Caesar (title)

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Caesar, Latin: CÆSAR, is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Gaius Julius Caesar ("Julius Caesar"), the Roman dictator. The change from being a familial name to an imperial title can be loosely dated to 68 / 69, the so-called "Year of the Four Emperors".

1 Onomastic root
2 Sole Roman emperor
3 Minor dynastic title
4 Legacy
5 See also
6 Sources and references

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Onomastic root

Caesar originally meant "hairy", which suggests that the Iulii Caesares, a specific branch of the gens Iulia bearing this name, were conspicuous for having fine heads of hair (alternatively, given the Roman sense of humour, it could be that the Iulii Caesares were conspicuous for going bald). The first Emperor, Caesar Augustus, bore the name as a matter of course; born Gaius Octavius, he was posthumously adopted by Caesar in his will, and per Roman naming convention was renamed "Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus" (usually called "Octavian" during this stage of his life).

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Sole Roman emperor

For political and personal reasons Octavian chose to emphasise his relationship with Caesar by styling himself simply "Imperator Caesar" (whereto the Roman Senate added the honorific Augustus, "Majestic" or "Venerable", in 26 BC), without any of the other elements of his full name. His successor as Emperor, his stepson Tiberius, also bore the name as a matter of course; born Tiberius Claudius Nero, he was adopted by Caesar Augustus on June 26, 4, as "Tiberius Iulius Caesar". The precedent was set: the Emperor designated his successor by adopting him and giving him the name "Caesar".

The fourth Emperor, Claudius I, was the first to don the purple and assume the name "Caesar" without actually being a Caesar at the time (he was, however, a member by blood of the Iulio-Claudian dynasty). The first to assume the purple and the name simultaneously without any real claim to either was the usurper Servius Sulpicius Galba, who took the imperial throne under the name "Servius Galba Imperator Caesar" following the death of the last of the Iulio-Claudians, Nero in 68; he also helped solidify "Caesar" as the title of the designated heir by giving it to his own adopted heir, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus.

Galba's reign did not last long however, and he was soon deposed by Marcus Otho, who in turn was quickly defeated by Aulus Vitellius who donned the purple with the name "Aulus Vitellius Germanicus Imperator Augustus"; significantly, Vitellius did not at first adopt the cognomen "Caesar" as part of his name, and may have intended to replace it with "Germanicus" (he bestowed the name "Germanicus" upon his own son that year).

Nevertheless, Caesar had become such an integral part of the imperial dignity that its place was immediately restored by Titus Flavius Vespasianus ("Vespasian"), whose defeat of Vitellius in 69 put an end to the period of instability and began the Flavian dynasty. Vespasian's natural son, Titus Flavius Vespasianus became "Titus Caesar Vespasianus".

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Minor dynastic title

By this point, "Caesar"'s status had been regularised into that of a title given to the Emperor-designate (occasionally also with the honorific title Princeps Iuventutis, "Prince of Youth") and retained by him upon accession to the purple (e.g., Marcus Ulpius Traianus became Marcus Cocceius Nerva's designated heir as Caesar Nerva Traianus in October 97 and acceded on January 28, 98 as "Imperator Caesar Nerva Traianus Augustus"). After some variation among the earliest Emperors, the style of the Emperor-designate was NN. Caesar before accession and Imperator Caesar NN. Augustus after accession; starting with Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander, it became customary to style the Emperor-designate as NN. Nobilissimus Caesar ("NN. Most Noble Caesar") rather than simply NN. Caesar.

The use of Caesar for the junior partner in a consortium imperii naturally occurred also in break-away 'empires', eager to copy the Rome-proper original; e.g. the last Gallic emperor, Tetricus I, granted the title to his son, Tetricus II.

On March 1, 293, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus established the Tetrarchy, a system of rule by two senior Emperors and two junior sub-Emperors. The two coequal senior emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors, as Imperator Caesar NN. Pius Felix Invictus Augustus ("Elagabalus" had introduced the use of Pius Felix, "the Pious and Blessed", while Gaius Iulius Verus Maximinus "Thrax" introduced the use of Invictus, "the Unconquered"), and were called the Augusti, while the two junior sub-Emperors were styled identically to previous Emperors-designate, as NN. Nobilissimus Caesar. Likewise, the junior sub-Emperors retained the title "Caesar" upon accession to the senior purple.

The Tetrarchy was quickly abandoned as a system (though the four quarters of the empire survived as pretorian prefectures), and the previous system of Emperors and Emperors-designate was restored, both in the Latin-speaking West (caesar) and the Greek-speaking East (kaisar); the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West led to "Caesar" falling into disuse there (although the so-called "Holy Roman Emperors" were called Kaiser in German, their correct title were in Latin usually as imperator augustus, without caesar), and most Western European languages use derivatives from imperator to refer to emperors (e.g., the English word "emperor"). In fact, in more recent history the word imperator came to replace the original meaning of imperator in Latin. In the East (in the so-called "Byzantine Empire") it suffered from gradual debasement.

In the East, the kaisar acquired a crown (without a cross) and was junior in rank to the Patriarch of Constantinople; as a result, this title was seen as a suitable one for a high prince of the blood, a regent, or an Emperor-designate (Emperors-designate were usually crowned as co-Emperors during their predecessors' reigns). The proliferation of individuals so titled prompted Aleksios I Komnenos to create the superior title sebastokratôr (a portmanteau word meaning "majestic ruler" derived from sebastos and autokratôr, the Greek equivalents of augustus and imperator) for his brother Isaakios. Both "Kaisar" and "Sebastokratôr" were reduced in degree when Manyhl I Komnenos introduced despotes as a superior title; unlike the caesar and the sebastocrat, the despot had a territorial significance in addition to his degree of precedence.

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Legacy

The history of "Caesar" as an imperial title is reflected by the following monarchic titles, usually reserved for "Emperor" and "Empress" in many languages (note that the name Caesar, pronounced see-zer in English, was pronounced kai-sahr in Classical Latin):

Germanic languages:

Danish: Kejser & Kejserinde;
Dutch: Keizer & Keizerin;
German: Kaiser & Kaiserin;
Icelandic: Keisari & Keisaraynja;
Norwegian: Keiser & Keiserinne;
Swedish: Kejsare & Kejsarinna

Slavonic & Baltic languages:

Belarusian: Tsar & Tsarytsa; however in the Russian empire (also reflected in some of its other languages), which aimed to be the "third Rome" as successor to the Byzantine empire, it was abandoned (not in the foreign language renderings though) as imperial style -in favor of Imperator and Autocrator- and used as a lower, royal style as within the empire in chief of some of its part, e.g. Georgia and Siberia
Bulgarian: Tsar & Tsaritsa;
Croatian & Serbian: Car & Carica (c is read ts);
Latvian: Keizars & Keizarienne;
Polish: Cesarz & Cesarzowa;
Russian: Czar & Czaritsa (archaic transliteration), Tsar & Tsaritsa (modern transliteration)
Slovak: Cisár & Cisárovná;
Slovene: Cesar & Cesarica;
Ukrainian: Tsar & Tsarytsya

Other languages:

Arabic: Qaysar - قيصر
Estonian: Keiser & Keisrinna;
Finnish: Keisari & Keisarinna;
Hebrew: Keisár & Keisarít;
Hungarian: Császár & Császárnő;
Turkish: Kayser-i-Rûm "Caesar of [Constantinople, the second] Rome", one of many subsidiary titles proclaiming the Ottoman Great Sultan (main imperial title Padishah) as (Muslim) successor to "Rum" as the Turks called the (Christian) Roman Empire (as Byzantium had continued to call itself), continuing to use the name for part of formerly Byzantine territory (compare the Seljuk Rum-sultanate)

In various Romance and other languages, the imperial title was rather based on the Latin Imperator (in fact a military mandate or a victory title), but Caesar or a derivation is then still used for both the name and the minor ranks (still perceived as Latin)

There have been other cases of a noun proper being turned into a title, such as Charlemagne's Latin name -including the epithet- Carolus (magnus) becoming Slavonic titles rendered as King: Kralj (Serbo-Croat) and Krol (Polish)

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