The End of the War

-Caesar set up Egypt (Aegyptus) as a client state in 47 BC with Cleopatra as the ruler. 
   -Meanwhile, in Numidia the Roman senate had escaped there to raise an army.
-Caesar knew he had to act quickly to solidify his grasp on the empire, so he marched back up the Mediterranean Sea to go through Asia Minor to Greece and then Rome.
   -Meanwhile, Pharnaces II (son of Mithridates VI (and his sister Queen Laodice (gross!)) started a revolt in Pontus against the Romans- he also castrated any Roman citizens which pissed off Caesar more. 
-Caesar marched on Pontus and a battle was fought at Zela (modern-day Zile, Turkey); this is where the phrase "Veni; vidi; vici" ("I came, I saw, I conquered") comes from (Caesar used this phrase when he was describing how easily he defeated the forces of Pontus according to Plutarch and Suetonius).
   -Caesar then went through Greece after putting down the revolt in Pontus and then landed in Brundusium (modern-day Brindisi, Italy), where he was met by Cicero. 
      -Caesar then traveled to Rome, where Marc Antony had been ruling as dictator (he was the "Master of Horse" and therefore second-in-command).
         -Antony had gone on a rampage of murder and excess in Caesar's absence, acting like a true tyrant! 
            -Caesar quickly removed him from power. 
-Caesar then stepped down as dictator and elected himself consul, with Marcus Lepidus as co-consul.
-However, when Caesar planned to invade Numidia to crush the Numidian army, his troops revolted!  They weren't properly getting paid due to Caesar's chronic lack of funds.
   -Fortunately for Caesar, he was able to talk them all out of the revolt and got them to agree to invade Numidia!
      -Unfortunately for Caesar, he was greatly outnumbered.  Numidia had raised between 10-14 legions!
         -Caesar only had ONE legion!  He was also met with bad luck after landing in North Africa, as reinforcements kept on getting blown off course at sea and/or getting captured by Numidian forces. 
            -Caesar and the much larger Numidian army finally clashed at Thapsus (near modern-day Bekalta, Tunisia) in 46 BC. 
               -Amazingly, Caesar won through a combination of terrain advantage and sheer ferocity- the Numidian army was crushed!! 
                  -Cato, who was leading the Roman Senate from Utica (modern-day Tunis), learned of Caesar's victory and committed suicide!
-Caesar then landed back in Rome. 
   -Celebrated with FOUR triumphs!
-Caesar then set up a census to make sure that the grain allotment system wasn't being abused. 
   -Ended up exposing the flaws and corrected them, saving a bunch of money.
   -Because of this census, we know that during this time, Rome had a population of about 900,000 people.
-Caesar then realized that the city's economic system was really fucked up, so Caesar offered Roman citizenship to any foreign professionals who would come live in Rome.  Then he set up a system that offered free land to citizens who wanted to move out of Rome and into vacant Roman territory.
   -80,000 poor people agreed to this and moved out of Rome and into the countryside, while professionals and doctors from across the empire moved to Rome.  Genius!
      -Finally released his soldiers from service and granted them land throughout the empire.  He then offered citizens to everyone within the empire itself. 
         -Caesar knew that the Roman empire had to be multi-ethnic- it couldn't survive as an empire that was dominated by Roman citizens only!
-During this time Caesar also expanded the Senate to approximately 1000 seats; he also appointed his political allies from all over the empire.
   -Caesar then set up a program to repair the crumbling and neglected city, drain the swamps, and even changed the Roman calendar from lunar to solar. 
      -Used a Greek astronomer to come up with the system of a year which included 365 days.
         -The month of July was named after Caesar!
         -The Julian calendar would be used in the West until the 1500s, when Pope Gregory would alter the Julian calendar slightly (the Gregorian calendar, which we use today!).
-Caesar claimed after all of this that he was trying to restore and update Rome to a new and improved republic, but the nobility was very suspicious!  They believed that Caesar now saw himself as a king and god of Rome. 
   -Some even began to whisper that Caesar must be killed!