Julius Caesar and the foundation of the Roman imperial system . /It was part of a deliberate attempt to make the/Senate feel itself at once more representative and[more responsible.! Neither Caesar nor any otherRoman statesman ever thought of doing withoutthe Senate; but the Senate, if it were really to dogood work in an imperial state, must be felt, under-stood, and criticised. It must be in touch with theworldwide interests over which it ought to watch. Itmust cease to be the mere council of a city-state,and must begin to recognise the fact that the eyesof the whole civilised world are fixed
Julius Caesar and the foundation of the Roman imperial system . /It was part of a deliberate attempt to make the/Senate feel itself at once more representative and[more responsible.! Neither Caesar nor any otherRoman statesman ever thought of doing withoutthe Senate; but the Senate, if it were really to dogood work in an imperial state, must be felt, under-stood, and criticised. It must be in touch with theworldwide interests over which it ought to watch. Itmust cease to be the mere council of a city-state,and must begin to recognise the fact that the eyesof the whole civilised world are fixed upon it. But this was only a preliminary step. The firstpiece of real work to be done was to fulfil the en-gagement entered into with Pompeius, and to makesome settlement for his veterans, who had now beenhanging about the capital for quite two years, andincreasing the number of those who lived on thepublic distribution of cheap corn. It is not easy forus to realise the economical difficulties which hadarisen since these great armies of professional soldiers. JULIUS C/ESAR. FROM BUST NUMBERED 107 IN THE VATICAN MUSEUM, ROME. 59 ] CcBsars First Consulship, 107 had taken the place of the simple citizen soldiery ofthe older Roman system. That system had beenproved quite unequal to the needs of an imperialstate. The Roman and ItaHan citizen could notendure prolonged service in the provinces. Disci-pline had broken down, defeat and even surrenderwere becoming ominously frequent, when Marius rev-olutionised the whole recruiting system, and began topick up soldiers wherever he could lay hands onthem, disdaining neither the very poorest Italians,nor even freedmen and slaves, and welcoming thenatives of the provinces, who had already for sometime been serving in certain special capacities. Theresult was avast improvement both indiscipline andorganisation, and these again produced a markedrise in the standard of generalship and in the wholeart of war. But every reform creates some n
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, booksubjectcaesarjulius, booksubjectgenerals
