Caesar

When the ambitious scion of the old Julius Caesar clan became the most popular man in all of ancient Roma, he virtually became its dicator. Despite his assassination, his family retained the power and established an imperial dynasty. His grand-nephew, Gaius Octavius, even adopted his name, legally becoming Gaius Julius Caesar.

The name Caesar was a cognomen, that is an extra name given in description of the holders. It seems to mean something like "a fine head of hair". Ironic in the dictator's case as he seems to have lost his hair and was fond of wearing his crown of oak leaves award to cover up the fact.

Not surprisingly, the new Caesar tried to keep power in the family and despite many mysterious deaths, detailed in I, Claudius (which includes Patrick Stewart), his eventual successor was a Caesar, his adopted son, Tiberius. He in turn was succeeded by that infamous Caesar family member, Caligula, who gave way to his uncle Claudius. But his successor Nero was actually the last of what is called the Julio-Claudian family.

After him, power was fought over by a succession of generals. None of them had any legitimacy, so what more natural way to paste over the problem than to claim that they too were part of the "Caesar" tradition? Thus Caesar was transformed from a name to a title.

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Each generation re-invents language for its own purposes. Much later the Caesar Diocletian (284-305) observed that the empire had become too unwieldy to be ruled by just one man. From henceforth there would be not one ruler, but four. He called it the Tetrarchy. At the top were two leaders each called an Augustus, one for the east and one for the west. Then, to help them, each of these would choose a junior called a Caesar. Every two decades, both of the Augusti would retire and their juniors take their positions, appointing new Caesari to replace them.

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This term Caesar natually became well known to the German tribes often in conflict with the Roman empire, probably most often as the arch-evildoer and author of all ills. But it was also useful for them when, for example, the Franks under Charlemagne tried to establish a reconstituted empire situated further to the north. Anyway, not having any experience of empire, what else would tribal people use? Thus began the term "Kaiser", which was to continue at times in Germany and Austria all the way to 1918. Interestingly, the German pronunciation of the term probably preserves more closely that of the original Latin, rather than the anglicized form which sounds like "seize her".

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When Constantine relocated the center of Roman power to his new city Constantinopolis (Constantinople, Istanbul), he inaugurated what would become an Eastern Roman Empire that would last until an amazing 1453. In the process intimate ties were developed with peoples just north of the neighboring Black Sea. And once again, needing a term for an emperor, Caesar was transformed into the Russian word Czar. Wonders if they too had fine heads of hair.
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