The Assassination of Caesar

[Kishkumen]

The assassination of Caesar came after 5 years of violent, bloody civil war in which Roman legions faced Roman legions on the field of battle. It started, however, with a political agreement between three men: Pompey the Great, Crassus, and Julius Caesar.

Between these three men there was a mountain of wealth (Pompey and Crassus were likely the wealthiest Romans of the time) and a bottomless pit of ambition (a description that applies well to all three). Pompey and Crassus expended a lot of money in bribery to put Caesar in the consulship to pass legislation to get a renegotiation of government tax contracts and land for veterans.

Caesar prevailed in the elections, and then he illegally ignored his consular colleague’s constitutional vetoes, going so far as to physically terrorize him, and then left Rome for his province before he could be prosecuted for crimes in office. He had passed legislation to acquire a provincial assignment that would give him opportunities to acquire the wealth and positive PR that might help him dodge the consequences of his illegal acts.

His political enemies, however, did not forget. They tried to get him back in Rome where he could be put on trial for his illegal acts as consul and his illegal acts in his province. Finally, one decade after he had left for his province, he was declared an enemy of the state and stripped of his command. His reaction was to march on Rome swiftly with one legion before his enemies could gather together any effective defensive forces.

Caesar claimed that his further illegal actions were undertaken to defend his rank in Roman society, his dignitas. There is no evidence to suggest that he had anything larger or loftier in mind than his own future when he overthrew the government of Rome to protect himself. After five years of war against a collection of senators and their armies, Caesar had largely prevailed and he prepared for a long campaign against Rome’s imperial competitor to the east, Parthia.

Before he left, he had himself appointed to the unprecedented position of perpetual dictator. The traditional Roman dictatorship invested in one man supreme authority that was not subject to appeal in order to perform a particular task. Once that task was completed, the dictatorship and its unique, supreme authority ended. The temporary nature of the dictatorship was a guard against autocracy. The task of the dictator was limited in scope, the office limited to the length of the task.

Having invested himself with an unprecedented perpetual dictatorship and prepared to depart on a campaign of unforeseeable length, Caesar was placing himself outside of the reach of accountability and opposition. His enemies faced the prospect of a success that would make him practically untouchable in political terms. There was no end of Caesarian supremacy in politics in sight. They saw a future of unconstitutional Caesarian autocracy that was completely unacceptable to them.

So a couple dozen senators formed a conspiracy to assassinate the tyrant on the Ides of March in 44 BC. Senators celebrated Caesar’s death, but Caesar’s faction and armies were still intact. The next stage of the permanent unraveling of the traditional Republic would consist of continued military action against Caesar’s civil war enemies and then civil war between members of the Caesarian faction, led by three men bearing dictatorial powers. That last war resulted in the establishment of the assignment of the victor with supreme power for life. The tyrant had been slain but Caesarism won, forever changing Rome.

Rome became an empire governed by one man who would rule for the duration of his life and pass his position on to a member of the family whom he had prepared, sometime before his death, to succeed him. It was an unstable arrangement that resulted in irresolvable tension between the emperor and the senate, plots against the emperor, ceaseless prosecutions of senators, and periodic bloody civil wars.

It is difficult to crystallize in this small space what caused the end of the Roman Republic. It was a flawed system that was poorly suited to govern a large empire. The imperial system was much better at that, but it came at the cost of freedom in the city of Rome. The emperor, over time, came to dominate Roman politics, law, and economy. Too much depended on the whims of the emperor.

We don’t want to be there, I don’t think. Maybe some people do. Setting that aside, I think there are a handful of things in Caesar’s story that are good to think about:

Caesar made a devil’s bargain to satisfy his ambitions that required him to violate Rome’s constitution during his term of office.

His initial lawlessness and subsequent evasion of prosecution emboldened his enemies to seek extreme redress by declaring him an enemy of the state.

By that time, his enemies should have been aware of the likely outcome (civil war), but they made inadequate preparations for his next move, which was Caesar’s military coup.

When the coup started, the odds were against Caesar’s enemies because they lacked unified leadership and honed troops. Caesar put them on the defensive by taking swift action, and they never recovered the initiative. Even the assassination was a Hail Mary pass because it left Caesar’s veterans and much of his leadership structure intact.

Caesar’s death partly precipitated from his lack of accountability and disrespect of Republican tradition and Rome’s constitution. The perpetual dictatorship combined both elements (lack of accountability, violation of tradition/constitution) and was the final nail in the coffin for him.

Caesarian partisans finished the destruction of the Republic, all the while making noise about restoring the Republic. Caesar’s adopted son and heir, Octavian (his grand-nephew), “restored” the “Republic” and became Rome’s first emperor. This system lasted in one form or another until the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in the middle of the 15th century AD.

[Some Schmo]

Thank you for that. What a great post.

I often think of the post-Trump GOP and how he's swung the party toward the allure of authoritarianism, so long as the authority agrees with your side. I don't think Trump dying is a resolution to the rot within the GOP. I imagine it's likely going to make things worse before anything gets better. The GOP lives in a mostly self-constructed "reality" that has little relationship with facts. Facts have become anathema to the base; they get offended by them. No matter how Trump dies, a BS narrative will rise up out of it, and the GOP will soldier on with cheating to win elections and retain power for the minority.

[Kishkumen]

Thank you for that. What a great post.

I often think of the post-Trump GOP and how he's swung the party toward the allure of authoritarianism, so long as the authority agrees with your side. I don't think Trump dying is a resolution to the rot within the GOP. I imagine it's likely going to make things worse before anything gets better. The GOP lives in a mostly self-constructed "reality" that has little relationship with facts. Facts have become anathema to the base; they get offended by them. No matter how Trump dies, a BS narrative will rise up out of it, and the GOP will soldier on with cheating to win elections and retain power for the minority.

I think you are right. That is one of my takeaways from this period of Roman history and the fall of the Republic. Now that there is a Trumpism that other politicians exploit, the death of Trump is not guaranteed to end the problem. Indeed, it most likely won’t.

[Res Ipsa]

Thank you for that. What a great post.

I often think of the post-Trump GOP and how he's swung the party toward the allure of authoritarianism, so long as the authority agrees with your side. I don't think Trump dying is a resolution to the rot within the GOP. I imagine it's likely going to make things worse before anything gets better. The GOP lives in a mostly self-constructed "reality" that has little relationship with facts. Facts have become anathema to the base; they get offended by them. No matter how Trump dies, a BS narrative will rise up out of it, and the GOP will soldier on with cheating to win elections and retain power for the minority.

I think you are right. That is one of my takeaways from this period of Roman history and the fall of the Republic. Now that there is a Trumpism that other politicians exploit, the death of Trump is not guaranteed to end the problem. Indeed, it most likely won’t.

I've long viewed Trump as a symptom. The necessary conditions for facisim long precedent his candidacy for President.

[Doctor Steuss]

Thank you Kish for your generosity of knowledge. I always enjoy your posts on the ancient world.

[Kishkumen]

I've long viewed Trump as a symptom. The necessary conditions for facisim long precedent his candidacy for President.

True. And Caesar was not the first threat to the Roman Republic. He was preceded by the lawlessness of the Sullan regime and the Marian regime, both of which were characterized by abuse of executive power, disregard for the rights of citizenship, property, and life, and the practice of mass political assassination.

That said, Caesar's assumption of the perpetual dictatorship set in motion the events that led to the decisive end of the Republic. It is not clear to me that everyone would have done what he did. Or that any of the problems plaguing the Republic were equally contributory to its end. I think the radical expansion and abuse of executive authority played an outsized role.

That is one reason I think Caesar's example is especially salient in our current environment. It is certainly not the only thing we should think about. I don't think that the past necessarily predicts the future, especially when the events and cultures in question are so far removed from each other in time and space. That said, our system was formed in special reference and response to this tradition and history.

[Res Ipsa]

I've long viewed Trump as a symptom. The necessary conditions for facisim long precedent his candidacy for President.

True. And Caesar was not the first threat to the Roman Republic. He was preceded by the lawlessness of the Sullan regime and the Marian regime, both of which were characterized by abuse of executive power, disregard for the rights of citizenship, property, and life, and the practice of mass political assassination.

That said, Caesar's assumption of the perpetual dictatorship set in motion the events that led to the decisive end of the Republic. It is not clear to me that everyone would have done what he did. Or that any of the problems plaguing the Republic were equally contributory to its end. I think the radical expansion and abuse of executive authority played an outsized role.

That is one reason I think Caesar's example is especially salient in our current environment. It is certainly not the only thing we should think about. I don't think that the past necessarily predicts the future, especially when the events and cultures in question are so far removed from each other in time and space. That said, our system was formed in special reference and response to this tradition and history.

I agree. And I'll add to Dr. Steuss's appreciation for the thoughtful and informative perspective.

[Kishkumen]

Thank you Kish for your generosity of knowledge. I always enjoy your posts on the ancient world.

I live for teachable moments, although I wish they were in different, less worrisome, and less perilous circumstances.

[Kishkumen]

I agree. And I'll add to Dr. Steuss's appreciation for the thoughtful and informative perspective.

Thanks to both you and Dr. Steuss for expressions of appreciation.

[Morley]

Thank you for taking the time to write this out, Kish. It’s a great overview.

I’ll add that part of the allure—or acceptance—of authoritarian government in Rome was the result of the rise of the political terrorism you describe—violence that had almost become a routinized and expected part of the political process. The Romans got to the point where they were willing to trade liberty and self-governance for the security of a dictator. Once terrorism becomes a bromide, it’s horrifically difficult to eradicate.

This is why attempted assassinations and the shitstorm that was January 6th frighten me so much.