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An Unnoticed Trait in the Character of Julius Caesar

W. Warde Fowler

The Classical Review / Volume 30 / Issue 03 / May 1916, pp 68 - 71 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00010052, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00010052

How to cite this article: W. Warde Fowler (1916). An Unnoticed Trait in the Character of Julius Caesar. The Classical Review, 30, pp 68-71 doi:10.1017/S0009840X00010052

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AN UNNOTICED TRAIT IN THE CHARACTER OF JULIUS CAESAR.

CAESAR did fewer foolish things than tried, but straightway condemned ; the most men with his opportunities have king appointed two duumviri to per- done; so far as we can judge from his form this duty, being unwilling, Livy own writings and the accounts of those says, to undertake such an ill-omened who knew him, a want of practical wis- job himself.4 A lex horrendi carminis dom was not one of his weak points. governed the procedure. The duum- But on one occasion, early in his viri were to pronounce sentence; against political life, he did what seems to us this sentence the condemned man a foolish thing, and one which no one might appeal to the people; if their has ever attempted to explain as a wise verdict went against him, ' caput obnu- one. I am thinking of the revival of a bito, infelici arbori reste suspendito, quaint antique and semi-religious pro- verberato vel intra pomerium vel extra cedurefor the condemnation1 of Rabirius pomerium.'6 in 63 B.C. The circumstances are fami- This procedure belongs to an age liar, and have been discussed recently in when civil law has not yet been fully this country by the late Master of Balliol disentangled from religious law. The in his Problems of Roman Criminal Law, words last quoted make it probable that and by Dr. Hardy in the Journal of Horatius was a homo sour in some Philology* The leaders "of the popular sense, and the sequel to the story shows or Marian party, Caesar and Crassus, how difficult it was to restore him to wished to make it highly unsafe to put the condition of an ordinary citizen; Roman citizens to death without trial for this point, which does not bear under the ' last decree' of the Senate, directly on our present subject, I may or in any other way, in times of political refer to an article in the Classical excitement. They did not so much Review, March, 1913.6 What could want to impugn the legality of that have induced Caesar to imitate this decree (senatus consultum ultitnum), for strange, semi-religious ritual ? Was it that would have been almost impos- s simply that it gave him an opportunity sible ; but to make it dangerous for to exhibit the infelix arbor, or, as Cicero the consul to take violent action under calls it, the crux, in the Campus Martius, it. They wanted, no doubt, to impress with the executioner (carnifex) who was this deeply on the minds of the city to do the ugly work, unless the victim population, and Caesar hit upon the were acquitted on appeal ?7 Certain plan of reviving a curious and obsolete it is that, having found the old Rabirius, procedure, which would bring the pos- who was said to have killed Saturninus sible results of such political violence in the disturbances of the year 100, and murder vividly before their eyes. Caesar and Crassus, with Labienus The only example of the use of this as their agent, contrived to pass a law procedure known to us dates from the which revived this old procedure; that age of the kings, and is embodied in the legend of the victorious Horatius, who slew his sister on his return from 4 Liv. i. 26: ' Rex, ne ipse tam tristis in- battle. For this murder he was not gratique ad vulgus iudicii ac secundum iudi- cium supplicii auctor esset, concilio populi advocato, Duumviros, inquit, qui Horatio per- 1 The condemnation, because it is quite clear duellionem iudicent, secundum legem facio.' I that the duumviri did not judge the case, but suspect that the Rex appointed duumviri in only pronounced sentence (Liv. i. 26). order that the sacred kingly office might not 3 Strachan-Davidson, Problems of Criminal be polluted. Law, vol i., p. 188 ff. .Hardy in Journal of 6 Liv. i. 26. 6 : Strachan-Davidson, op. cit., Philology, vol. xxxiv., p. 12 ff. i. 135 «"• * This follows from the acquittal of Opimius, • Vol. xxvii., p. 48. Cp. Journal of Roman in 121 B.C., for killing C. Gracchus, under the Studies, vol. i., p. 58 ff. Senatus consultum vltimum. See e.g., Heit- 7 Cicero seems to imply this in pro Rabirio, land's Roman Republic, vol. ii.,p. 318. Hardy, sees. 10, ii, 16. So, too, Strachan-Davidson, op. cit., p. 16 ff. i. 197. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 69 Caesar and a relative of the same name the case of C. Valerius Flaccus, re- were appointed duumviri under it, that corded by Livy as happening about a they condemned Rabirius, and that on century earlier, the object of the family his appeal the Senate interfered and may have been to keep the lad out of declared the whole foolish proceedings mischief.3 On the other hand, it is to be invalid.1 (The speech of Cicero, possible that Caesar's mother Aurelia, of which we have a considerable part, who seems to have shared with him his was delivered in an ordinary trial before ambition to be the head of the Roman the tribune and his comitia tributa, and religious system, may have been one of with this we are not concerned.) At those good ladies who venerate all the moment of condemnation, and be- forms of priesthood, and are ready to fore the Senate had quashed the pro- dedicate their sons at an early age to ceedings, it seems possible that crux the lifelong service of the religion of the and carnifex were actually on view in State. Undoubtedly these things were the Campus. Yet the desire to im- arranged within the family in collusion j>onieren seems hardly sufficient to with the pontifex maximus, as in the explain why a sane man like Caesar case of the Vestals; and it is noticeable should have chosen to go back on that, according to Suetonius, the Flamen such primitive practice. Nothing else Dialis destinatus was immediately pro- that we know of him in that year 63 vided with a wife, young as he was, shows any parallel to such injudicious doubtless because the office could only statesmanship. be held by one who had a Flaminica 4 I think that there are traces in ready to assist him in his duties. Inci- Caesar of a tendency, common at the dentally, I may remark that it was this time, Jo take an interest in ancient pro- wife Cornelia who saved Caesar for the cedure, especially that of religion ; and world. As she was Cinna's daughter, it is possible that for once he may have Sulla ordered the boy to drop her, been tempted to give this intellectual which he promptly refused to do, and interest a practical application. It was at once deprived of his priesthood would be interesting if we could dis- (or, rather, the prospect of it), and of his cover whether he was already pontifex wife's dowry and other property. Sue- maximus when he condemned Rabirius; tonius evidently thinks of the priest- but it does not seem possible to deter- hood as an honour which Caesar would mine this. It is, however, in any case have been glad to retain ; but even if possible that his thoughts were running Aurelia looked at it in this light, it does on the probable vacancy, and the duties not follow that even at the early age of of the office, for which he and his fifteen the boy was not glad to be safe mother seem to have been equally from the shackles of such an office. 2 •desirous. It is worth remembering A few years after this (69 B.C.), when that Varro dedicated his great work on delivering an oration at the funeral of the religious antiquities of Rome to his aunt Julia, he dwelt on the fact that this pontifex maximus, which he would she was descended, on the mother's hardly have done if Caesar had shown side, from a rex, Ancus Martius, and 00 interest in such things. It is also on the father's side from Venus, the worth remembering that, as a boy, reputed ancestor of the gens Julia. Caesar had been, presumably by his His comment on this, as quoted by family, intended to fill the most ancient Suetonius from the original, is remark- of Roman priesthoods, and that a able : ' Est ergo in genere et sanctitas Flamen Dialis was daily and hourly regum, qui plurimum inter homines •engaged in caerimonia. I have else- where casually suggested that, as in 3 Religious Experience of the Roman People, p. 343. According to Velleius, ii. 43, Caesar 1 So Hardy, op. cit, p. 28. Strachan-David- had been made a pontifex during his absence son thinks that Cicero interfered, either as in Asia as a young man, and hurried home to •consul or through the agency of a tribune. Italy to take up the office, which suggests that * ' Cum mane ad comitia descenderet, prae- he was in earnest about these priesthoods. •dixisse matri osculanti fertur, domum se nisi * Suet. Jul. i, ad init. Frazer, Adonis, etc., pontificem non reversurum' (Suet./«/. 13). p. 409. I

70 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW pollent, et caerimonia deorum quorum it; but the fact is that they were sacri- ipsi in potestate sunt reges.'l The use ficed (ervdijtrav) in the Campus Martius. of the word caerimonia here is peculiar : in the presence of the pontifices and it seems to mean that the Julii had an the Flamen Martialis, and their heads, inherited instinct for looking after the were afterwards fixed up on the Regia/ cult of the gods—an instinct which, It has long been recognised that this, perhaps, the devoted Aurelia discerned strange and barbarous procedure closely in her son.2 The whole sentence, a resembles that of the sacrifice of a horse good specimen of the Attic style, to Mars on the Ides of October, which breathes the young man's feeling that I fully discussed in my Roman Festivals, the Roman State cannot dispense with p. 241. After a chariot-race in the its gods, and that caerimonia is neces- Campus Martius, the near horse of the sary in order to keep them in full vigour winning pair was sacrificed to Mars; of benevolence. the tail was cut off and carried to the On the whole, then, I think it quite Regia (the official residence of the possible that in the imprudent revival pontifex maximus), and the warm blood of the obsolete procedure of the duum- allowed to drip on the hearth there. viri Caesar may have been prompted The head was also cut off and decorated by this instinct for caerimonia; or, if I with cakes; and formerly there was a may be allowed a little latitude of con- fight for it between the men of the Via jecture, I should guess that Aurelia Sacra and those of the Subura. If the suggested to him a course which he former carried off the prize, they fixed was not unwilling to take. She was at it on the wall of the Regia; if the latter, this time living in his house, and her on the Turris Mamilia. anxiety about caerimonia is well illus- Caesar himself took part, acc«rding trated in the affair of the Bona Dea in to Dio Cassius, in the quelling of this the following year, when (as Plutarch mutiny, which was especially dangerous- tells us) she took all possible pains to as taking place at Rome, where his prevent any disturbance of the rites. position was not too secure. Dio puts When Clodius was discovered she put it in the year 46; and in that year an end to them at once: evidently she 3 Caesar returned to Rome from the had the lead in the house at the time. African war on July 26, and stayed I have little doubt that the divorce there till after November 26, when we which followed was also the work of hear of him in a letter of Cicero.6 He this strong-minded mother. He was thus beyond doubt in the city, But apart from these indirect infer- as Dio states, at the time of the mutiny* ences we have a story, which seems and I am much inclined to suspect that quite worthy of credence, that many the sacrifice of the mutineers took place years afterwards Caesar again had in on the Ides of October, and concur- his mind a piece of antique ritual, when rently with that of the horse, or as a. he punished two mutinous soldiers in substitute for it. The motive was per- 46 B.C. Though the story is told only haps much the same as in the case of by Dio Cassius,4 it cannot have been Rabirius, to make an impression on the invented by him. These two men were city mob, who might easily be infected put to death, the historian says, ' in a with the spirit of mutiny. We may sort of priestly fashion.' ' I cannot doubt whether in either case the desired explain it,' he goes on, ' for no Sibyl- effect was produced. I do not think line verse or other oracle is quoted for that Caesar was ever at home in the city, or understood its motley popula- 8 1 tion ; as I have said elsewhere, they Suet./«/. 6. knew little of him, and had received no. * It is worth remembering that the Julii were charged with the care of the cult of Veiovis at Bdvillae. C. I. L. i. 807, and Wissowa, Rel. 6 Cp. de Bell., Afr., 98, and Cic. ad Fam. und Kult der Romer, ed. 2, p. 237. vi. 14; which letter is dated A.D. 5 Kal. inter- * Plutarch, Caesar, ch. 9, is very explicit calares priores (two intercalary months were about this. Whence did he get his information that year inserted between November and about Caesar's private life ? December). * D. C. xliii. 24. * Roman Ideas of Deity, p. 118. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW great benefits from him. Augustus In the last place, let us note that in understood them far better, and made his somewhat elaborate account of the no such strange attempts to frighten civilisation of the Gauls great promin- them into acquiescence. ence is given to religion {natio admodum There is yet another curious story of dedita religionibus), and especially to Caesar, which may be set by the side the Druids and the details of their of these two examples of perverted human sacrifices, as well as to their caerimonia. It was said that when he gods.6 Even now this account forms a crossed the Rubicon he ' consecrated' a considerable part of what we know number of horses, and set them free to about early Celtic religion. wander where they would. Suetonius There is then, I think, some reason tells us that in the days preceding his to believe that Caesar, among his many assassination these horses persistently various interests, included the caeri- refused to eat, and even shed abundant monia of deities at Rome and also else- tears; he seems in this chapter to where; and that once or twice in his be depending on the authority of life he translated his interest and know- Cornelius Balbus, Caesar's intimate ledge somewhat strangely into practical friend and secretary.1 The legend of procedure. This does not mean, of their refusal to eat seems to be alluded course, that he was in any sense ' super- to in the fifth Eclogue of Virgil, stitious ': what interested him was the and was adduced by H. Nettleship ritual of State or tribe. He may have as evidence for the identification of had his trifling superstitions. Pliny Daphnis in that poem with Caesar:2 tells us6 that after a certain carriage accident he always used to repeat a sort non alii pastos illis egere diebus frigida, Daphni, boves ad flumina; nulla neque of spell three times when he took his amnem seat—but this he may have done just Kbavit quadrupes nee graminis attigit herbam. as I take off my hat to a magpie. As But why did Caesar release these we might expect, we have it on good horses, and to what god did he conse- authority that he never allowed a crate them ? Is this, after all, only one religio to alarm or delay him in any of the legends which gathered round a undertaking about which he had made famous event ? It may be so ; but, on up his mind: when in his African cam- the other hand, it is not a common paign the victim fled from the sacri- ficing priest, he went none the less form of marvel, but looks rather as if 7 it had a bottom of truth, and we may determinedly to meet his enemy. But note that Asmius Pollio was with him of serious ritual he thought without at the time, and afterwards wrote a contempt, and the careful pains which history of the Civil Wars.3 If the Augustus bestowed on this department horses were consecrated at all they of State activity may, after all, though were consecrated to Mars, for whom he we have not been used to think so, be had a special regard, and to whom war- due in some measure to his uncle's horses were sacred.4 But it is difficult precepts. As Dr. Hardy reminds me, to fathom his motive, or even to be sure the uncle was as careful in the consti- of the fact. tution of his colonies of the maintenance of caerimonia as Augustus himself could have been; of this his lex Ursonensis 1 Suet./«/. 81. gives abundant proof. * Ancient Lives of Virgil, p. 40. * Plutarch, Caesar, 32. W. WARDE FOWLER. * Roman Festivals, p. 330. Caesar seems to have been fond of horses, and rode one of which 5 De Bell. Gall. vi. 13-19. Suetonius tells strange things (/«/. 61), and 6 Nat. Hist, xxviii. 21. which would allow no one to mount him but 7 Suet. Jul. 59. Ne religione quidem ulla Caesar. He afterwards placed a statue of this a quoquam incepto absterritus unquam vel horse in front of his temple of Venus Genetrix. retardatus est.