Clementia Caesaris: Julius Caesar

Clementia filled a special role in addition to its general function as an offshoot of humanitas. It served the emperor’s propaganda needs by presenting as one of his special virtues.

Clementia Caesaris preceded the Principate, for the concept was first put in place by Julius Caesar during his dictatorship. To his contemporaries, Caesar’s clemency was the quintessential expression of his image after his victory in the Civil War. The concept was celebrated on coins, with specific use of the words Clementiae Caesaris.³² But this official recognition was limited; it does not appear to have a counterpart in Caesar’s own account of the Civil War. A recent investigator points out that although the theme of clemency is dominant in Bellum Civile, Caesar deliberately avoids the word clementia; he uses either lenitas or circumlocutions like incolumes climittere (â€?to dismiss unharmed’). The reason is said to be that Caesar wanted to present as the defender of the Republic, whereas clementia was a virtue of the legitimate monarch.³³ The theory is an interesting one, but cannot quite be driven home. Whatever his phraseology in Bellum Civile, in his account of the Gallic War Caesar uses clementia significantly. The tribes beseech him to show his usual clemency and kindness—sua clementia ac mansuetudo (BG 2.14.4). Here sua identifies his own special virtue, in competition with the clementia of the Roman people.³⁴ Hirtius takes it even further in Book 8 of Bellum Gallicum: Clementia Caesaris is explicitly spelt out, and clementia and humanitas are combined.³⁵ In case it is claimed that the Caesar of the Gallic War did not need to watch his words so carefully as the Caesar of the Civil War, the monograph on the African campaign, which was written when the Civil War was well under way, refers to C.

So much for Caesar’s own words. But Cicero is ambivalent. In general he is well aware of the importance of dementia. He lists moderation (temperantia) as the desideratum in punishment and makes dementia one of its components (Inv. 2.164). He recommends the technique of arousing either severity or clemency in a judge, depending on the needs of one’s case. He condemns Verres for riding roughshod over the dementia of the Roman people.³⁷

Noting that dementia is the regulator of the victors in war as well as of judges in trials, he regrets that Caesar has not shown Pompeians the same clemency in Africa as he had shown in Asia and Greece.³⁸ He cites Caesar as the only conqueror whose unlimited clemency has meant that no civilians have fallen in his wars; he has the mild and merciful nature credited to him by the Pompeian Caecina.³⁹

After many expressions of unequivocal approval in letters both to Caesar and about him,⁴⁰ Cicero’s praises rise to a crescendo in his speech on behalf of C.Ligarius, who was tried for treason by Caesar himself in 46. Cicero admitted the facts,⁴¹ but appealed for clemency:

We rely on your humanitas, not on the merits of our case. If the accuser opposes this he will reveal his own lack of humanitas. Your mildness [lenitas] is as great as your victories, in spite of those of your followers who would frustrate your dementia. The accuser warns you to be cautious about pardoning my client, but these are the words of a man who is more likely to thrust humanitas away from himself than to strip you of it. Every word that I speak falls under a single head—your humanitas, your clementia, your misericordia. I am not addressing a jury, I am pleading to a father: I beg you to forgive his mistake, I throw myself on your clementia.

(Lig. 13-16, 29-30 adapted)

Hardened though we are to Cicero’s agility, it comes as a shock to see him also operating on the other side of the page.