I think you have to visualize his being considered fairly radical, at least by the conservatives of his own day. The settlement of the whole debt question when Caesar became dictator is illustrative. For decades, all true demagogues rambled on about complete debt liquidation, which of course was a ridiculous concept but played well to the poor and in debt. Caesar managed a compromise;

Caesar was more effective dealing with Rome's intransigent debt problems than any politician before him. With the death of Pompey, following fifty years of multiple civil insurrections, chronic debt was destroying the Roman social fabric. In the aftermath of the great Civil War, men looked to the Senate to abolish all debt or dreaded that Caesar would, in fact, do so, depending upon whether they were debtors or creditors. In 49, he enshrined a brilliant compromise that kick-started the flagging economy, even though it pleased neither extreme. Instead of plundering the properties classes for debt relief, he issued a well-considered dictatorial edict regulating the issue. By its provisions, creditors had to accept land in settlement of debt land at its prewar value, as assessed by independent arbitrators. Regarding capital loans, a portion of the pent-up interest was deducted on debts which, extending over years of civil chaos, would bankrupt the debtors if forced to repay in full. Thus the lenders were assured a portion, if not all, of their loan and profits while the debtors were allowed easy terms to repay without having to lose their property or lands. Regulations also regulated allowable interest rates and, to promote economic liquidity, Caesar limited how much cash a citizen could hold by reinstating an old law. This put money back into the economy while simultaneously erasing crushing debt; in fact, it was probably the greatest single act Caesar issued and stabilized the economy within a very short time.

LOL - from my own web site, I've lost some of the details and had to look it up! In any event, this worked very well while not being nearly as liberal as some wanted, and much MORE liberal than others wanted.