THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS

 By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;

 To which are added, HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. 

 The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M. D. 

 revised and corrected by T. Forester, Esq. , A. M. 

PREFACE

C. Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of a Roman knight who commanded alegion, on the side of Otho, at the battle which decided the fate of theempire in favour of Vitellius. From incidental notices in the followingHistory, we learn that he was born towards the close of the reign ofVespasian, who died in the year 79 of the Christian era. He lived tillthe time of Hadrian, under whose administration he filled the office ofsecretary; until, with several others, he was dismissed for presuming onfamiliarities with the empress Sabina, of which we have no furtheraccount than that they were unbecoming his position in the imperialcourt. How long he survived this disgrace, which appears to havebefallen him in the year 121, we are not informed; but we find that theleisure afforded him by his retirement, was employed in the compositionof numerous works, of which the only portions now extant are collected inthe present volume. 

Several of the younger Pliny's letters are addressed to Suetonius, withwhom he lived in the closest friendship. They afford some brief, butgenerally pleasant, glimpses of his habits and career; and in a letter, in which Pliny makes application on behalf of his friend to the emperorTrajan, for a mark of favour, he speaks of him as "a most excellent, honourable, and learned man, whom he had the pleasure of entertainingunder his own roof, and with whom the nearer he was brought intocommunion, the more he loved him. " [1]

The plan adopted by Suetonius in his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, led himto be more diffuse on their personal conduct and habits than on publicevents. He writes Memoirs rather than History. He neither dwells on thecivil wars which sealed the fall of the Republic, nor on the militaryexpeditions which extended the frontiers of the empire; nor does heattempt to develop the causes of the great political changes which markedthe period of which he treats. 

When we stop to gaze in a museum or gallery on the antique busts of theCaesars, we perhaps endeavour to trace in their sculptured physiognomythe characteristics of those princes, who, for good or evil, were intheir times masters of the destinies of a large portion of the humanrace. The pages of Suetonius will amply gratify this natural curiosity. In them we find a series of individual portraits sketched to the life, with perfect truth and rigorous impartiality. La Harpe remarks ofSuetonius, "He is scrupulously exact, and strictly methodical. He omitsnothing which concerns the person whose life he is writing; he relateseverything, but paints nothing. His work is, in some sense, a collectionof anecdotes, but it is very curious to read and consult. " [2]

Combining as it does amusement and information, Suetonius's "Lives of theCaesars" was held in such estimation, that, so soon after the inventionof printing as the year 1500, no fewer than eighteen editions had beenpublished, and nearly one hundred have since been added to the number. Critics of the highest rank have devoted themselves to the task ofcorrecting and commenting on the text, and the work has been translatedinto most European languages. Of the English translations, that of Dr. Alexander Thomson, published in 1796, has been made the basis of thepresent. He informs us in his Preface, that a version of Suetonius waswith him only a secondary object, his principal design being to form ajust estimate of Roman literature, and to elucidate the state ofgovernment, and the manners of the times; for which the work of Suetoniusseemed a fitting vehicle. Dr. Thomson's remarks appended to eachsuccessive reign, are reprinted nearly verbatim in the present edition. His translation, however, was very diffuse, and retained most of theinaccuracies of that of Clarke, on which it was founded; considerablecare therefore has been bestowed in correcting it, with the view ofproducing, as far as possible, a literal and faithful version. 

To render the works of Suetonius, as far as they are extant, complete, his Lives of eminent Grammarians, Rhetoricians, and Poets, of which atranslation has not before appeared in English, are added. These Livesabound with anecdote and curious information connected with learning andliterary men during the period of which the author treats. T. F. 

CONTENTS

 I. LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS 1. Julius Caesar 2. Augustus 3. Tiberius 4. Caligula 5. Claudius 6. Nero 7. Galba 8. Otho 9. Vitellius 10. Vespasian 11. Titus 12. Domitian II. LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS AND THE HISTORIANS III. LIVES OF THE POETS Terence Juvenal Persius Horace Lucan Pliny FOOTNOTES INDEX

(1)

THE TWELVE CAESARS. 

CAIUS JULIUS CAESAR. 

I. Julius Caesar, the Divine [3], lost his father [4] when he was in thesixteenth year of his age [5]; and the year following, being nominated tothe office of high-priest of Jupiter [6], he repudiated Cossutia, who wasvery wealthy, although her family belonged only to the equestrian order, and to whom he had been contracted when he was a mere boy. He thenmarried (2) Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, who was four times consul;and had by her, shortly afterwards, a daughter named Julia. Resistingall the efforts of the dictator Sylla to induce him to divorce Cornelia, he suffered the penalty of being stripped of his sacerdotal office, hiswife's dowry, and his own patrimonial estates; and, being identified withthe adverse faction [7], was compelled to withdraw from Rome. Afterchanging his place of concealment nearly every night [8], although he wassuffering from a quartan ague, and having effected his release by bribingthe officers who had tracked his footsteps, he at length obtained apardon through the intercession of the vestal virgins, and of MamercusAemilius and Aurelius Cotta, his near relatives. We are assured thatwhen Sylla, having withstood for a while the entreaties of his own bestfriends, persons of distinguished rank, at last yielded to theirimportunity, he exclaimed--either by a divine impulse, or from a shrewdconjecture: "Your suit is granted, and you may take him among you; butknow, " he added, "that this man, for whose safety you are so extremelyanxious, will, some day or other, be the ruin of the party of the nobles, in defence of which you are leagued with me; for in this one Caesar, youwill find many a Marius. "

II. His first campaign was served in Asia, on the staff of the praetor, M. Thermus; and being dispatched into Bithynia [9], to bring thence afleet, he loitered so long at the court of Nicomedes, as to give occasionto reports of a criminal intercourse between him and that prince; whichreceived additional credit from his hasty return to Bithynia, under thepretext of recovering a debt due to a freed-man, his client. The rest ofhis service was more favourable to his reputation; and (3) when Mitylene[10] was taken by storm, he was presented by Thermus with the civiccrown. [11]

III. He served also in Cilicia [12], under Servilius Isauricus, but onlyfor a short time; as upon receiving intelligence of Sylla's death, hereturned with all speed to Rome, in expectation of what might follow froma fresh agitation set on foot by Marcus Lepidus. Distrusting, however, the abilities of this leader, and finding the times less favourable forthe execution of this project than he had at first imagined, he abandonedall thoughts of joining Lepidus, although he received the most temptingoffers. 

IV. Soon after this civil discord was composed, he preferred a charge ofextortion against Cornelius Dolabella, a man of consular dignity, who hadobtained the honour of a triumph. On the acquittal of the accused, heresolved to retire to Rhodes [13], with the view not only of avoiding thepublic odium (4) which he had incurred, but of prosecuting his studieswith leisure and tranquillity, under Apollonius, the son of Molon, atthat time the most celebrated master of rhetoric. While on his voyagethither, in the winter season, he was taken by pirates near the island ofPharmacusa [14], and detained by them, burning with indignation, fornearly forty days; his only attendants being a physician and twochamberlains. For he had instantly dispatched his other servants and thefriends who accompanied him, to raise money for his ransom [15]. Fiftytalents having been paid down, he was landed on the coast, when, havingcollected some ships [16], he lost no time in putting to sea in pursuitof the pirates, and having captured them, inflicted upon them thepunishment with which he had often threatened them in jest. At that timeMithridates was ravaging the neighbouring districts, and on Caesar'sarrival at Rhodes, that he might not appear to lie idle while dangerthreatened the allies of Rome, he passed over into Asia, and havingcollected some auxiliary forces, and driven the king's governor out ofthe province, retained in their allegiance the cities which werewavering, and ready to revolt. 

V. Having been elected military tribune, the first honour he receivedfrom the suffrages of the people after his return to Rome, he zealouslyassisted those who took measures for restoring the tribunitian authority, which had been greatly diminished during the usurpation of Sylla. Helikewise, by an act, which Plotius at his suggestion propounded to thepeople, obtained the recall of Lucius Cinna, his wife's brother, andothers with him, who having been the adherents of Lepidus in the civildisturbances, had after that consul's death fled to Sertorius [17]; whichlaw he supported by a speech. 

VI. During his quaestorship he pronounced funeral orations from therostra, according to custom, in praise of his aunt (5) Julia, and hiswife Cornelia. In the panegyric on his aunt, he gives the followingaccount of her own and his father's genealogy, on both sides: "My auntJulia derived her descent, by the mother, from a race of kings, and byher father, from the Immortal Gods. For the Marcii Reges [18], hermother's family, deduce their pedigree from Ancus Marcius, and the Julii, her father's, from Venus; of which stock we are a branch. We thereforeunite in our descent the sacred majesty of kings, the chiefest among men, and the divine majesty of Gods, to whom kings themselves are subject. "To supply the place of Cornelia, he married Pompeia, the daughter ofQuintus Pompeius, and grand-daughter of Lucius Sylla; but he afterwardsdivorced her, upon suspicion of her having been debauched by PubliusClodius. For so current was the report, that Clodius had found access toher disguised as a woman, during the celebration of a religious solemnity[19], that the senate instituted an enquiry respecting the profanation ofthe sacred rites. 

VII. Farther-Spain [20] fell to his lot as quaestor; when there, as hewas going the circuit of the province, by commission from the praetor, for the administration of justice, and had reached Gades, seeing a statueof Alexander the Great in the temple of Hercules, he sighed deeply, as ifweary of his sluggish life, for having performed no memorable actions atan age [21] at which Alexander had already conquered the world. He, therefore, immediately sued for his discharge, with the view of embracingthe first opportunity, which might present itself in The City, ofentering upon a more exalted career. In the stillness of the nightfollowing, he dreamt that he lay with his own mother; but his confusionwas relieved, and his hopes were raised to the highest pitch, by theinterpreters of his dream, who expounded it as an omen that he shouldpossess universal empire; for (6) that the mother who in his sleep he hadfound submissive to his embraces, was no other than the earth, the commonparent of all mankind. 

VIII. Quitting therefore the province before the expiration of the usualterm, he betook himself to the Latin colonies, which were then eagerlyagitating the design of obtaining the freedom of Rome; and he would havestirred them up to some bold attempt, had not the consuls, to prevent anycommotion, detained for some time the legions which had been raised forservice in Cilicia. But this did not deter him from making, soonafterwards, a still greater effort within the precincts of the cityitself. 

IX. For, only a few days before he entered upon the aedileship, heincurred a suspicion of having engaged in a conspiracy with MarcusCrassus, a man of consular rank; to whom were joined Publius Sylla andLucius Autronius, who, after they had been chosen consuls, were convictedof bribery. The plan of the conspirators was to fall upon the senate atthe opening of the new year, and murder as many of them as should bethought necessary; upon which, Crassus was to assume the office ofdictator, and appoint Caesar his master of the horse [22]. When thecommonwealth had been thus ordered according to their pleasure, theconsulship was to have been restored to Sylla and Autronius. Mention ismade of this plot by Tanusius Geminus [23] in his history, by MarcusBibulus in his edicts [24], and by Curio, the father, in his orations[25]. Cicero likewise seems to hint at this in a letter to Axius, wherehe says, that Caesar (7) had in his consulship secured to himself thatarbitrary power [26] to which he had aspired when he was edile. Tanusiusadds, that Crassus, from remorse or fear, did not appear upon the dayappointed for the massacre of the senate; for which reason Caesar omittedto give the signal, which, according to the plan concerted between them, he was to have made. The agreement, Curio says, was that he should shakeoff the toga from his shoulder. We have the authority of the same Curio, and of M. Actorius Naso, for his having been likewise concerned inanother conspiracy with young Cneius Piso; to whom, upon a suspicion ofsome mischief being meditated in the city, the province of Spain wasdecreed out of the regular course [27]. It is said to have been agreedbetween them, that Piso should head a revolt in the provinces, whilst theother should attempt to stir up an insurrection at Rome, using as theirinstruments the Lambrani, and the tribes beyond the Po. But theexecution of this design was frustrated in both quarters by the death ofPiso. 

X. In his aedileship, he not only embellished the Comitium, and the restof the Forum [28], with the adjoining halls [29], but adorned the Capitolalso, with temporary piazzas, constructed for the purpose of displayingsome part of the superabundant collections (8) he had made for theamusement of the people [30]. He entertained them with the hunting ofwild beasts, and with games, both alone and in conjunction with hiscolleague. On this account, he obtained the whole credit of the expenseto which they had jointly contributed; insomuch that his colleague, Marcus Bibulus, could not forbear remarking, that he was served in themanner of Pollux. For as the temple [31] erected in the Forum to the twobrothers, went by the name of Castor alone, so his and Caesar's jointmunificence was imputed to the latter only. To the other publicspectacles exhibited to the people, Caesar added a fight of gladiators, but with fewer pairs of combatants than he had intended. For he hadcollected from all parts so great a company of them, that his enemiesbecame alarmed; and a decree was made, restricting the number ofgladiators which any one was allowed to retain at Rome. 

XI. Having thus conciliated popular favour, he endeavoured, through hisinterest with some of the tribunes, to get Egypt assigned to him as aprovince, by an act of the people. The pretext alleged for the creationof this extraordinary government, was, that the Alexandrians hadviolently expelled their king [32], whom the senate had complimented withthe title of an ally and friend of the Roman people. This was generallyresented; but, notwithstanding, there was so much opposition from thefaction of the nobles, that he could not carry his point. In order, therefore, to diminish their influence by every means in his power, herestored the trophies erected in honour of Caius Marius, on account ofhis victories over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, and the Teutoni, which had beendemolished by Sylla; and when sitting in judgment upon murderers, hetreated those as assassins, who, in the late proscription, had receivedmoney from the treasury, for bringing in the heads of Roman citizens, although they were expressly excepted in the Cornelian laws. 

XII. He likewise suborned some one to prefer an impeachment (9) fortreason against Caius Rabirius, by whose especial assistance the senatehad, a few years before, put down Lucius Saturninus, the seditioustribune; and being drawn by lot a judge on the trial, he condemned himwith so much animosity, that upon his appealing to the people, nocircumstance availed him so much as the extraordinary bitterness of hisjudge. 

XIII. Having renounced all hope of obtaining Egypt for his province, hestood candidate for the office of chief pontiff, to secure which, he hadrecourse to the most profuse bribery. Calculating, on this occasion, theenormous amount of the debts he had contracted, he is reported to havesaid to his mother, when she kissed him at his going out in the morningto the assembly of the people, "I will never return home unless I amelected pontiff. " In effect, he left so far behind him two most powerfulcompetitors, who were much his superiors both in age and rank, that hehad more votes in their own tribes, than they both had in all the tribestogether. 

XIV. After he was chosen praetor, the conspiracy of Catiline wasdiscovered; and while every other member of the senate voted forinflicting capital punishment on the accomplices in that crime [33], healone proposed that the delinquents should be distributed for safecustody among the towns of Italy, their property being confiscated. Heeven struck such terror into those who were advocates for greaterseverity, by representing to them what universal odium would be attachedto their memories by the Roman people, that Decius Silanus, consul elect, did not hesitate to qualify his proposal, it not being very honourable tochange it, by a lenient interpretation; as if it had been understood in aharsher sense than he intended, and Caesar would certainly have carriedhis point, having brought over to his side a great number of thesenators, among whom was Cicero, the consul's brother, had not a speechby Marcus Cato infused new vigour into the resolutions of the senate. Hepersisted, however, in obstructing the measure, until a body of the Romanknights, who stood under arms as a guard, threatened him with instantdeath, if he continued his determined opposition. They even thrust athim with their drawn swords, so that those who sat next him moved away;(10) and a few friends, with no small difficulty, protected him, bythrowing their arms round him, and covering him with their togas. Atlast, deterred by this violence, he not only gave way, but absentedhimself from the senate-house during the remainder of that year. 

XV. Upon the first day of his praetorship, he summoned Quintus Catulusto render an account to the people respecting the repairs of the Capitol[34]; proposing a decree for transferring the office of curator toanother person [35]. But being unable to withstand the strong oppositionmade by the aristocratical party, whom he perceived quitting, in greatnumbers, their attendance upon the new consuls [36], and fully resolvedto resist his proposal, he dropped the design. 

XVI. He afterwards approved himself a most resolute supporter ofCaecilius Metullus, tribune of the people, who, in spite of allopposition from his colleagues, had proposed some laws of a violenttendency [37], until they were both dismissed from office by a vote ofthe senate. He ventured, notwithstanding, to retain his post andcontinue in the administration of justice; but finding that preparationswere made to obstruct him by force of arms, he dismissed the lictors, threw off his gown, and betook himself privately to his own house, withthe resolution of being quiet, in a time so unfavourable to hisinterests. He likewise pacified the mob, which two days afterwardsflocked about him, and in a riotous manner made a voluntary tender oftheir assistance in the vindication of his (11) honour. This happeningcontrary to expectation, the senate, who met in haste, on account of thetumult, gave him their thanks by some of the leading members of thehouse, and sending for him, after high commendation of his conduct, cancelled their former vote, and restored him to his office. 

XVII. But he soon got into fresh trouble, being named amongst theaccomplices of Catiline, both before Novius Niger the quaestor, by LuciusVettius the informer, and in the senate by Quintus Curius; to whom areward had been voted, for having first discovered the designs of theconspirators. Curius affirmed that he had received his information fromCatiline. Vettius even engaged to produce in evidence against him hisown hand-writing, given to Catiline. Caesar, feeling that this treatmentwas not to be borne, appealed to Cicero himself, whether he had notvoluntarily made a discovery to him of some particulars of theconspiracy; and so baulked Curius of his expected reward. He, therefore, obliged Vettius to give pledges for his behaviour, seized his goods, andafter heavily fining him, and seeing him almost torn in pieces before therostra, threw him into prison; to which he likewise sent Novius thequaestor, for having presumed to take an information against a magistrateof superior authority. 

XVIII. At the expiration of his praetorship he obtained by lot theFarther-Spain [38], and pacified his creditors, who were for detaininghim, by finding sureties for his debts [39]. Contrary, however, to bothlaw and custom, he took his departure before the usual equipage andoutfit were prepared. It is uncertain whether this precipitancy arosefrom the apprehension of an impeachment, with which he was threatened onthe expiration of his former office, or from his anxiety to lose no timein relieving the allies, who implored him to come to their aid. He hadno (12) sooner established tranquillity in the province, than, withoutwaiting for the arrival of his successor, he returned to Rome, with equalhaste, to sue for a triumph [40], and the consulship. The day ofelection, however, being already fixed by proclamation, he could notlegally be admitted a candidate, unless he entered the city as a privateperson [41]. On this emergency he solicited a suspension of the laws inhis favour; but such an indulgence being strongly opposed, he foundhimself under the necessity of abandoning all thoughts of a triumph, lesthe should be disappointed of the consulship. 

XIX. Of the two other competitors for the consulship, Lucius Luceius andMarcus Bibulus, he joined with the former, upon condition that Luceius, being a man of less interest but greater affluence, should promise moneyto the electors, in their joint names. Upon which the party of thenobles, dreading how far he might carry matters in that high office, witha colleague disposed to concur in and second his measures, advisedBibulus to promise the voters as much as the other; and most of themcontributed towards the expense, Cato himself admitting that bribery;under such circumstances, was for the public good [42]. He wasaccordingly elected consul jointly with Bibulus. Actuated still by thesame motives, the prevailing party took care to assign provinces of smallimportance to the new consuls, such as the care of the woods and roads. Caesar, incensed at this indignity, endeavoured by the most assiduous andflattering attentions to gain to his side Cneius Pompey, at that timedissatisfied with the senate for the backwardness they shewed to confirmhis acts, after his victories over Mithridates. He likewise broughtabout a reconciliation between Pompey and Marcus Crassus, who had been atvariance from (13) the time of their joint consulship, in which officethey were continually clashing; and he entered into an agreement withboth, that nothing should be transacted in the government, which wasdispleasing to any of the three. 

XX. Having entered upon his office [43], he introduced a new regulation, that the daily acts both of the senate and people should be committed towriting, and published [44]. He also revived an old custom, that anofficer [45] should precede him, and his lictors follow him, on thealternate months when the fasces were not carried before him. Uponpreferring a bill to the people for the division of some public lands, hewas opposed by his colleague, whom he violently drove out of the forum. Next day the insulted consul made a complaint in the senate of thistreatment; but such was the consternation, that no one having the courageto bring the matter forward or move a censure, which had been often doneunder outrages of less importance, he was so much dispirited, that untilthe expiration of his office he never stirred from home, and did nothingbut issue edicts to obstruct his colleague's proceedings. From thattime, therefore, Caesar had the sole management of public affairs;insomuch that some wags, when they signed any instrument as witnesses, did not add "in the consulship of Caesar and Bibulus, " but, "of Juliusand Caesar;" putting the same person down twice, under his name andsurname. The following verses likewise were currently repeated on thisoccasion:

 Non Bibulo quidquam nuper, sed Caesare factum est; Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini. 

 Nothing was done in Bibulus's year: No; Caesar only then was consul here. 

(14) The land of Stellas, consecrated by our ancestors to the gods, withsome other lands in Campania left subject to tribute, for the support ofthe expenses of the government, he divided, but not by lot, among upwardsof twenty thousand freemen, who had each of them three or more children. He eased the publicans, upon their petition, of a third part of the sumwhich they had engaged to pay into the public treasury; and openlyadmonished them not to bid so extravagantly upon the next occasion. Hemade various profuse grants to meet the wishes of others, no one opposinghim; or if any such attempt was made, it was soon suppressed. MarcusCato, who interrupted him in his proceedings, he ordered to be draggedout of the senate-house by a lictor, and carried to prison. LuciusLucullus, likewise, for opposing him with some warmth, he so terrifiedwith the apprehension of being criminated, that, to deprecate theconsul's resentment, he fell on his knees. And upon Cicero's lamentingin some trial the miserable condition of the times, he the very same day, by nine o'clock, transferred his enemy, Publius Clodius, from a patricianto a plebeian family; a change which he had long solicited in vain [46]. At last, effectually to intimidate all those of the opposite party, he bygreat rewards prevailed upon Vettius to declare, that he had beensolicited by certain persons to assassinate Pompey; and when he wasbrought before the rostra to name those who had been concerted betweenthem, after naming one or two to no purpose, not without great suspicionof subornation, Caesar, despairing of success in this rash stratagem, issupposed to have taken off his informer by poison. 

XXI. About the same time he married Calpurnia, the daughter of LuciusPiso, who was to succeed him in the consulship, and gave his own daughterJulia to Cneius Pompey; rejecting Servilius Caepio, to whom she had beencontracted, and by whose means chiefly he had but a little before baffledBibulus. After this new alliance, he began, upon any debates in thesenate, to ask Pompey's opinion first, whereas he used before to givethat distinction to Marcus Crassus; and it was (15) the usual practicefor the consul to observe throughout the year the method of consultingthe senate which he had adopted on the calends (the first) of January. 

XXII. Being, therefore, now supported by the interest of hisfather-in-law and son-in-law, of all the provinces he made choice of Gaul, as most likely to furnish him with matter and occasion for triumphs. Atfirst indeed he received only Cisalpine-Gaul, with the addition ofIllyricum, by a decree proposed by Vatinius to the people; but soonafterwards obtained from the senate Gallia-Comata [47] also, the senatorsbeing apprehensive, that if they should refuse it him, that province, also, would be granted him by the people. Elated now with his success, hecould not refrain from boasting, a few days afterwards, in a fullsenate-house, that he had, in spite of his enemies, and to their greatmortification, obtained all he desired, and that for the future he wouldmake them, to their shame, submissive to his pleasure. One of thesenators observing, sarcastically: "That will not be very easy for a woman[48] to do, " he jocosely replied, "Semiramis formerly reigned in Assyria, and the Amazons possessed great part of Asia. "

XXIII. When the term of his consulship had expired, upon a motion beingmade in the senate by Caius Memmius and Lucius Domitius, the praetors, respecting the transactions of the year past, he offered to refer himselfto the house; but (16) they declining the business, after three daysspent in vain altercation, he set out for his province. Immediately, however, his quaestor was charged with several misdemeanors, for thepurpose of implicating Caesar himself. Indeed, an accusation was soonafter preferred against him by Lucius Antistius, tribune of the people;but by making an appeal to the tribune's colleagues, he succeeded inhaving the prosecution suspended during his absence in the service of thestate. To secure himself, therefore, for the time to come, he wasparticularly careful to secure the good-will of the magistrates at theannual elections, assisting none of the candidates with his interest, norsuffering any persons to be advanced to any office, who would notpositively undertake to defend him in his absence for which purpose hemade no scruple to require of some of them an oath, and even a writtenobligation. 

XXIV. But when Lucius Domitius became a candidate for the consulship, and openly threatened that, upon his being elected consul, he wouldeffect that which he could not accomplish when he was praetor, and divesthim of the command of the armies, he sent for Crassus and Pompey toLucca, a city in his province, and pressed them, for the purpose ofdisappointing Domitius, to sue again for the consulship, and to continuehim in his command for five years longer; with both which requisitionsthey complied. Presumptuous now from his success, he added, at his ownprivate charge, more legions to those which he had received from therepublic; among the former of which was one levied in Transalpine Gaul, and called by a Gallic name, Alauda [49], which he trained and armed inthe Roman fashion, and afterwards conferred on it the freedom of thecity. From this period he declined no occasion of war, however unjustand dangerous; attacking, without any provocation, as well the allies ofRome as the barbarous nations which were its enemies: insomuch, that thesenate passed a decree for sending commissioners to examine into thecondition of Gaul; and some members even proposed that he should bedelivered up to the enemy. But so great had been the success of hisenterprises, that he had the honour of obtaining more days [50] (17) ofsupplication, and those more frequently, than had ever before beendecreed to any commander. 

XXV. During nine years in which he held the government of the province, his achievements were as follows: he reduced all Gaul, bounded by thePyrenean forest, the Alps, mount Gebenna, and the two rivers, the Rhineand the Rhone, and being about three thousand two hundred miles incompass, into the form of a province, excepting only the nations inalliance with the republic, and such as had merited his favour; imposingupon this new acquisition an annual tribute of forty millions ofsesterces. He was the first of the Romans who, crossing the Rhine by abridge, attacked the Germanic tribes inhabiting the country beyond thatriver, whom he defeated in several engagements. He also invaded theBritons, a people formerly unknown, and having vanquished them, exactedfrom them contributions and hostages. Amidst such a series of successes, he experienced thrice only any signal disaster; once in Britain, when hisfleet was nearly wrecked in a storm; in Gaul, at Gergovia, where one ofhis legions was put to the rout; and in the territory of the Germans, hislieutenants Titurius and Aurunculeius were cut off by an ambuscade. 

XXVI. During this period [51] he lost his mother [52], whose death wasfollowed by that of his daughter [53], and, not long afterwards, of hisgranddaughter. Meanwhile, the republic being in consternation at themurder of Publius Clodius, and the senate passing a vote that only oneconsul, namely, Cneius Pompeius, should be chosen for the ensuing year, he prevailed with the tribunes of the people, who intended joining him innomination with Pompey, to propose to the people a bill, enabling him, though absent, to become a candidate for his second consulship, when theterm of his command should be near expiring, that he might not be obligedon that account to quit his province too soon, and before the conclusionof the war. Having attained this object, carrying his views stillhigher, and animated with the hopes of success, he omitted no (18)opportunity of gaining universal favour, by acts of liberality andkindness to individuals, both in public and private. With money raisedfrom the spoils of the war, he began to construct a new forum, theground-plot of which cost him above a hundred millions of sesterces [54]. He promised the people a public entertainment of gladiators, and a feastin memory of his daughter, such as no one before him had ever given. Themore to raise their expectations on this occasion, although he had agreedwith victuallers of all denominations for his feast, he made yet fartherpreparations in private houses. He issued an order, that the mostcelebrated gladiators, if at any time during the combat they incurred thedispleasure of the public, should be immediately carried off by force, and reserved for some future occasion. Young gladiators he trained up, not in the school, and by the masters, of defence, but in the houses ofRoman knights, and even senators, skilled in the use of arms, earnestlyrequesting them, as appears from his letters, to undertake the disciplineof those novitiates, and to give them the word during their exercises. He doubled the pay of the legions in perpetuity; allowing them likewisecorn, when it was in plenty, without any restriction; and sometimesdistributing to every soldier in his army a slave, and a portion of land. 

XXVII. To maintain his alliance and good understanding with Pompey, heoffered him in marriage his sister's grand-daughter Octavia, who had beenmarried to Caius Marcellus; and requested for himself his daughter, lately contracted to Faustus Sylla. Every person about him, and a greatpart likewise of the senate, he secured by loans of money at lowinterest, or none at all; and to all others who came to wait upon him, either by invitation or of their own accord, he made liberal presents;not neglecting even the freed-men and slaves, who were favourites withtheir masters and patrons. He offered also singular and ready aid to allwho were under prosecution, or in debt, and to prodigal youths; excludingfrom (19) his bounty those only who were so deeply plunged in guilt, poverty, or luxury, that it was impossible effectually to relieve them. These, he openly declared, could derive no benefit from any other meansthan a civil war. 

XXVIII. He endeavoured with equal assiduity to engage in his interestprinces and provinces in every part of the world; presenting some withthousands of captives, and sending to others the assistance of troops, atwhatever time and place they desired, without any authority from eitherthe senate or people of Rome. He likewise embellished with magnificentpublic buildings the most powerful cities not only of Italy, Gaul, andSpain, but of Greece and Asia; until all people being now astonished, andspeculating on the obvious tendency of these proceedings, ClaudiusMarcellus, the consul, declaring first by proclamation, that he intendedto propose a measure of the utmost importance to the state, made a motionin the senate that some person should be appointed to succeed Caesar inhis province, before the term of his command was expired; because the warbeing brought to a conclusion, peace was restored, and the victoriousarmy ought to be disbanded. He further moved, that Caesar being absent, his claims to be a candidate at the next election of consuls should notbe admitted, as Pompey himself had afterwards abrogated that privilege bya decree of the people. The fact was, that Pompey, in his law relatingto the choice of chief magistrates, had forgot to except Caesar, in thearticle in which he declared all such as were not present incapable ofbeing candidates for any office; but soon afterwards, when the law wasinscribed on brass, and deposited in the treasury, he corrected hismistake. Marcellus, not content with depriving Caesar of his provinces, and the privilege intended him by Pompey, likewise moved the senate, thatthe freedom of the city should be taken from those colonists whom, by theVatinian law, he had settled at New Como [55]; because it had beenconferred upon them with ambitious views, and by a stretch of the laws. 

(20) XXIX. Roused by these proceedings, and thinking, as he was oftenheard to say, that it would be a more difficult enterprise to reduce him, now that he was the chief man in the state, from the first rank ofcitizens to the second, than from the second to the lowest of all, Caesarmade a vigorous opposition to the measure, partly by means of thetribunes, who interposed in his behalf, and partly through ServiusSulpicius, the other consul. The following year likewise, when CaiusMarcellus, who succeeded his cousin Marcus in the consulship, pursued thesame course, Caesar, by means of an immense bribe, engaged in his defenceAemilius Paulus, the other consul, and Caius Curio, the most violent ofthe tribunes. But finding the opposition obstinately bent against him, and that the consuls-elect were also of that party, he wrote a letter tothe senate, requesting that they would not deprive him of the privilegekindly granted him by the people; or else that the other generals shouldresign the command of their armies as well as himself; fully persuaded, as it is thought, that he could more easily collect his veteran soldiers, whenever he pleased, than Pompey could his new-raised troops. At thesame time, he made his adversaries an offer to disband eight of hislegions and give up Transalpine-Gaul, upon condition that he might retaintwo legions, with the Cisalpine province, or but one legion withIllyricum, until he should be elected consul. 

XXX. But as the senate declined to interpose in the business, and hisenemies declared that they would enter into no compromise where thesafety of the republic was at stake, he advanced into Hither-Gaul [56], and, having gone the circuit for the administration of justice, made ahalt at Ravenna, resolved to have recourse to arms if the senate shouldproceed to extremity against the tribunes of the people who had espousedhis cause. This was indeed his pretext for the civil war; but it issupposed that there were other motives for his conduct. Cneius Pompeyused frequently to say, that he sought to throw every thing intoconfusion, because he was unable, with all his private wealth, tocomplete the works he had begun, and answer, at his return, the vastexpectations which he had excited in the people. Others pretend that hewas apprehensive of being (21) called to account for what he had done inhis first consulship, contrary to the auspices, laws, and the protests ofthe tribunes; Marcus Cato having sometimes declared, and that, too, withan oath, that he would prefer an impeachment against him, as soon as hedisbanded his army. A report likewise prevailed, that if he returned asa private person, he would, like Milo, have to plead his cause before thejudges, surrounded by armed men. This conjecture is rendered highlyprobable by Asinius Pollio, who informs us that Caesar, upon viewing thevanquished and slaughtered enemy in the field of Pharsalia, expressedhimself in these very words: "This was their intention: I, Caius Caesar, after all the great achievements I had performed, must have beencondemned, had I not summoned the army to my aid!" Some think, thathaving contracted from long habit an extraordinary love of power, andhaving weighed his own and his enemies' strength, he embraced thatoccasion of usurping the supreme power; which indeed he had coveted fromthe time of his youth. This seems to have been the opinion entertainedby Cicero, who tells us, in the third book of his Offices, that Caesarused to have frequently in his mouth two verses of Euripides, which hethus translates:

 Nam si violandum est jus, regnandi gratia Violandum est: aliis rebus pietatem colas. 

 Be just, unless a kingdom tempts to break the laws, For sovereign power alone can justify the cause. [57]

XXXI. When intelligence, therefore, was received, that the interpositionof the tribunes in his favour had been utterly rejected, and that theythemselves had fled from the city, he immediately sent forward somecohorts, but privately, to prevent any suspicion of his design; and, tokeep up appearances, attended at a public spectacle, examined the modelof a fencing-school which he proposed to build, and, as usual, sat downto table with a numerous party of his friends. But after sun-set, mulesbeing put to his carriage from a neighbouring mill, he set forward on hisjourney with all possible privacy, and a small retinue. The lights goingout, he lost his way, and (22) wandered about a long time, until atlength, by the help of a guide, whom he found towards day-break, heproceeded on foot through some narrow paths, and again reached the road. Coming up with his troops on the banks of the Rubicon, which was theboundary of his province [58], he halted for a while, and, revolving inhis mind the importance of the step he was on the point of taking, heturned to those about him, and said: "We may still retreat; but if wepass this little bridge, nothing is left for us but to fight it out inarms. "

XXXII. While he was thus hesitating, the following incident occurred. Aperson remarkable for his noble mien and graceful aspect, appeared closeat hand, sitting and playing upon a pipe. When, not only the shepherds, but a number of soldiers also flocked from their posts to listen to him, and some trumpeters among them, he snatched a trumpet from one of them, ran to the river with it, and sounding the advance with a piercing blast, crossed to the other side. Upon this, Caesar exclaimed, "Let us gowhither the omens of the Gods and the iniquity of our enemies call us. The die is now cast. "

XXXIII. Accordingly, having marched his army over the river, he shewedthem the tribunes of the people, who, upon their being driven from thecity, had come to meet him; and, in the presence of that assembly, calledupon the troops to pledge him their fidelity, with tears in his eyes, andhis garment rent from his bosom. It has been supposed, that upon thisoccasion he promised to every soldier a knight's estate; but that opinionis founded on a mistake. For when, in his harangue to them, hefrequently held out a finger of his left hand, and declared, that torecompense those who should support him in the defence of his honour, hewould willingly part even with his ring; the soldiers at a distance, whocould more easily see than hear him while he spoke, formed theirconception of what he said, by the eye, not by the ear; and accordinglygave out, that he had promised to each of them the privilege (23) ofwearing the gold ring, and an estate of four hundred thousand sesterces. [60]

XXXIV. Of his subsequent proceedings I shall give a cursory detail, inthe order in which they occurred [61]. He took possession of Picenum, Umbria, and Etruria; and having obliged Lucius Domitius, who had beentumultuously nominated his successor, and held Corsinium with a garrison, to surrender, and dismissed him, he marched along the coast of the UpperSea, to Brundusium, to which place the consuls and Pompey were fled withthe intention of crossing the sea as soon as possible. After vainattempts, by all the obstacles he could oppose, to prevent their leavingthe harbour, he turned his steps towards Rome, where he appealed to thesenate on the present state of public affairs; and then set out forSpain, in which province Pompey had a numerous army, under the command ofthree lieutenants, Marcus Petreius, Lucius Afranius, and Marcus Varro;declaring amongst his friends, before he set forward, "That he was goingagainst an army without a general, and should return thence against ageneral without an army. " Though his progress was retarded both by thesiege of Marseilles, which shut her gates against him, and a very greatscarcity of corn, yet in a short time he bore down all before him. 

XXXV. Thence he returned to Rome, and crossing the sea to Macedonia, blocked up Pompey during almost four months, within a line of ramparts ofprodigious extent; and at last defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia. Pursuing him in his flight to Alexandria, where he was informed of hismurder, he presently found himself also engaged, under all thedisadvantages of time and place, in a very dangerous war, with kingPtolemy, who, he saw, had treacherous designs upon his life. It waswinter, and he, within the walls of a well-provided and subtle enemy, wasdestitute of every thing, and wholly unprepared (24) for such a conflict. He succeeded, however, in his enterprise, and put the kingdom of Egyptinto the hands of Cleopatra and her younger brother; being afraid to makeit a province, lest, under an aspiring prefect, it might become thecentre of revolt. From Alexandria he went into Syria, and thence toPontus, induced by intelligence which he had received respectingPharnaces. This prince, who was son of the great Mithridates, had seizedthe opportunity which the distraction of the times offered for making warupon his neighbours, and his insolence and fierceness had grown with hissuccess. Caesar, however, within five days after entering his country, and four hours after coming in sight of him, overthrew him in onedecisive battle. Upon which, he frequently remarked to those about himthe good fortune of Pompey, who had obtained his military reputation, chiefly, by victory over so feeble an enemy. He afterwards defeatedScipio and Juba, who were rallying the remains of the party in Africa, and Pompey's sons in Spain. 

XXXVI. During the whole course of the civil war, he never once sufferedany defeat, except in the case of his lieutenants; of whom Caius Curiofell in Africa, Caius Antonius was made prisoner in Illyricum, PubliusDolabella lost a fleet in the same Illyricum, and Cneius DomitiusCulvinus, an army in Pontus. In every encounter with the enemy where hehimself commanded, he came off with complete success; nor was the issueever doubtful, except on two occasions: once at Dyrrachium, when, beingobliged to give ground, and Pompey not pursuing his advantage, he saidthat "Pompey knew not how to conquer;" the other instance occurred in hislast battle in Spain, when, despairing of the event, he even had thoughtsof killing himself. 

XXXVII. For the victories obtained in the several wars, he triumphedfive different times; after the defeat of Scipio: four times in onemonth, each triumph succeeding the former by an interval of a few days;and once again after the conquest of Pompey's sons. His first and mostglorious triumph was for the victories he gained in Gaul; the next forthat of Alexandria, the third for the reduction of Pontus, the fourth forhis African victory, and the last for that in Spain; and (25) they alldiffered from each other in their varied pomp and pageantry. On the dayof the Gallic triumph, as he was proceeding along the street calledVelabrum, after narrowly escaping a fall from his chariot by the breakingof the axle-tree, he ascended the Capitol by torch-light, forty elephants[62] carrying torches on his right and left. Amongst the pageantry ofthe Pontic triumph, a tablet with this inscription was carried beforehim: I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED [63]; not signifying, as other mottos onthe like occasion, what was done, so much as the dispatch with which itwas done. 

XXXVIII. To every foot-soldier in his veteran legions, besides the twothousand sesterces paid him in the beginning of the civil war, he gavetwenty thousand more, in the shape of prize-money. He likewise allottedthem lands, but not in contiguity, that the former owners might not beentirely dispossessed. To the people of Rome, besides ten modii of corn, and as many pounds of oil, he gave three hundred sesterces a man, whichhe had formerly promised them, and a hundred more to each for the delayin fulfilling his engagement. He likewise remitted a year's rent due tothe treasury, for such houses in Rome as did not pay above two thousandsesterces a year; and through the rest of Italy, for all such as did notexceed in yearly rent five hundred sesterces. To all this he added apublic entertainment, and a distribution of meat, and, after his Spanishvictory [64], two public dinners. For, considering the first he hadgiven as too sparing, and unsuited to his profuse liberality, he, fivedays afterwards, added another, which was most plentiful. 

XXXIX. The spectacles he exhibited to the people were of various kinds;namely, a combat of gladiators [65], and stage-plays in the several wardsof the city, and in different languages; likewise Circensian games [66], wrestlers, and the representation of a sea-fight. In the conflict ofgladiators presented in the Forum, Furius Leptinus, a man of praetorianfamily, entered the lists as a combatant, as did also Quintus Calpenus, formerly a senator, and a pleader of causes. The Pyrrhic dance wasperformed by some youths, who were sons to persons of the firstdistinction in Asia and Bithynia. In the plays, Decimus Laberius, whohad been a Roman knight, acted in his own piece; and being presented onthe spot with five hundred thousand sesterces, and a gold ring, he wentfrom the stage, through the orchestra, and resumed his place in the seats(27) allotted for the equestrian order. In the Circensisn games; thecircus being enlarged at each end, and a canal sunk round it, several ofthe young nobility drove chariots, drawn, some by four, and others by twohorses, and likewise rode races on single horses. The Trojan game wasacted by two distinct companies of boys, one differing from the other inage and rank. The hunting of wild beasts was presented for five dayssuccessively; and on the last day a battle was fought by five hundredfoot, twenty elephants, and thirty horse on each side. To afford roomfor this engagement, the goals were removed, and in their space two campswere pitched, directly opposite to each other. Wrestlers likewiseperformed for three days successively, in a stadium provided for thepurpose in the Campus Martius. A lake having been dug in the littleCodeta [67], ships of the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets, containing two, three, and four banks of oars, with a number of men on board, afforded ananimated representation of a sea-fight. To these various diversionsthere flocked such crowds of spectators from all parts, that most of thestrangers were obliged to lodge in tents erected in the streets, or alongthe roads near the city. Several in the throng were squeezed to death, amongst whom were two senators. 

XL. Turning afterwards his attention to the regulation of thecommonwealth, he corrected the calendar [68], which had for (28) sometime become extremely confused, through the unwarrantable liberty whichthe pontiffs had taken in the article of intercalation. To such a heighthad this abuse proceeded, that neither the festivals designed for theharvest fell in summer, nor those for the vintage in autumn. Heaccommodated the year to the course of the sun, ordaining that in futureit should consist of three hundred and sixty-five days without anyintercalary month; and that every fourth year an intercalary day shouldbe inserted. That the year might thenceforth commence regularly with thecalends, or first of January, he inserted two months between November andDecember; so that the year in which this regulation was made consisted offifteen months, including the month of intercalation, which, according tothe division of time then in use, happened that year. 

XLI. He filled up the vacancies in the senate, by advancing severalplebeians to the rank of patricians, and also increased the number ofpraetors, aediles, quaestors, and inferior magistrates; restoring, at thesame time, such as had been degraded by the censors, or convicted ofbribery at elections. The choice of magistrates he so divided with thepeople, that, excepting only the candidates for the consulship, theynominated one half of them, and he the other. The method which hepractised in those cases was, to recommend such persons as he had pitchedupon, by bills dispersed through the several tribes to this effect:"Caesar the dictator to such a tribe (naming it). I recommend to you(naming likewise the persons), that by the favour of your votes they mayattain to the honours for which they sue. " He likewise admitted tooffices the sons of those who had been proscribed. The trial of causeshe restricted to two orders of judges, the equestrian and senatorial;excluding the tribunes of the treasury who had before made a third class. The revised census of the people he ordered to be taken neither in theusual manner or place, but street by street, by the principal inhabitantsof the several quarters of the city; and he reduced the number of thosewho received corn at the public cost, from three hundred and twenty, to ahundred and fifty, thousand. To prevent any tumults on account of thecensus, he ordered that the praetor should every year fill up by lot thevacancies occasioned by death, from those who were not enrolled for thereceipt of corn. 

(29) XLII. Eighty thousand citizens having been distributed into foreigncolonies [69], he enacted, in order to stop the drain on the population, that no freeman of the city above twenty, and under forty, years of age, who was not in the military service, should absent himself from Italy formore than three years at a time; that no senator's son should go abroad, unless in the retinue of some high officer; and as to those whose pursuitwas tending flocks and herds, that no less than a third of the number oftheir shepherds free-born should be youths. He likewise made all thosewho practised physic in Rome, and all teachers of the liberal arts, freeof the city, in order to fix them in it, and induce others to settlethere. With respect to debts, he disappointed the expectation which wasgenerally entertained, that they would be totally cancelled; and orderedthat the debtors should satisfy their creditors, according to thevaluation of their estates, at the rate at which they were purchasedbefore the commencement of the civil war; deducting from the debt whathad been paid for interest either in money or by bonds; by virtue ofwhich provision about a fourth part of the debt was lost. He dissolvedall the guilds, except such as were of ancient foundation. Crimes werepunished with greater severity; and the rich being more easily induced tocommit them because they were only liable to banishment, without theforfeiture of their property, he stripped murderers, as Cicero observes, of their whole estates, and other offenders of one half. 

XLIII. He was extremely assiduous and strict in the administration ofjustice. He expelled from the senate such members as were convicted ofbribery; and he dissolved the marriage of a man of pretorian rank, whohad married a lady two days after her divorce from a former husband, although there was no suspicion that they had been guilty of any illicitconnection. He imposed duties on the importation of foreign goods. Theuse of litters for travelling, purple robes, and jewels, he permittedonly to persons of a certain age and station, and on particular days. Heenforced a rigid execution of the sumptuary laws; placing officers aboutthe markets, to seize upon all meats exposed to sale contrary to therules, and bring them to him; sometimes sending his lictors and soldiersto (30) carry away such victuals as had escaped the notice of theofficers, even when they were upon the table. 

XLIV. His thoughts were now fully employed from day to day on a varietyof great projects for the embellishment and improvement of the city, aswell as for guarding and extending the bounds of the empire. In thefirst place, he meditated the construction of a temple to Mars, whichshould exceed in grandeur every thing of that kind in the world. Forthis purpose, he intended to fill up the lake on which he had entertainedthe people with the spectacle of a sea-fight. He also projected a mostspacious theatre adjacent to the Tarpeian mount; and also proposed toreduce the civil law to a reasonable compass, and out of that immense andundigested mass of statutes to extract the best and most necessary partsinto a few books; to make as large a collection as possible of works inthe Greek and Latin languages, for the public use; the province ofproviding and putting them in proper order being assigned to MarcusVarro. He intended likewise to drain the Pomptine marshes, to cut achannel for the discharge of the waters of the lake Fucinus, to form aroad from the Upper Sea through the ridge of the Appenine to the Tiber;to make a cut through the isthmus of Corinth, to reduce the Dacians, whohad over-run Pontus and Thrace, within their proper limits, and then tomake war upon the Parthians, through the Lesser Armenia, but not to riska general engagement with them, until he had made some trial of theirprowess in war. But in the midst of all his undertakings and projects, he was carried off by death; before I speak of which, it may not beimproper to give an account of his person, dress, and manners; togetherwith what relates to his pursuits, both civil and military. 

XLV. It is said that he was tall, of a fair complexion, round limbed, rather full faced, with eyes black and piercing; and that he enjoyedexcellent health, except towards the close of his life, when he wassubject to sudden fainting-fits, and disturbance in his sleep. He waslikewise twice seized with the falling sickness while engaged in activeservice. He was so nice in the care of his person, that he not only keptthe hair of his head closely cut and had his face smoothly shaved, but(31) even caused the hair on other parts of the body to be plucked out bythe roots, a practice for which some persons rallied him. His baldnessgave him much uneasiness, having often found himself upon that accountexposed to the jibes of his enemies. He therefore used to bring forwardthe hair from the crown of his head; and of all the honours conferredupon him by the senate and people, there was none which he eitheraccepted or used with greater pleasure, than the right of wearingconstantly a laurel crown. It is said that he was particular in hisdress. For he used the Latus Clavus [70] with fringes about the wrists, and always had it girded about him, but rather loosely. Thiscircumstance gave origin to the expression of Sylla, who often advisedthe nobles to beware of "the ill-girt boy. "

XLVI. He first inhabited a small house in the Suburra [71], but afterhis advancement to the pontificate, he occupied a palace belonging to thestate in the Via Sacra. Many writers say that he liked his residence tobe elegant, and his entertainments sumptuous; and that he entirely tookdown a villa near the grove of Aricia, which he had built from thefoundation and finished at a vast expense, because it did not exactlysuit his taste, although he had at that time but slender means, and wasin debt; and that he carried about in his expeditions tesselated andmarble slabs for the floor of his tent. 

XLVII. They likewise report that he invaded Britain in hopes of findingpearls [72], the size of which he would compare together, and ascertainthe weight by poising them in his hand; that he would purchase, at anycost, gems, carved works, statues, and pictures, executed by the eminentmasters of antiquity; and that he would give for young and handy slaves aprice so extravagant, that he forbad its being entered in the diary ofhis expenses. 

XLVIII. We are also told, that in the provinces he constantly maintainedtwo tables, one for the officers of the army, and the gentry of thecountry, and the other for Romans of the highest rank, and provincials ofthe first distinction. He was so very exact in the management of hisdomestic affairs, both little and great, that he once threw a baker intoprison, for serving him with a finer sort of bread than his guests; andput to death a freed-man, who was a particular favourite, for debauchingthe lady of a Roman knight, although no complaint had been made to him ofthe affair. 

XLIX. The only stain upon his chastity was his having cohabited withNicomedes; and that indeed stuck to him all the days of his life, andexposed him to much bitter raillery. I will not dwell upon thosewell-known verses of Calvus Licinius:

 Whate'er Bithynia and her lord possess'd, Her lord who Caesar in his lust caress'd. [73]

I pass over the speeches of Dolabella, and Curio, the father, in whichthe former calls him "the queen's rival, and the inner-side of the royalcouch, " and the latter, "the brothel of Nicomedes, and the Bithynianstew. " I would likewise say nothing of the edicts of Bibulus, in whichhe proclaimed his colleague under the name of "the queen of Bithynia;"adding, that "he had formerly been in love with a king, but now coveted akingdom. " At which time, as Marcus Brutus relates, one Octavius, a manof a crazy brain, and therefore the more free in his raillery, after hehad in a crowded assembly saluted Pompey by the title of king, addressedCaesar by that of queen. Caius Memmius likewise upbraided him withserving the king at table, among the rest of his catamites, in thepresence of a large company, in which were some merchants from Rome, thenames of whom he mentions. But Cicero was not content with writing insome of his letters, that he was conducted by the royal attendants intothe king's bed-chamber, lay upon a bed of gold with a covering of purple, and that the youthful bloom of this scion of Venus had been tainted inBithynia--but upon Caesar's pleading the cause of Nysa, the daughter of(32) Nicomedes before the senate, and recounting the king's kindnesses tohim, replied, "Pray tell us no more of that; for it is well known what hegave you, and you gave him. " To conclude, his soldiers in the Gallictriumph, amongst other verses, such as they jocularly sung on thoseoccasions, following the general's chariot, recited these, which sincethat time have become extremely common:

 The Gauls to Caesar yield, Caesar to Nicomede, Lo! Caesar triumphs for his glorious deed, But Caesar's conqueror gains no victor's meed. [74]

L. It is admitted by all that he was much addicted to women, as well asvery expensive in his intrigues with them, and that he debauched manyladies of the highest quality; among whom were Posthumia, the wife ofServius Sulpicius; Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius; Tertulla, the wifeof Marcus Crassus; and Mucia, the wife of Cneius Pompey. For it iscertain that the Curios, both father and son, and many others, made it areproach to Pompey, "That to gratify his ambition, he married thedaughter of a man, upon whose account he had divorced his wife, afterhaving had three children by her; and whom he used, with a deep sigh, tocall Aegisthus. " [75] But the mistress he most loved, was Servilia, themother of Marcus Brutus, for whom he purchased, in his first consulshipafter the commencement of their intrigue, a pearl which cost him sixmillions of sesterces; and in the civil war, besides other presents, assigned to her, for a trifling consideration, some valuable farms whenthey were exposed to public auction. Many persons expressing theirsurprise at the lowness of the price, Cicero wittily remarked, "To letyou know the real value of the purchase, between ourselves, Tertia wasdeducted:" for Servilia was supposed to have prostituted her daughterTertia to Caesar. [76]

(34) LI. That he had intrigues likewise with married women in theprovinces, appears from this distich, which was as much repeated in theGallic Triumph as the former:--

 Watch well your wives, ye cits, we bring a blade, A bald-pate master of the wenching trade. Thy gold was spent on many a Gallic w---e; Exhausted now, thou com'st to borrow more. [77]

LII. In the number of his mistresses were also some queens; such asEunoe, a Moor, the wife of Bogudes, to whom and her husband he made, asNaso reports, many large presents. But his greatest favourite wasCleopatra, with whom he often revelled all night until the dawn of day, and would have gone with her through Egypt in dalliance, as far asAethiopia, in her luxurious yacht, had not the army refused to followhim. He afterwards invited her to Rome, whence he sent her back loadedwith honours and presents, and gave her permission to call by his name ason, who, according to the testimony of some Greek historians, resembledCaesar both in person and gait. Mark Antony declared in the senate, thatCaesar had acknowledged the child as his own; and that Caius Matias, Caius Oppius, and the rest of Caesar's friends knew it to be true. Onwhich occasion, Oppius, as if it had been an imputation which he wascalled upon to refute, published a book to shew, "that the child whichCleopatra fathered upon Caesar, was not his. " Helvius Cinna, tribune ofthe people, admitted to several persons the fact, that he had a billready drawn, which Caesar had ordered him to get enacted in his absence, allowing him, with the hope of leaving issue, to take any wife he chose, and as many of them as he pleased; and to leave no room for doubt of hisinfamous character for unnatural lewdness and adultery, Curio, thefather, says, in one of his speeches, "He was every woman's man, andevery man's woman. "

LIII. It is acknowledged even by his enemies, that in regard to wine, hewas abstemious. A remark is ascribed to Marcus Cato, "that Caesar wasthe only sober man amongst all those who were engaged in the design tosubvert (35) the government. " In the matter of diet, Caius Oppiusinforms us, "that he was so indifferent, that when a person in whosehouse he was entertained, had served him with stale, instead of fresh, oil [78], and the rest of the company would not touch it, he alone atevery heartily of it, that he might not seem to tax the master of thehouse with rusticity or want of attention. "

LIV. But his abstinence did not extend to pecuniary advantages, eitherin his military commands, or civil offices; for we have the testimony ofsome writers, that he took money from the proconsul, who was hispredecessor in Spain, and from the Roman allies in that quarter, for thedischarge of his debts; and plundered at the point of the sword sometowns of the Lusitanians, notwithstanding they attempted no resistance, and opened their gates to him upon his arrival before them. In Gaul, herifled the chapels and temples of the gods, which were filled with richofferings, and demolished cities oftener for the sake of their spoil, than for any ill they had done. By this means gold became so plentifulwith him, that he exchanged it through Italy and the provinces of theempire for three thousand sesterces the pound. In his first consulshiphe purloined from the Capitol three thousand pounds' weight of gold, andsubstituted for it the same quantity of gilt brass. He bartered likewiseto foreign nations and princes, for gold, the titles of allies and kings;and squeezed out of Ptolemy alone near six thousand talents, in the nameof himself and Pompey. He afterwards supported the expense of the civilwars, and of his triumphs and public spectacles, by the most flagrantrapine and sacrilege. 

LV. In eloquence and warlike achievements, he equalled at least, if hedid not surpass, the greatest of men. After his prosecution ofDolabella, he was indisputably reckoned one of the most distinguishedadvocates. Cicero, in recounting to Brutus the famous orators, declares, "that he does not see that Caesar was inferior to any one of them;" andsays, "that he (36) had an elegant, splendid, noble, and magnificent veinof eloquence. " And in a letter to Cornelius Nepos, he writes of him inthe following terms: "What! Of all the orators, who, during the wholecourse of their lives, have done nothing else, which can you prefer tohim? Which of them is more pointed or terse in his periods, or employsmore polished and elegant language?" In his youth, he seems to havechosen Strabo Caesar for his model; from whose oration in behalf of theSardinians he has transcribed some passages literally into hisDivination. In his delivery he is said to have had a shrill voice, andhis action was animated, but not ungraceful. He has left behind him somespeeches, among which are ranked a few that are not genuine, such as thaton behalf of Quintus Metellus. These Augustus supposes, with reason, tobe rather the production of blundering short-hand writers, who were notable to keep pace with him in the delivery, than publications of his own. For I find in some copies that the title is not "For Metellus, " but "Whathe wrote to Metellus;" whereas the speech is delivered in the name ofCaesar, vindicating Metellus and himself from the aspersions cast uponthem by their common defamers. The speech addressed "To his soldiers inSpain, " Augustus considers likewise as spurious. We meet with two underthis title; one made, as is pretended, in the first battle, and the otherin the last; at which time, Asinius Pollio says, he had not leisure toaddress the soldiers, on account of the suddenness of the enemy's attack. 

LVI. He has likewise left Commentaries of his own actions both in thewar in Gaul, and in the civil war with Pompey; for the author of theAlexandrian, African, and Spanish wars is not known with any certainty. Some think they are the production of Oppius, and some of Hirtius; thelatter of whom composed the last book, which is imperfect, of the Gallicwar. Of Caesar's Commentaries, Cicero, in his Brutus, speaks thus: "Hewrote his Commentaries in a manner deserving of great approbation: theyare plain, precise, and elegant, without any affectation of rhetoricalornament. In having thus prepared materials for others who might beinclined to write his history, he may perhaps have encouraged some sillycreatures to enter upon such a work, who will needs be dressing up hisactions in all the extravagance a (37) bombast; but he has discouragedwise men from ever attempting the subject. " Hirtius delivers his opinionof these Commentaries in the following terms: "So great is theapprobation with which they are universally perused, that, instead ofrousing, he seems to have precluded, the efforts of any future historian. Yet, with respect to this work, we have more reason to admire him thanothers; for they only know how well and correctly he has written, but weknow, likewise, how easily and quickly he did it. " Pollio Asinius thinksthat they were not drawn up with much care, or with a due regard totruth; for he insinuates that Caesar was too hasty of belief in regard towhat was performed by others under his orders; and that, he has not givena very faithful account of his own acts, either by design, or throughdefect of memory; expressing at the same time an opinion that Caesarintended a new and more correct edition. He has left behind him likewisetwo books on Analogy, with the same number under the title of Anti-Cato, and a poem entitled The Itinerary. Of these books, he composed the firsttwo in his passage over the Alps, as he was returning to the army aftermaking his circuit in Hither-Gaul; the second work about the time of thebattle of Munda; and the last during the four-and-twenty days he employedin his journey from Rome to Farther-Spain. There are extant some lettersof his to the senate, written in a manner never practised by any beforehim; for they are distinguished into pages in the form of a memorandumbook whereas the consuls and commanders till then, used constantly intheir letters to continue the line quite across the sheet, without anyfolding or distinction of pages. There are extant likewise some lettersfrom him to Cicero, and others to his friends, concerning his domesticaffairs; in which, if there was occasion for secrecy, he wrote incyphers; that is, he used the alphabet in such a manner, that not asingle word could be made out. The way to decipher those epistles was tosubstitute the fourth for the first letter, as d for a, and so for theother letters respectively. Some things likewise pass under his name, said to have been written by him when a boy, or a very young man; as theEncomium of Hercules, a tragedy entitled Oedipus, and a collection ofApophthegms; all which Augustus forbad to be published, in a short andplain letter to Pompeius Macer, who was employed by him in thearrangement of his libraries. 

(38) LVII. He was perfect in the use of arms, an accomplished rider, andable to endure fatigue beyond all belief. On a march, he used to go atthe head of his troops, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, withhis head bare in all kinds of weather. He would travel post in a lightcarriage [79] without baggage, at the rate of a hundred miles a day; andif he was stopped by floods in the rivers, he swam across, or floated onskins inflated with wind, so that he often anticipated intelligence ofhis movements. [80]

LVIII. In his expeditions, it is difficult to say whether his caution orhis daring was most conspicuous. He never marched his army by roadswhich were exposed to ambuscades, without having previously examined thenature of the ground by his scouts. Nor did he cross over to Britain, before he had carefully examined, in person [81], the navigation, theharbours, and the most convenient point of landing in the island. Whenintelligence was brought to him of the siege of his camp in Germany, hemade his way to his troops, through the enemy's stations, in a Gaulishdress. He crossed the sea from Brundisium and Dyrrachium, in the winter, through the midst of the enemy's fleets; and the troops, under orders tojoin him, being slow in their movements, notwithstanding repeatedmessages to hurry them, but to no purpose, he at last went privately, andalone, aboard a small vessel in the night time, with his head muffled up;nor did he make himself known, or suffer the master to put about, although the wind blew strong against them, until they were ready tosink. 

LIX. He was never deterred from any enterprise, nor retarded in theprosecution of it, by superstition [82]. When a victim, which he wasabout to offer in sacrifice, made its (39) escape, he did not thereforedefer his expedition against Scipio and Juba. And happening to fall, upon stepping out of the ship, he gave a lucky turn to the omen, byexclaiming, "I hold thee fast, Africa. " To chide the prophecies whichwere spread abroad, that the name of the Scipios was, by the decrees offate, fortunate and invincible in that province, he retained in the campa profligate wretch, of the family of the Cornelii, who, on account ofhis scandalous life, was surnamed Salutio. 

LX. He not only fought pitched battles, but made sudden attacks when anopportunity offered; often at the end of a march, and sometimes duringthe most violent storms, when nobody could imagine he would stir. Norwas he ever backward in fighting, until towards the end of his life. Hethen was of opinion, that the oftener he had been crowned with success, the less he ought to expose himself to new hazards; and that nothing hecould gain by a victory would compensate for what he might lose by amiscarriage. He never defeated the enemy without driving them from theircamp; and giving them no time to rally their forces. When the issue of abattle was doubtful, he sent away all the horses, and his own first, thathaving no means of flight, they might be under the greater necessity ofstanding their ground. 

LXI. He rode a very remarkable horse, with feet almost like those of aman, the hoofs being divided in such a manner as to have some resemblanceto toes. This horse he had bred himself, and the soothsayers havinginterpreted these circumstances into an omen that its owner would bemaster of the world, he brought him up with particular care, and brokehim in himself, as the horse would suffer no one else to mount him. Astatue of this horse was afterwards erected by Caesar's order before thetemple of Venus Genitrix. 

LXII. He often rallied his troops, when they were giving way, by hispersonal efforts; stopping those who fled, keeping others in their ranks, and seizing them by their throat turned them towards the enemy; althoughnumbers were so terrified, that an eagle-bearer [83], thus stopped, madea thrust at him with (40) the spear-head; and another, upon a similaroccasion, left the standard in his hand. 

LXIII. The following instances of his resolution are equally, and evenmore remarkable. After the battle of Pharsalia, having sent his troopsbefore him into Asia, as he was passing the straits of the Hellespont ina ferry-boat, he met with Lucius Cassius, one of the opposite party, withten ships of war; and so far from endeavouring to escape, he wentalongside his ship, and calling upon him to surrender, Cassius humblygave him his submission. 

LXIV. At Alexandria, in the attack of a bridge, being forced by a suddensally of the enemy into a boat, and several others hurrying in with him, he leaped into the sea, and saved himself by swimming to the next ship, which lay at the distance of two hundred paces; holding up his left handout of the water, for fear of wetting some papers which he held in it;and pulling his general's cloak after him with his teeth, lest it shouldfall into the hands of the enemy. 

LXV. He never valued a soldier for his moral conduct or his means, butfor his courage only; and treated his troops with a mixture of severityand indulgence; for he did not always keep a strict hand over them, butonly when the enemy was near. Then indeed he was so strict adisciplinarian, that he would give no notice of a march or a battle untilthe moment of action, in order that the troops might hold themselves inreadiness for any sudden movement; and he would frequently draw them outof the camp without any necessity for it, especially in rainy weather, and upon holy-days. Sometimes, giving them orders not to lose sight ofhim, he would suddenly depart by day or by night, and lengthen themarches in order to tire them out, as they followed him at a distance. 

LXVI. When at any time his troops were dispirited by reports of thegreat force of the enemy, he rallied their courage; not by denying thetruth of what was said, or by diminishing the facts, but, on thecontrary, by exaggerating every particular. (41) Accordingly, when histroops were in great alarm at the expected arrival of king Juba, hecalled them together, and said, "I have to inform you that in a very fewdays the king will be here, with ten legions, thirty thousand horse, ahundred thousand light-armed foot, and three hundred elephants. Let noneof you, therefore, presume to make further enquiry, or indulge inconjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have fromundoubted intelligence; otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazyvessel, and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds, to betransported to some other country. "

LXVII. He neither noticed all their transgressions, nor punished themaccording to strict rule. But for deserters and mutineers he made themost diligent enquiry, and their punishment was most severe: otherdelinquencies he would connive at. Sometimes, after a great battleending in victory, he would grant them a relaxation from all kinds ofduty, and leave them to revel at pleasure; being used to boast, "that hissoldiers fought nothing the worse for being well oiled. " In hisspeeches, he never addressed them by the title of "Soldiers, " but by thekinder phrase of "Fellow-soldiers;" and kept them in such splendid order, that their arms were ornamented with silver and gold, not merely forparade, but to render the soldiers more resolute to save them in battle, and fearful of losing them. He loved his troops to such a degree, thatwhen he heard of the defeat of those under Titurius, he neither cut hishair nor shaved his beard, until he had revenged it upon the enemy; bywhich means he engaged their devoted affection, and raised their valourto the highest pitch. 

LXVIII. Upon his entering on the civil war, the centurions of everylegion offered, each of them, to maintain a horseman at his own expense, and the whole army agreed to serve gratis, without either corn or pay;those amongst them who were rich, charging themselves with themaintenance of the poor. No one of them, during the whole course of thewar, deserted to the enemy; and many of those who were made prisoners, though they were offered their lives, upon condition of bearing armsagainst him, refused to accept the terms. They endured want, and otherhardships, not only (42) when they were besieged themselves, but whenthey besieged others, to such a degree, that Pompey, when blocked up inthe neighbourhood of Dyrrachium, upon seeing a sort of bread made of anherb, which they lived upon, said, "I have to do with wild beasts, " andordered it immediately to be taken away; because, if his troops shouldsee it, their spirit might be broken by perceiving the endurance anddetermined resolution of the enemy. With what bravery they fought, oneinstance affords sufficient proof; which is, that after an unsuccessfulengagement at Dyrrachium, they called for punishment; insomuch that theirgeneral found it more necessary to comfort than to punish them. In otherbattles, in different quarters, they defeated with ease immense armies ofthe enemy, although they were much inferior to them in number. In short, one cohort of the sixth legion held out a fort against four legionsbelonging to Pompey, during several hours; being almost every one of themwounded by the vast number of arrows discharged against them, and ofwhich there were found within the ramparts a hundred and thirty thousand. This is no way surprising, when we consider the conduct of someindividuals amongst them; such as that of Cassius Scaeva, a centurion, orCaius Acilius, a common soldier, not to speak of others. Scaeva, afterhaving an eye struck out, being run through the thigh and the shoulder, and having his shield pierced in an hundred and twenty places, maintainedobstinately the guard of the gate of a fort, with the command of which hewas intrusted. Acilius, in the sea-fight at Marseilles, having seized aship of the enemy's with his right hand, and that being cut off, inimitation of that memorable instance of resolution in Cynaegirus amongstthe Greeks, boarded the enemy's ship, bearing down all before him withthe boss of his shield. 

LXIX. They never once mutinied during all the ten years of the Gallicwar, but were sometimes refractory in the course of the civil war. However, they always returned quickly to their duty, and that not throughthe indulgence, but in submission to the authority, of their general; forhe never yielded to them when they were insubordinate, but constantlyresisted their demands. He disbanded the whole ninth legion withignominy at Placentia, although Pompey was still in arms, and would (43)not receive them again into his service, until they had not only maderepeated and humble entreaties, but until the ringleaders in the mutinywere punished. 

LXX. When the soldiers of the tenth legion at Rome demanded theirdischarge and rewards for their service, with violent threats and nosmall danger to the city, although the war was then raging in Africa, hedid not hesitate, contrary to the advice of his friends, to meet thelegion, and disband it. But addressing them by the title of "Quirites, "instead of "Soldiers, " he by this single word so thoroughly brought themround and changed their determination, that they immediately cried out, they were his "soldiers, " and followed him to Africa, although he hadrefused their service. He nevertheless punished the most mutinous amongthem, with the loss of a third of their share in the plunder, and theland destined for them. 

LXXI. In the service of his clients, while yet a young man, he evincedgreat zeal and fidelity. He defended the cause of a noble youth, Masintha, against king Hiempsal, so strenuously, that in a scuffle whichtook place upon the occasion, he seized by the beard the son of kingJuba; and upon Masintha's being declared tributary to Hiempsal, while thefriends of the adverse party were violently carrying him off, heimmediately rescued him by force, kept him concealed in his house a longtime, and when, at the expiration of his praetorship, he went to Spain, he took him away in his litter, in the midst of his lictors bearing thefasces, and others who had come to attend and take leave of him. 

LXXII. He always treated his friends with such kindness and good-nature, that when Caius Oppius, in travelling with him through a forest, wassuddenly taken ill, he resigned to him the only place there was toshelter them at night, and lay upon the ground in the open air. When hehad placed himself at the head of affairs, he advanced some of hisfaithful adherents, though of mean extraction, to the highest offices;and when he was censured for this partiality, he openly said, "Had I beenassisted by robbers and cut-throats in the defence of my honour, I shouldhave made them the same recompense. "

(44) LXXIII. The resentment he entertained against any one was never soimplacable that he did not very willingly renounce it when opportunityoffered. Although Caius Memmius had published some extremely virulentspeeches against him, and he had answered him with equal acrimony, yet heafterwards assisted him with his vote and interest, when he stoodcandidate for the consulship. When C. Calvus, after publishing somescandalous epigrams upon him, endeavoured to effect a reconciliation bythe intercession of friends, he wrote to him, of his own accord, thefirst letter. And when Valerius Catullus, who had, as he himselfobserved, fixed such a stain upon his character in his verses uponMamurra as never could be obliterated, he begged his pardon, invited himto supper the same day; and continued to take up his lodging with hisfather occasionally, as he had been accustomed to do. 

LXXIV. His temper was also naturally averse to severity in retaliation. After he had captured the pirates, by whom he had been taken, havingsworn that he would crucify them, he did so indeed; but he first orderedtheir throats to be cut [84]. He could never bear the thought of doingany harm to Cornelius Phagitas, who had dogged him in the night when hewas sick and a fugitive, with the design of carrying him to Sylla, andfrom whose hands he had escaped with some difficulty by giving him abribe. Philemon, his amanuensis, who had promised his enemies to poisonhim, he put to death without torture. When he was summoned as a witnessagainst Publicus Clodius, his wife Pompeia's gallant, who was prosecutedfor the profanation of religious ceremonies, he declared he knew nothingof the affair, although his mother Aurelia, and his sister Julia, gavethe court an exact and full account of the circumstances. And beingasked why then he had divorced his wife? "Because, " he said, "my familyshould not only be free from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it. "

LXXV. Both in his administration and his conduct towards the vanquishedparty in the civil war, he showed a wonderful moderation and clemency. For while Pompey declared that he would consider those as enemies who didnot take arms in defence of the republic, he desired it to be understood, that he (45) should regard those who remained neuter as his friends. With regard to all those to whom he had, on Pompey's recommendation, given any command in the army, he left them at perfect liberty to go overto him, if they pleased. When some proposals were made at Ileria [85]for a surrender, which gave rise to a free communication between the twocamps, and Afranius and Petreius, upon a sudden change of resolution, hadput to the sword all Caesar's men who were found in the camp, he scornedto imitate the base treachery which they had practised against himself. On the field of Pharsalia, he called out to the soldiers "to spare theirfellow-citizens, " and afterwards gave permission to every man in his armyto save an enemy. None of them, so far as appears, lost their lives butin battle, excepting only Afranius, Faustus, and young Lucius Caesar; andit is thought that even they were put to death without his consent. Afranius and Faustus had borne arms against him, after obtaining theirpardon; and Lucius Caesar had not only in the most cruel manner destroyedwith fire and sword his freed-men and slaves, but cut to pieces the wildbeasts which he had prepared for the entertainment of the people. Andfinally, a little before his death, he permitted all whom he had notbefore pardoned, to return into Italy, and to bear offices both civil andmilitary. He even replaced the statues of Sylla and Pompey, which hadbeen thrown down by the populace. And after this, whatever was devisedor uttered, he chose rather to check than to punish it. Accordingly, having detected certain conspiracies and nocturnal assemblies, he went nofarther than to intimate by a proclamation that he knew of them; and asto those who indulged themselves in the liberty of reflecting severelyupon him, he only warned them in a public speech not to persist in theiroffence. He bore with great moderation a virulent libel written againsthim by Aulus Caecinna, and the abusive lampoons of Pitholaus, most highlyreflecting on his reputation. 

LXXVI. His other words and actions, however, so far outweigh all hisgood qualities, that it is thought he abused his power, and was justlycut off. For he not only obtained excessive honours, such as theconsulship every year, the dictatorship for life, and the censorship, butalso the title of emperor [86], (46) and the surname of FATHER OF HISCOUNTRY [87], besides having his statue amongst the kings [88], and alofty couch in the theatre. He even suffered some honours to be decreedto him, which were unbefitting the most exalted of mankind; such as agilded chair of state in the senate-house and on his tribunal, aconsecrated chariot, and banners in the Circensian procession, temples, altars, statues among the gods, a bed of state in the temples, a priest, and a college of priests dedicated to himself, like those of Pan; andthat one of the months should be called by his name. There were, indeed, no honours which he did not either assume himself, or grant to others, athis will and pleasure. In his third and fourth consulship, he used onlythe title of the office, being content with the power of dictator, whichwas conferred upon him with the consulship; and in both years hesubstituted other consuls in his room, during the three last months; sothat in the intervals he held no assemblies of the people, for theelection of magistrates, excepting only tribunes and ediles of thepeople; and appointed officers, under the name of praefects, instead ofthe praetors, to administer the affairs of the city during his absence. The office of consul having become vacant, by the sudden death of one ofthe consuls the day before the calends of January [the 1st Jan. ], heconferred it on a person who requested it of him, for a few hours. Assuming the same licence, and regardless of the customs of his country, he appointed magistrates to hold their offices for terms of years. Hegranted the insignia of the consular dignity to ten persons of pretorianrank. He admitted into the senate some men who had been made free of thecity, and even natives of Gaul, who were semi-barbarians. (47) Helikewise appointed to the management of the mint, and the public revenueof the state, some servants of his own household; and entrusted thecommand of three legions, which he left at Alexandria, to an old catamiteof his, the son of his freed-man Rufinus. 

LXXVII. He was guilty of the same extravagance in the language hepublicly used, as Titus Ampius informs us; according to whom he said, "The republic is nothing but a name, without substance or reality. Syllawas an ignorant fellow to abdicate the dictatorship. Men ought toconsider what is becoming when they talk with me, and look upon what Isay as a law. " To such a pitch of arrogance did he proceed, that when asoothsayer announced to him the unfavourable omen, that the entrails of avictim offered for sacrifice were without a heart, he said, "The entrailswill be more favourable when I please; and it ought not to be regarded asa prodigy that a beast should be found wanting a heart. "

LXXVIII. But what brought upon him the greatest odium, and was thoughtan unpardonable insult, was his receiving the whole body of the conscriptfathers sitting, before the temple of Venus Genitrix, when they waitedupon him with a number of decrees, conferring on him the highestdignities. Some say that, on his attempting to rise, he was held down byCornelius Balbus; others, that he did not attempt to rise at all, butfrowned on Caius Trebatius, who suggested to him that he should stand upto receive the senate. This behaviour appeared the more intolerable inhim, because, when one of the tribunes of the people, Pontius Aquila, would not rise up to him, as he passed by the tribunes' seat during histriumph, he was so much offended, that he cried out, "Well then, youtribune, Aquila, oust me from the government. " And for some daysafterwards, he never promised a favour to any person, without thisproviso, "if Pontus Aquila will give me leave. "

LXXIX. To this extraordinary mark of contempt for the senate, he addedanother affront still more outrageous. For when, after the sacred ritesof the Latin festival, he was returning home, amidst the immoderate andunusual acclamations (48) of the people, a man in the crowd put a laurelcrown, encircled with a white fillet [89], on one of his statues; uponwhich, the tribunes of the people, Epidius Marullus, and CaesetiusFlavus, ordered the fillet to be removed from the crown, and the man tobe taken to prison. Caesar, being much concerned either that the idea ofroyalty had been suggested to so little purpose, or, as was said, that hewas thus deprived of the merit of refusing it, reprimanded the tribunesvery severely, and dismissed them from their office. From that dayforward, he was never able to wipe off the scandal of affecting the nameof king, although he replied to the populace, when they saluted him bythat title, "I am Caesar, and no king. " And at the feast of theLupercalia [90], when the consul Antony placed a crown upon his head inthe rostra several times, he as often put it away, and sent it to theCapitol for Jupiter, the Best and the Greatest. A report was verycurrent, that he had a design of withdrawing to Alexandria or Ilium, whither he proposed to transfer the imperial power, to drain Italy by newlevies, and to leave the government of the city to be administered by hisfriends. To this report it was added, that in the next meeting of thesenate, Lucius Cotta, one of the fifteen [91], would make a motion, thatas there was in the Sibylline books a prophecy, that the Parthians wouldnever be subdued but by a king, Caesar should have that title conferredupon him. 

LXXX. For this reason the conspirators precipitated the execution oftheir design [92], that they might not be obliged to give their assent tothe proposal. Instead, therefore, of caballing any longer separately, insmall parties, they now united their counsels; the people themselvesbeing dissatisfied with the present state of affairs, both privately andpublicly (49) condemning the tyranny under which they lived, and callingon patriots to assert their cause against the usurper. Upon theadmission of foreigners into the senate, a hand-bill was posted up inthese words: "A good deed! let no one shew a new senator the way to thehouse. " These verses were likewise currently repeated:

 The Gauls he dragged in triumph through the town, Caesar has brought into the senate-house, And changed their plaids [93] for the patrician gown. 

 Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit: iidem in curiam Galli braccas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumpserunt. 

When Quintus Maximus, who had been his deputy in the consulship for thelast three months, entered the theatre, and the lictor, according tocustom, bid the people take notice who was coming, they all cried out, "He is no consul. " After the removal of Caesetius and Marullus fromtheir office, they were found to have a great many votes at the nextelection of consuls. Some one wrote under the statue of Lucius Brutus, "Would you were now alive!" and under the statue of Caesar himself theselines:

 Because he drove from Rome the royal race, Brutus was first made consul in their place. This man, because he put the consuls down, Has been rewarded with a royal crown. 

 Brutus, quia reges ejecit, consul primus factus est: Hic, quia consules ejecit, rex postremo factus est. 

About sixty persons were engaged in the conspiracy against him, of whomCaius Cassius, and Marcus and Decimus Brutus were the chief. It was atfirst debated amongst them, whether they should attack him in the CampusMartius when he was taking the votes of the tribes, and some of themshould throw him off the bridge, whilst others should be ready to stabhim upon his fall; or else in the Via Sacra, or at the entrance of thetheatre. But after public notice had been given by proclamation for thesenate to assemble upon the ides of March [15th March], in thesenate-house built by Pompey, they approved both of the time and place, as most fitting for their purpose. 

LXXXI. Caesar had warning given him of his fate by indubitable (50)omens. A few months before, when the colonists settled at Capua, byvirtue of the Julian law, were demolishing some old sepulchres, inbuilding country-houses, and were the more eager at the work, becausethey discovered certain vessels of antique workmanship, a tablet of brasswas found in a tomb, in which Capys, the founder of Capua, was said tohave been buried, with an inscription in the Greek language to thiseffect "Whenever the bones of Capys come to be discovered, a descendantof Iulus will be slain by the hands of his kinsmen, and his deathrevenged by fearful disasters throughout Italy. " Lest any person shouldregard this anecdote as a fabulous or silly invention, it was circulatedupon the authority of Caius Balbus, an intimate friend of Caesar's. Afew days likewise before his death, he was informed that the horses, which, upon his crossing the Rubicon, he had consecrated, and turnedloose to graze without a keeper, abstained entirely from eating, and shedfloods of tears. The soothsayer Spurinna, observing certain ominousappearances in a sacrifice which he was offering, advised him to bewareof some danger, which threatened to befall him before the ides of Marchwere past. The day before the ides, birds of various kinds from aneighbouring grove, pursuing a wren which flew into Pompey's senate-house[94], with a sprig of laurel in its beak, tore it in pieces. Also, inthe night on which the day of his murder dawned, he dreamt at one timethat he was soaring above the clouds, and, at another, that he had joinedhands with Jupiter. His wife Calpurnia fancied in her sleep that thepediment of the house was falling down, and her husband stabbed on herbosom; immediately upon which the chamber doors flew open. On account ofthese omens, as well as his infirm health, he was in some doubt whetherhe should not remain at home, and defer to some other opportunity thebusiness which he intended to propose to the senate; but Decimus Brutusadvising him not to disappoint the senators, who were numerouslyassembled, and waited his coming, he was prevailed upon to go, andaccordingly (51) set forward about the fifth hour. In his way, someperson having thrust into his hand a paper, warning him against the plot, he mixed it with some other documents which he held in his left hand, intending to read it at leisure. Victim after victim was slain, withoutany favourable appearances in the entrails; but still, disregarding allomens, he entered the senate-house, laughing at Spurinna as a falseprophet, because the ides of March were come, without any mischief havingbefallen him. To which the soothsayer replied, "They are come, indeed, but not past. "

LXXXII. When he had taken his seat, the conspirators stood round him, under colour of paying their compliments; and immediately Tullius Cimber, who had engaged to commence the assault, advancing nearer than the rest, as if he had some favour to request, Caesar made signs that he shoulddefer his petition to some other time. Tullius immediately seized him bythe toga, on both shoulders; at which Caesar crying out, "Violence ismeant!" one of the Cassii wounded him a little below the throat. Caesarseized him by the arm, and ran it through with his style [95]; andendeavouring to rush forward was stopped by another wound. Findinghimself now attacked on all hands with naked poniards, he wrapped thetoga [96] about his head, and at the same moment drew the skirt round hislegs with his left hand, that he might fall more decently with the lowerpart of his body covered. He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering a groan only, but no cry, at the first wound; although someauthors relate, that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him, he exclaimed, "What! art thou, too, one of them? Thou, my son!" [97] The wholeassembly instantly (52) dispersing, he lay for some time after heexpired, until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter, and carriedit home, with one arm hanging down over the side. Among so many wounds, there was none that was mortal, in the opinion of the surgeon Antistius, except the second, which he received in the breast. The conspiratorsmeant to drag his body into the Tiber as soon as they had killed him; toconfiscate his estate, and rescind all his enactments; but they weredeterred by fear of Mark Antony, and Lepidus, Caesar's master of thehorse, and abandoned their intentions. 

LXXXIII. At the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, his will wasopened and read in Mark Antony's house. He had made it on the ides[13th] of the preceding September, at his Lavican villa, and committed itto the custody of the chief of the Vestal Virgins. Quintus Tuberoinforms us, that in all the wills he had signed, from the time of hisfirst consulship to the breaking out of the civil war, Cneius Pompey wasappointed his heir, and that this had been publicly notified to the army. But in his last will, he named three heirs, the grandsons of his sisters;namely, Caius Octavius for three fourths of his estate, and LuciusPinarius and Quintus Pedius for the remaining fourth. Other heirs [inremainder] were named at the close of the will, in which he also adoptedCaius Octavius, who was to assume his name, into his family; andnominated most of those who were concerned in his death among theguardians of his son, if he should have any; as well as Decimus Brutusamongst his heirs of the second order. Be bequeathed to the Roman peoplehis gardens near the Tiber, and three hundred sesterces each man. 

LXXXIV. Notice of his funeral having been solemnly proclaimed, a pilewas erected in the Campus Martius, near the tomb of his daughter Julia;and before the Rostra was placed a gilded tabernacle, on the model of thetemple of Venus Genitrix; within which was an ivory bed, covered withpurple and cloth of gold. At the head was a trophy, with the[bloodstained] robe in which he was slain. It being considered that thewhole day would not suffice for carrying the funeral oblations in solemnprocession before the corpse, directions were given for every one, without regard to order, to carry them from the city into the CampusMartius, by what way they pleased. To raise pity and indignation for hismurder, in the plays acted at the funeral, a passage was sung fromPacuvius's tragedy, entitled, "The Trial for Arms:"

 That ever I, unhappy man, should save Wretches, who thus have brought me to the grave! [98]

And some lines also from Attilius's tragedy of "Electra, " to the sameeffect. Instead of a funeral panegyric, the consul Antony ordered aherald to proclaim to the people the decree of the senate, in which theyhad bestowed upon him all honours, divine and human; with the oath bywhich they had engaged themselves for the defence of his person; and tothese he added only a few words of his own. The magistrates and otherswho had formerly filled the highest offices, carried the bier from theRostra into the Forum. While some proposed that the body should be burntin the sanctuary of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and others inPompey's senate-house; on a sudden, two men, with swords by their sides, and spears in their hands, set fire to the bier with lighted torches. The throng around immediately heaped upon it dry faggots, the tribunalsand benches of the adjoining courts, and whatever else came to hand. Then the musicians and players stripped off the dresses they wore on thepresent occasion, taken from the wardrobe of his triumph at spectacles, rent them, and threw them into the flames. The legionaries, also, of his(54) veteran bands, cast in their armour, which they had put on in honourof his funeral. Most of the ladies did the same by their ornaments, withthe bullae [99], and mantles of their children. In this public mourningthere joined a multitude of foreigners, expressing their sorrow accordingto the fashion of their respective countries; but especially the Jews[100], who for several nights together frequented the spot where the bodywas burnt. 

LXXXV. The populace ran from the funeral, with torches in their hands, to the houses of Brutus and Cassius, and were repelled with difficulty. Going in quest of Cornelius Cinna, who had in a speech, the day before, reflected severely upon Caesar, and mistaking for him Helvius Cinna, whohappened to fall into their hands, they murdered the latter, and carriedhis head about the city on the point of a spear. They afterwards erectedin the Forum a column of Numidian marble, formed of one stone nearlytwenty feet high, and inscribed upon it these words, TO THE FATHER OF HISCOUNTRY. At this column they continued for a long time to offersacrifices, make vows, and decide controversies, in which they swore byCaesar. 

LXXXVI. Some of Caesar's friends entertained a suspicion, that heneither desired nor cared to live any longer, on account of his declininghealth; and for that reason slighted all the omens of religion, and thewarnings of his friends. Others are of opinion, that thinking himselfsecure in the late decree of the senate, and their oaths, he dismissedhis Spanish guards who attended him with drawn swords. Others againsuppose, that he chose rather to face at once the dangers whichthreatened him on all sides, than to be for ever on the watch againstthem. Some tell us that he used to say, the commonwealth was moreinterested in the safety of his person than himself: for that he had forsome time been satiated with power and glory; but that the commonwealth, if any thing should befall him, would have no rest, and, involved inanother civil war, would be in a worse state than before. 

(55) LXXXVII. This, however, was generally admitted, that his death wasin many respects such as he would have chosen. For, upon reading theaccount delivered by Xenophon, how Cyrus in his last illness gaveinstructions respecting his funeral, Caesar deprecated a lingering death, and wished that his own might be sudden and speedy. And the day beforehe died, the conversation at supper, in the house of Marcus Lepidus, turning upon what was the most eligible way of dying, he gave his opinionin favour of a death that is sudden and unexpected. 

LXXXVIII. He died in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was rankedamongst the Gods, not only by a formal decree, but in the belief of thevulgar. For during the first games which Augustus, his heir, consecratedto his memory, a comet blazed for seven days together, rising alwaysabout eleven o'clock; and it was supposed to be the soul of Caesar, nowreceived into heaven: for which reason, likewise, he is represented onhis statue with a star on his brow. The senate-house in which he wasslain, was ordered to be shut up [101], and a decree made that the idesof March should be called parricidal, and the senate should never moreassemble on that day. 

LXXXIX. Scarcely any of those who were accessary to his murder, survivedhim more than three years, or died a natural death [102]. They were allcondemned by the senate: some were taken off by one accident, some byanother. Part of them perished at sea, others fell in battle; and someslew themselves with the same poniard with which they had stabbed Caesar[103]. 

(56) [104] The termination of the civil war between Caesar and Pompeyforms a new epoch in the Roman History, at which a Republic, which hadsubsisted with unrivalled glory during a period of about four hundred andsixty years, relapsed into a state of despotism, whence it never morecould emerge. So sudden a transition from prosperity to the ruin ofpublic freedom, without the intervention of any foreign enemy, excites areasonable conjecture, that the constitution in which it could takeplace, however vigorous in appearance, must have lost that soundness ofpolitical health which had enabled it to endure through so many ages. Ashort view of its preceding state, and of that in which it was at thetime of the revolution now mentioned, will best ascertain the foundationof such a conjecture. 

Though the Romans, upon the expulsion of Tarquin, made an essentialchange in the political form of the state, they did not carry theirdetestation of regal authority so far as to abolish the religiousinstitutions of Numa Pompilius, the second of their kings, according towhich, the priesthood, with all the influence annexed to that order, wasplaced in the hands of the aristocracy. By this wise policy a restraintwas put upon the fickleness and violence of the people in matters ofgovernment, and a decided superiority given to the Senate both in thedeliberative and executive parts of administration. This advantage wasafterwards indeed diminished by the creation of Tribunes of the people; aset of men whose ambition often embroiled the Republic in civildissensions, and who at last abused their authority to such a degree, that they became instruments of aggrandizement to any leading men in thestate who could purchase their friendship. In general, however, themajority of the Tribunes being actuated by views which comprehended theinterests of the multitude, rather than those of individuals, they didnot so much endanger the liberty, as they interrupted the tranquillity, of the public; and when the occasional commotions subsided, thereremained no permanent ground for the establishment of personalusurpation. 

In every government, an object of the last importance to the peace andwelfare of society is the morals of the people; and in proportion as acommunity is enlarged by propagation, or the accession of a multitude ofnew members, a more strict attention is requisite to guard against thatdissolution of manners to which a crowded and extensive capital has anatural tendency. Of this (57) the Romans became sensible in the growingstate of the Republic. In the year of the City 312, two magistrates werefirst created for taking an account of the number of the people, and thevalue of their estates; and soon after, they were invested with theauthority not only of inspecting the morals of individuals, but ofinflicting public censure for any licentiousness of conduct, or violationof decency. Thus both the civil and religious institutions concurred torestrain the people within the bounds of good order and obedience to thelaws; at the same time that the frugal life of the ancient Romans proveda strong security against those vices which operate most effectuallytowards sapping the foundations of a state. 

But in the time of Julius Caesar the barriers of public liberty werebecome too weak to restrain the audacious efforts of ambitious anddesperate men. The veneration for the constitution, usually a powerfulcheck to treasonable designs, had been lately violated by the usurpationsof Marius and Sylla. The salutary terrors of religion no longerpredominated over the consciences of men. The shame of public censurewas extinguished in general depravity. An eminent historian, who livedat that time, informs us, that venality universally prevailed amongst theRomans; and a writer who flourished soon after, observes, that luxury anddissipation had encumbered almost all so much with debt, that they beheldwith a degree of complacency the prospect of civil war and confusion. 

The extreme degree of profligacy at which the Romans were now arrived isin nothing more evident, than that this age gave birth to the mosthorrible conspiracy which occurs in the annals of humankind, viz. That ofCatiline. This was not the project of a few desperate and abandonedindividuals, but of a number of men of the most illustrious rank in thestate; and it appears beyond doubt, that Julius Caesar was accessary tothe design, which was no less than to extirpate the Senate, divideamongst themselves both the public and private treasures, and set Rome onfire. The causes which prompted to this tremendous project, it isgenerally admitted, were luxury, prodigality, irreligion, a totalcorruption of manners, and above all, as the immediate cause, thepressing necessity in which the conspirators were involved by theirextreme dissipation. 

The enormous debt in which Caesar himself was early involved, countenances an opinion that his anxiety to procure the province of Gaulproceeded chiefly from this cause. But during nine years in which heheld that province, he acquired such riches as must have rendered him, without competition, the most opulent person in the state. If nothingmore, therefore, than a (58) splendid establishment had been the objectof his pursuit, he had attained to the summit of his wishes. But when wefind him persevering in a plan of aggrandizement beyond this period ofhis fortunes, we can ascribe his conduct to no other motive than that ofoutrageous ambition. He projected the building of a new Forum at Rome, for the ground only of which he was to pay 800, 000 pounds; he raisedlegions in Gaul at his own charges: he promised such entertainments tothe people as had never been known at Rome from the foundation of thecity. All these circumstances evince some latent design of procuringsuch a popularity as might give him an uncontrolled influence in themanagement of public affairs. Pompey, we are told, was wont to say, thatCaesar not being able, with all his riches, to fulfil the promises whichhe had made, wished to throw everything into confusion. There may havebeen some foundation for this remark: but the opinion of Cicero is moreprobable, that Caesar's mind was seduced with the temptations ofchimerical glory. It is observable that neither Cicero nor Pompeyintimates any suspicion that Caesar was apprehensive of being impeachedfor his conduct, had he returned to Rome in a private station. Yet, thatthere was reason for such an apprehension, the positive declaration of L. Domitius leaves little room to doubt: especially when we consider thenumber of enemies that Caesar had in the Senate, and the coolness of hisformer friend Pompey ever after the death of Julia. The proposedimpeachment was founded upon a notorious charge of prosecuting measuresdestructive of the interests of the commonwealth, and tending ultimatelyto an object incompatible with public freedom. Indeed, considering theextreme corruption which prevailed amongst the Romans at this time, it ismore than probable that Caesar would have been acquitted of the charge, but at such an expense as must have stripped him of all his riches, andplaced him again in a situation ready to attempt a disturbance of thepublic tranquillity. For it is said, that he purchased the friendship ofCurio, at the commencement of the civil war, with a bribe little short ofhalf a million sterling. 

Whatever Caesar's private motive may have been for taking arms againsthis country, he embarked in an enterprise of a nature the most dangerous:and had Pompey conducted himself in any degree suitable to the reputationwhich he had formerly acquired, the contest would in all probability haveterminated in favour of public freedom. But by dilatory measures in thebeginning, by imprudently withdrawing his army from Italy into a distantprovince, and by not pursuing the advantage he had gained by the vigorousrepulse of Caesar's troops in their attack upon his camp, this commanderlost every opportunity of extinguishing a war which was to determine thefate, and even the existence, of the Republic. It was accordinglydetermined on the plains of Pharsalia, where Caesar obtained a victorywhich was not more decisive than unexpected. He was now no longeramenable either to the tribunal of the Senate or the power of the laws, but triumphed at once over his enemies and the constitution of hiscountry. 

It is to the honour of Caesar, that when he had obtained the supremepower, he exercised it with a degree of moderation beyond what wasgenerally expected by those who had fought on the side of the Republic. Of his private life either before or after this period, little istransmitted in history. Henceforth, however, he seems to have livedchiefly at Rome, near which he had a small villa, upon an eminence, commanding a beautiful prospect. His time was almost entirely occupiedwith public affairs, in the management of which, though he employed manyagents, he appears to have had none in the character of actual minister. He was in general easy of access: but Cicero, in a letter to a friend, complains of having been treated with the indignity of waiting aconsiderable time amongst a crowd in an anti-chamber, before he couldhave an audience. The elevation of Caesar placed him not abovedischarging reciprocally the social duties in the intercourse of life. He returned the visits of those who waited upon him, and would sup attheir houses. At table, and in the use of wine, he was habituallytemperate. Upon the whole, he added nothing to his own happiness by allthe dangers, the fatigues, and the perpetual anxiety which he hadincurred in the pursuit of unlimited power. His health was greatlyimpaired: his former cheerfulness of temper, though not his magnanimity, appears to have forsaken him; and we behold in his fate a memorableexample of illustrious talents rendered, by inordinate ambition, destructive to himself, and irretrievably pernicious to his country. 

From beholding the ruin of the Roman Republic, after intestine divisions, and the distractions of civil war, it will afford some relief to take aview of the progress of literature, which flourished even during thosecalamities. 

The commencement of literature in Rome is to be dated from the reductionof the Grecian States, when the conquerors imported into their owncountry the valuable productions of the Greek language, and the firstessay of Roman genius was in dramatic composition. Livius Andronicus, who flourished about 240 years before the Christian aera, formed theFescennine verses into a kind of regular drama, upon the model of theGreeks. He was followed some time after by Ennius, who, besides dramaticand other compositions, (60) wrote the annals of the Roman Republic inheroic verse. His style, like that of Andronicus, was rough andunpolished, in conformity to the language of those times; but forgrandeur of sentiment and energy of expression, he was admired by thegreatest poets in the subsequent ages. Other writers of distinguishedreputation in the dramatic department were Naevius, Pacuvius, Plautus, Afranius, Caecilius, Terence, Accius, etc. Accius and Pacuvius arementioned by Quintilian as writers of extraordinary merit. Oftwenty-five comedies written by Plautus, the number transmitted toposterity is nineteen; and of a hundred and eight which Terence is said tohave translated from Menander, there now remain only six. Excepting a fewinconsiderable fragments, the writings of all the other authors haveperished. The early period of Roman literature was distinguished for theintroduction of satire by Lucilius, an author celebrated for writing withremarkable ease, but whose compositions, in the opinion of Horace, thoughQuintilian thinks otherwise, were debased with a mixture of feculency. Whatever may have been their merit, they also have perished, with theworks of a number of orators, who adorned the advancing state of lettersin the Roman Republic. It is observable, that during this whole period, of near two centuries and a half, there appeared not one historian ofeminence sufficient to preserve his name from oblivion. 

Julius Caesar himself is one of the most eminent writers of the age inwhich he lived. His commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars arewritten with a purity, precision, and perspicuity, which commandapprobation. They are elegant without affectation, and beautiful withoutornament. Of the two books which he composed on Analogy, and those underthe title of Anti-Cato, scarcely any fragment is preserved; but we may beassured of the justness of the observations on language, which were madeby an author so much distinguished by the excellence of his owncompositions. His poem entitled The Journey, which was probably anentertaining narrative, is likewise totally lost. 

The most illustrious prose writer of this or any other age is M. TulliusCicero; and as his life is copiously related in biographical works, itwill be sufficient to mention his writings. From his earliest years, heapplied himself with unremitting assiduity to the cultivation ofliterature, and, whilst he was yet a boy, wrote a poem, called GlaucusPontius, which was extant in Plutarch's time. Amongst his juvenileproductions was a translation into Latin verse, of Aratus on thePhaenomena of the Heavens; of which many fragments are still extant. Healso published a poem of the heroic kind, in honour of his countryman C. Marius, who was born at Arpinum, the birth-place of Cicero. (61) Thisproduction was greatly admired by Atticus; and old Scaevola was so muchpleased with it, that in an epigram written on the subject, he declaresthat it would live as long as the Roman name and learning subsisted. From a little specimen which remains of it, describing a memorable omengiven to Marina from an oak at Arpinum, there is reason to believe thathis poetical genius was scarcely inferior to his oratorical, had it beencultivated with equal industry. He published another poem called Limon, of which Donatus has preserved four lines in the life of Terence, inpraise of the elegance and purity of that poet's style. He composed inthe Greek language, and in the style and manner of Isocrates, aCommentary or Memoirs of the Transactions of his Consulship. This hesent to Atticus, with a desire, if he approved it, to publish it inAthens and the cities of Greece. He sent a copy of it likewise toPosidonius of Rhodes, and requested of him to undertake the same subjectin a more elegant and masterly manner. But the latter returned foranswer, that, instead of being encouraged to write by the perusal of histract, he was quite deterred from attempting it. 

Upon the plan of those Memoirs, he afterwards composed a Latin poem inthree books, in which he carried down the history to the end of hisexile, but did not publish it for several years, from motives ofdelicacy. The three books were severally inscribed to the three Muses;but of this work there now remain only a few fragments, scattered indifferent parts of his other writings. He published, about the sametime, a collection of the principal speeches which he had made in hisconsulship, under the title of his Consular Orations. They consistedoriginally of twelve; but four are entirely lost, and some of the restare imperfect. He now published also, in Latin verse, a translation ofthe Prognostics of Aratus, of which work no more than two or three smallfragments now remain. A few years after, he put the last hand to hisDialogues upon the Character and Idea of the perfect Orator. Thisadmirable work remains entire; a monument both of the astonishingindustry and transcendent abilities of its author. At his Cuman villa, he next began a Treatise on Politics, or on the best State of a City, andthe Duties of a Citizen. He calls it a great and a laborious work, yetworthy of his pains, if he could succeed in it. This likewise waswritten in the form of a dialogue, in which the speakers were Scipio, Laelius, Philus, Manilius, and other great persons in the former times ofthe Republic. It was comprised in six books, and survived him forseveral ages, though it is now unfortunately lost. From the fragmentswhich remain, it appears to have been a masterly production, in which allthe important questions in politics and morality were discussed withelegance and accuracy. 

(62) Amidst all the anxiety for the interests of the Republic, whichoccupied the thoughts of this celebrated personage, he yet found leisureto write several philosophical tracts, which still subsist, to thegratification of the literary world. He composed a treatise on theNature of the Gods, in three books, containing a comprehensive view ofreligion, faith, oaths, ceremonies, etc. In elucidating this importantsubject, he not only delivers the opinions of all the philosophers whohad written anything concerning it, but weighs and compares attentivelyall the arguments with each other; forming upon the whole such a rationaland perfect system of natural religion, as never before was presented tothe consideration of mankind, and approaching nearly to revelation. Henow likewise composed in two books, a discourse on Divination, in whichhe discusses at large all the arguments that may be advanced for andagainst the actual existence of such a species of knowledge. Like thepreceding works, it is written in the form of dialogue, and in which thechief speaker is Laelius. The same period gave birth to his treatise onOld Age, called Cato Major; and to that on Friendship, written also indialogue, and in which the chief speaker is Laelius. This book, considered merely as an essay, is one of the most entertainingproductions of ancient times; but, beheld as a picture drawn from life, exhibiting the real characters and sentiments of men of the firstdistinction for virtue and wisdom in the Roman Republic, it becomesdoubly interesting to every reader of observation and taste. Cicero nowalso wrote his discourse on Fate, which was the subject of a conversationwith Hirtius, in his villa near Puteoli; and he executed about the sametime a translation of Plato's celebrated Dialogue, called Timaeus, on thenature and origin of the universe. He was employing himself also on ahistory of his own times, or rather of his own conduct; full of free andsevere reflections on those who had abused their power to the oppressionof the Republic. Dion Cassius says, that he delivered this book sealedup to his son, with strict orders not to read or publish it till afterhis death; but from this time he never saw his son, and it is probablethat he left the work unfinished. Afterwards, however, some copies of itwere circulated; from which his commentator, Asconius, has quoted severalparticulars. 

During a voyage which he undertook to Sicily, he wrote his treatise onTopics, or the Art of finding Arguments on any Question. This was anabstract from Aristotle's treatise on the same subject; and though he hadneither Aristotle nor any other book to assist him, he drew it up fromhis memory, and finished it as he sailed along the coast of Calabria. The last (63) work composed by Cicero appears to have been his Offices, written for the use of his son, to whom it is addressed. This treatisecontains a system of moral conduct, founded upon the noblest principlesof human action, and recommended by arguments drawn from the purestsources of philosophy. 

Such are the literary productions of this extraordinary man, whosecomprehensive understanding enabled him to conduct with superior abilitythe most abstruse disquisitions into moral and metaphysical science. Born in an age posterior to Socrates and Plato, he could not anticipatethe principles inculcated by those divine philosophers, but he is justlyentitled to the praise, not only of having prosecuted with unerringjudgment the steps which they trod before him, but of carrying hisresearches to greater extent into the most difficult regions ofphilosophy. This too he had the merit to perform, neither in the stationof a private citizen, nor in the leisure of academic retirement, but inthe bustle of public life, amidst the almost constant exertions of thebar, the employment of the magistrate, the duty of the senator, and theincessant cares of the statesman; through a period likewise chequeredwith domestic afflictions and fatal commotions in the Republic. As aphilosopher, his mind appears to have been clear, capacious, penetrating, and insatiable of knowledge. As a writer, he was endowed with everytalent that could captivate either the judgment or taste. His researcheswere continually employed on subjects of the greatest utility to mankind, and those often such as extended beyond the narrow bounds of temporalexistence. The being of a God, the immortality of the soul, a futurestate of rewards and punishments, and the eternal distinction of good andevil; these were in general the great objects of his philosophicalenquiries, and he has placed them in a more convincing point of view thanthey ever were before exhibited to the pagan world. The variety andforce of the arguments which he advances, the splendour of his diction, and the zeal with which he endeavours to excite the love and admirationof virtue, all conspire to place his character, as a philosophicalwriter, including likewise his incomparable eloquence, on the summit ofhuman celebrity. 

The form of dialogue, so much used by Cicero, he doubtless adopted inimitation of Plato, who probably took the hint of it from the colloquialmethod of instruction practised by Socrates. In the early stage ofphilosophical enquiry, this mode of composition was well adapted, if notto the discovery, at least to the confirmation of moral truth; especiallyas the practice was then not uncommon, for speculative men to conversetogether on important subjects, for mutual information. In treating ofany subject respecting which the different sects of philosophers differed(64) from each other in point of sentiment, no kind of composition couldbe more happily suited than dialogue, as it gave alternately full scopeto the arguments of the various disputants. It required, however, thatthe writer should exert his understanding with equal impartiality andacuteness on the different sides of the question; as otherwise he mightbetray a cause under the appearance of defending it. In all thedialogues of Cicero, he manages the arguments of the several disputantsin a manner not only the most fair and interesting, but also such asleads to the most probable and rational conclusion. 

After enumerating the various tracts composed and published by Cicero, wehave now to mention his Letters, which, though not written forpublication, deserve to be ranked among the most interesting remains ofRoman literature. The number of such as are addressed to differentcorrespondents is considerable, but those to Atticus alone, hisconfidential friend, amount to upwards of four hundred; among which aremany of great length. They are all written in the genuine spirit of themost approved epistolary composition; uniting familiarity with elevation, and ease with elegance. They display in a beautiful light the author'scharacter in the social relations of life; as a warm friend, a zealouspatron, a tender husband, an affectionate brother, an indulgent father, and a kind master. Beholding them in a more extensive view, they exhibitan ardent love of liberty and the constitution of his country: theydiscover a mind strongly actuated with the principles of virtue andreason; and while they abound in sentiments the most judicious andphilosophical, they are occasionally blended with the charms of wit, andagreeable effusions of pleasantry. What is likewise no small addition totheir merit, they contain much interesting description of private life, with a variety of information relative to public transactions andcharacters of that age. It appears from Cicero's correspondence, thatthere was at that time such a number of illustrious Romans, as neverbefore existed in any one period of the Republic. If ever, therefore, the authority of men the most respectable for virtue, rank, andabilities, could have availed to overawe the first attempts at aviolation of public liberty, it must have been at this period; for thedignity of the Roman senate was now in the zenith of its splendour. 

Cicero has been accused of excessive vanity, and of arrogating to himselfan invidious superiority, from his extraordinary talents but whoeverperuses his letters to Atticus, must readily acknowledge, that thisimputation appears to be destitute of truth. In those excellentproductions, though he adduces the strongest arguments for and againstany object of consideration, that the (65) most penetrating understandingcan suggest, weighs them with each other, and draws from them the mostrational conclusions, he yet discovers such a diffidence in his ownopinion, that he resigns himself implicitly to the judgment and directionof his friend; a modesty not very compatible with the disposition of thearrogant, who are commonly tenacious of their own opinion, particularlyin what relates to any decision of the understanding. 

It is difficult to say, whether Cicero appears in his letters more greator amiable: but that he was regarded by his contemporaries in both theselights, and that too in the highest degree, is sufficiently evident. Wemay thence infer, that the great poets in the subsequent age must havedone violence to their own liberality and discernment, when, incompliment to Augustus, whose sensibility would have been wounded by thepraises of Cicero, and even by the mention of his name, they have soindustriously avoided the subject, as not to afford the most distantintimation that this immortal orator and philosopher had ever existed. Livy however, there is reason to think, did some justice to his memory:but it was not until the race of the Caesars had become extinct, that hereceived the free and unanimous applause of impartial posterity. Suchwas the admiration which Quintilian entertained of his writings, that heconsidered the circumstance or being delighted with them, as anindubitable proof of judgment and taste in literature. Ille seprofecisse sciat, cui Cicero valde placebit. [105]

In this period is likewise to be placed M. Terentius Varro, thecelebrated Roman grammarian, and the Nestor of ancient learning. Thefirst mention made of him is, that he was lieutenant to Pompey in hispiratical wars, and obtained in that service a naval crown. In the civilwars he joined the side of the Republic, and was taken by Caesar; by whomhe was likewise proscribed, but obtained a remission of the sentence. Ofall the ancients, he has acquired the greatest fame for his extensiveerudition; and we may add, that he displayed the same industry incommunicating, as he had done in collecting it. His works originallyamounted to no less than five hundred volumes, which have all perished, except a treatise De Lingua Latina, and one De Re Rustica. Of the formerof these, which is addressed to Cicero, three books at the beginning arealso lost. It appears from the introduction of the fourth book, thatthey all related to etymology. The first contained such observations asmight be made against it; the second, such as might be made in itsfavour; and the third, observations upon it. He next proceeds toinvestigate the origin of (66) Latin words. In the fourth book, hetraces those which relate to place; in the fifth, those connected withthe idea of time; and in the sixth, the origin of both these classes, asthey appear in the writings of the poets. The seventh book is employedon declension; in which the author enters upon a minute and extensiveenquiry, comprehending a variety of acute and profound observations onthe formation of Latin nouns, and their respective natural declinationsfrom the nominative case. In the eighth, he examines the nature andlimits of usage and analogy in language; and in the ninth and last bookon the subject, takes a general view of what is the reverse of analogy, viz. Anomaly. The precision and perspicuity which Varro displays in thiswork merit the highest encomiums, and justify the character given him inhis own time, of being the most learned of the Latin grammarians. To theloss of the first three books, are to be added several chasms in theothers; but fortunately they happen in such places as not to affect thecoherency of the author's doctrine, though they interrupt theillustration of it. It is observable that this great grammarian makesuse of quom for quum, heis for his, and generally queis for quibus. Thispractice having become rather obsolete at the time in which he wrote, wemust impute his continuance of it to his opinion of its propriety, uponits established principles of grammar, and not to any prejudice ofeducation, or an affectation of singularity. As Varro makes no mentionof Caesar's treatise on Analogy, and had commenced author long beforehim, it is probable that Caesar's production was of a much later date;and thence we may infer, that those two writers differed from each other, at least with respect to some particulars on that subject. 

This author's treatise De Re Rustica was undertaken at the desire of afriend, who, having purchased some lands, requested of Varro the favourof his instructions relative to farming, and the economy of a countrylife, in its various departments. Though Varro was at this time in hiseightieth year, he writes with all the vivacity, though without thelevity, of youth, and sets out with invoking, not the Muses, like Homerand Ennius, as he observes, but the twelve deities supposed to be chieflyconcerned in the operations of agriculture. It appears from the accountwhich he gives, that upwards of fifty Greek authors had treated of thissubject in prose, besides Hesiod and Menecrates the Ephesian, who bothwrote in verse; exclusive likewise of many Roman writers, and of Mago theCarthaginian, who wrote in the Punic language. Varro's work is dividedinto three books, the first of which treats of agriculture; the second, of rearing of cattle; and the third, of feeding animals for the use ofthe table. (67) In the last of these, we meet with a remarkable instanceof the prevalence of habit and fashion over human sentiment, where theauthor delivers instructions relative to the best method of fatteningrats. 

We find from Quintilian, that Varro likewise composed satires in variouskinds of verse. It is impossible to behold the numerous fragments ofthis venerable author without feeling the strongest regret for the lossof that vast collection of information which he had compiled, and ofjudicious observations which he had made on a variety of subjects, duringa life of eighty-eight years, almost entirely devoted to literature. Theremark of St. Augustine is well founded, That it is astonishing howVarro, who read such a number of books, could find time to compose somany volumes; and how he who composed so many volumes, could be atleisure to peruse such a variety of books, and to gain so much literaryinformation. 

Catullus is said to have been born at Verona, of respectable parents; hisfather and himself being in the habit of intimacy with Julius Caesar. Hewas brought to Rome by Mallius, to whom several of his epigrams areaddressed. The gentleness of his manners, and his application to study, we are told, recommended him to general esteem; and he had the goodfortune to obtain the patronage of Cicero. When he came to be known as apoet, all these circumstances would naturally contribute to increase hisreputation for ingenuity; and accordingly we find his genius applauded byseveral of his contemporaries. It appears that his works are nottransmitted entire to posterity; but there remain sufficient specimens bywhich we may be enabled to appreciate his poetical talents. 

Quintilian, and Diomed the grammarian, have ranked Catullus amongst theiambic writers, while others have placed him amongst the lyric. He hasproperly a claim to each of these stations; but his versification beingchiefly iambic, the former of the arrangements seems to be the mostsuitable. The principal merit of Catullus's Iambics consists in asimplicity of thought and expression. The thoughts, however, are oftenfrivolous, and, what is yet more reprehensible, the author gives way togross obscenity: in vindication of which, he produces the followingcouplet, declaring that a good poet ought to be chaste in his own person, but that his verses need not be so. 

 Nam castum esse decet pium poetam Ipsum: versiculos nihil necesse est. 

This sentiment has been frequently cited by those who were inclined tofollow the example of Catullus; but if such a practice be in any caseadmissible, it is only where the poet personates (68) a profligatecharacter; and the instances in which it is adopted by Catullus are notof that description. It had perhaps been a better apology, to havepleaded the manners of the times; for even Horace, who wrote only a fewyears after, has suffered his compositions to be occasionally debased bythe same kind of blemish. 

Much has been said of this poet's invective against Caesar, whichproduced no other effect than an invitation to sup at the dictator'shouse. It was indeed scarcely entitled to the honour of the smallestresentment. If any could be shewn, it must have been for the freedomused by the author, and not for any novelty in his lampoon. There aretwo poems on this subject, viz. The twenty-ninth and fifty-seventh, ineach of which Caesar is joined with Mamurra, a Roman knight, who hadacquired great riches in the Gallic war. For the honour of Catullus'sgratitude, we should suppose that the latter is the one to whichhistorians allude: but, as poetical compositions, they are equallyunworthy of regard. The fifty seventh is nothing more than a broadrepetition of the raillery, whether well or ill founded, with whichCaesar was attacked on various occasions, and even in the senate, afterhis return from Bithynia. Caesar had been taunted with this subject forupwards of thirty years; and after so long a familiarity with reproach, his sensibility to the scandalous imputation must now have been muchdiminished, if not entirely extinguished. The other poem is partly inthe same strain, but extended to greater length, by a mixture of commonjocular ribaldry of the Roman soldiers, expressed nearly in the sameterms which Caesar's legions, though strongly attached to his person, scrupled not to sport publicly in the streets of Rome, against theirgeneral, during the celebration of his triumph. In a word, it deservesto be regarded as an effusion of Saturnalian licentiousness, rather thanof poetry. With respect to the Iambics of Catullus, we may observe ingeneral, that the sarcasm is indebted for its force, not so much toingenuity of sentiment, as to the indelicate nature of the subject, orcoarseness of expression. 

The descriptive poems of Catullus are superior to the others, anddiscover a lively imagination. Amongst the best of his productions, is atranslation of the celebrated ode of Sappho:

 Ille mi par esse Deo videtur, me, etc. 

This ode is executed both with spirit and elegance; it is, however, imperfect; and the last stanza seems to be spurious. Catullus's epigramsare entitled to little praise, with regard either to sentiment or point;and on the whole, his merit, as a poet, appears to have been magnifiedbeyond its real extent. He is said to have died about the thirtieth yearof his age. 

(69) Lucretius is the author of a celebrated poem, in six books, De RerumNatura; a subject which had been treated many ages before by Empedocles, a philosopher and poet of Agrigentum. Lucretius was a zealous partizanof Democritus, and the sect of Epicurus, whose principles concerning theeternity of matter, the materiality of the soul, and the non-existence ofa future state of rewards and punishments, he affects to maintain with acertainty equal to that of mathematical demonstration. Stronglyprepossessed with the hypothetical doctrines of his master, and ignorantof the physical system of the universe, he endeavours to deduce from thephenomena of the material world conclusions not only unsupported bylegitimate theory, but repugnant to the principles of the highestauthority in metaphysical disquisition. But while we condemn hisspeculative notions as degrading to human nature, and subversive of themost important interests of mankind, we must admit that he has prosecutedhis visionary hypothesis with uncommon ingenuity. Abstracting from itthe rhapsodical nature of this production, and its obscurity in someparts, it has great merit as a poem. The style is elevated, and theversification in general harmonious. By the mixture of obsolete words, it possesses an air of solemnity well adapted to abstruse researches; atthe same time that by the frequent resolution of diphthongs, it instilsinto the Latin the sonorous and melodious powers of the Greek language. 

While Lucretius was engaged in this work, he fell into a state ofinsanity, occasioned, as is supposed, by a philtre, or love-potion, givenhim by his wife Lucilia. The complaint, however, having lucid intervals, he employed them in the execution of his plan, and, soon after it wasfinished, laid violent hands upon himself, in the forty-third year of hisage. This fatal termination of his life, which perhaps proceeded frominsanity, was ascribed by his friends and admirers to his concern for thebanishment of one Memmius, with whom he was intimately connected, and forthe distracted state of the republic. It was, however, a catastrophewhich the principles of Epicurus, equally erroneous and irreconcilable toresignation and fortitude, authorized in particular circumstances. EvenAtticus, the celebrated correspondent of Cicero, a few years after thisperiod, had recourse to the same desperate expedient, by refusing allsustenance, while he laboured under a lingering disease. 

It is said that Cicero revised the poem of Lucretius after the death ofthe author, and this circumstance is urged by the abettors of atheism, asa proof that the principles contained in the work had the sanction of hisauthority. But no inference in favour of Lucretius's doctrine can justlybe drawn from this circumstance. (70) Cicero, though alreadysufficiently acquainted with the principles of the Epicurean sect, mightnot be averse to the perusal of a production, which collected andenforced them in a nervous strain of poetry; especially as the work waslikely to prove interesting to his friend Atticus, and would perhapsafford subject for some letters or conversation between them. It canhave been only with reference to composition that the poem was submittedto Cicero's revisal: for had he been required to exercise his judgmentupon its principles, he must undoubtedly have so much mutilated the work, as to destroy the coherency of the system. He might be gratified withthe shew of elaborate research, and confident declamation, which itexhibited, but he must have utterly disapproved of the conclusions whichthe author endeavoured to establish. According to the best information, Lucretius died in the year from the building of Rome 701, when Pompey wasthe third time consul. Cicero lived several years beyond this period, and in the two last years of his life, he composed those valuable workswhich contain sentiments diametrically repugnant to the visionary systemof Epicurus. The argument, therefore, drawn from Cicero's revisal, sofar from confirming the principle of Lucretius, affords the strongesttacit declaration against their validity; because a period sufficient formature consideration had elapsed, before Cicero published his ownadmirable system of philosophy. The poem of Lucretius, nevertheless, hasbeen regarded as the bulwark of atheism--of atheism, which, while itimpiously arrogates the support of reason, both reason and naturedisclaim. 

Many more writers flourished in this period, but their works have totallyperished. Sallust was now engaged in historical productions; but as theywere not yet completed, they will be noticed in the next division of thereview. 

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Plin. Epist. I. 18, 24, iii. 8, v. 11, ix. 34, x. 95. 

[2] Lycee, part I. Liv. III. C. I. 

[3] Julius Caesar Divus. Romulus, the founder of Rome, had the honourof an apotheosis conferred on him by the senate, under the title ofQuirinus, to obviate the people's suspicion of his having been taken offby a conspiracy of the patrician order. Political circumstances againconcurred with popular superstition to revive this posthumous adulationin favour of Julius Caesar, the founder of the empire, who also fell bythe hands of conspirators. It is remarkable in the history of a nationso jealous of public liberty, that, in both instances, they bestowed thehighest mark of human homage upon men who owed their fate to theintroduction of arbitrary power. 

[4] Pliny informs us that Caius Julius, the father of Julius Caesar, aman of pretorian rank, died suddenly at Pisa. 

[5] A. U. C. (in the year from the foundation of Rome) 670; A. C. (beforeChrist) about 92. 

[6] Flamen Dialis. This was an office of great dignity, but subjectedthe holder to many restrictions. He was not allowed to ride onhorseback, nor to absent himself from the city for a single night. Hiswife was also under particular restraints, and could not be divorced. Ifshe died, the flamen resigned his office, because there were certainsacred rites which he could not perform without her assistance. Besidesother marks of distinction, he wore a purple robe called laena, and aconical mitre called apex. 

[7] Two powerful parties were contending at Rome for the supremacy;Sylla being at the head of the faction of the nobles, while Mariusespoused the cause of the people. Sylla suspected Julius Caesar ofbelonging to the Marian party, because Marius had married his aunt Julia. 

[8] He wandered about for some time in the Sabine territory. 

[9] Bithynia, in Asia Minor, was bounded on the south by Phrygia, on thewest by the Bosphorus and Propontis; and on the north by the Euxine sea. Its boundaries towards the east are not clearly ascertained, Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy differing from each other on the subject. 

[10] Mitylene was a city in the island of Lesbos, famous for the studyof philosophy and eloquence. According to Pliny, it remained a free cityand in power one thousand five hundred years. It suffered much in thePeloponnesian war from the Athenians, and in the Mithridatic from theRomans, by whom it was taken and destroyed. But it soon rose again, having recovered its ancient liberty by the favour of Pomnpey; and wasafterwards much embellished by Trajan, who added to it the splendour ofhis own name. This was the country of Pittacus, one of the seven wisemen of Greece, as well as of Alcaeus and Sappho. The natives showed aparticular taste for poetry, and had, as Plutarch informs us, statedtimes for the celebration of poetical contests. 

[11] The civic crown was made of oak-leaves, and given to him who hadsaved the life of a citizen. The person thus decorated, wore it atpublic spectacles, and sat next the senators. When he entered, theaudience rose up, as a mark of respect. 

[12] A very extensive country of Hither Asia; lying between Pamphylia tothe west, Mount Taurus and Amanus to the north, Syria to the east, andthe Mediterranean to the south. It was anciently famous for saffron; andhair-cloth, called by the Romans ciliciun, was the manufacture of thiscountry. 

[13] A city and an island, near the coast of Caria famous for the hugestatue of the Sun, called the Colossus. The Rhodians were celebrated notonly for skill in naval affairs, but for learning, philosophy, andeloquence. During the latter periods of the Roman republic, and undersome of the emperors, numbers resorted there to prosecute their studies;and it also became a place of retreat to discontented Romans. 

[14] Pharmacusa, an island lying off the coast of Asia, near Miletus. It is now called Parmosa. 

[15] The ransom, too large for Caesar's private means, was raised by thevoluntary contributions of the cities in the Asiatic province, who wereequally liberal from their public funds in the case of other Romans whofell into the hands of pirates at that period. 

[16] From Miletus, as we are informed by Plutarch. 

[17] Who commanded in Spain. 

[18] Rex, it will be easily understood, was not a title of dignity in aRoman family, but the surname of the Marcii. 

[19] The rites of the Bona Dea, called also Fauna, which were performedin the night, and by women only. 

[20] Hispania Boetica; the Hither province being called HispaniaTarraconensis. 

[21] Alexander the Great was only thirty-three years at the time of hisdeath. 

[22] The proper office of the master of the horse was to command theknights, and execute the orders of the dictator. He was usuallynominated from amongst persons of consular and praetorian dignity; andhad the use of a horse, which the dictator had not, without the order ofthe people. 

[23] Seneca compares the annals of Tanusius to the life of a fool, which, though it may he long, is worthless; while that of a wise man, like a good book, is valuable, however short. --Epist. 94. 

[24] Bibulus was Caesar's colleague, both as edile and consul. Cicerocalls his edicts "Archilochian, " that is, as full of spite as the versesof Archilochus. --Ad. Attic. B. 7. Ep. 24. 

[25] A. U. C. 689. Cicero holds both the Curio's, father and son, verycheap. --Brut. C. 60. 

[26] Regnum, the kingly power, which the Roman people considered aninsupportable tyranny. 

[27] An honourable banishment. 

[28] The assemblies of the people were at first held in the open Forum. Afterwards, a covered building, called the Comitium, was erected for thatpurpose. There are no remains of it, but Lumisden thinks that itprobably stood on the south side of the Forum, on the site of the presentchurch of The Consolation. --Antiq. Of Rome, p. 357. 

[29] Basilicas, from Basileus; a king. They were, indeed, the palacesof the sovereign people; stately and spacious buildings, with halls, which served the purpose of exchanges, council chambers, and courts ofjustice. Some of the Basilicas were afterwards converted into Christianchurches. "The form was oblong; the middle was an open space to walk in, called Testudo, and which we now call the nave. On each side of thiswere rows of pillars, which formed what we should call the side-aisles, and which the ancients called Porticus. The end of the Testudo wascurved, like the apse of some of our churches, and was called Tribunal, from causes being heard there. Hence the term Tribune is applied to thatpart of the Roman churches which is behind the high altar. "--Burton'sAntiq. Of Rome, p. 204. 

[30] Such as statues and pictures, the works of Greek artists. 

[31] It appears to have stood at the foot of the Capitoline hill. Piranesi thinks that the two beautiful columns of white marble, which arecommonly described as belonging to the portico of the temple of JupiterStator, are the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux. 

[32] Ptolemy Auletes, the son of Cleopatra. 

[33] Lentulus, Cethegus, and others. 

[34] The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commenced and completed bythe Tarquins, kings of Rome, but not dedicated till the year after theirexpulsion, when that honour devolved on M. Horatius Fulvillus, the firstof the consuls. Having been burnt down during the civil wars, A. U. C. 670, Sylla restored it on the same foundations, but did not live toconsecrate it. 

[35] Meaning Pompey; not so much for the sake of the office, as havinghis name inserted in the inscription recording the repairs of theCapitol, instead of Catulus. The latter, however, secured the honour, and his name is still seen inscribed in an apartment at the Capitol, asits restorer. 

[36] It being the calends of January, the first day of the year, onwhich the magistrates solemnly entered on their offices, surrounded bytheir friends. 

[37] Among others, one for recalling Pompey from Asia, under the pretextthat the commonwealth was in danger. Cato was one of the colleagues whosaw through the design and opposed the decree. 

[38] See before, p. 5. This was in A. U. C. 693. 

[39] Plutarch informs us, that Caesar, before he came into office, owedhis creditors 1300 talents, somewhat more than 565, 000 pounds of ourmoney. But his debts increased so much after this period, if we maybelieve Appian, that upon his departure for Spain, at the expiration ofhis praetorship, he is reported to have said, Bis millies et quingentiescentena minis sibi adesse oportere, ut nihil haberet: i. E. That he was2, 000, 000 and nearly 20, 000 sesterces worse than penniless. Crassusbecame his security for 830 talents, about 871, 500 pounds. 

[40] For his victories in Gallicia and Lusitania, having led his army tothe shores of the ocean, which had not before been reduced to submission. 

[41] Caesar was placed in this dilemma, that if he aspired to a triumph, he must remain outside the walls until it took place, while as acandidate for the consulship, he must be resident in the city. 

[42] Even the severe censor was biassed by political expediency tosanction a system, under which what little remained of public virtue, andthe love of liberty at Rome, were fast decaying. The strict laws againstbribery at elections were disregarded, and it was practised openly, andaccepted without a blush. Sallust says that everything was venal, andthat Rome itself might be bought, if any one was rich enough to purchaseit. Jugurth, viii. 20, 3. 

[43] A. U. C. 695. 

[44] The proceedings of the senate were reported in short notes taken byone of their own order, "strangers" not being admitted at their sittings. These notes included speeches as well as acts. These and the proceedingsof the assemblies of the people, were daily published in journals[diurna] which contained also accounts of the trials at law, withmiscellaneous intelligence of births and deaths, marriages and divorces. The practice of publishing the proceedings of the senate, introduced byJulius Caesar, was discontinued by Augustus. 

[45] Within the city, the lictors walked before only one of the consuls, and that commonly for a month alternately. A public officer, calledAccensus, preceded the other consul, and the lictors followed. Thiscustom had long been disused, but was now restored by Caesar. 

[46] In order that he might be a candidate for the tribuneship of thepeople; it was done late in the evening, at an unusual hour for publicbusiness. 

[47] Gaul was divided into two provinces, Transalpine, or GalliaUlterior, and Cisalpina, or Citerior. The Citerior, having nearly thesame limits as Lombardy in after times, was properly a part of Italy, occupied by colonists from Gaul, and, having the Rubicon, the ancientboundary of Italy, on the south. It was also called Gallia Togata, fromthe use of the Roman toga; the inhabitants being, after the social war, admitted to the right of citizens. The Gallia Transalpina, or Ulterior, was called Comata, from the people wearing their hair long, while theRomans wore it short; and the southern part, afterwards calledNarbonensis, came to have the epithet Braccata, from the use of thebraccae, which were no part of the Roman dress. Some writers suppose thebraccae to have been breeches, but Aldus, in a short disquisition on thesubject, affirms that they were a kind of upper dress. And this opinionseems to be countenanced by the name braccan being applied by the modernCeltic nations, the descendants of the Gallic Celts, to signify theirupper garment, or plaid. 

[48] Alluding, probably, to certain scandals of a gross characterwhich were rife against Caesar. See before, c. Ii. (p. 2) and see alsoc. Xlix. 

[49] So called from the feathers on their helmets, resembling the crestof a lark; Alauda, Fr. Alouette. 

[50] Days appointed by the senate for public thanksgiving in the templesin the name of a victorious general, who had in the decrees the title ofemperor, by which they were saluted by the legions. 

[51] A. U. C. 702. 

[52] Aurelia. 

[53] Julia, the wife of Pompey, who died in childbirth. 

[54] Conquest had so multiplied business at Rome, that the Roman Forumbecame too little for transacting it, and could not be enlarged withoutclearing away the buildings with which it was surrounded. Hence theenormous sum which its site is said to have cost, amounting, it iscalculated, to 809, 291 pounds of our money. It stood near the old forum, behind the temple of Romulus and Remus, but not a vestige of it remains. 

[55] Comum was a town of the Orobii, of ancient standing, and formerlypowerful. Julius Caesar added to it five thousand new colonists; whenceit was generally called Novocomum. But in time it recovered its ancientname, Comum; Pliny the younger, who was a native of this place, callingit by no other name. 

[56] A. U. C. 705. 

[57] Eiper gar adikein chrae, tyrannidos peri Kalliston adikein talla de eusebein chreon. --Eurip. Phoeniss. Act II, where Eteocles aspires to become the tyrant ofThebes. 

[58] Now the Pisatello; near Rimini. There was a very ancient law ofthe republic, forbidding any general, returning from the wars, to crossthe Rubicon with his troops under arms. 

[59] The ring was worn on the finger next to the little finger of theleft hand. 

[60] Suetonius here accounts for the mistake of the soldiers with greatprobability. The class to which they imagined they were to be promoted, was that of the equites, or knights, who wore a gold ring, and werepossessed of property to the amount stated in the text. Great as was theliberality of Caesar to his legions, the performance of this imaginarypromise was beyond all reasonable expectation. 

[61] A. U. C. 706. 

[62] Elephants were first introduced at Rome by Pompey the Great, in hisAfrican triumph. 

[63] VENI, VIDI, VICI. 

[64] A. U. C. 708. 

[65] Gladiators were first publicly exhibited at Rome by two brotherscalled Bruti, at the funeral of their father, A. U. C. 490; and for sometime they were exhibited only on such occasions. But afterwards theywere also employed by the magistrates, to entertain the people, particularly at the Saturnalia, and feasts of Minerva. These cruelspectacles were prohibited by Constantine, but not entirely suppresseduntil the time of Honorius. 

[66] The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the Circus Maximus, and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races, of which. The Romans were extravagantly fond. The charioteers were distributedinto four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress. Thespectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill ofthe men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, ascaprice inclined them. In the time of Justinian, no less than thirtythousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by acontention amongst the partizans of the several colours. Secondly, contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hencecalled Pentathlum. These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, andthrowing the discus or quoit. Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight, performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, andfrequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors. We meet with adescription of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with thefollowing lines:

 Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum Fraenatis lucent in equis: quos omnis euntes Trinacriae mirata fremit Trojaeque juventus. 

Fourthly, Venatio, which was the fighting of wild beasts with oneanother, or with men called Bestiarii, who were either forced to thecombat by way of punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or foughtvoluntarily, either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced byhire. An incredible number of animals of various kinds were brought fromall quarters, at a prodigious expense, for the entertainment of thepeople. Pompey, in his second consulship, exhibited at once five hundredlions, which were all dispatched in five days; also eighteen elephants. Fifthly the representation of a horse and foot battle, with that of anencampment or a siege. Sixthly, the representation of a sea-fight(Naumachia), which was at first made in the Circus Maximus, butafterwards elsewhere. The combatants were usually captives or condemnedmalefactors, who fought to death, unless saved by the clemency of theemperor. If any thing unlucky happened at the games, they were renewed, and often more than once. 

[67] A meadow beyond the Tiber, in which an excavation was made, supplied with water from the river. 

[68] Julius Caesar was assisted by Sosigenes, an Egyptian philosopher, in correcting the calendar. For this purpose he introduced an additionalday every fourth year, making February to consist of twenty-nine daysinstead of twenty-eight, and, of course, the whole year to consist ofthree hundred and sixty-six days. The fourth year was denominatedBissextile, or leap year, because the sixth day before the calends, orfirst of March, was reckoned twice. 

The Julian year was introduced throughout the Roman empire, and continuedin general use till the year 1582. But the true correction was not sixhours, but five hours, forty-nine minutes; hence the addition was toogreat by eleven minutes. This small fraction would amount in one hundredyears to three-fourths of a day, and in a thousand years to more thanseven days. It had, in fact, amounted, since the Julian correction, in1582, to more than seven days. Pope Gregory XIII. , therefore, againreformed the calendar, first bringing forward the year ten days, byreckoning the 5th of October the 15th, and then prescribing the rulewhich has gradually been adopted throughout Christendom, except inRussia, and the Greek church generally. 

[69] Principally Carthage and Corinth. 

[70] The Latus Clavus was a broad stripe of purple, on the front of thetoga. Its width distinguished it from that of the knights, who wore itnarrow. 

[71] The Suburra lay between the Celian and Esquiline hills. It was oneof the most frequented quarters of Rome. 

[72] Bede, quoting Solinus, we believe, says that excellent pearls werefound in the British seas, and that they were of all colours, butprincipally white. Eccl. Hist. B. I. C. 1. 

[73] --------Bithynia quicquid Et predicator Caesaris unquam habuit. 

[74] Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem; Ecce Caesar nunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias: Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit Caesarem. 

[75] Aegisthus, who, like Caesar, was a pontiff, debauched Clytemnestrawhile Agamemnon was engaged in the Trojan war, as Caesar did Mucia, thewife of Pompey, while absent in the war against Mithridates. 

[76] A double entendre; Tertia signifying the third [of the value of thefarm], as well as being the name of the girl, for whose favours thededuction was made. 

[77] Urbani, servate uxores; moechum calvum adducimus: Aurum in Gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum. 

[78] Plutarch tells us that the oil was used in a dish of asparagus. Every traveller knows that in those climates oil takes the place ofbutter as an ingredient in cookery, and it needs no experience to fancywhat it is when rancid. 

[79] Meritoria rheda; a light four-wheeled carriage, apparently hiredeither for the journey or from town to town. They were tolerablycommodious, for Cicero writes to Atticus, (v. 17. ) Hanc epistolam dictavisedens in rheda, cum in castra proficiscerer. 

[80] Plutarch informs us that Caesar travelled with such expedition, that he reached the Rhone on the eighth day after he left Rome. 

[81] Caesar tells us himself that he employed C. Volusenus toreconnoitre the coast of Britain, sending him forward in a long ship, with orders to return and make his report before the expedition sailed. 

[82] Religione; that is, the omens being unfavourable. 

[83] The standard of the Roman legions was an eagle fixed on the head ofa spear. It was silver, small in size, with expanded wings, andclutching a golden thunderbolt in its claw. 

[84] To save them from the torture of a lingering death. 

[85] Now Lerida, in Catalonia. 

[86] The title of emperor was not new in Roman history; 1. It wassometimes given by the acclamations of the soldiers to those whocommanded them. 2. It was synonymous with conqueror, and the troopshailed him by that title after a victory. In both these cases it wasmerely titular, and not permanent, and was generally written after theproper name, as Cicero imperator, Lentulo imperatore. 3. It assumed apermanent and royal character first in the person of Julius Caesar, andwas then generally prefixed to the emperor's name in inscriptions, asIMP. CAESAR. DIVI. Etc. 

[87] Cicero was the first who received the honour of being called "Paterpatriae. "

[88] Statues were placed in the Capitol of each of the seven kings ofRome, to which an eighth was added in honour of Brutus, who expelled thelast. The statue of Julius Caesar was afterwards raised near them. 

[89] The white fillet was one of the insignia of royalty. Plutarch, onthis occasion, uses the expression, diadaemati basiliko, a royal diadem. 

[90] The Lupercalia was a festival, celebrated in a place called theLupercal, in the month of February, in honour of Pan. During thesolemnity, the Luperci, or priests of that god, ran up and down the citynaked, with only a girdle of goat's skin round their waist, and thongs ofthe same in their hands; with which they struck those they met, particularly married women, who were thence supposed to be renderedprolific. 

[91] Persons appointed to inspect and expound the Sibylline books. 

[92] A. U. C. 709. 

[93] See before, c. Xxii. 

[94] This senate-house stood in that part of the Campus Martius which isnow the Campo di Fiore, and was attached by Pompey, "spoliis OrientisOnustus, " to the magnificent theatre, which he built A. U. C. 698, in hissecond consulship. His statue, at the foot of which Caesar fell, asPlutarch tells us, was placed in it. We shall find that Augustus causedit to be removed. 

[95] The stylus, or graphium, was an iron pen, broad at one end, with asharp point at the other, used for writing upon waxen tables, the leavesor bark of trees, plates of brass, or lead, etc. For writing upon paperor parchment, the Romans employed a reed, sharpened and split in thepoint like our pens, called calamus, arundo, or canna. This they dippedin the black liquor emitted by the cuttle fish, which served for ink. 

[96] It was customary among the ancients, in great extremities to shroudthe face, in order to conceal any symptoms of horror or alarm which thecountenance might express. The skirt of the toga was drawn round thelower extremities, that there might be no exposure in falling, as theRomans, at this period, wore no covering for the thighs and legs. 

[97] Caesar's dying apostrophe to Brutus is represented in all theeditions of Suetonius as uttered in Greek, but with some variations. Thewords, as here translated, are Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon. TheSalmasian manuscript omits the latter clause. Some commentators supposethat the words "my son, " were not merely expressive of the difference ofage, or former familiarity between them, but an avowal that Brutus wasthe fruit of the connection between Julius and Servilia, mentioned before[see p. 33]. But it appears very improbable that Caesar, who had neverbefore acknowledged Brutus to be his son, should make so unnecessary anavowal, at the moment of his death. Exclusively of this objection, theapostrophe seems too verbose, both for the suddenness and urgency of theoccasion. But this is not all. Can we suppose that Caesar, though aperfect master of Greek, would at such a time have expressed himself inthat language, rather than in Latin, his familiar tongue, and in which hespoke with peculiar elegance? Upon the whole, the probability is, thatthe words uttered by Caesar were, Et tu Brute! which, while equallyexpressive of astonishment with the other version, and even oftenderness, are both more natural, and more emphatic. 

[98] Men' me servasse, ut essent qui me perderent?

[99] The Bulla, generally made of gold, was a hollow globe, which boyswore upon their breast, pendant from a string or ribbon put round theneck. The sons of freedmen and poor citizens used globes of leather. 

[100] Josephus frequently mentions the benefits conferred on hiscountrymen by Julius Caesar. Antiq. Jud. Xiv. 14, 15, 16. 

[101] Appian informs us that it was burnt by the people in their fury, B. C. Xi. P. 521. 

[102] Suetonius particularly refers to the conspirators, who perished atthe battle of Philippi, or in the three years which intervened. Thesurvivors were included in the reconciliation of Augustus, Antony, andPompey, A. U. C. 715. 

[103] Suetonius alludes to Brutus and Cassius, of whom this is relatedby Plutarch and Dio. 

[104] For observations on Dr. Thomson's Essays appended to Suetonius'sHistory of Julius Caesar, and the succeeding Emperors, see the Preface tothis volume. 

[105] He who has a devoted admiration of Cicero, may be sure that he hasmade no slight proficiency himself.