#caesar also wasn't a fascist btw. but that's another conversation

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

It's actually kind of messed up that a lot of media portrays Julius Caesar as a populist/reformer/advocate for the "common man" against the elites.

It's not true. Caesar supported some anti-corruption bills and moderate reforms, and he wasn't a conservative by any definition. But he also reduced government benefits for the poor (debt relief, the grain dole), and he cut the common people out of government by ending free elections. Even before his dictatorship, Caesar was very much part of the aristocracy and had no desire, or reason, to overturn the social order.(1)

It gives authoritarians false credibility. Fascist leaders have directly cited Caesar as a precedent, claiming to be "advocates of the people."(2) But free elections, and accountability for leaders, are critical to prevent power from being abused. Democracy is frustrating, unfair, often corrupt, and frequently fails to live up to our ideals, but you cannot fix this by finding the "right" person and giving them absolute unchecked power. Unchecked power is inherently unjust.

It discredits the common people's voice in government. If you see Caesar as a populist rebelling against "the elites," it's not hard to twist that into "any leader overly popular with the common people is another would-be dictator." This idea, that the poor and working classes cannot be trusted to make good government decisions, has had insidious effects on democracy. The American founding fathers explicitly created the electoral college to try to prevent an "American Caesar" - with the result that multiple presidents have been elected against the will of most US citizens.(3)

(1) See Julius Caesar and the Roman People, by Robert Morstein-Marx (2021), for an extensive breakdown. Or "Caesar as a Politician" by Erich S. Gruen (2009) for an overview.

(2) "Caesar for Communists and Fascists," Luciano Canfora, 2009

(3) "Republicanism, Caesarism and Political Change," Nicholas Cole, 2009. These last three articles can be found in A Companion to Julius Caesar, ed. Miriam Griffin.

This isn't in response to anyone on Tumblr, by the way. I'm mainly thinking of nonfiction books/TV with a very one-sided view of the man.