historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 7. The mistress of life
to one and the same person, giving ambitious men the opportunity to seize
power. 152 It is here that the importance of the person of Julius Caesar comes
forth. Not only was Caesar ambitious, but his virtues far exceeded those of his
fellow Romans. Therefore Caesar should have been ostracised, ‘for not only
in a popular form of government, but also in an aristocracy the equality of its
members … must be looked to, especially by those in whose interest it is …
and … this equality also excludes excessive virtue’. 153 Caesar’s fellow Romans
abandoned the principle of equality, and this mistake would cost them dearly.
The concentration of power in the hands of only a few men had led to a
struggle between these few men, who wanted to keep their power, and others,
who, out of envy, strove to obtain it. During this struggle some men had
aligned themselves with the Optimate faction in the Senate, some with the
people and others with the army. From these alliances factions had emerged
that would in the end cause the downfall of the Republic.
The first time these factions had become visible was during ‘the fury of
Marius and Cinna’, which was followed by ‘the thunder of the storm raised
by Sulla’. 154 After that came the alliance between Caesar, Pompey (106-48
BC), and Crassus (c.115-53 BC). These three men had an easy time to ‘overthrow
the Republic, because it was almost destroyed by the conflicts of earlier
times’. 155 The deaths of Crassus and Julia, Caesar’s daughter who was
152 Ibidem, pp. 317-20. In a previous dissertation Boxhorn had stated that it was not the dictatorship
that had enabled Sulla and Caesar to oppress the Republic, but desire and the scorning of the laws.
Ibidem, IX.3, p. 248. ‘Sylla enim ac Caesar non tam Dictatura hac, quàm libidine, spretis legibus, Rempublicam
oppressere.’
153 Ibidem, pp. 318-19. ‘Quare non in populari tantum, sed & optimatum statu pro aequalitate partium,
ut rectissime observat & in Oratione de C. Caesare Dictatore loquitur illustris Heinsius, ab iis,
quorum interest, inprimis vigilandum est, quae non dignitates modo nimias ac opes, sed nobilitatem,
aliaque id genus, ac, ut Aristoteles praeclare sentit, virtutem quoque nimiam excludit.’ Boxhorn quotes
here Heinsius, “De C. Caesare dictatore”, pp. 204-5. ‘Ex Politicorum, nisi fallor, libris pridem didicistis,
non in Populari tantum sed & Optimatum statu, pro aequalitate partium, ab iis quorum interest inprimis,
vigilandum esse. Quae non dignitates modo nimias ac opes, sed nobilitatem, aliaque id genus, ac,
si libere cum Aristotele dicendum est, virtutem quoque nimiam excludit.’ For the reference to Aristotle,
see Aristotle, Politics, 1284a1 [III:13]. Boxhorn also holds that Pompey should have been ostracised since,
following the observation of the Roman senator Quintus Catulus (c.120-61/60 BC) given in Velleius
Paterculus’s Roman History, and quoted by Boxhorn, ‘while Gnaeus Pompey was a man of distinction,
he already had too much power for a free state, and that everything should not be placed in the hands of
one man’. Velleius Paterculus, Historiarvm ad M. Vinicivm consvlem libri dvo. Recognovit W.S. Watt (Teubner;
Leipzig, 1988), II.32, p. 32. ‘Digna est memoria Q. Catuli cum auctoritas tum uerecundia. qui cum
dissuadens legem in contione dixisset esse quidem praeclarum uirum Cn. Pompeium sed nimium iam
liberae rei publicae, neque omnia in uno reponenda …’ English translation quoted from Velleius Paterculus,
The Roman History: From Romulus and the Foundation of Rome to the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius.
Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by J.C. Yardley and Anthony A. Barrett (Hackett Publishing
Company; Indianapolis/Cambridge, 2011), II.32, p. 49.
154 Ibidem, XIV.4, p. 315. ‘Mariana quidem Cinnanaque rabies intra urbem praeluserat, ut Syllana
tempestas latius intra Italiam tamen, detonaret.’ Florus, Epitome, II.13, pp. 264, 266. ‘Ac Mariana quidem
Cinnanaque rabies intra urbem praeluserat, quasi si experiretur. Syllana tempestas latius, intra Italiam
tamen, detonuerat.’ English translations taken from Florus, Epitome, II.13, pp. 265, 267.
155 Ibidem. ‘Facile pauci caeteris majores, Caesar, Crassus, Pompejus de invadenda Republica, quo
229