Clementia Caesaris

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Under Caesar's clemency means the proverbial his time gentleness and willingness to discount obligations, penalties and financial debt by sovereign decision Gaius Julius Caesar , Caesar began as a strategic tool for gaining loyalty for his claim to power. Mildness was also claimed by his successors as a sovereign virtue (as in Augustus' deed Res Gestae , 34). Seneca writes his own monograph De clementia for Nero . The pre-Christian-ancient concept of mildness, understood in the light of the biblical virtue of mercy , was also one of the virtues of the ideal Christian ruler in the Middle Ages and made its way into the prince mirrors as a topic .

According to Plutarch (Caes. 57), the Senate wanted to have its own temple built during the civil war out of gratitude for Caesar's shown clementia ("mildness") . It is unclear whether the temple was ever built; but it was shown on coins.

Caesar's leniency and indulgence towards opponents was proverbial. It was also evident in the conquest of the city of Corfinium in central Italy, which was allied with his opponent Pompey. He sent a messenger with a letter to Pompey to inform him that he was ready to negotiate peace and restore harmony so that the state may be preserved. Caesar forgave the Corfinians, who had allied themselves with the Pompeians against him, and protected them from abuse by Roman soldiers. In addition, although he incited the Pompeians against Pompey , he did not punish them. He did not accept the money raised by the Corfinians, but ordered it to be returned to them.

While at the beginning of the civil war Pompey had declared everyone to be enemies of the state who were not on his side, Caesar declared that he would treat all neutrals as friends. That brought him great popularity, because the majority did not want the civil war. After the victory he forgave his enemies and reinstated them in office and dignity instead of persecuting them with proscription lists as Sulla once did and having them murdered. He had the files of Pompey that had fallen into his hands burned so that he could not even know for himself whom he had forgiven everything. Finally he said goodbye to his bodyguards and trusted the word of the senators, who had solemnly pledged to protect himself as he had committed to theirs. Of course, the conspirators took advantage of this to murder him. Among them were some whom he had made his heirs. This fact made the people so bitter when the will was read out. Thus the abused clementia Caesaris became the doom of the Caesar murderers. The people had decided: to them the freedom that Caesars liberalitas founded was more important than the freedoms that the liberatores conjured up.

The historian Pliny the Elder (Naturalis historia 7,26,93) wrote: Caesari proprium et peculiare sit [praeter supra dicta] clementiae insigne, qua usque ad paenitentiam omnes superavit; idem magnanimitatis perhibuit exemplum, cui comparari non possit aliud (“The most peculiar and deepest trait of Caesar [besides those mentioned above] was his royal clementia (gentleness, forgiveness or love of enemies), with which he overcame everyone and brought them to repentance Example of a great soul like no other. ").

Caesar wrote in a letter to Marcus Tullius Cicero (Cic. Ad Att. 9.7 c): Haec nova sit ratio vincendi, ut misericordia et liberalitate nos muniamus. ("This is the new victorious strategy: that we arm ourselves with mercy and freedom" or more freely according to Ethelbert Stauffer : "That must be the new victory tactic and security policy that we practice forgiveness and create a free and festive world.")

literature

  • René Bloch: Clementia. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , column 31.
  • Helga Gesche : Caesar (income from research 51). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1976, pp. 138–141 (research report).
  • Michael Mause: "Clementia Caesaris". Caesar and his opponents in the civil war. In: Praxis Geschichte 1/2009, pp. 42–46.
  • Sabine Rochlitz: The picture of Caesar in Cicero's "Orationes Caesarianae". Studies on "clementia" and "sapientia Caesaris" (= studies on classical philology. Vol. 78). Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-631-44353-6 . (At the same time: Heidelberg, University, dissertation, 1991: Clementia and sapientia Caesaris in Cicero's Caesarian speeches. )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ethelbert Stauffer : Jerusalem and Rome in the Age of Jesus Christ (= Dalp pocket books. Bd. 331, ZDB -ID 841724-6 ). Francke, Bern et al. 1957, p. 20.