit tax collectors from extortion; Send bankrupt and unemployed people to sparsely populated areas for farming; Let urban residents in Gaul, Spain and other places enjoy Roman citizenship; Appoint Gauls and other Italians to the Senate to promote the romanization of various places; Build various projects to increase people's employment opportunities; The old calendar was abolished and replaced by the Egyptian solar calendar (julian calendar, the famous "julian calendar", was implemented in 45. 1. 1 year BC, revised by Pope Gregory XIII in A.D. 1582, and is still popular in the world).
Roman political system
The "dictatorship" system was originally a temporary measure to deal with extraordinary circumstances under the democratic political system of ancient Rome. Although the "dictator" was in power during his term of office, he was elected by the Presbyterian Church in accordance with legal procedures, not self-styled, and his power came from the legal authorization of the Presbyterian Church. Therefore, the dictatorship in ancient Rome was not a denial of democratic politics, but a contingency of democratic politics under extraordinary circumstances. Moreover, the dictator's dictatorship has certain timeliness. During the nearly 100 years of dictatorship, there were 88 dictators in Rome, all of whom served for less than six months. By the time Lucius cornelius Sura and Caesar came to power, the nature of Roman dictatorship began to change, and its term of office was gradually extended from half a year to one year, three years, ten years, or even life. However, political critics at that time generally believed that Roman politics during the rule of Sura and Caesar was "autocracy" and "lewdness", not "dictatorship" in the original sense.
The life of Julius Caesar
An outstanding strategist, politician and writer in ancient Rome, a dictator at the end of the Republic of China. Born into a famous Julius family in Rome, his father is the CEO. When he was a teenager, he studied rhetoric and oratory, received a good education, and was the leader of the Democratic Party in the early political period, opposing optimates. He has served as a financial officer, supervisor, chief priest and chief judge. In 60 BC, they formed a three-headed alliance with Pompeii and crassus, and * * * ruled the Roman Republic, which was called "the first three heads" in history. In 58 BC, he won the post of governor of Gaul and conquered the whole territory of Gaul within a few years. Not only does he have a lot of wealth, but more importantly, his training.
I trained a strong army loyal to myself. In 49 BC, Caesar defeated Pompeii and seized power (crassus had died in a foreign war). In the next few years, he gained the power of dictatorship indefinitely, combining the power of consul and dictator, and became a veritable military dictator. * * * while the country exists in name only, the power of the Senate is decreasing day by day. Some measures carried out by Caesar, such as distributing the land of various provinces to 80,000 veterans, reducing the debts of debtors, and punishing corrupt and extortionate officials, touched the interests of the elders and aroused their dissatisfaction. On March 15, 44 BC, he was stabbed to death by the opposition led by Brutu and Cassio in the Senate Chamber. Caesar left behind two works of historical value, namely the Battle of Gaul and Notes on the Civil War.
Julius Caesar was born in BC 102, which was an era of serious political crisis in Rome. At this time, Rome's economic base has undergone tremendous changes, becoming the most developed country in the western classical era. The original small farmers have been completely replaced by large estates that use slave labor on a large scale. The direct military plunder and the oppression of conquered areas by tribute made the wealth from all over the Mediterranean coast flood into Italy, which accelerated the social differentiation of Rome.
Great changes in the economy will naturally affect the political life of Rome. The conquered land is expanding day by day, the standing army composed of mercenaries is expanding, the slave population is increasing sharply, and the homeless class composed of unemployed small farmers and freed slaves is also flocking to the capital, which requires greatly strengthening the state machine to deal with it, but at this time the state system in Rome is basically the same as that in the small commune on the Tiber River. Its civilian government, which is reelected every year, its bloated citizens' assembly, and its Senate, which is monopolized by several generations of powerful people, can't adapt to this situation at all. Since the 1930s BC, people have been proposing various democratic reform schemes from different angles, but they have all been opposed by a handful of so-called aristocrats entrenched in the Senate, because they violated the interests of the rich and the aristocrats and failed. Since then, people who advocate democratic reform have struggled endlessly, and the democratic movement has gradually developed from a legitimate demand for improvement to a conspiracy, rebellion and even civil war. In 82 BC, Sura, the protector of the rich and noble family, suppressed the opposition with bloody slaughter, and the democratic movement was temporarily silent. However, the massacre cannot eliminate the root cause of the demand for reform. Shortly after Sura's death, the democratic movement made a comeback. At this time, the Roman aristocracy, the incompetence of the government, the turmoil of social order and the domineering of soldiers greatly weakened the power of the country. In the 1970s BC, the situation finally developed to a very worrying level. The attacks of the strong neighbors in the east and the separatist regimes in the western provinces are second, and the pirates in the Mediterranean and the slave uprising led by Spartacus are serious. Pirates not only make people in coastal areas miserable, but even Rome is in danger of being cut off because of the lack of overseas food. The slave uprising made Italy suffer the heaviest military disaster since Hannibal War, which impacted the slavery in Rome and hit the slave economy. The slave uprising forced the slave owners to make some changes in the way of exploiting slaves and managing land, and also forced the slave owners to change the methods of controlling slaves. More importantly, it forced them to change the * * * and regime that could not guarantee the economic development of slavery. As Engels, the revolutionary mentor, pointed out: "... when the state power within a country is in opposition to its economic development-so far, almost all regimes are in a certain stage of development-the struggle always ends with the overthrow of the regime." It was in this situation that Caesar entered politics.
Caesar was born into an ancient but declining aristocratic family in Rome. Because of his close friendship with the older generation of democratic leaders Marius and Chennai, he was rejected by the aristocratic factions in his youth, forcing him to stand on the side of the democratic faction from the beginning and gradually become the leader of the opposition, and at the same time gradually rose from the financial officer and public works officer to the judicial officer. But at this time, he had no other political capital except for his great appeal among the vagrants on the street. Therefore, he managed to form a "three-person alliance" with cornelius Pompeii, who was very influential in the army at that time, and Marcus Krasus, the richest man in Rome, who represented the rich, the so-called knight class. Of course, these three people represent three groups with different interests. They only managed to get together because they were also excluded by the nobles who controlled the Senate. With the support of these two men, Caesar was elected consul in 59 BC, but due to the constraints of the Senate, he did not make much progress.
At this time, after more than half a century of political turmoil, the leaders of the Roman ruling group, no matter which faction, realized from practical experience that to master political power, we must first have an armed force, and only by using force can we make a difference in politics. Therefore, after the expiration of the consul's term, Caesar tried his best to win the province of Gaul as governor, with the aim of cultivating his own army as political backing while Gaul was in existence. At the same time, opening up territory and plundering slaves in Gaul can also gain a reputation among Roman slave owners, and can also take the opportunity to accumulate a lot of wealth as the capital for future political activities.
Caesar went to Gaul in 58 BC and returned to Italy in early 49 BC. According to Plutarch, in nine years in Gaul, he slaughtered one million people and captured one million people. He and his officials made a fortune, which enabled him to pay bribes in Rome, even the minions of important people. He also held various performances among civilians, distributed a lot of money, and built a large number of projects in many towns in Italy, which not only pleased the contractor, but also pleased the civilians who got job opportunities. As a result, his popularity among Italian citizens gradually surpassed the other two in the "three-person alliance." In particular, he borrowed Gaul as a training ground and trained an army that was most used to fighting in the Republic of * * * at that time, and it was an army that only knew Caesar did not know the country.
Caesar's success stimulated Krasus. In 63 BC, he rushed to the East and launched a war against rest, hoping to achieve the same success there as Caesar, but he was destroyed and died there. This makes the original "three-person alliance" stand side by side, leaving only Caesar and Pompeii. The two people are increasingly distrustful of each other, and some people in the Senate are provoking and wooing. Pompeii finally broke up with Caesar and formally stood on the side of the Senate, becoming the leader of the aristocratic faction against Caesar. In 49 BC, Caesar led an army into Italy, and Pompeii was caught off guard. He fled Rome with all government personnel and the Senate, crossed the sea and entered Greece, where Italy fell into Caesar's hands. The following winter, Caesar also rushed to Greece and defeated Pompeii's main force in the Sahel. Pompeii fled to Egypt and was killed on the spot by the Egyptians. Caesar reunited the whole country after destroying the ruins of Pompeii in other places.
Caesar eliminated the remnants of Pompeii province by province, that is, the process of eliminating the residual influence of Roman nobles and institutions and establishing a new ruling machine. Therefore, the Roman country reunified by Caesar is no longer the weak and procrastinating old Roman Republic. It is a brand-new centralized military dictatorship, which has been able to command the whole country in a unified way, which is of course beneficial to the economic development and cultural exchanges in the Mediterranean coastal areas.
Less than four years have passed since Caesar unified the Roman country, but in such a short time. During this period, he was able to accomplish a lot of commendable work, the most noteworthy of which were two aspects: first, he destroyed the old aristocratic system and system, concentrated military and political power, basically completed the transition to a monarchy, and made a unified work on the old system that had been plagued by problems, repaired at any time and was forced to make up. He set the consul, prosecutor, tribune, high priest and other important positions in one, reduced the Senate to an advisory body, and regarded the citizens' assembly as a dispensable ornament, all of which paved the way for his later successors to turn Rome into an empire clothed with * * *. Secondly, he tried to gradually abolish the privileges left by the old Rome as a city-state, raise the status of Italian towns to the same level as Rome, raise the status of provinces to the same level as Italy, and give citizenship to Roman provinces one by one-only to slave owners, of course-to further expand and consolidate the foundation of the ruling group of this great empire. But this work is only partially completed. In the past, when he was in Gaul, he gave citizenship to Gauls in the mountains, and later let some of their leaders enter the Senate, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the old citizens who regarded citizenship as a taboo and did not want others to share it. They laughed at him:
"Caesar led the Gauls to victory,
But to lead them into the Senate;
Gauls took off their trousers,
Instead, he put on a wide-brimmed robe.
In 44 BC, he promulgated the autonomy law applicable to Italian towns, giving them the same status as Rome; He restored the tariffs that Italy had been exempted from; He also plans to abolish the method of collecting provincial taxes by contractors, and instead send people from the state to collect them directly, canceling an embarrassing policy that people in all provinces hate most. No wonder it is rumored that he will move the capital to Alexandria and transform Rome into an oriental monarchy, mainly because he has lowered Rome's status in China.
Caesar was assassinated by the remnants of optimates in 44 BC, ending his busy life. His heirs, gaius julius caesar Octavian and Augustus, the grandchildren of his sister, completely completed the task of transforming slave Rome into an empire on the basis of Caesar.
Many people have been evaluating Caesar, and most people tout him as a hero, a great politician, a genius commander-in-chief, a writer, an orator and so on. It seems that he is the man who built this great empire. In fact, Caesar's life-long struggle is nothing more than a struggle between one ruling group and another ruling group in the slave owner class to change the ruling mode. Although it improved the situation of this slave country for a period of time and further developed the slave economy, it still only benefited the slave owner class and did not affect its fate at that time. Secondly, the success of his life should be mainly attributed to the fact that he happened to be in countries like Rome and the United States. In such a historical era, the situation changed, and the opportunity made him unconsciously complete the career that history wanted him to complete. Here, his personal qualities such as perseverance, wit, boldness and smoothness have only played a very limited role, so it is not appropriate to flatter Caesar too much. As Engels, the revolutionary mentor, said, "It happened that Napoleon, a Corsican, became the military dictator needed by France exhausted by the war." . However, if Napoleon never existed, his role would be played by someone else. This can be proved by facts. Whenever such a person is needed, he will appear: Caesar, Augustus, Cromwell and so on. "
On the contrary, some people strongly criticized Caesar, saying that he suppressed the democratic movement, organized him to cancel the guild and restore Italian tariffs. Reduce the rations distributed to the poor, etc. , is said to be a betrayal of civilians. These criticisms are often the result of an ultra-modern interpretation of the so-called "civilians" and "democratic movements" in Rome at that time. It is a complicated task to analyze the so-called civilians, their composition, their political roles and economic status in the last years of Rome. This is not the work to be done here, but at least it can be said with certainty that they are by no means1the industrial proletariat in the 8th and 9th centuries. In the preface to the second edition of louis bonaparte, Marx quoted sismondi's famous saying that "the proletariat in Rome depends on social life, while the proletariat in modern society depends on social life"-this is the most pertinent conclusion about them. In the first or second century BC, they never produced their own representatives in politics, and never put forward a set of their own political programs. They have always been the tools of various political activists. Just as we can't regard them as modern proletariat, we can't regard Caesar as a first-class figure of Louis Napoleon or even thiers. Caesar was here, but he did no less than other activists at that time. At best, I can only blame him for using it at first and then leaving. Leave them and even hurt them. At that time, it was inevitable to ask pro-democracy activists as soon as they came to power. Caesar, in particular, can know that this is the inevitable result of his work by simply citing the work he devoted himself to. For a long time, the vagrant class in the capital has become a heavy burden for the country. In order to reduce the search for provinces and reduce the privileges of Rome, we have to take some measures that are unfavorable to these vagrants. For example, the free rations distributed to citizens were suddenly reduced from 320,000 to150,000 by Caesar. This privilege, once considered as a civil right, was strictly restricted and turned into real social relief. This is an example. Moreover, after the establishment of strong personal rule, the citizens' assembly even lost its role as a rubber stamp, and the political status of the homeless class came to an end. There is no need for the treasury to please them in everything. This is the logical development and inevitable result of the transition from * * to empire. Caesar did a lot of things in his life, but none of them were in this respect.