Hi all, a relative of mine is a political science professor and he is trying to put together a course on the continuation of what he calls “caesarism” in modern political systems. Since I like Roman history he asked me for a rec on books about what Caesar did to the republic. Ideally from a social/institutional perspective rather than a focus on the individual himself. I know the request is a little broad and vague, but anyone have ideas?
The notion that Caesar single-handedly dismantled the Republic is fundamentally flawed and a bit simplistic on the topic, with no offense meant. Caesar was both a product of and a participant in a changing political environment stretching back into the 2nd century BCE. This is true no matter what reasons one wants to identify for the collapse of the Republican system (be it a loss of political consensus, a shift in army demographics, a shift in elite competitive model, too-rapid expansion of the empire, etc).
The book you/your relative are looking for, to start, is Erich Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (Berkeley 1974), which is now fifty years old but remains largely unassailable. For a basic survey of the period and the players, Shotter, The Fall of the Roman Republic (Routledge 2005), though he leans heavily on the notion that an expanding empire was the main culprit.