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The Roman Republic was great civilization with a very complex political system that still influences governments today. The Roman Republic consisted of three parts. The highest being the Consul that was made up of two male members who are elected annually. Secondly there was the Senate made up of elder statesmen that advised the Consul and finally there was the Assemblies where participants voted by group on issues. A few of the strengths of the political system was its citizen involvement although plebeians generally didn’t have much authority.
Another strength of the political system was that it was governed and based on a well spelt out law to avoid cases of dictatorship. As great as The Roman Republic was it had its weaknesses. The weakness of the Roman Republic political system was its foreign policies that constantly had the nation at war, which drained its resources and hampered its ability to govern itself. As a result it forced the republic to depart from its tradition and appoint Julius Caesar as a dictator to deal with the social and economic crisis caused.
Julius Caesar played a major role in the civil war that began in 49 B. C. E. The war broke out all throughout the roman world. Caesar had a very decisive win. When he returned to Rome in 46 BCE He had to take on the task of running a republic that had pre existing economic problems, social problems and difficulties due to the wars. Caesar needed to restore stability to the factions that burdened the city with violence. Caesar set into motion his plans to restore the republic to its glory, he established programs of public works to create jobs for the unemployed.
To help displaced peasants , he launched colonization programs all around the Mediterranean. Despite his skills the Caesar could not solve the problem of how to govern the republic because the it was growing at a rate that the traditional roman way of governing could not control. The Roman government changed very little over the entire course of the republic because Romans were a very conservative set of people, but their unwillingness to evolve their government with the changing times, was the major contributor to the Caesar’s death and consequently the end of the roman republic.
Caesar had many supporters that were pleased with the peace and order that he brought to Rome, but there were also many people including some of his supporters that were outraged because they believed that peace attained came at the price of the traditional roman republic and at the expense of the old traditional structure of power. Caesar’s iron grip on government left many senators in want for power.
So on march 15 44 BCE a plot created by the sixty senators to assassinate Caesar was set into motion and he was assassinated at the foot of the Statue of Pompey. There were attempts to celebrate his death as victory but the conspirators had no plan beyond Caesar’s murder, so with no way to control the army, or the economy the republic failed under the burden of civil wars. Thus the Roman Empire was created. Caesar may have been a great leader but his lust for power coupled with the Romans unwillingness to change ultimately leaded the fall of the republic.