The Rebirth of the Caesars

Thomas James Dandelet

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139045704.002

1 - The Rebirth of the Caesars

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014

Thomas James Dandelet

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Thomas James Dandelet: Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley

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I gave him as a gift some gold and silver coins bearing the portraits of our ancient rulers and inscriptions in tiny and ancient lettering, coins that I treasured, and among them was the head of Caesar Augustus, who almost appeared to be breathing. “Here, O Caesar,” I said, are the men whom you have succeeded, here are those whom you must try to imitate and admire, whose ways and character you should emulate.

Petrarch to the Emperor Charles IV in Mantua.

Late in the 1330s, Francesco Petrarch began work on De viri illustribus, or On Famous Men. It was originally conceived of as a collection of biographies of twenty-three ancient Romans beginning with Romulus and ending with Julius Caesar, the de facto founder of the Roman Empire.

As a work dedicated largely to important military and political figures, Petrarch’s text served as an early literary guide to the two primary political streams that flowed out of ancient Rome: the Republican tradition and the Imperial tradition. For some of Petrarch’s later disciples and admirers such as the Florentine humanist Leonardo Bruni, it was the Republican tradition that they most celebrated and sought to revive and emulate in their own city states. The great majority of Petrarch’s famous men came from the Republican period, for example, whereas only Julius Caesar could be tied to the Imperial tradition.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Renaissance of Empire in Early Modern Europe , pp. 18 - 73

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139045704.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2014

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