Caesar's Heritage

In 44 B.C. Caesar, newly declared dictator perpetuo , told a crowd hailing him halfheartedly as king that they were mistaken: he was ‘not Rex but Caesar’; but he punished the tribunes who removed the diadems placed on his statues, and who arrested a man for putting them there. Not long after, at the Lupercalia, the consul Mark Antony thrice offered a diadem to Caesar, who was sitting, as Cicero, doubtless an eye-witness, describes him, ‘amictus toga purpurea, in sella aurea, coronatus’; Caesar refused it, sending it to Jupiter on the Capitol, and had inscribed in the Fasti a notice that he had been offered the diadem populi iussu (which was certainly not true), but had not accepted it. But would he have accepted had the people been more enthusiastic ? Thus began a controversy as to Caesar's final intentions that has still not been resolved. I have no dogmatic answer to the question, and I do not wish to go through all the old arguments, though I would like to suggest that there is good contemporary evidence for believing that Caesar was willing to be worshipped as a god, but did not wish to take the name of king; and I would also like to suggest that there might have been more logic than appears at first sight in accepting a number of honours that suggested kingship (as well as divinity, which so often in the East went with it), and yet refusing the name. For on the usual interpretations of Caesar's last actions we are in a dilemma: if he simply wanted to avoid the name of king and the hatred which, as a practical proposition at least, it still aroused in Rome, then he did, or permitted, a lot of incredibly foolish things. On the other hand, if he simply wanted to take the title, he was, as events were to show, very shortsighted—and indeed some scholars have supposed him suffering from megalomania or senility

Ancient history · Art · Cicero · Divinity · Inscribed figure · Literature · Notice · Theology · Wish · Witness · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy

• The Power of the Intellectual

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Constructing the Narrative

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Conclusion

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Enemies of Rome? The Symbolic Alternatives

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Theory and Method

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• From the Outside Looking in

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Introduction

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• The Romans Abroad

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• Elephants and Citizens

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Kings and Elephants

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Looking at Caesar

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Afterword

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Looking at the Powerful

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• The Affections of the Athenians

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Ciceronian Consensus

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Economy and society, 133–43 b.c.

  Open Access•Claude Nicolet•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The administration of the empire

  Open Access•John Richardson, John S Richardson•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The Senate and the populares , 69–60 b.c.

  Open Access•T P Wiseman•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Warfare and the state

  Open Access•John Serrati•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• War and society

  Open Access•Hans Van Wees•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Caesar, Pompey and Rome, 59–50 b.c.

  Open Access•T P Wiseman•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The crisis of the Republic

  Open Access•Andrew Lintott•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Egypt, 146–31 b.c.

  Open Access•Dorothy J Thompson•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The intellectual developments of the Ciceronian age

  Open Access•Miriam Griffin•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Lucullus, Pompey and the East

  Open Access•A N Sherwin-White•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The rise of Pompey

  Open Access•Robin Seager•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The development of Roman private law

  Open Access•John Crook, J A Crook•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The fall of the Roman Republic

  Open Access•John Crook, J A Crook et al.•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Political history, 146–95 b.c.

  Open Access•Andrew Lintott•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The Roman empire and its problems in the late second century

  Open Access•Andrew Lintott•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The aftermath of the Ides

  Open Access•Elizabeth Rawson•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• The city of Rome and the plebs urbana in the late Republic

  Open Access•Nicholas Purcell•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Warfare and the state

  Open Access•A D Lee•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• International relations

  Open Access•Harry Sidebottom•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Warfare and the state

  Open Access•Dominic Rathbone, Richard Alston•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• War

  Open Access•Adrián Goldsworthy•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Military forces

  Open Access•Hugh Elton•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• International relations

  Open Access•Murray Humphries, Mark Humphries•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• War

  Open Access•Michael Whitby•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Battle

  Open Access•Catherine M Gilliver•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• War and Society

  Open Access•Colin Adams•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• War and Society

  Open Access•A T Fear, Andrew Fear•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Battle

  Open Access•Philip Rance•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• African Alternatives

  Josiah Osgood•Alternative Augustan Age•2019

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• The Good Wife

  Bronwyn Hopwood•Alternative Augustan Age•2019

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• Philosophical Life in Cicero's Letters

  Open Access•Sean Mcconnell•Philosophical Life in Cicero's…•2014

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• Rome and Italy

  Open Access•Emilio Gabba•The Cambridge Ancient History•1994

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• Sulla’s Example

  Open Access•Will Szymanski•Journal of Ancient History•2025

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• Cicero's ideal statesman in theory and practice

  Jonathan Zarecki•Cicero's ideal statesman in…•2014

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• Sons of Heracles

  Kyle Erickson•Brill's Companion to the…•2018

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• Luctatio civitatis

  Open Access•Gregory Rowe•Le costume de prince•2021

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• The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare

  Open Access•Philip A G Sabin, Philip Sabin et al.•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Walking in Roman Culture

  Open Access•Timothy M O’Sullivan, Timothy M O'Sullivan•Walking in Roman Culture•2011

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• Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome

  Open Access•Spencer Cole•Cicero and the Rise of…•2014

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• The Politics of Public Space in Republican Rome

  Open Access•Amy Russell•Politics of Public Space in…•2015

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• Rethinking Roman Alliance

  Open Access•Bill Gladhill•Rethinking Roman Alliance•2016

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• The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare

  Open Access•Philip A G Sabin, Philip Sabin et al.•The Cambridge History of Greek…•1920

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• Mithradates VI eupator dionysos and Rome's conquest of the hellenistic East

  Wolfgang Zeev Rubinsohn•Mediterranean Historical Review•1993

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• The Roman Imperial Court in the Principate and Late Antiquity

  Caillan Davenport, Meaghan McEvoy•Roman Imperial Court in the…•2023

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• Reading Roman Pride

  Yelena Baraz•Reading Roman Pride•2020

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• Les immunités accordées aux philosophes dans l’Empire romain

  Open Access•Clément Bady•Mélanges de l École française de…•2024

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• Studiosa cohors

  Open Access•Pauline Cuzel•Mélanges de l École française de…•2023

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• Architectural Restoration and Heritage in Imperial Rome

  Christopher Siwicki•Architectural Restoration and…•2019

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• The Alternative Augustan Age

  The Alternative Augustan Age Bàcoli, Kit ca /21 Jh Morrell et al.•Alternative Augustan Age•2019

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• Imperial Power, Provincial Government, and the Emergence of Roman Asia, 133 BCE-14 CE

  Bradley Jordan•Imperial Power, Provincial…•2023

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• Spectacular Power in the Greek and Roman City

  Andrew Bell, Andrew J Bell•Spectacular power in the Greek…•2004

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• Hellenistic Monarchy and Roman Political Invective

  Open Access•Andrew Erskine•The Classical Quarterly•1991

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• Roman arches and Greek honours

  Open Access•Andrew Wallace-Hadrill•Proceedings of the Cambridge…•1990

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• Hellenized Romans and Barbarized Greeks. Reading the End of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae

  Open Access•Irene Peirano•The Journal of Roman Studies•2010

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• Historiography at the End of the Republic

  Liv Mariah Yarrow•HISTORIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE…•2006

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• The Political Character of the Classical Roman Republic, 200–151 B.C

  Open Access•Fergus Millar•The Journal of Roman Studies•1984

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• A Historical Commentary on Polybius

  E T Salmon, F W Walbank•The American Journal of Philology•1958

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• The Divinity of the Roman Emperor

  Cyril Bailey, Lily Ross Taylor•The American Historical Review•1932

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• Philodemus on the Good King According to Homer

  Open Access•Oswyn Murray•The Journal of Roman Studies•1965

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• Melinno's Hymn to Rome

  Open Access•C M Bowra•The Journal of Roman Studies•1957

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• The Image and the Chair of Germanicus

  Open Access•Stefan Weinstock•The Journal of Roman Studies•1957

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• Varro's De gente populi Romani

  Lily Ross Taylor•Classical Philology•1934

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• Dionysius on Romulus

  Open Access•J P V D Balsdon•The Journal of Roman Studies•1971

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• Die Vergottung Caesars

  A Alfoldi, Helga Gesche•Phoenix•1970

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