Hi guys,
First off I want to thank the good people of this sub for being kind to help quench our thirst for knowledge about history, and really love reading and educating myself about our world history.
Anyway, to the question. Based on what we know about Julius Caesar, did he really love Rome and the greater good of the Roman people? Or was is just what he felt he needed to do to sieze power?
Based on what I have read and heard about the man, he had done a number of things to help the less fortunate Roman people, without utterly trying to destroy the upper class. My personal guess, Caesar was from an upper class family that had somewhat fallen from grace. So he had an understanding of the hardships of the lower class and perhaps sympathy, while at the same time being sympathetic to his own roots.
Though I do not know nearly enough to state that with confidence. Based on what we know about Caesar as a person, did he love the people of Rome? Although sometimes his methods were extreme and cruel, did he feel perhaps the ends justified the means if it meant making Rome a better place for everyone? Or was it he was just power hungry and felt he was taking the most effective method of aproach?
Thank you all in advance everyone!
If you want to judge his character, which is extremely difficult considering the time gap between here and now, consider that he killed and enslaved a million Gauls for personal wealth and fame and sacrificed thousands of his soldiers because he was worried he would lose his political career(he would, at worst, have been exiled which would mean the death of his career, but little else). So he was ultimately extremely selfish and power hungry. I wouldn't say that he was that different than most of the other aristocrats of his time.
He was also very intelligent and charismatic, and a skilled politician who could get both the people and the soldiers to love him, and to get them to believe he loved them. He was politically tied to the Marians (his aunt was married to Marius, after all), and the populism came with the territory. He was just really good at it.
I really doubt he actually loved 'the people' because that is such a nebulous concept, but he was interested in making the government function better for what it's worth, so he wasn't all about naked self-interest. Whether that was out of patriotism, an intellectual desire to fix something that's obviously broken, or something else entirely, I don't know.
I don't know if I answered your question. What was 'the greater good of Roman people'? 80% of them were farmers that didn't really get involved in the power politics of the aristocracy except as cannon fodder.