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Let me expose my bias. I took my classics degree in the mid-90's when people were starting to reexamine Roman politics using a modern understanding of economics and the use of propaganda. So yeah, I take sides with the young turks on this one.

The two main parties in the late Republic were Optimates and Populares. Optimates were extreme ultra-monied interests who for a couple of centuries had been squeezing the life out of ordinary Romans in an attempt to build greater and greater personal wealth at the expense of the Roman Middle Class, which they were systematically driving into poverty. They did this through legal (passing laws that allowed them to essentially steal land) and illegal means (intimidation, violence, murder, illegal land seizure, etc.). Since they controlled the government and what passed for a court system, guess how much recourse people had?

The Populares were labeled "demagogues" by their opponents. Most history books describe them as evil men, whippers up of "the mob." They supposedly sought personal power against the best interests of Rome.

The Populares could have gotten personal power more quickly and at much less risk if they'd been Optimates. Instead they literally risked life and limb to try to enforce land and grain laws and pass reforms that helped the middle class. They burned through personal fortune and faced down assaults of all kinds from the plutocrats in charge of the government. Almost all of them were brutally murdered by Optimates and their henchmen, none of whom were punished. That's right, the Populares worked within the laws for the good of their fellow Romans and were brutally murdered in public for the good of the rich.

Gaius Julius Caesar was the last of the Optimates. His struggle against the Senate was not the struggle of a man whose only goal was personal wealth and power. He was carrying on a struggle that occurred in every generation since the time of the Gracchi. Like his predecessors, including his mentor and possible lover, he risked everything including his fortune (which he spent trying to push his agenda through), his reputation, and his life to try to save what was left of old Roman values, like citizen farmers/soldiers, the rescue of the middle class, and the rule of law. Unlike his predecessors instead of doing this non-violently he used some of the Senate's own weapons against them. When they moved to destroy him, he fought back instead of peacefully allowing them to murder or execute him.

No, he wasn't a saint. He probably did love power, most people do, but he used his power in an attempt to give the people back what was stolen from them by the rich and attempt to return some power, some semblance of republican power to the ordinary folks. The really sad thing is he almost succeeded. This is why they killed him.

Brutus vs. Octavian was not a battle of Republican loyalists and monarchists. It was two groups of selfish plutocrats fighting over the corpse of Republican dreams. It was a matter of which Optimate predator was more efficient, the lone b*****d or a group of bastards.


As usual, the super rich won out.