Caesar, Succession, and the Chastisement of Rulers

Authors

Patrick Martin
John M. Finnis, Notre Dame Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

Publication Information

78 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1045 (2002-2003)

Abstract

Julius Caesar's reign as dictator and praefectus morum for life ended with his assassination in 44 B.C. It was preceded by over four hundred years of consular rule, a system of executive government by two consuls, elected for a one-year term. Consular government began in 509 B.C., ending the hundred-year rule of the Tarquin kings. Three works printed in 1594 recalled for English readers the overthrow of the Tarquins and the establishing of consular government. One was dedicated to the Earl of Essex. Another, by William Shakespeare, was dedicated to Essex's close companion, the Earl of Southampton. The third work was also by Shakespeare. All three works present the Tarquins as unjust kings whose expulsion was a justified "chastisement" of their public and private misdeeds.

Comments

Reprinted with permission of the Notre Dame Law Review.

Recommended Citation

Patrick Martin & John M. Finnis, Caesar, Succession, and the Chastisement of Rulers, 78 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1045 (2002-2003).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/201