Note 91 — TRANSLATION

Mention of Caesar’s intention of establishing an empire in the East, with a capital at Alexandria or at Ilium is also made by Suetonius, Caes., 79. Both he and Nicolaus tend toward rejecting the idea as absurd; but the fact is significant that in the summer of 48 B.C. Caesar granted freedom to Ilium (Strabo 13, 1, 27). R. Meyer (Kleine Schr. p. 467; Caesars Monarchie p. 521) thinks the plan entirely logical, and accepts the report as plausible. It would have been far simpler for Caesar to retain and augment his pseudo-divine attributes in the East than could ever have been the case in Rome; at the same time, the rights and privileges historically peculiar to Rome could have been served by an independent city government. The same question arose in Augustus’ time (Horace, Od., 3, 3).