Caesar was a true polymath. He
spoke as many as 40 languages or dialects, was known to dictate four different
correspondences to four secretaries at once. He was tactically superb, and had
a greater ability motivate his troops than any general of his era. He was a
talented engineer, successful lawyer, and (according to Cicero, who despised
him) one of the greatest orators of his age.
As a result, he always seemed to
be one step ahead of his enemies. They hated him for many reasons, but the
largest was simply that he promoted according to talent rather than station.
That is, he expanded the rights of the lower classes in Rome and gave
citizenship to people throughout Italy and even some in Spain. He confiscated
land which had been steadily stolen by wealthy families for generations and
distributed it among soldiers and veterans so that it could be actually worked.
He pushed through banking reforms and laws which allowed the upper classes to
be prosecuted for crimes against lower classes and foreigners, something which
had been functionally impossible before this. And he made talented and
hardworking people Senators, a prerogative which had previously belonged
exclusively to people who (by definition) were so wealthy they did not have to
work.
The elite of Rome thought he was
going to destroy everything they knew Rome to be. It had little to do with
dictatorial powers, as the Romans accepted both Sulla before him and Augustus
after him. They feared him and had already tried (and failed) to beat him
politically and on the battlefield. The only thing left was assassination, and
with such overwhelming numbers that he could not defend himself, at a time when
he was getting ready to leave Rome for a many years long campaign.
Put simply, his assassins were
afraid of the changes he was making that would make Rome a superpower rather
than a city-state. And the common people of Rome never forgave them for it.
According to Suetonius, they were nearly all dead within three years.
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