Aside from Caesar's attempt to become Emperor...

[Blxz]

The civil war that took place when Caesar was in his late teens ended up with Sulla as dictator. He fought the war against Marius (of Marian reforms fame).

Edit: Just thought I would add, there is no consensus if Caesar ever meant to set up a permanent dictatorship along the lines of Augustus so calling it an attempt to become Emperor is misleading. He was simply a dictator, which had happened several times in Romes history, and may have eventually relinquished power.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't there record of Caesar being crowned 3 times in the main forum area? He was crowned then it was supposedly removed then put back on 3 times. This suggests that he may have been trying to become king. Maybe the ppl didn't react very well so he removed the crown. Maybe he was showing he could become king if he wanted and was proving that he didn't want that title. Maybe he was simply leading up to a later point where he would be crowned. Testing the waters so to speak. Perhaps if he hadn't died so early he could have been king/emperor in the end. Octavius may never have had the chance. Especially if Caesar survived long enough for Caesarion to grow up.

[The General]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't there record of Caesar being crowned 3 times in the main forum area? He was crowned then it was supposedly removed then put back on 3 times. This suggests that he may have been trying to become king. Maybe the ppl didn't react very well so he removed the crown. Maybe he was showing he could become king if he wanted and was proving that he didn't want that title. Maybe he was simply leading up to a later point where he would be crowned. Testing the waters so to speak. Perhaps if he hadn't died so early he could have been king/emperor in the end. Octavius may never have had the chance. Especially if Caesar survived long enough for Caesarion to grow up.

I was under the impression that Caesar was offered the crown (repeatedly), but that he specifically rejected (repeatedly) it and had it placed on Jupiter's statue on the Capitoline Hill to signify that Rome only had one king.

[antisocialmunky]

How about Saddam Hussein and Slobadon Milosevic?

Of course there's Putin. How about Castro too?

[Mulceber]

How about Saddam Hussein and Slobadon Milosevic?

Of course there's Putin. How about Castro too?

Given that Kevin's participating in a recreation of a debate going on in the late 18th century, we should probably confine our answers to people who lived before that time period.

I was under the impression that Caesar was offered the crown (repeatedly), but that he specifically rejected (repeatedly) it and had it placed on Jupiter's statue on the Capitoline Hill to signify that Rome only had one king.

Agreed. Pretty much everyone agrees that this was a staged event since it seems unlikely that Marc Antony would just HAPPEN to have a crown on him while he was running in the Lupercalia. However, from there it is interpreted in several different ways. One school of thought is that Caesar arranged for Antony to do it so that he could test the waters for declaring himself King. This is generally the way ancient historians (and probably Caesar's contemporaries) interpreted it. It's also been suggested that Caesar had no knowledge of it and that Antony himself planned to do it either to make Caesar look bad by suggesting that he was being considered a king or because he genuinely thought that Caesar should be king. I think the most likely explanation though is that the Roman people were getting worried that Caesar would declare himself King and so Caesar arranged for Antony to offer him the crown so that he could publicly refuse it and thus dispel those notions. If this was his plan, it backfired somewhat, as people generally interpreted it as him testing the waters for monarchy. -M

[Macilrille]

There are various versions of the story of Caesar and the crown, Wiki actually has an ok article on the subject.

[Owen Glyndwr]

I was going to mention Sulla, but everyone else here beat me to it.

Washington was already mentioned, but thankfully, he quite fit the Roman ideal. (Putting his power aside willingly)

There's also Oliver Cromwell, dunno if that was mentioned before.

[Kevin]

Uh, the debate is over. Thanks for your help

[Blxz]

Uh, the debate is over. Thanks for your help

You won the debate of course? With all our help =p