Plutarch's Lives

Translated by Aubrey Stewart and George Long
Volume III

Index

LIFE OF C. CÆSAR

I.[435] When Sulla got possession of the supreme power, he confiscated the marriage portion of Cornelia[436] the daughter of Cinna[437] who had once enjoyed the supremacy in Rome, because he could not either by promises or threats induce Cæsar to part with her. The cause of the enmity between Cæsar and Sulla was Cæsar's relationship to Marius; for the elder Marius was the husband of Julia the sister of Cæsar's father, and Julia was the mother of the younger Marius, who was consequently Cæsar's cousin. Cæsar was not content with being let alone by Sulla, who [Pg 380]was at first fully occupied with the proscriptions and other matters, but he presented himself to the people as a candidate for a priesthood,[438] though he had hardly arrived at man's estate. But Sulla by his opposition contrived to exclude him from this office, and even thought of putting him to death; and when some observed that there was no reason in putting to death such a youth, Sulla observed, that they had no sense if they did not see many Marii in this boy. These words were conveyed to Cæsar, who thereupon concealed himself by wandering about for some time in the Sabine country. On one occasion when he was changing his place of abode on account of sickness, he fell in by night with the soldiers of Sulla who were scouring those parts and seizing on those who were concealed. But Cæsar got away by giving Cornelius,[439] who was in command of the soldiers, two talents, and going straightway down to the coast he took ship and sailed to Bithynia to King Nicomedes,[440] with whom he stayed no long time. On his voyage from Bithynia, he was captured near the island Pharmacusa[441] by pirates,[442] who at that time were in possession of the seas with a powerful force and numerous ships.

II. The pirates asked Cæsar twenty talents for his ransom, on which he laughed at them for not knowing who their prize was, and he promised to give them fifty talents. While he dispatched those about him to various [Pg 381]cities to raise the money, he was left with one friend and two attendants among these Cilician pirates, who were notorious for their cruelty, yet he treated them with such contempt that whenever he was lying down to rest, he would send to them and order them to be quiet. He spent eight and thirty days among them, not so much like a prisoner as a prince surrounded by his guards, and he joined in their sports and exercises with perfect unconcern. He also wrote poems and some speeches which he read to them, and those who did not approve of his compositions he would call to their faces illiterate fellows and barbarians, and he would often tell them with a laugh that he would hang them all. The pirates were pleased with his manners, and attributed this freedom of speech to simplicity and a mirthful disposition. As soon as the ransom came from Miletus and Cæsar had paid it and was set at liberty, he manned some vessels in the port of Miletus and went after the pirates, whom he found still on the island, and he secured most of them. All their property he made his booty; but the pirates, he lodged in prison at Pergamum, and then went to Junius,[443] who, as governor of the provinces of Asia, was the proper person to punish the captives. But as the governor was casting a longing eye on the booty, which was valuable, and said he would take time to consider about the captives, Cæsar without more ado, left him and going straight to Pergamum took all the pirates out of prison and crucified them, as he had often told them he would do in the island when they thought he was merely jesting.

III. Sulla's power was now declining, and Cæsar's friends in Rome recommended him to return. However, he first made a voyage to Rhodus in order to have the instruction of Apollonius the son of Molon,[444] of whom Cicero also was a hearer. This Apollonius was a [Pg 382]distinguished rhetorician, and had the reputation of being a man of a good disposition. Cæsar is said to have had a great talent for the composition of discourses on political matters, and to have cultivated it most diligently, so as to obtain beyond dispute the second rank; his ambition to be first in power and arms, made him from want of leisure give up the first rank, to which his natural talents invited him, and consequently his attention to military matters and political affairs by which he got the supreme power, did not allow him to attain perfection in oratory. Accordingly at a later period, in his reply to Cicero about Cato,[445] he deprecates all comparison between the composition of a soldier and the eloquence of an accomplished orator who had plenty of leisure to prosecute his studies.

IV. On his return to Rome he impeached[446] Dolabella[447] for maladministration in his province, and many of the cities of Greece gave evidence in support of the charge. Dolabella, indeed, was acquitted; but to make some return to the Greeks for their zeal in his behalf, Cæsar assisted them in their prosecution of Publius Antonius[448] for corruption before Marcus Lucullus, the governor of Macedonia; and his aid was so effectual that Antonius appealed to the tribunes, alleging that he had not a fair trial in Greece with the Greeks for his accusers. At Rome Cæsar got a brilliant popularity by aiding at trials with his eloquence; and he gained also much good will by his agreeable mode of saluting people and his pleasant manners, for he was more attentive to please than persons usually are at that age. He was also gradually acquiring political influence by the splendour of his entertainments and his table and of his general mode of living. At first [Pg 383]those who envied him, thinking that when his resources failed his influence would soon go, did not concern themselves about his flourishing popularity: but at last when his political power had acquired strength and had become difficult to overthrow and was manifestly tending to bring about a complete revolution, they perceived that no beginnings should be considered too small to be capable of quickly becoming great by uninterrupted endurance and having no obstacle to their growth by reason of being despised. Cicero, who is considered to have been the first to suspect and to fear the smiling surface[449] of Cæsar's policy, as a man would the smiling smoothness of a sea, and who observed the bold and determined character which was concealed under a friendly and joyous exterior, said that in all his designs and public measures he perceived a tyrannical purpose; "but on the other hand," said he, "when I look at his hair, which is arranged with so much care, and see him scratching his head with one finger,[450] I cannot think that such a wicked purpose will ever enter into this man's mind as the overthrow of the Roman State." This, however, belongs to a later period.

V. He received the first proof of the good will of the people towards him when he was a competitor against Caius Popilius for a military tribuneship,[451] and was proclaimed before him. He received a second and more conspicuous evidence of popular favour on the occasion of the death of Julia[452] the wife of Marius, when Cæsar, who was her nephew, pronounced over her a splendid funeral oration in the Forum, and at the funeral ventured to exhibit the images[453] of Marius, which were then seen for the first time [Pg 384]since the administration of Sulla, for Marius and his son had been adjudged enemies. Some voices were raised against Cæsar on account of this display, but the people responded by loud shouts, and received him with clapping of hands, and admiration, that he was bringing back as from the regions of Hades, after so long an interval, the glories of Marius to the city. Now it was an ancient Roman usage to pronounce funeral orations[454] over elderly women, but it was not customary to do it in the case of young women, and Cæsar set the first example by pronouncing a funeral oration over his deceased wife, which brought him some popularity and won the many by sympathy to consider him a man of a kind disposition and full of feeling. After the funeral of his wife he went to Iberia as quæstor to the Prætor Vetus,[455] for whom he always showed great respect, and whose son he made his own quæstor when he filled the office of Prætor. After his quæstorship he married for his third wife Pompeia[456] he had by his wife Cornelia a daughter, who afterwards married Pompeius Magnus. Owing to his profuse expenditure (and indeed men generally supposed that he was buying at a great cost a short-lived popularity, though in fact he was purchasing things of the highest value at a low price) it is said that before he attained any public office he was in debt to the amount of thirteen hundred talents. Upon being appointed curator of the Appian Road,[457] he laid out upon it a large sum of his own; and [Pg 385]during his ædileship[458] he exhibited three hundred and twenty pair of gladiators, and by his liberality and expenditure on the theatrical exhibitions, the processions, and the public entertainments, he completely drowned all previous displays, and put the people in such a humour, that every man was seeking for new offices and new honours to requite him with.

VI. There were at this time two parties in the State, that of Sulla, which was all-powerful, and that of Marius, which was cowed and divided and very feeble. It was Cæsar's object to strengthen and gain over the party of Marius, and accordingly, when the ambitious splendour of his ædileship was at its height, he had images of Marius secretly made, and triumphal Victories, which he took by night and set up on the Capitol. At daybreak the people seeing the images glittering with gold, and exquisitely laboured by art (and there were inscriptions also which declared the Cimbrian victories of Marius), were in admiration at the boldness of him who had placed them there, for it was no secret who it was, and the report quickly circulating through the city, brought everybody to the spot to see. Some exclaimed that Cæsar had a design to make himself tyrant, which appeared by his reviving those testimonials of honour which had been buried in the earth by laws and decrees of the senate, and that it was done to try if the people, who were already tampered with, were tamed to his purpose by his splendid exhibitions, and would allow him to venture on such tricks and innovations. But the partisans of Marius, encouraging one another, soon collected in surprising numbers, and filled the Capitol with their noise. Many also shed tears of joy at seeing the likeness of Marius, and Cæsar was highly extolled as the only man worthy to be a kinsman of Marius. The senate being assembled about these matters, Catulus Lutatius, who had at that time the greatest name of any man in Rome, got up, and charging Cæsar, uttered that [Pg 386]memorable expression: "Cæsar, no longer are you taking the state by underground approaches, but by storming engines." Cæsar spoke in reply to this charge, and satisfied the senate, on which his admirers were still more elated, and urged him not to abate of his pretensions for any one: with the favour of the people, they said, he would soon get the better of all, and be the first man in the State.

VII. About this time Metellus,[459] the Pontifex Maximus, died, and though Isauricus and Catulus were candidates for the priesthood, which was a great object of ambition, and were men of the highest rank and greatest influence in the senate, Cæsar would not give way to them, but he presented himself to the people as a competitor. The favour of the people appearing equally divided, Catulus, as the more distinguished candidate, being more afraid of the uncertainty of the event, sent and offered Cæsar a large sum of money if he would retire from his canvass; but Cæsar replied that he would stand it out even if he had to borrow still more. On the day of the election, his mother, with tears, accompanied him to the door, when Cæsar embracing her, said, "Mother, to-day you shall see your son either Pontifex Maximus, or an exile." After the voting was over, which was conducted with great spirit, Cæsar prevailed, a circumstance which alarmed the senate and the nobles, who feared that he would lead on the people to the boldest measures. Accordingly, Piso and Catulus blamed Cicero for having spared Cæsar, who, in the matter of Catiline's[460] conspiracy, had given him a [Pg 387]handle. Now Catiline designed not only to alter the form of government, but to subvert the whole Commonwealth, and throw all into confusion, but he was ejected from the city on being convicted of some minor charges, and before the extent of his designs was discovered. He left behind him in the city Lentulus and Cethegus, to carry his plans into execution. It is uncertain if Cæsar secretly lent them any countenance and aid, but when they were completely convicted in the senate, and Cicero the consul put it to each senator to give his opinion on their punishment, all who spoke declared for death till it came to Cæsar's turn to speak. Cæsar rose and delivered a studied oration, to the effect that it was not consistent with the constitution, nor was it just to put to death without a trial men distinguished for their high character and their family, unless there was the most urgent necessity; and he added that, if they were imprisoned in the Italian cities which Cicero himself might choose, until the war against Catiline was brought to an end, the senate might have time to deliberate on the case of each prisoner when peace was restored.

VIII. This proposal appeared so humane, and was supported by so powerful a speech, that not only those who rose after Cæsar sided with, him, but many of those who had already spoken changed their opinions and went over to that of Cæsar, till it came to the turn of Cato and Catulus to speak. After they had made a vigorous opposition, and Cato in his speech had also urged suspicious matter against Cæsar and strongly argued against him, the conspirators were handed over to the executioner, and as Cæsar was leaving the Senate many of the young men who then acted as a guard to Cicero, crowded together and threatened Cæsar with their naked swords.[461] But [Pg 388]Curio[462] is said to have thrown his toga round Cæsar, and to have carried him off; and Cicero also, when the young men looked to him, is said to have checked them by a motion, either through fear of the people or because he thought that the death of Cæsar would be most unjust and a violation of law. If this is true, I cannot conceive why Cicero said nothing about it in the book on his Consulship;[463] but Cicero was blamed afterwards for not having taken advantage of so favourable an opportunity to get rid of Cæsar, and for having feared the people, who were extravagantly attached to Cæsar. And indeed a few days after, when Cæsar had gone to the Senate and defended himself in a speech against the imputations that had been cast on him, and his speech was received with loud marks of disapprobation and the sitting of the Senate was lasting longer than usual, the people came with loud cries and surrounded the Senate-house calling for Cæsar and bidding the Senate let him go. Accordingly, Cato apprehending danger mainly from some movement of the needy part of the people, who were like a firebrand among the rest of the citizens, as they had all their hopes in Cæsar, prevailed on the Senate to give them a monthly allowance of corn, which produced an addition to the rest of the expenditure of seven millions[464] five hundred thousands. However, the immediate alarm was manifestly quenched by this measure, which snapped off the best part of Cæsar's influence and scattered it, at a time when he was going [Pg 389]to enter on his office of Prætor which made him more formidable.

IX. No tumults occurred in Cæsar's Prætorship,[465] but a disagreeable incident happened in his family. Publius Clodius,[466] a man of Patrician rank, was distinguished both by wealth and eloquence, but in arrogance and impudence he was not inferior to the most notorious scoundrels in Rome. Clodius was in love with Pompeia, Cæsar's wife, and Pompeia was in no way averse to him. But a strict watch was kept over the woman's apartment, and Aurelia, Cæsar's mother, who was a prudent woman, by always observing Pompeia, made it difficult and hazardous for the lovers to have an interview. Now the Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, as the Greeks have a Gynæceia. The Phrygians, who claim this goddess, say she was the mother of King Midas; the Romans say she was a Dryad and the wife of Faunus; but the Greeks say she is one of the mothers of Dionysus, whose name must not be uttered; and this is the reason why they cover the tents with vine-leaves during the celebration of her festival, and a sacred serpent sits by the goddess according to the mythus. No man is allowed to approach the festival, nor to be in the house during the celebration of the rites; but the women by themselves are said to perform many rites similar to the Orphic in the celebration. Accordingly when the season of the festival is come, the husband, if he be consul or prætor, leaves the house and every male also quits it; and the wife taking possession [Pg 390]of the house makes all arrangements, and the chief ceremonies are celebrated by night, the evening festival being accompanied with mirth and much music.

X. While Pompeia[467] was now celebrating this festival, Clodius, who was not yet bearded, and for this reason thought that he should not be discovered, assumed the dress and equipment of a female lute-player and went to the house looking just like a young woman. Finding the door open, he was safely let in by a female slave who was in the secret, and who forthwith ran off to tell Pompeia. As there was some delay and Clodius was too impatient to wait where the woman had left him, but was rambling about the house, which was large, and trying to avoid the lights, Aurelia's waiting-woman, as was natural for one woman with another, challenged him to a little mirthful sport, and as he declined the invitations, she pulled him forward and asked who he was and where he came from. Clodius replied that he was waiting for Abra the maid of Pompeia, for that was the woman's name, but his voice betrayed him, and the waiting-woman ran with a loud cry to the lights and the rest of the company, calling out that she had discovered a man. All the women were in the greatest alarm, and Aurelia stopped the celebration of the rites and covered up the sacred things: she also ordered the doors to be closed and went about the house with the lights to look for Clodius. He was discovered lurking in the chamber of the girl who had let him in, and on being recognised by the women was turned out of doors. The women went straightway, though it was night, to their husbands to tell them what had happened; and as soon as it was day, the talk went through Rome of the desecration of the sacred rites by Clodius, and how he ought to be punished for his behaviour, not only to the persons whom he had insulted, but to the city and the gods. Accordingly one of the tribunes instituted a prosecution against Clodius for an offence against religion, and the most powerful of the senators combined against him, charging him, among other abominations, with adultery with his sister, who was the wife of Lucullus. The people set themselves in opposition to their exertions and supported [Pg 391]Clodius, and were of great service to him with the judices, who were terror-struck and afraid of the people. Cæsar immediately divorced Pompeia, and when he was summoned as a witness on the trial, he said he knew nothing about the matters that Clodius was charged with. This answer appearing strange, the accuser asked him, "Why have you put away your wife?" to which Cæsar replied, "Because I considered that my wife ought not even to be suspected." Some say that this was the real expression of Cæsar's opinion, but others affirm that it was done to please the people who were bent on saving Clodius. However this may be, Clodius was acquitted, for the majority of the judices gave in their votes[468] written confusedly, that they might run no risk from the populace by convicting Clodius nor lose the good opinion of the better sort by acquitting him.

XI. On the expiration of his Prætorship, Cæsar received Iberia[469] for his province, but as he had a difficulty about arranging matters with his creditors, who put obstructions in the way of his leaving Rome, and were clamorous, he applied to Crassus, then the richest man in Rome, who stood in need of the vigour and impetuosity of Cæsar to support him in his political hostility to Pompeius. Crassus undertook to satisfy the most importunate and unrelenting of the creditors, and having become security for Cæsar to the amount of eight hundred and thirty talents, thus enabled him to set out for his province. There is a story that as Cæsar was crossing the Alps, he passed by a small barbarian town which had very few inhabitants and was a miserable place, on which his companions jocosely observed, "They did not suppose there were any contests [Pg 392]for honors in such a place as that, and struggles for the first rank and mutual jealousy of the chief persons:" on which Cæsar earnestly remarked, "I would rather be the first man here than the second at Rome." Again in Spain, when he had some leisure and was reading the history of Alexander,[470] he was for a long time in deep thought, and at last burst into tears; and on his friends asking the reason of this, he said, "Don't you think it is a matter for sorrow, that Alexander was king of so many nations at such an early age, and I have as yet done nothing of note?"

XII. However, as soon as he entered Iberia, he commenced active operations and in a few days raised ten cohorts in addition to the twenty which were already there, and with this force marching against the Calaici[471] and Lusitani he defeated them, and advanced to the shores of the external sea, subduing the nations which hitherto had paid no obedience to Rome. After his military success, he was equally fortunate in settling the civil administration by establishing friendly relations among the different states, and particularly by healing the differences between debtors and creditors;[472] for which purpose he determined that the creditor should annually take two-thirds of the debtor's income, and that the owner should take the other third, which arrangement was to continue till the debt was paid. By these measures he gained a good reputation, and he retired from the province with the acquisition of a large fortune, having enriched his soldiers also by his campaigns and been saluted by them Imperator.

XIII. As it was the law at Rome that those who were [Pg 393]soliciting a triumph should stay outside the city, and that those who were candidates for the consulship should be present in the city, Cæsar finding himself in this difficulty, and having reached Rome just at the time of the consular elections, sent to the senate to request permission to offer himself to the consulship in his absence through the intervention of his friends. Cato at first urged the law in opposition to Cæsar's request, but seeing that many of the senators had been gained over by Cæsar, he attempted to elude the question by taking advantage of time and wasting the day in talking, till at last Cæsar determined to give up the triumph and to secure the consulship. As soon as he entered the city, he adopted a policy which deceived everybody except Cato; and this was the bringing about of a reconciliation between Pompeius and Crassus, the two most powerful men in Rone, whom Cæsar reconciled from their differences, and centering in himself the united strength of the two by an act that had a friendly appearance, changed the form of government without its being observed. For it was not, as most people suppose, the enmity of Cæsar and Pompeius which produced the civil wars, but their friendship rather, inasmuch as they first combined to depress the nobility and then quarrelled with one another. Cato, who often predicted what would happen, at the time only got by it the character of being a morose, meddling fellow, though afterwards he was considered to be a wise, but not a fortunate adviser.

XIV. Cæsar,[473] however, supported on both sides by the friendship of Crassus and Pompeius, was raised to the consulship and proclaimed triumphantly with Calpurnius Bibulus for his colleague. Immediately upon entering on his office he proposed enactments more suitable to the most turbulent tribune than a consul, for in order to please the populace he introduced measures for certain allotments and divisions of land.[474] But he met with [Pg 394]opposition in the Senate from the good and honourable among them, and as he had long been looking for a pretext, he exclaimed with solemn adjurations, that he was driven against his will to court the favour of the people by the arrogance and obstinacy of the Senate, and accordingly he hurried to the popular assembly and placing Crassus on one side of him and Pompeius on the other, he asked them if they approved of his legislative measures. Upon their expressing their approbation, he entreated them to give him their aid against those who threatened to oppose him with their swords. Pompeius and Crassus promised their assistance, and Pompeius added, that he would oppose swords with sword and shield. The nobility were annoyed at hearing such mad, inconsiderate words drop from Pompeius, which were unbecoming his own character and the respect that he owed to the Senate; but the people were delighted. Cæsar, whose secret design it was to secure the influence of Pompeius still more, gave him to wife his daughter Julia,[475] who was already betrothed to Servilius Cæpio; and he promised Cæpio that he should have the daughter of Pompeius, though she also was not disengaged, being betrothed to Faustus, the son of Sulla. Shortly after Cæsar married Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, and got Piso named consul for the next year, though Cato in this matter also strongly protested and exclaimed that it was an intolerable thing for the chief power to be prostituted by marriage bargains and that they should help one another [Pg 395]by means of women, to provinces and armies and political power. Bibulus, Cæsar's colleague, found it useless to oppose Cæsar's measures, and he and Cato several times narrowly escaped with their lives in the Forum, whereupon Bibulus shut himself up at home for the remainder of his consulship. Immediately after his marriage Pompeius filled the Forum with armed men, and supported the people in passing Cæsar's laws and in giving him for five years Gaul on both sides of the Alps with the addition of Illyricum and four legions. Upon Cato's venturing to speak against these measures, Cæsar ordered him to be carried off to prison, thinking that he would appeal to the tribunes. But Cato went off without speaking a word; and Cæsar observing that the nobles were much annoyed at this, and the people also through respect for Cato's virtue were following him in silence and with downcast eyes, secretly asked one of the tribunes to release Cato. Very few of the senators used to accompany Cæsar to the Senate, but the majority not liking his measures stayed away. Considius,[476] who was a very old man, observed that the senators did not come because they were afraid of the arms and the soldiers. "Why don't you then stay at home for the same reason?" replied Cæsar, to which Considius rejoined, "My age makes me fearless, for the little of life that remains for me is not worth much thought." The most scandalous public measure in Cæsar's consulship was the election as tribune of that[477] Clodius who had dishonoured Cæsar's wife and violated the mysterious nocturnal rites. But he was elected in order to ruin Cicero, and Cæsar did not set out [Pg 396]for his province till with the aid of Clodius he had put down Cicero by his cabals and driven him out of Italy.

XV. Such is said to have been the course of Cæsar's life before his Gallic campaigns.[478] But the period of his wars which he afterwards fought and his expedition by which he subdued Gaul, is just like a new beginning in his career and the commencement of a new course of life and action, in which he showed himself as a soldier and a general inferior to none who have gained admiration as leaders and been the greatest men: for whether we compare Cæsar's exploits with those of the Fabii, Scipios, and Metelli, or with those of his contemporaries or immediate predecessors, Sulla and Marius and both the Luculli or even Pompeius himself, whose fame, high as the heavens, was blossoming at that time in every kind of military virtue, Cæsar will be found to surpass them all—his superiority over one appearing in the difficulties of the country in which he carried on his campaigns, over another in the extent of country subdued, over a third in the number and courage of the enemy whom he defeated, over another again in the savage manners and treacherous character of the nations that he brought to civility, over a fourth in his clemency and mildness to the conquered, over another again in his donations and liberality to his soldiers; and in fine his superiority over all other generals appears by the numbers of battles that he fought and of enemies that he slew. For in somewhat less than ten years during which he carried on his campaign in Gaul he took by storm above eight hundred cities, and subdued three hundred nations, and fought with three millions of men at different times, of whom he destroyed one million in battle and took as many prisoners.

XVI.[479] So great were the good-will and devotion of [Pg 397]Cæsar's soldiers to him, that those who under other generals were in no way superior to ordinary soldiers, were invincible and irresistible and ready to meet any danger for Cæsar's glory. An instance of this is Acilius, who in the sea-fight of Massalia[480] boarded one of the enemy's ships and had his right hand cut off with a sword, but he still kept hold of his shield with the left hand and striking at the faces of the enemy drove all to flight and got possession of the vessel. Another instance was Cassius Scæva,[481] who in the fight at Dyrrachium had one eye destroyed by an arrow, his shoulder transfixed with one javelin and his thigh with another, and on his shield he had received the blows of one hundred and thirty missiles. In this plight he called to the enemy as if he designed to surrender himself, and two of them accordingly approached him, but with his sword he lopped off one man's shoulder and wounding the other in the face, put him to flight, and finally he escaped himself with the aid of his friends. In Britannia on one occasion the natives had attacked the foremost centurions who had got into a marshy spot full of water, upon which, in the presence of Cæsar who was viewing the contest, a soldier rushed into the midst of the enemy, and after performing many conspicuous acts of valour, rescued the centurions from the barbarians, who took to flight. The soldier, with difficulty attempting to cross after all the rest, plunged into the muddy stream, and with great trouble and the loss of his shield, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking, he got safe over. While those who were about Cæsar were admiring his conduct and coming to receive him with congratulations and shouts, the soldier, with the greatest marks of dejection and tears in his eyes, fell down at Cæsar's feet and begged pardon for the loss of his shield. [Pg 398]Again, in Libya, Scipio's party having taken one of Cæsar's ships in which was Granius Petro, who had been appointed quæstor, made booty of all the rest, but offered to give the quæstor his life; but he replying that it was the fashion with Cæsar's soldiers to give and not to accept mercy, killed himself with his own sword.

XVII. This courage and emulation Cæsar cherished and created, in the first place by distributing rewards and honours without stint, and thus showing that he did not get wealth from the enemy for his own enjoyment and pleasure, but that it was treasured up with him as the common reward of courage, and that he was rich only in proportion as he rewarded deserving soldiers; and in the next place by readily undergoing every danger and never shrinking from any toil. Now they did not so much admire Cæsar's courage, knowing his love of glory; but his endurance of labour beyond his body's apparent power of sustaining it, was a matter of astonishment, for he was of a spare habit, and had a white and soft skin, and was subject to complaints in the head and to epileptic fits, which, as it is said, first attacked him at Corduba;[482] notwithstanding all this, he did not make his feeble health an excuse for indulgence, but he made military service the means of his cure, by unwearied journeying, frugal diet, and by constantly keeping in the open air and enduring fatigue, struggling with his malady and keeping his body proof against its attacks. He generally slept in chariots or in litters, making even his repose a kind of action; and in the daytime he used to ride in a vehicle to the garrisons, cities and camps, with a slave by his side, one of those who were expert at taking down what was dictated on a journey, and a single soldier behind him armed with a sword. He used to travel so quick that on his first journey from Rome he reached the Rhodanus[483] in [Pg 399]eight days. From his boyhood he was a good horseman, for he had been accustomed to place his hands behind him and, holding them close together on his back, to put the horse to his full speed. In that campaign he also practised himself in dictating letters as he was riding and thus giving employment to two scribes, and as Oppius[484] says, to more. He is said also to have introduced the practice of communicating with his friends by letters, as there was no time for personal interviews on urgent affairs, owing to the amount of business and the size of the city. This anecdote also is cited as a proof of his indifference as to diet. On one occasion when he was entertained at supper by his host Valerius Leo[485] in Mediolanum, asparagus was served up with myrum poured on it instead of oil, which Cæsar ate without taking any notice of it, and reproved his friends who were out of humour on the occasion. "You should be content," he said, "not to eat what you don't like; but to find fault with your host's ill-breeding is to be as ill-bred as himself." Once upon a journey he was compelled by a storm to take shelter in a poor man's hut, which contained only a single chamber and that hardly large enough for one person, on which he observed to his friends that the post of honour must be given to the worthiest and the place of safety to the weakest; and he bade Oppius lie down while he and the rest slept in the porch.

XVIII. Cæsar's first Gallic campaign was against the Helvetii[486] and Tigurini, who had burnt their cities, twelve [Pg 400]in number, and their villages, of which there were four hundred, and were advancing through that part of Gaul which was subject to the Romans, like the Cimbri and Teutones of old, to whom they were considered to be not inferior in courage and in numbers equal, being in all three hundred thousand, of whom one hundred and ninety thousand were fighting men. The Tigurini were not opposed by Cæsar in person, but by Labienus, who was sent against them by Cæsar and totally defeated them near the Arar. The Helvetii fell on Cæsar unexpectedly as he was leading his forces to a friendly city, but he succeeded in making his way to a strong position, where he rallied his army and prepared for battle. A horse being brought to him, he said, "I shall want this for the pursuit after I have defeated the enemy; but let us now move on against them;" and accordingly he made the charge on foot. After a long and difficult contest, the Helvetian warriors were driven back, but the hardest struggle was about the chariots and the camp, for the Helvetians made a stand there and a desperate resistance, and also their wives and children, who fought till they were cut to pieces, and the battle was hardly over at midnight. This glorious deed of victory Cæsar followed up by one still better, for he brought together those who had escaped from the battle and compelled them to re-occupy the tract which they had left and to rebuild the cities which they had destroyed; and the number of these was above one hundred thousand. His object in this measure was to prevent the Germans from crossing the Rhenus and occupying the vacant country.

XIX. His next contest was with the Germans and for the immediate defence of the Gauls, although he had before this made an alliance with their king Ariovistus[487] [Pg 401]in Rome. But the Germans were intolerable neighbours to Cæsar's subjects, and if opportunity offered, it was supposed that they would not remain satisfied with what they had, but would invade and occupy Gaul. Cæsar observing his officers afraid of the approaching contest, and particularly the men of rank and the youths who had joined him in the expectation of finding a campaign with Cæsar a matter of pleasure and profit, called them to a public assembly and bade them leave him and not fight against their inclination since they were so cowardly and effeminate: as for himself he said he would take the tenth legion by itself and lead it against the enemy, knowing that he should not have to deal with a braver enemy than the Cimbri, and that he was not a worse general than Marius. Upon this the tenth legion sent a deputation of their body to thank him, but the rest of the legions abused their own officers, and the whole army, full of impetuosity and eagerness, all followed Cæsar, marching for many days, till they encamped within two hundred stadia of the enemy. The courage of Ariovistus was somewhat broken by the bare approach of the Romans; for as he had supposed that the Romans would not stand the attack of the Germans, and he never expected that they would turn assailants, he was amazed at Cæsar's daring and he also saw that his own army was disturbed. The spirit of the Germans was still more blunted by the predictions of their wise women, who observing the eddies in the rivers and drawing signs from the whirlings and noise of the waters, foreboded the future and declared that the army ought not to fight before it was new moon. Cæsar hearing of this and perceiving that the Germans were inactive, thought it a good opportunity for engaging with them, while they were out of spirits instead of sitting still and waiting for their time. By attacking their fortifications and the hills on which they were encamped, he irritated the Germans and provoked them to come down in passion and fight. The Germans were [Pg 402]completely routed and pursued to the Rhenus a distance of four hundred stadia, and the whole of this space was strewed with dead bodies and arms. Ariovistus with a few escaped across the river. The dead are said to have been eighty thousand in number.

XX. After these exploits he left his forces among the Sequani[488] to winter, and with the view of attending to what was going on at Rome, came down to Gaul about the Padus, which was a part of his province; for the river Rubico separates the rest of Italy from Gaul beneath the Alps. Fixing his residence there, he carried on his political intrigues, and many persons came to visit him to whom he gave what they asked for; and he dismissed all either with their wishes satisfied, or with hopes. During the whole period of his government in Gaul, he conducted his operations without attracting any attention from Pompeius, though at one time he was subduing the enemy by the arms of the citizens, and at another capturing and subjecting the citizens by the money which he got from the enemy. Hearing that the Belgæ[489] had risen in arms, who were the most powerful nation of the Gauls and in possession of a third part of all Gaul, and that they had assembled many ten thousands of armed men, he immediately turned about and went against them with all possible expedition; and falling upon the enemy while they were plundering the Gauls who were in alliance with the Romans, he put to flight and destroyed those who were collected in greatest numbers and the chief part of them after an unsuccessful resistance, and such was the slaughter that the Romans crossed the lakes [Pg 403]and deep rivers over the dead bodies. Of the rebels all who dwelt near the ocean surrendered without resistance; but against the fiercest and most warlike of those in these parts, the Nervii,[490] Cæsar led his forces. The Nervii, who inhabited the dense thickets and had placed their families and property in a deep recess of the forest as far as possible from the enemy, suddenly, to the number of sixty thousand, attacked Cæsar while he was fortifying his camp and not expecting a battle, and they put the Roman cavalry to flight, and surrounding the twelfth and seventh legions, killed all the centurions. If Cæsar had not seized a shield and, making his way through the first ranks, charged the barbarians, and if the tenth legion had not run down from the heights to support him when he was in danger of being overpowered, and broken the ranks of the enemy, it is supposed that not a single Roman would have escaped. Encouraged by Cæsar's intrepidity, the Romans fought, as the saying is, beyond their strength, but yet they could not put the Nervii to flight, who defended themselves till they were cut to pieces. Out of sixty thousand only five hundred are said to have escaped; and three senators out of four hundred.

XXI. The Senate on receiving intelligence of this victory, decreed that for fifteen days[491] there should be sacrifices to the gods and cessation from all business, with feasting, which had never been done before, for so long a time. For the danger was considered to have been great, so many nations having broken out at once; and because Cæsar was the conqueror, the good will of the many towards him made the victory more splendid. And accordingly, having settled affairs in Gaul, he again spent the winter in the plain of the Padus, and employed himself in intriguing at Rome. Not only the candidates [Pg 404]for the offices of the State carried their election by Cæsar supplying them with money which they spent in bribing the people, and directed all their measures to the increase of Cæsar's power, but the greater part of the Romans most distinguished for rank and political power, came to see him at Luca,[492] Pompeius and Crassus, and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos, proconsul of Iberia, so that there were a hundred and twenty lictors there, and more than two hundred senators. Their deliberations resulted in this: it was agreed that Pompeius and Crassus should be made consuls, and that Cæsar should have an allowance of money and five additional years in his province, which to all reflecting people seemed the most extravagant thing of all. For those who were receiving so much from Cæsar, urged the Senate to grant him money as if he had none, or rather compelled the Senate to do it, groaning as it were over its own decrees. Cato, indeed, was not present, for he had been purposely sent out of the way on a mission to Cyprus; and Favonius, who affected to imitate Cato, finding he could do nothing by his opposition, hastily left the Senate and began to clamour to the people. But nobody attended to him, some from fear of displeasing Pompeius and Crassus, but the greater part kept quiet to please Cæsar, living on hopes from him.

XXII. Cæsar again returned to his troops in Gaul where he found much war in the country, for two great German nations had just crossed the Rhenus for the purpose of getting land; the one nation was called Usipes,[493] and the other Tenteritæ. Respecting the battle with them, Cæsar says in his Commentaries,[494] that the [Pg 405]barbarians, while they were treating with him during a truce, attacked on their march and so put to flight his own cavalry to the number of five thousand with eight hundred of their own, for his men were not expecting an attack; that they then sent other ambassadors to him intending to deceive him again, whom he detained, and then led his army against the barbarians, considering all faith towards such faithless men and violators of truces to be folly. But Tanusius[495] says that while the senate were decreeing festivals and sacrifices for the victory, Cato delivered it as his opinion, that they ought to give up Cæsar to the barbarians, and so purge themselves of the violation of the truce on behalf of the city, and turn the curse on the guilty man. Of those who had crossed the river there were slaughtered to the number of four hundred thousand, and the few who recrossed the river were received by the Sugambri[496] a German tribe. Cæsar laying hold of this ground of complaint against the Germans, and being also greedy of glory and desirous to be the first man to cross the Rhenus with an army, began to build a bridge over the river, which was very broad, and in this part of the bed spread out widest, and was rough, and ran with a strong current so as to drive the trunks of trees that were carried down and logs of wood against the supports of the bridge,[497] and tear them asunder. But Cæsar [Pg 406]planted large timbers across the bed of the river above the bridge to receive the trees that floated down, and thus bridling the descending current, beyond all expectation he accomplished the completion of the bridge in ten days.

XXIII. Cæsar now led his troops over the river, no one venturing to oppose him, and even the Suevi, the most valiant of the Germans, retired with their property into deep woody valleys. After devastating with fire the enemy's country and encouraging all those who favoured the Romans, he returned into Gaul after spending eighteen days in Germany. His expedition against the Britanni[498] was notorious for its daring: for he was [Pg 407]the first who entered the western Ocean with an armament and sailed through the Atlantic sea, leading an army to war; and by attempting to occupy an island of incredible magnitude, which furnished matter for much dispute to numerous writers, who affirmed that the name and the accounts about it were pure inventions, for it never had existed and did not then exist, he extended the Roman supremacy beyond the inhabited world. After twice crossing over to the island from the opposite coast of Gaul, and worsting the enemy in many battles rather than advantaging his own men, for there was nothing worth taking from men who lived so wretched a life and were so poor, he brought the war to a close not such as he wished, but taking hostages from the king and imposing a tribute, he retired from the island. On his return he found letters which were just going to cross [Pg 408]over to him from his friends in Rome, informing him of his daughter's death, who died in child-birth in the house of her husband Pompeius. Great was the grief of Pompeius, and great was the grief of Cæsar; and their friends were also troubled, as the relationship was now dissolved which maintained peace and concord in the State, which but for this alliance was threatened with disturbance. The child also died after surviving the mother only a few days. Now the people, in spite of the tribunes, carried Julia[499] to the Field of Mars, where her obsequies were celebrated; and there she lies.

XXIV. As the force of Cæsar was now large, he was obliged to distribute it in many winter encampments. But while he was on his road to Italy, according to his custom, there was another general rising of the Gauls, and powerful armies scouring the country attempted to destroy the winter camps, and attacked the Roman entrenchments. The most numerous and bravest of the revolted Gauls under Abriorix destroyed Cotta[500] and Titurius with their army; and the legion under Cicero[501] they surrounded with sixty thousand men and blockaded, and they came very near taking the camp by storm, for all the Romans had been wounded and were courageously defending themselves above their strength. When this intelligence reached Cæsar, who was at a distance, he quickly turned about, and getting together seven thousand [Pg 409]men in all, he hurried to release Cicero from the blockade. The besiegers were aware of his approach and met him with the intention of cutting him off at once, for they despised the fewness of his numbers. But Cæsar, deceiving the enemy, avoided them continually, and having occupied a position which was advantageous to one who had to contend against many with a small force, he fortified his camp, and kept his men altogether from fighting; and he made them increase the height of the ramparts and build up the gates as if they were afraid, his manœuvre being to make the enemy despise him, till at last when they made their assault in scattered bodies, urged by self-confidence, sallying out he put them to flight and killed many of them.

XXV.[502] The frequent defections of the Gauls in those parts were thus quieted, and also by Cæsar during the winter moving about in all directions and carefully watching disturbances. For there had come to him from Italy three legions to replace those that had perished, Pompeius having lent him two of those which were under his command, and one legion having been newly raised in Gaul upon the Padus. But in the course of time there showed themselves, what had long in secret been planted and spread abroad by the most powerful men among the most warlike tribes, the elements of the greatest and the most dangerous of all the wars in Gaul, strengthened by a numerous body of young men armed and collected from all quarters, and by great stores brought together, and fortified cities, and countries difficult of access. And at that time, during the winter, frozen rivers and forests buried in snow, and plains overflowed by winter torrents, and in some parts paths that could not be discovered for the depth of the snow, and in other parts the great uncertainty of a march through marshes and streams diverted from their course, seemed to place the proceedings of the insurgents altogether beyond any attempt on the part of Cæsar. Accordingly many tribes had revolted, but the leaders of the revolt were the Arvenni and the Car[Pg 410]nuntini; Vergentorix was elected to the supreme direction of the war, he whose father the Gauls had put to death on the ground of aiming at a tyranny.

XXVI. Vergentorix,[503] dividing his force into many parts, and placing over them many commanders, began to gain over all the surrounding country as far as those who bordered on the Arar, it being his design, as Cæsar's enemies in Rome were combining against him, to rouse all Gaul to war. If he had attempted this a little later, when Cæsar was engaged in the civil war, alarms no less than those from the invasion of the Cimbri would have seized on Italy. But now Cæsar, who appears to have had the talent for making the best use of all opportunities in war, and particularly critical seasons, as soon as he heard of the rising, set out on his march, by the very roads[504] that he traversed, and the impetuosity and rapidity of his march in so severe a winter letting the barbarians see that an invincible and unvanquished army was coming against them. For where no one believed that a messenger or a letter-carrier from him could make his way in a long time, there was Cæsar seen with all his army, at once ravaging their lands, and destroying the forts, taking cities, and receiving those who changed sides and came over to him, till at last even the nation of the Edui[505] declared against him, who up to this time had called themselves brothers of the Romans, and had received signal distinction, but now by joining the insurgents they greatly [Pg 411]dispirited Cæsar's troops. In consequence of this, Cæsar moved from those parts, and passed over the territory of the Lingones,[506] wishing to join the Sequani, who were friends, and formed a bulwark in front of Italy against the rest of Gaul. There the enemy fell upon him and hemmed him in with many ten thousands, upon which Cæsar resolved to fight a decisive battle against the combined forces, and after a great contest, he gained a victory at last, and with great slaughter, routed the barbarians; but at first it appears that he sustained some loss, and the Aruveni show a dagger[507] suspended in a temple, which they say was taken from Cæsar. Cæsar himself afterwards saw it, and smiled; and when his friends urged him to take it down, he would not, because he considered it consecrated.

XXVII. However, the chief part of those who then escaped, fled with the king to the city of Alesia.[508] And [Pg 412]while Cæsar was besieging this city, which was considered to be impregnable by reason of the strength of the walls and the number of the defenders, there fell upon him from without a danger great beyond all expectation. For the strength of all the nations in Gaul assembling in arms came against Alesia, to the number of three hundred thousand; and the fighting men in the city were not fewer than one hundred and seventy thousand; so that Cæsar being caught between two such forces and blockaded, was compelled to form two walls for his protection, the one towards the city, and the other opposite those who had come upon him, since, if these forces should unite, his affairs would be entirely ruined. On many accounts then, and with good reason, the hazard before the walls of Alesia was famed abroad, as having produced deeds of daring and skill such as no other struggle had done; but it is most worthy of admiration that Cæsar engaged with so many thousands outside of the town and defeated them without it being known to those in the city; and still more admirable, that this was also unknown to the Romans who were guarding the wall towards the city. For they knew nothing of the victory till they heard the weeping of the men in Alesia and the wailing of the women, when they saw on the other side many shields adorned with silver and gold, and many breastplates smeared with blood, and also cups and Gallic tents conveyed by the Romans to their camp. So quickly did so mighty a force, like a phantom or a dream, vanish out of sight and disperse, the greater part of the men having fallen in battle. But those who held Alesia, after giving no small trouble to themselves and to Cæsar, at last surrendered; and the leader of the whole war, Vergentorix, putting on his best armour, and equipping his horse, came out through the gates, and riding round Cæsar who was seated, and then leaping down from his horse, he threw off his complete armour, and seating himself at Cæsar's feet, he re[Pg 413]mained there till he was delivered up to be kept for the triumph.

XXVIII.[509] Cæsar had long ago resolved to put down Pompeius, as Pompeius also had fully resolved to do towards him. For now that Crassus had lost his life among the Parthians, who kept a watch over both of them, it remained for one of them, in order to be the chief, to put down him who was, and to him who was the chief, to take off the man whom he feared, in order that this might not befall him. But it had only recently occurred to Pompeius to take alarm, and hitherto he had despised Cæsar, thinking it would be no difficult thing for the man whom he had elevated to be again depressed by him; but Cæsar, who had formed his design from the beginning, like an athlete, removed himself to a distance from his antagonists, and exercised himself in the Celtic wars, and thus disciplined his troops and increased his reputation, being elevated by his exploits to an equality with the victories of Pompeius; also laying hold of pretexts, some furnished by the conduct of Pompeius himself, and others by the times and the disordered state of the administration at Rome, owing to which, those who were candidates for magistracies placed tables in public and shamelessly bribed the masses, and the people being hired went down to show their partisanship not with votes on behalf of their briber, but with bows and swords and slings. And after polluting the Rostra with blood and dead bodies, they separated, leaving the city to anarchy, like a ship carried along without a pilot, so that sensible men were well content if matters should result in nothing worse than a monarchy after such madness and such tempest. And there were many who even ventured to say publicly that the state of affairs could only be remedied by a monarchy, and that they ought to submit to this remedy when applied by the mildest of physicians, hinting at Pompeius. But when Pompeius in what he said affected to decline the honour, though in fact he was more than anything else labouring to bring about his appointment as dictator, Cato, who saw through his intention, persuaded the Senate to appoint [Pg 414]him sole consul, that he might not by violent means get himself made dictator, and might be contented with a mere constitutional monarchy. They also decreed an additional period for his provinces: and he had two, Iberia[510] and all Libya, which he administered by sending Legati and maintaining armies, for which he received out of the public treasury a thousand talents every year.

XXIX. Upon this, Cæsar began to canvass for a consulship by sending persons to Rome, and also for a prorogation of the government of his provinces. At first Pompeius kept silent, but Marcellus[511] and Lentulus opposed his claim, for they hated Cæsar on other grounds, and they added to what was necessary what was not necessary, to dishonour and insult him. For they deprived of the citizenship the inhabitants of Novum Comum[512] a colony lately settled by Cæsar in Gaul; and Marcellus, who was consul, punished with stripes one of the Senators of Novum Comum who had come to Rome, and added too this insult, "That he put these marks upon him to show that he was not a Roman," and he told him to go and show them to Cæsar. After the consulship of Marcellus, when Cæsar had now profusely poured forth his Gallic wealth for all those engaged in public life to draw from, and had released Curio[513] the tribune from many debts, and given to Paulus the consul fifteen hundred talents, out of which he decorated the Forum with the Basilica, a famous monument which he built in place of the old one called Fulvia;—under these circumstances, Pompeius, fearing cabal, both openly himself and by means of his friends exerted himself to have a successor[514] appointed to Cæsar in his government, and he sent and demanded back of him the soldiers[515] which he had lent to Cæsar for the Gallic wars. Cæsar sent [Pg 415]the men back after giving each of them a present of two hundred and fifty drachmæ. The officers who led these troops to Pompeius, spread abroad among the people reports about Cæsar which were neither decent nor honest; and they misled Pompeius by ill-founded hopes, telling him that the army of Cæsar longed to see him, and that while he with difficulty directed affairs at Rome owing to the odium produced by secret intrigues, the force with Cæsar was all ready for him, and that if Cæsar's soldiers should only cross over to Italy, they would forthwith be on his side: so hateful, they said, had Cæsar become to them on account of his numerous campaigns, and so suspected owing to their fear of monarchy. With all this Pompeius was inflated, and he neglected to get soldiers in readiness, as if he were under no apprehension; but by words and resolution he was overpowering Cæsar, as he supposed, by carrying decrees against him, which Cæsar cared not for at all. It is even said that one of the centurions who had been sent by him to Rome, while standing in front of the Senate-house, on hearing that the Senate would not give Cæsar a longer term in his government. "But this," he said, "shall give it," striking the hilt of his sword with his hand.

XXX. However, the claim of Cæsar at least had a striking show of equity. For he proposed that he should lay down his arms and that when Pompeius had done the same and both had become private persons, they should get what favours they could from the citizens; and he argued that if they took from him his power and confirmed to Pompeius what he had, they would be stigmatizing one as a tyrant and making the other a tyrant in fact. When Curio made this proposal before the people on behalf of Cæsar, he was loudly applauded; and some even threw chaplets of flowers upon him as on a victorious athlete. Antonius, who was tribune, produced to the people a letter[516] of Cæsar's on this subject which he had [Pg 416]received, and he read it in spite of the consuls. But in the Senate, Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius, made a motion, that if Cæsar did not lay down his arms on a certain day, he should be declared an enemy. Upon the consuls putting the question, whether they were of opinion that Pompeius should dismiss his troops, and again, whether Cæsar should, very few voted in favour of the former question, and all but a few voted in favour of the latter; but when Antonius[517] on his side moved that both should dismiss their troops, all unanimously were in favour of that opinion. Scipio made a violent opposition, and Lentulus, the consul, called out that they needed arms to oppose a robber, and not votes, on which the Senate broke up and the Senators changed their dress as a sign of lamentation on account of the dissension.

XXXI. But when letters had come from Cæsar by which he appeared to moderate his demands, for he proposed to surrender everything else except Gaul within the Alps and Illyricum with two legions, which should be given to him to hold till he was a candidate for a second consulship, and Cicero the orator, who had just returned from Cilicia and was labouring at a reconciliation, was inducing Pompeius to relent, and Pompeius was ready to yield in everything else except as to the soldiers, whom he still insisted on taking from Cæsar, Cicero urged the friends of Cæsar to give in and to come to a settlement on the terms of the above-mentioned provinces and the allowance of six thousand soldiers, only to Cæsar. Pompeius was ready to yield and to give way; but the consul Lentulus would not let him, and he went so far as to insult and drive with dishonour from the Senate both Curio and Antonius, thus himself contriving for Cæsar the most specious of all pretexts, by the aid of which indeed Cæsar mainly excited the passions of his men, pointing out to them that men of distinction and magistrates had made their escape in hired vehicles in the [Pg 417]dress of slaves. For, putting on this guise through fear, they had stolen out of Rome.

XXXII. Now Cæsar had about him no more than three hundred horse and five thousand legionary soldiers; for the rest of his army, which had been left beyond the Alps, was to be conducted by those whom he sent for that purpose. Seeing that the commencement of his undertaking and the onset did not so much require a large force at the present, but were to be effected by the alarm which a bold stroke would create and by quickly seizing his opportunity, for he concluded that he should strike terror by his unexpected movement more easily than he could overpower his enemies by attacking them with all his force, he ordered his superior officers and centurions with their swords alone and without any other weapons to take Ariminum, a large city of Gaul, avoiding all bloodshed and confusion as much as possible; and he intrusted the force to Hortensius.[518] Cæsar himself passed the day in public, standing by some gladiators who were exercising, and looking on; and a little before evening after attending to his person and going into the mess-room and staying awhile with those who were invited to supper, just as it was growing dark he rose, and courteously addressing the guests, told them to wait for his return, but he had previously given notice to a few of his friends to follow him, not all by the same route, but by different directions. Mounting one of the hired vehicles, he drove at first along another road, and then turning towards Ariminium, when he came to the stream which divides Gaul within the Alps from the rest of Italy (it is called Rubico[519] , and he [Pg 418]began to calculate as he approached nearer to the danger, and was agitated by the magnitude of the hazard, he checked his speed; and halting he considered about many things with himself in silence, his mind moving from one side to the other, and his will then underwent many changes; and he also discussed at length with his friends who were present, of whom Pollio Asinius[520] was one, all the difficulties, and enumerated the evils which would ensue to all mankind from his passage of the river, and how great a report of it they would leave to posterity. At last, with a kind of passion, as if he were throwing himself out of reflection into the future, and uttering what is the usual expression with which men preface their entry upon desperate enterprises and daring, "Let the die be cast," he hurried to cross the river; and thence advancing at full speed, he attacked Ariminum before daybreak and took it. It is said that on the night before the passage of the river, he had an impure dream,[521] for he dreamed that he was in unlawful commerce with his mother.

XXXIII. But when Ariminum was taken, as if the war had been let loose through wide gates over all the earth and sea at once, and the laws of the state were confounded together with the limits of the province, one would not have supposed that men and women only, as on other occasions, in alarm were hurrying through Italy, but that the cities themselves, rising from their [Pg 419]foundations, were rushing in flight one through another; and Rome herself, as if she were deluged by torrents, owing to the crowding of the people from the neighbouring towns and their removal, could neither easily be pacified by magistrate nor kept in order by words, and in the midst of the mighty swell and the tossing of the tempest, narrowly escaped being overturned by her own agitation. For contending emotions and violent movements occupied every place. Neither did those who rejoiced keep quiet, but in many places, as one might expect in a large city, coming into collision with those who were alarmed and sorrowing, and being full of confidence as to the future, they fell to wrangling with them; and people from various quarters assailed Pompeius, who was terror-struck and had to endure the censure of one party for strengthening Cæsar against himself and the supremacy of Rome, while others charged him with inciting Lentulus to insult Cæsar who was ready to give way and was proposing fair terms of accommodation. Favonius bade him stamp on the ground with his foot; for Pompeius on one occasion in an arrogant address to the Senate, told them not to be concerned or trouble themselves about preparations for war; when Cæsar advanced, he would stamp upon the earth with his foot and fill Italy with armies. However, even then Pompeius had the advantage over Cæsar in amount of forces: but nobody would let the man follow his own judgment: and giving way to the many false reports and alarms, that the war was now close at hand and the enemy in possession of everything, and carried away by the general movement, he declared by an edict that he saw there was tumult, and he left the city after giving his commands to the Senate to follow, and that no one should stay who preferred his country and freedom to tyranny.

XXXIV.[522] Accordingly the consuls fled without even making the sacrifices which it was usual to make before quitting the city; and most of the senators also took to flight, in a manner as if they were robbing, each [Pg 420]snatching of his own what first came to hand as if it belonged to another. There were some also who, though they had hitherto vehemently supported the party of Cæsar, through alarm at that time lost their presence of mind, and without any necessity for it were carried along with the current of that great movement. A most piteous sight was the city, when so great a storm was coming on, left like a ship whose helmsman had given her up, to be carried along and dashed against anything that lay in her way. But though this desertion of the city was so piteous a thing, men for the sake of Pompeius considered the flight to be their country, and they were quitting Rome as if it were the camp of Cæsar; for even Labienus,[523] one of Cæsar's greatest friends, who had been his legatus and had fought with him most gallantly in all the Gallic wars, then fled away from Cæsar and came to Pompeius. But Cæsar sent to Labienus both his property and his baggage; and advancing he pitched his camp close by Domitius, who with thirty cohorts held Corfinium.[524] Domitius despairing of himself asked his physician, who was a slave, for poison, and taking what was given, he drank it, intending to die. Shortly after, hearing that Cæsar showed wonderful clemency towards his prisoners, he bewailed his fate and blamed the rashness of his resolution. But on the physician assuring him that what he had taken was only a sleeping potion and not deadly, he sprung up overjoyed, and going to Cæsar, received his right hand, and yet he afterwards [Pg 421]went over again to Pompeius. This intelligence being carried to Rome made people more tranquil, and some who had fled, returned.

XXXV. Cæsar took the troops of Domitius into his service, as well as the soldiers that were raising for Pompeius whom he surprised in the cities; and having now got a numerous and formidable army, he advanced against Pompeius. Pompeius did not await his approach, but fled to Brundisium, and sending the consuls over before him with a force to Dyrrachium,[525] himself shortly after sailed from Brundisium upon the approach of Cæsar, as will be told more particularly in the Life of Pompeius.[526] Though Cæsar wished to pursue immediately, he was prevented by want of ships, and he turned back to Rome, having in sixty days without bloodshed become master of Italy. Finding the city more tranquil than he expected and many of the Senators in it, he addressed them in moderate and constitutional language,[527] urging them to send persons to Pompeius with suitable terms of accommodation; but no one listened to his proposal, either because they feared Pompeius, whom they had deserted, or supposed that Cæsar did not really mean what he said, and merely used specious words. When the tribune Metellus[528] attempted to prevent him from taking money from the reserved treasure[529] and alleged certain laws, Cæsar [Pg 422]replied, "That the same circumstances did not suit arms and laws: but do you, if you don't like what is doing, get out of the way, for war needs not bold words; when we have laid down our arms after coming to terms, then you may come forward and make your speeches to the people." "And in saying this," he continued, "I waive part of my rights, for you are mine, and all are mine, who have combined against me, now that I have caught them." Having thus spoken to Metellus he walked to the doors of the treasury; but as the keys were not found, he sent for smiths and ordered them to break the locks. Metellus again opposed him, and some commended him for it, but Cæsar, raising his voice, threatened to kill him, if he did not stop his opposition, "And this," said he, "young man, you well know, is more painful for me to have said than to do." These words alarmed Metellus and made him retire, and also caused everything else to be supplied to Cæsar for the war without further trouble, and with speed.

XXXVI. He marched against Iberia,[530] having first [Pg 423]determined to drive out Afranius and Varro, the legati of Pompeius, and having got into his power the forces and the provinces in those parts, then to advance against Pompeius without leaving any enemy in his rear. After having often been exposed to risk in his own person from ambuscades, and with his army chiefly from want of provisions, he never gave up pursuing, challenging to battle and hemming in the enemy with his lines, till he had made himself master of their camps and forces. The generals escaped to Pompeius.

XXXVII. On his return to Rome, Piso, the father-in-law of Cæsar, advised that they should send commissioners to Pompeius to treat of terms, but Isauricus opposed the measure to please Cæsar. Being chosen Dictator by the Senate, he restored the exiles, and the children of those who had suffered in the times of Sulla,[531] he reinstated in their civil rights, and he relieved the debtors by a certain abatement of the interest, and took in hand other measures of the like kind, not many in number; but in eleven days, he abdicated the monarchy, and declaring himself and Servilius Isauricus consuls[532] set out on his expedition. The rest of his forces he passed by on his hurried march, and with six hundred picked horsemen and five legions, the time being the winter solstice and the commencement of January (and this pretty nearly corresponds to the Poseideon of the Athenians), he put to sea, and crossing the Ionian gulf he took Oricum and Apollonia; but he sent back his ships to Brundisium for the soldiers whom he had left behind on his march. But while the men were still on the road, as they were already passed the vigour of their age and worn out by the number of their campaigns, they murmured against Cæsar, "Whither now will he lead us and [Pg 424]where will this man at last carry us to, hurrying us about and treating us as if we could never be worn out and as if we were inanimate things? even the sword is at last exhausted by blows, and shield and breastplate need to be spared a little after so long use. Even our wounds do not make Cæsar consider that he commands perishable bodies, and that we are but mortal towards endurance and pain; and the winter season and the storms of the sea even a god cannot command; but this man runs all risks, as if he were not pursuing his enemies, but flying from them." With such words as these they marched slowly towards Brundisium. But when they found that Cæsar had embarked, then quickly changing their temper, they reproached themselves as traitors to their Imperator; and they abused their officers also for not hastening the march. Sitting on the heights, they looked towards the sea and towards Epirus for the ships which were to carry them over to their commander.

XXXVIII. At Apollonia, as Cæsar had not a force sufficient to oppose the enemy, and the delay of the troops from Italy put him in perplexity and much uneasiness, he formed a desperate design, without communicating it to any one, to embark in a twelve-oared boat and go over to Brundisium, though the sea was commanded by so many ships of the enemy.[533] Accordingly, disguising himself in a slave's dress, he went on board by night, and throwing himself down as a person of no importance, he lay quiet. While the river Anius[534] was carrying down the boat towards the sea, the morning breeze, which at that time generally made the water smooth at the outlet of the river by driving the waves before it, was beaten down by [Pg 425]a strong wind which blew all night over the sea; and the river, chafing at the swell of the sea and the opposition of the waves, was becoming rough, being driven back by the huge blows and violent eddies, so that it was impossible for the master of the boat to make head against it; on which he ordered the men to change about, intending to turn the boat round. Cæsar perceiving this, discovered himself, and taking the master by the hand, who was alarmed at the sight of him, said, "Come, my good man, have courage and fear nothing; you carry Cæsar and the fortune of Cæsar in your boat." The sailors now forgot the storm, and sticking to their oars, worked with all their force to get out of the river. But as it was impossible to get on, after taking in much water and running great risk at the mouth of the river, Cæsar very unwillingly consented that the master should put back. On his return, the soldiers met him in crowds, and blamed him much and complained that he did not feel confident of victory even with them alone, but was vexed and exposed himself to risk on account of the absent, as if he distrusted those who were present.

XXXIX. Shortly after Antonius arrived from Brundisium with the troops; and Cæsar, being now confident, offered battle to Pompeius, who was well posted and had sufficient supplies both from land and sea, while Cæsar at first had no abundance, and afterwards was hard pressed for want of provisions: but the soldiers cut up a certain root[535] and mixing it with milk, ate it. And once, having made loaves of it, they ran up to the enemies' outposts, threw the bread into the camp, and pitched it about, adding, that so long as the earth produces such roots, they will never stop besieging Pompeius. Pompeius, however, would not let either the matter of the loaves or these words be made known to the mass of the army; for his soldiers were dispirited and dreaded the savage temper and endurance of the enemy as if they were wild beasts. There were continually skirmishes about the fortifications [Pg 426]of Pompeius, and Cæsar had the advantage in all except one, in which there was a great rout of his troops and he was in danger of losing his camp. For when Pompeius made an onset, no one stood the attack, but the trenches were filled with the dying, and Cæsar's men were falling about their own ramparts and bulwarks, being driven in disorderly flight. Though Cæsar met the fugitives and endeavoured to turn them, he had no success, and when he laid hold of the colours, those who were carrying them threw them down, so that the enemy took two and thirty, and Cæsar himself had a narrow escape with his life. A tall, strong man was running away past by Cæsar, who putting his hand upon him, ordered him to stand and face the enemy; but the man, who was completely confounded by the danger, raised his sword to strike him, on which Cæsar's shield-bearer struck the man first and cut off his shoulder. Cæsar had so completely given up his cause as lost, that when Pompeius either through caution or from some accident did not put the finishing stroke to his great success, but retreated after shutting up the fugitives within their ramparts, Cæsar said to his friends as he was retiring, To-day the victory would be with the enemy, if they had a commander who knew how to conquer. Going into his tent and lying down, Cæsar spent that night of all nights in the greatest agony and perplexity, considering that his generalship had been bad, in that while a fertile country lay near him and the rich cities of Macedonia and Thessaly, he had neglected to carry the war thither, and was now stationed on the sea which the enemy commanded with his ships, and that he was rather held in siege by want of supplies than holding the enemy in siege by his arms. Accordingly, after passing a restless night, full of uneasiness at the difficulty and danger of his present position, he broke up his camp with the determination of leading his troops into Macedonia to oppose Scipio, for he concluded that either he should draw Pompeius after him to a country where he would fight without the advantage of having the same supplies from the sea, or that he would defeat Scipio if he were left to himself.

XL. This encouraged the army of Pompeius and the [Pg 427]officers about him to stick close to Cæsar, whom they considered to have been defeated and to be making his escape; though Pompeius himself was cautious about hazarding a battle for so great a stake, and, as he was excellently furnished with everything for prolonging the war, he thought it best to wear out and weaken the vigour of the enemy, which could not be long sustained. For the best fighting men in Cæsar's army possessed experience and irresistible courage in battle; but in marchings and making encampments and assaulting fortifications and watching by night, they gave way by reason of their age, and their bodies were unwieldy for labour, and owing to weakness, had lost their alacrity. It was also reported that a pestilential disease was prevalent in Cæsar's army, which had originated in the want of proper food; and, what was chief of all, as Cæsar was neither well supplied with money nor provisions, it might be expected that in a short time his army would be broken up of itself.

XLI. For these reasons Pompeius did not wish to fight, and Cato alone commended his design, because he wished to spare the citizens; for after seeing those who had fallen in the battle to the number of a thousand, he wrapped up his face and went away with tears in his eyes. But all the rest abused Pompeius for avoiding a battle, and tried to urge him on by calling him Agamemnon and King of Kings, by which they implied that he was unwilling to lay down the sole command, and was proud at having so many officers under his orders and coming to his tent, Favonius, who aped Cato's freedom of speech, raved because they should not be able even that year to enjoy the figs of Tusculum owing to Pompeius being so fond of command; and Afranius (for he had just arrived from Iberia, where he had shown himself a bad general), being charged with betraying his army for a bribe, asked why they did not fight with the merchant who had bought the provinces of him. Pressed by all this importunity, Pompeius pursued Cæsar with the intention of fighting, though contrary to his wish. Cæsar accomplished his march with difficulty, as no one would supply him with provisions and he was universally despised on account of [Pg 428]his recent defeat; however, after taking Gomphi,[536] a Thessalian city, he had not only provisions for his army, but his men were unexpectedly relieved from their disease. For they fell in with abundance of wine, of which they drank plentifully, and revelling and rioting on their march, by means of their drunkenness, they threw off and got rid of their complaint in consequence of their bodies being brought into a different habit.

XLII. When the two armies had entered the plain of Pharsalus and pitched their camps, Pompeius again fell back into his former opinion, and there were also unlucky appearances and a vision in his sleep.[537] He dreamed that he saw himself in the theatre, applauded by the Romans. But those about him were so confident, and so fully anticipated a victory, that Domitius and Scipio and Spinther were disputing and bestirring themselves against one another about the priesthood of Cæsar, and many persons sent to Rome to hire and get possession of houses that were suitable for consuls and prætors, expecting to be elected to magistracies immediately after the war. But the cavalry showed most impatience for the battle, being sumptuously equipped with splendid armour, and priding themselves on their well-fed horses and fine persons, and on their numbers also, for they were seven thousand against Cæsar's thousand. The number of the infantry also was unequal, there being forty-five thousand matched against twenty-two thousand.

XLIII. Cæsar, calling his soldiers together and telling them that Corfinius[538] was close at hand with two legions, [Pg 429]and that other cohorts to the number of fifteen under Calenus were encamped near Megara and Athens, asked if they would wait for them or hazard a battle by themselves. The soldiers cried out aloud that they did not wish him to wait, but rather to contrive and so manage his operations that they might soonest come to a battle with their enemies. While he was performing a lustration of the army, as soon as he had sacrificed the first victim, the soothsayer said that within three days there would be a decisive battle with the enemy. Upon Cæsar asking him, if he saw any favourable sign in the victims as to the result of the battle also, he replied, "You can answer this better for yourself: the gods indicate a great change and revolution of the actual state of things to a contrary state, so that if you think yourself prosperous in your present condition, expect the worst fortune; but if you do not, expect the better." As Cæsar was taking his round to inspect the watches the night before the battle about midnight, there was seen in the heavens a fiery torch, which seemed to pass over Cæsar's camp and assuming a bright and flame-like appearance to fall down upon the camp of Pompeius. In the morning watch they perceived that there was also a panic confusion among the enemy. However, as Cæsar did not expect that the enemy would fight on that day, he began to break up his camp with the intention of marching to Scotussa.

XLIV. The tents were already taken down when the scouts rode up to him with intelligence that the enemy were coming down to battle, whereupon Cæsar was overjoyed, and after praying to the gods he arranged his battle in three divisions. He placed Domitius Calvinus in command of the centre, Antonius had the left wing, and he commanded the right, intending to fight in the tenth legion. Observing that the cavalry of the enemy were posting themselves opposite to this wing and fearing their splendid appearance and their numbers, he ordered six cohorts to come round to him from the last line without being observed and he placed them in the rear of [Pg 430]the right wing with orders what to do when the enemy's cavalry made their attack. Pompeius commanded his own right, and Domitius the left, and the centre was under Scipio, his father-in-law. But all the cavalry crowded to the left, intending to surround the right wing of the enemy and to make a complete rout of the men who were stationed about the general; for they believed that no legionary phalanx, however deep, could resist, but that their opponents would be completely crushed and broken to pieces by an attack of so many cavalry at once. When the signal for attack was going to be given on both sides, Pompeius ordered the legionary soldiers to stand with their spears presented and in close order to wait the attack of the enemy till they were within a spear's throw. But Cæsar says that here also Pompeius made a mistake, not knowing that the first onset, accompanied with running and impetuosity, gives force to the blows, and at the same time fires the courage, which is thus fanned in every way. As Cæsar was about to move his phalanx and was going into action, the first centurion that he spied was a man who was faithful to him and experienced in war, and was encouraging those under his command and urging them to vigorous exertion. Cæsar addressing him by name said, "What hopes have we Caius Crassinius,[539] and how are our men as to courage?" Crassinius stretching out his right hand and calling out aloud, said, "We shall have a splendid victory, Cæsar; and you shall praise me whether I survive the day or die." Saying this, he was the first to fall on the enemy at his full speed and carrying with him the hundred and twenty soldiers who were under his command. Having cut through the first rank, he was advancing with great slaughter of the enemy and was driving them from their ground, when he was stopped by a blow from a sword through the mouth, and the point came out at the back of his neck.

XLV. The infantry having thus rushed together in the centre and being engaged in the struggle, the cavalry of Pompeius proudly advanced from the wing, extending their companies to enclose Cæsar's right; but before they [Pg 431]fell upon the enemy, the cohorts sprang forward from among Cæsar's troops, not, according to the usual fashion of war, throwing their spears nor yet holding them in their hands and aiming at the thighs and legs of the enemy, but pushing them against their eyes and wounding them in the face; and they had been instructed to do this by Cæsar, who was confident that men who had no great familiarity with battles or wounds, and were young and very proud of their beauty and youth, would dread such wounds and would not keep their ground both through fear of the present danger and the future disfigurement. And it turned out so; for they could not stand the spears being pushed up at them nor did they venture to look at the iron that was presented against their eyes, but they turned away and covered their faces to save them; and at last, having thus thrown themselves into confusion, they turned to flight most disgracefully and ruined the whole cause. For those who had defeated the cavalry, immediately surrounded the infantry and falling on them in the rear began to cut them down. But when Pompeius saw from the other wing the cavalry dispersed in flight, he was no longer the same, nor did he recollect that he was Pompeius Magnus, but more like a man who was deprived of his understanding by the god than anything else,[540] he retired without speaking a word to his tent, and sitting down awaited the result, until the rout becoming general the enemy were assailing the ramparts, and fighting with those who defended them. Then, as if he had recovered his senses and uttering only these words, as it is reported, "What even to the ramparts!" he put off his military and general's dress, and taking one suited for a fugitive, stole away. But what fortunes he afterwards had, and how he gave himself up to the Egyptians and was murdered, I shall tell in the Life of Pompeius.

XLVI. When Cæsar entered the camp of Pompeius and saw the bodies of those who were already killed, and the slaughter still going on among the living, he said with a groan: They would have it so; they brought me [Pg 432]into such a critical position that I, Caius Cæsar, who have been successful in the greatest wars, should have been condemned, if I had disbanded my troops. Asinius Pollio[541] says that Cæsar uttered these words on that occasion in Latin, and that he wrote them down in Greek. He also says that the chief part of those who were killed were slaves, and they were killed when the camp was taken; and that not more than six thousand soldiers fell. Of those who were taken prisoners, Cæsar drafted most into his legions; and he pardoned many men of distinction, among whom was Brutus, who afterwards murdered him. Cæsar is said to have been very much troubled at his not being found, but when Brutus, who had escaped unhurt, presented himself to Cæsar, he was greatly pleased.

XLVII. There were many prognostics of the victory, but the most remarkable is that which is reported as having appeared at Tralles.[542] In the temple of Victory there stood a statue of Cæsar, and the ground about it was naturally firm and the surface was also paved with hard stone; from this, they say, there sprung up a palm-tree by the pedestal of the statue. In Patavium, Caius Cornelius, a man who had reputation for his skill in divination, a fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livius the historian, happened to be sitting that day to watch the birds. And first of all, as Livius says, he discovered the time of the battle, and he said to those who were present that the affair was now deciding and the men were going into action. Looking again and observing the signs, he sprang up with enthusiasm and called out, "You conquer, Cæsar." The bystanders being surprised, he took the chaplet from his head and said with an oath, that he [Pg 433]would not put it on again till facts had confirmed his art. Livius affirms that these things were so.

XLVIII. Cæsar after giving the Thessalians their liberty[543] in consideration of his victory, pursued Pompeius. On reaching Asia[544] he made the Cnidians free to please Theopompus,[545] the collector of mythi, and he remitted to all the inhabitants of Asia the third of their taxes. Arriving at Alexandria[546] after the death of Pompeius, he turned away from Theodotus who brought him the head of Pompeius, but he received his seal ring[547] and shed tears over it. All the companions and intimate friends of Pompeius who were rambling about the country and had been taken by the King, he treated well and gained over to himself. He wrote to his friends in Rome, that the chief and the sweetest pleasure that he derived from his victory, was to be able to pardon any of those citizens who had fought against him. As to the war[548] there, some say [Pg 434]that it might have been avoided and that it broke out in consequence of his passion for Kleopatra and was discreditable to him and hazardous; but others blame the King's party and chiefly the eunuch Potheinus,who possessed the chief power, and having lately cut off Pompeius and driven out Kleopatra, was now secretly plotting against Cæsar; and on this account they say that Cæsar from that time passed the nights in drinking in order to protect himself. But in his public conduct Pothinus was unbearable, for he both said and did many things to bring odium on Cæsar and to insult him. While measuring out to the soldiers the worst and oldest corn he told them they must be satisfied with it and be thankful, as they were eating what belonged to others; and at the meals he used only wooden and earthen vessels, alleging that Cæsar had got all the gold and silver vessels in payment for a debt.[549] For the father of the then King owed Cæsar one thousand seven hundred and fifty times ten thousand, of which Cæsar had remitted the seven hundred and fifty to the King's sons before, but he now claimed the one thousand to maintain his army with. Upon Pothinus now bidding him take his departure and attend to his important affairs and that he should afterwards receive his money back with thanks, Cæsar said, that least of all people did he want the Egyptians as advisers, and he secretly sent for Kleopatra from the country.

XLIX. Kleopatra,[550] taking Apollodorus the Sicilian alone of all her friends with her, and getting into a small boat, [Pg 435]approached the palace as it was growing dark; and as it was impossible for her to escape notice in any other way, she got into a bed sack and laid herself out at full length, and Apollodorus, tying the sack together with a cord, carried her through the doors to Cæsar. Cæsar is said to have been first captivated by this device of Kleopatra, which showed a daring temper, and being completely enslaved by his intercourse with her and her attractions, he brought about an accommodation between Kleopatra and her brother on the terms of her being associated with him in the kingdom. A feast was held to celebrate the reconciliation, during which a slave of Cæsar, his barber, owing to his timidity in which he had no equal, leaving nothing unscrutinized, and listening and making himself very busy, found out that a plot against Cæsar was forming by Achillas the general and Potheinus the eunuch. Cæsar being made acquainted with their design, placed a guard around the apartment, and put Potheinus to death. Achillas escaped to the camp, and raised about Cæsar a dangerous and difficult war for one who with so few troops had to resist so large a city and force. In this contest the first danger that he had to encounter was being excluded from water, for the canals[551] were dammed up by the enemy; and, in the second place, an attempt being made to cut off his fleet, he was compelled to repel the danger with fire, which spreading from the arsenals to the large library[552] destroyed it; and, in the third place, in the battle near the Pharos[553] he leaped down from the mound into a small [Pg 436]boat and went to aid the combatants; but as the Egyptians were coming against him from all quarters, he threw himself into the sea and swam away with great difficulty. On this occasion it is said that he had many papers in his hands, and that he did not let them go, though the enemy were throwing missiles at him and he had to dive under the water, but holding the papers above the water with one hand, he swam with the other; but the boat was sunk immediately. At last, when the King had gone over to the enemy, Cæsar attacked and defeated them in a battle in which many fell and the King[554] himself disappeared. Leaving Kleopatra[555] Queen of Egypt, who shortly after gave birth to a child that she had by Cæsar, which the Alexandrines named Cæsarion, he marched to Syria.

L. From Syria continuing his march through Asia he heard that Domitius had been defeated by Pharnakes[556] [Pg 437]son of Mithridates, and had fled from Pontus with a few men; and that Pharnakes, who used his victory without any moderation, and was in possession of Bithynia and Cappadocia, also coveted Armenia, called the Little, and was stirring up all the kings and tetrarchs in this part. Accordingly Cæsar forthwith advanced against the man with three legions and fighting a great battle near Zela drove Pharnakes in flight from Pontus, and completely destroyed his army. In reporting to one of his friends at Rome, Amantius,[557] the celerity and rapidity of this battle, he wrote only three words: "I came, I saw, I conquered." In the Roman language the three words ending in the like form of verb, have a brevity which is not without its effect.

LI. After this, passing over to Italy he went up to Rome at the close of the year for which he had been chosen Dictator[558] the second time, though that office had never before been for a whole year; and he was elected consul for the following year. He was much blamed about a mutiny[559] that broke out among the soldiers in which [Pg 438]they killed two men of prætorian rank, Cosconius and Galba, because he reproved his men no further than by calling them citizens instead of soldiers, and he gave to each of them a thousand drachmæ, and allotted to them much land in Italy. He also bore the blame of the madness of Dolabella,[560] the covetousness of Amantius, and the drunkenness of Antonius, and the greedy tricks of Corfinius in getting the house of Pompeius, and his building it over again as if it were not fit for him; for the Romans were annoyed at these things. But Cæsar, in the present state of affairs, though he was not ignorant of these things, and did not approve of them, was compelled to employ such men in his service.

LII. As Cato[561] and Scipio, after the battle near Pharsalus, had fled to Libya, and there, with the assistance of King Juba, got together a considerable force, Cæsar determined to go against them; and about the winter solstice passing over to Sicily and wishing to cut off from the officers about him all hopes of delay and tarrying there, he placed his own tent on the margin of the waves,[562] and as soon as there was a wind he went on board and set sail with three thousand foot-soldiers and a few horsemen. Having landed them unobserved he embarked again, for he was under some apprehension about the larger part of his force; and having fallen in with it on the sea, he conducted all to the camp. Now there was with him in the army a man in other respects contemptible enough and of no note, but of the family of the Africani, and his [Pg 439]name was Scipio Sallutio;[563] and as Cæsar heard that the enemy relied on a certain old oracular answer, that it was always the privilege of the family of the Scipios to conquer in Libya, either to show his contempt of Scipio as a general by a kind of joke, or because he really wished to have the benefit of the omen himself (it is difficult to say which), he used to place this Sallutio in the front of the battles as if he were the leader of the army; for Cæsar was often compelled to engage with the enemy and to seek a battle, there being neither sufficient supply of corn for the men nor fodder for the animals, but they were compelled to take the sea-weed after washing off the salt and mixing a little grass with it by way of sweetening it, and so to feed their horses. For the Numidians, by continually showing themselves in great numbers and suddenly appearing, kept possession of the country; and on one occasion while the horsemen of Cæsar were amusing themselves with a Libyan, who was exhibiting to them his skill in dancing and playing on a flute at the same time in a surprising manner, and the men, pleased with the sight, were sitting on the ground and the boys holding their horses, the enemy suddenly coming round and falling upon them killed some, and entered the camp together with the rest, who fled in disorderly haste. And if Cæsar himself and Asinius Pollio had not come out of the camp to help the men, and checked the pursuit, the war would have been at an end. In another battle, also, the enemy had the advantage in the encounter, on which occasion it is said that Cæsar, seizing by the neck the man who bore the eagle and was running away, turned him round, and said, "There is the enemy!"

LIII. However Scipio[564] was encouraged by these advantages to hazard a decisive battle; and leaving Afranius and [Pg 440]Juba[565] encamped each separately at a short distance, he commenced making a fortified camp above a lake near the city Thapsus, intending it as a place for the whole army to sally forth from to battle and a place of refuge also. While he was thus employed, Cæsar with incredible speed making his way through woody grounds which contained certain approaches that had not been observed, surrounded part of the enemy and attacked others in front. Having put these to flight he availed himself of the critical moment and the career of fortune, by means of which he captured the camp of Afranius on the first assault, and at the first assault also he broke into the camp of the Numidians from which Juba fled; and in a small part of a single day he made himself master of three camps and destroyed fifty thousand of the enemy without losing as many as fifty of his own men. This is the account that some writers give of that battle; but others say that Cæsar was not in the action himself, but that as he was marshalling and arranging his forces, he was attacked by his usual complaint, and that perceiving it as soon as it came on, and before his senses were completely confounded and overpowered by the malady, just as he was beginning to be convulsed, he was carried to one of the neighbouring towers and stayed there quietly. Of the men of consular and prætorian rank who escaped from the battle, some killed themselves when they were being taken, and Cæsar put many to death who were captured.

LIV. Being ambitious to take Cato[566] alive, Cæsar hastened to Utica, for Cato was guarding that city and was not in the battle. Hearing that Cato had put an end [Pg 441]to himself, Cæsar was evidently annoyed, but for what reason is uncertain. However, he said, "Cato, I grudge you your death, for you also have grudged me the preservation of your life." But the work which be wrote against Cato after his death cannot be considered an indication that he was mercifully disposed towards him or in a mood to be easily reconciled. For how can we suppose that he would have spared Cato living, when he poured out against him after he was dead so much indignation? However, some persons infer from his mild treatment of Cicero and Brutus and ten thousand others of his enemies that this discourse also was composed not from any enmity, but from political ambition, for the following reason. Cicero wrote a panegyric on Cato and gave the composition the title "Cato"; and the discourse was eagerly read by many, as one may suppose, being written by the most accomplished of orators on the noblest subject. This annoyed Cæsar, who considered the panegyric on a man whose death he had caused to be an attack upon himself. Accordingly in his treatise he got together many charges against Cato; and the work is entitled "Anticato."[567] Both compositions have many admirers, as well on account of Cæsar as of Cato.

LV. However, on his return[568] to Rome from Libya, in the first place Cæsar made a pompous harangue to the people about his victory, in which he said that he had conquered a country large enough to supply annually to the treasury two hundred thousand Attic medimni of corn, and three million litræ of oil. In the next place he celebrated triumphs,[569] the Egyptian, the Pontic, and the [Pg 442]Libyan, not of course for his victory over Scipio, but over Juba.[570] On that occasion Juba also, the son of King Juba, who was still an infant, was led in the triumphal procession, most fortunate in his capture, for from being a barbarian and a Numidian he became numbered among the most learned of the Greek writers. After the triumphs Cæsar made large presents to the soldiers, and entertained the people with banquets and spectacles, feasting the whole population at once at twenty-two thousand triclina,[571] and exhibiting also shows of gladiators and naval combats in honour of his daughter Julia who had been dead for some time. After the shows a census[572] was taken, in which instead of the three hundred and twenty thousand of former enumerations, there were enrolled only one hundred and fifty thousand. So much desolation had the civil wars produced and so large a proportion of the people had been destroyed in them, not to reckon the miseries that had befallen the rest of Italy and the provinces.

LVI. All this being completed, Cæsar was made [Pg 443]consul[573] for the fourth time, and set out to Iberia to attack the sons of Pompeius, who were still young, but had got together a force of amazing amount and displayed a boldness that showed they were worthy to command, so that they put Cæsar in the greatest danger. The great battle was fought near the city of Munda,[574] in which Cæsar, seeing that his men were being driven from their ground and making a feeble resistance, ran through the arms and the ranks calling out, "If they had no sense of shame, to take and deliver him up to the boys." With difficulty and after great exertion he put the enemy to flight and slaughtered above thirty thousand of them, but he lost a thousand of his own best soldiers. On retiring after the battle he said to his friends, that he had often fought for victory, but now for the first time he had fought for existence. He gained this victory on the day of the festival of Bacchus, on which day it is said that Pompeius Magnus also went out to battle; the interval was four years. The younger of the sons[575] of Pompeius escaped, but after a few days Didius[576] brought the head of the elder. This was the last war that Cæsar was engaged in; but the triumph[577] that was celebrated for [Pg 444]this victory vexed the Romans more than anything else. For this was no victory over foreign leaders nor yet over barbarian kings, but Cæsar had destroyed the children of the bravest of the Romans, who had been unfortunate, and had completely ruined his family, and it was not seemly to celebrate a triumph over the calamities of his country, exulting in these things, for which the only apology both before gods and men was that they had been done of necessity; and that too when he had never before sent either messenger or public letters to announce a victory gained in the civil wars, but had from motives of delicacy rejected all glory on that account.

LVII. However, the Romans, gave way before the fortune of the man and received the bit, and considering the monarchy to be a respite from the civil wars and miseries they appointed him dictator[578] for life. This was confessedly a tyranny, for the monarchy received in addition to its irresponsibility the character of permanency; and when Cicero[579] in the Senate had proposed the highest [Pg 445]honours[580] to him, which though great were still such as were befitting a human being, others by adding still further honours and vying with one another made Cæsar odious and an object of dislike even to those who were of the most moderate temper, by reason of the extravagant and unusual character of what was decreed; and it is supposed that those who hated Cæsar cooperated in these measures no less than those who were his flatterers, that they might have as many pretexts as possible against him and might be considered to make their attempt upon him with the best ground of complaint. For in all other respects, after the close of the civil wars, he showed himself blameless; and it was not without good reason that the Romans voted a temple to Clemency to commemorate his moderate measures. For he pardoned many of those who had fought against him, and to some he even gave offices and honours, as to Brutus and Cassius, both of whom were Prætors. He also did not allow the statues of Pompeius to remain thrown down, but he set them up again, on which Cicero said that by erecting the statues of Pompeius, Cæsar had firmly fixed his own. When his friends urged him to have guards and many offered their services for this purpose, he would not consent, and he said, that it was better to die at once than to be always expecting death. But for the purpose of surrounding himself with the affection of the Romans as the noblest and also the securest protection, he again courted the people with banquets and distribution of corn, and the soldiers with the foundation of colonies, of which [Pg 446]the most conspicuous were Carthage[581] and Corinth, to both of which it happened that their former capture and their present restoration occurred at once and at the same time.

LVIII. To some of the nobles he promised consulships and prætorships for the future, and others he pacified with certain other offices and honours, and he gave hopes to all, seeking to make it appear that he ruled over them with their own consent, so that when Maximus[582] the consul died, he appointed Caninius Revilius consul for the one day that still remained of the term of office. When many persons were going, as was usual, to salute the new consul and to form part of his train Cicero said, "We must make haste, or the man will have gone out of office." Cæsar's great success did not divert his natural inclination for great deeds and his ambition to the enjoyment of that for which he had laboured, but serving as fuel and incentives to the future bred in him designs of greater things and love of new glory, as if he had used up what he had already acquired; and the passion was nothing else than emulation of himself as if he were another person, and a kind of rivalry between what he intended and what he had accomplished; and his propositions and designs were to march against the Parthians,[583] and after subduing them and marching through Hyrkania [Pg 447]and along the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, and so encompassing the Euxine, to invade Scythia, and after having overrun the countries bordering on the Germans and Germany itself to return through Gaul to Italy, and so to complete his circle of the empire which would be bounded on all sides by the ocean. During this expedition he intended also to dig through the Corinthian Isthmus,[584] and he had already commissioned Anienus to superintend the work; and to receive the Tiber[585] immediately below the city in a deep cut, and giving it a bend towards Circæum to make it enter the sea by Tarracina, with the view of giving security and facility to those who came to Rome for the purpose of trade: besides this he designed to draw off the water from the marshes about Pomentium and Setia,[586] and to make them solid ground, which would [Pg 448]employ many thousands of men in the cultivation; and where the sea was nearest to Rome he designed to place barriers to it by means of moles, and after clearing away the hidden rocks and dangerous places on the shore of Ostia[587] to make harbours and naval stations which should give security to the extensive shipping. And all these things were in preparation.

LIX. But the arrangement of the Kalendar[588] and the [Pg 449]correction of the irregularity in the reckoning of time were handled by him skilfully, and being completed were of the most varied utility. For it was not only in very ancient times that the Romans had the periods of the moon in confusion with respect to the year, so that the feasts and festivals gradually changing at last fell out in opposite seasons of the year, but even with respect to the solar year at that time nobody kept any reckoning except the priests, who, as they alone knew the proper time, all of a sudden and when nobody expected it, would insert the intercalary month named Mercedonius, which King Numa is said to have been the first to intercalate, thereby devising a remedy, which was slight and would extend to no great period, for the irregularity in the recurrence of the times, as I have explained in the Life of Numa. But Cæsar laying the problem before the ablest philosophers and mathematicians, from the methods that were laid before him compounded a correction of his own which was more exact, which the Romans use to the present time, and are considered to be in less error than other nations as to the inequality. However, even this furnished matter for complaint to those who envied him and disliked his power; for Cicero, the orator, as it is said, when some observed that Lyra would rise to-morrow, "Yes," he replied, "pursuant to the Edict," meaning that men admitted even this by compulsion.

LX. But the most manifest and deadly hatred towards him was produced by his desire of kingly power, which to the many was the first, and to those who had long nourished a secret hatred of him the most specious, cause. [Pg 450]And indeed those who were contriving this honour for Cæsar spread about a certain report among the people, that according to the Sibylline writings[589] it appeared that Parthia could be conquered by the Romans if they advanced against it with a king, but otherwise could not he assailed. And as Cæsar was going down from Alba to the city, they ventured to salute him as King, but as the people showed their dissatisfaction, Cæsar was disturbed and said that he was not called King but Cæsar; and as hereupon there was a general silence, he passed along with no great cheerfulness nor good humour on his countenance. When some extravagant honours had been decreed to him in the Senate, it happened that he was sitting above the Rostra,[590] and when the consuls and prætors approached with all the Senate behind them, without rising from his seat, but just as if he were transacting business with private persons, he answered that the honours required rather to be contracted than enlarged. This annoyed not the Senate only, but the people also, who considered that the State was insulted in the persons of the Senate; and those who were not obliged to stay went away forthwith with countenance greatly downcast, so that Cæsar perceiving it forthwith went home, and as he threw his cloak from his shoulders he called out to his friends, that he was ready to offer his throat to anyone who wished to kill him; but afterwards he alleged his disease as an excuse for his behaviour, saying that persons who are so affected cannot usually keep their senses steady when they address a multitude standing, but that the senses being speedily convulsed and whirling about bring on giddiness and are overpowered. However, the fact was not so, for it is said that he was very desirous to rise up when the Senate came, but was checked by one of his friends, or rather one of his flatterers, Cornelius Balbus,[591] [Pg 451]who said, "Will you not remember that you are Cæsar, and will you not allow yourself to be honoured as a superior?"

LXI. There was added to these causes of offence the insult offered to the tribunes. It was the festival of the Lupercalia,[592] about which many writers say that it was originally a festival of the shepherds and had also some relationship to the Arcadian Lykæa. On this occasion many of the young nobles and magistrates run through the city without their toga, and for sport and to make laughter strike those whom they meet with strips of hide that have the hair on; many women of rank also purposely put themselves in the way and present their hands to be struck like children at school, being persuaded that this is favourable to easy parturition for those who are pregnant, and to conception for those who are barren. Cæsar was a spectator, being seated at the Rostra on a golden chair in a triumphal robe; and Antonius was one of those who ran in the sacred race, for he was consul. Accordingly, when he entered the Forum and the crowd made way for him, he presented to Cæsar a diadem[593] which he carried surrounded with a crown of bay; and there was [Pg 452]a clapping of hands, not loud, but slight, which had been already concerted. When Cæsar put away the diadem from him all the people clapped their hands, and when Antonius presented it again, only a few clapped; but when Cæsar declined to receive it, again all the people applauded. The experiment having thus failed, Cæsar rose and ordered the crown to be carried to the Capitol. But as Cæsar's statues were seen crowned with royal diadems, two of the tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went up to them and pulled off the diadems, and having discovered those who had been the first to salute Cæsar as king they led them off to prison. The people followed clapping their hands and calling the tribunes Bruti, because it was Brutus who put down the kingly power and placed the sovereignty in the Senate and people instead of its being in the hands of one man. Cæsar being irritated at this deprived Flavius and Marullus of their office, and while rating them he also insulted the people by frequently calling the tribunes Bruti and Cumæi.[594] LXII. In this state of affairs the many turned to Marcus Brutus,[595] who on his father's side was considered to be a descendant of the ancient Brutus, and on his mother's side belonged to the Servilii, another distinguished house, and he was the son-in-law and nephew of Cato. The honours and favours which Brutus had received from Cæsar dulled him towards attempting of his own proper motion the overthrow of the monarchical power; for not only was his life saved at the battle of Pharsalus after the rout of Pompeius, and many of his friends also at his entreaty, but besides this he had great credit with Cæsar. He had also received among those who then held the prætorship[596] the chief office, and he [Pg 453]was to be consul in the fourth year from that time, having been preferred to Cassius who was a rival candidate. For it is said that Cæsar observed that Cassius urged better grounds of preference, but that he could not pass over Brutus. And on one occasion when some persons were calumniating Brutus to him, at a time when the conspiracy was really forming, he would not listen to them, but touching his body with his hand he said to the accusers, "Brutus waits[597] for this dry skin," by which he intended to signify that Brutus was worthy of the power for his merits, but for the sake of the power would not be ungrateful and a villain. Now, those who were eager for the change and who looked up to him alone, or him as the chief person, did not venture to speak with him on the subject, but by night they used to fill the tribunal and the seat on which he sat when discharging his functions as prætor with writings, most of which were to this purport, "You are asleep, Brutus," and "You are not Brutus." By which Cassius,[598] perceiving that his ambition was somewhat stirred, urged him more than he had done before, and pricked him on; and Cassius himself had also a private grudge against Cæsar for the reasons which I have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Indeed Cæsar suspected Cassius, and he once said to his friends, "What think ye is Cassius aiming at? for my part, I like him not over much, for he is over pale." On the other hand it is said that when a rumour reached him, that Antonius and Dolabella were plotting, he said, "I am not much afraid of these well-fed,[599] long-haired fellows, [Pg 454]but I rather fear those others, the pale and thin," meaning Cassius and Brutus.

LXIII. But it appears that destiny is not so much a thing that gives no warning as a thing that cannot be avoided, for they say that wondrous signs and appearances presented themselves. Now, as to lights in the skies and sounds by night moving in various directions and solitary birds descending into the Forum, it is perhaps not worth while recording these with reference to so important an event: but Strabo[600] the Philosopher relates that many men all of fire were seen contending against one another, and that a soldier's slave emitted a great flame from his hand and appeared to the spectators to be burning, but when the flame went out, the man had sustained no harm; and while Cæsar himself was sacrificing the heart of the victim could not be found, and this was considered a bad omen, for naturally an animal without a heart cannot exist. The following stories also are told by many; that a certain seer warned him to be on his guard against great danger on that day of the month of March, which the Romans call the Ides;[601] and when the day had arrived, as Cæsar was going to the Senate-house, he saluted the seer and jeered him saying, "Well, the Ides of March are come;" but the seer mildly replied, "Yes, they are come, but they are not yet over." The day before, when Marcus Lepidus was entertaining him, he chanced to be signing some letters, according to his habit, while he was reclining at table; and the conversation having turned on what kind of death was the best, before any one could give an opinion he called out, "That which is unexpected!" After this, while he was sleeping, as he was accustomed to do, by the side of his wife, all the doors and windows in the house flew open at once, and being startled by the noise and the brightness of the moon which was shining down upon him, he observed that Calpurnia[602] was in a deep slumber, but was [Pg 455]uttering indistinct words and inarticulate groans in the midst of her sleep; and indeed she was dreaming that she held her murdered husband in her arms and was weeping over him. Others say this was not the vision that Calpurnia had, but the following: there was attached to Cæsar's house by way of ornament and distinction pursuant to a vote of the Senate an acroterium,[603] as Livius says, and Calpurnia in her dream seeing this tumbling down lamented and wept. When day came accordingly she entreated Cæsar, if it were possible, not to go out, and to put off the meeting of the Senate; but if he paid no regard to her dreams, she urged him to inquire by other modes of divination and by sacrifices about the future. Cæsar also, as it seems, had some suspicion and fear; for he had never before detected in Calpurnia any womanish superstition, and now he saw that she was much disturbed. And when the seers also after sacrificing many victims reported to him that the omens were unfavourable, he determined to send Antonius to dismiss the Senate.

LXIV. In the mean time Decimus Brutus,[604] surnamed [Pg 456]Albinus, who was in such favour with Cæsar that he was made in his will his second heir,[605] but was engaged in the conspiracy with the other Brutus and Cassius, being afraid that if Cæsar escaped that day, the affair might become known, ridiculed the seers and chided Cæsar for giving cause for blame and censure to the Senate who would consider themselves insulted: he said, "That the Senate had met at his bidding and that they were all ready to pass a decree, that he should be proclaimed King of the provinces out of Italy and should wear a diadem whenever he visited the rest of the earth and sea; but if any one shall tell them when they are taking their seats, to be gone now and to come again, when Calpurnia shall have had better dreams, what may we not expect to be said by those who envy you? or who will listen to your friends when they say that this is not slavery and tyranny; but if," he continued, "you are fully resolved to consider the day inauspicious, it is better for you to go yourself and address the Senate and then to adjourn the business." As he said this, Brutus took Cæsar by the hand and began to lead him forth: and he had gone but a little way from the door, when a slave belonging to another person, who was eager to get at Cæsar but was prevented by the press and numbers about him, rushing into the house delivered himself up to Calpurnia and told her to keep him till Cæsar returned, for he had important things to communicate to him.

LXV. Artemidorus,[606] a Knidian by birth, and a professor of Greek philosophy, which had brought him into [Pg 457]the familiarity of some of those who belonged to the party of Brutus, so that he knew the greater part of what was going on, came and brought in a small roll the information which he intended to communicate; but observing that Cæsar gave each roll as he received it to the attendants about him, he came very near, and said, "This you alone should read, Cæsar, and read it soon; for it is about weighty matters which concern you." Accordingly Cæsar received the roll, but he was prevented from reading it by the number of people who came in his way, though he made several attempts, and he entered the Senate holding that roll in his hand and retaining that alone among all that had been presented to him. Some say that it was another person who gave him this roll, and that Artemidorus did not even approach him, but was kept from him all the way by the pressure of the crowd.

LXVI. Now these things perchance may be brought about by mere spontaneity; but the spot that was the scene of that murder and struggle, wherein the Senate was then assembled, which contained the statue of Pompeius[607] and was a dedication by Pompeius and one of the ornaments that he added to his theatre, completely proved that it was the work of some dæmon to guide and call the execution of the deed to that place. It is said also that Cassius[608] looked towards the statue of Pompeius before the deed was begun and silently invoked it, though he was not averse to the philosophy of Epikurus; but the critical moment for the bold attempt which was now come probably produced in him enthusiasm and feeling in place of his former principles. Now Antonius,[609] who was faith[Pg 458]ful to Cæsar and a robust man, was kept on the outside by Brutus Albinus, who purposely engaged him in a long conversation. When Cæsar entered, the Senate rose to do him honour, and some of the party of Brutus stood around his chair at the back, and others presented themselves before him, as if their purpose was to support the prayer of Tillius Cimber[610] on behalf of his exiled brother, and they all joined in entreaty, following Cæsar as far as his seat. When he had taken his seat and was rejecting their entreaties, and, as they urged them still more strongly, began to show displeasure towards them individually, Tillius taking hold of his toga with both his hands pulled it downwards from the neck, which was the signal for the attack. Casca[611] was the first to strike him on the neck with his sword, a blow neither mortal nor severe, for as was natural at the beginning of so bold a deed he was confused, and Cæsar turning round seized the dagger and held it fast. And it happened that at the same moment he who was struck cried out in the Roman language, "You villain, Casca, what are you doing?" and he who had given the blow cried out to his brother in Greek, "Brother, help." Such being the beginning, those who were not privy to the conspiracy were prevented by consternation and horror at what was going on either from flying or going to aid, and they did not even venture to utter a word. And now each of the conspirators bared his sword, and Cæsar, being hemmed in all round, in whatever direction he turned meeting blows and swords aimed against his eyes and face, driven about like a wild beast, was caught in the hands of his enemies; for it was arranged that all of them should take a part in and taste of the deed of blood. Accordingly Brutus[612] also gave him [Pg 459]one blow in the groin. It is said by some authorities, that he defended himself against the rest, moving about his body hither and thither and calling out, till he saw that Brutus had drawn his sword, when he pulled his toga over his face and offered no further resistance, having been driven either by chance or by the conspirators to the base on which the statue of Pompeius stood. And the base was drenched with blood, as if Pompeius was directing the vengeance upon his enemy who was stretched beneath his feet and writhing under his many wounds; for he is said to have received three and twenty wounds. Many of the conspirators were wounded by one another, while they were aiming so many blows against one body.

LXVII. After Cæsar was killed, though Brutus came forward as if he was going to say something about the deed, the Senators,[613] without waiting to listen, rushed through the door and making their escape filled the people with confusion and indescribable alarm, so that some closed their houses, and others left their tables and places of business, and while some ran to the place to see what had happened, others who had seen it ran away. But Antonius and Lepidus,[614] who were the chief friends of [Pg 460]Cæsar, stole away and fled for refuge to the houses of other persons. The partizans of Brutus, just as they were, warm from the slaughter, and showing their bare swords, advanced all in a body from the Senate-house to the Capitol, not like men who were flying, but exultant and confident, calling the people to liberty and joined by the nobles who met them. Some even went up to the Capitol with them and mingled with them as if they had participated in the deed, and claimed the credit of it, among whom were Caius Octavius and Lentulus Spinther.[615] But they afterwards paid the penalty of their vanity, for they were put to death by Antonius and the young Cæsar, without having enjoyed even the reputation of that for which they lost their lives, for nobody believed that they had a share in the deed. For neither did those who put them to death, punish them for what they did, but for what they wished to do. On the next day Brutus came down and addressed the people, who listened without expressing disapprobation or approbation of what had been done, but they indicated by their deep silence that they pitied Cæsar and respected Brutus. The Senate, with the view of making an amnesty and conciliating all parties, decreed that Cæsar should be honoured as a god and that not the smallest thing should be disturbed which he had [Pg 461]settled while he was in power; and they distributed among the partisans of Brutus provinces and suitable honours, so that all people supposed that affairs were quieted and had been settled in the best way.

LXVIII. But when the will[616] of Cæsar was opened and it was discovered that he had given to every Roman a handsome present, and they saw the body, as it was carried through the Forum, disfigured with the wounds, the multitude, no longer kept within the bounds of propriety and order, but heaping about the corpse benches, lattices and tables taken from the Forum, they set fire to it on the spot and burnt it; then taking the flaming pieces of wood they ran to the houses of the conspirators to fire them, and others ran about the city in all directions seeking for the men to seize and tear them in pieces. But none of the conspirators came in their way, and they were all well protected. One Cinna,[617] however, a friend of Cæsar, hap[Pg 462]pened, as it is said, to have had a strange dream the night before; for he dreamed that he was invited by Cæsar to sup with him, and when he excused himself, he was dragged along by Cæsar by the hand, against his will and making resistance the while. Now, when he heard that the body of Cæsar was burning in the Forum, he got up and went there out of respect, though he was somewhat alarmed at his dream and had a fever on him. One of the multitude who saw Cinna told his name to another who was inquiring of him, and he again told it to a third, and immediately it spread through the crowd that this man was one of those who had killed Cæsar; and indeed there was one of the conspirators who was named Cinna: and taking this man to be him the people forthwith rushed upon him and tore him in pieces on the spot. It was principally through alarm at this that the partisans of Brutus and Cassius after a few days left the city. But what they did and suffered before they died is told in the Life of Brutus.[618] LXIX. At the time of his death Cæsar was full fifty-six years old, having survived Pompeius not much more than four years, and of the power and dominion which all through his life he pursued at so great risk and barely got at last, having reaped the fruit in name only, and with the glory of it the odium of the citizens. Yet his great dæmon,[619] which accompanied him through life, followed him even when he was dead, the avenger of his murder, through every land and sea hunting and tracking out his murderers till not one of them was left, and pursuing even those who in any way whatever had either put their hand to the deed or been participators in the plot. Among human events the strangest was that which befell Cassius, for after his defeat at Philippi he killed himself with the [Pg 463]same dagger that he had employed against Cæsar; and among signs from heaven, there was the great comet, which appeared conspicuous for seven nights after Cæsar's assassination and then disappeared, and the obscuration of the splendour of the sun. For during all that year the circle of the sun rose pale and without rays, and the warmth that came down from it was weak and feeble, so that the air as it moved was dark and heavy owing to the feebleness of the warmth which penetrated it, and the fruits withered and fell off when they were half ripened and imperfect on account of the coldness of the atmosphere. But chief of all, the phantom that appeared to Brutus showed that Cæsar's murder was not pleasing to the gods; and it was after this manner. When Brutus was going to take his army over from Abydus[620] to the other continent, he was lying down by night, as his wont was, in his tent, not asleep, but thinking about the future; for it is said that Brutus of all generals was least given to sleep, and had naturally the power of keeping awake longer than any other person. Thinking that he heard a noise near the door, he looked towards the light of the lamp which was already sinking down, and saw a frightful vision of a man of unusual size and savage countenance. At first he was startled, but observing that the figure neither moved nor spoke, but was standing silent by the bed, he asked him who he was. The phantom replied, "Thy bad dæmon, Brutus; and thou shalt see me at Philippi." Upon which Brutus boldly replied, "I shall see;" and the dæmon immediately disappeared. In course of time having engaged with Antonius and Cæsar at Philippi, in the first battle he was victorious, and after routing that part of the army which was opposed to him he followed up his success and plundered Cæsar's camp. As he was preparing to fight the second battle, the same phantom appeared again by night, without speaking to him, but Brutus, who perceived what his fate was, threw himself headlong into the midst of the danger. However he did not fall in the battle, but when the rout took [Pg 464]place, he fled to a precipitous spot, and throwing himself with his breast on his bare sword, a friend also, as it is said, giving strength to the blow, he died.[621]

Index