Best wishes, John Green. So did Caesar destroy the Roman Republic? Well, he started a series of civil wars, he seized power for himself, he subverted the ideas of the Republic, he changed the Constitution. But he's only really to blame if he was the first one to do that. And he wasn't. Look at General Marius, for instance, who rose to power on the strength of his generalship and on his willingness to open up the army to the poor, who were loyal to him personally and not to Rome, and whom he promised land in exchange for their good service in the army. This, of course, required the Romans to keep conquering new land so they could keep giving it to new legionnaires.