Julius Caesar - Dictatorship

It was remarked by the wise Seneca that amongst the murderers of Caesar were to be found more of his friends than of his enemies. We can account for this only by emphasizing the fact that the form of Caesar's government became as time went on more undisguised in its absolutism, while the honors conferred upon him seemed designed to raise him above the rest of humanity.

It has been explained elsewhere that Caesar's power was exercised under the form of dictatorship.

In the first instance (autumn of 49 B.C.) this power was conferred upon him as the only solution of the constitutional deadlock created by the flight of the magistrates and senate, in order that elections (including that of Caesar himself to the consulship) might be held in due course.

For this there were republican precedents.

In 48 B.C. he was created dictator for the second time, probably with constituent powers and for an undefined period, according to the dangerous and unpopular precedent of Sulla. In May 46 B.C. a third dictatorship was conferred on Caesar, this time for ten years and apparently as a yearly office, so that he became Dictator IV. in May 45 B.C. Finally, before the 15th of February 44 B.C., this was exchanged for a life-dictatorship. Not only was this a contradiction in terms, since the dictatorship was by tradition a makeshift justified only when the state had to be carried through a serious crisis, but it involved military rule in Italy and the permanent suspension of the constitutional guarantees, such as intercession and provocation, by which the liberties of Romans were protected.

That Caesar held the imperium which he enjoyed as dictator to be distinct in kind from that of the republican magistrates he indicated by placing the term imperator at the head of his titles. Besides the dictatorship, Caesar held the consulship in each year of his reign except 47 B.C., when no curule magistrates were elected except for the last three months of the year. Moreover, he was invested by special enactments with a number of other privileges and powers; of these the most important was the tribunicia potestas, which we may believe to have been free from the limits of place (i.e. Rome) and collegiality. He was also granted the sole right of making peace and war, and of disposing of the funds in the treasury of the state. Save for the title of dictator, which undoubtedly carried unpopular associations and was formally abolished on the proposal of Antony after Caesar's death, this accumulation of powers has little to distinguish it from the Principate of Augustus; and the assumption of the perpetual dictatorship would hardly by itself suffice to account for the murder of Caesar.

But, there are signs that in the last six months of his life he aspired not only to a monarchy in name as well as in fact, but also to a divinity which Romans should acknowledge as well as Greeks, Orientals and barbarians. His statue was set up beside those of the seven kings of Rome, and he adopted the throne of gold, the scepter of ivory and the embroidered robe which tradition ascribed to them. He allowed his supporters to suggest the offer of the regal title by putting in circulation an oracle according to which it was destined for a king of Rome to subdue the Parthians, and when at the Lupercalia (15th February 44 B.C.) Antony set the diadem on his head he rejected the offer half-heartedly on account of the groans of the people.

His image was carried in the pompa circensis amongst those of the immortal gods, and his statue set up in the temple of Quirinus with the inscription "To the Unconquerable God."

A college of Luperci, with the surname Juliani, was instituted in his honor and flamines were created as priests of his godhead. This was intolerable to the aristocratic republicans, to whom it seemed becoming that victorious commanders should accept divine honors at the hands of Greeks and Asiatics, but unpardonable that Romans should offer the same worship to a Roman.

Julius Caesar - Legislative Reforms and Colonies

Julius Caesar

Rome the Eternal City

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