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Jefferson feared a new Caesar
Tacitus and Germania
His favorite guide was the Roman historian Tacitus, whom he called the first writer in the world without exception. In Tacitus's Germania, unconquered Germany is the womb of liberty, set against the corruption and decadence of Rome under the Caesars. Jefferson saw the Anglo-Saxons, and then the English settlers in America, as carriers of that ancient flame. In 1776 he proposed putting Hengist and Horsa, the legendary leaders of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, on the reverse of the Great Seal.
Caesars everywhere
Tacitus's portrait of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero showed him a monarchy that was murderous and tyrannical. Jefferson saw potential Caesars everywhere. George III was one, and Britain was the new imperial Rome. John Adams was another, and Hamilton was the clearest case. Over dinner, as Jefferson talked about his heroes, Hamilton answered that his own hero was Julius Caesar, the greatest man who ever lived. Jefferson took that completely seriously.
A program of fear
The same fear shaped his program. He backed Republican France, distrusted Britain, championed yeoman farmers, and wanted an empire of liberty in the west, all as bulwarks against the corrupting effects of luxury and decadence.
Why did Tacitus's Germania inspire American thinkers?
Tacitus wrote Germania around the year 98 to describe the customs of the Germanic tribes beyond the Rhine. He set their simple, fierce independence against what he saw as Roman luxury and decline. A manuscript of the work was rediscovered in the 15th century in a German monastery, and later writers across Europe drew on it. English political thinkers used its picture of free tribal assemblies to argue for old English liberties.
Why did Jefferson study Anglo-Saxon so closely?
Jefferson wrote an essay on the Anglo-Saxon language and collected Old English texts. He argued that English liberties came from Anglo-Saxon institutions that the Norman Conquest of 1066 had overlaid. He made Anglo-Saxon part of the curriculum at the University of Virginia, which he founded in 1819. In 1776 he sat on the committee with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams that was asked to design the Great Seal.
Where did the Hamilton and Caesar dinner come from?
The dinner is recorded in Jefferson's own notes, the Anas, which he compiled from earlier jottings of his years as secretary of state. In it, a conversation with Hamilton and Adams turned to the greatest men in history, and Hamilton named Julius Caesar. Jefferson set the exchange down years afterward, and the notes were published after his death. Hamilton's own writings show he admired Caesar's talents while fearing military rulers.
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