@DenoPenno I was afraid that was going to be the answer. Don't know if you've seen much of the original "Star Trek" tv series, but there's a well-known episode from c.1967 starring William Campbell playing an intergalactic all-powerful "child" -- who enjoys tormenting people and playing with people's lives for amusement. But at least Captain Kirk and the others resisted with all their might, as was the tradition back when it was made in the sixties. In the end his disembodied parents show up and relieve him of his powers. Don't we wish! Time for life to start imitating art, for those who love democracy.

@DenoPenno Probably for the same reason the Senate didn’t curb Caesar after the civil war. He would cause a nuisance anyway so extend his powers and monitor him.

@Geoffrey51 That one didn't occur to me -- good to see a classics scholar here. But there was also the one about the council of Athens sticking their necks out for democracy and their people, and then the people watching while they got the chop when the dictator got back in. Similar to the Parliamentarians still surviving when Charles II got in -- He executed them en masse to avenge the dethroning of dear old dad in the English Civil War.