Caesar, the Senate and Italy

Abstract

The central and revolutionary period of Roman history runs from the tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus to Augustus' seizure of sole power and establishment of a constitutional monarchy. Caesar's heir prevailed through the name of Caesar—‘puer qui omnia nomini debes’; and he perpetuated the name, as title, cult and system, to distant ages. Yet Augustus as Princeps did not invoke Caesar's rule to provide precedent and validity for his own. Quite the reverse. What rank and role in the transformation of the Roman State should therefore be assigned to the Dictatorship of Caesar—mere episode or cardinal moment and organic part? The problem is large, the debate continuous and acute. During the last generation, opinions about Caesar's imperial policy and the shape which he intended to give to the Roman State have ranged to the widest extremes, roping in for parallel or contrast the figures of Sulla, Pompeius and Augustus.