Rethinking the Cultural Setting of Caesar’s “I Am Caesar, Not Rex”: A Note

Abstract

This short paper deals with a well-trodden topic, Caesar’s avoidance of embracing the title rex. At the centre stands his famous saying “I am Caesar, not rex”, which was explained mainly by Roman domestic policy. However, this point of view helps only partly to understand his reasons for refuting the title; in the following lines I propose that Caesar’s dismissal of the title rex may also have been affected by his political experience with eastern and western foreign kings on the outskirts of the Roman Empire.