CAESAR

There were insurrections: in the spring of 46, Caesar defeated the Republicans at Thapsus in Africa. Cato the Younger committed suicide, because he did not want Caesar to pardon him. Being on the spot, Caesar annexed some of the territories of the Numidian king Juba. The wars seemed over, and Caesar celebrated four triumphs: he had defeated Vercingetorix, Ptolemy, Pharnaces, and Juba. In 45, however, Caesar had to suppress a final revolt in Spain, led by a son of Pompey. In the battle of Munda, Caesar was victorious for the last time.

At home, he showed himself a restless reformer. The Roman mob had received free corn doles: Caesar reduced the number of recipients from 322,000 to 150,000. The poor were offered a new life overseas, where he ordered cities like Carthage and Corinth to be rebuilt and founded new towns, such as Arles and Seville. The soldiers of the civil wars also received small farms; his own soldiers he paid an additional silver talent (21 kg or the equivalent of 26 year's pay). In Asia Minor and Sicily, he introduced a new system of taxation, which protected the subjects from extortion.

Debts were a serious problem, because interest had been sky-high during the Civil War. Caesar disappointed radical reformers (like Marcus Caelius Rufus) who had expected a total cancellation. Caesar decreed, however, that the debtors should satisfy their creditors according to a valuation of their possessions at the price which they had paid for them before the war, deducting whatever interest already had been paid. This arrangement wiped out about a fourth part of the debts.

Many public works were carried out in Italy. Most famous is the Forum of Caesar, a kind of shopping complex in the commercial centre of Rome. On the old forum, the political heart of the empire, he rebuilt the speaker's platform, the court house, and the Senate's building. (While the Senate's building was under construction, the Senate gathered in the Theatre of Pompey, which was outside the city, where Caesar's army could control its meetings.) Varro, the commander of Pompey's army in Corduba, was appointed head of a state library; to ensure that Rome would be a centre of learning, Caesar conferred privileges to all teachers of the liberal arts.

As a legislator, Caesar prepared standard regulations for the municipal constitutions and proposed a law against extravagance. The Jews -who had helped him in the Alexandrine War- were protected. He even planned a codification of all existent Civil Law (a project not executed before 438 CE). Most remarkable is the reorganization of the calendar: the Republican year had counted 355 days, the deficiency made up by randomly adding an extra month. With the advice of Cleopatra's astrologer, Caesar added four extra months to the year 46, decreeing that from January 1, 45 our calendar (365.25 days) was to be used.