Caesar was the first sole ruler of Rome; and we might be inclined to imagine that the powers which he enjoyed were consciously assumed merely as those of a provisional government, were there not signs that towards the close of his life he was satisfied with the solution which he had adopted. The early dictatorships of 49 and 48 B.C., the second and longer of which was only for the term of a year,[1564] were merely efforts for tiding over a crisis; and the same may perhaps be said of a later tenure of this office, which was conferred on him for ten years in 46 B.C.[1565] But in the last year of his life (44 B.C.) he entered on a perpetual dictatorship,[1566] a revival of the Roman monarchy both in reality and in name. It is true that the title _rex_ was not assumed, out of deference to the feelings of the masses who saw in it merely a synonym of oriental despotism; and for the same reason the diadem was declined.[1567] But every educated Roman knew that the Roman monarchy had been nothing else than the unlimited _imperium_, and many may have believed that dictator or “master of the people” was the most significant of the titles of the king. It was, therefore, a _regnum_ under which Rome was living,[1568] and there was no concealment of its military character, for the title _imperator_ was now borne by the regent within the walls.[1569] This designation was a mere symbol of military command and the fullest jurisdiction; it was no description of a basis actual or future on which Caesar’s power could rest, for the unqualified _imperium_ had no existence to the Roman mind, and, if it was to be unlimited, it must be either regal or dictatorial.