Michael Arnheim

Why Rome Fell


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the immediate aftermath of the assassination, even Caesar’s close friend, Mark Antony, was apparently unsure which way the wind was blowing. Plutarch, in his Life of Antony, says that Antony even gave the conspirators his son as a hostage, and entertained a leading conspirator, Cassius, to dinner while Lepidus, Caesar’s master of the horse (lieutenant to Caesar as dictator), did the same for Brutus. (Plutarch, Antony, 13.) As consul, Antony convened the Senate, spoke in favour of an amnesty and of allotting provincial commands to both Brutus and Cassius and proposed a law abolishing the position of dictator forever. The Senate ratified these proposals, while voting to honour Caesar by giving him the posthumous title divus (the divine Julius), making him a minor deity, and confirming all Caesar’s reforms (Plutarch, Caesar, 67.7; Antony, 14.)

      The populace, however, were incensed at the murder of their idol as the assassins soon learned when an unruly crowd descended on their houses intent on burning them down. As part of his lifelong devotion to the popular cause, in his will, Caesar bequeathed to the Roman people his gardens near the Tiber, and left every Roman man 300 sesterces.

      Caesar’s Heir

      Probably the most significant provision of Caesar’s will was his adoption of his nineteen-year-old great-nephew, Gaius Octavius who also inherited three quarters of his substantial estate. But before he could take power, he had to emerge victorious from a two-stage civil war, first against the conspirators and then against his erstwhile fellow triumvir Mark Antony.

      Avoiding Julius Caesar’s Mistake

      As an astute politician, Augustus took care not to make the same mistake that had cost Julius Caesar his life. Julius Caesar had ruled Rome as “dictator” for four years when he was appointed dictator perpetuo or dictator in perpetuum (literally, “dictator in perpetuity”, commonly translated as “dictator for life” but more accurately dictator for an indefinite period). Acceptance of this title signaled the end of the Roman Republic, which had lasted for 450 years under an elite to whom one-man rule was carefully eschewed except for brief emergencies. Julius Caesar’s position as dictator perpetuo posed a threat to this dominant minority, a number of whom, therefore, conspired to assassinate him on that fateful Ides of March, 44 BCE.

      After his victory over Antony at Actium in 31 BCE, Augustus faced a serious dilemma. He was now master of the Roman world, but on what footing should his rule be placed? The title rex (king), which even Julius Caesar had refused, was anathema to the Republican aristocracy. But the title “dictator” was clearly also now off limits. The common people, who adulated Julius Caesar, had no objection to one-man rule, as was made clear in their outpouring of grief on Caesar’s assassination. Indeed, they wanted a strong leader to champion their cause. So the young Caesar’s game plan was to retain the support of the masses without offending the aristocracy, a daunting balancing act.

      The Transmogrification of an Equestrian

      Taking each component of this nomenclature separately:

       Imperator: As Augustus tells us in his masterly autobiography, which came to be known as the Res Gestae Divi Augusti, he was hailed as imperator twenty-one times (RG §4). This was the traditional way in which a successful general was honoured by his troops on the field of battle. But, in a master stroke, he now adopted it as a forename. This designation, which came later to be used to mean emperor (and has given us the English word “emperor”), is the reason that the whole regime instituted by Augustus came to be known in English (and similarly in the Romance languages) as the Roman Empire. Because Roman emperors had never had the title of king, when Napoleon Bonaparte assumed monarchical powers he chose to call himself not king but emperor, which did not offend against his republican sensibilities as heir to the French Revolution.

       Caesar: This is the only part of Augustus’s final designation that was an actual name: Julius Caesar’s cognomen. But it also became a title, later accorded to the emperor-designate and later still to a “junior” emperor, with the title Augustus reserved for “senior” emperors. It is the origin of the Russian imperial title Tsar or Czar and German Kaiser, and hence Kaiserzeit for the whole period ushered in by Augustus’s accession to power.

       Divi Filius: Being the son of a god was no mean feat, but Julius Caesar was reputedly already of divine stock before his deification as a descendant of the goddess Venus Genetrix, whose image accordingly appears on coins issued by