CAESAR’S DICTATORSHIP
Scenario 1: Caesar planned to
seize absolute power from the beginning but hid his true intentions until he
was certain he had control (promise to restore republic was a ruse)
Scenario 2: Caesar tried to
work with the aristocracy until the Pompey brothers mounted rebellion in
Scenario 3: Caesar was
manipulated by subordinates and misled by the adulation of the Roman people and
allowed himself to be pushed into absolute power. We have no idea of his true
intentions.
Eulogies to Cato; Caesar
wrote the Anti-Cato, as an indication of his anger at this time; his rebuking
of the two tribunes who refused to stand during his parade
Imperator for life, tribunician potestas for life;
right to put his statues on the rostrum, the right to put his statues in all
the temples, the right to wear triumphal garb and a laurel wreath; the right to
have his statue led in the epulones of the gods; a
cult was created to his ‘genius’; M. Antony was its flamen; Caesar received honor, Pater patriae (father of his country) Caesar constructed a new
forum, the Forum Julia with the Temple of Venus Genetrix
at its center and with a statue of Caesar beside Venus inside. He invited
Cleopatra and Caesarion to reside at his villa
outside
Skeptical analysis of the
source tradition: JPVD Balsdon, The
Ides of March, Historia
7 (1958), 91 f.
For Caesar’s coinage: M. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage.
Sulla took the name Felix,
attributed his success to his ‘genius’ (Raubitschek
article)
Jan. 44 bc; Caesar revised the mint. Put his own face on the coins. Caesar celebrated an ovation on
Jan 23, 44, and is recorded as Dict. For the 4th
time; consul for the 5th time. By Feb. 15 he referred to
himself as Dictator in Perpetuo
He announced that he would
leave
Caesar avoided the term, REX,
but he was dressed as Jupiter, called Imperator, had a cult by his name,
statues of himself with all the gods, and kept a Hellenistic queen outside the
city who claimed that her illegitimate son, Caesarion,
was his. Dictator for Life was his solution.
He was murdered below the
statue of Pompey at the Senate meeting at Pompey’s Temple to Venus in the
Campus Martius; he was assassinated by 67 senators,
including Brutus, Cassius, Dec. Iunius Brutus Albinus
(cos. Designate 42 BC)
Career of D. Iunius Brutus: D. Iunius Brutus
Albinus, Pref. of the Fleet 56 (for Caesar vs. Veneti);
prefect 52 (with Caesar in Gaul); legate 49 (commanded navy vs. Massalia for Caesar) and proconsul of
His heir and successor: Octavian:
C. Julius C.f. Caesar Octavianus; Imp. Julius Divi.f. Caesar; Caesar August, Princeps;
Octavian became
the first Roman emperor
Ancient
sources: Suetonius Life of Augustus; Tacitus Annals; Velleius
Paterculus; Cassius Dio,
Histories; Appian, Histories of the Wars, Nicholas of Damascus, Livy
R.
Syme, The Roman Revolution
(
C.
Julius C.f. C.n. Caesar Octavianus
=> Octavian => Augustus (27 BC - 14 AD)
Nov. 43 BC, M. Antony, Octavian, and M. Aemilius Lepidus were elected Tresviri
rei publicae constituendae (5 years), embarked on proscriptions
Octavian’s
nomenclature changed:
IMPERATOR
JULIUS DIVI FILIUS CAESAR
His
enemies’ opinion of him:
Peto Octavia(e) Culum (CIL 12.6721.13)
His
general: M. Vipsanius Agrippa
Power
sharing relationship 27 BC -14 AD
Accepts
title, ‘Augustus’ and Princeps first
citizen of
ten
year grants of proconsular imperium; 5 year grants of tribunician power, sacrosanctitas
PRINCIPATE
(princeps – first citizen of
JULIO-CLAUDIAN
DYNASTY 27 BC - 79 AD
AUGUSTUS
= LIVIA
TIBERIUS
= Vipsania, Julia
CALIGULA
CLAUDIUS
= Drusilla, Agrippina the Younger
NERO
Robert
Graves, I, Claudius
27
BC- 14 AD - pax romana -
200 years of peace and prosperity throughout the Roman Mediterranean world