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CAESAR 100-44 B.C.
by Plutarch
translated by John Dryden
CAESAR
AFTER Sylla became master of Rome, he wished to make Caesar
put away his wife Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, the late sole ruler of
the commonwealth, but was unable to effect it either by promises or
intimidation, and so contented himself with confiscating her dowry.
The ground of Sylla's hostility to Caesar was the relationship between
him and Marius; for Marius, the elder, married Julia, the sister of
Caesar's father, and had by her the younger Marius, who consequently
was Caesar's first cousin. And though at the beginning, while so
many were to be put to death, and there was so much to do, Caesar
was overlooked by Sylla, yet he would not keep quiet, but presented
himself to the people as a candidate for the priesthood, though he was
yet a mere boy. Sylla, without any open opposition, took measures to
have him rejected, and in consultation whether he should be put to
death, when it was urged by some that it was not worth his while to
contrive the death of a boy, he answered, that they knew little who
did not see more than one Marius in that boy. Caesar, on being
informed of this saying, concealed himself, and for a considerable
time kept out of the way in the country of the Sabines, often changing
his quarters, till one night, as he was removing from one house to
another on account of his health, he fell into the hands of Sylla's
soldiers, who were searching those parts in order to apprehend any who
had absconded. Caesar, by a bribe of two talents, prevailed with
Cornelius, their captain, to let him go, and was no sooner dismissed
but he put to sea and made for Bithynia. After a short stay there with
Nicomedes, the king, in his passage back he was taken near the
island of Pharmacusa by some of the pirates, who, at that time, with
large fleets of ships and innumerable smaller vessels, infested the
seas everywhere.
When these men at first demanded of him twenty talents for his
ransom, he laughed at them for not understanding the value of their
prisoner, and voluntarily engaged to give them fifty. He presently
despatched those about him to several places to raise the money,
till at last he was left among a set of the most bloodthirsty people
in the world, the Cilicians, only with one friend and two
attendants. Yet he made so little of them, that when he had a mind
to sleep, he would send to them, and order them to make no noise.
For thirty-eight days, with all the freedom in the world, he amused
himself with joining in their exercises and games, as if they had
not been his keepers, but his guards. He wrote verses and speeches,
and made them his auditors, and those who did not admire them, he
called to their faces illiterate and barbarous, and would often, in
raillery, threaten to hang them. They were greatly taken with this,
and attributed his free talking to a kind of simplicity and boyish
playfulness. As soon as his ransom was come from Miletus, he paid
it, and was discharged, and proceeded at once to man some ships at the
port of Miletus, and went in pursuit of the pirates, whom he surprised
with their ships still stationed at the island, and took most of them.
Their money he made his prize, and the men he secured in prison at
Pergamus, and he made application to Junius, who was then governor
of Asia, to whose office it belonged, as praetor, to determine their
punishment. Junius, having his eye upon the money, for the sum was
considerable, said he would think at his leisure what to do with the
prisoners, upon which Caesar took his leave of him, and went off to
Pergamus, where he ordered the pirates to be brought forth and
crucified; the punishment he had often threatened them with whilst
he was in their hands, and they little dreamt he was in earnest.
In the meantime Sylla's power being now on the decline, Caesar's
friends advised him to return to Rome, but he went to Rhodes, and
entered himself in the school of Apollonius, Molon's son, a famous
rhetorician, one who had the reputation of a worthy man, and had
Cicero for one of his scholars. Caesar is said to have been
admirably fitted by nature to make a great statesman and orator, and
to have taken such pains to improve his genius this way that without
dispute he might challenge the second place. More he did not aim at,
as choosing to be first rather amongst men of arms and power, and,
therefore, never rose to that height of eloquence to which nature
would have carried him, his attention being diverted to those
expeditions and designs which at length gained him the empire. And
he himself, in his answer to Cicero's panegyric on Cato, desires his
reader not to compare the plain discourse of a soldier with the
harangues of an orator who had not only fine parts, but had employed
his life in this study.
When he was returned to Rome, he accused Dolabella of
mal-administration, and many cities of Greece came in to attest it.
Dolabella was acquitted, and Caesar, in return for the support he
had received from the Greeks, assisted them in their prosecution of
Publius Antonius for corrupt practices, before Marcus Lucullus,
praetor of Macedonia. In this course he so far succeeded, that
Antonius was forced to appeal to the tribunes at Rome, alleging that
in Greece he could not have fair play against Grecians. In his
pleadings at Rome, his eloquence soon obtained him great credit and
favour, and he won no less upon the affections of the people by
affability of his manners and address, in which he showed a tact and
consideration beyond what could have been expected at his age; and the
open house he kept, the entertainments he gave, and the general
splendour of his manner of life contributed little by little to create
and increase his political influence. His enemies slighted the
growth of it at first, presuming it would soon fail when his money was
gone; whilst in the meantime it was growing up and flourishing among
the common people. When his power at last was established and not to
be overthrown, and now openly tended to the altering of the whole
constitution, they were aware too late that there is no beginning so
mean, which continued application will not make considerable, and that
despising a danger at first will make it at last irresistible.
Cicero was the first who had any suspicions of his designs upon the
government, and as a good pilot is apprehensive of a storm when the
sea is most smiling, saw the designing temper of the man through
this disguise of good humour and affability, and said that, in
general, in all he did and undertook, he detected the ambition for
absolute power, "but when I see his hair so carefully arranged, and
observe him adjusting it with one finger, I cannot imagine it should
enter into such a man's thoughts to subvert the Roman state." But of
this more hereafter.
The first proof he had of the people's good-will to him was when
he received by their suffrages a tribuneship in the army, and came out
on the list with a higher place than Caius Popilius. A second and
clearer instance of their favour appeared upon his making a
magnificent oration in praise of his aunt Julia, wife to Marius,
publicly in the forum, at whose funeral he was so bold as to bring
forth the images of Marius, which nobody had dared to produce since
the government came into Sylla's hands, Marius's party having from
that time been declared enemies of the state. When some who were
present had begun to raise a cry against Caesar, the people answered
with loud shouts and clapping in his favour, expressing their joyful
surprise and satisfaction at his having, as it were, brought up
again from the grave those honours of Marius, which for so long a time
had been lost to the city. It had always been the custom at Rome to
make funeral orations in praise of elderly matrons, but there was no
precedent of any upon young women till Caesar first made one upon
the death of his own wife. This also procured him favour, and by
this show of affection he won upon the feelings of the people, who
looked upon him as a man of great tenderness and kindness of heart.
After he had buried his wife, he went as quaestor into Spain under one
of the praetors, named Vetus, whom he honoured ever after, and made
his son his own quaestor, when he himself came to be praetor. After
this employment was ended, he married Pompeia, his third wife,
having then a daughter by Cornelia, his first wife, whom he afterwards
married to Pompey the Great. He was so profuse in his expenses that,
before he had any public employment, he was in debt thirteen hundred
talents, and many thought that by incurring such expense to be popular
he changed a solid good for what would prove but a short and uncertain
return; but in truth he was purchasing what was of the greatest
value at an inconsiderable rate. When he was made surveyor of the
Appian Way, he disbursed, besides the public money, a great sum out of
his private purse; and when he was aedile, he provided such a number
of gladiators, that he entertained the people with three hundred and
twenty single combats, and by his great liberality and magnificence in
theatrical shows, in processions, and public feastings, he threw
into the shade all the attempts that had been made before him, and
gained so much upon the people, that every one was eager to find out
new offices and new honours for him in return for his munificence.
There being two factions in the city, one that of Sylla, which was
very powerful, the other that of Marius, which was then broken and
in a low condition, he undertook to revive this and to make it his
own. And to this end, whilst he was in the height of his repute with
the people for the magnificent shows he gave as aedile, he ordered
images of Marius and figures of Victory, with trophies in their hands,
to be carried privately in the night and placed in the capitol. Next
morning when some saw them bright with gold and beautifully made, with
inscriptions upon them, referring them to Marius's exploits over the
Cimbrians, they were surprised at the boldness of him who had set them
up, nor was it difficult to guess who it was. The fame of this soon
spread and brought together a great concourse of people. Some cried
out that it was an open attempt against the established government
thus to revive those honours which had been buried by the laws and
decrees of the senate; that Caesar had done it to sound the temper
of the people whom he had prepared before, and to try whether they
were tame enough to bear his humour, and would quietly give way to his
innovations. On the other hand, Marius's party took courage, and it
was incredible how numerous they were suddenly seen to be, and what
a multitude of them appeared and came shouting into the capitol. Many,
when they saw Marius's likeness, cried for joy, and Caesar was
highly extolled as the one man, in the place of all others, who was
a relation worthy of Marius. Upon this the senate met, and Catulus
Lutatius, one of the most eminent Romans of that time, stood up and
inveighed against Caesar, closing his speech with the remarkable
saying that Caesar was now not working mines, but planting batteries
to overthrow the state. But when Caesar had made an apology for
himself, and satisfied the senate, his admirers were very much
animated, and advised him not to depart from his own thoughts for
any one, since with the people's good favour he would ere long get the
better of them all, and be the first man in the commonwealth.
At this time, Metellus, the high priest, died, and Catulus and
Isauricus, persons of the highest reputation, and who had great
influence in the senate, were competitors for the office, yet Caesar
would not give way to them, but presented himself to the people as a
candidate against them. The several parties seeming very equal,
Catulus, who, because he had the most honour to lose, was the most
apprehensive of the event, sent to Caesar to buy him off, with
offers of a great sum of money. But his answer was, that he was
ready to borrow a larger sum than that to carry on the contest. Upon
the day of election, as his mother conducted him out of doors with
tears after embracing her, "My mother," he said, "to-day you will
see me either high priest or an exile." When the votes were taken,
after a great struggle, he carried it, and excited among the senate
and nobility great alarm lest he might now urge on the people to every
kind of insolence. And Piso and Catulus found fault with Cicero for
having let Caesar escape, when in the conspiracy of Catiline he had
given the government such advantage against him. For Catiline, who had
designed not only to change the present state of affairs, but to
subvert the whole empire and confound all, had himself taken to
flight, while the evidence was yet incomplete against him, before
his ultimate purposes had been properly discovered. But he had left
Lentulus and Cethegus in the city to supply his place in the
conspiracy, and whether they received any secret encouragement and
assistance from Caesar is uncertain; all that is certain is, that they
were fully convicted in the senate, and when Cicero, the consul, asked
the several opinions of the senators, how they would have them
punished, all who spoke before Caesar sentenced them to death; but
Caesar stood up and made a set speech, in which he told them that he
thought it without precedent and not just to take away the lives of
persons of their birth and distinction before they were fairly
tried, unless there was an absolute necessity for it; but that if they
were kept confined in any towns of Italy Cicero himself should
choose till Catiline was defeated, then the senate might in peace
and at their leisure determine what was best to be done.
This sentence of his carried so much appearance of humanity, and
he gave it such advantage by the eloquence with which he urged it,
that not only those who spoke after him closed with it, but even
they who had before given a contrary opinion now came over to his,
till it came about to Catulus's and Cato's turn to speak. They
warmly opposed it, and Cato intimated in his speech the suspicion of
Caesar himself, and pressed the matter so strongly that the
criminals were given up to suffer execution. As Caesar was going out
of the senate, many of the young men who at that time acted as
guards to Cicero ran in with their naked swords to assault him. But
Curio, it is said, threw his gown over him, and conveyed him away, and
Cicero himself, when the young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a
sign not to kill him, either for fear of the people or because he
thought the murder unjust and illegal. If this be true, I wonder how
Cicero came to omit all mention of it in his book about his
consulship. He was blamed, however, afterwards, for not having made
use of so fortunate an opportunity against Caesar, as if he had let it
escape him out of fear of the populace, who, indeed, showed remarkable
solicitude about Caesar, and some time after, when he went into the
senate to clear himself of the suspicions he lay under, and found
great clamours raised against him, upon the senate in consequence
sitting longer than ordinary, they went up to the house in a tumult,
and beset it, demanding Caesar, and requiring them to dismiss him.
Upon this, Cato, much fearing some movement among the poor citizens,
who were always the first to kindle the flame among the people, and
placed all their hopes in Caesar, persuaded the senate to give them
a monthly allowance of corn, an expedient which put the commonwealth
to the extraordinary charge of seven million five hundred thousand
drachmas in the year, but quite succeeded in removing the great
cause of terror for the present, and very much weakened Caesar's
power, who at that time was just going to be made praetor, and
consequently would have been more formidable by his office.
But there was no disturbance during his praetorship, only what
misfortune he met with in his own domestic affairs. Publius Clodius
was a patrician by descent, eminent both for his riches and eloquence,
but in licentiousness of life and audacity exceeded the most noted
profligates of the day. He was in love with Pompeia, Caesar's wife,
and she had no aversion to him. But there was strict watch kept on her
apartment, and Caesar's mother, Aurelia, who was a discreet woman,
being continually about her, made any interview very dangerous and
difficult. The Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, the same
whom the Greeks call Gynaecea. The Phrygians, who claim a peculiar
title to her, say she was mother to Midas. The Romans profess she
was one of the Dryads, and married to Faunus. The Grecians affirm that
she is that mother of Bacchus whose name is not to be uttered, and,
for this reason, the women who celebrate her festival cover the
tents with vine-branches, and, in accordance with the fable, a
consecrated serpent is placed by the goddess. It is not lawful for a
man to be by, nor so much as in the house, whilst the rites are
celebrated, but the women by themselves perform the sacred offices,
which are said to be much the same with those used in the
solemnities of Orpheus. When the festival comes, the husband, who is
either consul or praetor, and with him every male creature, quits
the house. The wife then taking it under her care sets it in order,
and the principal ceremonies are performed during the night, the women
playing together amongst themselves as they keep watch, and music of
various kinds going on.
As Pompeia was at that time celebrating this feast, Clodius, who
as yet had no beard, and so thought to pass undiscovered, took upon
him the dress and ornaments of a singing woman, and so came thither,
having the air of a young girl. Finding the doors open, he was without
any stop introduced by the maid, who was in the intrigue. She
presently ran to tell Pompeia, but as she was away a long time, he
grew uneasy in waiting for her, and left his post and traversed the
house from one room to another, still taking care to avoid the lights,
till at last Aurelia's woman met him, and invited him to play with
her, as the women did among themselves. He refused to comply, and
she presently pulled him forward, and asked him who he was and
whence he Clodius told her he was waiting for Pompeia's own maid,
Abra, being in fact her own name also, and as he said so, betrayed
himself by his voice. Upon which the woman shrieking, ran into the
company where there were lights, and cried out she had discovered a
man. The women were all in a fright. Aurelia covered up the sacred
things and stopped the proceedings, and having ordered the doors to be
shut, went about with lights to find Clodius, who was got into the
maid's room that he had come in with, and was seized there. The
women knew him, and drove him out of doors, and at once, that same
night, went home and told their husbands the story. In the morning, it
was all about the town, what an impious attempt Clodius had made,
and how he ought to be punished as an offender, not only against those
whom he had offended, but also against the public and the gods. Upon
which one of the tribunes impeached him for profaning the holy
rites, and some of the principal senators combined together and gave
evidence against him, that besides many other horrible crimes, he
had been guilty of incest with his own sister, who was married to
Lucullus. But the people set themselves against this combination of
the nobility, and defended Clodius, which was of great service to
him with the judges, who took alarm and were afraid to provoke the
multitude. Caesar at once dismissed Pompeia, but being summoned as a
witness against Clodius, said he had nothing to charge him with.
This looking like a paradox, the accuser asked him why he parted
with his wife. Caesar replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much
as suspected." Some say that Caesar spoke this as his real thought,
others, that he did it to gratify the people, who were very earnest to
save Clodius. Clodius, at any rate, escaped; most of the judges giving
their opinions so written as to be illegible that they might not be in
danger from the people by condemning him, nor in disgrace with the
nobility by acquitting him.
Caesar, in the meantime, being out of his praetorship, had got the
province of Spain, but was in great embarrassment with his
creditors, who, as he was going off, came upon him, and were very
pressing and importunate. This led him to apply himself to Crassus,
who was the richest man in Rome, but wanted Caesar's youthful vigour
and heat to sustain the opposition against Pompey. Crassus took upon
him to satisfy those creditors who were most uneasy to him, and
would not be put off any longer, and engaged himself to the amount
of eight hundred and thirty talents, upon which Caesar was now at
liberty to go to his province. In his journey, as he was crossing
the Alps, and passing by a small village of the barbarians with but
few inhabitants, and those wretchedly poor, his companions asked the
question among themselves by way of mockery, if there were any
canvassing for offices there; any contention which should be
uppermost, or feuds of great men one against another. To which
Caesar made answer seriously, "For my part, I had rather be the
first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome." It is said
that another time, when free from business in Spain, after reading
some part of the history of Alexander, he sat a great while very
thoughtful, and at last burst out into tears. His friends were
surprised, and asked him the reason of it. "Do you think," said he, "I
have not just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my
age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done
nothing that is memorable." As soon as he came into Spain he was
very active, and in a few days had got together ten new cohorts of
foot in addition to the twenty which were there before. With these
he marched against the Calaici and Lusitani and conquered them, and
advancing as far as the ocean, subdued the tribes which never before
had been subject to the Romans. Having managed his military affairs
with good success, he was equally happy, in the course of his civil
government. He took pains to establish a good understanding amongst
the several states, and no less care to heal the differences between
debtors and creditors. He ordered that the creditor should receive two
parts of the debtor's yearly income, and that the other part should be
managed by the debtor himself, till by this method the whole debt
was at last discharged. This conduct made him leave his province
with a fair reputation; being rich himself, and having enriched his
soldiers, and having received from them the honourable name of
Imperator.
There is a law among the Romans, that whoever desires the honour
of a triumph must stay without the city and expect his answer. And
another, that those who stand for the consulship shall appear
personally upon the place. Caesar was come home at the very time of
choosing consuls, and being in a difficulty between these two opposite
laws, sent to the senate to desire that, since he was obliged to be
absent, he might sue for the consulship by his friends. Cato, being
backed by the law, at first opposed his request; afterwards perceiving
that Caesar had prevailed with a great part of the senate to comply
with it, he made it his business to gain time, and went on wasting the
whole day in speaking. Upon which Caesar thought fit to let the
triumph fall, and pursued the consulship. Entering the town and coming
forward immediately, he had recourse to a piece of state policy by
which everybody was deceived but Cato. This was the reconciling of
Crassus and Pompey, the two men who then were most powerful in Rome.
There had been a quarrel between them, which he now succeeded in
making up, and by this means strengthened himself by the united
power of both, and so under the cover of an action which carried all
the appearance of a piece of kindness and good-nature, caused what was
in effect a revolution in the government. For it was not the quarrel
between Pompey and Caesar, as most men imagine, which was the origin
of the civil wars, but their union, their conspiring together at first
to subvert the aristocracy, and so quarrelling afterwards between
themselves. Cato, who often foretold what the consequence of this
alliance would be, had then the character of a sullen, interfering
man, but in the end the reputation of a wise but unsuccessful
counsellor.
Thus Caesar, being doubly supported by the interests of Crassus
and Pompey, was promoted to the consulship, and triumphantly
proclaimed with Calpurnius Bibulus. When he entered on his office he
brought in bills which would have been preferred with better grace
by the most audacious of the tribunes than by a consul, in which he
proposed the plantation of colonies and the division of lands,
simply to please the commonalty. The best and most honourable of the
senators opposed it, upon which, as he had long wished for nothing
more than for such a colourable pretext, he loudly protested how
much it was against his will to be driven to seek support from the
people, and how the senate's insulting and harsh conduct left no other
course possible for him than to devote himself henceforth to the
popular cause and interest. And so he hurried out of the senate, and
presenting himself to the people, and there placing Crassus and
Pompey, one on each side of him, he asked them whether they
consented to the bills he had proposed. They owned their assent,
upon which he desired them to assist him against those who had
threatened to oppose him with their swords. They engaged they would,
and Pompey added further, that he would meet their swords with a sword
and buckler too. These words the nobles much resented, as neither
suitable to his own dignity, nor becoming the reverence due to the
senate, but resembling rather the vehemence of a boy or the fury of
a madman. But the people were pleased with it. In order to get a yet
firmer hold upon Pompey, Caesar having a daughter, Julia, who had been
before contracted to Servilius Caepio, now betrothed her to Pompey,
and told Servilius he should have Pompey's daughter, who was not
unengaged either, but promised to Sylla's son, Faustus. A little
time after, Caesar married Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, and got
Piso made consul for the year following. Cato exclaimed loudly against
this, and protested, with a great deal of warmth, that it was
intolerable the government should be prostituted by marriages, and
that they should advance one another to the commands of armies,
provinces, and other great posts, by means of women. Bibulus, Caesar's
colleague, finding it was to no purpose to oppose his bills, but
that he was in danger of being murdered in the forum, as also was
Cato, confined himself to his house, and there let the remaining
part of his consulship expire. Pompey, when he was married, at once
filled the forum with soldiers, and gave the people his help in
passing the new laws, and secured Caesar the government of all Gaul,
both on this and the other side of the Alps, together with
Illyricum, and the command of four legions for five years. Cato made
some attempts against these proceedings, but was seized and led off on
the way to prison by Caesar, who expected that he would appeal to
the tribunes. But when he saw that Cato went along without speaking
a word, and not only the nobility were indignant, but the people also,
out of respect for Cato's virtue, were following in silence, and
with dejected looks, he himself privately desired one of the
tribunes to rescue Cato. As for the other senators, some few of them
attended the house, the rest, being disgusted, absented themselves.
Hence Considius, a very old man, took occasion one day to tell
Caesar that the senators did not meet because they were afraid of
his soldiers. Caesar asked, "Why don't you, then, out of the same
fear, keep at home?" To which Considius replied, that age was his
guard against fear, and that the small remains of his life were not
worth much caution. But the most disgraceful thing that was done in
Caesar's consulship was his assisting to gain the tribuneship for
the same Clodius who had made the attempt on his wife's chastity and
intruded upon the secret vigils. He was elected on purpose to effect
Cicero's downfall; nor did Caesar leave the city to join his army till
they two had overpowered Cicero and driven him out of Italy.
Thus far have we followed Caesar's actions before the wars of
Gaul. After this, he seems to begin his course afresh, and to enter
upon a new life and scene of action. And the period of those wars
which he now fought, and those many expeditions in which he subdued
Gaul, showed him to be a soldier and general not in the least inferior
to any of the greatest and most admired commanders who had ever
appeared at the head of armies. For if we compare him with the
Fabii, the Metelli, the Scipios, and with those who were his
contemporaries, or not long before him, Sylla, Marius, the Luculli, or
even Pompey himself, whose glory, it may be said, went up at that time
to heaven for every excellence in war, we shall find Caesar's
actions to have surpassed them all. One he may be held to have outdone
in consideration of the difficulty of the country in which he
fought, another in the extent of territory which he conquered; some,
in the number and strength of the enemy whom he defeated; one man,
because of the wildness and perfidiousness of the tribes whose
good-will he conciliated, another in his humanity and clemency to
those he overpowered; others, again, in his gifts and kindnesses to
his soldiers; all alike in the number of the battles which he fought
and the enemies whom he killed. For he had not pursued the wars in
Gaul full ten years when he had taken by storm above eight hundred
towns, subdued three hundred states, and of the three millions of men,
who made up the gross sum of those with whom at several times he
engaged, he had killed one million and taken captive a second.
He was so much master of the good-will and hearty service of his
soldiers that those who in other expeditions were but ordinary men
displayed a courage past defeating or withstanding when they went upon
any danger where Caesar's glory was concerned. Such a one was Acilius,
who, in the sea-fight before Marseilles, had his right hand struck off
with a sword, yet did not quit his buckler out of his left, but struck
the enemies in the face with it, till he drove them off and made
himself master of the vessel. Such another was Cassius Scaeva, who, in
a battle near Dyrrhachium, had one of his eyes shot out with an arrow,
his shoulder pierced with one javelin, and his thigh with another; and
having received one hundred and thirty darts upon his target, called
to the enemy, as though he would surrender himself. But when two of
them came up to him, he cut off the shoulder of one with a sword,
and by a blow over the face forced the other to retire, and so with
the assistance of his friends, who now came up, made his escape.
Again, in Britain, when some of the foremost officers had accidentally
got into a morass full of water, and there were assaulted by the
enemy, a common soldier, whilst Caesar stood and looked on, threw
himself in the midst of them, and after many signal demonstrations
of his valour, rescued the officers and beat off the barbarians. He
himself, in the end, took to the water, and with much difficulty,
partly by swimming, partly by wading, passed it, but in the passage
lost his shield. Caesar and his officers saw it and admired, and
went to meet him with joy and acclamation. But the soldier, much
dejected and in tears, threw himself down at Caesar's feet and
begged his pardon for having let go his buckler. Another time in
Africa, Scipio having taken a ship of Caesar's in which Granius Petro,
lately appointed quaestor, was sailing, gave the other passengers as
free prize to his soldiers, but thought fit to offer the quaestor
his life. But he said it was not usual for Caesar's soldiers to take
but give mercy, and having said so, fell upon his sword and killed
himself.
This love of honour and passion for distinction were inspired into
them and cherished in them by Caesar himself, who, by his unsparing
distribution of money and honours, showed them that he did not heap up
wealth from the wars for his own luxury, or the gratifying his private
pleasures, but that all he received was but a public fund laid by
the reward and encouragement of valour, and that he looked upon all he
gave to deserving soldiers as so much increase to his own riches.
Added to this also, there was no danger to which he did not
willingly expose himself, no labour from which he pleaded an
exemption. His contempt of danger was not so much wondered at by his
soldiers because they knew how much he coveted honour. But his
enduring so much hardship, which he did to all appearance beyond his
natural strength, very much astonished them. For he was a spare man,
had a soft and white skin, was distempered in the head and subject
to an epilepsy, which, it is said, first seized him at Corduba. But he
did not make the weakness of his constitution a pretext for his
ease, but rather used war as the best physic against his
indispositions; whilst, by indefatigable journeys, coarse diet,
frequent lodging in the field, and continual laborious exercise, he
struggled with his diseases and fortified his body against all
attacks. He slept generally in his chariots or litters, employing even
his rest in pursuit of action. In the day he was thus carried to the
forts, garrisons, and camps, one servant sitting with him, who used to
write down what he dictated as he went, and a soldier attending behind
him with his sword drawn. He drove so rapidly that when he first
left Rome he arrived at the river Rhone within eight days. He had been
an expert rider from his childhood; for it was usual with him to sit
with his hands joined together behind his back, and so to put his
horse to its full speed. And in this war he disciplined himself so far
as to be able to dictate letters from on horseback, and to give
directions to two who took notes at the same time or, as Oppius
says, to more. And it is thought that he was the first who contrived
means for communicating with friends by cipher, when either press of
business, or the large extent of the city, left him no time for a
personal conference about matters that required despatch. How little
nice he was in his diet may be seen in the following instance. When at
the table of Valerius Leo, who entertained him at supper at Milan, a
dish of asparagus was put before him on which his host instead of
oil had poured sweet ointment, Caesar partook of it without any
disgust, and reprimanded his friends for finding fault with it. "For
it was enough," said he, "not to eat what you did not like; but he who
reflects on another man's want of breeding, shows he wants it as
much himself." Another time upon the road he was driven by a storm
into a poor man's cottage, where he found but one room, and that
such as would afford but a mean reception to a single person, and
therefore told his companions places of honour should be given up to
the greater men, and necessary accommodations to the weaker, and
accordingly ordered that Oppius, who was in bad health, should lodge
within, whilst he and the rest slept under a shed at the door.
His first war in Gaul was against the Helvetians and Tigurini, who
having burnt their own towns, twelve in number, and four hundred
villages, would have marched forward through that part of Gaul which
was included in the Roman province, as the Cimbrians and Teutons
formerly had done. Nor were they inferior to these in courage; and
in numbers they were equal, being in all three hundred thousand, of
which one hundred and ninety thousand were fighting men. Caesar did
not engage the Tigurini in person, but Labienus, under his directions,
routed them near the rivet Arar. The Helvetians surprised Caesar,
and unexpectedly set upon him as he was conducting his army to a
confederate town. He succeeded, however, in making his retreat into
a strong position, where, when he had mustered and marshalled his men,
his horse was brought to him; upon which he said, "When I have won the
battle, I will use my horse for the chase, but at present let us go
against the enemy," and accordingly charged them on foot. After a long
and severe combat, he drove the main army out of the field, but
found the hardest work at their carriages and ramparts, where not only
the men stood and fought, but the women also and children defended
themselves till they were cut to pieces; insomuch that the fight was
scarcely ended till midnight. This action, glorious in itself,
Caesar crowned with another yet more noble, by gathering in a body all
the barbarians that had escaped out of the battle, above one hundred
thousand in number, and obliging them to re-occupy the country which
they had deserted and the cities which they had burnt. This he did for
fear the Germans should pass it and possess themselves of the land
whilst it lay uninhabited.
His second war was in defence of the Gauls against the Germans,
though some time before he had made Ariovistus, their king, recognized
at Rome as an ally. But they were very insufferable neighbours to
those under his government; and it was probable, when occasion
offered, they would renounce the present arrangements, and march on to
occupy Gaul. But finding his officers timorous, and especially those
of the young nobility who came along with him in hopes of turning
their campaigns with him into a means for their own pleasure or
profit, he called them together, and advised them to march off, and
not run the hazard of a battle against their inclinations, since
they had such weak unmanly feelings; telling them that he would take
only the tenth legion and march against the barbarians, whom he did
not expect to find an enemy more formidable than the Cimbri, nor, he
added, should they find him a general inferior to Marius. Upon this,
the tenth legion deputed some of their body to pay him their
acknowledgments and thanks, and the other legions blamed their
officers, and all, with great vigour and zeal, followed him many days'
journey, till they encamped within two hundred furlongs of the
enemy. Ariovistus's courage to some extent was cooled upon their
very approach; for never expecting the Romans would attack the
Germans, whom he had thought it more likely they would not venture
to withstand even in defence of their own subjects, he was the more
surprised at conduct, and saw his army to be in consternation. They
were still more discouraged by the prophecies of their holy women, who
foretell the future by observing the eddies of rivers, and taking
signs from the windings and noise of streams, and who now warned
them not to engage before the next new moon appeared. Caesar having
had intimation of this, and seeing the Germans lie still, thought it
expedient to attack them whilst they were under these apprehensions,
rather than sit still and wait their time. Accordingly he made his
approaches to the strongholds and hills on which they lay encamped,
and so galled and fretted them that at last they came down with
great fury to engage. But he gained a signal victory, and pursued them
for four hundred furlongs, as far as the Rhine; all which space was
covered with spoils and bodies of the slain. Ariovistus made shift
to pass the Rhine with the small remains of an army, for it is said
the number of the slain amounted to eighty thousand.
After this action, Caesar left his army at their winter quarters
in the country of the Sequani, and, in order to attend to affairs at
Rome, went into that part of Gaul which lies on the Po, and was part
of his province; for the river Rubicon divides Gaul, which is on
this side the Alps, from the rest of Italy. There he sat down and
employed himself in courting people's favour; great numbers coming
to him continually, and always finding their requests answered; for he
never failed to dismiss all with present pledges of his kindness in
hand, and further hopes for the future. And during all this time of
the war in Gaul, Pompey never observed how Caesar was on the one
hand using the arms of Rome to effect his conquests, and on the
other was gaining over and securing to himself the favour of the
Romans with the wealth which those conquests obtained him. But when he
heard that the Belgae, who were the most powerful of all the Gauls,
and inhabited a third part of the country, were revolted, and had
got together a great many thousand men in arms, he immediately set out
and took his way hither with great expedition, and falling upon the
enemy as they were ravaging the Gauls, his allies, he soon defeated
and put to flight the largest and least scattered division of them.
For though their numbers were great, yet they made but a slender
defence, and the marshes and deep rivers were made passable to the
Roman foot by the vast quantity of dead bodies. Of those who revolted,
all the tribes that lived near the ocean came over without fighting,
and he, therefore, led his army against the Nervii, the fiercest and
most warlike people of all in those parts. These live in a country
covered with continuous woods, and having lodged their children and
property out of the way in the depth of the forest, fell upon Caesar
with a body of sixty thousand men, before he was prepared for them,
while he was making his encampment. They soon routed his cavalry,
and having surrounded the twelfth and seventh legions, killed all
the officers, and had not Caesar himself snatched up a buckler and
forced his way through his own men to come up to the barbarians, or
had not the tenth legion, when they saw him in danger, run in from the
tops of the hills, where they lay, and broken through the enemy's
ranks to rescue him, in all probability not a Roman would have been
saved. But now, under the influence of Caesar's bold example, they
fought a battle, as the phrase is, of more than human courage, and yet
with their utmost efforts they were not able to drive the enemy out of
the field, but cut them down fighting in their defence. For out of
sixty thousand men, it is stated that not above five hundred
survived the battle, and of four hundred of their senators not above
three.
When the Roman senate had received news of this, they voted
sacrifices and festivals to the gods, to be strictly observed for
the space of fifteen days, a longer space than ever was observed for
any victory before. The danger to which they had been exposed by the
joint outbreak of such a number of nations was felt to have been
great; and the people's fondness for Caesar gave additional lustre
to successes achieved by him. He now, after settling everything in
Gaul, came back again, and spent the winter by the Po, in order to
carry on the designs he had in hand at Rome. All who were candidates
for offices used his assistance, and were supplied with money from him
to corrupt the people and buy their votes, in return of which, when
they were chosen, they did all things to advance his power. But what
was more considerable, the most eminent and powerful men in Rome in
great numbers came to visit him at Lucca, Pompey, and Crassus, and
Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos, the pro-consul of
Spain, so that there were in the place at one time one hundred and
twenty lictors and more than two hundred senators. In deliberation
here held, it was determined that Pompey and Crassus should be consuls
again for the following year; that Caesar should have a fresh supply
of money, and that his command should be renewed to him for five years
more. It seemed very extravagant to all thinking men that those very
persons who had received so much money from Caesar should persuade the
senate to grant him more, as if he were in want. Though in truth it
was not so much upon persuasion as compulsion that, with sorrow and
groans for their own acts, they passed the measure. Cato was not
present, for they had sent him seasonably out of the way into
Cyprus; but Favonius, who was a zealous imitator of Cato, when he
found he could do no good by opposing it, broke out of the house,
and loudly declaimed against these proceedings to the people, but none
gave him any hearing; some slighting him out of respect to Crassus and
Pompey, and the greater part to gratify Caesar, on whom depended their
hopes.
After this, Caesar returned again to his forces in Gaul, when he
found that country involved in a dangerous war, two strong nations
of the Germans having lately passed the Rhine to conquer it; one of
them called the Usipes. the other the Tenteritae. Of the war with
the people, Caesar himself has given this account in his commentaries,
that the barbarians, having sent ambassadors to treat with him, did,
during the treaty, set upon him in his march, by which means with
eight hundred men they routed five thousand of his horse, who did
not suspect their coming; that afterwards they sent other
ambassadors to renew the same fraudulent practices, whom he kept in
custody, and led on his army against the barbarians, as judging it
mere simplicity to keep faith with those who had so faithlessly broken
the terms they had agreed to. But Tanusius states that when the senate
decreed festivals and sacrifices for this victory, Cato declared it to
be his opinion that Caesar ought to be given into the hands of the
barbarians, that so the guilt which this breach of faith might
otherwise bring upon the state might be expiated by transferring the
curse on him, who was the occasion of it. Of those who passed the
Rhine, there were four hundred thousand cut off; those few who escaped
were sheltered by the Sugambri, a people of Germany. Caesar took
hold of this pretence to invade the Germans, being at the same time
ambitious of the honour of being the first man that should pass the
Rhine with an army. He carried a bridge across it, though it was
very wide, and the current at that particular point very full, strong,
and violent, bringing down with its waters trunks of trees, and
other lumber, which much shook and weakened the foundations of his
bridge. But he drove great piles of wood into the bottom of the
river above the passage, to catch and stop these as they floated down,
and thus fixing his bridle upon the stream, successfully finished
his bridge, which no one who saw could believe to be the work but of
ten days.
In the passage of his army over it he met with no opposition; the
Suevi themselves, who are the most warlike people of all Germany,
flying with their effects into the deepest and most densely wooded
valleys. When he had burnt all the enemy's country, and encouraged
those who embraced the Roman interest, he went back into Gaul, after
eighteen days' stay in Germany. But his expedition into Britain was
the most famous testimony of his courage. For he was the first who
brought a navy into the western ocean, or who sailed into the Atlantic
with an army to make war; and by invading an island, the reported
extent of which had made its existence a matter of controversy among
historians, many of whom questioned whether it were not a mere name
and fiction, not a real place, he might be said to have carried the
Roman empire beyond the limits of the known world. He passed thither
twice from that part of Gaul which lies over against it, and in
several battles which he fought did more hurt to the enemy than
service to himself, for the islanders were so miserably poor that they
had nothing worth being plundered of. When he found himself unable
to put such an end to the war as he wished, he was content to take
hostages from the king, and to impose a tribute, and then quitted
the island. At his arrival in Gaul, he found letters which lay ready
to be conveyed over the water to him from his friends at Rome,
announcing his daughter's death, who died in labour of a child by
Pompey. Caesar and Pompey both were much afflicted with her death, nor
were their friends less disturbed, believing that the alliance was now
broken which had hitherto kept the sickly commonwealth in peace, for
the child also died within a few days after the mother. The people
took the body of Julia, in spite of the opposition of the tribunes,
and carried it into the field of Mars, and there her funeral rites
were performed, and her remains are laid.
Caesar's army was now grown very numerous, so that he was forced
to disperse them into various camps for their winter quarters, and
he having gone himself to Italy as he used to do, in his absence a
general outbreak throughout the whole of Gaul commenced, and large
armies marched about the country, and attacked the Roman quarters, and
attempted to make themselves masters of the forts where they lay.
The greatest and strongest party of the rebels, under the command of
Abriorix, cut off Cotta and Titurius with all their men, while a force
sixty thousand strong besieged the legion under the command of Cicero,
and had almost taken it by storm, the Roman soldiers being all
wounded, and having quite spent themselves by a defence beyond their
natural strength. But Caesar, who was at a great distance, having
received the news, quickly got together seven thousand men, and
hastened to relieve Cicero. The besiegers were aware of it, and went
to meet him, with great confidence that they should easily overpower
such a handful of men. Caesar, to increase their presumption, seemed
to avoid fighting, and still marched off, till he found a place
conveniently situated for a few to engage against many, where he
encamped. He kept his soldiers from making any attack upon the
enemy, and commanded them to raise the ramparts higher and barricade
the gates, that by show of fear they might heighten the enemy's
contempt of them. Till at last they came without any order in great
security to make an assault, when he issued forth and put them in
flight with the loss of many men.
This quieted the greater part of the commotions in these parts of
Gaul, and Caesar, in the course of the winter, visited every part of
the country, and with great vigilance took precautions against all
innovations. For there were three legions now come to him to supply
the place of the men he had lost, of which Pompey furnished him with
two out of those under his command; the other was newly raised in
the part of Gaul by the Po. But in a while the seeds of war, which had
long since been secretly sown and scattered by the most powerful men
in those warlike nations, broke forth into the greatest and most
dangerous war that was in those parts, both as regards the number of
men in the vigour of their youth who were gathered and armed from
all quarters, the vast funds of money collected to maintain it, the
strength of the towns, and the difficulty of the country where it
carried on. It being winter, the rivers were frozen, the woods covered
with snow, and the level country flooded, so that in some places the
ways were lost through the depth of the snow; in others, the
overflowing of marshes and streams made every kind of passage
uncertain. All which difficulties made it seem impracticable for
Caesar to make any attempt upon the insurgents. Many tribes had
revolted together, the chief of them being the Arverni and
Carnutini; the general who had the supreme command in war was
Vergentorix, whose father the Gauls had put to death on suspicion of
his aiming at absolute government.
He having disposed his army in several bodies, and set officers over
them, drew over to him all the country round about as far as those
that lie upon the Arar, and having intelligence of the opposition
which Caesar now experienced at Rome, thought to engage all Gaul in
the war. Which if he had done a little later, when Caesar was taken up
with the civil wars, Italy had been put into as great a terror as
before it was by the Cimbri. But Caesar, who above all men was
gifted with the faculty of making the right use of everything in
war, and most especially of seizing the right moment, as soon as he
heard of the revolt, returned immediately the same way he went, and
showed the barbarians, by the quickness of his march in such a
severe season, that an army was advancing against them which was
invincible. For in the time that one would have thought it scarce
credible that a courier or express should have come with a message
from him, he himself appeared with all his army, ravaging the country,
reducing their posts, subduing their towns, receiving into his
protection those who declared for him. Till at last the Edui, who
hitherto had styled themselves brethren to the Romans, and had been
much honoured by them, declared against him, and joined the rebels, to
the great discouragement of his army. Accordingly he removed thence,
and passed the country of the Ligones, desiring to reach the
territories of the Sequani, who were his friends, and who lay like a
bulwark in front of Italy against the other tribes of Gaul. There
the enemy came upon him, and surrounded him with many myriads, whom he
also was eager to engage; and at last, after some time and with much
slaughter, gained on the whole a complete victory; though at first
he appears to have met with some reverse, and the Aruveni show you a
small sword hanging up in a temple, which they say was taken from
Caesar. Caesar saw this afterwards himself, and smiled, and when his
friends advised it should be taken down, would not permit it,
because he looked upon it as consecrated.
After the defeat, a great part of those who had escaped fled with
their king into a town called Alesia, which Caesar besieged, though
the height of the walls, and number of those who defended them, made
it appear impregnable; and meantime, from without the walls, he was
assailed by a greater danger than can be expressed. For the choice men
of Gaul, picked out of each nation, and well armed, came to relieve
Alesia, to the number of three hundred thousand; nor were there in the
town less than one hundred and seventy thousand. So that Caesar
being shut up betwixt two such forces, was compelled to protect
himself by two walls, one towards the town, the other against the
relieving army, as knowing if these forces should join, his affairs
would be entirely ruined. The danger that he underwent before Alesia
justly gained him great honour on many accounts, and gave him an
opportunity of showing greater instances of his valour and conduct
than any other contest had done. One wonders much how he should be
able to engage and defeat so many thousands of men without the town,
and not be perceived by those within, but yet more, that the Romans
themselves, who guarded their wall which was next to the town,
should be strangers to it. For even they knew nothing of the
victory, till they heard the cries of the men and lamentations of
the women who were in the town, and had from thence seen the Romans at
a distance carrying into their camp a great quantity of bucklers,
adorned with gold and silver, many breastplates stained with blood,
besides cups and tents made in the Gallic fashion. So soon did so vast
an army dissolve and vanish like a ghost or dream, the greatest part
of them being killed upon the spot. Those who were in Alesia, having
given themselves and Caesar much trouble, surrendered at last; and
Vergentorix, who was the chief spring of all the war, putting his best
armour on, and adorning his horse, rode out of the gates, and made a
turn about Caesar as he was sitting, then quitting his horse, threw
off his armour, and remained quietly sitting at Caesar's feet until he
was led away to be reserved for the triumph.
Caesar had long ago resolved upon the overthrow of Pompey, as had
Pompey, for that matter, upon his. For Crassus, the fear of whom had
hitherto kept them in peace, having now been killed in Parthia, if the
one of them wished to make himself the greatest man in Rome, he had
only to overthrow the other; and if he again wished to prevent his own
fall, he had nothing for it but to be beforehand with him whom he
feared. Pompey had not been long under any such apprehensions,
having till lately despised Caesar, as thinking it no difficult matter
to put down him whom he himself had advanced. But Caesar had
entertained this design from the beginning against his rivals, and had
retired, like an expert wrestler, to prepare himself apart for the
combat. Making the Gallic wars his exercise-ground, he had at once
improved the strength of his soldiery, and had heightened his own
glory by his great actions, so that he was looked on as one who
might challenge comparison with Pompey. Nor did he let go any of those
advantages which were now given him both by Pompey himself and the
times, and the ill-government of Rome, where all who were candidates
for offices publicly gave money, and without any shame bribed the
people, who, having received their pay, did not contend for their
benefactors with their bare suffrages, but with bows, swords, and
slings. So that after having many times stained the place of
election with blood of men killed upon the spot, they left the city at
last without a government at all, to be carried about like a ship
without a pilot to steer her; while all who had any wisdom could
only be thankful if a course of such wild and stormy disorder and
madness might end no worse than in a monarchy. Some were so bold as to
declare openly that the government was incurable but by a monarchy,
and that they ought to take that remedy from the hands of the gentlest
physician, meaning Pompey, who, though in words he pretended to
decline it, yet in reality made his utmost efforts to be declared
dictator. Cato, perceiving his design, prevailed with the senate to
make him sole consul, that with the offer of a more legal sort of
monarchy he might be withheld from demanding the dictatorship. They
over and above voted him the continuance of his provinces, for he
had two, Spain and all Africa, which he governed by his lieutenants,
and maintained armies under him, at the yearly charge of a thousand
talents out of the public treasury.
Upon this Caesar also sent and petitioned for the consulship and the
continuance of his provinces. Pompey at first did not stir in it,
but Marcellus and Lentulus opposed it, who had always hated Caesar,
and now did everything, whether fit or unfit, which might disgrace and
affront him. For they took away the privilege of Roman citizens from
the people of New Comum, who were a colony that Caesar had lately
planted in Gaul, and Marcellus, who was then consul, ordered one of
the senators of that town, then at Rome, to be whipped, and told him
he laid that mark upon him to signify he was no citizen of Rome,
bidding him, when he went back again, to show it to Caesar. After
Marcellus's consulship, Caesar began to lavish gifts upon all the
public men out of the riches he had taken from the Gauls; discharged
Curio, the tribune, from his great debts; gave Paulus, then consul,
fifteen hundred talents, with which he built the noble court of
justice adjoining the forum, to supply the place of that called the
Fulvian. Pompey, alarmed at these preparations, now openly took steps,
both by himself and his friends, to have a successor appointed in
Caesar's room, and sent to demand back the soldiers whom he had lent
him to carry on the wars in Gaul. Caesar returned them, and made
each soldier a present of two hundred and fifty drachmas. The
officer who brought them home to Pompey spread amongst the people no
very fair or favourable report of Caesar, and flattered Pompey himself
with false suggestions that he was wished for by Caesar's army; and
though his affairs here were in some embarrassment through the envy of
some, and the ill state of the government, yet there the army was at
his command, and if they once crossed into Italy would presently
declare for him; so weary were they of Caesar's endless expeditions,
and so suspicious of his designs for a monarchy. Upon this Pompey grew
presumptuous, and neglected all warlike preparations as fearing no
danger, and used no other means against him than mere speeches and
votes, for which Caesar cared nothing. And one of his captains, it
is said, who was sent by him to Rome, standing before the senate-house
one day, and being told that the senate would not give Caesar longer
time in his government, clapped his hand on the hilt of his sword
and said, "But this shall."
Yet the demands which Caesar made had the fairest colours of
equity imaginable. For he proposed to lay down his arms, and that
Pompey should do the same, and both together should become private
men, and each expect a reward of his services from the public. For
that those who proposed to disarm him, and at the same time to confirm
Pompey in all the power he held, were simply establishing the one in
the tyranny which they accused the other of aiming at. When Curio made
these proposals to the people in Caesar's name, he was loudly
applauded, and some threw garlands towards him, and dismissed him as
they do successful wrestlers, crowned with flowers. Antony, being
tribune, produced a letter sent from Caesar on this occasion, and read
it though the consuls did what they could to oppose it. But Scipio,
Pompey's father-in-law, proposed in the senate, that if Caesar did not
lay down his arms within such a time he should be voted an enemy;
and the consuls putting it to the question, whether Pompey should
dismiss his soldiers, and again, whether Caesar should disband his,
very few assented to the first, but almost all to the latter. But
Antony proposing again, that both should lay down their commissions,
all but a very few agreed to it. Scipio was upon this very violent,
and Lentulus, the consul, cried aloud, that they had need of arms, and
not of suffrages, against a robber; so that the senators for the
present adjourned, and appeared in mourning as a mark of their grief
for the dissension.
Afterwards there came other letters from Caesar, which seemed yet
more moderate, for he proposed to quit everything else, and only to
retain Gaul within the Alps, Illyricum, and two legions, till he
should stand a second time for consul. Cicero, the orator, who was
lately returned from Cilicia, endeavoured to reconcile differences,
and softened Pompey, who was willing to comply in other things, but
not to allow him the soldiers. At last Cicero used his persuasions
with Caesar's friends to accept of the provinces and six thousand
soldiers only, and so to make up the quarrel. And Pompey was
inclined to give way to this, but Lentulus, the consul, would not
hearken to it, but drove Antony and Curio out of the senate-house with
insults, by which he afforded Caesar the most plausible pretence
that could be, and one which he could readily use to inflame the
soldiers, by showing them two persons of such repute and authority who
were forced to escape in a hired carriage in the dress of slaves.
For so they were glad to disguise themselves when they fled out of
Rome.
There were not about him at that time above three hundred horse
and five thousand foot; for the rest of his army, which was left
behind the Alps, was to be brought after him by officers who had
received orders for that purpose. But he thought the first motion
towards the design which he had on foot did not require large forces
at present, and that what was wanted was to make this first step
suddenly, and so to astound his enemies with the boldness of it; as it
would be easier, he thought, to throw them into consternation by doing
what they never anticipated than fairly to conquer them, if he had
alarmed them by his preparations. And therefore he commanded his
captains and other officers to go only with their swords in their
hands, without any other arms, and make themselves masters of
Ariminum, a large city of Gaul, with as little disturbance and
bloodshed as possible. He committed the care of these forces to
Hortensius, and himself spent the day in public as a stander-by and
spectator of the gladiators, who exercised before him. A little before
night he attended to his person, and then went into the hall, and
conversed for some time with those be had invited to supper, till it
began to grow dusk, when he rose from table and made his excuses to
the company, begging them to stay till he came back, having already
given private directions to a few immediate friends that they should
follow him, not all the same way, but some one way, some another. He
himself got into one of the hired carriages, and drove at first
another way, but presently turned towards Ariminum. When he came to
the river Rubicon, which parts Gaul within the Alps from the rest of
Italy, his thoughts began to work, now he was just entering upon the
danger, and he wavered much in his mind when he considered the
greatness of the enterprise into which he was throwing himself. He
checked his course and ordered a halt, while he revolved with himself,
and often changed his opinion one way and the other, without
speaking a word. This was when his purposes fluctuated most; presently
he also discussed the matter with his friends who were about him (of
which number Asinius Pollio was one), computing how many calamities
his passing that river would bring upon mankind, and what a relation
of it would be transmitted to posterity. At last, in a sort of
passion, casting aside calculation, and abandoning himself to what
might come, and using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter
upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," with these
words he took the river. Once over, he used all expedition possible,
and before it was day reached Ariminum and took it. It is said that
the night before he passed the river he had an impious dream, that
he was unnaturally familiar with his own mother.
As soon as Ariminum was taken, wide gates, so to say, were thrown
open, to let in war upon every land alike and sea, and with the limits
of the province, the boundaries of the laws were transgressed. Nor
would one have thought that, as at other times, the mere men and women
fled from one town of Italy to another in their consternation, but
that the very towns themselves left their sites and fled for succour
to each other. The city of Rome was overrun, as it were, with a
deluge, by the conflux of people flying in from all the neighbouring
places. Magistrates could not longer govern, nor the eloquence of
any orator quiet it; it was all but suffering shipwreck by the
violence of its own tempestuous agitation. The most vehement
contrary passions and impulses were at work everywhere. Nor did
those who rejoiced at the prospect of the change altogether conceal
their feelings, but when they met, as in so great a city they
frequently must, with the alarmed and dejected of the other party,
they provoked quarrels by their bold expressions of confidence in
the event. Pompey, sufficiently disturbed of himself, was yet more
perplexed by the clamours of others; some telling him that he justly
suffered for having armed Caesar against himself and the government;
others blaming him for permitting Caesar to be insolently used by
Lentulus, when he made such ample concessions, and offered such
reasonable proposals towards an accommodation. Favonius bade him now
stamp upon the ground; for once talking big in the senate, he
desired them not to trouble themselves about making any preparations
for the war, for that he himself, with one stamp of his foot, would
fill all Italy with soldiers. Yet still Pompey at that time had more
forces than Caesar; but he was not permitted to pursue his own
thoughts, but, being continually disturbed with false reports and
alarms, as if the enemy was close upon him and carrying all before
him, he gave way and let himself be borne down by the general cry.
He put forth an edict declaring the city to be in a state of
anarchy, and left it with orders that the senate should follow him,
and that no one should stay behind who did not prefer tyranny to their
country and liberty.
The consuls at once fled, without making even the usual
sacrifices; so did most of the senators, carrying off their own
goods in as much haste as if they had been robbing their neighbours.
Some, who had formerly much favoured Caesar's cause, in the prevailing
alarm quitted their own sentiments, and without any prospect of good
to themselves were carried along by the common stream. It was a
melancholy thing to see the city tossed in these tumults, like a
ship given up by her pilots, and left to run, as chance guides her,
upon any rock in her way. Yet, in spite of their sad condition
people still esteemed the place of their exile to be their country for
Pompey's sake, and fled from Rome, as if it had been Caesar's camp.
Labienus even, who had been one of Caesar's nearest friends, and his
lieutenant, and who had fought by him zealously in the Gallic wars,
now deserted him, and went over to Pompey. Caesar sent all his money
and equipage after him, and then sat down before Corfinium, which
was garrisoned with thirty cohorts under the command of Domitius.
He, in despair of maintaining the defence, requested a physician, whom
he had among his attendants, to give him poison; and taking the
dose, drank it, in hopes of being despatched by it. But soon after,
when he was told that Caesar showed the utmost clemency towards
those he took prisoners, he lamented his misfortune, and blamed the
hastiness of his resolution. His physician consoled him by informing
him that he had taken a sleeping draught, not a poison; upon which,
much rejoiced, and rising from his bed, he went presently to Caesar
and gave him the pledge of his hand, yet afterwards again went over to
Pompey. The report of these actions at Rome quieted those who were
there, and some who had fled thence returned.
Caesar took into his army Domitius's soldiers, as he did all those
whom he found in any town enlisted for Pompey's service. Being now
strong and formidable enough, he advanced against Pompey himself,
who did not stay to receive him, but fled to Brundusium, having sent
the consuls before with a body of troops to Dyrrhachium. Soon after,
upon Caesar's approach, he set to sea, as shall be more particularly
related in his Life. Caesar would have immediately pursued him, but
wanted shipping, and therefore went back to Rome, having made
himself master of all Italy without bloodshed in the space of sixty
days. When he came thither, he found the city more quiet than he
expected, and many senators present, to whom he addressed himself with
courtesy and deference, desiring them to send to Pompey about any
reasonable accommodation towards a peace. But nobody complied with
this proposal; whether out of fear of Pompey, whom they had
deserted, or that they thought Caesar did not mean what he said, but
thought it his interest to talk plausibly. Afterwards, when
Metellus, the tribune, would have hindered him from taking money out
of the public treasure, and adduced some laws against it, Caesar
replied that arms and laws had each their own time; "If what I do
displeases you, leave the place; war allows no free talking. When I
have laid down my arms, and made peace, come back and make what
speeches you please. And this," he added, "I tell you in diminution of
my own just right, as indeed you and all others who have appeared
against me and are now in my power may be treated as I please." Having
said this to Metellus, he went to the doors of the treasury, and the
keys being not to be found, sent for smiths to force them open.
Metellus again making resistance and some encouraging him in it,
Caesar, in a louder tone, told him he would put him to death if he
gave him any further disturbance. "And this," said he, "you know,
young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do." These words
made Metellus withdraw for fear, and obtained speedy execution
henceforth for all orders that Caesar gave for procuring necessaries
for the war.
He was now proceeding to Spain, with the determination of first
crushing Afranius and Varro, Pompey's lieutenants, and making
himself master of the armies and provinces under them, that he might
then more securely advance against Pompey, when he had no enemy left
behind him. In this expedition his person was often in danger from
ambuscades, and his army by want of provisions, yet he did not
desist from pursuing the enemy, provoking them to fight, and hemming
them with his fortifications, till by main force he made himself
master of their camps and their forces. Only the generals got off, and
fled to Pompey.
When Caesar came back to Rome, Piso, his father-in-law, advised
him to send men to Pompey to treat of a peace; but Isauricus, to
ingratiate himself with Caesar, spoke against it. After this, being
created dictator by the senate, he called home the exiles, and gave
back their rights as citizens to the children of those who had
suffered under Sylla; he relieved the debtors by an act remitting some
part of the interest on their debts, and passed some other measures of
the same sort, but not many. For within eleven days he resigned his
dictatorship, and having declared himself consul, with Servilius
Isauricus, hastened again to the war. He marched so fast that he
left all his army behind him, except six hundred chosen horse and five
legions, with which he put to sea in the very middle of winter,
about the beginning of the month of January (which corresponds
pretty nearly with the Athenian month Posideon), and having passed the
Ionian Sea, took Oricum and Apollonia, and then sent back the ships to
Brundusium, to bring over the soldiers who were left behind in the
march. They, while yet on the march, their bodies now no longer in the
full vigour, and they themselves weary with such a multitude of
wars, could not but exclaim against Caesar, "When at last, and
where, will this Caesar let us be quiet? He carries us from place to
place, and uses us as if we were not to be worn out, and had no
sense of labour. Even our iron itself is spent by blows, and we
ought to have some pity on our bucklers, and breastplates, which
have been used so long. Our wounds, if nothing else, should make him
see that we are mortal men whom he commands, subject to the same pains
and sufferings as other human beings. The very gods themselves
cannot force the winter season, or hinder the storms in their time;
yet he pushes forward, as if he were not pursuing, but flying from
an enemy." So they talked as they marched leisurely towards
Brundusium. But when they came thither, and found Caesar gone off
before them, their feelings changed, and they blamed themselves as
traitors to their general. They now railed at their officers for
marching so slowly, and placing themselves on the heights
overlooking the sea towards Epirus, they kept watch to see if they
could espy the vessels which were to transport them to Caesar.
He in the meantime was posted in Apollonia, but had not an army with
him able to fight the enemy, the forces from Brundusium being so
long in coming, which put him to great suspense and embarrassment what
to do. At last he resolved upon a most hazardous experiment, and
embarked, without any one's knowledge, in a boat of twelve oars, to
cross over to Brundusium, though the sea was at that time covered with
a vast fleet of the enemies. He got on board in the night-time, in the
dress of a slave, and throwing himself down like a person of no
consequence lay along at the bottom of the vessel. The river Anius was
to carry them down to sea, and there used to blow a gentle gale
every morning from the land, which made it calm at the mouth of the
river, by driving the waves forward; but this night there had blown
a strong wind from the sea, which overpowered that from the land, so
that where the river met the influx of the seawater and the opposition
of the waves it was extremely rough and angry; and the current was
beaten back with such a violent swell that the master of the boat
could not make good his passage, but ordered his sailors to tack about
and return. Caesar, upon this, discovers himself, and taking the man
by the hand, who was surprised to see him there, said, "Go on, my
friend, and fear nothing; you carry Caesar and his fortune in your
boat." The mariners, when they heard that, forgot the storm, and
laying all their strength to their oars, did what they could to
force their way down the river. But when it was to no purpose, and the
vessel now took in much water, Caesar finding himself in such danger
in the very mouth of the river, much against his will permitted the
master to turn back. When he was come to land, his soldiers ran to him
in a multitude, reproaching him for what he had done, and indignant
that he should think himself not strong enough to get a victory by
their sole assistance, but must disturb himself, and expose his life
for those who were absent, as if he could not trust those who were
with him.
After this, Antony came over with the forces from Brundusium,
which encouraged Caesar to give Pompey battle, though he was
encamped very advantageously, and furnished with plenty of
provisions both by sea and land, whilst he himself was at the
beginning but ill supplied, and before the end was extremely pinched
for want of necessaries, so that his soldiers were forced to dig up
a kind of root which grew there, and tempering it with milk, to feed
on it. Sometimes they made a kind of bread of it, and advancing up
to the enemy's outposts, would throw in these loaves, telling them,
that as long as the earth produced such roots they would not give up
blockading Pompey. But Pompey took what care he could that neither the
loaves nor the words should reach his men, who were out of heart and
despondent through terror at the fierceness and hardihood of their
enemies, whom they looked upon as a sort of wild beasts. There were
continual skirmishes about Pompey's outworks, in all which Caesar
had the better, except one, when his men were forced to fly in such
a manner that he had like to have lost his camp. For Pompey made
such a vigorous sally on them that not a man stood his ground; the
trenches were filled with the slaughter, many fell upon their own
ramparts and bulwarks, whither they were driven in flight by the
enemy. Caesar met them and would have turned them back, but could not.
When he went to lay hold of the ensigns, those who carried them
threw them down, so that the enemy took thirty-two of them. He himself
narrowly escaped; for taking hold of one of his soldiers, a big and
strong man, that was flying by him, he bade him stand and face
about; but the fellow, full of apprehensions from the danger he was
in, laid hold of his sword, as if he would strike Caesar, but Caesar's
armour-bearer cut off his arm. Caesar's affairs were so desperate at
that time that when Pompey, either through over-cautiousness or his
ill fortune, did not give the finishing stroke to that great
success, but retreated after he had driven the routed enemy within
their camp, Caesar, upon seeing his withdrawal, said to his friends,
"The victory to-day had been on the enemies' side if they had had a
general who knew how to gain it." When he was retired into his tent,
he laid himself down to sleep, but spent that night as miserable as
ever he did any, in perplexity and consideration with himself,
coming to the conclusion that he had conducted the war amiss. For when
he had a fertile country before him, and all the wealthy cities of
Macedonia and Thessaly, he had neglected to carry the war thither, and
had sat down by the seaside, where his enemies had such a powerful
fleet, so that he was in fact rather besieged by the want of
necessaries, than besieging others with his arms. Being thus
distracted in his thoughts with the view of the difficulty and
distress he was in, he raised his camp, with the intention of
advancing towards Scipio, who lay in Macedonia; hoping either to
entice Pompey into a country where he should fight without the
advantage he now had of supplies from the sea, or to overpower
Scipio if not assisted.
This set all Pompey's army and officers on fire to hasten and pursue
Caesar, whom they concluded to be beaten and flying. But Pompey was
afraid to hazard a battle on which so much depended, and being himself
provided with all necessaries for any length of time, thought to
tire out and waste the vigour of Caesar's army, which could not last
long. For the best part of his men, though they had great
experience, and showed an irresistible courage in all engagements, yet
by their frequent marches, changing their camps, attacking
fortifications, and keeping long night-watches, were getting worn
out and broken; they being now old, their bodies less fit for
labour, and their courage, also, beginning to give way with the
failure of their strength. Besides, it was said that an infectious
disease, occasioned by their irregular diet, was prevailing in
Caesar's army, and what was of greatest moment, he was neither
furnished with money nor provisions, so that in a little time he
must needs fall of himself.
For these reasons Pompey had no mind to fight him, but was thanked
for it by none but Cato, who rejoiced at the prospect of sparing his
fellow-citizens. For he, when he saw the dead bodies of those who
had fallen in the last battle on Caesar's side, to the number of a
thousand, turned away, covered his face, and shed tears. But every one
else upbraided Pompey for being reluctant to fight, and tried to
goad him on by such nicknames as Agamemnon, and king of kings, as if
he were in no hurry to lay down his sovereign authority, but was
pleased to see so many commanders attending on him, and paying their
attendance at his tent. Favonius, who affected Cato's free way of
speaking his mind, complained bitterly that they should eat no figs
even this year at Tusculum, because of Pompey's love of command.
Afranius, who was lately returned out of Spain, and, on account of his
ill success there, laboured under the suspicion of having been
bribed to betray the army, asked why they did not fight this purchaser
of provinces. Pompey was driven, against his own will, by this kind of
language, into offering battle, and proceeded to follow Caesar. Caesar
had found great difficulties in his march, for no country would supply
him with provisions, his reputation being very much fallen since his
late defeat. But after he took Gomphi, a town of Thessaly, he not only
found provisions for his army, but physic too. For there they met with
plenty of wine, which they took very freely, and heated with this,
sporting and revelling on their march in bacchanalian fashion, they
shook off the disease, and their whole constitution was relieved and
changed into another habit.
When the two armies were come into Pharsalia, and both encamped
there, Pompey's thoughts ran the same way as they had done before,
against fighting, and the more because of some unlucky presages, and a
vision he had in a dream. But those who were about him were so
confident of success, that Domitius, and Spinther, and Scipio, as if
they had already conquered, quarrelled which should succeed Caesar
in the pontificate. And many sent to Rome to take houses fit to
accommodate consuls and praetors, as being sure of entering upon those
offices as soon as the battle was over. The cavalry especially were
obstinate for fighting, being splendidly armed and bravely mounted,
and valuing themselves upon the fine horses they kept, and upon
their own handsome persons; as also upon the advantage of their
numbers, for they were five thousand against one thousand of Caesar's.
Nor were the numbers of the infantry less disproportionate, there
being forty-five thousand of Pompey's against twenty-two thousand of
the enemy.
Caesar, collecting his soldiers together, told them that Corfinius
was coming up to them with two legions, and that fifteen cohorts
more under Calenus were posted at and Athens; he then asked him
whether they would stay till these joined them, or would hazard the
battle by themselves. They all cried out to him not to wait, but on
the contrary to do whatever he could to bring about an engagement as
soon as possible. When he sacrificed to the gods for the lustration of
his army, upon the death of the first victim, the augur told him,
within three days he should come to a decisive action. Caesar asked
him whether he saw anything in the entrails which promised a happy
event. "That," said the priest, "you can best answer yourself; for the
gods signify a great alteration from the present posture of affairs.
If, therefore, you think yourself well off now, expect worse
fortune; if unhappy, hope for better." The night before the battle, as
he walked the rounds about midnight, there was a light seen in the
heavens, very bright and flaming, which seemed to pass over Caesar's
camp and fall into Pompey's. And when Caesar's soldiers came to
relieve the watch in the morning, they perceived a panic disorder
among the enemies. However, he did not expect to fight that day, but
set about raising his camp with the intention of marching towards
Scotussa.
But when the tents were now taken down, his scouts rode up to him,
and told him the enemy would give him battle. With this news he was
extremely pleased, and having performed his devotions to the gods, set
his army in battle array, dividing them into three bodies. Over the
middlemost he placed Domitius Calvinus; Antony commanded the left
wing, and he himself the right, being resolved to fight at the head of
the tenth legion. But when he saw the enemy's cavalry taking
position against him, being struck with their fine appearance and
their number, he gave private orders that six cohorts from the rear of
the army should come and join him, whom he posted behind the right
wing, and instructed them what they should do when the enemy's horse
came to charge. On the other side, Pompey commanded the right wing,
Domitius the left, and Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, the centre. The
whole weight of the cavalry was collected on the left wing, with the
intent that they should outflank the right wing of the enemy, and rout
that part where the general himself commanded. For they thought no
phalanx of infantry could be solid enough to sustain such a shock, but
that they must necessarily be broken and shattered all to pieces
upon the onset of so immense a force of cavalry. When they were
ready on both sides to give the signal for battle, Pompey commanded
his foot, who were in the front, to stand their ground, and without
breaking their order, receive, quietly, the enemy's first attack, till
they came within javelin's cast. Caesar, in this respect, also, blames
Pompey's generalship, as if he had not been aware how the first
encounter, when made with an impetus and upon the run, gives weight
and force to the strokes, and fires the men's spirits into a flame,
which the general concurrence fans to full heat. He himself was just
putting the troops into motion and advancing to the action, when he
found one of his captains, a trusty and experienced soldier,
encouraging his men to exert their utmost. Caesar called him by his
name, and said, "What hopes, Caius Crassinius, and what grounds for
encouragement?" Crassinius stretched out his hand, and cried in a loud
voice, "We shall conquer nobly, Caesar; and I this day will deserve
your praises, either alive or dead." So he said, and was the first man
to run in upon the enemy, followed by the hundred and twenty
soldiers about him, and breaking through the first rank, still pressed
on forwards with much slaughter of the enemy, till at last he was
struck back by the wound of a sword, which went in at his mouth with
such force that it came out at his neck behind.
Whilst the foot was thus sharply engaged in the main battle, on
the flank Pompey's horse rode up confidently, and opened their ranks
very wide, that they might surround the right wing of Caesar. But
before they engaged, Caesar's cohorts rushed out and attacked them,
and did not dart their javelins at a distance, nor strike at the
thighs and legs, as they usually did in close battle, but aimed at
their faces. For thus Caesar had instructed them, in hopes that
young gentlemen, who had not known much of battles and wounds, but
came wearing their hair long, in the flower of their age and height of
their beauty, would be more apprehensive of such blows, and not care
for hazarding both a danger at present and a blemish for the future.
And so it proved, for they were so far from bearing the stroke of
the javelins, that they could not stand the sight of them, but
turned about, and covered their faces to secure them. Once in
disorder, presently they turned about to fly; and so most shamefully
ruined all. For those who had beat them back at once outflanked the
infantry, and falling on their rear, cut them to pieces. Pompey, who
commanded the other wing of the army, when he saw his cavalry thus
broken and flying, was no longer himself, nor did he now remember that
he was Pompey the Great, but, like one whom some god had deprived of
his senses, retired to his tent without speaking a word, and there sat
to expect the event, till the whole army was routed and the enemy
appeared upon the works which were thrown up before the camp, where
they closely engaged with his men who were posted there to defend
it. Then first he seemed to have recovered his senses, and uttering,
it is said, only these words, "What, into the camp too?" he laid aside
his general's habit, and putting on such clothes as might best
favour his flight, stole off. What fortune he met with afterwards, how
he took shelter in Egypt, and was murdered there, we tell you in his
Life.
Caesar, when he came to view Pompey's camp, and saw some of his
opponents dead upon the ground, others dying, said, with a groan,
"This they would have; they brought me to this necessity. I, Caius
Caesar, after succeeding in so many wars, had been condemned had I
dismissed my army." These words, Pollio says, Caesar spoke in Latin at
that time, and that he himself wrote them in Greek; adding, that those
who were killed at the taking of the camp were most of them
servants; and that not above six thousand soldiers fell. Caesar
incorporated most of the foot whom he took prisoners with his own
legions, and gave a free pardon to many of the distinguished
persons, and amongst the rest to Brutus, who afterwards killed him. He
did not immediately appear after the battle was over, which put
Caesar, it is said, into great anxiety for him; nor was his pleasure
less when he saw him present himself alive.
There were many prodigies that foreshadowed this victory, but the
most remarkable that we are told of was that at Tralles. In the temple
of Victory stood Caesar's statue. The ground on which it stood was
naturally hard and solid, and the stone with which it was paved
still harder; yet it is said that a palm-tree shot itself up near
the pedestal of this statue. In the city of Padua, one Caius
Cornelius, who had the character of a good augur, the fellow-citizen
and acquaintance of Livy, the historian, happened to be making some
augural observations that very day when the battle was fought. And
first, as Livy tells us, he pointed out the time of the fight, and
said to those who were by him that just then the battle was begun
and the men engaged. When he looked a second time, and observed the
omens, he leaped up as if he had been inspired, and cried out,
"Caesar, are victorious." This much surprised the standers-by, but
he took the garland which he had on from his head, and swore he
would never wear it again till the event should give authority to
his art. This Livy positively states for a truth.
Caesar, as a memorial of his victory, gave the Thessalians their
freedom, and then went in pursuit of Pompey. When he was come into
Asia, to gratify Theopompus, the author of the collection of fables,
he enfranchised the Cnidians, and remitted one-third of their
tribute to all the people of the province of Asia. When he came to
Alexandria, where Pompey was already murdered, he would not look
upon Theodotus, who presented him with his head, but taking only his
signet, shed tears. Those of Pompey's friends who had been arrested by
the King of Egypt, as they were wandering in those parts, he relieved,
and offered them his own friendship. In his letter to his friends at
Rome, he told them that the greatest and most signal pleasure his
victory had given him was to be able continually to save the lives
of fellow-citizens who had fought against him. As to the war in Egypt,
some say it was at once dangerous and dishonourable, and noways
necessary, but occasioned only by his passion for Cleopatra. Others
blame the ministers of the king, and especially the eunuch Pothinus,
who was the chief favourite and had lately killed Pompey, who had
banished Cleopatra, and was now secretly plotting Caesar's destruction
(to prevent which, Caesar from that time began to sit up whole nights,
under pretence of drinking, for the security of his person), while
openly he was intolerable in his affronts to Caesar, both by his words
and actions. For when Caesar's soldiers had musty and unwholesome corn
measured out to them, Pothinus told them they must be content with it,
since they were fed at another's cost. He ordered that his table
should be served with wooden and earthen dishes, and said Caesar had
carried off all the gold and silver plate, under pretence of arrears
of debt. For the present king's father owed Caesar one thousand
seven hundred and fifty myriads of money. Caesar had formerly remitted
to his children the rest, but thought fit to demand the thousand
myriads at that time to maintain his army. Pothinus told him that he
had better go now and attend to his other affairs of greater
consequence, and that he should receive his money at another time with
thanks. Caesar replied that he did not want Egyptians to be his
counsellors, and soon after privately sent for Cleopatra from her
retirement.
She took a small boat, and one only of her confidants,
Apollodorus, the Sicilian, along with her, and in the dusk of the
evening landed near the palace. She was at a loss how to get in
undiscovered, till she thought of putting herself into the coverlet of
a bed and lying at length, whilst Apollodorus tied up the bedding
and carried it on his back through the gates to Caesar's apartment.
Caesar was first captivated by this proof of Cleopatra's bold wit, and
was afterwards so overcome by the charm of her society that he made
a reconciliation between her and her brother, on the condition that
she should rule as his colleague in the kingdom. A festival was kept
to celebrate this reconciliation, where Caesar's barber, a busy
listening fellow, whose excessive timidity made him inquisitive into
everything, discovered that there was a plot carrying on against
Caesar by Achillas, general of the king's forces, and Pothinus, the
eunuch. Caesar, upon the first intelligence of it, set a guard upon
the hall where the feast was kept and killed Pothinus. Achillas
escaped to the army, and raised a troublesome and embarrassing war
against Caesar, which it was not easy for him to manage with his few
soldiers against so powerful a city and so large an army. The first
difficulty he met with was want of water, for the enemies had turned
the canals. Another was, when the enemy endeavoured to cut off his
communication by sea, he was forced to divert that danger by setting
fire to his own ships, which, after burning the docks, thence spread
on and destroyed the great library. A third was, when in an engagement
near Pharos, he leaped from the mole into a small boat to assist his
soldiers who were in danger, and when the Egyptians pressed him on
every side, he threw himself into the sea, and with much difficulty
swam off. This was the time when, according to the story, he had a
number of manuscripts in his hand, which, though he was continually
darted at, and forced to keep his head often under water, yet he did
not let go, but held them up safe from wetting in one hand, whilst
he swam with the other. His boat in the meantime, was quickly sunk. At
last, the king having gone off to Achillas and his party, Caesar
engaged and conquered them. Many fell in that battle, and the king
himself was never seen after. Upon this, he left Cleopatra queen of
Egypt, who soon after had a son by him, whom the Alexandrians called
Caesarion, and then departed for Syria.
Thence he passed to Asia, where he heard that Domitius was beaten by
Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and had fled out of Pontus with a
handful of men; and that Pharnaces pursued the victory so eagerly,
that though he was already master of Bithynia and Cappadocia, he had a
further design of attempting the Lesser Armenia, and was inviting
all the kings and tetrarchs there to rise. Caesar immediately
marched against him with three legions, fought him near Zela, drove
him out of Pontus, and totally defeated his army. When he gave
Amantius, a friend of his at Rome, an account of this action, to
express the promptness and rapidity of it he used three words, I came,
saw, and conquered, which in Latin, having all the same cadence, carry
with them a very suitable air of brevity.
Hence he crossed into Italy, and came to Rome at the end of that
year, for which he had been a second time chosen dictator, though that
office had never before lasted a whole year, and was elected consul
for the next. He was ill spoken of, because upon a mutiny of some
soldiers, who killed Cosconius and Galba, who had been praetors, he
gave them only the slight reprimand of calling them Citizens instead
of Fellow-Soldiers, and afterwards assigned to each man a thousand
drachmas, besides a share of lands in Italy. He was also reflected
on for Dolabella's extravagance, Amantius's covetousness, Antony's
debauchery, and Corfinius's profuseness, who pulled down Pompey's
house, and rebuilt it, as not magnificent enough; for the Romans
were much displeased with all these. But Caesar, for the prosecution
of his own scheme of government, though he knew their characters and
disapproved them, was forced to make use of those who would serve him.
After the battle of Pharsalia, Cato and Scipio fled into Africa, and
there, with the assistance of King Juba, got together a considerable
force, which Caesar resolved to engage. He accordingly passed into
Sicily about the winter solstice, and to remove from his officers'
minds all hopes of delay there, encamped by the seashore, and as
soon as ever he had a fair wind, put to sea with three thousand foot
and a few horse. When he had landed them, he went back secretly, under
some apprehensions for the larger part of his army, but met them
upon the sea, and brought them all to the same camp. There he was
informed that the enemies relied much upon an ancient oracle, that the
family of the Scipios should be always victorious in Africa. There was
in his army a man, otherwise mean and contemptible, but of the house
of the Africani, and his name Scipio Sallutio. This man Caesar
(whether in raillery to ridicule Scipio, who commanded the enemy, or
seriously to bring over the omen to his side, it were hard to say),
put at the head of his troops, as if he were general, in all the
frequent battles which he was compelled to fight. For he was in such
want both of victualling for his men and forage for his horses, that
he was forced to feed the horses with seaweed, which he washed
thoroughly to take off its saltness, and mixed with a little grass
to give it a more agreeable taste, The Numidians, in great numbers,
and well horsed, whenever he went, came up and commanded the
country. Caesar's cavalry, being one day unemployed, diverted
themselves with seeing an African, who entertained them with dancing
and at the same time played upon the pipe to admiration. They were
so taken with this, that they alighted, and gave their horses to
some boys, when on a sudden the enemy surrounded them, killed some,
pursued the rest and fell in with them into their camp; and had not
Caesar himself and Asinius Pollio come to their assistance, and put
a stop to their flight, the war had been then at an end. In another
engagement, also, the enemy had again the better, when Caesar, it is
said, seized a standard-bearer, who was running away, by the neck, and
forcing him to face about, said, "Look, that is the way to the enemy."
Scipio, flushed with this success at first, had a mind to come to
one decisive action. He therefore left Afranius and Juba in two
distinct bodies not far distant and marched himself towards Thapsus,
where he proceeded to build a fortified camp above a lake, to serve as
a centre-point for their operations, and also as a place of refuge.
Whilst Scipio was thus employed, Caesar with incredible despatch
made his way through thick woods, and a country supposed to be
impassable, cut off one part of the enemy and attacked another in
the front. Having routed these, he followed up his opportunity and the
current of his good fortune, and on the first carried Afranius's camp,
and ravaged that of the Numidians, Juba, their king, being glad to
save himself by flight; so that in a small part of a single day he
made himself master of three camps, and killed fifty thousand of the
enemy, with the loss only of fifty of his own men. This is the account
some give of that fight. Others say he was not in the action, but that
he was too far disordered his senses, when he was already beginning to
shake under its influence, withdrew into a neighbouring fort where
he reposed himself. Of the men of consular and praetorian dignity that
were taken after the fight, several Caesar put to death, others
anticipated him by killing themselves.
Cato had undertaken to defend Utica, and for that reason was not
in the battle. The desire which Caesar had to take him alive made
him hasten thither; and upon the intelligence that he had despatched
himself, he was much discomposed, for what reason is not so well
agreed. He certainly said, "Cato, I must grudge you your death, as you
grudged me the honour of saving your life." Yet the discourse he wrote
against Cato after his death is no great sign of his kindness, or that
he was inclined to be reconciled to him. For how is it probable that
he would have been tender of his life when he was so bitter against
his memory? But from his clemency to Cicero, Brutus, and many others
who fought against him, it may be divined that Caesar's book was not
written so much out of animosity to Cato, as in his own vindication.
Cicero had written an encomium upon Cato, and called it by his name. A
composition by so great a master upon so excellent a subject was
sure to be in every one's hands. This touched Caesar, who looked
upon a panegyric on his enemies as no better than an invective against
himself; and therefore he made in his Anti-Cato a collection of
whatever could be said in his derogation. The two compositions, like
Cato and Caesar themselves, have each of them their several admirers.
Caesar, upon his return to Rome, did not omit to pronounce before
the people a magnificent account of his victory, telling them that
he had subdued a country which would supply the public every year with
two hundred thousand attic bushels of corn and three million pounds'
weight of oil. He then led three triumphs for Egypt, Pontus, and
Africa, the last for the victory over, not Scipio, but King Juba, as
it was professed, whose little son was then carried in the triumph,
the happiest captive that ever was, who, of a barbarian Numidian, came
by this means to obtain a place among the most learned historians of
Greece. After the triumphs, he distributed rewards to his soldiers,
and treated the people with feasting and shows. He entertained the
whole people together at one feast, where twenty-two thousand dining
couches were laid out; and he made a display of gladiators, and of
battles by sea, in honour, as he said, of his daughter Julia, though
she had been long since dead. When these shows were over, an account
was taken of the people who, from three hundred and twenty thousand,
were now reduced to one hundred and fifty thousand. So great a waste
had the civil war made in Rome alone, not to mention what the other
parts of Italy and the provinces suffered.
He was now chosen a fourth time consul, and went into Spain
against Pompey's sons. They were but young, yet had gathered
together a very numerous army, and showed they had courage and conduct
to command it, so that Caesar was in extreme danger. The great
battle was near the town of Munda, in which Caesar, seeing his men
hard pressed, and making but a weak resistance, ran through the
ranks among the soldiers, and crying out, asked them whether they were
not ashamed to deliver him into the hands of boys? At last, with great
difficulty, and the best efforts he could make, he forced back the
enemy, killing thirty thousand of them, though with the loss of one
thousand of his best men. When he came back from the fight, he told
his friends that he had often fought for victory, but this was the
first time he had ever fought for life. This battle was won on the
feast of Bacchus, the very day in which Pompey, four years before, had
set out for the war. The younger of Pompey's sons escaped; but Didius,
some days after the fight, brought the head of the elder to Caesar.
This was the last war he was engaged in. The triumph which he
celebrated for this victory displeased the Romans beyond anything, for
he had not defeated foreign generals or barbarian kings, but had
destroyed the children and family of one of the greatest men of
Rome, though unfortunate; and it did not look well to lead a
procession in celebration of the calamities of his country, and to
rejoice in those things for which no other apology could be made
either to gods or men than their being absolutely necessary. Besides
that, hitherto he had never sent letters or messengers to announce any
victory over his fellow-citizens, but had seemed rather to be
ashamed of the action than to expect honour from it.
Nevertheless his countrymen, conceding all to his fortune, and
accepting the bit, in the hope that the government of a single
person would give them time to breathe after so many civil wars and
calamities, made him dictator for life. This was indeed a tyranny
avowed, since his power now was not only absolute, but perpetual
too. Cicero made the first proposals to the senate for conferring
honours upon him, which might in some sort be said not to exceed the
limits of ordinary human moderation. But others, striving which should
deserve most, carried them so excessively high, that they made
Caesar odious to the most indifferent and moderate sort of men, by the
pretentions and extravagance of the titles which they decreed him. His
enemies, too, are thought to have had some share in this, as well as
his flatterers. It gave them advantage against him, and would be their
justification for any attempt they should make upon him; for since the
civil wars were ended, he had nothing else that he could be charged
with. And they had good reason to decree a temple to Clemency, in
token of their thanks for the mild use he made of his victory. For
he not only pardoned many of those who fought against him, but,
further, to some gave honours and offices; as particularly to Brutus
and Cassius, who both of them were praetors. Pompey's images that were
thrown down he set up again, upon which Cicero also said that by
raising Pompey's statues he had fixed his own. When his friends
advised him to have a guard, and several offered their services, he
would not hear of it; but said it was better to suffer death once than
always to live in fear of it. He looked upon the affections of the
people to be the best and surest guard, and entertained them again
with public feasting and general distributions of corn; and to gratify
his army, he sent out colonies to several places, of which the most
remarkable were Carthage and Corinth; which as before they had been
ruined at the same time, so now were restored and repeopled together.
As for the men of high rank, he promised to some of them future
consulships and praetorships, some he consoled with other offices
and honours, and to all held out hopes of favour by the solicitude
he showed to rule with the general good-will, insomuch that upon the
death of Maximus one day before his consulship was ended, he made
Caninius Revilius consul for that day. And when many went to pay the
usual compliments and attentions to the new consul, "Let us make
haste," said Cicero, "lest the man be gone out of his office before we
come."
Caesar was born to do great things, and had a passion after
honour, and the many noble exploits he had done did not now serve as
an inducement to him to sit still and reap the fruit of his past
labours, but were incentives and encouragements to go on, and raised
in him ideas of still greater actions, and a desire of new glory, as
if the present were all spent. It was in fact a sort of emulous
struggle with himself, as it had been with another, how he might outdo
his past actions by his future. In pursuit of these thoughts, he
resolved to make war upon the Parthians, and when he had subdued them,
to pass through Hyrcania; thence to march along by the Caspian Sea
to Mount Caucasus, and so on about Pontus, till he came into
Scythia; then to overrun all the countries bordering upon Germany, and
Germany itself; and so to return through Gaul into Italy, after
completing the whole circle of his intended empire, and bounding it on
every side by the ocean. While preparations were making for this
expedition, he proposed to dig through the isthmus on which Corinth
stands; and appointed Anienus to superintend the work. He had also a
design of diverting the Tiber, and carrying it by a deep channel
directly from Rome to Circeii, and so into the sea near Tarracina,
that there might be a safe and easy passage for all merchants who
traded to Rome. Besides this, he intended to drain all the marshes
by Pomentium and Setia, and gain ground enough from the water to
employ many thousands of men in tillage. He proposed further to make
great mounds on the shore nearest Rome, to hinder the sea from
breaking in upon the land, to clear the coast at Ostia of all the
hidden rocks and shoals that made it unsafe for shipping and to form
ports and harbours fit to receive the large number of vessels that
would frequent them.
These things were designed without being carried into effect; but
his reformation of the calendar in order to rectify the irregularity
of time was not only projected with great scientific ingenuity, but
was brought to its completion, and proved of very great use. For it
was not only in ancient time that the Romans had wanted a certain rule
to make their months fall in with the revolutions of the year, so that
their festivals and solemn days for sacrifice were removed by little
and little, till at last they came to be kept at seasons quite the
contrary to what was at first intended, but even at this time the
people had no way of computing the solar year; only the priests
could say the time, and they, at their pleasure, without giving any
notice, slipped in the intercalary month, which they called
Mercedonius. Numa was the first who put in this month, but his
expedient was but a poor one and quite inadequate to correct all the
errors that arose in the returns of the annual cycles, as we have
shown in his life. Caesar called in the best philosophers and
mathematicians of his time to settle the point, and out of the systems
he had before him formed a new and more exact method of correcting the
calendar, which the Romans use to this day, and seem to succeed better
than any nation in avoiding the errors occasioned by the inequality of
the cycles. Yet even this gave offence to those who looked with an
evil eye on his position, and felt oppressed by his power. Cicero
the orator, when some one in his company chanced to say the next
morning Lyra would rise, replied, "Yes, in accordance with the edict,"
as if even this were a matter of compulsion.
But that which brought upon him the most apparent and mortal
hatred was his desire of being king; which gave the common people
the first occasion to quarrel with him, and proved the most specious
pretence to those who had been his secret enemies all along. Those who
would have procured him that title gave it out that it was foretold in
the Sibyls' books that the Romans should conquer the Parthians when
they fought against them under the conduct of a king, but not
before. And one day, as Caesar was coming down from Alba to Rome, some
were so bold as to salute him by the name of king; but he, finding the
people disrelish it, seemed to resent it himself, and said his name
was Caesar, not king. Upon this there was a general silence, and he
passed on looking not very well pleased or contented. Another time,
when the senate had conferred on him some extravagant honours, he
chanced to receive the message as he was sitting on the rostra, where,
though the consuls and praetors themselves waited on him, attended
by the whole body of the senate, he did not rise, but behaved
himself to them as if they had been private men, and told them his
honours wanted rather to be retrenched than increased. This
treatment offended not only the senate, but the commonalty too, as
if they thought the affront upon the senate equally reflected upon the
whole republic; so that all who could decently leave him went off,
looking much discomposed. Caesar, perceiving the false step he had
made, immediately retired home; and laying his throat bare, told his
friends that he was ready to offer this to any one who would give
the stroke. But afterwards he made the malady from which he suffered
the excuse for his sitting, saying that those who are attacked by it
lose their presence of mind if they talk much standing; that they
presently grow giddy, fall into convulsions, and quite lose their
reason. But this was not the reality, for he would willingly have
stood up to the senate, had not Cornelius Balbus, one of his
friends, or rather flatterers, hindered him. "Will you and
remember," said he, "you are Caesar, and claim the honour which is due
to your merit?"
He gave a fresh occasion of resentment by his affront to the
tribunes. The Lupercalia were then celebrated, a feast at the first
institution belonging, as some writers say, to the shepherds, and
having some connection with the Arcadian Lycae. Many young noblemen
and magistrates run up and down the city with their upper garments
off, striking all they meet with thongs of hide, by way of sport;
and many women, even of the highest rank, place themselves in the way,
and hold out their hands to the lash, as boys in a school do to the
master, out of a belief that it procures an easy labour to those who
are with child, and makes those conceive who are barren. Caesar,
dressed in a triumphal robe, seated himself in a golden chair at the
rostra to view this ceremony. Antony, as consul, was one of those
who ran this course, and when he came into the forum, and the people
made way for him, he went up and reached to Caesar a diadem wreathed
with laurel. Upon this there was a shout, but only a slight one,
made by the few who were planted there for that purpose; but when
Caesar refused it, there was universal applause. Upon the second
offer, very few, and upon the second refusal, all again applauded.
Caesar finding it would not take, rose up, and ordered the crown to be
carried into the capitol. Caesar's statues were afterwards found
with royal diadems on their heads. Flavius and Marullus, two
tribunes of the people, went presently and pulled them off, and having
apprehended those who first saluted Caesar as king committed them to
prison. The people followed them with acclamations, and called them by
the name of Brutus, because Brutus was the first who ended the
succession of kings, and transferred the power which before was lodged
in one man into the hands of the senate and people. Caesar so far
resented this, that he displaced Marullus and Flavius; and in urging
his charges against them, at the same time ridiculed the people, by
himself giving the men more than once the names of Bruti and Cumaei.
This made the multitude turn their thoughts to Marcus Brutus, who,
by his father's side, was thought to be descended from that first
Brutus, and by his mother's side from the Servilii, another noble
family, being besides nephew and son-in-law to Cato. But the honours
and favours he had received from Caesar took off the edge from the
desires he might himself have felt for overthrowing the new
monarchy. For he had not only been pardoned himself after Pompey's
defeat at Pharsalia, and had procured the same grace for many of his
friends, but was one in whom Caesar had a particular confidence. He
had at that time the most honourable praetorship for the year, and was
named for the consulship four years after, being preferred before
Cassius, his competitor. Upon the question as to the choice, Caesar,
it is related, said that Cassius had the fairer pretensions, but
that he could not pass by Brutus. Nor would he afterwards listen to
some who spoke against Brutus, when the conspiracy against him was
already afoot, but laying his hand on his body, said to the informers,
"Brutus will wait for this skin of mine," intimating that he was
worthy to bear rule on account of his virtue, but would not be base
and ungrateful to gain it. Those who desired a change, and looked on
him as the only, or at least the most proper, person to effect it, did
not venture to speak with him; but in the night-time laid papers about
his chair of state, where he used to sit and determine causes, with
such sentences in them as, "You are asleep, Brutus," "You are no
longer Brutus." Cassius, when he perceived his ambition a little
raised upon this, was more instant than before to work him yet
further, having himself a private grudge against Caesar for some
reasons that we have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Nor was Caesar
without suspicions of him, and said once to his friends, "What do
you think Cassius is aiming at? I don't like him, he looks so pale."
And when it was told him that Antony and Dolabella were in a plot
against him, he said he did not fear such fat, luxurious men, but
rather the pale, lean fellows, meaning Cassius and Brutus.
Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than
unexpected. For many strange prodigies and apparitions are said to
have been observed shortly before this event. As to the lights in
the heavens, the noises heard in the night, and the wild birds which
perched in the forum, these are not perhaps worth taking notice of
in so great a case as this. Strabo, the philosopher, tells us that a
number of men were seen, looking as if they were heated through with
fire, contending with each other; that a quantity of flame issued from
the hand of a soldier's servant, so that they who saw it thought he
must be burnt, but that after all he had no hurt. As Caesar was
sacrificing, the victim's heart was missing, a very bad omen,
because no living creature can subsist without a heart. One finds it
also related by many that a soothsayer bade him prepare for some great
danger on the Ides of March. When this day was come, Caesar, as he
went to the senate, met this soothsayer, and said to him by way of
raillery, "The Ides of March are come," who answered him calmly, "Yes,
they are come, but they are not past." The day before his
assassination he supped with Marcus Lepidus; and as he was signing
some letters according to his custom, as he reclined at table, there
arose a question what sort of death was the best. At which he
immediately, before any one could speak, said, "A sudden one."
After this, as he was in bed with his wife, all the doors and
windows of the house flew open together he was startled at the
noise, and the light which broke into the room, and sat up in his bed,
where by the moonshine he perceived Calpurnia fast asleep, but heard
her utter in her dream some indistinct words and inarticulate
groans. She fancied at that time she was weeping over Caesar, and
holding him butchered in her arms. Others say this was not her
dream, but that she dreamed that a pinnacle, which the senate, as Livy
relates, had ordered to be raised on Caesar's house by way of ornament
and grandeur, was tumbling down, which was the occasion of her tears
and ejaculations. When it was day, she begged of Caesar, if it were
possible, not to stir out, but to adjourn the senate to another
time; and if he slighted her dreams, that she would be pleased to
consult his fate by sacrifices and other kinds of divination. Nor
was he himself without some suspicion and fears; for he never before
discovered any womanish superstition in Calpurnia, whom he now saw
in such great alarm. Upon the report which the priests made to him,
that they had killed several sacrifices, and still found them
inauspicious, he resolved to send Antony to dismiss the senate.
In this juncture, Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, one whom
Caesar had such confidence in that he made him his second heir, who
nevertheless was engaged in the conspiracy with the other Brutus and
Cassius, fearing lest if Caesar should put off the senate to another
day, the business might get wind, spoke scoffingly and in mockery of
the diviners, and blamed Caesar for giving the senate so fair an
occasion of saying he had put a slight upon them, for that they were
met upon his summons, and were ready to vote unanimously that he
should be declared king of all the provinces out of Italy, and might
wear a diadem in any other place but Italy, by sea or land. If any one
should be sent to tell them they might break up for the present, and
meet again when Calpurnia should chance to have better dreams, what
would his enemies say? Or who would with any patience hear his
friends, if they should presume to defend his government as not
arbitrary and tyrannical? But if he was possessed so far as to think
this day unfortunate, yet it were more decent to go himself to the
senate, and to adjourn it in his own person. Brutus, as he spoke these
words, took Caesar by the hand, and conducted him forth. He was not
gone far from the door, when a servant of some other person's made
towards him, but not being able to come up to him, on account of the
crowd of those who pressed about him, he made his way into the
house, and committed himself to Calpurnia, begging of her to secure
him till Caesar returned, because he had matters of great importance
to communicate to him.
Artemidorus, a Cnidian, a teacher of Greek logic, and by that
means so far acquainted with Brutus and his friends as to have got
into the secret, brought Caesar in a small written memorial the
heads of what he had to depose. He had observed that Caesar, as he
received any papers, presently gave them to the servants who
attended on him; and therefore came as near to him as he could, and
said, "Read this, Caesar, alone, and quickly, for it contains matter
of great importance which nearly concerns you." Caesar received it,
and tried several times to read it, but was still hindered by the
crowd of those who came to speak to him. However, he kept it in his
hand by itself till he came into the senate. Some say it was another
who gave Caesar this note, and that Artemidorus could not get to
him, being all along kept off by the crowd.
All these things might happen by chance. But the place which was
destined for the scene of this murder, in which the senate met that
day, was the same in which Pompey's statue stood, and was one of the
edifices which Pompey had raised and dedicated with his theatre to the
use of the public, plainly showing that there was something of a
supernatural influence which guided the action and ordered it to
that particular place. Cassius, just before the act, is said to have
looked towards Pompey's statue, and silently implored his
assistance, though he had been inclined to the doctrines of
Epicurus. But this occasion, and the instant danger, carried him
away out of all his reasonings, and filled him for the time with a
sort of inspiration. As for Antony, who was firm to Caesar and a
strong man, Brutus Albinus kept him outside the house, and delayed him
with a long conversation contrived on purpose. When Caesar entered,
the senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutus's
confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it, others
met him, pretending to add their petitions to those of Tillius Cimber,
in behalf of his brother, who was in exile; and they followed him with
their joint applications till he came to his seat. When he was sat
down, he refused to comply with their requests, and upon their
urging him, further began to reproach them severely for their
importunities, when Tillius, laying hold of his robe with both his
hands, pulled it down from his neck, which was the signal for the
assault. Casca gave him the first cut in the neck, which was not
mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of
such a bold action was probably very much disturbed; Caesar
immediately turned about, and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept
hold of it. And both of them at the same time cried out, he that
received the blow, in Latin, "Vile Casca, what does this mean?" and he
that gave it, in Greek to his brother, "Brother, help!" Upon this
first onset, those who were not privy to the design were astonished,
and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great that
they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak a word. But
those who came prepared for the business enclosed him on every side,
with their naked daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned he
met with blows, and saw their swords levelled at his face and eyes,
and was encompassed like a wild beast in the toils on every side.
For it had been agreed they should each of them make a thrust at
him, and flesh themselves with his blood; for which reason Brutus also
gave him one stab in the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted
all the rest, shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out
for help, but that when he saw Brutus's sword drawn, he covered his
face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether it
were by chance or that he was pushed in that direction by his
murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompey's statue stood,
and which was thus wetted with his blood. So that Pompey himself
seemed to have presided, as it were, over the revenge done upon his
adversary, who lay here at his feet, and breathed out his soul through
his multitude of wounds, for they say he received three-and-twenty.
And the conspirators themselves were many of them wounded by each
other, whilst they all levelled their blows at the same person.
When Caesar was despatched, Brutus stood forth to give a reason
for what they had done, but the senate would not hear him, but flew
out of doors in all haste, and filled the people with so much alarm
and distraction, that some shut up their houses, others left their
counters and shops. All ran one way or the other, some to the place to
see the sad spectacle, others back again after they had seen it.
Antony and Lepidus, Caesar's most faithful friends, got off privately,
and hid themselves in some friends' houses. Brutus and his
followers, being yet hot from the deed, marched in a body from the
senate-house to the capitol with their drawn swords, not like
persons who thought of escaping, but with an air of confidence and
assurance, and as they went along, called to the people to resume
their liberty, and invited the company of any more distinguished
people whom they met. And some of these joined the procession and went
up along with them, as if they also had been of the conspiracy, and
could claim a share in the honour of what had been done. As, for
example, Caius Octavius and Lentulus Spinther, who suffered afterwards
for vanity, being taken off by Antony and the young Caesar, and lost
the honour they desired, as well as their lives, which it cost them,
since no one believed they had any share in the action. For neither
did those who punished them profess to revenge the fact, but the
ill-will. The day after, Brutus with the rest came down from the
capitol and made a speech to the people, who listened without
expressing either any pleasure or resentment, but showed by their
silence that they pitied Caesar and respected Brutus. The senate
passed acts of oblivion for what was past, and took measures to
reconcile all parties. They ordered that Caesar should be worshipped
as a divinity, and nothing, even of the slightest consequence,
should be revoked which he had enacted during his government. At the
same time they gave Brutus and his followers the command of provinces,
and other considerable posts. So that all the people now thought
things were well settled, and brought to the happiest adjustment.
But when Caesar's will was opened, and it was found that he had left
a considerable legacy to each one of the Roman citizens, and when
his body was seen carried through the market-place all mangled with
wounds, the multitude could no longer contain themselves within the
bounds of tranquillity and order, but heaped together a pile of
benches, bars, and tables, which they placed the corpse on, and
setting fire to it, burnt it on them. Then they took brands from the
pile and ran some to fire the houses of the conspirators, others up
and down the city, to find out the men and tear them to pieces, but
met, however, with none of them, they having taken effectual care to
secure themselves.
One Cinna, a friend of Caesar's, chanced the night before to have an
odd dream. He fancied that Caesar invited him to supper, and that upon
his refusal to go with him, Caesar took him by the hand and forced
him, though he hung back. Upon hearing the report that Caesar's body
was burning in the market-place, he got up and went thither, out of
respect to his memory, though his dream gave him some ill
apprehensions, and though he was suffering from a fever. One of the
crowd who saw him there asked another who that was, and having learned
his name, told it to his neighbour. It presently passed for a
certainty that he was one of Caesar's murderers, as, indeed, there was
another Cinna, a conspirator, and they, taking this to be the man,
immediately seized him and tore him limb from limb upon the spot.
Brutus and Cassius, frightened at this, within a few days retired
out of the city. What they afterwards did and suffered, and how they
died, is written in the Life of Brutus. Caesar died in his fifty-sixth
year, not having survived Pompey above four years. That empire and
power which he had pursued through the whole course of his life with
so much hazard, he did at last with much difficulty compass, but
reaped no other fruits from it than the empty name and invidious
glory. But the great genius which attended him through his lifetime
even after his death remained as the avenger of his murder, pursuing
through every sea and land all those who were concerned in it, and
suffering none to escape, but reaching all who in any sort or kind
were either actually engaged in the fact, or by their counsels any way
promoted it.
The most remarkable of mere human coincidences was that which befell
Cassius, who, when he was defeated at Philippi, killed himself with
the same dagger which he had made use of against Caesar. The most
signal preternatural appearances were the great comet, which shone
very bright for seven nights after Caesar's death, and then
disappeared, and the dimness of the sun, whose orb continued pale
and dull for the whole of that year, never showing its ordinary
radiance at its rising, and giving but a weak and feeble heat. The air
consequently was damp and gross for want of stronger rays to open
and rarefy it. The fruits, for that reason, never properly ripened,
and began to wither and fall off for want of heat before they were
fully formed. But above all, the phantom which appeared to Brutus
showed the murder was not pleasing to the gods. The story of it is
this.
Brutus, being to pass his army from Abydos to the continent on the
other side, laid himself down one night, as he used to do, in his
tent, and was not asleep, but thinking of his affairs, and what events
he might expect. For he is related to have been the least inclined
to sleep of all men who have commanded armies, and to have had the
greatest natural capacity for continuing awake, and employing
himself without need of rest. He thought he heard a noise at the
door of his tent, and looking that way, by the light of his lamp,
which was almost out, saw a terrible figure, like that of a man, but
of unusual stature and severe countenance. He was somewhat
frightened at first, but seeing it neither did nor spoke anything to
him, only stood silently by his bedside, he asked who it was. The
spectre answered him, "Thy evil genius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at
Philippi." Brutus answered courageously, "Well, I shall see you,"
and immediately the appearance vanished. When the time was come, he
drew up his army near Philippi against Antony and Caesar, and in the
first battle won the day, routed the enemy, and plundered Caesar's
camp. The night before the second battle, the same phantom appeared to
him again, but spoke not a word. He presently understood his destiny
was at hand, and exposed himself to all the danger of the battle.
Yet he did not die in the fight, but seeing his men defeated, got up
to the top of a rock, and there presenting his sword to his naked
breast, and assisted, as they say, by a friend, who helped him to give
the thrust, met his death.
THE END
索多玛那个是久仰了，琢磨了半天没下。
