Civil Wars

Having ended the civil wars Cæsar hastened to Rome, honored and feared as no one had ever been before. All kinds of honors were devised for his gratification without stint, even such as were superhuman -- sacrifices, games, statues in all the temples and public places, by every tribe, by all the provinces, and by the kings in alliance with Rome. His likeness was painted in various forms, in some cases crowned with oak as the savior of his country, by which crown the citizens were accustomed formerly to reward those to whom they owed their safety. He was proclaimed the Father of his Country and chosen dictator for life and consul for ten years, and his person was declared sacred and inviolable. It was decreed that he should transact business on a throne of ivory and gold; that he should perform his sacerdotal functions always in triumphal costume; that each year the city should celebrate the days on which he had won his victories; that every five years the priests and Vestal virgins should offer up public prayers for his safety; and that the magistrates immediately upon their inauguration should take an oath not to oppose any of Cæsar's decrees. In honor of his gens the name of the month Quintilis was changed to July. Many temples were decreed to him as to a god, and one was dedicated in common to him and the goddess Clemency, who were represented as clasping hands.

Thus while they feared his power they besought his clemency. There were some who proposed to give him the title of king, but when he learned of their purpose he forbade it with threats, saying that it was an inauspicious name by reason of the curse of their ancestors. He dismissed the prætorian cohorts that had served as his bodyguard during the wars, and showed himself with the ordinary public attendance only.[*](Plutarch says that " his friends advised him to have a body-guard and many of them offered their services in this capacity, but he refused, saying that it was better to die once than to be always afraid of death." (Life of Cœsar, 57.) Velleius records the same fact. (ii. 57.)) To him in this state and while he was transacting business in front of the rostra, the Senate, preceded by the consuls, each one in his robes of office, brought the decree awarding him the honors aforesaid. He extended his hand to them, but did not rise when they approached nor while they remained there, which afforded his slanderers a pretext for accusing him of wishing to be greeted as a king. He accepted all the honors conferred upon him except the ten-year consulship. As consuls for the ensuing year he designated himself and Antony, his master of horse, and he appointed Lepidus, who was then governor of Spain, but was administering it by his friends, master of horse in place of Antony. Cæsar also recalled the exiles, except those who were banished for some very grave offence. He pardoned his enemies and forthwith advanced many of those who had fought against him to the yearly magistracies, or to the command of provinces and armies. Therefore the wearied people especially hoped that he would restore the republic to them as Sulla did after he had grasped the same power. But in this they were disappointed.[*](Cæsar had a clear conception of facts when he said, according to Suetonius, " the republic is a mere name without substance or semblance. Sulla did not know his A B C's (nescisse litteras) when he laid down the dictatorship." (Jul. 77.)) [*](Y.R. 710)

Some person among those who wished to spread the report of his desire to be king placed a crown of laurel on his statue, bound with a white fillet. The tribunes, Marullus and Cæsetius, sought out this person and put him in prison, pretending to gratify Cæsar in this way, as he had threatened any who should talk about making him king. Cæsar was well satisfied with their action. Some others who met him at the city gates as he was returning from some place greeted him as king, and when the people groaned, he said with happy readiness to those who had thus saluted him, "I am no king, I am Cæsar," as though they had mistaken his name. The attendants of Marullus [*](B.C. 44) found out which man began the shouting and ordered the officers to bring him to trial before his tribunal. Cæsar was at last vexed and accused the faction of Marullus before the Senate of conspiring to make him odious by artfully accusing him of aiming at royalty. He added that they were deserving of death, but that it would be sufficient if they were deprived of their office and expelled from the Senate. Thus he confirmed the suspicion that he desired the title, and that he was privy to the attempts to confer it upon him, and that his tyranny was already complete; for the cause of their punishment was their zeal against the title of king, and, moreover, the office of tribune was sacred and inviolable according to law and the ancient oath. By not waiting for the expiration of their office he sharpened the public indignation.

When Cæsar perceived this he repented, and, reflecting that this was the first severe and arbitrary act that he had done without military authority and in time of peace, it is said that he ordered his friends to protect him, since he had given his enemies the handle they were seeking against him. But when they asked him if he would bring together again his Spanish cohorts as a body-guard, he said, "There is nothing more unlucky than perpetual watching; that is the part of one who is always afraid." Nor were the attempts to claim royal honors for him brought to an end even thus, for, while he was in the forum looking at the games of the Lupercal, seated on his golden chair before the rostra, Antony, his colleague in the consulship, who was running naked and anointed, as was the priests' custom at that festival,[*](At the Lupercalia the priests of Pan (Luperci) ran through the city naked, except for a goatskin tied about the loins, bearing a strap cut from the hide of the sacrificial goat, with which they slapped married women who placed themselves in the way. This was supposed to be a cure for barrenness.) sprang upon the rostra and put a diadem on his head. At this sight some few clapped their hands, but the greater number groaned, and Cæsar threw off the diadem. Antony again put it on him and again Cæsar threw it off. While they were thus contending the people remained silent, being in suspense to see how it would end. When they saw that Cæsar prevailed they shouted for joy, and at the same time applauded him because he did not accept it.[*](Suetonius, Velleius, Plutarch, and Cicero in his second Philippic mention this affair. Plutarch says that Antony offered the diadem to Cæsar three times. Suetonius says several times. Velleius says that "he put it away, but in such a manner that he did not seem offended." The words that Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Casca in the play of Julius Cœsar (Act 1, Sc. 2), were evidently taken from Plutarch and Velleius.)

And now Cæsar, either renouncing his hope, or tired out, and wishing to avoid the plot and accusation, or giving up the city to certain of his enemies, or to cure his bodily ailment of epilepsy and convulsions, which came upon him suddenly and especially when he was inactive, conceived the idea of a long campaign against the Getæ and the Parthians. The Getæ, a hardy, warlike, and neigh-boring nation, were to be attacked first. The Parthians were to be punished for their perfidy toward Crassus. He sent across the Adriatic in advance sixteen legions of foot and 10,000 horse. And now another rumor gained currency that the Sibylline books had predicted that the Parthians would never submit to the Romans until the latter should be commanded by a king. For this reason some people ventured to say that Cæsar ought to be called dictator and emperor of the Romans, as he was in fact, or whatever other name they might prefer to that of king, and that he ought to be distinctly named king of the nations that were subject to the Romans. Cæsar declined this also, and was wholly engaged in hastening his departure from the city in which he was exposed to such envy.