VI. DIVUS IULIUS

The later career of is of crucial significance in that he was the first leader of the Roman state to be awarded divine honours by the senate, a step that points to a fundamental change of direction in Roman politics. These honours belang to the period after Caesar's victories at Thapsus (6th , 46) and at Munda (17th March, 45), above all to the early months of 44 when he was de facto sole ruler. The meaning and interpretation of what was decreed is very much debated, as also is Caesar's own attitude to it all. In par­ ticular there is the question of whether Caesar was or was not officially deified at the very end of his life, a problem closely related to that of the position he

intended for hirnself in the state-if, indeed, his plans were so far advanced. I That Caesar could actively promote the cult offered hirn spontaneously in the East can be seen at Alexandria, Antiach and elsewhere, where he built Caesarea.' In Rome itself his person was already sacralized by the pontificate he had held since 73 and by the life-long position of pontifex maximus which he received in 63; in making hirn the mediator between his fellow-citizens and the state-gods, the office conferred great prestige and paved the way for divine honours.' With the addition of the augurate in 47 after Pharsalus Caesar began to accumulate priesthoods, a model that was to be copied by Augustus and later emperors. His status was enhanced further by a claim to divine des­ cent from Venus through Aeneas of Troy; the connection was asserted in the funeral oration he spake over his aunt Julia in 68 and emphasized more dramatically by elaborate plans for atempie of Venus Genetrix at the centre of the new Forum Iulium." There was also a more dubious claim to be descended from through the Alban kings, though that was less easy to justify. In any event the times and public sentiment were now ripe for the con­ ferral of divine honours. Already in 49 Caesar had been welcomed like a god by Italian municipia and inscriptions show that private persans in his debt could even call hirn a god. S

I For a useful outline of the vast scholarship on Caesar see H. Gesche, Caesar (Erträge der Forschung, 51), Darmstadt, 1976, especially 154-172. , Weinstock, DJ 297-299, noting that he was received at Alexandria as Caesar Epibaterios. See further Addenda, p. 187. J Taylor, Divinity 59 f. ; J. Bayer, " Prodromes sacerdotaux de la divinisation imperiale" in La Regalita Sacr ä, Leiden, 1959, 418-434 at 421 ff.; Weinstock , DJ 28-34, noting that Caesar had avoided succeeding to the post of flamen Dialis, for which he had been designated at the age of thirteen . • DJ 17 f'., 80-90. See further "Augustus and the West" below, p. 87. , DJ 300 with nn. 6 f. VI. DIVUS IULWS 57

If we omit the white horses at his triumph in 46 as unlikely to have had any

connotation of divinity, 6 the first isotheoi timai to be granted Caesar were decreed in the aftermath of Thapsus: a chariot set on the Capitol facing , along with a bronze statue of Caesar that was associated in some way with a globe of the world and bore an epigraph;' also a proposal (never in fact carried out; cf. Tac. Hist. 3, 72, 3) to replace the name of Catulus in the dedicatory inscription on the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus with that of Caesar, as though he had completed the temple.' Weinstock has convincingly shown that there must have been two statuary pieces on the Capitol-an emp­ ty quadriga and astatue with a globe-and proposes a globe beside the stand­ ing figure of Caesar; Alföldi suggests Caesar had his right foot on the globe." It is in any case clear that Caesar was portrayed as master of the world in the tradition of Alexander and likely enough thatthe entire symbolism was bor­ rowed from the Hellenistic world, very possibly from the picture at Athens of Demetrius Polioreetes seated(?) on a globe." But the inscription raises prob­ lems. Dio has usually been taken to mean that Caesar was called llfL(9EO~11 or some Latin equivalent, but it seems preferable to hold that Caesar was given not an epiklesis "demigod" but a proper name, a point seemingly confirmed by Dio's later report that Caesar had the name of the demigod removed. 12 The only possible demigod with whom Caesar might be equated is , Il in which case the inscription Caesar had erased will have been CaesariRomu/o. Why Caesar should be identified with Romulus in connection with a globe is another matter (see below, pp. 59 f.) . Following Munda but before Caesar's return to Rome in October of 45, we have a further set of honours voted by the senate. On receiving news of the battle (20th April), the senate decreed that the Parilia of the following day should be celebrated in commemoration of the victory; Weinstock is surely right that the coincidence of the news with the anniversary of Rome's founda-

• So J. A. North, JRS 65 (1975), 173; contra DJ 68-75. 7 &P!LCX ~€ ~L cxu~oü ly ~l\> Kcxnl~WAil(l a~Lnp6awnoy ~l\> ~LllBpu9ijYCXL, xallnl t!x6\1Ot cxu~ilY 'tii~ olxou!L€IITI~ XCXAxOÜY lnLßLßcxa6TjYCXL , ypcxcp~Y tXO~cx Ö~L ~!LiOt6~ l~l ... (CD 43, 14, 6). For discussion see DJ 40-59. Neither the chariot nor the statue were dedicated in the Capitolium facing the cult statue of Jupiter, as argued by A. von Domaszewski, " Die göttlichen Ehren Caesars ", Philologus 67 (1908), I (= Wlosok, Kaiserku/t [above, Intr. 11;note 18) 329); cf. Taylor, Divinity64. The statue of Jupiter must have been one of several standing in the open on the Area Capitolina. For an in­ ventory see Weinstock, o.c. 58. • Dio ibid. • Gnomon 47 (1975), 159 f. 10 S. Weinstock, " Victor and Invictus," HThR 50 (1957),211·247 at 232 f., arguing that Alex­ ander must have earlier been represented in the same way.

11 ~!LiOto~ is cJearly the translation of divus in Servius ad. Buc. 9, 46, but Caesar can hardly have been called divus in 46 B.C.; contra Weinstock (above, note 10) 232. When Dio wishes to call Augustus divus, the word he uses is 9tro~ . J2 • • • ü~tpOY Bi ~O ~oü ~!LL9€ou ÖYO!Lcx an' cxu~oü a7t'i}AtLljItY . (CD 43,21,2). See further D. Fishwick, "The Name of the Demigod " , Historia 24 (1975), 624-628. " DJ 175·199; W. Burkert, "Caesar und Romulus-", Historia 11 (1962), 356.376..