Caesar, Succession, and the Chastisement of Rulers

Julius Caesar\u27s reign as dictator and praefectus morum for life ended with his assassination in 44 B.C. It was preceded by over four hundred years of consular rule, a system of executive government by two consuls, elected for a one-year term. Consular government began in 509 B.C., ending the hundred-year rule of the Tarquin kings. Three works printed in 1594 recalled for English readers the overthrow of the Tarquins and the establishing of consular government. One was dedicated to the Earl of Essex. Another, by William Shakespeare, was dedicated to Essex\u27s close companion, the Earl of Southampton. The third work was also by Shakespeare. All three works present the Tarquins as unjust kings whose expulsion was a justified chastisement of their public and private misdeeds