The life and career of Gaius Julius Caesar have been topics in research for centuries. His last years were the time in which he was the main driver of changes in the Roman world, changes which turned out to have immense impact on the centuries to come, including paving the way for imperial rule of the Roman Empire. This stage of his life has until today not been explored to its fullest extent.
This conference aims at bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines, archaeology, history, philology and history of religion, in order to move towards a more multifaceted narrative about his dictatorship and the changes that he spurred, the changes that were stalled, the changes that were envisioned and the changes that were carried out – some, in the end, by others.
We are looking for papers on focused topics such as Caesar’s impact on colonization of the Mediterranean world. Which colonies did he found, which ones did he plan and what did he leave to his successors complete? What role did the urban Roman population play, and what effects did the settlement of foreign populations have for the locals? Caesar’s foreign policy plans also remained unfinished. Here the Parthian question was constantly in the air after the defeat at Carrhae and remained in the minds of the various politicians after Caesar’s death.
Furthermore, the regulation of the necessary defence of Gaul against the constant Germanic invasions across the Rhine remained postponed. In many respects, Caesar’s coinage was exemplary, and it was subsequently imitated in various respects in the triumvirate and in the imperial period, for example, in the minting of the ruler on the obverse. But here it would have to be examined why certain details were no longer found in the later imperial coinage, such as the embossing of priestly symbols. Similarly, Caesar’s inscriptions are to be analysed for their exemplary function for the imperial period. Caesar’s building programme in Rome and beyond was, on the one hand, indebted to the example of influential politicians of past times and, on the other hand – in its unprecedented monumentality, as with his forum – an intensification of previous practice that exerted a clear influence on the period that followed. Other possible aspects that require more intensive study are Caesar’s influence on Roman historiography, the patronage system in Rome, the cursus honorum and the political system in general, as well as Caesar’s religious programme and use of religion in and outside Rome. Through bringing new views into play across disciplines, we hope to bring new fruitful lines of investigation to the forefront of a central figure.