Governmental Philosophies
“Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the entire political system.” Marcus Tullius Cicero On the People. The people of Rome mistakenly felt that as it was easier to streamline the government by placing governors to control the land they had conquered, it was the better way to do things and that it preserved the Republic because the governor answered to the Republic. “[Cicero] was the first to see beneath the surface of [Julius] Caesar’s public policy and to fear it, as one might fear the smiling surface of the sea.” Plutarch on Cicero’s understanding of Julius Caesar. Due to the easy option of appointing dictators that had been used previously the idea of making Caesar dictator for life seemed simply the next logical step instead of a radical and distressing blow to the Republic.