ieve that Pompey found any
diadem at his feet, or thought of any diadem, nor, according to my
reading of Roman history, had Marius or had Sulla; nor did Caesar. The
first who thought of that perpetual rule--a rule to be perpetuated
during the ruler's life, and to be handed down to his successors--was
Augustus. Marius, violent, self-seeking, and uncontrollable, had tumbled
into supreme power; and, had he not died, would have held it as long as
he could, because it pleased his ambition for the moment. Sulla, with a
purpose, had seized it, yet seems never to have got beyond the old Roman
idea of a temporary Dictatorship. The old Roman horror of a king was
present to these Romans, even after they had become kings. Pompey, no
doubt, liked to be first, and when he came back from the East thought
that by his deeds he was first, easily first. Whether Consul year after
year, as Marius had been, or Dictator, as Sulla had been, or Imperator,
with a running command over all the Romans, it was his idea still to
adhere to the forms of the Republic. Mommsen, foreseeing--if an
historian can be said to foresee the future from his standing-point in
the past--that a master was to come for the Roman Empire, and giving all
his sympathies to the Caesarean idea, despises Pompey because Pompey
would not pick up the diadem. No such idea ever entered Pompey's head.
After a while he "Sullaturized"--was desirous of copying Sulla--to use
an excellent word which Cicero coined. When he was successfully opposed
by those whom he had thought inferior to himself, when he found that
Caesar had got the better of him, and that a stronger body of Romans went
with Caesar than with him, then proscriptions, murder, confiscations, and
the seizing of dictatorial power presented themselves to his angry mind,
but of permanent despotic power there was, I think, no thought, nor, as
far as I can read the records, had such an idea been fixed in Caesar's
bosom. To carry on the old trade of Praetor, Consul, Proconsul, and
Imperator, so as to get what he could of power and wealth and dignity in
the scramble, was, I think, Caesar's purpose. The rest grew upon him. As
Shakspeare, sitting down to write a play that might serve his theatre,
composed some Lear or Tempest--that has lived and will live forever,
because of the genius which was unknown to himself--so did Caesar, by his
genius, find his way to a power which he had not premeditated. A much
longer time is necessary for