SOURCE: Wardle, D. “‘The Sainted Julius’: Valerius Maximus and the Dictator.” Classical Philology 92, no. 4 (October 1997): 323-45.

In the following essay, Wardle explores Valerius's positive evocations of Julius Caesar in the Memorable Doings and Sayings, including his affirmation of the emperor's bravery and divinity and his generalized support for imperial rule.

The career of the man who brought to an end Republican government for the Romans and who was at the same time the founder of the first imperial dynasty, Julius Caesar, posed particular problems for writers in the principates of Augustus and Tiberius.¹ Geraldine Herbert-Brown in her study of Ovid's presentation of Julius Caesar in the Fasti returns in general to the position of Syme, that after the battle of Actium Augustus restricted the profile enjoyed by Caesar, but also makes the notable suggestion that the memory of Caesar flourished, or perhaps revived, during the first decade a...