OK. So we do agree on most points.
That Caesar was conservative and probably was more of a republican than Augustus, Pompey and Marius were, I do agree with you. That's the theory of Ronald Syme and it is both coherent and brilliant. There is much similarity in the respective cursus of Sylla and Caesar on one side (except for the cruelty) and Marius, Pompey and Augustus on the other side.
Let's not underestimate, however, the circumstances. Caesar did things how he did because he had but no choice to respect legality. He did not enjoy enough political backing to be exempted from regulations. Once the civil war began, he took the powers he thought were necessary.
Let's not overestimate either the differences between Caesar and Augustus. Caesar's memory has been tarnished by Augustus who put his feet into his adoptive father's footsteps but falsely claimed he was not doing so and who gave his reluctant backers the symbolic satisfaction of moderately bashing Caesar's memory.
The reality is, for example, that Caesar was dictator for life and that as a dictator he did not need tribunician powers because now tribune was legally entitled to veto the acts of a dictator and that Caesar also took for himself the sacrosanctitas of tribunes in order to make his person permanently sacred.
And since he thought he could no longer take the title of dictator, Augustus chose an other combination to reach quite the same result : he had permanent imperium majus and he had tribunitia potestas without being tribune so that he could veto other tribunes and other magistrates' acts without being submited to the collegiality of tribunes.
One of the other brillant points that Syme developed is that it was more important for the roman aristocrats of the oldest lineages to serve and be granted honors in any kind of power, even a monarchic one, than to lose status in a res publica libera. Both Sulla and Caesar fought their way to reestablish the status of their family. They willingly accepted and promoted young talents.
Marius, Pompey and Augustus were more concerned with controlling and blocking the system so that they would prevent any potential rival from emerging and challengin their rule.
That Caesar was conservative and probably was more of a republican than Augustus, Pompey and Marius were, I do agree with you. That's the theory of Ronald Syme and it is both coherent and brilliant. There is much similarity in the respective cursus of Sylla and Caesar on one side (except for the cruelty) and Marius, Pompey and Augustus on the other side.
Let's not underestimate, however, the circumstances. Caesar did things how he did because he had but no choice to respect legality. He did not enjoy enough political backing to be exempted from regulations. Once the civil war began, he took the powers he thought were necessary.
Let's not overestimate either the differences between Caesar and Augustus. Caesar's memory has been tarnished by Augustus who put his feet into his adoptive father's footsteps but falsely claimed he was not doing so and who gave his reluctant backers the symbolic satisfaction of moderately bashing Caesar's memory.
The reality is, for example, that Caesar was dictator for life and that as a dictator he did not need tribunician powers because now tribune was legally entitled to veto the acts of a dictator and that Caesar also took for himself the sacrosanctitas of tribunes in order to make his person permanently sacred.
And since he thought he could no longer take the title of dictator, Augustus chose an other combination to reach quite the same result : he had permanent imperium majus and he had tribunitia potestas without being tribune so that he could veto other tribunes and other magistrates' acts without being submited to the collegiality of tribunes.
One of the other brillant points that Syme developed is that it was more important for the roman aristocrats of the oldest lineages to serve and be granted honors in any kind of power, even a monarchic one, than to lose status in a res publica libera. Both Sulla and Caesar fought their way to reestablish the status of their family. They willingly accepted and promoted young talents.
Marius, Pompey and Augustus were more concerned with controlling and blocking the system so that they would prevent any potential rival from emerging and challengin their rule.