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Render Unto Caesar
- University of Toronto Quarterly
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 7, Number 2, January 1938
- pp. 261-264
- Review
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REVIEWS preters, tend extravagantly to claim finality for their views. The .cult of the complete Elizabethan Shakespeare or nothing) can be carried too far. The loss ·we suffer from ignorance of the contemporary circumstances conditioning his drama can be overstated. Despite the head-shaking of the scholars, the untutored but averagely sensitive modern mind can fairly adequately make the imaginative adjustment to a world other than its own. Moreover, "the matters important in the lives and opinions of the authors" and Hwhat are important to us" do still largely coinFide. As Professor Craig himself says, "Shakespeare's superiority seems in part at least to lie in his truth to life .as subsequent ages have determined it." RENDER UNTO CAESAR* CHARLES N. COCHRANE Interest in the career of Augustus 'Caesar is twofold. As a record of purely personal achievement, it ranks among the most spectacular of success-stories in human history. "Few men," as the author observes, "have entered upon a more apparently hopeless task than Augustus when, in his nineteenth year) he left Apollonia, and few have ever won a more triumphant success." But, with Augustus, the triumph of the man was at the same time the triumph of an idea, in the realization of which the world was t~ find peace, security, and happiness for at least two centuries. And so completely did the Emperor identify himself with this idea as to merit the apotheosis which, ~ccording to notions already acclim~ tized in Rome by an authority no less respectable than Cicero, is reserved for the rulers and saviours of states; for his spirit was to be enshrined, along with that of the Eternal City itself, in the cult of Augustus and Rome. From this standpoint, his mentality was that of un etre tout ajait pol£tiquc, to study which is to raise, in an acute form, the problem of creative politics. To this problem the autho'r makes a notable contribution in his present book. Considered as an effort of descriptive analysis, the book leaves little to be desired. Certain statements may, indeed, be questioned. It is, for example, doubtful whether the project of moral and *Augustus, by John Buchan, Hodder and Stoughton (Musson), 1937. 261 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY· spiritual reformation is to be attributed to a period as early as that of 36-33 B.C., or whether the right of the Emperor to control the election of' magistrates through his powers of nomination and recommendation is in any way connected with his possession of tribunician power. But) in general) it may be agreed that the author has a wide and accurate knowledge of the available sourcematerial ; and he brings to his task not merely the resources of a finished literary craftsman) but a sense of historical values such as he had previously demonstrated in his Cromwell. The reader may therefore expect a lively and judicious presentation of the evidence·and he will not be disappointed; by this standard, the ·work fulfils every reasonable demand of biography. At the same time, it invites attention as an attempt to explore, at least in part, "the mind of a great man," On this score, the author leaves no doubt as to where he himself stands. "Augustus gave the Empire a sou], and he laboured also to correct the disharmonies of its body." The Augustan constitution remains "one of the major products of the human intelligence." This is to suggest that the achievement of Augustus was 'something more than ",to have saved' the world from disintegration;" it was "to remake and redirect it by a courageous realism and supreme powers of character and mind." The views thus expressed repre~ent a departure from those popularized by Mommsen, who saw n way of exalting his hero except by disparaging his successor, and whose extravagant eulogy of Julius as "the entire and perfect man" is in sharp contrast with his estimate of Augustus as one who "wore the mask of greatness but was himself not great." Mommsen's opinion reflects a temperamental intolerance of all but Bismarckian methods, but a measure of experience in the actual problems of government might perhaps have taught him to appreciate the importance of other and no less essential qualities of leadership. And it may freely be conceded that the dictator laid the foundations of a new imperial order while still maintaining with our author that, under him, Rome to some extent lost her way in the world. To restore her to the path of destiny, what was needed wa's the "profound practical intelligence," the patient and sedulous industry of an Augustus. In this connection it may be suggested that the original position of the younger Caesar was_ not so much that of an "heir apparent" as of the legatee to what might easily have proved a damnosa 262 REVIEWS hereditas. Nor is there adequate reason to suppose that, at this time, his programme included anything beyond the rehabilitation of Ca~sar's name and the vindication of his own claims under Caesar's wilL Yet this was enough to involve him in a struggle for power wh'ich was to be concluded only with Philippi and Actium. Throughout this period, his status was that of a mere faction-leader and he shrank from nothing which would promote his interests, justifying his conduct in terms of pietas, a real or assumed loyalty _ 'to his father's memory. At the same time, he learned to admire or, at any rate, to 'exploit certain' of the most vital and deep-seated impulses of Graeco-Roman life. What those impulses were may be discovered from the pages of Vergil; to give them effective expression became the task of the Emperor. In this he was powerfully assisted, not merely by his own «congenital conservatism" but by the fact that he outlived bra whole generation the bitter animosities of ,the Civil Wars. Under his guidance, the moral and socia-l aspirations of antiquity at last came to fruition in the impressive structure of the Augustan peace. As to the immense benefits of that peace, there can be' no serious question. To Romans and Italians,- it represented at once the fulfilment of their "manifest destiny" as an imperial people and a justification of the role which they had played in the ' troubled history of the Mediterranean. Iri the words of a Caesarian of the revolutionary generation: "Should this empire perish either through disease or from fate, who can doubt that the result will be world-wide devastation, blood-shed and strife?" To the victims of republican predatory imperialism it provided a blessed relief from the exploitation which had made the Rome of Cicero's day "stink in the nostrils of the provinc~als," as well as the prospect of full participation in the economic and cultural advantages of the uni- , versal commonwealth. To all subjects of Caesar alike it offered a vision of social justice on principles to be embodied in the classical jurisprudence; principles which, according -to Sohm, "guaranteed the permanent and essential elements of the private personality;" that is_to say, it looked forward to the bourgeois paradise which was to 'excite the enthusiastic admiration of Gibbon. But can history accept the claim to finality which, for these reasons, was put forward on behalf of the new regime? To endorse that claim would be to overlook the chronique scandaleuse of the imperial palace, the tragedies of a dynasticism 'imposed upon 263 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY members of his own household by the ambitions of the founder; ambitions which, however natural, were (we may add) hardly consistent with the formal profession of republica~' principles. It would he to forget the ruthless liquidation of intransigent r-epublicans , which, beginning with Tiberius under the provisions of the Lex Majestatis, was to result in the virtual extinction of the ancient aristocracy. It would be to condone restrictions upon human freedom which, though doubtless justifiable in terms of political expediency, nevertheless made it impossible, in the words of Tacitus, "to say what you think and think ,what you will." Finally, it would be to subscribe to an ideal of justice which identified it with the maintenance of a rigid social structure in which property (including slaves) remained the immovable foundation of human relationships. Such considerations are not, indeed, decisive; hut they are enough to show that the Augustan peace was a pax imperjecta, an enforced order which, while perhaps requisite for a people capable neither of freedom nor of servitude, yet depends for its ultima ratio upon the sword. ' To ,say this is not to condemn Augustus nor the arcana imperii of which he proved himself such a skilful exponent. But it is to suggest that he operated within ideological limitations whicl1 must be appreciated if the world is ever to 'arrive at a just appraisal of the debt it owes to Caesar. And the limitations ·in question are precisely those of (l creative" politics. Statecraft constructs; it does not create, since the material with which it deals consists of native 'moral and spiritual forces which are presupposed in all forms .of its .activity. These forces it may indeed stimulate and direct, as it may also pervert or destroy them. But, in that case, its function is purely and simply one of social mechanics; to describe it as one of regeneration is to subscribe to one of the most dangerous fallacies of the political mind. And the statesman grossly overestimates himself who, in return for his services, accepts the adoration due to an earthly providence. To recognize these truths is to perceive the need for a more adequate principle of discrimination than is usually employed in discussions of the Caesars. That the author is conscious of such a need is indicated by his repeated references to the (Cyoung man of Galilee." As they stand, however, these references are not very helpful, for they contain nO'hintthat , , in the kingdom proclaimed by that young man, was to be found inter alia the instrument for a drastic. revision of the pretensions of Caesar and of the values consecrated in his name. ' 264 ...