Expert: Maria - 2/2/2007

Question
Hi Maria,
Thanks in advance for taking the time to consider my question.  
I've just finished "Caesar: Life of a Colossus" by Adrian Goldsworthy but I can't quite get my head around some aspects of what happened during his dictatorship.  Since Caesar initially crossed the Rubicon because of Cato et al's attempts to block his running for consul, why didn't the senate just run an election after Caesar won the civil war?  Given Caesar's clemency and claim to be only doing what was in his rights, why didn't the senate call him on it and make him dictator for a brief period until elections could be held?  It seems strange that instead they granted him greater and greater powers.  Were they afraid of Sulla-style proscriptions?  That seems unlikely given his clemency.  

Answer
Hello,

After Caesar won the civil war against Pompey the Great [defeated in the battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) and killed by order of the king Ptolemy in Egypt], and his oldest son Gnaeus Pompeius who was defeated in the Battle of Munda (45 BC, Southern Spain ), the senate could not run an election any more.
In fact Caius Iulius Caesar  had become too powerful  by the time and then did not need the senate whose authority had become less important.
From then on, until his assassination on the Ides of March (March 15), 44 BC,  Caesar became the ruler of the Roman Republic and  the senate declared him ‘dictator’ for life, granting him  greater and greater powers, since he had definitely  military dominance as well as he enjoyed a great popularity.
It was for this reason that the senate was forced to give Caesar a profusion of personal honours which were completely outside Roman tradition where the office of ‘dictator’ was only to be held for six months during a dire emergency, not for life at all.

Finally the senators were afraid of Sulla-style proscriptions not by Caesar, just given his clemency, but by Mark Antony, his ‘magister equitum’ , i.e.’the master of the horse’ who served as the Dictator's main lieutenant.

Hope this can be helpful to you.

Best regards,
Maria