We're all told we need to learn from history. So, here's a little history.
In the last days of the Roman Republic, there was a huge struggle between the classes. There were many grades of class, but there were the elite-elite called patricians, knights, plebs, freedmen, non citizens and slaves. Another way of cutting it is to class people as rich, middle, and poor - and slaves, who had very few rights.
Rome expanded her territories through conquest. As a result, the generals were powerful and popular. Another result was that there were many more slaves. Some people managed to grab public lands, or the lands of the small farmers, and they used slaves to work the fields. The result was that a small group of men became very rich, the middle class was squeezed, and that the lower class and the number of slaves grew. (Sound familiar? It should.)
Julius Caesar was a patrician, with his blood allegedly going back to the Trojan hero Aeneas, a son of Venus. So he was as elite as anyone could be. He was also an extremely successful general (I don't approve of war, but practically no one questioned it at the time - as there seems to be nothing written against slavery). Nevertheless he championed the rights of the people, working to break up the oligarchy that was destroying the middle class in order to benefit the rich. His policy was long-sighted, too, because, the middle-class was the source of soldiers.
But his policies and proposals were met with resistance. A group of conservative Senators (who resemble our conservative politicians) - they called themselves the optimates and followed Cato the Younger - did everything they could to destroy Caesar. They rallied against him. They declared him an outlaw. They persuaded the other great general of the time, Pompey the Great, to join their cause (Pompey was allied earlier with Julius Caesar through marriage with Caesar's daughter - they were very much in love - but Julia died in childbirth). They pushed Caesar into a corner so that he could be banished and humiliated or he could march on Rome with his soldiers. He marched on Rome, with incredible speed. (Yes, the speed of Obama's actions during the last six week has amazed me.)
Despite the Catonites' advantages and having Pompey the Great at their side, they fled the City. One tactical mistake after another - they apparently forgot to take the City's money with them - led to their downfall. In other words, they were not just mean, they were stupid - rather like some of our right-wingers. Eventually, and even reluctantly, Caesar defeated them. Pompey fled to Egypt but he was murdered there. Cato soldiered on (although he was not much of a soldier) until he committed suicide in Utica.
I believe that the optimates were correct in thinking that Julius Caesar wanted to be in charge of everything. He was extremely ambitious, and he accepted the position of Dictator for life. When Mark Antony offered him a crown (the word "king" was hated in Rome) he declined it, but Marcus Antonius would never had made this offer in the first place, had not Caesar authorized it. But the optimates, by refusing to do anything to help the lower class - by adhering to the idea that everything should be as it had always been (even though it wasn't) made Rome ripe for the picking.
Caesar forgave many men, including Brutus and Cassius, who both still resented him. Later they organized a conspiracy to murder him, but that's a story for another day!