Julius Caesar Research Paper

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Imagine having to take over the role of a relative. Everyone will expect you to be very similar to your relative in the way you do things. This is what happened to Augustus Caesar. Following the death of emperor Julius Caesar, chaos erupted as people fought for power in Rome. Julius’ nephew, Octavius Caesar, who later changed his name to Augustus, was eventually able to take the throne and become the first emperor of Rome. Julius Caesar was a successful leader because he had an effective military. How was Augustus Caesar able to maintain this successful military when he assumed power? He did this by reducing the size of the army, reorganizing it, increasing how long soldiers served, and creating more efficient methods to fund the army. When…show more content…
One important aspect of the army he reorganized was the auxiliaries. There were many auxiliaries because they were usually foreigners that would be promised citizenship if they fought for Rome. Augustus organized the auxiliaries into “infantry cohorts of about five hundred or a thousand men each, and cavalry regiments of about five hundred, with a few of a thousand” (Grant 56). Having smaller cohorts made it easier to lead the auxiliaries, especially during a time when there was just as many auxiliaries as legionaries. Auxiliaries had never been treated equally as the rest of the soldiers, but under Augustus, they “developed into a status very similar to that of the legionaries.” (Lloyd). However, he made sure that the cohorts were led by trusted Roman soldiers to prevent auxiliaries from rebelling. Another significant change Augustus made was increasing the term soldiers served. He “reformed the length of time a soldier served, increasing it from six to twenty years” (Cavazzi). Sixteen of these years were spent full time in the army, while the other four years was part-time, easier labor. Since soldiers spent sixteen years in the army instead of four, it wasn’t necessary to recruit new soldiers often. Having soldiers serve full-time for sixteen years also enabled Rome to have a full-time army instead of volunteers occasionally on

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