LEFT. Map of Roman Empire in 44 B.C.
Julius Caesar, moving his troops down Italy with the speed that he was known for, and gaining more troops from his allies Curio and Marc Antony, drove down into Rome before Pompey could organize a proper defense -- a problem made worse by the fact that the Senators, although they hated Caesar, didn't let Pompey have all the power he needed. Most of the Senators, along with Pompey, retreated south and were nearly trapped in Brindisi as they prepared to go east, where Pompey had more troops and resources. But during the retreat one Ahenobarbus made a stand with his forces against Caesar and was defeated. Instead of killing him and the senators with him, he let them go free, furthering Caesar's reputation for clemency, suggesting that Caesar, unlike Marius and Sulla, would not utterly crush all those who had opposed him.
After Pompey and the Senators went eastward, Caesar's commander Curio captured Sicily
(ensuring that Rome and Italy would continue to get grain) and Caesar went to Spain and
overwhelmed the Pompeian forces there. He then went back to Rome (after quelling a mutiny
of soldiers protesting against Caesar's policy of mercy -- they wanted to be able to loot!
-- where he got himself appointed Dictator. Caesar then headed towards the Balkans to
confront Pompey, and eventually got more reinforcements from Marc Antony. Finally, after
failing to blockade Pompey, Caesar withdrew to Thessaly, where, on the plains of Pharsalus
in 48, in the largest battle ever fought between Romans, he defeated Pompey's army,
although Pompey escaped to Egypt, where he was assassinated by the boy-king Ptolemy XIII.
Caesar soon arrived in Egypt to force them to give him money,. 
There he was captivated
by the 21 year old Cleopatra; she was not, as some have pictured her, an incredible
beauty, but rather extremely intelligent and talented, as well as utterly ruthless, and it
was these traits that endeared her to Caesar. (For a page exposing some common myths about
Cleopatra, CLICK HERE. He made
her ruler over Egypt in place of her brother, which touched off a civil war, and Caesar
was nearly trapped and destroyed in Alexandria. Then, after defeating the army of the son
of Mithridates, he returned to Rome. While Caesar had been gone in the East, the situation
at Rome and in the West, being watched over by Marc Antony, had deteriorated, and allowed
Caesar's enemies (such as the sons of Pompey Cnaeus and Sextus) to gather fresh forces.
Caesar crossed over to North Africa and defeated Metellus Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law,
and the stern Stoic Porcius Cato committed suicide at Utica rather than surrender. Caesar
then went back to Spain and in some horrifying battles put down Cnaeus and Labienus
although Sextus Pompey got away and would cause trouble for Octavian.
Caesar returned to Rome where Caesar set about some reforms, before deciding to go off and battle the Parthians, which he would have done in 44 B.C., had he lived. Although Caesar was highly intelligent, it is unclear that he really had a good idea how to reform the Roman system of government, or had the patience to go through the slow process of trying to make reform work. Caesar was a man of action and war, which appears why, when there was so much more to be done at Rome, he decided to go off and fight the Parthians.
At Rome, true to his reputation, Caesar did not allow the widespread proscriptions and public murders. On July 25th, 46B.C., Julius Caesar secured the office of Dictator for ten years, which gave him absolute power. Because he wanted to retain the appearance of passing laws according to constitutional procedure, he needed the help of the Senate to pass laws. However, he needed the Senate's help to pass legislation. To fill the vacant seats in the Senate, he selected the Senators from a range of places and occupations. The new senators were all supporters of Caesar, and vastly outnumbered the old senators. Effectively, the Senate became nothing more than a puppet of Caesar's power. His dictatorship also allowed him to control the magistrates, and their elections. Prior to Caesar, the consuls had been the most respected and powerful of the political magistracies. Now, it had been turned into an insignificant parody of its former use.
And then in February of 44 BC, Caesar became dictator for life. It has been suggested that Caesar had thought the solution for the government at Rome was to have a Hellenistic type-King at the top. Indeed, while Caesar in public rejected the hated title of King, his assumption of total power, plus the fact that he put his own face on coins, suggested he was trying to assume the more-than-human rank that Hellenistic kings often took for themselves.
Caesar made other reforms. He set up large number of colonies, not only in Italy but
even forty in the provinces to provide land for the veterans and the urban poor of Rome --
80,000 in all. In founding these towns he enacted a law in 45 laying down a standard
pattern for the constitutions of these municipia, which were by this time the units
of local self-government in most of the territory inhabited by Roman citizens. This
perhaps suggests that he intended to make the government of the Empire more systematic. He
also created more patrician families, so that ritual functions could be better performed.
At Rome he also increased the number of various officials to better handle the workload of
a large empire, and took measures more regularly and more fairly collect taxes. He passed
legislation to ease the truly terrible debt crisis. He used much of his wealth to begin
massive public buildings, such as the Forum of Julius Caesar and the Temple of Venus
Genetrix (= Venus the Mother) , 
a program that Augustus would continue
and expand. (Click
here for some more modern photos of the remains of this forum.) And, in one of
the most long-lasting improvements, he reformed the Calendar (guess who July is named
after), which remained in force until Pope Gregory's reform in 1582 -- and it continued to
be used in England until 1752, and it is still used today in the Greek and Russian
Orthodox Churches!
Caesar had spared many of his most hated enemies, but that did not make them any more kindly to Caesar. His assumption of a virtual kingship was perhaps the last straw. Caesar's opposition now came chiefly from two groups - the aristocratic ruling class, who under Caesar could never gain an office which could challenge him for control of the State; and the republicans who feared the downfall of the Republic, and the re-establishment of the monarchy. Even some supporters of Caesar now became opponents due to Caesar's assumption of total power. The aristocrats also didn't want to be ruled by Caesar's representatives. Caesar had set a date to leave for a campaign in Spain - 18th March 44 B.C. While he was away, two equites -- mere knights! -- Oppius and Balbus would have had the right to rule over all officials and Senators. Plus there was the matter of Cleopatra, that Macedonian-Egyptian, and to the Romans Oriental, lover of Caesar who was virtually Queen of Rome -- Caesar had put her statue beside the goddess Venus in the temple he had built, in the eyes of many Romans suggesting that, as the Egyptian Pharoahs had done that she was more than human, god. That could not be tolerated.
Thus a secret conspiracy developed, with Marcus Brutus, supposedly the descendent of the Brutus that had tossed out the last King of Rome, as the leading figure. Apparently Caesar knew of some conspiracies against him, but did not take them seriously. So on March 14, 44, in the Theater of Pompey, near Pompey's statue the conspirators surrounded Caesar and stabbed him to death. Brutus and Cassius proclaimed the restoration of liberty, but all that would be accomplished really was a renewal of civil war. It would not be until the triumph of Julius Caesar's adoptive son, Octavian, later called Augustus, that Rome would have a truly stable, if imperial, government.
