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diff --git a/8425-h/8425-h.htm b/8425-h/8425-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d53cbe5 --- /dev/null +++ b/8425-h/8425-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,17167 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Caesar: A Sketch, by James Anthony Froude</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.fnsuper{Font-Size: 70%;Vertical-Align: top;} +.poetry{Margin-Left: 2em;} +.quoted{Margin-Left: 4em;} +.footnote{Font-Size: 90%;Margin-Left: 6em;} +.sidenote{Color: #C0C0C0;Background-Color: #FFFFFF;Font-Weight: bold;} + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Caesar: A Sketch, by James Anthony Froude</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Caesar: A Sketch</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: James Anthony Froude</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 9, 2003 [eBook #8425]<br /> +[Most recently updated: December 27, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Eric Eldred, Robert Connal and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAESAR: A SKETCH ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/caesar.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt="[Illustration]" /> +<p class="caption">CÆSAR</p> +</div> + +<h1>CAESAR<br /> +<br /> +<i>A SKETCH</i></h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">BY<br /> +<br /> +JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M.A.<br /> +<br /> +FORMERLY FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="poetry"> <i>“Pardon, gentles all<br /> + The flat unraised spirit that hath dared<br /> + On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth<br /> + So great an object.”</i><br /> +</p> + +<p class="poetry"> —SHAKESPEARE, Henry V.<br /> +</p> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a href="images/map.jpg"> +<img src="images/map.jpg" width="750" height="527" alt="Illustration:" /></a> +<p class="caption">Map of GALLIA in the time of Caesar.</p> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p>I have called this work a “sketch” because the +materials do not exist for a portrait which shall be at once +authentic and complete. The original authorities which are now +extant for the life of Caesar are his own writings, the speeches +and letters of Cicero, the eighth book of the +“Commentaries” on the wars in Gaul and the history of the +Alexandrian war, by Aulus Hirtius, the accounts of the African war +and of the war in Spain, composed by persons who were +unquestionably present in those two campaigns. To these must be +added the “Leges Juliae” which are preserved in the +Corpus Juris Civilis. Sallust contributes a speech, and Catullus a +poem. A few hints can be gathered from the Epitome of Livy and the +fragments of Varro; and here the contemporary sources which can be +entirely depended upon are brought to an end.</p> + +<p>The secondary group of authorities from which the popular +histories of the time have been chiefly taken are Appian, Plutarch, +Suetonius, and Dion Cassius. Of these the first three were divided +from the period which they describe by nearly a century and a half, +Dion Cassius by more than two centuries. They had means of +knowledge which no longer exist—the writings, for instance, of +Asinius Pollio, who was one of Caesar’s officers. But Asinius +Pollio’s accounts of Caesar’s actions, as reported by +Appian, cannot always be reconciled with the Commentaries; and all +these four writers relate incidents as facts which are sometimes +demonstrably false. Suetonius is apparently the most trustworthy. +His narrative, like those of his contemporaries, was colored by +tradition. His biographies of the earlier Caesars betray the same +spirit of animosity against them which taints the credibility of +Tacitus, and prevailed for so many years in aristocratic Roman +society. But Suetonius shows nevertheless an effort at veracity, an +antiquarian curiosity and diligence, and a serious anxiety to tell +his story impartially. Suetonius, in the absence of evidence direct +or presumptive to the contrary, I have felt myself able to follow. +The other three writers I have trusted only when I have found them +partially confirmed by evidence which is better to be relied +upon.</p> + +<p>The picture which I have drawn will thus be found deficient in +many details which have passed into general acceptance, and I have +been unable to claim for it a higher title than that of an outline +drawing.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p><a href="#chapter1">CHAPTER I.</a></p> + +<p>Free Constitutions and Imperial Tendencies.—Instructiveness of +Roman History.—Character of Historical Epochs.—The Age of +Caesar.—Spiritual State of Rome.—Contrasts between Ancient and +Modern Civilization.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter2">CHAPTER II.</a></p> + +<p>The Roman Constitution.—Moral Character of the Romans.—Roman +Religion.—<br /> + Morality and Intellect.—Expansion of Roman Power.—The +Senate.—Roman<br /> + Slavery.—Effects of Intercourse with Greece.—Patrician +Degeneracy.—The<br /> + Roman Noble.—Influence of Wealth.—Beginnings of Discontent.<br /> +</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter3">CHAPTER III.</a></p> + +<p>Tiberius Gracchus.—Decay of the Italian Yeomanry.—Agrarian +Law.—Success and Murder of Gracchus.—Land Commission.—Caius +Gracchus.—Transfer of Judicial Functions from the Senate to the +Equites.—Sempronian Laws.—Free Grants of Corn.—Plans for +Extension of the Franchise.—New Colonies.— Reaction.—Murder of +Caius Gracchus</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter4">CHAPTER IV.</a></p> + +<p>Victory of the Optimates.—The Moors.—History of Jugurtha.—The +Senate corrupted.—Jugurthine War.—Defeat of the Romans.—Jugurtha +comes to Rome.—Popular Agitation.—The War renewed.—Roman Defeats +in Africa and Gaul.—Caecilius Metellus and Caius Marius.—Marriage +of Marius.—The Caesars.—Marius Consul.—First Notice of +Sylla.—Capture and Death of Jugurtha</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter5">CHAPTER V.</a></p> + +<p>Birth of Cicero.—The Cimbri and Teutons.—German Immigration +into Gaul.— Great Defeat of the Romans on the Rhone.—Wanderings +of the Cimbri.— Attempted Invasion of Italy.—Battle of +Aix.—Destruction of the Teutons.—Defeat of the Cimbri on the +Po.—Reform in the Roman Army.— Popular Disturbances in +Rome.—Murder of Memmius.—Murder of Saturninus and Glaucia</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter6">CHAPTER VI.</a></p> + +<p>Birth and Childhood of Julius Caesar.—Italian +Franchise.—Discontent of the Italians.—Action of the Land +Laws.—The Social War.—Partial Concessions.—Sylla and +Marius.—Mithridates of Pontus.—First Mission of Sylla into +Asia.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter7">CHAPTER VII.</a></p> + +<p>War with Mithridates.—Massacre of Italians in Asia.—Invasion +of Greece.—Impotence and Corruption of the Senate.—End of the +Social War.— Sylla appointed to the Asiatic Command.—The Assembly +transfer the Command to Marius.—Sylla marches on Rome.—Flight of +Marius.—Change of the Constitution.—Sylla sails for the +East.—Four Years’ Absence.—Defeat of +Mithridates.—Contemporary Incidents at Rome.—Counter +Revolution.— Consulship of Cinna.—Return of Marius.—Capitulation +of Rome.—Massacre of Patricians and Equites.—Triumph of +Democracy.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></p> + +<p>The Young Caesar.—Connection with Marius.—Intimacy with the +Ciceros.— Marriage of Caesar with the Daughter of +Cinna.—Sertorius.—Death of Cinna.—Consulships of Norbanus and +Scipio.—Sylla’s Return.—First Appearance of Pompey.—Civil +War.—Victory of Sylla.—The Dictatorship and the +Proscription.—Destruction of the Popular Party and Murder of the +Popular Leaders.—General Character of Aristocratic +Revolutions.—The Constitution remodelled.—Concentration of Power +in the Senate.—Sylla’s General Policy.—The Army.—Flight of +Sertorius to Spain.—Pompey and Sylla.—Caesar refuses to divorce +his Wife at Sylla’s Order.—Danger of Caesar.—His +Pardon.—Growing Consequence of Cicero.—Defence of +Roscius.—Sylla’s Abdication and Death</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter9">CHAPTER IX.</a></p> + +<p>Sertorius in Spain.—Warning of Cicero to the +Patricians.—Leading Aristocrats.—Caesar with the Army in the +East.—Nicomedes of Bithynia.— The Bithynian Scandal.—Conspiracy +of Lepidus.—Caesar returns to Rome.— Defeat of +Lepidus.—Prosecution of Dolabella.—Caesar taken by +Pirates.—Senatorial Corruption.—Universal Disorder.—Civil War in +Spain.—Growth of Mediterranean Piracy.—Connivance of the +Senate.—Provincial Administration.—Verres in Sicily.—Prosecuted +by Cicero.—Second War with Mithridates.—First Success of +Lucullus.—Failure of Lucullus, and the Cause of it.—Avarice of +Roman Commanders.—The Gladiators.—The Servile War.—Results of +the Change in the Constitution introduced by Sylla</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter10">CHAPTER X.</a></p> + +<p>Caesar Military Tribune.—Becomes known as a Speaker.—Is made +Quaestor.— Speech at his Aunt’s Funeral.—Consulship of Pompey +and Crassus.—Caesar marries Pompey’s Cousin.—Mission to +Spain.—Restoration of the Powers of the Tribunes.—The Equites and +the Senate.—The Pirates.—Food Supplies cut off from Rome.—The +Gabinian Law.—Resistance of the Patricians.— Suppression of the +Pirates by Pompey.—The Manilian Law.—Speech of Cicero.—Recall of +Lucullus.—Pompey sent to command in Asia.—Defeat and Death of +Mithridates.—Conquest of Asia by Pompey</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter11">CHAPTER XI.</a></p> + +<p>History of Catiline.—A Candidate for the Consulship.—Catiline +and Cicero.—Cicero chosen Consul.—Attaches Himself to the +Senatorial Party.—Caesar elected Aedile.—Conducts an Inquiry into +the Syllan Proscriptions.—Prosecution of Rabirius.—Caesar becomes +Pontifex Maximus—and Praetor.—Cicero’s Conduct as +Consul.—Proposed Agrarian Law.—Resisted by Cicero.—Catiline +again stands for the Consulship.— Violent Language in the +Senate.—Threatened Revolution.—Catiline again defeated.—The +Conspiracy.—Warnings sent to Cicero.—Meeting at Catiline’s +House.—Speech of Cicero in the Senate.—Cataline joins an Army of +Insurrection in Etruria.—His Fellow-conspirators.—Correspondence +with the Allobroges.—Letters read in the Senate.—The Conspirators +seized.— Debate upon their Fate.—Speech of Caesar.—Caesar on a +Future State.— Speech of Cato—and of Cicero.—The Conspirators +executed untried.—Death of Catiline.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter12">CHAPTER XII.</a></p> + +<p>Preparations for the Return of Pompey.—Scene in the +Forum.—Cato and Metellus.—Caesar suspended from the +Praetorship.—Caesar supports Pompey.—Scandals against +Caesar’s Private Life.—General Character of them.—Festival of +the Bona Dea.—Publius Clodius enters Caesar’s House dressed as +a Woman.—Prosecution and Trial of Clodius.—His Acquittal, and the +Reason of it.—Successes of Caesar as Propraetor in +Spain.—Conquest of Lusitania.—Return of Pompey to Italy.—First +Speech in the Senate.— Precarious Position of Cicero.—Cato and +the Equites.—Caesar elected Consul.—Revival of the Democratic +Party.—Anticipated Agrarian Law.— Uneasiness of Cicero.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></p> + +<p>The Consulship of Caesar.—Character of his Intended +Legislation.—The Land Act first proposed in the Senate.—Violent +Opposition.—Caesar appeals to the Assembly.—Interference of the +Second Consul Bibulus.—The Land Act submitted to the +People.—Pompey and Crassus support it.—Bibulus interposes, but +without Success.—The Act carried—and other Laws.—The Senate no +longer being Consulted.—General Purpose of the Leges Juliae.—Caesar +appointed to Command in Gaul for Five Years.—His Object in +accepting that Province.—Condition of Gaul, and the Dangers to be +apprehended from it.—Alliance of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus.—The +Dynasts.—Indignation of the Aristocracy.—Threats to repeal +Caesar’s Laws.—Necessity of Controlling Cicero and +Cato.—Clodius is made Tribune.—Prosecution of Cicero for Illegal +Acts when Consul.—Cicero’s Friends forsake him.—He flies, and +is banished.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></p> + +<p>Caesar’s Military Narrative.—Divisions of +Gaul.—Distribution of Population.—The Celts.—Degree of +Civilization.—Tribal System.—The Druids.—The AEdui and the +Sequani.—Roman and German Parties.—Intended Migration of the +Helvetii.—Composition of Caesar’s Army.—He goes to +Gaul.—Checks the Helvetii.—Returns to Italy for Larger +Forces.—The Helvetii on the Saône.—Defeated, and sent back to +Switzerland.—Invasion of Gaul by Ariovistus.—Caesar invites him +to a Conference.—He refuses.— Alarm in the Roman Army.—Caesar +marches against Ariovistus.—Interview between them.—Treachery of +the Roman Senate.—Great Battle at Colmar.— Defeat and +Annihilation of the Germans.—End of the First Campaign.—Confederacy +among the Belgae.—Battle on the Aisne.—War with the +Nervii.—Battle of Maubeuge.—Capture of Namur.—The Belgae +conquered.— Submission of Brittany.—End of the Second +Campaign.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter15">CHAPTER XV.</a></p> + +<p>Cicero and Clodius.—Position and Character of Clodius.—Cato +sent to Cyprus.—Attempted Recall of Cicero defeated by +Clodius.—Fight in the Forum.—Pardon and Return of +Cicero.—Moderate Speech to the People.— Violence in the +Senate.—Abuse of Piso and Gabinius.—Coldness of the Senate toward +Cicero.—Restoration of Cicero’s House.—Interfered with by +Clodius.—Factions of Clodius and Milo.—Ptolemy Auletes expelled +by his Subjects.—Appeals to Rome for Help.—Alexandrian Envoys +assassinated.— Clodius elected aedile.—Fight in the +Forum.—Parties in Rome.—Situation of Cicero.—Rally of the +Aristocracy.—Attempt to repeal the Leges Juliae.—Conference at +Lucca.—Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus.—Cicero deserts the +Senate.—Explains his Motives.—Confirmation of the Ordinances of +Lucca.—Pompey and Crassus Consuls.—Caesar’s Command prolonged +for Five Additional Years.—Rejoicings in Rome.—Spectacle in the +Amphitheater.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></p> + +<p>Revolt of the Veneti.—Fleet prepared in the Loire.—Sea-fight +at Quiberon.—Reduction of Normandy and of Aquitaine.—Complete +Conquest of Gaul.—Fresh Arrival of Germans over the Lower +Rhine.—Caesar orders them to retire, and promises them Lands +elsewhere.—They refuse to go—and are destroyed.—Bridge over the +Rhine.—Caesar invades Germany.—Returns after a Short +Inroad.—First Expedition into Britain.—Caesar lands at Deal, or +Walmer.—Storm and Injury to the Fleet.—Approach of the Equinox.—Further +Prosecution of the Enterprise postponed till the following +Year.— Caesar goes to Italy for the Winter.—Large Naval +Preparations.—Return of Spring.—Alarm on the Moselle.—Fleet +collects at Boulogne.—Caesar sails for Britain a Second +Time.—Lands at Deal.—Second and more Destructive Storm.—Ships +repaired, and placed out of Danger.—Caesar marches through +Kent.—Crosses the Thames, and reaches St. Albans.—Goes no +further, and returns to Gaul.—Object of the Invasion of +Britain.—Description of the Country and People.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></p> + +<p>Distribution of the Legions after the Return from +Britain.—Conspiracy among the Gallic Chiefs.—Rising of the +Eburones.—Destruction of Sabinus, and a Division of the Roman +Army.—Danger of Quintus Cicero.—Relieved by Caesar in +Person.—General Disturbance.—Labienus attacked at +Lavacherie.—Defeats and kills Induciomarus.—Second Conquest of +the Belgae.—Caesar again crosses the Rhine.—Quintus Cicero in +Danger a Second Time.—Courage of a Roman Officer.—Punishment of +the Revolted Chiefs.—Execution of Acco.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></p> + +<p>Correspondence of Cicero with Caesar.—Intimacy with Pompey and +Crassus.— Attacks on Piso and Gabinius.—-Cicero compelled to +defend Gabinius—and Vatinius.—Dissatisfaction with his +Position.—Corruption at the Consular Elections.—Public +Scandal.—Caesar and Pompey.—Deaths of Aurelia and +Julia.—Catastrophe in the East.—Overthrow and Death of +Crassus.—Intrigue to detach Pompey from Caesar.—-Milo a Candidate for the +Consulship.—Murder of Clodius.—Burning of the +Senate-house.—Trial and Exile of Milo.—Fresh Engagements with +Caesar.—Promise of the Consulship at the End of his Term in +Gaul.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter19">CHAPTER XIX.</a></p> + +<p>Last Revolt of Gaul.—Massacre of Romans at +Gien.—Vercingetorix.—Effect on the Celts of the Disturbances at +Rome.—Caesar crosses the Cevennes.— Defeats the Arverni.—Joins +his Army on the Seine.—Takes Gien, Nevers, and Bourges.—Fails at +Gergovia.—Rapid March to Sens.—Labienus at Paris.—Battle of the +Vingeanne.—Siege of Alesia.—Caesar’s Double Lines.—Arrival +of the Relieving Army of Gauls.—First Battle on the Plain.—Second +Battle.—Great Defeat of the Gauls.—Surrender of Alesia.—Campaign +against the Carnutes and the Bellovaci.—Rising on the +Dordogne.—Capture of Uxellodunum.—Caesar at Arras.—Completion of +the Conquest.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter20">CHAPTER XX.</a></p> + +<p>Bibulus in Syria.—Approaching Term of Caesar’s +Government.—Threats of Impeachment.—Caesar to be Consul or not to +be Consul?—Caesar’s Political Ambition.—Hatred felt toward +him by the Aristocracy.—Two Legions taken from him on Pretense of +Service against the Parthians.—Caesar to be recalled before the +Expiration of his Government.—Senatorial Intrigues.— Curio +deserts the Senate.—Labienus deserts Caesar.—Cicero in +Cilicia.—Returns to Rome.—Pompey determined on War.—Cicero’s +Uncertainties.— Resolution of the Senate and Consuls.—Caesar +recalled.—Alarm in Rome.— Alternative Schemes.—Letters of +Cicero.—Caesar’s Crime in the Eyes of the Optimates.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter21">CHAPTER XXI.</a></p> + +<p>Caesar appeals to his Army.—The Tribunes join him at +Rimini.—Panic and Flight of the Senate.—Incapacity of +Pompey.—Fresh Negotiations.— Advance of Caesar.—The Country +Districts refuse to arm against him.— Capture of +Corfinium.—Release of the Prisoners.—Offers of +Caesar.—Continued Hesitation of Cicero.—Advises Pompey to make +Peace.—Pompey, with the Senate and Consuls, flies to +Greece.—Cicero’s Reflections.— Pompey to be another +Sylla.—Caesar Mortal, and may die by more Means than one.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter22">CHAPTER XXII.</a></p> + +<p>Pompey’s Army in Spain.—Caesar at Rome.—Departure for +Spain.—Marseilles refuses to receive him.—Siege of +Marseilles.—Defeat of Pompey’s Lieutenants at Lerida.—The +whole Army made Prisoners.—Surrender of Varro.—Marseilles +taken.—Defeat of Curio by King Juba in Africa.— Caesar named +Dictator.—Confusion in Rome.—Caesar at Brindisi.—Crosses to +Greece in Midwinter.—Again offers Peace.—Pompey’s Fleet in +the Adriatic.—Death of Bibulus.—Failure of Negotiations.—Caelius +and Milo killed.—Arrival of Antony in Greece with the Second +Division of Caesar’s Army.—Siege of Durazzo.—Defeat and +Retreat of Caesar.—The Senate and Pompey.—Pursuit of +Caesar.—Battle of Pharsalia.—Flight of Pompey.—The Camp +taken.—Complete Overthrow of the Senatorial Faction.—Cicero on +the Situation once more.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></p> + +<p>Pompey flies to Egypt.—State of Parties in Egypt.—Murder of +Pompey.—His Character.—Caesar follows him to Alexandria.—Rising +in the City.— Caesar besieged in the Palace.—Desperate +Fighting.—Arrival of Mithridates of Pergamus.—Battle near Cairo, +and Death of the Young Ptolemy.—Cleopatra.—The Detention of +Caesar enables the Optimates to rally.—Ill Conduct of Caesar’s +Officers in Spain.—War with Pharnaces.— Battle of Zela, and +Settlement of Asia Minor.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></p> + +<p>The Aristocracy raise an Army in Africa.—Supported by +Juba.—Pharsalia not to end the War.—Caesar again in +Rome.—Restores Order.—Mutiny in Caesar’s Army.—The Mutineers +submit.—Caesar lands in Africa.— Difficulties of the +Campaign.—Battle of Thapsus.—No more Pardons.— Afranius and +Faustus Sylla put to Death.—Cato kills himself at Utica.— Scipio +killed.—Juba and Petreius die on each other’s Swords.—A Scene +in Caesar’s Camp.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter25">CHAPTER XXV.</a></p> + +<p>Rejoicings in Rome.—Caesar Dictator for the Year.—Reforms the +Constitution.—Reforms the Calendar—and the Criminal +Law.—Dissatisfaction of Cicero.—Last Efforts in Spain of Labienus and +the Young Pompeys.—Caesar goes thither in Person, accompanied by +Octavius.— Caesar’s Last Battle at Munda.—Death of +Labienus.—Capture of Cordova.— Close of the Civil War.—General +Reflections.<br /> +</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></p> + +<p>Caesar once more in Rome.—General Amnesty.—The Surviving +Optimates pretend to submit.—Increase in the Number of +Senators.—Introduction of Foreigners.—New +Colonies.—Carthage.—Corinth.—Sumptuary Regulations.— Digest of +the Law.—Intended Parthian War.—Honors heaped on Caesar.—The +Object of them.—Caesar’s Indifference.—Some +Consolations.—Hears of Conspiracies, but disregards +them.—Speculations of Cicero in the Last Stage of the War.—Speech +in the Senate.—A Contrast, and the Meaning of it.—The +Kingship.—Antony offers Caesar the Crown, which Caesar +refuses.—The Assassins.—Who they were.—Brutus and Cassius.—Two +Officers of Caesar’s among them.—Warnings.—Meeting of the +Conspirators.—Caesar’s Last Evening.—The Ides of March.—The +Senate-house.—Caesar killed.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></p> + +<p>Consternation in Rome.—The Conspirators in the +Capitol.—Unforeseen Difficulties.—Speech of Cicero.—Caesar’s +Funeral.—Speech of Antony.— Fury of the People.—The Funeral Pile +in the Forum.—The King is dead, but the Monarchy +survives.—Fruitlessness of the Murder.—Octavius and +Antony.—Union of Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus.—Proscription of +the Assassins.—Philippi, and the end of Brutus and Cassius.—Death +of Cicero.—His Character.</p> + +<p><a href="#chapter28">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></p> + +<p>General Remarks on Caesar.—Mythological Tendencies.—Supposed +Profligacy of Caesar.—Nature of the +Evidence.—Servilia.—Cleopatra.—Personal Appearance of +Caesar.—His Manners in Private Life.—Considerations upon him as a +Politician, a Soldier, and a Man of Letters.—Practical Justice his +Chief Aim as a Politician.—Universality of Military +Genius.—Devotion of his Army to him, how deserved.—Art of +reconciling Conquered Peoples.—General Scrupulousness and +Leniency.—Oratorical and Literary Style.—Cicero’s Description +of it.—His Lost Works.—Cato’s Judgment on the Civil War.—How +Caesar should be estimated.—Legend of Charles V.— Spiritual +Condition of the Age in which Caesar lived.—His Work on Earth to +establish Order and Good Government, to make possible the +Introduction of Christianity.—A Parallel.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CAESAR: A SKETCH</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> + +<p>To the student of political history, and to the English student +above all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a +military empire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many +differences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble one +another. The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-government +beyond any people of whom we have historical knowledge, with the +one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, +they became the most powerful nation in the known world; and their +liberties perished only when Rome became the mistress of conquered +races, to whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her +privileges. If England was similarly supreme, if all rival powers +were eclipsed by her or laid under her feet, the Imperial +tendencies, which are as strongly marked in us as our love of +liberty, might lead us over the same course to the same end. If +there be one lesson which history clearly teaches, it is this, that +free nations cannot govern subject provinces. If they are unable or +unwilling to admit their dependencies to share their own +constitution, the constitution itself will fall in pieces from mere +incompetence for its duties.</p> + +<p>We talk often foolishly of the necessities of things, and we +blame circumstances for the consequences of our own follies and +vices; but there are faults which are not faults of will, but +faults of mere inadequacy to some unforeseen position. Human nature +is equal to much, but not to everything. It can rise to altitudes +where it is alike unable to sustain itself or to retire from them +to a safer elevation. Yet when the field is open it pushes forward, +and moderation in the pursuit of greatness is never learnt and +never will be learnt. Men of genius are governed by their instinct; +they follow where instinct leads them; and the public life of a +nation is but the life of successive generations of statesmen, +whose horizon is bounded, and who act from day to day as immediate +interests suggest. The popular leader of the hour sees some present +difficulty or present opportunity of distinction. He deals with +each question as it arises, leaving future consequences to those +who are to come after him. The situation changes from period to +period, and tendencies are generated with an accelerating force, +which, when once established, can never be reversed. When the +control of reason is once removed, the catastrophe is no longer +distant, and then nations, like all organized creations, all forms +of life, from the meanest flower to the highest human institution, +pass through the inevitably recurring stages of growth and +transformation and decay. A commonwealth, says Cicero, ought to be +immortal, and for ever to renew its youth. Yet commonwealths have +proved as unenduring as any other natural object:</p> + +<p class="poetry"> Everything that grows<br /> + Holds in perfection but a little moment,<br /> + And this huge state presenteth nought but shows,<br /> + Whereon the stars in silent influence comment.<br /> +</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, “as the heavens are high above the earth, so +is wisdom above folly.” Goethe compares life to a game at +whist, where the cards are dealt out by destiny, and the rules of +the game are fixed: subject to these conditions, the players are +left to win or lose, according to their skill or want of skill. The +life of a nation, like the life of a man, may be prolonged in honor +into the fulness of its time, or it may perish prematurely, for +want of guidance, by violence or internal disorders. And thus the +history of national revolutions is to statesmanship what the +pathology of disease is to the art of medicine. The physician +cannot arrest the coming on of age. Where disease has laid hold +upon the constitution he cannot expel it. But he may check the +progress of the evil if he can recognize the symptoms in time. He +can save life at the cost of an unsound limb. He can tell us how to +preserve our health when we have it; he can warn us of the +conditions under which particular disorders will have us at +disadvantage. And so with nations: amidst the endless variety of +circumstances there are constant phenomena which give notice of +approaching danger; there are courses of action which have +uniformly produced the same results; and the wise politicians are +those who have learnt from experience the real tendencies of +things, unmisled by superficial differences, who can shun the rocks +where others have been wrecked, or from foresight of what is coming +can be cool when the peril is upon them.</p> + +<p>For these reasons, the fall of the Roman Republic is +exceptionally instructive to us. A constitutional government the +most enduring and the most powerful that ever existed was put on +its trial, and found wanting. We see it in its growth; we see the +causes which undermined its strength. We see attempts to check the +growing mischief fail, and we see why they failed. And we see, +finally, when nothing seemed so likely as complete dissolution, the +whole system changed by a violent operation, and the dying +patient’s life protracted for further centuries of power and +usefulness.</p> + +<p>Again, irrespective of the direct teaching which we may gather +from them, particular epochs in history have the charm for us which +dramas have— periods when the great actors on the stage of life +stand before us with the distinctness with which they appear in the +creations of a poet. There have not been many such periods; for to +see the past, it is not enough for us to be able to look at it +through the eyes of contemporaries; these contemporaries themselves +must have been parties to the scenes which they describe. They must +have had full opportunities of knowledge. They must have had eyes +which could see things in their true proportions. They must have +had, in addition, the rare literary powers which can convey to +others through the medium of language an exact picture of their own +minds; and such happy combinations occur but occasionally in +thousands of years. Generation after generation passes by, and is +crumbled into sand as rocks are crumbled by the sea. Each brought +with it its heroes and its villains, its triumphs and its sorrows; +but the history is formless legend, incredible and unintelligible; +the figures of the actors are indistinct as the rude ballad or +ruder inscription, which may be the only authentic record of them. +We do not see the men and women, we see only the outlines of them +which have been woven into tradition as they appeared to the loves +or hatreds of passionate admirers or enemies. Of such times we know +nothing, save the broad results as they are measured from century +to century, with here and there some indestructible pebble, some +law, some fragment of remarkable poetry which has resisted +decomposition. These periods are the proper subject of the +philosophic historian, and to him we leave them. But there are +others, a few, at which intellectual activity was as great as it is +now, with its written records surviving, in which the passions, the +opinions, the ambitions of the age are all before us, where the +actors in the great drama speak their own thoughts in their own +words, where we hear their enemies denounce them and their friends +praise them; where we are ourselves plunged amidst the hopes and +fears of the hour, to feel the conflicting emotions and to +sympathize in the struggles which again seem to live: and here +philosophy is at fault. Philosophy, when we are face to face with +real men, is as powerless as over the Iliad or King Lear. The +overmastering human interest transcends explanation. We do not sit +in judgment on the right or the wrong; we do not seek out causes to +account for what takes place, feeling too conscious of the +inadequacy of our analysis. We see human beings possessed by +different impulses, and working out a pre-ordained result, as the +subtle forces drive each along the path marked out for him; and +history becomes the more impressive to us where it least +immediately instructs.</p> + +<p>With such vividness, with such transparent clearness, the age +stands before us of Cato and Pompey, of Cicero and Julius Caesar; +the more distinctly because it was an age in so many ways the +counterpart of our own, the blossoming period of the old +civilization, when the intellect was trained to the highest point +which it could reach, and on the great subjects of human interest, +on morals and politics, on poetry and art, even on religion itself +and the speculative problems of life, men thought as we think, +doubted where we doubt, argued as we argue, aspired and struggled +after the same objects. It was an age of material progress and +material civilization; an age of civil liberty and intellectual +culture; an age of pamphlets and epigrams, of salons and of +dinner-parties, of senatorial majorities and electoral corruption. +The highest offices of state were open in theory to the meanest +citizen; they were confined, in fact, to those who had the longest +purses, or the most ready use of the tongue on popular platforms. +Distinctions of birth had been exchanged for distinctions of +wealth. The struggles between plebeians and patricians for equality +of privilege were over, and a new division had been formed between +the party of property and a party who desired a change in the +structure of society. The free cultivators were disappearing from +the soil. Italy was being absorbed into vast estates, held by a few +favored families and cultivated by slaves, while the old +agricultural population was driven off the land, and was crowded +into towns. The rich were extravagant, for life had ceased to have +practical interest, except for its material pleasures; the +occupation of the higher classes was to obtain money without labor, +and to spend it in idle enjoyment. Patriotism survived on the lips, +but patriotism meant the ascendency of the party which would +maintain the existing order of things, or would overthrow it for a +more equal distribution of the good things which alone were valued. +Religion, once the foundation of the laws and rule of personal +conduct, had subsided into opinion. The educated, in their hearts, +disbelieved it. Temples were still built with increasing splendor; +the established forms were scrupulously observed. Public men spoke +conventionally of Providence, that they might throw on their +opponents the odium of impiety; but of genuine belief that life had +any serious meaning, there was none remaining beyond the circle of +the silent, patient, ignorant multitude. The whole spiritual +atmosphere was saturated with cant—cant moral, cant political, +cant religious; an affectation of high principle which had ceased +to touch the conduct, and flowed on in an increasing volume of +insincere and unreal speech. The truest thinkers were those who, +like Lucretius, spoke frankly out their real convictions, declared +that Providence was a dream, and that man and the world he lived in +were material phenomena, generated by natural forces out of cosmic +atoms, and into atoms to be again resolved.</p> + +<p>Tendencies now in operation may a few generations hence land +modern society in similar conclusions, unless other convictions +revive meanwhile and get the mastery of them; of which possibility +no more need be said than this, that unless there be such a revival +in some shape or other, the forces, whatever they be, which control +the forms in which human things adjust themselves, will make an end +again, as they made an end before, of what are called free +institutions. Popular forms of government are possible only when +individual men can govern their own lives on moral principles, and +when duty is of more importance than pleasure, and justice than +material expediency. Rome at any rate had grown ripe for judgment. +The shape which the judgment assumed was due perhaps, in a measure, +to a condition which has no longer a parallel among us. The men and +women by whom the hard work of the world was done were chiefly +slaves, and those who constitute the driving force of revolutions +in modern Europe lay then outside society, unable and perhaps +uncaring to affect its fate. No change then possible would much +influence the prospects of the unhappy bondsmen. The triumph of the +party of the constitution would bring no liberty to them. That +their masters should fall like themselves under the authority of a +higher master could not much distress them. Their sympathies, if +they had any, would go with those nearest their own rank, the +emancipated slaves and the sons of those who were emancipated; and +they, and the poor free citizens everywhere, were to a man on the +side which was considered and was called the side of “the +people,” and was, in fact, the side of despotism.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> + +<p>The Roman Constitution had grown out of the character of the +Roman nation. It was popular in form beyond all constitutions of +which there is any record in history. The citizens assembled in the +Comitia were the sovereign authority in the State, and they +exercised their power immediately and not by representatives. The +executive magistrates were chosen annually. The assembly was the +supreme Court of Appeal; and without its sanction no freeman could +be lawfully put to death. In the assembly also was the supreme +power of legislation. Any consul, any praetor, any tribune, might +propose a law from the Rostra to the people. The people if it +pleased them might accept such law, and senators and public +officers might be sworn to obey it under pains of treason. As a +check on precipitate resolutions, a single consul or a single +tribune might interpose his veto. But the veto was binding only so +long as the year of office continued. If the people were in +earnest, submission to their wishes could be made a condition at +the next election, and thus no constitutional means existed of +resisting them when these wishes showed themselves.</p> + +<p>In normal times the Senate was allowed the privilege of +preconsidering intended acts of legislation, and refusing to +recommend them if inexpedient, but the privilege was only converted +into a right after violent convulsions, and was never able to +maintain itself. That under such a system the functions of +government could have been carried on at all was due entirely to +the habits of self-restraint which the Romans had engraved into +their nature. They were called a nation of kings, kings over their +own appetites, passions, and inclinations. They were not +imaginative, they were not intellectual; they had little national +poetry, little art, little philosophy. They were moral and +practical. In these two directions the force that was in them +entirely ran. They were free politically, because freedom meant to +them not freedom to do as they pleased, but freedom to do what was +right; and every citizen, before he arrived at his civil +privileges, had been schooled in the discipline of obedience. Each +head of a household was absolute master of it, master over his +children and servants, even to the extent of life and death. What +the father was to the family, the gods were to the whole people, +the awful lords and rulers at whose pleasure they lived and +breathed. Unlike the Greeks, the reverential Romans invented no +idle legends about the supernatural world. The gods to them were +the guardians of the State, whose will in all things they were +bound to seek and to obey. The forms in which they endeavored to +learn what that will might be were childish or childlike. They +looked to signs in the sky, to thunder-storms and comets and +shooting stars. Birds, winged messengers, as they thought them, +between earth and heaven, were celestial indicators of the +gods’ commands. But omens and auguries were but the outward +symbols, and the Romans, like all serious peoples, went to their +own hearts for their real guidance. They had a unique religious +peculiarity, to which no race of men has produced anything like. +They did not embody the elemental forces in personal forms; they +did not fashion a theology out of the movements of the sun and +stars or the changes of the seasons. Traces may be found among them +of cosmic traditions and superstitions, which were common to all +the world; but they added of their own this especial feature: that +they built temples and offered sacrifices to the highest human +excellences, to “Valor,” to “Truth,” to +“Good Faith,” to “Modesty,” to +“Charity,” to “Concord.” In these qualities lay +all that raised man above the animals with which he had so much in +common. In them, therefore, were to be found the link which +connected him with the divine nature, and moral qualities were +regarded as divine influences which gave his life its meaning and +its worth. The “Virtues” were elevated into beings to +whom disobedience could be punished as a crime, and the +superstitious fears which run so often into mischievous idolatries +were enlisted with conscience in the direct service of right +action.</p> + +<p>On the same principle the Romans chose the heroes and heroines +of their national history. The Manlii and Valerii were patterns of +courage, the Lucretias and Virginias of purity, the Decii and +Curtii of patriotic devotion, the Reguli and Fabricii of stainless +truthfulness. On the same principle, too, they had a public officer +whose functions resembled those of the Church courts in mediaeval +Europe, a Censor Morum, an inquisitor who might examine into the +habits of private families, rebuke extravagance, check luxury, +punish vice and self-indulgence, nay, who could remove from the +Senate, the great council of elders, persons whose moral conduct +was a reproach to a body on whose reputation no shadow could be +allowed to rest.</p> + +<p>Such the Romans were in the day when their dominion had not +extended beyond the limits of Italy; and because they were such +they were able to prosper under a constitution which to modern +experience would promise only the most hopeless confusion.</p> + +<p>Morality thus engrained in the national character and grooved +into habits of action creates strength, as nothing else creates it. +The difficulty of conduct does not lie in knowing what it is right +to do, but in doing it when known. Intellectual culture does not +touch the conscience. It provides no motives to overcome the +weakness of the will, and with wider knowledge it brings also new +temptations. The sense of duty is present in each detail of life; +the obligatory “must” which binds the will to the course +which right principle has marked out for it produces a fibre like +the fibre of the oak. The educated Greeks knew little of it. They +had courage and genius and enthusiasm, but they had no horror of +immorality as such. The Stoics saw what was wanting, and tried to +supply it; but though they could provide a theory of action, they +could not make the theory into a reality, and it is noticeable that +Stoicism as a rule of life became important only when adopted by +the Romans. The Catholic Church effected something in its better +days when it had its courts which treated sins as crimes. +Calvinism, while it was believed, produced characters nobler and +grander than any which Republican Rome produced. But the Catholic +Church turned its penances into money payments. Calvinism made +demands on faith beyond what truth would bear; and when doubt had +once entered, the spell of Calvinism was broken. The veracity of +the Romans, and perhaps the happy accident that they had no +inherited religious traditions, saved them for centuries from +similar trials. They had hold of real truth unalloyed with baser +metal; and truth had made them free and kept them so. When all else +has passed away, when theologies have yielded up their real +meaning, and creeds and symbols have become transparent, and man is +again in contact with the hard facts of nature, it will be found +that the “Virtues” which the Romans made into gods +contain in them the essence of true religion, that in them lies the +special characteristic which distinguishes human beings from the +rest of animated things. Every other creature exists for itself, +and cares for its own preservation. Nothing larger or better is +expected from it or possible to it. To man it is said, you do not +live for yourself. If you live for yourself you shall come to +nothing. Be brave, be just, be pure, be true in word and deed; care +not for your enjoyment, care not for your life; care only for what +is right. So, and not otherwise, it shall be well with you. So the +Maker of you has ordered, whom you will disobey at your peril.</p> + +<p>Thus and thus only are nations formed which are destined to +endure; and as habits based on such convictions are slow in +growing, so when grown to maturity they survive extraordinary +trials. But nations are made up of many persons in circumstances of +endless variety. In country districts, where the routine of life +continues simple, the type of character remains unaffected; +generation follows on generation exposed to the same influences and +treading in the same steps. But the morality of habit, though the +most important element in human conduct, is still but a part of it. +Moral habits grow under given conditions. They correspond to a +given degree of temptation. When men are removed into situations +where the use and wont of their fathers no longer meets their +necessities; where new opportunities are offered to them; where +their opinions are broken in upon by new ideas; where pleasures +tempt them on every side, and they have but to stretch out their +hand to take them—moral habits yield under the strain, and they +have no other resource to fall back upon. Intellectual cultivation +brings with it rational interests. Knowledge, which looks before +and after, acts as a restraining power, to help conscience when it +flags. The sober and wholesome manners of life among the early +Romans had given them vigorous minds in vigorous bodies. The animal +nature had grown as strongly as the moral nature, and along with it +the animal appetites; and when appetites burst their traditionary +restraints, and man in himself has no other notion of enjoyment +beyond bodily pleasure, he may pass by an easy transition into a +mere powerful brute. And thus it happened with the higher classes +at Rome after the destruction of Carthage. Italy had fallen to them +by natural and wholesome expansion; but from being sovereigns of +Italy, they became a race of imperial conquerors. Suddenly, and in +comparatively a few years after the one power was gone which could +resist them, they became the actual or virtual rulers of the entire +circuit of the Mediterranean. The south-east of Spain, the coast of +France from the Pyrenees to Nice, the north of Italy, Illyria and +Greece, Sardinia, Sicily, and the Greek Islands, the southern and +western shores of Asia Minor, were Roman provinces, governed +directly under Roman magistrates. On the African side Mauritania +(Morocco) was still free. Numidia (the modern Algeria) retained its +native dynasty, but was a Roman dependency. The Carthaginian +dominions, Tunis and Tripoli, had been annexed to the Empire. The +interior of Asia Minor up to the Euphrates, with Syria and Egypt, +were under sovereigns called Allies, but, like the native princes +in India, subject to a Roman protectorate. Over this enormous +territory, rich with the accumulated treasures of centuries, and +inhabited by thriving, industrious races, the energetic Roman men +of business had spread and settled themselves, gathering into their +hands the trade, the financial administration, the entire +commercial control of the Mediterranean basin. They had been +trained in thrift and economy, in abhorrence of debt, in strictest +habits of close and careful management. Their frugal education, +their early lessons in the value of money, good and excellent as +those lessons were, led them, as a matter of course, to turn to +account their extraordinary opportunities. Governors with their +staffs, permanent officials, contractors for the revenue, +negotiators, bill-brokers, bankers, merchants, were scattered +everywhere in thousands. Money poured in upon them in rolling +streams of gold. The largest share of the spoils fell to the Senate +and the senatorial families. The Senate was the permanent Council +of State, and was the real administrator of the Empire. The Senate +had the control of the treasury, conducted the public policy, +appointed from its own ranks the governors of the provinces. It was +patrician in sentiment, but not necessarily patrician in +composition. The members of it had virtually been elected for life +by the people, and were almost entirely those who had been +quaestors, aediles, praetors, or consuls; and these offices had +been long open to the plebeians. It was an aristocracy, in theory a +real one, but tending to become, as civilization went forward, an +aristocracy of the rich. How the senatorial privileges affected the +management of the provinces will be seen more particularly as we go +on. It is enough at present to say that the nobles and great +commoners of Rome rapidly found themselves in possession of +revenues which their fathers could not have imagined in their +dreams, and money in the stage of progress at which Rome had +arrived was convertible into power.</p> + +<p>The opportunities opened for men to advance their fortunes in +other parts of the world drained Italy of many of its most +enterprising citizens. The grandsons of the yeomen who had held at +bay Pyrrhus and Hannibal sold their farms and went away. The small +holdings merged rapidly into large estates bought up by the Roman +capitalists. At the final settlement of Italy, some millions of +acres had been reserved to the State as public property. The +“public land,” as the reserved portion was called, had +been leased on easy terms to families with political influence, and +by lapse of time, by connivance and right of occupation, these +families were beginning to regard their tenures as their private +property, and to treat them as lords of manors in England have +treated the “commons.” Thus everywhere the small farmers +were disappearing, and the soil of Italy was fast passing into the +hands of a few territorial magnates, who, unfortunately (for it +tended to aggravate the mischief), were enabled by another cause to +turn their vast possessions to advantage. The conquest of the world +had turned the flower of the defeated nations into slaves. The +prisoners taken either after a battle or when cities surrendered +unconditionally were bought up steadily by contractors who followed +in the rear of the Roman armies. They were not ignorant like the +negroes, but trained, useful, and often educated men, Asiatics, +Greeks, Thracians, Gauls, and Spaniards, able at once to turn their +hands to some form of skilled labor, either as clerks, mechanics, +or farm-servants. The great landowners might have paused in their +purchases had the alternative lain before them of letting their +lands lie idle or of having freemen to cultivate them. It was +otherwise when a resource so convenient and so abundant was opened +at their feet. The wealthy Romans bought slaves by thousands. Some +they employed in their workshops in the capital. Some they spread +over their plantations, covering the country, it might be, with +olive gardens and vineyards, swelling further the plethoric figures +of their owners’ incomes. It was convenient for the few, but +less convenient for the Commonwealth. The strength of Rome was in +her free citizens. Where a family of slaves was settled down, a +village of freemen had disappeared; the material for the legions +diminished; the dregs of the free population which remained behind +crowded into Rome, without occupation except in politics, and with +no property save in their votes, of course to become the clients of +the millionaires, and to sell themselves to the highest bidders. +With all his wealth there were but two things which the Roman noble +could buy, political power and luxury; and in these directions his +whole resources were expended. The elections, once pure, became +matters of annual bargain between himself and his supporters. The +once hardy, abstemious mode of living degenerated into grossness +and sensuality.</p> + +<p>And his character was assailed simultaneously on another side +with equally mischievous effect. The conquest of Greece brought to +Rome a taste for knowledge and culture; but the culture seldom +passed below the surface, and knowledge bore but the old fruit +which it had borne in Eden. The elder Cato used to say that the +Romans were like their slaves—the less Greek they knew the better +they were. They had believed in the gods with pious simplicity. The +Greeks introduced them to an Olympus of divinities whom the +practical Roman found that he must either abhor or deny to exist. +The “Virtues” which he had been taught to reverence had +no place among the graces of the new theology. Reverence Jupiter he +could not, and it was easy to persuade him that Jupiter was an +illusion; that all religions were but the creations of fancy, his +own among them. Gods there might be, airy beings in the deeps of +space, engaged like men with their own enjoyments; but to suppose +that these high spirits fretted themselves with the affairs of the +puny beings that crawled upon the earth was a delusion of vanity. +Thus, while morality was assailed on one side by extraordinary +temptations, the religious sanction of it was undermined on the +other. The Romans ceased to believe, and in losing their faith +they became as steel becomes when it is demagnetized; the spiritual +quality was gone out of them, and the high society of Rome itself +became a society of powerful animals with an enormous appetite for +pleasure. Wealth poured in more and more, and luxury grew more +unbounded. Palaces sprang up in the city, castles in the country, +villas at pleasant places by the sea, and parks, and fish-ponds, +and game-preserves, and gardens, and vast retinues of servants. +When natural pleasures had been indulged in to satiety, pleasures +which were against nature were imported from the East to stimulate +the exhausted appetite. To make money—money by any means, lawful +or unlawful—became the universal passion. Even the most cultivated +patricians were coarse alike in their habits and their amusements. +They cared for art as dilettanti, but no schools either of +sculpture or painting were formed among themselves. They decorated +their porticos and their saloons with the plunder of the East. The +stage was never more than an artificial taste with them; their +delight was the delight of barbarians, in spectacles, in athletic +exercises, in horse-races and chariot-races, in the combats of wild +animals in the circus, combats of men with beasts on choice +occasions, and, as a rare excitement, in fights between men and +men, when select slaves trained as gladiators were matched in pairs +to kill each other. Moral habits are all-sufficient while they +last; but with rude strong natures they are but chains which hold +the passions prisoners. Let the chain break, and the released brute +is but the more powerful for evil from the force which his +constitution has inherited. Money! the cry was still money!—money +was the one thought from the highest senator to the poorest wretch +who sold his vote in the Comitia. For money judges gave unjust +decrees and juries gave corrupt verdicts. Governors held their +provinces for one, two, or three years; they went out bankrupt from +extravagance, they returned with millions for fresh riot. To obtain +a province was the first ambition of a Roman noble. The road to it +lay through the praetorship and the consulship; these offices, +therefore, became the prizes of the State; and being in the gift of +the people, they were sought after by means which demoralized alike +the givers and the receivers. The elections were managed by clubs +and coteries; and, except on occasions of national danger or +political excitement, those who spent most freely were most certain +of success.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions the chief powers in the Commonwealth +necessarily centred in the rich. There was no longer an aristocracy +of birth, still less of virtue. The patrician families had the +start in the race. Great names and great possessions came to them +by inheritance. But the door of promotion was open to all who had +the golden key. The great commoners bought their way into the +magistracies. From the magistracies they passed into the Senate; +and the Roman senator, though in Rome itself and in free debate +among his colleagues he was handled as an ordinary man, when he +travelled had the honors of a sovereign. The three hundred senators +of Rome were three hundred princes. They moved about in other +countries with the rights of legates, at the expense of the +province, with their trains of slaves and horses. The proud +privilege of Roman citizenship was still jealously reserved to Rome +itself and to a few favored towns and colonies; and a mere subject +could maintain no rights against a member of the haughty oligarchy +which controlled the civilized world. Such generally the Roman +Republic had become, or was tending to become, in the years which +followed the fall of Carthage, B.C. 146. Public spirit in the +masses was dead or sleeping; the Commonwealth was a plutocracy. The +free forms of the constitution were themselves the instruments of +corruption. The rich were happy in the possession of all that they +could desire. The multitude was kept quiet by the morsels of meat +which were flung to it when it threatened to be troublesome. The +seven thousand in Israel, the few who in all states and in all +times remained pure in the midst of evil, looked on with disgust, +fearing that any remedy which they might try might be worse than +the disease. All orders in a society may be wise and virtuous, but +all cannot be rich. Wealth which is used only for idle luxury is +always envied, and envy soon curdles into hate. It is easy to +persuade the masses that the good things of this world are unjustly +divided, especially when it happens to be the exact truth. It is +not easy to set limits to an agitation once set on foot, however +justly it may have been provoked, when the cry for change is at +once stimulated by interest and can disguise its real character +under the passionate language of patriotism. But it was not to be +expected that men of noble natures, young men especially whose +enthusiasm had not been cooled by experience, would sit calmly by +while their country was going thus headlong to perdition. +Redemption, if redemption was to be hoped for, could come only from +free citizens in the country districts whose manners and whoso +minds were still uncontaminated, in whom the ancient habits of life +still survived, who still believed in the gods, who were contented +to follow the wholesome round of honest labor. The numbers of such +citizens were fast dwindling away before the omnivorous appetite of +the rich for territorial aggrandizement. To rescue the land from +the monopolists, to renovate the old independent yeomanry, to +prevent the free population of Italy, out of which the legions had +been formed which had built up the Empire, from being pushed out of +their places and supplanted by foreign slaves, this, if it could be +done, would restore the purity of the constituency, snatch the +elections from the control of corruption, and rear up fresh +generations of peasant soldiers to preserve the liberties and the +glories which their fathers had won.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> + +<p>Tiberius Gracchus was born about the year 164 B.C. He was one of +twelve children, nine of whom died in infancy, himself, his brother +Caius, and his sister Cornelia being the only survivors. His family +was plebeian, but of high antiquity, his ancestors for several +generations having held the highest offices in the Republic. On the +mother’s side he was the grandson of Scipio Africanus. His +father, after a distinguished career as a soldier in Spain and +Sardinia, had attempted reforms at Rome. He had been censor, and in +this capacity he had ejected disreputable senators from the Curia; +he had degraded offending equites; he had rearranged and tried to +purify the Comitia. But his connections were aristocratic. His wife +was the daughter of the most illustrious of the Scipios. His own +daughter was married to the second most famous of them, Scipio +Africanus the Younger. He had been himself in antagonism with the +tribunes, and had taken no part at any time in popular +agitations.</p> + +<p>The father died when Tiberius was still a boy, and the two +brothers grew up under the care of their mother, a noble and gifted +lady. They displayed early remarkable talents. Tiberius, when old +enough, went into the army, and served under his brother-in-law in +the last Carthaginian campaign. He was first on the walls of the +city in the final storm. Ten years later he went to Spain as +Quaestor, where he carried on his father’s popularity, and by +taking the people’s side in some questions fell into +disagreement with his brother-in-law. His political views had +perhaps already inclined to change. He was still of an age when +indignation at oppression calls out a practical desire to resist +it. On his journey home from Spain he witnessed scenes which +confirmed his conviction and determined him to throw all his +energies into the popular cause. His road lay through Tuscany, +where he saw the large-estate system in full operation—the fields +cultivated by the slave gangs, the free citizens of the Republic +thrust away into the towns, aliens and outcasts in their own +country, without a foot of soil which they could call their own. In +Tuscany, too, the vast domains of the landlords had not even been +fairly purchased. They were parcels of the <i>ager publicus</i>, +land belonging to the State, which, in spite of a law forbidding +it, the great lords and commoners had appropriated and divided +among themselves. Five hundred acres of State land was the most +which by statute any one lessee might be allowed to occupy. But the +law was obsolete or sleeping, and avarice and vanity were awake and +active. Young Gracchus, in indignant pity, resolved to rescue the +people’s patrimony. He was chosen tribune in the year 133. His +brave mother and a few patricians of the old type encouraged him, +and the battle of the revolution began. The Senate, as has been +said, though without direct legislative authority, had been allowed +the right of reviewing any new schemes which were to be submitted +to the assembly. The constitutional means of preventing tribunes +from carrying unwise or unwelcome measures lay in a consul’s +veto, or in the help of the College of Augurs, who could declare +the auspices unfavorable, and so close all public business. These +resources were so awkward that it had been found convenient to +secure beforehand the Senate’s approbation, and the +encroachment, being long submitted to, was passing by custom into a +rule. But the Senate, eager as it was, had not yet succeeded in +engrafting the practice into the constitution. On the land question +the leaders of the aristocracy were the principal offenders. +Disregarding usage, and conscious that the best men of all ranks +were with him, Tiberius Gracchus appealed directly to the people to +revive the agrarian law. His proposals were not extravagant. That +they should have been deemed extravagant was a proof of how much +some measure of the kind was needed. Where lands had been enclosed +and money laid out on them he was willing that the occupants should +have compensation. But they had no right to the lands themselves. +Gracchus persisted that the <i>ager publicus</i> belonged to the +people, and that the race of yeomen, for whose protection the law +had been originally passed, must be re-established on their farms. +No form of property gives to its owners so much consequence as +land, and there is no point on which in every country an +aristocracy is more sensitive. The large owners protested that they +had purchased their interests on the faith that the law was +obsolete. They had planted and built and watered with the sanction +of the government, and to call their titles in question was to +shake the foundations of society. The popular party pointed to the +statute. The monopolists were entitled in justice to less than was +offered them. They had no right to a compensation at all. Political +passion awoke again after the sleep of a century. The oligarchy had +doubtless connived at the accumulations. The suppression of the +small holdings favored their supremacy, and placed the elections +more completely in their control. Their military successes had +given them so long a tenure of power that they had believed it to +be theirs in perpetuity; and the new sedition, as they called it, +threatened at once their privileges and their fortunes. The quarrel +assumed the familiar form of a struggle between the rich and the +poor, and at such times the mob of voters becomes less easy to +corrupt. They go with their order, as the prospect of larger gain +makes them indifferent to immediate bribes. It became clear that +the majority of the citizens would support Tiberius Gracchus, but +the constitutional forms of opposition might still be resorted to. +Octavius Caecina, another of the tribunes, had himself large +interests in the land question. He was the people’s magistrate, +one of the body appointed especially to defend their rights, but he +went over to the Senate, and, using a power which undoubtedly +belonged to him, he forbade the vote to be taken.</p> + +<p>There was no precedent for the removal of either consul, +praetor, or tribune, except under circumstances very different from +any which could as yet be said to have arisen. The magistrates held +office for a year only, and the power of veto had been allowed them +expressly to secure time for deliberation and to prevent passionate +legislation. But Gracchus was young and enthusiastic. Precedent or +no precedent, the citizens were omnipotent. He invited them to +declare his colleague deposed. They had warmed to the fight, and +complied. A more experienced statesman would have known that +established constitutional bulwarks cannot be swept away by a +momentary vote. He obtained his agrarian law. Three commissioners +were appointed, himself, his younger brother, and his +father-in-law, Appius Claudius, to carry it into effect; but the +very names showed that he had alienated his few supporters in the +higher circles, and that a single family was now contending against +the united wealth and distinction of Rome. The issue was only too +certain. Popular enthusiasm is but a fire of straw. In a year +Tiberius Gracchus would be out of office. Other tribunes would be +chosen more amenable to influence, and his work could then be +undone. He evidently knew that those who would succeed him could +not be relied on to carry on his policy. He had taken one +revolutionary step already; he was driven on to another, and he +offered himself illegally to the Comitia for re-election. It was to +invite them to abolish the constitution and to make him virtual +sovereign; and that a young man of thirty should have contemplated +such a position for himself as possible is of itself a proof of his +unfitness for it. The election-day came. The noble lords and +gentlemen appeared in the Campus Martius with their retinues of +armed servants and clients; hot-blooded aristocrats, full of +disdain for demagogues, and meaning to read a lesson to sedition +which it would not easily forget. Votes were given for Gracchus. +Had the hustings been left to decide the matter, he would have been +chosen; but as it began to appear how the polling would go, sticks +were used and swords; a riot rose, the unarmed citizens were driven +off, Tiberius Gracchus himself and three hundred of his friends +were killed and their bodies were flung into the Tiber.</p> + +<p>Thus the first sparks of the coming revolution were trampled +out. But though quenched and to be again quenched with fiercer +struggles, it was to smoulder and smoke and burst out time after +time, till its work was done. Revolution could not restore the +ancient character of the Roman nation, but it could check the +progress of decay by burning away the more corrupted parts of it. +It could destroy the aristocracy and the constitution which they +had depraved, and under other forms present for a few more +centuries the Roman dominion. Scipio Africanus, when he heard in +Spain of the end of his brother-in-law, exclaimed, “May all +who act as he did perish like him!” There were to be victims +enough and to spare before the bloody drama was played out. Quiet +lasted for ten years, and then, precisely when he had reached his +brother’s age, Caius Gracchus came forward to avenge him, and +carry the movement through another stage. Young Caius had been left +one of the commissioners of the land law; and it is particularly +noticeable that though the author of it had been killed, the law +had survived him being too clearly right and politic in itself to +be openly set aside. For two years the commissioners had continued +to work, and in that time forty thousand families were settled on +various parts of the <i>ager publicus</i>, which the patricians +had been compelled to resign. This was all which they could do. The +displacement of one set of inhabitants and the introduction of +another could not be accomplished without quarrels, complaints, and +perhaps some injustice. Those who were ejected were always +exasperated. Those who entered on possession were not always +satisfied. The commissioners became unpopular. When the cries +against them became loud enough, they were suspended, and the law +was then quietly repealed. The Senate had regained its hold over +the assembly, and had a further opportunity of showing its +recovered ascendency when, two years after the murder of Tiberius +Gracchus, one of his friends introduced a bill to make the tribunes +legally re-eligible. Caius Gracchus actively supported the change, +but it had no success; and, waiting till times had altered, and +till he had arrived himself at an age when he could carry weight, +the young brother retired from politics, and spent the next few +years with the army in Africa and Sardinia. He served with +distinction; he made a name for himself both as a soldier and an +administrator. Had the Senate left him alone, he might have been +satisfied with a regular career, and have risen by the ordinary +steps to the consulship. But the Senate saw in him the +possibilities of a second Tiberius; the higher his reputation, the +more formidable he became to them. They vexed him with petty +prosecutions, charged him with crimes which had no existence, and +at length by suspicion and injustice drove him into open war with +them. Caius Gracchus had a broader intellect than his brother, and +a character considerably less noble. The land question he perceived +was but one of many questions. The true source of the disorders of +the Commonwealth was the Senate itself. The administration of the +Empire was in the hands of men totally unfit to be trusted with it, +and there he thought the reform must commence. He threw himself on +the people. He was chosen tribune in 123, ten years exactly after +Tiberius. He had studied the disposition of parties. He had seen +his brother fall because the equites and the senators, the great +commoners and the nobles, were combined against him. He revived the +agrarian law as a matter of course, but he disarmed the opposition +to it by throwing an apple of discord between the two superior +orders. The high judicial functions in the Commonwealth had been +hitherto a senatorial monopoly. All cases of importance, civil or +criminal, came before courts of sixty or seventy jurymen, who, as +the law stood, must be necessarily senators. The privilege had been +extremely lucrative. The corruption of justice was already +notorious, though it had not yet reached the level of infamy which +it attained in another generation. It was no secret that in +ordinary causes jurymen had sold their verdicts; and, far short of +taking bribes in the direct sense of the word, there were many ways +in which they could let themselves be approached and their favor +purchased. A monopoly of privileges is always invidious. A monopoly +in the sale of justice is alike hateful to those who abhor iniquity +on principle and to those who would like to share the profits of +it. But this was not the worst. The governors of the provinces, +being chosen from those who had been consuls or praetors, were +necessarily members of the Senate. Peculation and extortion in +these high functions were offences in theory of the gravest kind; +but the offender could only be tried before a limited number of his +peers, and a governor who had plundered a subject state, sold +justice, pillaged temples, and stolen all that he could lay hands +on, was safe from punishment if he returned to Rome a millionaire +and would admit others to a share in his spoils. The provincials +might send deputations to complain, but these complaints came +before men who had themselves governed provinces or else aspired to +govern them. It had been proved in too many instances that the law +which professed to protect them was a mere mockery.</p> + +<p>Caius Gracchus secured the affections of the knights to himself, +and some slightly increased chance of an improvement in the +provincial administration, by carrying a law in the assembly +disabling the senators from sitting on juries of any kind from that +day forward, and transferring the judicial functions to the +equites. How bitterly must such a measure have been resented by the +Senate, which at once robbed them of their protective and +profitable privileges, handed them over to be tried by their rivals +for their pleasant irregularities, and stamped them at the same +time with the brand of dishonesty! How certainly must such a +measure have been deserved when neither consul nor tribune could be +found to interpose his veto! Supported by the grateful knights, +Caius Gracchus was for the moment all-powerful. It was not enough +to restore the agrarian law. He passed another, aimed at his +brother’s murderers, which was to bear fruit in later years, +that no Roman citizen might be put to death by any person, however +high in authority, without legal trial, and without appeal, if he +chose to make it, to the sovereign people. A blow was thus struck +against another right claimed by the Senate, of declaring the +Republic in danger, and the temporary suspension of the +constitution. These measures might be excused, and perhaps +commended; but the younger Gracchus connected his name with another +change less commendable, which was destined also to survive and +bear fruit. He brought forward and carried through, with +enthusiastic clapping of every pair of hands in Rome that were +hardened with labor, a proposal that there should be public +granaries in the city, maintained and filled at the cost of the +State, and that corn should be sold at a rate artificially cheap to +the poor free citizens. Such a law was purely socialistic. The +privilege was confined to Rome, because in Rome the elections were +held, and the Roman constituency was the one depositary of power. +The effect was to gather into the city a mob of needy, unemployed +voters, living on the charity of the State, to crowd the circus and +to clamor at the elections, available no doubt immediately to +strengthen the hands of the popular tribune, but certain in the +long-run to sell themselves to those who could bid highest for +their voices. Excuses could be found, no doubt, for this miserable +expedient in the state of parties, in the unscrupulous violence of +the aristocracy, in the general impoverishment of the peasantry +through the land monopoly, and in the intrusion upon Italy of a +gigantic system of slave labor. But none the less it was the +deadliest blow which had yet been dealt to the constitution. Party +government turns on the majorities at the polling-places, and it +was difficult afterward to recall a privilege which once conceded +appeared to be a right. The utmost that could be ventured in later +times with any prospect of success was to limit an intolerable +evil; and if one side was ever strong enough to make the attempt, +their rivals had a bribe ready in their hands to buy back the +popular support. Caius Gracchus, however, had his way, and carried +all before him. He escaped the rock on which his brother had been +wrecked. He was elected tribune a second time. He might have had a +third term if he had been contented to be a mere demagogue. But he, +too, like Tiberius, had honorable aims. The powers which he had +played into the hands of the mob to obtain he desired to use for +high purposes of statesmanship, and his instrument broke in his +hands. He was too wise to suppose that a Roman mob, fed by bounties +from the treasury, could permanently govern the world. He had +schemes for scattering Roman colonies, with the Roman franchise, at +various points of the Empire. Carthage was to be one of them. He +thought of abolishing the distinction between Romans and Italians, +and enfranchising the entire peninsula. These measures were good in +themselves—essential, indeed, if the Roman conquests were to form +a compact and permanent dominion. But the object was not attainable +on the road on which Gracchus had entered. The vagabond part of the +constituency was well contented with what it had obtained—a life +in the city, supported at the public expense, with politics and +games for its amusements. It had not the least inclination to be +drafted off into settlements in Spain or Africa, where there would +be work instead of pleasant idleness. Carthage was still a name of +terror. To restore Carthage was no better than treason. Still less +had the Roman citizens an inclination to share their privileges +with Samnites and Etruscans, and see the value of their votes +watered down. Political storms are always cyclones. The gale from +the east to-day is a gale from the west to-morrow. Who and what +were the Gracchi, then?—the sweet voices began to ask—ambitious +intriguers, aiming at dictatorship or perhaps the crown. The +aristocracy were right after all; a few things had gone wrong, but +these had been amended. The Scipios and Metelli had conquered the +world: the Scipios and Metelli were alone fit to govern it. Thus +when the election time came round, the party of reform was reduced +to a minority of irreconcilable radicals who were easily disposed +of. Again, as ten years before, the noble lords armed their +followers. Riots broke out and extended day after day. Caius +Gracchus was at last killed, as his brother had been, and under +cover of the disturbance three thousand of his friends were killed +along with him. The power being again securely in their hands, the +Senate proceeded at their leisure, and the surviving patriots who +were in any way notorious or dangerous were hunted down in legal +manner and put to death or banished.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> + +<p>Caius Gracchus was killed at the close of the year 122. The +storm was over. The Senate was once more master of the situation, +and the optimates, “the best party in the State,” as they +were pleased to call themselves, smoothed their ruffled plumes and +settled again into their places. There was no more talk of reform. +Of the Gracchi there remained nothing but the forty thousand +peasant-proprietors settled on the public lands; the jury law, +which could not be at once repealed for fear of the equites; the +corn grants, and the mob attracted by the bounty, which could be +managed by improved manipulation; and the law protecting the lives +of Roman citizens, which survived in the statute-book, although the +Senate still claimed the right to set it aside when they held the +State to be in danger. With these exceptions, the administration +fell back into its old condition. The tribunes ceased to agitate. +The consulships and the praetorships fell to the candidates whom +the Senate supported. Whether the oligarchy had learnt any lessons +of caution from the brief political earthquake which had shaken but +not overthrown them remained to be seen. Six years after the murder +of Caius Gracchus an opportunity was afforded to this distinguished +body of showing on a conspicuous scale the material of which they +were now composed.</p> + +<p>Along the south shore of the Mediterranean, west of the Roman +province, extended the two kingdoms of the Numidians and the Moors. +To what race these people belonged is not precisely known. They +were not negroes. The negro tribes have never extended north of the +Sahara. Nor were they Carthaginians or allied to the Carthaginians. +The Carthaginian colony found them in possession on its arrival. +Sallust says that they were Persians left behind by Hercules after +his invasion of Spain. Sallust’s evidence proves no more than +that their appearance was Asiatic, and that tradition assigned them +an Asiatic origin. They may be called generically Arabs, who at a +very ancient time had spread along the coast from Egypt to Morocco. +The Numidians at this period were civilized according to the +manners of the age. They had walled towns; they had considerable +wealth; their lands were extensively watered and cultivated; their +great men had country houses and villas, the surest sign of a +settled state of society. Among the equipments of their army they +had numerous elephants (it may be presumed of the African breed), +which they and the Carthaginians had certainly succeeded in +domesticating. Masinissa, the king of this people, had been the +ally of Rome in the last Carthaginian war; he had been afterward +received as “a friend of the Republic,” and was one of +the protected sovereigns. He was succeeded by his son Micipsa, who +in turn had two legitimate children, Hiempsal and Adherbal, and an +illegitimate nephew Jugurtha, considerably older than his own boys, +a young man of striking talent and promise. Micipsa, who was +advanced in years, was afraid that if he died this brilliant youth +might be a dangerous rival to his sons. He therefore sent him to +serve under Scipio in Spain, with the hope, so his friends +asserted, that he might there perhaps be killed. The Roman army was +then engaged in the siege of Numantia. The camp was the +lounging-place of the young patricians who were tired of Rome and +wished for excitement. Discipline had fallen loose; the +officers’ quarters were the scene of extravagance and +amusement. Jugurtha recommended himself on the one side to Scipio +by activity and good service, while on the other he made +acquaintances among the high-bred gentlemen in the mess-rooms. He +found them in themselves dissolute and unscrupulous. He discovered, +through communications which he was able with their assistance to +open with their fathers and relatives at Rome, that a man with +money might do what he pleased. Micipsa’s treasury was well +supplied, and Jugurtha hinted among his comrades that if he could +be secure of countenance in seizing the kingdom, he would be in a +position to show his gratitude in a substantial manner. Some of +these conversations reached the ears of Scipio, who sent for +Jugurtha and gave him a friendly warning. He dismissed him, +however, with honor at the end of the campaign. The young prince +returned to Africa loaded with distinctions, and the king, being +now afraid to pass him over, named him as joint-heir with his +children to a third part of Numidia. The Numidians perhaps objected +to being partitioned. Micipsa died soon after. Jugurtha at once +murdered Hiempsal, claimed the sovereignty, and attacked his other +cousin. Adherbal, closely besieged in the town of Cirta, which +remained faithful to him, appealed to Rome; but Jugurtha had +already prepared his ground, and knew that he had nothing to fear. +The Senate sent out commissioners. The commissioners received the +bribes which they expected. They gave Jugurtha general instructions +to leave his cousin in peace; but they did not wait to see their +orders obeyed, and went quietly home. The natural results +immediately followed. Jugurtha pressed the siege more resolutely. +The town surrendered; Adherbal was taken, and was put to death +after being savagely tortured; and there being no longer any +competitor alive in whose behalf the Senate could be called on to +interfere, he thought himself safe from further interference. +Unfortunately in the capture of Citra a number of Romans who +resided there had been killed after the surrender, and after a +promise that their lives should be spared. An outcry was raised in +Rome, and became so loud that the Senate was forced to promise +investigation; but it went to work languidly, with reluctance so +evident as to rouse suspicion. Notwithstanding the fate of the +Gracchi and their friends, Memmius, a tribune, was found bold +enough to tell the people that there were men in the Senate who had +taken bribes.</p> + +<p>The Senate, conscious of its guilt, was now obliged to exert +itself. War was declared against Jugurtha, and a consul was sent to +Africa with an army. But the consul, too, had his fortune to make, +and Micipsa’s treasures were still unexpended. The consul took +with him a staff of young patricians, whose families might be +counted on to shield him in return for a share of the plunder. +Jugurtha was as liberal as avarice could desire, and peace was +granted to him on the easy conditions of a nominal fine, and the +surrender of some elephants, which the consul privately +restored.</p> + +<p>Public opinion was singularly patient. The massacre six years +before had killed out the liberal leaders, and there was no desire +on any side as yet to renew the struggle with the Senate. But it +was possible to presume too far on popular acquiescence. Memmius +came forward again, and in a passionate speech in the Forum exposed +and denounced the scandalous transaction. The political sky began +to blacken again. The Senate could not face another storm with so +bad a cause, and Jugurtha was sent for to Rome. He came, with +contemptuous confidence, loaded with gold. He could not corrupt +Memmius, but he bought easily the rest of the tribunes. The leaders +in the Curia could not quarrel with a client of such delightful +liberality. He had an answer to every complaint, and a fee to +silence the complainer. He would have gone back in triumph, had he +not presumed a little too far. He had another cousin in the city +who he feared might one day give him trouble, so he employed one of +his suite to poison him. The murder was accomplished successfully; +and for this too he might no doubt have secured his pardon by +paying for it; but the price demanded was too high, and perhaps +Jugurtha, villain as he was, came at last to disdain the wretches +whom he might consider fairly to be worse than himself. He had come +over under a safe-conduct, and he was not detained. The Senate +ordered him to leave Italy; and he departed with the scornful +phrase on his lips which has passed into history: “Venal city, +and soon to perish if only it can find a purchaser.” <a name="fnr1"></a> <a href="#fn1" class="fnsuper">1</a></p> + +<p>A second army was sent across, to end the scandal. This time the +Senate was in earnest, but the work was less easy than was +expected. Army management had fallen into disorder. In earlier +times each Roman citizen had provided his own equipments at his own +expense. To be a soldier was part of the business of his life, and +military training was an essential feature of his education. The +old system had broken down; the peasantry, from whom the rank and +file of the legions had been recruited, were no longer able to +furnish their own arms. Caius Gracchus had intended that arms +should be furnished by the government, that a special department +should be constituted to take charge of the arsenals and to see to +the distribution. But Gracchus was dead, and his project had died +with him. When the legions were enrolled, the men were ill armed, +undrilled, and unprovided—a mere mob, gathered hastily together +and ignorant of the first elements of their duty. With the officers +it was still worse. The subordinate commands fell to young +patricians, carpet knights who went on campaigns with their +families of slaves. The generals, when a movement was to be made, +looked for instruction to their staff. It sometimes happened that a +consul waited for his election to open for the first time a book of +military history or a Greek manual of the art of war. <a name="fnr2"></a> <a href="#fn2" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C 109.]</span> An army so composed and +so led was not likely to prosper. The Numidians were not very +formidable enemies, but, after a month or two of manoeuvring, half +the Romans were destroyed and the remainder were obliged to +surrender. About the same time, and from similar causes, two Roman +armies were cut to pieces on the Rhone. While the great men at Rome +were building palaces, inventing new dishes, and hiring cooks at +unheard-of salaries, the barbarians were at the gates of Italy. The +passes of the Alps were open, and if a few tribes of Gauls had +cared to pour through them, the Empire was at their mercy. Stung +with these accumulating disgraces, and now really alarmed, the +Senate sent Caecilius Metellus, the best man that they had and the +consul for the year following to Africa. Metellus was an +aristocrat, and he was advanced in years; but he was a man of honor +and integrity. He understood the danger of further failure; and he +looked about for the ablest soldier that he could find to go with +him, irrespective of his political opinions.</p> + +<p>Caius Marius was at this time forty-eight years old. Two thirds +of his life were over, and a name which was to sound throughout the +world and be remembered through all ages had as yet been scarcely +heard of beyond the army and the political clubs in Rome. He was +born at Arpinum, a Latin township, seventy miles from the capital, +in the year 157. His father was a small farmer, and he was himself +bred to the plough. He joined the army early, and soon attracted +notice by his punctual discharge of his duties. In a time of +growing looseness, Marius was strict himself in keeping discipline +and in enforcing it as he rose in the service. He was in Spain when +Jugurtha was there, and made himself especially useful to Scipio; +he forced his way steadily upward, by his mere soldierlike +qualities, to the rank of military tribune. Rome, too, had learned +to know him, for he was chosen tribune of the people the year after +the murder of Caius Gracchus. Being a self-made man, he belonged +naturally to the popular party. While in office he gave offence in +some way to the men in power, and was called before the Senate to +answer for himself. But he had the right on his side, it is likely, +for they found him stubborn and impertinent, and they could make +nothing of their charges against him. He was not bidding at this +time, however, for the support of the mob. He had the integrity and +sense to oppose the largesses of corn; and he forfeited his +popularity by trying to close the public granaries before the +practice had passed into a system. He seemed as if made of a block +of hard Roman oak, gnarled and knotted, but sound in all its +fibres. His professional merit continued to recommend him. At the +age of forty he became praetor, and was sent to Spain, where he +left a mark again by the successful severity by which he cleared +the province of banditti. He was a man neither given himself to +talking nor much talked about in the world; but he was sought for +wherever work was to be done, and he had made himself respected and +valued in high circles, for after his return from the peninsula he +had married into one of the most distinguished of the patrician +families.</p> + +<p>The Caesars were a branch of the Gens Julia, which claimed +descent from Iulus the son of Aeneas, and thus from the gods. Roman +etymologists could arrive at no conclusion as to the origin of the +name. Some derived it from an exploit on an elephant-hunt in +Africa—Caesar meaning elephant in Moorish; some to the entrance +into the world of the first eminent Caesar by the aid of a +surgeon’s knife;<a name="fnr3"></a><a href="#fn3" class= +"fnsuper">3</a> some from the color of the eyes prevailing in the +family. Be the explanation what it might, eight generations of +Caesars had held prominent positions in the Commonwealth. They had +been consuls, censors, praetors, aediles, and military tribunes, +and in politics, as might be expected from their position, they had +been moderate aristocrats. Like other families they had been +subdivided, and the links connecting them cannot always be traced. +The pedigree of the Dictator goes no further than to his +grandfather, Caius Julius. In the middle of the second century +before Christ, this Caius Julius, being otherwise unknown to +history, married a lady named Marcia, supposed to be descended from +Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome. By her he had three +children, Caius Julius, Sextus Julius, and a daughter named Julia. +Caius Julius married Aurelia, perhaps a member of the consular +family of the Cottas, and was the father of the Great Caesar. Julia +became the wife of Caius Marius, a <i>mésalliance</i> which +implied the beginning of a political split in the Caesar family. +The elder branches, like the Cromwells of Hinchinbrook, remained by +their order. The younger attached itself for good or ill to the +party of the people.</p> + +<p>Marius by this marriage became a person of social consideration. +His father had been a client of the Metelli; and Caecilius +Metellus, who must have known Marius by reputation and probably in +person, invited him to go as second in command in the African +campaign. He was moderately successful. Towns were taken; battles +were won: Metellus was incorruptible, and the Numidians sued for +peace. But Jugurtha wanted terms, and the consul demanded +unconditional surrender. Jugurtha withdrew into the desert; the war +dragged on; and Marius, perhaps ambitious, perhaps impatient at the +general’s want of vigor, began to think that he could make +quicker work of it. The popular party were stirring again in Rome, +the Senate having so notoriously disgraced itself. There was just +irritation that a petty African prince could defy the whole power +of Rome for so many years; and though a democratic consul had been +unheard of for a century, the name of Marius began to be spoken of +as a possible candidate. Marius consented to stand. The law +required that he must be present in person at the election, and he +applied to his commander for leave of absence. Metellus laughed at +his pretensions, and bade him wait another twenty years. Marius, +however, persisted, and was allowed to go. The patricians strained +their resources to defeat him, but he was chosen with enthusiasm. +Metellus was recalled, and the conduct of the Numidian war was +assigned to the new hero of the “populares.”</p> + +<p>A shudder of alarm ran, no doubt, through the senate-house when +the determination of the people was known. A successful general +could not be disposed of so easily as oratorical tribunes. +Fortunately Marius was not a politician. He had no belief in +democracy. He was a soldier, and had a soldier’s way of +thinking on government and the methods of it. His first step was a +reformation in the army. Hitherto the Roman legions had been no +more than the citizens in arms, called for the moment from their +various occupations, to return to them when the occasion for their +services was past. Marius had perceived that fewer men, better +trained and disciplined, could he made more effective and be more +easily handled. He had studied war as a science. He had perceived +that the present weakness need be no more than an accident, and +that there was a latent force in the Roman State which needed only +organization to resume its ascendency. “He enlisted,” it +was said, “the worst of the citizens,” men, that is to +say, who had no occupation and who became soldiers by profession; +and as persons without property could not have furnished themselves +at their own cost, he must have carried out the scheme proposed by +Gracchus, and equipped them at the expense of the State. His +discipline was of the sternest. The experiment was new; and men of +rank who had a taste for war in earnest, and did not wish that the +popular party should have the whole benefit and credit of the +improvements, were willing to go with him; among them a dissipated +young patrician called Lucius Sylla, whose name also was destined +to be memorable.</p> + +<p>By these methods and out of these materials an army was formed +such as no Roman general had hitherto led. It performed +extraordinary marches, carried its water-supplies with it in skins, +and followed the enemy across sandy deserts hitherto found +impassable. In less than two years the war was over. The Moors to +whom Jugurtha had fled surrendered him to Sylla, and he was brought +in chains to Rome, where he finished his life in a dungeon.</p> + +<p>So ended a curious episode in Roman history, where it holds a +place beyond its intrinsic importance, from the light which it +throws on the character of the Senate and on the practical working +of the institutions which the Gracchi had perished in +unsuccessfully attempting to reform.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn1"></a> <a href="#fnr1">[1]</a> +“Urbem venalem, et mature perituram, si emptorem +invenenit.”—Sallust, <i>De Bello Jugurthino</i>, c. 35. +Livy’s account of the business, however, differs from +Sallust’s, and the expression is perhaps not authentic.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn2"></a> <a href="#fnr2">[2]</a> +“At ego scio, Quirites, qui, postquam consules facti sunt, +acta majorum, et Graecorum militaria praecepta legere coeperint. +Homines praeposteri!”—Speech of Marius, Sallust, +<i>Jugurtha</i>, 85.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn3"></a> <a href="#fnr3">[3]</a> +“Caesus ab utero matris.”</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> + +<p>The Jugurthine war ended in the year 106 B.C. At the same +Arpinum which had produced Marius another actor in the approaching +drama was in that year ushered into the world, Marcus Tullius +Cicero. The Ciceros had made their names, and perhaps their +fortunes, by their skill in raising <i>cicer</i>, or vetches. The +present representative of the family was a country gentleman in +good circumstances given to literature, residing habitually at his +estate on the Liris and paying occasional visits to Rome. In that +household was born Rome’s most eloquent master of the art of +using words, who was to carry that art as far, and to do as much +with it, as any man who has ever appeared on the world’s +stage.</p> + +<p>Rome, however, was for the present in the face of enemies who +had to be encountered with more material weapons. Marius had formed +an army barely in time to save Italy from being totally +overwhelmed. A vast migratory wave of population had been set in +motion behind the Rhine and the Danube. The German forests were +uncultivated. The hunting and pasture grounds were too strait for +the numbers crowded into them, and two enormous hordes were rolling +westward and southward in search of some new abiding-place. The +Teutons came from the Baltic down across the Rhine into Luxemburg. +The Cimbri crossed the Danube near its sources into Illyria. Both +Teutons and Cimbri were Germans, and both were making for Gaul by +different routes. The Celts of Gaul had had their day. In past +generations they had held the German invaders at bay, and had even +followed them into their own territories. But they had split among +themselves. They no longer offered a common front to the enemy. +They were ceasing to be able to maintain their own independence, +and the question of the future was whether Gaul was to be the prey +of Germany or to be a province of Rome.</p> + +<p>Events appeared already to have decided. The invasion of the +Teutons and the Cimbri was like the pouring in of two great rivers. +Each division consisted of hundreds of thousands. They travelled +with their wives and children, their wagons, as with the ancient +Scythians and with the modern South African Dutch, being at once +their conveyance and their home. Gray- haired priestesses tramped +along among them, barefooted, in white linen dresses, the knife at +their girdle; northern Iphigenias, sacrificing prisoners as they +were taken to the gods of Valhalla. On they swept, eating up the +country, and the people flying before them. In 113 B.C. the skirts +of the Cimbri had encountered a small Roman force near Trieste, and +destroyed it. Four years later another attempt was made to stop +them, but the Roman army was beaten and its camp taken. The +Cimbrian host did not, however, turn at that time upon Italy. Their +aim was the south of France. They made their way through the Alps +into Switzerland, where the Helvetii joined them, and the united +mass rolled over the Jura and down the bank of the Rhone. Roused at +last into exertion, the Senate sent into Gaul the largest force +which the Romans had ever brought into the field. They met the +Cimbri at Orange, and were simply annihilated. Eighty thousand +Romans and forty thousand camp-followers were said to have fallen. +The numbers in such cases are generally exaggerated, but the +extravagance of the report is a witness to the greatness of the +overthrow. The Romans had received a worse blow than at Cannae. +They were brave enough, but they were commanded by persons whose +recommendations for command were birth or fortune; +“preposterous men,” as Marius termed them, who had waited +for their appointment to open the military manuals.</p> + +<p>Had the Cimbri chosen at this moment to recross the Alps into +Italy, they had only to go and take possession, and Alaric would +have been antedated by five centuries. In great danger it was the +Senate’s business to suspend the constitution. The constitution +was set aside now, but it was set aside by the people themselves, +not by the Senate. One man only could save the country, and that +man was Marius. His consulship was over, and custom forbade his +re-election. The Senate might have appointed him dictator, but +would not. The people, custom or no custom, chose him consul a +second time—a significant acknowledgment that the Empire, which +had been won by the sword, must be held by the sword, and that the +sword itself must be held by the hand that was best fitted to use +it. Marius first triumphed for his African victory, and, as an +intimation to the Senate that the power for the moment was his and +not theirs, he entered the Curia in his triumphal dress. He then +prepared for the barbarians who, to the alarmed imagination of the +city, were already knocking at its gates. Time was the important +element in the matter. Had the Cimbri come at once after their +victory at Orange, Italy had been theirs. But they did not come. +With the unguided movements of some wild force of nature they +swerved away through Aquitaine to the Pyrenees. They swept across +the mountains into Spain. Thence, turning north, they passed up the +Atlantic coast and round to the Seine, the Gauls flying before +them; thence on to the Rhine, where the vast body of the Teutons +joined them and fresh detachments of the Helvetii. It was as if +some vast tide-wave had surged over the country and rolled through +it, searching out the easiest passages. At length, in two +divisions, the invaders moved definitely toward Italy, the Cimbri +following their old tracks by the eastern Alps toward Aquileia and +the Adriatic, the Teutons passing down through Provence and making +for the road along the Mediterranean. Two years had been consumed +in these wanderings, and Marius was by this time ready for them. +The Senate had dropped the reins, and no longer governed or +misgoverned; the popular party, represented by the army, was +supreme. Marius was continued in office, and was a fourth time +consul. He had completed his military reforms, and the army was now +a professional service, with regular pay. Trained corps of +engineers were attached to each legion. The campaigns of the Romans +were thenceforward to be conducted with spade and pickaxe as much +as with sword and javelin, and the soldiers learnt the use of tools +as well as arms. Moral discipline was not forgotten. The foulest of +human vices was growing fashionable in high society in the capital. +It was not allowed to make its way into the army. An officer in one +of the legions, a near relative of Marius, made filthy overtures to +one of his men. The man replied with a thrust of his sword, and +Marius publicly thanked and decorated him.</p> + +<p>The effect of the change was like enchantment. The delay of the +Germans made it unnecessary to wait for them in Italy. Leaving +Catulus, his colleague in the consulship, to check the Cimbri in +Venetia, Marius went himself, taking Sylla with him, into the south +of France. As the barbarian host came on, he occupied a fortified +camp near Aix. He allowed the enormous procession to roll past him +in their wagons toward the Alps. Then, following cautiously, he +watched his opportunity to fall on them. The Teutons were brave, +but they had no longer mere legionaries to fight with, but a +powerful machine, and the entire mass of them, men, women, and +children, in numbers which however uncertain were rather those of a +nation than an army, were swept out of existence.</p> + +<p>The Teutons were destroyed on the 20th of July, 102. In the year +following the same fate overtook their comrades. The Cimbri had +forced the passes through the mountains. They had beaten the +unscientific patrician Catulus, and had driven him back on the Po. +But Marius came to his rescue. The Cimbri were cut to pieces near +Mantua, in the summer of 101, and Italy was saved.</p> + +<p>The victories of Marius mark a new epoch in Roman history. The +legions were no longer the levy of the citizens in arms, who were +themselves the State for which they fought. The legionaries were +citizens still. They had votes, and they used them; but they were +professional soldiers with the modes of thought which belong to +soldiers, and beside the power of the hustings was now the power of +the sword. The constitution remained to appearance intact, and +means were devised sufficient to encounter, it might be supposed, +the new danger. Standing armies were prohibited in Italy. +Victorious generals returning from campaigns abroad were required +to disband their legions on entering the sacred soil. But the +materials of these legions remained a distinct order from the rest +of the population, capable of instant combination, and in +combination irresistible save by opposing combinations of the same +kind. The Senate might continue to debate, the Comitia might elect +the annual magistrates. The established institutions preserved the +form and something of the reality of power in a people governed so +much by habit as the Romans. There is a long twilight between the +time when a god is first suspected to be an idol and his final +overthrow. But the aristocracy had made the first inroad on the +constitution by interfering at the elections with their armed +followers and killing their antagonists. The example once set could +not fail to be repeated, and the rule of an organized force was +becoming the only possible protection against the rule of mobs, +patrician or plebeian.</p> + +<p>The danger from the Germans was no sooner gone than political +anarchy broke loose again. Marius, the man of the people, was the +saviour of his country. He was made consul a fifth time and a +sixth. The party which had given him his command shared, of course, +in his pre-eminence. The elections could be no longer interfered +with or the voters intimidated. The public offices were filled with +the most violent agitators, who believed that the time had come to +revenge the Gracchi and carry out the democratic revolution, to +establish the ideal Republic and the direct rule of the citizen +assembly. This, too, was a chimera. If the Roman Senate could not +govern, far less could the Roman mob govern. Marius stood aside and +let the voices rage. He could not be expected to support a system +which had brought the country so near to ruin. He had no belief in +the visions of the demagogues, but the time was not ripe to make an +end of it all. Had he tried, the army would not have gone with him, +so he sat still till faction had done its work. The popular heroes +of the hour were the tribune Saturninus and the praetor Glaucia. +They carried corn laws and land laws—whatever laws they pleased to +propose. The administration remaining with the Senate, they carried +a vote that every senator should take an oath to execute their laws +under penalty of fine and expulsion. Marius did not like it, and +even opposed it, but let it pass at last. The senators, cowed and +humiliated, consented to take the oath, all but one, Marius’s +old friend and commander in Africa, Caecilius Metellus. No stain +had ever rested on the name of Metellus. He had accepted no bribes. +He had half beaten Jugurtha, for Marius to finish; and Marius +himself stood in a semi-feudal relation to him. It was unlucky for +the democrats that they had found so honorable an opponent. +Metellus persisted in refusal. Saturninus sent a guard to the +senate-house, dragged him out, and expelled him from the city. +Aristocrats and their partisans were hustled and killed in the +street. The patricians had spilt the first blood in the massacre in +121: now it was the turn of the mob.</p> + +<p>Marius was an indifferent politician. He perceived as well as +any one that violence must not go on, but he hesitated to put it +down. He knew that the aristocracy feared and hated him. Between +them and the people’s consul no alliance was possible. He did +not care to alienate his friends, and there may have been other +difficulties which we do not know in his way. The army itself was +perhaps divided. On the popular side there were two parties: a +moderate one, represented by Memmius, who, as tribune, had +impeached the senators for the Jugurthine infamies; the other, the +advanced radicals, led by Glaucia and Saturninus. Memmius and +Glaucia were both candidates for the consulship; and as Memmius was +likely to succeed, he was murdered.</p> + +<p>Revolutions proceed like the acts of a drama, and each act is +divided into scenes which follow one another with singular +uniformity. Ruling powers make themselves hated by tyranny and +incapacity. An opposition is formed against them, composed of all +sorts, lovers of order and lovers of disorder, reasonable men and +fanatics, business-like men and men of theory. The opposition +succeeds; the government is overthrown; the victors divide into a +moderate party and an advanced party. The advanced party go to the +front, till they discredit themselves with crime or folly. The +wheel has then gone round, and the reaction sets in. The murder of +Memmius alienated fatally the respectable citizens. Saturninus and +Glaucia were declared public enemies. They seized the Capitol, and +blockaded it. Patrician Rome turned out and besieged them, and +Marius had to interfere. The demagogues and their friends +surrendered, and were confined in the Curia Hostilia till they +could be tried. The noble lords could not allow such detested +enemies the chance of an acquittal. To them a radical was a foe of +mankind, to be hunted down like a wolf, when a chance was offered +to destroy him. By the law of Caius Gracchus no citizen could be +put to death without a trial. The persons of Saturninus and Glaucia +were doubly sacred, for one was tribune and the other praetor. But +the patricians were satisfied that they deserved to be executed, +and in such a frame of mind it seemed but virtue to execute them. +They tore off the roof of the senate house, and pelted the +miserable wretches to death with stones and tiles.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> + +<p>Not far from the scene of the murder of Glaucia and Saturninus +there was lying at this time in his cradle, or carried about in his +nurse’s arms, a child who, in his manhood, was to hold an +inquiry into this business, and to bring one of the perpetrators to +answer for himself. On the 12th of the preceding July, B.C. 100, <a +name="fnr4"></a> <a href="#fn4" class="fnsuper">1</a> was born into +the world Caius Julius Caesar, the only son of Caius Julius and +Aurelia, and nephew of the then Consul Marius. His father had been +praetor, but had held no higher office. Aurelia was a strict +stately lady of the old school, uninfected by the lately imported +fashions. She, or her husband, or both of them, were rich; but the +habits of the household were simple and severe, and the connection +with Marius indicates the political opinions which prevailed in the +family.</p> + +<p>No anecdotes are preserved, of Caesar’s childhood. He was +taught Greek by Antonius Gnipho, an educated Gaul from the north of +Italy. He wrote a poem when a boy in honor of Hercules. He composed +a tragedy on the story of Oedipus. His passionate attachment to +Aurelia in after-years shows that between mother and child the +relations had been affectionate and happy. But there is nothing to +indicate that there was any early precocity of talent; and leaving +Caesar to his grammar and his exercises, we will proceed with the +occurrences which he must have heard talked of in his father’s +house, or seen with his eyes when he began to open them. The +society there was probably composed of his uncle’s friends; +soldiers and statesmen who had no sympathy with mobs, but detested +the selfish and dangerous system on which the Senate had carried on +the government, and dreaded its consequences. Above the tumults of +the factions in the Capitol a cry rising into shrillness began to +be heard from Italy. Caius Gracchus had wished to extend the Roman +franchise to the Italian States, and the suggestion had cost him +his popularity and his life. The Italian provinces had furnished +their share of the armies which had beaten Jugurtha, and had +destroyed the German invaders. They now demanded that they should +have the position which Gracchus designed for them: that they +should be allowed to legislate for themselves, and no longer lie at +the mercy of others, who neither understood their necessities nor +cared for their interests. They had no friends in the city, save a +few far-sighted statesmen. Senate and mob had at least one point of +agreement, that the spoils of the Empire should be fought for among +themselves; and at the first mention of the invasion of their +monopoly a law was passed making the very agitation of the subject +punishable by death.</p> + +<p>Political convulsions work in a groove, the direction of which +varies little in any age or country. Institutions once sufficient +and salutary become unadapted to a change of circumstances. The +traditionary holders of power see their interests threatened. They +are jealous of innovations. They look on agitators for reform as +felonious persons desiring to appropriate what does not belong to +them. The complaining parties are conscious of suffering and rush +blindly on the superficial causes of their immediate distress. The +existing authority is their enemy; and their one remedy is a change +in the system of government. They imagine that they see what the +change should be, that they comprehend what they are doing, and +know where they intend to arrive. They do not perceive that the +visible disorders are no more than symptoms which no measures, +repressive or revolutionary, can do more than palliate. The wave +advances and the wave recedes. Neither party in the struggle can +lift itself far enough above the passions of the moment to study +the drift of the general current. Each is violent, each is +one-sided, and each makes the most and the worst of the sins of its +opponents. The one idea of the aggressors is to grasp all that they +can reach. The one idea of the conservatives is to part with +nothing, pretending that the stability of the State depends on +adherence to the principles which have placed them in the position +which they hold; and as various interests are threatened, and as +various necessities arise, those who are one day enemies are +frightened the next into unnatural coalitions, and the next after +into more embittered dissensions.</p> + +<p>To an indifferent spectator, armed especially with the political +experiences of twenty additional centuries, it seems difficult to +understand how Italy could govern the world. That the world and +Italy besides should continue subject to the population of a single +city, of its limited Latin environs, and of a handful of townships +exceptionally favored, might even then be seen to be plainly +impossible. The Italians were Romans in every point, except in the +possession of the franchise. They spoke the same language; they +were subjects of the same dominion. They were as well educated, +they were as wealthy, they were as capable as the inhabitants of +the dominant State. They paid taxes, they fought in the armies; +they were strong; they were less corrupt, politically and morally, +as having fewer temptations and fewer opportunities of evil; and in +their simple country life they approached incomparably nearer to +the old Roman type than the patrician fops in the circus or the +Forum, or the city mob which was fed in idleness on free grants of +corn. When Samnium and Tuscany were conquered, a third of the lands +had been confiscated to the Roman State, under the name of <i>Ager +Publicus</i>. Samnite and Etruscan gentlemen had recovered part of +it under lease, much as the descendants of the Irish chiefs held +their ancestral domains as tenants of the Cromwellians. The land +law of the Gracchi was well intended, but it bore hard on many of +the leading provincials, who had seen their estates parcelled out, +and their own property, as they deemed it, taken from them under +the land commission. If they were to be governed by Roman laws, +they naturally demanded to be consulted when the laws were made. +They might have been content under a despotism to which Roman and +Italian were subject alike. To be governed under the forms of a +free constitution by men no better than themselves was naturally +intolerable.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 95. ][B.C. 91]</span> The movement +from without united the Romans for the instant in defence of their +privileges. The aristocracy resisted change from instinct; the mob, +loudly as they clamored for their own rights, cared nothing for the +rights of others, and the answer to the petition of the Italians, +five years after the defeat of the Cimbri, was a fierce refusal to +permit the discussion of it. Livius Drusus, one of those +unfortunately gifted men who can see that in a quarrel there is +sometimes justice on both sides, made a vain attempt to secure the +provincials a hearing, but he was murdered in his own house. To be +murdered was the usual end of exceptionally distinguished Romans, +in a State where the lives of citizens were theoretically sacred. +His death was the signal for an insurrection, which began in the +mountains of the Abruzzi and spread over the whole peninsula.</p> + +<p>The contrast of character between the two classes of population +became at once uncomfortably evident. The provincials had been the +right arm of the Empire. Rome, a city of rich men with families of +slaves, and of a crowd of impoverished freemen without employment +to keep them in health and strength, could no longer bring into the +field a force which could hold its ground against the gentry and +peasants of Samnium. The Senate enlisted Greeks, Numidians, any one +whose services they could purchase. They had to encounter soldiers +who had been trained and disciplined by Marius, and they were +taught by defeat upon defeat that they had a worse enemy before +them than the Germans. Marius himself had almost withdrawn from +public life. He had no heart for the quarrel, and did not care +greatly to exert himself. At the bottom, perhaps, he thought that +the Italians were in the right. The Senate discovered that they +were helpless, and must come to terms if they would escape +destruction. They abandoned the original point of difference, and +they offered to open the franchise to every Italian state south of +the Po which had not taken arms or which returned immediately to +its allegiance. The war had broken out for a definite cause. When +the cause was removed no reason remained for its continuance. The +Italians were closely connected with Rome. Italians were spread +over the Roman world in active business. They had no wish to +overthrow the Empire if they were allowed to share in its +management. The greater part of them accepted the Senate’s +terms; and only those remained in the field who had gone to war in +the hope of recovering the lost independence which their ancestors +had so long heroically defended.</p> + +<p>The panting Senate was thus able to breathe again. The war +continued, but under better auspices. Sound material could now be +collected again for the army. Marius being in the background, the +chosen knight of the aristocracy, Lucius Sylla, whose fame in the +Cimbrian war had been only second to that of his commander’s, +came at once to the front.</p> + +<p>Sylla, or Sulla, as we are now taught to call him, was born in +the year 138 B.C. He was a patrician of the purest blood, had +inherited a moderate fortune, and had spent it like other young men +of rank, lounging in theatres and amusing himself with +dinner-parties. He was a poet, an artist, and a wit, but each and +everything with the languor of an amateur. His favorite associates +were actresses, and he had neither obtained nor aspired to any +higher reputation than that of a cultivated man of fashion. His +distinguished birth was not apparent in his person. He had red +hair, hard blue eyes, and a complexion white and purple, with the +colors so ill- mixed that his face was compared to a mulberry +sprinkled with flour. Ambition he appeared to have none; and when +he exerted himself to be appointed quaestor to Marius on the +African expedition, Marius was disinclined to take him as having no +recommendation beyond qualifications which the consul of the +plebeians disdained and disliked.</p> + +<p>Marius, however, soon discovered his mistake. Beneath his +constitutional indolence Sylla was by nature a soldier, a +statesman, a diplomatist. He had been too contemptuous of the +common objects of politicians to concern himself with the intrigues +of the Forum, but he had only to exert himself to rise with easy +ascendency to the command of every situation in which he might be +placed. He had entered with military instinct into Marius’s +reform of the army, and became the most active and useful of his +officers. He endeared himself to the legionaries by a tolerance of +vices which did not interfere with discipline; and to Sylla’s +combined adroitness and courage Marius owed the final capture of +Jugurtha.</p> + +<p>Whether Marius became jealous of Sylla on this occasion must be +decided by those who, while they have no better information than +others as to the actions of men, possess, or claim to possess, the +most intimate acquaintance with their motives. They again served +together, however, against the Northern invaders, and Sylla a +second time lent efficient help to give Marius a victory. Like +Marius, he had no turn for platform oratory and little interest in +election contests and intrigues. For eight years he kept aloof from +politics, and his name and that of his rival were alike for all +that time almost unheard of. He emerged into special notice only +when he was praetor in the year 93 B.C., and when he +characteristically distinguished his term of office by exhibiting a +hundred lions in the arena matched against Numidian archers. There +was no such road to popularity with the Roman multitude. It is +possible that the little Caesar, then a child of seven, may have +been among the spectators, making his small reflections on it +all.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 120.]</span> In 92 Sylla went as +propraetor to Asia, where the incapacity of the Senate’s +administration was creating another enemy likely to be troublesome. +Mithridates, “child of the sun,” pretending to a descent +from Darius Hystaspes, was king of Pontus, one of the +semi-independent monarchies which had been allowed to stand in Asia +Minor. The coast-line of Pontus extended from Sinope to Trebizond, +and reached inland to the line of mountains where the rivers divide +which flow into the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The father of +Mithridates was murdered when he was a child, and for some years he +led a wandering life, meeting adventures which were as wild and +perhaps as imaginary as those of Ulysses. In later life he became +the idol of Eastern imagination, and legend made free with his +history; but he was certainly an extraordinary man. He spoke the +unnumbered dialects of the Asiatic tribes among whom he had +travelled. He spoke Greek with ease and freedom. Placed, as he was, +on the margin where the civilizations of the East and the West were +brought in contact, he was at once a barbarian potentate and an +ambitious European politician. He was well informed of the state of +Rome, and saw reason, perhaps, as well he might, to doubt the +durability of its power. At any rate, he was no sooner fixed on his +own throne than he began to annex the territories of the adjoining +princes. He advanced his sea frontier through Armenia to Batoum, +and thence along the coast of Circassia. He occupied the Greek +settlements on the Sea of Azof. He took Kertch and the Crimea, and +with the help of pirates from the Mediterranean he formed a fleet +which gave him complete command of the Black Sea. In Asia Minor no +power but the Roman could venture to quarrel with him. The Romans +ought in prudence to have interfered before Mithridates had grown +to so large a bulk, but money judiciously distributed among the +leading politicians had secured the Senate’s connivance; and +they opened their eyes at last only when Mithridates thought it +unnecessary to subsidize them further, and directed his proceedings +against Cappadocia, which was immediately under Roman protection. +He invaded the country, killed the prince whom Rome had recognized, +and placed on the throne a child of his own, with the evident +intention of taking Cappadocia for himself.</p> + +<p>This was to go too far. Like Jugurtha, he had purchased many +friends in the Senate, who, grateful for past favors and hoping for +more, prevented the adoption of violent measures against him; but +they sent a message to him that he must not have Cappadocia, and +Mithridates, waiting for a better opportunity, thought proper to +comply. Of this message the bearer was Lucius Sylla. He had time to +study on the spot the problem of how to deal with Asia Minor. He +accomplished his mission with his usual adroitness and apparent +success, and he returned to Rome with new honors to finish the +Social war.</p> + +<p>It was no easy work. The Samnites were tough and determined. For +two years they continued to struggle, and the contest was not yet +over when news came from the East appalling as the threatened +Cimbrian invasion, which brought both parties to consent to suspend +their differences by mutual concessions.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn4"></a> <a href="#fnr4">[1]</a> I +follow the ordinary date, which has been fixed by the positive +statement that Caesar was fifty-six when he was killed, the date of +his death being March, B.C. 44. Mommsen, however, argues plausibly +for adding another two years to the beginning of Caesar’s life, +and brings him into the world at the time of the battle at Aix.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> + +<p>Barbarian kings, who found Roman senators ready to take bribes +from them, believed, not unnaturally, that the days of Roman +dominion were numbered. When the news of the Social war reached +Mithridates, he thought it needless to temporize longer, and he +stretched out his hand to seize the prize of the dominion of the +East. The Armenians, who were at his disposition, broke into +Cappadocia and again overthrew the government, which was in +dependence upon Rome. Mithridates himself invaded Bithynia, and +replied to the remonstrances of the Roman authorities by a +declaration of open war. He called under arms the whole force of +which he could dispose; frightened rumor spoke of it as amounting +to three hundred thousand men. His corsair fleets poured down +through the Dardanelles into the archipelago; and so detested had +the Roman governors made themselves by their extortion and +injustice that not only all the islands, but the provinces on the +continent, Ionia, Lydia, and Caria, rose in revolt. The rebellion +was preconcerted and simultaneous. The Roman residents, merchants, +bankers, farmers of the taxes, they and all their families, were +set upon and murdered; a hundred and fifty thousand men, women, and +children were said to have been destroyed in a single day. If we +divide by ten, as it is generally safe to do with historical round +numbers, still beyond doubt the signal had been given in an +appalling massacre to abolish out of Asia the Roman name and power. +Swift as a thunderbolt Mithridates himself crossed the Bosphorus, +and the next news that reached Rome was that northern Greece had +risen also and was throwing itself into the arms of its +deliverers.</p> + +<p>The defeat at Cannae had been received with dignified calm. +Patricians and plebeians forgot their quarrels and thought only how +to meet their common foe. The massacre in Asia and the invasion of +Mithridates let loose a tempest of political frenzy. Never was +indignation more deserved. The Senate had made no preparation. Such +resources as they could command had been wasted in the wars with +the Italians. They had no fleet, they had no armies available; nor, +while the civil war was raging, could they raise an army. The +garrisons in Greece were scattered or shut in within their lines +and unable to move. The treasury was empty. Individuals were +enormously rich and the State was bankrupt. Thousands of families +had lost brothers, cousins, or friends in the massacre, and the +manifest cause of the disaster was the inefficiency and +worthlessness of the ruling classes. In Africa, in Gaul, in Italy, +and now in Asia it had been the same story. The interests of the +Commonwealth had been sacrificed to fill the purses of the few. +Dominion, wealth, honors, all that had been won by the hardy +virtues of earlier generations, seemed about to be engulfed +forever.</p> + +<p>In their panic the Senate turned to Sylla, whom they had made +consul. An imperfect peace was patched up with the Italians. Sylla +was bidden to save the Republic and to prepare in haste for Greece. +But Sylla was a bitter aristocrat, the very incarnation of the +oligarchy, who were responsible for every disaster which had +happened. The Senate had taken bribes from Jugurtha. The Senate had +chosen the commanders whose blunders had thrown open the Alps to +the Germans; and it was only because the people had snatched the +power out of their hands and had trusted it to one of themselves +that Italy had not been in flames. Again the oligarchy had +recovered the administration, and again by following the old +courses they had brought on this new catastrophe. They might have +checked Mithridates while there was time. They had preferred to +accept his money and look on. The people naturally thought that no +successes could be looked for under such guidance, and that even +were Sylla to be victorious, nothing was to be expected but the +continuance of the same accursed system. Marius was the man. Marius +after his sixth consulship had travelled in the East, and +understood it as well as Sylla. Not Sylla but Marius must now go +against Mithridates. Too late the democratic leaders repented of +their folly in encouraging the Senate to refuse the franchise to +the Italians. The Italians, they began to perceive, would be their +surest political allies. Caius Gracchus had been right after all. +The Roman democracy must make haste to offer the Italians more than +all which the Senate was ready to concede to them. Together they +could make an end of misrule and place Marius once more at their +head.</p> + +<p>Much of this was perhaps the scheming passion of revolution; +much of it was legitimate indignation, penitent for its errors and +anxious to atone for them. Marius had his personal grievances. The +aristocrats were stealing from him even his military reputation, +and claiming for Sylla the capture of Jugurtha. He was willing, +perhaps anxious, to take the Eastern command. Sulpicius Rufus, once +a champion of the Senate and the most brilliant orator in Rome, +went over to the people in the excitement. Rufus was chosen +tribune, and at once proposed to enfranchise the remainder of +Italy. He denounced the oligarchy. He insisted that the Senate must +be purged of its corrupt members and better men be introduced, that +the people must depose Sylla, and that Marius must take his place. +The Empire was tottering, and the mob and its leaders were choosing +an ill moment for a revolution. The tribune carried the assembly +along with him. There were fights again in the Forum, the young +nobles with their gangs once more breaking up the Comitia and +driving the people from the voting-places. The voting, +notwithstanding, was got through as Sulpicius Rufus recommended, +and Sylla, so far as the assembly could do it, was superseded. But +Sylla was not so easily got rid of. It was no time for nice +considerations. He had formed an army in Campania out of the +legions which had served against the Italians. He had made his +soldiers devoted to him. They were ready to go anywhere and do +anything which Sylla bade them. After so many murders and so many +commotions, the constitution had lost its sacred character; a +popular assembly was, of all conceivable bodies, the least fit to +govern an empire; and in Sylla’s eyes the Senate, whatever its +deficiencies, was the only possible sovereign of Rome. The people +were a rabble, and their voices the clamor of fools, who must be +taught to know their masters. His reply to Sulpicius and to the +vote for his recall was to march on the city. He led his troops +within the circle which no legionary in arms was allowed to enter, +and he lighted his watch-fires in the Forum itself. The people +resisted; Sulpicius was killed; Marius, the saviour of his country, +had to fly for his life, pursued by assassins, with a price set +upon his head. Twelve of the prominent popular leaders were +immediately executed without trial, and in hot haste swift decisive +measures were taken which permanently, as Sylla hoped, or if not +permanently at least for the moment, would lame the limbs of the +democracy. The Senate, being below its numbers, was hastily filled +up from the patrician families. The arrangements of the Comitia +were readjusted to restore to wealth a decisive preponderance in +the election of the magistrates. The tribunes of the people were +stripped of half their power. Their veto was left to them, but the +right of initiation was taken away, and no law or measure of any +kind was thenceforth to be submitted to the popular assembly till +it had been considered in the Curia and had received the +Senate’s sanction.</p> + +<p>Thus the snake was scotched, and it might be hoped would die of +its wounds. Sulpicius and his brother demagogues were dead. Marius +was exiled. Time pressed, and Sylla could not wait to see his +reforms in operation. Signs became visible before he went that the +crisis would not pass off so easily. Fresh consuls had to be +elected. The changes in the method of voting were intended to +secure the return of the Senate’s candidates, and one of the +consuls chosen, Cnaeus Octavius, was a man on whom Sylla could +rely. His colleague, Lucius Cinna, though elected under the +pressure of the legions, was of more doubtful temper. But Cinna was +a patrician, though given to popular sentiments. Sylla was +impatient to be gone; more important work was waiting for him than +composing factions in Rome. He contented himself with obliging the +new consuls to take an oath to maintain the constitution in the +shape in which he left it, and he sailed from Brindisi in the +winter of B.C. 88.</p> + +<p>The campaign of Sylla in the East does not fall to be described +in this place. He was a second Coriolanus, a proud, imperious +aristocrat, contemptuous, above all men living, of popular rights; +but he was the first soldier of his age; he was himself, though he +did not know it, an impersonation of the change which was passing +over the Roman character. He took with him at most 30,000 men. He +had no fleet. Had the corsair squadrons of Mithridates been on the +alert, they might have destroyed him on his passage. Events at Rome +left him almost immediately without support from Italy. He was +impeached; he was summoned back. His troops were forbidden to obey +him, and a democratic commander was sent out to supersede him. The +army stood by their favorite commander. Sylla disregarded his +orders from home. He found men and money as he could. He supported +himself out of the countries which he occupied, without resources +save in his own skill and in the fidelity and excellence of his +legions. He defeated Mithridates, he drove him back out of Greece +and pursued him into Asia. The interests of his party demanded his +presence at Rome; the interests of the State required that he +should not leave his work in the East unfinished, and he stood to +it through four hard years till he brought Mithridates to sue for +peace upon his knees. He had not the means to complete the conquest +or completely to avenge the massacre with which the Prince of +Pontus had commenced the war. He left Mithridates still in +possession of his hereditary kingdom, but he left him bound, so far +as treaties could bind so ambitious a spirit, to remain +thenceforward within his own frontiers. He recovered Greece and the +islands, and the Roman provinces in Asia Minor. He extorted an +indemnity of five millions, and executed many of the wretches who +had been active in the murders. He raised a fleet in Egypt, with +which he drove the pirates out of the archipelago back into their +own waters. He restored the shattered prestige of Roman authority, +and he won for himself a reputation which his later cruelties might +stain but could not efface.</p> + +<p>The merit of Sylla shows in more striking colors when we look to +what was passing, during these four years of his absence, in the +heart of the Empire. He was no sooner out of Italy than the +democratic party rose, with Cinna at their head, to demand the +restoration of the old constitution. Cinna had been sworn to +maintain Sylla’s reforms, but no oath could be held binding +which was extorted at the sword’s point. A fresh Sulpicius was +found in Carbo, a popular tribune. A more valuable supporter was +found in Quintus Sertorius, a soldier of fortune, but a man of real +gifts, and even of genius. Disregarding the new obligation to +obtain the previous consent of the Senate, Cinna called the +assembly together to repeal the acts which Sylla had forced on +them. Sylla, it is to be remembered, had as yet won no victories, +nor was expected to win victories. He was the favorite of the +Senate, and the Senate had become a byword for incapacity and +failure. Again, as so many times before, the supremacy of the +aristocrats had been accompanied with dishonor abroad and the +lawless murder of political adversaries at home. No true lover of +his country could be expected, in Cinna’s opinion, to sit quiet +under a tyranny which had robbed the people of their hereditary +liberties.</p> + +<p>The patricians took up the challenge. Octavius, the other +consul, came with an armed force into the Forum, and ordered the +assembly to disperse. The crowd was unusually great. The country +voters had come in large numbers to stand up for their rights. They +did not obey, They were not called on to obey. But because they +refused to disperse they were set upon with deliberate fury, and +were hewn down in heaps where they stood. No accurate register was, +of course, taken of the numbers killed; but the intention of the +patricians was to make a bloody example, and such a scene of +slaughter had never been witnessed in Rome since the first stone of +the city was laid. It was an act of savage, ruthless ferocity, +certain to be followed with a retribution as sharp and as +indiscriminating. Men are not permitted to deal with their +fellow-creatures in these methods. Cinna and the tribunes fled, but +fled only to be received with open arms by the Italians. The wounds +of the Social war were scarcely cicatrized, and the peace had left +the allies imperfectly satisfied. Their dispersed armies gathered +again about Cinna and Sertorius. Old Marius, who had been hunted +through marsh and forest, and had been hiding with difficulty in +Africa, came back at the news that Italy had risen again; and six +thousand of his veterans flocked to him at the sound of his name. +The Senate issued proclamations. The limitations on the Italian +franchise left by Sylla were abandoned. Every privilege which had +been asked for was conceded. It was too late. Concessions made in +fear might be withdrawn on the return of safety. Marius and Cinna +joined their forces. The few troops in the pay of the Senate +deserted to them. They appeared together at the gate’s of the +city, and Rome capitulated.</p> + +<p>There was a bloody score to be wiped out. There would have been +neither cruelty nor injustice in the most severe inquiry into the +massacre in the Forum, and the most exemplary punishment of +Octavius and his companions. But the blood of the people was up, +and they had suffered too deeply to wait for the tardy processes of +law. They had not been the aggressors. They had assembled lawfully, +to assert their constitutional rights; they had been cut in pieces +as if they had been insurgent slaves, and the assassins were not +individuals, but a political party in the State.</p> + +<p>Marius bears the chief blame for the scenes which followed. +Undoubtedly he was in no pleasant humor. A price had been set on +his head, his house had been destroyed, his property had been +confiscated, he himself had been chased like a wild beast, and he +had not deserved such treatment. He had saved Italy when but for +him it would have been wasted by the swords of the Germans. His +power had afterward been absolute, but he had not abused it for +party purposes. The Senate had no reason to complain of him. He had +touched none of their privileges, incapable and dishonest as he +knew them to be. His crime in their eyes had been his eminence. +They had now shown themselves as cruel as they were worthless; and +if public justice was disposed to make an end of them, he saw no +cause for interference.</p> + +<p>Thus the familiar story repeated itself; wrong was punished by +wrong, and another item was entered on the bloody account which was +being scored up year after year. The noble lords and their friends +had killed the people in the Forum. They were killed in turn by the +soldiers of Marius. Fifty senators perished; not those who were +specially guilty, but those who were most politically marked as +patrician leaders. With them fell a thousand equites, commoners of +fortune, who had thrown in their lot with the aristocracy. From +retaliatory political revenge the transition was easy to pillage +and wholesale murder, and for many days the wretched city was made +a prey to robbers and cutthroats.</p> + +<p>So ended the year 87, the darkest and bloodiest which the guilty +city had yet experienced. Marius and Cinna were chosen consuls for +the year ensuing, and a witch’s prophecy was fulfilled that +Marius should have a seventh consulate. But the glory had departed +from him. His sun was already setting, redly, among crimson clouds. +He lived but a fortnight after his inauguration, and he died in his +bed on the 13th of January, at the age of seventy-one.</p> + +<p>“The mother of the Gracchi,” said Mirabeau, “cast +the dust of her murdered sons into the air, and out of it sprang +Caius Marius.” The Gracchi were perhaps not forgotten in the +retribution; but the crime which had been revenged by Marius was +the massacre in the Forum by Octavius and his friends. The +aristocracy found no mercy, because they had shown no mercy. They +had been guilty of the most wantonly wicked cruelty which the Roman +annals had yet recorded. They were not defending their country +against a national danger. They were engaged in what has been +called in later years “saving society;” that is to say, +in saving their own privileges, their opportunities for plunder, +their palaces, their estates, and their game-preserves. They had +treated the people as if they were so many cattle grown troublesome +to their masters, and the cattle were human beings with rights as +real as their own.</p> + +<p>The democratic party were now masters of the situation, and so +continued for almost four years. Cinna succeeded to the consulship +term after term, nominating himself and his colleagues. The +franchise was given to the Italians without reserve or +qualification. Northern Italy was still excluded, being not called +Italy, but Cisalpine Gaul. South of the Po distinctions of +citizenship ceased to exist. The constitution became a rehearsal of +the Empire, a democracy controlled and guided by a popular +dictator. The aristocrats who had escaped massacre fled to Sylla in +Asia, and for a brief interval Rome drew its breath in peace.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> + +<p>Revolutionary periods are painted in history in colors so dark +that the reader wonders how, amidst such scenes, peaceful human +beings could continue to exist. He forgets that the historian +describes only the abnormal incidents which broke the current of +ordinary life, and that between the spasms of violence there were +long quiet intervals when the ordinary occupations of men went on +as usual. Cinna’s continuous consulship was uncomfortable to +the upper classes, but the daily business of a great city pursued +its beaten way. Tradesmen and merchants made money, and lawyers +pleaded, and priests prayed in the temples, and +“celebrated” on festival and holy day. And now for the +first time we catch a personal view of young Julius Caesar. He was +growing up, in his father’s house, a tall, slight, handsome +youth, with dark piercing eyes, <a name="fnr5"></a> <a href="#fn5" +class="fnsuper">1</a> a sallow complexion, large nose, lips full, +features refined and intellectual, neck sinewy and thick beyond +what might have been expected from the generally slender figure. He +was particular about his appearance, used the bath frequently, and +attended carefully to his hair. His dress was arranged with studied +negligence, and he had a loose mode of fastening his girdle so +peculiar as to catch the eye.</p> + +<p>It may be supposed that he had witnessed Sylla’s coming to +Rome, the camp- fires in the Forum, the Octavian massacre, the +return of his uncle and Cinna, and the bloody triumph of the party +to which his father belonged. He was just at the age when such +scenes make an indelible impression; and the connection of his +family with Marius suggests easily the persons whom he must have +most often seen, and the conversation to which he must have +listened at his father’s table. His most intimate companions +were the younger Marius, the adopted son of his uncle; and, +singularly enough, the two Ciceros, Marcus and his brother Quintus, +who had been sent by their father to be educated at Rome. The +connection of Marius with Arpinum was perhaps the origin of the +intimacy. The great man may have heard of his fellow-townsman’s +children being in the city, and have taken notice of them. Certain, +at any rate, it is that these boys grew up together on terms of +close familiarity. <a name="fnr6"></a> <a href="#fn6" class= +"fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>Marius had observed his nephew, and had marked him for +promotion. During the brief fortnight of his seventh consulship he +gave him an appointment which reminds us of the boy-bishops of the +middle ages. He made him <i>flamen dialis</i>, or priest of +Jupiter, and a member of the Sacred College, with a handsome +income, when he was no more than fourteen. Two years later, during +the rule of Cinna, his father arranged a marriage for him with a +lady of fortune named Cossutia. But the young Caesar had more +ambitious views for himself. His father died suddenly at Pisa, in +B.C. 84; he used his freedom to break off his engagement, and +instead of Cossutia he married Cornelia, the daughter of no less a +person than the all- powerful Cinna himself. If the date commonly +received for Caesar’s birth is correct, he was still only in +his seventeenth year. Such connections were rarely formed at an age +so premature; and the doubt is increased by the birth of his +daughter, Julia, in the year following. Be this as it may, a +marriage into Cinna’s family connected Caesar more closely than +ever with the popular party. Thus early and thus definitively he +committed himself to the politics of his uncle and his +father-in-law; and the comparative quiet which Rome and Italy +enjoyed under Cinna’s administration may have left a permanent +impression upon him.</p> + +<p>The quiet was not destined to be of long endurance. The time was +come when Sylla was to demand a reckoning for all which had been +done in his absence. No Roman general had deserved better of his +country than Sylla. He had driven Mithridates out of Greece, and +had restored Roman authority in Asia under conditions peculiarly +difficult. He had clung resolutely to his work, while his friends +at home were being trampled upon by the populace whom he despised. +He perhaps knew that in subduing the enemies of the State by his +own individual energy he was taking the surest road to regain his +ascendency. His task was finished. Mithridates was once more a +petty Asiatic prince existing upon sufferance, and Sylla announced +his approaching return to Italy. By his victories he had restored +confidence to the aristocracy, and had won the respect of millions +of his countrymen. But the party in power knew well that if he +gained a footing in Italy their day was over, and the danger to be +expected from him was aggravated by his transcendent services. The +Italians feared naturally that they would lose the liberties which +they had won. The popular faction at Rome was combined and strong, +and was led by men of weight and practical ability. No +reconciliation was possible between Cinna and Sylla. They were the +respective chiefs of heaven and hell, and which of the two +represented the higher power and which the lower could be +determined only when the sword had decided between them. In Cinna +lay the presumed lawful authority. He represented the people as +organized in the Comitia, and his colleague in the consulship when +the crisis came was the popular tribune Carbo. Italy was ready with +armies; and as leaders there were young Marius, already with a +promise of greatness in him, and Sertorius, gifted, brilliant, +unstained by crime, adored by his troops as passionately as Sylla +himself, and destined to win a place for himself elsewhere in the +Pantheon of Rome’s most distinguished men.</p> + +<p>Sylla had measured the difficulty of the task which lay before +him. But he had an army behind him accustomed to victory, and +recruited by thousands of exiles who had fled from the rule of the +democracy. He had now a fleet to cover his passage; and he was +watching the movements of his enemies before deciding upon his own, +when accident came suddenly to his help. Cinna had gone down to +Brindisi, intending himself to carry his army into Greece, and to +spare Italy the miseries of another civil war, by fighting it out +elsewhere. The expedition was unpopular with the soldiers, and +Cinna was killed in a mutiny. The democracy was thus left without a +head, and the moderate party in the city who desired peace and +compromise used the opportunity to elect two neutral consuls, +Scipio and Norbanus. Sylla, perhaps supposing the change of feeling +to be more complete than it really was, at once opened +communications with them. But his terms were such as he might have +dictated if the popular party were already under his feet. He +intended to re-enter Rome with the glory of his conquests about +him, for revenge and a counter-revolution. The consuls replied with +refusing to treat with a rebel in arms, and with a command to +disband his troops.</p> + +<p>Sylla had lingered at Athens, collecting paintings and statues +and manuscripts, the rarest treasures on which he could lay his +hands, to decorate his Roman palace. On receiving the consuls’ +answer, he sailed for Brindisi in the spring of 83, with forty +thousand legionaries and a large fleet. The south of Italy made no +resistance, and he secured a standing- ground where his friends +could rally to him. They came in rapidly, some for the cause which +he represented, some for private hopes or animosities, some as +aspiring military adventurers, seeking the patronage of the +greatest soldier of the age. Among these last came Cnaeus Pompey, +afterward Pompey the Great, son of Pompey, surnamed Strabo, or the +squint- eyed, either from some personal deformity or because he had +trimmed between the two factions and was distrusted and hated by +them both.</p> + +<p>Cnaeus Pompey had been born in the same year with Cicero, and +was now twenty-three. He was a high—spirited ornamental youth, +with soft melting eyes, as good as he was beautiful, and so +delightful to women that it was said they all longed to bite him. +The Pompeys had been hardly treated by Cinna. The father had been +charged with embezzlement. The family house in Rome had been +confiscated; the old Strabo had been killed; the son had retired to +his family estate in Picenum, <a name="fnr7"></a> <a href="#fn7" +class="fnsuper">3</a> where he was living when Sylla landed. To the +young Roman chivalry Sylla was a hero of romance. Pompey raised a +legion out of his friends and tenants, scattered the few companies +that tried to stop him, and rushed to the side of the deliverer. +Others came, like Sergius Catiline or Oppianicus of Larino, <a +name="fnr8"></a> <a href="#fn8" class="fnsuper">4</a> men steeped +in crime, stained with murder, incest, adultery, forgery, and +meaning to secure the fruits of their villanies by well-timed +service. They were all welcome, and Sylla was not particular. His +progress was less rapid than it promised to be at the outset. He +easily defeated Norbanus; and Scipio’s troops, having an +aristocratic leaven in them, deserted to him. But the Italians, +especially the Samnites, fought most desperately. The war lasted +for more than a year, Sylla slowly advancing. The Roman mob became +furious. They believed their cause betrayed, and were savage from +fear and disappointment. Suspected patricians were murdered: among +them fell the Pontifex Maximus, the venerable Scaevola. At length +the contest ended in a desperate fight under the walls of Rome +itself on the lst of November, B.C. 82. The battle began at four in +the afternoon, and lasted through the night to the dawn of the +following day. The popular army was at last cut to pieces; a few +thousand prisoners were taken, but they were murdered afterward in +cold blood. Young Marius killed himself, Sertorius fled to Spain, +and Sylla and the aristocracy were masters of Rome and Italy. Such +provincial towns as continued to resist were stormed and given up +to pillage, every male inhabitant being put to the sword. At Norba, +in Latium, the desperate citizens fired their own houses and +perished by each other’s hands.</p> + +<p>Sylla was under no illusions. He understood the problem which he +had in hand. He knew that the aristocracy were detested by nine +tenths of the people; he knew that they deserved to be detested; +but they were at least gentlemen by birth and breeding. The +democrats, on the other hand, were insolent upstarts, who, instead +of being grateful for being allowed to live and work and pay taxes +and serve in the army, had dared to claim a share in the +government, had turned against their masters, and had set their +feet upon their necks. The miserable multitude were least to blame. +They were ignorant, and without leaders could be controlled easily. +The guilt and the danger lay with the men of wealth and intellect, +the country gentlemen, the minority of knights and patricians like +Cinna, who had taken the popular side and had deserted their own +order. Their motives mattered not; some might have acted from +foolish enthusiasm, some from personal ambition; but such traitors, +from the Gracchi onward, had caused all the mischief which had +happened to the State. They were determined, they were persevering. +No concessions had satisfied them, and one demand had been a +prelude to another. There was no hope for an end of agitation till +every one of these men had been rooted out, their estates taken +from them, and their families destroyed.</p> + +<p>To this remarkable work Sylla addressed himself, unconscious +that he was attempting an impossibility, that opinion could not be +controlled by the sword, and that for every enemy to the oligarchy +that he killed he would create twenty by his cruelty. Like Marius +after the Octavian massacre, he did not attempt to distinguish +between degrees of culpability. Guilt was not the question with +him. His object was less to punish the past than to prevent a +recurrence of it, and moderate opposition was as objectionable as +fanaticism and frenzy. He had no intention of keeping power in his +own hands. Personal supremacy might end with himself, and he +intended to create institutions which would endure, in the form of +a close senatorial monopoly. But for his purpose it would be +necessary to remove out of the way every single person either in +Rome or in the provinces who was in a position to offer active +resistance, and therefore for the moment he required complete +freedom of action. The Senate at his direction appointed him +dictator, and in this capacity he became absolute master of the +life and property of every man and woman in Italy. He might be +impeached afterward and his policy reversed, but while his office +lasted he could do what he pleased.</p> + +<p>He at once outlawed every magistrate, every public servant of +any kind, civil or municipal, who had held office under the rule of +Cinna. Lists were drawn for him of the persons of wealth and +consequence all over Italy who belonged to the liberal party. He +selected agents whom he could trust, or supposed he could trust, to +enter the names for each district. He selected, for instance, +Oppianicus of Larino, who inscribed individuals whom he had already +murdered, and their relations whose prosecution he feared. It +mattered little to Sylla who were included, if none escaped who +were really dangerous to him; and an order was issued for the +slaughter of the entire number, the confiscation of their property, +and the division of it between the informers and Sylla’s +friends and soldiers. Private interest was thus called in to assist +political animosity, and to stimulate the zeal for assassination a +reward of £500 was offered for the head of any person whose name +was in the schedule.</p> + +<p>It was one of those deliberate acts, carried out with method and +order, which are possible only in countries in an advanced stage of +civilization, and which show how thin is the film spread over human +ferocity by what is called progress and culture. We read in every +page of history of invasions of hostile armies, of towns and +villages destroyed and countries wasted and populations perishing +of misery; the simplest war brings a train of horrors behind it; +but we bear them with comparative equanimity. Personal hatreds are +not called out on such occasions. The actors in them are neither +necessarily nor generally fiends. The grass grows again on the +trampled fields. Peace returns, and we forget and forgive. The +coldly ordered massacres of selected victims in political and +spiritual struggles rise in a different order of feelings, and are +remembered through all ages with indignation and shame. The victims +perish as the champions of principles which survive through the +changes of time. They are marked for the sacrifice on account of +their advocacy of a cause which to half mankind is the cause of +humanity. They are the martyrs of history, and the record of +atrocity rises again in immortal witness against the opinions out +of which it rose.</p> + +<p>Patricians and plebeians, aristocrats and democrats, have alike +stained their hands with blood in the working out of the problem of +politics. But impartial history declares also that the crimes of +the popular party have in all ages been the lighter in degree, +while in themselves they have more to excuse them; and if the +violent acts of revolutionists have been held up more conspicuously +for condemnation, it has been only because the fate of noblemen and +gentlemen has been more impressive to the imagination than the fate +of the peasant or the artisan. But the endurance of the +inequalities of life by the poor is the marvel of human society. +When the people complain, said Mirabeau, the people are always +right. The popular cause has been the cause of the laborer +struggling for a right to live and breathe and think as a man. +Aristocracies fight for wealth and power, wealth which they waste +upon luxury, and power which they abuse for their own interests. +Yet the cruelties of Marius were as far exceeded by the cruelties +of Sylla as the insurrection of the beggars of Holland was exceeded +by the bloody tribunal of the Duke of Alva, or as “the horrors +of the French Revolution” were exceeded by the massacre of the +Huguenots two hundred years before, for which the Revolution was +the expiatory atonement.</p> + +<p>Four thousand seven hundred persons fell in the proscription of +Sylla, all men of education and fortune. The real crime of many of +them was the possession of an estate or a wife which a relative or +a neighbor coveted. The crime alleged against all was the opinion +that the people of Rome and Italy had rights which deserved +consideration as well as the senators and nobles. The liberal party +were extinguished in their own blood. Their estates were +partitioned into a hundred and twenty thousand allotments, which +were distributed among Sylla’s friends, or soldiers, or +freedmen. The land reform of the Gracchi was mockingly adopted to +create a permanent aristocratic garrison. There were no trials, +there were no pardons. Common report or private information was at +once indictment and evidence, and accusation was in itself +condemnation.</p> + +<p>The ground being thus cleared, the Dictator took up again his +measures of political reform. He did not attempt a second time to +take the franchise from the Italians. Romans and Italians he was +ready to leave on the same level, but it was to be a level of +impotence. Rome was to be ruled by the Senate, and as a first step, +and to protect the Senate’s dignity, he enfranchised ten +thousand slaves who had belonged to the proscribed gentlemen, and +formed them into a senatorial guard. Before departing for the East +he had doubled the Senate’s numbers out of the patrician order. +Under Cinna the new members had not claimed their privilege, and +had probably been absent from Italy. They were now installed in +their places, and the power of the censors to revise the list and +remove those who had proved unworthy was taken away. The senators +were thus peers for life, peers in a single chamber which Sylla +meant to make omnipotent. Vacancies were to be supplied as before +from the retiring consuls, praetors, aediles, and quaestors. The +form of a popular constitution would remain, since the road into +the council of State lay through the popular elections. But to +guard against popular favorites finding access to the consulship, a +provision was made that no person who had been a tribune of the +people could be chosen afterward to any other office.</p> + +<p>The Senate’s power depended on the withdrawal from the +assembly of citizens of the right of original legislation. So long +as the citizens could act immediately at the invitation of either +consul or tribune, they could repeal at their pleasure any +arrangement which Sylla might prescribe. As a matter of course, +therefore, he re-enacted the condition which restricted the +initiation of laws to the Senate. The tribunes still retained their +veto, but a penalty was attached to the abuse of the veto, the +Senate being the judge in its own cause, and possessing a right to +depose a tribune.</p> + +<p>In the Senate so reconstituted was thus centred a complete +restrictive control over the legislation and the administration. +And this was not all. The senators had been so corrupt in the use +of their judicial functions that Gracchus had disabled them from +sitting in the law courts, and had provided that the judges should +be chosen in future from the equites. The knights had been +exceptionally pure in their office. Cicero challenged his opponents +on the trial of Verres <a name="fnr9"></a> <a href="#fn9" class= +"fnsuper">5</a> to find a single instance in which an equestrian +court could be found to have given a corrupt verdict during the +forty years for which their privilege survived. But their purity +did not save them, nor, alas! those who were to suffer by a +reversion to the old order. The equestrian courts were abolished: +the senatorial courts were reinstated. It might be hoped that the +senators had profited by their lesson, and for the future would be +careful of their reputation.</p> + +<p>Changes were made also in the modes of election to office. The +College of Priests had been originally a close corporation, which +filled up its own numbers. Democracy had thrown it open to +competition, and given the choice to the people. Sylla reverted to +the old rule. Consuls like Marius and Cinna, who had the confidence +of the people, had been re-elected year after year, and had been +virtual kings. Sylla provided that ten years must elapse between a +first consulship and a second. Nor was any one to be a consul who +was not forty-three years old and had not passed already through +the lower senatorial offices of praetor or quaestor.</p> + +<p>The assembly of the people had been shorn of its legislative +powers. There was no longer, therefore, any excuse for its meeting, +save on special occasions. To leave the tribunes power to call the +citizens to the Forum was to leave them the means of creating +inconvenient agitation. It was ordered, therefore, that the +assembly should only come together at the Senate’s invitation. +The free grants of corn, which filled the city with idle vagrants, +were abolished. Sylla never courted popularity, and never shrank +from fear of clamor.</p> + +<p>The Senate was thus made omnipotent and irresponsible. It had +the appointment of all the governors of the provinces. It was +surrounded by its own body-guard. It had the administration +completely in hand. The members could be tried only by their peers, +and were themselves judges of every other order. No legal force was +left anywhere to interfere with what it might please them to +command. A senator was not necessarily a patrician, nor a patrician +a senator. The Senate was, <a name="fnr10"></a> <a href="#fn10" +class="fnsuper">6</a> or was to be as time wore on, a body composed +of men of any order who had secured the suffrages of the people. +But as the value of the prize became so vast, the way to the +possession of it was open practically to those only who had wealth +or interest. The elections came to be worked by organized +committees, and except in extraordinary circumstances no candidate +could expect success who had not the Senate’s support, or who +had not bought the services of the managers, at a cost within the +reach only of the reckless spendthrift or the speculating +millionaire.</p> + +<p>What human foresight could do to prevent democracy from +regaining the ascendency, Sylla had thus accomplished. He had +destroyed the opposition; he had reorganized the constitution on +the most strictly conservative lines. He had built the fortress, as +he said; it was now the Senate’s part to provide a garrison; +and here it was, as Caesar said afterward, that Sylla had made his +great mistake. His arrangements were ingenious, and many of them +excellent; but the narrower the body to whose care the government +was entrusted, the more important became the question of the +composition of this body. The theory of election implied that they +would be the best that the Republic possessed; but Sylla must have +been himself conscious that fact and theory might be very far from +corresponding.</p> + +<p>The key of the situation was the army. As before, no troops were +to be maintained in Italy; but beyond the frontiers the provinces +were held by military force, and the only power which could rule +the Empire was the power which the army would obey. It was not for +the Senate’s sake that Sylla’s troops had followed him from +Greece. It was from their personal devotion to himself. What charm +was there in this new constructed aristocratic oligarchy, that +distant legions should defer to it—more than Sylla’s legions +had deferred to orders from Cinna and Carbo? Symptoms of the danger +from this quarter were already growing even under the +Dictator’s own eyes, and at the height of his authority. +Sertorius had escaped the proscription. After wandering in Africa +he made his way into Spain, where, by his genius as a statesman and +a soldier, he rose into a position to defy the Senate and assert +his independence. He organized the peninsula after the Roman model; +he raised armies, and defeated commander after commander who was +sent to reduce him. He revived in the Spaniards a national +enthusiasm for freedom. The Roman legionaries had their own +opinions, and those whose friends Sylla had murdered preferred +Sertorius and liberty to Rome and an aristocratic Senate. +Unconquerable by honorable means, Sertorius was poisoned at last. +But his singular history suggests a doubt whether, if the Syllan +constitution had survived, other Sertoriuses might not have sprung +up in every province, and the Empire of Rome have gone to pieces +like the Macedonian. The one condition of the continuance of the +Roman dominion was the existence of a central authority which the +army as a profession could respect, and the traditionary reverence +which attached to the Roman Senate would scarcely have secured +their disinterested attachment to five hundred elderly rich men who +had bought their way into pre-eminence.</p> + +<p>Sylla did not live to see the significance of the Sertorian +revolt. He experienced, however, himself, in a milder form, an +explosion of military sauciness. Young Pompey had been sent, after +the occupation of Rome, to settle Sicily and Africa. He did his +work well and rapidly, and when it was over he received orders from +the Senate to dismiss his troops. An order from Sylla Pompey would +have obeyed; but what was the Senate, that an ambitious brilliant +youth with arms in his hands should send away an army devoted to +him and step back into common life? Sylla himself had to smooth the +ruffled plumes of his aspiring follower. He liked Pompey, he was +under obligations to him, and Pompey had not acted after all in a +manner so very unlike his own. He summoned him home, but he gave +him a triumph for his African conquests, and allowed him to call +himself by the title of “<i>Magnus</i>,” or +“<i>The Great</i>.” Pompey was a promising soldier, +without political ambition, and was worth an effort to secure. To +prevent the risk of a second act of insubordination, Sylla made +personal arrangements to attach Pompey directly to himself. He had +a step-daughter, named Aemilia. She was already married, and was +pregnant. Pompey too was married to Antistia, a lady of good +family; but domestic ties were not allowed to stand in the way of +higher objects. Nor did it matter that Antistia’s father had +been murdered by the Roman populace for taking Sylla’s side, or +that her mother had gone mad and destroyed herself, on her +husband’s horrible death. Late Republican Rome was not troubled +with sentiment. Sylla invited Pompey to divorce Antistia and marry +Aemilia. Pompey complied. Antistia was sent away. Aemilia was +divorced from her husband, and was brought into Pompey’s house, +where she immediately died.</p> + +<p>In another young man of high rank, whom Sylla attempted to +attach to himself by similar means, he found less complaisance. +Caesar was now eighteen, his daughter Julia having been lately +born. He had seen his party ruined, his father-in-law and young +Marius killed, and his nearest friends dispersed or murdered. He +had himself for a time escaped proscription; but the Dictator had +his eye on him, and Sylla had seen something in “the youth +with the loose girdle” which struck him as remarkable. Closely +connected though Caesar was both with Cinna and Marius, Sylla did +not wish to kill him if he could help it. There was a cool +calculation in his cruelties. The existing generation of democrats +was incurable, but he knew that the stability of the new +constitution must depend on his being able to conciliate the +intellect and energy of the next. Making a favor perhaps of his +clemency, he proposed to Caesar to break with his liberal +associates, divorce Cinna’s daughter, and take such a wife as +he would himself provide. If Pompey had complied, who had made a +position of his own, much more might it be expected that Caesar +would comply. Yet Caesar answered with a distinct and unhesitating +refusal. The terrible Sylla, in the fulness of his strength, after +desolating half the homes in Italy, after revolutionizing all Roman +society, from the peasant’s cottage in the Apennines to the +senate-house itself, was defied by a mere boy! Throughout his +career Caesar displayed always a singular indifference to life. He +had no sentimental passion about him, no Byronic mock-heroics. He +had not much belief either in God or the gods. On all such +questions he observed from first to last a profound silence. But +one conviction he had. He intended, if he was to live at all, to +live master of himself in matters which belonged to himself. Sylla +might kill him if he so pleased. It was better to die than to put +away a wife who was the mother of his child, and to marry some +other woman at a dictator’s bidding. Life on such terms was not +worth keeping.</p> + +<p>So proud a bearing may have commanded Sylla’s admiration, +but it taught him, also, that a young man capable of assuming an +attitude so bold might be dangerous to the rickety institutions +which he had constructed so carefully. He tried coercion. He +deprived Caesar of his priesthood. He took his wife’s dowry +from him, and confiscated the estate which he had inherited from +his father. When this produced no effect, the rebellious youth was +made over to the assassins, and a price was set upon his head. He +fled into concealment. He was discovered once, and escaped only by +bribing Sylla’s satellites. His fate would soon have overtaken +him, but he had powerful relations, whom Sylla did not care to +offend. Aurelius Cotta, who was perhaps his mother’s brother, +Mamercus Aemilius, a distinguished patrician, and singularly also +the College of the Vestal Virgins, interceded for his pardon. The +Dictator consented at last, but with prophetic reluctance. +“Take him,” he said at length, “since you will have +it so—but I would have you know that the youth for whom you are so +earnest will one day overthrow the aristocracy, for whom you and I +have fought so hardly; in this young Caesar there are many +Mariuses.” <a name="fnr11"></a> <a href="#fn11" class= +"fnsuper">7</a> Caesar, not trusting too much to Sylla’s +forbearance, at once left Italy, and joined the army in Asia. The +little party of young men who had grown up together now separated, +to meet in the future on altered terms. Caesar held to his +inherited convictions, remaining constant through good and evil to +the cause of his uncle Marius. His companion Cicero, now ripening +into manhood, chose the other side. With his talents for his +inheritance, and confident in the consciousness of power, but with +weak health and a neck as thin as a woman’s, Cicero felt that +he had a future before him, but that his successes must be won by +other weapons than arms. He chose the bar for his profession; he +resolved to make his way into popularity as a pleader before the +Senate courts and in the Forum. He looked to the Senate itself as +the ultimate object of his ambition. There alone he could hope to +be distinguished, if distinguished he was to be.</p> + +<p>Cicero, however, was no more inclined than Caesar to be +subservient to Sylla, as he took an early opportunity of showing. +It was to the cause of the constitution, and not to the person of +the Dictator, that Cicero had attached himself, and he, too, +ventured to give free expression to his thoughts when free speech +was still dangerous.</p> + +<p>Sylla’s career was drawing to its close, and the end was not +the least remarkable feature of it. On him had fallen the odium of +the proscription and the stain of the massacres. The sooner the +senators could be detached from the soldier who had saved them from +destruction, the better chance they would have of conciliating +quiet people on whose support they must eventually rely. Sylla +himself felt the position; and having completed what he had +undertaken, with a half-pitying, half-contemptuous self-abandonment +he executed what from the first he had intended—he +resigned the dictatorship, and became a private citizen again, +amusing the leisure of his age, as he had abused the leisure of his +youth, with theatres and actresses and dinner-parties. He too, like +so many of the great Romans, was indifferent to life; of power for +the sake of power he was entirely careless; and if his retirement +had been more dangerous to him than it really was, he probably +would not have postponed it. He was a person of singular character, +and not without many qualities which were really admirable. He was +free from any touch of charlatanry. He was true, simple, and +unaffected, and even without ambition in the mean and personal +sense. His fault, which he would have denied to be a fault, was +that he had a patrician disdain of mobs and suffrages and the cant +of popular liberty. The type repeats itself era after era. Sylla +was but Graham of Claverhouse in a Roman dress and with an ampler +stage. His courage in laying down his authority has been often +commented on, but the risk which he incurred was insignificant. +There was in Rome neither soldier nor statesman who could for a +moment be placed in competition with Sylla, and he was so +passionately loved by the army, he was so sure of the support of +his comrades, whom he had quartered on the proscribed lands, and +who, for their own interest’s sake, would resist attempts at +counter-revolution, that he knew that if an emergency arose he had +but to lift his finger to reinstate himself in command. Of +assassination he was in no greater danger than when dictator, while +the temptation to assassinate him was less. His influence was +practically undiminished, and as long as he lived he remained, and +could not but remain, the first person in the Republic.</p> + +<p>Some license of speech he was, of course, prepared for, but it +required no small courage to make a public attack either on himself +or his dependants, and it was therefore most creditable to Cicero +that his first speech of importance was directed against the +Dictator’s immediate friends, and was an exposure of the +iniquities of the proscription. Cicero no doubt knew that there +would be no surer road to favor with the Roman multitude than by +denouncing Sylla’s followers, and that, young and unknown as he +was, his insignificance might protect him, however far he ventured. +But he had taken the Senate’s side. From first to last he had +approved of the reactionary constitution, and had only condemned +the ruthless methods by which it had been established. He never +sought the popularity of a demagogue, or appealed to popular +passions, or attempted to create a prejudice against the +aristocracy, into whose ranks he intended to make his way. He +expressed the opinions of the respectable middle classes, who had +no sympathy with revolutionists, but who dreaded soldiers and +military rule and confiscations of property.</p> + +<p>The occasion on which Cicero came forward was characteristic of +the time. Sextus Roscius was a country gentleman of good position, +residing near Ameria, in Umbria. He had been assassinated when on a +visit to Rome by two of his relations, who wished to get possession +of his estate. The proscription was over, and the list had been +closed; but Roscius’s name was surreptitiously entered upon it, +with the help of Sylla’s favorite freedman, Chrysogonus. The +assassins obtained an acknowledgment of their claims, and they and +Chrysogonus divided the spoils. Sextus Roscius was entirely +innocent. He had taken no part in politics at all. He had left a +son who was his natural heir, and the township of Ameria sent up a +petition to Sylla remonstrating against so iniquitous a robbery. +The conspirators, finding themselves in danger of losing the reward +of their crime, shifted their ground. They denied that they had +themselves killed Sextus Roscius. They said that the son had done +it, and they charged him with parricide. Witnesses were easily +provided. No influential pleader, it was justly supposed, would +venture into antagonism with Sylla’s favorite and appear for +the defence. Cicero heard of the case, however, and used the +opportunity to bring himself into notice. He advocated young +Roscius’s cause with skill and courage. He told the whole story +in court without disguise. He did not blame Sylla. He compared +Sylla to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, who was sovereign of the +universe, and on the whole a good sovereign, but with so much +business on his hands that he had not time to look into details. +But Cicero denounced Chrysogonus as an accomplice in an act of +atrocious villainy. The court took the same view, and the rising +orator had the honor of clearing the reputation of the injured +youth, and of recovering his property for him.</p> + +<p>Sylla showed no resentment, and probably felt none. He lived for +a year after his retirement, and died 78 B.C., being occupied at +the moment in writing his memoirs, which have been unfortunately +lost. He was buried gorgeously in the Campus Martius, among the old +kings of Rome. The aristocrats breathed freely when delivered from +his overpowering presence, and the constitution which he had set +upon its feet was now to be tried.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn5"></a> <a href="#fnr5">[1]</a> +“Nigris vegetisque oculis.”—Suetonius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn6"></a> <a href="#fnr6">[2]</a> +“Ac primum illud tempus familiaritatis et consuetudinis, quae +mihi cum illo, quae fratri meo, quae Caio Varroni, consobrino +nostro, ab omnium nostrum adolescentiâ fuit, +praetermitto.”—Cicero, <i>De Provinciis Consularibus</i>, +17. Cicero was certainly speaking of a time which preceded +Sylla’s dictatorship, for Caesar left Rome immediately after +it, and when he came back he attached himself to the political +party to which Cicero was most opposed.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn7"></a> <a href="#fnr7">[3]</a> On +the Adriatic, between Anconia and Pescara.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn8"></a> <a href="#fnr8">[4]</a> See, +for the story of Oppianicus, the remarkable speech of Cicero, +<i>Pro Cluentio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn9"></a> <a href="#fnr9">[5]</a> +Appian, on the other hand, says that the courts of the equites had +been more corrupt than the senatorial courts.—<i>De Bello Civili, +i</i>. 22. Cicero was perhaps prejudiced in favor of his own +order, but a contemporary statement thus publicly made is far more +likely to be trustworthy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn10"></a> <a href="#fnr10">[6]</a> +Sylla had himself nominated a large number of senators.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn11"></a> <a href="#fnr11">[7]</a> So +says Suetonius, reporting the traditions of the following century; +but the authority is doubtful, and the story, like so many others, +is perhaps apocryphal.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> + +<p>The able men of the democracy had fallen in the proscription. +Sertorius, the only eminent surviving soldier belonging to them, +was away, making himself independent in Spain. The rest were all +killed. But the Senate, too, had lost in Sylla the single statesman +that they possessed. They were a body of mediocrities, left with +absolute power in their hands, secure as they supposed from further +interference, and able to return to those pleasant occupations +which for a time had been so rudely interrupted. Sertorius was an +awkward problem with which Pompey might perhaps be entrusted to +deal. No one knew as yet what stuff might be in Pompey. He was for +the present sunning himself in his military splendors; too young to +come forward as a politician, and destitute, so far as appeared, of +political ambition. If Pompey promised to be docile, he might be +turned to use at a proper time; but the aristocracy had seen too +much of successful military commanders, and were in no hurry to +give opportunities of distinction to a youth who had so saucily +defied them. Sertorius was far off, and could be dealt with at +leisure.</p> + +<p>In his defence of Roscius, Cicero had given an admonition to the +noble lords that unless they mended their ways they could not look +for any long continuance. <a name="fnr12"></a> <a href="#fn12" +class="fnsuper">1</a> They regarded Cicero perhaps, if they heard +what he said of them, as an inexperienced young man, who would +understand better by and by of what materials the world was made. +There had been excitement and anxiety enough. Conservatism was in +power again. Fine gentlemen could once more lounge in their clubs, +amuse themselves with their fish-ponds and horses and mistresses, +devise new and ever new means of getting money and spending it, and +leave the Roman Empire for the present to govern itself.</p> + +<p>The leading public men belonging to the party in power had all +served in some capacity or other with Sylla or under him. Of those +whose names deserve particular mention there were at most five.</p> + +<p>Licinius Lucullus had been a special favorite of Sylla. The +Dictator left him his executor, with the charge of his manuscripts. +Lucullus was a commoner, but of consular family, and a +thorough-bred aristocrat. He had endeared himself to Sylla by a +languid talent which could rouse itself when necessary into +brilliant activity, by the easy culture of a polished man of rank, +and by a genius for luxury which his admirers followed at a +distance, imitating their master but hopeless of overtaking +him.</p> + +<p>Caecilius Metellus, son of the Metellus whom Marius had +superseded in Africa, had been consul with Sylla in 80 B.C. He was +now serving in Spain against Sertorius, and was being gradually +driven out of the peninsula.</p> + +<p>Lutatius Catulus was a proud but honest patrician, with the +conceit of his order, but without their vices. His father, who had +been Marius’s colleague, and had been defeated by the Cimbri, +had killed himself during the Marian revolution. The son had +escaped, and was one of the consuls at the time of Sylla’s +death.</p> + +<p>More noticeable than either of these was Marcus Crassus, a +figure singularly representative, of plebeian family, but a family +long adopted into the closest circle of the aristocracy, the leader +and impersonation of the great moneyed classes in Rome. Wealth had +for several generations been the characteristic of the Crassi. They +had the instinct and the temperament which in civilized ages take +to money-making as a natural occupation. In politics they aimed at +being on the successful side; but living as they did in an era of +revolutions, they were surprised occasionally in unpleasant +situations. Crassus the rich, father of Marcus, had committed +himself against Marius, and had been allowed the privilege of being +his own executioner. Marcus himself, who was a little older than +Cicero, took refuge in Sylla’s camp. He made himself useful to +the Dictator by his genius for finance, and in return he was +enabled to amass an enormous fortune for himself out of the +proscriptions. His eye for business reached over the whole Roman +Empire. He was banker, speculator, contractor, merchant. He lent +money to the spendthrift young lords, but with sound securities and +at usurious interest. He had an army of slaves, but these slaves +were not ignorant field-hands; they were skilled workmen in all +arts and trades, whose labors he turned to profit in building +streets and palaces. Thus all that he touched turned to gold. He +was the wealthiest single individual in the whole Empire, the +acknowledged head of the business world of Rome.</p> + +<p>The last person who need be noted was Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, +the father of the future colleague of Augustus and Antony. Lepidus, +too, had been an officer of Sylla’s. He had been rewarded for +his services by the government of Sicily, and when Sylla died was +the second consul with Catulus. It was said against him that, like +so many other governors, he had enriched himself by tyrannizing +over his Sicilian subjects. His extortions had been notorious; he +was threatened with prosecution as soon as his consulship should +expire; and the adventure to which he was about to commit himself +was undertaken, so the aristocrats afterward maintained, in despair +of an acquittal. Lepidus’s side of the story was never told, +but another side it certainly had. Though one of Sylla’s +generals, he had married the daughter of the tribune Saturninus. He +had been elected consul by a very large majority against the wishes +of the Senate, and was suspected of holding popular opinions. It +may be that the prosecution was an after-thought of revenge, and +that Lepidus was to have been tried before a senatorial jury +already determined to find him guilty.</p> + +<p>Among these men lay the fortunes of Rome when the departure of +their chief left the aristocrats masters of their own destiny.</p> + +<p>During this time Caesar had been serving his apprenticeship as a +soldier. The motley forces which Mithridates had commanded had not +all submitted on the king’s surrender to Sylla. Squadrons of +pirates hung yet about the smaller islands in the Aegean. Lesbos +was occupied by adventurers who were fighting for their own hand, +and the praetor Minucius Thermus had been sent to clear the seas +and extirpate these nests of brigands. To Thermus Caesar had +attached himself. The praetor, finding that his fleet was not +strong enough for the work, found it necessary to apply to +Nicomedes, the allied sovereign of the adjoining kingdom of +Bithynia, to supply him with a few additional vessels; and Caesar, +soon after his arrival, was despatched on this commission to the +Bithynian court.</p> + +<p>Long afterward, when Roman cultivated society had come to hate +Caesar, and any scandal was welcome to them which would make him +odious, it was reported that on this occasion he entered into +certain relations with Nicomedes of a kind indisputably common at +the time in the highest patrician circles. The value of such a +charge in political controversy was considerable, for whether true +or false it was certain to be believed; and similar accusations +were flung indiscriminately, so Cicero says, at the reputation of +every eminent person whom it was desirable to stain, if his +personal appearance gave the story any air of probability. <a name="fnr13"></a> <a href="#fn13" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>The disposition to believe evil of men who have risen a few +degrees above their contemporaries is a feature of human nature as +common as it is base; and when to envy there are added fear and +hatred, malicious anecdotes spring like mushrooms in a forcing-pit. +But gossip is not evidence, nor does it become evidence because it +is in Latin and has been repeated through many generations. The +strength of a chain is no greater than the strength of its first +link, and the adhesive character of calumny proves only that the +inclination of average men to believe the worst of great men is the +same in all ages. This particular accusation against Caesar gains, +perhaps, a certain credibility from the admission that it was the +only occasion on which anything of the kind could be alleged +against him. On the other hand, it was unheard of for near a +quarter of a century. It was produced in Rome in the midst of a +furious political contest. No witnesses were forthcoming; no one +who had been at Bithynia at the time; no one who ever pretended to +have original knowledge of the truth of the story. Caesar himself +passed it by with disdain, or alluded to it, if forced upon his +notice, with contemptuous disgust.</p> + +<p>The Bithynian mission was otherwise successful. He brought the +ships to Thermus. He distinguished himself personally in the +storming of Mitylene, and won the oak-wreath, the Victoria Cross of +the Roman army. Still pursuing the same career, Caesar next +accompanied Servilius Isauricus in a campaign against the horde of +pirates, afterwards so famous, that was forming itself among the +creeks and river-mouths of Cilicia. The advantages which Servilius +obtained over them were considerable enough to deserve a triumph, +but were barren of result. The news that Sylla was dead reached the +army while still in the field; and the danger of appearing in Rome +being over, Caesar at once left Cilicia and went back to his +family. Other causes are said to have contributed to hasten his +return. A plot had been formed, with the consul Lepidus at its +head, to undo Sylla’s laws and restore the constitution of the +Gracchi. Caesar had been urged by letter to take part in the +movement, and he may have hurried home either to examine the +prospects of success or perhaps to prevent an attempt which, under +the circumstances, he might think criminal and useless. Lepidus was +not a wise man, though he may have been an honest one. The +aristocracy had not yet proved that they were incapable of reform. +It might be that they would digest their lesson after all, and that +for a generation to come no more revolutions would be +necessary.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 77. Caesar aet. 23.]</span> Caesar +at all events declined to connect himself with this new adventure. +He came to Rome, looked at what was going on, and refused to have +anything to do with it. The experiment was tried without him. Young +Cinna, his brother-in-law, joined Lepidus. Together they raised a +force in Etruria, and marched on Rome. They made their way into the +city, but were met in the Campus Martius by Pompey and other +consul, Catulus, at the head of some of Sylla’s old troops; and +an abortive enterprise, which, if it had succeeded, would probably +have been mischievous, was ended almost as soon as it began. The +two leaders escaped. Cinna joined Sertorius in Spain. Lepidus made +his way to Sardinia, where in the next year he died, leaving a son +to play the game of democracy under more brilliant auspices.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[Caesar aet. 24.]</span> Caesar meanwhile +felt his way, as Cicero was doing in the law-courts, attacking the +practical abuses which the Roman administration was generating +everywhere. Cornelius Dolabella had been placed by Sylla in command +of Macedonia. His father had been a friend of Saturninus, and had +fallen at his side. The son had gone over to the aristocracy, and +for this reason was perhaps an object of aversion to the younger +liberals. The Macedonians pursued him, when his government had +expired, with a list of grievances of the usual kind. Young Caesar +took up their cause, and prosecuted him. Dolabella was a favorite +of the Senate; he had been allowed a triumph for his services, and +the aristocracy adopted his cause as their own. The unpractised +orator was opposed at the trial by his kinsman Aurelius Cotta and +the most celebrated pleaders in Rome. To have crossed swords with +such opponents was a dangerous honor for him; success against them +was not to be expected, and Caesar was not yet master of his art. +Dolabella was acquitted. Party feeling had perhaps entered into the +accusation. Caesar found it prudent to retire again from the scene. +There were but two roads to eminence in Rome—oratory and service +in the army. He had no prospect of public employment from the +present administration, and the platform alone was open to him. +Plain words with a plain meaning in them no longer carried weight +with a people who expected an orator to delight as well as instruct +them. The use of the tongue had become a special branch of a +statesman’s education, and Caesar, feeling his deficiency, used +his leisure to put himself in training and to go to school at +Rhodes with the then celebrated Apollonius Molo. He had recovered +his property and his priesthood, and was evidently in no want of +money. He travelled with the retinue of a man of rank, and on his +way to Rhodes he fell in with an adventure which may be something +more than legend. When he was crossing the Aegean his vessel is +said to have been taken by pirates. They carried him to Pharmacusa, +<a name="fnr14"></a> <a href="#fn14" class="fnsuper">3</a> an +island off the Carian coast, which was then in their possession, +and there he was detained for six weeks with three of his +attendants, while the rest of his servants were sent to the nearest +Roman station to raise his ransom. The pirates treated him with +politeness. He joined in their sports, played games with them, +looked into their habits, and amused himself with them as well as +he could, frankly telling them at the same time that they would all +be hanged.</p> + +<p>The ransom, a very large one, about £10,000, was brought and +paid. Caesar was set upon the mainland near Miletus, where, without +a moment’s delay, he collected some armed vessels, returned to +the island, seized the whole crew while they were dividing their +plunder, and took them away to Pergamus, the seat of government in +the Asiatic province, where they were convicted and crucified. +Clemency was not a Roman characteristic. It was therefore noted +with some surprise that Caesar interceded to mitigate the severity +of the punishment. The poor wretches were strangled before they +were stretched on their crosses, and were spared the prolongation +of their torture. The pirate business being disposed of, he resumed +his journey to Rhodes, and there he continued for two years +practising gesture and expression under the tuition of the great +master.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 78-72]</span> During this time the +government of Rome was making progress in again demonstrating its +unfitness for the duties which were laid upon it, and sowing the +seeds which in a few years were to ripen into a harvest so +remarkable. Two alternatives only lay before the Roman +dominion—either disruption or the abolition of the constitution. +If the aristocracy could not govern, still less could the mob +govern. The Latin race was scattered over the basin of the +Mediterranean, no longer bound by any special ties to Rome or +Italy, each man of it individually vigorous and energetic, and bent +before all things on making his own fortune. If no tolerable +administration was provided from home, their obvious course could +only be to identify themselves with local interests and +nationalities and make themselves severally independent, as +Sertorius was doing in Spain. Sertorius was at last disposed of, +but by methods promising ill for the future. He beat Metellus till +Metellus could do no more against him. The all-victorious Pompey +was sent at last to win victories and gain nothing by them. Six +campaigns led to no result and the difficulty was only removed at +last by treachery and assassination.</p> + +<p>A more extraordinary and more disgraceful phenomenon was the +growth of piracy, with the skirts of which Caesar had come in +contact at Pharmacusa. The Romans had become masters of the world, +only that the sea from one end of their dominions to the other +should be patrolled by organized rovers. For many years, as Roman +commerce extended, the Mediterranean had become a profitable field +of enterprise for those gentry. From every country which they had +overrun or occupied the conquests of the Romans had let loose +swarms of restless patriots who, if they could not save the +liberties of their own countries, could prey upon the oppressor. +Illyrians from the Adriatic, Greeks from the islands and the +Asiatic ports, Syrians, Egyptians, Africans, Spaniards, Gauls, and +disaffected Italians, trained many of them to the sea from their +childhood, took to the water in their light galleys with all the +world before them. Under most circumstances society is protected +against thieves by their inability to combine. But the pirates of +the Mediterranean had learnt from the Romans the advantage of +union, and had drifted into a vast confederation. Cilicia was their +head-quarters. Servilius had checked them for a time, but the Roman +Senate was too eager for a revenue, and the Roman governors and +farmers of the taxes were too bent upon filling their private +purses, to allow fleets to be maintained in the provincial harbors +adequate to keep the peace. When Servilius retired, the pirates +reoccupied their old haunts. The Cilician forests furnished them +with ship timber. The mountain gorges provided inaccessible +storehouses for plunder. Crete was completely in their hands also, +and they had secret friends along the entire Mediterranean shores. +They grew at last into a thousand sail, divided into squadrons +under separate commanders. They were admirably armed. They roved +over the waters at their pleasure, attacking islands or commercial +ports, plundering temples and warehouses, arresting every trading +vessel they encountered, till at last no Roman could go abroad on +business save during the winter storms, when the sea was +comparatively clear. They flaunted their sails in front of Ostia +itself; they landed in their boats at the villas on the Italian +coast, carrying off lords and ladies, and holding them to ransom. +They levied black-mail at their pleasure. The wretched provincials +had paid their taxes to Rome in exchange for promised defence, and +no defence was provided. <a name="fnr15"></a> <a href="#fn15" +class="fnsuper">4</a> The revenue which ought to have been spent on +the protection of the Empire a few patricians were dividing among +themselves. The pirates had even marts in different islands, where +their prisoners were sold to the slave-dealers; and for fifteen +years nothing was done or even attempted to put an end to so +preposterous an enormity. The ease with which these buccaneers of +the old world were eventually suppressed proved conclusively that +they existed by connivance. It was discovered at last that large +sums had been sent regularly from Crete to some of the most +distinguished members of the aristocracy. The Senate was again the +same body which it was found by Jugurtha, and the present +generation were happier than their fathers in that larger and +richer fields were now open to their operation.</p> + +<p>While the pirates were at work on the extremities, the senators +in the provinces were working systematically, squeezing the people +as one might squeeze a sponge of all the wealth that could be +drained out of them. After the failure of Lepidus the elections in +Rome were wholely in the Senate’s hands. Such independence as +had not been crushed was corrupted. The aristocracy divided the +consulships, praetorships, and quaestorships among themselves, and +after the year of office the provincial prizes were then +distributed. Of the nature of their government a picture has been +left by Cicero, himself one of the senatorial party, and certainly +not to be suspected of having represented it as worse than it was +in the famous prosecution of Verres. There is nothing to show that +Verres was worse than the rest of his order. Piso, Gabinius, and +many others equalled or perhaps excelled him in villainy. But +historical fate required a victim, and the unfortunate wretch has +been selected out of the crowd individually to illustrate his +class.</p> + +<p>By family he was connected with Sylla. His father was noted as +an election manager at the Comitia. The son had been attached to +Carbo when the democrats were in power, but he had deserted them on +Sylla’s return. He had made himself useful in the +proscriptions, and had scraped together a considerable fortune. He +was employed afterward in Greece and Asia, where he distinguished +himself by fresh rapacity and by the gross brutality with which he +abused an innocent lady. With the wealth which he had extorted or +stolen he bought his way into the praetorship, probably with his +father’s help; he then became a senator, and was sent to govern +Sicily—a place which had already suffered, so the Senate said, +from the malpractices of Lepidus, and needing, therefore, to be +generously dealt with.</p> + +<p>Verres held his province for three years. He was supreme judge +in all civil and criminal cases. He negotiated with the parties to +every suit which was brought before him, and then sold his +decisions. He confiscated estates on fictitious accusations. The +island was rich in works of art. Verres had a taste for such +things, and seized without scruple the finest productions of +Praxiteles or Zeuxis. If those who were wronged dared to complain, +they were sent to forced labor at the quarries, or, as dead men +tell no tales, were put out of the world. He had an understanding +with the pirates, which throws light upon the secret of their +impunity. A shipful of them were brought into Messina as prisoners, +and were sentenced to be executed. A handsome bribe was paid to +Verres, and a number of Sicilians whom he wished out of the way +were brought out, veiled and gagged that they might not be +recognized, and were hanged as the pirates’ substitutes. By +these methods Verres was accused of having gathered out of Sicily +three quarters of a million of our money. Two thirds he calculated +on having to spend in corrupting the consuls and the court before +which he might be prosecuted. The rest he would be able to save, +and with the help of it to follow his career of greatness through +the highest offices of state. Thus he had gone on upon his way, +secure, as he supposed, of impunity. One of the consuls for the +year and the consuls for the year which was to come next were +pledged to support him. The judges would be exclusively senators, +each of whom might require assistance in a similar situation. The +chance of justice on these occasions was so desperate that the +provincials preferred usually to bear their wrongs in silence +rather than expose themselves to expense and danger for almost +certain failure. But, as Cicero said, the whole world inside the +ocean was ringing with the infamy of the Roman senatorial +tribunals.</p> + +<p>Cicero, whose honest wish was to save the Senate from itself, +determined to make use of Verres’s conduct to shame the courts +into honesty. Every difficulty was thrown in his way. He went in +person to Sicily to procure evidence. He was browbeaten and +threatened with violence. The witnesses were intimidated, and in +some instances were murdered. The technical ingenuities of Roman +law were exhausted to shield the culprit. The accident that the +second consul had a conscience alone enabled Cicero to force the +criminal to the bar. But the picture which Cicero drew and laid +before the people, proved as it was to every detail, and admitting +of no answer save that other governors had been equally iniquitous +and had escaped unpunished, created a storm which the Senate dared +not encounter. Verres dropped his defence and fled, and part of his +spoils was recovered. There was no shame in the aristocracy to +prevent them from committing crimes: there was enough to make them +abandon a comrade who was so unfortunate as to be detected and +brought to justice.</p> + +<p>This was the state of the Roman dominion under the constitution +as reformed by Sylla: the Spanish Peninsula recovered by murder to +temporary submission; the sea abandoned to buccaneers; decent +industrious people in the provinces given over to have their +fortunes stolen from them, their daughters dishonored, and +themselves beaten or killed if they complained, by a set of wolves +calling themselves Roman senators—and these scenes not localized +to any one unhappy district, but extending through the entire +civilized part of mankind. There was no hope for these unhappy +people, for they were under the tyranny of a dead hand. A bad king +is like a bad season. The next may bring improvement, or if his +rule is wholly intolerable he can be deposed. Under a bad +constitution no such change is possible. It can be ended only by a +revolution. Republican Rome had become an Imperial State—she had +taken upon herself the guardianship of every country in the world +where the human race was industrious and prosperous, and she was +discharging her great trust by sacrificing them to the luxury and +ambition of a few hundred scandalous politicians.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 74.]</span> The nature of man is so +constructed that a constitution so administered must collapse. It +generates faction within, it invites enemies from without. While +Sertorius was defying the Senate in Spain and the pirates were +buying its connivance in the Mediterranean, Mithridates started +into life again in Pontus. Sylla had beaten him into submission; +but Sylla was gone, and no one was left to take Sylla’s place. +The watchful barbarian had his correspondents in Rome, and knew +everything that was passing there. He saw that he had little to +fear by trying the issue with the Romans once more. He made himself +master of Armenia. In the corsair fleet he had an ally ready made. +The Roman province in Asia Minor, driven to despair by the villainy +of its governors, was ripe for revolt. Mithridates rose, and but +for the young Caesar would a second time have driven the Romans out +of Asia. Caesar, in the midst of his rhetorical studies at Rhodes, +heard the mutterings of the coming storm. Deserting +Apollonius’s lecture-room, he crossed over to the continent, +raised a corps of volunteers, and held Caria to its allegiance; but +Mithridates possessed himself easily of the interior kingdoms and +of the whole valley of the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. The Black +Sea was again covered with his ships. He defeated Cotta in a naval +battle, drove him through the Bosphorus, and destroyed the Roman +squadron. The Senate exerted itself at last. Lucullus, Sylla’s +friend, the only moderately able man that the aristocracy had among +them, was sent to encounter him. Lucullus had been trained in a +good school, and the superiority of the drilled Roman legions when +tolerably led again easily asserted itself. Mithridates was forced +back into the Armenian hills. The Black Sea was swept clear, and +eight thousand of the buccaneers were killed at Sinope. Lucullus +pursued the retreating prince across the Euphrates, won victories, +took cities and pillaged them. He reached Lake Van, he marched +round Mount Ararat and advanced to Artaxata. But Asia was a scene +of dangerous temptation for a Roman commander. Cicero, though he +did not name Lucullus, was transparently alluding to him when he +told the assembly in the Forum that Rome had made herself abhorred +throughout the world by the violence and avarice of her generals. +No temple had been so sacred, no city so venerable, no houses so +well protected, as to be secure from their voracity. Occasions of +war had been caught at with rich communities where plunder was the +only object. The proconsuls could win battles, but they could not +keep their hands from off the treasures of their allies and +subjects. <a name="fnr16"></a> <a href="#fn16" class= +"fnsuper">5</a></p> + +<p>Lucullus was splendid in his rapacity, and amidst his victories +he had amassed the largest fortune which had yet belonged to +patrician or commoner, except Crassus. Nothing came amiss to him. +He had sold the commissions in his army. He had taken money out of +the treasury for the expenses of the campaign. Part he had spent in +bribing the administration to prolong his command beyond the usual +time; the rest he had left in the city to accumulate for himself at +interest. <a name="fnr17"></a> <a href="#fn17" class= +"fnsuper">6</a> He lived on the plunder of friend and foe, and the +defeat of Mithridates was never more than a second object to him. +The one steady purpose in which he never varied was to pile up gold +and jewels.</p> + +<p>An army so organized and so employed soon loses efficiency and +coherence. The legions, perhaps considering that they were not +allowed a fair share of the spoil, mutinied. The disaffection was +headed by young Publius Clodius, whose sister Lucullus had married. +The campaign which had opened brilliantly ended ignominiously. The +Romans had to fall back behind Pontus, closely pursued by +Mithridates. Lucullus stood on the defensive till he was recalled, +and he then returned to Rome to lounge away the remainder of his +days in voluptuous magnificence.</p> + +<p>While Lucullus was making his fortune in the East, a spurt of +insurrectionary fire had broken out in Italy. The agrarian laws and +Sylla’s proscriptions and confiscations had restored the +numbers of the small proprietors, but the statesmen who had been so +eager for their reinstatement were fighting against tendencies too +strong for them. Life on the farm, like life in the city, was +growing yearly more extravagant. <a name="fnr18"></a> <a href="#fn18" class="fnsuper">7</a> The small peasants fell into debt. +Sylla’s soldiers were expensive, and became embarrassed. Thus +the small properties artificially re-established were falling +rapidly again into the market. The great landowners bought them up, +and Italy was once more lapsing to territorial magnates cultivating +their estates by slaves.</p> + +<p>Vast gangs of slave laborers were thus still dispersed over the +peninsula, while others in large numbers were purchased and trained +for the amusement of the metropolis. Society in Rome, enervated as +it was by vicious pleasures, craved continually for new +excitements. Sensuality is a near relation of cruelty; and the more +savage the entertainments, the more delightful they were to the +curled and scented patricians who had lost the taste for finer +enjoyments. Combats of wild beasts were at first sufficient for +them, but to see men kill each other gave a keener delight; and out +of the thousands of youths who were sent over annually by the +provincial governors, or were purchased from the pirates by the +slave-dealers, the most promising were selected for the arena. Each +great noble had his training establishment of gladiators, and was +as vain of their prowess as of his race-horses. The schools of +Capua were the most celebrated; and nothing so recommended a +candidate for the consulship to the electors as the production of a +few pairs of Capuan swords-men in the circus.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 72-70.]</span> These young men had +hitherto performed their duties with more submissiveness than might +have been expected, and had slaughtered one another in the most +approved methods. But the horse knows by the hand on his rein +whether he has a fool for his rider. The gladiators in the schools +and the slaves on the plantations could not be kept wholly ignorant +of the character of their rulers. They were aware that the seas +were held by their friends the pirates, and that their masters were +again being beaten out of Asia, from which many of themselves had +been carried off. They began to ask themselves why men who could +use their swords should be slaves when their comrades and kindred +were up and fighting for freedom. They found a leader in a young +Thracian robber chief, named Spartacus, who was destined for the +amphitheatre, and who preferred meeting his masters in the field to +killing his friends to make a Roman holiday. Spartacus, with two +hundred of his companions, burst out from the Capuan +“stable,” seized their arms, and made their way into the +crater of Vesuvius, which was then, after the long sleep of the +volcano, a dense jungle of wild vines. The slaves from the +adjoining plantations deserted and joined them. The fire spread, +Spartacus proclaimed universal emancipation, and in a few weeks was +at the head of an army with which he overran Italy to the foot of +the Alps, defeated consuls and praetors, captured the eagles of the +legions, wasted the farms of the noble lords, and for two years +held his ground against all that Rome could do.</p> + +<p>Of all the illustrations of the Senate’s incapacity, the +slave insurrection was perhaps the worst. It was put down at last +after desperate exertions by Crassus and Pompey. Spartacus was +killed, and six thousand of his followers were impaled at various +points on the sides of the high-roads, that the slaves might have +before their eyes examples of the effect of disobedience. The +immediate peril was over; but another symptom had appeared of the +social disease which would soon end in death unless some remedy +could be found. The nation was still strong. There was power and +worth in the undegenerate Italian race, which needed only to be +organized and ruled. But what remedy was possible? The practical +choice of politicians lay between the Senate and the democracy. +Both were alike bloody and unscrupulous; and the rule of the Senate +meant corruption and imbecility, and the rule of the democracy +meant anarchy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn12"></a> <a href="#fnr12">[1]</a> +“Unum hoc dico: nostri isti nobiles, nisi vigilantes et boni +et fortes et misericordes erunt, iis hominibus in quibus haec +erunt, ornamenta sua concedant necesse est.”—<i>Pro Roscio +Amerino</i>, sec. 48.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn13"></a> <a href="#fnr13">[2]</a> +“Sunt enim ista maledicta pervulgata in omnes, quorum in +adolescentiâ forma et species fuit liberalis.”—<i>Oratio pro +Marca Caelio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn14"></a> <a href="#fnr14">[3]</a> +Now Fermaco.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn15"></a> <a href="#fnr15">[4]</a> +“Videbat enim populum Romanum non locupletari quotannis +pecuniâ publicâ praeter paucos: neque eos quidquam aliud assequi +classium nomine, nisi ut, detrimentis accipiendis majore affici +turpitudine videremur.”—Cicero, <i>Pro Lege Maniliâ</i>, +23.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn16"></a> <a href="#fnr16">[5]</a> +“Difficile est dictu, Quirites, quanto in odio simus apud +exteras nationes, propter eorum, quos ad eas per hos annos cum +imperio misimus, injurias ac libidines. Quod enim fanum putatis in +illis terris nostris magistratibus religiosum, quam civitatem +sanctam, quam domum satis clausam ac munitam fuisse? Urbes jam +locupletes ac copiosae requiruntur, quibus causa belli propter +diripiendi cupiditatem inferatur.... Quare etiamsi quem habetis, +qui collatis signis exercitus regios superare posse videatur, +tamen, nisi erit idem, qui se a pecuniis sociorum, qui ab eorum +conjugibus ac liberis, qui ab ornamentis fanorum atque oppidorum, +qui ab auro gazâque regiâ manus, oculos, animum cohibere possit, +non erit idoneus, qui ad bellum Asiaticum regiumque +mittatur.”—<i>Pro Lege Maniliâ</i>, 22, 23.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn17"></a> <a href="#fnr17">[6]</a> +“Quem possumus imperatorem aliquo in numero putare, cujus in +exercitu veneant centuriatus atque venierint? Quid hunc hominem +magnum aut amplum de republicâ cogitare, qui pecuniam ex aerario +depromtam ad bellum administrandum, aut propter cupiditatem +provinciae magistratibus diviserit aut propter avaritiam Romae in +quaestu reliquerit? Vestra admurmuratio facit, Quirites, ut +agnoscere videamini qui haec fecerint: ego autem neminem +nomino.”—<i>Pro Lege Maniliâ</i>, 13.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn18"></a> <a href="#fnr18">[7]</a> +Varro mentions curious instances of the change in country manners. +He makes an old man say that when he was a boy, a farmer’s wife +used to be content with a jaunt in a cart once or twice a year, the +farmer not taking out the covered wagon (the more luxurious +vehicle) at all unless he pleased. The farmer used to shave only +once a week, etc.—<i>M. Ter. Varronis Reliquiae</i>, ed. +Alexander Riese, pp. 139, 140.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> + +<p>Caesar, having done his small piece of independent service in +Caria, and having finished his course with Apollonius, now came +again to Rome and re-entered practical life. He lived with his wife +and his mother Aurelia in a modest house, attracting no particular +notice. But his defiance of Sylla, his prosecution of Dolabella, +and his known political sympathies made him early a favorite with +the people. The growing disorders at home and abroad, with the +exposures on the trial of Verres, were weakening daily the +influence of the Senate. Caesar was elected military tribune as a +reward for his services in Asia, and he assisted in recovering part +of the privileges so dear to the citizens which Sylla had taken +from the tribunes of the people. They were again enabled to call +the assembly together, and though they were still unable to propose +laws without the Senate’s sanction, yet they regained the +privilege of consulting directly with the nation on public affairs. +Caesar now spoke well enough to command the admiration of even +Cicero—without ornament, but directly to the purpose. Among the +first uses to which he addressed his influence was to obtain the +pardon of his brother-in-law, the younger Cinna, who had been +exiled since the failure of the attempt of Lepidus. In B.C. 68, +being then thirty-two, he gained his first step on the ladder of +high office. He was made quaestor, which gave him a place in the +Senate.</p> + +<p>Soon after his election, his aunt Julia, the widow of Marius, +died. It was usual on the death of eminent persons for a near +relation to make an oration at the funeral. Caesar spoke on this +occasion. It was observed that he dwelt with some pride on the +lady’s ancestry, descending on one side from the gods, on +another from the kings of Rome. More noticeably he introduced into +the burial procession the insignia and images of Marius himself, +whose name for some years it had been unsafe to mention. <a name="fnr19"></a> <a href="#fn19" class="fnsuper">1</a></p> + +<p>Pompey, after Sertorius’s death, had pacified Spain. He had +assisted Crassus in extinguishing Spartacus. The Senate had +employed him, but had never liked him or trusted him. The Senate, +however, was no longer omnipotent, and in the year 70 he and +Crassus had been consuls. Pompey was no politician, but he was +honorable and straightforward. Like every true Roman, he was awake +to the dangers and disgrace of the existing mal-administration, and +he and Caesar began to know each other, and to find their interest +in working together. Pompey was the elder of the two by six years. +He was already a great man, covered with distinctions, and perhaps +he supposed that he was finding in Caesar a useful subordinate. +Caesar naturally liked Pompey, as a really distinguished soldier +and an upright disinterested man. They became connected by +marriage. Cornelia dying, Caesar took for his second wife +Pompey’s cousin, Pompeia; and, no doubt at Pompey’s +instance, he was sent into Spain to complete Pompey’s work and +settle the finances of that distracted country. His reputation as +belonging to the party of Marius and Sertorius secured him the +confidence of Sertorius’s friends. He accomplished his mission +completely and easily. On his way back he passed through northern +Italy, and took occasion to say there that he considered the time +to have come for the franchise, which now stopped at the Po, to be +extended to the foot of the Alps.</p> + +<p>The consulship of Pompey and Crassus had brought many changes +with it, all tending in the same direction. The tribunes were +restored to their old functions, the censorship was re-established, +and the Senate was at once weeded of many of its disreputable +members. Cicero, conservative as he was, had looked upon these +measures if not approvingly yet without active opposition. To +another change he had himself contributed by his speeches on the +Verres prosecution. The exclusive judicial powers which the Senate +had abused so scandalously were again taken from them. The courts +of the equites were remembered in contrast, and a law was passed +that for the future the courts were to be composed two thirds of +knights and one third only of senators. Cicero’s hope of +resisting democracy lay in the fusion of the great commoners with +the Senate. It was no longer possible for the aristocracy to rule +alone. The few equites who, since Sylla’s time, had made their +way into the Senate had yielded to patrician ascendency. Cicero +aimed at a reunion of the orders; and the consulship of Crassus, +little as Cicero liked Crassus personally, was a sign of a growing +tendency in this direction. At all costs the knights must be +prevented from identifying themselves with the democrats, and +therefore all possible compliments and all possible concessions to +their interests were made to them.</p> + +<p>They recovered their position in the law-courts; and, which was +of more importance to them, the system of farming the taxes, in +which so many of them had made their fortunes, and which Sylla had +abolished, was once again reverted to. It was not a good system, +but it was better than a state of things in which little of the +revenue had reached the public treasury at all, but had been +intercepted and parcelled out among the oligarchy.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 67.]</span> With recovered vitality +a keener apprehension began to be felt of the pirate scandal. The +buccaneers, encouraged by the Senate’s connivance, were more +daring than ever. They had become a sea community, led by high-born +adventurers, who maintained out of their plunder a show of wild +magnificence. The oars of the galleys of their commanders were +plated with silver; their cabins were hung with gorgeous tapestry. +They had bands of music to play at their triumphs. They had a +religion of their own, an oriental medley called the Mysteries of +Mithras. They had captured and pillaged four hundred considerable +towns, and had spoiled the temples of the Grecian gods. They had +maintained and extended their depots where they disposed of their +prisoners to the slave-dealers. Roman citizens who could not ransom +themselves, and could not conveniently be sold, were informed that +they might go where they pleased; they were led to a plank +projecting over some vessel’s side, and were bidden +depart—into the sea. Not contented with insulting Ostia by their +presence outside, they had ventured into the harbor itself, and had +burnt the ships there. They held complete possession of the Italian +waters. Rome, depending on Sicily and Sardinia and Africa for her +supplies of corn, was starving for want of food, and the foreign +trade on which so many of the middle classes were engaged was +totally destroyed. The return of the commoners to power was a +signal for an active movement to put an end to the disgrace. No one +questioned that it could be done if there was a will to do it. But +the work could be accomplished only by persons who would be proof +against corruption. There was but one man in high position who +could be trusted, and that was Pompey. The general to be selected +must have unrestricted and therefore unconstitutional authority. +But Pompey was at once capable and honest. Pompey could not be +bribed by the pirates, and Pompey could be depended on not to abuse +his opportunities to the prejudice of the Commonwealth.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 67.]</span> The natural course, +therefore, would have been to declare Pompey dictator; but Sylla +had made the name unpopular; the right to appoint a dictator lay +with the Senate, with whom Pompey had never been a favorite, and +the aristocracy had disliked and feared him more than ever since +his consulship. From that quarter no help was to be looked for, and +a method was devised to give him the reality of power without the +title. Unity of command was the one essential—command untrammelled +by orders from committees of weak and treacherous noblemen, who +cared only for the interest of their class. The established forms +were scrupulously observed, and the plan designed was brought +forward first, according to rule, in the Senate. A tribune, Aulus +Gabinius, introduced a proposition there that one person of +consular rank should have absolute jurisdiction during three years +over the whole Mediterranean, and over all Roman territory for +fifty miles inland from the coast; that the money in the treasury +should be at his disposition; that he should have power to raise +500 ships of war and to collect and organize 130,000 men. No such +command for such a time had ever been committed to any one man +since the abolition of the monarchy. It was equivalent to a +suspension of the Senate itself, and of all constitutional +government. The proposal was received with a burst of fury. Every +one knew that the person intended was Pompey. The decorum of the +old days was forgotten. The noble lords started from their seats, +flew at Gabinius, and almost strangled him: but he had friends +outside the house ready to defend their champion; the country +people had flocked in for the occasion; the city was thronged with +multitudes such as had not been seen there since the days of the +Gracchi. The tribune freed himself from the hands that were at his +throat; he rushed out into the Forum, closely pursued by the consul +Piso, who would have been torn in pieces in turn had not Gabinius +interposed to save him. Senate or no Senate, it was decided that +Gabinius’s proposition should be submitted to the assembly, and +the aristocrats were driven to their old remedy of bribing other +members of the college of tribunes to interfere. Two renegades were +thus secured, and when the voting-day came, Trebellius, who was one +of them, put in a veto; the other, Roscius, said that the power +intended for Pompey was too considerable to be trusted to a single +person, and proposed two commanders instead of one. The mob was +packed so thick that the house-tops were covered. A yell rose from +tens of thousands of throats so piercing that it was said a crow +flying over the Forum dropped dead at the sound of it. The old +patrician Catulus tried to speak, but the people would not hear +him. The vote passed by acclamation, and Pompey was for three years +sovereign of the Roman world.</p> + +<p>It now appeared how strong the Romans were when a fair chance +was allowed them. Pompey had no extraordinary talents, but not in +three years, but in three months, the pirates were extinguished. He +divided the Mediterranean into thirteen districts, and allotted a +squadron to each, under officers on whom he could thoroughly rely. +Ships and seamen were found in abundance lying idle from the +suspension of trade. In forty days he had cleared the seas between +Gibraltar and Italy. He had captured entire corsair fleets, and had +sent the rest flying into the Cilician creeks. There, in defence of +their plunder and their families, they fought one desperate +engagement, and when defeated, they surrendered without a further +blow. Of real strength they had possessed none from the first. They +had subsisted only through the guilty complicity of the Roman +authorities, and they fell at the first stroke which was aimed at +them in earnest. Thirteen hundred pirate ships were burnt. Their +docks and arsenals were destroyed, and their fortresses were razed. +Twenty-two thousand prisoners fell into the hands of Pompey. To the +astonishment of mankind, Pompey neither impaled them, as the Senate +had impaled the followers of Spartacus, nor even sold them for +slaves. He was contented to scatter them among inland colonies, +where they could no longer be dangerous.</p> + +<p>The suppression of the buccaneers was really a brilliant piece +of work, and the ease with which it was accomplished brought fresh +disgrace on the Senate and fresh glory on the hero of the hour. +Cicero, with his thoughts fixed on saving the constitution, +considered that Pompey might be the man to save it; or, at all +events, that it would be unsafe to leave him to the democrats who +had given him power and were triumphing in his success. On +political grounds Cicero thought that Pompey ought to be recognized +by the moderate party which he intended to form; and a person like +himself who hoped to rise by the popular votes could not otherwise +afford to seem cold amidst the universal enthusiasm. The pirates +were abolished. Mithridates was still undisposed of. Lucullus, the +hope of the aristocracy, was lying helpless within the Roman +frontier, with a disorganized and mutinous army. His victories were +forgotten. He was regarded as the impersonation of every fault +which had made the rule of the Senate so hateful. Pompey, the +people’s general, after a splendid success, had come home with +clean hands; Lucullus had sacrificed his country to his avarice. +The contrast set off his failures in colors perhaps darker than +really belonged to them, and the cry naturally rose that Lucullus +must be called back, and the all-victorious Pompey must be sent for +the reconquest of Asia. Another tribune, Manilius, brought the +question forward, this time directly before the assembly, the +Senate’s consent not being any more asked for. Caesar again +brought his influence to bear on Pompey’s side; but Caesar +found support in a quarter where it might not have been looked for. +The Senate was furious as before, but by far the most gifted person +in the conservative party now openly turned against them. Cicero +was praetor this year, and was thus himself a senator. A seat in +the Senate had been the supreme object of his ambition. He was vain +of the honor which he had won, and delighted with the high company +into which he had been received; but he was too shrewd to go along +with them upon a road which could lead only to their overthrow; and +for their own sake, and for the sake of the institution itself of +which he meant to be an illustrious ornament, he not only supported +the Manilian proposition, but supported it in a speech more +effective than the wildest outpourings of democratic rhetoric.</p> + +<p>Asia Minor, he said, was of all the Roman provinces the most +important, because it was the most wealthy. <a name="fnr20"></a> <a +href="#fn20" class="fnsuper">2</a> So rich it was and fertile that, +for the productiveness of its soil, the variety of its fruits, the +extent of its pastures, and the multitude of its exports, there was +no country in the world to be compared with it; yet Asia was in +danger of being utterly lost through the worthlessnesss of the +governors and military commanders charged with the care of it. +“Who does not know,” Cicero asked, “that the avarice +of our generals has been the cause of the misfortunes of our +armies? You can see for yourselves how they act here at home in +Italy; and what will they not venture far away in distant +countries? Officers who cannot restrain their own appetites can +never maintain discipline in their troops. Pompey has been +victorious because he does not loiter about the towns for plunder +or pleasure, or making collections of statues and pictures. Asia is +a land of temptations. Send no one thither who cannot resist gold +and jewels and shrines and pretty women. Pompey is upright and +pure-sighted. Pompey knows that the State has been impoverished +because the revenue flows into the coffers of a few individuals. +Our fleets and armies have availed only to bring the more disgrace +upon us through our defeats and losses.” <a name="fnr21"></a> +<a href="#fn21" class="fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>After passing a deserved panegyric on the suppression of the +pirates, Cicero urged with all the power of his oratory that +Manilius’s measures should be adopted, and that the same +general who had done so well already should be sent against +Mithridates.</p> + +<p>This was perhaps the only occasion on which Cicero ever +addressed the assembly in favor of the proposals of a popular +tribune. Well would it have been for him and well for Rome if he +could have held on upon a course into which he had been led by real +patriotism. He was now in his proper place, where his better mind +must have told him that he ought to have continued, working by the +side of Caesar and Pompey. It was observed that more than once in +his speech he mentioned with high honor the name of Marius. He +appeared to have seen clearly that the Senate was bringing the +State to perdition; and that unless the Republic was to end in +dissolution, or in mob rule and despotism, the wise course was to +recognize the legitimate tendencies of popular sentiment, and to +lend the constant weight of his authority to those who were acting +in harmony with it. But Cicero could never wholly forget his own +consequence, or bring himself to persist in any policy where he +could play but a secondary part.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 66-63.]</span> The Manilian law was +carried. In addition to his present extraordinary command, Pompey +was entrusted with the conduct of the war in Asia, and he was left +unfettered to act at his own discretion. He crossed the Bosphorus +with fifty thousand men; he invaded Pontus; he inflicted a decisive +defeat on Mithridates, and broke up his army; he drove the +Armenians back into their own mountains, and extorted out of them a +heavy war indemnity. The barbarian king who had so long defied the +Roman power was beaten down at last, and fled across the Black Sea +to Kertch, where his sons turned against him. He was sixty-eight +years old, and could not wait till the wheel should make another +turn. Broken down at last, he took leave of a world in which for +him there was no longer a place. His women poisoned themselves +successfully. He, too fortified by antidotes to end as they ended, +sought a surer death, and fell like Saul by the sword of a slave. +Rome had put out her real strength, and at once, as before, all +opposition went down before her. Asia was completely conquered up +to the line of the Euphrates. The Black Sea was held securely by a +Roman fleet. Pompey passed down into Syria. Antioch surrendered +without resistance. Tyre and Damascus followed. Jerusalem was taken +by storm, and the Roman general entered the Holy of Holies. Of all +the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Egypt only was left +independent, and of all the islands only Cyprus. A triumphal +inscription in Rome declared that Pompey, the people’s general, +had in three years captured fifteen hundred cities, and had slain, +taken, or reduced to submission twelve million human beings. He +justified what Cicero had foretold of his moral uprightness. In the +midst of opportunities such as had fallen to no commander since +Alexander, he outraged no woman’s honor, and he kept his hands +clean from “the accursed thing.” When he returned to +Rome, he returned, as he went, personally poor, but he filled the +treasury to overflowing. His campaign was not a marauding raid, +like the march of Lucullus on Artaxata. His conquests were +permanent. The East, which was then thickly inhabited by an +industrious civilized Graeco-Oriental race, became incorporated in +the Roman dominion, and the annual revenue of the State rose to +twice what it had been. Pompey’s success had been dazzlingly +rapid. Envy and hatred, as he well knew, were waiting for him at +home, and he was in no haste to present himself there. He lingered +in Asia, organizing the administration and consolidating his work, +while at Rome the constitution was rushing on upon its old courses +among the broken waters, with the roar of the not distant cataract +growing every moment louder.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn19"></a> <a href="#fnr19">[1]</a> +The name of Marius, it is to be observed, remained so popular in +Rome that Cicero after this always spoke of him with respect.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn20"></a> <a href="#fnr20">[2]</a> +“Asia vero tam opima est et fertilis, ut et ubertate agrorum +et varietate fructuum et magnitudine pastionis, et multitudine +earum rerum, quae exportentur, facile omnibus terris +antecellat.”—<i>Pro Lege Maniliâ</i>. Cicero’s +expressions are worth notice at a time when Asia Minor has become +of importance to England.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn21"></a> <a href="#fnr21">[3]</a> +<i>Pro Lege Maniliâ.</i> abridged.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 64.]</span> Among the patricians +who were rising through the lower magistracies and were aspiring to +the consulship was Lucius Sergius Catiline. Catiline, now in middle +life, had when young been a fervent admirer of Sylla, and, as has +been already said, had been an active agent in the proscription. He +had murdered his brother-in-law, and perhaps his brother, under +political pretences. In an age when licentiousness of the grossest +kind was too common to attract attention, Catiline had achieved a +notoriety for infamy. Ho had intrigued with a Vestal virgin, the +sister of Cicero’s wife, Terentia. If Cicero is to be believed, +he had made away with his own wife, that he might marry Aurelia +Orestilla, a woman as wicked as she was beautiful, and he had +killed his child also because Aurelia had objected to be encumbered +with a step-son. But this, too, was common in high society in those +days. Adultery and incest had become familiar excitements. Boys of +ten years old had learnt the art of poisoning their fathers, <a +name="fnr22"></a> <a href="#fn22" class="fnsuper">1</a> and the +story of Aurelia Orestilla and Catiline had been rehearsed a few +years before by Sassia and Oppianicus at Larino. <a name="fnr23"></a> <a href="#fn23" class="fnsuper">2</a> Other enormities +Catiline had been guilty of which Cicero declined to mention, lest +he should show too openly what crimes might go unpunished under the +senatorial administration. But villainy, however notorious, did not +interfere with advancement in the public service. Catiline was +adroit, bold, and even captivating. He made his way into high +office along the usual gradations. He was praetor in B.C. 68. He +went as governor to Africa in the year following, and he returned +with money enough, as he reasonably hoped, to purchase the last +step to the consulship. He was impeached when he came back for +extortion and oppression, under one of the many laws which were +made to be laughed at. Till his trial was over he was disqualified +from presenting himself as a candidate, and the election for the +year 65 was carried by Autronius Paetus and Cornelius Sylla. Two +other patricians, Aurelius Cotta and Manlius Torquatus, had stood +against them. The successful competitors were unseated for bribery; +Cotta and Torquatus took their places, and, apparently as a natural +resource in the existing contempt into which the constitution had +fallen, the disappointed candidates formed a plot to kill their +rivals and their rivals’ friends in the Senate, and to make a +revolution. Cneius Piso, a young nobleman of the bluest blood, +joined in the conspiracy. Catiline threw himself into it as his +natural element, and aristocratic tradition said in later years +that Caesar and Crassus were implicated also. Some desperate scheme +there certainly was, but the accounts of it are confused: one +authority says that it failed because Catiline gave the signal +prematurely; others that Caesar was to have given the signal, and +did not do it; others that Crassus’s heart failed him; others +that the consuls had secret notice given to them and took +precautions. Cicero, who was in Rome at the time, declares that he +never heard of the conspiracy. <a name="fnr24"></a> <a href="#fn24" +class="fnsuper">3</a> When evidence is inconclusive, probability +becomes argument. Nothing can be less likely than that a cautious +capitalist of vast wealth like Crassus should have connected +himself with a party of dissolute adventurers. Had Caesar committed +himself, jealously watched as he was by the aristocrats, some +proofs of his complicity would have been forthcoming. The +aristocracy under the empire revenged themselves for their ruin by +charging Caesar with a share in every combination that had been +formed against them, from Sylla’s time downwards. Be the truth +what it may, nothing came of this project. Piso went to Spain, +where he was killed. The prosecution of Catiline for his African +misgovernment was continued, and, strange to say, Cicero undertook +his defence. He was under no uncertainty as to Catiline’s +general character, or his particular guilt in the charge brought +against him. It was plain as the sun at midday. <a name="fnr25"></a> <a href="#fn25" class="fnsuper">4</a> +But Cicero was about to stand himself for the consulship, the object of his most +passionate desire. He had several competitors; and as he thought +well of Catiline’s prospects, he intended to coalesce with him. +<a name="fnr26"></a> <a href="#fn26" class="fnsuper">5</a> Catiline +was acquitted, apparently through a special selection of the +judges, with the connivance of the prosecutor. The canvass was +violent, and the corruption flagrant. <a name="fnr27"></a> <a href="#fn27" class="fnsuper">6</a>Cicero did not bribe himself, but if +Catiline’s voters would give him a help, he was not so +scrupulous as to be above taking advantage of it. Catiline’s +humor or the circumstances of the time provided him with a more +honorable support. He required a more manageable colleague than he +could have found in Cicero. Among the candidates was one of +Sylla’s officers, Caius Antonius, the uncle of Marc Antony, the +triumvir. This Antonius had been prosecuted by Caesar for ill-usage +of the Macedonians. He had been expelled by the censors from the +Senate for general worthlessness; but public disgrace seems to have +had no effect whatever on the chances of a candidate for the +consulship in this singular age. Antonius was weak and vicious, and +Catiline could mould him as he pleased. He had made himself popular +by his profusion when aedile in providing shows for the mob. The +feeling against the Senate was so bitter that the aristocracy had +no chance of carrying a candidate of their own, and the competition +was reduced at last to Catiline, Antonius and Cicero. Antonius was +certain of his election, and the contest lay between Catiline and +Cicero. Each of them tried to gain the support of Antonius and his +friends. Catiline promised Antonius a revolution, in which they +were to share the world between them. Cicero promised his influence +to obtain some lucrative province for Antonius to misgovern. +Catiline would probably have succeeded, when the aristocracy, +knowing what to expect if so scandalous a pair came into office, +threw their weight on Cicero’s side and turned the scale. +Cicero was liked among the people for his prosecution of Verres, +for his support of the Manilian law, and for the boldness with +which he had exposed patrician delinquencies. With the Senate for +him also, he was returned at the head of the poll. The proud Roman +nobility had selected a self-made lawyer as their representative. +Cicero was consul, and Antonius with him. Catiline had failed. It +was the turning-point of Cicero’s life. Before his consulship +he had not irrevocably taken a side. No public speaker had more +eloquently shown the necessity for reform; no one had denounced +with keener sarcasm the infamies and follies of senatorial +favorites. Conscience and patriotism should have alike held him to +the reforming party; and political instinct, if vanity had left him +the use of his perception, would have led him in the same +direction. Possibly before he received the votes of the patricians +and their clients he had bound himself with certain engagements to +them. Possibly he held the Senate’s intellect cheap, and saw +the position which he could arrive at among the aristocracy if he +offered them his services. The strongest intellect was with the +reformers, and first on that side he could never be. First among +the Conservatives <a name="fnr28"></a> <a href="#fn28" class= +"fnsuper">7</a> he could easily be; and he might prefer being at +the head of a party which at heart he despised, to working at the +side of persons who must stand inevitably above him. We may regret +that gifted men should be influenced by personal considerations, +but under party government it is a fact that they are so +influenced, and will be as long as it continues. Caesar and Pompey +were soldiers. The army was democratic, and the triumph of the +democracy meant the rule of a popular general. Cicero was a +civilian, and a man of speech. In the forum and in the Curia he +knew that he could reign supreme.</p> + +<p>Cicero had thus reached the highest step in the scale of +promotion by trimming between the rival factions. Caesar was rising +simultaneously behind him on lines of his own. In the year B.C. 65 +he had been aedile, having for his colleague Bibulus, his future +companion on the successive grades of ascent. Bibulus was a rich +plebeian, whose delight in office was the introduction which it +gave him into the society of the great; and in his politics he +outdid his aristocratic patrons. The aediles had charge of the +public buildings and the games and exhibitions in the capital. The +aedileship was a magistracy through which it was ordinarily +necessary to pass in order to reach the consulship; and as the +aediles were expected to bear their own expenses, the consulship +was thus restricted to those who could afford an extravagant +outlay. They were expected to decorate the city with new ornaments, +and to entertain the people with magnificent spectacles. If they +fell short of public expectation, they need look no further for the +suffrages of their many-headed master. Cicero had slipped through +the aedileship, without ruin to himself. He was a self-raised man, +known to be dependent upon his own exertions, and liked from the +willingness with which he gave his help to accused persons on their +trials. Thus no great demands had been made upon him. Caesar, +either more ambitious or less confident in his services, raised a +new and costly row of columns in front of the Capitol. He built a +temple to the Dioscuri, and he charmed the populace with a show of +gladiators unusually extensive. Personally he cared nothing for +these sanguinary exhibitions, and he displayed his indifference +ostentatiously by reading or writing while the butchery was going +forward. <a name="fnr29"></a> <a href="#fn29" class="fnsuper">8</a> +But he required the favor of the multitude, and then, as always, +took the road which led most directly to his end. The noble lords +watched him suspiciously, and their uneasiness was not diminished +when, not content with having produced the insignia of Marius at +his aunt’s funeral, he restored the trophies for the victories +over the Cimbri and Teutons, which had been removed by Sylla. The +name of Marius was growing every day more dear to the popular +party. They forgave, if they had ever resented, his credulities. +His veterans who had fought with him through his campaigns came +forward in tears to salute the honored relics of their once +glorious commander.</p> + +<p>As he felt the ground stronger under his feet, Caesar now began +to assume an attitude more peremptorily marked. He had won a +reputation in the Forum; he had spoken in the Senate; he had warmly +advocated the appointment of Pompey to his high commands; and he +was regarded as a prominent democratic leader. But he had not +aspired to the tribunate; he had not thrown himself into politics +with any absorbing passion. His exertions had been intermittent, +and he was chiefly known as a brilliant member of fashionable +society, a peculiar favorite with women, and remarkable for his +abstinence from the coarse debauchery which disgraced his patrician +contemporaries. He was now playing for a higher stake, and the +oligarchy had occasion to be reminded of Sylla’s prophecy. In +carrying out the proscription, Sylla had employed professional +assassins, and payments had been made out of the treasury to +wretches who came to him with bloody trophies in their hands to +demand the promised fees. The time had come when these doings were +to be looked into; hundreds of men had been murdered, their estates +confiscated, and their families ruined, who had not been even +ostensibly guilty of any public crime. At Caesar’s instance an +inquiry was ordered. He himself was appointed Judex Quaestionis, or +chairman of a committee of investigation; and Catiline, among +others, was called to answer for himself—a curious commentary on +Caesar’s supposed connection with him.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 63.]</span> Nor did the inquisition +stop with Sylla. Titus Labienus, afterward so famous and so +infamous, was then tribune of the people. His father had been +killed at the side of Saturninus and Glaucia thirty-seven years +before, when the young lords of Rome had unroofed the senate-house, +and had pelted them and their companions to death with tiles. One +of the actors in the scene, Caius Rabirius, now a very old man, was +still alive. Labienus prosecuted him before Caesar. Rabirius was +condemned, and appealed to the people; and Cicero, who had just +been made consul, spoke in his defence. On this occasion Cicero for +the first time came actively in collision with Caesar. His language +contrasted remarkably with the tone of his speeches against Verres +and for the Manilian law. It was adroit, for he charged Marius with +having shared the guilt, if guilt there had been, in the death of +those men; but the burden of what he said was to defend +enthusiastically the conservative aristocracy, and to censure with +all his bitterness the democratic reformers. Rabirius was +acquitted, perhaps justly. It was a hard thing to revive the memory +of a political crime which had been shared by the whole patrician +order after so long an interval. But Cicero had shown his new +colors; no help, it was evident, was thenceforward to be expected +from him in the direction of reform. The popular party replied in a +singular manner. The office of Pontifex Maximus was the most +coveted of all the honors to which a Roman citizen could aspire. It +was held for life, it was splendidly endowed, and there still hung +about the pontificate the traditionary dignity attaching to the +chief of the once sincerely believed Roman religion. Like other +objects of ambition, the nomination had fallen, with the growth of +democracy, to the people, but the position had always been held by +some member of the old aristocracy; and Sylla, to secure them in +the possession of it, had reverted to the ancient constitution, and +had restored to the Sacred College the privilege of choosing their +head. Under the impulse which the popular party had received from +Pompey’s successes, Labienus carried a vote in the assembly, by +which the people resumed the nomination to the pontificate +themselves. In the same year it fell vacant by the death of the +aged Metullus Pius. Two patricians, Quintus Catulus and +Caesar’s old general Servilius Isauricus, were the Senate’s +candidates, and vast sums were subscribed and spent to secure the +success of one or other of the two. Caesar came forward to oppose +them. Caesar aspired to be Pontifex Maximus—Pope of Rome—he who +of all men living was the least given to illusion; he who was the +most frank in his confession of entire disbelief in the legends +which, though few credited them any more, yet almost all thought it +decent to pretend to credit. Among the phenomena of the time this +was surely the most singular. Yet Caesar had been a priest from his +boyhood, and why should he not be Pope? He offered himself to the +Comitia. Committed as he was to a contest with the richest men in +Rome, he spent money freely. He was in debt already for his +expenses as aedile. He engaged his credit still deeper for this new +competition. The story ran that when his mother kissed him as he +was leaving his home for the Forum on the morning of the election, +he told her that he would return as pontiff, or she would never see +him more. He was chosen by an overwhelming majority, the votes +given for him being larger than the collective numbers of the votes +entered for his opponents.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 63.]</span> The election for the +pontificate was on the 6th of March, and soon after Caesar received +a further evidence of popular favor on being chosen praetor for the +next year. As the liberal party was growing in courage and +definiteness, Cicero showed himself more decidedly on the other +side. Now was the time for him, highly placed as he was, to prevent +a repetition of the scandals which he had so eloquently denounced, +to pass laws which no future Verres or Lucullus could dare to defy. +Now was his opportunity to take the wind out of the reformers’ +sails, and to grapple himself with the thousand forms of patrician +villainy which he well knew to be destroying the Commonwealth. Not +one such measure, save an ineffectual attempt to check election +bribery, distinguished the consulship of Cicero. His entire efforts +were directed to the combination in a solid phalanx of the +equestrian and patrician orders. The danger to society, he had come +to think, was an approaching war against property, and his hope was +to unite the rich of both classes in defence against the landless +and moneyless multitudes. <a name="fnr30"></a> <a href="#fn30" +class="fnsuper">9</a> The land question had become again as +pressing as in the time of the Gracchi. The peasant proprietors +were melting away as fast as ever, and Rome was becoming choked +with impoverished citizens, who ought to have been farmers and +fathers of families, but were degenerating into a rabble fed upon +the corn grants, and occupied with nothing but spectacles and +politics. The agrarian laws in the past had been violent, and might +reasonably be complained of; but a remedy could now be found for +this fast-increasing mischief without injury to anyone. +Pompey’s victories had filled the public treasury. Vast +territories abroad had lapsed to the possession of the State; and +Rullus, one of the tribunes, proposed that part of these +territories should be sold, and that out of the proceeds, and out +of the money which Pompey had sent home, farms should be purchased +in Italy and poor citizens settled upon them. Rullus’s scheme +might have been crude, and the details of it objectionable; but to +attempt the problem was better than to sit still and let the evil +go unchecked. If the bill was impracticable in its existing form, +it might have been amended; and so far as the immediate effect of +such a law was concerned, it was against the interests of the +democrats. The popular vote depended for its strength on the masses +of poor who were crowded into Rome; and the tribune was proposing +to weaken his own army. But the very name of an agrarian law set +patrician households in a flutter, and Cicero stooped to be their +advocate. He attacked Rullus with brutal sarcasm. He insulted his +appearance; he ridiculed his dress, his hair, and his beard. He +mocked at his bad enunciation and bad grammar. No one more despised +the mob than Cicero; but because Rullus had said that the city +rabble was dangerously powerful, and ought to be “drawn +off” to some wholesome employment, the eloquent consul +condescended to quote the words, to score a point against his +opponent; and he told the crowd that their tribune had described a +number of excellent citizens to the Senate as no better than the +contents of a cesspool. <a name="fnr31"></a> <a href="#fn31" class= +"fnsuper">10</a></p> + +<p>By these methods Cicero caught the people’s voices. The plan +came to nothing, and his consulship would have waned away, +undistinguished by any act which his country would have cared to +remember, but for an accident which raised him for a moment into a +position of real consequence, and impressed on his own mind a +conviction that he was a second Romulus.</p> + +<p>Revolutionary conspiracies are only formidable when the +government against which they are directed is already despised and +detested. As long as an administration is endurable the majority of +citizens prefer to bear with it, and will assist in repressing +violent attempts at its overthrow. Their patience, however, may be +exhausted, and the disgust may rise to a point when any change may +seem an improvement. Authority is no longer shielded by the majesty +with which it ought to be surrounded. It has made public its own +degradation; and the most worthless adventurer knows that he has no +moral indignation to fear if he tries to snatch the reins out of +hands which are at least no more pure than his own. If he can dress +his endeavors in the livery of patriotism, if he can put himself +forward as the champion of an injured people, he can cover the +scandals of his own character and appear as a hero and a liberator. +Catiline had missed the consulship, and was a ruined man. He had +calculated on succeeding to a province where he might gather a +golden harvest and come home to live in splendor, like Lucullus. He +had failed, defeated by a mere plebeian whom his brother-patricians +had stooped to prefer to him. Were the secret history known of the +contest for the consulship, much might be discovered there to +explain Cicero’s and Catiline’s hatred of each other. +Cicero had once thought of coalescing with Catiline, +notwithstanding his knowledge of his previous crimes: Catiline had +perhaps hoped to dupe Cicero, and had been himself outwitted. He +intended to stand again for the year 62, but evidently on a +different footing from that on which he had presented himself +before. That such a man should have been able to offer himself at +all, and that such a person as Cicero should have entered into any +kind of amicable relations with him, was a sign by itself that the +Commonwealth was already sickening for death.</p> + +<p>Catiline was surrounded by men of high birth, whose fortunes +were desperate as his own. There was Lentulus, who had been consul +a few years before, and had been expelled from the Senate by the +censors. There was Cethegus, staggering under a mountain of debts. +There was Autronius, who had been unseated for bribery when chosen +consul in 65. There was Manlius, once a distinguished officer in +Sylla’s army, and now a beggar. Besides these were a number of +senators, knights, gentlemen, and dissolute young patricians, whose +theory of the world was that it had been created for them to take +their pleasure in, and who found their pleasures shortened by +emptiness of purse. To them, as to their betters, the Empire was +but a large dish out of which they considered that they had a right +to feed themselves. They were defrauded of their proper share, and +Catiline was the person who would help them to it.</p> + +<p>Etruria was full of Sylla’s disbanded soldiers, who had +squandered their allotments, and were hanging about, unoccupied and +starving. Catiline sent down Manlius, their old officer, to collect +as many as he could of them without attracting notice. He himself, +as the election day approached, and Cicero’s year of office was +drawing to an end, took up the character of an aristocratic +demagogue, and asked for the suffrages of the people as the +champion of the poor against the rich, as the friend of the +wretched and oppressed; and those who thought themselves wretched +and oppressed in Rome were so large a body, and so bitterly hostile +were they all to the prosperous classes, that his election was +anticipated as a certainty. In the Senate the consulship of +Catiline was regarded as no less than an impending national +calamity. Marcus Cato, great-grandson of the censor, then growing +into fame by his acrid tongue and narrow republican fanaticism, who +had sneered at Pompey’s victories as triumphs over women, and +had not spared even Cicero himself, threatened Catiline in the +Curia. Catiline answered, in a fully attended house, that if any +agitation was kindled against him he would put it out, not with +water, but with revolution. His language became so audacious that, +on the eve of the election day, Cicero moved for a postponement, +that the Senate might take his language into consideration. +Catiline’s conduct was brought on for debate, and the consul +called on him to explain himself. There was no concealment in +Catiline. Then and always Cicero admits he was perfectly frank. He +made no excuses. He admitted the truth of what had been reported of +him. The State, he said, had two bodies, one weak (the +aristocracy), with a weak leader (Cicero); the other, the great +mass of the citizens— strong in themselves, but without a head, +and he himself intended to be that head. <a name="fnr32"></a> <a +href="#fn32" class="fnsuper">11</a> A groan was heard in the house, +but less loud than in Cicero’s opinion it ought to have been; +and Catiline sailed out in triumph, leaving the noble lords looking +in each other’s faces.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[October, B.C. 63.]</span> Both Cicero +and the Senate were evidently in the greatest alarm that Catiline +would succeed constitutionally in being chosen consul, and they +strained every sinew to prevent so terrible a catastrophe. When the +Comitia came on, Cicero admits that he occupied the voting place in +the Campus Martius with a guard of men who could be depended on. He +was violating the law, which forbade the presence of an armed force +on those occasions. He excused himself by pretending that +Catiline’s party intended violence, and he appeared +ostentatiously in a breastplate as if his own life was aimed at. +The result was that Catiline failed once more, and was rejected by +a small majority. Cicero attributes his defeat to the moral effect +produced by the breastplate. But from the time of the Gracchi +downwards the aristocracy had not hesitated to lay pressure on the +elections when they could safely do it; and the story must be taken +with reservation, in the absence of a more impartial account than +we possess of the purpose to which Cicero’s guard was applied. +Undoubtedly it was desirable to strain the usual rules to keep a +wretch like Catiline from the consulship; but as certainly, both +before the election and after it, Catiline had the sympathies of a +very large part of the resident inhabitants of the city, and these +sympathies must be taken into account if we are to understand the +long train of incidents of which this occasion was the +beginning.</p> + +<p>Two strict aristocrats, Decimus Silanus and Lucius Murena, <a +name="fnr33"></a> <a href="#fn33" class="fnsuper">12</a> were +declared elected. Pompey was on his way home, but had not yet +reached Italy. There were no regular troops in the whole peninsula, +and the nearest approach to an army was the body of Syllans, whom +Manlius had quietly collected at Fiesole. Cicero’s colleague +Antonius was secretly in communication with Catiline, evidently +thinking it likely that he would succeed. Catiline determined to +wait no longer, and to raise an insurrection in the capital, with +slave emancipation and a cancelling of debt for a cry. Manlius was +to march on Rome, and the Senate, it was expected, would fall +without a blow. Caesar and Crassus sent a warning to Cicero to be +on his guard. Caesar had called Catiline to account for his doings +at the time of the proscription, and knew his nature too well to +expect benefit to the people from a revolution conducted under the +auspices of bankrupt patrician adventurers. No citizen had more to +lose than Crassus from a crusade of the poor against the rich. But +they had both been suspected two years before, and in the excited +temper of men’s minds they took precautions for their own +reputation’s sake, as well as for the safety of the State. +Quintus Curius, a senator, who was one of the conspirators, was +meanwhile betraying his accomplices, and gave daily notice to the +consuls of each step which was contemplated. But so weak was +authority and so dangerous the temper of the people that the +difficulty was to know what to do. Secret information was scarcely +needed. Catiline, as Cicero said, was +“<i>apertissimus</i>,” most frank in the declaration of +his intentions. Manlius’s army at Fiesole was an open fact, and +any day might bring news that he was on the march to Rome. The +Senate, as usual in extreme emergencies, declared the State in +danger, and gave the consuls unlimited powers to provide for public +security. So scornfully confident was Catiline that he offered to +place himself under surveillance at the house of any senator whom +Cicero might name, or to reside with Cicero himself, if the consul +preferred to keep a personal eye upon him. Cicero answered that he +dared not trust himself with so perilous a guest.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[November, B.C. 63.]</span> So for a few +days matters hung in suspense, Manlius expecting an order to +advance, Catiline waiting apparently for a spontaneous insurrection +in the city before he gave the word. Intended attempts at various +points had been baffled by Cicero’s precautions. At last, +finding that the people remained quiet, Catiline called a meeting +of his friends one stormy night at the beginning of November, and +it was agreed that two of the party should go the next morning at +dawn to Cicero’s house, demand to see him on important +business, and kill him in his bed. Curius, who was present, +immediately furnished Cicero with an account of what had passed. +When his morning visitors arrived they were told that they could +not be admitted; and a summons was sent round to the senators to +assemble immediately at the Temple of Jupiter Stator, one of the +strongest positions in the city. <a name="fnr34"></a> <a href="#fn34" class="fnsuper">13</a> The audacious Catiline attended, and +took his usual seat; every one shrank from him, and he was left +alone on the bench. Then Cicero rose. In the Senate, where to speak +was the first duty of man, he was in his proper element, and had +abundant courage. He addressed himself personally to the principal +conspirator. He exposed, if exposure be the fitting word when half +the persons present knew as much as he could tell them, the history +of Catiline’s proceedings. He described in detail the meeting +of the past evening, looking round perhaps in the faces of the +senators who he was aware had been present at it. He spoke of the +visit designed to himself in the morning, which had been baffled by +his precautions. He went back over the history of the preceding +half-century. Fresh from the defence of Rabirius, he showed how +dangerous citizens, the Gracchi, Saturninus, Glaucia, had been +satisfactorily killed when they were meditating mischief. He did +not see that a constitution was already doomed when the ruling +powers were driven to assassinate their opponents, because a trial +with the forms of law would have ended in their acquittal. He told +Catiline that under the powers which the Senate had conferred on +him he might order his instant execution. He detailed +Catiline’s past enormities, which he had forgotten when he +sought his friendship, and he ended in bidding him leave the city, +go and join Manlius and his army.</p> + +<p>Never had Cicero been greater, and never did oratory end in a +more absurd conclusion. He dared not arrest Catiline. He confessed +that he dared not. There was not a doubt that Catiline was +meditating a revolution—but a revolution was precisely what half +the world was wishing for. Rightly read, those sounding paragraphs, +those moral denunciations, those appeals to history and patriotic +sentiment, were the funeral knell of the Roman Commonwealth.</p> + +<p>Let Catiline go into open war, Cicero said, and then there would +no longer be a doubt. Then all the world would admit his treason. +Catiline went; and what was to follow next? Antonius, the second +consul, was notoriously not to be relied on. The other +conspirators, senators who sat listening while Cicero poured out +his eloquent indignation, remained still in the city with the +threads of insurrection in their hands, and were encouraged to +persevere by the evident helplessness of the government. The +imperfect record of history retains for us only the actions of a +few individuals whom special talent or special circumstances +distinguished, and such information is only fragmentary. We lose +sight of the unnamed seething multitudes by whose desires and by +whose hatreds the stream of events was truly guided. The party of +revolution was as various as it was wide. Powerful wealthy men +belonged to it, who were politically dissatisfied; ambitious men of +rank, whose money embarrassments weighted them in the race against +their competitors; old officers and soldiers of Sylla, who had +spent the fortunes which they had won by violence, and were now +trying to bring him back from the dead to renew their lease of +plunder; ruined wretches without number, broken down with fines and +proscriptions, and debts and the accumulation of usurious interest. +Add to these “the dangerous classes,” the natural enemies +of all governments—parricides, adulterers, thieves, forgers, +escaped slaves, brigands, and pirates who had lost their +occupation; and, finally, Catiline’s own chosen comrades, the +smooth-faced patrician youths with curled hair and redolent with +perfumes, as yet beardless or with the first down upon their chins, +wearing scarves and veils and sleeved tunics reaching to their +ankles, industrious but only with the dice-box, night-watchers but +in the supper- rooms, in the small hours before dawn, immodest, +dissolute boys, whose education had been in learning to love and to +be loved, to sing and to dance naked at the midnight orgies, and +along with it to handle poniards and mix poisoned bowls. <a name="fnr35"></a> <a href="#fn35" class="fnsuper">14</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[November, B.C. 64.]</span> Well might +Cicero be alarmed at such a combination; well might he say that if +a generation of such youths lived to manhood there would be a +commonwealth of Catilines. But what was to be thought of the +prospects of a society in which such phenomena were developing +themselves? Cicero bade them all go—follow their chief into the +war, and perish in the snow of the Apennines. But how if they would +not go? How if from the soil of Rome, under the rule of his friends +the Senate, fresh crops of such youths would rise perennially? The +Commonwealth needed more drastic medicine than eloquent +exhortations, however true the picture might be.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[November, B.C. 63.]</span> None of the +promising young gentlemen took Cicero’s advice. Catiline went +alone and joined Manlius, and had he come on at once he might +perhaps have taken Rome. The army was to support an insurrection, +and the insurrection was to support the army. Catiline waited for a +signal from his friends in the city, and Lentulus, Cethegus, +Autronius, and the rest of the leaders waited for Catiline to +arrive. Conspirators never think that they have taken precautions +enough or have gained allies enough; and in endeavoring to secure +fresh support they made a fatal mistake. An embassy of Allobroges +was in the city, a frontier tribe on the borders of the Roman +province in Gaul, who were allies of Rome, though not as yet +subjects. The Gauls were the one foreign nation whom the Romans +really feared. The passes of the Alps alone protected Italy from +the hordes of German or Gallic barbarians, whose numbers being +unknown were supposed to be exhaustless. Middle-aged men could +still remember the panic at the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons, +and it was the chief pride of the democrats that the State had then +been saved by their own Marius. At the critical moment it was +discovered that the conspirators had entered into a correspondence +with these Allobroges, and had actually proposed to them to make a +fresh inroad over the Alps. The suspicion of such an intention at +once alienated from Catiline the respectable part of the democratic +party. The fact of the communication was betrayed to Cicero. He +intercepted the letters; he produced them in the Senate with the +seals unbroken, that no suspicion might rest upon himself. Lentulus +and Cethegus were sent for, and could not deny their hands. The +letters were then opened and read, and no shadow of uncertainty any +longer remained that they had really designed to bring in an army +of Gauls. Such of the conspirators as were known and were still +within reach were instantly seized.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[December 5, B.C. 63.]</span> Cicero, +with a pardonable laudation of himself and of the Divine Providence +of which he professed to regard himself as the minister, +congratulated his country on its escape from so genuine a danger; +and he then invited the Senate to say what was to be done with +these apostates from their order, whose treason was now +demonstrated. A plot for a mere change of government, for the +deposition of the aristocrats and the return to power of the +popular party, it might be impolitic, perhaps impossible, severely +to punish; but Catiline and his friends had planned the betrayal of +the State to the barbarians; and with persons who had committed +themselves to national treason there was no occasion to hesitate. +Cicero produced the list of those whom he considered guilty, and +there were some among his friends who thought the opportunity might +be used to get rid of dangerous enemies, after the fashion of +Sylla, especially of Crassus and Caesar. The name of Crassus was +first mentioned, some said by secret friends of Catiline, who hoped +to alarm the Senate into inaction by showing with whom they would +have to deal. Crassus, it is possible, knew more than he had told +the consul. Catiline’s success had, at one moment, seemed +assured; and great capitalists are apt to insure against +contingencies. But Cicero moved and carried a resolution that the +charge against him was a wicked invention. The attempt against +Caesar was more determined. Old Catulus, whom Caesar had defeated +in the contest for the pontificate, and Caius Calpurnius Piso, <a +name="fnr36"></a> <a href="#fn36" class="fnsuper">15</a> a bitter +aristocrat, whom Caesar had prosecuted for misgovernment in Gaul, +urged Cicero to include his name. But Cicero was too honorable to +lend himself to an accusation which he knew to be false. Some of +the young lords in their disappointment threatened Caesar at the +senate-house door with their swords; but the attack missed its +mark, and served only to show how dreaded Caesar already was, and +how eager a desire there was to make an end of him.</p> + +<p>The list submitted for judgment contained the names of none but +those who were indisputably guilty. The Senate voted at once that +they were traitors to the State. The next question was of the +nature of their punishment. In the first place the persons of +public officers were sacred, and Lentulus was at the time a +praetor. And next the Sempronian law forbade distinctly that any +Roman citizen should be put to death without a trial, and without +the right of appeal to the assembly. <a name="fnr37"></a> <a href="#fn37" class="fnsuper">16</a> It did not mean simply that Roman +citizens were not to be murdered, or that at any time it had been +supposed that they might. The object was to restrain the +extraordinary power claimed by the Senate of setting the laws aside +on exceptional occasions. Silanus, the consul-elect for the +following year, was, according to usage, asked to give his opinion +first. He voted for immediate death. One after the other the voices +were the same, till the turn came of Tiberius Nero, the +great-grandfather of Nero the Emperor. Tiberius was against haste. +He advised that the prisoners should be kept in confinement till +Catiline was taken or killed, and that the whole affair should then +be carefully investigated. Investigation was perhaps what many +senators were most anxious to avoid. When Tiberius had done, Caesar +rose. The speech which Sallust places in his mouth was not an +imaginary sketch of what Sallust supposed him likely to have said, +but the version generally received of what he actually did say, and +the most important passages of it are certainly authentic. For the +first time we see through the surface of Caesar’s outward +actions into his real mind. During the three quarters of a century +which had passed since the death of the elder Gracchus one +political murder had followed upon another. Every conspicuous +democrat had been killed by the aristocrats in some convenient +disturbance. No constitution could survive when the law was +habitually set aside by violence; and disdaining the suspicion with +which he knew that his words would be regarded, Caesar warned the +Senate against another act of precipitate anger which would be +unlawful in itself, unworthy of their dignity, and likely in the +future to throw a doubt upon the guilt of the men upon whose fate +they were deliberating. He did not extenuate, he rather emphasized, +the criminality of Catiline and his confederates; but for that +reason and because for the present no reasonable person felt the +slightest uncertainty about it, he advised them to keep within the +lines which the law had marked out for them. He spoke with respect +of Silanus. He did not suppose him to be influenced by feelings of +party animosity. Silanus had recommended the execution of the +prisoners, either because he thought their lives incompatible with +the safety of the State, or because no milder punishment seemed +adequate to the enormity of their conduct. But the safety of the +State, he said, with a compliment to Cicero, had been sufficiently +provided for by the diligence of the consul. As to punishment, none +could be too severe; but with that remarkable adherence to +<i>fact</i>, which always distinguished Caesar, that repudiation +of illusion and sincere utterance of his real belief, whatever that +might be, he contended that death was not a punishment at all. +Death was the end of human suffering. In the grave there was +neither joy nor sorrow. When a man was dead he ceased to be. <a +name="fnr38"></a> <a href="#fn38" class="fnsuper">17</a>He became +as he had been before he was born. Probably almost every one in the +Senate thought like Caesar on this subject. Cicero certainly did. +The only difference was that plausible statesmen affected a respect +for the popular superstition, and pretended to believe what they +did not believe. Caesar spoke his convictions out. There was no +longer any solemnity in an execution. It was merely the removal out +of the way of troublesome persons; and convenient as such a method +might be, it was of graver consequence that the Senate of Rome, the +guardians of the law, should not set an example of violating the +law. Illegality, Caesar told them, would be followed by greater +illegalities. He reminded them how they had applauded Sylla, how +they had rejoiced when they saw their political enemies summarily +despatched; and yet the proscription, as they well knew, had been +perverted to the license of avarice and private revenge. They might +feel sure that no such consequence need be feared under their +present consul: but times might change. The worst crimes which had +been committed in Rome in the past century had risen out of the +imitation of precedents, which at the moment seemed defensible. The +laws had prescribed a definite punishment for treason. Those laws +had been gravely considered; they had been enacted by the great men +who had built up the Roman dominion, and were not to be set aside +in impatient haste. Caesar therefore recommended that the estates +of the conspirators should be confiscated, that they themselves +should be kept in strict and solitary confinement dispersed in +various places, and that a resolution should be passed forbidding +an application for their pardon either to Senate or people.</p> + +<p>The speech was weighty in substance and weightily delivered, and +it produced its effect. <a name="fnr39"></a> <a href="#fn39" class= +"fnsuper">18</a> Silanus withdrew his opinion. Quintus Cicero, the +consul’s brother, followed, and a clear majority of the Senate +went with them, till it came to the turn of a young man who in that +year had taken his place in the house for the first time, who was +destined to make a reputation which could be set in competition +with that of the gods themselves, and whose moral opinion could be +held superior to that of the gods. <a name="fnr40"></a> <a href="#fn40" class="fnsuper">19</a></p> + +<p>Marcus Porcius Cato was born in the year 95, and was thus five +years younger than Caesar and eleven years younger than Cicero. He +was the great-grandson, as was said above, of the stern rugged +censor who hated Greek, preferred the teaching of the plough-tail +and the Twelve Tables to the philosophy of Aristotle, disbelieved +in progress, and held by the maxims of his father—the last, he of +the Romans of the old type. The young Marcus affected to take his +ancestor for a pattern. He resembled him as nearly as a modern +Anglican monk resembles St. Francis or St. Bernard. He could +reproduce the form, but it was the form with the life gone out of +it. He was immeasurably superior to the men around him. He was +virtuous, if it be virtue to abstain from sin. He never lied. No +one ever suspected him of dishonesty or corruption. But his +excellences were not of the retiring sort. He carried them written +upon him in letters for all to read, as a testimony to a wicked +generation. His opinions were as pedantic as his life was +abstemious, and no one was permitted to differ from him without +being held guilty rather of a crime than of a mistake. He was an +aristocratic pedant, to whom the living forces of humanity seemed +but irrational impulses of which he and such as he were the +appointed school- masters. To such a temperament a man of genius is +instinctively hateful. Cato had spoken often in the Senate, though +so young a member of it, denouncing the immoral habits of the age. +He now rose to match himself against Caesar; and with passionate +vehemence he insisted that the wretches who had plotted the +overthrow of the State should be immediately killed. He noticed +Caesar’s objections only to irritate the suspicion in which he +probably shared, that Caesar himself was one of Catiline’s +accomplices. That Caesar had urged as a reason for moderation the +absence of immediate danger, was in Cato’s opinion an argument +the more for anxiety. Naturally, too, he did not miss the +opportunity of striking at the scepticism which questioned future +retribution. Whether Cato believed himself in a future life +mattered little, if Caesar’s frank avowal could be turned to +his prejudice.</p> + +<p>Cato spoke to an audience well disposed to go with him. Silanus +went round to his first view, and the mass of senators followed +him. Caesar attempted to reply; but so fierce were the passions +that had been roused, that again he was in danger of violence. The +young knights who were present as a senatorial guard rushed at him +with their drawn swords. A few friends protected him with their +cloaks, and he left the Curia not to enter it again for the rest of +the year. When Caesar was gone, Cicero rose to finish the debate. +He too glanced at Caesar’s infidelity, and as Caesar had spoken +of the wisdom of past generations, he observed that in the same +generations there had been a pious belief that the grave was not +the end of human existence. With an ironical compliment to the +prudence of Caesar’s advice, he said that his own interest +would lead him to follow it; he would have the less to fear from +the irritation of the people. The Senate, he observed, must have +heard with pleasure that Caesar condemned the conspiracy. Caesar +was the leader of the popular party, and from him at least they now +knew that they had nothing to fear. The punishment which Caesar +recommended was, in fact, Cicero admitted, more severe than death. +He trusted, therefore, that if the conspirators were executed, and +he had to answer to the people for the sentence to be passed upon +them, Caesar himself would defend him against the charge of +cruelty. Meanwhile he said that he had the ineffable satisfaction +of knowing that he had saved the State. The Senate might adopt such +resolutions as might seem good to them without alarm for the +consequences. The conspiracy was disarmed. He had made enemies +among the bad citizens; but he had deserved and he had won the +gratitude of the good, and he stood secure behind the impregnable +bulwark of his country’s love.</p> + +<p>So Cicero, in the first effusion of self-admiration with which +he never ceased to regard his conduct on this occasion. No doubt he +had acted bravely, and he had shown as much adroitness as courage. +But the whole truth was never told. The Senate’s anxiety to +execute the prisoners arose from a fear that the people would be +against them if an appeal to the assembly was allowed. The Senate +was contending for the privilege of suspending the laws by its own +independent will; and the privilege, if it was ever constitutional, +had become so odious by the abuse of it, that to a large section of +Roman citizens a conspiracy against the oligarchy had ceased to be +looked on as treason at all. Cicero and Cato had their way. +Lentulus, Cethegus, Autronius and their companions were strangled +in their cells, on the afternoon of the debate upon their fate. A +few weeks later Catiline’s army was cut to pieces, and he +himself was killed. So desperately his haggard bands had fought +that they fell in their ranks where they stood, and never Roman +commander gained a victory that cost him more dear. So furious a +resistance implied a motive and a purpose beyond any which Cicero +or Sallust records, and the commission of inquiry suggested by +Tiberius Nero in the Senate might have led to curious revelations. +The Senate perhaps had its own reasons for fearing such +revelations, and for wishing the voices closed which could have +made them.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn22"></a> <a href="#fnr22">[1]</a> +“Nunc quis patrem decem annorum natus non modo aufert sed +tollit nisi veneno?”—<i>Varronis Fragmenta</i>, ed. +Alexander Riese, p. 216.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn23"></a> <a href="#fnr23">[2]</a> +See the story in Cicero, <i>Pro Cluentio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn24"></a> <a href="#fnr24">[3]</a> +<i>Pro P. Sullâ</i>, 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn25"></a> <a href="#fnr25">[4]</a> +“Catilina, si judicatum erit, meridie non lucere, certus erit +competitor.”—<i>Epist. ad Atticum</i>, i. 1.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn26"></a> <a href="#fnr26">[5]</a> +“Hoc tempore Catilinam, competitorem nostrum, defendere +cogitamus. Judices habemus, quos volumus, summa accusatoris +voluntate. Spero, si absolutus erit, conjunctiorem illum nobis fore +in ratione petitionis.”—<i>Ib</i>., i. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn27"></a> <a href="#fnr27">[6]</a> +“Scito nihil tam exercitum nunc esse Romae quam candidatos +omnibus iniquitatibus.”—<i>Ib</i>., i. 11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn28"></a> <a href="#fnr28">[7]</a> I +use a word apparently modern, but Cicero himself gave the name of +Conservatores Reipublicae to the party to which he belonged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn29"></a> <a href="#fnr29">[8]</a> +Suetonius, speaking of Augustus, says: “Quoties adesset, nihil +praeterea agebat, seu vitandi rumoris causâ, quo patrem Caesarem +vulgo reprehensum commemorabat, quod inter spectandum epistolis +libellisque legendis aut rescribendis vacaret; seu studio spectandi +et voluptate,” etc.—<i>Vita Octavii</i>, 45.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn30"></a> <a href="#fnr30">[9]</a> +Writing three years later to Atticus, he says: “Confirmabam +omnium privatorum possessiones, is enim est noster exercitus, ut +tute scis locupletium.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, i. 19. Pomponius +Atticus, Cicero’s most intimate correspondent, was a Roman +knight, who inheriting a large estate from his father, increased it +by contracts, banking, money-lending, and slave-dealing, in which +he was deeply engaged. He was an accomplished, cultivated man, a +shrewd observer of the times, and careful of committing himself on +any side. His acquaintance with Cicero rested on similarity of +temperament, with a solid financial basis at the bottom of it. They +were mutually useful to each other.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn31"></a> <a href="#fnr31">[10]</a> +“Et nimium istud est, quod ab hoc tribuno plebis dictum est in +senatu: urbanam plebem nimium in republicâ posse: exhauriendam +esse: hoc enim verbo est usus; quasi de aliquâ sentinâ, ac non de +optimorum civium genere loqueretur.”—<i>Contra Rullum</i>, +ii. 26.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn32"></a> <a href="#fnr32">[11]</a> +Cicero, <i>Pro Murenâ</i>, 25.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn33"></a> <a href="#fnr33">[12]</a> +Murena was afterward prosecuted for bribery at this election. +Cicero defended him; but even Cato, aristocrat as he was, affected +to be shocked at the virtuous consul’s undertaking so bad a +case. It is observable that in his speech for Murena, Cicero found +as many virtues in Lucullus as in his speech on the Manilian law he +had found vices. It was another symptom of his change of +attitude.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn34"></a> <a href="#fnr34">[13]</a> +“In loco munitissimo.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn35"></a> <a href="#fnr35">[14]</a> +This description of the young Roman aristocracy is given by Cicero +in his most powerful vein: “Postremum autem genus est, non +solum numero, verum etiam genere ipso atque vita, quod proprium est +Catilinae, de ejus delectu, immo vero de complexu ejus ac sinu: +quos pexo capillo, nitidos, aut imberbes, aut bene barbatos, +videtis, manicatis et talaribus tunicis; velis amictos, non togis: +quorum omnis industria vitae et vigilandi labor in antelucanis +coenis expromitur. In his gregibus omnes aleatores, omnes adulteri, +omnes impuri impudicique versantur. Hi pueri tam lepidi ac delicati +non solum amare et amari neque cantare et saltare, sed etiam sicas +vibrare et spargere venena didicerunt.... Nudi in conviviis saltare +didicerunt.”—<i>In Catilinam</i>, ii. 10. Compare <i>In +Pisonem</i>, 10.</p> + +<p class="footnote">The Romans shaved their beards at full +maturity, and therefore “benebarbatos” does not mean +grown men, but youths on the edge of manhood.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn36"></a> <a href="#fnr36">[15]</a> +Not to be confounded with Lucius Calpurnius Piso, who was +Caesar’s father-in-law.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn37"></a> <a href="#fnr37">[16]</a> +“Injussu populi.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn38"></a> <a href="#fnr38">[17]</a> +The real opinion of educated Romans on this subject was expressed +in the well-known lines of Lucretius, which were probably written +near this very time:</p> + +<p class="footnote">“Nil igitur mors est, ad nos neque +pertinet hilum,<br /> + Quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur:<br /> + Et, velut ante acto nil tempore sensimus aegri,<br /> + Ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis;<br /> + Omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu,<br /> + orrida, contremuere sub altis aetheris auris;<br /> + In dubioque fuit sub utrorum regna cadendum<br /> + Omnibus humanis esset, terrâque, marique:<br /> + Sic, ubi non erimus, cum corporis atque animai<br /> + Discidium fuerit, quibus e sumus uniter apti,<br /> + Scilicet haud nobis quicquam, qui non erimus tum,<br /> + Accidere omnino poterit, sensumque movere:<br /> + Non, si terra mari miscebitur, et mare coelo.”<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote">LUCRETIUS, lib. iii. 11. 842-854.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn39"></a> <a href="#fnr39">[18]</a> +In the following century when Caesar’s life had become mythic, +a story was current that when Caesar was speaking on this occasion +a note was brought in to him, and Cato, suspecting that it referred +to the conspiracy, insisted that it should be read. Caesar handed +it to Cato, and it proved to be a love letter from Cato’s +sister, Servilia, the mother of Brutus. More will be said of the +supposed liaison between Caesar and Servilia hereafter. For the +present it is enough to say that there is no contemporary evidence +for the story at all; and that if it be true that a note of some +kind from Servilia was given to Caesar, it is more consistent with +probability and the other circumstances of the case, that it was an +innocent note of business. Ladies do not send in compromising +letters to their lovers when they are on their feet in Parliament; +nor, if such an accident should happen, do the lovers pass them +over to be read by the ladies’ brothers.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn40"></a> <a href="#fnr40">[19]</a> +“Victrix causa Deis placuit, sed victa +Catoni.”—LUCAN.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 62.]</span> The execution of +Lentulus and Cethegus was received in Rome with the feeling which +Caesar had anticipated. There was no active sympathy with the +conspiracy, but the conspiracy was forgotten in indignation at the +lawless action of the consul and the Senate. It was still +violence—always violence. Was law, men asked, never to resume its +authority?—was the Senate to deal at its pleasure with the lives +and properties of citizens?—criminals though they might be, what +right had Cicero to strangle citizens in dungeons without trial? If +this was to be allowed, the constitution was at an end; Rome was no +longer a republic, but an arbitrary oligarchy. Pompey’s name +was on every tongue. When would Pompey come? Pompey, the friend of +the people, the terror of the aristocracy! Pompey, who had cleared +the sea of pirates, and doubled the area of the Roman dominions! +Let Pompey return and bring his army with him, and give to Rome the +same peace and order which he had already given to the world.</p> + +<p>A Roman commander, on landing in Italy after foreign service, +was expected to disband his legions, and relapse into the position +of a private person. A popular and successful general was an object +of instinctive fear to the politicians who held the reins of +government. The Senate was never pleased to see any individual too +much an object of popular idolatry; and in the case of Pompey their +suspicion was the greater on account of the greatness of his +achievements, and because his command had been forced upon them by +the people, against their will. In the absence of a garrison, the +city was at the mercy of the patricians and their clients. That the +noble lords were unscrupulous in removing persons whom they +disliked they had shown in a hundred instances, and Pompey +naturally enough hesitated to trust himself among them without +security. He required the protection of office, and he had sent +forward one of his most distinguished officers, Metellus Nepos, to +prepare the way and demand the consulship for him. Metellus, to +strengthen his hands, had stood for the tribuneship; and, in spite +of the utmost efforts of the aristocracy, had been elected. It fell +to Metellus to be the first to give expression to the general +indignation in a way peculiarly wounding to the illustrious consul. +Cicero imagined that the world looked upon him as its saviour. In +his own eyes he was another Romulus, a second founder of Rome. The +world, unfortunately, had formed an entirely different estimate of +him. The prisoners had been killed on the 5th of December. On the +last day of the year it was usual for the outgoing consuls to +review the events of their term of office before the Senate; and +Cicero had prepared a speech in which he had gilded his own +performances with all his eloquence. Metellus commenced his +tribunate with forbidding Cicero to deliver his oration, and +forbidding him on the special ground that a man who had put Roman +citizens to death without allowing them a hearing did not himself +deserve to be heard. In the midst of the confusion and uproar which +followed, Cicero could only shriek that he had saved his country: a +declaration which could have been dispensed with, since he had so +often insisted upon it already without producing the assent which +he desired.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding his many fine qualities, Cicero was wanting in +dignity. His vanity was wounded in its tenderest point, and he +attacked Metellus a day or two after, in one of those violently +abusive outpourings of which so many specimens of his own survive, +and which happily so few other statesmen attempted to imitate. +Metellus retorted with a threat of impeaching Cicero, and the grave +Roman Curia became no better than a kennel of mad dogs. For days +the storm raged on with no symptom of abatement. At last Metellus +turned to the people and proposed in the assembly that Pompey +should be recalled with his army to restore law and order.</p> + +<p>Caesar, who was now praetor, warmly supported Metellus. To him, +if to no one else, it was clear as the sun at noonday, that unless +some better government could be provided than could be furnished by +five hundred such gentlemen as the Roman senators, the State was +drifting on to destruction. Resolutions to be submitted to the +people were generally first drawn in writing, and were read from +the Rostra. When Metellus produced his proposal, Cato, who was a +tribune also, sprang to his side, ordered him to be silent, and +snatched the scroll out of his hands. Metellus went on, speaking +from memory Cato’s friends shut his mouth by force. The +patricians present drew their swords and cleared the Forum; and the +Senate, in the exercise of another right to which they pretended, +declared Caesar and Metullus degraded from their offices. Metullus, +probably at Caesar’s advice, withdrew and went off to Asia, to +describe what had passed to Pompey. Caesar remained, and, quietly +disregarding the Senate’s sentence, continued to sit and hear +cases as praetor. His court was forcibly closed. He yielded to +violence and retired under protest, being escorted to the door of +his house by an enormous multitude. There he dismissed his lictors +and laid aside his official dress, that he might furnish no excuse +for a charge against him of resisting the established authorities. +The mob refused to be comforted. They gathered day after day. They +clustered about the pontifical palace. They cried to Caesar to +place himself at their head, that they might tear down the +senate-house, and turn the caitiffs into the street. Caesar neither +then nor ever lent himself to popular excesses. He reminded the +citizens that if others broke the law, they must themselves set an +example of obeying it, and he bade them return to their homes.</p> + +<p>Terrified at the state of the city, and penitent for their +injustice to Caesar, the Senate hurriedly revoked their decree of +deposition, sent a deputation to him to apologize, and invited him +to resume his place among them. The extreme patrician section +remained irreconcilable. Caesar complied, but only to find himself +denounced again with passionate pertinacity as having been an +accomplice of Catiline. Witnesses were produced, who swore to +having seen his signature to a treasonable bond. Curius, +Cicero’s spy, declared that Catiline himself had told him that +Caesar was one of the conspirators. Caesar treated the charge with +indignant disdain. He appealed to Cicero’s conscience, and +Cicero was obliged to say that he had derived his earliest and most +important information from Caesar himself. The most violent of his +accusers were placed under arrest. The informers, after a near +escape from being massacred by the crowd, were thrown into prison, +and for the moment the furious heats were able to cool.</p> + +<p>All eyes were now turned to Pompey. The war in Asia was over. +Pompey, it was clear, must now return to receive the thanks of his +countrymen; and as he had triumphed in spite of the aristocracy, +and as his victories could neither be denied nor undone, the best +hope of the Senate was to win him over from the people, and to +prevent a union between him and Caesar. Through all the recent +dissensions Caesar had thrown his weight on Pompey’s side. He, +with Cicero, had urged Pompey’s appointment to his successive +commands. When Cicero went over to the patricians, Caesar had stood +by Pompey’s officers against the fury of the Senate. Caesar had +the people behind him, and Pompey the army. Unless in some way an +apple of discord could be thrown between them, the two favorites +would overshadow the State, and the Senate’s authority would be +gone. Nothing could be done for the moment politically. Pompey owed +his position to the democracy, and he was too great as yet to fear +Caesar as a rival in the Commonwealth. On the personal side there +was better hope. Caesar was as much admired in the world of fashion +as he was detested in the Curia. He had no taste for the brutal +entertainments and more brutal vices of male patrician society. He +preferred the companionship of cultivated women, and the noble +lords had the fresh provocation of finding their hated antagonist +an object of adoration to their wives and daughters. Here, at any +rate, scandal had the field to itself. Caesar was accused of +criminal intimacy with many ladies of the highest rank, and Pompey +was privately informed that his friend had taken advantage of his +absence to seduce his wife, Mucia. Pompey was Agamemnon; Caesar had +been Aegisthus; and Pompey was so far persuaded that Mucia had been +unfaithful to him, that he divorced her before his return.</p> + +<p>Charges of this kind have the peculiar advantage that even when +disproved or shown to be manifestly absurd, they leave a stain +behind them. Careless equally of probability and decency, the +leaders of the Senate sacrificed without scruple the reputation of +their own relatives if only they could make Caesar odious. The name +of Servilia has been mentioned already. Servilia was the sister of +Marcus Cato and the mother of Marcus Brutus. She was a woman of +remarkable ability and character, and between her and Caesar there +was undoubtedly a close acquaintance and a strong mutual affection. +The world discovered that she was Caesar’s mistress, and that +Brutus was his son. It might be enough to say that when Brutus was +born Caesar was scarcely fifteen years old, and that, if a later +intimacy existed between them, Brutus knew nothing of it or cared +nothing for it. When he stabbed Caesar at last it was not as a +Hamlet or an Orestes, but as a patriot sacrificing his dearest +friend to his country. The same doubt extends to the other supposed +victims of Caesar’s seductiveness. Names were mentioned in the +following century, but no particulars were given. For the most part +his alleged mistresses were the wives of men who remained closely +attached to him notwithstanding. The report of his intrigue with +Mucia answered its immediate purpose, in producing a temporary +coldness on Pompey’s part toward Caesar; but Pompey must either +have discovered the story to be false or else have condoned it, for +soon afterward he married Caesar’s daughter. Two points may be +remarked about these legends: first, that on no single occasion +does Caesar appear to have been involved in any trouble or quarrel +on account of his love affairs; and secondly, that, with the +exception of Brutus and of Cleopatra’s Caesarion, whose claims +to be Caesar’s son were denied and disproved, there is no +record of any illegitimate children as the result of these +amours—a strange thing if Caesar was as liberal of his favors as +popular scandal pretended. It would be idle to affect a belief that +Caesar was particularly virtuous. He was a man of the world, living +in an age as corrupt as has been ever known. It would be equally +idle to assume that all the ink blots thrown upon him were +certainly deserved, because we find them in books which we call +classical. Proof deserving to be called proof there is none; and +the only real evidence is the town talk of a society which feared +and hated Caesar, and was glad of every pretext to injure him when +alive, or to discredit him after his death. Similar stories have +been spread, are spread, and will be spread of every man who raises +himself a few inches above the level of his fellows. We know how it +is with our contemporaries. A single seed of fact will produce in a +season or two a harvest of calumnies, and sensible men pass such +things by, and pay no attention to them. With history we are less +careful or less charitable. An accusation of immorality is accepted +without examination when brought against eminent persons who can no +longer defend themselves, and to raise a doubt of its truth passes +as a sign of a weak understanding. So let it be. It is certain that +Caesar’s contemporaries spread rumors of a variety of +intrigues, in which they said that he was concerned. It is probable +that some were well founded. It is possible that all were well +founded. But it is no less indubitable that they rest on evidence +which is not evidence at all, and that the most innocent intimacies +would not have escaped misrepresentation from the venomous tongues +of Roman society. Caesar comes into court with a fairer character +than those whose virtues are thought to overshadow him. Marriage, +which under the ancient Romans was the most sacred of ties, had +become the lightest and the loosest. Cicero divorced Tereutia when +she was old and ill-tempered, and married a young woman. Cato made +over his Marcia, the mother of his children, to his friend +Hortensius, and took her back as a wealthy widow when Hortensius +died. Pompey put away his first wife at Sylla’s bidding, and +took a second who was already the wife of another man. Caesar, when +little more than a boy, dared the Dictator’s displeasure rather +than condescend to a similar compliance. His worst enemies admitted +that from the gluttony, the drunkenness, and the viler forms of +sensuality, which were then so common, he was totally free. For the +rest, it is certain that no friend ever permanently quarrelled with +him on any question of domestic injury; and either there was a +general indifference on such subjects, which lightens the character +of the sin, or popular scandals in old Rome were of no sounder +material than we find them composed of in other countries and in +other times.</p> + +<p>Turning from scandal to reality, we come now to a curious +incident, which occasioned a fresh political convulsion, where +Caesar appears, not as an actor in an affair of gallantry, but as a +sufferer.</p> + +<p>Pompey was still absent. Caesar had resumed his duties as +praetor, and was living in the official house of the Pontifex +Maximus, with his mother Aurelia and his wife Pompeia. The age was +fertile of new religions. The worship of the Bona Dea, a foreign +goddess of unknown origin, had recently been introduced into Rome, +and an annual festival was held in her honor in the house of one or +other of the principal magistrates. The Vestal virgins officiated +at the ceremonies, and women only were permitted to be present. +This year the pontifical palace was selected for the occasion, and +Caesar’s wife Pompeia was to preside.</p> + +<p>The reader may remember a certain youth named Clodius, who had +been with Lucullus in Asia, and had been a chief instigator of the +mutiny in his army. He was Lucullus’s brother-in-law, a member +of the Claudian family, a patrician of the patricians, and +connected by blood and marriage with the proudest members of the +Senate. If Cicero is to be believed, he had graduated even while a +boy in every form of vice, natural and unnatural. He was bold, +clever, unprincipled, and unscrupulous, with a slender diminutive +figure and a delicate woman’s face. His name was Clodius +Pulcher. Cicero played upon it and called him Pulchellus Puer, +“the pretty boy.” Between this promising young man and +Caesar’s wife Pompeia there had sprung up an acquaintance, +which Clodius was anxious to press to further extremes. Pompeia was +difficult of access, her mother-in-law Aurelia keeping a strict +watch over her; and Clodius, who was afraid of nothing, took +advantage of the Bona Dea festival to make his way into +Caesar’s house dressed as a woman. Unfortunately for him, his +disguise was detected. The insulted Vestals and the other ladies +who were present flew upon him like the dogs of Actaeon, tore his +borrowed garments from him, and drove him into the street naked and +wounded. The adventure became known. It was mentioned in the +Senate, and the College of Priests was ordered to hold an inquiry. +The college found that Clodius had committed sacrilege, and the +regular course in such cases was to send the offender to trial. +There was general unwillingness, however, to treat this matter +seriously. Clodius had many friends in the house, and even Cicero, +who was inclined at first to be severe, took on reflection a more +lenient view. Clodius had a sister, a light lady who, weary of her +conquests over her fashionable admirers, had tried her fascinations +on the great orator. He had escaped complete subjugation, but he +had been flattered by the attention of the seductive beauty, and +was ready to help her brother out of his difficulty. Clodius was +not yet the dangerous desperado which he afterward became; and +immorality, though seasoned with impiety, might easily, it was +thought, be made too much of. Caesar himself did not press for +punishment. As president of the college, he had acquiesced in their +decision, and he divorced the unfortunate Pompeia; but he expressed +no opinion as to the extent of her criminality, and he gave as his +reason for separating from her, not that she was guilty, but that +Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.</p> + +<p>Cato, however, insisted on a prosecution. Messala, one of the +consuls, was equally peremptory. The hesitation was regarded by the +stricter senators as a scandal to the order; and in spite of the +efforts of the second consul Piso, who was a friend of Clodius, it +was decided that a bill for his indictment should be submitted to +the assembly in the Forum. Clodius, it seems, was generally +popular. No political question was raised by the proceedings +against him; for the present his offence was merely a personal one; +the wreck of Catiline’s companions, the dissolute young +aristocrats, the loose members of all ranks and classes, took up +the cause, and gathered to support their favorite, with young +Curio, whom Cicero called in mockery <i>Filiola,</i> at their +head. The approaches to the Forum were occupied by them. Piso, by +whom the bill was introduced, himself advised the people to reject +it. Cato flew to the Rostra and railed at the consul. Hortensius, +the orator, and many others spoke on the same side. It appeared at +last that the people were divided, and would consent to the bill +being passed, if it was recommended to them by both the consuls. +Again, therefore, the matter was referred to the Senate. One of the +tribunes introduced Clodius, that he might speak for himself. +Cicero had now altered his mind, and was in favor of the +prosecution.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[February, B.C. 61.]</span> The +“pretty youth” was alternately humble and violent, +begging pardon, and then bursting into abuse of his brother-in-law, +Lucullus, and more particularly of Cicero, whom he suspected of +being the chief promoter of the proceedings against him. When it +came to a division, the Senate voted by a majority of four hundred +to fifteen that the consuls must recommend the bill. Piso gave way, +and the tribune also who had been in Clodius’s favor. The +people were satisfied, and a court of fifty-six judges was +appointed, before whom the trial was to take place. It seemed that +a conviction must necessarily follow, for there was no question +about the facts, which were all admitted. There was some +manoeuvring, however, in the constitution of the court, which +raised Cicero’s suspicions. The judges, instead of being +selected by the praetor, were chosen by lot, and the prisoner was +allowed to challenge as many names as he pleased. The result was +that in Cicero’s opinion a more scandalous set of persons than +those who were finally sworn were never collected round a gaming +table— “disgraced senators, bankrupt knights, disreputable +tribunes of the treasury, the few honest men that were left +appearing to be ashamed of their company”—and Cicero +considered that it would have been better if Hortensius, who was +prosecuting, had withdrawn, and had left Clodius to be condemned by +the general sense of respectable people, rather than risk the +credit of Roman justice before so scandalous a tribunal. <a name="fnr41"></a> <a href="#fn41" class="fnsuper">1</a> Still the case +as it proceeded appeared so clear as to leave no hope of an +acquittal. Clodius’s friends were in despair, and were +meditating an appeal to the mob. The judges, on the evening of the +first day of the trial, as if they had already decided on a verdict +of guilty, applied for a guard to protect them while they delivered +it. The Senate complimented them in giving their consent. With a +firm expectation present in all men’s minds the second morning +dawned. Even in Rome, accustomed as it was to mockeries of justice, +public opinion was shocked when the confident anticipation was +disappointed. According to Cicero, Marcus Crassus, for reasons +known to himself, had been interested in Clodius. During the night +he sent for the judges one by one. He gave them money. What else he +either gave or promised them, must continue veiled in Cicero’s +Latin. <a name="fnr42"></a> <a href="#fn42" class="fnsuper">2</a> +Before these influences the resolution of the judges melted away, +and when the time came, thirty-one out of fifty-six high-born Roman +peers and gentlemen declared Clodius innocent.</p> + +<p>The original cause was nothing. That a profligate young man +should escape punishment for a licentious frolic was comparatively +of no consequence; but the trial acquired a notoriety of infamy +which shook once more the already tottering constitution.</p> + +<p>“Why did you ask for a guard?” old Catulus growled to +the judges: “was it that the money you have received might not +be taken from you?”</p> + +<p>“Such is the history of this affair,” Cicero wrote to +his friend Atticus. “We thought that the foundation of the +Commonwealth had been surely re- established in my consulship, all +orders of good men being happily united. You gave the praise to me +and I to the gods; and now unless some god looks favorably on us, +all is lost in this single judgment. Thirty Romans have been found +to trample justice under foot for a bribe, and to declare an act +not to have been committed, about which not only not a man, but not +a beast of the field, can entertain the smallest doubt.”</p> + +<p>Cato threatened the judges with impeachment; Cicero stormed in +the Senate, rebuked the consul Piso, and lectured Clodius in a +speech which he himself admired exceedingly. The “pretty +boy” in reply taunted Cicero with wishing to make himself a +king. Cicero rejoined with asking Clodius about a man named +“King,” whose estates he had appropriated, and reminded +him of a misadventure among the pirates, from which he had come off +with nameless ignominy. Neither antagonist very honorably +distinguished himself in this encounter of wit. The Senate voted at +last for an inquiry into the judges’ conduct; but an inquiry +only added to Cicero’s vexation, for his special triumph had +been, as he conceived, the union of the Senate with the equites; +and the equites took the resolution as directed against themselves, +and refused to be consoled. <a name="fnr43"></a> <a href="#fn43" +class="fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>Caesar had been absent during these scenes. His term of office +having expired, he had been despatched as propraetor to Spain, +where the ashes of the Sertorian rebellion were still smouldering; +and he had started for his province while the question of +Clodius’s trial was still pending. Portugal and Gallicia were +still unsubdued. Bands of robbers lay everywhere in the fastnesses +of the mountain ranges. Caesar was already favorably known in Spain +for his service as quaestor. He now completed the conquest of the +peninsula. He put down the banditti. He reorganized the +administration with the rapid skill which always so remarkably +distinguished him. He sent home large sums of money to the +treasury. His work was done quickly, but it was done completely. He +nowhere left an unsound spot unprobed. He never contented himself +with the superficial healing of a wound which would break out again +when he was gone. What he began he finished, and left it in need of +no further surgery. As his reward, he looked for a triumph, and the +consulship, one or both; and the consulship he knew could not well +be refused to him, unwelcome as it would be to the Senate.</p> + +<p>Pompey meanwhile was at last coming back. All lesser luminaries +shone faint before the sun of Pompey, the subduer of the pirates, +the conqueror of Asia, the glory of the Roman name. Even Cicero had +feared that the fame of the saviour of his country might pale +before the lustre of the great Pompey. “I used to be in +alarm,” he confessed with naïve simplicity, “that six +hundred years hence the merits of Sampsiceramus <a name="fnr44"></a> <a href="#fn44" class="fnsuper">4</a> might seem to +have been more than mine.” <a name="fnr45"></a> <a href="#fn45" class="fnsuper">5</a> But how would Pompey appear? Would he +come at the head of his army, like Sylla, the armed soldier of the +democracy, to avenge the affront upon his officers, to reform the +State, to punish the Senate for the murder of the Catiline +conspirators? Pompey had no such views, and no capacity for such +ambitious operations. The ground had been prepared beforehand. The +Mucia story had perhaps done its work, and the Senate and the great +commander were willing to meet each other, at least with outward +friendliness.</p> + +<p>His successes had been brilliant; but they were due rather to +his honesty than to his military genius. He had encountered no real +resistance, and Cato had sneered at his exploits as victories over +women. He had put down the buccaneers, because he had refused to be +bribed by them. He had overthrown Mithridates and had annexed Asia +Minor and Syria to the Roman dominions. Lucullus could have done it +as easily as his successor, if he could have turned his back upon +temptations to increase his own fortune or gratify his own +passions. The wealth of the East had lain at Pompey’s feet, and +he had not touched it. He had brought millions into the treasury. +He returned, as he had gone out, himself moderately provided for, +and had added nothing to his private income. He understood, and +practised strictly, the common rules of morality. He detested +dishonesty and injustice. But he had no political insight; and if +he was ambitious, it was with the innocent vanity which desires, +and is content with, admiration. In the time of the Scipios he +would have lived in an atmosphere of universal applause, and would +have died in honor with an unblemished name. In the age of Clodius +and Catiline he was the easy dupe of men of stronger intellect than +his own, who played upon his unsuspicious integrity. His delay in +coming back had arisen chiefly from anxiety for his personal +safety. He was eager to be reconciled to the Senate, yet without +deserting the people. While in Asia, he had reassured Cicero that +nothing was to be feared from him. <a name="fnr46"></a> <a href="#fn46" class="fnsuper">6</a> His hope was to find friends on all +sides and in all parties, and he thought that he had deserved their +friendship.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[December, B.C. 62.]</span> Thus when +Pompey landed at Brindisi his dreaded legions were disbanded, and +he proceeded to the Capitol, with a train of captive princes, as +the symbols of his victories, and wagons loaded with treasure as an +offering to his country. He was received as he advanced with the +shouts of applauding multitudes. He entered Rome in a galaxy of +glory. A splendid column commemorated the cities which he had +taken, the twelve million human beings whom he had slain or +subjected. His triumph was the most magnificent which the Roman +citizens had ever witnessed, and by special vote he was permitted +to wear his triumphal robe in the Senate as often and as long as +might please him. The fireworks over, and with the aureole of glory +about his brow, the great Pompey, like another Samson shorn of his +locks, dropped into impotence and insignificance. In February, 61, +during the debate on the Clodius affair, he made his first speech +in the Senate. Cicero, listening with malicious satisfaction, +reported that “Pompey gave no pleasure to the wretched; to the +bad he seemed without backbone; he was not agreeable to the +well-to-do; the wise and good found him wanting in substance;” +<a name="fnr47"></a> <a href="#fn47" class="fnsuper">7</a> in +short, the speech was a failure. Pompey applied for a second +consulship. He was reminded that he had been consul eight years +previously, and that the ten years’ interval prescribed by +Sylla, between the first and the second term, had not expired. He +asked for lands for his soldiers, and for the ratification of his +acts in Asia. Cato opposed the first request, as likely to lead to +another agrarian law. Lucullus, who was jealous of him, raised +difficulties about the second, and thwarted him with continual +delays.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[February 1, B.C. 60.]</span> Pompey, +being a poor speaker, thus found himself entirely helpless in the +new field. Cicero, being relieved of fear from him as a rival, was +wise enough to see that the collapse might not continue, and that +his real qualities might again bring him to the front. The Clodius +business had been a frightful scandal, and, smooth as the surface +might seem, ugly cracks were opening all round the constitution. +The disbanded legions were impatient for their farms. The knights, +who were already offended with the Senate for having thrown the +disgrace of the Clodius trial upon them, had a fresh and more +substantial grievance. The leaders of the order had contracted to +farm the revenues in Asia. They found that the terms which they had +offered were too high, and they claimed an abatement, which the +Senate refused to allow. The Catiline conspiracy should have taught +the necessity of a vigorous administration. Caecilius Metellus and +Lucius Afranius, who had been chosen consuls for the year 60, were +mere nothings. Metellus was a vacant aristocrat, <a name="fnr48"></a> <a href="#fn48" class="fnsuper">8</a> to be depended +on for resisting popular demands, but without insight otherwise; +the second, Afranius, was a person “on whom only a philosopher +could look without a groan;” <a name="fnr49"></a> <a href="#fn49" class="fnsuper">9</a> and one year more might witness the +consulship of Caesar. “I have not a friend,” Cicero +wrote, “to whom I can express my real thoughts. Things cannot +long stand as they are. I have been vehement: I have put out all my +strength in the hope of mending matters and healing our disorders, +but we will not endure the necessary medicine. The seat of justice +has been publicly debauched. Resolutions are introduced against +corruption, but no law can be carried. The knights are alienated. +The Senate has lost its authority. The concord of the orders is +gone, and the pillars of the Commonwealth which I set up are +overthrown. We have not a statesman, or the shadow of one. My +friend Pompey, who might have done something, sits silent, admiring +his fine clothes. <a name="fnr50"></a> <a href="#fn50" class= +"fnsuper">10</a> Crassus will say nothing to make himself +unpopular, and the rest are such idiots as to hope that although +the constitution fall they will save their own fish-ponds. <a name="fnr51"></a> <a href="#fn51" class="fnsuper">11</a> Cato, the best +man that we have, is more honest than wise. For these three months +he has been worrying the revenue farmers, and will not let the +Senate satisfy them.” <a name="fnr52"></a> <a href="#fn52" +class="fnsuper">12</a></p> + +<p>It was time for Cicero to look about him. The Catiline affair +was not forgotten. He might still be called to answer for the +executions, and he felt that he required some stronger support than +an aristocracy, who would learn nothing and seemed to be bent on +destroying themselves. In letter after letter he pours out his +contempt for his friends “of the fish- ponds,” as he +called them, who would neither mend their ways nor let others mend +them. He would not desert them altogether, but he provided for +contingencies. The tribunes had taken up the cause of Pompey’s +legionaries. Agrarian laws were threatened, and Pompey himself was +most eager to see his soldiers satisfied. Cicero, who had hitherto +opposed an agrarian law with all his violence, discovered now that +something might be said in favor of draining “the sink of the +city” <a name="fnr53"></a> <a href="#fn53" class= +"fnsuper">13</a> and repeopling Italy. Besides the public +advantage, he felt that he would please the mortified but still +popular Pompey; and he lent his help in the Senate to improving a +bill introduced by the tribunes, and endeavoring, though +unsuccessfully, to push it through.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[July, B.C. 60.]</span> So grateful was +Pompey for Cicero’s support that he called him, in the Senate, +“the saviour of the world.” <a name="fnr54"></a> <a href="#fn54" class="fnsuper">14</a>Cicero was delighted with the phrase, +and began to look to Pompey as a convenient ally. He thought that +he could control and guide him and use his popularity for moderate +measures. Nay, even in his despair of the aristocracy, he began to +regard as not impossible a coalition with Caesar. “You caution +me about Pompey,” he wrote to Atticus in the following July. +“Do not suppose that I am attaching myself to him for my own +protection; but the state of things is such, that if we two +disagree the worst misfortunes may be feared. I make no concessions +to him, I seek to make him better, and to cure him of his popular +levity; and now he speaks more highly by far of my actions than of +his own. He has merely done well, he says, while I have saved the +State. However this may affect me, it is certainly good for the +Commonwealth. What if I can make Caesar better also, who is now +coming on with wind and tide? Will that be so bad a thing? Even if +I had no enemies, if I was supported as universally as I ought to +be, still a medicine which will cure the diseased parts of the +State is better than the surgery which would amputate them. The +knights have fallen off from the Senate. The noble lords think they +are in heaven when they have barbel in their ponds that will eat +out of their hands, and they leave the rest to fate. You cannot +love Cato more than I love him, but he does harm with the best +intentions. He speaks as if he was in Plato’s Republic, instead +of being in the dregs of that of Romulus. Most true that corrupt +judges ought to be punished! Cato proposed it, the Senate agreed; +but the knights have declared war upon the Senate. Most insolent of +the revenue farmers to throw up their contract! Cato resisted them, +and carried his point; but now when seditions break out, the +knights will not lift a finger to repress them. Are we to hire +mercenaries? Are we to depend on our slaves and freedmen?.... But +enough.” <a name="fnr55"></a> <a href="#fn55" class= +"fnsuper">15</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[October, B.C. 60.] [November, B.C. +60.]</span> Cicero might well despair of a Senate who had taken +Cato to lead them. Pompey had come home in the best of +dispositions. The Senate had offended Pompey, and, more than that, +had offended his legionaries. They had quarrelled with the knights. +They had quarrelled with the moneyed interests. They now added an +entirely gratuitous affront to Caesar. His Spanish administration +was admitted by every one to have been admirable. He was coming to +stand for the consulship, which could not be refused; but he asked +for a triumph also, and as the rule stood there was a difficulty, +for if he was to have a triumph, he must remain outside the walls +till the day fixed for it, and if he was a candidate for office, he +must be present in person on the day of the election. The custom, +though convenient in itself, had been more than once set aside. +Caesar applied to the Senate for a dispensation, which would enable +him to be a candidate in his absence; and Cato, either from mere +dislike of Caesar or from a hope that he might prefer vanity to +ambition, and that the dreaded consulship might be escaped, +persuaded the Senate to refuse. If this was the expectation, it was +disappointed. Caesar dropped his triumph, came home, and went +through the usual forms, and it at once appeared that his election +was certain, and that every powerful influence in the State was +combined in his favor. From Pompey he met the warmest reception. +The Mucia bubble had burst. Pompey saw in Caesar only the friend +who had stood by him in every step of his later career, and had +braved the fury of the Senate at the side of his officer Metellus +Nepos. Equally certain it was that Caesar, as a soldier, would +interest himself for Pompey’s legionaries, and that they could +be mutually useful to each other. Caesar had the people at his +back, and Pompey had the army. The third great power in Rome was +that of the capitalists, and about the attitude of these there was +at first some uncertainty. Crassus, who was the impersonation of +them, was a friend of Caesar, but had been on bad terms with +Pompey. Caesar, however, contrived to reconcile them; and thus all +parties outside the patrician circle were combined for a common +purpose. Could Cicero have taken his place frankly at their side, +as his better knowledge told him to do, the inevitable revolution +might have been accomplished without bloodshed, and the course of +history have been different. Caesar wished it. But it was not so to +be. Cicero perhaps found that he would have to be content with a +humbler position than he had anticipated, that in such a +combination he would have to follow rather than to lead. He was +tempted. He saw a promise of peace, safety, influence, if not +absolute, yet considerable. But he could not bring himself to +sacrifice the proud position which he had won for himself in his +consulship, as leader of the Conservatives; and he still hoped to +reign in the Senate, while using the protection of the popular +chiefs as a shelter in time of storms. Caesar was chosen consul +without opposition. His party was so powerful that it seemed at one +time as if he could name his colleague, but the Senate succeeded +with desperate efforts in securing the second place. They +subscribed money profusely, the immaculate Cato prominent among +them. The machinery of corruption was well in order. The great +nobles commanded the votes of their <i>clientèle</i>, and they +succeeded in giving Caesar the same companion who had accompanied +him through the aedileship and the praetorship, Marcus Bibulus, a +dull, obstinate fool, who could be relied on, if for nothing else, +yet for dogged resistance to every step which the Senate +disapproved. For the moment they appeared to have thought that with +Bibulus’s help they might defy Caesar and reduce his office to +a nullity. Immediately on the election of the consuls, it was usual +to determine the provinces to which they were to be appointed when +their consulate should expire. The regulation lay with the Senate, +and, either in mere spleen or to prevent Caesar from having the +command of an army, they allotted him the department of the +“Woods and Forests.” <a name="fnr56"></a> <a href="#fn56" +class="fnsuper">16</a> A very few weeks had to pass before they +discovered that they had to do with a man who was not to be turned +aside so slightingly.</p> + +<p>Hitherto Caesar had been feared and hated, but his powers were +rather suspected than understood. As the nephew of Marius and the +son-in-law of Cinna, he was the natural chief of the party which +had once governed Rome and had been trampled under the hoof of +Sylla. He had shown on many occasions that he had inherited his +uncle’s principles, and could be daring and skilful in +asserting them. But he had held carefully within the constitutional +lines; he had kept himself clear of conspiracies; he had never, +like the Gracchi, put himself forward as a tribune or attempted the +part of a popular agitator. When he had exerted himself in the +political world of Rome, it had been to maintain the law against +violence, to resist and punish encroachments of arbitrary power, or +to rescue the Empire from being gambled away by incapable or +profligate aristocrats. Thus he had gathered for himself the +animosity of the fashionable upper classes and the confidence of +the body of the people. But what he would do in power, or what it +was in him to do, was as yet merely conjectural.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 50.]</span> At all events, after an +interval of a generation there was again a popular consul, and on +every side there was a harvest of iniquities ready for the sickle. +Sixty years had passed since the death of the younger Gracchus; +revolution after revolution had swept over the Commonwealth, and +Italy was still as Tiberius Gracchus had found it. The Gracchan +colonists had disappeared. The Syllan military proprietors had +disappeared—one by one they had fallen to beggary, and had sold +their holdings, and again the country was parcelled into enormous +estates cultivated by slave-gangs. The Italians had been +emancipated, but the process had gone no further. The libertini, +the sons of the freedmen, still waited for equality of rights. The +rich and prosperous provinces beyond the Po remained +unenfranchised, while the value of the franchise itself was daily +diminishing as the Senate resumed its control over the initiative +of legislation. Each year the elections became more corrupt. The +Clodius judgment had been the most frightful instance which had yet +occurred of the depravity of the law courts; while, by Cicero’s +own admission, not a single measure could pass beyond discussion +into act which threatened the interests of the oligarchy. The +consulship of Caesar was looked to with hope from the respectable +part of the citizens, with alarm from the high-born delinquents as +a period of genuine reform. The new consuls were to enter office on +the 1st of January. In December it was known that an agrarian law +would be at once proposed under plea of providing for Pompey’s +troops; and Cicero had to decide whether he would act in earnest in +the spirit which he had begun to show when the tribunes’ bill +was under discussion, or would fall back upon resistance with the +rest of his party, or evade the difficult dilemma by going on +foreign service, or else would simply absent himself from Rome +while the struggle was going on. “I may either resist,” +he said, “and there will be an honorable fight; or I may do +nothing, and withdraw into the country, which will be honorable +also; or I may give active help, which I am told Caesar expects of +me. His friend, Cornelius Balbus, who was with me lately, affirms +that Caesar will be guided in everything by my advice and +Pompey’s, and will use his endeavor to bring Pompey and Crassus +together. Such a course has its advantages; it will draw me closely +to Pompey and, if I please, to Caesar. I shall have no more to fear +from my enemies. I shall be at peace with the people. I can look to +quiet in my old age. But the lines still move me which conclude the +third book (of my Poem on my consulship): ‘Hold to the track on +which thou enteredst in thy early youth, which thou pursuedst as +consul so valorously and bravely. Increase thy fame, and seek the +praise of the good.’” <a name="fnr57"></a> <a href="#fn57" +class="fnsuper">17</a></p> + +<p>It had been proposed to send Cicero on a mission to Egypt. +“I should like well, and I have long wished,” he said, +“to see Alexandria and the rest of that country. They have had +enough of me here at present, and they may wish for me when I am +away. But to go now, and to go on a commission from Caesar and +Pompey!</p> + +<p class="poetry"> I should blush<br /> + To face the men and long-robed dames of Troy. <a name="fnr58"></a> <a href="#fn58" class="fnsuper">18</a><br /> +</p> + +<p>What will our optimates say, if we have any optimates left? +Polydamas will throw in my teeth that I have been bribed by the +opposition—I mean Cato, who is one out of a hundred thousand to +me. What will history say of me six hundred years hence? I am more +afraid of that than of the chatter of my contemporaries.” <a +name="fnr59"></a> <a href="#fn59" class="fnsuper">19</a></p> + +<p>So Cicero meditated, thinking as usual of himself first and of +his duty afterward—the fatalest of all courses then and +always.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn41"></a> <a href="#fnr41">[1]</a> +“Si causam quaeris absolutionis, egestas judicum fuit et +turpitudo.... Non vidit (Hortensius) satius esse illum in infamiâ +relinqui ac sordibus quam infirmo judicio committi.”—<i>To +Atticus</i>, i. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn42"></a> <a href="#fnr42">[2]</a> +“Jam vero, oh Dii Boni! rem perditam! etiam noctes certarum +mulierum, atque <i>adolescentulorum nobilium</i> introductiones +nonnullis judicibus pro mercedis cumulo fuerunt.”—<i>Ad +Atticum</i>, i. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn43"></a> <a href="#fnr43">[3]</a> +“Nos hic in republicâ infirmâ, miserâ commutabilique versamur. +Credo enim te audisse, nostros equites paene a senatu esse +disjunctos; qui primum illud valde graviter tulerund, promulgatum +ex senatus consulto fuisse, ut de iis, qui ob judicaudum pecuniam +accepissent queareretur. Quâ in re decernendâ cum ego casu non +affuissem, sensissemque id equestrem ordinem ferre moleste, neque +aperte dicere: objurgavi senatum, ut mihi visus sum, summâ cum +auctoritate, et in causâ non verecundâ admodum gravis et copiosus +fui.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, i. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn44"></a> <a href="#fnr44">[4]</a> A +nickname under which Cicero often speaks of Pompey.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn45"></a> <a href="#fnr45">[5]</a> +“Solebat enim me pungere, ne Sampsicerami merita in patriam ad +annos DC majora viderentur, quam nostra.”—<i>To +Atticus</i>, ii. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn46"></a> <a href="#fnr46">[6]</a> +“Pompeius nobis amicissimus esse constat.”—<i>To +Atticus</i>, i. 13.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn47"></a> <a href="#fnr47">[7]</a> +“Non jucunda miseris, inanis improbis, beatis non grata, bonis +non gravis. Itaque frigebat.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, i. 14.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn48"></a> <a href="#fnr48">[8]</a> +“Metellus non homo, sed litus atque aer, et solitudo +mera.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, i. 18.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn49"></a> <a href="#fnr49">[9]</a> +“Consul est impositus is nobis, quem nemo, praeter nos +philosophos, aspicere sine suspiratu potest.”—<i>Ib</i>. i. +18.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn50"></a> <a href="#fnr50">[10]</a> +“Pompeius togulam illam pictam silentio tuetur +suam.”—<i>Ib</i>. The “picta togula” means the +triumphal robe which Pompey was allowed to wear.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn51"></a> <a href="#fnr51">[11]</a> +“Ceteros jam nosti; qui ita sunt stulti, ut amissâ republicâ +piscinas suas fore salvas sperare +videantur.”—<i>Ib</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn52"></a> <a href="#fnr52">[12]</a> +<i>Ib</i>., abridged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn53"></a> <a href="#fnr53">[13]</a> +“Sentinam urbis,” a worse word than he had blamed in +Rullus three years before.—<i>To Atticus</i>, i. 19.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn54"></a> <a href="#fnr54">[14]</a> +“Pompeium adduxi in eam voluntatem, ut in Senatu non semel, +sed saepe, multisque verbis, hujus mihi salutem imperii atque orbis +terrarum adjudicarit.”—<i>ib</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn55"></a> <a href="#fnr55">[15]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 1, abridged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn56"></a> <a href="#fnr56">[16]</a> +<i>Silvae Callesque</i>—to which “woods and forests” +is a near equivalent.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn57"></a> <a href="#fnr57">[17]</a> +“Interea cursus, quos primâ a parte juventae, Quosque ideo +consul virtute animoque petisti, Hos retine atquae auge famam +laudesque bonorum.” <i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn58"></a> <a href="#fnr58">[18]</a> +Iliad, vi. 442. Lord Derby’s translation.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn59"></a> <a href="#fnr59">[19]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 5.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter13">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> + +<p>The consulship of Caesar was the last chance for the Roman +aristocracy. He was not a revolutionist. Revolutions are the last +desperate remedy when all else has failed. They may create as many +evils as they cure, and wise men always hate them. But if +revolution was to be escaped, reform was inevitable, and it was for +the Senate to choose between the alternatives. Could the noble +lords have known then, in that their day, the things that belonged +to their peace—could they have forgotten their fish-ponds and +their game-preserves, and have remembered that, as the rulers of +the civilized world, they had duties which the eternal order of +nature would exact at their hands—the shaken constitution might +again have regained its stability, and the forms and even the +reality of the Republic might have continued for another century. +It was not to be. Had the Senate been capable of using the +opportunity, they would long before have undertaken a reformation +for themselves. Even had their eyes been opened, there were +disintegrating forces at work which the highest political wisdom +could do no more than arrest; and little good is really effected by +prolonging artificially the lives of either constitutions or +individuals beyond their natural period. From the time when Rome +became an empire, mistress of provinces to which she was unable to +extend her own liberties, the days of her self-government were +numbered. A homogeneous and vigorous people may manage their own +affairs under a popular constitution so long as their personal +characters remain undegenerate. Parliaments and Senates may +represent the general will of the community, and may pass laws and +administer them as public sentiment approves. But such bodies can +preside successfully only among subjects who are directly +represented in them. They are too ignorant, too selfish, too +divided, to govern others; and imperial aspirations draw after +them, by obvious necessity, an imperial rule. Caesar may have known +this in his heart, yet the most far-seeing statesman will not so +trust his own misgivings as to refuse to hope for the regeneration +of the institutions into which he is born. He will determine that +justice shall be done. Justice is the essence of government, and +without justice all forms, democratic or monarchic, are tyrannies +alike. But he will work with the existing methods till the +inadequacy of them has been proved beyond dispute. Constitutions +are never overthrown till they have pronounced sentence on +themselves.</p> + +<p>Caesar accordingly commenced office by an endeavor to +conciliate. The army and the moneyed interests, represented by +Pompey and Crassus, were already with him; and he used his +endeavors, as has been seen, to gain Cicero, who might bring with +him such part of the landed aristocracy as were not hopelessly +incorrigible. With Cicero he but partially succeeded. The great +orator solved the problem of the situation by going away into the +country and remaining there for the greater part of the year, and +Caesar had to do without an assistance which, in the speaking +department, would have been invaluable to him. His first step was +to order the publication of the “Acta Diurna,” a daily +journal of the doings of the Senate. The light of day being thrown +in upon that august body might prevent honorable members from +laying hands on each other as they had lately done, and might +enable the people to know what was going on among them—on a better +authority than rumor. He then introduced his agrarian law, the +rough draft of which had been already discussed, and had been +supported by Cicero in the preceding year. Had he meant to be +defiant, like the Gracchi, he might have offered it at once to the +people. Instead of doing so, he laid it before the Senate, inviting +them to amend his suggestions, and promising any reasonable +concessions if they would co-operate. No wrong was to be done to +any existing occupiers. No right of property was to be violated +which was any real right at all. Large tracts in Campania which +belonged to the State were now held on the usual easy terms by +great landed patricians. These Caesar proposed to buy out, and to +settle on the ground twenty thousand of Pompey’s veterans. +There was money enough and to spare in the treasury, which they had +themselves brought home. Out of the large funds which would still +remain land might be purchased in other parts of Italy for the +rest, and for a few thousand of the unemployed population which was +crowded into Rome. The measure in itself was admitted to be a +moderate one. Every pains had been taken to spare the interests and +to avoid hurting the susceptibilities of the aristocrats. But, as +Cicero said, the very name of an agrarian law was intolerable to +them. It meant in the end spoliation and division of property, and +the first step would bring others after it. The public lands they +had shared conveniently among themselves from immemorial time. The +public treasure was their treasure, to be laid out as they might +think proper. Cato headed the opposition. He stormed for an entire +day, and was so violent that Caesar threatened him with arrest. The +Senate groaned and foamed; no progress was made or was likely to be +made; and Caesar, as much in earnest as they were, had to tell them +that if they would not help him he must appeal to the assembly. +“I invited you to revise the law,” he said; “I was +willing that if any clause displeased you it should be expunged. +You will not touch it. Well, then, the people must +decide.”</p> + +<p>The Senate had made up their minds to fight the battle. If +Caesar went to the assembly, Bibulus, their second consul, might +stop the proceedings. If this seemed too extreme a step, custom +provided other impediments to which recourse might be had. Bibulus +might survey the heavens, watch the birds, or the clouds, or the +direction of the wind, and declare the aspects unfavorable; or he +might proclaim day after day to be holy, and on holy days no +legislation was permitted. Should these religious cobwebs be +brushed away, the Senate had provided a further resource in three +of the tribunes whom they had bribed. Thus they held themselves +secure, and dared Caesar to do his worst. Caesar on his side was +equally determined. The assembly was convoked. The Forum was choked +to overflowing. Caesar and Pompey stood on the steps of the Temple +of Castor, and Bibulus and his tribunes were at hand ready with +their interpellations. Such passions had not been roused in Rome +since the days of Cinna and Octavius, and many a young lord was +doubtless hoping that the day would not close without another +lesson to ambitious demagogues and howling mobs. In their eyes the +one reform which Rome needed was another Sylla.</p> + +<p>Caesar read his law from the tablet on which it was inscribed; +and, still courteous to his antagonist, he turned to Bibulus and +asked him if he had any fault to find. Bibulus said sullenly that +he wanted no revolutions, and that while he was consul there should +be none. The people hissed; and he then added in a rage, “You +shall not have your law this year though every man of you demand +it.” Caesar answered nothing, but Pompey and Crassus stood +forward. They were not officials, but they were real forces. Pompey +was the idol of every soldier in the State, and at Caesar’s +invitation he addressed the assembly. He spoke for his veterans. He +spoke for the poor citizens. He said that he approved the law to +the last letter of it.</p> + +<p>“Will you then,” asked Caesar, “support the law +if it be illegally opposed?” “Since,” replied +Pompey, “you consul, and you my fellow- citizens, ask aid of +me, a poor individual without office and without authority, who +nevertheless has done some service to the State, I say that I will +bear the shield if others draw the sword.” Applause rang out +from a hundred thousand throats. Crassus followed to the same +purpose, and was received with the same wild delight. A few +senators, who retained their senses, saw the uselessness of the +opposition, and retired. Bibulus was of duller and tougher metal. +As the vote was about to be taken, he and his tribunes rushed to +the rostra. The tribunes pronounced their veto. Bibulus said that +he had consulted the sky; the gods forbade further action being +taken that day, and he declared the assembly dissolved. Nay, as if +a man like Caesar could be stopped by a shadow, he proposed to +sanctify the whole remainder of the year, that no further business +might be transacted in it. Yells drowned his voice. The mob rushed +upon the steps; Bibulus was thrown down, and the rods of the +lictors were broken; the tribunes who had betrayed their order were +beaten. Cato held his ground, and stormed at Caesar till he was led +off by the police, raving and gesticulating. The law was then +passed, and a resolution besides that every senator should take an +oath to obey it.</p> + +<p>So in ignominy the Senate’s resistance collapsed: the Caesar +whom they had thought to put off with their “woods and +forests” had proved stronger than the whole of them; and, +prostrate at the first round of the battle, they did not attempt +another. They met the following morning. Bibulus told his story and +appealed for support. Had the Senate complied, they would probably +have ceased to exist. The oath was unpalatable, but they made the +best of it. Metellus Celer, Cato, and Favonius, a senator whom men +called Cato’s ape, struggled against their fate, but, +“swearing they would ne’er consent, consented.” The +unwelcome formula was swallowed by the whole of them; and Bibulus, +who had done his part and had been beaten and kicked and trampled +upon, and now found his employers afraid to stand by him, went off +sulkily to his house, shut himself up there, and refused to act as +consul further during the remainder of the year.</p> + +<p>There was no further active opposition. A commission was +appointed by Caesar to carry out the land act, composed of twenty +of the best men that could be found, one of them being Atius +Balbus, the husband of Caesar’s only sister, and grandfather of +a little child now three years old, who was known afterward to the +world as Augustus. Cicero was offered a place, but declined. The +land question having been disposed of, Caesar then proceeded with +the remaining measures by which his consulship was immortalized. He +had redeemed his promise to Pompey by providing for his soldiers. +He gratified Crassus by giving the desired relief to the farmers of +the taxes. He confirmed Pompey’s arrangements for the +government of Asia, which the Senate had left in suspense. The +Senate was now itself suspended. The consul acted directly with the +assembly, without obstruction and without remonstrance, Bibulus +only from time to time sending out monotonous admonitions from +within doors that the season was consecrated, and that Caesar’s +acts had no validity. Still more remarkably, and as the +distinguishing feature of his term of office, Caesar carried, with +the help of the people, the body of admirable laws which are known +to jurists as the “Leges Juliae,” and mark an epoch in +Roman history. They were laws as unwelcome to the aristocracy as +they were essential to the continued existence of the Roman State, +laws which had been talked of in the Senate, but which could never +pass through the preliminary stage of resolutions, and were now +enacted over the Senate’s head by the will of Caesar and the +sovereign power of the nation. A mere outline can alone be +attempted here. There was a law declaring the inviolability of the +persons of magistrates during their term of authority, reflecting +back on the murder of Saturninus, and touching by implication the +killing of Lentulus and his companions. There was a law for the +punishment of adultery, most disinterestedly singular if the +popular accounts of Caesar’s habits had any grain of truth in +them. There were laws for the protection of the subject from +violence, public or private; and laws disabling persons who had +laid hands illegally on Roman citizens from holding office in the +Commonwealth. There was a law, intended at last to be effective, to +deal with judges who allowed themselves to be bribed. There were +laws against defrauders of the revenue; laws against debasing the +coin; laws against sacrilege; laws against corrupt State contracts; +laws against bribery at elections. Finally, there was a law, +carefully framed, <i>De repetundis</i>, to exact retribution from +proconsuls or propraetors of the type of Verres who had plundered +the provinces. All governors were required, on relinquishing +office, to make a double return of their accounts, one to remain +for inspection among the archives of the province, and one to be +sent to Rome; and where peculation or injustice could be proved, +the offender’s estate was made answerable to the last sesterce. +<a name="fnr60"></a> <a href="#fn60" class="fnsuper">1</a></p> + +<p>Such laws were words only without the will to execute them; but +they affirmed the principles on which Roman or any other society +could alone continue. It was for the officials of the constitution +to adopt them, and save themselves and the Republic, or to ignore +them as they had ignored the laws which already existed, and see it +perish as it deserved. All that man could do for the preservation +of his country from revolution Caesar had accomplished. Sylla had +re-established the rule of the aristocracy, and it had failed +grossly and disgracefully. Cinna and Marius had tried democracy, +and that had failed. Caesar was trying what law would do, and the +result remained to be seen. Bibulus, as each measure was passed, +croaked that it was null and void. The leaders of the Senate +threatened between their teeth that all should be undone when +Caesar’s term was over. Cato, when he mentioned the “Leges +Juliae,” spoke of them as enactments, but refused them their +author’s name. But the excellence of these laws was so clearly +recognized that they survived the irregularity of their +introduction; and the “Lex de Repetundis” especially +remained a terror to evil-doers, with a promise of better days to +the miserable and pillaged subjects of the Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>So the year of Caesar’s consulship passed away. What was to +happen when it had expired? The Senate had provided “the woods +and forests” for him. But the Senate’s provision in such a +matter could not be expected to hold. He asked for nothing, but he +was known to desire an opportunity of distinguished service. Caesar +was now forty-three. His life was ebbing away, and, with the +exception of his two years in Spain, it had been spent in +struggling with the base elements of Roman faction. Great men will +bear such sordid work when it is laid on them, but they loathe it +notwithstanding, and for the present there was nothing more to be +done. A new point of departure had been taken. Principles had been +laid down for the Senate and people to act on, if they could and +would. Caesar could only wish for a long absence in some new sphere +of usefulness, where he could achieve something really great which +his country would remember.</p> + +<p>And on one side only was such a sphere open to him. The East was +Roman to the Euphrates. No second Mithridates could loosen the +grasp with which the legions now held the civilized parts of Asia. +Parthians might disturb the frontier, but could not seriously +threaten the Eastern dominions; and no advantage was promised by +following on the steps of Alexander and annexing countries too poor +to bear the cost of their maintenance. To the west it was +different. Beyond the Alps there was still a territory of unknown +extent, stretching away to the undefined ocean, a territory peopled +with warlike races, some of whom in ages long past had swept over +Italy and taken Rome, and had left their descendants and their name +in the northern province, which was now called Cisalpine Gaul. With +these races the Romans had as yet no clear relations, and from them +alone could any serious danger threaten the State. The Gauls had +for some centuries ceased their wanderings, had settled down in +fixed localities. They had built towns and bridges; they had +cultivated the soil, and had become wealthy and partly civilized. +With the tribes adjoining Provence the Romans had alliances more or +less precarious, and had established a kind of protectorate over +them. But even here the inhabitants were uneasy for their +independence, and troubles were continually arising with them; +while into these districts and into the rest of Gaul a fresh and +stormy element was now being introduced. In earlier times the Gauls +had been stronger than the Germans, and not only could they protect +their own frontier, but they had formed settlements beyond the +Rhine. These relations were being changed. The Gauls, as they grew +in wealth, declined in vigor. The Germans, still roving and +migratory, were throwing covetous eyes out of their forests on the +fields and vineyards of their neighbors, and enormous numbers of +them were crossing the Rhine and Danube, looking for new homes. How +feeble a barrier either the Alps or the Gauls themselves might +prove against such invaders had been but too recently experienced. +Men who were of middle age at the time of Caesar’s consulship +could still remember the terrors which had been caused by the +invasion of the Cimbri and Teutons. Marius had saved Italy then +from destruction, as it were, by the hair of its head. The +annihilation of those hordes had given Rome a passing respite. But +fresh generations had grown up. Fresh multitudes were streaming out +of the North. Germans in hundreds of thousands were again passing +the Upper Rhine, rooting themselves in Burgundy, and coming in +collision with tribes which Rome protected. There were uneasy +movements among the Gauls themselves, whole nations of them +breaking up from their homes and again adrift upon the world. Gaul +and Germany were like a volcano giving signs of approaching +eruption; and at any moment, and hardly with warning, another +lava-stream might be pouring down into Venetia and Lombardy.</p> + +<p>To deal with this danger was the work marked out for Caesar. It +is the fashion to say that he sought a military command that he +might have an army behind him to overthrow the constitution. If +this was his object, ambition never chose a more dangerous or less +promising route for itself. Men of genius who accomplish great +things in this world do not trouble themselves with remote and +visionary aims. They encounter emergencies as they rise, and leave +the future to shape itself as it may. It would seem that at first +the defence of Italy was all that was thought of. “The woods +and forests” were set aside, and Caesar, by a vote of the +people, was given the command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria for +five years; but either he himself desired, or especial +circumstances which were taking place beyond the mountains +recommended, that a wider scope should be allowed him. The Senate, +finding that the people would act without them if they hesitated, +gave him in addition Gallia Comata, the land of the Gauls with the +long hair, the governorship of the Roman province beyond the Alps, +with untrammelled liberty to act as he might think good throughout +the country which is now known as France and Switzerland and the +Rhine provinces of Germany.</p> + +<p>He was to start early in the approaching year. It was necessary +before he went to make some provision for the quiet government of +the capital. The alliance with Pompey and Crassus gave temporary +security. Pompey had less stability of character than could have +been wished, but he became attached to Caesar’s daughter Julia; +and a fresh link of marriage was formed to hold them together. +Caesar himself married Calpurnia, the daughter of Calpurnius Piso. +The Senate having temporarily abdicated, he was able to guide the +elections; and Piso and Pompey’s friend Gabinius, who had +obtained the command of the pirate war for him, were chosen consuls +for the year 58. Neither of them, if we can believe a tithe of +Cicero’s invective, was good for much; but they were stanch +partisans, and were to be relied on to resist any efforts which +might be made to repeal the “Leges Juliae.” These matters +being arranged, and his own term having expired, Caesar withdrew, +according to custom, to the suburbs beyond the walls to collect +troops and prepare for his departure. Strange things, however, had +yet to happen before he was gone.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B. C. 58.]</span> It is easy to conceive +how the Senate felt at these transactions, how ill they bore to +find themselves superseded and the State managed over their heads. +Fashionable society was equally furious, and the three allies went +by the name of Dynasts, or “Reges Superbi.” After +resistance had been abandoned, Cicero came back to Rome to make +cynical remarks from which all parties suffered equally. His +special grievance was the want of consideration which he conceived +to have been shown for himself. He mocked at the Senate; he mocked +at Bibulus, whom he particularly abominated; he mocked at Pompey +and the agrarian law. Mockery turned to indignation when he thought +of the ingratitude of the Senate, and his chief consolation in +their discomfiture was that it had fallen on them through the +neglect of their most distinguished member. “I could have +saved them if they would have let me,” he said. “I could +save them still if I were to try; but I will go study philosophy in +my own family.” <a name="fnr61"></a> <a href="#fn61" class= +"fnsuper">2</a> “Freedom is gone,” he wrote to Atticus; +“and if we are to be worse enslaved, we shall bear it. Our +lives and properties are more to us than liberty. We sigh, and we +do not even remonstrate.” <a name="fnr62"></a> <a href="#fn62" +class="fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>Cato, in the desperation of passion, called Pompey a dictator in +the assembly, and barely escaped being killed for his pains. <a +name="fnr63"></a> <a href="#fn63" class="fnsuper">4</a> The +patricians revenged themselves in private by savage speeches and +plots and purposes. Fashionable society gathered in the theatres +and hissed the popular leaders. Lines were introduced into the +plays reflecting on Pompey, and were encored a thousand times. +Bibulus from his closet continued to issue venomous placards, +reporting scandals about Caesar’s life, and now for the first +time bringing up the story of Nicomedes. The streets were +impassable where these papers were pasted up, from the crowds of +loungers which were gathered to read them, and Bibulus for the +moment was the hero of patrician saloons. Some malicious comfort +Cicero gathered out of these manifestations of feeling. He had no +belief in the noble lords, and small expectations from them. +Bibulus was, on the whole, a fit representative for the gentry of +the fish-ponds. But the Dynasts were at least heartily detested in +quarters which had once been powerful, and might be powerful again; +and he flattered himself, though he affected to regret it, that the +animosity against them was spreading. To all parties there is +attached a draggled trail of disreputables, who hold themselves +entitled to benefits when their side is in power, and are angry +when they are passed over.</p> + +<p>“The State,” Cicero wrote in the autumn of 59 to +Atticus, “is in a worse condition than when you left us; then +we thought that we had fallen under a power which pleased the +people, and which, though abhorrent to the good, yet was not +totally destructive to them. Now all hate it equally, and we are in +terror as to where the exasperation may break out. We had +experienced the ill-temper and irritation of those who in their +anger with Cato had brought ruin on us; but the poison worked so +slowly that it seemed we might die without pain. I hoped, as I +often told you, that the wheel of the constitution was so turning +that we should scarcely hear a sound or see any visible track; and +so it would have been could men have waited for the tempest to pass +over them. But the secret sighs turned to groans, and the groans to +universal clamor; and thus our friend Pompey, who so lately swam in +glory and never heard an evil word of himself, is broken-hearted +and knows not whither to turn. A precipice is before him, and to +retreat is dangerous. The good are against him; the bad are not his +friends. I could scarce help weeping the other day when I heard him +complaining in the Forum of the publication of Bibulus. He who but +a short time since bore himself so proudly there, with the people +in raptures with him, and with the world on his side, was now so +humble and abject as to disgust even himself, not to say his +hearers. Crassus enjoyed the scene, but no one else. Pompey had +fallen down out of the stars—not by a gradual descent, but in a +single plunge; and as Apelles if he had seen his Venus, or +Protogenes his Ialysus, all daubed with mud, would have been vexed +and annoyed, so was I grieved to the very heart to see one whom I +had painted out in the choicest colors of art thus suddenly +defaced. <a name="fnr64"></a> <a href="#fn64" class="fnsuper">5</a> +Pompey is sick with irritation at the placards of Bibulus. I am +sorry about them. They give such excessive annoyance to a man whom +I have always liked; and Pompey is so prompt with his sword, and so +unaccustomed to insult, that I fear what he may do. What the future +may have in store for Bibulus I know not. At present he is the +admired of all.” <a name="fnr65"></a> <a href="#fn65" class= +"fnsuper">6</a></p> + +<p>“Sampsiceramus,” Cicero wrote a few days later, +“is greatly penitent. He would gladly be restored to the +eminence from which he has fallen. Sometimes he imparts his griefs +to me, and asks me what he should do, which I cannot tell +him.” <a name="fnr66"></a> <a href="#fn66" class= +"fnsuper">7</a></p> + +<p>Unfortunate Cicero, who knew what was right, but was too proud +to do it! Unfortunate Pompey, who still did what was right, but was +too sensitive to bear the reproach of it, who would so gladly not +leave his duty unperformed, and yet keep the “sweet +voices” whose applause had grown so delicious to him! Bibulus +was in no danger. Pompey was too good-natured to hurt him; and +Caesar let fools say what they pleased, as long as they were fools +without teeth, who would bark but could not bite. The risk was to +Cicero himself, little as he seemed to be aware of it. Caesar was +to be long absent from Rome, and he knew that as soon as he was +engaged in Gaul the extreme oligarchic faction would make an effort +to set aside his land commission and undo his legislation. When he +had a clear purpose in view, and was satisfied that it was a good +purpose, he was never scrupulous about his instruments. It was said +of him that when he wanted any work done he chose the persons best +able to do it, let their general character be what it might. The +rank and file of the patricians, proud, idle, vicious, and +self-indulgent, might be left to their mistresses and their +gaming-tables. They could do no mischief unless they had leaders at +their head who could use their resources more effectively than they +could do themselves. There were two men only in Rome with whose +help they could be really dangerous—Cato, because he was a +fanatic, impregnable to argument, and not to be influenced by +temptation of advantage to himself; Cicero, on account of his +extreme ability, his personal ambition, and his total want of +political principle. Cato he knew to be impracticable. Cicero he +had tried to gain; but Cicero, who had played a first part as +consul, could not bring himself to play a second, and, if the +chance offered, had both power and will to be troublesome. Some +means had to be found to get rid of these two, or at least to tie +their hands and to keep them in order. There would be Pompey and +Crassus still at hand. But Pompey was weak, and Crassus understood +nothing beyond the art of manipulating money. Gabinius and Piso, +the next consuls, had an indifferent reputation and narrow +abilities, and at best they would have but their one year of +authority. Politics, like love, makes strange bedfellows. In this +difficulty accident threw in Cæsar’s way a convenient but most +unexpected ally.</p> + +<p>Young Clodius, after his escape from prosecution by the +marvellous methods which Crassus had provided for him, was more +popular than ever. He had been the occasion of a scandal which had +brought infamy on the detested Senate. His offence in itself seemed +slight in so loose an age, and was as nothing compared with the +enormity of his judges. He had come out of his trial with a +determination to be revenged on the persons from whose tongues he +had suffered most severely in the senatorial debates. Of these Cato +had been the most savage; but Cicero had been the most +exasperating, from his sarcasms, his airs of patronage, and perhaps +his intimacy with his sister. The noble youth had exhausted the +common forms of pleasure. He wanted a new excitement, and politics +and vengeance might be combined. He was as clever as he was +dissolute, and, as clever men are fortunately rare in the +licentious part, of society, they are always idolized, because they +make vice respectable by connecting it with intellect. Clodius was +a second, an abler Catiline, equally unprincipled and far more +dexterous and prudent. In times of revolution there is always a +disreputable wing to the radical party, composed of men who are the +natural enemies of established authority, and these all rallied +about their new leader with devout enthusiasm. Clodius was not +without political experience. His first public appearance had been +as leader of a mutiny. He was already quaestor, and so a senator; +but he was too young to aspire to the higher magistracies which +were open to him as a patrician. He declared his intention of +renouncing his order, becoming a plebeian, and standing for the +tribuneship of the people. There were precedents for such a step, +but they were rare. The abdicating noble had to be adopted into a +plebeian family, and the consent was required of the consuls and of +the Pontifical College. With the growth of political equality the +aristocracy had become more insistent upon the privilege of birth, +which could not be taken from them; and for a Claudius to descend +among the canaille was as if a Howard were to seek adoption from a +shopkeeper in the Strand.</p> + +<p>At first there was universal amazement. Cicero had used the +intrigue with Pompeia as a text for a sermon on the immoralities of +the age. The aspirations of Clodius to be a tribune he ridiculed as +an illustration of its follies, and after scourging him in the +Senate, he laughed at him and jested with him in private. <a name="fnr67"></a> <a href="#fn67" class="fnsuper">8</a> Cicero did not +understand with how venomous a snake he was playing. He even +thought Clodius likely to turn against the Dynasts, and to become a +serviceable member of the conservative party. Gradually he was +forced to open his eyes. Speeches were reported to him as coming +from Clodius or his allies threatening an inquiry into the death of +the Catilinarians. At first he pushed his alarms aside, as unworthy +of him. What had so great a man as he to fear from a young +reprobate like “the pretty boy”? The “pretty +boy,” however, found favor where it was least looked for. +Pompey supported his adventure for the tribuneship. Caesar, though +it was Caesar’s house which he had violated, did not oppose. +Bibulus refused consent, but Bibulus had virtually abdicated and +went for nothing. The legal forms were complied with. Clodius found +a commoner younger than himself who was willing to adopt him, and +who, the day after the ceremony, released him from the new paternal +authority. He was now a plebeian, and free. He remained a senator +in virtue of his quaestorship, and he was chosen tribune of the +people for the year 58.</p> + +<p>Cicero was at last startled out of his security. So long as the +consuls, or one of them, could be depended on, a tribune’s +power was insignificant. When the consuls were of his own way of +thinking, a tribune was a very important personage indeed. Atticus +was alarmed for his friend, and cautioned him to look to himself. +Warnings came from all quarters that mischief was in the wind. +Still it was impossible to believe the peril to be a real one. +Cicero, to whom Rome owed its existence, to be struck at by a +Clodius! It could not be. As little could a wasp hurt an +elephant.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that Caesar knew what Clodius had in +his mind; or that, if the design was not his own, he had purposely +allowed it to go forward. Caesar did not wish to hurt Cicero. He +wished well to him, and admired him; but he did not mean to leave +him free in Rome to lead a senatorial reaction. A prosecution for +the execution of the prisoners was now distinctly announced. Cicero +as consul had put to death Roman citizens without a trial. Cicero +was to be called to answer for the illegality before the sovereign +people. The danger was unmistakable; and Caesar, who was still in +the suburbs making his preparations, invited Cicero to avoid it, by +accompanying him as second in command into Gaul. The offer was made +in unquestionable sincerity. Caesar may himself have created the +situation to lay Cicero under a pressure, but he desired nothing so +much as to take him as his companion, and to attach him to himself. +Cicero felt the compliment and hesitated to refuse, but his pride +again came in his way. Pompey assured him that not a hair of his +head should be touched. Why Pompey gave him this encouragement +Cicero could never afterwards understand. The scenes in the +theatres had also combined to mislead him, and he misread the +disposition of the great body of citizens. He imagined that they +would all start up in his defence, Senate, aristocracy, knights, +commoners, and tradesmen. The world, he thought, looked back upon +his consulship with as much admiration as he did himself, and was +always contrasting him with his successors. Never was mistake more +profound. The Senate, who had envied his talents and resented his +assumption, now despised him as a trimmer. His sarcasms had made +him enemies among those who acted with him politically. He had held +aloof at the crisis of Caesar’s election and in the debates +which followed, and therefore all sides distrusted him; while +throughout the body of the people there was, as Caesar had +foretold, a real and sustained resentment at the conduct of the +Catiline affair. The final opinion of Rome was that the prisoners +ought to have been tried; and that they were not tried was +attributed not unnaturally to a desire, on the part of the Senate, +to silence an inquiry which might have proved inconvenient.</p> + +<p>Thus suddenly out of a clear sky the thunder-clouds gathered +over Cicero’s head. “Clodius,” says Dion Cassius, +“had discovered that among the senators Cicero was more feared +than loved. There were few of them who had not been hit by his +irony, or irritated by his presumption.” Those who most agreed +in what he had done were not ashamed to shuffle off upon him their +responsibilities. Clodius, now omnipotent with the assembly at his +back, cleared the way by a really useful step; he carried a law +abolishing the impious form of declaring the heavens unfavorable +when an inconvenient measure was to be stopped or delayed. Probably +it formed a part of his engagement with Caesar. The law may have +been meant to act retrospectively, to prevent a question being +raised on the interpellations of Bibulus. This done, and without +paying the Senate the respect of first consulting it, he gave +notice that he would propose a vote to the assembly, to the effect +that any person who had put to death a Roman citizen without trial, +and without allowing him an appeal to the people, had violated the +constitution of the State. Cicero was not named directly; every +senator who had voted for the execution of Cethegus and Lentulus +and their companions was as guilty as he; but it was known +immediately that Cicero was the mark that was being aimed at; and +Caesar at once renewed the offer, which he made before, to take +Cicero with him. Cicero, now frightened in earnest, still could not +bring himself to owe his escape to Caesar. The Senate, ungrateful +as they had been, put on mourning with an affectation of dismay. +The knights petitioned the consuls to interfere for Cicero’s +protection. The consuls declined to receive their request. Caesar +outside the city gave no further sign. A meeting of the citizens +was held in the camp. Caesar’s opinion was invited. He said +that he had not changed his sentiments. He had remonstrated at the +time against the execution. He disapproved of it still, but he did +not directly advise legislation upon acts that were past. Yet, +though he did not encourage Clodius, he did not interfere. He left +the matter to the consuls, and one of them was his own +father-in-law, and the other was Gabinius, once Pompey’s +favorite officer. Gabinius, Cicero thought, would respect +Pompey’s promise to him. To Piso he made a personal appeal. He +found him, he said afterwards, <a name="fnr68"></a> <a href="#fn68" +class="fnsuper">9</a> at eleven in the morning, in his slippers, at +a low tavern. Piso came out, reeking with wine, and excused himself +by saying that his health required a morning draught. Cicero +attempted to receive his apology, and he stood for a while at the +tavern door, till he could no longer bear the smell and the foul +language and expectorations of the consul. Hope in that quarter +there was none. Two days later the assembly was called to consider +Clodius’s proposal. Piso was asked to say what he thought of +the treatment of the conspirators; he answered gravely, and, as +Cicero described him, with one eye in his forehead, that he +disapproved of cruelty. Neither Pompey nor his friends came to +help. What was Cicero to do? Resist by force? The young knights +rallied about him eager for a fight, if he would but give the word. +Sometimes as he looked back in after-years he blamed himself for +declining their services, sometimes he took credit to himself for +refusing to be the occasion of bloodshed. <a name="fnr69"></a> <a +href="#fn69" class="fnsuper">10</a></p> + +<p>“I was too timid,” he said once; “I had the +country with me, and I should have stood firm. I had to do with a +band of villains only, with two monsters of consuls, and with the +male harlot of rich buffoons, the seducer of his sister, the +high-priest of adultery, a poisoner, a forger, an assassin, a +thief. The best and bravest citizens implored me to stand up to +him. But I reflected that this Fury asserted that he was supported +by Pompey and Crassus and Caesar. Caesar had an army at the gates. +The other two could raise another army when they pleased; and when +they knew that their names were thus made use of, they remained +silent. They were alarmed perhaps, because the laws which they had +carried in the preceding year were challenged by the new praetors, +and were held by the Senate to be invalid; and they were unwilling +to alienate a popular tribune.” <a name="fnr70"></a> <a href="#fn70" class="fnsuper">11</a></p> + +<p>And again elsewhere: “When I saw that the faction of +Catiline was in power, that the party which I had led, some from +envy of myself, some from fear for their own lives, had betrayed +and deserted me; when the two consuls had been purchased by +promises of provinces, and had gone over to my enemies, and the +condition of the bargain was that I was to be delivered over, tied +and bound, to my enemies; when the Senate and knights were in +mourning, but were not allowed to bring my cause before the people; +when my blood had been made the seal of the arrangement under which +the State had been disposed of; when I saw all this, although +‘the good’ were ready to fight for me, and were willing to +die for me, I would not consent, because I saw that victory or +defeat would alike bring ruin to the Commonwealth. The Senate was +powerless. The Forum was ruled by violence. In such a city there +was no place for me.” <a name="fnr71"></a> <a href="#fn71" +class="fnsuper">12</a></p> + +<p>So Cicero, as he looked back afterwards, described the struggle +in his own mind. His friends had then rallied; Caesar was far away; +and he could tell his own story, and could pile his invectives on +those who had injured him. His matchless literary power has given +him exclusive command over the history of his time. His +enemies’ characters have been accepted from his pen as correct +portraits. If we allow his description of Clodius and the two +consuls to be true to the facts, what harder condemnation can be +pronounced against a political condition in which such men as these +could be raised to the first position in the State? <a name="fnr72"></a> <a href="#fn72" class="fnsuper">13</a> Dion says that +Cicero’s resolution to yield did not wholly proceed from his +own prudence, but was assisted by advice from Cato and Hortensius +the orator. Anyway, the blow fell, and he went down before the +stroke. His immortal consulship, in praise of which he had written +a poem, brought after it the swift retribution which Caesar had +foretold. When the vote proposed by Clodius was carried, he fled to +Sicily, with a tacit confession that he dared not abide his trial, +which would immediately have followed. Sentence was pronounced upon +him in his absence. His property was confiscated. His houses in +town and country were razed. The site of his palace in Rome was +dedicated to the Goddess of Liberty, and he himself was exiled. He +was forbidden to reside within four hundred miles of Rome, with a +threat of death if he returned; and he retired to Macedonia, to +pour out his sorrows and his resentments in lamentations unworthy +of a woman.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn60"></a> <a href="#fnr60">[1]</a> +See a list of the Leges Juliae in the 48th Book of the Corpus Juris +Civilis.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn61"></a> <a href="#fnr61">[2]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn62"></a> <a href="#fnr62">[3]</a> +“Tenemur undique, neque jam, quo minus serviamus, recusamus, +sed mortem et ejectionem quasi majora timemus, quae multo sunt +minora. Atque hic status, qui una voce omnium gemitur neque verbo +cujusdam sublevatur.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 18.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn63"></a> <a href="#fnr63">[4]</a> +“In concionem ascendit et Pompeium privatus dictatorem +appellavit. Propius nihil est factum quam ut +occideretur.”—Cicero, <i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, i. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn64"></a> <a href="#fnr64">[5]</a> +<i>To Athens</i>, ii, 21. In this comparison Cicero betrays his +naïve conviction that Pompey was indebted to him and to his praises +for his reputation. Here, as always, Cicero was himself the centre +round which all else revolved or ought to revolve.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn65"></a> <a href="#fnr65">[6]</a> +<i>Ib</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn66"></a> <a href="#fnr66">[7]</a> To +Atticus, ii. 22.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn67"></a> <a href="#fnr67">[8]</a> +“Jam familiariter cum illo etiam cavillor ac +jocor.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 1.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn68"></a> <a href="#fnr68">[9]</a> +<i>Oratio in L. Pisonem</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn69"></a> <a href="#fnr69">[10]</a> +He seems to have even thought of suicide.—<i>To Atticus</i>, +iii. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn70"></a> <a href="#fnr70">[11]</a> +Abridged from the <i>Oratio pro P. Sextio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn71"></a> <a href="#fnr71">[12]</a> +<i>Oratio post reditum ad Quirites</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn72"></a> <a href="#fnr72">[13]</a> +In a letter to his brother Quintus, written at a time when he did +not know the real feelings of Caesar and Pompey, and had supposed +that he had only to deal with Clodius, Cicero announced a distinct +intention of resisting by force. He expected that the whole of +Italy would be at his side. He said: “Si diem nobis Clodius +dixerit, tota Italia concurret, ut multiplicatâ gloriâ discedamus. +Sin autem vi agere conabitur, spero fore, studiis non solum +amicorum, sedetiam alienorum, ut vi resistamus. Omnes et se et suos +liberos, amicos, clientes, libertos, servos, pecunias denique suas +pollicentur. Nostra antiqua manus bonorum ardet studio nostri atque +amore. Si qui antea aut alieniores fuerant, ant languidiores, nunc +horum regum odio se cum bonis conjungunt. Pompeius omnia pollicetur +et Caesar, do quibus ita credo, ut nihil de meâ comparatione +deminuam.”—<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, i. 2.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter14">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> + +<p>From the fermentation of Roman politics, the passions of the +Forum and Senate, the corrupt tribunals, the poisoned centre of the +Empire, the story passes beyond the frontier of Italy. We no longer +depend for our account of Caesar on the caricatures of rival +statesmen. He now becomes himself our guide. We see him in his +actions and in the picture of his personal character which he has +unconsciously drawn. Like all real great men, he rarely speaks of +himself. He tells us little or nothing of, his own feelings or his +own purposes. Cicero never forgets his individuality. In every line +that he wrote Cicero was attitudinizing for posterity, or +reflecting on the effect of his conduct upon his interests or his +reputation. Caesar is lost in his work; his personality is scarcely +more visible than Shakespeare’s. He was now forty-three years +old. His abstemious habits had left his health unshaken. He was in +the fullest vigor of mind and body, and it was well for him that +his strength had not been undermined. He was going on an expedition +which would make extraordinary demands upon his energies. That he +had not contemplated operations so extended as those which were +forced upon him is evident from the nature of his preparations. His +command in Further Gaul had been an afterthought, occasioned +probably by news which had been received of movements in progress +there during his consulship. Of the four legions which were allowed +to him, one only was beyond the Alps; three were at Aquileia. It +was late in life for him to begin the trade of a soldier; and as +yet, with the exception of his early service in Asia and a brief +and limited campaign in Spain when propraetor, he had no military +experience at all. His ambition hitherto had not pointed in that +direction; nor is it likely that a person of so strong an +understanding would have contemplated beforehand the deliberate +undertaking of the gigantic war into which circumstances +immediately forced him. Yet he must have known that he had to deal +with a problem of growing difficulty. The danger to Italy from +inroads across the Alps was perpetually before the minds of +thoughtful Roman statesmen. Events were at that moment taking place +among the Gallic tribes which gave point to the general uneasiness. +And unwilling as the Romans were to extend their frontiers and +their responsibilities in a direction so unknown and so +unpromising, yet some interference either by arms or by authority +beyond those existing limits was being pressed upon them in +self-defence.</p> + +<p>The Transalpine Gaul of Caesar was the country included between +the Rhine, the ocean, the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, and the +Alps. Within these limits, including Switzerland, there was at this +time a population vaguely estimated at six or seven millions. The +Roman Province stretched along the coast to the Spanish border; it +was bounded on the north by the Cevennes mountains, and for some +generations by the Isère; but it had been found necessary lately <a +name="fnr73"></a> <a href="#fn73" class="fnsuper">1</a> to annex +the territory of the Allobroges (Dauphine and Savoy), and the +proconsular authority was now extended to within a few miles of +Geneva. The rest was divided into three sections, inhabited by +races which, if allied, were distinctly different in language, +laws, and institutions. The Aquitani, who were connected with the +Spaniards or perhaps the Basques, held the country between the +Pyrenees and the Garonne. The Belgae, whom Caesar believed to have +been originally Germans, extended from the mouth of the Seine to +the mouth of the Rhine, and inland to the Marne and Moselle. The +people whom the Romans meant especially when they spoke of Gauls +occupied all the remainder. At one time the Celts had probably been +masters of the whole of France, but had gradually yielded to +encroachment. According to the Druids, they came out of darkness, +<i>ab Dite Patre</i>; they called themselves Children of Night, +counting time by nights instead of days, as we say fortnight and +sennight. Comparison of language has taught us that they were a +branch of the great Aryan race, one of the first which rolled +westward into Europe, before Greeks or Latins had been heard +of.</p> + +<p>This once magnificent people was now in a state of change and +decomposition. On Aquitaine and Belgium Roman civilization had as +yet produced no effect. The severe habits of earlier generations +remained unchanged. The Gauls proper had yielded to contact with +the Province and to intercourse with Italian traders. They had +built towns and villages. They had covered the land with farms and +homesteads. They had made roads. They had bridged their rivers, +even such rivers as the Rhone and the Loire. They had amassed +wealth, and had adopted habits of comparative luxury, which, if it +had not abated their disposition to fight, had diminished their +capacity for fighting. Their political and perhaps their spiritual +system was passing through analogous transformations. The ancient +forms remained, but an altered spirit was working under them. From +the earliest antiquity they had been divided into tribes and +sub-tribes: each tribe and sub-tribe being practically independent, +or united only by common objects and a common sentiment of race. +The rule was the rule of the strong, under the rudest forms of +tribal organization. The chief was either hereditary or elected, or +won his command by the sword. The mass of the people were serfs. +The best fighters were self-made nobles, under the chief’s +authority. Every man in the tribe was the chief’s absolute +subject; the chief, in turn, was bound to protect the meanest of +them against injury from without. War, on a large scale or a small, +had been the occupation of their lives. The son was not admitted +into his father’s presence till he was old enough to be a +soldier. When the call to arms went out, every man of the required +age was expected at the muster, and the last comer was tortured to +death in the presence of his comrades as a lesson against +backwardness.</p> + +<p>As the secular side of things bore a rude resemblance to +feudalism, so on the religious there was a similar anticipation of +the mediaeval Catholic Church. The Druids were not a special +family, like the Levites, or in any way born into the priesthood. +They were an order composed of persons selected, when young, out of +the higher ranks of the community, either for speciality of +intellect, or from disposition, or by the will of their parents, or +from a desire to avoid military service, from which the Druids were +exempt. There were no tribal distinctions among them. Their +head-quarters were in Britain, to which those who aspired to initiation +in the more profound mysteries repaired for instruction; but they +were spread universally over Gaul and the British Islands. They +were the ministers of public worship, the depositaries of +knowledge, and the guardians of public morality. Young men repaired +to the Druids for education. They taught theology; they taught the +movements of the stars. They presided in the civil courts and +determined questions of disputed inheritance. They heard criminal +cases and delivered judgment; and, as with the Church, their +heaviest and most dreaded punishment was excommunication. The +excommunicated person lost his civil rights. He became an outlaw +from society, and he was excluded from participation in the +sacrifices. In the religious services the victims most acceptable +to the gods were human beings—criminals, if such could be had; if +not, then innocent persons, who were burnt to death in huge towers +of wicker. In the Quemadero at Seville, as in our own Smithfield, +the prisoners of the Church were fastened to stakes, and the sticks +with which they were consumed were tied into fagots, instead of +being plaited into basket-work. So slight a difference does not +materially affect the likeness.</p> + +<p>The tribal chieftainship and the religious organization of the +Druids were both of them inherited from antiquity. They were +institutions descending from the time when the Gauls had been a +great people; but both had outlived the age to which they were +adapted, and one at least was approaching its end. To Caesar’s +eye, coming new upon them, the Druids were an established fact, +presenting no sign of decay; but in Gaul, infected with Roman +manners, they existed merely by habit, exercising no influence any +longer over the hearts of the people. In the great struggle which +was approaching we find no Druids among the national leaders, no +spirit of religion inspiring and consecrating the efforts of +patriotism. So far as can be seen, the Druids were on the Roman +side, or the Romans had the skill to conciliate them. In half a +century they were suppressed by Augustus, and they and their +excommunications, and their flaming wicker-works, had to be sought +for in distant Britain or in the still more distant Ireland. The +active and secular leadership could not disappear so easily. +Leaders of some kind were still required and inevitably found, but +the method of selection in the times which had arrived was silently +changing. While the Gallic nation retained, or desired to retain, a +kind of unity, some one of the many tribes had always been allowed +a hegemony. The first place had rested generally with the aedui, a +considerable people who occupied the central parts of France, +between the Upper Loire and the Saône. The Romans, anxious +naturally to extend their influence in the country without direct +interference, had taken the aedui under their protectorate. The +aedui again had their clients in the inferior tribes; and a +Romano-aeduan authority of a shadowy kind had thus penetrated +through the whole nation.</p> + +<p>But the aeduans had rivals and competitors in the Sequani, +another powerful body in Burgundy and Franche-Comté. If the Romans +feared, the Gauls, the Gauls in turn feared the Romans; and a +national party had formed itself everywhere, especially among the +younger men, who were proud of their independence, impatient of +foreign control, and determined to maintain the liberties which had +descended to them. To these the Sequani offered themselves as +champions. Among the aedui too there were fiery spirits who +cherished the old traditions, and saw in the Roman alliance a +prelude to annexation. And thus it was that when Caesar was +appointed to Gaul, in every tribe and every sub-tribe, in every +village and every family, there were two factions, <a name="fnr74"></a> <a href="#fn74" class="fnsuper">2</a> each under its +own captain, each struggling for supremacy, each conspiring and +fighting among themselves, and each seeking or leaning upon +external support. In many, if not in all, of the tribes there was a +senate, or counsel of elders, and these appear almost everywhere to +have been aeduan and Roman in their sympathies. The Sequani, as the +representatives of nationalism, knowing that they could not stand +alone, had looked for friends elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The Germans had long turned covetous eyes upon the rich +cornfields and pastures from which the Rhine divided them. The +Cimbri and Teutons had been but the vanguard of a multitude who +were eager to follow. The fate of these invaders had checked the +impulse for half a century, but the lesson was now forgotten. +Ariovistus, a Bavarian prince, who spoke Gaelic like a native, and +had probably long meditated conquest, came over into Franche- Comté +at the invitation of the Sequani, bringing his people with him. The +few thousand families which were first introduced had been followed +by fresh detachments; they had attacked and beaten the aedui, out +of whose territories they intended to carve a settlement for +themselves. They had taken hostages from them, and had broken down +their authority, and the faction of the Sequani was now everywhere +in the ascendant. The aedui, three years before Caesar came, had +appealed to Rome for assistance, and the Senate had promised that +the Governor of Gaul should support them. The Romans, hoping to +temporize with the danger, had endeavored to conciliate Ariovistus, +and in the year of Caesar’s consulship had declared him a +friend of the Roman people. Ariovistus, in turn, had pressed the +aedui still harder, and had forced them to renounce the Roman +alliance. Among the aedui, and throughout the country, the patriots +were in the ascendant, and Ariovistus and his Germans were welcomed +as friends and deliverers. Thoughtful persons in Rome had heard of +these doings with uneasiness; an old aeduan chief had gone in +person thither, to awaken the Senate to the growing peril; but the +Senate had been too much occupied with its fears of Caesar, and +agrarian laws, and dangers to the fish-ponds, to attend; and now +another great movement had begun, equally alarming and still closer +to the Roman border.</p> + +<p>The Helvetii were old enemies. They were a branch of the Celtic +race, who occupied modern Switzerland, hardy, bold mountaineers, +and seasoned in constant war with their German neighbors. On them, +too, the tide of migration from the north had pressed continuously. +They had hitherto defended themselves successfully, but they were +growing weary of these constant efforts. Their numbers were +increasing, and their narrow valleys were too strait for them. They +also had heard of fertile, scantily peopled lands in other parts, +of which they could possess themselves by force or treaty, and they +had already shown signs of restlessness. Many thousands of them had +broken out at the time of the Cimbrian invasion. They had defeated +Cassius Longinus, who was then consul, near their own border, and +had annihilated his army. They had carried fire and sword down the +left bank of the Rhone. They had united themselves with the +Teutons, and had intended to accompany them into Italy. Their first +enterprise failed. They perished in the great battle at Aix, and +the parent tribe had remained quiet for forty years till a new +generation had grown to manhood. Once more their ambition had +revived. Like the Germans, they had formed friendships among the +Gallic factions. Their reputation as warriors made them welcome to +the patriots. In a fight for independence they would form a +valuable addition to the forces of their countrymen. They had +allies among the Sequani; they had allies in the anti-Roman party +which had risen among the Aedui; and a plan had been formed in +concert with their friends for a migration to the shores of the Bay +of Biscay between the mouths of the Garonne and the Loire. The +Cimbri and Teutons had passed away, but the ease with which the +Cimbri had made the circuit of these districts had shown how slight +resistance could be expected from the inhabitants. Perhaps their +coming had been anticipated and prepared for. The older men among +the Helvetii had discouraged the project when it was first mooted, +but they had yielded to eagerness and enthusiasm, and it had taken +at last a practical form. Double harvests had been raised; +provision had been made of food and transport for a long march; and +a complete exodus of the entire tribe with their wives and families +had been finally resolved on.</p> + +<p>If the Helvetii deserted Switzerland, the cantons would be +immediately occupied by Germans, and a road would be opened into +the province for the enemy whom the Romans had most reason to +dread. The distinction between Germans and Gauls was not accurately +known at Rome. They were confounded under the common name of Celts +<a name="fnr75"></a> <a href="#fn75" class="fnsuper">3</a> or +Barbarians. But they formed together an ominous cloud charged with +forces of uncertain magnitude, but of the reality of which Italy +had already terrible experience. Divitiacus, chief of the Aedui, +who had carried to Rome the news of the inroads of Ariovistus, +brought again in person thither the account of this fresh peril. +Every large movement of population suggested the possibility of a +fresh rush across the Alps. Little energy was to be expected from +the Senate. But the body of the citizens were still sound at heart. +Their lives and properties were at stake, and they could feel for +the dignity of the Empire. The people had sent Pompey to crush the +pirates and conquer Mithridates. The people now looked to Caesar, +and instead of the “woods and forests” which the Senate +designed for him, they had given him a five years’ command on +their western frontier.</p> + +<p>The details of the problem before him Caesar had yet to learn, +but with its general nature he must have intimately acquainted +himself. Of course he had seen and spoken with Divitiacus. He was +consul when Ariovistus was made “a friend of the Roman +people.” He must have been aware, therefore, of the +introduction of the Germans over the Rhine. He could not tell what +he might have first to do. There were other unpleasant symptoms on +the side of Illyria and the Danube. From either quarter the storm +might break upon him. No Roman general was ever sent upon an +enterprise so fraught with complicated possibilities, and few with +less experience of the realities of war.</p> + +<p>The points in his favor were these. He was the ablest Roman then +living, and he had the power of attracting and attaching the ablest +men to his service. He had five years in which to look about him +and to act at leisure—as much time as had been given to Pompey for +the East. Like Pompey, too, he was left perfectly free. No +senatorial officials could encumber him with orders from home. The +people had given him his command, and to the people alone he was +responsible. Lastly, and beyond everything, he could rely with +certainty on the material with which he had to work. The Roman +legionaries were no longer yeomen taken from the plough or +shopkeepers from the street. They were men more completely trained +in every variety of accomplishment than have perhaps ever followed +a general into the field before or since. It was not enough that +they could use sword and lance. The campaign on which Caesar was +about to enter was fought with spade and pick and axe and hatchet. +Corps of engineers he may have had; but if the engineers designed +the work, the execution lay with the army. No limited department +would have been equal to the tasks which every day demanded. On +each evening after a march, a fortified camp was to be formed, with +mound and trench, capable of resisting surprises, and demanding the +labor of every single hand. Bridges had to be thrown over rivers. +Ships and barges had to be built or repaired, capable of service +against an enemy, on a scale equal to the requirements of an army, +and in a haste which permitted no delay. A transport service there +must have been organized to perfection; but there were no stores +sent from Italy to supply the daily waste of material. The men had +to mend and perhaps make their own clothes and shoes, and repair +their own arms. Skill in the use of tools was not enough without +the tools themselves. Had the spades and mattocks been supplied by +contract, had the axes been of soft iron, fair to the eye and +failing to the stroke, not a man in Caesar’s army would have +returned to Rome to tell the tale of its destruction. How the +legionaries acquired these various arts, whether the Italian +peasantry were generally educated in such occupations, or whether +on this occasion there was a special selection of the best, of this +we have no information. Certain only it was that men and +instruments were as excellent in their kind as honesty and skill +could make them; and, however degenerate the patricians and corrupt +the legislature, there was sound stuff somewhere in the Roman +constitution. No exertion, no forethought on the part of a +commander could have extemporized such a variety of qualities. +Universal practical accomplishments must have formed part of the +training of the free Roman citizens. Admirable workmanship was +still to be had in each department of manufacture, and every +article with which Caesar was provided must have been the best of +its kind.</p> + +<p>The first quarter of the year 58 was consumed in preparations. +Caesar’s antagonists in the Senate were still raving against +the acts of his consulship, threatening him with impeachment for +neglecting Bibulus’s interpellations, charging him with impiety +for disregarding the weather, and clamoring for the suppression of +his command. But Cicero’s banishment damped the ardor of these +gentlemen; after a few vicious efforts, they subsided into +sullenness, and trusted to Ariovistus or the Helvetii to relieve +them of their detested enemy. Caesar himself selected his officers. +Cicero having declined to go as his lieutenant, he had chosen +Labienus, who had acted with him, when tribune, in the prosecution +of Rabirius, and had procured him the pontificate by giving the +election to the people. Young men of rank in large numbers had +forgotten party feeling, and had attached themselves to the +expedition as volunteers to learn military experience. His own +equipments were of the simplest. No common soldier was more +careless of hardships than Caesar. His chief luxury was a favorite +horse, which would allow no one but Caesar to mount him; a horse +which had been bred in his own stables, and, from the peculiarity +of a divided hoof, had led the augurs to foretell wonders for the +rider of it. His arrangements were barely completed when news came +in the middle of March that the Helvetii were burning their towns +and villages, gathering their families into their wagons, and were +upon the point of commencing their emigration. Their numbers, +according to a register which was found afterward, were 368,000, of +whom 92,000 were fighting men. They were bound for the West; and +there were two roads, by one or other of which alone they could +leave their country. One was on the right bank of the Rhone by the +Pas de l’Ecluse, a pass between the Jura mountains and the +river, so narrow that but two carts could go abreast along it; the +other, and easier, was through Savoy, which was now Roman.</p> + +<p>Under any aspect the transit of so vast a body through Roman +territory could not but be dangerous. Savoy was the very ground on +which Longinus had been destroyed. Yet it was in this direction +that the Helvetii were preparing to pass, and would pass unless +they were prevented; while in the whole Transalpine province there +was but a single legion to oppose them. Caesar started on the +instant. He reached Marseilles in a few days, joined his legion, +collected a few levies in the Province, and hurried to Geneva. +Where the river leaves the lake there was a bridge which the +Helvetii had neglected to occupy. Caesar broke it, and thus secured +a breathing time. The Helvetii, who were already on the move and +were assembling in force a few miles off, sent to demand a passage. +If it was refused, there was more than one spot between the lake +and the Pas de l’Ecluse where the river could be forded. The +Roman force was small, and Caesar postponed his reply.</p> + +<p>It was the 1st of April; he promised an answer on the 15th. In +the interval he threw up forts, dug trenches, and raised walls at +every point where a passage could be attempted; and when the time +was expired, he declined to permit them to enter the Province. They +tried to ford; they tried boats; but at every point they were +driven back. It remained for them to go by the Pas de l’Ecluse. +For this route they required the consent of the Sequani; and, +however willing the Sequani might be to see them in their +neighbors’ territories, they might object to the presence in +their own of such a flight of devouring locusts. Evidently, +however, there was some general scheme, of which the entry of the +Helvetii into Gaul was the essential part; and through the +mediation of Dumnorix, an Aeduan and an ardent patriot, the Sequani +were induced to agree.</p> + +<p>The Province had been saved, but the exodus of the enormous +multitude could no longer be prevented. If such waves of population +were allowed to wander at pleasure, it was inevitable that sooner +or later they would overflow the borders of the Empire. Caesar +determined to show, at once and peremptorily, that these movements +would not be permitted without the Romans’ consent. Leaving +Labienus to guard the forts on the Rhone, he hurried back to Italy, +gathered up his three legions at Aquileia, raised two more at Turin +with extreme rapidity, and returned with them by the shortest route +over the Mont Genèvre. The mountain tribes attacked him, but could +not even delay his march. In seven days he had surmounted the +passes, and was again with Labienus.</p> + +<p>The Helvetii, meanwhile, had gone through the Pas de +l’Ecluse, and were now among the Aedui, laying waste the +country. It was early in the summer. The corn was green, the hay +was still uncut, and the crops were being eaten off the ground. The +Aedui threw themselves on the promised protection of Rome. Caesar +crossed the Rhone above Lyons, and came up with the marauding hosts +as they were leisurely passing in boats over the Saône. They had +been twenty days upon the river, transporting their wagons and +their families. Three quarters of them were on the other side. The +Tigurini from Zurich, the most warlike of their tribes, were still +on the left bank. The Tigurini had destroyed the army of Longinus, +and on them the first retribution fell. Caesar cut them to pieces. +A single day sufficed to throw a bridge over the Saône, and the +Helvetii, who had looked for nothing less than to be pursued by six +Roman legions, begged for peace. They were willing, they said, to +go to any part of the country which Caesar would assign to them; +and they reminded him that they might be dangerous if pushed to +extremities. Caesar knew that they were dangerous. He had followed +them because he knew it. He said that they must return the way that +they had come. They must pay for the injuries which they had +inflicted on the Aedui, and they must give him hostages for their +obedience. The fierce mountaineers replied that they had been more +used to demand hostages than to give them; and confident in their +numbers, and in their secret allies among the Gauls, they marched +on through the Aeduan territories up the level banks of the Saône, +thence striking west toward Autun.</p> + +<p>Caesar had no cavalry; but every Gaul could ride, and he raised +a few thousand horse among his supposed allies. These he meant to +employ to harass the Helvetian march; but they were secret +traitors, under the influence of Dumnorix, and they fled at the +first encounter. The Helvetii had thus the country at their mercy, +and they laid it waste as they went, a day’s march in advance +of the Romans. So long as they kept by the river, Caesar’s +stores accompanied him in barges. He did not choose to let the +Helvetii out of his sight, and when they left the Saône, and when +he was obliged to follow, his provisions ran short. He applied to +the Aeduan chiefs, who promised to furnish him, but they failed to +do it. Ten days passed, and no supplies came in. He ascertained at +last that there was treachery. Dumnorix and other Aeduan leaders +were in correspondence with the enemy. The cavalry defeat and the +other failures were thus explained. Caesar, who trusted much to +gentleness and to personal influence, was unwilling to add the +Aeduii to his open enemies. Dumnorix was the brother of Divitiacus, +the reigning chief, whom Caesar had known in Rome. Divitiacus was +sent for, confessed with tears his brother’s misdeeds, and +begged that he might be forgiven. Dumnorix was brought in. Caesar +showed that he was aware of his conduct; but spoke kindly to him, +and cautioned him for the future. The corn-carts, however, did not +appear; supplies could not be dispensed with; and the Romans, +leaving the Helvetii, struck off to Bibracte, on Mont Beauvray, the +principal Aeduan town in the highlands of Nivernais. Unfortunately +for themselves, the Helvetii thought the Romans were flying, and +became in turn the pursuers. They gave Caesar an opportunity, and a +single battle ended them and their migrations. The engagement +lasted from noon till night. The Helvetii fought gallantly, and in +numbers were enormously superior; but the contest was between skill +and courage, sturdy discipline and wild valor; and it concluded as +such contests always must. In these hand-to-hand engagements there +were no wounded. Half the fighting men of the Swiss were killed; +their camp was stormed; the survivors, with the remnant of the +women and children, or such of them as were capable of moving (for +thousands had perished, and little more than a third remained of +those who had left Switzerland), straggled on to Langres, where +they surrendered. Caesar treated the poor creatures with kindness +and care. A few were settled in Gaul, where they afterward did +valuable service. The rest were sent back to their own cantons, +lest the Germans should take possession of their lands; and lest +they should starve in the homes which they had desolated before +their departure, they were provided with food out of the Province +till their next crops were grown.</p> + +<p>A victory so complete and so unexpected astonished the whole +country. The peace party recovered the ascendency. Envoys came from +all the Gaulish tribes to congratulate, and a diet of chiefs was +held under Caesar’s presidency, where Gaul and Roman seemed to +promise one another eternal friendship. As yet, however, half the +mischief only had been dealt with, and that the lighter part. The +Helvetii were disposed of, but the Germans remained; and till +Ariovistus was back across the Rhone, no permanent peace was +possible. Hitherto Caesar had only received vague information about +Ariovistus. When the diet was over, such of the chiefs as were +sincere in their professions came to him privately and explained +what the Germans were about. A hundred and twenty thousand of them +were now settled near Belfort, and between the Vosges and the +Rhine, with the connivance of the Sequani. More were coming, and in +a short time Gaul would be full of them. They had made war on the +Aedui; they were in correspondence with the anti-Roman factions; +their object was the permanent occupation of the country.</p> + +<p>Two months still remained of summer. Caesar was now conveniently +near to the German positions. His army was in high spirits from its +victory, and he himself was prompt in forming resolutions and swift +in executing them. An injury to the Aedui could be treated as an +injury to the Romans, which it would be dishonor to pass over. If +the Germans were allowed to overrun Gaul, they might soon be seen +again in Italy.</p> + +<p>Ariovistus was a “friend of Rome.” Caesar had been +himself a party to the conferring this distinction upon him. As a +friend, therefore, he was in the first instance to be approached. +Caesar sent to invite him to a conference. Ariovistus, it seemed, +set small value upon his honors. He replied that if he needed +anything from Caesar, he would go to Caesar and ask for it. If +Caesar required anything from him, Caesar might do the same. +Meanwhile Caesar was approaching a part of Gaul which belonged to +himself by right of conquest, and he wished to know the meaning of +the presence of a Roman army there.</p> + +<p>After such an answer, politeness ceased to be necessary. Caesar +rejoined that since Ariovistus estimated so lightly his friendship +with the Romans as to refuse an amicable meeting, he would inform +him briefly of his demands upon him. The influx of Germans on the +Rhine must cease: no more must come in. He must restore the +hostages which he had taken from the Aedui, and do them no further +hurt. If Ariovistus complied, the Romans would continue on good +terms with him. If not, he said that by a decree of the Senate the +Governor of Gaul was ordered to protect the Aedui, and he intended +to do it.</p> + +<p>Ariovistus answered that he had not interfered with the Romans; +and the Romans had no right to interfere with him. Conquerors +treated their subjects as they pleased. The Aedui had begun the +quarrel with him. They had been defeated, and were now his vassals. +If Caesar chose to come between him and his subjects, he would have +an opportunity of seeing how Germans could fight who had not for +fourteen years slept under a roof.</p> + +<p>It was reported that a large body of Suevi were coming over the +Rhine to swell Ariovistus’s force, and that Ariovistus was on +the point of advancing to seize Besançon. Besançon was a position +naturally strong, being surrounded on three sides by the Doubs. It +was full of military stores, and was otherwise important for the +control of the Sequani. Caesar advanced swiftly and took possession +of the place, and announced that he meant to go and look for +Ariovistus.</p> + +<p>The army so far had gained brilliant successes, but the men were +not yet fully acquainted with the nature of their commander. They +had never yet looked Germans in the face, and imagination magnifies +the unknown. Roman merchants and the Gauls of the neighborhood +brought stories of the gigantic size and strength of these northern +warriors. The glare of their eyes was reported to be so fierce that +it could not be borne. They were wild, wonderful, and dreadful. +Young officers, patricians and knights, who had followed Caesar for +a little mild experience, began to dislike the notion of these new +enemies. Some applied for leave of absence; others, though ashamed +to ask to be allowed to leave the army, cowered in their tents with +sinking hearts, made their wills, and composed last messages for +their friends. The centurions caught the alarm from their +superiors, and the legionaries from the centurions. To conceal +their fear of the Germans, the men discovered that, if they +advanced farther, it would be through regions where provisions +could not follow them, and that they would be starved in the +forests. At length, Caesar was informed that if he gave the order +to march, the army would refuse to move.</p> + +<p>Confident in himself, Caesar had the power, so indispensable for +a soldier, of inspiring confidence in others as soon as they came +to know what he was. He called his officers together. He summoned +the centurions, and rebuked them sharply for questioning his +purposes. The German king, he said, had been received at his own +request into alliance with the Romans, and there was no reason to +suppose that he meant to break with them. Most likely he would do +what was required of him. If not, was it to be conceived that they +were afraid? Marius had beaten these same Germans. Even the Swiss +had beaten them. They were no more formidable than other +barbarians. They might trust their commander for the commissariat. +The harvest was ripe, and the difficulties were nothing. As to the +refusal to march, he did not believe in it. Romans never mutinied, +save through the rapacity or incompetence of their general. His +life was a witness that he was not rapacious, and his victory over +the Helvetii that as yet he had made no mistake. He should order +the advance on the next evening, and it would then be seen whether +sense of duty or cowardice was the stronger. If others declined, +Caesar said that he should go forward alone with the legion which +he knew would follow him, the 10th, which was already his +favorite.</p> + +<p>The speech was received with enthusiasm. The 10th thanked Caesar +for his compliment to them. The rest, officers and men, declared +their willingness to follow wherever he might lead them. He started +with Divitiacus for a guide; and, passing Belfort, came in seven +days to Cernay or to some point near it. Ariovistus was now but +four-and-twenty miles from him. Since Caesar had come so far, +Ariovistus said that he was willing to meet him. Day and place were +named, the conditions being that the armies should remain in their +ranks, and that Caesar and he might each bring a guard of horse to +the interview. He expected that Caesar would be contented with an +escort of the Aeduan cavalry. Caesar, knowing better than to trust +himself with Gauls, mounted his 10th legion, and with them +proceeded to the spot which Ariovistus had chosen. It was a +tumulus, in the centre of a large plain equidistant from the two +camps. The guard on either side remained two hundred paces in the +rear. The German prince and the Roman general met on horseback at +the mound, each accompanied by ten of his followers. Caesar spoke +first and fairly. He reminded Ariovistus of his obligations to the +Romans. The Aedui, he said, had from immemorial time been the +leading tribe in Gaul. The Romans had an alliance with them of old +standing, and never deserted their friends. He required Ariovistas +to desist from attacking them, and to return their hostages. He +consented that the Germans already across the Rhine might remain in +Gaul, but he demanded a promise that no more should be brought +over.</p> + +<p>Ariovistus haughtily answered that he was a great king; that he +had come into Gaul by the invitation of the Gauls themselves; that +the territory which he occupied was a gift from them; and that the +hostages of which Caesar spoke had remained with him with their +free consent. The Aedui, he said, had begun the war, and, being +defeated, were made justly to pay forfeit. He had sought the +friendship of the Romans, expecting to profit by it. If friendship +meant the taking away his subjects from him, he desired no more of +such friendship. The Romans had their Province. It was enough for +them, and they might remain there unmolested. But Caesar’s +presence so far beyond his own borders was a menace to his own +independence, and his independence he intended to maintain. Caesar +must go away out of those parts, or he and his Germans would know +how to deal with him.</p> + +<p>Then, speaking perhaps more privately, he told Caesar that he +knew something of Rome and of the Roman Senate, and had learnt how +the great people there stood affected toward the Governor of Gaul. +Certain members of the Roman aristocracy had sent him messages to +say that if he killed Caesar they would hold it a good service +done, <a name="fnr76"></a> <a href="#fn76" class="fnsuper">4</a> +and would hold him their friend forever. He did not wish, he said, +to bind himself to these noble persons. He would prefer Caesar +rather; and would fight Caesar’s battles for him anywhere in +the world if Caesar would but retire and leave him. Ariovistus was +misled, not unnaturally, by these strange communications from the +sovereign rulers of the Empire. He did not know, he could not know, +that the genius of Rome and the true chief of Rome were not in the +treacherous Senate, but were before him there on the field in the +persons of Caesar and his legions.</p> + +<p>More might have passed between them; but Ariovistus thought to +end the conference by a stroke of treachery. His German guard had +stolen round to where the Romans stood, and, supposing that they +had Gauls to deal with, were trying to surround and disarm them. +The men of the 10th legion stood firm; Caesar fell back and joined +them, and, contenting themselves with simply driving off the enemy, +they rode back to the camp.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 57.]</span> The army was now +passionate for an engagement. Ariovistus affected a desire for +further communication, and two officers were despatched to hear +what he had to say; but they were immediately seized and put in +chains, and the Germans advanced to within a few miles of the Roman +outposts. The Romans lay entrenched near Cernay. The Germans were +at Colmar. Caesar offered battle, which Ariovistus declined. +Cavalry fights happened daily which led to nothing. Caesar then +formed a second camp, smaller but strongly fortified, within sight +of the enemy, and threw two legions into it. Ariovistus attacked +them, but he was beaten back with loss. The “wise women” +advised him to try no more till the new moon. But Caesar would not +wait for the moon, and forced an engagement. The wives and +daughters of the Germans rushed about their camp, with streaming +hair, adjuring their countrymen to save them from slavery. The +Germans fought like heroes; but they could not stand against the +short sword and hand-to-hand grapple of the legionaries. Better +arms and better discipline again asserted the superiority; and in a +few hours the invaders were flying wildly to the Rhine. Young +Publius Crassus, the son of the millionaire, pursued with the +cavalry. A few swam the river; a few, Ariovistus among them, +escaped in boats; all the rest, men and women alike, were cut down +and killed. The Suevi, who were already on the Rhine, preparing to +cross, turned back into their forests; and the two immediate perils +which threatened the peace of Gaul had been encountered and +trampled out in a single summer. The first campaign was thus ended. +The legions were distributed in winter quarters among the Sequani, +the contrivers of the mischief; and Labienus was left in charge of +them. Caesar went back over the Alps to the Cisalpine division of +the Province to look into the administration and to communicate +with his friends in Rome.</p> + +<p>In Gaul there was outward quiet; but the news of the Roman +victories penetrated the farthest tribes and agitated the most +distant households on the shores of the North Sea. The wintering of +the legions beyond the province was taken to indicate an intention +of permanent conquest. The Gauls proper were divided and overawed; +but the Belgians of the north were not prepared to part so easily +with their liberty. The Belgians considered that they too were +menaced, and that now or never was the time to strike for their +independence. They had not been infected with Roman manners. They +had kept the merchants from their borders with their foreign +luxuries. The Nervii, the fiercest of them, as the abstemious +Caesar marks with approbation, were water-drinkers, and forbade +wine to be brought among them, as injurious to their sinews and +their courage. Caesar learnt while in Italy from Labienus that the +Belgae were mustering and combining. A second vast horde of Germans +were in Flanders and Artois; men of the same race with the Belgae +and in active confederacy with them. They might have been left in +peace, far off as they were, had they sat still; but the notes of +their preparations were sounding through the country and feeding +the restless spirit which was stunned but not subdued.</p> + +<p>Caesar, on his own responsibility, raised two more legions and +sent them across the Alps in the spring. When the grass began to +grow he followed himself. Suddenly, before any one looked for him, +he was on the Marne with his army. The Remi (people of Rheims), +startled by his unexpected appearance, sent envoys with their +submission and offers of hostages. The other Belgian tribes, they +said, were determined upon war, and were calling all their warriors +under arms. Their united forces were reported to amount to 300,000. +The Bellovaci from the mouth of the Seine had sent 60,000; the +Suessiones from Soissons 50,000; the Nervii, between the Sambre and +the Scheldt, 50,000; Arras and Amiens, 25,000; the coast tribes, +36,000; and the tribes between the Ardennes and the Rhine, called +collectively Germani, 40,000 more. This irregular host was gathered +in the forests between Laon and Soissons.</p> + +<p>Caesar did not wait for them to move. He advanced at once to +Rheims, where he called the Senate together and encouraged them to +be constant to the Roman alliance. He sent a party of Aedui down +the Seine to harass the territory of the Bellovaci and recall them +to their own defence; and he went on himself to the Aisne, which he +crossed by a bridge already existing at Berry-au-Bac. There, with +the bridge and river at his back, he formed an entrenched camp of +extraordinary strength, with a wall 12 feet high and a fosse 22 +feet deep. Against an attack with modern artillery such defences +would, of course, be idle. As the art of war then stood, they were +impregnable. In this position Caesar waited, leaving six cohorts on +the left bank to guard the other end of the bridge. The Belgae came +forward and encamped in his front. Their watch-fires at night were +seen stretching along a line eight miles wide. Caesar, after +feeling his way with his cavalry, found a rounded ridge projecting +like a promontory into the plain where the Belgian host was lying. +On this he advanced his legions, protecting his flanks with +continuous trenches and earthworks, on which were placed heavy +cross-bows, the ancient predecessors of cannon. Between these +lines, if he attacked the enemy and failed, he had a secure +retreat. A marsh lay between the armies; and each waited for the +other to cross. The Belgians, impatient of delay, flung themselves +suddenly on one side and began to pour across the river, intending +to destroy the cohorts on the other bank, to cut the bridge, and +burn and plunder among the Remi. Caesar calmly sent back his +cavalry and his archers and slingers. They caught the enemy in the +water or struggling out of it in confusion; all who had got over +were killed; multitudes were slaughtered in the river; others, +trying to cross on the bodies of their comrades, were driven back. +The confederates, shattered at a single defeat, broke up like an +exploded shell. Their provisions had run short. They melted away +and dispersed to their homes, Labienus pursuing and cutting down +all that he could overtake.</p> + +<p>The Roman loss was insignificant in this battle. The most +remarkable feature in Caesar’s campaigns, and that which +indicates most clearly his greatness as a commander, was the +smallness of the number of men that he ever lost, either by the +sword or by wear and tear. No general was ever so careful of his +soldiers’ lives.</p> + +<p>Soissons, a fortified Belgian town, surrendered the next day. +From Soissons Caesar marched on Breteuil and thence on Amiens, +which surrendered also. The Bellovaci sent in their submission, the +leaders of the war party having fled to Britain. Caesar treated +them all with scrupulous forbearance, demanding nothing but +hostages for their future good behavior. His intention at this time +was apparently not to annex any of these tribes to Rome, but to +settle the country in a quasi-independence under an Aeduan +hegemony.</p> + +<p>But the strongest member of the confederacy was still unsubdued. +The hardy, brave, and water-drinking Nervii remained defiant. The +Nervii would send no envoys; they would listen to no terms of +peace. <a name="fnr77"></a> <a href="#fn77" class="fnsuper">5</a> +Caesar learnt that they were expecting to be joined by the +Aduatuci, a tribe of pure Germans, who had been left behind near +Liége at the time of the invasion of the Teutons. Preferring to +engage them separately, he marched from Amiens through Cambray, and +sent forward some officers and pioneers to choose a spot for a camp +on the Sambre. Certain Gauls, who had observed his habits on march, +deserted to the Nervii, and informed them that usually a single +legion went in advance, the baggage-wagons followed, and the rest +of the army came in the rear. By a sudden attack in front they +could overwhelm the advanced troops, plunder the carts, and escape +before they could be overtaken. It happened that on this occasion +the order was reversed. The country was enclosed with thick fences, +which required to be cut through. Six legions marched in front, +clearing a road; the carts came next, and two legions behind. The +site selected by the officers was on the left bank of the Sambre at +Maubeuge, fifty miles above Namur. The ground sloped easily down to +the river, which was there about a yard in depth. There was a +corresponding rise on the other side, which was densely covered +with wood. In this wood the whole force of the Nervii lay +concealed, a few only showing themselves on the water side. +Caesar’s light horse which had gone forward, seeing a mere +handful of stragglers, rode through the stream and skirmished with +them; but the enemy retired under cover; the horse did not pursue; +the six legions came up, and, not dreaming of the nearness of the +enemy, laid aside their arms and went to work intrenching with +spade and mattock. The baggage-wagons began presently to appear at +the crest of the hill, the signal for which the Nervii had waited; +and in a moment all along the river sixty thousand of them rushed +out of the forest, sent the cavalry flying, and came on so +impetuously that, as Caesar said, they seemed to be in the wood, in +the water, and up the opposite bank at sword’s point with the +legions at the same moment. The surprise was complete: the Roman +army was in confusion. Many of the soldiers were scattered at a +distance, cutting turf. None were in their ranks, and none were +armed. Never in all his campaigns was Caesar in greater danger. He +could himself give no general orders which there was time to +observe. Two points only, he said, were in his favor. The men +themselves were intelligent and experienced, and knew what they had +to do; and the officers were all present, because he had directed +that none of them should leave their companies till the camp was +completed. The troops were spread loosely in their legions along +the brow of the ridge. Caesar joined the 10th on his right wing, +and had but time to tell the men to be cool and not to agitate +themselves, when the enemy were upon them. So sudden was the +onslaught that they could neither put their helmets on, nor strip +the coverings from their shields, nor find their places in the +ranks. They fought where they stood among thick hedges which +obstructed the sight of what was passing elsewhere. Though the +Aduatuci had not come up, the Nervii had allies with them from +Arras and the Somme. The allies encountered the 8th, 9th, 10th, and +11th legions, and were driven rapidly back down the hill through +the river. The Romans, led by Labienus, crossed in pursuit, +followed them into the forest, and took their camp. The Nervii +meanwhile flung themselves with all their force on the two legions +on the left, the 12th and 7th, enveloped them with their numbers, +penetrated behind them, and fell upon the baggage-wagons. The light +troops and the camp-followers fled in all directions. The +legionaries, crowded together in confusion, were fighting at +disadvantage, and were falling thick and fast. A party of horse +from Trèves, who had come to treat with Caesar, thought that all +was lost, and rode off to tell their countrymen that the Romans +were destroyed.</p> + +<p>Caesar, who was in the other wing, learning late what was going +on, hurried to the scene. He found the standards huddled together, +the men packed so close that they could not use their swords, +almost all the officers killed or wounded, and one of the best of +them, Sextius Baculus (Caesar always paused in his narrative to +note any one who specially distinguished himself), scarce able to +stand. Caesar had come up unarmed. He snatched a shield from a +soldier, and, bareheaded, flew to the front. He was known; he +addressed the centurions by their names. He bade them open their +ranks and give the men room to strike. His presence and his +calmness gave them back their confidence. In the worst extremities +he observes that soldiers will fight well under their +commander’s eye. The cohorts formed into order. The enemy was +checked. The two legions from the rear, who had learnt the danger +from the flying camp-followers, came up. Labienus, from the +opposite hill, saw what had happened, and sent the 10th legion +back. All was now changed. The fugitives, ashamed of their +cowardice, rallied, and were eager to atone for it. The Nervii +fought with a courage which filled Caesar with admiration—men of +greater spirit he said that he had never seen. As their first ranks +fell, they piled the bodies of their comrades into heaps, and from +the top of them hurled back the Roman javelins. They would not fly; +they dropped where they stood; and the battle ended only with their +extermination. Out of 600 senators there survived but three; out of +60,000 men able to bear arms, only 500. The aged of the tribe, and +the women and children, who had been left in the morasses for +security, sent in their surrender, their warriors being all dead. +They professed to fear lest they might be destroyed by neighboring +clans who were on bad terms with them. Caesar received them and +protected them, and gave severe injunctions that they should suffer +no injury.</p> + +<p>By the victory over the Nervii the Belgian confederacy was +almost extinguished. The German Aduatuci remained only to be +brought to submission. They had been on their way to join their +countrymen; they were too late for the battle, and returned and +shut themselves up in Namur, the strongest position in the Low +Countries. Caesar, after a short rest, pushed on and came under +their walls. The Aduatuci were a race of giants, and were at first +defiant. When they saw the Romans’ siege-towers in preparation, +they could not believe that men so small could move such vast +machines. When the towers began to approach, they lost heart and +sued for terms. Caesar promised to spare their lives and properties +if they surrendered immediately, but he refused to grant +conditions. They had prayed to be allowed to keep their arms; +affecting to believe, like the Nervii, that they would be in danger +from the Gauls if they were unable to defend themselves. Caesar +undertook that they should have no hurt, but he insisted that their +arms must be given up. They affected obedience. They flung their +swords and lances over the walls till the ditch was filled with +them. They opened their gates; the Romans occupied them, but were +forbidden to enter, that there might be no plundering. It seems +that there was a desperate faction among the Aduatuci who had been +for fighting to extremity. A third part of the arms had been +secretly reserved, and after midnight the tribe sallied with all +their force, hoping to catch the Romans sleeping. Caesar was not to +be surprised a second time. Expecting that some such attempt might +be made, he had prepared piles of fagots in convenient places. +These bonfires were set blazing in an instant. By their red light +the legions formed; and, after a desperate but unequal combat, the +Germans were driven into the town again, leaving 4,000 dead. In the +morning the gates were broken down, and Namur was taken without +more resistance. Caesar’s usual practice was gentleness. He +honored brave men, and never punished bold and open opposition. Of +treachery he made a severe example. Namur was condemned. The +Aduatuci within its walls were sold into slavery, and the +contractors who followed the army returned the number of prisoners +whom they had purchased at 53,000. Such captives were the most +valuable form of spoil.</p> + +<p>The Belgae were thus crushed as completely as the Gauls had been +crushed in the previous year. Publius Crassus had meanwhile made a +circuit of Brittany, and had received the surrender of the maritime +tribes. So great was the impression made by these two campaigns, +that the Germans beyond the Rhine sent envoys with offers of +submission. The second season was over. Caesar left the legions in +quarters about Chartres, Orleans, and Blois. He himself returned to +Italy again, where his presence was imperatively required. The +Senate, on the news of his successes, had been compelled, by public +sentiment, to order an extraordinary thanksgiving; but there were +men who were anxious to prevent Caesar from achieving any further +victories since Ariovistus had failed to destroy him.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn73"></a> <a href="#fnr73">[1]</a> +Perhaps in consequence of the Catiline conspiracy.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn74"></a> <a href="#fnr74">[2]</a> +“In Galliâ non solum in omnibus civitatibus atque in omnibus +pagis partibusque sed paene etiam in singulis domibus factiones +sunt, earumque factionum principes sunt qui summam auctoritatem +eorum judicio habere existimantur.... Haec est ratio in summâ +totius Galliae, namque omnes civitates in partes divisae sunt duas. +Cum Caesar in Galliam venit, alterius factionis principes erant +Haedui, alterius Sequani.”—<i>De Bello Gallico</i>, lib. +vi. capp. 11, 12.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn75"></a> <a href="#fnr75">[3]</a> +Even Dion Cassius speaks of the Germans as <i>Keltoi</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn76"></a> <a href="#fnr76">[4]</a> +“Id se ab ipsis per eorum nuntios compertum habere, quorum +omnium gratiam atque amicitiam ejus morte redimere +posset.”—<i>De Bell. Gall.</i>, i. 44.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn77"></a> <a href="#fnr77">[5]</a> +Caesar thus records his admiration of the Nervian character: +“Quorum de naturâ moribusque Caesar cum quaereret sic +reperiebat, nullum aditum esse ad eos mercatoribus; nihil pati vini +reliquarumque rerum ad luxuriam pertinentium inferri, quod iis +rebus relanguescere animos eorum et remitti virtutem existimarent: +esse homines feros magnaeque virtutis; increpitare atque incusare +reliquos Belgas qui se populo Romano dedidissent patriamque +virtutem projecissent; confirmare sese neque legatos missuros neque +ullam conditionem pacis accepturos.”—<i>De Bell. Gall</i>., +ii. 15.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter15">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C.58]</span> Before his own +catastrophe, and before he could believe that he was in danger, +Cicero had discerned clearly the perils which threatened the State. +The Empire was growing more extensive. The “Tritons of the +fish- ponds” still held the reins; and believed their own +supreme duty was to divide the spoils among themselves. The pyramid +was standing on its point. The mass which rested on it was becoming +more portentous and unwieldy. The Senate was the official power; +the armies were the real power; and the imagination of the Senate +was that after each conquest the soldiers would be dismissed back +into humble life unrewarded, while the noble lords took possession +of the new acquisitions, and added new millions to their fortunes. +All this Cicero knew, and yet he had persuaded himself that it +could continue without bringing on a catastrophe. He saw his +fellow- senators openly bribed; he saw the elections become a mere +matter of money. He saw adventurers pushing themselves into office +by steeping themselves in debt, and paying their debts by robbing +the provincials. He saw these high-born scoundrels coming home +loaded with treasure, buying lands and building palaces, and, when +brought to trial, purchasing the consciences of their judges. Yet +he had considered such phenomena as the temporary accidents of a +constitution which was still the best that could be conceived, and +every one that doubted the excellence of it he had come to regard +as an enemy of mankind. So long as there was free speech in Senate +and platform for orators like himself, all would soon be well +again. Had not he, a mere country gentleman’s son, risen under +it to wealth and consideration? and was not his own rise a +sufficient evidence that there was no real injustice? Party +struggles were over, or had no excuse for continuance. Sylla’s +constitution had been too narrowly aristocratic. But Sylla’s +invidious laws had been softened by compromise. The tribunes had +recovered their old privileges. The highest offices of State were +open to the meanest citizen who was qualified for them. Individuals +of merit might have been kept back for a time by jealousy; the +Senate had too long objected to the promotion of Pompey; but their +opposition had been overcome by purely constitutional means. The +great general had obtained his command by land and sea; he, Cicero, +having by eloquent speech proved to the people that he ought to be +nominated. What could any one wish for more? And yet Senate and +Forum were still filled with faction, quarrel, and discontent! One +interpretation only Cicero had been able to place on such a +phenomenon. In Rome, as in all great communities, there were +multitudes of dissolute, ruined wretches, the natural enemies of +property and order. Bankrupt members of the aristocracy had lent +themselves to these people as their leaders, and had been the cause +of all the trouble of the past years. If such renegades to their +order could be properly discouraged or extinguished, Cicero had +thought that there would be nothing more to desire. Catiline he had +himself made an end of to his own immortal glory, but now Catiline +had revived in Clodius; and Clodius, so far from being discouraged, +was petted and encouraged by responsible statesmen who ought to +have known better. Caesar had employed him; Crassus had employed +him; even Pompey had stooped to connect himself with the scandalous +young incendiary, and had threatened to call in the army if the +Senate attempted to repeal Caesar’s iniquitous laws. <a name="fnr78"></a> <a href="#fn78" class="fnsuper">1</a> Still more +inexplicable was the ingratitude of the aristocracy and their +friends, the “boni” or good—the “Conservatives of +the State,” <a name="fnr79"></a> <a href="#fn79" class= +"fnsuper">2</a> as Cicero still continued to call Caesar’s +opponents. He respected them; he loved them; he had done more for +their cause than any single man in the Empire; and yet they had +never recognized his services by word or deed. He had felt tempted +to throw up public life in disgust, and retire to privacy and +philosophy.</p> + +<p>So Cicero had construed the situation before his exile, and he +had construed it ill. If he had wished to retire he could not. He +had been called to account for the part of his conduct for which he +most admired himself. The ungracious Senate, as guilty as he, if +guilt there had been, had left him to bear the blame of it, and he +saw himself driven into banishment by an insolent reprobate, a +patrician turned Radical and demagogue, Publius Clodius. Indignity +could be carried no farther.</p> + +<p>Clodius is the most extraordinary figure in this extraordinary +period. He had no character. He had no distinguished talent save +for speech; he had no policy; he was ready to adopt any cause or +person which for the moment was convenient to him; and yet for five +years this man was the omnipotent leader of the Roman mob. He could +defy justice, insult the consuls, beat the tribunes, parade the +streets with a gang of armed slaves, killing persons disagreeable +to him; and in the Senate itself he had his high friends and +connections who threw a shield over him when his audacity had gone +beyond endurance. We know Clodius only from Cicero; and a picture +of him from a second hand might have made his position more +intelligible, if not more reputable. Even in Rome it is scarcely +credible that the Clodius of Cicero could have played such a part, +or that the death of such a man should have been regarded as a +national calamity. Cicero says that Clodius revived Catiline’s +faction; but what was Catiline’s faction? or how came Catiline +to have a faction which survived him?</p> + +<p>Be this as it may, Clodius had banished Cicero, and had driven +him away over the seas to Greece, there, for sixteen months, to +weary Heaven and his friends with his lamentations. Cicero had +refused Caesar’s offered friendship; Caesar had not cared to +leave so powerful a person free to support the intended attacks on +his legislation, and had permitted, perhaps had encouraged, the +prosecution. Cicero out of the way, the second person whose +presence in Rome Caesar thought might be inconvenient, Marcus Cato, +had been got rid of by a process still more ingenious. The +aristocracy pretended that the acts of Caesar’s consulship had +been invalid through disregard of the interdictions of Bibulus; and +one of those acts had been the reduction of Clodius to the order of +plebeians. If none of them were valid, Clodius was not legally +tribune, and no commission which Clodius might confer through the +people would have validity. A service was discovered by which Cato +was tempted, and which he was induced to accept at Clodius’s +hands. Thus he was at once removed from the city, and it was no +longer open to him to deny that Caesar’s laws had been properly +passed. The work on which he was sent deserves a few words. The +kingdom of Cyprus had long been attached to the crown of Egypt. +Ptolemy Alexander, dying in the year 80, had bequeathed both Egypt +and Cyprus to Rome; but the Senate had delayed to enter on their +bequest, preferring to share the fines which Ptolemy’s natural +heirs were required to pay for being spared. One of these heirs, +Ptolemy Auletes, or “the Piper,” father of the famous +Cleopatra, was now reigning in Egypt, and was on the point of being +expelled by his subjects. He had been driven to extortion to raise +a subsidy for the senators, and he had made himself universally +abhorred. Ptolemy of Cyprus had been a better sovereign, but a less +prudent client. He had not overtaxed his people; he had kept his +money. Clodius, if Cicero’s story is true, had a private grudge +against him. Clodius had fallen among Cyprian pirates. Ptolemy had +not exerted himself for his release, and he had suffered +unmentionable indignities. At all events, the unfortunate king was +rich, and was unwilling to give what was expected of him. Clodius, +on the plea that the King of Cyprus protected pirates, persuaded +the Assembly to vote the annexation of the island; and Cato, of all +men, was prevailed on by the mocking tribune to carry out the +resolution. He was well pleased with his mission, though he wished +it to appear to be forced upon him. Ptolemy poisoned himself; Cato +earned the glory of adding a new province to the Empire, and did +not return for two years, when he brought 7,000 talents—a million +and a half of English money—to the Roman treasury.</p> + +<p>Cicero and Cato being thus put out of the way—Caesar being +absent in Gaul, and Pompey looking on without interfering—Clodius +had amused himself with legislation. He gratified his corrupt +friends in the Senate by again abolishing the censor’s power to +expel them. He restored cheap corn establishments in the city—the +most demoralizing of all the measures which the democracy had +introduced to swell their numbers. He re- established the political +clubs, which were hot-beds of distinctive radicalism. He took away +the right of separate magistrates to lay their vetoes on the votes +of the sovereign people, and he took from the Senate such power as +they still possessed of regulating the government of the provinces, +and passed it over to the Assembly. These resolutions, which +reduced the administration to a chaos, he induced the people to +decree by irresistible majorities. One measure only he passed which +deserved commendation, though Clodius deserved none for introducing +it. He put an end to the impious pretence of “observing the +heavens,” of which conservative officials had availed +themselves to obstruct unwelcome motions. Some means were, no +doubt, necessary to check the precipitate passions of the mob; but +not means which turned into mockery the slight surviving remnants +of ancient Roman reverence.</p> + +<p>In general politics the young tribune had no definite +predilections. He had threatened at one time to repeal Caesar’s +laws himself. He attacked alternately the chiefs of the army and of +the Senate, and the people let him do what he pleased without +withdrawing their confidence from him. He went everywhere spreading +terror with his body-guard of slaves. He quarrelled with the +consuls, beat their lictors, and wounded Gabinius himself. Pompey +professed to be in alarm for his life, and to be unable to appear +in the streets. The state of Rome at this time has been well +described by a modern historian as a “Walpurgis dance of +political witches.” <a name="fnr80"></a> <a href="#fn80" +class="fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>Clodius was a licensed libertine; but license has its limits. He +had been useful so far; but a rein was wanted for him, and Pompey +decided at last that Cicero might now be recalled. Clodius’s +term of office ran out. The tribunes for the new year were well +disposed to Cicero. The new consuls were Lentulus, a moderate +aristocrat, and Cicero’s personal friend, and Metellus Nepos, +who would do what Pompey told him. Caesar had been consulted by +letter and had given his assent. Cicero, it might be thought, had +learnt his lesson, and there was no desire of protracting his +penance. There were still difficulties, however. Cicero, smarting +from wrath and mortification, was more angry with the aristocrats, +who had deserted him, than with his open enemies. His most intimate +companions, he bitterly said, had been false to him. He was looking +regretfully on Caesar’s offers, <a name="fnr81"></a> <a href="#fn81" class="fnsuper">4</a> and cursing his folly for having +rejected them. The people, too, would not sacrifice their +convictions at the first bidding for the convenience of their +leaders; and had neither forgotten nor forgiven the killing of the +Catiline conspirators; while Cicero, aware of the efforts which +were being made, had looked for new allies in an imprudent quarter. +His chosen friend on the conservative side was now Annius Milo, one +of the new tribunes, a man as disreputable as Clodius himself; deep +in debt and looking for a province to indemnify himself—famous +hitherto in the schools of gladiators, in whose arts he was a +proficient, and whose services were at his disposal for any lawless +purpose.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 57.]</span> A decree of banishment +could only be recalled by the people who had pronounced it. +Clodius, though no longer in office, was still the idol of the mob; +and two of the tribunes, who were at first well inclined to Cicero, +had been gained over by him. As early as possible, on the first day +of the new year, Lentulus Spinther brought Cicero’s case before +the Senate. A tribune reminded him of a clause, attached to the +sentence of exile, that no citizen should in future move for its +repeal. The Senate hesitated, perhaps catching at the excuse; but +at length, after repeated adjournments, they voted that the +question should be proposed to the Assembly. The day fixed was the +25th of January. In anticipation of a riot the temples on the Forum +were occupied with guards. The Forum itself and the senate-house +were in possession of Clodius and his gang. Clodius maintained that +the proposal to be submitted to the people was itself illegal, and +ought to be resisted by force. Fabricius, one of the tribunes, had +been selected to introduce it. When Fabricius presented himself on +the Rostra, there was a general rush to throw him down. The Forum +was in theory still a sacred spot, where the carrying of arms was +forbidden; but the new age had forgotten such obsolete +superstitions. The guards issued out of the temples with drawn +swords. The people were desperate and determined. Hundreds were +killed on both sides; Quintus Cicero, who was present for his +brother, narrowly escaping with life. The Tiber, Cicero +says—perhaps with some exaggeration—was covered with floating +bodies; the sewers were choked; the bloody area of the Forum had to +be washed with sponges. Such a day had not been seen in Rome since +the fight between Cinna and Octavius. <a name="fnr82"></a> <a href="#fn82" class="fnsuper">5</a> The mob remained masters of the +field, and Cicero’s cause had to wait for better times. Milo +had been active in the combat, and Clodius led his victorious bands +to Milo’s house to destroy it. Milo brought an action against +him for violence; but Clodius was charmed even against forms of +law. There was no censor as yet chosen, and without a censor the +praetors pretended that they could not entertain the prosecution. +Finding law powerless, Milo imitated his antagonist. He, too, had +his band of gladiators about him; and the streets of the Capital +were entertained daily by fights between the factions of Clodius +and Milo. The Commonwealth of the Scipios, the laws and +institutions of the mistress of the civilized world, had become the +football of ruffians. Time and reflection brought some repentance +at last. Toward the summer “the cause of order” rallied. +The consuls and Pompey exerted themselves to reconcile the more +respectable citizens to Cicero’s return; and, with the ground +better prepared, the attempt was renewed with more success. In July +the recall was again proposed in the Senate, and Clodius was alone +in opposing it. When it was laid before the Assembly, Clodius made +another effort; but voters had been brought up from other parts of +Italy who outnumbered the city rabble; Milo and his gladiators were +in force to prevent another burst of violence; and the great orator +and statesman was given back to his country. Sixteen months he had +been lamenting himself in Greece, bewailing his personal +ill-treatment. He was the single object of his own reflections. In +his own most sincere convictions he was the centre on which the +destinies of Rome revolved. He landed at Brindisi on the 5th of +August. His pardon had not yet been decreed, though he knew that it +was coming. The happy news arrived in a day or two, and he set out +in triumph for Rome. The citizens of Brindisi paid him their +compliments; deputations came to congratulate from all parts of +Italy. Outside the city every man of note of all the orders, save a +few of his declared enemies, were waiting to receive him. The roofs +and steps of the temples were thronged with spectators. Crowds +attended him to the Capitol, where he went to pour out his +gratitude to the gods, and welcomed him home with shouts of +applause.</p> + +<p>Had he been wise he would have seen that the rejoicing was from +the lips outward; that fine words were not gold; that Rome and its +factions were just where he had left them, or had descended one +step lower. But Cicero was credulous of flattery when it echoed his +own opinions about himself. The citizens, he persuaded himself, +were penitent for their ingratitude to the most illustrious of +their countrymen. The acclamations filled him with the delighted +belief that he was to resume his place at the head of the State; +and, as he could not forgive his disgrace, his first object in the +midst of his triumph was to revenge himself on those who had caused +it. Speeches of acknowledgment he had naturally to make both to the +Senate and the Assembly. In addressing the people he was moderately +prudent; he glanced at the treachery of his friends, but he did not +make too much of it. He praised his own good qualities, but not +extravagantly. He described Pompey as “the wisest, best, and +greatest of all men that had been, were, or ever would be.” +Himself he compared to Marius returning also from undeserved exile, +and he delicately spoke in honor of a name most dear to the Roman +plebs, But he, he said, unlike Marius, had no enemies but the +enemies of his country. He had no retaliation to demand for his own +wrongs. If he punished bad citizens, it would be by doing well +himself; if he punished false friends, it would be by never again +trusting them. His first and his last object would be to show his +gratitude to his fellow- citizens. <a name="fnr83"></a> <a href="#fn83" class="fnsuper">6</a></p> + +<p>Such language was rational and moderate. He understood his +audience, and he kept his tongue under a bridle. But his heart was +burning in him; and what he could not say in the Forum he thought +he might venture on with impunity in the Senate, which might be +called his own dunghill. His chief wrath was at the late consuls. +They were both powerful men. Gabinius was Pompey’s chief +supporter. Calpurnius Piso was Caesar’s father-in-law. Both had +been named to the government of important provinces; and, if +authority was not to be brought into contempt, they deserved at +least a show of outward respect. Cicero lived to desire their +friendship, to affect a value for them, and to regret his violence; +but they had consented to his exile; and careless of decency, and +oblivious of the chances of the future, he used his opportunity to +burst out upon them in language in which the foulest ruffian in the +streets would have scarcely spoken of the first magistrates of the +Republic. Piso and Gabinius, he said, were thieves, not consuls. +They had been friends of Catiline, and had been enemies to himself, +because he had baffled the conspiracy. Piso could not pardon the +death of Cethegus. Gabinius regretted in Catiline himself the loss +of his lover. <a name="fnr84"></a> <a href="#fn84" class= +"fnsuper">7</a> Gabinius, he said, had been licentious in his +youth; he had ruined his fortune; he had supplied his extravagance +by pimping; and had escaped his creditors only by becoming tribune. +“Behold him,” Cicero said, “as he appeared when +consul at a meeting called by the arch-thief Clodius, full of wine, +and sleep, and fornication, his hair moist, his eyes heavy, his +cheeks flaccid, and declaring, with a voice thick with drink, that +he disapproved of putting citizens to death without trial.” <a +name="fnr85"></a> <a href="#fn85" class="fnsuper">8</a> As to Piso, +his best recommendation was a cunning gravity of demeanor, +concealing mere vacuity. Piso knew nothing—neither law, nor +rhetoric, nor war, nor his fellow-men. “His face was the face +of some half-human brute.” “He was like a negro, a thing +[<i>negotium</i>] without sense or savor, a Cappadocian picked +out of a drove in the slave-market.” <a name="fnr86"></a> <a +href="#fn86" class="fnsuper">9</a></p> + +<p>Cicero was not taking the best means to regain his influence in +the Senate by stooping to vulgar brutality. He cannot be excused by +the manners of the age; his violence was the violence of a fluent +orator whose temper ran away with him, and who never resisted the +temptation to insult an opponent. It did not answer with him; he +thought he was to be chief of the Senate, and the most honored +person in the State again; he found that he had been allowed to +return only to be surrounded by mosquitoes whose delight was to +sting him, while the Senate listened with indifference or secret +amusement. He had been promised the restoration of his property; +but he had a suit to prosecute before he could get it. Clodius had +thought to make sure of his Roman palace by dedicating it to +“Liberty.” Cicero challenged the consecration. It was +referred to the College of Priests, and the College returned a +judgment in Cicero’s favor. The Senate voted for the +restoration. They voted sums for the rebuilding both of the palace +on the Palatine Hill and of the other villas, at the public +expense. But the grant in Cicero’s opinion was a stingy one. He +saw too painfully that those “who had clipped his wings did +not mean them to grow again.” <a name="fnr87"></a> <a href="#fn87" class="fnsuper">10</a> Milo and his gladiators were not +sufficient support, and if he meant to recover his old power he +found that he must look for stronger allies. Pompey had not used +him well; Pompey had promised to defend him from Clodius, and +Pompey had left him to his fate. But by going with Pompey he could +at least gall the Senate. An opportunity offered, and he caught at +it. There was a corn famine in Rome. Clodius had promised the +people cheap bread, but there was no bread to be had. The hungry +mob howled about the senate-house, threatening fire and massacre. +The great capitalists and contractors were believed to be at their +old work. There was a cry, as in the “pirate” days, for +some strong man to see to them and their misdoings. Pompey was +needed again. He had been too much forgotten, and with Cicero’s +help a decree was carried which gave Pompey control over the whole +corn trade of the Empire for five years.</p> + +<p>This was something, and Pompey was gratified; but without an +army Pompey could do little against the roughs in the streets, and +Cicero’s house became the next battle-ground. The Senate had +voted it to its owner again, and the masons and carpenters were set +to work; but the sovereign people had not been consulted. Clodius +was now but a private citizen; but private citizens might resist +sacrilege if the magistrates forgot their duty. He marched to the +Palatine with his gang. He drove out the workmen, broke down the +walls, and wrecked the adjoining house, which belonged to +Cicero’s brother Quintus. The next day he set on Cicero himself +in the Via Sacra, and nearly murdered him, and he afterward tried +to burn the house of Milo. Consuls and tribunes did not interfere. +They were, perhaps, frightened. The Senate professed regret, and it +was proposed to prosecute Clodius; but his friends were too strong, +and it could not be done. Could Cicero have wrung his neck, as he +had wrung the necks of Lentulus and Cethegus, Rome and he would +have had a good deliverance. Failing this, he might wisely have +waited for the law, which in time must have helped him. But he let +himself down to Clodius’s level. He railed at him in the Curia +as he had railed at Gabinius and Piso. He ran over his history; he +taunted him with incest with his sister, and with filthy relations +with vulgar millionaires. He accused him of having sold himself to +Catiline, of having forged wills, murdered the heirs of estates and +stolen their property, of having murdered officers of the treasury +and seized the public money, of having outraged gods and men, +decency, equity, and law; of having suffered every abomination and +committed every crime of which human nature was capable. So Cicero +spoke in Clodius’s own hearing and in the hearing of his +friends. It never occurred to him that if half these crimes could +be proved, a commonwealth in which such a monster could rise to +consequence was not a commonwealth at all, but a frightful mockery +which he and every honest man were called on to abhor. Instead of +scolding and flinging impotent filth, he should have withdrawn out +of public life when he could only remain in it among such +companions, or should have attached himself with all his soul to +those who had will and power to mend it.</p> + +<p>Clodius was at this moment the popular candidate for the +aedileship, the second step on the road to the consulship. He was +the favorite of the mob. He was supported by his brother Appius +Claudius, the praetor, and the <i>clientèle</i> of the great +Claudian family; and Cicero’s denunciations of him had not +affected in the least his chances of success. If Clodius was to be +defeated, other means were needed than a statement in the Senate +that the aspirant to public honors was a wretch unfit to live. The +election was fixed for the 18th of November, and was to be held in +the Campus Martius. Milo and his gladiators took possession of the +polling- place in the night, and the votes could not be taken. The +Assembly met the next day in the Forum, but was broken up by +violence, and Clodius had still to wait. The political witch-dance +was at its height and Cicero was in his glory. “The +elections,” he wrote to Atticus, “will not, I think, be +held; and Clodius will be prosecuted by Milo unless he is first +killed. Milo will kill him if he falls in with him. He is not +afraid to do it, and he says openly that he will do it. He is not +frightened at the misfortune which fell on me. He is not the man to +listen to traitorous friends or to trust indolent patricians.” +<a name="fnr88"></a> <a href="#fn88" class="fnsuper">11</a></p> + +<p>With recovered spirits the Senate began again to attack the laws +of Caesar and Clodius as irregular; but they were met with the +difficulty which Clodius had provided. Cato had come back from +Cyprus, delighted with his exploit and with himself, and bringing a +ship-load of money with him for the public treasury. If the laws +were invalidated by the disregard of Bibulus and the signs of the +sky, then the Cyprus mission had been invalid also, and Cato’s +fine performance void. Caesar’s grand victories, the news of +which was now coming in, made it inopportune to press the matter +farther; and just then another subject rose, on which the optimates +ran off like hounds upon a fresh scent.</p> + +<p>Ptolemy of Cyprus had been disposed of. Ptolemy Auletes had been +preserved on the throne of Egypt by subsidies to the chiefs of the +Senate. But his subjects had been hardly taxed to raise the money. +The Cyprus affair had further exasperated them, and when Ptolemy +laid on fresh impositions the Alexandrians mutinied and drove him +out. His misfortunes being due to his friends at Rome, he came +thither to beg the Romans to replace him. The Senate agreed +unanimously that he must be restored to his throne. But then the +question rose, who should be the happy person who was to be the +instrument of his reinstatement? Alexandria was rich. An enormous +fine could be exacted for the rebellion, besides what might be +demanded from Ptolemy’s gratitude. No prize so splendid had yet +been offered to Roman avarice, and the patricians quarrelled over +it like jackals over a bone. Lentulus Spinther, the late consul, +was now Governor of Cilicia; Gabinius was Governor of Syria; and +each of these had their advocates. Cicero and the respectable +conservatives were for Spinther; Pompey was for Gabinius. Others +wished Pompey himself to go; others wished for Crassus.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 56.]</span> Meanwhile, the poor +Egyptians themselves claimed a right to be heard in protest against +the reimposition upon them of a sovereign who had made himself +abhorred. Why was Ptolemy to be forced on them? A hundred of the +principal Alexandrians came to Italy with a remonstrance; and had +they brought money with them they might have had a respectful +hearing. But they had brought none or not enough, and Ptolemy, +secure of his patrons’ support, hired a party of banditti, who +set on the deputation when it landed, and killed the greater part +of its members. Dion, the leader of the embassy, escaped for a +time. There was still a small party among the aristocracy (Cato and +Cato’s followers) who had a conscience in such things; and +Favonius, one of them, took up Dion’s cause. Envoys and allied +sovereigns or provinces, he said, were continually being murdered. +Noble lords received hush-money, and there had been no inquiry. +Such things happened too often, and ought to be stopped. The Senate +voted decently to send for Dion and examine him. But Favonius was +privately laughed at as “Cato’s ape;” the unfortunate +Dion was made away with, and Pompey took Ptolemy into his own house +and openly entertained him there. Pompey would himself perhaps have +undertaken the restoration, but the Senate was jealous. His own +future was growing uncertain; and eventually, without asking for a +consent which the Senate would have refused to give, he sent his +guest to Syria with a charge to his friend Gabinius to take him +back on his own responsibility. <a name="fnr89"></a> <a href="#fn89" class="fnsuper">12</a></p> + +<p>The killing of envoys and the taking of hush-money by senators +were, as Favonius had said, too common to attract much notice; but +the affair of Ptolemy, like that of Jugurtha, had obtained an +infamous notoriety. The Senate was execrated. Pompey himself fell +in public esteem. His overseership of the granaries had as yet +brought in no corn. He had been too busy over the Egyptian matter +to attend to it. Clearly enough there would now have been a +revolution in Rome, but for the physical force of the upper classes +with their bands of slaves and clients.</p> + +<p>The year of Milo’s tribunate being over, Clodius was chosen +aedile without further trouble; and, instead of being the victim of +a prosecution, he at once impeached Milo for the interruption of +the Comitia on the 18th of November. Milo appeared to answer on the +2d of February; but there was another riot, and the meeting was +broken up. On the 6th the court was again held. The crowd was +enormous. Cicero happily has left a minute account of the scene. +The people were starving, the corn question was pressing. Milo +presented himself, and Pompey came forward on the Rostra to speak. +He was received with howls and curses from Clodius’s hired +ruffians, and his voice could not be heard for the noise. Pompey +held on undaunted, and commanded occasional silence by the weight +of his presence. Clodius rose when Pompey had done, and rival yells +went up from the Milonians. Yells were not enough; filthy verses +were sung in chorus about Clodius and Clodia, ribald bestiality, +delightful to the ears of “Tully.” Clodius, pale with +anger, called out, “Who is murdering the people with +famine?” A thousand throats answered, “Pompey!” +“Who wants to go to Alexandria?” “Pompey!” they +shouted again. “And whom do you want to go?” +“Crassus!” they cried. Passion had risen too high for +words. The Clodians began to spit on the Milonians. The Milonians +drew swords and cut the heads of the Clodians. The working men, +being unarmed, got the worst of the conflict; and Clodius was flung +from the Rostra. The Senate was summoned to call Pompey to account. +Cicero went off home, wishing to defend Pompey, but wishing also +not to offend the “good” party, who were clamorous +against him. That evening nothing could be done. Two days after the +Senate met again; Cato abused Pompey, and praised Cicero much +against Cicero’s will, who was anxious to stand well with +Pompey. Pompey accused Cato and Crassus of a conspiracy to murder +him. In fact, as Cicero said, Pompey had just then no friend in any +party. The mob was estranged from him, the noble lords hated him, +the Senate did not like him, the patrician youth insulted him, and +he was driven to bring up friends from the country to protect his +life. All sides were mustering their forces in view of an impending +fight. <a name="fnr90"></a> <a href="#fn90" class= +"fnsuper">13</a></p> + +<p>It would be wasted labor to trace minutely the particulars of so +miserable a scene, or the motives of the principal actors in +it—Pompey, bound to Caesar by engagement and conviction, yet +jealous of his growing fame, without political conviction of his +own, and only conscious that his weight in the State no longer +corresponded to his own estimate of his merits—Clodius at the head +of the starving mob, representing mere anarchy, and nourishing an +implacable hate against Cicero—Cicero, anxious for his own safety, +knowing now that he had made enemies of half the Senate, watching +how the balance of factions would go, and dimly conscious that the +sword would have to decide it, clinging, therefore, to Pompey, +whose military abilities his civilian ignorance considered +supereminent— Cato, a virtuous fanatic, narrow, passionate, with a +vein of vanity, regarding all ways as wrong but his own, and +thinking all men who would not walk as he prescribed wicked as well +as mistaken—the rest of the aristocracy scuffling for the plunder +of Egypt, or engaged in other enterprises not more creditable—the +streets given over to the factions— the elections the alternate +prize of bribery or violence, and consulates and praetorships +falling to men more than half of whom, if Cicero can be but +moderately believed, deserved to be crucified. Cicero’s main +affection was for Titus Annius Milo, to whom he clung as a woman +will cling to a man whose strength she hopes will support her +weakness. Milo, at least, would revenge his wrongs upon Clodius. +Clodius, Cicero said even in the Senate, was Milo’s predestined +victim. <a name="fnr91"></a> <a href="#fn91" class="fnsuper">14</a> +Titus Annius knew how an armed citizen who burnt temples and honest +men’s houses ought to be dealt with. Titus Annius was born to +extinguish that pest of the Commonwealth. <a name="fnr92"></a> <a +href="#fn92" class="fnsuper">15</a></p> + +<p>Still smarting over his exile, Cicero went one day with Milo and +his gladiators to the Capitol when Clodius was absent, and carried +off the brass tablet on which the decree of his exile had been +engraved. It was some solace to his poor vanity to destroy the +record of his misfortune. But it was in vain. All was going wrong. +Caesar’s growing glories came thick to trouble his peace. He, +after all, then, was not to be the greatest man in Rome. How would +these splendid successes affect parties? How would they affect +Pompey? How would, they affect the Senate? What should he do +himself?</p> + +<p>The Senate distrusted him; the people distrusted him. In his +perplexity he tried to rouse the aristocracy to a sense of their +danger, and hinted that his was the name which yet might save +them.</p> + +<p>Sextius, who had been a tribune with Milo in the past year, was +under prosecution for one of the innumerable acts of violence which +had disgraced the city. Cicero defended him, and spoke at length on +the state of affairs as he wished the world to believe that he +regarded it.</p> + +<p>“In the Commonwealth,” he said, “there have +always been two parties—the populares and the optimates. The +populares say and do what will please the mob. The optimates say +and do what will please the best men. And who are the best men? +They are of all ranks and infinite in number—senators, municipals, +farmers, men of business, even libertini. The type is distinct. +They are the well-to-do, the sound, the honest, who do no wrong to +any man. The object at which they aim is quiet with honor. <a name="fnr93"></a> <a href="#fn93" class="fnsuper">16</a> They are the +conservatives of the State. Religion and good government, the +Senate’s authority, the laws and customs of our ancestors, +public faith, integrity, sound administration—these are the +principles on which they rest, and these they will maintain with +their lives. Their path is perilous. The foes of the State are +stronger than its defenders; they are bold and desperate, and go +with a will to the work of destruction; while the good, I know not +why, are languid, and will not rouse themselves unless compelled. +They would have quiet without honor, and so lose both quiet and +honor. Some are triflers, some are timid, only a few stand firm. +But it is not now as it was in the days of the Gracchi. There have +been great reforms. The people are conservative at heart; the +demagogues cannot rouse them, and are forced to pack the Assembly +with hired gangs. Take away these gangs, stop corruption at the +elections, and we shall be all of one mind. The people will be on +our side. The citizens of Rome are not populares. They hate the +populares, and prefer honorable men. How did they weep in the +theatres where they heard the news that I was exiled! How did they +cheer my name! ‘Tully, the preserver of our liberties!’ was +repeated a thousand times. Attend to me,” he said, turning +paternally to the high- born youths who were listening to him, +“attend to me when I bid you walk in the ways of your +forefathers. Would you have praise and honor, would you have the +esteem of the wise and good, value the constitution under which you +live. Our ancestors, impatient of kings, appointed annual +magistrates, and for the administration they nominated a Senate +chosen from the whole people into which the road is open for the +poorest citizen.” <a name="fnr94"></a> <a href="#fn94" class= +"fnsuper">17</a></p> + +<p>So Cicero, trying to persuade others, and perhaps half +persuading himself, that all might yet be well, and that the Roman +Constitution would roll on upon its old lines in the face of the +scandal of Ptolemy and the greater scandals of Clodius and +Milo.</p> + +<p>Cicero might make speeches; but events followed their inexorable +course. The patricians had forgotten nothing and had learnt +nothing. The Senate had voted thanksgivings for Caesar’s +victories; but in their hearts they hated him more for them, +because they feared him more. Milo and his gladiators gave them +courage. The bitterest of the aristocrats, Domitius Ahenobarbus, +Cato’s brother-in-law and praetor for the year, was a candidate +for the consulship. His enormous wealth made his success almost +certain, and he announced in the Senate that he meant to recall +Caesar and repeal his laws. In April a motion was introduced in the +Senate to revise Caesar’s land act. Suspicions had gone abroad +that Cicero believed Caesar’s star to be in the ascendant, and +that he was again wavering. To clear himself he spoke as +passionately as Domitius could himself have wished, and declared +that he honored more the resistance of Bibulus than all the +triumphs in the world. It was time to come to an end with these +gentlemen. Pompey was deeply committed to Caesar’s agrarian +law, for it had been passed primarily to provide for his own +disbanded soldiers. He was the only man in Rome who retained any +real authority; and touched, as for a moment he might have been, +with jealousy, he felt that honor, duty, every principle of +prudence or patriotism, required him at so perilous a crisis to +give Caesar his firm support. Clodius was made in some way to +understand that, if he intended to retain his influence, he must +conform to the wishes of the army. His brother, Appius, crossed the +Alps to see Caesar himself; and Caesar, after the troops were in +their winter quarters, came over to the north of Italy. Here an +interview was arranged between the chiefs of the popular party. The +place of meeting was Lucca, on the frontier of Caesar’s +province. Pompey, who had gone upon a tour along the coast and +through the Mediterranean islands on his corn business, attended +without concealment or mystery. Crassus was present, and more than +a hundred senators. The talking power of the State was in Rome. The +practical and real power was in the Lucca conference. Pompey, +Caesar, and Crassus were irresistible when heartily united, and a +complete scheme was arranged between them for the government of the +Empire. There was to be no Domitius Ahenobarbus for a consul, or +aristocratic <i>coups d’état</i>. Pompey and Crassus were to +be consuls for the ensuing year. The consulship over, Pompey was to +have Spain for a province for five years, with an adequate army. +Crassus, who was ambitious also of military distinction, was to +have Syria. Caesar’s command in Gaul was to be extended for +five years further in addition to his present term. The consent of +the Assembly was to be secured, if difficulty arose, by the votes +of the army. The elections being in the winter, Caesar’s +soldiers were to be allowed to go to Rome on furlough.</p> + +<p>In a personal interview Caesar easily asserted his ascendency. +Pompey allowed himself to be guided, and the arrangement was +probably dictated by Caesar’s own prudence. He did not mean to +leave Gaul half conquered, to see his work undone, and himself made +into a plaything by men who had incited Ariovistus to destroy him. +The senators who were present at Lucca implied by their +co-operation that they too were weary of anarchy, and would sustain +the army in a remodelling of the State if milder measures +failed.</p> + +<p>Thus, for the moment, Domitius and Cato were baffled. Domitius +was not to be consul. Caesar was not to be recalled, or his laws +repealed. There was no hope for them or for the reaction, till +Pompey and Caesar could be divided; and their alliance was closer +now than ever. The aristocratic party could but chafe in impotent +rage. The effect on Cicero was curious. He had expected that the +conservative movement would succeed, and he had humiliated himself +before the Senate, in the idle hope of winning back their favor. +The conference at Lucca opened his eyes. For a time at least he +perceived that Caesar’s was the winning side, and he excused +himself for going over to it by laying the blame on the +Senate’s folly and ingratitude to himself. Some private +correspondence preceded his change of sides. He consulted Atticus, +and had received characteristic and cautious advice from him. He +described in reply his internal struggles, the resolution at which +he had arrived, and the conclusion which he had formed upon his own +past conduct.</p> + +<p>“I am chewing what I have to swallow,” he said. +“Recantation does not seem very creditable; but adieu to +straightforward, honest counsels. You would not believe the perfidy +of these chiefs; as they wish to be, and what they might be if they +had any faith in them. I had felt, I had known, that I was being +led on by them, and then deserted and cast off; and yet I thought +of making common cause with them. They were the same which they had +always been. You made me see the truth at last. You will say you +warned me. You advised what I should do, and you told me not to +write to Caesar. By Hercules! I wished to put myself in a position +where I should be obliged to enter into this new coalition, and +where it would not be possible for me, even if I desired it, to go +with those who ought to pity me, and, instead of pity, give me +grudging and envy. I have been moderate in what I have written. I +shall be more full if Caesar meets me graciously; and then those +gentlemen who are so jealous that I should have a decent house to +live in will make a wry face.... Enough of this. Since those who +have no power will not be my friends, I must endeavor to make +friends with those who have. You will say you wished this long ago. +I know that you wished it, and that I have been a mere ass; <a +name="fnr95"></a> <a href="#fn95" class="fnsuper">18</a> but it is +time for me to be loved by myself, since I can get no love from +them.” <a name="fnr96"></a> <a href="#fn96" class= +"fnsuper">19</a></p> + +<p>Pompey, after leaving Lucca, sent Cicero a message, through his +brother, complaining of his speech on the land act, but assuring +him of his own and Caesar’s friendship if he would now be true +to them. In an apologetic letter to Lentulus Spinther, Cicero +explained and justified what he meant to do.</p> + +<p>“Pompey,” he said, “did not let me know that he +was offended. He went off to Sardinia, and on his way saw Caesar at +Lucca. Caesar was angry with me; he had seen Crassus, and Crassus +had prejudiced him. Pompey, too, was himself displeased. He met my +brother a few days after, and told him to use his influence with +me. He reminded him of his exertions in my behalf; he swore that +those exertions had been made with Caesar’s consent, and he +begged particularly that, if I could not support Caesar, I would +not go against him. I reflected. I debated the matter as if with +the Commonwealth. I had suffered much and done much for the +Commonwealth. I had now to think of myself. I had been a good +citizen; I must now be a good man. Expressions came round to me +that had been used by certain persons whom even you do not like. +They were delighted to think that I had offended Pompey, and had +made Caesar my mortal enemy. This was annoying enough. But the same +persons embraced and kissed even in my presence my worst foe—the +foe of law, order, peace, country, and every good man <a name="fnr97"></a> <a href="#fn97" class="fnsuper">20</a>.... They meant +to irritate me, but I had not spirit to be angry. I surveyed my +situation. I cast up my accounts; and I came to a conclusion, which +was briefly this. If the State was in the hands of bad men, as in +my time I have known it to be, I would not join them though they +loaded me with favors; but when the first person in the +Commonwealth was Pompey, whose services had been so eminent, whose +advancement I had myself furthered, and who stood by me in my +difficulties, I was not inconsistent if I modified some of my +opinions, and conformed to the wishes of one who has deserved so +well of me. If I went with Pompey, I must go with Caesar too; and +here the old friendship came to bear between Caesar, my brother, +and myself, as well as Caesar’s kindness to me, of which I had +seen evidence in word and deed.... Public interest, too, moved me. +A quarrel with these men would be most inexpedient, especially +after what Caesar has done.... If the persons who assisted in +bringing me back had been my friends afterward, they would have +recovered their power when they had me to help them. The +‘good’ had gained heart when you were consul. Pompey was +then won to the ‘good’ cause. Even Caesar, after being +decorated by the Senate for his victories, might have been brought +to a better judgment, and wicked citizens would have had no opening +to make disturbances. But what happened? These very men protected +Clodius, who cared no more for the Bona Dea than for the Three +Sisters. They allowed my monument to be engraved with a hostile +record.... <a name="fnr98"></a> <a href="#fn98" class= +"fnsuper">21</a> The good party are not as you left them. Those who +ought to have been staunch have fallen away. You see it in their +faces. You see it in the words and votes of those whom we called +‘optimates;’ so that wise citizens, one of whom I wish to +be and to be thought, must change their course. ‘Persuade your +countrymen, if you can,’ said Plato; ‘but use no +violence.’ Plato found that he could no longer persuade the +Athenians, and therefore he withdrew from public life. Advice could +not move them, and he held force to be unlawful. My case was +different. I was not called on to undertake public +responsibilities. I was content to further my own interests, and to +defend honest men’s causes. Caesar’s goodness to me and to +my brother would have bound me to him whatever had been his +fortunes. Now after so much glory and victory I should speak nobly +of him though I owed him nothing.” <a name="fnr99"></a> <a +href="#fn99" class="fnsuper">22</a></p> + +<p>Happy it would have been for Cicero, and happy for Rome, had he +persevered in the course which he now seemed really to have chosen. +Cicero and Caesar united might have restored the authority of the +laws, punished corruption and misgovernment, made their country the +mother as well as the mistress of the world; and the Republic, +modified to suit the change of times, might have survived for many +generations. But under such a modification, Cicero would have no +longer been the first person in the Commonwealth. The talkers would +have ceased to rule, and Cicero was a talker only. He could not +bear to be subordinate. He was persuaded that he, and not Caesar, +was the world’s real great man; and so he held on, leaning now +to one faction and now to another, waiting for the chance which was +to put him at last in his true place. For the moment, however, he +saved himself from the degradation into which the Senate +precipitated itself. The arrangements at Lucca were the work of the +army. The conservative majority refused to let the army dictate to +them. Domitius intended still to be consul, let the army say what +it pleased. Pompey and Crassus returned to Rome for the elections; +the consuls for the year, Marcellinus and Philip, declined to take +their names. The consuls and the Senate appealed to the Assembly, +the Senate marching into the Forum in state, as if calling on the +genius of the nation to defend the outraged constitution. In vain. +The people would not listen. The consuls were groaned down. No +genius of Rome presided in those meetings, but the genius of +revolution in the person of Clodius. The senators were driven back +into the Curia, and Clodius followed them there. The officers +forbade his entrance. Furious young aristocrats flew upon him, +seized him, and would have murdered him in their rage. Clodius +shrieked for help. His rascal followers rushed in with lighted +torches, swearing to burn house and Senate if a hair of +Clodius’s head were hurt. They bore their idol off in triumph; +and the wretched senators sat gazing at each other, or storming at +Pompey, and inquiring scornfully if he and Crassus intended to +appoint themselves consuls. Pompey answered that they had no desire +for office, but anarchy must be brought to an end.</p> + +<p>Still the consuls of the year stubbornly refused to take the +names of the Lucca nominees. The year ran out, and no election had +been held. In such a difficulty, the constitution had provided for +the appointment of an <i>Interrex</i> till fresh consuls could be +chosen. Pompey and Crassus were then nominated, with a foregone +conclusion. Domitius still persisted in standing; and, had it been +safe to try the usual methods, the patricians would have occupied +the voting-places as before with their retinues, and returned him +by force. But young Publius Crassus was in Rome with thousands of +Caesar’s soldiers, who had come up to vote from the north of +Italy. With these it was not safe to venture on a conflict, and the +consulships fell as the Lucca conference had ordered.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 55.]</span> The consent of the +Assembly to the other arrangements remained to be obtained. Caesar +was to have five additional years in Gaul; Pompey and Crassus were +to have Spain and Syria, also for five years each, as soon as their +year of office should be over. The defenders of the constitution +fought to the last. Cato foamed on the Rostra. When the two hours +allowed him to speak were expired, he refused to sit down, and was +removed by a guard. The meeting was adjourned to the next day. +Publius Gallus, another irreconcilable, passed the night in the +senate-house, that he might be in his place at dawn. Cato and +Favonius were again at their posts. The familiar cry was raised +that the signs of the sky were unfavorable. The excuse had ceased +to be legal. The tribunes ordered the voting to go forward. The +last resource was then tried. A riot began, but to no purpose. The +aristocrats and their clients were beaten back, and the several +commands were ratified. As the people were dispersing, their +opponents rallied back, filled the Forum, and were voting +Caesar’s recall, when Pompey came on them and swept them out. +Gallus was carried off covered with blood; and, to prevent further +question, the vote for Caesar was taken a second time.</p> + +<p>The immediate future was thus assured. Time had been obtained +for the completion of the work in Gaul. Pompey dedicated a new +theatre, and delighted the mob with games and races. Five hundred +lions were consumed in five days of combat. As a special novelty +eighteen elephants were made to fight with soldiers; and, as a yet +more extraordinary phenomenon, the sanguinary Roman spectators +showed signs of compunction at their sufferings. The poor beasts +were quiet and harmless. When wounded with the lances, they turned +away, threw up their trunks, and trotted round the circus, crying, +as if in protest against wanton cruelty. The story went that they +were half human; that they had been seduced on board the African +transports by a promise that they should not be ill-used, and they +were supposed to be appealing to the gods. <a name="fnr100"></a> <a +href="#fn100" class="fnsuper">23</a>Cicero alludes to the scene in +a letter to one of his friends. Mentioning Pompey’s exhibitions +with evident contempt, he adds: “There remained the hunts, +which lasted five days. All say that they were very fine. But what +pleasure can a sensible person find in seeing a clumsy performer +torn by a wild beast, or a noble animal pierced with a +hunting-spear? The last day was given to the elephants; not +interesting to me, however delightful to the rabble. A certain pity +was felt for them, as if the elephants had some affinity with +man.” <a name="fnr101"></a> <a href="#fn101" class= +"fnsuper">24</a></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn78"></a> <a href="#fnr78">[1]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ii. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn79"></a> <a href="#fnr79">[2]</a> +“Conservatores Reipublicae.”—<i>Pro Sextio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn80"></a> <a href="#fnr80">[3]</a> +Mommsen.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn81"></a> <a href="#fnr81">[4]</a> +“Omnia sunt meâ culpâ commissa, qui ab his me amari putabam +qui invidebant: eos non sequebar qui petebant.”—<i>Ad +Familiares</i>, xiv. 1. “Nullum est meum peccatum nisi quod +iis credidi a quibus nefas putabam esse me decipi.... Intimus +proximus familiarissimus quisque aut sibi pertimuit aut mihi +invidit.”—<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, i. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn82"></a> <a href="#fnr82">[5]</a> +“Meministis tum, judices, corporibus civium Tiberim compleri, +cloacas referciri, e foro spongiis effingi sanguinem.... Caedem +tantam, tantos acervos corporum extruetos, nisi forte illo Cinnano +atque Octaviano die, quis unquam in foro vidit?”—<i>Oratio +prov P. Sextio</i>, xxxv. 36.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn83"></a> <a href="#fnr83">[6]</a> +<i>Ad Quirites post Reditum</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn84"></a> <a href="#fnr84">[7]</a> +“Ejus vir Catilina.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn85"></a> <a href="#fnr85">[8]</a> +“Cum in Circo Flaminio non a tribuno plebis consul in +concionem sed a latrone archipirata productus esset, primum +processit quâ auctoritate vir. Vini, somni, stupri plenus, madenti +comâ, gravibus oculis, fluentibus buccis, pressa voce et temulenta, +quod in cives indemnatos esset animadversum, id sibi dixit gravis +auctor vehementissime displicere.”—<i>Post Reditum in +Senatu</i>, 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn86"></a> <a href="#fnr86">[9]</a> +Cicero could never leave Gabinius and Piso alone. Again and again +he returned upon them railing like a fishwife. In his oration for +Sextius he scoffed at Gabinius’s pomatum and curled hair, and +taunted him with unmentionable sins; but he specially entertained +himself with his description of Piso:</p> + +<p class="footnote">“For Piso!” he said: “O gods, +how unwashed, how stern he looked—a pillar of antiquity, like one +of the old bearded consuls; his dress plain plebeian purple, his +hair tangled, his brow a very pledge for the Commonwealth! Such +solemnity in his eye, such wrinkling of his forehead, that you +would have said the State was resting on his head like the sky on +Atlas. Here we thought we had a refuge. Here was the man to oppose +the filth of Gabinius; his very face would be enough. People +congratulated us on having one friend to save us from the tribune. +Alas! I was deceived,” etc. etc.</p> + +<p class="footnote">Piso afterward called Cicero to account in the +Senate, and brought out a still more choice explosion of +invectives. Beast, filth, polluted monster, and such like, were the +lightest of the names which Cicero hurled back at one of the oldest +members of the Roman aristocracy. A single specimen may serve to +illustrate the cataract of nastiness which he poured alike on Piso +and Clodius and Gabinius: “When all the good were hiding +themselves in tears,” he said to Piso, “when the temples +were groaning and the very houses in the city were mourning (over +my exile), you, heartless madman that you are, took up the cause of +that pernicious animal, that clotted mass of incests and civil +blood, of villanies intended and impurity of crimes committed [he +was alluding to Clodius, who was in the Senate probably listening +to him]. Need I speak of your feasting, your laughter, and +handshakings—your drunken orgies with the filthy companions of +your potations? Who in those days saw you ever sober, or doing +anything that a citizen need not be ashamed of? While your +colleague’s house was sounding with songs and cymbals, and he +himself was dancing naked at a supper-party [“cumque ipse +nudus in convivio saltaret,”] you, you coarse glutton, with +less taste for music, were lying in a stew of Greek boys and wine +in a feast of the Centaurs and Lapithae, where one cannot say +whether you drank most, or vomited most, or spilt +most.”—<i>In L. Pisonem</i>,10. The manners of the times do +not excuse language of this kind, for there was probably not +another member of the Senate who indulged in it. If Cicero was +disliked and despised, he had his own tongue to thank for it.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn87"></a> <a href="#fnr87">[10]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, iv. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn88"></a> <a href="#fnr88">[11]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, iv. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn89"></a> <a href="#fnr89">[12]</a> +For the details of this story see Dion Cassius, lib. xxxix. capp. +12-16. Compare <i>Cicero ad Familiares</i>, lib. i. Epist. 1-2. +Curious subterranean influences seem to have been at work to save +the Senate from the infamy of restoring Ptolemy. Verses were +discovered in the Sibylline Books directing that if an Egyptian +king came to Rome as a suppliant, he was to be entertained +hospitably, but was to have no active help. Perhaps Cicero was +concerned in this.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn90"></a> <a href="#fnr90">[13]</a> +<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, ii. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn91"></a> <a href="#fnr91">[14]</a> +“Tito Annio devota et constituta hostia esse +videtur.”—<i>De Haruspicum responsis</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn92"></a> <a href="#fnr92">[15]</a> +Ibid.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn93"></a> <a href="#fnr93">[16]</a> +“Otium cum dignitate.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn94"></a> <a href="#fnr94">[17]</a> +Abridged from the <i>Oratio pro Sextio</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn95"></a> <a href="#fnr95">[18]</a> +“Me germanum asinum fuisse.” Perhaps “own brother to +an ass” would be a more proper rendering.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn96"></a> <a href="#fnr96">[19]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, iv. 5.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn97"></a> <a href="#fnr97">[20]</a> +Clodius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn98"></a> <a href="#fnr98">[21]</a> +Here follows much about himself and his own merits.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn99"></a> <a href="#fnr99">[22]</a> +To Lentulus Spinther, <i>Ad Familiares</i>, i. 9. The length of +this remarkable letter obliges me to give but an imperfect summary +of it. The letter itself should be studied carefully by those who +would understand Cicero’s conduct.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn100"></a> <a href="#fnr100">[23]</a> +Dion Cassius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn101"></a> <a href="#fnr101">[24]</a> +<i>Ad Familiares</i>, vii. 1.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter16">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 56.]</span> While Caesar was +struggling with the Senate for leave to complete the conquest of +Gaul, fresh work was preparing for him there. Young Publius +Crassus, before he went to Italy, had wintered with the seventh +legion in Brittany. The Breton tribes had nominally made their +submission, and Crassus had desired them to supply his +commissariat. They had given hostages for their good behavior, and +most of them were ready to obey. The Veneti, the most important of +the coast clans, refused. They induced the rest to join them. They +seized the Roman officers whom Crassus had sent among them, and +they then offered to exchange their prisoners for their countrymen +whom the Romans held in pledge. The legions might be irresistible +on land; but the Veneti believed that their position was +impregnable to an attack on the land side. Their homes were on the +Bay of Quiberon and on the creeks and estuaries between the mouth +of the Loire and Brest. Their villages were built on promontories, +cut off at high tide from the mainland, approachable only by water, +and not by water except in shallow vessels of small draught which +could be grounded safely on the mud. The population were sailors +and fishermen. They were ingenious and industrious, and they +carried on a considerable trade in the Bay of Biscay and in the +British Channel. They had ships capable of facing the heavy seas +which rolled in from the Atlantic, flat-bottomed, with high bow and +stern, built solidly of oak, with timbers a foot thick, fastened +with large iron nails. They had iron chains for cables. Their +sails—either because sailcloth was scarce, or because they thought +canvas too weak for the strain of the winter storms—were +manufactured out of leather. Such vessels were unwieldy, but had +been found available for voyages even to Britain. Their crews were +accustomed to handle them, and knew all the rocks and shoals and +currents of the intricate and difficult harbors. They looked on the +Romans as mere landsmen, and naturally enough they supposed that +they had as little to fear from an attack by water as from the +shore. At the worst they could take to their ships and find a +refuge in the islands.</p> + +<p>Crassus, when he went to Rome, carried the report to Caesar of +the revolt of the Veneti, and Caesar felt that unless they were +promptly punished, all Gaul might be again in flame. They had +broken faith. They had imprisoned Roman officers who had gone on a +peaceful mission among them. It was necessary to teach a people so +restless, so hardly conquered, and so impatient of foreign +dominion, that there was no situation which the Roman arm was +unable to reach.</p> + +<p>While the Lucca conference was going on, a fleet of Roman +galleys was built by his order in the Loire. Rowers, seamen, and +pilots were brought across from Marseilles. When the season was +sufficiently advanced for active operations, Caesar came himself +and rejoined his army. Titus Labienus was sent with three legions +to Trèves to check the Germans on the Rhine, and prevent +disturbances among the Belgae. Titurius Sabinus, with three more, +was stationed in Normandy. To Brittany Caesar went in person to +reduce the rebellious Veneti. The weather was too unsettled for his +fleet to be able as yet to join him. Without its help he found the +problem as difficult as the Veneti expected. Each village required +a siege; when it was reduced, the inhabitants took to their boats, +and defied him again in a new position. Many weeks were thus +fruitlessly wasted. The fine weather at length set in. The galleys +from the Loire came out, accompanied by others from Rochelle and +the mouth of the Garonne. The command at sea was given to Decimus +Brutus, a cousin of the afterward famous Marcus, a clever, able, +and so far loyal officer.</p> + +<p>The Veneti had collected every ship that they or their allies +possessed to defend themselves. They had 220 sail in all—a force, +considering its character, extremely formidable. Their vessels were +too strong to be run down. The galleys carried turrets; but the +bows and sterns of the Veneti were still too lofty to be reached +effectively by the Roman javelins. The Romans had the advantage in +speed; but that was all. They too, however, had their ingenuities. +They had studied the construction of the Breton ships. They had +provided sickles with long handles, with which they proposed to +catch the halyards which held the weight of the heavy leather +sails. It was not difficult to do, if, as is probable, the halyards +were made fast, not to the mast, but to the gunwale. Sweeping +rapidly alongside they could easily cut them; the sails would fall, +and the vessels would be unmanageable.</p> + +<p>A sea battle of this singular kind was thus fought off the +eastern promontory of the Bay of Quiberon, Caesar and his army +looking on from the shore. The sickles answered well; ship after +ship was disabled; the galleys closed with them, and they were +taken by boarding. The Veneti then tried to retreat; but a calm +came on, and they could not move. The fight lasted from ten in the +morning till sunset, when the entire Breton fleet was taken or +sunk.</p> + +<p>After this defeat the Veneti gave up the struggle. Their ships +were all gone. Their best men were on board, and had been killed. +They had no power of resistance left. Caesar was constitutionally +lenient, and admired rather than resented a valiant fight for +freedom. But the Veneti had been treacherous. They had laid hands +on the sacred persons of Roman ambassadors, and he considered it +expedient on this one occasion to use severity. The council who had +contrived the insurrection were put to death. The rest of the tribe +were treated as the Aduatuci had been, and were sold into +slavery.</p> + +<p>Sabinus, meanwhile, had been in difficulties in Normandy. The +people there had risen and killed their chiefs, who tried to keep +them quiet; vagabonds from other parts had joined them, and +Sabinus, who wanted enterprise, allowed the disturbances to become +dangerous. He ended them at last, however, successfully, and Caesar +would not allow his caution to be blamed. During the same months, +Publius Crassus had made a brilliant campaign in Aquitaine. The +Aquitani had not long before overthrown two Roman armies. +Determined not to submit to Caesar, they had allied themselves with +the Spaniards of the Pyrenees, and had officers among them who had +been trained by Sertorius. Crassus stormed their camp with a skill +and courage which called out Caesar’s highest approbation, and +completely subdued the whole country.</p> + +<p>In all France there now remained only a few unimportant tribes +on the coast between Calais and the Scheldt which had not formally +submitted. The summer being nearly over, Caesar contented himself +with a hasty survey of their frontier. The weather broke up earlier +than usual, and the troops were redistributed in their quarters. +Again there had been a year of unbroken success. The Romans were +masters of Gaul, and the admirable care of their commander had +preserved the numbers in his legions almost undiminished. The +smallness of the loss with which all these wonders were +accomplished is perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the +story. Not till a year later is there any notice of fresh recruits +being brought from Italy.</p> + +<p>The winter which followed brought with it another of the +dangerous waves of German immigration. The powerful Suevi, a nation +of warriors who cultivated no lands, who wore no clothes but a deer +or sheep skin, who lived by hunting and pasture, despised the +restraints of stationary life, and roved at pleasure into their +neighbors’ territories, were pressing on the weaker tribes and +forcing them down into the Low Countries. The Belgians, hoping for +their help against the Romans, had invited these tribes over the +Rhine; and, untaught by the fate of Ariovistus, they were crossing +over and collecting in enormous numbers above the junction of the +Rhine and the Meuse. Into a half-peopled country, large portions of +which are lying waste, it might be barbarous to forbid an +immigration of harmless and persecuted strangers; but if these +Germans were persecuted, they were certainly not harmless; they had +come at the instance of the party in Gaul which was determined to +resist the Roman conquest, and unless the conquest was to be +abandoned, necessity required that the immigration must be +prohibited. When the advance of spring allowed the troops to move, +Caesar called a council of Gallic chiefs. He said nothing of the +information which had reached him respecting their correspondence +with these new invaders, but with his usual swiftness of decision +he made up his mind to act without waiting for disaffection to show +itself. He advanced at once to the Ardennes, where he was met by +envoys from the German camp. They said that they had been expelled +from their country, and had come to Gaul in search of a home; they +did not wish to quarrel with the Romans; if Caesar would protect +them and give them lands, they promised to be useful to him; if he +refused their alliance, they declared that they would defend +themselves. They had fled before the Sueves, for the Sueves were +the first nation in the world; the immortal gods were not a match +for the Sueves; but they were afraid of no one else, and Caesar +might choose whether he would have them for friends or foes.</p> + +<p>Caesar replied that they must not stay in Gaul. There were no +unoccupied lands in Gaul which could receive so vast a multitude. +The Ubii <a name="fnr102"></a> <a href="#fn102" class= +"fnsuper">1</a> on their own side of the Rhine were allies of the +Romans; the Ubii, he was willing to undertake, would provide for +them; meanwhile they must go back; he would listen to no other +conditions. The envoys departed with their answer, begging Caesar +to advance no farther till he had again heard from them. This could +not be granted. The interval would be employed in communicating +with the Gauls. Caesar pushed on, crossed the Meuse at Maestricht, +and descended the river to Venloo, where he was but twelve miles +distant from the German head-quarters. Again messengers came, +asking for time—time, at least, till they could learn whether the +Ubii would receive them. If the Ubii were favorable, they said that +they were ready to go; but they could not decide without a +knowledge of what was to become of them. They asked for a respite, +if only for three days.</p> + +<p>Three days meant only leisure to collect their scattered +detachments, that they might make a better fight. Caesar gave them +twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>The two armies were so near that their front lines were in sight +of each other. Caesar had given orders to his officers not to +meddle with the Germans. But the Germans, being undisciplined and +hot-blooded, were less easy to be restrained. A large body of them +flung themselves on the Roman advanced guard, and drove it in with +considerable loss; seventy-four Roman knights fell, and two +Aquitanian noblemen, brothers, serving under Caesar, were killed in +defending each other.</p> + +<p>Caesar was not sorry for an excuse to refuse further parley. The +Germans were now scattered. In a day or two they would be united +again. He knew the effect which would be produced on the restless +minds of the Gauls by the news of a reverse however slight; and if +he delayed longer, he feared that the country might be on fire in +his rear. On the morning which followed the first action, the +principal German chiefs appeared to apologize and to ask for a +truce. They had come in of their own accord. They had not applied +for a safe conduct, and war had been begun by their own people. +They were detained as prisoners; and, marching rapidly over the +short space which divided the camps, Caesar flung himself on the +unfortunate people when they were entirely unprepared for the +attack. Their chiefs were gone. They were lying about in confusion +beside their wagons, women and children dispersed among the men; +hundreds of thousands of human creatures, ignorant where to turn +for orders, and uncertain whether to fight or fly. In this +condition the legions burst in on them, furious at what they called +the treachery of the previous day, and merciless in their +vengeance. The poor Germans stood bravely defending themselves as +they could; but the sight of their women flying in shrieking +crowds, pursued by the Roman horse, was too much for them, and the +whole host were soon rushing in despairing wreck down the narrowing +isthmus between the Meuse and the Rhine. They came to the junction +at last, and then they could go no further. Multitudes were +slaughtered; multitudes threw themselves into the water and were +drowned. Caesar, who was not given to exaggeration, says that their +original number was 430,000. The only survivors, of whom any clear +record remains, were the detachments who were absent from the +battle, and the few chiefs who had come into Caesar’s camp and +continued with him at their own request from fear of being murdered +by the Gauls.</p> + +<p>This affair was much spoken of at the time, as well it might be. +Questions were raised upon it in the Senate. Cato insisted that +Caesar had massacred a defenceless people in a time of truce, that +he had broken the law of nations, and that he ought to be given up +to the Germans. The sweeping off the earth in such a manner of a +quarter of a million human creatures, even in those unscrupulous +times, could not be heard of without a shudder. The irritation in +the Senate can hardly be taken as disinterested. Men who had +intrigued with Ariovistus for Caesar’s destruction, needed not +to be credited with feelings of pure humanity when they made the +most of the opportunity. But an opportunity had undoubtedly been +offered them. The rights of war have their limits. No living man in +ordinary circumstances recognized those limits more than Caesar +did. No commander was more habitually merciful in victory. In this +case the limits had been ruthlessly exceeded. The Germans were not +indeed defending their own country; they were the invaders of +another; but they were a fine brave race, overtaken by fate when +doing no more than their forefathers had done for unknown +generations. The excuse for their extermination was simply this: +that Caesar had undertaken the conquest of Gaul for the defence of +Italy. A powerful party among the Gauls themselves were content to +be annexed to the Roman Empire. The patriots looked to the Germans +to help them in driving out the Romans. The Germanizing of Gaul +would lead with certainty to fresh invasions of Italy; and it +seemed permissible, and even necessary, to put a stop to these +immigrations once for all, and to show Gauls and Germans equally +that they were not to be.</p> + +<p>It was not enough to have driven the Germans out of Gaul. Caesar +respected their character. He admired their abstinence from wine, +their courage, their frugal habits, and their pure morality. But +their virtues made them only more dangerous; and he desired to show +them that the Roman arm was long and could reach them even in their +own homes. Parties of the late invaders had returned over the +Rhine, and were protected by the Sigambri in Westphalia. Caesar had +demanded their surrender, and the Sigambri had answered that Roman +authority did not reach across the river; if Caesar forbade Germans +to cross into Gaul, the Germans would not allow the Romans to +dictate to them in their own country. The Ubii were growing +anxious. They were threatened by the Sueves for deserting the +national cause. They begged Caesar to show himself among them, +though his stay might be but short, as a proof that he had power +and will to protect them; and they offered him boats and barges to +carry his army over. Caesar decided to go, but to go with more +ostentation. The object was to impress the German imagination; and +boats and barges which might not always be obtainable would, if +they seemed essential, diminish the effect. The legions were +skilled workmen, able to turn their hand to anything. He determined +to make a bridge, and he chose Bonn for the site of it. The river +was broad, deep, and rapid. The materials were still standing in +the forest; yet in ten days from the first stroke that was +delivered by an axe, a bridge had been made standing firmly on rows +of piles with a road over it forty feet wide. A strong guard was +left at each end. Caesar marched across with the legions, and from +all sides deputations from the astonished people poured in to beg +for peace. The Sigambri had fled to their woods. The Suevi fell +back into the Thuringian forests. He burnt the villages of the +Sigambri, to leave the print of his presence. He paid the Ubii a +long visit; and after remaining eighteen days beyond the river, he +considered that his purpose had been gained, and he returned to +Gaul, destroying the bridge behind him.</p> + +<p>It was now about the beginning of August. A few weeks only of +possible fine weather remained. Gaul was quiet, not a tribe was +stirring. The people were stunned by Caesar’s extraordinary +performances. West of the channel which washed the shores of the +Belgae lay an island where the enemies of Rome had found shelter, +and from which help had been sent to the rebellious Bretons. +Caesar, the most skilful and prudent of generals, was yet +adventurous as a knight-errant. There was still time for a short +expedition into Britain. As yet nothing was known of that country, +save the white cliffs which could be seen from Calais; Roman +merchants occasionally touched there, but they had never ventured +into the interior; they could give no information as to the size of +the island, the qualities of the harbors, the character or habits +of the inhabitants. Complete ignorance of such near neighbors was +undesirable and inconvenient; and Caesar wished to look at them +with his own eyes. The fleet which had been used in the war with +the Veneti was sent round into the channel. He directed Caius +Volusenus, an officer whom he could trust, to take a galley and +make a survey of the opposite coast, and he himself followed to +Boulogne, where his vessels were waiting for him. The gathering of +the flotilla and its object had been reported to Britain, and +envoys from various tribes were waiting there with offers of +hostages and humble protestations. Caesar received them graciously, +and sent back with them a Gaul, named Commius, whom he had made +chief of the Atrebates, to tell the people that he was coming over +as a friend, and that they had nothing to fear.</p> + +<p>Volusenus returned after five days’ absence, having been +unable to gather anything of importance. The ships which had come +in were able only to take across two legions, probably at less than +their full complement—or at most ten thousand men; but for +Caesar’s present purpose these were sufficient. Leaving Sabinus +and Cotta in charge of the rest of the army, he sailed on a calm +evening, and was off Dover in the morning. The cliffs were lined +with painted warriors, and hung so close over the water that if he +attempted to land there stones and lances could reach the boats +from the edge of the precipice. He called his officers about him +while his fleet collected, and said a few encouraging words to +them; he then moved up the coast with the tide, apparently as far +as Walmer or Deal. Here the beach was open and the water deep near +the land. The Britons had followed by the brow of the cliff, +scrambling along with their cars and horses. The shore was covered +with them, and they evidently meant to fight. The transports +anchored where the water was still up to the men’s shoulders. +They were encumbered with their arms, and did not like the look of +what was before them. Seeing them hesitate, Caesar sent his armed +galleys filled with archers and crossbow-men to clear the approach; +and as the legionaries still hesitated, an officer who carried the +eagle of the 10th leapt into the sea and bade his comrades follow +if they wished to save their standard. They sprang overboard with a +general cheer. The Britons rode their horses into the waves to meet +them; and for a few minutes the Romans could make no progress. +Boats came to their help, which kept back the most active of their +opponents, and once on land they were in their own element. The +Britons galloped off, and Caesar had no cavalry.</p> + +<p>A camp was then formed. Some of the ships were left at anchor, +others were brought on shore, and were hauled up to the usual +high-water mark. Commius came in with deputations, and peace was +satisfactorily arranged. All went well till the fourth day, when +the full moon brought the spring tide, of which the Romans had no +experience and had not provided for it. Heavy weather came up along +with it. The galleys on the beach were floated off; the transports +at anchor parted their cables; some were driven on shore, some out +into the channel. Caesar was in real anxiety. He had no means of +procuring a second fleet. He had made no preparations for wintering +in Britain. The legions had come light, without tents or baggage, +as he meant to stay no longer than he had done in Germany, two or +three weeks at most. Skill and energy repaired the damage. The +vessels which had gone astray were recovered. Those which were +least injured were repaired with the materials of the rest. Twelve +only were lost, the others were made seaworthy.</p> + +<p>The Britons, as Caesar expected, had taken heart at the +disaster. They broke their agreement, and fell upon his outposts. +Seeing the small number of Romans, they collected in force, in the +hope that if they could destroy the first comers no more such +unwelcome visitors would ever arrive to trouble them. A sharp +action taught them their mistake; and after many of the poor +creatures had been killed, they brought in hostages, and again +begged for peace. The equinox was now coming on. The weather was +again threatening. Postponing, therefore, further inquiries into +the nature of the British and their country, Caesar used the first +favorable opportunity, and returned, without further adventure, to +Boulogne. The legions were distributed among the Belgae; and Caesar +himself, who could have no rest, hastened over the Alps, to deal +with other disturbances which had broken out in Illyria.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 54.]</span> The bridge over the +Rhine and the invasion of a country so remote that it was scarcely +believed to exist, roused the enthusiasm at Rome beyond the point +which it had hitherto reached. The Roman populace was accustomed to +victories, but these were portents like the achievements of the old +demigods. The humbled Senate voted twenty days of thanksgiving; and +faction, controlled by Pompey, was obliged to be silent.</p> + +<p>The Illyrian troubles were composed without fighting, and the +interval of winter was spent in preparations for a renewal of the +expedition into Britain on a larger scale. Orders had been left +with the officers in command to prepare as many transports as the +time would allow, broader and lower in the side for greater +convenience in loading and unloading. In April, Caesar returned. He +visited the different stations, and he found that his expert +legionaries, working incessantly, had built six hundred transports +and twenty-eight armed galleys. All these were finished and ready +to be launched. He directed that they should collect at Boulogne as +before; and in the interval he paid a visit to the north of Gaul, +where there were rumors of fresh correspondence with the Germans. +Danger, if danger there was, was threatened by the Treveri, a +powerful tribe still unbroken on the Moselle. Caesar, however, had +contrived to attach the leading chiefs to the Roman interest. He +found nothing to alarm him, and once more went down to the sea. In +his first venture he had been embarrassed by want of cavalry. He +was by this time personally acquainted with the most influential of +the Gallic nobles. He had requested them to attend him into Britain +with their mounted retinues, both for service in the field, and +that he might keep these restless chiefs under his eye. Among the +rest he had not overlooked the Aeduan prince, Dumnorix, whose +intrigues had brought the Helvetii out of Switzerland, and whose +treachery had created difficulty and nearly disaster in the first +campaign. Dumnorix had not forgotten his ambition. He had affected +penitence, and he had been treated with kindness. He had availed +himself of the favor which had been shown to him to pretend to his +countrymen that Caesar had promised him the chieftainship. He had +petitioned earnestly to be excused from accompanying the +expedition, and, Caesar having for this reason probably the more +insisted upon it, he had persuaded the other chiefs that Caesar +meant to destroy them, and that if they went to Britain they would +never return. These whisperings were reported to Caesar. Dumnorix +had come to Boulogne with the rest, and he ordered him to be +watched. A long westerly wind had prevented Caesar from embarking +as soon as he had wished. The weather changed at last, and the +troops were ordered on board. Dumnorix slipped away in the +confusion with a party of Aeduan horse, and it was now certain that +he had sinister intentions. The embarkation was suspended. A +detachment of cavalry was sent in pursuit, with directions to bring +Dumnorix back dead or alive. Dumnorix resisted, and was killed.</p> + +<p>No disturbance followed on his death. The remaining chiefs were +loyal, or wished to appear loyal, and further delay was +unnecessary. Labienus, whom Caesar thoroughly trusted, remained +behind with three legions and two thousand horse to watch over +Gaul; and on a fine summer evening, with a light air from the +south, Caesar sailed at sunset on the 20th of July. He had five +legions with him. He had as many cavalry as he had left with +Labienus. His flotilla, swollen by volunteers, amounted to eight +hundred vessels, small and great. At sunrise they were in +midchannel, lying in a dead calm, with the cliffs of Britain +plainly visible on their left hand. The tide was flowing. Oars were +out; the legionaries worked with such enthusiasm that the +transports kept abreast of the war-galleys. At noon they had +reached the beach at Deal, where this time they found no enemy to +oppose their landing; the Britons had been terrified at the +multitude of ships and boats in which the power of Rome was +descending on them, and had fled into the interior. The water was +smooth, the disembarkation easy. A camp was drawn out and +intrenched, and six thousand men, with a few hundred horse, were +told off to guard it. The fleet was left riding quietly at anchor, +the pilots ignorant of the meaning of the treacherous southern air +which had been so welcome to them; and Caesar advanced inland as +far as the Stour. The Britons, after an unsuccessful stand to +prevent the Romans from crossing the river, retired into the woods, +where they had made themselves a fortress with felled trees. The +weak defence was easily stormed; the Britons were flying; the +Romans were preparing to follow; when an express came from Deal to +tell Caesar that a gale had risen again and the fleet was lying +wrecked upon the shore. A second accident of the same kind might +have seemed an omen of evil, but Caesar did not believe in omens. +The even temperament of his mind was never discomposed, and at each +moment he was able always to decide, and to do, what the moment +required. The army was halted. He rode back himself to the camp, to +find that forty of his vessels only were entirely ruined. The rest +were injured, but not irreparably. They were hauled up within the +lines of the camp. He selected the best mechanics out of the +legions; he sent across to Labienus for more, and directed him to +build fresh transports in the yards at Boulogne. The men worked +night and day, and in little more than a week Caesar was able to +rejoin his troops and renew his march.</p> + +<p>The object of the invasion had been rather to secure the quiet +of Gaul than the annexation of new subjects and further territory. +But it could not be obtained till the Romans had measured +themselves against the Britons, and had asserted their military +superiority. The Britons had already shown themselves a fearless +race, who could not be despised. They fought bravely from their +cars and horses, retreated rapidly when overmatched, and were found +dangerous when pursued. Encouraged by the report of the disaster to +the fleet, Cassibelaunus, chief of the Cassi, whose head-quarters +were at St. Albans, had collected a considerable army from both +sides of the Thames, and was found in strength in Caesar’s +front when he again began to move. They attacked his foraging +parties. They set on his flanking detachments. They left their +cars, and fought on foot when they could catch an advantage; and +remounted and were swiftly out of the reach of the heavily armed +Roman infantry. The Gaulish horse pursued, but did not know the +country, and suffered more harm than they inflicted. Thus the +British gave Caesar considerable trouble, which he recorded to +their credit. Not a word can be found in his Commentaries to the +disparagement of brave and open adversaries. At length he forced +them into a battle, where their best warriors were killed. The +confederacy of tribes dissolved and never rallied again, and he +pursued his march thenceforward with little molestation. He crossed +the Medway, and reached the Thames seemingly at Sunbury. There was +a ford there, but the river was still deep, the ground was staked, +and Cassibelaunus with his own people was on the other side. The +legions, however, paid small attention to Cassibelaunus; they +plunged through with the water at their necks. The Britons +dispersed, driving off their cattle, and watching his march from a +distance. The tribes from the eastern counties made their +submission, and at Caesar’s orders supplied him with corn. +Caesar marched on to St. Albans itself, then lying in the midst of +forests and marshes, where the cattle, the Cassi’s only wealth, +had been collected for security. St. Albans and the cattle were +taken; Cassibelaunus sued for peace; the days were drawing in; and +Caesar, having no intention of wintering in Britain, considered he +had done enough and need go no farther. He returned as he had come. +The Kentish men had attacked the camp in his absence, but had been +beaten off with heavy loss. The Romans had sallied out upon them, +killed as many as they could catch, and taken one of their chiefs. +Thenceforward they had been left in quiet. A nominal tribute, which +was never paid, was assigned to the tribes who had submitted. The +fleet was in order, and all was ready for departure. The only, but +unhappily too valuable, booty which they had carried off consisted +of some thousands of prisoners. These, when landed in Gaul, were +disposed of to contractors, to be carried to Italy and sold as +slaves. Two trips were required to transport the increased numbers; +but the passage was accomplished without accident, and the whole +army was again at Boulogne.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the expedition into Britain. It had been undertaken +rather for effect than for material advantage; and everything which +had been aimed at had been gained. The Gauls looked no more across +the Channel for support of insurrections; the Romans talked with +admiration for a century of the far land to which Caesar had borne +the eagles; and no exploit gave him more fame with his +contemporaries. Nor was it without use to have solved a +geographical problem, and to have discovered with certainty what +the country was, the white cliffs of which were visible from the +shores which were now Roman territory. Caesar during his stay in +Britain had acquired a fairly accurate notion of it. He knew that +it was an island, and he knew its dimensions and shape. He knew +that Ireland lay to the west of it, and Ireland, he had been told, +was about half its size. He had heard of the Isle of Man, and how +it was situated. To the extreme north above Britain he had +ascertained that there were other islands, where in winter the sun +scarcely rose above the horizon; and he had observed through +accurate measurement by water-clocks that the midsummer nights in +Britain were shorter than in the south of France and Italy. He had +inquired into the natural products of the country. There were tin +mines, he found, in parts of the island, and iron in small +quantities; but copper was imported from the Continent. The +vegetation resembled that of France, save that he saw no beech and +no spruce pine. Of more consequence were the people and the +distribution of them. The Britons of the interior he conceived to +be indigenous. The coast was chiefly occupied by immigrants from +Belgium, as could be traced in the nomenclature of places. The +country seemed thickly inhabited. The flocks and herds were large; +and farm buildings were frequent, resembling those in Gaul. In Kent +especially, civilization was as far advanced as on the opposite +continent. The Britons proper from the interior showed fewer signs +of progress. They did not break the ground for corn; they had no +manufactures; they lived on meat and milk, and were dressed in +leather. They dyed their skins blue that they might look more +terrible. They wore their hair long, and had long mustaches. In +their habits they had not risen out of the lowest order of +savagery. They had wives in common, and brothers and sisters, +parents and children, lived together with promiscuous unrestraint. +From such a country not much was to be gained in the way of spoil; +nor had much been expected. Since Cicero’s conversion, his +brother Quintus had joined Caesar, and was now attending him as one +of his lieutenant-generals. The brothers were in intimate +correspondence. Cicero, though he watched the British expedition +with interest, anticipated that Quintus would bring nothing of +value back with him but slaves; and he warned his friend Atticus, +who dealt extensively in such commodities, that the slaves from +Britain would not be found of superior quality. <a name="fnr103"></a> <a href="#fn103" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn102"></a> <a href="#fnr102">[1]</a> +Nassau and Darmstadt.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn103"></a> <a href="#fnr103">[2]</a> +“Britannici belli exitus exspectatur. Constat enim, aditus +insulae esse munitos mirificis molibus. Etiam illud jam cognitum +est, neque argenti scrupulum esse ullum in illâ insulâ, neque ullam +spem praedae, nisi ex mancipiis: ex quibus nullos puto te litteris +aut musicis eruditos exspectare.”—<i>Ad Atticum</i>, iv. +16. It does not appear what Cicero meant by the “mirificae +moles” which guarded the approaches to Britain, whether Dover +Cliff or the masses of sand under water at the Goodwins.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter17">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> + +<p>The summer had passed off gloriously for the Roman arms. The +expedition to Britain had produced all the effects which Caesar +expected from it, and Gaul was outwardly calm. Below the smooth +appearance the elements of disquiet were silently working, and the +winter was about to produce the most serious disaster and the +sharpest trials which Caesar had yet experienced. On his return +from Britain he held a council at Amiens. The harvest had been bad, +and it was found expedient, for their better provision, to disperse +the troops over a broader area than usual. There were in all eight +legions, with part of another to be disposed of, and they were +distributed in the following order. Lucius Roscius was placed at +Séex, in Normandy; Quintus Cicero at Charleroy, not far from the +scene of the battle with the Nervii. Cicero had chosen this +position for himself as peculiarly advantageous; and his brother +speaks of Caesar’s acquiescence in the arrangement as a special +mark of favor to himself. Labienus was at Lavacherie, on the +Ourthe, about seventy miles to the south-east of Cicero; and +Sabinus and Cotta were at Tongres, among the Aduatuci, not far from +Liége, an equal distance from him to the north-east. Caius Fabius +had a legion at St. Pol, between Calais and Arras; Trebonius one at +Amiens; Marcus Crassus one at Montdidier; Munatius Plancus one +across the Oise, near Compiègne. Roscius was far off, but in a +comparatively quiet country. The other camps lay within a circle, +two hundred miles in diameter, of which Bavay was the centre. +Amiens was at one point on the circumference. Tongres, on the +opposite side of it, to the north-east. Sabinus, being the most +exposed, had, in addition to his legion, a few cohorts lately +raised in Italy. Caesar, having no particular business to take him +over the Alps, remained, with Trebonius attending to general +business. His dispositions had been carefully watched by the Gauls. +Caesar, they supposed, would go away as usual; they even believed +that he had gone; and a conspiracy was formed in the north to +destroy the legions in detail.</p> + +<p>The instigator of the movement was Induciomarus, the leader of +the patriot party among the Treveri, whose intrigues had taken +Caesar to the Moselle before the first visit to Britain. At that +time Induciomarus had been able to do nothing; but a fairer +opportunity had arrived. The overthrow of the great German horde +had affected powerfully the semi-Teutonic populations on the left +bank of the Rhine. The Eburones, a large tribe of German race +occupying the country between Liége and Cologne, had given in their +submission; but their strength was still undiminished, and +Induciomarus prevailed on their two chiefs, Ambiorix and +Catavoleus, to attack Sabinus and Cotta. It was midwinter. The camp +at Tongres was isolated. The nearest support was seventy miles +distant. If one Roman camp was taken, Induciomarus calculated that +the country would rise; the others could be separately surrounded, +and Gaul would be free. The plot was well laid. An entrenched camp +being difficult to storm, the confederates decided to begin by +treachery. Ambiorix was personally known to many of the Roman +officers. He sent to Sabiuus to say that he wished to communicate +with him on a matter of the greatest consequence. An interview +being granted, he stated that a general conspiracy had been formed +through the whole of Gaul to surprise and destroy the legions. Each +station was to be attacked on the same day, that they might be +unable to support each other. He pretended himself to have +remonstrated; but his tribe, he said, had been carried away by the +general enthusiasm for liberty, and he could not keep them back. +Vast bodies of Germans had crossed the Rhine to join in the war. In +two days at the furthest they would arrive. He was under private +obligations to Caesar, who had rescued his son and nephew in the +fight with the Aduatuci, and out of gratitude he wished to save +Sabinus from destruction, which was otherwise inevitable. He urged +him to escape while there was still time, and to join either +Labienus or Cicero, giving a solemn promise that he should not be +molested on the road.</p> + +<p>A council of officers was held on the receipt of this unwelcome +information. It was thought unlikely that the Eburones would rise +by themselves. It was probable enough, therefore, that the +conspiracy was more extensive. Cotta, who was second in command, +was of opinion that it would be rash and wrong to leave the camp +without Caesar’s orders. They had abundant provisions. They +could hold their own lines against any force which the Germans +could bring upon them, and help would not be long in reaching them. +It would be preposterous to take so grave a step on the advice of +an enemy. Sabinus unfortunately thought differently. He had been +over-cautious in Brittany, though he had afterward redeemed his +fault. Caesar, he persuaded himself, had left the country; each +commander therefore must act on his own responsibility. The story +told by Ambiorix was likely in itself. The Germans were known to be +furious at the passage of the Rhine, the destruction of Ariovistus, +and their other defeats. Gaul resented the loss of its +independence. Ambiorix was acting like a true friend, and it would +be madness to refuse his offer. Two days’ march would bring +them to their friends. If the alarm was false, they could return. +If there was to be a general insurrection, the legions could not be +too speedily brought together. If they waited, as Cotta advised, +they would be surrounded, and in the end would be starved into +surrender.</p> + +<p>Cotta was not convinced, and the majority of officers supported +him. The first duty of a Roman army, he said, was obedience to +orders. Their business was to hold the post which had been +committed to them, till they were otherwise directed. The officers +were consulting in the midst of the camp, surrounded by the +legionaries. “Have it as you wish,” Sabinus exclaimed, in +a tone which the men could hear; “I am not afraid of being +killed. If things go amiss, the troops will understand where to lay +the blame. If you allowed it, they might in forty-eight hours be at +the next quarters, facing the chances of war with their comrades, +instead of perishing here alone by sword or hunger.”</p> + +<p>Neither party would give way. The troops joined in the +discussion. They were willing either to go or to stay, if their +commanders would agree; but they said that it must be one thing or +the other; disputes would be certain ruin. The discussion lasted +till midnight. Sabinus was obstinate, Cotta at last withdrew his +opposition, and the fatal resolution was formed to march at dawn. +The remaining hours of the night were passed by the men in +collecting such valuables as they wished to take with them. +Everything seemed ingeniously done to increase the difficulty of +remaining, and to add to the perils of the march by the exhaustion +of the troops. The Meuse lay between them and Labienus, so they had +selected to go to Cicero at Charleroy. Their course lay up the left +bank of the little river <i>Geer</i>. Trusting to the promises of +Ambiorix, they started in loose order, followed by a long train of +carts and wagons. The Eburones lay, waiting for them, in a large +valley, two miles from the camp. When most of the cohorts were +entangled in the middle of the hollow, the enemy appeared suddenly, +some in front, some on both sides of the valley, some behind +threatening the baggage. Wise men, as Caesar says, anticipate +possible difficulties, and decide beforehand what they will do if +occasions arise. Sabinus had foreseen nothing and arranged nothing. +Cotta, who had expected what might happen, was better prepared, and +did the best that was possible. The men had scattered among the +wagons, each to save or protect what he could. Cotta ordered them +back, bade them leave the carts to their fate, and form together in +a ring. He did right, Caesar thought; but the effect was +unfortunate. The troops lost heart, and the enemy was encouraged, +knowing that the baggage would only be abandoned when the position +was desperate. The Eburones were under good command. They did not, +as might have been expected, fly upon the plunder. They stood to +their work, well aware that the carts would not escape them. They +were not in great numbers. Caesar specially says that the Romans +were as numerous as they. But everything else was against the +Romans. Sabinus could give no directions. They were in a narrow +meadow, with wooded hills on each side of them filled with enemies +whom they could not reach. When they charged, the light-footed +barbarians ran back; when they retired, they closed in upon them +again, and not a dart, an arrow, or a stone missed its mark among +the crowded cohorts. Bravely as the Romans fought, they were in a +trap where their courage was useless to them. The battle lasted +from dawn till the afternoon, and though they were falling fast, +there was no flinching and no cowardice. Caesar, who inquired +particularly into the minutest circumstances of the disaster, +records by name the officers who distinguished themselves; he +mentions one whose courage he had marked before, who was struck +down with a lance through his thighs, and another who was killed in +rescuing his son. The brave Cotta was hit in the mouth by a stone +as he was cheering on his men. The end came at last. Sabinus, +helpless and distracted, caught sight of Ambiorix in the confusion, +and sent an interpreter to implore him to spare the remainder of +the army. Ambiorix answered that Sabinus might come to him, if he +pleased; he hoped he might persuade his tribe to be merciful; he +promised that Sabinus himself should suffer no injury. Sabinus +asked Cotta to accompany him. Cotta said he would never surrender +to an armed enemy; and, wounded as he was, he stayed with the +legion. Sabinus, followed by the rest of the surviving officers +whom he ordered to attend him, proceeded to the spot where the +chief was standing. They were commanded to lay down their arms. +They obeyed, and were immediately killed; and with one wild yell +the barbarians then rushed in a mass on the deserted cohorts. Cotta +fell, and most of the others with him. The survivors, with the +eagle of the legion, which they had still faithfully guarded, +struggled back in the dusk to their deserted camp. The +standard-bearer, surrounded by enemies, reached the fosse, flung +the eagle over the rampart, and fell with the last effort. Those +that were left fought on till night, and then, seeing that hope was +gone, died like Romans on each other’s swords—a signal +illustration of the Roman greatness of mind, which had died out +among the degenerate patricians, but was living in all its force in +Caesar’s legions. A few stragglers, who had been cut off during +the battle from their comrades, escaped in the night through the +woods, and carried the news to Labienus. Cicero, at Charleroy, was +left in ignorance. The roads were beset, and no messenger could +reach him.</p> + +<p>Induciomarus understood his countrymen. The conspiracy with +which he had frightened Sabinus had not as yet extended beyond a +few northern chiefs, hut the success of Ambiorix produced the +effect which he desired. As soon as it was known that two Roman +generals had been cut off, the remnants of the Aduatuci and the +Nervii were in arms for their own revenge. The smaller tribes along +the Meuse and Sambre rose with them; and Cicero, taken by surprise, +found himself surrounded before he had a thought of danger. The +Gauls, knowing that their chances depended on the capture of the +second camp before assistance could arrive, flung themselves so +desperately on the entrenchments that the legionaries were barely +able to repel the first assault. The assailants were driven back at +last, and Cicero despatched messengers to Caesar to Amiens, to give +him notice of the rising; but not a man was able to penetrate +through the multitude of enemies which now swarmed in the woods. +The troops worked gallantly, strengthening the weak points of their +fortifications. In one night they raised a hundred and twenty +towers on their walls. Again the Gauls tried a storm, and, though +they failed a second time, they left the garrison no rest either by +day or night. There was no leisure for sleep; not a hand could be +spared from the lines to care for the sick or wounded. Cicero was +in bad health, but he clung to his work till the men carried him by +force to his tent and obliged him to lie down. The first surprise +not having succeeded, the Nervian chiefs, who knew Cicero, desired +a parley. They told the same story which Ambiorix had told, that +the Germans had crossed the Rhine, and that all Gaul was in arms. +They informed him of the destruction of Sabinus; they warned him +that the same fate was hanging over himself, and that his only hope +was in surrender. They did not wish, they said, to hurt either him +or the Roman people; he and his troops would be free to go where +they pleased, but they were determined to prevent the legions from +quartering themselves permanently in their country.</p> + +<p>There was but one Sabinus in the Roman army. Cicero answered, +with a spirit worthy of his country, that Romans accepted no +conditions from enemies in arms. The Gauls might, if they pleased, +send a deputation to Caesar, and hear what he would say to them. +For himself, he had no authority to listen to them. Force and +treachery being alike unavailing, they resolved to starve Cicero +out. They had watched the Roman strategy. They had seen and felt +the value of the entrenchments. They made a bank and ditch all +round the camp, and, though they had no tools but their swords with +which to dig turf and cut trees, so many there were of them that +the work was completed in three hours. <a name="fnr104"></a> <a +href="#fn104" class="fnsuper">1</a> Having thus pinned the Romans +in, they slung red-hot balls and flung darts carrying lighted straw +over the ramparts of the camp on the thatched roofs of the +soldiers’ huts. The wind was high, the fire spread, and amidst +the smoke and the blaze the Gauls again rushed on from all sides to +the assault. Roman discipline was never more severely tried, and +never showed its excellence more signally. The houses and stores of +the soldiers were in flames behind them. The enemy were pressing on +the walls in front, covered by a storm of javelins and stones and +arrows, but not a man left his post to save his property or to +extinguish the fire. They fought as they stood, striking down rank +after rank of the Gauls, who still crowded on, trampling on the +bodies of their companions, as the foremost lines fell dead into +the ditch. Such as reached the wall never left it alive, for they +were driven forward by the throng behind on the swords of the +legionaries. Thousands of them had fallen, before, in desperation, +they drew back at last.</p> + +<p>But Cicero’s situation was almost desperate too. The huts +were destroyed. The majority of the men were wounded, and those +able to bear arms were daily growing weaker in number. Caesar was +120 miles distant, and no word had reached him of the danger. +Messengers were again sent off, but they were caught one after +another, and were tortured to death in front of the ramparts, and +the boldest men shrank from risking their lives on so hopeless an +enterprise. At length a Nervian slave was found to make another +adventure. He was a Gaul, and could easily disguise himself. A +letter to Caesar was enclosed in the shaft of his javelin. He +glided out of the camp in the dark, passed undetected among the +enemies as one of themselves, and, escaping from their lines, made +his way to Amiens.</p> + +<p>Swiftness of movement was Caesar’s distinguishing +excellence. The legions were kept ready to march at an hour’s +notice. He sent an order to Crassus to join him instantly from +Montdidier. He sent to Fabius at St. Pol to meet him at Arras. He +wrote to Labienus, telling him the situation, and leaving him to +his discretion to advance or to remain on his guard at Lavacherie, +as might seem most prudent. Not caring to wait for the rest of his +army, and leaving Crassus to take care of Amiens, he started +himself, the morning after the information reached him, with +Trebonius’s legion to Cicero’s relief. Fabius joined him, +as he had been directed, at Arras. He had hoped for Labienus’s +presence also; but Labienus sent to say that he was surrounded by +the Treveri, and dared not stir. Caesar approved his hesitation, +and with but two legions, amounting in all to only 7,000 men, he +hurried forward to the Nervian border. Learning that Cicero was +still holding out, he wrote a letter to him in Greek, that it might +be unintelligible if intercepted, to tell him that help was near. A +Gaul carried the letter, and fastened it by a line to his javelin, +which he flung over Cicero’s rampart. The javelin stuck in the +side of one of the towers and was unobserved for several days. The +besiegers were better informed. They learnt that Caesar was at +hand, that he had but a handful of men with him. By that time their +own numbers had risen to 60,000, and, leaving Cicero to be dealt +with at leisure, they moved off to envelop and destroy their great +enemy. Caesar was well served by spies. He knew that Cicero was no +longer in immediate danger, and there was thus no occasion for him +to risk a battle at a disadvantage to relieve him. When he found +the Gauls near him, he encamped, drawing his lines as narrowly as +he could, that from the small show which he made they might imagine +his troops to be even fewer than they were. He invited attack by an +ostentation of timidity, and having tempted the Gauls to become the +assailants, he flung open his gates, rushed out upon them with his +whole force, and all but annihilated them. The patriot army was +broken to pieces, and the unfortunate Nervii and Aduatuci never +rallied from this second blow. Caesar could then go at his leisure +to Cicero and his comrades, who had fought so nobly against such +desperate odds. In every ten men he found that there was but one +unwounded. He inquired with minute curiosity into every detail of +the siege. In a general address he thanked Cicero and the whole +legion. He thanked the officers man by man for their gallantry and +fidelity. Now for the first time (and that he could have remained +ignorant of it so long speaks for the passionate unanimity with +which the Gauls had risen) he learnt from prisoners the fate of +Sabinus. He did not underrate the greatness of the catastrophe. The +soldiers in the army he treated always as friends and comrades in +arms, and the loss of so many of them was as personally grievous to +him as the effects of it might be politically mischievous. He made +it the subject of a second speech to his own and to Cicero’s +troops, but he spoke to encourage and to console. A serious +misfortune had happened, he said, through the fault of one of his +generals, but it must be borne with equanimity, and had already +been heroically expiated. The meeting with Cicero must have been an +interesting one. He and the two Ciceros had been friends and +companions in youth. It would have been well if Marcus Tullius +could have remembered in the coming years the personal exertion +with which Caesar had rescued a brother to whom he was so warmly +attached.</p> + +<p>Communications among the Gauls were feverishly rapid. While the +Nervii were attacking Cicero, Induciomarus and the Treveri had +surrounded Labienus at Lavacherie. Caesar had entered Cicero’s +camp at three o’clock in the afternoon. The news reached +Induciomarus before midnight, and he had disappeared by the +morning. Caesar returned to Amiens, but the whole country was now +in a state of excitement. He had intended to go to Italy, but he +abandoned all thoughts of departure. Rumors came of messengers +hurrying to and fro, of meetings at night in lonely places, of +confederacies among the patriots. Even Brittany was growing uneasy; +a force had been collected to attack Roscius, though it had +dispersed after the relief of Cicero. Caesar again summoned the +chiefs to come to him, and between threats and encouragements +succeeded in preventing a general rising. But the tribes on the +upper Seine broke into disturbance. The Aedui and the Remi alone +remained really loyal; and it was evident that only a leader was +wanted to raise the whole of Gaul. Caesar himself admitted that +nothing could be more natural. The more high-spirited of the Gauls +were miserable to see that their countrymen had so lost conceit of +themselves as to submit willingly to the Roman rule.</p> + +<p>Induciomarus was busy all the winter soliciting help from the +Germans, and promising money and lands. The Germans had had enough +of fighting the Romans, and, as long as their own independence was +not threatened, were disinclined to move; but Induciomarus, nothing +daunted, gathered volunteers on all sides. His camp became a +rallying point for disaffection. Envoys came privately to him from +distant tribes. He, too, held his rival council, and a fresh attack +on the camp of Labienus was to be the first step in a general war. +Labienus, well informed of what was going on, watched him quietly +from his entrenchments. When the Gauls approached, he affected +fear, as Caesar had done, and he secretly formed a body of cavalry, +of whose existence they had no suspicion. Induciomarus became +careless. Day after day he rode round the entrenchments, insulting +the Romans as cowards, and his men flinging their javelins over the +walls. Labienus remained passive, till one evening, when, after one +of these displays, the loose bands of the Gauls had scattered, he +sent his horse out suddenly with orders to fight neither with small +nor great, save with Induciomarus only, and promising a reward for +his head. Fortune favored him. Induciomarus was overtaken and +killed in a ford of the Ourthe, and for the moment the agitation +was cooled down. But the impression which had been excited by the +destruction of Sabinus was still telling through the country. +Caesar expected fresh trouble in the coming summer, and spent the +rest of the winter and spring in preparing for a new struggle. +Future peace depended on convincing the Gauls of the inexhaustible +resources of Italy; on showing them that any loss which might be +inflicted could be immediately repaired, and that the army could +and would be maintained in whatever strength might be necessary to +coerce them. He raised two fresh legions in his own province. +Pompey had formed a legion in the north of Italy, within +Caesar’s boundaries, for service in Spain. Caesar requested +Pompey to lend him this legion for immediate purposes; and Pompey, +who was still on good terms with Caesar, recognized the importance +of the occasion, and consented without difficulty.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 53.]</span> Thus amply reinforced, +Caesar, before the grass had begun to grow, took the field against +the tribes which were openly disaffected. The first business was to +punish the Belgians, who had attacked Cicero. He fell suddenly on +the Nervii with four legions, seized their cattle, wasted their +country, and carried off thousands of them to be sold into slavery. +Returning to Amiens, he again called the chiefs about him, and, the +Seine tribes refusing to put in an appearance, he transferred the +council to Paris, and, advancing by rapid marches, he brought the +Senones and Carnutes to pray for pardon. <a name="fnr105"></a> <a +href="#fn105" class="fnsuper">2</a> He then turned on the Treveri +and their allies, who, under Ambiorix, had destroyed Sabinus. +Leaving Labienus with the additional legions to check the Treveri, +he went himself into Flanders, where Ambiorix was hiding among the +rivers and marshes. He threw bridges over the dikes, burnt the +villages, and carried off an enormous spoil, of cattle and, alas! +of men. To favor and enrich the tribes that submitted after a first +defeat, to depopulate the determinately rebellious by seizing and +selling as slaves those who had forfeited a right to his +protection, was his uniform and, as the event proved, entirely +successful policy. The persuasions of the Treveri had failed with +the nearer German tribes; but some of the Suevi, who had never seen +the Romans, were tempted to adventure over and try their fortunes; +and the Treveri were waiting for them, to set on Labienus, in +Caesar’s absence. Labienus went in search of the Treveri, +tempted them into an engagement by a feigned flight, killed many of +them, and filled his camp with prisoners. Their German allies +retreated again across the river, and the patriot chiefs, who had +gone with Induciomarus, concealed themselves in the forests of +Westphalia. Caesar thought it desirable to renew the admonition +which he had given the Germans two years before, and again threw a +bridge over the Rhine at the same place where he had made the +first, but a little higher up the stream. Experience made the +construction more easy. The bridge was begun and finished in a few +days, but this time the labor was thrown away. The operation itself +lost its impressiveness by repetition, and the barrenness of +practical results was more evident than before. The Sueves, who had +gone home, were far away in the interior. To lead the heavily armed +legions in pursuit of wild light-footed marauders, who had not a +town which could be burned, or a field of corn which could be cut +for food, was to waste their strength to no purpose, and to prove +still more plainly that in their own forests they were beyond the +reach of vengeance. Caesar drew back again, after a brief visit to +his allies the Ubii, cut two hundred feet of the bridge on the +German side, and leaving the rest standing with a guard to defend +it, he went in search of Ambiorix, who had as yet eluded him, in +the Ardennes. Ambiorix had added treachery to insurrection, and as +long as he was free and unpunished the massacred legion had not +been fully avenged. Caesar was particularly anxious to catch him, +and once had found the nest warm which Ambiorix had left but a few +moments before.</p> + +<p>In the pursuit he came again to Tongres, to the fatal camp which +Sabinus had deserted and in which the last of the legionaries had +killed each other, rather than degrade the Roman name by allowing +themselves to be captured. The spot was fated, and narrowly escaped +being the scene of a second catastrophe as frightful as the first. +The entrenchments were standing as they were left, ready to be +occupied. Caesar, finding himself encumbered by his heavy baggage +in the pursuit of Ambiorix, decided to leave it there with Quintus +Cicero and the 14th legion. He was going himself to scour Brabant +and East Flanders as far as the Scheldt. In seven days he promised +to return, and meanwhile he gave Cicero strict directions to keep +the legion within the lines, and not to allow any of the men to +stray. It happened that after Caesar recrossed the Rhine two +thousand German horse had followed in bravado, and were then +plundering between Tongres and the river. Hearing that there was a +rich booty in the camp, that Caesar was away, and only a small +party had been left to guard it, they decided to try to take the +place by a sudden stroke. Cicero, seeing no sign of an enemy, had +permitted his men to disperse in foraging parties. The Germans were +on them before they could recover their entrenchments, and they had +to form at a distance and defend themselves as they could. The +gates of the camp were open, and the enemy were actually inside +before the few maniples who were left there were able to collect +and resist them. Fortunately Sextius Bacillus, the same officer who +had so brilliantly distinguished himself in the battle with the +Nervii, and had since been badly wounded, was lying sick in his +tent, where he had been for five days, unable to touch food. +Hearing the disturbance, Bacillus sprang out, snatched a sword, +rallied such men as he could find, and checked the attack for a few +minutes. Other officers rushed to his help, and the legionaries +having their centurions with them recovered their steadiness. +Sextius Bacillus was again severely hurt, and fainted, but he was +carried off in safety. Some of the cohorts who were outside, and +had been for a time cut off, made their way into the camp to join +the defenders, and the Germans, who had come without any fixed +purpose, merely for plunder, gave way and galloped off again. They +left the Romans, however, still in the utmost consternation. The +scene and the associations of it suggested the most gloomy +anticipations. They thought that German cavalry could never be so +far from the Rhine, unless their countrymen were invading in force +behind them. Caesar, it was supposed, must have been surprised and +destroyed, and they and every Roman in Gaul would soon share the +same fate. Brave as they were, the Roman soldiers seem to have been +curiously liable to panics of this kind. The faith with which they +relied upon their general avenged itself through the completeness +with which they were accustomed to depend upon him. He returned on +the day which he had fixed, and not unnaturally was displeased at +the disregard of his orders. He did not, or does not in his +Commentaries, professedly blame Cicero. But the Ciceros perhaps +resented the loss of confidence which one of them had brought upon +himself. Quintus Cicero cooled in his zeal, and afterward amused +the leisure of his winter quarters with composing worthless +dramas.</p> + +<p>Ambiorix had again escaped, and was never taken. The punishment +fell on his tribe. The Eburones were completely rooted out. The +turn of the Carnutes and Senones came next. The people themselves +were spared; but their leader, a chief named Acco, who was found to +have instigated the revolt, was arrested and executed. Again the +whole of Gaul settled into seeming quiet; and Caesar went to Italy, +where the political frenzy was now boiling over.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn104"></a> <a href="#fnr104">[1]</a> +Caesar says their trenches were fifteen miles long. This is, +perhaps, a mistake of the transcriber. A Roman camp did not usually +cover more than a few acres.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn105"></a> <a href="#fnr105">[2]</a> +People about Sens, Melun, and Chartres.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter18">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 55.]</span> The conference at Lucca +and the Senate’s indifference had determined Cicero to throw in +his lot with the trimmers. He had remonstrated with Pompey on the +imprudence of prolonging Caesar’s command. Pompey, he thought, +would find out in time that he had made Caesar too strong for him; +but Pompey had refused to listen, and Cicero had concluded that he +must consider his own interests. His brother Quintus joined the +army in Gaul to take part in the invasion of Britain, and to share +the dangers and the honors of the winter which followed it. Cicero +himself began a warm correspondence with Caesar, and through +Quintus sent continued messages to him. Literature was a neutral +ground on which he could approach his political enemy without too +open discredit, and he courted eagerly the approval of a critic +whose literary genius he esteemed as highly as his own. Men of +genuine ability are rarely vain of what they can do really well. +Cicero admired himself as a statesman with the most unbounded +enthusiasm. He was proud of his verses, which were hopelessly +commonplace. In the art in which he was without a rival he was +modest and diffident. He sent his various writings for Caesar’s +judgment. “Like the traveller who has overslept himself,” +he said, “yet by extraordinary exertions reaches his goal +sooner than if he had been earlier on the road, I will follow your +advice and court this man. I have been asleep too long. I will +correct my slowness with my speed; and as you say he approves my +verses, I shall travel not with a common carriage, but with a +four-in-hand of poetry.” <a name="fnr106"></a> <a href="#fn106" class="fnsuper">1</a></p> + +<p>“What does Caesar say of my poems?” he wrote again. +“He tells me in one of his letters that he has never read +better Greek. At one place he writes [Greek: rathumotera] [somewhat +careless]. This is his word. Tell me the truth, Was it the matter +which did not please him, or the style?” “Do not be +afraid,” he added with candid simplicity; “I shall not +think a hair the worse of myself.” <a name="fnr107"></a> <a +href="#fn107" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>His affairs were still in disorder. Caesar had now large sums at +his disposition. Cicero gave the highest proof of the sincerity of +his conversion by accepting money from him. “You say,” he +observed in another letter, “that Caesar shows every day more +marks of his affection for you. It gives me infinite pleasure. I +can have no second thoughts in Caesar’s affairs. I act on +conviction, and am doing but my duty; but I am inflamed with love +for him.” <a name="fnr108"></a> <a href="#fn108" class= +"fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>With Pompey and Crassus Cicero seemed equally familiar. When +their consulship was over, their provinces were assigned as had +been determined. Pompey had Spain, with six legions. He remained +himself at Rome, sending lieutenants in charge of them. Crassus +aspired to equal the glory of his colleagues in the open field. He +had gained some successes in the war with the slaves which +persuaded him that he too could be a conqueror; and knowing as much +of foreign campaigning as the clerks in his factories, he intended +to use Syria as a base of operations against the Parthians, and to +extend the frontier to the Indus. The Senate had murmured, but +Cicero had passionately defended Crassus; <a name="fnr109"></a> <a +href="#fn109" class="fnsuper">4</a> and as if to show publicly how +entirely he had now devoted himself to the cause of the +“Dynasts,” he invited Crassus to dine with him the day +before his departure for the East.</p> + +<p>The position was not wholly pleasant to Cicero. +“Self-respect in speech, liberty in choosing the course which +we will pursue, is all gone,” he wrote to Lentulus +Spinther—“gone not more from me than from us all. We must +assent, as a matter of course, to what a few men say, or we must +differ from them to no purpose.—The relations of the Senate, of +the courts of justice, nay, of the whole Commonwealth are +changed.—The consular dignity of a firm and courageous statesman +can no longer be thought of. It has been lost by the folly of those +who estranged from the Senate the compact order of the equites and +a very distinguished man [Caesar].” <a name="fnr110"></a> <a +href="#fn110" class="fnsuper">5</a> And again: “We must go +with the times. Those who have played a great part in public life +have never been able to adhere to the same views on all occasions. +The art of navigation lies in trimming to the storm. When you can +reach your harbor by altering your course, it is a folly to +persevere in struggling against the wind. Were I entirely free I +should still act as I am doing; and when I am invited to my present +attitude by the kindness of one set of men, and am driven to it by +the injurious conduct of the other, I am content to do what I +conceive will conduce at once to my own advantage and the welfare +of the State.— Caesar’s influence is enormous. His wealth is +vast. I have the use of both, as if they were my own. Nor could I +have crushed the conspiracy of a set of villains to ruin me, +unless, in addition to the defences which I always possessed, I had +secured the goodwill of the men in power.” <a name="fnr111"></a> <a href="#fn111" class="fnsuper">6</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 54.]</span> Cicero’s conscience +could not have been easy when he was driven to such laborious +apologies. He spoke often of intending to withdraw into his family, +and devoting his time entirely to literature; but he could not +bring himself to leave the political ferment; and he was possessed +besides with a passionate desire to revenge himself on those who +had injured him. An opportunity seemed to present itself. The +persons whom he hated most, after Clodius, were the two consuls +Gabinius and Piso, who had permitted his exile. They had both +conducted themselves abominably in the provinces, which they had +bought, he said, at the price of his blood. Piso had been sent to +Macedonia, where he had allowed his army to perish by disease and +neglect. The frontiers had been overrun with brigands, and the +outcries of his subjects had been audible even in Rome against his +tyranny and incapacity. Gabinius, in Syria, had been more +ambitious, and had exposed himself to an indignation more violent +because more interested. At a hint from Pompey, he had restored +Ptolemy to Egypt on his own authority and without waiting for the +Senate’s sanction, and he had snatched for himself the prize +for which the chiefs of the Senate had been contending. He had +broken the law by leading his legions over the frontier. He had +defeated the feeble Alexandrians, and the gratified Ptolemy had +rewarded him with the prodigious sum of ten thousand talents—a +million and a half of English money. While he thus enriched himself +he had irritated the knights, who might otherwise have supported +him, by quarrelling with the Syrian revenue farmers, and, according +to popular scandal, he had plundered the province worse than it had +been plundered even by the pirates.</p> + +<p>When so fair a chance was thrown in his way, Cicero would have +been more than human if he had not availed himself of it. He moved +in the Senate for the recall of the two offenders, and in the +finest of his speeches he laid bare their reputed iniquities. His +position was a delicate one, because the senatorial party, could +they have had their way, would have recalled Caesar also. Gabinius +was Pompey’s favorite, and Piso was Caesar’s father-in-law. +Cicero had no intention of quarrelling with Caesar; between +his invectives, therefore, he was careful to interweave the most +elaborate compliments to the conqueror of Gaul. He dwelt with +extraordinary clearness on the value of Caesar’s achievements. +The conquest of Gaul, he said, was not the annexation of a +province. It was the dispersion of a cloud which had threatened +Italy from the days of Brennus. To recall Caesar would be madness. +He wished to remain only to complete his work; the more honor to +him that he was willing to let the laurels fade which were waiting +for him at Rome, before he returned to wear them. There were +persons who would bring him back, because they did not love him. +They would bring him back only to enjoy a triumph. Gaul had been +the single danger to the Empire. Nature had fortified Italy by the +Alps. The mountain-barrier alone had allowed Rome to grow to its +present greatness, but the Alps might now sink into the earth, +Italy had no more to fear. <a name="fnr112"></a> <a href="#fn112" +class="fnsuper">7</a></p> + +<p>The orator perhaps hoped that so splendid a vindication of +Caesar in the midst of his worst enemies might have purchased +pardon for his onslaught on the baser members of the +“Dynastic” faction. He found himself mistaken. His +eagerness to revenge his personal wrongs compelled him to drink the +bitterest cup of humiliation which had yet been offered to him. He +gained his immediate purpose. The two governors were recalled in +disgrace, and Gabinius was impeached under the new Julian law for +having restored Ptolemy without orders, and for the corrupt +administration of his province. Cicero would naturally have +conducted the prosecution; but pressure of some kind was laid on, +which compelled him to stand aside. The result of the trial on the +first of the two indictments was another of those mockeries of +justice which made the Roman law-courts the jest of mankind. Pompey +threw his shield over his instrument. He used his influence freely. +The Egyptian spoils furnished a fund to corrupt the judges. The +speech for the prosecution was so weak as to invite a failure, and +Gabinius was acquitted by a majority of purchased votes. “You +ask me how I endure such things,” Cicero bitterly wrote, in +telling the story to Atticus; “well enough, by Hercules, and I +am entirely pleased with myself. We have lost, my friend, not only +the juice and blood, but even the color and shape, of a +commonwealth. No decent constitution exists in which I can take a +part. How can you put up with such a state of things? you will say. +Excellently well. I recollect how public affairs went awhile ago, +when I was myself in office, and how grateful people were to me. I +am not distressed now, that the power is with a single man. Those +are miserable who could not bear to see me successful. I find much +to console me.” <a name="fnr113"></a> <a href="#fn113" class= +"fnsuper">8</a> “Gabinius is acquitted,” he wrote to his +brother.—“The verdict is so infamous that it is thought he +will be convicted on the other charge; but, as you perceive, the +constitution, the Senate, the courts, are all nought. There is no +honor in any one of us.—Some persons, Sallust among them, say that +I ought to have prosecuted him. I to risk my credit with such a +jury! what if I had acted, and he had escaped then! but other +motives influenced me. Pompey would have made a personal quarrel of +it with me. He would have come into the city. <a name="fnr114"></a> +<a href="#fn114" class="fnsuper">9</a>—He would have taken up with +Clodius again. I know that I was wise, and I hope that you agree +with me. I owe Pompey nothing, and he owes much to me; but in +public matters (not to put it more strongly) he has not allowed me +to oppose him; and when I was flourishing and he was less powerful +than he is now, he let me see what he could do. Now when I am not +even ambitious of power, and the constitution is broken down, and +Pompey is omnipotent, why should I contend with him? Then, says +Sallust, I ought to have pleased Pompey by defending Gabinius, as +he was anxious that I should. A nice friend Sallust, who would have +me push myself into dangerous quarrels, or cover myself with +eternal infamy!” <a name="fnr115"></a> <a href="#fn115" class= +"fnsuper">10</a></p> + +<p>Unhappy Cicero, wishing to act honorably, but without manliness +to face the consequences! He knew that it would be infamous for him +to defend Gabinius, yet at the second trial Cicero, who had led the +attack on him in the Senate, and had heaped invectives on him, the +most bitter which he ever uttered against man, nevertheless +actually did defend Gabinius. Perhaps he consoled himself with the +certainty that his eloquence would be in vain, and that his +extraordinary client this time could not escape conviction. Any +way, he appeared at the bar as Gabinius’s counsel. The Syrian +revenue farmers were present, open-mouthed with their accusations. +Gabinius was condemned, stripped of his spoils, and sent into +banishment. Cicero was left with his shame. Nor was this the worst. +There were still some dregs in the cup, which he was forced to +drain. Publius Vatinius was a prominent leader of the military +democratic party, and had often come in collision with Cicero. He +had been tribune when Caesar was consul, and had stood by him +against the Senate and Bibulus. He had served in Gaul in +Caesar’s first campaigns, and had returned to Rome, at +Caesar’s instance, to enter for higher office. He had carried +the praetorship against Cato; and Cicero in one of his speeches had +painted him as another Clodius or Catiline. When the praetorship +was expired, he was prosecuted for corruption; and Cicero was once +more compelled to appear on the other side, and defend him, as he +had done Gabinius. Caesar and Pompey, wishing perhaps to break +completely into harness the brilliant but still half unmanageable +orator, had so ordered, and Cicero had complied. He was ashamed, +but he had still his points of satisfaction. It was a matter of +course that, as an advocate, he must praise the man whom, a year +before, he had spattered with ignominy; but he had the pleasure of +feeling that he was revenging himself on his conservative allies, +who led the prosecution. “Why I praised Vatinius,” he +wrote to Lentulus, “I must beg you not to ask either in the +case of this or of any other criminal. I put it to the judges that +since certain noble lords, my good friends, were too fond of my +adversary [Clodius], and in the Senate would go apart with him +under my own eyes, and would treat him with warmest affection, they +must allow me to have my Publius [Vatinius], since they had theirs +[Clodius], and give them a gentle stab in return for their cuts at +me.” <a name="fnr116"></a> <a href="#fn116" class= +"fnsuper">11</a> Vatinius was acquitted. Cicero was very miserable. +“Gods and men approved,” he said; but his own conscience +condemned him, and at this time his one consolation, real or +pretended, was the friendship of Caesar. “Caesar’s +affectionate letters,” he told his brother, “are my only +pleasure; I attach little consequence to his promises; I do not +thirst for honors, or regret my past glory. I value more the +continuance of his good-will than the prospect of anything which he +may do for me. I am withdrawing from public affairs, and giving +myself to literature. But I am broken-hearted, my dear brother;—I +am broken-hearted that the constitution is gone, that the courts of +law are naught; and that now at my time of life, when I ought to be +leading with authority in the Senate, I must be either busy in the +Forum pleading, or occupying myself with my books at home. The +ambition of my boyhood—</p> + +<p class="quoted">Aye to be first, and chief among my peers—</p> + +<p>is all departed. Of my enemies, I have left some unassailed, and +some I even defend. Not only I may not think as I like, but I may +not hate as I like, <a name="fnr117"></a> <a href="#fn117" class= +"fnsuper">12</a> and Caesar is the only person who loves me as I +should wish to be loved, or, as some think, who desires to love +me.” <a name="fnr118"></a> <a href="#fn118" class= +"fnsuper">13</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 53.]</span> The position was the +more piteous, because Cicero could not tell how events would fall +out after all. Crassus was in the East, with uncertain prospects +there. Caesar was in the midst of a dangerous war, and might be +killed or might die. Pompey was but a weak vessel; a distinguished +soldier, perhaps, but without the intellect or the resolution to +control a proud, resentful, and supremely unscrupulous aristocracy. +In spite of Caesar’s victories, his most envenomed enemy, +Domitius Ahenobarbus, had succeeded after all in carrying one of +the consulships for the year 54. The popular party had secured the +other, indeed; but they had returned Appius Claudius, Clodius’s +brother, and this was but a poor consolation. In the year that was +to follow, the conservatives had bribed to an extent which +astonished the most cynical observers. Each season the elections +were growing more corrupt; but the proceedings on both sides in the +fall of 54 were the most audacious that had ever been known, the +two reigning consuls taking part, and encouraging and assisting in +scandalous bargains. “All the candidates have bribed,” +wrote Cicero; “but they will be all acquitted, and no one will +ever be found guilty again. The two consuls are branded with +infamy.” Memmius, the popular competitor, at Pompey’s +instance, exposed in the Senate an arrangement which the consuls +had entered into to secure the returns. The names and signatures +were produced. The scandal was monstrous, and could not be denied. +The better kind of men began to speak of a dictatorship as the only +remedy; and although the two conservative candidates were declared +elected for 53, and were allowed to enter on their offices, there +was a general feeling that a crisis had arrived, and that a great +catastrophe could not be very far off. The form which it might +assume was the problem of the hour.</p> + +<p>Cicero, speaking two years before on the broad conditions of his +time, had used these remarkable words: “No issue can be +anticipated from discords among the leading men, except either +universal ruin, or the rule of a conqueror, or a monarchy. There +exists at present an unconcealed hatred implanted and fastened into +the minds of our leading politicians. They are at issue among +themselves. Opportunities are caught for mutual injury. Those who +are in the second rank watch for the chances of the time. Those who +might do better are afraid of the words and designs of their +enemies.” <a name="fnr119"></a> <a href="#fn119" class= +"fnsuper">14</a></p> + +<p>The discord had been suspended, and the intrigues temporarily +checked, by the combination of Caesar and Pompey with Crassus, the +chief of the moneyed commoners. Two men of equal military +reputation, and one of them from his greater age and older services +expecting and claiming precedency, do not easily work together. For +Pompey to witness the rising glory of Caesar, and to feel in his +own person the superior ascendency of Caesar’s character, +without an emotion of jealousy, would have demanded a degree of +virtue which few men have ever possessed. They had been united so +far by identity of conviction, by a military detestation of +anarchy, by a common interest in wringing justice from the Senate +for the army and people, by a pride in the greatness of their +country, which they were determined to uphold. These motives, +however, might not long have borne the strain but for other ties, +which had cemented their union. Pompey had married Caesar’s +daughter, to whom he was passionately attached; and the personal +competition between them was neutralized by the third element of +the capitalist party represented by Crassus, which if they +quarrelled would secure the supremacy of the faction to which +Crassus attached himself. There was no jealousy on Caesar’s +part. There was no occasion for it. Caesar’s fame was rising. +Pompey had added nothing to his past distinctions, and the glory +pales which does not grow in lustre. No man who had once been the +single object of admiration, who had tasted the delight of being +the first in the eyes of his countrymen, could find himself +compelled to share their applause with a younger rival without +experiencing a pang. So far Pompey had borne the trial well. He was +on the whole, notwithstanding the Egyptian scandal, honorable and +constitutionally disinterested. He was immeasurably superior to the +fanatic Cato, to the shifty Cicero, or the proud and worthless +leaders of the senatorial oligarchy. Had the circumstances remained +unchanged, the severity of the situation might have been overcome. +But two misfortunes coming near upon one another broke the ties of +family connection, and by destroying the balance of parties laid +Pompey open to the temptation of patrician intrigue. In the year 54 +Caesar’s great mother Aurelia, and his sister Julia, +Pompey’s wife, both died. A child which Julia had borne to +Pompey died also, and the powerful if silent influence of two +remarkable women, and the joint interest in an infant, who would +have been Caesar’s heir as well as Pompey’s, were swept +away together.</p> + +<p>The political link was broken immediately after by a public +disaster unequalled since the last consular army was overthrown by +the Gauls on the Rhone; and the capitalists, left without a leader, +drifted away to their natural allies in the Senate. Crassus had +taken the field in the East, with a wild ambition of becoming in +his turn a great conqueror. At first all had gone well with him. He +had raised a vast treasure. He had plundered the wealthy temples in +Phoenicia and Palestine to fill his military chest. He had able +officers with him; not the least among them his son Publius +Crassus, who had served with such distinction under Caesar. He +crossed the Euphrates at the head of a magnificent army, expecting +to carry all before him with the ease of an Alexander. Relying on +his own idle judgment, he was tempted in the midst of a burning +summer into the waterless plains of Mesopotamia; and on the 15th of +June the great Roman millionaire met his miserable end, the whole +force, with the exception of a few scattered cohorts, being totally +annihilated.</p> + +<p>The catastrophe in itself was terrible. The Parthians had not +provoked the war. The East was left defenceless; and the natural +expectation was that, in their just revenge, they might carry fire +and sword through Asia Minor and Syria. It is not the least +remarkable sign of the times that the danger failed to touch the +patriotism of the wretched factions in Rome. The one thought of the +leaders of the Senate was to turn the opportunity to advantage, +wrest the constitution free from military dictation, shake off the +detested laws of Caesar, and revenge themselves on the author of +them. Their hope was in Pompey. If Pompey could be won over from +Caesar, the army would be divided. Pompey, they well knew, unless +he had a stronger head than his own to guide him, could be used +till the victory was won, and then be thrust aside. It was but too +easy to persuade him that he was the greatest man in the Empire; +and that as the chief of a constitutional government, and with the +Senate at his side, he would inscribe his name in the annals of his +country as the restorer of Roman liberty.</p> + +<p>The intrigue could not be matured immediately. The aristocracy +had first to overcome their own animosities against Pompey, and +Pompey himself was generous, and did not yield to the first efforts +of seduction. The smaller passions were still at work among the +baser senatorial chiefs, and the appetite for provinces and +pillage. The Senate, even while Crassus was alive, had carried the +consulships for 53 by the most infamous corruption. They meant now +to attack Caesar in earnest, and their energies were addressed to +controlling the elections for the next year. Milo was one of the +candidates; and Cicero, who was watching the political current, +reverted to his old friendship for him, and became active in the +canvass. Milo was not a creditable ally. He already owed half a +million of money, and Cicero, who was anxious for his reputation, +endeavored to keep him within the bounds of decency. But Milo’s +mind was fastened on the province which was to redeem his fortunes, +and he flung into bribery what was left of his wrecked credit with +the desperation of a gambler. He had not been praetor, and thus was +not legally eligible for the consulate. This, however, was +forgiven. He had been aedile in 54, and as aedile he had already +been magnificent in prodigality. But to secure the larger prize, he +gave as a private citizen the most gorgeous entertainment which +even in that monstrous age the city had yet wondered at. +“Doubly, trebly foolish of him,” thought Cicero, +“for he was not called on to go to such expense, and he has +not the means.” “Milo makes me very anxious,” he +wrote to his brother. “I hope all will be made right by his +consulship. I shall exert myself for him as much as I did for +myself; <a name="fnr120"></a> <a href="#fn120" class= +"fnsuper">15</a> but he is quite mad,” Cicero added; “he +has spent £30,000 on his games.” Mad, but still, in +Cicero’s opinion, well fitted for the consulship, and likely to +get it. All the “good,” in common with himself, were most +anxious for Milo’s success. The people would vote for him as a +reward for the spectacles, and the young and influential for his +efforts to secure their favor. <a name="fnr121"></a> <a href="#fn121" class="fnsuper">16</a></p> + +<p>The reappearance of the “Boni,” the “Good,” +in Cicero’s letters marks the turn of the tide again in his own +mind. The “Good,” or the senatorial party, were once more +the objects of his admiration. The affection for Caesar was passing +off.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 52.]</span> A more objectionable +candidate than Milo could hardly have been found. He was no better +than a patrician gladiator, and the choice of such a man was a +sufficient indication of the Senate’s intentions. The popular +party led by the tribunes made a sturdy resistance. There were +storms in the Curia, tribunes imprisoning senators, and the Senate +tribunes. Army officers suggested the election of military tribunes +(lieutenant-generals), instead of consuls; and when they failed, +they invited Pompey to declare himself Dictator. The Senate put on +mourning, as a sign of approaching calamity. Pompey calmed their +fears by declining so ambitious a position. But as it was obvious +that Milo’s chief object was a province which he might +misgovern, Pompey forced the Senate to pass a resolution that +consuls and praetors must wait five years from their term of office +before a province was to be allotted to them. The temptation to +corruption might thus in some degree be diminished. But senatorial +resolutions did not pass for much, and what a vote had enacted a +vote could repeal. The agitation continued. The tribunes, when the +time came, forbade the elections. The year expired. The old +magistrates went out of office, and Rome was left again without +legitimate functionaries to carry on the government. All the +offices fell vacant together.</p> + +<p>Now once more Clodius was reappearing on the scene. He had been +silent for two years, content or constrained to leave the control +of the democracy to the three chiefs. One of them was now gone. The +more advanced section of the party was beginning to distrust +Pompey. Clodius, their favorite representative, had been put +forward for the praetorship, while Milo was aspiring to be made +consul, and Clodius had prepared a fresh batch of laws to be +submitted to the sovereign people; one of which (if Cicero did not +misrepresent it to inflame the aristocracy) was a measure of some +kind for the enfranchisement of the slaves, or perhaps of the sons +of slaves. <a name="fnr122"></a> <a href="#fn122" class= +"fnsuper">17</a> He was as popular as ever. He claimed to be acting +for Caesar, and was held certain of success; if he was actually +praetor, such was his extraordinary influence, and such was the +condition of things in the city, that if Milo was out of the way he +could secure consuls of his own way of thinking, and thus have the +whole constitutional power in his hands. <a name="fnr123"></a> <a +href="#fn123" class="fnsuper">18</a></p> + +<p>Thus both sides had reason for fearing and postponing the +elections. Authority, which had been weak before, was now extinct. +Rome was in a state of formal anarchy, and the factions of Milo and +Clodius fought daily, as before, in the streets, with no one to +interfere with them.</p> + +<p>Violent humors come naturally to a violent end. Milo had long +before threatened to kill Clodius. Cicero had openly boasted of his +friend’s intention to do it, and had spoken of Clodius in the +Senate itself as Milo’s predestined victim. On the evening of +the 13th January, while the uncertainty about the elections was at +its height, Clodius was returning from his country house, which was +a few miles from Rome on “the Appian Way.” Milo happened +to be travelling accidentally down the same road, on his way to +Lanuvium (Civita Indovina), and the two rivals and their escorts +met. Milo’s party was the largest. The leaders passed one +another, evidently not intending a collision, but their followers, +who were continually at sword’s point, came naturally to blows. +Clodius rode back to see what was going on; he was attacked and +wounded, and took refuge in a house on the roadside. The temptation +to make an end of his enemy was too strong for Milo to resist. To +have hurt Clodius would, he thought, be as dangerous as to have +made an end of him. His blood was up. The “predestined +victim,” who had thwarted him for so many years, was within +his reach. The house was forced open. Clodius was dragged out +bleeding, and was despatched, and the body was left lying where he +fell, where a senator, named Sextus Tedius, who was passing an hour +or two after, found it, and carried it the same night to Rome. The +little which is known of Clodius comes only through Cicero’s +denunciations, which formed or colored later Roman traditions; and +it is thus difficult to comprehend the affection which the people +felt for him; but of the fact there can be no doubt at all; he was +the representative of their political opinions, the embodiment, +next to Caesar, of their practical hopes; and his murder was +accepted as a declaration of an aristocratic war upon them, and the +first blow in another massacre. On the following day, in the winter +morning, the tribunes brought the body into the Forum. A vast crowd +had collected to see it, and it was easy to lash them into fury. +They dashed in the doors of the adjoining senate-house, they +carried in the bier, made a pile of chairs and benches and tables, +and burnt all that remained of Clodius in the ashes of the +senate-house itself. The adjoining temples were consumed in the +conflagration. The Senate collected elsewhere. They put on a bold +front, they talked of naming an interrex—which they ought to have +done before—and of holding the elections instantly, now that +Clodius was gone. Milo still hoped, and the aristocracy still hoped +for Milo. But the storm was too furious. Pompey came in with a body +of troops, restored order, and took command of the city. The +preparations for the election were quashed. Pompey still declined +the dictatorship, but he was named, or he named himself, sole +consul, and at once appointed a commission to inquire into the +circumstances of Milo’s canvass, and the corruption which had +gone along with it. Milo himself was arrested and put on his trial +for the murder. Judges were chosen who could be trusted, and to +prevent intimidation the court was occupied by soldiers. Cicero +undertook his friend’s defence, but was unnerved by the stern, +grim faces with which he was surrounded. The eloquent tongue forgot +its office. He stammered, blundered, and sat down. <a name="fnr124"></a> <a href="#fn124" class="fnsuper">19</a> The consul +expectant was found guilty and banished, to return a few years +after like a hungry wolf in the civil war, and to perish as he +deserved. Pompey’s justice was even-handed. He punished Milo, +but the senate-house and temples were not to be destroyed without +retribution equally severe. The tribunes who had led on the mob +were deposed, and suffered various penalties. Pompey acted with a +soldier’s abhorrence of disorder, and, so far, he did what +Caesar approved and would himself have done in Pompey’s +place.</p> + +<p>But there followed symptoms which showed that there were secret +influences at work with Pompey, and that he was not the man which +he had been. He had taken the consulate alone; but a single consul +was an anomaly; as soon as order was restored it was understood +that he meant to choose a colleague; and Senate and people were +watching to see whom he would select as an indication of his future +attitude. Half the world expected that he would name Caesar, but +half the world was disappointed. He took Metellus Scipio, who had +been the Senate’s second candidate by the side of Milo, and had +been as deeply concerned in bribery as Milo himself; shortly after, +and with still more significance, he replaced Julia by Metellus +Scipio’s daughter, the widow of young Publius Crassus, who had +fallen with his father.</p> + +<p>Pompey, however, did not break with Caesar, and did not appear +to intend to break with him. Communications passed between them on +the matter of the consulship. The tribunes had pressed him as +Pompey’s colleague. Caesar himself, being then in the north of +Italy, had desired, on being consulted, that the demand might not +be insisted on. He had work still before him in Gaul which he could +not leave unfinished; but he made a request himself that must be +noticed, since the civil war formally grew out of it, and Pompey +gave a definite pledge, which was afterwards broken.</p> + +<p>One of the engagements at Lucca had been that, when Caesar’s +command should have expired, he was to be again consul. His term +had still three years to run; but many things might happen in three +years. A party in the Senate were bent on his recall. They might +succeed in persuading the people to consent to it. And Caesar felt, +as Pompey had felt before him, that, in the unscrupulous humor of +his enemies at Rome he might be impeached or killed on his return, +as Clodius had been, if he came back a private citizen unprotected +by office to sue for his election. Therefore he had stipulated at +Lucca that his name might be taken and that votes might be given +for him while he was still with his army. On Pompey’s taking +the power into his hands, Caesar, while abandoning any present +claim to share it, reminded him of this understanding, and required +at the same time that it should be renewed in some authoritative +form. The Senate, glad to escape on any terms from the present +conjunction of the men whom they hoped to divide, appeared to +consent. Cicero himself made a journey to Ravenna to see Caesar +about it and make a positive arrangement with him. Pompey submitted +the condition to the assembly of the people, by whom it was +solemnly ratified. Every precaution was observed which would give +the promise, that Caesar might be elected consul in his absence, +the character of a binding engagement. <a name="fnr125"></a> <a +href="#fn125" class="fnsuper">20</a></p> + +<p>It was observed with some surprise that Pompey, not long after, +proposed and carried a law forbidding elections of this irregular +kind, and insisting freshly on the presence of the candidates in +person. Caesar’s case was not reserved as an exception or in +any way alluded to. And when a question was asked on the subject, +the excuse given was that it had been overlooked by accident. Such +accidents require to be interpreted by the use which is made of +them.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn106"></a> <a href="#fnr106">[1]</a> +<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, ii. 15.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn107"></a> <a href="#fnr107">[2]</a> +“Ego enim ne pilo quidem minus me +amabo.”—<i>Ibid</i>., ii. 16. Other editions read +“te.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn108"></a> <a href="#fnr108">[3]</a> +“Videor id judicio facere: jam enim debeo: sed amore sum +incensus.”—<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, iii. 1.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn109"></a> <a href="#fnr109">[4]</a> +Ad Crassum. <i>Ad Familiares</i>, v. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn110"></a> <a href="#fnr110">[5]</a> +Ad Lentulum. <i>Ad Fam</i>., i. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn111"></a> <a href="#fnr111">[6]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., i. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn112"></a> <a href="#fnr112">[7]</a> +<i>De Provinciis Consularibus</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn113"></a> <a href="#fnr113">[8]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, iv. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn114"></a> <a href="#fnr114">[9]</a> +Pompey, as proconsul with a province, was residing outside the +walls.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn115"></a> <a href="#fnr115">[10]</a> +<i>Ad Quintum fratrem</i>, iii. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn116"></a> <a href="#fnr116">[11]</a> +<i>Ad Familiares</i>, i. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn117"></a> <a href="#fnr117">[12]</a> +“Meum non modo animum, sed ne odium quidem esse +liberum.”—<i>Ad Quintum Fratrem</i>, iii. 5.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn118"></a> <a href="#fnr118">[13]</a> +See the story in a letter to Atticus, lib. iv. 16-17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn119"></a> <a href="#fnr119">[14]</a> +<i>De Haruspicum Responsis</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn120"></a> <a href="#fnr120">[15]</a> +“Angit unus Milo. Sed velim finem afferat consulatus: in quo +enitar non minus, quam sum enisus in nostro.”—<i>Ad Quintum +Fratrem</i>, iii. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn121"></a> <a href="#fnr121">[16]</a> +<i>Ad Familiares</i>, ii. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn122"></a> <a href="#fnr122">[17]</a> +“Incidebantur jam domi leges quae nos nostris servis +addicerent.... Oppressisset omnia, possideret, teneret lege novâ, +quae est inventa apud eum cum reliquis legibus Clodianis. Servos +nostros libertos suos fecisset.”—<i>Pro Milone</i>, 32, 33. +These strong expressions can hardly refer to a proposed +enfranchisement of the libertini, or sons of freedmen, like +Horace’s father.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn123"></a> <a href="#fnr123">[18]</a> +“Caesaris potentiam suam esse dicebat.... An consules in +praetore coercendo fortes fuissent? Primum, Milone occiso habuisset +suos consules.”—<i>Pro Milone</i>, 33.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn124"></a> <a href="#fnr124">[19]</a> +The <i>Oratio pro Milone</i>, published afterwards by Cicero, was +the speech which he intended to deliver and did not.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn125"></a> <a href="#fnr125">[20]</a> +Suetonius, <i>De Vitâ Julii Caesaris</i>. Cicero again and again +acknowledges in his letters to Atticus that the engagement had +really been made. Writing to Atticus (vii. 1), Cicero says: +“Non est locus ad tergiversandum. Contra Caesarem? Ubi illae +sunt densae dexterae? Nam ut illi hoc liceret adjuvi rogatus ab +ipso Ravennae de Caelio tribuno plebis. Ab ipso autem? Etiam a +Cnaeo nostro in illo divino tertio consulatu. Aliter +sensero?”</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter19">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> + +<p>The conquest of Gaul had been an exploit of extraordinary +military difficulty. The intricacy of the problem had been enhanced +by the venom of a domestic faction, to which the victories of a +democratic general were more unwelcome than national disgrace. The +discomfiture of Crassus had been more pleasant news to the Senate +than the defeat of Ariovistus, and the passionate hope of the +aristocracy had been for some opportunity which would enable them +to check Caesar in his career of conquest and bring him home to +dishonor and perhaps impeachment. They had failed. The efforts of +the Gauls to maintain or recover their independence had been +successively beaten down, and at the close of the summer of 53 +Caesar had returned to the north of Italy, believing that the +organization of the province which he had added to the Empire was +all that remained to be accomplished. But Roman civilians had +followed in the van of the armies. Roman traders had penetrated +into the towns on the Seine and the Loire, and the curious Celts +had learnt from them the distractions of their new rulers. +Caesar’s situation was as well understood among the Aedui and +the Sequani as in the clubs and coteries of the capital of the +Empire, and the turn of events was watched with equal anxiety. The +victory over Sabinus, sharply avenged as it had been, kept alive +the hope that their independence might yet be recovered. The +disaffection of the preceding summer had been trampled out, but the +ashes of it were still smouldering; and when it became known that +Clodius, who was regarded as Caesar’s tribune, had been killed, +that the Senate was in power again, and that Italy was threatened +with civil convulsions, their passionate patriotism kindled once +more into flame. Sudden in their resolutions, they did not pause to +watch how the balance would incline. Caesar was across the Alps. +Either he would be deposed, or civil war would detain him in Italy. +His legions were scattered between Trèves, Auxerre, and Sens, far +from the Roman frontier. A simultaneous rising would cut them off +from support, and they could be starved out or overwhelmed in +detail, as Sabinus had been at Tongres and Cicero had almost been +at Charleroy. Intelligence was swiftly exchanged. The chiefs of all +the tribes established communications with each other. They had +been deeply affected by the execution of Acco, the patriotic leader +of the Carnutes. The death of Acco was an intimation that they were +Roman subjects, and were to be punished as traitors if they +disobeyed a Roman command. They buried their own dissensions. +Except among the Aedui there was no longer a Roman faction and a +patriot faction. The whole nation was inspired by a simultaneous +impulse to snatch the opportunity, and unite in a single effort to +assert their freedom. The understanding was complete. A day was +fixed for a universal rising. The Carnutes began by a massacre +which would cut off possibility of retreat, and, in revenge for +Acco, slaughtered a party of Roman civilians who were engaged in +business at <i>Gien</i>. <a name="fnr126"></a> <a href="#fn126" +class="fnsuper">1</a> A system of signals had been quietly +arranged. The massacre at Gien was known in a few hours in the +south, and the Auvergne country, which had hitherto been entirely +peaceful, rose in reply, under a young high-born chief named +Vercingetorix. Gergovia, the principal town of the Arverni, was for +the moment undecided. <a name="fnr127"></a> <a href="#fn127" class= +"fnsuper">2</a> The elder men there, who had known the Romans long, +were against immediate action; but Vercingetorix carried the people +away with him. His name had not appeared in the earlier campaigns, +but his father had been a man of note beyond the boundaries of +Auvergne; and he must himself have had a wide reputation among the +Gauls, for everywhere, from the Seine to the Garonne, he was +accepted as chief of the national confederacy. Vercingetorix had +high ability and real organizing powers. He laid out a plan for the +general campaign. He fixed a contingent of men and arms which each +tribe was to supply, and failure brought instantaneous punishment. +Mild offences were visited with the loss of eyes or ears; neglect +of a more serious sort with death by fire in the wicker tower. +Between enthusiasm and terror he had soon an army at his command, +which he could increase indefinitely at his need. Part he left to +watch the Roman province and prevent Caesar, if he should arrive, +from passing through. With part he went himself to watch the Aedui, +the great central race, where Roman authority had hitherto +prevailed unshaken, but among whom, as he well knew, he had the +mass of the people on his side. The Aedui were hesitating. They +called their levies under arms, as if to oppose him, but they +withdrew them again; and to waver at such a moment was to yield to +the stream.</p> + +<p>The Gauls had not calculated without reason on Caesar’s +embarrassments. The death of Clodius had been followed by the +burning of the senate-house and by many weeks of anarchy. To leave +Italy at such a moment might be to leave it a prey to faction or +civil war. His anxiety was relieved at last by hearing that Pompey +had acted, and that order was restored; and seeing no occasion for +his own interference, and postponing the agitation for his second +consulship, he hurried back to encounter the final and convulsive +effort of the Celtic race to preserve their liberties. The legions +were as yet in no danger. They were dispersed in the north of +France, far from the scene of the present rising, and the northern +tribes had suffered too desperately in the past years to be in a +condition to stir without assistance. But how was Caesar to join +them? The garrisons in the province could not be moved. If he sent +for the army to come across to him, Vercingetorix would attack them +on the march, and he could not feel confident of the result; while +the line of the old frontier of the province was in the hands of +the insurgents, or of tribes who could not be trusted to resist the +temptation, if he passed through himself without more force than +the province could supply. But Caesar had a resource which never +failed him in the daring swiftness of his own movements. He sent +for the troops which were left beyond the Alps. He had a few levies +with him to fill the gaps in the old legions, and after a rapid +survey of the stations on the provincial frontier he threw himself +upon the passes of the Cevennes. It was still winter. The snow lay +six feet thick on the mountains, and the roads at that season were +considered impracticable even for single travellers. The Auvergne +rebels dreamt of nothing so little as of Caesar’s coming upon +them at such a time and from such a quarter. He forced his way. He +fell on them while they were lying in imagined security, +Vercingetorix and his army being absent watching the Aedui, and, +letting loose his cavalry, he laid their country waste. But +Vercingetorix, he knew, would fly back at the news of his arrival; +and he had already made his further plans. He formed a strong +entrenched camp, where he left Decimus Brutus in charge, telling +him that he would return as quickly as possible; and, unknown to +any one, lest the troops should lose courage at parting with him, +he flew across through an enemy’s country with a handful of +attendants to Vienne, on the Rhone, where some cavalry from the +province had been sent to wait for him. Vercingetorix, supposing +him still to be in the Auvergne, thought only of the camp of +Brutus; and Caesar, riding day and night through the doubtful +territories of the Aedui, reached the two legions which were +quartered near Auxerre. Thence he sent for the rest to join him, +and he was at the head of his army before Vercingetorix knew that +only Brutus was in front of him. The Aedui, he trusted, would now +remain faithful. But the problem before him was still most +intricate. The grass had not begun to grow. Rapid movement was +essential to prevent the rebel confederacy from consolidating +itself; but rapid movements with a large force required supplies; +and whence were the supplies to come? Some risks had to be run, but +to delay was the most dangerous of all. On the defeat of the +Helvetii, Caesar had planted a colony of them at Gorgobines, near +Nevers, on the Loire. These colonists, called Boii, had refused to +take part in the rising; and Vercingetorix, turning in contempt +from Brutus, had gone off to punish them. Caesar ordered the Aedui +to furnish his commissariat, sent word to the Boii that he was +coming to their relief, swept through the Senones, that he might +leave no enemy in his rear, and then advanced on Gien, where the +Roman traders had been murdered, and which the Carnutes still +occupied in force. There was a bridge there over the Loire, by +which they tried to escape in the night. Caesar had beset the +passage. He took the whole of them prisoners, plundered and burnt +the town, gave the spoil to his troops, and then crossed the river +and went up to help the Boii. He took Nevers. Vercingetorix, who +was hastening to its relief, ventured his first battle with him; +but the cavalry, on which the Gauls most depended, were scattered +by Caesar’s German horse. He was entirely beaten, and Caesar +turned next to Avaricum (Bourges), a rich and strongly fortified +town of the Bituriges. From past experience Caesar had gathered +that the Gauls were easily excited and as easily discouraged. If he +could reduce Bourges, he hoped that this part of the country would +return to its allegiance. Perhaps he thought that Vercingetorix +himself would give up the struggle. But he had to deal with a +spirit and with a man different from any which he had hitherto +encountered. Disappointed in his political expectations, baffled in +strategy, and now defeated in open fight, the young chief of the +Arverni had only learnt that he had taken a wrong mode of carrying +on the war, and that he was wasting his real advantages. Battles in +the field he saw that he would lose. But the Roman numbers were +limited, and his were infinite. Tens of thousands of gallant young +men, with their light, active horses, were eager for any work on +which he might set them. They could scour the country far and wide. +They could cut off Caesar’s supplies. They could turn the +fields into a blackened wilderness before him on whichever side he +might turn. The hearts of the people were with him. They consented +to a universal sacrifice. They burnt their farmsteads. They burnt +their villages. Twenty towns (so called) of the Bituriges were +consumed in a single day. The tribes adjoining caught the +enthusiasm. The horizon at night was a ring of blazing fires. +Vercingetorix was for burning Bourges also; but it was the sacred +home of the Bituriges, the one spot which they implored to be +allowed to save, the most beautiful city in all Gaul. Rivers +defended it on three sides, and on the fourth there were swamps and +marshes which could be passed only by a narrow ridge. Within the +walls the people had placed the best of their property, and +Vercingetorix, against his judgment, consented, in pity for their +entreaties, that Avaricum should be defended. A strong garrison was +left inside. Vercingetorix entrenched himself in the forests +sixteen miles distant, keeping watch over Caesar’s +communications. The place could only be taken by regular +approaches, during which the army had to be fed. The Aedui were +growing negligent. The feeble Boii, grateful, it seemed, for +Caesar’s treatment of them, exerted themselves to the utmost, +but their small resources were soon exhausted. For many days the +legions were without bread. The cattle had been driven into the +woods. It came at last to actual famine. <a name="fnr128"></a> <a +href="#fn128" class="fnsuper">3</a> “But not one word was +heard from them,” says Caesar, “unworthy of the majesty +of the Roman people or their own earlier victories.” He told +them that if the distress became unbearable he would raise the +siege. With one voice they entreated him to persevere. They had +served many years with him, they said, and had never abandoned any +enterprise which they had undertaken. They were ready to endure any +degree of hardship before they would leave unavenged their +countrymen who had been murdered at Gien.</p> + +<p>Vercingetorix, knowing that the Romans were in difficulties, +ventured nearer. Caesar surveyed his position. It had been well +chosen behind a deep morass. The legions clamored to be allowed to +advance and attack him, but a victory, he saw, would be dearly +purchased. No condemnation could be too severe for him, he said, if +he did not hold the lives of his soldiers dearer than his own +interest, <a name="fnr129"></a> <a href="#fn129" class= +"fnsuper">4</a> and he led them back without indulging their +eagerness.</p> + +<p>The siege work was unexpectedly difficult. The inhabitants of +the Loire country were skilled artisans, trained in mines and iron +works. The walls, built of alternate layers of stone and timber, +were forty feet in thickness, and could neither be burnt nor driven +in with the ram. The town could be taken only with the help of an +agger—a bank of turf and fagots raised against the wall of +sufficient height to overtop the fortifications. The weather was +cold and wet, but the legions worked with such a will that in +twenty-five days they had raised their bank at last, a hundred +yards in width and eighty feet high. As the work drew near its end +Caesar himself lay out all night among the men, encouraging them. +One morning at daybreak he observed that the agger was smoking. The +ingenious Gauls had undermined it and set it on fire. At the same +moment they appeared along the walls with pitch-balls, torches, +fagots, which they hurled in to feed the flames. There was an +instant of confusion, but Caesar uniformly had two legions under +arms while the rest were working. The Gauls fought with a courage +which called out his warm admiration. He watched them at the points +of greatest danger falling under the shots from the scorpions, and +others stepping undaunted into their places to fall in the same +way. Their valor was unavailing. They were driven in, and the +flames were extinguished; the agger was level with the walls, and +defence was no longer possible. The garrison intended to slip away +at night through the ruins to join their friends outside. The +wailing of the women was heard in the Roman camp, and escape was +made impossible. The morning after, in a tempest of rain and wind, +the place was stormed. The legionaries, excited by the remembrance +of Gien and the long resistance, slew every human being that they +found, men, women, and children all alike. Out of forty thousand +who were within the walls, eight hundred only, that had fled at the +first sound of the attack, made their way to the camp of +Vercingetorix.</p> + +<p>Undismayed by the calamity, Vercingetorix made use of it to +sustain the determination of his followers. He pointed out to them +that he had himself opposed the defence. The Romans had defeated +them, not by superior courage, but by superior science. The heart +of the whole nation was united to force the Romans out of Gaul, and +they had only to persevere in a course of action where science +would be useless, to be sure of success in the end. He fell back +upon his own country, taking special care of the poor creatures who +had escaped from the carnage; and the effect of the storming of +Bourges was to make the national enthusiasm hotter and fiercer than +before.</p> + +<p>The Romans found in the town large magazines of corn and other +provisions, which had been laid in for the siege, and Caesar +remained there some days to refresh his troops. The winter was now +over. The Aedui were giving him anxiety, and as soon as he could he +moved to Decize, a frontier town belonging to them on the Loire, +almost in the very centre of France. The anti-Roman faction were +growing in influence. He called a council of the principal persons, +and, to secure the fidelity of so important a tribe, he deposed the +reigning chief and appointed another who had been nominated by the +Druids. <a name="fnr130"></a> <a href="#fn130" class= +"fnsuper">5</a> He lectured the Aedui on their duty, bade them +furnish him with ten thousand men, who were to take charge of the +commissariat, and then divided his army. Labienus, with four +legions, was sent to compose the country between Sens and Paris. He +himself, with the remaining six legions, ascended the right bank of +the Allier towards Gergovia in search of Vercingetorix. The bridges +on the Allier were broken, but Caesar seized and repaired one of +them and carried his army over.</p> + +<p>The town of Gergovia stood on a high plateau, where the rivers +rise which run into the Loire on one side and into the Dordogne on +the other. The sides of the hill are steep, and only accessible at +a very few places, and the surrounding neighborhood is broken with +rocky valleys. Vercingetorix lay in force outside, but in a +situation where he could not be attacked except at disadvantage, +and with his communication with the fortress secured. He was +departing again from his general plan for the campaign in allowing +Gergovia to be defended; but it was the central home of his own +tribe, and the result showed that he was right in believing it to +be impregnable. Caesar saw that it was too strong to be stormed, +and that it could only be taken after long operations. After a few +skirmishes he seized a spur of the plateau which cut off the +garrison from their readiest water-supply, and he formed an +entrenched camp upon it. He was studying the rest of the problem +when bad news came that the Aedui were unsteady again. The ten +thousand men had been raised as he had ordered, but on their way to +join him they had murdered the Roman officers in charge of them, +and were preparing to go over to Vercingetorix. Leaving two legions +to guard his works, he intercepted the Aeduan contingent, took them +prisoners, and protected their lives. In his absence Vercingetorix +had attacked the camp with determined fury. The fighting had been +desperate, and Caesar only returned in time to save it. The reports +from the Aedui were worse and worse. The patriotic faction had the +upper hand, and with the same passionate determination to commit +themselves irrevocably, which had been shown before at Gien, they +had massacred every Roman in their territory. It was no time for +delaying over a tedious siege: Caesar was on the point of raising +it, when accident brought on a battle under the walls. An +opportunity seemed to offer itself of capturing the place by +escalade, which part of the army attempted contrary to orders. They +fought with more than their usual gallantry. The whole scene was +visible from the adjoining hills, the Celtic women, with long +streaming hair, wildly gesticulating on the walls. The Romans were +driven back with worse loss than they had yet met with in Gaul. +Forty-six officers and seven hundred men had been killed.</p> + +<p>Caesar was never more calm than under a reverse. He addressed +the legions the next day. He complimented their courage, but he +said it was for the general and not for them to judge when assaults +should be tried. He saw the facts of the situation exactly as they +were. His army was divided. Labienus was far away with a separate +command. The whole of Gaul was in flames. To persevere at Gergovia +would only be obstinacy, and he accepted the single military +failure which he met with when present in person through the whole +of his Gallic campaign.</p> + +<p>Difficulties of all kinds were now thickening. Caesar had placed +magazines in Nevers, and had trusted them to an Aeduan garrison. +The Aeduans burnt the town and carried the stores over the Loire to +their own strongest fortress, Bibracte (Mont Beauvray). The river +had risen from the melting of the snows, and could not be crossed +without danger; and to feed the army in its present position was no +longer possible. To retreat upon the province would be a confession +of defeat. The passes of the Cevennes would be swarming with +enemies, and Labienus with his four legions in the west might be +cut off. With swift decision he marched day and night to the Loire. +He found a ford where the troops could cross with the water at +their armpits. He sent his horse over and cleared the banks. The +army passed safely. Food enough and in plenty was found in the +Aeduans’ country, and without waiting he pressed on toward Sens +to reunite his forces. He understood the Gauls, and foresaw what +must have happened.</p> + +<p>Labienus, when sent on his separate command, had made Sens his +head- quarters. All down the Seine the country was in insurrection. +Leaving the new Italian levies at the station, he went with his +experienced troops down the left bank of the river till he came to +the Essonne. He found the Gauls entrenched on the other side, and, +without attempting to force the passage, he marched back to Melun, +where he repaired a bridge which the Gauls had broken, crossed +over, and descended without interruption to Paris. The town had +been burnt, and the enemy were watching him from the further bank. +At this moment he heard of the retreat from Gergovia, and of the +rebellion of the Aedui. Such news, he understood at once, would be +followed by a rising in Belgium. Report had said that Caesar was +falling back on the province. He did not believe it. Caesar, he +knew, would not desert him. His own duty, therefore, was to make +his way back to Sens. But to leave the army of Gauls to accompany +his retreat across the Seine, with the tribes rising on all sides, +was to expose himself to the certainty of being intercepted. +“In these sudden difficulties,” says Caesar, “he +took counsel from the valor of his mind.” <a name="fnr131"></a> <a href="#fn131" class="fnsuper">6</a> He had brought +a fleet of barges with him from Melun. These he sent down +unperceived to a point at the bend of the river four miles below +Paris, and directed them to wait for him there. When night fell he +detached a few cohorts with orders to go up the river with boats as +if they were retreating, splashing their oars, and making as much +noise as possible. He himself with three legions stole silently in +the darkness to his barges, and passed over without being observed. +The Gauls, supposing the whole army to be in flight for Sens, were +breaking up their camp to follow in boisterous confusion. Labienus +fell upon them, telling the Romans to fight as if Caesar was +present in person; and the courage with which the Gauls fought in +their surprise only made the overthrow more complete. The +insurrection in the north-west was for the moment paralysed, and +Labienus, secured by his ingenious and brilliant victory, returned +to his quarters without further accident. There Caesar came to him +as he expected, and the army was once more together.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the failure at Gergovia had kindled the enthusiasm of +the central districts into white-heat. The Aedui, the most powerful +of all the tribes, were now at one with their countrymen, and +Bibracte became the focus of the national army. The young +Vercingetorix was elected sole commander, and his plan, as before, +was to starve the Romans out. Flying bodies harassed the borders of +the province, so that no reinforcements could reach them from the +south. Caesar, however, amidst his conquests had the art of making +staunch friends. What the province could not supply he obtained +from his allies across the Rhine, and he furnished himself with +bodies of German cavalry, which when mounted on Roman horses proved +invaluable. In the new form which the insurrection had assumed the +Aedui were the first to be attended to. Caesar advanced leisurely +upon them, through the high country at the rise of the Seine and +the Marne, toward Alesia, or Alice St. Reine. Vercingetorix watched +him at ten miles’ distance. He supposed him to be making for +the province, and his intention was that Caesar should never reach +it. The Celts at all times have been fond of emphatic +protestations. The young heroes swore a solemn oath that they would +not see wife or children or parents more till they had ridden twice +through the Roman army. In this mood they encountered Caesar in the +valley of the Vingeanne, a river which falls into the Saône, and +they met the fate which necessarily befell them when their +ungovernable multitudes engaged the legions in the open field. They +were defeated with enormous loss: not they riding through the Roman +army, but themselves ridden over and hewn down by the German +horsemen and sent flying for fifty miles over the hills into Alice +St. Reine. Caesar followed close behind, driving Vercingetorix +under the lines of the fortress; and the siege of Alesia, one of +the most remarkable exploits in all military history, was at once +undertaken.</p> + +<p>Alesia, like Gergovia, is on a hill sloping off all round, with +steep and, in places, precipitous sides. It lies between two small +rivers, the Ose and the Oserain, both of which fall into the +Brenne, and thence into the Seine. Into this peninsula, with the +rivers on each side of him, Vercingetorix had thrown himself with +eighty thousand men. Alesia as a position was impregnable except to +famine. The water-supply was secure. The position was of +extraordinary strength. The rivers formed natural trenches. Below +the town to the east they ran parallel for three miles through an +open alluvial plain before they reached Brenne. In every other +direction rose rocky hills of equal height with the central +plateau, originally perhaps one wide table-land, through which the +water had ploughed out the valleys. To attack Vercingetorix where +he had placed himself was out of the question; but to blockade him +there, to capture the leader of the insurrection and his whole +army, and so in one blow make an end with it, on a survey of the +situation seemed not impossible. The Gauls had thought of nothing +less than of being besieged. The provisions laid in could not be +considerable, and so enormous a multitude could not hold out many +days.</p> + +<p>At once the legions were set to work cutting trenches or +building walls as the form of the ground allowed. Camps were formed +at different spots, and twenty-three strong block-houses at the +points which were least defensible. The lines where the circuit was +completed were eleven miles long. The part most exposed was the +broad level meadow which spread out to the west toward the Brenne +river. Vercingetorix had looked on for a time, not understanding +what was happening to him. When he did understand it, he made +desperate efforts on his side to break the net before it closed +about him. But he could do nothing. The Gauls could not be brought +to face the Roman entrenchments. Their cavalry were cut to pieces +by the German horse. The only hope was in help from without, and +before the lines were entirely finished horsemen were sent out with +orders to ride for their lives into every district in Gaul and +raise the entire nation. The crisis had come. If the countrymen of +Vercingetorix were worthy of their fathers, if the enthusiasm with +which they had risen for freedom was not a mere emotion, but the +expression of a real purpose, their young leader called on them to +come now, every man of them, and seize Caesar in the trap into +which he had betrayed himself. If, on the other hand, they were +careless, if they allowed him and his eighty thousand men to perish +without an effort to save them, the independence which they had +ceased to deserve would be lost forever. He had food, he bade the +messengers say, for thirty days; by thrifty management it might be +made to last a few days longer. In thirty days he should look for +relief.</p> + +<p>The horsemen sped away like the bearers of the fiery cross. +Caesar learnt from deserters that they had gone out, and understood +the message which they carried. Already he was besieging an army +far outnumbering his own. If he persevered, he knew that he might +count with certainty on being attacked by a second army +immeasurably larger. But the time allowed for the collection of so +many men might serve also to prepare for their reception. +Vercingetorix said rightly that the Romans won their victories, not +by superior courage, but by superior science. The same power of +measuring the exact facts of the situation which determined Caesar +to raise the siege of Gergovia decided him to hold on at Alesia. He +knew exactly, to begin with, how long Vercingetorix could hold out. +It was easy for him to collect provisions within his lines which +would feed his own army a few days longer. Fortifications the same +in kind as those which prevented the besieged from breaking out +would serve equally to keep the assailants off. His plan was to +make a second line of works—an exterior line as well as an +interior line; and as the extent to be defended would thus be +doubled, he made them of a peculiar construction, to enable one man +to do the work of two. There is no occasion to describe the rows of +ditches, dry and wet; the staked pitfalls; the cervi, pronged +instruments like the branching horns of a stag; the stimuli, barbed +spikes treacherously concealed to impale the unwary and hold him +fast when caught, with which the ground was sown in irregular rows; +the vallus and the lorica, and all the varied contrivances of Roman +engineering genius. Military students will read the particulars for +themselves in Caesar’s own language. Enough that the work was +done within the time, with the legions in perfect good humor, and +giving jesting names to the new instruments of torture as Caesar +invented them. Vercingetorix now and then burst out on the working +parties, but produced no effect. They knew what they were to expect +when the thirty days were out; but they knew their commander, and +had absolute confidence in his judgment.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, on all sides, the Gauls were responding to the call. +From every quarter, even from far-off parts of Belgium, horse and +foot were streaming along the roads. Commius of Arras, Caesar’s +old friend, who had gone with him to Britain, was caught with the +same frenzy, and was hastening among the rest to help to end him. +At last two hundred and fifty thousand of the best fighting men +that Gaul could produce had collected at the appointed rendezvous, +and advanced with the easy conviction that the mere impulse of so +mighty a force would sweep Caesar off the earth. They were late in +arriving. The thirty days had passed, and there were no signs of +the coming deliverers. Eager eyes were straining from the heights +of the plateau; but nothing was seen save the tents of the legions +or the busy units of men at work on the walls and trenches. Anxious +debates were held among the beleaguered chiefs. The faint-hearted +wished to surrender before they were starved. Others were in favor +of a desperate effort to cut their way through or die. One speech +Caesar preserves for its remarkable and frightful ferocity. A +prince of Auvergne said that the Romans conquered to enslave and +beat down the laws and liberties of free nations under the +lictors’ axes, and he proposed that sooner than yield they +should kill and eat those who were useless for fighting.</p> + +<p>Vercingetorix was of noble nature. To prevent the adoption of so +horrible an expedient, he ordered the peaceful inhabitants, with +their wives and children, to leave the town. Caesar forbade them to +pass his lines. Cruel—but war is cruel; and where a garrison is to +be reduced by famine the laws of it are inexorable.</p> + +<p>But the day of expected deliverance dawned at last. Five miles +beyond the Brenne the dust-clouds of the approaching host were +seen, and then the glitter of their lances and their waving +pennons. They swam the river. They filled the plain below the town. +From the heights of Alesia the whole scene lay spread under the +feet of the besieged. Vercingetorix came down on the slope to the +edge of the first trench, prepared to cross when the turn of battle +should give him a chance to strike. Caesar sent out his German +horse, and stood himself watching from the spur of an adjoining +hill. The Gauls had brought innumerable archers with them. The +horse flinched slightly under the showers of arrows, and shouts of +triumph rose from the lines of the town; but the Germans rallied +again, sent the cavalry of the Gauls flying, and hewed down the +unprotected archers. Vercingetorix fell back sadly to his camp on +the hill, and then for a day there was a pause. The relieving army +had little food with them, and, if they acted at all, must act +quickly. They spread over the country collecting faggots to fill +the trenches, and making ladders to storm the walls. At midnight +they began their assault on the lines in the plain; and +Vercingetorix, hearing by the cries that the work had begun, gave +his own signal for a general sally. The Roman arrangements had been +completed long before. Every man knew his post. The slings, the +crossbows, the scorpions were all at hand and in order. Mark Antony +and Caius Trebonius had each a flying division under them to carry +help where the pressure was most severe. The Gauls were caught on +the cervi, impaled on the stimuli, and fell in heaps under the +bolts and balls which were poured from the walls. They could make +no impression, and fell back at daybreak beaten and dispirited. +Vercingetorix had been unable even to pass the moats and trenches, +and did not come into action till his friends had abandoned the +attack.</p> + +<p>The Gauls had not yet taken advantage of their enormous numbers. +Defeated on the level ground, they next tried the heights. The +Romans were distributed in a ring now fourteen miles in extent. On +the north side, beyond the Ose, the works were incomplete, owing to +the nature of the ground, and their lines lay on the slope of the +hills descending towards the river. Sixty thousand picked men left +the Gauls’ camp before dawn; they stole round by a distant +route, and were allowed to rest concealed in a valley till the +middle of the day. At noon they came over the ridge at the +Romans’ back; and they had the best of the position, being able +to attack from above. Their appearance was the signal for a general +assault on all sides, and for a determined sally by Vercingetorix +from within. Thus before, behind, and everywhere, the legions were +assailed at the same moment; and Caesar observes that the cries of +battle in the rear are always more trying to men than the fiercest +onset upon them in front; because what they cannot see they imagine +more formidable than it is, and they depend for their own safety on +the courage of others.</p> + +<p>Caesar had taken his stand where he could command the whole +action. There was no smoke in those engagements, and the scene was +transparently visible. Both sides felt that the deciding trial had +come. In the plain the Gauls made no more impression than on the +preceding day. At the weak point on the north the Romans were +forced back down the slope, and could not hold their positions. +Caesar saw it, and sent Labienus with six cohorts to their help. +Vercingetorix had seen it also, and attacked the interior lines at +the same spot. Decimus Brutus was then despatched also, and then +Caius Fabius. Finally, when the fighting grew desperate, he left +his own station; he called up the reserves which had not yet been +engaged, and he rode across the field, conspicuous in his scarlet +dress and with his bare head, cheering on the men as he passed each +point where they were engaged, and hastening to the scene where the +chief danger lay. He sent round a few squadrons of horse to the +back of the hills which the Gauls had crossed in the morning. He +himself joined Labienus. Wherever he went he carried enthusiasm +along with him. The legionaries flung away their darts and rushed +upon the enemy sword in hand. The cavalry appeared above on the +heights. The Gauls wavered, broke, and scattered. The German horse +were among them, hewing down the brave but now helpless patriots +who had come with such high hopes and had fought so gallantly. Out +of the sixty thousand that had sallied forth in the morning, all +but a draggled remnant lay dead on the hill-sides. Seventy-four +standards were brought in to Caesar. The besieged retired into +Alice again in despair. The vast hosts that were to have set them +free melted away. In the morning they were streaming over the +country, making back for their homes, with Caesar’s cavalry +behind them, cutting them down and capturing them in thousands.</p> + +<p>The work was done. The most daring feat in the military annals +of mankind had been successfully accomplished. A Roman army which +could not at the utmost have amounted to fifty thousand men had +held blockaded an army of eighty thousand—not weak Asiatics, but +European soldiers, as strong and as brave individually as the +Italians were; and they had defeated, beaten, and annihilated +another army which had come expecting to overwhelm them, five times +as large as their own.</p> + +<p>Seeing that all was over, Vercingetorix called the chiefs about +him. He had gone into the war, he said, for no object of his own, +but for the liberty of his country. Fortune had gone against him; +and he advised them to make their peace, either by killing him and +sending his head to the conqueror or by delivering him up alive. A +humble message of submission was despatched to Caesar. He demanded +an unconditional surrender, and the Gauls, starving and hopeless, +obeyed. The Roman general sat amidst the works in front of the camp +while the chiefs one by one were produced before him. The brave +Vercingetorix, as noble in his calamity as Caesar himself in his +success, was reserved to be shown in triumph to the populace of +Rome. The whole of his army were prisoners of war. The Aedui and +Arverni among them were set aside, and were dismissed after a short +detention for political reasons. The remainder were sold to the +contractors, and the proceeds were distributed as prize-money among +the legions. Caesar passed the winter at Bibracte, receiving the +submission of the chiefs of the Aedui and of the Auvergne. Wounds +received in war soon heal if gentle measures follow a victory. If +tried by the manners of his age, Caesar was the most merciful of +conquerors. His high aim was, not to enslave the Gauls, but to +incorporate them in the Empire; to extend the privileges of Roman +citizens among them and among all the undegenerate races of the +European provinces. He punished no one. He was gracious and +considerate to all, and he so impressed the central tribes by his +judgment and his moderation that they served him faithfully in all +his coming troubles, and never more, even in the severest +temptation, made an effort to recover their independence.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 51.]</span> Much, however, remained +to be done. The insurrection had shaken the whole of Gaul. The +distant tribes had all joined in it, either actively or by +sympathy; and the patriots who had seized the control, despairing +of pardon, thought their only hope was in keeping rebellion alive. +During winter they believed themselves secure. The Carnutes of the +Eure and Loire, under a new chief named Gutruatus, <a name="fnr132"></a> <a href="#fn132" class="fnsuper">7</a> and the +Bituriges, untaught by or savage at the fate of Bourges, were still +defiant. When the winter was at its deepest, Caesar suddenly +appeared across the Loire. He caught the country people unprepared, +and captured them in their farms. The swiftness of his marches +baffled alike flight and resistance; he crushed the whole district +down, and he was again at his quarters in forty days. As a reward +to the men who had followed him so cheerfully in the cold January +campaign, he gave each private legionary 200 sesterces and each +centurion 2,000. Eighteen days’ rest was all that he allowed +himself, and with fresh troops, and in storm and frost, he started +for the Carnutes. The rebels were to have no rest till they +submitted. The Bellovaci were now out also. The Remi alone of all +the Gauls had continued faithful in the rising of Vercingetorix. +The Bellovaci, led by Commius of Arras, were preparing to burn the +territory of the Remi as a punishment. Commius was not as guilty, +perhaps, as he seemed. Labienus had suspected him of intending +mischief when he was on the Seine in the past summer, and had tried +to entrap and kill him. Anyway Caesar’s first object was to +show the Gauls that no friends of Rome would be allowed to suffer. +He invaded Normandy; he swept the country. He drove the Bellovaci +and the Carnutes to collect in another great army to defend +themselves; he set upon them with his usual skill; and destroyed +them. Commius escaped over the Rhine to Germany. Gutruatus was +taken. Caesar would have pardoned him; but the legions were growing +savage at these repeated and useless commotions, and insisted on +his execution. The poor wretch was flogged till he was insensible, +and his head was cut off by the lictor’s axe.</p> + +<p>All Gaul was now submissive, its spirit broken, and, as the +event proved, broken finally, except in the southwest. Eight years +out of the ten of Caesar’s government had expired. In one +corner of the country only the dream still survived that, if the +patriots could hold out till Caesar was gone, Celtic liberty might +yet have a chance of recovering itself. A single tribe on the +Dordogne, relying on the strength of a fortress in a situation +resembling that of Gergovia, persisted in resistance to the Roman +authority. The spirit of national independence is like a fire: so +long as a spark remains a conflagration can again be kindled, and +Caesar felt that he must trample out the last ember that was alive. +Uxellodunum— so the place was named—stood on an inaccessible +rock, and was amply provisioned. It could be taken only as +Edinburgh Castle was once taken, by cutting off its water; and the +ingenious tunnel may still be seen by which the Roman engineers +tapped the spring supplied the garrison. They, too, had then to +yield, and the war in Gaul was over.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 50.]</span> The following winter +Caesar spent at Arras. He wished to hand over his conquests to his +successor not only subdued, but reconciled, to subjection. He +invited the chiefs of all the tribes to come to him. He spoke to +them of the future which lay open to them as members of a splendid +Imperial State. He gave them magnificent presents. He laid no +impositions either on the leaders or their people, and they went to +their homes personally devoted to their conqueror, contented with +their condition, and resolved to maintain the peace which was now +established—a unique experience in political history. The Norman +Conquest of England alone in the least resembles it. In the spring +of 50 Caesar went to Italy. Strange things had happened meanwhile +in Rome. So long as there was a hope that Caesar would be destroyed +by the insurrection, the ill-minded Senate had waited to let the +Gauls do the work for him. The chance was gone. He had risen above +his perils more brilliant than ever, and nothing now was left to +them but to defy and trample on him. Servius Galba, who was +favorable to Caesar, had stood for the consulship for 49, and had +received a majority of votes. The election was set aside. Two +patricians, Lentulus and Caius Marcellus, were declared chosen, and +their avowed purpose was to strip the conqueror of Gaul of his +honors and rewards. <a name="fnr133"></a> <a href="#fn133" class= +"fnsuper">8</a> The people of his own Cisalpine Province desired to +show that they at least had no sympathy with such envenomed +animosities. In the colonies in Lombardy and Venetia Caesar was +received with the most passionate demonstrations of affection. The +towns were dressed out with flags and flowers. The inhabitants +crowded into the streets with their wives and children to look at +him as he passed. The altars smoked with offerings; the temples +were thronged with worshippers praying the immortal gods to bless +the greatest of the Romans. He had yet one more year to govern. +After a brief stay he rejoined his army. He spent the summer in +organizing the administration of the different districts and +assigning his officers their various commands. That he did not at +this time contemplate any violent interference with the +Constitution may be proved by the distribution of his legions, +which remained stationed far away in Belgium and on the Loire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn126"></a> <a href="#fnr126">[1]</a> +Above Orleans, on the Loire.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn127"></a> <a href="#fnr127">[2]</a> +Four miles from Clermont, on the Allier, in the Puy-de-Dôme.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn128"></a> <a href="#fnr128">[3]</a> +“Extrema fames.”—<i>De Bell. Gall</i>., vii. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn129"></a> <a href="#fnr129">[4]</a> +“Summâ se iniquitatis condemnari debere nisi eorum vitam suâ +salute habeat cariorem.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn130"></a> <a href="#fnr130">[5]</a> +<i>De Bell. Gall.</i>, vii. 33.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn131"></a> <a href="#fnr131">[6]</a> +“Tantis subito difficultatibus objectis ab animi virtute +consilium petebat.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn132"></a> <a href="#fnr132">[7]</a> +Gudrund? The word has a German sound.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn133"></a> <a href="#fnr133">[8]</a> +“Insolenter adversarii sui gloriabantur L. Lentulum et C. +Marcellum consules creatos, qui omnem honorem et dignitatem +Caesaris exspoliarent. Ereptum Servio Galbae consulatum cum is +multo plus gratiâ, suffragiisque valuisset, quod sibi conjunctus et +familiaritate et necessitudine legationis esset.”—<i>Auli +Hirtii De Bell. Gall.</i> viii. 50.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter20">CHAPTER XX.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 51.]</span> Crassus had been +destroyed by the Parthians. The nomination of his successor lay +with the Senate, and the Senate gave a notable evidence of their +incapacity for selecting competent governors for the provinces by +appointing in his place Caesar’s old colleague, Bibulus. In +their whole number there was no such fool as Bibulus. When he +arrived in Syria he shut himself into a fortified town, leaving the +Parthians to plunder and burn at their pleasure. Cicero mocked at +him. The Senate thanked him for his distinguished services. The few +serious men in Rome thought that Caesar or Pompey should be sent +out; <a name="fnr134"></a> <a href="#fn134" class="fnsuper">1</a> +or, if they could not be spared, at least one of the consuls of the +year—Sulpicius Rufus or Marcus Marcellus. But the consuls were +busy with home politics and did not wish to go, nor did they wish +that others should go and gather laurels instead of them. Therefore +nothing was done at all, <a name="fnr135"></a> <a href="#fn135" +class="fnsuper">2</a> and Syria was left to fate and Bibulus. The +consuls and the aristocracy had, in fact, more serious matters to +attend to. Caesar’s time was running out, and when it was over +he had been promised the consulship. That consulship the faction of +the conservatives had sworn that he should never hold. Cato was +threatening him with impeachment, blustering that he should be +tried under a guard, as Milo had been. <a name="fnr136"></a> <a +href="#fn136" class="fnsuper">3</a> Marcellus was saying openly +that he would call him home in disgrace before his term was over. +Como, one of the most thriving towns in the north of Italy, had +been enfranchised by Caesar. An eminent citizen from Como happening +to be at Rome, Marcellus publicly flogged him, and bade him go back +and tell his fellow-townsmen the value of Caesar’s gift to +them, Cicero saw the folly of such actions; <a name="fnr137"></a> +<a href="#fn137" class="fnsuper">4</a> but the aristocracy were +mad—mad with pride and conscious guilt and fear. The ten years of +Caesar’s government would expire at the end of 49. The +engagement had been entered into that he was to see his term out +with his army and to return to Rome for 48—as consul. They +remembered his first consulship and what he had done with it, and +the laws which he had passed—laws which they could not repeal; yet +how had they observed them? If he had been too strong for them all +when he was but one of themselves, scarcely known beyond the Forum +and senate-house, what would he do now, when he was recognized as +the greatest soldier which Rome had produced, the army, the people, +Italy, the provinces all adoring his name? Consul again he could +not, must not be. Yet how could it be prevented? It was useless now +to bribe the Comitia, to work with clubs and wire-pullers. The +enfranchised citizens would come to vote for Caesar from every +country town. The legionaries to a man would vote for him; and even +in the venal city he was the idol of the hour. No fault could be +found with his administration. His wars had paid their own +expenses. He had doubled the pay of his troops, but his military +chest was still full, and his own wealth seemed boundless. He was +adorning the Forum with new and costly buildings. Senators, +knights, young men of rank who had been extravagant, had been +relieved by his generosity and were his pensioners. Gaul might have +been impatient at its loss of liberty, but no word of complaint was +heard against Caesar for oppressive government. The more genius he +had shown the more formidable he was. Let him be consul, and he +would be the master of them all.</p> + +<p>Caesar had been credited with far-reaching designs. It has been +assumed that in early life he had designed the overthrow of the +Constitution; that he pursued his purpose steadily through every +stage in his career, and that he sought the command of Gaul only to +obtain an army devoted to him which would execute his will. It has +not seemed incredible that a man of middle age undertook the +conquest of a country of which nothing is known save that it was +inhabited by warlike races, who more than once had threatened to +overrun Italy and destroy Rome; that he went through ten years of +desperate fighting exposed to a thousand dangers from the sword, +from exposure and hardship; that for ten years he had banished +himself from Rome, uncertain whether he would ever see it again; +and that he had ventured upon all this with no other object than +that of eventually controlling domestic politics. A lunatic might +have entertained such a scheme, but not a Caesar. The Senate knew +him. They knew what he had done. They knew what he would now do, +and for this reason they feared and hated him. Caesar was a +reformer. He had long seen that the Roman Constitution was too +narrow for the functions which had fallen to it, and that it was +degenerating into an instrument of tyranny and injustice. The +courts of law were corrupt; the elections wore corrupt. The +administration of the provinces was a scandal and a curse. The soil +of Italy had become a monopoly of capitalists, and the inhabitants +of it a population of slaves. He had exerted himself to stay the +mischief at its fountain, to punish bribery, to punish the rapacity +of proconsuls and propraetors, to purify the courts, to maintain +respect for the law. He had endeavored to extend the franchise, to +raise the position of the liberated slaves, to replace upon the +land a free race of Roman citizens. The old Roman sentiment, the +consciousness of the greatness of the country and of its mighty +destinies, was chiefly now to be found in the armies. In the +families of veteran legionaries, spread in farms over Italy and the +provinces, the national spirit might revive; and, with a due share +of political power conceded to them, an enlarged and purified +constituency might control the votes of the venal populace of the +city. These were Caesar’s designs, so far as could have been +gathered from his earlier actions; but the manipulation of +elections, the miserable contests with disaffected colleagues and a +hostile Senate, were dreary occupations for such a man as he was. +He was conscious of powers which in so poor a sphere could find no +expression. He had ambition doubtless—plenty of it—ambition not +to pass away without leaving his mark on the history of his +country. As a statesman he had done the most which could be done +when he was consul the first time, and he had afterward sought a +free field for his adventurous genius in a new country, and in +rounding off into security the frontiers of the Empire on the +side where danger was most threatening. The proudest +self-confidence could not have allowed him at his time of life to +calculate on returning to Rome to take up again the work of +reformation.</p> + +<p>But Cæsar had conquered. He had made a name for himself as a +soldier before which the Scipios and the Luculluses, the Syllas and +Pompeys paled their glory. He was coming back to lay at his +country’s feet a province larger than Spain—not subdued only, +but reconciled to subjugation; a nation of warriors, as much +devoted to him as his own legions. The aristocracy had watched his +progress with the bitterest malignity. When he was struggling with +the last spasms of Gallic liberty, they had talked in delighted +whispers of his reported ruin. <a name="fnr138"></a> <a href="#fn138" class="fnsuper">5</a> But his genius had risen above his +difficulties and shone out more glorious than before. When the war +was over the Senate had been forced to vote twenty days of +thanksgiving. Twenty days were not enough for Roman, enthusiasm. +The people made them into sixty.</p> + +<p>If Caesar came to Rome as consul, the Senate knew too well what +it might expect. What he had been before he would be again, but +more severe as his power was greater. Their own guilty hearts +perhaps made them fear another Marian proscription. Unless his +command could be brought to an end in some far different form, +their days of power were numbered, and the days of inquiry and +punishment would begin.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 50.]</span> Cicero had for some +time seen what was coming. He had preferred characteristically to +be out of the way at the moment when he expected that the storm +would break, and had accepted the government of Cilicia and Cyprus. +He was thus absent while the active plot was in preparation. One +great step had been gained—the Senate had secured Pompey. +Caesar’s greatness was too much for him. He could never again +hope to be the first on the popular side, and he preferred being +the saviour of the Constitution to playing second to a person whom +he had patronized. Pompey ought long since to have been in Spain +with his troops; but he had stayed at Rome to keep order, and he +had lingered on with the same pretext. The first step was to weaken +Caesar and to provide Pompey with a force in Italy. The Senate +discovered suddenly that Asia Minor was in danger from, the +Parthians. They voted that Caesar and Pompey must each spare a +legion for the East. Pompey gave as his part the legion which he +had lent to Caesar for the last campaign. Caesar was invited to +restore it and to furnish another of his own. Caesar was then in +Belgium. He saw the object of the demand perfectly clearly; but he +sent the two legions without a word, contenting himself with making +handsome presents to the officers and men on their leaving him. +When they reached Italy the Senate found that they were wanted for +home service, and they were placed under Pompey’s command in +Campania. The consuls chosen for the year 49 were Lucius Cornelius +Lentulus and Caius Marcellus, both of them Caesar’s open +enemies. Caesar himself had been promised the consulship (there +could be no doubt of his election, if his name was accepted in his +absence) for the year 48. He was to remain with his troops till his +term had run out, and to be allowed to stand while still in +command. This was the distinct engagement which the assembly had +ratified. After the consular election had been secured in the +autumn of 50 to the conservative candidates, it was proposed that +by a displacement of dates Caesar’s government should expire, +not at the close of the tenth year, but in the spring, on the 1st +of March. Convenient constitutional excuses were found for the +change. On the 1st of March he was to cease to be governor of Gaul. +A successor was to be named to take over his army. He would then +have to return to Rome, and would lie at the mercy of his enemies. +Six months would intervene before the next elections, during which +he might be impeached, incapacitated, or otherwise disposed of; +while Pompey and his two legions could effectually prevent any +popular disturbance in his favor. The Senate hesitated before +decisively voting the recall. An intimation was conveyed to Caesar +that he had been mistaken about his term, which would end sooner +than he had supposed; and the world was waiting to see how he would +take it. Atticus thought that he would give way. His having parted +so easily with two legions did not look like resistance. Marcus +Caelius, a correspondent of Cicero, who had been elected praetor +for 49, and kept his friend informed how things were going on, +wrote in the autumn:</p> + +<p>“All is at a standstill about the Gallic government. The +subject has been raised, and is again postponed. Pompey’s view +is plain that Caesar must leave his province after the 1st of March +... but he does not think that before that time the Senate can +properly pass a resolution about it. After the 1st of March he will +have no hesitation. When he was asked what he would do if a tribune +interposed, he said it made no difference whether Caesar himself +disobeyed the Senate or provided some one else to interfere with +the Senate. Suppose, said one, Caesar wishes to be consul and to +keep his army. Pompey answered, ‘What if my son wishes to lay a +stick on my back’.... It appears that Caesar will accept one or +other of two conditions: either to remain in his province, and +postpone his claim for the consulship; or, if he can be named for +the consulship, then to retire. Curio is all against him. What he +can accomplish, I know not; but I perceive this, that if Caesar +means well, he will not be overthrown.” <a name="fnr139"></a> +<a href="#fn139" class="fnsuper">6</a></p> + +<p>The object of the Senate was either to ruin Caesar, if he +complied with this order, or to put him in the wrong by provoking +him to disobedience. The scheme was ingenious; but if the Senate +could mine, Caesar could countermine. Caelius said that Curio was +violent against him: and so Curio had been. Curio was a young man +of high birth, dissolute, extravagant, and clever. His father, who +had been consul five-and-twenty years before, was a strong +aristocrat and a close friend of Cicero’s. The son had taken +the same line; but, among other loose companions, he had made the +acquaintance, to his father’s regret, of Mark Antony, and +though they had hitherto been of opposite politics, the intimacy +had continued. The Senate’s influence had made Curio tribune +for the year 49. Antony had been chosen tribune also. To the +astonishment of everybody but Cicero, it appeared that these two, +who were expected to neutralize each other, were about to work +together, and to veto every resolution which seemed an unfair +return for Caesar’s services. Scandal said that young Curio was +in money difficulties, and that Caesar had paid his debts for him. +It was perhaps a lie invented by political malignity; but if Curio +was purchasable, Caesar would not have hesitated to buy him. His +habit was to take facts as they were, and, when satisfied that his +object was just, to go the readiest way to it.</p> + +<p>The desertion of their own tribune was a serious blow to the +Senate. Caelius, who was to be praetor, was inclining to think that +Caesar would win, and therefore might take his side also. The +constitutional opposition would then be extremely strong; and even +Pompey, fiercely as he had spoken, doubted what to do. The question +was raised in the Senate, whether the tribunes’ vetoes were to +be regarded. Marcellus, who had flogged the citizen of Como, voted +for defying them, but the rest were timid. Pompey did not know his +own mind. <a name="fnr140"></a> <a href="#fn140" class= +"fnsuper">7</a> Caelius’s account of his own feelings in the +matter represented probably those of many besides himself.</p> + +<p>“In civil quarrels,” he wrote to Cicero, “we +ought to go with the most honest party, as long as the contest lies +within constitutional limits. When it is an affair of camps and +battles, we must go with the strongest. Pompey will have the Senate +and the men of consideration with him. All the discontented will go +with Caesar. I must calculate the forces on both sides, before I +decide on my own part.” <a name="fnr141"></a> <a href="#fn141" +class="fnsuper">8</a></p> + +<p>When the question next came on in the Senate, Curio, being of +course instructed in Caesar’s wishes, professed to share the +anxiety lest there should be a military Dictatorship; but he said +that the danger was as great from Pompey as from Caesar. He did not +object to the recall of Caesar, but Pompey, he thought, should +resign his province also, and the Constitution would then be out of +peril. Pompey professed to be willing, if the Senate desired it; +but he insisted that Caesar must take the first step. Curio’s +proposal was so fair, that it gained favor both in Forum and +Senate. The populace, who hated Pompey, threw flowers upon the +tribune as he passed. Marcellus, the consul, a few days later, put +the question in the Senate: Was Caesar to be recalled? A majority +answered Yes. Was Pompey to be deprived of his province? The same +majority said No. Curio then proposed that both Pompey and Caesar +should dismiss their armies. Out of three hundred and ninety-two +senators present, three hundred and seventy agreed. Marcellus told +them bitterly that they had voted themselves Caesar’s slaves. +But they were not all insane with envy and hatred, and in the midst +of their terrors they retained some prudence, perhaps some +conscience and sense of justice. By this time, however, the +messengers who had been sent to communicate the Senate’s views +to Caesar had returned. They brought no positive answer from +himself; but they reported that Caesar’s troops were worn out +and discontented, and certainly would refuse to support him in any +violent action. How false their account of the army was, the Senate +had soon reason to know; but it was true that one, and he the most +trusted officer that Caesar had, Labienus, who had fought through +so many battles with him in the Forum as well as in the field, +whose high talents and character his Commentaries could never +praise sufficiently—it was true that Labienus had listened to the +offers made to him. Labienus had made a vast fortune in the war. He +perhaps thought, as other distinguished officers have done, that he +was the person that had won the victories; that without him Caesar, +who was being so much praised and glorified, would have been +nothing; and that he at least was entitled to an equal share of the +honors and rewards that might be coming; while if Caesar was to be +disgraced, he might have the whole recompense for himself. Caesar +heard of these overtures; but he had refused to believe that +Labienus could be untrue to him. He showed his confidence, and he +showed at the same time the integrity of his own intentions, by +appointing the officer who was suspected of betraying him +Lieutenant-General of the Cisalpine Province. None the less it was +true that Labienus had been won over. Labienus had undertaken for +his comrades; and the belief that Caesar could not depend on his +troops renewed Pompey’s courage and gave heart to the faction +which wished to precipitate extremities. The aspect of things was +now altered. What before seemed rash and dangerous might be safely +ventured. Caesar had himself followed the messengers to Ravenna. To +raise the passions of men to the desired heat, a report was spread +that he had brought his troops across and was marching on Rome. +Curio hastened off to him, to bring back under his own hand a +distinct declaration of his views.</p> + +<p>It was at this crisis, in the middle of the winter 50-49, that +Cicero returned to Rome. He had held his government but for two +years, and instead of escaping the catastrophe, he found himself +plunged into the heart of it. He had managed his province well. No +one ever suspected Cicero of being corrupt or unjust. He had gained +some respectable successes in putting down the Cilician banditti. +He had been named imperator by his soldiers in the field after an +action in which he had commanded; he had been flattering himself +with the prospect of a triumph, and had laid up money to meet the +cost of it. The quarrel between the two great men whom he had so +long feared and flattered, and the necessity which might be thrown +on him of declaring publicly on one side or the other, agitated him +terribly. In October, as he was on his way home, he expressed his +anxieties with his usual frankness to Atticus.</p> + +<p>“Consider the problem for me,” he said, “as it +affects myself: you advised me to keep on terms both with Pompey +and Caesar. You bade me adhere to one because he had been good to +me, and to the other because he was strong. I have done so. I so +ordered matters that no one could be dearer to either of them than +I was. I reflected thus: while I stand by Pompey, I cannot hurt the +Commonwealth; if I agree with Caesar, I need not quarrel with +Pompey; so closely they appeared to be connected. But now they are +at a sharp issue. Each regards me as his friend, unless Caesar +dissembles; while Pompey is right in thinking that what he proposes +I shall approve. I heard from both at the time at which I heard +from you. Their letters were most polite. What am I to do? I +don’t mean in extremities. If it comes to fighting, it will be +better to be defeated with one than to conquer with the other. But +when I arrive at Rome, I shall be required to say if Caesar is to +be proposed for the consulship in his absence, or if he is to +dismiss his army. What must I answer? Wait till I have consulted +Atticus? That will not do. Shall I go against Caesar? Where are +Pompey’s resources? I myself took Caesar’s part about it. +He spoke to me on the subject at Ravenna. I recommended his request +to the tribunes as a reasonable one. Pompey talked with me also to +the same purpose. Am I to change my mind? I am ashamed to oppose +him now. Will you have a fool’s opinion? I will apply for a +triumph, and so I shall have an excuse for not entering the city. +You will laugh. But oh, I wish I had remained in my province. Could +I but have guessed what was impending! Think for me. How shall I +avoid displeasing Caesar? He writes most kindly about a +‘Thanksgiving’ for my success.” <a name="fnr142"></a> +<a href="#fn142" class="fnsuper">9</a></p> + +<p>Caesar had touched the right point in congratulating Cicero on +his military exploits. His friends in the Senate had been less +delicate. Bibulus had been thanked for hiding from the Parthians. +When Cicero had hinted his expectations, the Senate had passed to +the order of the day.</p> + +<p>“Cato,” he wrote, “treats me scurvily. He gives +me praise for justice, clemency, and integrity, which I did not +want. What I did want he will not let me have. Caesar promises me +everything.—Cato has given a twenty days’ thanksgiving to +Bibulus. Pardon me, if this is more than I can bear.—But I am +relieved from my worst fear. The Parthians have left Bibulus half +alive.” <a name="fnr143"></a> <a href="#fn143" class= +"fnsuper">10</a></p> + +<p>The shame wore off as Cicero drew near to Rome. He blamed the +tribunes for insisting on what he had himself declared to be just. +“Any way,” he said, “I stick to Pompey. When they +say to me, Marcus Tullius, what do you think? I shall answer, I go +with Pompey; but privately I shall advise Pompey to come to +terms.—We have to do with a man full of audacity and completely +prepared. Every felon, every citizen who is in disgrace or ought to +be in disgrace, almost all the young, the city mob, the tribunes, +debtors, who are more numerous than I could have believed, all +these are with Caesar. He wants nothing but a good cause, and war +is always uncertain.” <a name="fnr144"></a> <a href="#fn144" +class="fnsuper">11</a></p> + +<p>Pompey had been unwell at the beginning of December, and had +gone for a few days into the country. Cicero met him on the 10th. +“We were two hours together,” he said. “Pompey was +delighted at my arrival. He spoke of my triumph, and promised to do +his part. He advised me to keep away from the Senate, till it was +arranged, lest I should offend the tribunes. He spoke of war as +certain. Not a word did he utter pointing to a chance of +compromise.—My comfort is that Caesar, to whom even his enemies +had allowed a second consulship, and to whom fortune had given so +much power, will not be so mad as to throw all this away.” <a +name="fnr145"></a> <a href="#fn145" class="fnsuper">12</a> Cicero +had soon to learn that the second consulship was not so certain. On +the 29th he had another long conversation with Pompey.</p> + +<p>“Is there hope of peace?” he wrote, in reporting what +had passed. “So far as I can gather from his very full +expressions to me, he does not desire it. For he thinks thus: If +Caesar be made consul, even after he has parted from his army, the +constitution will be at an end. He thinks also that when Caesar +hears of the preparations against him, he will drop the consulship +for this year, to keep his province and his troops. Should he be so +insane as to try extremities, Pompey holds him in utter contempt. I +thought, when he was speaking, of the uncertainties of war; but I +was relieved to hear a man of courage and experience talk like a +statesman of the dangers of an insincere settlement.—Not only he +does not seek for peace, but he seems to fear it.—My own vexation +is, that I must pay Caesar my debt, and spend thus what I had set +apart for my triumph. It is indecent to owe money to a political +antagonist.” <a name="fnr146"></a> <a href="#fn146" class= +"fnsuper">13</a></p> + +<p>Events were hurrying on. Cicero entered Rome the first week in +January, to find that the Senate had begun work in earnest. Curio +had returned from Ravenna with a letter from Caesar. He had offered +three alternatives. First, that the agreement already made might +stand, and that he might be nominated, in his absence, for the +consulship; or that when he left his army, Pompey should disband +his Italian legions; or, lastly, that he should hand over +Transalpine Gaul to his successor, with eight of his ten legions, +himself keeping the north of Italy and Illyria with two, until his +election. It was the first of January. The new consuls, Lentulus +and Caius Marcellus, with the other magistrates, had entered on +their offices, and were in their places in the Senate. Pompey was +present, and the letter was introduced. The consuls objected to it +being read, but they were overruled by the remonstrances of the +tribunes. The reading over, the consuls forbade a debate upon it, +and moved that the condition of the Commonwealth should be taken +into consideration. Lentulus, the more impassioned of them, said +that if the Senate would be firm, he would do his duty; if they +hesitated and tried conciliation, he should take care of himself, +and go over to Caesar’s side. Metellus Scipio, Pompey’s +father- in-law, spoke to the same purpose. Pompey, he said, was +ready to support the constitution, if the Senate were resolute. If +they wavered, they would look in vain for future help from him. +Marcus Marcellus, the consul of the preceding year, less wild than +he had been when he flogged the Como citizen, advised delay, at +least till Pompey was better prepared. Calidius, another senator, +moved that Pompey should go to his province. Caesar’s +resentment at the detention of the two legions from the Parthian +war he thought, was natural and justifiable. Marcus Rufus agreed +with Calidius. But moderation was borne down by the violence of +Lentulus; and the Senate, in spite of themselves, <a name="fnr147"></a> <a href="#fn147" class="fnsuper">14</a> voted, at +Scipio’s dictation, that Caesar must dismiss his army before a +day which was to be fixed, or, in default, would be declared an +enemy to the State. Two tribunes, Mark Antony and Cassius Longinus, +interposed. The tribunes’ veto was as old as their institution. +It had been left standing even by Sylla. But the aristocracy were +declaring war against the people. They knew that the veto was +coming, and they had resolved to disregard it. The more passionate +the speakers, the more they were cheered by Caesar’s enemies. +The sitting ended in the evening without a final conclusion; but at +a meeting afterwards, at his house, Pompey quieted alarms by +assuring the senators that there was nothing to fear. Caesar’s +army he knew to be disaffected. He introduced the officers of the +two legions that had been taken from Caesar, who vouched for their +fidelity to the constitution. Some of Pompey’s veterans were +present, called up from their farms; they were enthusiastic for +their old commander. Piso, Caesar’s father-in-law, and Roscius, +a praetor, begged for a week’s delay, that they might go to +Caesar, and explain the Senate’s pleasure. Others proposed to +send a deputation to soften the harshness of his removal. But +Lentulus, backed by Cato, would listen to nothing. Cato detested +Caesar as the representative of everything which he most abhorred. +Lentulus, bankrupt and loaded with debts, was looking for provinces +to ruin, and allied sovereigns to lay presents at his feet. He +boasted that he would be a second Sylla. <a name="fnr148"></a> <a +href="#fn148" class="fnsuper">15</a> When the Senate met again in +their places, the tribunes’ veto was disallowed. They ordered a +general levy through Italy. The consuls gave Pompey the +command-in-chief, with the keys of the treasury. The Senate +redistributed the provinces; giving Syria to Scipio, and in +Caesar’s place appointing Domitius Ahenobarbus, the most +inveterate and envenomed of his enemies. Their authority over the +provinces had been taken from them by law, but law was set aside. +Finally, they voted the State in danger, suspended the +constitution, and gave the consuls absolute power.</p> + +<p>The final votes were taken on the 7th of January. A single week +had sufficed for a discussion of the resolutions on which the fate +of Rome depended. The Senate pretended to be defending the +constitution. They had themselves destroyed the constitution, and +established on the ruins of it a senatorial oligarchy. The tribunes +fled at once to Caesar. Pompey left the city for Campania, to join +his two legions and superintend the levies.</p> + +<p>The unanimity which had appeared in the Senate’s final +determination was on the surface only. Cicero, though present in +Rome, had taken no part, and looked on in despair. The +“good” were shocked at Pompey’s precipitation. They +saw that a civil war could end only in a despotism. <a name="fnr149"></a> <a href="#fn149" class="fnsuper">16</a> “I have +not met one man,” Cicero said, “who does not think it +would be better to make concessions to Caesar than to fight +him.—Why fight now? Things are no worse than when we gave him his +additional five years, or agreed to let him be chosen consul in his +absence. You wish for my opinion. I think we ought to use every +means to escape war. But I must say what Pompey says. I cannot +differ from Pompey.” <a name="fnr150"></a> <a href="#fn150" +class="fnsuper">17</a></p> + +<p>A day later, before the final vote had been taken, he thought +still that the Senate was willing to let Caesar keep his province, +if he would dissolve his army. The moneyed interests, the peasant +landholders, were all on Caesar’s side; they cared not even if +monarchy came so that they might have peace. “We could have +resisted Caesar easily when he was weak,” he wrote. “Now +he has eleven legions and as many cavalry as he chooses with him, +the Cisalpine provincials, the Roman populace, the tribunes, and +the hosts of dissolute young men. Yet we are to fight with him, or +take account of him unconstitutionally. Fight, you say, rather than +be a slave. Fight for what? To be proscribed, if you are beaten; to +be a slave still, if you win. What will you do then? you ask. As +the sheep follows the flock and the ox the herd, so will I follow +the ‘good,’ or those who are called good, but I see plainly +what will come out of this sick state of ours. No one knows what +the fate of war may be. But if the ‘good’ are beaten, this +much is certain, that Caesar will be as bloody as Cinna, and as +greedy of other men’s properties as Sylla.” <a name="fnr151"></a> <a href="#fn151" class="fnsuper">18</a></p> + +<p>Once more, and still in the midst of uncertainty:</p> + +<p>“The position is this: We must either let Caesar stand for +the consulship, he keeping his army with the Senate’s consent, +or supported by the tribunes; or we must persuade him to resign his +province and his army, and so to be consul; or if he refuses, the +elections can be held without him, he keeping his province; or if +he forbids the election through the tribunes, we can hang on and +come to an interrex; or, lastly, if he brings his army on us, we +can fight. Should this be his choice, he will either begin at once, +before we are ready, or he will wait till his election, when his +friends will put in his name and it will not be received. His plea +may then be the ill-treatment of himself, or it may be complicated +further should a tribune interpose and be deprived of office, and +so take refuge with him.... You will say persuade Caesar, then, to +give up his army, and be consul. Surely, if he will agree, no +objection can be raised; and if he is not allowed to stand while he +keeps his army, I wonder that he does not let it go. But a certain +person (Pompey) thinks that nothing is so much to be feared as that +Caesar should be consul. Better thus, you will say, than with an +army. No doubt. But a certain person holds that his consulship +would be an irremediable misfortune. We must yield if Caesar will +have it so. He will be consul again, the same man that he was +before; then, weak as he was, he proved stronger than the whole of +us. What, think you, will he be now? Pompey, for one thing, will +surely be sent to Spain. Miserable every way; and the worst is, +that Caesar cannot be refused, and by consenting will be taken into +supreme favor by all the ‘good.’ They say, however, that he +cannot be brought to this. Well, then, which is the worst of the +remaining alternatives? Submit to what Pompey calls an impudent +demand? Caesar has held his province for ten years. The Senate did +not give it him. He took it himself by faction and violence. +Suppose he had it lawfully, the time is up. His successor is named. +He disobeys. He says that he ought to be considered. Let him +consider us. Will he keep his army beyond the time for which the +people gave it to him, in despite of the Senate? We must fight him +then, and, as Pompey says, we shall conquer or die free men. If +fight we must, time will show when or how. But if you have any +advice to give, let me know it, for I am tormented day and +night.” <a name="fnr152"></a> <a href="#fn152" class= +"fnsuper">19</a></p> + +<p>These letters give a vivid picture of the uncertainties which +distracted public opinion during the fatal first week of January. +Caesar, it seems, might possibly have been consul had he been +willing to retire at once into the condition of a private citizen, +even though Pompey was still undisarmed. Whether in that position +he would have lived to see the election-day is another question. +Cicero himself, it will be seen, had been reflecting already that +there were means less perilous than civil war by which dangerous +persons might be got rid of. And there were weak points in his +arguments which his impatience passed over. Caesar held a positive +engagement about his consulship, which the people had ratified. Of +the ten years which the people had allowed him, one was unexpired, +and the Senate had no power to vote his recall without the +tribunes’ and the people’s consent. He might well hesitate +to put himself in the power of a faction so little scrupulous. It +is evident, however, that Pompey and the two consuls were afraid +that, if such overtures were made to him by a deputation from the +Senate, he might perhaps agree to them; and by their rapid and +violent vote they put an end to the possibility of an arrangement. +Caesar, for no other crime than that as a brilliant democratic +general he was supposed dangerous to the oligarchy, had been +recalled from his command in the face of the prohibition of the +tribunes, and was declared an enemy of his country unless he +instantly submitted. After the experience of Marius and Sylla, the +Senate could have paid no higher compliment to Caesar’s +character than in believing that he would hesitate over his +answer.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn134"></a> <a href="#fnr134">[1]</a> +“Caelius ad Ciceronem,” <i>Ad Fam.</i> viii. 10.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn135"></a> <a href="#fnr135">[2]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn136"></a> <a href="#fnr136">[3]</a> +Suetonius, <i>De Vitâ Julii Caesaris</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn137"></a> <a href="#fnr137">[4]</a> +“Marcellus foede do Comensi. Etsi ille magistratum non +gesserat, erat tamen Transpadanus. Ita mihi videtur non minus +stomachi nostro ac Caesari fecisse.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, v. +11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn138"></a> <a href="#fnr138">[5]</a> +“Quod ad Caesarem crebri et non belli de eo rumores. Sed +susurratores dumtaxat veniunt.... Neque adhuc certi quidquam est, +neque haec incerta tamen vulgo jactantur. Sed inter paucos, quos tu +nosti, palam secreto narrantur. At Domitius cum manus ad os +apposuit!”—Caelius to Cicero, <i>Ad Fam</i>. viii. 1.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn139"></a> <a href="#fnr139">[6]</a> +Caelius to Cicero, <i>Ad Fam</i>. viii. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn140"></a> <a href="#fnr140">[7]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., viii. 13.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn141"></a> <a href="#fnr141">[8]</a> +Caelius to Cicero, <i>Ad Fam.</i> viii. 14.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn142"></a> <a href="#fnr142">[9]</a> +<i>To Atticus,</i> vii. 1, abridged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn143"></a> <a href="#fnr143">[10]</a> +<i>Ibid.,</i> vii. 2.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn144"></a> <a href="#fnr144">[11]</a> +<i>Ibid.,</i> vii. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn145"></a> <a href="#fnr145">[12]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn146"></a> <a href="#fnr146">[13]</a> +“Mihi autem illud molestissimum est, quod solvendi sunt nummi +Caesari, et instrumentum triumphi eo conferendum. Est [Greek: +amorphon hantipoliteuomenou chreopheiletaen] +esse.”—<i>Ibid</i>., vii. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn147"></a> <a href="#fnr147">[14]</a> +“Inviti et coacti” is Caesar’s expression. He wished, +perhaps, to soften the Senate’s action. (<i>De Bello +Civili</i>, i. 2.)</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn148"></a> <a href="#fnr148">[15]</a> +“Seque alterum fore Sullam inter suos gloriatur.”—<i>De +Bello Civili</i>, i. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn149"></a> <a href="#fnr149">[16]</a> +“Tum certe tyrannus existet.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. +5.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn150"></a> <a href="#fnr150">[17]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn151"></a> <a href="#fnr151">[18]</a> +<i>Ibid.</i>, vii. 7, abridged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn152"></a> <a href="#fnr152">[19]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. 9, abridged.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter21">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h2> + +<p>Caesar, when the report of the Senate’s action reached him, +addressed his soldiers. He had but one legion with him, the 13th. +But one legion would represent the rest. He told them what the +Senate had done, and why they had done it. “For nine years he +and his army had served their country loyally and with some +success. They had driven the Germans over the Rhine; they had made +Gaul a Roman province; and the Senate for answer had broken the +constitution, and had set aside the tribunes because they spoke in +his defence. They had voted the State in danger, and had called +Italy to arms when no single act had been done by himself to +justify them.” The soldiers whom—Pompey supposed disaffected +declared with enthusiasm that they would support their commander +and the tribunes. They offered to serve without pay. Officers and +men volunteered contributions for the expenses of the war. In all +the army one officer alone proved false. Labienus kept his word to +Pompey and stole away to Capua. He left his effects behind, and +Caesar sent them after him untouched.</p> + +<p>Finding that all the rest could be depended on, he sent back +over the Alps for two more legions to follow him. He crossed the +little river Rubicon, which bounded his province, and advanced to +Rimini, where he met the tribunes, Antony, Cassius Longinus, and +Curio, who were coming to him from Rome. <a name="fnr153"></a> <a +href="#fn153" class="fnsuper">1</a> At Rimini the troops were again +assembled. Curio told them what had passed. Caesar added a few more +words. The legionaries, officers and privates, were perfectly +satisfied; and Caesar, who, a resolution once taken, struck as +swiftly as his own eagles, was preparing to go forward. He had but +5,000 men with him, but he understood the state of Italy, and knew +that he had nothing to fear. At this moment Lucius Caesar, a +distant kinsman, and the praetor Roscius arrived, as they said, +with a private message from Pompey. The message was nothing. The +object was no more than to gain time. But Caesar had no wish for +war, and would not throw away a chance of avoiding it. He bade his +kinsman tell Pompey that it was for him to compose the difficulties +which had arisen without a collision. He had been himself +misrepresented to his countrymen. He had been recalled from his +command before his time; the promise given to him about his +consulship had been broken. He had endured these injuries. He had +proposed to the Senate that the forces on both sides should be +disbanded. The Senate had refused. A levy had been ordered through +Italy, and the legions designed for Parthia had been retained. Such +an attitude could have but one meaning. Yet he was still ready to +make peace. Let Pompey depart to Spain. His own troops should then +be dismissed. The elections could be held freely, and Senate and +people would be restored to their joint authority. If this was not +enough, they two might meet and relieve each other’s alarms and +suspicions in a personal interview.</p> + +<p>With this answer the envoys went, and Caesar paused at Rimini. +Meanwhile the report reached Rome that Caesar had crossed the +Rubicon. The aristocracy had nursed the pleasant belief that his +heart would fail him, or that his army would desert him. His heart +had not failed, his army had not deserted; and, in their terror, +they saw him already in their midst like an avenging Marius. He was +coming. His horse had been seen on the Apennines. Flight, instant +flight, was the only safety. Up they rose, consuls, praetors, +senators, leaving wives and children and property to their fate, +not halting even to take the money out of the treasury, but +contenting themselves with leaving it locked. On foot, on +horseback, in litters, in carriages, they fled for their lives to +find safety under Pompey’s wing in Capua. In this forlorn +company went Cicero, filled with contempt for what was round +him.</p> + +<p>“You ask what Pompey means to do,” he wrote to +Atticus. “I do not think he knows himself. Certainly none of +us know.—It is all panic and blunder. We are uncertain whether he +will make a stand, or leave Italy. If he stays, I fear his army is +too unreliable. If not, where will he go, and how and what are his +plans? Like you, I am afraid that Caesar will be a Phalaris, and +that we may expect the very worst. The flight of the Senate, the +departure of the magistrates, the closing of the treasury, will not +stop him.—I am broken-hearted; so ill-advisedly, so against all my +counsels, the whole business has been conducted. Shall I turn my +coat, and join the victors? I am ashamed. Duty forbids me; but I am +miserable at the thought of my children.” <a name="fnr154"></a> <a href="#fn154" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>A gleam of hope came with the arrival of Labienus, but it soon +clouded. “Labienus is a hero,” Cicero said. “Never +was act more splendid. If nothing else comes of it, he has at least +made Caesar smart.—We have a civil war on us, not because we have +quarrelled among ourselves, but through one abandoned citizen. But +this citizen has a strong army, and a large party attached to +him.—What he will do I cannot say; he cannot even pretend to do +anything constitutionally; but what is to become of us, with a +general that cannot lead?—To say nothing of ten years of +blundering, what could have been worse than this flight from Rome? +His next purpose I know not. I ask, and can have no answer. All is +cowardice and confusion. He was kept at home to protect us, and +protection there is none. The one hope is in two legions +invidiously detained and almost not belonging to us. As to the +levies, the men enlist unwillingly, and hate the notion of a +war.” <a name="fnr155"></a> <a href="#fn155" class= +"fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>In this condition of things Lucius Caesar arrived with the +answer from Rimini. A council of war was held at Teano to consider +it; and the flames which had burnt so hotly at the beginning of the +month were found to have somewhat cooled. Cato’s friend +Favonius was still defiant; but the rest, even Cato himself, had +grown more modest. Pompey, it was plain, had no army, and could not +raise an army. Caesar spoke fairly. It might be only treachery; but +the Senate had left their families and their property in Rome. The +public money was in Rome. They were willing to consent that Caesar +should be consul, since so it must be. Unluckily for themselves, +they left Pompey to draw up their reply. Pompey intrusted the duty +to an incapable person named Sestius, and the answer was +ill-written, awkward, and wanting on the only point which would +have proved his sincerity. Pompey declined the proposed interview. +Caesar must evacuate Rimini, and return to his province; +afterwards, at some time unnamed, Pompey would go to Spain, and +other matters should be arranged to Caesar’s satisfaction. +Caesar must give securities that he would abide by his promise to +dismiss his troops; and meanwhile the consular levies would be +continued. <a name="fnr156"></a> <a href="#fn156" class= +"fnsuper">4</a></p> + +<p>To Cicero these terms seemed to mean a capitulation clumsily +disguised. Caesar interpreted them differently. To him it appeared +that he was required to part with his own army, while Pompey was +forming another. No time was fixed for the departure to Spain. He +might be himself named consul, yet Pompey might be in Italy to the +end of the year with an army independent of him. Evidently there +was distrust on both sides, yet on Caesar’s part a distrust not +undeserved. Pompey would not see him. He had admitted to Cicero +that he desired a war to prevent Caesar from being consul, and at +this very moment was full of hopes and schemes for carrying it on +successfully. “Pompey writes,” reported Cicero on the +28th of January, “that in a few days he will have a force on +which he can rely. He will occupy Picenum, <a name="fnr157"></a> <a +href="#fn157" class="fnsuper">5</a> and we are then to return to +Rome. Labienus assures him that Caesar is utterly weak. Thus he is +in better spirits.” <a name="fnr158"></a> <a href="#fn158" +class="fnsuper">6</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[February, B.C. 49.]</span> A second +legion had by this time arrived at Rimini. Caesar considered that +if the Senate really desired peace, their disposition would be +quickened by further pressure. He sent Antony across the mountains +to Arezzo, on the straight road to Rome; and he pushed on himself +toward Ancona, before Pompey had time to throw himself in the way. +The towns on the way opened their gates to him. The municipal +magistrates told the commandants that they could not refuse to +entertain Caius Caesar, who had done such great things for the +Republic. The officers fled. The garrisons joined Caesar’s +legions. Even a colony planted by Labienus sent a deputation with +offers of service. Steadily and swiftly in gathering volume the +army of the north came on. At Capua all was consternation. +“The consuls are helpless,” Cicero said. “There has +been no levy. The commissioners do not even try to excuse their +failure. With Caesar pressing forward and our general doing +nothing, men will not give in their names. The will is not wanting, +but they are without hope. Pompey, miserable and incredible though +it be, is prostrate. He has no courage, no purpose, no force, no +energy.... Caius Cassius came on the 7th to Capua, with an order +from Pompey to the consuls to go to Rome and bring away the money +from the treasury. How are they to go without an escort, or how +return? The consuls say he must go himself first to Picenum. But +Picenum is lost.—Caesar will soon be in Apulia, and Pompey on +board ship. What shall I do? I should not doubt had there not been +such shameful mis-management, and had I been myself consulted. +Caesar invites me to peace, but his letter was written before his +advance.” <a name="fnr159"></a> <a href="#fn159" class= +"fnsuper">7</a></p> + +<p>Desperate at the lethargy of their commander, the aristocracy +tried to force him into movement by acting on their own account. +Domitius, who had been appointed Caesar’s successor, was most +interested in his defeat. He gathered a party of young lords and +knights and a few thousand men, and flung himself into Corfinium, a +strong position in the Apennines, directly in Caesar’s path. +Pompey had still his two legions, and Domitius sent an express to +tell him that Caesar’s force was still small, and that with a +slight effort he might enclose him in the mountains. Meanwhile +Domitius himself tried to break the bridge over the Pescara. He was +too late. Caesar had by this time nearly 30,000 men. The Cisalpine +territories in mere enthusiasm had raised twenty-two cohorts for +him. He reached the Pescara while the bridge was still standing. He +surrounded Corfinium with the impregnable lines which had served +him so well in Gaul, and the messenger sent to Capua came back with +cold comfort. Pompey had simply ordered Domitius to retreat from a +position which he ought not to have occupied, and to join him in +Apulia. It was easy to say Retreat! No retreat was possible. +Domitius and his companions proposed to steal away in the night. +They were discovered. Their own troops arrested them, and carried +them as prisoners to Caesar. Fortune had placed in his hands at the +outset of the campaign the man who beyond others had been the +occasion of it. Domitius would have killed Caesar like a bandit if +he had caught him. He probably expected a similar fate for himself. +Caesar received his captives calmly and coldly. He told them that +they had made an ungrateful return to him for his services to his +country; and then dismissed them all, restoring even Domitius’s +well-filled military chest, and too proud to require a promise from +him that he would abstain personally from further hostility. His +army, such as it was, followed the general example, and declared +for Caesar.</p> + +<p>The capture of Corfinium and the desertion of the garrison made +an end of hesitation. Pompey and the consuls thought only of +instant flight, and hurried to Brindisi, where ships were waiting +for them; and Caesar, hoping that the evident feeling of Italy +would have its effect with the reasonable part of the Senate, sent +Cornelius Balbus, who was on intimate terms with many of them, to +assure them of his eagerness for peace, and to tell Cicero +especially that he would be well contented to live under +Pompey’s rule if he could have a guarantee for his personal +safety. <a name="fnr160"></a> <a href="#fn160" class= +"fnsuper">8</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March, B.C. 49.]</span> Cicero’s +trials had been great, and were not diminishing. The account given +by Balbus was simply incredible to him. If Caesar was really as +well disposed as Balbus represented, then the senatorial party, +himself included, had acted like a set of madmen. It might be +assumed, therefore, that Caesar was as meanly ambitious, as +selfish, as revolutionary as their fears had represented him, and +that his mildness was merely affectation. But what then? Cicero +wished for himself to be on the right side, but also to be on the +safe side. Pompey’s was the right side, the side, that is, +which, for his own sake, he would prefer to see victorious. But was +Pompey’s the safe side? or rather, would it be safe to go +against him? The necessity for decision was drawing closer. If +Pompey and the consuls went abroad, all loyal senators would be +expected to follow them, and to stay behind would be held treason. +Italy was with Caesar; but the East, with its treasures, its +fleets, its millions of men, this was Pompey’s, heart and soul. +The sea was Pompey’s. Caesar might win for the moment, but +Pompey might win in the long run. The situation was most +perplexing. Before the fall of Corfinium, Cicero had poured himself +out upon it to his friend. “My connections, personal and +political,” he said, “attach me to Pompey. If I stay +behind, I desert my noble and admirable companions, and I fall into +the power of a man whom I know not how far I can trust. He shows in +many ways that he wishes me well. I saw the tempest impending, and +I long ago took care to secure his good-will. But suppose him to be +my friend indeed, is it becoming in a good and valiant citizen, who +has held the highest offices and done such distinguished things, to +be in the power of any man? Ought I to expose myself to the danger, +and perhaps disgrace, which would lie before me, should Pompey +recover his position? This on one side; but now look at the other. +Pompey has shown neither conduct nor courage, and he has acted +throughout against my advice and judgment. I pass over his old +errors: how he himself armed this man against the constitution; how +he supported his laws by violence in the face of the auspices; how +he gave him Further Gaul, married his daughter, supported Clodius, +helped me back from exile indeed, but neglected me afterward; how +he prolonged Caesar’s command, and backed him up in everything; +how in his third consulship, when he had begun to defend the +constitution, he yet moved the tribunes to curry a resolution for +taking Caesar’s name in his absence, and himself sanctioned it +by a law of his own; how he resisted Marcus Marcellus, who would +have ended Caesar’s government on the 1st of March. Let us +forget all this: but what was ever more disgraceful than the flight +from Rome? What conditions would not have been preferable? He will +restore the constitution, you say, but when? by what means? Is not +Picenum lost? Is not the road open to the city? Is not our money, +public and private, all the enemy’s? There is no cause, no +rallying point for the friends of the constitution.... The rabble +are all for Caesar, and many wish for revolution.... I saw from the +first that Pompey only thought of flight: if I now follow him, +whither are we to go? Caesar will seize my brother’s property +and mine, ours perhaps sooner than others’, as an assault on us +would be popular. If I stay, I shall do no more than many good men +did in Cinna’s time.—Caesar may be my friend, not certainly, +but perhaps; and he may offer me a triumph which it would be +dangerous to refuse, and invidious with the “good” to +accept. Oh, most perplexing position!—while I write, word comes +that Caesar is at Corfinium. Domitius is inside, with a strong +force and eager to fight. I cannot think Pompey will desert +him.” <a name="fnr161"></a> <a href="#fn161" class= +"fnsuper">9</a></p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[February, B.C. 49.]</span> Pompey did +desert Domitius, as has been seen. The surrender of Corfinium, and +the circumstances of it, gave Cicero the excuse which he evidently +desired to find for keeping clear of a vessel that appeared to him +to be going straight to shipwreck. He pleased himself with +inventing evil purposes for Pompey, to justify his leaving him. He +thought it possible that Domitius and his friends might have been +purposely left to fall into Caesar’s hands, in the hope that +Caesar would kill them and make himself unpopular. Pompey, he was +satisfied, meant as much to be a despot as Caesar. Pompey might +have defended Rome, if he had pleased; but his purpose was to go +away and raise a great fleet and a great Asiatic army, and come +back and ruin Italy, and be a new “Sylla.” <a name="fnr162"></a> <a href="#fn162" class="fnsuper">10</a> In his +distress Cicero wrote both to Caesar and to Pompey, who was now at +Brindisi. To Caesar he said that, if he wished for peace, he might +command his services. He had always considered that Caesar had been +wronged in the course which had been pursued toward him. Envy and +ill-nature had tried to rob him of the honors which had been +conferred on him by the Roman people. He protested that he had +himself supported Caesar’s claims, and had advised others to do +the same. But he felt for Pompey also, he said, and would gladly be +of service to him. <a name="fnr163"></a> <a href="#fn163" class= +"fnsuper">11</a></p> + +<p>To Pompey he wrote:</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March, B.C. 49.]</span> “My advice +was always for peace, even on hard terms. I wished you to remain in +Rome. You never hinted that you thought of leaving Italy. I +accepted your opinion, not for the constitution’s sake, for I +despaired of saving it. The constitution is gone, and cannot be +restored without a destructive war; but I wished to be with you, +and if I can join you now, I will. I know well that my conduct has +not pleased those who desired to fight. I urged peace; not because +I did not fear what they feared, but because I thought peace a less +evil than war. When the war had begun and overtures were made to +you, you responded so amply and so honorably that I hoped I had +prevailed.... I was never more friendly with Caesar than they were; +nor were they more true to the State than I. The difference between +us is this, that while they and I are alike good citizens, I +preferred an arrangement, and you, I thought, agreed with me. They +chose to fight, and as their counsels have been taken, I can but do +my duty as a member of the Commonwealth, and as a friend to +you.” <a name="fnr164"></a> <a href="#fn164" class= +"fnsuper">12</a></p> + +<hr /> +<p>In this last sentence Cicero gives his clear opinion that the +aristocracy had determined upon war, and that for this reason and +no other the attempted negotiations had failed. Caesar, hoping that +a better feeling might arise after his dismissal of Domitius, had +waited a few days at Corfinium. Finding that Pompey had gone to +Brindisi, he then followed, trusting to overtake him before he +could leave Italy, and again by messengers pressed him earnestly +for an interview. By desertions, and by the accession of +volunteers, Caesar had now six legions with him. If Pompey escaped, +he knew that the war would be long and dangerous. If he could +capture him, or persuade him to an agreement, peace could easily be +preserved. When he arrived outside the town, the consuls with half +the army had already gone. Pompey was still in Brindisi, with +12,000 men, waiting till the transports could return to carry him +after them. Pompey again refused to see Caesar, and, in the absence +of the consuls, declined further discussion. Caesar tried to +blockade him, but for want of ships was unable to close the harbor. +The transports came back, and Pompey sailed for Durazzo. <a name="fnr165"></a> <a href="#fn165" class="fnsuper">13</a></p> + +<p>A few extracts and abridgments of letters will complete the +picture of this most interesting time.</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr166"></a> <a href="#fn166" class="fnsuper">14</a></p> + +<p>“Observe the man into whose hands we have fallen. How keen +he is, how alert, how well prepared! By Jove, if he does not kill +any one, and spares the property of those who are so terrified, he +will be in high favor. I talk with the tradesmen and farmers. They +care for nothing but their lands, and houses, and money. They have +gone right round. They fear the man they trusted, and love the man +they feared; and all this through our own blunders. I am sick to +think of it.”</p> + +<p><i>Balbus to Cicero</i>. <a name="fnr167"></a> <a href="#fn167" class="fnsuper">15</a></p> + +<p>“Pompey and Caesar have been divided by perfidious +villains. I beseech you, Cicero, use your influence to bring them +together again. Believe me, Caesar will not only do all you wish, +but will hold you to have done him essential service. Would that I +could say as much of Pompey, who I rather wish than hope may be +brought to terms! You have pleased Caesar by begging Lentulus to +stay in Italy, and you have more than pleased me. If he will listen +to you, will trust to what I tell him of Caesar, and will go back +to Rome, between you and him and the Senate, Caesar and Pompey may +be reconciled. If I can see this, I shall have lived long enough. I +know you will approve of Caesar’s conduct at +Corfinium.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr168"></a> <a href="#fn168" class="fnsuper">16</a></p> + +<p>“My preparations are complete. I wait till I can go by the +upper sea; I cannot go by the lower at this season. I must start +soon, lest I be detained. I do not go for Pompey’s sake. I have +long known him to be the worst of politicians, and I know him now +for the worst of generals. I go because I am sneered at by the +optimates. Precious optimates! What are they about now? Selling +themselves to Caesar? The towns receive Caesar as a god. When this +Pisistratus does them no harm, they are as grateful to him as if he +had protected them from others. What receptions will they not give +him? What honors will they not heap upon him? They are afraid, are +they? By Hercules, it is Pompey that they are afraid of. +Caesar’s treacherous clemency enchants them. Who are these +optimates, that insist that I must leave Italy, while they remain? +Let them be who they may, I am ashamed to stay, though I know what +to expect. I shall join a man who means not to conquer Italy, but +to lay it waste.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr169"></a> <a href="#fn169" class="fnsuper">17</a></p> + +<p>“Ought a man to remain in his country after it has fallen +under a tyranny? Ought a man to use any means to overthrow a +tyranny, though he may ruin his country in doing it? Ought he not +rather to try to mend matters by argument as opportunity offers? Is +it right to make war on one’s country for the sake of liberty? +Should a man adhere at all risks to one party, though he considers +them on the whole to have been a set of fools? Is a person who has +been his country’s greatest benefactor, and has been rewarded +by envy and ill usage, to volunteer into danger for such a party? +May he not retire, and live quietly with his family, and leave +public affairs to their fate?</p> + +<p>“I amused myself as times passes with these +speculations.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr170"></a> <a href="#fn170" class="fnsuper">18</a></p> + +<p>“Pompey has sailed. I am pleased to find that you approve +of my remaining. My efforts now are to persuade Caesar to allow me +to be absent from the Senate, which is soon to meet. I fear he will +refuse. I have been deceived in two points. I expected an +arrangement; and now I perceive that Pompey has resolved upon a +cruel and deadly war. By Heaven, he would have shown himself a +better citizen, and a better man, had he borne anything sooner than +have taken in hand such a purpose.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr171"></a> <a href="#fn171" class="fnsuper">19</a></p> + +<p>“Pompey is aiming at a monarchy after the type of Sylla. I +know what I say. Never did he show his hand more plainly. Has he +not a good cause? The very best. But mark me, it will be carried +out most foully. He means to strangle Rome and Italy with famine, +and then waste and burn the country, and seize the property of all +who have any. Caesar may do as ill; but the prospect is frightful. +The fleets from Alexandria, Colchis, Sidon, Cyprus, Pamphylia, +Lycia, Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium, will be employed to cut off our +supplies, and then Pompey himself will come in his wrath.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Atticus</i>. <a name="fnr172"></a> <a href="#fn172" class="fnsuper">20</a></p> + +<p>“I think I have been mad from the beginning of this +business. Why did not I follow Pompey when things were at their +worst? I found him (at Capua) full of fears. I knew then what he +would do, and I did not like it. He made blunder on blunder. He +never wrote to me, and only thought of flight. It was disgraceful. +But now my love for him revives. Books and philosophy please me no +more. Like the sad bird, I gaze night and day over the sea, and +long to fly away. <a name="fnr173"></a> <a href="#fn173" class= +"fnsuper">21</a> Were flight the worst, it would be nothing, but I +dread this terrible war, the like of which has never been seen. The +word will be, ‘Sylla could do thus and thus; and why should not +I?’ Sylla, Marius, Cinna, had each a constitutional cause, yet +how cruel was their victory! I shrank from war because I saw that +something still more cruel was now intended. I, whom some have +called the saviour and parent of my country! I to bring Getes, and +Armenians, and Colchians upon Italy! I to famish my fellow-citizens +and waste their lands! Caesar, I reflected, was in the first place +but mortal; and then there were many ways in which he might be got +rid of. <a name="fnr174"></a> <a href="#fn174" class= +"fnsuper">22</a> But, as you say, the sun has fallen out of the +sky. The sick man thinks that while there is life there is hope. I +continued to hope as long as Pompey was in Italy. Now your letters +are my only consolation.”</p> + +<hr /> +<p>“Caesar was but mortal!” The rapture with which Cicero +hailed Caesar’s eventual murder explains too clearly the +direction in which his thoughts were already running. If the life +of Caesar alone stood between his country and the resurrection of +the constitution, Cicero might well think, as others have done, +that it was better that one man should die rather than the whole +nation perish. We read the words with sorrow, and yet with pity. +That Cicero, after his past flatteries of Caesar, after the praises +which he was yet to heap on him, should yet have looked on his +assassination as a thing to be desired, throws a saddening light +upon his inner nature. But the age was sick with a moral plague, +and neither strong nor weak, wise nor unwise, bore any antidote +against infection.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn153"></a> <a href="#fnr153">[1]</a> +The vision on the Rubicon, with the celebrated saying that +“the die is cast,” is unauthenticated, and not at all +consistent with Caesar’s character.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn154"></a> <a href="#fnr154">[2]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., vii. 12.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn155"></a> <a href="#fnr155">[3]</a> +“Delectus ... invitorum est et pugnando ab +horrentium.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. 13.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn156"></a> <a href="#fnr156">[4]</a> +Compare Caesar’s account of these conditions, <i>De Bello +Civili</i>, i. 10, with <i>Cicero to Atticus</i>, vii. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn157"></a> <a href="#fnr157">[5]</a> +Between the Apennines and the Adriatic, about Ancona; in the line +of Caesar’s march should he advance from Kimini.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn158"></a> <a href="#fnr158">[6]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, vii. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn159"></a> <a href="#fnr159">[7]</a> +<i>Ibid.</i>, vii. 21.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn160"></a> <a href="#fnr160">[8]</a> +“Balbus quidem major ad me scribit, nihil malle Caesarem, quam +principe Pompeio sine metu vivere. Tu puto haec +credis.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, viii. 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn161"></a> <a href="#fnr161">[9]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, viii. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn162"></a> <a href="#fnr162">[10]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, viii. 11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn163"></a> <a href="#fnr163">[11]</a> +“Judicavique te bello violari, contra cujus honorem, populi +Romani beneficio concessum, inimici atque invidi niterentur. Sed ut +eo tempore non modo ipse fautor dignitatis tuae fui, verum etiam +caeteris auctor ad te adjuvandum, sic me nunc Pompeii dignitas +vehementer movet,” etc.—<i>Cicero to Caesar, enclosed in a +letter to Atticus</i>, ix. 11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn164"></a> <a href="#fnr164">[12]</a> +Enclosed to Atticus, viii. 11.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn165"></a> <a href="#fnr165">[13]</a> +Pompey had for <i>two years</i> meditated on the course which he +was now taking. Atticus had spoken of the intended flight from +Italy as base. Cicero answers: “Hoc turpe Cnaeus noster +biennio ante cogitavit: ita Sullaturit animus ejus, et diu +proscripturit;” “so he apes Sylla and longs for a +proscription.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, ix. 10.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn166"></a> <a href="#fnr166">[14]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, viii. 13.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn167"></a> <a href="#fnr167">[15]</a> +Enclosed to Atticus, viii. 15.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn168"></a> <a href="#fnr168">[16]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, viii. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn169"></a> <a href="#fnr169">[17]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ix. 4.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn170"></a> <a href="#fnr170">[18]</a> +<i>Ibid.</i>, ix. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn171"></a> <a href="#fnr171">[19]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ix. 7 and 9.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn172"></a> <a href="#fnr172">[20]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn173"></a> <a href="#fnr173">[21]</a> +“Ita dies et noctes tanquam avis illa mare prospecto, evolare +cupio.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn174"></a> <a href="#fnr174">[22]</a> +“Hunc primum mortalem esse, deinde etiam multis modis extingui +posse cogitabam.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, ix. 10.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter22">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[April B.C. 49.]</span> Pompey was gone, +gone to cover the Mediterranean with fleets which were to starve +Italy, and to raise an army which was to bring him back to play +Sylla’s game once more. The consuls had gone with him, more +than half the Senate, and the young patricians, the descendants of +the Metelli and the Scipios, with the noble nature melted out of +them, and only the pride remaining. Caesar would have chased them +at once, and have allowed them no time to organize, but ships were +wanting, and he could not wait to form a fleet. Pompey’s +lieutenants, Afranius and Petreius and Varro, were in Spain, with +six legions and the levies of the Province. These had to be +promptly dealt with, and Sicily and Sardinia, on which Rome +depended for its corn, had to be cleared of enemies, and placed in +trustworthy hands. He sent Curio to Sicily and Valerius to +Sardinia. Both islands surrendered without resistance, Cato, who +was in command in Messina, complaining openly that he had been +betrayed. Caesar went himself to Rome, which he had not seen for +ten years. He met Cicero by appointment on the road, and pressed +him to attend the Senate. Cicero’s example, he said, would +govern the rest. If his account of the interview be true, Cicero +showed more courage than might have been expected from his letters +to Atticus. He inquired whether, if he went, he might speak as he +pleased; he could not consent to blame Pompey, and he should say +that he disapproved of attacks upon him, either in Greece or Spain. +Caesar said that he could not permit language of this kind. Cicero +answered that he thought as much, and therefore preferred to stay +away. <a name="fnr175"></a> <a href="#fn175" class= +"fnsuper">1</a>Caesar let him take his own course, and went on by +himself. The consuls being absent, the Senate was convened by the +tribunes, Mark Antony and Cassius Longinus, both officers in +Caesar’s army. The house was thin, but those present were cold +and hostile. They knew by this time that they need fear no +violence. They interpreted Caesar’s gentleness into timidity, +but they were satisfied that, let them do what they pleased, he +would not injure them. He addressed the Senate with his usual +clearness and simplicity. He had asked, he said, for no +extraordinary honors. He had waited the legal period of ten years +for a second consulship. A promise had been given that his name +should be submitted, and that promise had been withdrawn. He dwelt +on his forbearance, on the concessions which he had offered, and +again on his unjust recall, and the violent suppression of the +legal authority of the tribunes. He had proposed terms of peace, he +said; he had asked for interviews, but all in vain. If the Senate +feared to commit themselves by assisting him, he declared his +willingness to carry on the government in his own name; but he +invited them to send deputies to Pompey, to treat for an +arrangement.</p> + +<p>The Senate approved of sending a deputation; but Pompey had +sworn, on leaving, that he would hold all who had not joined him as +his enemies; no one, therefore, could be found willing to go. Three +days were spent in unmeaning discussion, and Caesar’s situation +did not allow of trifling. With such people nothing could be done, +and peace could be won only by the sword. By an edict of his own he +restored the children of the victims of Sylla’s proscription to +their civil rights and their estates, the usurpers being mostly in +Pompey’s camp. The assembly of the people voted him the money +in the treasury. Metellus, a tribune in Pompey’s interest, +forbade the opening of the doors, but he was pushed out of the way. +Cæsar took such money as he needed, and went with his best speed to +join his troops in Gaul.</p> + +<p>His singular gentleness had encouraged the opposition to him in +Rome. In Gaul he encountered another result of his forbearance more +practically trying. The Gauls themselves, though so lately +conquered in so desperate a struggle, remained quiet. Then, if +ever, they had an opportunity of reasserting their independence. +They not only did not take advantage of it, but, as if they +disdained the unworthy treatment of their great enemy, each tribe +sent him, at his request, a body of horse, led by the bravest of +their chiefs. His difficulty came from a more tainted source. +Marseilles, the most important port in the western Mediterranean, +the gate through which the trade of the Province passed in and out, +had revolted to Pompey. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who had been +dismissed at Corfinium, had been despatched to encourage and assist +the townspeople with a squadron of Pompey’s fleet. When Caesar +arrived, Marseilles closed its gates, and refused to receive him. +He could not afford to leave behind him an open door into the +Province, and he could ill spare troops for a siege. Afranius and +Petreius were already over the Ebro with 30,000 legionaries and +with nearly twice as many Spanish auxiliaries. Yet Marseilles must +be shut in, and quickly. Fabius was sent forward to hold the passes +of the Pyrenees. Caesar’s soldiers were set to work in the +forest. Trees were cut down and sawn into planks. In thirty days +twelve stout vessels, able to hold their own against Domitius, were +built and launched and manned. The fleet thus extemporized was +trusted to Decimus Brutus. Three legions were left to make +approaches, and, if possible, to take the town on the land side; +and, leaving Marseilles blockaded by sea and land, Caesar hurried +on to the Spanish frontier. The problem before him was worthy of +his genius. A protracted war in the peninsula would be fatal. +Pompey would return to Italy, and there would be no one to oppose +him there. The Spanish army had to be destroyed or captured, and +that immediately; and it was stronger than Caesar’s own, and +was backed by all the resources of the province.</p> + +<p>The details of a Roman campaign are no longer interesting. The +results, with an outline of the means by which they were brought +about, alone concern the modern reader. Pompey’s lieutenant, +having failed to secure the passes, was lying at Lerida, in +Catalonia, at the junction of the Segre and the Naguera, with the +Ebro behind them, and with a mountain range, the Sierra de Llena, +on their right flank. Their position was impregnable to direct +attack. From their rear they drew inexhaustible supplies. The +country in front had been laid waste to the Pyrenees, and +everything which Caesar required had to be brought to him from +Gaul. In forty days from the time at which the armies came in sight +of each other Afranius and Petreius, with all their legions, were +prisoners. Varro, in the south, was begging for peace, and all +Spain lay at Caesar’s feet. At one moment he was almost lost. +The melting of the snows in the mountains brought a flood down the +Segre. The bridges were carried away, the fords were impassable, +and his convoys were at the mercy of the enemy. News flew to Rome +that all was over, that Caesar’s army was starving, that he was +cut off between the rivers, and in a few days must surrender. +Marseilles still held out. Pompey’s, it seemed, was to be the +winning side, and Cicero and many others, who had hung back to +watch how events would turn, made haste to join their friends in +Greece before their going had lost show of credit. <a name="fnr176"></a> <a href="#fn176" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>The situation was indeed most critical. Even Caesar’s own +soldiers became unsteady. He remarks that in civil wars generally +men show less composure than in ordinary campaigns. But resource in +difficulties is the distinction of great generals. He had observed +in Britain that the coast fishermen used boats made out of frames +of wicker covered with skins. The river banks were fringed with +willows. There were hides in abundance on the carcasses of the +animals in the camp. Swiftly in these vessels the swollen waters of +the Segre were crossed; the convoys were rescued. The broken +bridges were repaired. The communications of the Pompeians were +threatened in turn, and they tried to fall back over the Ebro; but +they left their position only to be intercepted, and after a few +feeble struggles laid down their arms. Among the prisoners were +found several of the young nobles who had been released at +Corfinium. It appeared that they regarded Caesar as an outlaw with +whom obligations were not binding. The Pompeian generals had +ordered any of Caesar’s soldiers who fell into their hands to +be murdered. He was not provoked into retaliation. He again +dismissed the whole of the captive force, officers and men, +contenting himself with this time exacting a promise from them that +they would not serve against him again. They gave their word and +broke it. The generals and military tribunes made their way to +Greece to Pompey. Of the rest, some enlisted in Caesar’s +legions; others scattered to combine again when opportunity +allowed.</p> + +<p>Varro, who commanded a legion in the south, behaved more +honorably. He sent in his submission, entered into the same +engagement, and kept it. He was an old friend of Caesar’s, and +better understood him. Caesar, after the victory at Lerida, went +down to Cordova, and summoned the leading Spaniards and Romans to +meet him there. All came and promised obedience. Varro gave in his +accounts, with his ships, and stores, and money. Caesar then +embarked at Cadiz, and went round to Tarragona, where his own +legions were waiting for him. From Tarragona he marched back by the +Pyrenees, and came in time to receive in person the surrender of +Marseilles.</p> + +<p>The siege had been a difficult one, with severe engagements both +by land and sea. Domitius and his galleys had attacked the ungainly +but useful vessels which Caesar had extemporized. He had been +driven back with the loss of half his fleet. Pompey had sent a +second squadron to help him, and this had fared no better. It had +fled after a single battle and never reappeared. The land works had +been assailed with ingenuity and courage. The agger had been burnt +and the siege towers destroyed. But they had been repaired +instantly by the industry of the legions, and Marseilles was at the +last extremity when Caesar arrived. He had wished to spare the +townspeople, and had sent orders that the place was not to be +stormed. On his appearance the keys of the gates were brought to +him without conditions. Again he pardoned every one; more, he said, +for the reputation of the colony than for the merits of its +inhabitants. Domitius had fled in a gale of wind, and once more +escaped. A third time he was not to be so fortunate.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 48]</span> Two legions were left in +charge of Marseilles; others returned to their quarters in Gaul. +Well as the tribes had behaved, it was unsafe to presume too much +on their fidelity, and Caesar was not a partisan chief, but the +guardian of the Roman Empire. With the rest of his army he returned +to Rome at the beginning of the winter. All had been quiet since +the news of the capitulation at Lerida. The aristocracy had gone to +Pompey. The disaffection among the people of which Cicero spoke had +existed only in his wishes, or had not extended beyond the classes +who had expected from Caesar a general partition of property, and +had been disappointed. His own successes had been brilliant. Spain, +Gaul, and Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, were entirely his own. +Elsewhere and away from his own eye things had gone less well for +him. An attempt to make a naval force in the Adriatic had failed; +and young Curio, who had done Caesar such good service as tribune, +had met with a still graver disaster. After recovering Sicily, +Curio had been directed to cross to Africa and expel Pompey’s +garrisons from the Province. His troops were inferior, consisting +chiefly of the garrison which had surrendered at Corfinium. Through +military inexperience he had fallen into a trap laid for him by +Juba, King of Mauritania, and had been killed.</p> + +<p>Caesar regretted Curio personally. The African misfortune was +not considerable in itself, but it encouraged hopes and involved +consequences which he probably foresaw. There was no present +leisure, however, to attend to Juba. On arriving at the city he was +named Dictator. As Dictator he held the consular elections, and, +with Servilius Isauricus for a colleague, he was chosen consul for +the year which had been promised to him, though under circumstances +so strangely changed. With curious punctiliousness he observed that +the legal interval had expired since he was last in office, and +that therefore there was no formal objection to his +appointment.</p> + +<p>Civil affairs were in the wildest confusion. The Senate had +fled; the administration had been left to Antony, whose knowledge +of business was not of a high order; and over the whole of Italy +hung the terror of Pompey’s fleet and of an Asiatic invasion. +Public credit was shaken. Debts had not been paid since the civil +war began. Moneylenders had charged usurious interest for default, +and debtors were crying for <i>novae tabulae</i>, and hoped to +clear themselves by bankruptcy. Caesar had but small leisure for +such matters. Pompey had been allowed too long a respite, and +unless he sought Pompey in Greece, Pompey would be seeking him at +home, and the horrid scenes of Sylla’s wars would be enacted +over again. He did what he could, risking the loss of the favor of +the mob by disappointing dishonest expectations. Estimates were +drawn of all debts as they stood twelve months before. The +principal was declared to be still due. The interest for the +interval was cancelled. Many persons complained of injustice which +they had met with in the courts of law during the time that Pompey +was in power. Caesar refused to revise the sentences himself, lest +he should seem to be encroaching on functions not belonging to him; +but he directed that such causes should be heard again.</p> + +<p>Eleven days were all he could afford to Rome. So swift was +Caesar that his greatest exploits were measured by days. He had to +settle accounts with Pompey while it was still winter, and while +Pompey’s preparations for the invasion of Italy were still +incomplete; and he and his veterans, scarcely allowing themselves a +breathing-time, went down to Brindisi.</p> + +<p>It was now the beginning of January by the unreformed calendar +(by the seasons the middle of October)—a year within a few days +since Caesar had crossed the Rubicon. He had nominally twelve +legions under him. But long marches had thinned the ranks of his +old and best-tried troops. The change from the dry climate of Gaul +and Spain to the south of Italy in a wet autumn had affected the +health of the rest, and there were many invalids. The force +available for field service was small for the work which was before +it: in all not more than 30,000 men. Pompey’s army lay +immediately opposite Brindisi, at Durazzo. It was described +afterward as inharmonious and ill-disciplined, but so far as report +went at the time Caesar had never encountered so formidable an +enemy. There were nine legions of Roman citizens with their +complements full. Two more were coming up with Scipio from Syria. +Besides these there were auxiliaries from the allied princes in the +East; corps from Greece and Asia Minor, slingers and archers from +Crete and the islands. Of money, of stores of all kinds, there was +abundance, for the Eastern revenue had been all paid for the last +year to Pompey, and he had levied impositions at his pleasure.</p> + +<p>Such was the Senate’s land army, and before Caesar could +cross swords with it a worse danger lay in his path. It was not for +nothing that Cicero said that Pompey had been careful of his fleet. +A hundred and thirty ships, the best which were to be had, were +disposed in squadrons along the east shore of the Adriatic; the +head-quarters were at Corfu; and the one purpose was to watch the +passage and prevent Caesar from crossing over.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[January, B.C. 48.]</span> Transports run +down by vessels of war were inevitably sunk. Twelve fighting +triremes, the remains of his attempted Adriatic fleet, were all +that Caesar could collect for a convoy. The weather was wild. Even +of transports he had but enough to carry half his army in a single +trip. With such a prospect and with the knowledge that if he +reached Greece at all he would have to land in the immediate +neighborhood of Pompey’s enormous host, surprise has been +expressed that Caesar did not prefer to go round through Illyria, +keeping his legions together. But Caesar had won many victories by +appearing where he was least expected. He liked well to descend +like a bolt out of the blue sky; and, for the very reason that no +ordinary person would under such circumstances have thought of +attempting the passage, he determined to try it. Long marches +exhausted the troops. In bad weather the enemy’s fleet +preferred the harbors to the open sea; and perhaps he had a further +and special ground of confidence in knowing that the officer in +charge at Corfu was his old acquaintance, Bibulus— Bibulus, the +fool of the aristocracy, the butt of Cicero, who had failed in +everything which he had undertaken, and had been thanked by Cato +for his ill successes. Caesar knew the men with whom he had to +deal. He knew Pompey’s incapacity; he knew Bibulus’s +incapacity. He knew that public feeling among the people was as +much on his side in Greece as in Italy. Above all, he knew his own +troops, and felt that he could rely on them, however heavy the odds +might be. He was resolved to save Italy at all hazards from +becoming the theatre of war, and therefore the best road for him +was that which would lead most swiftly to his end.</p> + +<p>On the 4th January, then, by unreformed time, Caesar sailed with +15,000 men and 500 horses from Brindisi. The passage was rough but +swift, and he landed without adventure at Acroceraunia, now Cape +Linguetta, on the eastern shore of the Straits of Otranto. Bibulus +saw him pass from the heights of Corfu, and put to sea, too late to +intercept him—in time, however, unfortunately, to fall in with the +returning transports. Caesar had started them immediately after +disembarking, and had they made use of the darkness they might have +gone over unperceived; they lingered and were overtaken; Bibulus +captured thirty of them, and, in rage at his own blunder, killed +every one that he found on board.</p> + +<p>Ignorant of this misfortune, and expecting that Antony would +follow him in a day or two with the remainder of the army, Caesar +advanced at once toward Durazzo, occupied Apollonia, and entrenched +himself on the left bank of the river Apsus. The country, as he +anticipated, was well-disposed and furnished him amply with +supplies. He still hoped to persuade Pompey to come to terms with +him. He trusted, perhaps not unreasonably, that the generosity with +which he had treated Marseilles and the Spanish legions might have +produced an effect; and he appealed once more to Pompey’s wiser +judgment. Vibullius Rufus, who had been taken at Corfinium, and a +second time on the Lerida, had since remained with Caesar. Rufus, +being personally known as an ardent member of the Pompeian party, +was sent forward to Durazzo with a message of peace.</p> + +<p>“Enough had been done,” Caesar said, “and Fortune +ought not to be tempted further. Pompey had lost Italy, the two +Spains, Sicily, and Sardinia, and a hundred and thirty cohorts of +his soldiers had been captured. Caesar had lost Curio and the army +of Africa. They were thus on an equality, and might spare their +country the consequences of further rivalry. If either he or Pompey +gained a decisive advantage, the victor would be compelled to +insist on harder terms. If they could not agree, Caesar was willing +to leave the question between them to the Senate and people of +Rome, and for themselves, he proposed that they should each take an +oath to disband their troops in three days.”</p> + +<p>Pompey, not expecting Caesar, was absent in Macedonia when he +heard of his arrival, and was hurrying back to Durazzo. +Caesar’s landing had produced a panic in his camp. Men and +officers were looking anxiously in each other’s faces. So great +was the alarm, so general the distrust, that Labienus had sworn in +the presence of the army that he would stand faithfully by Pompey. +Generals, tribunes, and centurions had sworn after him. They had +then moved up to the Apsus and encamped on the opposite side of the +river, waiting for Pompey to come up.</p> + +<p>There was now a pause on both sides. Antony was unable to leave +Brindisi, Bibulus being on the watch day and night. A single vessel +attempted the passage. It was taken, and every one on board was +massacred. The weather was still wild, and both sides suffered. If +Caesar’s transports could not put to sea, Bibulus’s crews +could not land either for fuel or water anywhere south of +Apollonia. Bibulus held on obstinately till he died of exposure to +wet and cold, so ending his useless life; but his death did not +affect the situation favorably for Caesar; his command fell into +abler hands.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[February, B.C. 48.]</span> At length +Pompey arrived. Vibullius Rufus delivered his message. Pompey would +not hear him to the end. “What care I,” he said, +“for life or country if I am to hold both by the favor of +Caesar? All men will think thus of me if I make peace now.... I +left Italy. Men will say that Caesar has brought me back.”</p> + +<p>In the legions the opinion was different. The two armies were +divided only by a narrow river. Friends met and talked. They asked +each other for what purpose so desperate a war had been undertaken. +The regular troops all idolized Caesar. Deputations from both sides +were chosen to converse and consult, with Caesar’s warmest +approval. Some arrangement might have followed. But Labienus +interposed. He appeared at the meeting as if to join in the +conference; he was talking in apparent friendliness to Cicero’s +acquaintance, Publius Vatinius, who was serving with Caesar. +Suddenly a shower of darts were hurled at Vatinius. His men flung +themselves in front of him and covered his body; but most of them +were wounded, and the assembly broke up in confusion, Labienus +shouting, “Leave your talk of composition; there can be no +peace till you bring us Caesar’s head.”</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[April, B.C. 48.]</span> Cool thinkers +were beginning to believe that Caesar was in a scrape from which +his good fortune would this time fail to save him. Italy was on the +whole steady, but the slippery politicians in the capital were on +the watch. They had been disappointed on finding that Caesar would +give no sanction to confiscation of property, and a spark of fire +burst out which showed that the elements of mischief were active as +ever. Cicero’s correspondent, Marcus Caelius, had thrown +himself eagerly on Caesar’s side at the beginning of the war. +He had been left as praetor at Rome when Caesar went to Greece. He +in his wisdom conceived that the wind was changing, and that it was +time for him to earn his pardon from Pompey. He told the mob that +Caesar would do nothing for them, that Caesar cared only for his +capitalists. He wrote privately to Cicero that he was bringing them +over to Pompey, <a name="fnr177"></a> <a href="#fn177" class= +"fnsuper">3</a> and he was doing it in the way in which pretended +revolutionists so often play into the hands of reactionaries. He +proposed a law in the Assembly in the spirit of Jack Cade, that no +debts should be paid in Rome for six years, and that every tenant +should occupy his house for two years free of rent. The +administrators of the government treated him as a madman, and +deposed him from office. He left the city pretending that he was +going to Caesar. The once notorious Milo, who had been in exile +since his trial for the murder of Clodius, privately joined him; +and together they raised a band of gladiators in Campania, +professing to have a commission from Pompey. Milo was killed. +Caelius fled to Thurii, where he tried to seduce Caesar’s +garrison, and was put to death for his treachery. The familiar +actors in the drama were beginning to drop. Bibulus was gone, and +now Caelius and Milo. Fools and knaves are usually the first to +fall in civil distractions, as they and their works are the active +causes of them.</p> + +<p>Meantime months passed away. The winter wore through in forced +inaction, and Caesar watched in vain for the sails of his coming +transports. The Pompeians had for some weeks blockaded Brindisi. +Antony drove them off with armed boats; but still he did not start, +and Caesar thought that opportunities had been missed. <a name="fnr178"></a> <a href="#fn178" class="fnsuper">4</a> He wrote to +Antony sharply. The legions, true as steel, were ready for any +risks sooner than leave their commander in danger. A south wind +came at last, and they sailed. They were seen in mid-channel, and +closely pursued. Night fell, and in the darkness they were swept +past Durazzo, to which Pompey had again withdrawn, with the +Pompeian squadron in full chase behind them. They ran into the +harbor of Nymphaea, three miles north of Lissa, and were fortunate +in entering it safely. Sixteen of the pursuers ran upon the rocks, +and the crews owed their lives to Caesar’s troops, who saved +them. So Caesar mentions briefly, in silent contrast to the +unvarying ferocity of the Pompeian leaders. Two only of the +transports which had left Brindisi were missing in the morning. +They had gone by mistake into Lissa, and were surrounded by the +boats of the enemy, who promised that no one should be injured if +they surrendered. “Here,” says Caesar, in a +characteristic sentence, “may be observed the value of +firmness of mind.” One of the vessels had two hundred and +twenty young soldiers on board, the other two hundred veterans. The +recruits were sea-sick and frightened. They trusted the enemy’s +fair words, and were immediately murdered. The others forced their +pilot to run the ship ashore. They cut their way through a band of +Pompey’s cavalry, and joined their comrades without the loss of +a man.</p> + +<p>Antony’s position was most dangerous, for Pompey’s whole +army lay between him and Caesar; but Caesar marched rapidly round +Durazzo, and had joined his friend before Pompey knew that he had +moved.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[May, B.C. 48.]</span> Though still far +outnumbered, Caesar was now in a condition to meet Pompey in the +field, and desired nothing so much as a decisive action. Pompey +would not give him the opportunity, and kept within his lines. To +show the world, therefore, how matters stood between them, Caesar +drew a line of strongly fortified posts round Pompey’s camp and +shut him in. Force him to surrender he could not, for the sea was +open, and Pompey’s fleet had entire command of it. But the +moral effect on Italy of the news that Pompey was besieged might, +it was hoped, force him out from his entrenchments. If Pompey could +not venture to engage Caesar on his own chosen ground, and +surrounded by his Eastern friends, his cause at home would be +abandoned as lost. Nor was the active injury which Caesar was able +to inflict inconsiderable. He turned the streams on which +Pompey’s camp depended for water. The horses and cattle died. +Fever set in with other inconveniences. The labor of the siege was, +of course, severe. The lines were many miles in length, and the +difficulty of sending assistance to a point threatened by a sally +was extremely great. The corn in the fields was still green, and +supplies grew scanty. Meat Caesar’s army had, but of wheat +little or none; they were used to hardship, however, and bore it +with admirable humor. They made cakes out of roots, ground into +paste and mixed with milk; and thus, in spite of privation and +severe work, they remained in good health, and deserters daily came +into them.</p> + +<p>So the siege of Durazzo wore on, diversified with occasional +encounters, which Caesar details with the minuteness of a +scientific general writing for his profession, and with those +admiring mentions of each individual act of courage which so +intensely endeared him to his troops. Once an accidental +opportunity offered itself for a successful storm, but Caesar was +not on the spot. The officer in command shrank from responsibility; +and, notwithstanding the seriousness of the consequences, Caesar +said that the officer was right.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[June, B.C. 48.]</span> Pompey’s army +was not yet complete. Metellus Scipio had not arrived with the +Syrian legions. Scipio had come leisurely through Asia Minor, +plundering cities and temples and flaying the people with +requisitions. He had now reached Macedonia, and Domitius Calvinus +had been sent with a separate command to watch him. Caesar’s +own force, already too small for the business on hand, was thus +further reduced, and at this moment there fell out one of those +accidents which overtake at times the ablest commanders, and gave +occasion for Caesar’s observation, that Pompey knew not how to +conquer.</p> + +<p>There were two young Gauls with Caesar whom he had promoted to +important positions. They were reported to have committed various +peculations. Caesar spoke to them privately. They took offence and +deserted. There was a weak spot in Caesar’s lines at a point +the furthest removed from the body of the army. The Gauls gave +Pompey notice of it, and on this point Pompey flung himself with +his whole strength. The attack was a surprise. The engagement which +followed was desperate and unequal, for the reliefs were distant +and came up one by one. For once Caesar’s soldiers were seized +with panic, lost their order, and forgot their discipline. On the +news of danger he flew himself to the scene, threw himself into the +thickest of the fight, and snatched the standards from the flying +bearers. But on this single occasion he failed in restoring +confidence. The defeat was complete; and, had Pompey understood his +business, Caesar’s whole army might have been overthrown. +Nearly a thousand men were killed, with many field officers and +many centurions. Thirty-two standards were lost, and some hundreds +of legionaries were taken. Labienus begged the prisoners of Pompey. +He called them mockingly old comrades. He asked them how veterans +came to fly. They were led into the midst of the camp and were all +killed.</p> + +<p>Caesar’s legions had believed themselves invincible. The +effect of this misfortune was to mortify and infuriate them. They +were eager to fling themselves again upon the enemy and win back +their laurels; but Caesar saw that they were excited and unsteady, +and that they required time to collect themselves. He spoke to them +with his usual calm cheerfulness. He praised their courage. He +reminded them of their many victories, and bade them not be cast +down at a misadventure which they would soon repair; but he foresaw +that the disaster would affect the temper of Greece and make his +commissariat more difficult than it was already. He perceived that +he must adopt some new plan of campaign, and with instant decision +he fell back upon Apollonia.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[July, B.C 48.]</span> The gleam of +victory was the cause of Pompey’s ruin. It was unlooked for, +and the importance of it exaggerated. Caesar was supposed to be +flying with the wreck of an army completely disorganized and +disheartened. So sure were the Pompeians that it could never rally +again that they regarded the war as over; they made no efforts to +follow up a success which, if improved, might have been really +decisive; and they gave Caesar the one thing which he needed, time +to recover from its effects. After he had placed his sick and +wounded in security at Apollonia, his first object was to rejoin +Calvinus, who had been sent to watch Scipio, and might now be cut +off. Fortune was here favorable. Calvinus, by mere accident, learnt +his danger, divined where Caesar would be, and came to meet him. +The next thing was to see what Pompey would do. He might embark for +Italy. In this case Caesar would have to follow him by Illyria and +the head of the Adriatic. Cisalpine Gaul was true to him, and could +be relied on to refill his ranks. Or Pompey might pursue him in the +hope to make an end of the war in Greece, and an opportunity might +offer itself for an engagement under fairer terms. On the whole he +considered the second alternative the more likely one, and with +this expectation he led his troops into the rich plains of Thessaly +for the better feeding which they so much needed. The news of his +defeat preceded him. Gomphi, an important Thessalian town, shut its +gates upon him; and, that the example might not be followed, Gomphi +was instantly stormed and given up to plunder. One such lesson was +enough. No more opposition was ventured by the Greek cities.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[August 9, B.C. 48.]</span> Pompey +meanwhile had broken up from Durazzo, and after being joined by +Scipio was following leisurely. There were not wanting persons who +warned him that Caesar’s legions might still be dangerous. Both +Cicero and Cato had advised him to avoid a battle, to allow Caesar +to wander about Greece till his supplies failed and his army was +worn out by marches. Pompey himself was inclined to the same +opinion. But Pompey was no longer able to act on his own judgment. +The senators who were with him in the camp considered that in +Greece, as in Rome, they were the supreme rulers of the Roman +Empire. All along they had held their sessions and their debates, +and they had voted resolutions which they expected to see complied +with. They had never liked Pompey. If Cicero was right in supposing +that Pompey meant to be another Sylla, the senators had no +intention of allowing it. They had gradually wrested his authority +out of his hands, and reduced him to the condition of an officer of +the Senatorial Directory. These gentlemen, more especially the two +late consuls, Scipio and Lentulus, were persuaded that a single +blow would now make an end of Caesar. His army was but half the +size of theirs, without counting the Asiatic auxiliaries. The men, +they were persuaded, were dispirited by defeat and worn out. So +sure were they of victory that they were impatient of every day +which delayed their return to Italy. They accused Pompey of +protracting the war unnecessarily, that he might have the honor of +commanding such distinguished persons as themselves. They had +arranged everything that was to be done. Caesar and his band of +cutthroats were in imagination already despatched. They had +butchered hitherto every one of them who had fallen into their +hands, and the same fate was designed for their political allies. +They proposed to establish a senatorial court after their return to +Italy, in which citizens of all kinds who had not actually fought +on the Senate’s side were to be brought up for trial. Those who +should be proved to have been active for Caesar were to be at once +killed, and their estates confiscated. Neutrals were to fare almost +as badly, Not to have assisted the lawful rulers of the State was +scarcely better than to have rebelled against them. They, too, were +liable to death or forfeiture, or both. A third class of offenders +was composed of those who had been within Pompey’s lines, but +had borne no part in the fighting. These cold-hearted friends were +to be tried and punished according to the degree of their +criminality. Cicero was the person pointed at in the last division. +Cicero’s clear judgment had shown him too clearly what was +likely to be the result of a campaign conducted as he found it on +his arrival, and he had spoken his thoughts with sarcastic freedom. +The noble lords came next to a quarrel among themselves as to how +the spoils of Caesar were to be divided. Domitius Ahenobarbus, +Lentulus Spinther, and Scipio were unable to determine which of +them was to succeed Caesar as Pontifex Maximus, and which was to +have his palace and gardens in Rome. The Roman oligarchy were true +to their character to the eve of their ruin. It was they, with +their idle luxury, their hunger for lands and office and +preferment, who had brought all this misery upon their country; and +standing, as it were, at the very bar of judgment, with the +sentence of destruction about to be pronounced upon them, their +thoughts were still bent upon how to secure the largest share of +plunder for themselves.</p> + +<p>The battle of Pharsalia was not the most severe, still less was +it the last, action of the war. But it acquired a special place in +history, because it was a battle fought by the Roman aristocracy in +their own persons in defence of their own supremacy. Senators and +the sons of senators; the heirs of the names and fortunes of the +ancient Roman families; the leaders of society in Roman saloons, +and the chiefs of the political party of the optimates in the Curia +and Forum, were here present on the field; representatives in +person and in principle of the traditions of Sylla, brought face to +face with the representative of Marius. Here were the men who had +pursued Caesar through so many years with a hate so inveterate. +Here were the haughty Patrician Guard, who had drawn their swords +on him in the senate-house, young lords whose theory of life was to +lounge through it in patrician <i>insouciance</i>. The other +great actions were fought by the ignoble multitude whose deaths +were of less significance. The plains of Pharsalia were watered by +the precious blood of the elect of the earth. The battle there +marked an epoch like no other in the history of the world.</p> + +<p>For some days the two armies had watched each other’s +movements. Caesar, to give his men confidence, had again offered +Pompey an opportunity of fighting. But Pompey had kept to positions +where he could not be attacked. To draw him into more open ground, +Caesar had shifted his camp continually. Pompey had followed +cautiously, still remaining on his guard. His political advisers +were impatient of these dilatory movements. They taunted him with +cowardice. They insisted that he should set his foot on this +insignificant adversary promptly and at once; and Pompey, gathering +courage from their confidence, and trusting to his splendid +cavalry, agreed at last to use the first occasion that presented +itself.</p> + +<p>One morning, on the Enipeus, near Larissa, the 9th of August, +old style, or toward the end of May by real time, Caesar had broken +up his camp and was preparing for his usual leisurely march, when +he perceived a movement in Pompey’s lines which told him that +the moment which he had so long expected was come. Labienus, the +evil genius of the Senate, who had tempted them into the war by +telling them that his comrades were as disaffected as himself, and +had fired Caesar’s soldiers into intensified fierceness by his +barbarities at Durazzo, had spoken the deciding word: “Believe +not,” Labienus had said, “that this is the army which +defeated the Gauls and the Germans. I was in those battles, and +what I say I know. That army has disappeared. Part fell in action; +part perished of fever in the autumn in Italy. Many went home. Many +were left behind unable to move. The men you see before you are +levies newly drawn from the colonies beyond the Po. Of the veterans +that were left, the best were killed at Durazzo.”</p> + +<p>A council of war had been held at dawn. There had been a solemn +taking of oaths again. Labienus swore that he would not return to +the camp except as a conqueror; so swore Pompey; so swore Lentulus, +Scipio, Domitius; so swore all the rest. They had reason for their +high spirits. Pompey had forty-seven thousand Roman infantry, not +including his allies, and seven thousand cavalry. Caesar had but +twenty-two thousand, and of horse only a thousand. Pompey’s +position was carefully chosen. His right wing was covered by the +Enipeus, the opposite bank of which was steep and wooded. His left +spread out into the open plain of Pharsalia. His plan of battle was +to send forward his cavalry outside over the open ground, with +clouds of archers and slingers, to scatter Caesar’s horse, and +then to wheel round and envelop his legions. Thus he had thought +they would lose heart and scatter at the first shock. Caesar had +foreseen what Pompey would attempt to do. His own scanty cavalry, +mostly Gauls and Germans, would, he well knew, be unequal to the +weight which would be thrown on them. He had trained an equal +number of picked active men to fight in their ranks, and had thus +doubled their strength. Fearing that this might be not enough, he +had taken another precaution. The usual Roman formation in battle +was in triple line. Caesar had formed a fourth line of cohorts +specially selected to engage the cavalry; and on them, he said, in +giving them their instructions, the result of the action would +probably depend.</p> + +<p>Pompey commanded on his own left with the two legions which he +had taken from Caesar; outside him on the plain were his flying +companies of Greeks and islanders, with the cavalry covering them. +Caesar, with his favorite 10th, was opposite Pompey. His two +faithful tribunes, Mark Antony and Cassius Longinus, led the left +and centre. Servilia’s son, Marcus Brutus, was in Pompey’s +army. Caesar had given special directions that Brutus, if +recognized, should not be injured. Before the action began he spoke +a few general words to such of his troops as could hear him. They +all knew, he said, how earnestly he had sought for peace, how +careful he had always been of his soldiers’ lives, how +unwilling to deprive the State of the services of any of her +citizens, to whichever party they might belong. Crastinus, a +centurion, of the 10th legion, already known to Caesar for his +gallantry, called out, “Follow me, my comrades, and strike, +and strike home, for your general. This one battle remains to be +fought, and he will have his rights and we our liberty. +General,” he said, looking to Caesar, “I shall earn your +thanks this day, dead or alive.”</p> + +<p>Pompey had ordered his first line to stand still to receive +Caesar’s charge. <a name="fnr179"></a> <a href="#fn179" class= +"fnsuper">5</a> They would thus be fresh, while the enemy would +reach them exhausted—a mistake on Pompey’s part, as Caesar +thought; “for a fire and alacrity,” he observes, “is +kindled in all men when they meet in battle, and a wise general +should rather encourage than repress their fervor.”</p> + +<p>The signal was given. Caesar’s front rank advanced running. +Seeing the Pompeians did not move, they halted, recovered breath, +then rushed on, flung their darts, and closed sword in hand. At +once Pompey’s horse bore down, outflanking Caesar’s right +wing, with the archers behind and between them raining showers of +arrows. Caesar’s cavalry gave way before the shock, and the +outer squadrons came wheeling round to the rear, expecting that +there would be no one to encounter them. The fourth line, the pick +and flower of the legions, rose suddenly in their way. Surprised +and shaken by the fierceness of the attack on them, the Pompeians +turned, they broke, they galloped wildly off. The best cavalry in +those Roman battles were never a match for infantry when in close +formation, and Pompey’s brilliant squadrons were carpet-knights +from the saloon and the circus. They never rallied, or tried to +rally; they made off for the nearest hills. The archers were cut to +pieces; and the chosen corps, having finished so easily the service +for which they had been told off, threw themselves on the now +exposed flank of Pompey’s left wing. It was composed, as has +been said, of the legions which had once been Caesar’s, which +had fought under him at the Vingeanne and at Alesia. They ill +liked, perhaps, the change of masters, and were in no humor to +stand the charge of their old comrades coming on with the familiar +rush of victory. Caesar ordered up his third line, which had not +yet been engaged; and at once on all sides Pompey’s great army +gave way, and fled. Pompey himself, the shadow of his old name, +long harasssd out of self-respect by his senatorial directors, a +commander only in appearance, had left the field in the beginning +of the action. He had lost heart on the defeat of the cavalry, and +had retired to his tent to wait the issue of the day.</p> + +<p>The stream of fugitives pouring in told him too surely what the +issue had been. He sprang upon his horse and rode off in despair. +His legions were rushing back in confusion. Caesar, swift always at +the right moment, gave the enemy no leisure to re-form, and fell at +once upon the camp. It was noon, and the morning had been sultry; +but heat and weariness were forgotten in the enthusiasm of a +triumph which all then believed must conclude the war. A few +companies of Thracians, who had been left on guard, made a brief +resistance, but they were soon borne down. The beaten army, which a +few hours before were sharing in imagination the lands and offices +of their conquerors, fled out through the opposite gates, throwing +away their arms, flinging down their standards, and racing, +officers and men, for the rocky hills which at a mile’s +distance promised them shelter.</p> + +<p>The camp itself was a singular picture. Houses of turf had been +built for the luxurious patricians, with ivy trained over the +entrances to shade their delicate faces from the summer sun; +couches had been laid out for them to repose on after their +expected victory; tables were spread with plate and wines, and the +daintiest preparations of Roman cookery. Caesar commented on the +scene with mournful irony. “And these men,” he said, +“accused my patient, suffering army, which had not even common +necessaries, of dissoluteness and profligacy!”</p> + +<p>Two hundred only of Caesar’s men had fallen. The officers +had suffered most. The gallant Crastinus, who had nobly fulfilled +his promise, had been killed, among many others, in opening a way +for his comrades. The Pompeians, after the first shock, had been +cut down unresisting. Fifteen thousand of them lay scattered dead +about the ground. There were few wounded in these battles. The +short sword of the Romans seldom left its work unfinished.</p> + +<p>“They would have it so,” Caesar is reported to have +said, as he looked sadly over the littered bodies in the familiar +patrician dress. <a name="fnr180"></a> <a href="#fn180" class= +"fnsuper">6</a> “After all that I had done for my country, I, +Caius Caesar, should have been condemned by them as a criminal if I +had not appealed to my army.”</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 48.]</span> But Caesar did not wait +to indulge in reflections. His object was to stamp the fire out on +the spot, that it might never kindle again. More than half the +Pompeians had reached the hills and were making for Larissa. +Leaving part of his legions in the camp to rest, Caesar took the +freshest the same evening, and by a rapid march cut off their line +of retreat. The hills were waterless, the weather suffocating. A +few of the guiltiest of the Pompeian leaders, Labienus, Lentulus, +Afranius, Petreius, and Metellus Scipio (Cicero and Cato had been +left at Durazzo), contrived to escape in the night. The rest, +twenty-four thousand of them, surrendered at daylight. They came +down praying for mercy, which they had never shown, sobbing out +their entreaties on their knees that the measure which they had +dealt to others might not be meted out to them. Then and always +Caesar hated unnecessary cruelty, and never, if he could help it, +allowed executions in cold blood. He bade them rise, said a few +gentle words to relieve their fears, and sent them back to the +camp. Domitius Ahenobarbus, believing that for him at least there +could be no forgiveness, tried to escape, and was killed. The rest +were pardoned.</p> + +<p>So ended the battle of Pharsalia. A hundred and eighty standards +were taken and all the eagles of Pompey’s legions. In +Pompey’s own tent was found his secret correspondence, +implicating persons, perhaps, whom Caesar had never suspected, +revealing the mysteries of the past three years. Curiosity and even +prudence might have tempted him to look into it. His only wish was +that the past should be forgotten: he burnt the whole mass of +papers unread.</p> + +<p>Would the war now end? That was the question. Caesar thought +that it would not end as long as Pompey was at large. The feelings +of others may be gathered out of abridgments from Cicero’s +letters:</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Plancius.</i> <a name="fnr181"></a> <a href="#fn181" class="fnsuper">7</a></p> + +<p>“Victory on one side meant massacre, on the other slavery. +It consoles me to remember that I foresaw these things, and as much +feared the success of our cause as the defeat of it. I attached +myself to Pompey’s party more in hope of peace than from desire +of war; but I saw, if we had the better, how cruel would be the +triumph of an exasperated, avaricious, and insolent set of men; if +we were defeated, how many of our wealthiest and noblest citizens +must fall. Yet when I argued thus and offered my advice I was +taunted for being a coward.”</p> + +<p><i>Cicero to Caius Cassius.</i> <a name="fnr182"></a> <a href="#fn182" class="fnsuper">8</a></p> + +<p>“We were both opposed to a continuance of the war [after +Pharsalia]. I, perhaps, more than you; but we agreed that one +battle should be accepted as decisive, if not of the whole cause, +yet of our own judgment upon it. Nor were there any who differed +from us save those who thought it better that the Constitution +should be destroyed altogether than be preserved with diminished +prerogatives. For myself I could hope nothing from the overthrow of +it, and much if a remnant could be saved.... And I thought it +likely that, after that decisive battle, the victors would consider +the welfare of the public, and that the vanquished would consider +their own.”</p> + +<p><i>To Varro.</i> <a name="fnr183"></a> <a href="#fn183" class= +"fnsuper">9</a></p> + +<p>“You were absent [at the critical moment]. I for myself +perceived that our friends wanted war, and that Caesar did not want +it, but was not afraid of it. Thus much of human purpose was in the +matter. The rest came necessarily; for one side or the other would, +of course, conquer. You and I both grieved to see how the State +would suffer from the loss of either army and its generals; we knew +that victory in a civil war was itself a most miserable disaster. I +dreaded the success of those to whom I had attached myself. They +threatened most cruelly those who had stayed quietly at home. Your +sentiments and my speeches were alike hateful to them. If our side +had won, they would have shown no forbearance.”</p> + +<p><i>To Marcus Marius.</i> <a name="fnr184"></a> <a href="#fn184" class="fnsuper">10</a></p> + +<p>“When you met me on the 13th of May (49), you were anxious +about the part which I was to take. If I stayed in Italy, you +feared that I should be wanting in duty. To go to the war you +thought dangerous for me. I was myself so disturbed that I could +not tell what it was best for me to do. I consulted my reputation, +however, more than my safety; and if I afterwards repented of my +decision it was not for the peril to myself, but on account of the +state of things which I found on my arrival at Pompey’s camp. +His forces were not very considerable, nor good of their kind. For +the chiefs, if I except the general and a few others, they were +rapacious in their conduct of the war, and so savage in their +language that I dreaded to see them victorious. The most +considerable among them were overwhelmed with debt. There was +nothing good about them but their cause. I despaired of success and +recommended peace. When Pompey would not hear of it, I advised him +to protract the war. This for the time he approved, and he might +have continued firm but for the confidence which he gathered from +the battle at Durazzo. From that day the great man ceased to be a +general. With a raw and inexperienced army he engaged legions in +perfect discipline. On the defeat he basely deserted his camp and +fled by himself. For me this was the end: I retired from a war in +which the only alternatives before me were either to be killed in +action or be taken prisoner, or fly to Juba in Africa, or hide in +exile, or destroy myself.”</p> + +<p><i>To Caecina</i>. <a name="fnr185"></a> <a href="#fn185" +class="fnsuper">11</a></p> + +<p>“I would tell you my prophecies but that you would think I +had made them after the event. But many persons can bear me witness +that I first warned Pompey against attaching himself to Caesar, and +then against quarrelling with him. Their union (I said) had broken +the power of the Senate; their discord would cause a civil war. I +was intimate with Caesar; I was most attached to Pompey; but my +advice was for the good of them both.... I thought that Pompey +ought to go to Spain. Had he done so, the war would not have been. +I did not so much insist that Caesar could legally stand for the +consulship as that his name should be accepted, because the people +had so ordered at Pompey’s own instance. I advised, I +entreated. I preferred the most unfair peace to the most righteous +war. I was overborne, not so much by Pompey (for on him I produced +an effect) as by men who relied on Pompey’s leadership to win +them a victory, which would be convenient for their personal +interests and private ambitions. No misfortune has happened in the +war which I did not predict.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn175"></a> <a href="#fnr175">[1]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, ix. 18.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn176"></a> <a href="#fnr176">[2]</a> +“Tullia bids me wait till I see how things go in Spain, and +she says you are of the same opinion. The advice would be good, if +I could adapt my conduct to the issue of events there. But one of +three alternatives must happen. Either Caesar will be driven back, +which would please me best, or the war will be protracted, or he +will be completely victorious. If he is defeated, Pompey will thank +me little for joining him. Curio himself will then go over to him. +If the war hangs on, how long am I to wait? If Caesar conquers, it +is thought we may then have peace. But I consider, on the other +hand, that it would be more decent to forsake Caesar in success +than when beaten and in difficulties. The victory of Caesar means +massacre, confiscation, recall of exiles, a clean sweep of debts, +every worst man raised to honor, and a rule which not only a Roman +citizen but a Persian could not endure.... Pompey will not lay down +his arms for the loss of Spain; he holds with Themistocles that +those who are masters at sea will be the victors in the end. He has +neglected Spain. He has given all his care to his ships. When the +time comes he will return to Italy with an overwhelming fleet. And +what will he say to me if he finds me still sitting here?—Let +alone duty, I must think of the danger.... Every course has its +perils; but I should surely avoid a course which is both +ignominious and perilous also.</p> + +<p class="footnote">“I did not accompany Pompey when he went +himself? I could not. I had not time. And yet, to confess the +truth, I made a mistake which, perhaps, I should not have made. I +thought there would be peace, and I would not have Caesar angry +with me after he and Pompey had become friends again. Thus I +hesitated; but I can overtake my fault if I lose no more time, and +I am lost if I delay.—I see that Caesar cannot stand long. He will +fall of himself if we do nothing. When his affairs were most +flourishing, he became unpopular with the hungry rabble of the city +in six or seven days. He could not keep up the mask. His harshness +to Metellus destroyed his credit for clemency, and his taking money +from the treasury destroyed his reputation for riches.</p> + +<p class="footnote">“As to his followers, how can men govern +provinces who cannot manage their own affairs for two months +together? Such a monarchy could not last half a year. The wisest +men have miscalculated.... If that is my case, I must bear the +reproach ... but I am sure it will be as I say. Caesar will fall, +either by his enemies or by himself, who is his worst enemy.... I +hope I may live to see it, though you and I should be thinking more +of the other life than of this transitory one: but so it come, no +matter whether I see it or foresee it.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, +x. 8.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn177"></a> <a href="#fnr177">[3]</a> +“Nam hic nunc praeter foeneratores paucos nec homo nec ordo +quisquam est nisi Pompeianus. Equidem jam effeci ut maxime plebs et +qui antea noster fuit populus vester esset.”—Caelius to +Cicero, <i>Ad Fam</i>., viii. 71.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn178"></a> <a href="#fnr178">[4]</a> +Caesar says nothing of his putting to sea in a boat, meaning to go +over in person, and being driven back by the weather. The story is +probably no more than one of the picturesque additions to reality +made by men who find truth too tame for them.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn179"></a> <a href="#fnr179">[5]</a> +I follow Caesar’s own account of the action. Appian is minutely +circumstantial, and professes to describe from the narratives of +eye- witnesses. But his story varies so far from Caesar’s as to +be irreconcilable with it, and Caesar’s own authority is +incomparably the best.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn180"></a> <a href="#fnr180">[6]</a> +Suetonius, quoting from Asinius Pollio, who was present at the +battle.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn181"></a> <a href="#fnr181">[7]</a> +<i>Ad Familiares</i>, iv. 14.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn182"></a> <a href="#fnr182">[8]</a> +<i>Ibid.</i>, xv. 15.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn183"></a> <a href="#fnr183">[9]</a> +<i>Ad Fam</i>., ix. 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn184"></a> <a href="#fnr184">[10]</a> +<i>Ibid</i>., vii. 3.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn185"></a> <a href="#fnr185">[11]</a> +<i>Ad Fam</i>., vi. 6.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter23">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2> + +<p>The strength of the senatorial party lay in Pompey’s +popularity in the East. A halo was still supposed to hang about him +as the creator of the Eastern Empire, and so long as he was alive +and at liberty there was always a possibility that he might collect +a new army. To overtake him, to reason with him, and, if reason +failed, to prevent him by force from involving himself and the +State in fresh difficulties, was Caesar’s first object. Pompey, +it was found, had ridden from the battlefield direct to the sea, +attended by a handful of horse. He had gone on board a grain +vessel, which carried him to Amphipolis. At Amphipolis he had +stayed but a single night, and had sailed for Mitylene, where he +had left his wife and his sons. The last accounts which the poor +lady had heard of him had been such as reached Lesbos after the +affair at Durazzo. Young patricians had brought her word that her +husband had gained a glorious victory, that he had joined her +father, Metellus Scipio, and that together they were pursuing +Caesar with the certainty of overwhelming him. Rumor, cruel as +usual,</p> + +<p class="quoted">Had brought smooth comforts false, worse than +true wrongs.</p> + +<p>Rumor had told Cornelia that Caesar had “stooped his +head” before Pompey’s “rage.” Pompey came in +person to inform her of the miserable reality. At Mitylene +Pompey’s family were no longer welcome guests. They joined him +on board his ship to share his fortunes, but what those fortunes +were to be was all uncertain. Asia had seemed devoted to him. To +what part of it should he go? To Cilicia? to Syria? to Armenia? To +Parthia? For even Parthia was thought of. Unhappily the report of +Pharsalia had flown before him, and the vane of sentiment had +everywhere veered round. The Aegean islands begged him politely not +to compromise them by his presence. He touched at Rhodes. Lentulus, +flying from the battlefield, had tried Rhodes before him, and had +been requested to pass on upon his way. Lentulus was said to be +gone to Egypt. Polite to Pompey the Rhodians were, but perhaps he +was generously unwilling to involve them in trouble in his behalf. +He went on to Cilicia, the scene of his old glory in the pirate +wars. There he had meant to land and take refuge either with the +Parthians or with one of the allied princes. But in Cilicia he +heard that Antioch had declared for Caesar. Allies and subjects, as +far as he could learn, were all for Caesar. Egypt, whither Lentulus +had gone, appeared the only place where he could surely calculate +on being welcome. Ptolemy the Piper, the occasion of so much +scandal, was no longer living, but he owed the recovery of his +throne to Pompey. Gabinius had left a few thousand of Pompey’s +old soldiers at Alexandria to protect him against his subjects. +These men had married Egyptian wives and had adopted Egyptian +habits, but they could not have forgotten their old general. They +were acting as guards at present to Ptolemy’s four children, +two girls, Cleopatra and Arsinoe, and two boys, each called +Ptolemy. The father had bequeathed the crown to the two elder ones, +Cleopatra, who was turned sixteen, and a brother two years younger. +Here at least, among these young princes and their guardians, who +had been their father’s friends, their father’s greatest +benefactor might count with confidence on finding hospitality.</p> + +<p>For Egypt, therefore, Pompey sailed, taking his family along +with him. He had collected a few ships and 2,000 miscellaneous +followers, and with them he arrived off Pelusium, the modern +Damietta. His forlorn condition was a punishment sufficiently +terrible for the vanity which had flung his country into war. But +that it had been his own doing the letters of Cicero prove with +painful clearness; and though he had partially seen his error at +Capua, and would then have possibly drawn back, the passions and +hopes which he had excited had become too strong for him to contend +against. From the day of his flight from Italy he had been as a +leaf whirled upon a winter torrent. Plain enough it had long been +to him that he would not be able to govern the wild forces of a +reaction which, if it had prevailed, would have brought back a more +cruel tyranny than Sylla’s. He was now flung as a waif on the +shore of a foreign land; and if Providence on each occasion +proportioned the penalties of misdoing to the magnitude of the +fault, it might have been considered that adequate retribution had +been inflicted on him. But the consequences of the actions of men +live when the actions are themselves forgotten, and come to light +without regard to the fitness of the moment. The senators of Rome +were responsible for the exactions which Ptolemy Auletes had been +compelled to wring out of his subjects. Pompey himself had +entertained and supported him in Rome when he was driven from his +throne, and had connived at the murder of the Alexandrians who had +been sent to remonstrate against his restoration. It was by Pompey +that he had been forced again upon his miserable subjects, and had +been compelled to grind them with fresh extortions. It was not +unnatural under these circumstances that the Egyptians were eager +to free themselves from a subjection which bore more heavily on +them than annexation to the Empire. A national party had been +formed on Ptolemy’s death to take advantage of the minority of +his children. Cleopatra had been expelled. The Alexandrian citizens +kept her brother in their hands, and were now ruling in his name; +the demoralized Roman garrison had been seduced into supporting +them, and they had an army lying at the time at Pelusium, to guard +against Cleopatra and her friends.</p> + +<p>Of all this Pompey knew nothing. When he arrived off the port he +learnt that the young king with a body of troops was in the +neighborhood, and he sent on shore to ask permission to land. The +Egyptians had already heard of Pharsalia. Civil war among the +Romans was an opportunity for them to assert their independence, or +to secure their liberties by taking the side which seemed most +likely to be successful. Lentulus had already arrived, and had been +imprisoned—a not unnatural return for the murder of Dion and his +fellow-citizens. Pompey, whose name more than that of any other +Roman was identified with their sufferings, was now placing himself +spontaneously in their hands. Why, by sparing him, should they +neglect the opportunity of avenging their own wrongs, and of +earning, as they might suppose that they would, the lasting +gratitude of Caesar? The Roman garrison had no feeling for their +once glorious commander. “In calamity,” Caesar observes, +“friends easily become foes.” The guardians of the young +king sent a smooth answer, bidding Pompey welcome. The water being +shallow, they despatched Achillas, a prefect in the king’s +army, and Septimius, a Roman officer, whom Pompey personally knew, +with a boat to conduct him on shore. His wife and friends +distrusted the tone of the reception, and begged him to wait till +he could land with his own guard. The presence of Septimius gave +Pompey confidence. Weak men, when in difficulties, fall into a kind +of despairing fatalism, as if tired of contending longer with +adverse fortune. Pompey stepped into the boat, and when out of +arrow-shot from the ship was murdered under his wife’s eyes. +His head was cut off and carried away. His body was left lying on +the sands. A man who had been once his slave, and had been set free +by him, gathered a few sticks and burnt it there; and thus the last +rites were bestowed upon one whom, a few months before, Caesar +himself would have been content to acknowledge as his superior.</p> + +<p>So ended Pompey the Great. History has dealt tenderly with him +on account of his misfortunes, and has not refused him deserved +admiration for qualities as rare in his age as they were truly +excellent. His capacities as a soldier were not extraordinary. He +had risen to distinction by his honesty. The pirates who had swept +the Mediterranean had bought their impunity by a tribute paid to +senators and governors. They were suppressed instantly when a +commander was sent against them whom they were unable to bribe. The +conquest of Asia was no less easy to a man who could resist +temptations to enrich himself. The worst enemy of Pompey never +charged him with corruption or rapacity. So far as he was himself +concerned, the restoration of Ptolemy was gratuitous, for he +received nothing for it. His private fortune, when he had the world +at his feet, was never more than moderate; nor as a politician did +his faults extend beyond weakness and incompetence. Unfortunately +he had acquired a position by his negative virtues which was above +his natural level, and misled him into overrating his capabilities. +So long as he stood by Caesar he had maintained his honor and his +authority. He allowed men more cunning than himself to play upon +his vanity, and Pompey fell—fell amidst the ruins of a +Constitution which had been undermined by the villanies of its +representatives. His end was piteous, but scarcely tragic, for the +cause to which he was sacrificed was too slightly removed from +being ignominious. He was no Phoebus Apollo sinking into the ocean, +surrounded with glory. He was not even a brilliant meteor. He was a +weak, good man, whom accident had thrust into a place to which he +was unequal; and ignorant of himself, and unwilling to part with +his imaginary greatness, he was flung down with careless cruelty by +the forces which were dividing the world. His friend Lentulus +shared his fate, and was killed a few days later, while +Pompey’s ashes were still smoking. Two of Bibulus’s sons, +who had accompanied him, were murdered as well.</p> + +<p>Caesar meanwhile had followed along Pompey’s track, hoping +to overtake him. In Cilicia he heard where he was gone; and +learning something more accurately there of the state of Egypt, he +took two legions with him, one of which had attended him from +Pharsalia, and another which he had sent for from Achaia. With +these he sailed for Alexandria. Together, so much had they been +thinned by hard service, these legions mustered between them little +over 3,000 men. The force was small, but Caesar considered that, +after Pharsalia, there could be no danger for him anywhere in the +Mediterranean. He landed without opposition, and was presented on +his arrival, as a supposed welcome offering, with the head of his +rival. Politically it would have been better far for him to have +returned to Rome with Pompey as a friend. Nor, if it had been +certain that Pompey would have refused to be reconciled, were +services such as this a road to Caesar’s favor. The +Alexandrians speedily found that they were not to be rewarded with +the desired independence. The consular fasces, the emblem of the +hated Roman authority, were carried openly before Caesar when he +appeared in the streets; and it was not long before mobs began to +assemble with cries that Egypt was a free country, and that the +people would not allow their king to be insulted. Evidently there +was business to be done in Egypt before Caesar could leave it. +Delay was specially inconvenient. A prolonged absence from Italy +would allow faction time to rally again. But Caesar did not look on +himself as the leader of a party, but as the guardian of Roman +interests, and it was not his habit to leave any necessary work +uncompleted. The etesian winds, too, had set in, which made it +difficult for his heavy vessels to work out of the harbor. Seeing +that troubles might rise, he sent a message to Mithridates of +Pergamus, <a name="fnr186"></a> <a href="#fn186" class= +"fnsuper">1</a> to bring him reinforcements from Syria, while he +himself at once took the government of Egypt into his hands. He +forbade the Alexandrians to set aside Ptolemy’s will, and +insisted that the sovereignty must be vested jointly in Cleopatra +and her brother as their father had ordered. <a name="fnr187"></a> +<a href="#fn187" class="fnsuper">2</a>he cries of discontent grew +bolder. Alexandria was a large, populous city, the common +receptacle of vagabonds from all parts of the Mediterranean. +Pirates, thieves, political exiles, and outlaws had taken refuge +there, and had been received into the king’s service. With the +addition of the dissolute legionaries left by Gabinius, they made +up 20,000 as dangerous ruffians as had ever been gathered into a +single city. The more respectable citizens had no reason to love +the Romans. The fate of Cyprus seemed a foreshadowing of their own. +They too, unless they looked to themselves, would be absorbed in +the devouring Empire. They had made an end of Pompey, and Caesar +had shown no gratitude. Caesar himself was now in their hands. Till +the wind changed they thought that he could not escape, and they +were tempted, naturally enough, to use the chance which fate had +given them.</p> + +<p>Pothinus, a palace eunuch and one of young Ptolemy’s +guardians, sent secretly for the troops at Pelusium, and gave the +command of them to Achillas, the officer who had murdered Pompey. +The city rose when they came in, and Caesar found himself blockaded +in the palace and the part of the city which joined the outer +harbor. The situation was irritating from its absurdity, but more +or less it was really dangerous. The Egyptian fleet which had been +sent to Greece in aid of Pompey had come back, and was in the inner +basin. It outnumbered Caesar’s, and the Alexandrians were the +best seamen in the Mediterranean. If they came out, they might cut +his communications. Without hesitation he set fire to the docks; +burnt or disabled the great part of the ships; seized the Pharos +and the mole which connected it with the town; fortified the palace +and the line of houses occupied by his troops; and in this position +he remained for several weeks, defending himself against the whole +power of Egypt. Of the time in which legend describes him as +abandoned to his love for Cleopatra, there was hardly an hour of +either day or night in which he was not fighting for his very life. +The Alexandrians were ingenious and indefatigable. They pumped the +sea into the conduits which supplied his quarters with water, for a +moment it seemed with fatal effect. Fresh water was happily found +by sinking wells. They made a new fleet; old vessels on the stocks +were launched, others were brought down from the canals on the +river. They made oars and spars out of the benches and tables of +the professors’ lecture rooms. With these they made desperate +attempts to retake the mole. Once with a sudden rush they carried a +ship, in which Caesar was present in person, and he was obliged to +swim for his life. <a name="fnr188"></a> <a href="#fn188" class= +"fnsuper">3</a> Still, he held on, keeping up his men’s +spirits, and knowing that relief must arrive in time. He was never +greater than in unlooked-for difficulties. He never rested. He was +always inventing some new contrivance. He could have retired from +the place with no serious loss. He could have taken to his ships +and forced his way to sea in spite of the winds and the +Alexandrians. But he felt that to fly from such an enemy would +dishonor the Roman name, and he would not entertain the thought of +it.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 47.]</span> The Egyptians made +desperate efforts to close the harbor. Finding that they could +neither capture the Pharos nor make an impression on Caesar’s +lines, they affected to desire peace. Caesar had kept young Ptolemy +with him as a security. They petitioned that he should be given up +to them, promising on compliance to discontinue their assaults. +Caesar did not believe them. But the boy was of no use to him; the +army wished him gone, for they thought him treacherous; and his +presence would not strengthen the enemy. Caesar, says Hirtius, +considered that it would be more respectable to be fighting with a +king than with a gang of ruffians. Young Ptolemy was released, and +joined his countrymen, and the war went on more fiercely than +before. Pompey’s murderers were brought to justice in the +course of it. Pothinus fell into Caesar’s hands, and was +executed. Ganymede, another eunuch, assassinated Achillas, and took +his place as commander-in-chief. Reinforcements began to come in. +Mithridates had not yet been heard of; but Domitius Calvinus, who +had been left in charge of Asia Minor, and to whom Caesar had also +sent, had despatched two legions to him. One arrived by sea at +Alexandria, and was brought in with some difficulty. The other was +sent by land, and did not arrive in time to be of service. There +was a singular irony in Caesar being left to struggle for months +with a set of miscreants, but the trial came to an end at last. +Mithridates, skilful, active, and faithful, had raised a force with +extraordinary rapidity in Cilicia and on the Euphrates. He had +marched swiftly through Syria; and in the beginning of the new year +Caesar heard the welcome news that he had reached Pelusium, and had +taken it by storm. Not delaying for a day, Mithridates had gone up +the bank of the Nile to Cairo. A division of the Egyptian army lay +opposite to him, in the face of whom he did not think it prudent to +attempt to cross, and from thence he sent word of his position to +Caesar. The news reached Caesar and the Alexandrians at the same +moment. The Alexandrians had the easiest access to the scene. They +had merely to ascend the river in their boats. Caesar was obliged +to go round by sea to Pelusium, and to follow the course which +Mithridates had taken himself. Rapidity of movement made up the +difference. Taking with him such cohorts as could be spared from +his lines, Caesar had joined Mithridates before the Alexandrians +had arrived. Together they forced the passage; and Ptolemy came +only for his camp to be stormed, his army to be cut to pieces, and +himself to be drowned in the Nile, and so end his brief and +miserable life.</p> + +<p>Alexandria immediately capitulated. Arsinoe, the youngest +sister, was sent to Rome. Cleopatra and her surviving brother were +made joint sovereigns; and Roman rumor, glad to represent +Caesar’s actions in monstrous characters, insisted in after +years that they were married. The absence of contemporary authority +for the story precludes also the possibility of denying it. Two +legions were left in Egypt to protect them if they were faithful, +or to coerce them if they misconducted themselves. The Alexandrian +episode was over, and Caesar sailed for Syria. His long detention +over a complication so insignificant had been unfortunate in many +ways. Scipio and Cato, with the other fugitives from Pharsalia, had +rallied in Africa, under the protection of Juba. Italy was in +confusion. The popular party, now absolutely in the ascendant, were +disposed to treat the aristocracy as the aristocracy would have +treated them had they been victorious. The controlling hand was +absent; the rich, long hated and envied, were in the power of the +multitude, and wild measures were advocated, communistic, +socialistic, such as are always heard of in revolutions, meaning in +one form or another the equalization of wealth, the division of +property, the poor taking their turn on the upper crest of fortune +and the rich at the bottom. The tribunes were outbidding one +another in extravagant proposals, while Caesar’s legions, sent +home from Greece to rest after their long service, were enjoying +their victory in the license which is miscalled liberty. They +demanded the lands, or rewards in money, which had been promised +them at the end of the war. Discipline was relaxed or abandoned. +Their officers wore unable, perhaps unwilling, to control them. +They, too, regarded the Commonwealth as a spoil which their swords +had won, and which they were entitled to distribute among +themselves.</p> + +<p>In Spain, too, a bad feeling had revived. After Caesar’s +departure his generals had oppressed the people, and had quarrelled +with one another. The country was disorganized and disaffected. In +Spain, as in Egypt, there was a national party still dreaming of +independence. The smouldering traditions of Sertorius were blown +into flame by the continuance of the civil war. The proud motley +race of Spaniards, Italians, Gauls, indigenous mountaineers, Moors +from Africa, the remnants of the Carthaginian colonies, however +they might hate one another, yet united in resenting an uncertain +servitude under the alternate ascendency of Roman factions. Spain +was ripe for revolt. Gaul alone, Caesar’s own province, +rewarded him for the use which he had made of his victory, by +unswerving loyalty and obedience.</p> + +<p>On his landing in Syria, Caesar found letters pressing for his +instant return to Rome. Important persons were waiting to give him +fuller information than could be safely committed to writing. He +would have hastened home at once, but restless spirits had been let +loose everywhere by the conflict of the Roman leaders. Disorder had +broken out near at hand. The still recent defeat of Crassus had +stirred the ambition of the Asiatic princes; and to leave the +Eastern frontier disturbed was to risk a greater danger to the +Empire than was to be feared from the impatient politics of the +Roman mob, or the dying convulsions of the aristocracy.</p> + +<p>Pharnaces, a legitimate son of Mithridates the Great, had been +left sovereign of Upper Armenia. He had watched the collision +between Pompey and Caesar with a neutrality which was to plead for +him with the conqueror, and he had intended to make his own +advantage out of the quarrels between his father’s enemies. +Deiotarus, tributary king of Lower Armenia and Colchis, had given +some help to Pompey, and had sent him men and money; and on +Pompey’s defeat, Pharnaces had supposed that he might seize on +Deiotarus’s territories without fear of Caesar’s +resentment. Deiotarus had applied to Domitius Calvinus for +assistance; which Calvinus, weakened as he was by the despatch of +two of his legions to Egypt, had been imperfectly able to give. +Pharnaces had advanced into Cappadocia. When Calvinus ordered him +to retire, he had replied by sending presents, which had hitherto +proved so effective with Roman proconsuls, and by an equivocating +profession of readiness to abide by Caesar’s decision. +Pharnaces came of a dangerous race. Caesar’s lieutenant was +afraid that, if he hesitated, the son of Mithridates might become +as troublesome as his father had been. He refused the presents. +Disregarding his weakness, he sent a peremptory command to +Pharnaces to fall back within his own frontiers, and advanced to +compel him if he refused. In times of excitement the minds of men +are electric, and news travels with telegraphic rapidity if not +with telegraphic accuracy. Pharnaces heard that Caesar was shut up +in Alexandria and was in a position of extreme danger, that he had +sent for all his Asiatic legions, and that Calvinus had himself +been summoned to his assistance. Thus he thought that he might +safely postpone compliance till the Roman army was gone, and he had +the country to himself. The reports from Egypt were so unfavorable +that, although as yet he had received no positive orders, Calvinus +was in daily expectation that he would be obliged to go. It would +be unsafe, he thought, to leave an insolent barbarian unchastised. +He had learnt in Caesar’s school to strike quickly. He had not +learnt the comparison between means and ends, without which +celerity is imprudence. He had but one legion left; but he had a +respectable number of Asiatic auxiliaries, and with them he +ventured to attack Pharnaces in an intricate position. His Asiatics +deserted. The legion behaved admirably; but in the face of +overwhelming numbers, it could do no more than cut its way to +security. Pharnaces at once reclaimed his father’s kingdom, and +overran Pontus, killing, mutilating, or imprisoning every Roman +that he encountered; and in this condition Caesar found Asia Minor +on his coming to Syria.</p> + +<p>It was not in Caesar’s character to leave a Roman Province +behind him in the hands of an invader, for his own political +interests. He saw that he must punish Pharnaces before he returned +to Rome, and he immediately addressed himself to the work. He made +a hasty progress through the Syrian towns, hearing complaints and +distributing rewards and promotions. The allied chiefs came to him +from the borders of the Province to pay their respects. He received +them graciously, and dismissed them pleased and satisfied. After a +few days spent thus, he sailed for Cilicia, held a council at +Tarsus, and then crossed the Taurus, and went by forced marches +through Cappadocia to Pontus. He received a legion from Deiotarus +which had been organized in Roman fashion. He sent to Calvinus to +meet him with the survivors of his lost battle; and when they +arrived, he reviewed the force which was at his disposition. It was +not satisfactory. He had brought a veteran legion with him from +Egypt, but it was reduced to a thousand strong. He had another +which he had taken up in Syria; but even this did not raise his +army to a point which could assure him of success. But time +pressed, and skill might compensate for defective numbers.</p> + +<p>Pharnaces, hearing that Caesar was at hand, promised submission. +He sent Caesar a golden crown, in anticipation perhaps that he was +about to make himself king. He pleaded his desertion of Pompey as a +set-off against his faults. Caesar answered that he would accept +the submission, if it were sincere; but Pharnaces must not suppose +that good offices to himself could atone for injuries to the +Empire. <a name="fnr189"></a> <a href="#fn189" class= +"fnsuper">4</a> The provinces which he had invaded must be +instantly evacuated; his Roman prisoners must be released, and +their property must be restored to them.</p> + +<p>Pharnaces was a politician, and knew enough of Caesar’s +circumstances to mislead him. The state of Rome required +Caesar’s presence. A campaign in Asia would occupy more time +than he could afford, and Pharnaces calculated that he must be gone +in a few days or weeks. The victory over Calvinus had strengthened +his ambition of emulating his father. He delayed his answer, +shifted from place to place, and tried to protract the +correspondence till Caesar’s impatience to be gone should bring +him to agree to a compromise.</p> + +<p>Caesar cut short negotiations. Pharnaces was at Zela, a town in +the midst of mountains behind Trebizond, and the scene of a great +victory which had been won by Mithridates over the Romans. Caesar +defied auguries. He seized a position at night on the brow of a +hill directly opposite to the Armenian camp, and divided from it by +a narrow valley. As soon as day broke the legions were busy +intrenching with their spades and pickaxes. Pharnaces, with the +rashness which if it fails is madness, and if it succeeds is the +intuition of genius, decided to fall on them at a moment when no +sane person could rationally expect an attack; and Caesar could not +restrain his astonishment when he saw the enemy pouring down the +steep side of the ravine, and breasting the ascent on which he +stood. It was like the battle of Maubeuge over again, with the +difference that he had here to deal with Asiatics, and not with the +Nervii. There was some confusion while the legions were exchanging +their digging tools for their arms. When the exchange had been +made, there was no longer a battle, but a rout. The Armenians were +hurled back down the hill, and slaughtered in masses at the bottom +of it. The camp was taken. Pharnaces escaped for the moment, and +made his way into his own country; but he was killed immediately +after, and Asia Minor was again at peace.</p> + +<p>Caesar, calm as usual, but well satisfied to have ended a second +awkward business so easily, passed quickly down to the Hellespont, +and had landed in Italy before it was known that he had left +Pontus.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn186"></a> <a href="#fnr186">[1]</a> +Supposed to have been a natural son of Mithridates the Great. The +reason for the special confidence which Caesar placed in him does +not appear. The danger at Alexandria, perhaps, did not appear at +the moment particularly serious.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn187"></a> <a href="#fnr187">[2]</a> +Roman scandal discovered afterward that Caesar had been fascinated +by the charms of Cleopatra, and allowed his politics to be +influenced by a love affair. Roman fashionable society hated +Caesar, and any carrion was welcome to them which would taint his +reputation. Cleopatra herself favored the story, and afterward +produced a child, whom she named Caesarion. Oppius, Caesar’s +most intimate friend, proved that the child could not have been +his—of course, therefore, that the intrigue was a fable; and the +boy was afterward put to death by Augustus as an impostor. No one +claims immaculate virtue for Caesar. An amour with Cleopatra may +have been an accident of his presence in Alexandria. But to suppose +that such a person as Caesar, with the concerns of the world upon +his hands, would have allowed his public action to be governed by a +connection with a loose girl of sixteen is to make too large a +demand upon human credulity; nor is it likely that, in a situation +of so much danger and difficulty as that in which he found himself, +he would have added to his embarrassments by indulging in an +intrigue. The report proves nothing, for whether true or false it +was alike certain to arise. The <i>salons</i> of Rome, like the +<i>salons</i> of London and Paris, took their revenge on +greatness by soiling it with filth; and happily Suetonius, the +chief authority for the scandal, couples it with a story which is +demonstrably false. He says that Caesar made a long expedition with +Cleopatra in a barge upon the Nile; that he was so fascinated with +her that he wished to extend his voyage to Aethiopia, and was +prevented only by the refusal of his army to follow him. The +details of Caesar’s stay at Alexandria, so minutely given by +Hirtius, show that there was not a moment when such an expedition +could have been contemplated. During the greater part of the time +he was blockaded in the palace. Immediately after the insurrection +was put down, he was obliged to hurry off on matters of instant and +urgent moment. Of the story of Cleopatra’s presence in Rome at +the time of his murder, more will be said hereafter.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn188"></a> <a href="#fnr188">[3]</a> +Legend is more absurd than usual over this incident. It pretends +that he swam with one hand, and carried his Commentaries, holding +them above water, with the other. As if a general would take his +MSS. with him into a hot action!</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn189"></a> <a href="#fnr189">[4]</a> +“Neque provinciarum injurias condonari iis posse qui fuissent +in se officiosi.”—<i>De Bello Alexandrino</i>, 70.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter24">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2> + +<p>Cicero considered that the Civil War ought to have ended with +Pharsalia; and in this opinion most reasonable men among the +conservatives were agreed. They had fought one battle; and it had +gone against them. To continue the struggle might tear the Empire +to pieces, but could not retrieve a lost cause; and prudence and +patriotism alike recommended submission to the verdict of fortune. +It is probable that this would have been the result, could Caesar +have returned to Italy immediately after his victory. Cicero +himself refused to participate in further resistance. Cato offered +him a command at Corcyra, but he declined it with a shudder, and +went back to Brindisi; and all but those whose consciences forbade +them to hope for pardon, or who were too proud to ask for it, at +first followed his example. Scipio, Cato, Labienus, Afranius, +Petreius, were resolute to fight on to the last; but even they had +no clear outlook, and they wandered about the Mediterranean, +uncertain what to do, or whither to turn. Time went on, however, +and Caesar did not appear. Rumor said at one time that he was +destroyed at Alexandria. The defeat of Calvinus by Pharnaces was an +ascertained fact. Spain was in confusion. The legions in Italy were +disorganized, and society, or the wealthy part of society, +threatened by the enemies of property, began to call for some one +to save it. All was not lost. Pompey’s best generals were still +living. His sons, Sextus and Cnaeus, were brave and able. The fleet +was devoted to them and to their father’s cause, and +Caesar’s officers had failed, in his absence, to raise a naval +force which could show upon the sea. Africa was a convenient +rallying point. Since Curio’s defeat, King Juba had found no +one to dispute his supremacy, and between Juba and the aristocracy +who were bent on persisting in the war, an alliance was easily +formed. While Caesar was perilling his own interest to remain in +Asia to crush Pharnaces, Metellus Scipio was offering a barbarian +chief the whole of Roman Africa, as the price of his assistance, in +a last effort to reverse the fortune of Pharsalia. Under these +scandalous conditions, Scipio, Labienus, Cato, Afranius, Petreius, +Faustus Sylla, the son of the Dictator, Lucius Caesar, and the rest +of the irreconcilables, made Africa their new centre of operations. +Here they gathered to themselves the inheritors of the Syllan +traditions, and made raids on the Italian coasts and into Sicily +and Sardinia. Seizing Caesar’s officers when they could find +them, they put them invariably to death without remorse. Cicero +protested honorably against the employment of treacherous savages, +even for so sacred a cause as the defence of the constitution; <a +name="fnr190"></a> <a href="#fn190" class="fnsuper">1</a> but +Cicero was denounced as a traitor seeking favor with the conqueror, +and the desperate work went on. Caesar’s long detention in the +East gave the confederates time. The young Pompeys were strong at +sea. From Italy there was an easy passage for adventurous +disaffection. The shadow of a Pompeian Senate sat once more, +passing resolutions, at Utica; while Cato was busy organizing an +army, and had collected as many as thirteen legions out of the +miscellaneous elements which drifted in to him. Caesar had sent +orders to Cassius Longinus to pass into Africa from Spain, and +break up these combinations; but Longinus had been at war with his +own provincials. He had been driven out of the Peninsula, and had +lost his own life in leaving it. Caesar, like Cicero, had believed +that the war had ended at Pharsalia. He found that the heads of the +Hydra had sprouted again, and were vomiting the old fire and fury. +Little interest could it give Caesar to match his waning years +against the blinded hatred of his countrymen. Ended the strife must +be, however, before order could be restored in Italy, and wretched +men take up again the quiet round of industry. Heavy work had to be +done in Rome. Caesar was consul now—annual consul, with no ten +years’ interval any longer possible. Consul, dictator, whatever +name the people gave him, he alone held the reins; he alone was +able to hold them. Credit had to be restored; debtors had to be +brought to recognize their liabilities. Property had fallen in +value since the Civil Wars, and securities had to be freshly +estimated. The Senate required reformation; men of fidelity and +ability were wanted for the public offices. Pompey and Pompey’s +friends would have drowned Italy in blood. Caesar disappointed +expectation by refusing to punish any one of his political +opponents. He killed no one. He deprived no one of his property. He +even protected the money-lenders, and made the Jews his constant +friends. Debts he insisted must be paid, bonds fulfilled, the +rights of property respected, no matter what wild hopes imagination +might have indulged in. Something only he remitted of the severity +of interest, and the poor in the city were allowed their lodgings +rent free for a year.</p> + +<p>He restored quiet, and gave as much satisfaction as +circumstances permitted. His real difficulty was with the legions, +who had come back from Greece. They had deserved admirably well, +but they were unfortunately over-conscious of their merits. +Ill-intentioned officers had taught them to look for extravagant +rewards. Their expectations had not been fulfilled; and when they +supposed that their labors were over, they received orders to +prepare for a campaign in Africa. Sallust, the historian, was in +command of their quarters in Campania. They mutinied, and almost +killed him. He fled to Rome. The soldiers of the favored 10th +legion pursued him to the gates, and demanded speech with Caesar. +He bade them come to him, and with his usual fearlessness told them +to bring their swords.</p> + +<p>The army was Caesar’s life. In the army lay the future of +Rome, if Rome was to have a future. There, if anywhere, the +national spirit survived. It was a trying moment; but there was a +calmness in Caesar, a rising from a profound indifference to what +man or fortune could give or take from him, which no extremity +could shake.</p> + +<p>The legionaries entered the city, and Caesar directed them to +state their complaints. They spoke of their services and their +sufferings. They said that they had been promised rewards, but +their rewards so far had been words, and they asked for their +discharge. They did not really wish for it. They did not expect it. +But they supposed that Caesar could not dispense with them, and +that they might dictate their own terms.</p> + +<p>During the wars in Gaul, Caesar had been most munificent to his +soldiers. He had doubled their ordinary pay. He had shared the +spoils of his conquests with them. Time and leisure had alone been +wanting to him to recompense their splendid fidelity in the +campaigns in Spain and Greece. He had treated them as his children; +no commander had ever been more careful of his soldiers’ lives; +when addressing the army he had called them always +“commilitones,” “comrades,” +“brothers-in-arms.”</p> + +<p>The familiar word was now no longer heard from him. “You +say well, quirites,” <a name="fnr191"></a> <a href="#fn191" +class="fnsuper">2</a> he answered; “you have labored hard, and +you have suffered much; you desire your discharge—you have it. I +discharge you who are present. I discharge all who have served +their time. You shall have your recompense. It shall never be said +of me that I made use of you when I was in danger, and was +ungrateful to you when the peril was past.”</p> + +<p>“Quirites” he had called them; no longer Roman +legionaries, proud of their achievements, and glorying in their +great commander, but “quirites”—plain citizens. The +sight of Caesar, the familiar form and voice, the words, every +sentence of which they knew that he meant, cut them to the heart. +They were humbled, they begged to be forgiven. They said they would +go with him to Africa, or to the world’s end. He did not at +once accept their penitence. He told them that lands had been +allotted to every soldier out of the <i>ager publicus</i>, or out +of his own personal estates. Suetonius says that the sections had +been carefully taken so as not to disturb existing occupants; and +thus it appeared that he had been thinking of them and providing +for them when they supposed themselves forgotten. Money, too, he +had ready for each, part in hand, part in bonds bearing interest, +to be redeemed when the war should be over. Again, passionately, +they implored to be allowed to continue with him. He relented, but +not entirely.</p> + +<p>“Let all go who wish to go,” he said; “I will +have none serve with me who serve unwillingly.”</p> + +<p>“All, all!” they cried; “not one of us will leave +you”—and not one went. The mutiny was the greatest peril, +perhaps, to which Caesar had ever been exposed. No more was said; +but Caesar took silent notice of the officers who had encouraged +the discontented spirit. In common things, Dion Cassius says, he +was the kindest and most considerate of commanders. He passed +lightly over small offences; but military rebellion in those who +were really responsible he never forgave.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 46.]</span> The African business +could now be attended to. It was again midwinter. Winter campaigns +were trying, but Caesar had hitherto found them answer to him; the +enemy had suffered more than himself; while, as long as an +opposition Senate was sitting across the Mediterranean, intrigue +and conspiracy made security impossible at home. Many a false +spirit now fawning at home on Caesar was longing for his +destruction. The army with which he would have to deal was less +respectable than that which Pompey had commanded at Durazzo, but it +was numerically as strong or stronger. Cato, assisted by Labienus, +had formed into legions sixty thousand Italians. They had a hundred +and twenty elephants, and African cavalry in uncounted multitudes. +Caesar perhaps despised an enemy too much whom he had so often +beaten. He sailed from Lilybaeum on the 19th of December, with a +mere handful of men, leaving the rest of his troops to follow as +they could. No rendezvous had been positively fixed, for between +the weather and the enemy it was uncertain where the troops would +be able to land, and the generals of the different divisions were +left to their discretion. Caesar on arriving seized and fortified a +defensible spot at Ruspinum. <a name="fnr192"></a> <a href="#fn192" +class="fnsuper">3</a> The other legions dropped in slowly, and +before a third of them had arrived the enemy were swarming about +the camp, while the Pompeys were alert on the water to seize stray +transports or provision ships. There was skirmishing every day in +front of Caesar’s lines. The Numidian horse surrounded his thin +cohorts like swarms of hornets. Labienus himself rode up on one +occasion to a battalion which was standing still under a shower of +arrows, and asked in mockery who they were. A soldier of the 10th +legion lifted his cap that his face might be recognized, hurled his +javelin for answer, and brought Labienus’s horse to the ground. +But courage was of no avail in the face of overwhelming numbers. +Scipio’s army collected faster than Caesar’s, and +Caesar’s young soldiers showed some uneasiness in a position so +unexpected. Caesar, however, was confident and in high spirits. <a +name="fnr193"></a> <a href="#fn193" class="fnsuper">4</a> Roman +residents in the African province came gradually in to him, and +some African tribes, out of respect, it was said, for the memory of +Marius. A few towns declared against the Senate in indignation at +Scipio’s promise that the province was to be abandoned to Juba. +Scipio replied with burning the Roman country houses and wasting +the lands, and still killing steadily every friend of Caesar that +he could lay hands on. Caesar’s steady clemency had made no +difference. The senatorial faction went on as they had begun till +at length their ferocity was repaid upon them.</p> + +<p>The reports from the interior became unbearable. Caesar sent an +impatient message to Sicily that, storm or calm, the remaining +legions must come to him, or not a house would be left standing in +the province. The officers were no longer what they had been. The +men came, but bringing only their arms and tools, without change of +clothes and without tents, though it was the rainy season. Good +will and good hearts, however, made up for other shortcomings. +Deserters dropped in thick from the Senate’s army. King Juba, +it appeared, had joined them, and Roman pride had been outraged, +when Juba had been seen taking precedence in the council of war, +and Metellus Scipio exchanging his imperial purple in the royal +presence for a plain dress of white.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[April 6, B.C. 46.]</span> The time of +clemency was past. Publius Ligarius was taken in a skirmish. He had +been one of the captives at Lerida who had given his word to serve +no further in the war. He was tried for breaking his engagement, +and was put to death. Still, Scipio’s army kept the field in +full strength, the loss by desertions being made up by fresh +recruits sent from Utica by Cato. Caesar’s men flinched from +facing the elephants, and time was lost while other elephants were +fetched from Italy, that they might handle them and grow familiar +with them. Scipio had been taught caution by the fate of Pompey, +and avoided a battle, and thus three months wore away before a +decisive impression had been made. But the clear dark eyes of the +conqueror of Pharsalia had taken the measure of the situation and +comprehended the features of it. By this time he had an effective +squadron of ships, which had swept off Pompey’s cruisers; and +if Scipio shrank from an engagement it was possible to force him +into it. A division of Scipio’s troops were in the peninsula of +Thapsus. <a name="fnr194"></a> <a href="#fn194" class= +"fnsuper">5</a> If Thapsus was blockaded at sea and besieged by +land, Scipio would be driven to come to its relief, and would have +to fight in the open country. Caesar occupied the neck of the +peninsula, and the result was what he knew it must be. Scipio and +Juba came down out of the hills with their united armies. Their +legions were beginning to form intrenchments, and Caesar was +leisurely watching their operations, when at the sight of the enemy +an irresistible enthusiasm ran through his lines. The cry rose for +instant attack; and Caesar, yielding willingly to the universal +impulse, sprang on his horse and led the charge in person. There +was no real fighting. The elephants which Scipio had placed in +front wheeled about and plunged back into the camp, trumpeting and +roaring. The vallum was carried at a rush, and afterward there was +less a battle than a massacre. Officers and men fled for their +lives like frightened antelopes, or flung themselves on their knees +for mercy. This time no mercy was shown. The deliberate cruelty +with which the war had been carried on had done its work at last. +The troops were savage, and killed every man that they overtook. +Caesar tried to check the carnage, but his efforts were unavailing. +The leaders escaped for the time by the speed of their horses. They +scattered with a general purpose of making for Spain. Labienus +reached it, but few besides him. Afranius and Faustus Sylla with a +party of cavalry galloped to Utica, which they expected to hold +till one of the Pompeys could bring vessels to take them off. The +Utican towns-people had from the first shown an inclination for +Caesar. Neither they nor any other Romans in Africa liked the +prospect of being passed over to the barbarians.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 46.]</span> Cowards smarting under +defeat are always cruel. The fugitives from Thapsus found that +Utica would not be available for their purpose, and in revenge they +began to massacre the citizens. Cato was still in the town. Cato +was one of those better natured men whom revolution yokes so often +with base companionship. He was shocked at the needless cruelty, +and bribed the murderous gang to depart. They were taken soon +afterward by Caesar’s cavalry. Afranius and Sylla were brought +into the camp as prisoners. There was a discussion in the camp as +to what was to be done with them. Caesar wished to be lenient, but +the feeling in the legions was too strong. The system of pardons +could not be continued in the face of hatred so envenomed. The two +commanders were executed; Caesar contenting himself with securing +Sylla’s property for his wife, Pompeia, the great Pompey’s +daughter. Cato Caesar was most anxious to save; but Cato’s +enmity was so ungovernable that he grudged Caesar the honor of +forgiving him. His animosity had been originally the natural +antipathy which a man of narrow understanding instinctively feels +for a man of genius. It had been converted by perpetual +disappointment into a monomania, and Caesar had become to him the +incarnation of every quality and every principle which he most +abhorred. Cato was upright, unselfish, incorruptibly pure in deed +and word; but he was a fanatic whom no experience could teach, and +he adhered to his convictions with the more tenacity, because +fortune or the disposition of events so steadily declared them to +be mistaken. He would have surrendered Caesar to the Germans as a +reward for having driven them back over the Rhine. He was one of +those who were most eager to impeach him for the acts of his +consulship, though the acts themselves were such as, if they had +been done by another, he would himself have most warmly approved; +and he was tempted by personal dislike to attach himself to men +whose object was to reimpose upon his country a new tyranny of +Sylla. His character had given respectability to a cause which, if +left to its proper defenders, would have appeared in its natural +baseness, and thus on him rested the responsibility for the color +of justice in which it was disguised. That after all which had +passed he should be compelled to accept his pardon at Caesar’s +hands was an indignity to which he could not submit, and before the +conqueror could reach Utica he fell upon his sword and died. +<i>Ultimus Romanorum</i> has been the epitaph which posterity has +written on the tomb of Cato. Nobler Romans than he lived after him; +and a genuine son of the old Republic would never have consented to +surrender an imperial province to a barbarian prince. But at least +he was an open enemy. He would not, like his nephew Brutus, have +pretended to be Caesar’s friend, that he might the more +conveniently drive a dagger into his side.</p> + +<p>The rest of the party was broken up. Scipio sailed for Spain, +but was driven back by foul weather into Hippo, where he was taken +and killed. His correspondence was found and taken to Caesar, who +burnt it unread, as he had burnt Pompey’s. The end of Juba and +Petreius had a wild splendor about it. They had fled together from +Thapsus to Zama, Juba’s own principal city, and they were +refused admission. Disdaining to be taken prisoners, as they knew +they inevitably would be, they went to a country house in the +neighborhood belonging to the king. There, after a last sumptuous +banquet, they agreed to die like warriors by each other’s hand. +Juba killed Petreius, and then ran upon his own sword.</p> + +<p>So the actors in the drama were passing away. Domitius, Pompey, +Lentulus, Ligarius, Metellus Scipio, Afranius, Cato, Petreius, had +sunk into bloody graves. Labienus had escaped clear from the +battle; and knowing that if Caesar himself would pardon him +Caesar’s army never would, he made his way to Spain, where one +last desperate hope remained. The mutinous legions of Cassius +Longinus had declared for the Senate. Some remnants of Pompey’s +troops who had been dismissed after Lerida had been collected again +and joined them; and these, knowing, as Labienus knew, that they +had sinned beyond forgiveness, were prepared to fight to the last +and die at bay.</p> + +<p>One memorable scene in the African campaign must not be +forgotten. While Caesar was in difficulty at Ruspinum, and was +impatiently waiting for his legions from Sicily, there arrived a +general officer of the 10th, named Caius Avienus, who had occupied +the whole of one of the transports with his personal servants, +horses, and other conveniences, and had not brought with him a +single soldier. Avienus had been already privately noted by Caesar +as having been connected with the mutiny in Campania. His own +habits in the field were simple in the extreme, and he hated to see +his officers self-indulgent. He used the opportunity to make an +example of him and of one or two others at the same time.</p> + +<p>He called his tribunes and centurions together. “I could +wish,” he said, “that certain persons would have +remembered for themselves parts of their past conduct which, though +I overlooked them, were known to me; I could wish they would have +atoned for these faults by special attention to their duties. As +they have not chosen to do this, I must make an example of them as +a warning to others.</p> + +<p>“You, Caius Avienus, instigated soldiers in the service of +the State to mutiny against their commanders. You oppressed towns +which were under your charge. Forgetting your duty to the army and +to me, you filled a vessel with your own establishment which was +intended for the transport of troops; and at a difficult moment we +were thus left, through your means, without the men whom we needed. +For these causes, and as a mark of disgrace, I dismiss you from the +service, and I order you to leave Africa by the first ship which +sails.</p> + +<p>“You, Aulus Fonteius [another tribune], have been a +seditious and a bad officer. I dismiss you also.</p> + +<p>“You, Titus Salienus, Marcus Tiro, Caius Clusinas, +centurions, obtained your commissions by favor, not by merit. You +have shown want of courage in the field; your conduct otherwise has +been uniformly bad; you have encouraged a mutinous spirit in your +companies. You are unworthy to serve under my command. You are +dismissed, and will return to Italy.”</p> + +<p>The five offenders were sent under guard on board ship, each +noticeably being allowed a single slave to wait upon him, and so +were expelled from the country.</p> + +<p>This remarkable picture of Caesar’s method of enforcing +discipline is described by a person who was evidently present; <a +name="fnr195"></a> <a href="#fn195" class="fnsuper">6</a> and it +may be taken as a correction to the vague stories of his severity +to these officers which are told by Dion Cassius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn190"></a> <a href="#fnr190">[1]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, xi. 7.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn191"></a> <a href="#fnr191">[2]</a> +Citizens.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn192"></a> <a href="#fnr192">[3]</a> +Where the African coast turns south from Cape Bon.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn193"></a> <a href="#fnr193">[4]</a> +“Animum enim altum et erectum prae se gerebat.”—<i>De +Bello Africano</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn194"></a> <a href="#fnr194">[5]</a> +Between Carthage and Utica.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn195"></a> <a href="#fnr195">[6]</a> +<i>De Bella Africano</i>, c. 54. This remarkably interesting +narrative is attached to Caesar’s <i>Commentaries</i>. The +author is unknown.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter25">CHAPTER XXV.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 45.]</span> The drift of +disaffection into Spain was held at first to be of little moment. +The battle of Thapsus, the final breaking up of the senatorial +party, and the deaths of its leaders, were supposed to have brought +an end at last to the divisions which had so long convulsed the +Empire. Rome put on its best dress. The people had been on +Caesar’s side from the first. Those who still nursed in their +hearts the old animosity were afraid to show it, and the nation +appeared once more united in enthusiasm for the conqueror. There +were triumphal processions which lasted for four days. There were +sham fights on artificial lakes, bloody gladiator shows, which the +Roman populace looked for as their special delight. The rejoicings +being over, business began. Caesar was, of course, supreme. He was +made inspector of public morals, the censorship being deemed +inadequate to curb the inordinate extravagance. He was named +Dictator for ten years, with a right of nominating the person whom +the people were to choose for their consuls and praetors. The clubs +and caucuses, the bribery of the tribes, the intimidation, the +organized bands of voters formed out of the clients of the +aristocracy, were all at an end. The courts of law were purified. +No more judges were to be bought with money or by fouler +temptations. The Leges Julias became a practical reality. One +remarkable and durable reform was undertaken and carried through +amidst the jests of Cicero and the other wits of the time—the +revision of the Roman calendar. The distribution of the year had +been governed hitherto by the motions of the moon. The twelve +annual moons had fixed at twelve the number of the months, and the +number of days required to bring the lunar year into correspondence +with the solar had been supplied by irregular intercalations, at +the direction of the Sacred College. But the Sacred College during +the last distracted century had neglected their office. The lunar +year was now sixty-five days in advance of the sun. The so-called +winter was really the autumn, the spring the winter. The summer +solstice fell at the beginning of the legal September. On Caesar as +Pontifex Maximus devolved the duty of bringing confusion into +order, and the completeness with which the work was accomplished at +the first moment of his leisure shows that he had found time in the +midst of his campaigns to think of other things than war or +politics. Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, was called in to +superintend the reform. It is not unlikely that he had made +acquaintance with Sosigenes in Egypt, and had discussed the problem +with him in the hours during which he is supposed to have amused +himself “in the arms of Cleopatra.” Sosigenes, leaving +the moon altogether, took the sun for the basis of the new system. +The Alexandrian observers had discovered that the annual course of +the sun was completed in 365 days and six hours. The lunar twelve +was allowed to remain to fix the number of the months. The numbers +of days in each month were adjusted to absorb 365 days. The +superfluous hours were allowed to accumulate, and every fourth year +an additional day was to be intercalated. An arbitrary step was +required to repair the negligence of the past. Sixty-five days had +still to be made good. The new system, depending wholly on the sun, +would naturally have commenced with the winter solstice. But Caesar +so far deferred to usage as to choose to begin, not with the +solstice itself, but with the first new moon which followed. It so +happened in that year that the new moon was eight days after the +solstice; and thus the next year started, as it continues to start, +from the 1st of January. The eight days were added to the +sixty-five, and the current year was lengthened by nearly three +months. It pleased Cicero to mock, as if Caesar, not contented with +the earth, was making himself the master of the heavens. +“Lyra,” he said, “was to set according to the +edict;” but the unwise man was not Caesar in this instance. <a +name="fnr196"></a> <a href="#fn196" class="fnsuper">1</a></p> + +<p>While Sosigenes was at work with the calendar, Caesar personally +again revised the Senate. He expelled every member who had been +guilty of extortion or corruption; he supplied the vacancies with +officers of merit, with distinguished colonists, with foreigners, +with meritorious citizens, even including Gauls, from all parts of +the Empire. Time, unfortunately, had to pass before these new men +could take their places, but meanwhile he treated the existing body +with all forms of respect, and took no step on any question of +public moment till the Senate had deliberated on it. As a fitting +close to the war he proclaimed an amnesty to all who had borne arms +against him. The past was to be forgotten, and all his efforts were +directed to the regeneration of Roman society. Cicero paints the +habits of fashionable life in colors which were possibly +exaggerated; but enough remains of authentic fact to justify the +general truth of the picture. Women had forgotten their honor, +children their respect for parents. Husbands had murdered wives, +and wives husbands. Parricide and incest formed common incidents of +domestic Italian history; and, as justice had been ordered in the +last years of the Republic, the most abandoned villain who came +into court with a handful of gold was assured of impunity. Rich +men, says Suetonius, were never deterred from crime by a fear of +forfeiting their estates; they had but to leave Italy, and their +property was secured to them. It was held an extraordinary step +toward improvement when Caesar abolished the monstrous privilege, +and ordered that parricides should not only be exiled, but should +forfeit everything that belonged to them, and that minor felons +should forfeit half their estates.</p> + +<p>Cicero had prophesied so positively that Caesar would throw off +the mask of clemency when the need for it was gone, that he was +disappointed to find him persevere in the same gentleness, and was +impatient for revenge to begin. So bitter Cicero was that he once +told Atticus he could almost wish himself to be the object of some +cruel prosecution, that the tyrant might have the disgrace of it. +<a name="fnr197"></a> <a href="#fn197" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>He could not deny that “the tyrant” was doing what, if +Rome was to continue an ordered commonwealth, it was essential must +be done. Caesar’s acts were unconstitutional! Yes; but +constitutions are made for men, not men for constitutions, and +Cicero had long seen that the Constitution was at an end. It had +died of its own iniquities. He had perceived in his better moments +that Caesar and Caesar only could preserve such degrees of freedom +as could be retained without universal destruction. But he refused +to be comforted. He considered it a disgrace to them all that +Caesar was alive. <a name="fnr198"></a> <a href="#fn198" class= +"fnsuper">3</a> Why did not somebody kill him? Kill him? And what +then? On that side too the outlook was not promising. News had come +that Labienus and young Cnaeus Pompey had united their forces in +Spain. The whole Peninsula was in revolt, and the +counter-revolution was not impossible after all. He reflected with +terror on the sarcasms which he had flung on young Pompey. He knew +him to be a fool and a savage. “Hang me,” he said, +“if I do not prefer an old and kind master to trying +experiments with a new and cruel one. The laugh will be on the +other side then.” <a name="fnr199"></a> <a href="#fn199" +class="fnsuper">4</a></p> + +<p>Far had Cicero fallen from his dream of being the greatest man +in Rome! Condemned to immortality by his genius, yet condemned also +to survive in the portrait of himself which he has so unconsciously +and so innocently drawn.</p> + +<p>The accounts from Spain were indeed most serious. It is the +misfortune of men of superior military ability that their +subordinates are generally failures when trusted with independent +commands. Accustomed to obey implicitly the instructions of their +chief, they have done what they have been told to do, and their +virtue has been in never thinking for themselves. They succeed, and +they forget why they succeed, and in part attribute their fortune +to their own skill. With Alexander’s generals, with +Caesar’s, with Cromwell’s, even with some of +Napoleon’s, the story has been the same. They have been +self-confident, yet when thrown upon their own resources they have +driven back upon a judgment which has been inadequately trained. +The mind which guided them is absent. The instrument is called on +to become self-acting, and necessarily acts unwisely. Caesar’s +lieutenants while under his own eye had executed his orders with +the precision of a machine. When left to their own responsibility +they were invariably found wanting. Among all his officers there +was not a man of real eminence. Labienus, the ablest of them, had +but to desert Caesar, to commit blunder upon blunder, and to ruin +the cause to which he attached himself. Antony, Lepidus, Trebonius, +Calvinus, Cassius Longinus, Quintus Cicero, Sabinus, Decimus +Brutus, Vatinius, were trusted with independent authority, only to +show themselves unfit to use it. Cicero had guessed shrewdly that +Caesar’s greatest difficulties would begin with his victory. He +had not a man who was able to govern under him away from his +immediate eye.</p> + +<p>Cassius Longinus, Trebonius, and Marcus Lepidus had been sent to +Spain after the battle of Pharsalia. They had quarrelled among +themselves. They had driven the legions into mutiny. The authority +of Rome had broken down as entirely as when Sertorius was defying +the Senate; and Spain had become the receptacle of all the active +disaffection which remained in the Empire. Thither had drifted the +wreck of Scipio’s African army. Thither had gathered the +outlaws, pirates, and banditti of Italy and the Islands. Thither +too had come flights of Numidians and Moors in hopes of plunder; +and Pompey’s sons and Labienus had collected an army as +numerous as that which had been defeated at Thapsus, and composed +of materials far more dangerous and desperate. There were thirteen +legions of them in all, regularly formed, with eagles and +standards; two which had deserted from Trebonius; one made out of +Roman Spanish settlers, or old soldiers of Pompey’s who had +been dismissed at Lerida; four out of the remnants of the campaign +in Africa; the rest a miscellaneous combination of the mutinous +legions of Longinus and outlawed adventurers who knew that there +was no forgiveness for them, and were ready to fight while they +could stand. It was the last cast of the dice for the old party of +the aristocracy. Appearances were thrown off. There were no more +Catos, no more phantom Senates to lend to rebellion the pretended +dignity of a national cause. The true barbarian was there in his +natural colors.</p> + +<p>Very reluctantly Caesar found that he must himself grapple with +this last convulsion. The sanguinary obstinacy which no longer +proposed any object to itself save defiance and revenge, was +converting a war which at first wore an aspect of a legitimate +constitutional struggle, into a conflict with brigands. Clemency +had ceased to be possible, and Caesar would have gladly left to +others the execution in person of the sharp surgery which was now +necessary. He was growing old: fifty-five this summer. His health +was giving way. For fourteen years he had known no rest. That he +could have endured so long such a strain on mind and body was due +only to his extraordinary abstinence, to the simplicity of his +habits, and the calmness of temperament which in the most anxious +moments refused to be agitated. But the work was telling at last on +his constitution, and he departed on his last campaign with +confessed unwillingness. The future was clouded with uncertainty. A +few more years of life might enable him to introduce into the +shattered frame of the Commonwealth some durable elements. His +death in the existing confusion might be as fatal as +Alexander’s. That some one person not liable to removal under +the annual wave of electoral agitation must preside over the army +and the administration, had been evident in lucid moments even to +Cicero. To leave the prize to be contended for among the military +chiefs was to bequeath a legacy of civil wars and probable +disruption; to compound with the embittered remnants of the +aristocracy who were still in the field would intensify the danger; +yet time and peace alone could give opportunity for the conditions +of a permanent settlement to shape themselves. The name of Caesar +had become identified with the stability of the Empire. He no doubt +foresaw that the only possible chief would be found in his own +family. Being himself childless, he had adopted his sister’s +grandson, Octavius, afterward Augustus, a fatherless boy of +seventeen; and had trained him under his own eye. He had discerned +qualities doubtless in his nephew which, if his own life was +extended for a few years longer, might enable the boy to become the +representative of his house and perhaps the heir of his power. In +the unrecorded intercourse between the uncle and his niece’s +child lies the explanation of the rapidity with which the untried +Octavius seized the reins when all was again chaos, and directed +the Commonwealth upon the lines which it was to follow during the +remaining centuries of Roman power.</p> + +<p>Octavius accompanied Caesar into Spain. They travelled in a +carriage, having as a third with them the general whom Caesar most +trusted and liked, and whom he had named in his will as one of +Octavius’s guardians, Decimus Brutus—the same officer who had +commanded his fleet for him at Quiberon and at Marseilles, and had +now been selected as the future governor of Cisalpine Gaul. Once +more it was midwinter when they left Rome. They travelled swiftly; +and Caesar, as usual, himself brought the news that he was coming. +But the winter season did not bring to him its usual advantages, +for the whole Peninsula had revolted, and Pompey and Labienus were +able to shelter their troops in the towns, while Caesar was obliged +to keep the field. Attempts here and there to capture detached +positions led to no results. On both sides now the war was carried +on upon the principles which the Senate had adopted from the first. +Prisoners from the revolted legions were instantly executed, and +Cnaeus Pompey murdered the provincials whom he suspected of an +inclination for Caesar. Attagona was at last taken. Caesar moved on +Cordova; and Pompey, fearing that the important cities might seek +their own security by coming separately to terms, found it +necessary to risk a battle.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March 17, B.C. 45.]</span> <span class= +"sidenote">[B.C. 45.]</span> The scene of the conflict which ended +the civil war was the plain of Munda. The day was the 17th of +March, B.C. 45. Spanish tradition places Munda on the +Mediterranean, near Gibraltar. The real Munda was on the +Guadalquiver, so near to Cordova that the remains of the beaten +army found shelter within its walls after the battle. Caesar had +been so invariably victorious in his engagements in the open field +that the result might have been thought a foregone conclusion. +Legendary history reported in the next generation that the elements +had been pregnant with auguries. Images had sweated; the sky had +blazed with meteors; celestial armies, the spirits of the past and +future, had battled among the constellations. The signs had been +unfavorable to the Pompeians; the eagles of their legions had +dropped the golden thunderbolts from their talons, spread their +wings, and had flown away to Caesar. In reality, the eagles had +remained in their places till the standards fell from the hands of +their dead defenders; and the battle was one of the most desperate +in which Caesar had ever been engaged. The numbers were nearly +equal—the material on both sides equally good. Pompey’s army +was composed of revolted Roman soldiers. In arms, in discipline, in +stubborn fierceness, there was no difference. The Pompeians had the +advantage of situation, the village of Munda, with the hill on +which it stood, being in the centre of their lines. The Moorish and +Spanish auxiliaries, of whom there were large bodies on either +side, stood apart when the legions closed; they having no further +interest in the matter than in siding with the conqueror, when +fortune had decided who the conqueror was to be. There were no +manoeuvres; no scientific evolutions. The Pompeians knew that there +was no hope for them if they were defeated. Caesar’s men, weary +and savage at the protraction of the war, were determined to make a +last end of it; and the two armies fought hand to hand with their +short swords, with set teeth and pressed lips, opened only with a +sharp cry as an enemy fell dead. So equal was the struggle, so +doubtful at one moment the issue of it, that Caesar himself sprang +from his horse, seized a standard, and rallied a wavering legion. +It seemed as if the men meant all to stand and kill or be killed as +long as daylight lasted. The ill fate of Labienus decided the +victory. He had seen, as he supposed, some movement which alarmed +him among Caesar’s Moorish auxiliaries, and had galloped +conspicuously across the field to lead a division to check them. A +shout rose, “He flies—he flies!” A panic ran along the +Pompeian lines. They gave way, and Caesar’s legions forced a +road between their ranks. One wing broke off and made for Cordova; +the rest plunged wildly within the ditch and walls of Munda, the +avenging sword smiting behind into the huddled mass of fugitives. +Scarcely a prisoner was taken. Thirty thousand fell on the field, +among them three thousand Roman knights, the last remains of the +haughty youths who had threatened Caesar with their swords in the +senate-house, and had hacked Clodius’s mob in the Forum. Among +them was slain Labienus—his desertion of his general, his insults +and his cruelties to his comrades, expiated at last in his own +blood. Attius Varus was killed also, who had been with Juba when he +destroyed Curio. The tragedy was being knitted up in the deaths of +the last actors in it. The eagles of the thirteen legions were all +taken. The two Pompeys escaped on their horses, Sextus disappearing +in the mountains of Grenada or the Sierra Morena; Cnaeus flying for +Gibraltar, where he hoped to find a friendly squadron.</p> + +<p>Munda was at once blockaded, the enclosing wall—savage evidence +of the temper of the conquerors—being built of dead bodies pinned +together with lances, and on the top of it a fringe of heads on +swords’ points with the faces turned toward the town. A sally +was attempted at midnight, and failed. The desperate wretches then +fought among themselves, till at length the place was surrendered, +and fourteen thousand of those who still survived were taken, and +spared. Their comrades, who had made their way into Cordova, were +less fortunate. When the result of the battle was known, the +leading citizen, who had headed the revolt against Caesar, gathered +all that belonged to him into a heap, poured turpentine over it, +and, after a last feast with his family, burnt himself, his house, +his children, and servants. In the midst of the tumult the walls +were stormed. Cordova was given up to plunder and massacre, and +twenty-two thousand miserable people—most of them, it may be +hoped, the fugitives from Munda—were killed. The example sufficed. +Every town opened its gates, and Spain was once more submissive. +Sextus Pompey successfully concealed himself. Cnaeus reached +Gibraltar, but to find that most of the ships which he looked for +had been taken by Caesar’s fleet. He tried to cross to the +African coast, but was driven back by bad weather, and search +parties were instantly on his track. He had been wounded; he had +sprained his ankle in his flight. Strength and hope were gone. He +was carried on a litter to a cave on a mountain side, where his +pursuers found him, cut off his head, and spared Cicero from +further anxiety.</p> + +<p>Thus bloodily ended the Civil War, which the Senate of Rome had +undertaken against Caesar, to escape the reforms which were +threatened by his second consulship. They had involuntarily +rendered their country the best service which they were capable of +conferring upon it, for the attempts which Caesar would have made +to amend a system too decayed to benefit by the process had been +rendered forever impossible by their persistence. The free +constitution of the Republic had issued at last in elections which +were a mockery of representation, in courts of law which were an +insult to justice, and in the conversion of the Provinces of the +Empire into the feeding-grounds of a gluttonous aristocracy. In the +army alone the Roman character and the Roman honor survived. In the +Imperator, therefore, as chief of the army, the care of the +Provinces, the direction of public policy, the sovereign authority +in the last appeal, could alone thenceforward reside. The Senate +might remain as a Council of State; the magistrates might bear +their old names, and administer their old functions. But the +authority of the executive government lay in the loyalty, the +morality, and the patriotism of the legions to whom the power had +been transferred. Fortunately for Rome, the change came before +decay had eaten into the bone, and the genius of the Empire had +still a refuge from platform oratory and senatorial wrangling in +the hearts of her soldiers.</p> + +<p>Caesar did not immediately return to Italy. Affairs in Rome were +no longer pressing, and, after the carelessness and blunders of his +lieutenants, the administration of the Peninsula required his +personal inspection. From open revolts in any part of the Roman +dominions he had nothing more to fear. The last card had been +played, and the game of open resistance was lost beyond recovery. +There might be dangers of another kind: dangers from ambitious +generals, who might hope to take Caesar’s place on his death; +or dangers from constitutional philosophers, like Cicero, who had +thought from the first that the Civil War had been a mistake, +“that Caesar was but mortal, and that there were many ways in +which a man might die.” A reflection so frankly expressed, by +so respectable a person, must have occurred to many others as well +as to Cicero; Caesar could not but have foreseen in what resources +disappointed fanaticism or baffled selfishness might seek refuge. +But of such possibilities he was prepared to take his chance; he +did not fly from them, he did not seek them; he took his work as he +found it, and remained in Spain through the summer, imposing fines +and allotting rewards, readjusting the taxation, and extending the +political privileges of the Roman colonies. It was not till late in +the autumn that he again turned his face toward Rome.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn196"></a> <a href="#fnr196">[1]</a> +In connection with this subject it is worth while to mention +another change in the division of time, not introduced by Caesar, +but which came into general use about a century after. The week of +seven days was unknown to the Greeks and to the Romans of the +Commonwealth, the days of the month being counted by the phases of +the moon. The seven-days division was supposed by the Romans to be +Egyptian. We know it to have been Jewish, and it was probably +introduced to the general world on the first spread of +Christianity. It was universally adopted at any rate after +Christianity had been planted in different parts of the Empire, but +while the Government and the mass of the people were still +unconverted to the new religion. The week was accepted for its +convenience; but while accepted it was paganized; and the seven +days were allotted to the five planets and the sun and moon in the +order which still survives among the Latin nations, and here in +England with a further introduction of Scandinavian mythology. The +principle of the distribution was what is popularly called +“the music of the spheres,” and turns on a law of Greek +music, which is called by Don Cassius the [Greek: armonia dia +teddaron]. Assuming the earth to be the centre of the universe, the +celestial bodies which have a proper movement of their own among +the stars were arranged in the order of their apparent periods of +revolution—Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the +Moon. The Jewish Jehovah was identified by the Graeco-Romans with +Saturn, the oldest of the heathen personal gods. The Sabbath was +the day supposed to be specially devoted to him. The first day of +the week was, therefore, given to Saturn. Passing over Jupiter and +Mars, according to the laws of the [Greek: armonia], the next day +was given to the Sun; again passing over two, the next to the Moon, +and so on, going round again to the rest, till the still existing +order came out. Dies Saturni, dies Solis, dies Lunae, dies Martis, +dies Mercurri, dies Jovis, and dies Veneris. See Dion Cassius, +<i>Historia Romana</i>, lib. xxxvii. c. 18. Dion Cassius gives a +second account of the distribution, depending on the twenty-four +hours of the day. But the twenty-four hours being a division purely +artificial, this explanation is of less interest.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn197"></a> <a href="#fnr197">[2]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, x. 12.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn198"></a> <a href="#fnr198">[3]</a> +“Cum vivere ipsum turpe sit nobis.”—<i>To Atticus</i>, +xiii. 28.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn199"></a> <a href="#fnr199">[4]</a> +“Peream nisi sollicitus sum, ac malo veterem et clementem +dominum habere, quam novum et crudelem experiri. Scis, Cnaeus quam +sit fatuus. Scis, quomodo crudelitatem virtutem putet. Scis, quam +se semper a nobis derisum putet. Vereor, ne nos rustice gladio +velit [Greek: antimuktaerisai]”—<i>To Caius Cassius, Ad +Fam</i>. xv. 19.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter26">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></h2> + +<p>Caesar came back to Rome to resume the suspended work of +practical reform. His first care was to remove the fears which the +final spasm of rebellion had again provoked. He had already granted +an amnesty. But the optimates were conscious that they had desired +and hoped that the Pompeys might be victorious in Spain. Caesar +invited the surviving leaders of the party to sue for pardon on not +unbecoming conditions. Hitherto they had kept no faith with him, +and on the first show of opportunity had relapsed into defiance. +His forbearance had been attributed to want of power rather than of +will to punish; when they saw him again triumphant, they assumed +that the representative of the Marian principles would show at last +the colors of his uncle, and that Rome would again run with blood. +He knew them all. He knew that they hated him, and would continue +to hate him; but he supposed that they had recognized the +hopelessness and uselessness of further conspiracy. By destroying +him they would fall only under the rod of less scrupulous +conquerors; and therefore he was content that they should ask to be +forgiven. To show further that the past was really to be forgotten, +he drew no distinction between his enemies and his friends, and he +recommended impartially for office those whose rank or services to +the State entitled them to look for promotion. Thus he pardoned and +advanced Caius Cassius, who would have killed him in Cilicia. <a +name="fnr200"></a> <a href="#fn200" class="fnsuper">1</a> But +Cassius had saved Syria from being overrun by the Parthians after +the death of Crassus; and the service to the State outweighed the +injury to himself. So he pardoned and advanced Marcus Brutus, his +friend Servilia’s son, who had fought against him at Pharsalia, +and had been saved from death there by his special orders. So he +pardoned and protected Cicero; so Marcus Marcellus, who, as consul, +had moved that he should be recalled from his government, and had +flogged the citizen of Como, in scorn of the privileges which +Caesar had granted to the colony. So he pardoned also Quintus +Ligarius, <a name="fnr201"></a> <a href="#fn201" class= +"fnsuper">2</a> who had betrayed his confidence in Africa; so a +hundred others, who now submitted, accepted his favors, and bound +themselves to plot against him no more. To the widows and children +of those who had fallen in the war he restored the estates and +honors of their families. Finally, as some were still sullen, and +refused to sue for a forgiveness which might imply an +acknowledgment of guilt, he renewed the general amnesty of the +previous year; and, as a last evidence that his victory was not the +triumph of democracy, but the consolidation of a united Empire, he +restored the statues of Sylla and Pompey, which had been thrown +down in the revolution, and again dedicated them with a public +ceremonial.</p> + +<p>Having thus proved that, so far as he was concerned, he +nourished no resentment against the persons of the optimates, or +against their principles, so far as they were consistent with the +future welfare of the Roman State, Caesar set himself again to the +reorganization of the administration. Unfortunately, each step that +he took was a fresh crime in the eyes of men whose pleasant +monopoly of power he had overthrown. But this was a necessity of +the revolution. They had fought for their supremacy, and had lost +the day.</p> + +<p>He increased the number of the Senate to nine hundred, filling +its ranks from eminent provincials; introducing even barbarian +Gauls, and, still worse, libertini, the sons of liberated slaves, +who had risen to distinction by their own merit. The new members +came in slowly, and it is needless to say were unwillingly +received; a private handbill was sent round, recommending the +coldest of greetings to them. <a name="fnr202"></a> <a href="#fn202" class="fnsuper">3</a></p> + +<p>The inferior magistrates were now responsible to himself as +Dictator. He added to their numbers also, and to check the +mischiefs of the annual elections, he ordered that they should be +chosen for three years. He cut short the corn grants, which nursed +the city mob in idleness; and from among the impoverished citizens +he furnished out masses of colonists to repair the decay of ancient +cities. Corinth rose from its ashes under Caesar’s care. Eighty +thousand Italians were settled down on the site of Carthage. As +inspector of morals, Caesar inherited in an invigorated form the +power of the censors. Senators and officials who had discredited +themselves by dishonesty were ruthlessly degraded. His own private +habits and the habits of his household were models of frugality. He +made an effort, in which Augustus afterward imitated him, to check +the luxury which was eating into the Roman character. He forbade +the idle young patricians to be carried about by slaves in litters. +The markets of the world had been ransacked to provide dainties for +these gentlemen. He appointed inspectors to survey the dealers’ +stalls, and occasionally prohibited dishes were carried off from +the dinner table under the eyes of the disappointed guests, <a +name="fnr203"></a> <a href="#fn203" class="fnsuper">4</a> Enemies +enough Caesar made by these measures; but it could not be said of +him that he allowed indulgences to himself which he interdicted to +others. His domestic economy was strict and simple, the accounts +being kept to a sesterce. His frugality was hospitable. He had two +tables always, one for his civilian friends, another for his +officers, who dined in uniform. The food was plain, but the best of +its kind; and he was not to be played with in such matters. An +unlucky baker who supplied his guests with bread of worse quality +than he furnished for himself was put in chains. Against moral +offences he was still more severe. He, the supposed example of +licentiousness with women, executed his favorite freedman for +adultery with a Roman lady. A senator had married a woman two days +after her divorce from her first husband; Caesar pronounced the +marriage void.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 45-44.]</span> Law reforms went on. +Caesar appointed a commission to examine the huge mass of +precedents, reduce them to principles, and form a Digest. He called +in Marcus Varro’s help to form libraries in the great towns. He +encouraged physicians and men of science to settle in Rome, by +offering them the freedom of the city. To maintain the free +population of Italy, he required the planters and farmers to employ +a fixed proportion of free laborers on their estates. He put an end +to the pleasant tours of senators at the expense of the provinces; +their proper place was Italy, and he allowed them to go abroad only +when they were in office or in the service of the governors. He +formed large engineering plans, a plan to drain the Pontine marshes +and the Fucine lake, a plan to form a new channel for the Tiber, +another to improve the roads, another to cut the Isthmus of +Corinth. These were his employments during the few months of life +which were left to him after the close of the war. His health was +growing visibly weaker, but his superhuman energy remained +unimpaired. He was even meditating and was making preparation for a +last campaign. The authority of Rome on the eastern frontier had +not recovered from the effects of the destruction of the army of +Crassus. The Parthians were insolent and aggressive. Caesar had +determined to go in person to bring them to their senses as soon as +he could leave Rome. Partly, it was said that he felt his life +would be safer with the troops; partly, he desired to leave the +administration free from his overpowering presence, that it might +learn to go alone; partly and chiefly, he wished to spend such time +as might remain to him where he could do most service to his +country. But he was growing weary of the thankless burden. He was +heard often to say that he had lived long enough. Men of high +nature do not find the task of governing their fellow-creatures +particularly delightful.</p> + +<p>The Senate meanwhile was occupied in showing the sincerity of +their conversion by inventing honors for their new master, and +smothering him with distinctions since they had failed to defeat +him in the field. Few recruits had yet joined them, and they were +still substantially the old body. They voted Caesar the name of +Liberator. They struck medals for him, in which he was described as +Pater Patriae, an epithet which Cicero had once with quickened +pulse heard given to himself by Pompey. “Imperator” had +been a title conferred hitherto by soldiers in the field on a +successful general. It was now granted to Caesar in a special +sense, and was made hereditary in his family, with the +command-in-chief of the army for his life. The Senate gave him also +the charge of the treasury. They made him consul for ten years. +Statues were to be erected to him in the temples, on the Rostra, +and in the Capitol, where he was to stand as an eighth among the +seven Kings of Rome. In the excess of their adoration, they desired +even to place his image in the Temple of Quirinus himself, with an +inscription to him as [Greek: Theos animaetos], the invincible god. +Golden chairs, gilt chariots, triumphal robes were piled one upon +another with laurelled fasces and laurelled wreaths. His birthday +was made a perpetual holiday, and the month Quinctilis <a name="fnr204"></a> <a href="#fn204" class="fnsuper">5</a> was renamed, +in honor of him, July. A temple to Concord was to be erected in +commemoration of his clemency. His person was declared sacred, and +to injure him by word or deed was to be counted sacrilege. The +Fortune of Caesar was introduced into the constitutional oath, and +the Senate took a solemn pledge to maintain his acts inviolate. +Finally, they arrived at a conclusion that he was not a man at all; +no longer Caius Julius, but Divus Julius, a god or the son of god. +A temple was to be built to Caesar as another Quirinus, and Antony +was to be his priest.</p> + +<p>Caesar knew the meaning of all this. He must accept their +flattery and become ridiculous, or he must appear to treat with +contumely the Senate which offered it. The sinister purpose started +occasionally into sight. One obsequious senator proposed that every +woman in Rome should be at his disposition, and filthy libels +against him were set floating under the surface. The object, he +perfectly understood, “was to draw him into a position more +and more invidious, that he might the sooner perish.” <a name="fnr205"></a> <a href="#fn205" class="fnsuper">6</a> The praise and +the slander of such men were alike indifferent to him. So far as he +was concerned, they might call him what they pleased; god in +public, and devil in their epigrams, if it so seemed good to them. +It was difficult for him to know precisely how to act, but he +declined his divine honors; and he declined the ten years’ +consulship. Though he was sole consul for the year, he took a +colleague, and when his colleague died on the last day of office, +he named another, that the customary forms might be observed. Let +him do what he would, malice still misconstrued him. Cicero, the +most prominent now of his senatorial flatterers, was the sharpest +with his satire behind the scenes. “Caesar,” he said, +“had given so active a consul that there was no sleeping under +him.” <a name="fnr206"></a> <a href="#fn206" class= +"fnsuper">7</a></p> + +<p>Caesar was more and more weary of it. He knew that the Senate +hated him; he knew that they would kill him, if they could. All +these men whose lips were running over with adulation, were longing +to drive their daggers into him. He was willing to live, if they +would let him live; but, for himself, he had ceased to care about +it. He disdained to take precautions against assassination. On his +first return from Spain, he had been attended by a guard; but he +dismissed it in spite of the remonstrances of his friends, and went +daily into the senate-house alone and unarmed. He spoke often of +his danger with entire openness; but he seemed to think that he had +some security in the certainty that, if he was murdered, the Civil +War would break out again, as if personal hatred was ever checked +by fear of consequences. It was something to feel that he had not +lived in vain. The Gauls were settling into peaceful habits. The +soil of Gaul was now as well cultivated as Italy. Barges loaded +with merchandise were passing freely along the Rhone and the Saône, +the Loire, the Moselle, and the Rhine. <a name="fnr207"></a> <a +href="#fn207" class="fnsuper">8</a> The best of the chiefs were +made senators of Rome, and the people were happy and contented. +What he had done for Gaul he might, if he lived, do for Spain, and +Africa, and the East. But it was the concern of others more than of +himself. “Better,” he said, “to die at once than +live in perpetual dread of treason.”</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 44.]</span> But Caesar was aware +that conspiracies were being formed against him; and that he spoke +freely of his danger, appears from a speech delivered in the middle +of the winter by Cicero in Caesar’s presence. It has been seen +that Cicero had lately spoken of Caesar’s continuance in life +as a disgrace to the State. It has been seen also that he had long +thought of assassination as the readiest means of ending it. He +asserted afterward that he had not been consulted when the murder +was actually accomplished; but the perpetrators were assured of his +approbation, and when Caesar was killed he deliberately claimed for +himself a share of the guilt, if guilt there could be in what he +regarded as the most glorious achievement in human history, <a +name="fnr208"></a> <a href="#fn208" class="fnsuper">9</a> It maybe +assumed, therefore, that Cicero’s views upon the subject had +remained unchanged since the beginning of the Civil War, and that +his sentiments were no secret among his intimate friends.</p> + +<p>Cicero is the second great figure in the history of the time. He +has obtained the immortality which he so much desired, and we are, +therefore, entitled and obliged to scrutinize his conduct with a +niceness which would be ungracious and unnecessary in the case of a +less distinguished man. After Pharsalia he had concluded that the +continuance of the war would be unjustifiable. He had put himself +in communication with Antony and Caesar’s friend and secretary +Oppius, and at their advice he went from Greece to Brindisi, to +remain there till Caesar’s pleasure should be known. He was +very miserable. He had joined Pompey with confessed reluctance, and +family quarrels had followed on Pompey’s defeat. His brother +Quintus, whom he had drawn away from Caesar, regretted having taken +his advice. His sons and nephews were equally querulous and +dissatisfied; and for himself, he dared not appear in the streets +of Brindisi, lest Caesar’s soldiers should insult or injure +him. Antony, however, encouraged him to hope. He assured him that +Caesar was well disposed to him, and would not only pardon him, but +would show him every possible favor, <a name="fnr209"></a> <a href="#fn209" class="fnsuper">10</a> and with these expectations he +contrived for a while to comfort himself. He had regarded the +struggle as over, and Caesar’s side as completely victorious. +But gradually the scene seemed to change. Caesar was long in +returning. The optimates rallied in Africa, and there was again a +chance that they might win after all. His first thought was always +for himself. If the constitution survived under Caesar, as he was +inclined to think that in some shape it would, he had expected that +a place would be found in it for him. <a name="fnr210"></a> <a +href="#fn210" class="fnsuper">11</a> But how if Caesar himself +should not survive? How if he should be killed in Alexandria? How +if he should be defeated by Metellus Scipio? He described himself +as excruciated with anxiety. <a name="fnr211"></a> <a href="#fn211" +class="fnsuper">12</a> Through the year which followed he wavered +from day to day as the prospect varied, now cursing his folly for +having followed the Senate to Greece, now for having deserted them, +blaming himself at one time for his indecision, at another for +having committed himself to either side. <a name="fnr212"></a> <a +href="#fn212" class="fnsuper">13</a></p> + +<p>Gradually his alarms subsided. The Senate’s party was +finally overthrown. Caesar wrote to him affectionately, and allowed +him to retain his title as Imperator. When it appeared that he had +nothing personally to fear, he recovered his spirits, and he +recovered along with them a hope that the constitution might be +restored, after all, by other means than war. “Caesar could +not live forever, and there were many ways in which a man might +die.”</p> + +<p>Caesar had dined with him in the country, on his way home from +Spain. He had been as kind as Cicero could wish, but had avoided +politics. When Caesar went on to Rome, Cicero followed him, resumed +his place in the Senate, which was then in the full fervor of its +affected adulation, and took an early opportunity of speaking. +Marcus Marcellus had been in exile since Pharsalia. The Senate had +interceded for his pardon, and Caesar had granted it, and granted +it with a completeness which exceeded expectation. Cicero rose to +thank him in his presence, in terms which most certainly did not +express his real feelings, whatever may have been the purpose which +they concealed.</p> + +<hr /> +<p>“He had long been silent,” he said, “not from +fear, but from grief and diffidence. The time for silence was past. +Thenceforward he intended to speak his thoughts freely in his +ancient manner. Such kindness, such unheard-of generosity, such +moderation in power, such incredible and almost godlike wisdom, he +felt himself unable to pass over without giving expression to his +emotions.” <a name="fnr213"></a> <a href="#fn213" class= +"fnsuper">14</a> No flow of genius, no faculty of speech or +writing, could adequately describe Caesar’s actions, yet on +that day he had achieved a yet greater glory. Often had Cicero +thought, and often had said to others, that no king or general had +ever performed such exploits as Caesar. In war, however, officers, +soldiers, allies, circumstances, fortune, claimed a share in the +result; and there were victories greater than could be won on the +battlefield, where the honor was undivided.</p> + +<p>“To have conquered yourself,” he said, addressing +Caesar directly, “to have restrained your resentment, not only +to have restored a distinguished opponent to his civil rights, but +to have given him more than he had lost, is a deed which raises you +above humanity, and makes you most like to God. Your wars will be +spoken of to the end of time in all lands and tongues; but in tales +of battles we are deafened by the shoutings and the blare of +trumpets. Justice, mercy, moderation, wisdom, we admire even in +fiction, or in persons whom we have never seen; how much more must +we admire them in you, who are present here before us, and in whose +face we read a purpose to restore us to such remnants of our +liberty as have survived the war! How can we praise, how can we +love you sufficiently? By the gods, the very walls of this house +are eloquent with gratitude.... No conqueror in a civil war was +ever so mild as you have been. To-day you have surpassed yourself. +You have overcome victory in giving back the spoils to the +conquered. By the laws of war we were under your feet, to be +destroyed, if you so willed. We live by your goodness.... Observe, +conscript fathers, how comprehensive is Caesar’s sentence. We +were in arms against him, how impelled I know not. He cannot acquit +us of mistake, but he holds us innocent of crime, for he has given +us back Marcellus at your entreaty. Me, of his own free will, he +has restored to myself and to my country. He has brought back the +most illustrious survivors of the war. You see them gathered here +in this full assembly. He has not regarded them as enemies. He has +concluded that you entered into the conflict with him rather in +ignorance and unfounded fear than from any motives of ambition or +hostility.</p> + +<p>“For me, I was always for peace. Caesar was for peace, so +was Marcellus. There were violent men among you, whose success +Marcellus dreaded. Each party had a cause. I will not compare them. +I will compare rather the victory of the one with the possible +victory of the other. Caesar’s wars ended with the last battle. +The sword is now sheathed. Those whom we have lost fell in the fury +of the fight, not one by the resentment of the conqueror. Caesar, +if he could, would bring back to life many who lie dead. For the +others, we all feared what they might do if the day had been +theirs. They not only threatened those who were in arms against +them, but those who sat quietly at home.”</p> + +<hr /> +<p>Cicero then said that he had heard a fear of assassination +expressed by Caesar. By whom, he asked, could such an attempt be +made? Not by those whom he had forgiven, for none were more +attached to him. Not by his comrades, for they could not be so mad +as to conspire against the general to whom they owed all that they +possessed. Not by his enemies, for he had no enemies. Those who had +been his enemies were either dead through their own obstinacy, or +were alive through his generosity. It was possible, however, he +admitted, that there might be some such danger.</p> + +<hr /> +<p>“Be you, therefore,” he said, again speaking to +Caesar,—“be you watchful, and let us be diligent. Who is so +careless of his own and the common welfare as to be ignorant that +on your preservation his own depends, and that all our lives are +bound up in yours? I, as in duty bound, think of you by night and +day; I ponder over the accidents of humanity, the uncertainty of +health, the frailty of our common nature, and I grieve to think +that the Commonwealth which ought to be immortal should hang on the +breath of a single man. If to these perils be added a nefarious +conspiracy, to what god can we turn for help? War has laid +prostrate our institutions; you alone can restore them. The courts +of justice need to be reconstituted, credit to be recovered, +license to be repressed, the thinned ranks of the citizens to be +repaired. The bonds of society are relaxed. In such a war, and with +such a temper in men’s hearts, the State must have lost many of +its greatest ornaments, be the event what it would. These wounds +need healing, and you alone can heal them. With sorrow I have heard +you say that you have lived long enough. For nature it may be that +you have, and perhaps for glory. But for your country you have not. +Put away, I beseech you, this contempt of death. Be not wise at our +expense. You repeat often, I am told, that you do not wish for +longer life. I believe you mean it; nor should I blame you, if you +had to think only of yourself. But by your actions you have +involved the welfare of each citizen and of the whole Commonwealth +in your own. Your work is unfinished: the foundations are hardly +laid, and is it for you to be measuring calmly your term of days by +your own desires?... If, Caesar, the result of your immortal deeds +is to be no more than this, that, after defeating your enemies, you +are to leave the State in the condition in which it now stands, +your splendid qualities will be more admired than honored. It +remains for you to rebuild the constitution. Live till this is +done. Live till you see your country tranquil, and at peace. Then, +when your last debt is paid, when you have filled the measure of +your existence to overflowing, then say, if you will, that you have +had enough of life. Your life is not the life which is bounded by +the union of your soul and body, your life is that which shall +continue fresh in the memory of ages to come, which posterity will +cherish, and eternity itself keep guard over. Much has been done +which men will admire: much remains to be done, which they can +praise. They will read with wonder of empires and provinces, of the +Rhine, the ocean, and the Nile, of battles without number, of +amazing victories, of countless monuments and triumphs; but unless +this Commonwealth be wisely re-established in institutions by you +bestowed upon us, your name will travel widely over the world, but +will have no stable habitation; and those who come after us will +dispute about you as we have disputed. Some will extol you to the +skies, others will find something wanting and the most important +element of all. Remember the tribunal before which you will +hereafter stand. The ages that are to be will try you, with minds, +it may be, less prejudiced than ours, uninfluenced either by desire +to please you or by envy of your greatness.</p> + +<p>“Our dissensions have been crushed by the arms, and +extinguished by the lenity of the conqueror. Let all of us, not the +wise only, but every citizen who has ordinary sense, be guided by a +single desire. Salvation there can be none for us, Caesar, unless +you are preserved. Therefore, we exhort you, we beseech you, to +watch over your own safety. You believe that you are threatened by +a secret peril. From my own heart I say, and I speak for others as +well as myself, we will stand as sentries over your safety, and we +will interpose our own bodies between you and any danger which may +menace you.” <a name="fnr214"></a> <a href="#fn214" class= +"fnsuper">15</a></p> + +<hr /> +<p>Such, in compressed form, for necessary brevity, but deserving +to be studied in its own brilliant language, was the speech +delivered by Cicero, in the Senate in Caesar’s presence, within +a few weeks of his murder. The authenticity of it has been +questioned, but without result beyond creating a doubt whether it +was edited and corrected, according to his usual habit, by Cicero +himself. The external evidence of genuineness is as good as for any +of his other orations, and the Senate possessed no other speaker +known to us, to whom, with any probability, so splendid an +illustration of Roman eloquence could be assigned.</p> + +<p>Now, therefore, let us turn to the second Philippic delivered in +the following summer when the deed had been accomplished which +Cicero professed to hold in so much abhorrence. Then, fiercely +challenging for himself a share in the glory of tyrannicide, he +exclaimed:</p> + +<hr /> +<p>“What difference is there between advice beforehand and +approbation afterward? What does it matter whether I wished it to +be done, or rejoiced that it was done? Is there a man, save Antony +and those who were glad to have Caesar reign over us, that did not +wish him to be killed, or that disapproved when he was killed? All +were in fault, for all the <i>Boni</i> joined in killing him, so +far as lay in them. Some were not consulted, some wanted courage, +some opportunity. All were willing,” <a name="fnr215"></a> <a +href="#fn215" class="fnsuper">16</a></p> + +<p>Expressions so vehemently opposite compel us to compare them. +Was it that Cicero was so carried away by the stream of his +oratory, that he spoke like an actor, under artificial emotion +which the occasion called for? Was it that he was deliberately +trying to persuade Caesar that from the Senate he had nothing to +fear, and so to put him off his guard? If, as he declared, he +himself and the <i>Boni</i>, who were listening to him, desired +so unanimously to see Caesar killed, how else can his language be +interpreted? Cicero stands before the tribunal of posterity, to +which he was so fond of appealing. In him, too, while “there +is much to admire,” “something may be found +wanting.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Senate went its way, still inventing fresh titles +and conferring fresh powers. Caesar said that these vain +distinctions needed limitation, rather than increase; but the +flattery had a purpose in it, and would not be checked.</p> + +<p>One day a deputation waited on him with the proffer of some +“new marvel.” <a name="fnr216"></a> <a href="#fn216" +class="fnsuper">17</a> He was sitting in front of the Temple of +Venus Genetrix, and when the senators approached he neglected to +rise to receive them. Some said that he was moving, but that +Cornelius Balbus pulled him down. Others said that he was unwell. +Pontius Aquila, a tribune, had shortly before refused to rise to +Caesar. The senators thought he meant to read them a lesson in +return. He intended to be king, it seemed; the constitution was +gone, another Tarquin was about to seize the throne of Republican +Rome.</p> + +<p>Caesar was king in fact, and to recognize facts is more salutary +than to ignore them. An acknowledgment of Caesar as king might have +made the problem of reorganization easier than it proved. The army +had thought of it. He was on the point of starting for Parthia, and +a prophecy had said that the Parthians could only be conquered by a +king.—But the Roman people were sensitive about names. Though +their liberties were restricted for the present, they liked to hope +that one day the Forum might recover its greatness. The Senate, +meditating on the insult which they had received, concluded that +Caesar might be tempted, and that if they could bring him to +consent he would lose the people’s hearts. They had already +made him Dictator for life; they voted next that he really should +be King, and, not formally perhaps, but tentatively, they offered +him the crown. He was sounded as to whether he would accept it. He +understood the snare, and refused. What was to be done next? He +would soon be gone to the East. Rome and its hollow adulations +would lie behind him, and their one opportunity would be gone also. +They employed some one to place a diadem on the head of his statue +which stood upon the Rostra. <a name="fnr217"></a> <a href="#fn217" +class="fnsuper">18</a> It was done publicly, in the midst of a vast +crowd, in Caesar’s presence. Two eager tribunes tore the diadem +down, and ordered the offender into custody. The treachery of the +Senate was not the only danger. His friends in the army had the +same ambition for him. A few days later, as he was riding through +the streets, he was saluted as King by the mob. Caesar answered +calmly that he was not King but Caesar, and there the matter might +have ended; but the tribunes rushed into the crowd to arrest the +leaders; a riot followed, for which Caesar blamed them; they +complained noisily; he brought their conduct before the Senate, and +they were censured and suspended. But suspicion was doing its work, +and honest republican hearts began to heat and kindle.</p> + +<p>The kingship assumed a more serious form on the 15th of February +at the Lupercalia—the ancient carnival. Caesar was in his chair, +in his consular purple, wearing a wreath of bay, wrought in gold. +The honor of the wreath was the only distinction which he had +accepted from the Senate with pleasure. He retained a remnant of +youthful vanity, and the twisted leaves concealed his baldness. +Antony, his colleague in the consulship, approached with a tiara, +and placed it on Caesar’s head, saying, “The people give +you this by my hand.” That Antony had no sinister purpose is +obvious. He perhaps spoke for the army; <a name="fnr218"></a> <a +href="#fn218" class="fnsuper">19</a> or it may be that Caesar +himself suggested Antony’s action, that he might end the +agitation of so dangerous a subject. He answered in a loud voice +“that the Romans had no king but God,” and ordered that +the tiara should be taken to the Capitol, and placed on the statue +of Jupiter Olympius. The crowd burst into an enthusiastic cheer; +and an inscription on a brass tablet recorded that the Roman people +had offered Caesar the crown by the hands of the consul, and that +Caesar had refused it.</p> + +<p>The question of the kingship was over; but a vague alarm had +been created, which answered the purpose of the optimates. Caesar +was at their mercy any day. They had sworn to maintain all his +acts. They had sworn, after Cicero’s speech, individually and +collectively to defend his life. Caesar, whether he believed them +sincere or not, had taken them at their word, and came daily to the +Senate unarmed and without a guard. He had a protection in the +people. If the optimates killed him without preparation, they knew +that they would be immediately massacred. But an atmosphere of +suspicion and uncertainty had been successfully generated, of which +they determined to take immediate advantage. There were no troops +in the city. Lepidus, Caesar’s master of the horse, who had +been appointed governor of Gaul, was outside the gates, with a few +cohorts; but Lepidus was a person of feeble character, and they +trusted to be able to deal with him.</p> + +<p>Sixty senators, in all, were parties to the immediate +conspiracy. Of these nine-tenths were members of the old faction +whom Caesar had pardoned, and who, of all his acts, resented most +that he had been able to pardon them. They were the men who had +stayed at home, like Cicero, from the fields of Thapsus and Munda, +and had pretended penitence and submission that they might take an +easier road to rid themselves of their enemy. Their motives were +the ambition of their order and personal hatred of Caesar; but they +persuaded themselves that they were animated by patriotism, and as, +in their hands, the Republic had been a mockery of liberty, so they +aimed at restoring it by a mock tyrannicide. Their oaths and their +professions were nothing to them. If they were entitled to kill +Caesar, they were entitled equally to deceive him. No stronger +evidence is needed of the demoralization of the Roman Senate than +the completeness with which they were able to disguise from +themselves the baseness of their treachery. One man only they were +able to attract into co-operation who had a reputation for honesty, +and could be conceived, without absurdity, to be animated by a +disinterested purpose.</p> + +<p>Marcus Brutus was the son of Cato’s sister Servilia, the +friend, and a scandal said the mistress, of Caesar. That he was +Caesar’s son was not too absurd for the credulity of Roman +drawing-rooms. Brutus himself could not have believed in the +existence of such a relation, for he was deeply attached to his +mother; and although, under the influence of his uncle Cato, he had +taken the Senate’s side in the war, he had accepted afterward +not pardon only from Caesar, but favors of many kinds, for which he +had professed, and probably felt, some real gratitude. He had +married Cato’s daughter Portia, and on Cato’s death had +published a eulogy upon him. Caesar left him free to think and +write what he pleased. He had made him praetor; he had nominated +him to the governorship of Macedonia. Brutus was perhaps the only +member of the senatorial party in whom Caesar felt genuine +confidence. His known integrity, and Caesar’s acknowledged +regard for him, made his accession to the conspiracy an object of +particular importance. The name of Brutus would be a guarantee to +the people of rectitude of intention. Brutus, as the world went, +was of more than average honesty. He had sworn to be faithful to +Caesar as the rest had sworn, and an oath with him was not a thing +to be emotionalized away; but he was a fanatical republican, a man +of gloomy habits, given to dreams and omens, and easily liable to +be influenced by appeals to visionary feelings. Caius Cassius, his +brother-in-law, was employed to work upon him. Cassius, too, was +praetor that year, having been also nominated to office by Caesar. +He knew Brutus, he knew where and how to move him. He reminded him +of the great traditions of his name. A Brutus had delivered Rome +from the Tarquins. The blood of a Brutus was consecrated to +liberty. This, too, was mockery; Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins, +put his sons to death, and died childless; Marcus Brutus came of +good plebeian family, with no glories of tyrannicide about them; +but an imaginary genealogy suited well with the spurious heroics +which veiled the motives of Caesar’s murderers.</p> + +<p>Brutus, once wrought upon, became with Cassius the most ardent +in the cause which assumed the aspect to him of a sacred duty. +Behind them were the crowd of senators of the familiar faction, and +others worse than they, who had not even the excuse of having been +partisans of the beaten cause; men who had fought at Caesar’s +side till the war was over, and believed, like Labienus, that to +them Caesar owed his fortune, and that he alone ought not to reap +the harvest. One of these was Trebonius, who had misconducted +himself in Spain, and was smarting under the recollection of his +own failures. Trebonius had long before sounded Antony on the +desirableness of removing their chief. Antony, though he remained +himself true, had unfortunately kept his friend’s counsel. +Trebonius had been named by Caesar for a future consulship, but a +distant reward was too little for him. Another and a yet baser +traitor was Decimus Brutus, whom Caesar valued and trusted beyond +all his officers, whom he had selected as guardian for Augustus, +and had noticed, as was seen afterward, with special affection in +his will. The services of these men were invaluable to the +conspirators on account of their influence with the army. Decimus +Brutus, like Labienus, had enriched himself in Caesar’s +campaigns, and had amassed near half a million of English money. <a +name="fnr219"></a> <a href="#fn219" class="fnsuper">20</a> It may +have been easy to persuade him and Trebonius that a grateful +Republic would consider no recompense too large to men who would +sacrifice their commander to their country. To Caesar they could be +no more than satellites; the first prizes of the Empire would be +offered to the choice of the saviours of the constitution.</p> + +<p>So composed was this memorable band, to whom was to fall the bad +distinction of completing the ruin of the senatorial rule. Caesar +would have spared something of it; enough, perhaps, to have thrown +up shoots again as soon as he had himself passed away in the common +course of nature. By combining in a focus the most hateful +characteristics of the order, by revolting the moral instincts of +mankind by ingratitude and treachery, they stripped their cause by +their own hands of the false glamour which they hoped to throw over +it. The profligacy and avarice, the cynical disregard of +obligation, which had marked the Senate’s supremacy for a +century, had exhibited abundantly their unfitness for the high +functions which had descended to them; but custom and natural +tenderness for a form of government, the past history of which had +been so glorious, might have continued still to shield them from +the penalty of their iniquities. The murder of Caesar filled the +measure of their crimes, and gave the last and necessary impulse to +the closing act of the revolution.</p> + +<p>Thus the ides of March drew near. Caesar was to set out in a few +days for Parthia. Decimus Brutus was going, as governor, to the +north of Italy, Lepidus to Gaul, Marcus Brutus to Macedonia, and +Trebonius to Asia Minor. Antony, Caesar’s colleague in the +consulship, was to remain in Italy. Dolabella, Cicero’s +son-in-law, was to be consul with him as soon as Caesar should have +left for the East. The foreign appointments were all made for five +years, and in another week the party would be scattered. The time +for action had come, if action there was to be. Papers were dropped +in Brutus’s room, bidding him awake from his sleep. On the +statue of Junius Brutus some hot republican wrote “Would that +thou wast alive!” The assassination in itself was easy, for +Caesar would take no precautions. So portentous an intention could +not be kept entirely secret; many friends warned him to beware; but +he disdained too heartily the worst that his enemies could do to +him to vex himself with thinking of them, and he forbade the +subject to be mentioned any more in his presence. Portents, +prophecies, soothsayings, frightful aspects in the sacrifices, +natural growths of alarm and excitement, were equally vain. +“Am I to be frightened,” he said, in answer to some +report of the haruspices, “because a sheep is without a +heart?”</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March 14, B.C. 44.]</span> An important +meeting of the Senate had been called for the ides (the 15th) of +the month. The Pontifices, it was whispered, intended to bring on +again the question of the kingship before Caesar’s departure. +The occasion would be appropriate. The senate-house itself was a +convenient scene of operations. The conspirators met at supper the +evening before at Cassius’s house. Cicero, to his regret, was +not invited. The plan was simple, and was rapidly arranged. Caesar +would attend unarmed. The senators not in the secret would be +unarmed also. The party who intended to act were to provide +themselves with poniards, which could be easily concealed in their +paper boxes. So far all was simple; but a question rose whether +Caesar only was to be killed, or whether Antony and Lepidus were to +be despatched along with him. They decided that Caesar’s death +would be sufficient. To spill blood without necessity would mar, it +was thought, the sublimity of their exploit. Some of them liked +Antony. None supposed that either he or Lepidus would be dangerous +when Caesar was gone. In this resolution Cicero thought that they +made a fatal mistake; <a name="fnr220"></a> <a href="#fn220" class= +"fnsuper">21</a> fine emotions were good in their place, in the +perorations of speeches and such like; Antony, as Cicero admitted, +had been signally kind to him; but the killing Caesar was a serious +business, and his friends should have died along with him. It was +determined otherwise. Antony and Lepidus were not to be touched. +For the rest, the assassins had merely to be in their places in the +Senate in good time. When Caesar entered, Trebonius was to detain +Antony in conversation at the door. The others were to gather about +Caesar’s chair on pretence of presenting a petition, and so +could make an end. A gang of gladiators were to be secreted in the +adjoining theatre to be ready should any unforeseen difficulty +present itself.</p> + +<p>The same evening, the 14th of March, Caesar was at a “Last +Supper” at the house of Lepidus. The conversation turned on +death, and on the kind of death which was most to be desired. +Caesar, who was signing papers while the rest wore talking, looked +up and said, “A sudden one.” When great men die, +imagination insists that all nature shall have felt the shock. +Strange stories were told in after years of the uneasy labors of +the elements that night.</p> + +<p class="poetry"> A little ere the mightiest Julius +fell,<br /> + The graves did open, and the sheeted dead<br /> + Did squeak and jibber in the Roman streets.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The armor of Mars, which stood in the hall of the Pontifical +Palace, crashed down upon the pavement. The door of Caesar’s +room flew open. Calpurnia dreamt her husband was murdered, and that +she saw him ascending into heaven, and received by the hand of God. +<a name="fnr221"></a> <a href="#fn221" class="fnsuper">22</a> In +the morning the sacrifices were again unfavorable. Caesar was +restless. Some natural disorder affected his spirits, and his +spirits were reacting on his body. Contrary to his usual habit, he +gave way to depression. He decided, at his wife’s entreaty, +that he would not attend the Senate that day.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March 15, B.C. 44.]</span> The house was +full. The conspirators were in their places with their daggers +ready. Attendants came in to remove Caesar’s chair. It was +announced that he was not coming. Delay might be fatal. They +conjectured that he already suspected something. A day’s +respite, and all might be discovered. His familiar friend whom he +trusted—the coincidence is striking!—was employed to betray him. +Decimus Brutus, whom it was impossible for him to distrust, went to +entreat his attendance, giving reasons to which he knew that Caesar +would listen, unless the plot had been actually betrayed. It was +now eleven in the forenoon. Caesar shook off his uneasiness, and +rose to go. As he crossed the hall, his statue fell, and shivered +on the stones. Some servant, perhaps, had heard whispers, and +wished to warn him. As he still passed on, a stranger thrust a +scroll into his hand, and begged him to read it on the spot. It +contained a list of the conspirators, with a clear account of the +plot. He supposed it to be a petition, and placed it carelessly +among his other papers. The fate of the Empire hung upon a thread, +but the thread was not broken, As Caesar had lived to reconstruct +the Roman world, so his death was necessary to finish the work. He +went on to the Curia, and the senators said to themselves that the +augurs had foretold his fate, but he would not listen; he was +doomed for his “contempt of religion.” <a name="fnr222"></a> <a href="#fn222" class="fnsuper">23</a></p> + +<p>Antony, who was in attendance, was detained, as had been +arranged, by Trebonius. Caesar entered, and took his seat. His +presence awed men, in spite of themselves, and the conspirators had +determined to act at once, lest they should lose courage to act at +all. He was familiar and easy of access. They gathered round him. +He knew them all. There was not one from whom he had not a right to +expect some sort of gratitude, and the movement suggested no +suspicion. One had a story to tell him; another some favor to ask. +Tullius Cimber, whom he had just made governor of Bithynia, then +came close to him, with some request which he was unwilling to +grant. Cimber caught his gown, as if in entreaty, and dragged it +from his shoulders. Cassius, <a name="fnr223"></a> <a href="#fn223" +class="fnsuper">24</a> who was standing behind, stabbed him in the +throat. He started up with a cry, and caught Cassius’s arm. +Another poniard entered his breast, giving a mortal wound. He +looked round, and seeing not one friendly face, but only a ring of +daggers pointing at him, he drew his gown over his head, gathered +the folds about him that he might fall decently, and sank down +without uttering another word, <a name="fnr224"></a> <a href="#fn224" class="fnsuper">25</a> Cicero was present. The feelings +with which he watched the scene are unrecorded, but may easily be +imagined. Waving his dagger, dripping with Caesar’s blood, +Brutus shouted to Cicero by name, congratulating him that liberty +was restored. <a name="fnr225"></a> <a href="#fn225" class= +"fnsuper">26</a> The Senate rose with shrieks and confusion, and +rushed into the Forum. The crowd outside caught the words that +Caesar was dead, and scattered to their houses. Antony, guessing +that those who had killed Caesar would not spare himself, hurried +off into concealment. The murderers, bleeding some of them from +wounds which they had given one another in their eagerness, +followed, crying that the tyrant was dead, and that Rome was free; +and the body of the great Caesar was left alone in the house where +a few weeks before Cicero told him that he was so necessary to his +country that every senator would die before harm should reach +him!</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn200"></a> <a href="#fnr200">[1]</a> +Apparently when Caesar touched there on his way to Egypt, after +Pharsalia. Cicero says (<i>Philippic</i> ii. 11): “Quid? C. +Cassius ... qui etiam sine his clarissimis viris, hanc rem in +Cilicia ad ostium fluminis Cydni confecisset, si ille ad eam ripam +quam constituerat, non ad contrariam, navi appulisset.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn201"></a> <a href="#fnr201">[2]</a> +To be distinguished from Publius Ligarius, who had been put to +death before Thapsus.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn202"></a> <a href="#fnr202">[3]</a> +The Gauls were especially obnoxious, and epigrams were circulated +to insult them:—</p> + +<p class="footnote"> “Gallos Caesar in triumphum +ducit, idem in Curiam.<br /> + Galli braccas deposuerunt, latum clavum +sumpserunt”<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> SUETONIUS, <i>Vita Jullii +Caesaris</i>, 80.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn203"></a> <a href="#fnr203">[4]</a> +Suetonius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn204"></a> <a href="#fnr204">[5]</a> +The fifth, dating the beginning of the year, in the old style, from +March.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn205"></a> <a href="#fnr205">[6]</a> +Dion Cassius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn206"></a> <a href="#fnr206">[7]</a> +The second consul who had been put in held office but for a few +hours.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn207"></a> <a href="#fnr207">[8]</a> +Dion Cassius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn208"></a> <a href="#fnr208">[9]</a> +See the 2nd <i>Philippic</i>, passim. In a letter to Decimus +Brutus, he says: “Quare hortatione tu quidem non egos, si ne +illâ quidem in re, quae a te gesta est post hominum memoriam +maximâ, hortatorem desiderâsti.” <i>Ad Fam</i>. xi. 5.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn209"></a> <a href="#fnr209">[10]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, xi. 5, 6.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn210"></a> <a href="#fnr210">[11]</a> +<i>Ad Caelium, Ad Fam</i>. ii. 16.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn211"></a> <a href="#fnr211">[12]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, xi. 7.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn212"></a> <a href="#fnr212">[13]</a> +See <i>To Atticus</i>, xi. 7-9; <i>To Terentia, Ad Fam</i>. +xiv. 12.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn213"></a> <a href="#fnr213">[14]</a> +“Tantam enim mansuetudinem, tam inusitatam inauditamque +clementiam, tantum in summâ potestate rerum omnium modum, tam +denique incredibilem sapientiam ac paene divinam tacitus nullo modo +praeterire possum.”—<i>Pro Marco Marcello</i>, 1.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn214"></a> <a href="#fnr214">[15]</a> +<i>Pro Marco Marcello</i>, abridged.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn215"></a> <a href="#fnr215">[16]</a> +“Non intelligis, si id quod me arguis voluisse interfici +Caesarem crimen sit, etiam laetatum esse morte Caesaris crimen +esse? Quid enim interest inter suasorem facti et approbatorem? Aut +quid refert utrum voluerim fieri an gaudeam factum? Ecquis est +igitur te excepto et iis qui illum regnare gaudebant, qui illud aut +fieri noluerit, aut factum improbarit? Omnes enim in culpâ. Etenim +omnes boni quantum in ipsis fuit Caesarem occiderunt. Aliis +consilium, aliis animus, aliis occasio defuit. Voluntas +nemini.”—<i>2nd Philippic</i>, 12.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn216"></a> <a href="#fnr216">[17]</a> +Dion Cassius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn217"></a> <a href="#fnr217">[18]</a> +So Dion Cassius states, on what authority we know not. Suetonius +says that as Caesar was returning from the Latin festival some one +placed a laurel crown on the statue, tied with a white riband.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn218"></a> <a href="#fnr218">[19]</a> +The fact is certain. Cicero taunted Antony with it in the Senate, +in the Second Philippic.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn219"></a> <a href="#fnr219">[20]</a> +“Cum ad rem publicam liberandam accessi, HS. mihi fuit +quadringenties amplius.”—<i>Decimus Brutus to Cicero, Ad +Fam</i>. xi. 10.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn220"></a> <a href="#fnr220">[21]</a> +“Vellem Idibus Martiis me ad coenam invitâsses. Reliquiarum +nihil fuisset.”—<i>Ad Cassium, Ad Fam</i>. xii. 4. And +again: “Quam vellem ad illas pulcherrimas epulas me Idibus +Martiis invitâsses! Reliquiarum nihil haberemus.”—<i>Ad +Trebonium, Ad Fam</i>. x. 28.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn221"></a> <a href="#fnr221">[22]</a> +Dion Cassius, <i>C. Julius Caesar</i>, xliv. 17.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn222"></a> <a href="#fnr222">[23]</a> +“Spretâ religione.”—Suetonius.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn223"></a> <a href="#fnr223">[24]</a> +Not perhaps Caius Cassius, but another. Suetonius says “alter +e Cassiis.”</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn224"></a> <a href="#fnr224">[25]</a> +So says Suetonius, the best extant authority, who refers to the +famous words addressed to Brutus only as a legend: “Atque ita +tribus et viginti plagis confossus est, uno modo ad primum ictum +gemitu sine voce edito. Etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto +irruenti dixisse [Greek: kai su ei ekeinon kai su +teknon]”—<i>Julius Caesar</i>, 82.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn225"></a> <a href="#fnr225">[26]</a> +“Cruentum alte extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem +nominatim exclamavit atque ei recuperatam libertatem est +gratulatus.”—<i>Philippic ii</i>. 12.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter27">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></h2> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March 16, B.C. 44.]</span> The +tyrannicides, as the murderers of Caesar called themselves, had +expected that the Roman mob would be caught by the cry of liberty, +and would hail them as the deliverers of their country. They found +that the people did not respond as they had anticipated. The city +was stunned. The Forum was empty. The gladiators, whom they had +secreted in the Temple, broke out and plundered the unprotected +booths. A dead and ominous silence prevailed everywhere. At length +a few citizens collected in knots. Brutus spoke, and Cassius spoke. +They extolled their old constitution. They said that Caesar had +overthrown it; that they had slain him, not from private hatred or +private interest, but to restore the liberties of Rome. The +audience was dead and cold. No answering shouts came back to +reassure them. The citizens could not forget that these men who +spoke so fairly had a few days before fawned on Caesar as the +saviour of the Empire, and, as if human honors were too little, had +voted a temple to him as a god. The fire would not kindle. Lepidus +came in with troops, and occupied the Forum. The conspirators +withdrew into the Capitol, where Cicero and others joined them, and +the night was passed in earnest discussion what next was to be +done. They had intended to declare that Caesar had been a tyrant, +to throw his body into the Tiber, and to confiscate his property to +the State. They discovered to their consternation that, if Caesar +was a tyrant, all his acts would be invalidated. The praetors and +tribunes held their offices, the governors their provinces, under +Caesar’s nomination. If Caesar’s acts were set aside, +Decimus Brutus was not governor of North Italy, nor Marcus Brutus +of Macedonia; nor was Dolabella consul, as he had instantly claimed +to be on Caesar’s death. Their names, and the names of many +more whom Caesar had promoted, would have to be laid before the +Comitia, and in the doubtful humor of the people they little liked +the risk. That the dilemma should have been totally unforeseen was +characteristic of the men and their capacity.</p> + +<p>Nor was this the worst. Lands had been allotted to Caesar’s +troops. Many thousands of colonists were waiting to depart for +Carthage and Corinth and other places where settlements had been +provided for them. These arrangements would equally fall through, +and it was easy to know what would follow. Antony and Lepidus, too, +had to be reckoned with. Antony, as the surviving consul, was the +supreme lawful authority in the city; and Lepidus and his soldiers +might have a word to say if the body of their great commander was +flung into the river as the corpse of a malefactor. Interest and +fear suggested more moderate counsels. The conspirators determined +that Caesar’s appointments must stand; his acts, it seemed, +must stand also; and his remains, therefore, must be treated with +respect. Imagination took another flight. Caesar’s death might +be regarded as a sacrifice, an expiatory offering for the sins of +the nation; and the divided parties might embrace in virtue of the +atonement. They agreed to send for Antony, and invite him to assist +in saving society; and they asked Cicero to be their messenger. +Cicero, great and many as his faults might be, was not a fool. He +declined to go on so absurd a mission. He knew Antony too well to +dream that he could be imposed on by fantastic illusions. Antony, +he said, would promise anything, but if they trusted him, they +would have reason to repent. <a name="fnr226"></a> <a href="#fn226" +class="fnsuper">1</a> Others, however, undertook the office. Antony +agreed to meet them, and the next morning the Senate was assembled +in the Temple of Terra.</p> + +<p>Antony presided as consul, and after a few words from him Cicero +rose. He disapproved of the course which his friends were taking; +he foresaw what must come of it; but he had been overruled, and he +made the best of what he could not help. He gave a sketch of Roman +political history. He went back to the secession to Mount Aventine. +He spoke of the Gracchi, of Saturninus and Glaucia, of Marius and +Sylla, of Sertorius and Pompey, of Caesar and the still unforgotten +Clodius. He described the fate of Athens and of other Grecian +states into which faction had penetrated. If Rome continued +divided, the conquerors would rule over its ruins; therefore he +appealed to the two factions to forget their rivalries and to +return to peace and concord. But they must decide at once, for the +signs were already visible of a fresh conflict.</p> + +<p>“Caesar is slain,” he said. “The Capitol is +occupied by the optimates, the Forum by soldiers, and the people +are full of terror. Is violence to be again answered by more +violence? These many years we have lived less like men than like +wild beasts in cycles of recurring revenge. Let us forget the past. +Let us draw a veil over all that has been done, not looking too +curiously into the acts of any man. Much may be said to show that +Caesar deserved his death, and much against those who have killed +him. But to raise the question will breed fresh quarrels; and if we +are wise we shall regard the scene which we have witnessed as a +convulsion of nature which is now at an end. Let Caesar’s +ordinances, let Caesar’s appointments be maintained. None such +must be heard of again. But what is done cannot be undone.” <a +name="fnr227"></a> <a href="#fn227" class="fnsuper">2</a></p> + +<p>Admirable advice, were it as easy to act on good counsel as to +give it. The murder of such a man as Caesar was not to be so easily +smoothed over. But the delusive vision seemed for a moment to +please. The Senate passed an act of oblivion. The agitation in the +army was quieted when the men heard that their lands were secure. +But there were two other questions which required an answer, and an +immediate one. Caesar’s body, after remaining till evening on +the floor of the senate-house, had been carried home in the dusk in +a litter by three of his servants, and was now lying in his palace. +If it was not to be thrown into the Tiber, what was to be done with +it? Caesar had left a will, which was safe with his other papers in +the hands of Antony. Was the will to be read and recognized? Though +Cicero had advised in the Senate that the discussion whether Caesar +had deserved death should not be raised, yet it was plain to him +and to every one that, unless Caesar was held guilty of conspiring +against the Constitution, the murder was and would be regarded as a +most execrable crime. He dreaded the effect of a public funeral. He +feared that the will might contain provisions which would rouse the +passions of the people. Though Caesar was not for various reasons +to be pronounced a tyrant, Cicero advised that he should be buried +privately, as if his name was under a cloud, and that his property +should be escheated to the nation. But the humor of conciliation +and the theory of “the atoning sacrifice” had caught the +Senate. Caesar had done great things for his country. It would +please the army that he should have an honorable sepulture.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[March, B.C. 44.]</span> If they had +refused, the result would not have been greatly different. Sooner +or later, when the stunning effects of the shock had passed off, +the murder must have appeared to Rome and Italy in its true colors. +The optimates talked of the Constitution. The Constitution in their +hands had been a parody of liberty. Caesar’s political life had +been spent in wresting from them the powers which they had abused. +Caesar had punished the oppressors of the provinces. Caesar had +forced the nobles to give the people a share of the public lands. +Caesar had opened the doors of citizenship to the libertini, the +distant colonists, and the provincials. It was for this that the +Senate hated him. For this they had fought against him; for this +they murdered him. No Roman had ever served his country better in +peace or war, and thus he had been rewarded.</p> + +<p>Such thoughts were already working in tens of thousands of +breasts. A feeling of resentment was fast rising, with as yet no +certain purpose before it. In this mood the funeral could not fail +to lead to some fierce explosion. For this reason Antony had +pressed for it, and the Senate had given their consent.</p> + +<p>The body was brought down to the Forum and placed upon the +Rostra. The dress had not been changed; the gown, gashed with +daggers and soaked in blood, was still wrapped about it. The will +was read first. It reminded the Romans that they had been always in +Caesar’s thoughts, for he had left each citizen seventy-five +drachmas (nearly £3 of English money), and he had left them his +gardens on the Tiber as a perpetual recreation ground, a possession +which Domitius Ahenobarbus had designed for himself before +Pharsalia. He had made Octavius his general heir; among the second +heirs, should Octavius fail, he had named Decimus Brutus, who had +betrayed him. A deep movement of emotion passed through the crowd +when, besides the consideration for themselves, they heard from +this record, which could not lie, a proof of the confidence which +had been so abused. Antony, after waiting for the passion to work, +then came forward.</p> + +<p>Cicero had good reason for his fear of Antony. He was a loose +soldier, careless in his life, ambitious, extravagant, little more +scrupulous perhaps than any average Roman gentleman. But for Caesar +his affection was genuine. The people were in intense expectation. +He produced the body, all bloody as it had fallen, and he bade a +herald first read the votes which the Senate had freshly passed, +heaping those extravagant honors upon Caesar which he had not +desired, and the oath which the senators had each personally taken +to defend him from violence. He then spoke—spoke with the natural +vehemence of a friend, yet saying nothing which was not literally +true. The services of Caesar neither needed nor permitted the +exaggeration of eloquence.</p> + +<p>He began with the usual encomiums. He spoke of Caesar’s +family, his birth, his early history, his personal characteristics, +his thrifty private habits, his public liberality; he described him +as generous to his friends, forbearing with his enemies, without +evil in himself, and reluctant to believe evil of others.</p> + +<p>“Power in most men,” he said, “has brought their +faults to light. Power in Caesar brought into prominence his +excellences. Prosperity did not make him insolent for it gave him a +sphere which corresponded to his nature. His first services in +Spain a deserved triumph; of his laws I could speak forever. His +campaigns in Gaul are known to you all. That land from which the +Teutons and Cimbri poured over the Alps is now as well ordered as +Italy. Caesar would have added Germany and Britain to your Empire, +but his enemies would not have it so. They regarded the +Commonwealth as the patrimony of themselves. They brought him home. +They went on with their usurpations till you yourselves required +his help. He set you free. He set Spain free. He labored for peace +with Pompey, but Pompey preferred to go into Greece, to bring the +powers of the East upon you, and he perished in his obstinacy.</p> + +<p>“Caesar took no honor to himself for this victory. He +abhorred the necessity of it. He took no revenge. He praised those +who had been faithful to Pompey, and he blamed Pharnaces for +deserting him. He was sorry for Pompey’s death, and he treated +his murderers as they deserved. He settled Egypt and Armenia. He +would have disposed of the Parthians had not fresh seditions +recalled him to Italy. He quelled those seditions. He restored +peace in Africa and Spain, and again his one desire was to spare +his fellow-citizens. There was in him an ‘inbred goodness.’ +<a name="fnr228"></a> <a href="#fn228" class="fnsuper">3</a> He was +always the same—never carried away by anger, and never spoilt by +success. He did not retaliate for the past; he never tried by +severity to secure himself for the future. His effort throughout +was to save all who would allow themselves to be saved. He repaired +old acts of injustice. He restored the families of those who had +been proscribed by Sylla, but he burnt unread the correspondence of +Pompey and Scipio, that those whom it compromised might neither +suffer injury nor fear injury. You honored him as your father; you +loved him as your benefactor; you made him chief of the State, not +being curious of titles, but regarding the most which you could +give as less than he had deserved at your hands. Toward the gods he +was High Priest. To you he was Consul; to the army he was +Imperator; to the enemies of his country, Dictator. In sum he was +<i>Pater Patriae</i>. And this your father, your Pontifex, this +hero, whose person was declared inviolable, lies dead—dead, not by +disease or age, not by war or visitation of God, but here at home, +by conspiracy within your own walls, slain in the Senate-house, the +warrior unarmed, the peacemaker naked to his foes, the righteous +judge in the seat of judgment. He whom no foreign enemy could hurt +has been killed by his fellow-countrymen—he, who had so often +shown mercy, by those whom he had spared. Where, Caesar, is your +love for mankind? Where is the sacredness of your life? Where are +your laws? Here you lie murdered—here in the Forum, through which +so often you marched in triumph wreathed with garlands; here upon +the Rostra from which you were wont to address your people. Alas +for your gray hairs dabbled in blood! alas for this lacerated robe +in which you were dressed for the sacrifice!” <a name="fnr229"></a> <a href="#fn229" class="fnsuper">4</a></p> + +<p>Antony’s words, as he well knew, were a declaration of +irreconcilable war against the murderers and their friends. As his +impassioned language did its work the multitude rose into fury. +They cursed the conspirators. They cursed the Senate who had sate +by while the deed was being done. They had been moved to fury by +the murder of Clodius. Ten thousand Clodiuses, had he been all +which their imagination painted him, could not equal one Caesar. +They took on themselves the order of the funeral. They surrounded +the body, which was reverently raised by the officers of the Forum. +Part proposed to carry it to the Temple of Jupiter, in the Capitol, +and to burn it under the eyes of the assassins; part to take it +into the Senate-house and use the meeting-place of the Optimates a +second time as the pyre of the people’s friend. A few +legionaries, perhaps to spare the city a general conflagration, +advised that it should be consumed where it lay. The platform was +torn up and the broken timbers piled into a heap. Chairs and +benches were thrown on to it, the whole crowd rushing wildly to add +a chip or splinter. Actors flung in their dresses, musicians their +instruments, soldiers their swords. Women added their necklaces and +scarves. Mothers brought up their children to contribute toys and +playthings. On the pile so composed the body of Caesar was reduced +to ashes. The remains were collected with affectionate care and +deposited in the tomb of the Caesars, in the Campus Martius. The +crowd, it was observed, was composed largely of libertini and of +provincials whom Caesar had enfranchised. The demonstrations of +sorrow were most remarkable among the Jews, crowds of whom +continued for many nights to collect and wail in the Forum at the +scene of the singular ceremony.</p> + +<p>When the people were in such a mood, Rome was no place for the +conspirators. They scattered over the Empire; Decimus Brutus, +Marcus Brutus, Cassius, Cimber, Trebonius retreated to the +provinces which Caesar had assigned them, the rest clinging to the +shelter of their friends. The legions—a striking tribute to Roman +discipline—remained by their eagles, faithful to their immediate +duties, and obedient to their officers, till it could be seen how +events would turn. Lepidus joined the army in Gaul; Antony +continued in Rome, holding the administration in his hands and +watching the action of the Senate. Caesar was dead. But Caesar +still lived. “It was not possible that the grave should hold +him.” The people said that he was a god, and had gone back to +heaven, where his star had been seen ascending; <a name="fnr230"></a> <a href="#fn230" class="fnsuper">5</a> his spirit +remained on earth, and the vain blows of the assassins had been but +“malicious mockery.” “We have killed the king,” +exclaimed Cicero in the bitterness of his disenchantment, “but +the kingdom is with us still;” “we have taken away the +tyrant: the tyranny survives.” Caesar had not overthrown the +oligarchy; their own incapacity, their own selfishness, their own +baseness had overthrown them. Caesar had been but the reluctant +instrument of the power which metes out to men the inevitable +penalties of their own misdeeds. They had dreamt that the +Constitution was a living force which would revive of itself as +soon as its enemy was gone. They did not know that it was dead +already, and that they had themselves destroyed it. The +Constitution was but an agreement by which the Roman people had +consented to abide for their common good. It had ceased to be for +the common good. The experience of fifty miserable years had proved +that it meant the supremacy of the rich, maintained by the bought +votes of demoralized electors. The soil of Italy, the industry and +happiness of tens of millions of mankind, from the Rhine to the +Euphrates, had been the spoil of five hundred families and their +relatives and dependents, of men whose occupation was luxury, and +whose appetites were for monstrous pleasures. The self-respect of +reasonable men could no longer tolerate such a rule in Italy or out +of it. In killing Caesar the optimates had been as foolish as they +were treacherous; for Caesar’s efforts had been to reform the +Constitution, not to abolish it. The civil war had risen from their +dread of his second consulship, which they had feared would make an +end of their corruptions; and that the Constitution should be +purged of the poison in its veins was the sole condition on which +its continuance was possible. The obstinacy, the ferocity, the +treachery of the aristocracy had compelled Caesar to crush them; +and the more desperate their struggles the more absolute the +necessity became. But he alone could have restored as much of +popular liberty as was consistent with the responsibilities of such +a government as the Empire required. In Caesar alone were combined +the intellect and the power necessary for such a work; and they had +killed him, and in doing so had passed final sentence on +themselves. Not as realities any more, but as harmless phantoms, +the forms of the old Republic were henceforth to persist. In the +army only remained the imperial consciousness of the honor and duty +of Roman citizens. To the army, therefore, the rule was +transferred. The Roman nation had grown as the oak grows, +self-developed in severe morality, each citizen a law to himself, +and therefore capable of political freedom in an unexampled degree. +All organizations destined to endure spring from forces inherent in +themselves, and must grow freely, or they will not grow at all. +When the tree reaches maturity, decay sets in; if it be left +standing, the disintegration of the fibre goes swiftly forward; if +the stem is severed from the root, the destroying power is +arrested, and the timber will endure a thousand years. So it was +with Rome. The Constitution under which the Empire had sprung up +was poisoned, and was brought to a violent end before it had +affected materially for evil the masses of the people. The solid +structure was preserved—not to grow any longer, not to produce a +new Camillus or a new Regulus, a new Scipio Africanus or a new +Tiberius Gracchus, but to form an endurable shelter for civilized +mankind, until a fresh spiritual life was developed out of +Palestine to remodel the conscience of humanity.</p> + +<p>A gleam of hope opened to Cicero in the summer. Octavius, who +was in Greece at the time of the murder, came to Rome to claim his +inheritance. He was but eighteen, too young for the burden which +was thrown upon him; and being unknown, he had the confidence of +the legions to win. The army, dispersed over the provinces, had as +yet no collective purpose. Antony, it is possible, was jealous of +him, and looked on himself as Caesar’s true representative and +avenger. Octavius, finding Antony hostile, or at least indifferent +to his claims, played with the Senate with cool foresight till he +felt the ground firm under his feet. Cicero boasted that he would +use Octavius to ruin Antony, and would throw him over when he had +served his purpose. “Cicero will learn,” Octavius said, +when the words were reported to him, “that I shall not be +played with so easily.”</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[B.C. 44-43.]</span> <span class= +"sidenote">[B.C. 43.]</span> For a year the confusion lasted; two +of Caesar’s officers, Hirtius and Pausa, were chosen consuls by +the senatorial party, to please the legions; and Antony contended +dubiously with them and Decimus Brutus for some months in the North +of Italy. But Antony joined Lepidus, and the Gallic legions with +judicial fitness brought Cicero’s dreams to the ground. +Cicero’s friend, Plancus, who commanded in Normandy and +Belgium, attempted a faint resistance, but was made to yield to the +resolution of his troops. Octavius and Antony came to an +understanding; and Caesar’s two generals, who were true to his +memory, and Octavius, who was the heir of his name, crossed the +Alps, at the head of the united army of Gaul, to punish the murder +and restore peace to the world. No resistance was possible. Many of +the senators, like Cicero, though they had borne no part in the +assassination, had taken the guilt of it upon themselves by the +enthusiasm of their approval. They were all men who had sworn +fidelity to Caesar, and had been ostentatious in their profession +of devotion to him. It had become too plain that from such persons +no repentance was to be looked for. They were impelled by a malice +or a fanaticism which clemency could not touch or reason influence. +So long as they lived they would still conspire; and any weapons, +either of open war or secret treachery, would seem justifiable to +them in the cause which they regarded as sacred. Caesar himself +would, no doubt, have again pardoned them. Octavius, Antony, and +Lepidus were men of more common mould. The murderers of Caesar, and +those who had either instigated them secretly or applauded them +afterward, were included in a proscription list, drawn by +retributive justice on the model of Sylla’s. Such of them as +were in Italy were immediately killed. Those in the provinces, as +if with the curse of Cain upon their heads, came one by one to +miserable ends. Brutus and Cassius fought hard and fell at +Philippi. In three years the tyrannicides of the ides of March, +with their aiders and abettors, were all dead, some killed in +battle, some in prison, some dying by their own hand—slain with +the daggers with which they had stabbed their master.</p> + +<p>Out of the whole party the fate of one only deserves special +notice, a man whose splendid talents have bought forgiveness for +his faults, and have given him a place in the small circle of the +really great whose memory is not allowed to die.</p> + +<p><span class="sidenote">[Dec. 7, B.C. 43.]</span> After the +dispersion of the conspirators which followed Caesar’s funeral, +Cicero had remained in Rome. His timidity seemed to have forsaken +him, and he had striven, with an energy which recalled his +brightest days, to set the Constitution again upon its feet. Antony +charged him in the Senate with having been the contriver of +Caesar’s death. He replied with invectives fierce and +scurrilous as those which he had heaped upon Catiline and Clodius. +A time had been when he had affected to look on Antony as his +preserver. Now there was no imaginable infamy in which he did not +steep his name. He spoke of the murder as the most splendid +achievement recorded in history, and he regretted only that he had +not been taken into counsel by the deliverers of their country. +Antony would not then have been alive to rekindle civil discord. +When Antony left Rome, Cicero was for a few months again the head +of the State. He ruled the Senate, controlled the Treasury, +corresponded with the conspirators in the provinces, and advised +their movements. He continued sanguine himself, and he poured +spirit into others. No one can refuse admiration to the last blaze +of his expiring powers. But when he heard that Antony and Lepidus +and Octavius had united, and were coming into Italy with the whole +Western army, he saw that all was over. He was now sixty-three—too +old for hope. He could hardly have wished to live, and this time he +was well assured that there would be no mercy for him. Caesar would +have spared a man whom he esteemed in spite of his infirmities. But +there was no Caesar now, and fair speeches would serve his turn no +longer. He retired from the city with his brother Quintus, and had +some half-formed purpose of flying to Brutus, who was still in arms +in Macedonia. He even embarked, but without a settled resolution, +and he allowed himself to be driven back by a storm. Theatrical +even in extremities, he thought of returning to Rome and of killing +himself in Caesar’s house, that he might bring the curse of his +blood upon Octavius. In these uncertainties he drifted into his own +villa at Formiae, <a name="fnr231"></a> <a href="#fn231" class= +"fnsuper">6</a> saying in weariness, and with a sad note of his old +self-importance, that he would die in the country which he had so +often saved. Here, on the 4th of December, B.C. 43, Popilius +Loenas, an officer of Antony’s, came to find him. Peasants from +the neighborhood brought news to the villa that the soldiers were +approaching. His servants thrust him into a litter and carried him +down through the woods toward the sea. Loenas followed and overtook +him. To his slaves he had been always the gentlest of masters. They +would have given their lives in his defence if he would have +allowed them; but he bade them set the litter down and save +themselves. He thrust out his head between the curtains, and it was +instantly struck off.</p> + +<p>So ended Cicero, a tragic combination of magnificent talents, +high aspirations, and true desire to do right, with an infirmity of +purpose and a latent insincerity of character which neutralized and +could almost make us forget his nobler qualities. It cannot be said +of Cicero that he was blind to the faults of the party to which he +attached himself. To him we owe our knowledge of what the Roman +aristocrats really were, and of the hopelessness of expecting that +they could have been trusted any longer with the administration of +the Empire, if the Empire itself was to endure. Cicero’s +natural place was at Caesar’s side; but to Caesar alone of his +contemporaries he was conscious of an inferiority which was +intolerable to him. In his own eyes he was always the first person. +He had been made unhappy by the thought that posterity might rate +Pompey above himself. Closer acquaintance had reassured him about +Pompey, but in Caesar he was conscious of a higher presence, and he +rebelled against the humiliating acknowledgment. Supreme as an +orator he could always be, and an order of things was, therefore, +most desirable where oratory held the highest place. Thus he chose +his part with the “<i>boni</i>,” whom he despised while +he supported them, drifting on through vacillation into treachery, +till “the ingredients of the poisoned chalice” were +“commended to his own lips.”</p> + +<p>In Cicero Nature half-made a great man and left him uncompleted. +Our characters are written in our forms, and the bust of Cicero is +the key to his history. The brow is broad and strong, the nose +large, the lips tightly compressed, the features lean and keen from +restless intellectual energy. The loose bending figure, the neck, +too weak for the weight of the head, explain the infirmity of will, +the passion, the cunning, the vanity, the absence of manliness and +veracity. He was born into an age of violence with which he was too +feeble to contend. The gratitude of mankind for his literary +excellence will forever preserve his memory from too harsh a +judgment.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn226"></a> <a href="#fnr226">[1]</a> +<i>Philippic</i> ii. 35.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn227"></a> <a href="#fnr227">[2]</a> +Abridged from Dion Cassius, who probably gives no more than the +traditionary version of Cicero’s words.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn228"></a> <a href="#fnr228">[3]</a> +[Greek: emphutos chraestotaes] are Dion Cassius’s words. +Antony’s language was differently reported, and perhaps there +was no literal record of it. Dion Cassius, however, can hardly have +himself composed the version which he gives in his history, for he +calls the speech as ill-timed as it was brilliant.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn229"></a> <a href="#fnr229">[4]</a> +Abridged from Dion Cassius. xliv. 36.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn230"></a> <a href="#fnr230">[5]</a> +“In deorum numerum relatus est non ore modo decernentium sed +et persuasione vulgi.”—<i>Suetonius</i>.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn231"></a> <a href="#fnr231">[6]</a> +Near Gaeta.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chapter28">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></h2> + +<p>It remains to offer a few general remarks on the person whose +life and actions I have endeavored to describe in the preceding +pages.</p> + +<p>In all conditions of human society distinguished men are the +subjects of legend; but the character of the legend varies with the +disposition of the time. In ages which we call heroic the saint +works miracles, the warrior performs exploits beyond the strength +of natural man. In ages less visionary which are given to ease and +enjoyment the tendency is to bring a great man down to the common +level, and to discover or invent faults which shall show that he is +or was but a little man after all. Our vanity is soothed by +evidence that those who have eclipsed us in the race of life are no +better than ourselves, or in some respects are worse than +ourselves; and if to these general impulses be added political or +personal animosity, accusations of depravity are circulated as +surely about such men, and are credited as readily, as under other +influences are the marvellous achievements of a Cid or a St. +Francis. In the present day we reject miracles and prodigies; we +are on our guard against the mythology of hero worship, just as we +disbelieve in the eminent superiority of any one of our +contemporaries to another. We look less curiously into the +mythology of scandal; we accept easily and willingly stories +disparaging to illustrious persons in history, because similar +stories are told and retold with so much confidence and fluency +among the political adversaries of those who have the misfortune to +be their successful rivals. The absurdity of a calumny may be as +evident as the absurdity of a miracle; the ground for belief may be +no more than a lightness of mind, and a less pardonable wish that +it may be true. But the idle tale floats in society, and by and by +is written down in books and passes into the region of established +realities.</p> + +<p>The tendency to idolize great men and the tendency to depreciate +them arises alike in emotion; but the slanders of disparagement are +as truly legends as the wonder-tales of saints and warriors; and +anecdotes related of Caesar at patrician dinner-parties at Rome as +little deserve attention as the information so freely given upon +the habits of modern statesmen in the <i>salons</i> of London and +Paris. They are read now by us in classic Latin, but they were +recorded by men who hated Caesar and hated all that he had done; +and that a poem has survived for two thousand years is no evidence +that the author of it, even though he might be a Catullus, was +uninfluenced by the common passions of humanity.</p> + +<p>Caesar, it is allowed, had extraordinary talents, extraordinary +energy, and some commendable qualities; but he was, as the elder +Curio said, “omnium mulierum vir et omnium virorum +mulier;” he had mistresses in every country which he visited, +and he had <i>liaisons</i> with half the ladies in Rome. That +Caesar’s morality was altogether superior to that of the +average of his contemporaries is in a high degree improbable. He +was a man of the world, peculiarly attractive to women, and likely +to have been attracted by them. On the other hand, the +undiscriminating looseness attributed to him would have been +peculiarly degrading in a man whose passions were so eminently +under control, whose calmness was never known to be discomposed, +and who, in everything which he did, acted always with deliberate +will. Still worse would it be if, by his example, he made +ridiculous his own laws against adultery and indulged himself in +vices which he punished in others. What, then, is the evidence? The +story of Nicomedes may be passed over. All that is required on that +subject has been already said. It was never heard of before +Caesar’s consulship, and the proofs are no more than the libels +of Bibulus, the satire of Catullus, and certain letters of +Cicero’s which were never published, but were circulated +privately in Roman aristocratic society. <a name="fnr232"></a> <a +href="#fn232" class="fnsuper">1</a> A story is suspicious which is +first produced after twenty years in a moment of political +excitement. Caesar spoke of it with stern disgust. He replied to +Catullus with an invitation to dinner; otherwise he passed it over +in silence—the only answer which an honorable man could give. +Suetonius quotes a loose song sung by Caesar’s soldiers at his +triumph. We know in what terms British sailors often speak of their +favorite commanders. Affection, when it expresses itself most +emphatically, borrows the language of its opposites. Who would +dream of introducing into a serious life of Nelson catches chanted +in the forecastle of the “Victory”? But which of the +soldiers sang these verses? Does Suetonius mean that the army sang +them in chorus as they marched in procession? The very notion is +preposterous. It is proved that during Caesar’s lifetime +scandal was busy with his name; and that it would be so busy, +whether justified or not, is certain from the nature of things. +Cicero says that no public man in Rome escaped from such +imputations. He himself flung them broadcast, and they were equally +returned upon himself. The surprise is rather that Caesar’s +name should have suffered so little, and that he should have been +admitted on reflection by Suetonius to have been comparatively free +from the abominable form of vice which was then so common.</p> + +<p>As to his <i>liaisons</i> with women, the handsome, brilliant +Caesar, surrounded by a halo of military glory, must have been a +Paladin of romance to any woman who had a capacity of admiration in +her. His own distaste for gluttony and hard drinking, and for the +savage amusements in which the male Romans so much delighted, may +have made the society of cultivated ladies more agreeable to him +than that of men, and if he showed any such preference the coarsest +interpretation would be inevitably placed upon it. These relations, +perhaps, in so loose an age assumed occasionally a more intimate +form; but it is to be observed that the first public act recorded +of Caesar was his refusal to divorce his wife at Sylla’s +bidding; that he was passionately attached to his sister; that his +mother, Aurelia, lived with him till she died, and that this mother +was a Roman matron of the strictest and severest type. Many names +were mentioned in connection with him, yet there is no record of +any natural child save Brutus, and one other whose claims were +denied and disproved.</p> + +<p>Two intrigues, it may be said, are beyond dispute. His +connection with the mother of Brutus was notorious. Cleopatra, in +spite of Oppius, was living with him in his house at the time of +his murder. That it was so believed a hundred years after his death +is, of course, indisputable; but in both these cases the story is +entangled with legends which show how busily imagination had been +at work. Brutus was said to be Caesar’s son, though Caesar was +but fifteen when he was born; and Brutus, though he had the temper +of an Orestes, was devotedly attached to his mother in spite of the +supposed adultery, and professed to have loved Caesar when he +offered him as a sacrifice to his country’s liberty. Cleopatra +is said to have joined Caesar at Rome after his return from Spain, +and to have resided openly with him as his mistress. Supposing that +she did come to Rome, it is still certain that Calpurnia was in +Caesar’s house when he was killed. Cleopatra must have been +Calpurnia’s guest as well as her husband’s; and her +presence, however commented upon in society, could not possibly +have borne the avowed complexion which tradition assigned to it. On +the other hand, it is quite intelligible that the young Queen of +Egypt, who owed her position to Caesar, might have come, as other +princes came, on a visit of courtesy, and that Caesar after their +acquaintance at Alexandria should have invited her to stay with +him. But was Cleopatra at Rome at all? The only real evidence for +her presence there is to be found in a few words of Cicero: +“Reginae fuga mihi non molesta.”—“I am not sorry to +hear of the flight of the queen.” <a name="fnr233"></a> <a +href="#fn233" class="fnsuper">2</a> There is nothing to show that +the “queen” was the Egyptian queen. Granting that the +word Egyptian is to be understood, Cicero may have referred to +Arsinoë, who was called Queen as well as her sister, and had been +sent to Rome to be shown at Caesar’s triumph.</p> + +<p>But enough and too much on this miserable subject. Men will +continue to form their opinions about it, not upon the evidence, +but according to their preconceived notions of what is probable or +improbable. Ages of progress and equality are as credulous of evil +as ages of faith are credulous of good, and reason will not modify +convictions which do not originate in reason.</p> + +<p>Let us pass on to surer ground.</p> + +<p>In person Caesar was tall and slight. His features were more +refined than was usual in Roman faces; the forehead was wide and +high, the nose large and thin, the lips full, the eyes dark gray +like an eagle’s, the neck extremely thick and sinewy. His +complexion was pale. His beard and mustache were kept carefully +shaved. His hair was short and naturally scanty, falling off toward +the end of his life and leaving him partially bald. His voice, +especially when he spoke in public, was high and shrill. His health +was uniformly strong until his last year, when he became subject to +epileptic fits. He was a great bather, and scrupulously clean in +all his habits, abstemious in his food, and careless in what it +consisted, rarely or never touching wine, and noting sobriety as +the highest of qualities when describing any new people. He was an +athlete in early life, admirable in all manly exercises, and +especially in riding. In Gaul, as has been said already, he rode a +remarkable horse, which he had bred himself, and which would let no +one but Caesar mount him. From his boyhood it was observed of him +that he was the truest of friends, that he avoided quarrels, and +was most easily appeased when offended. In manner he was quiet and +gentlemanlike, with the natural courtesy of high-breeding. On an +occasion when he was dining somewhere the other guests found the +oil too rancid for them. Caesar took it without remark, to spare +his entertainer’s feelings. When on a journey through a forest +with his friend Oppius, he came one night to a hut where there was +a single bed. Oppius being unwell, Caesar gave it up to him, and +slept on the ground.</p> + +<p>In his public character he may be regarded under three aspects, +as a politician, a soldier, and a man of letters.</p> + +<p>Like Cicero, Caesar entered public life at the bar. He belonged +by birth to the popular party, but he showed no disposition, like +the Gracchi, to plunge into political agitation. His aims were +practical. He made war only upon injustice and oppression; and when +he commenced as a pleader he was noted for the energy with which he +protected a client whom he believed to have been wronged. At a +later period, before he was praetor, he was engaged in defending +Masintha, a young Numidian prince, who had suffered some injury +from Hiempsal, the father of Juba. Juba himself came to Rome on the +occasion, bringing with him the means of influencing the judges +which Jugurtha had found so effective. Caesar in his indignation +seized Juba by the beard in the court; and when Masintha was +sentenced to some unjust penalty Caesar carried him off, concealed +him in his house, and took him to Spain in his carriage. When he +rose into the Senate, his powers as a speaker became strikingly +remarkable. Cicero, who often heard him, and was not a favorable +judge, said that there was a pregnancy in his sentences and a +dignity in his manner which no orator in Rome could approach. But +he never spoke to court popularity; his aim from first to last was +better government, the prevention of bribery and extortion, and the +distribution among deserving citizens of some portion of the public +land which the rich were stealing. The Julian laws, which excited +the indignation of the aristocracy, had no other objects than +these; and had they been observed they would have saved the +Constitution. The obstinacy of faction and the civil war which grew +out of it obliged him to extend his horizon, to contemplate more +radical reforms—a large extension of the privileges of +citizenship, with the introduction of the provincial nobility into +the Senate, and the transfer of the administration from the Senate +and annually elected magistrates to the permanent chief of the +army. But his objects throughout were purely practical. The purpose +of government he conceived to be the execution of justice; and a +constitutional liberty under which justice was made impossible did +not appear to him to be liberty at all.</p> + +<p>The practicality which showed itself in his general aims +appeared also in his mode of working. Caesar, it was observed, when +anything was to be done, selected the man who was best able to do +it, not caring particularly who or what he might be in other +respects. To this faculty of discerning and choosing fit persons to +execute his orders may be ascribed the extraordinary success of his +own provincial administration, the enthusiasm which was felt for +him in the North of Italy, and the perfect quiet of Gaul after the +completion of the conquest. Caesar did not crush the Gauls under +the weight of Italy. He took the best of them into the Roman +service, promoted them, led them to associate the interests of the +Empire with their personal advancement and the prosperity of their +own people. No act of Caesar’s showed more sagacity then the +introduction of Gallic nobles into the Senate; none was more bitter +to the Scipios and Metelli, who were compelled to share their +august privileges with these despised barbarians.</p> + +<p>It was by accident that Caesar took up the profession of a +soldier; yet perhaps no commander who ever lived showed greater +military genius. The conquest of Gaul was effected by a force +numerically insignificant, which was worked with the precision of a +machine. The variety of uses to which it was capable of being +turned implied, in the first place, extraordinary forethought in +the selection of materials. Men whose nominal duty was merely to +fight were engineers, architects, mechanics of the highest order. +In a few hours they could extemporize an impregnable fortress on an +open hillside. They bridged the Rhine in a week. They built a fleet +in a month. The legions at Alesia held twice their number pinned +within their works, while they kept at bay the whole force of +insurgent Gaul, entirely by scientific superiority. The machine, +which was thus perfect, was composed of human beings who required +supplies of tools, and arms, and clothes, and food, and shelter, +and for all these it depended on the forethought of its commander. +Maps there were none. Countries entirely unknown had to be +surveyed; routes had to be laid out; the depths and courses of +rivers, the character of mountain passes, had all to be +ascertained. Allies had to be found among tribes as yet unheard of. +Countless contingent difficulties had to be provided for, many of +which must necessarily arise, though the exact nature of them could +not be anticipated. When room for accidents is left open, accidents +do not fail to be heard of. Yet Caesar was never defeated when +personally present, save once at Gergovia, and once at Durazzo; and +the failure at Gergovia was caused by the revolt of the Aedui; and +the manner in which the failure at Durazzo was retrieved showed +Caesar’s greatness more than the most brilliant of his +victories. He was rash, but with a calculated rashness, which the +event never failed to justify. His greatest successes were due to +the rapidity of his movements, which brought him on the enemy +before they heard of his approach. He travelled sometimes a hundred +miles a day, reading or writing in his carriage, through countries +without roads, and crossing rivers without bridges. No obstacles +stopped him when he had a definite end in view. In battle he +sometimes rode; but he was more often on foot, bareheaded, and in a +conspicuous dress, that he might be seen and recognized. Again and +again by his own efforts he recovered a day that was half lost. He +once seized a panic-stricken standard-bearer, turned him round, and +told him that he had mistaken the direction of the enemy. He never +misled his army as to an enemy’s strength, or if he mis-stated +their numbers it was only to exaggerate. In Africa, before Thapsus, +when his officers were nervous at the reported approach of Juba, he +called them together and said briefly, “You will understand +that within a day King Juba will be here with the legions, thirty +thousand horse, a hundred thousand skirmishers, and three hundred +elephants. You are not to think or ask questions. I tell you the +truth, and you must prepare for it. If any of you are alarmed, I +shall send you home.”</p> + +<p>Yet he was singularly careful of his soldiers. He allowed his +legions rest, though he allowed none to himself. He rarely fought a +battle at a disadvantage. He never exposed his men to unnecessary +danger, and the loss by wear and tear in the campaigns in Gaul was +exceptionally and even astonishingly slight. When a gallant action +was performed, he knew by whom it had been done, and every soldier, +however humble, might feel assured that if he deserved praise he +would have it. The army was Caesar’s family. When Sabinus was +cut off, he allowed his beard to grow, and he did not shave it till +the disaster was avenged. If Quintus Cicero had been his own child, +he could not have run greater personal risk to save him when shut +up at Charleroy. In discipline he was lenient to ordinary faults, +and not careful to make curious inquiries into such things. He +liked his men to enjoy themselves. Military mistakes in his +officers too he always endeavored to excuse, never blaming them for +misfortunes, unless there had been a defect of courage as well as +judgment. Mutiny and desertion only he never overlooked. And thus +no general was ever more loved by, or had greater power over, the +army which served under him. He brought the insurgent 10th legion +into submission by a single word. When the civil war began and +Labienus left him, he told all his officers who had served under +Pompey that they were free to follow if they wished. Not another +man forsook him.</p> + +<p>Suetonius says that he was rapacious, that he plundered tribes +in Spain who were allies of Rome, that he pillaged shrines and +temples in Gaul, and destroyed cities merely for spoil. He adds a +story which Cicero would not have left untold and uncommented on if +he had been so fortunate as to hear of it: that Caesar when first +consul took three thousand pounds weight of gold out of the Capitol +and replaced it with gilded brass. A similar story is told of the +Cid and of other heroes of fiction. How came Cicero to be ignorant +of an act which, if done at all, was done under his own eyes? When +praetor Caesar brought back money from Spain to the treasury; but +he was never charged at the time with peculation or oppression +there. In Gaul the war paid its own expenses; but what temples were +there in Gaul which were worth spoiling? Of temples, he was, +indeed, scrupulously careful. Varro had taken gold from the Temple +of Hercules at Cadiz. Caesar replaced it. Metellus Scipio had +threatened to plunder the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. Caesar +protected it. In Gaul the Druids were his best friends; therefore +he certainly had not outraged religion there; and the quiet of the +province during the civil war is a sufficient answer to the +accusation of gratuitous oppression.</p> + +<p>The Gauls paid the expenses of their conquest in the prisoners +taken in battle, who were sold to the slave merchants; and this is +the real blot on Caesar’s career. But the blot was not +personally upon Caesar, but upon the age in which he lived. The +great Pomponius Atticus himself was a dealer in human chattels. +That prisoners of war should be sold as slaves was the law of the +time, accepted alike by victors and vanquished; and the crowds of +libertini who assisted at Caesar’s funeral proved that he was +not regarded as the enemy of these unfortunates, but as their +special friend.</p> + +<p>His leniency to the Pompeian faction has already been spoken of +sufficiently. It may have been politic, but it arose also from the +disposition of the man. Cruelty originates in fear, and Caesar was +too indifferent to death to fear anything. So far as his public +action was concerned, he betrayed no passion save hatred of +injustice; and he moved through life calm and irresistible, like a +force of nature.</p> + +<p>Cicero has said of Caesar’s oratory that he surpassed those +who had practised no other art. His praise of him as a man of +letters is yet more delicately and gracefully emphatic. Most of his +writings are lost; but there remain seven books of commentaries on +the wars in Gaul (the eighth was added by another hand), and three +books upon the civil war, containing an account of its causes and +history. Of these it was that Cicero said, in an admirable image, +that fools might think to improve on them, but that no wise man +would try it; they were <i>nudi omni ornatu orationis, tanquam +veste detractâ</i>—bare of ornament, the dress of style dispensed +with, like an undraped human figure perfect in all its lines as +nature made it. In his composition, as in his actions, Caesar is +entirely simple. He indulges in no images, no labored descriptions, +no conventional reflections. His art is unconscious, as the highest +art always is. The actual fact of things stands out as it really +was, not as mechanically photographed, but interpreted by the +calmest intelligence, and described with unexaggerated feeling. No +military narrative has approached the excellence of the history of +the war in Gaul. Nothing is written down which could be dispensed +with; nothing important is left untold; while the incidents +themselves are set off by delicate and just observations on human +character. The story is rendered attractive by complimentary +anecdotes of persons; while details of the character and customs of +an unknown and remarkable people show the attention which Caesar +was always at leisure to bestow on anything which was worthy of +interest, even when he was surrounded with danger and difficulty. +The books on the civil war have the same simplicity and clearness, +but a vein runs through them of strong if subdued emotion. They +contain the history of a great revolution related by the principal +actor in it; but no effort can be traced to set his own side in a +favorable light, or to abuse or depreciate his adversaries. The +coarse invectives which Cicero poured so freely upon those who +differed from him are conspicuously absent. Caesar does not exult +over his triumphs or parade the honesty of his motives. The facts +are left to tell their own story; and the gallantry and endurance +of his own troops are not related with more feeling than the +contrast between the confident hopes of the patrician leaders at +Pharsalia and the luxury of their camp with the overwhelming +disaster which fell upon them. About himself and his own exploits +there is not one word of self-complacency or self-admiration. In +his writings, as in his life, Caesar is always the same—direct, +straightforward, unmoved save by occasional tenderness, describing +with unconscious simplicity how the work which had been forced upon +him was accomplished. He wrote with extreme rapidity in the +intervals of other labor; yet there is not a word misplaced, not a +sign of haste anywhere, save that the conclusion of the Gallic war +was left to be supplied by a weaker hand. The Commentaries, as an +historical narrative, are as far superior to any other Latin +composition of the kind as the person of Caesar himself stands out +among the rest of his contemporaries.</p> + +<p>His other compositions have perished, in consequence, perhaps, +of the unforgiving republican sentiment which revived among men of +letters after the death of Augustus—which rose to a height in the +“Pharsalia” of Lucan—and which leaves so visible a mark +in the writings of Tacitus and Suetonius. There was a book “De +Analogiâ,” written by Caesar after the conference at Lucca, +during the passage of the Alps. There was a book on the Auspices, +which, coming from the head of the Roman religion, would have +thrown a light much to be desired on this curious subject. In +practice Caesar treated the auguries with contempt. He carried his +laws in open disregard of them. He fought his battles careless +whether the sacred chickens would eat or the calves’ livers +were of the proper color. His own account of such things in his +capacity of Pontifex would have had a singular interest.</p> + +<p>From the time of his boyhood he kept a common-place book, in +which he entered down any valuable or witty sayings, inquiring +carefully, as Cicero takes pains to tell us, after any smart +observation of his own. Niebuhr remarks that no pointed sentences +of Caesar’s can have come down to us. Perhaps he had no gift +that way, and admired in others what he did not possess.</p> + +<p>He left in verse “an account of the stars”—some +practical almanac, probably, in a shape to be easily remembered; +and there was a journal in verse also, written on the return from +Munda. Of all the lost writings, however, the most to be regretted +is the “Anti-Cato.” After Cato’s death Cicero +published a panegyric upon him. To praise Cato was to condemn +Caesar; and Caesar replied with a sketch of the Martyr of Utica as +he had himself known him. The pamphlet, had it survived, would have +shown how far Caesar was able to extend the forbearance so +conspicuous in his other writings to the most respectable and the +most inveterate of his enemies. The verdict of fact and the verdict +of literature on the great controversy between them have been +summed up in the memorable line of Lucan—</p> + +<p class="quoted">Victrix causa Deis placuit, sed victa Catoni.</p> + +<p>Was Cato right, or were the gods right? Perhaps both. There is a +legend that at the death of Charles V. the accusing angel appeared +in heaven with a catalogue of deeds which no advocate could +palliate—countries laid desolate, cities sacked and burnt, lists +of hundreds of thousands of widows and children brought to misery +by the political ambition of a single man. The evil spirit demanded +the offender’s soul, and it seemed as if mercy itself could not +refuse him the award. But at the last moment the Supreme Judge +interfered. The Emperor, He said, had been sent into the world at a +peculiar time, for a peculiar purpose, and was not to be tried by +the ordinary rules. Titian has painted the scene: Charles kneeling +before the Throne, with the consciousness, as became him, of human +infirmities, written upon his countenance, yet neither afraid nor +abject, relying in absolute faith that the Judge of all mankind +would do right.</p> + +<p>Of Caesar, too, it may be said that he came into the world at a +special time and for a special object. The old religions were dead, +from the Pillars of Hercules to the Euphrates and the Nile, and the +principles on which human society had been constructed were dead +also. There remained of spiritual conviction only the common and +human sense of justice and morality; and out of this sense some +ordered system of government had to be constructed, under which +quiet men could live and labor and eat the fruit of their industry. +Under a rule of this material kind there can be no enthusiasm, no +chivalry, no saintly aspirations, no patriotism of the heroic type. +It was not to last forever. A new life was about to dawn for +mankind. Poetry, and faith, and devotion were to spring again out +of the seeds which were sleeping in the heart of humanity. But the +life which is to endure grows slowly; and as the soil must be +prepared before the wheat can be sown, so before the Kingdom of +Heaven could throw up its shoots there was needed a kingdom of this +world where the nations were neither torn in pieces by violence nor +were rushing after false ideals and spurious ambitions. Such a +kingdom was the Empire of the Caesars—a kingdom where peaceful men +could work, think, and speak as they pleased, and travel freely +among provinces ruled for the most part by Gallios, who protected +life and property, and forbade fanatics to tear each other in +pieces for their religious opinions. “It is not lawful for us +to put any man to death,” was the complaint of the Jewish +priests to the Roman governor. Had Europe and Asia been covered +with independent nations, each with a local religion represented in +its ruling powers, Christianity must have been stifled in its +cradle. If St. Paul had escaped the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, he +would have been torn to pieces by the silver-smiths at Ephesus. The +appeal to Caesar’s judgment-seat was the shield of his mission, +and alone made possible his success.</p> + +<p>And this spirit, which confined government to its simplest +duties, while it left opinion unfettered, was especially present in +Julius Caesar himself. From cant of all kinds he was totally free. +He was a friend of the people, but he indulged in no enthusiasm for +liberty. He never dilated on the beauties of virtue, or +complimented, as Cicero did, a Providence in which he did not +believe. He was too sincere to stoop to unreality. He held to the +facts of this life and to his own convictions; and as he found no +reason for supposing that there was a life beyond the grave he did +not pretend to expect it. He respected the religion of the Roman +State as an institution established by the laws. He encouraged or +left unmolested the creeds and practices of the uncounted sects or +tribes who were gathered under the eagles. But his own writings +contain nothing to indicate that he himself had any religious +belief at all. He saw no evidence that the gods practically +interfered in human affairs. He never pretended that Jupiter was on +his side. He thanked his soldiers after a victory, but he did not +order <i>Te Deums</i> to be sung for it; and in the absence of +these conventionalisms he perhaps showed more real reverence than +he could have displayed by the freest use of the formulas of +pietism.</p> + +<p>He fought his battles to establish some tolerable degree of +justice in the government of this world; and he succeeded, though +he was murdered for doing it.</p> + +<p>Strange and startling resemblance between the fate of the +founder of the kingdom of this world and of the Founder of the +kingdom not of this world, for which the first was a preparation. +Each was denounced for making himself a king. Each was maligned as +the friend of publicans and sinners; each was betrayed by those +whom he had loved and cared for; each was put to death; and Caesar +also was believed to have risen again and ascended into heaven and +become a divine being.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn232"></a> <a href="#fnr232">[1]</a> +Suetonius, <i>Julius Caesar</i>, 49.</p> + +<p class="footnote"><a name="fn233"></a> <a href="#fnr233">[2]</a> +<i>To Atticus</i>, xiv. 8.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="footnote"><strong>Transcriber’s note:</strong> A +sidenote in chapter nine gives Caesar’s age as 32 in 77 B.C. I +have corrected this evident misprint to 23.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAESAR: A SKETCH ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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