Thapsus, 46 B. C. Both the fleet and the army of Pompey had dispersed after Pharsalus, but Caesar’s delay in the East had given the republicans an opportunity to reassemble their forces. They gathered in Africa where Caesar’s lieutenant Curio, who had invaded the province in 49 B. C., had been defeated and killed by the Pompeians through the aid of King Juba of Numidia. From Africa they were now preparing to attack Italy. In Rome, Caesar had been appointed dictator for 47 B. C. with Antony as his master of the horse. Here disorder reigned as a result of the distress arising from the financial stringency brought on by the war. Antony, who was in Rome, had proved unable to deal with the situation. Caesar reached Italy in September, 47 B. C., and soon restored order in the city. He was then called upon to face a serious mutiny of his troops who demanded the fulfillment of his promises of money and land and their release from service. By boldness and presence of mind Caesar won them back to their allegiance and set out for Africa in December, 47 B. C. He landed with only a portion of his troops and at first was defeated by the republicans under Scipio and Juba. But he was supported by King Bogud of Mauretania and a Catalinarian soldier of fortune, Publius Sittius, and after receiving reinforcements from Italy he besieged the seaport Thapsus. Scipio came to the rescue but was completely defeated in a bloody battle near the town. The whole of the province fell into Caesar’s hands. Cato, who was in command of Utica, did not force the citizens to resist but com[pg 178]mitted suicide; the other republican leaders, including Juba, either followed his example, or were taken and executed by the Caesarians. From Africa Caesar returned to Rome where he celebrated a costly triumph over Gaul, Egypt, Pharnaces and Juba. He was now undisputed master of the state and proceeded according to his own judgment to settle the problem of governing the Roman world.
IV. The Dictatorship of Julius Caesar: 46–44 b. c.
The problem of imperial government. From 28 July, 46, to 15 March, 44 B. C., Caesar ruled the Roman Empire with despotic power, his position unchallenged except for a revolt of the Pompeian party in Spain which required his attention from the autumn of 46 to the spring of 45 B. C. His victory over Pompey and the republicans had placed upon him the obligation to provide the empire with a stable form of government and this responsibility he accepted. Sulla, when faced with the same problem, had been content to place the Senate once more at the head of the state, but from his own experience Caesar knew how futile this policy had been. Nor could the ideal of Pompey commend itself as a means of ending civil war and rebellion. Caesar was prepared to deal much more radically with the old régime, but death overtook him before he had completed his reorganization. What was the goal of his policy will best be understood from a consideration of his official position during the year and a half which followed the battle of Thapsus.
Caesar’s offices, powers and honors. Caesar’s autocratic position rested in the last instance upon the support of his veterans, of the associates who owed their advancement to him, and of such small forces as he kept under arms, but his position was legalized by the accumulation in his hands of various offices, special powers and unusual honors. Foremost among his offices came the dictatorship. We have seen that he had held this already for a short time in 49 and again in 47. In 46 B. C. he was appointed dictator for ten years, and in the following year for life. At the same time he was consul, an office which he held continuously from 48 B. C., in 45 as sole consul, but usually with a colleague. In addition to these offices he enjoyed the tribunician authority (tribunicia potestas), that is, the power of the tribunes without the name. This included the right to sit with the tribunes and the right of intercession, granted him as [pg 179]early as 48 B. C., and also personal inviolability (sacrosanctitas) which he received in 45. He had been Chief Pontiff since 63, and in 48 B. C. was admitted to all the patrician priestly corporations. And in 46 B. C. he was given the powers of the censorship under the title of “prefect of morals” (praefectus morum), at first for three years and later for life. In addition to these official positions of more or less established scope, Caesar received other powers not dependent upon any office. He was granted the right to appoint to both Roman and provincial magistracies, until in 44 B. C. he had the authority to nominate half the officials annually; and in reality appointed all. In 48 B. C. he received the power of making war and peace without consulting the Senate, in 46 the right of expressing his opinion first in the Senate (ius primae sententiae), and in 45 the sole right to command troops and to control the public moneys. In the next year ratification was given in advance to all his future arrangements, and magistrates entering upon office were required to swear to uphold his acts. The concentration of these powers in his person placed Caesar above the law, and reduced the holders of public offices to the position of his servants. Honors to match his extraordinary powers were heaped upon Caesar, partly by his own desire, partly by the servility and fulsome flattery of the Senate. He was granted a seat with the consuls in the Senate, if he should not be consul himself; he received the title of parent or father of his country (parens or pater patriae); his statue was placed among those of the kings of Rome, his image in the temple of Quirinus; the month Quinctilis, in which he was born, was renamed Julius (July) in his honor; a new college of priests, the Julian Luperci, was created; a temple was erected to himself and the Goddess Clementia, and a priest (flamen) appointed for his worship there; and he was authorized to build a house on the Palatine with a pediment like a temple. Most of these honors he received after his victory over the Pompeians in Spain in 45 B. C. However, the title imperator (Emperor), which was regularly the prerogative of a general who was entitled to a triumph and was surrendered along with his military imperium, was employed by Caesar continuously from 49 until after the battle of Thapsus in 46, when he celebrated his triumph over the Gauls and his other non-Roman enemies. He assumed it again after Munda in the following year.
Caesar’s aim—monarchy. Taking into account the powers which Caesar wielded and his lifelong tenure of certain offices there [pg 180]can be no doubt that he not only had established monarchical government in Rome but also aimed to make his monarchy permanent. And this gives the explanation why he accepted honors which were more suited to a god than to a man, for since the time of Alexander the Great deification had been accepted in the Greek East as the legal and moral basis for the exercise of absolute power, and as distinguishing a legitimate autocracy from a tyranny. To a polytheistic age, familiar with the idea of the deification of “heroes” after death and permeated in its educated circles with the teaching of Euhemerus that the gods were but men who in their sojourn upon earth had been benefactors of the human race, the deification of a monarch in no way offended religious susceptibilities. The Romans were acquainted with monarchies of this type in Syria and in Egypt. Indeed this was the only type of monarchy familiar to the Romans of the first century B. C., if we exclude the Parthian and other despotisms, and it was bound to influence any form of monarchical government set up in Rome. The plebs actually hailed Caesar as “rex,” and at the feast of the Lupercalia in February, 44 B. C., Antony publicly offered him a crown. It is possible that he would have assumed the title if popular opinion had supported this step. And there may well have been some truth in the rumor that he contemplated marriage with Cleopatra, who came to Rome in 46 B. C., for a queen would be a fit mate for a monarch and such a step would have effected the peaceful incorporation of Egypt into the Roman Empire.
Caesar’s reforms. Upon returning to Rome after the battle of Thapsus Caesar began a series of reforms which affected practically every side of Roman life. One of the most useful was the reform of the Roman calendar. Hitherto the Romans had employed a lunar year of three hundred and fifty-five days (the calendar year beginning on March first and the civil year, since 153 B. C., on January first) which was approximately corrected to the solar year by the addition of an intercalary month of twenty-two days in the second, and one of twenty-three days in the fourth year, of cycles of four years. For personal or political motives the pontiffs had trifled with the intercalation of these months until in 46 B. C. the Roman year was completely out of touch with the solar year. With the assistance of the Greek astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar introduced the Egyptian solar year of approximately 365¼ days, in such a way that three years of 365 days were followed by one of 366 days in which an extra day was [pg 181]added to February after the twenty-fourth of the month. The new Julian calendar went into effect on 1 January, 45 B. C. Another abuse was partially rectified by the reduction of the number who were entitled to receive cheap grain in Rome from about 320,000 to 150,000. The Roman plebeian colleges and guilds, which had become political clubs and had contributed to the recent disorders in the city, were dissolved with the exception of the ancient association of craftsmen. The tribuni aerarii were removed from the jury courts and the penalties for criminal offences increased. Plans were laid for a codification of the Roman law but this was not carried into effect. Municipal administration in Rome and the Italian towns was regulated by the Julian Municipal Law, which brought uniformity into the municipal organization of Italy. The Roman magistracies were increased in number; the quaestorships from twenty to forty, and the eight praetorships finally to sixteen. At the same time the priesthoods were likewise enlarged. Administrative needs and the wish to reward a greater number of followers probably influenced these changes. A number of new patrician families were created to take the places of those which had died out. The membership of the Senate was increased to 900, and many new men, including ex-soldiers of Caesar and enfranchised Gauls, were enrolled in it. Caesar provided for his veterans by settling them in Italian municipalities and in colonies in the provinces. The deserted sites of Carthage and Corinth were repeopled with Roman colonists and once more became flourishing cities. In this way Caesar promoted the romanization of the provinces, a policy which he had begun with his conferment of the franchise upon the Transpadane Gauls in 49, and continued in the case of many Spanish communities. This romanization of the provinces and the admission of provincials to the Senate points to an imperial policy which would end the exploitation of the provinces in the interests of a governing caste and a city mob.
Munda, 45 B. C. Caesar proved himself a magnanimous conqueror. No Sullan proscriptions disgraced his victory. After Pharsalus he permitted all the republican leaders who submitted (among them Cicero), to return to Rome. Even after Thapsus at the intercession of his friends he pardoned bitter foes like Marcus Marcellus, one of the consuls of 50 B. C. But there remained some irreconcilables led by his old lieutenant Labienus, Varus, and Gnaeus and Sextus Pompey, sons of Pompey the Great, who after Pharsalus had betaken [pg 182]themselves with a small naval force to the western Mediterranean. In 46 B. C. they were joined by Labienus and Varus and landed in Spain where they rallied to their cause the old Pompeian soldiers who had entered Caesar’s service but whose sympathies had been alienated by one of his legati, Quintus Cassius. The Caesarian commanders could make no headway against them and it became necessary for the dictator to take the field in person. In December 46 B. C. he set out for Spain. Throughout the winter he sought in vain to force the enemy to battle, but in March 45 the two armies met at Munda, where Caesar’s eight defeated the thirteen Pompeian legions. The Caesarians gave no quarter and the Pompeian forces were annihilated; Labienus and Varus fell on the field, Gnaeus Pompey was later taken and put to death, but his brother Sextus escaped. Caesar returned to Italy in September, 45 B. C., and celebrated a triumph for his success.
The assassination of Julius Caesar, 15 March, 44 B. C. His victory at Munda had strengthened Caesar’s autocratic position, and was responsible for the granting of most of the exceptional honors which we have noted above. It was now clear at Rome that Caesar did not intend to restore the republic. In the conduct of the government he allowed no freedom of action to either Senate or Assembly, and although in general mild and forgiving he was quick to resent any attempt to slight him or question his authority. The realization that Caesar contemplated the establishment of a monarchy aroused bitter animosity among certain representatives of the old governing oligarchy, who chafed under the restraints imposed upon them by his autocratic power and resented the degradation of the Senate to the position of a mere advisory council. It could hardly be expected that members of the Roman aristocracy with all their traditions of imperial government would tamely submit to being excluded from political life except as ministers of an autocrat who was until lately one of themselves. This attitude was shared by many who had hitherto been active in Caesar’s cause, as well as by republicans who had made their peace with him. And so among these disgruntled elements a conspiracy was formed against the dictator’s life. The originator of the plot was the ex-Pompeian Caius Cassius, whom Caesar had made praetor for 44, and who won over to his design Marcus Junius Brutus, a member of the house descended from the Brutus who was reputed to have delivered Rome from the tyranny [pg 183]of the Tarquins. Brutus had gone over to Caesar after the battle of Pharsalus and was highly esteemed by him, but allowed himself to be persuaded that it was his duty to imitate his ancestor’s conduct. Other conspirators of note were the Caesarians Gaius Trebonius and Decimus Junius Brutus. In all some sixty senators shared in the conspiracy. They set the Ides of March, 44, as the date for the execution of the plot. Caesar was now busily engaged with preparations for a war against the Parthians, who had been a menace to Syria ever since the defeat of Crassus. This defeat Caesar aimed to avenge and, in addition, to definitely secure the eastern frontier of the empire. An army of sixteen legions and 10,000 cavalry was being assembled in Greece for this campaign, and Caesar was about to leave Rome to assume command. He is said to have been informed that a conspiracy against his life was on foot, but to have disregarded the warning. He had dismissed his body-guard of soldiers and refused one of senators and equestrians. On the fatal day he entered the Senate chamber, where the question of granting him the title of king in the provinces was to be discussed. A group of the conspirators surrounded him, and, drawing concealed daggers, stabbed him to death. He fell at the foot of Pompey’s statue.
Estimate of Caesar’s career. By the Roman writers who preserved the republican tradition Brutus, Cassius, and their associates were honored as tyrannicides who in the name of liberty had sought to save the republic. Cato, who had died rather than witness the triumph of Caesar, became their hero. But this is an extremely narrow and partizan view. The republic which Caesar had overthrown was no system of popular government but one whereby a small group of Roman nobles and capitalists exploited for their own personal ends and for the satisfaction of an idle city mob millions of subjects in the provinces. The republican organs of government had ceased to voice the opinion even of the whole Roman citizen body. The governing circles had proven themselves incapable of bringing about any improvement in the situation and had completely lost the power of preserving peace in the state. Radical reforms were imperative and could only be effective by virtue of superior force. In his resort to corruption and violence in furthering his own career and in his appeal to arms to decide the issue between himself and the Senate, Caesar must be judged according to the practices of his time. He was the child of his age and advanced himself by means which his [pg 184]predecessors and contemporaries employed. That he was ambitious and a lover of power is undeniable but hardly a cause for reproach; and who shall blame him, if when the Senate sought to destroy him by force, he used the same means to defend himself. His claim to greatness lies not in his ability to outwit his rivals in the political arena or outgeneral his enemies on the field of battle, but in his realization, when the fate of the civilized world was in his hands, that the old order was beyond remedy and in his courage in attempting to set up a new order which promised to give peace and security both to Roman citizens and to the provincials. Caesar fell before he had been able to give stability to his organization, but the republic could not be quickened into life. After Caesar some form of monarchical government was inevitable.