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David Carulli
CAMS 101, Fall 2012
November 6, 2012
Learning from a Father’s Mistakes
Prompt:
Why did Caesar fail to establish himself as Rome's first emperor and Augustus succeed?
What differences in their approach to power can you detect in the sources?
Essay:
During the first century BC, Rome saw two great leaders come to power: Julius
Caesar and Augustus. Where Julius Caesar’s ambition drove him to ignore the Roman
mos maiorum, or the way of the elders, Augustus decided to carry out his reign in a less
ambitious and more respectable way, thus securing himself to become Rome’s first
Emperor. Caesar ignored the mos maiorum in his handling of legislature, as well as the
way in which he held his power in Rome. Augustus learned from Caesar’s mistakes, and
worked to distinguish himself from Caesar, which helped him to become Rome’s first
emperor. The enemies Caesar made in his reign eventually caught up to him, and it cost
him his life.
In his rule as consul, Caesar acted more like a Tribune of the Plebs, which both
went against the mos maiorum and made him lose trust from the senate, and ultimately
helped lead to his downfall. Explaining the two major ways politicians enacted laws in
ancient Rome, “One group, the…optimates gained their ends by upholding the authority
of the senate, while the other, dubbed populares … appealed through the tribunate to the
popular assembly, and, asserting, as Caesar did, that they were liberating the people from
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slavery to a small group, frequently overrode the senatorial majority.” (Ross Taylor 3)
The optimates were a more conservative group and believed in upholding the mos
maiorum, and the senate was comprised of optimates. The fact that Caesar was a part of
the populares worked against him in the end, as he disregarded the mos maiorum and
went straight to the plebs to propose legislature. This caused tensions between him and
the senate, and of course a group of senators were the ones who assassinated him. While
these actions were the most direct instigations Caesar had with the senate, there were
other instances in which he neglected the great way of the ancestors.
Another example of how Caesar ignored the mos maiorum is how he became
dictator. According to the Roman mos maiorum, the senate would elect a dictator in times
of emergency. In Julius Caesar’s case, “he assumed the title and powers of Dictator,
loathed though they were from memories of Sulla, to preclude opposition, delay - and
perhaps the veto” (Syme 4). Basically, he was given the status of dictator because the
people loved him, and figured that he should have unopposed power in Rome. He did not
necessarily demand this power by force, but he accepted it without question, which
clearly displays his ambition, and his hubris. There was no urging matter that required
him to become dictator, and so this is another example of how Caesar ignored the mos
maiorum.
One must also question Caesar’s methods of controlling the popular assemblies.
Caesar grew up in a time of the Roman republic where the people who were in charge
were the ones who disregarded the mos maiorum. His prime examples were leaders like
Sulla, Marius, and Cinna, and he learned from their methods and became really good at
ruling the people. One of the methods he took from them was to have a mob rule over the
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public assemblies. These were actions that politicians had been conducting for the past
century, but were in no way accepted as the way in which the great ancestors handled
matters. It may have been the new norm, but was hardly considered the mos maiorum.
Caesar made mistakes in his rise to power that cost him his life, and Augustus gained
wisdom from these fatal errors.
One of the ways in which Augustus differed himself from Caesar was that he
never sought praise for himself. From even before Caesar’s reign, upon his return from
Spain, Caesar wanted to have both his own triumph and run for consul in 59 BC. When
Augustus came to power, rather than praising himself, he praised Julius Caesar. He
deified his predecessor. As Peter White words it in his article “Julius Caesar in Augustan
Rome,”
“The cult of a divus could not tap the currents of feeling and calculation which the
living strongman attracted, and even Caesar's military reputation was
overshadowed by Augustus' broader political successes in projecting Roman
authority abroad. But Caesar nevertheless retained an important place in the civic
religion of the new regime; he was not displaced in order that Augustus might be
more exalted.” (White 340)
From here one can see how Augustus strategically proved himself unlike Caesar, while at
the same time associating himself with his greatness. Whereas Caesar would praise
himself like a God, Augustus was more humble, and instead associated his slain adopted
father as a deity. It is a clever way in which he distances himself from Caesar’s
unbounded ambition, but still claims to be the heir of a God-like man. This also comes
after Augustus refuses to triumph himself (White 340). Idolizing Caesar was a clever way
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to contrast himself with Caesar, but Augustus also accomplished this in the ways he ran
the state.
If one looks at Edwin S. Ramage’s article, “Augustus' Treatment of Julius
Caesar,” one can see many instances where August deliberately differentiates himself
from the idea of Caesar the tyrant. One way was that the coins he issued portrayed
Augustus bareheaded on one side, and Caesar wearing a crown on the other, symbolizing
his aspirations to become king (Ramage 224). The titles describing the two men also had
Caesar labeled as “Pontifex Maximus” and “Dictator” with Augustus taking the more
modest “Pontifex” and “Consul” (Ramage 224). One also observes differences between
the two when the senate offered Augustus the dictatorship; he attempted to refuse it, and
when he gained supreme command, he tried to return the power back to the people
(Ramage 226). As explained already, Caesar made no such attempts; in fact he behaved
in quite the opposite manner. Ramage also lists a slew of other ways in which Augustus
differed himself from Caesar when looking at Augustus’s own writings, the Res Gestae:
“[In the Res Gestae ] there is a continuing emphasis on the justice of Augustus'
actions and the legitimacy of his position in the state. He avenged his father by
lawful means; he resurrected many defunct traditions by passing new laws. It is
tempting to imagine that in these instances the reader is meant to think of a Caesar
who brought an illegal civil war against the state and undermined tradition by
adopting the perpetual dictatorship.
Augustus emphasizes the scrupulous legality of his political position at all
times. His rise to power was completely legal and just: the senate made him one
of them by decree and gave him the imperium; the Republic ordered him to carry
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out the duties of propraetor; the people elected him consul and then triumvir.”
(Ramage 228)
From this analysis, one can clearly see multiple examples of how Augustus not only
respected the mos maiorum, but even attempted to bring the state back to values held
long before his own time. Augustus did not clutch on to power like Caesar did; power
was thrust upon him, and he only reluctantly accepted it. Augustus knew what mistakes
Caesar had made, and he avoided making the same ones, which allowed him to secure the
title of Rome’s first emperor.
When one observes all of the evidence from the time, one can see how Caesar’s
neglect of the mos maiorum both caused his reign to come to an end, and set up the
precedent for Augustus’ rise to power. Caesar upset the senate by proposing legislature to
the plebs without consulting it first. He repeatedly displayed his ambition, and the
Romans feared ambitious men. He controlled the assemblies in illegal and dishonorable
manners. Augustus saw how all of this made Caesar’s enemies grow more suspicious and
slay him in cold blood. This gave Augustus the wisdom to make the public believe that
he would rule in just the opposite way Caesar had. He was humble rather than ambitious;
he conducted matters legally; he tried to give power back to the senate; he tried to restore
the mos maiorum.
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Sources:
Ramage, Edwin S. "Augustus' Treatment of Julius Caesar." Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte
Geschichte 34.2 (1985): 223-45. JSTOR. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/4435922>.
Ross Taylor, Lily. "Caesar and the Roman Nobility." Transactions and Procedings of the
American Philological Association 73 (1942): 1-24. JSTOR. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/283534>.
Syme, Ronald. "Caesar, the Senate, and Italy." Papers of the British School at Rome 14
(1938): 1-31. JSTOR. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/40310446>.
White, Peter. "Julius Caesar in Augustan Rome." Phoenix 42.4 (1988): 334-56. JSTOR.
Web. 6 Nov. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1088658>.