GALLIC SOLDIER
No sooner had he finished this work than he came to blows with the Senate, which feared his towering ambition. A civil war ensued (49-45 B. C.) The champion of the Senate was Pompey, who also had met with great success in war. Though in appearance the struggle was between Cæsar and the Republic, its real object was to determine which of the two leading generals should be master of the Roman world. Pompey was defeated and killed; and in the end Cæsar subdued the whole empire to his will. He ruled as Dictator, appointed to that office by the submissive Senate.
His Reforms as Dictator
ROMAN WORKS OF APPROACH
Showing parts of a Gallic wall in which stones are intermixed with beams
During the civil war and the year following its close Cæsar gave attention to internal reforms. Humanely and prudently he forgave political offenders, and associated with himself in the government many who had fought against him in the war. He sought to reconcile old hatreds and to introduce an era of good feeling. There can be no doubt of his sympathy with the subject peoples. Those in authority in the provinces were no longer to enrich themselves and their friends by oppression, but were held strictly accountable to the Dictator. Roman citizenship was a highly-prized possession, as it meant justice and an enviable social standing to the possessor. Cæsar granted it freely to individuals and to entire communities. Obviously, his aim was the rapid equalization of all freemen of the empire.
He took especial interest in public improvements at Rome. Among these works was the completion of the temple to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on the Capitoline Hill. The earlier temple had been destroyed by fire, and the construction of the new building required about thirty-six years. This was the largest and most stately temple in the city. Cæsar laid out a public square, named after his family the Julian Forum, in which he erected a temple to Venus Genetrix (ancestress), from whom he claimed descent. In it he placed a graceful statue of the goddess, carved by Arcesilaus, the most famous sculptor of the age. It is a remarkable example of clinging transparent drapery. In this public exhibition of his descent from a goddess Cæsar boldly displayed his egotism, which was further exalted by decrees of the Senate proclaiming him a god. It was not till after his death, however, that a temple was actually erected, at the east end of the Roman Forum, for his worship.[2] The Curia, Senate House, Cæsar began to rebuild, but its completion was left to Augustus, who named it the Curia Julia, after the Julian family, to which Cæsar, and by adoption Augustus, belonged. On the south side of the Forum he began the construction of the Basilica Julia, afterward finished by Augustus. It was a great hall intended for judicial and mercantile business. These are but a small part of the vast improvements that he planned for Rome, Italy, and the empire. The greater number remained mere schemes. To us the most interesting was the cutting of a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, a work that has had to await the skill of the modern engineer.
[2] The temple of the deified Cæsar, the ruins of which is pictured in this number.
As supreme pontiff Cæsar was the head of the state religion and guardian of the sacred lore. In this capacity he reformed the calendar, which in his day had fallen into dire confusion. The improvement consisted essentially in the adoption of the Egyptian solar year of 365¼ days. The Julian calendar remained in force throughout the civilized world till 1582, when it was superseded by that of Pope Gregory XIII, who introduced a more exact system.