Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/399

Rh In this case it was no ordinary nation which called for organisation, but one whose fate must determine likewise the fate of the world. Never in the history of the race has such an opportunity been laid in the hands of a legislator; but a man was wanting to take advantage of it. That Cæsar, with all his genius, could not rise to the height of this task is a matter for sorrow, not for anger. For such a construction was in truth no simple or easy thing. It would have required a modification at least of slavery, and the extinction of the slave-trade, personal military service as the duty, and the power of choosing and controlling his rulers as the right of every Roman, and, finally, the gradual extension of the citizenship with political as well as personal privileges to the subjects of the Empire. A constitution was called for, which would have given room for the personal policy of a great statesman, while it carefully cherished every germ of independence and self-reliance in the citizens. Despotic methods of government may possibly find justification under certain circumstances, as a necessary transition to something better; the damning fact about Cæsarism is, that it left no niche in which any fresh growth of freedom could find root.

In a very half-hearted and imperfect way Cæsar's great successor seems to have recognised some of the needs of the world in this matter, and to have striven to find a place in his system for other powers and activities beside his own. Thus he averted for a time the full degradation of life under a despotism. The elder Cæsar had much better chances than his nephew. He had never been under the necessity of