Mercy as Policy
Caesar’s clemency should not be sentimentalised. It was political, strategic, theatrical, and moral in different proportions. To spare enemies was to present himself as different from Sulla.
The Sullan Contrast
After Sulla, Roman memory knew what victory by terror looked like. Caesar’s refusal to imitate proscriptions was therefore not a small matter. It was a statement about the kind of victor he wished to be seen as.
The Difficulty
Clemency did not save Caesar. Some of those spared later joined the conspiracy against him. This does not make clemency meaningless, but it reveals the impossibility of healing a political class whose fear had outlived defeat.