] We can account for this only by emphasizing the fact that
the form of Caesar's government became as time went on more undisguised in
its absolutism, while the honours conferred upon seemed designed to raise
him above the rest of humanity. It is explained elsewhere (see ROME:
_History, Ancient_) that Caesar's power was exercised under the form of
dictatorship. In the first instance (autumn of 49 B.C.) this was conferred
upon him as the only solution of the constitutional deadlock created by the
flight of the magistrates and senate, in order that elections (including
that of Caesar himself to the consulship) might be held in due course. For
this there were republican precedents. In 48 B.C. he was created dictator
for the second time, probably with constituent powers and for an undefined
period, according to the dangerous and unpopular precedent of Sulla. In May
46 B.C. a third dictatorship was conferred on Caesar, this time for ten
years and apparently as a yearly office, so that he became Dictator IV. in
May 45 B.C. Finally, before the 15th of February 44 B.C., this was
exchanged for a life-dictatorship. Not only was this a contradiction in
terms, since the dictatorship was by tradition a makeshift justified only
when the state had to be carried through a serious crisis, but it involved
military rule in Italy and the permanent suspension of the constitutional
guarantees, such as _intercessio_ and _provocatio_, by which the liberties
of Romans were protected. That Caesar held the _imperium_ which he enjoyed
as dictator to be distinct in kind from that of the republican magistrates
he indicated by placing the term _imperator_ at the head of his titles.[2]
Besides the dictatorship, Caesar held the consulship in each year of his
reign except 47 B.C. (when no curule magistrates were elected save for the
last three months of the year); and he was moreover invested by special
enactments with a number of other privileges and powers; of these the most
important was the _tribunicia potestas_, which we may believe to have been
free from the limits of place (_i.e._ Rome) and collegiality. Thus, too, he
was granted the sole right of making peace and war, and of disposing of the
funds in the treasury of the state.[3] Save for the title of dictator,
which undoubtedly carried unpopular associations and was formally abolished
on the proposal of Antony after Caesar's death, this cumulation of powers
has little to distinguish it from the Pri