Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/276

262 pardoned by law; and he appointed governors of the provinces within his power. Finally, through a senatorial decree, he was empowered for the rest of 49 and for 48 to take any measures he considered advisable.

The Second Dictatorship of Caesar. — During Caesar's campaign against Pompeius in 48, the second consul, P. Servilius, was at the head of affairs in Rome. The internal peace was disturbed by the praetor M. Caelius Rufus, who was indignant because Caesar had not given him the urban praetorship. He renewed the agitation for the cancellation, perhaps, of all debts, and proposed also that tenants should be granted the remission of house rents for one year. But he was suspended from office, and when he and T. Milo attempted to excite an insurrection in southern Italy, they failed and both perished.

When Pompeius had been defeated at Pharsalus in August and then had been murdered in Egypt by Ptolemaeus, the son of Auletes, Caesar seems to have decided on the future form of the Roman government. Probably according to his instructions, the consul Servilius received by law the power to appoint a dictator and a master of horse. He appointed Caesar extraordinary dictator for an indefinite period and Mark Antony master of horse. Caesar furthermore obtained tribunician powers and inviolability for life. This was a new idea, but in accordance with his democratic antecedents.

In virtue of his dictatorial and tribunician powers Caesar within the next four years changed the constitution, reformed the administration, and was the monarch of the Roman state.

The End of the Republic. — Thus the Roman republic perished after an existence of about four and a half centuries. It had given to the Italians national unity and the