so that if he should attempt any rebellious conduct he might be prevented.[25] When they got to Campania, and found that Milo after a defeat near Capua had taken refuge in the Tifatine mountain, and Caelius would go no farther, the tribune was alarmed and wished to bring him back home. Servilius, learning of this in advance, declared war upon Milo in the senate and gave orders that Caelius (who must be prevented from stirring up any confusion) should remain in the suburbs. However, he did not keep him under strict surveillance, because the man was a praetor. Thus Clius made his escape and hastened to Milo: and he would certainly have aroused some sedition, had he found him alive. As it proved, Milo had been driven from Campania and had perished in Apulia: Caelius therefore went to Bruttium, presumably to form some league in that district, and there he perished before doing anything important; for the persons who favored Caesar banded together and killed him.
[26-] So these men died, but that did not bring quiet to Rome. On the contrary, many dreadful events took place, as, indeed, omens indicated beforehand. Among other things that happened toward the end of that year bees settled on the Capitol beside the statue of Hercules. At the time sacrifices to Isis chanced to be going on and the soothsayers gave their opinion to the effect that the precincts of that goddess and of Serapis should be razed to the ground, as of yore. In the course of demolition a small shrine of Bellona had unwittingly been taken down, and in it were found jars full of human flesh.
[B.C. 47 (_a.u._ 707)]
The following year a violent earthquake occurred, an owl was seen, thunderbolts descended upon the Capitol and upon the temple of the so-called Public Fortune and into the gardens of Caesar, where a horse of considerable value was destroyed by them, and the temple of Fortune opened of its own accord. In addition to this, blood issuing from a bake-shop flowed to another temple of Fortune, whose statue on account of the fact that the goddess necessarily oversees and can fathom everything that is before us as well as behind and does not forget from what beginnings any great man came they had set up and named in a way not easy for Greeks to describe.[77] Also some infants were born holding their left hands to their heads, so that whereas no good was looked for from the other signs, from this especially an uprising of inferiors against superiors was both foretold by the soothsayers and accepted by the people as true.
[-27-] These portents so revealed by supernatural power disturbed them; and their fear was augmented by the very appearance of the city, which had been strange and unaccustomed at the beginning of the month and thereafter for a long time. There was as yet no consul or praetor, and Antony, in so far as his costume went (which was the _toga laticlavia_) and his lictors, of whom he had only six, and his convening the senate, furnished some semblance of democracy: but the sword with which he was girded, and the throng of soldiers that accompanied him, and his actions themselves most of all indicated the existence of one sole ruler. Many robberies, outrages, and murders took place. And not only were the existing conditions most distressing to the Romans, but they dreaded a far greater number of more terrible acts from Caesar. For when the master of the horse never laid aside his sword even at the festivals, who would not have been suspicious of the dictator himself? (At the most of these festivals Antony presided at the orders of Caesar. Some few the tribunes also had in charge.) It any persons stopped to think of his magnanimity, which had led him to spare many that had opposed him in battle, nevertheless seeing that men who had gained an office did not stick to the same principles as guided them in striving for it, they therefore expected that he too would change his tactics. [-28-] They felt aggrieved and discussed the matter with one another at length,–those at least who were safe in so doing, for they could not make everybody a companion with impunity. Many who would seem to be good friends and others who were relatives were liable to slander them, perverting some statements, and telling downright lies on other points. This was a cause of the greatest discomfort to the rest who were not equally safe, because, being able neither to lament nor to share their views with others they could not in any way get rid of their thoughts. Communication with those similarly afflicted lightened their burden somewhat, and the man who could safely utter and hear in return what the citizens were undergoing became easier. But distrust of such as were not of like habits with themselves confined their dissatisfaction within their minds and inflamed them the more, as they could not tell their secret[78] nor obtain any relief. In addition to keeping their sufferings shut up within they were compelled to praise and admire their treatment, as also to celebrate festivals, perform sacrifices, and appear happy in it all.
[-29-] This was the condition of the Romans in the City at that time. And, as if it were not sufficient for them to be abused by Antony, Lucius Trebellius and Publius Cornelius Dolabella, tribunes, began a factional disturbance. The latter fought on the side of the debtors, to which category he belonged, and had therefore changed his legal standing from patrician to plebeian, to get the tribuneship. The former said he represented the nobles, but none the less published edicts and had recourse to murders. This, too, naturally resulted in a great disturbance and many weapons were everywhere in evidence, although the senators had commanded that no changes should be made before Caesar’s arrival in the city, and Antony that no private individual in the city should carry arms. As they paid no attention themselves, however, to these orders, but resorted to all kinds of measures against each other and against the men just mentioned, there arose a third dispute between Antony and the senate. In order to have it thought that that body had allowed him weapons and the authority that resulted from them (which he had been overready to usurp) he got the privilege of keeping soldiers within the wall and of helping the tribunes in maintaining a guard over the city. After this Antony did whatever he desired with a kind of legal right, and Dolabella and Trebellius were nominally guilty of violence: but their effrontery and resources led them to resist both each other and him as if they too had received some position of command from the senate. [-30-] Meanwhile Antony learned that the legions which Caesar after the battle had sent ahead into Italy, as if to indicate that he would follow them, were engaged in doubtful proceedings; and in fear of some insurrection from that quarter he turned over the charge of the city to Lucius Caesar, appointing him praefectus urbi, an office never before conferred by a master of the horse. He himself set out to the soldiers. The tribunes that were at variance with the two despised Lucius because of his advanced age and inflicted many outrages upon one another and on the rest until they learned that Caesar, having settled the affairs of Egypt, had started for Rome. They were carrying on the quarrel under the assumption that he would never return again but be killed somewhere abroad by the Egyptians, as, indeed, they kept hearing. When his coming was reported they moderated their conduct for a time, but as soon as he set out against Pharnaces they relapsed into factional differences once more.[-31-] Antony was unable to restrain them, and finding that his opposition to Dolabella was obnoxious to the populace he at first joined his party and brought charges against Trebellius,–one being to the effect that he was appropriating the soldiers to his own use. Later, when he perceived that he was not esteemed at all by the multitude, which was attached only to Dolabella, he became vexed and changed sides. He was especially influenced in this course by the fact that while not sharing popular favor with the plebeian leader he received the greatest share of blame from the senators. So nominally he adopted a neutral attitude toward both, but really in secret he chose the cause of Trebellius, and cooeperated with him among other ways by allowing him to obtain soldiers. From this time on he made himself a spectator and director of their contests; and they fought, seized in turn the most advantageous points in the city, and entered upon a career of killing and burning, so that on one occasion the holy vessels were carried by the virgins out of the temple of Vesta. [-32-] Once more the senators voted that the master of the horse should guard the city still more scrupulously, and practically the entire town was filled with soldiers. Yet there was no respite. Dolabella in despair of obtaining any pardon from Caesar desired to accomplish some great evil and then perish,–with the idea that he would forever have renown for this act. So many men in the past have become infatuated with basest deeds for the mere sake of fame! Under this influence he too wrought universal disturbance, promising even that on a certain specified day he would enact his laws in regard to debts and house-rents. On receipt of these announcements the crowd erected barricades around the Forum, setting up wooden towers at some points, and put itself in readiness to cope with any force that might oppose it. At that, Antony brought down from the Capitol about dawn a large body of soldiers, cut down the tablets of the laws and hurled some offenders who still continued to be unruly from the cliffs of the Capitol itself.
[-33-] However, this did not stop the factional disputes. Instead, the greater the number of those who perished, the more did the survivors raise a tumult, thinking that Caesar had got involved in a very great and difficult war. And they did not cease until suddenly he himself appeared before them. Then they became quiet even if unwilling. Some of them were expecting to suffer every conceivable ill fate, for there was talk against them all through the city, and some made one charge and others another: but Caesar at this juncture also pursued his usual method. He accepted their attitude of the moment as satisfactory and did not concern himself with their past conduct: he spared them all and some of them (including Dolabella) he honored. To the latter he owed some kindness, which he did not see fit to forget. For in place of overlooking that favor because he had been wronged, he pardoned him in consideration of the benefit received, and besides bringing him to other honors Caesar not long after appointed him consul, though he had not yet served as praetor.
[-34-] These were the events which were brought about in Rome by Caesar’s absence. The reasons why he was so long in coming there and did not arrive immediately after Pompey’s death are as follows.
[B.C. 48 (_a.u._ 708)]
The Egyptians were discontented at the levies of money and highly indignant because not even their temples were left untouched. They are the most excessively religious people on earth and wage wars even against one another on account of their beliefs, since their worship is not a unified system, but different branches of it are diametrically opposed one to another. As a result, then, of their vexation at this and their further fear that they might be surrendered to Cleopatra, who had great influence with Caesar, they commenced a disturbance. For a time the princess had urged her claim against her brother through others who were in Caesar’s presence, but as soon as she discovered his disposition (which was very susceptible, so that he indulged in amours with a very great number of women at different stages of his travels), she sent word to him that she was being betrayed by her friends and asked that she allowed to plead her case in person. She was a woman of surpassing beauty, especially conspicuous at that time because in the prime of youth, with a most delicious voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to every one. Being brilliant to look upon and to listen to, with the power to subjugate even a cold natured or elderly person, she thought that she might prove exactly to Caesar’s tastes and reposed in her beauty all her claims to advancement. She begged therefore for access to his presence, and on obtaining permission adorned and beautified herself so as to appear before him in the most striking and pitiable guise. When she had perfected these devices she entered the city from her habitation outside, and by night without Ptolemy’s knowledge went into the palace. [-35-] Caesar upon seeing her and hearing her speak a few words was forthwith so completely captivated that he at once, before dawn, sent for Ptolemy and tried to reconcile them, acting as an advocate for the same woman whose judge he had previously assumed to be. For this reason and because the sight of his sister within the royal dwelling was so unexpected, the boy was filled with wrath and rushed out among the people crying out that he had been betrayed, and at last he tore the diadem from his head and cast it down. In the mighty tumult which thereupon arose Caesar’s soldiers seized the prince who had caused the commotion; but the Egyptian mob was in upheaval. They assaulted the palace by land and sea together and would have taken it without difficulty (for the Romans had no force present sufficient to cope with the foreigners, because the latter had been regarded as friends) but for the fact that Caesar, alarmed, came out before them and standing in a safe place promised to do for them whatsoever they wished. Then he entered an assembly of theirs and producing Ptolemy and Cleopatra read their father’s will, in which it was directed that they should live together according to the customs of the Egyptians and rule in common, and that the Roman people should exercise a guardianship over them. When he had done this and had added that it belonged to him as dictator, holding all the power of the people, to have an oversight of the children and to fulfill the father’s wishes, he bestowed upon them both the kingdom and granted Cyprus to Arsinoe and Ptolemy the Younger, a sister and a brother of theirs. So great fear possessed him that he not only laid hold on none of the Egyptian domain, but actually gave the inhabitants in addition some of what was his.
[-36-] By this action they were calmed temporarily, but not long after they raised a rebellion which reached the dignity of war. Potheinos, a eunuch who had taken a prominent part in urging the Egyptians on, who was also charged with the management of Ptolemy’s funds, was afraid that he might some time pay the penalty for his behavior. Therefore he sent secretly to Achillas who was at this time still near Pelusium and by frightening him and inspiring him at the same time with hopes he made him his associate, and next won over also all the rest who bore arms. To all of them alike it seemed a shame to be ruled by a woman: for they suspected that Caesar on the occasion mentioned had given the kingdom to both of the children merely to quiet the people, and that in the course of time he would offer it to Cleopatra alone. Also they thought themselves a match for the army he then had present. Some started immediately for Alexandria where they busied themselves with their project. [-37-] Caesar when he learned this was afraid of their numbers and daring, and sent some men to Achillas not in his own but in Ptolemy’s name, bidding him keep the peace. But he, understanding that this was not the child’s command, but Caesar’s, so far from giving it any attention was filled with contempt for the sender, believing him afraid. Then he called his soldiers together and by haranguing them at length in favor of Ptolemy and against Caesar and Cleopatra he finally so incensed them against the messengers, though they were Egyptians, that they defiled themselves with their murder and accepted the necessity of a war without quarter. Caesar, when the news was brought him, summoned his soldiers from Syria, put a ditch around the palace and the other buildings near it, and fortified it with a wall reaching to the sea. [38-] Meanwhile Achillas had arrived on the scene with his regular followers and with the Romans left behind by Grabinius and Septimius to keep guard over Ptolemy: these as a result of their stay there had changed their character and were attached to the local party. Thus he immediately won over the larger part of the Alexandrians and made himself master of the most advantageous positions. After this many battles between the two armies occurred both by day and at night and many places were set on fire, and among others the docks and the storehouses both of grain and of books were burned,–the volumes being, as is reported, of the greatest number and excellence.
Achillas commanded the mainland, with the exception of what Caesar had walled off, and the latter the sea–except the harbor. Caesar, indeed, was victorious in a sea-fight, and when the Egyptians consequently, fearing that he would sail into their harbor, had filled up the entrance all except a narrow passage, he cut off that outlet also by sinking freight ships full of stones; so they were unable to stir, no matter how much they might desire to sail out. After this achievement provisions, and among other things water, were brought in more easily. Achillas had deprived them of the city water supply by cutting the pipes.
[-39-] While these events were taking place one Ganymedes, a eunuch, abducted Arsinoe, as she was not very well guarded, and led her out to the people. They declared her queen and proceeded to prosecute the war more vigorously, inasmuch as they now had a representative of the race of the Ptolemies. Caesar, therefore, in fear that Pothemos might kidnap Ptolemy, put the former to death and guarded the latter strictly without any further dissimulation. This contributed to incense the Egyptians still more, to whose party numbers were added daily, whereas the Roman soldiers from Syria were not yet on the scene. Caesar was anxious to bring the people to a condition of peace, and so he had Ptolemy take his stand on a high place from which they could hear his voice and bade him say to them that he was unharmed and was averse to warfare. He urged them to peaceful measures and promised that he would arrange the details for them. Now if he had talked thus to them of his own accord, he could have persuaded them to become reconciled; but as it was, they suspected that it was all prearranged by Caesar, and they would not yield.
[-40-] As time went on a dispute arose among the followers of Arsinoe, and Ganymedes prevailed upon her to put Achillas to death, on the ground that he wished to betray the fleet. When this had been done he assumed command of the soldiers and gathered all the boats that were in the river and the lake, besides constructing others. All of them he conveyed through the canals to the sea, where he attacked the Romans while off their guard, burned some of their freight ships to the water’s edge and towed others away. Then he cleared out the entrance to the harbor and by lying in wait for vessels there he caused the foreigners great annoyance. One day Caesar noticed them behaving carelessly, by reason of their supremacy, and suddenly sailed into the harbor, where he burned a number of boats, and disembarking on Pharos slew the inhabitants of the island. When the Egyptians on the mainland saw that, they came to their aid over the bridges and after killing many of the Romans in their turn they hurled the remainder back to their boats. While these fugitives were forcing their way into them at any point and in crowds, Caesar, besides many others, fell into the sea. And he would have perished miserably weighed down by his robes and pelted by the Egyptians–his garments, being purple, offered a good mark–had he not thrown off the incumbrances and then succeeded in swimming out somewhere to a skiff, which he boarded. In this way he was saved without wetting one of the documents of which he held up a large number in his left hand as he swam. His clothing the Egyptians took and hung upon the trophy which they set up to commemorate this rout, as if they had as good as captured the man himself. They also kept a close watch upon the landings (for the legions which had been sent from Syria were now near at hand) and did the Romans much injury. Caesar could ward off in a way the attack of those who assailed him in the direction of Libya: but near the mouth of the Nile they deceived many of his men by using signal fires as if they too were Romans, and captured them, so that the rest no longer ventured to coast along until Tiberius Claudius Nero at length sailed up the river itself, conquered the foe in battle, and rendered the approach less terrifying to his own followers.
[-41-] Meanwhile Mithridates, named the Pergamenian, undertook to ascend with his ships the mouth of the Nile opposite Pelusium; but when the Egyptians barred his entrance with their boats he betook himself by night to the canal, hauled the ships over into it (it was one that does not open into the sea), and through it sailed up into the Nile. After that he suddenly began from the sea and the river at once a conflict with the vessels that were guarding the mouth and broke up their blockade, whereupon he assaulted Pelusium with both his infantry and his force of ships, and took it. Advancing then to Alexandria he learned that a certain Dioscorides was going to confront them, and he ambushed and annihilated him.
[-42-] The Egyptians on receiving the news would not end the war even under these conditions; yet they were irritated at the sovereignty of the eunuch and the woman and thought if they could put Ptolemy at their head, they would be superior to the Romans. So then, finding themselves unable to seize him by any kind of violence because he was skillfully guarded, they pretended that they were worn out by disasters and desired peace; and they sent to Caesar a herald to ask for Ptolemy, to the end that they might consult with him about the terms on which they would make a truce. Caesar thought that they had in very truth changed front, especially since he heard that they were cowardly and fickle and perceived that at this time they were terrified in the face of their defeats. And in order not to be regarded as hindering peace, even if they were devising some trick, he said that he approved their request, and sent them Ptolemy. He saw no tower of strength in the lad in view of his youth and ignorance, and hoped that the Egyptians would either become reconciled with him on what terms he wished or else would better deserve the waging of war and subjugation, so that there might be some reasonable excuse for delivering them to Cleopatra. He had no idea of being defeated by them, particularly since his force had been augmented. [-43-] The Egyptians, when they secured the child, had not a thought for peace but straightway set out against Mithridates as if they were sure to accomplish some great achievement in the name and by the family of Ptolemy. They cut him off near the lake, between the river and the marshes, and raised a great clamor. Caesar through fear of being ambushed did not pursue them but at night he set sail as if he were hurrying to some outlet of the Nile and kindled an enormous fire on each vessel so that it might be thought that he was going a very long distance in this direction. He started at first, then, to sail away, but afterward extinguished the glare, returned and passed alongside the city to the peninsula on the Libyan side, where he landed; there he disembarked the soldiers, went around the lake, and fell upon the Egyptians unexpectedly about dawn. They were so startled on the instant that they sent a herald to him for terms, but, when he would not receive their entreaty, a fierce battle subsequently took place in which he was victorious and slew great numbers of the enemy. Some fled hastily to cross the river and perished in it, together with Ptolemy.
[B.C. 47 (_a.u._ 707)]
[-44-] In this way Caesar overcame Egypt. He did not, however, make it subject to the Romans, but bestowed it upon Cleopatra, for whose sake he had waged the conflict. Yet, being afraid that the Egyptians might rebel again because they were delivered to a woman to rule them and that the Romans for this reason and because the woman was his companion might be angry, he commanded her to make her other brother partner of her habitation, and gave the kingdom to both of them,–at least nominally. In reality Cleopatra alone was to hold all the power. For her husband was still a child and in view of Caesar’s favor there was nothing that she could not do. Hence her living with her brother and sharing the sovereignty with him was a mere pretence which she accepted, whereas she actually ruled alone and spent her life in Caesar’s company.
[-45-] She would have detained him even longer in Egypt or else would have at once set out with him for Rome, had not Pharnaces drawn Caesar most unwillingly from Afric’s shores and hindered him from hurrying to Italy. This man was a son of Mithridates and ruled the Cimmerian Bosporus, as has been stated: it was his desire to win back again all his ancestral kingdom, and so he revolted just at the time of the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey, and, as the Romans had at that time found business, with one another and afterward were detained in Egypt, he got possession of Colchis without effort and, in the absence of Deiotarus, subjugated all of Armenia and some cities of Cappadocia and Pontus that were attached to the district of Bithynia. [-46-] While he was thus engaged Caesar himself did not stir,–Egypt was not yet settled and he had some hope of overcoming the man through others–but he sent Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, assigning him charge of Asia and …[79] legions. This officer added to his force Deiotarus and Ariobarzanes and marched straight against Pharnaces, who was in Nicopolis,–a city he had previously occupied. Indeed, he felt contempt for the barbarian, because the latter in terror of his presence was ready to agree to an armistice looking to an embassy, and so he would not conclude a truce with him, but attacked him and was defeated.
After that he had to retire to Asia, since he was no match for his conqueror, and winter was approaching. Pharnaces, greatly elated, joined to his cause nearly all of Pontus, captured Amisus, though it held out against him a long time, plundered the city and put to the sword all the young men in it. He then hastened into Bithynia and Asia with the same hopes as his father had harbored. Meanwhile, learning that Asander whom he had left as governor of the Bosporus had revolted, he no longer advanced any farther. For Asander, as soon as the advance of Pharnaces to a point distant from his own position was reported to him and it seemed likely that even if he should temporarily escape his observation with the greatest success, he would still not get out of it well later, rose against him, so as to do a favor to the Romans and to receive the government of the Bosporus from them. [-47-] This was the news on hearing which Pharnaces started against him, but the venture was in vain. For on ascertaining that Caesar was on the way and was hurrying into Armenia Pharnaces turned back and met him there near Zela. Now that Ptolemy was dead and Domitius vanquished Caesar had decided that delay in Egypt was neither fitting nor profitable for him, but set out from there and by using great speed reached Armenia. The barbarian, alarmed and fearing his quickness much more than his army, sent messengers to him before he drew near, making frequent propositions to see if in any way on any terms he could compromise the existing situation and escape. One of the principal pleas that he presented was that he had not cooeperated with Pompey, and by this he hoped that he might induce the Roman general to grant a truce, particularly since the latter was anxious to hasten to Italy and Africa; and once he was gone he, Pharnaces, could easily wage war again. Caesar suspected this, and the first and second sets of envoys he treated with great kindness in order that he might fall upon the foe in a state quite unguarded, through hopes of peace: when the third deputation came he began to reproach him, one of his grounds of censure being that he had deserted Pompey, his benefactor. Then without delay, that very day and just as he was, Caesar marched forward and attacked him as soon as he came up to him; for a little while some confusion was caused by the cavalry and the scythe-bearing chariots, but after that he conquered the Asiatics with his heavy-armed soldiers. Pharnaces escaped to the sea and later forced his way into Bosporus, where Asander shut him up and killed him.
[-48-] Caesar took great pride in the victory,–more, indeed, than in any other, in spite of the fact that it had not been very glorious,–because on the same day and at one and the same hour he had come to the enemy, had seen him, and had conquered him. All the spoils, though of great magnitude, he bestowed upon the soldiers, and he set up a trophy to offset one which Mithridates had raised to commemorate the defeat of Triarius.[80] He did not dare to take down that of the barbarians because it had been dedicated to the gods of war, but by the erection of his own he overshadowed and to a certain extent demolished the other. Next he gained possession of all the region belonging to the Romans and those bound to them by oath which Pharnaces had ravaged, and restored it to the individuals who had been dispossessed, except a portion of Armenia, which he granted to Ariobarzanes. The people of Amisus he rewarded with freedom, and to Mithridates the Pergamenian he gave a tetrarchy in Galatia with the name of kingdom and allowed him to wage war against Asander, so that by conquering him, because he had proved base toward his friend Mithridates might get Bosporus also.
[-49-] After accomplishing this and bidding Domitius arrange the rest he came to Bithynia and from there to Greece, whence he sailed for Italy, collecting all the way great sums of money from everybody, and upon every pretext, just as before. On the one hand he levied all that individuals had promised in advance to Pompey, and on the other he asked for still more from outside sources, bringing some accusation against the places to justify his act. All votive offerings of Heracles at Tyre he removed, because the people had received the wife and child of Pompey when they were fleeing. Many golden crowns, also, commemorative of victories, he took from potentates and kings. This he did not out of malice but because his expenditures were on a vast scale and because he was intending to lay out still more upon his legions, his triumph, and everything else that could add to his brilliance. Briefly, he showed himself a money-getter, declaring that there were two things which created and protected and augmented sovereignties,–soldiers and money; and that these two were dependent upon each other. By proper support armies were kept together, and this support was gathered by the use of arms: and if either the one or the other were lacking, the second of them would be overthrown at the same time.
[-50-] These were ever his ideas and this his talk upon such matters. Now it was to Italy he hurried and not to Africa, although the latter region had been made hostile to him, because he learned of the disturbances in the City and feared that they might get beyond his control. However, as I said, he did no harm to any one, except that there too he gathered large sums of money, partly in the shape of crowns and statues and the like which he received as gifts, and partly by borrowing not only from individual citizens but also from cities. This name (of borrowing) he applied to levies of money for which there was no other reasonable excuse; his exactions from his creditors were none the less unjustified and acts of violence, since he never intended to pay these loans. What he said was that he had spent his private possessions for the public good and it was for that reason he was borrowing. Wherefore, when the multitude demanded that there should be an annulment of debts, he would not do it, saying; “I too am heavily involved.” He was easily seen to be wresting away the property of others by his position of supremacy, and for this his companions as well as others disliked him. These men had bought considerable of the confiscated property, in some cases for more than its real value, in the hope of retaining it free of charge, but found themselves compelled to pay the full price.
[-51-] To such persons he paid no attention. However to a certain extent he did court the favor of the people as individuals. To the majority he allowed the interest they were owing, an act by which he had incurred the enmity of Pompey, and he released them from all rent for one year, up to the sum of five hundred denarii; furthermore he raised the valuations on goods in which it was allowable according to law for loans to be paid to their value at the time of payment, and this after having considerably lowered the price for the populace on all confiscated property. By these acts he gained the attachment of the people; and he won the affection of the members of his party and those who had fought for him also. For upon the senators he bestowed priesthoods and offices,–some which lasted for the rest of that year and some which extended to the following season. In order to reward a larger number he appointed ten praetors for the next year and more than the customary number of priests. To the pontifices and the augurs, of whom he was one, and to the so-called Fifteen he added one each, although he really wished to take all the priesthoods himself, as had been decreed. To the knights in his army and to the centurions and subordinate officers he gave among other rights the important privilege of choosing some of their own number for the senate to fill the places of those who had perished.
[-52-] The unrest of the troops, however, made trouble for him. They had expected to obtain great things, and finding their rewards not less, to be sure, than their deserts, but inferior to their expectations, they raised an outcry. The most of them were in Campania, being destined to sail on ahead to Africa. These nearly killed Sallust, who had been appointed praetor so as to recover his senatorial office, and when escaping them he set out for Rome to lay before Caesar what was being done, a number followed him, sparing no one on their way, and killed among others whom they met two senators. Caesar as soon as he heard of their approach wished to send his guard against them, but fearing that it too might join the uprising he remained quiet until they reached the suburbs. While they waited there he sent to them and enquired what wish or what need had brought them. Upon their replying that they would tell him face to face he allowed them to enter the city unarmed, save as to their swords; these they were regularly accustomed to wear in the city, and they would not have submitted to laying them aside at this time. [-53-] They insisted a great deal upon the toils and dangers they had undergone and said a great deal about what they had hoped and what they declared they deserved to obtain. Next they asked to be released from service and were very clamorous on this point, not because they wished to return to private life,–they were far from anxious for this since they had long become accustomed to the gains from warfare–but because they thought they would scare Caesar in this way and accomplish anything whatever, since his projected invasion of Africa was close at hand. He, however, made no reply at all to their earlier statements, but said merely: “Quirites,[81] what you say is right: you are weary and worn out with wounds,” and then at once disbanded them all as if he had no further need of them, promising that he would give the rewards in full to such as had served the appointed time. At these words they were struck with alarm both at his attitude in general and because he had called them _Quirites_ and not soldiers; and humiliated, in fear of suffering some calamity, they changed their stand, and addressed him with many entreaties and offers, promising that they would join his expedition as volunteers and would carry the war through for him by themselves. When they had reached this stage and one of their leaders also, either on his own impulse or as a favor to Caesar, had said a few words and presented a few petitions in their behalf, the dictator answered: “I release both you who are here present and all the rest whose years of service have expired. I really have no further need of you. Yet even so I will pay you the rewards, that no one may say that I after using you in dangers later showed myself ungrateful, even though you were unwilling to join my campaign while perfectly strong in body and able in other respects to prosecute a war.” [-54-] said for effect, for they were quite indispensable to him. He then assigned them all land from the public holdings and from his own, settling them in different places, and separating them considerable distances from one another, to the end that they should not inspire their neighbors with terror nor (dwelling apart) be ready for insurrection. Of the money that was owing them, large amounts of which he had promised to give them at practically every levy, he offered to discharge a part immediately and to supply the remainder with interest in the near future. When he had said this and so enthralled them that they showed no sign of boldness but expressed their gratitude, he added: “You have all that is due you from me, and I will compel no one of you to endure campaigns any longer. If, however, any one wishes of his own accord to help me subjugate what remains, I will gladly receive him.” Hearing this they were overjoyed, and all alike were anxious to join the new expedition.
[-55-]Caesar put side the turbulent spirits among them, not all, but as many as were moderately well acquainted with farming and so could make a living,–and the rest he used. This he did also in the case of the rest of his soldiers. Those who were overbold and able to cause some great evil he took away from Italy in order that they might not raise an insurrection by being left behind there; and in Africa he was glad to employ different men on different pretexts, for while he was making away with his opponents through their work, he at the same time got rid of them. Though he was the kindliest of men and most frequently did favors of various sorts for his soldiers and others, he bitterly hated those given to uprisings and punished them with extreme severity.
This he did in that year in which he ruled as dictator really for the second time and the consuls were said to be Calenus and Vatinius, appointed near the close of the season.[-56-] He next crossed over into, although winter had set in. And he had no little success when, somewhat later, he made an unlooked for attack on his opponents. On all occasions he accomplished a great deal by his rapidity and the unexpectedness of his expeditions, so that if any one should try to study out what it was that made him so superior to his contemporaries in warfare, he would find by careful comparison that there was nothing more striking than these two characteristics. Africa had not been friendly to Caesar formerly, but after Curio’s death it became entirely hostile. Affairs were in the hands of Varus and Juba, and furthermore Cato, Scipio, and their followers had taken refuge there simultaneously, as I have stated. After this they made common cause in the war, trained the land forces, and making descents by sea upon Sicily and Sardinia they harassed the cities and brought back ships from which they obtained[82] arms andiron besides, which alone they lacked. Finally they reached such a condition of readiness and disposition that, as no army opposed them and Caesar delayed in Egypt and the capital, they despatched Pompey to Spain. On learning that the peninsula was in revolt they thought that the people would readily receive him as being the son of Pompey the Great; and while he made preparations to occupy Spain in a short time and set out from there to the capital, the others were getting ready to make the voyage to Italy. [-57-] At the start they experienced a slight delay, due to a dispute between Varus and Scipio about the leadership because the former had held sway for a longer time in these regions, and also Juba, elated by his victory, demanded that he should have first place. But Scipio and Cato reached an agreement as being far in advance of them all, the former in esteem, the latter in understanding, and won over the rest, persuading them to entrust everything to Scipio. Cato, who might have led the forces on equal terms with him or even alone, refused, first because he thought it a most injurious course in the actual state of affairs, and second, because he was inferior to the other in political renown. For he saw that in military matters the principle of preference to ex-magistrates as a matter of course had especial force, and therefore he willingly yielded him the command and furthermore delivered to him the troops that he had brought there. After this Cato made a request for Utica, which was suspected of favoring Caesar’s cause and had come near having its citizens removed by the others on this account, and he received it to guard; and the whole country and sea in that vicinity was entrusted to his garrisons. The rest Scipio commanded as dictator. His very name was a source of strength to those who sided with him, since by some strange, unreasonable hope they believed that no Scipio could meet with misfortune in Africa.
[-58-] Caesar, when he learned this and saw that his own soldiers also were persuaded that it was so and were consequently afraid, took with him as an aid a man of the family of the Scipios who bore that name (he was otherwise known as Salvito)[83]and then made the voyage to Adrymetum, since the neighborhood of Utica was strictly guarded. His unexpected crossing in the winter enabled him to escape detection. When he had left his ship an accident happened to him which, even if some disaster was portended by Heaven, he nevertheless turned to a good omen. Just as he was setting foot on land he slipped, and the soldiers seeing him fall on his face were disheartened and in their chagrin raised an outcry; but he never lost his presence of mind, and stretching out his hands as if he had fallen on purpose he embraced and kissed repeatedly the land, and cried with a shout: “I have thee, Africa!” His next move was an assault upon Adrymetum, from which he was repulsed and moreover driven violently out of his camp. Then he transferred his position to another city called Ruspina, and being received by the inhabitants set up his winter quarters there and made it the base for subsequent warfare.
DIO’S ROMAN HISTORY
43
The following is contained in the Forty-third of Dio’s Rome:
How Caesar conquered Scipio and Juba (chapters 1-8). How the Romans got possession of Numidia (chapter 9). How Cato slew himself (chapters 10-13). How Caesar returned to Rome and celebrated his triumph and settled what business remained (chapters 14-21). How the Forum of Caesar and the Temple of Venus were consecrated (chapters 22-25). How Caesar arranged the year in its present fashion (chapters 26, 27). How Caesar conquered in Spain Gnaeus Pompey the son of Pompey (chapters 28-45). How for the first time consuls were appointed for not an entire year (chapters 46-48). How Carthage and Corinth received colonies (chapters 49, 50). How the Aediles Cereales were appointed (chapter 51).
Duration of time, three years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated.
C. Iulius C.F. Caesar, Dictator (III), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse, and Consul (III) with Aemilius Lepidus Cos. (B.C. 46–a.u. 708.)
C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (IV), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse; also Consul (IV) alone. (B.C. 45–a.u. 709.)
C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (V), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse, and Consul (V) with M. Antonius Cos. (B.C. 44–a.u. 710.)
(_BOOK 43, BOISSEVAIN_.)
[B.C. 46 (_a.u._ 708)]
[-1-] Such were his adventures at this time. The following year he became both dictator and consul at the same time (it was the third occasion on which he had filled each of the two offices), and Lepidus became his colleague in both instances. When he had been named dictator by Lepidus the first time, he had sent him immediately after the praetorship into Hither Spain; and when he returned he had honored him with triumphal celebrations though Lepidus had conquered no foes nor so much as fought with any,–the excuse being that he had been at the scene of the exploits of Longinus and of Marcellus. Yet he sent home nothing (if you want the facts) except what money he had plundered from the allies. Caesar besides exalting Lepidus with these honors chose him subsequently as his colleague in both the positions mentioned.
[-2-] Now while they were still in office, the populace of Rome became excited by prodigies. There was a wolf seen in the city, and a pig that save for its feet resembled an elephant was brought forth. In Africa, too, Petreius and Labienus who had observed that Caesar had gone out to villages after grain, by means of the Nomads drove his cavalry, that had not yet thoroughly recovered strength from its sea-voyage, in upon the infantry; and while as a result the force was in utter confusion, they killed many of the soldiers at close quarters. They would have cut down all the rest besides, who had crowded together on a bit of high ground, had they not been severely wounded. Even as it was, by this deed they alarmed Caesar considerably. When he stopped to consider how he had been tripped by a few, while expecting, too, that Scipio and Juba would arrive directly with all their powers, as they had been reported, he was decidedly in a dilemma, and did not know what course to adopt. He was not yet able to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion; he saw, furthermore, that to stay in the same place was difficult because of the lack of subsistence even if the foe should keep away from his troops, and that to retire was impossible, with the enemy pressing upon him both by land and by sea. Consequently he was in a state of dejection.
[-3-] He was still in this situation when one Publius Sittius (if we ought to call it him, and not the Divine Power) brought at one stroke salvation and victory. This man had been exiled from Italy, and had taken along some fellow-exiles: after crossing over into Mauritania he collected a band and was general under Bocchus. Though he had no benefit from Caesar to start with, and although in general he was not known to him, he undertook to share in the war and to help him to overcome the existing difficulty. Accordingly he bore no direct aid to Caesar himself, for he heard that the latter was at a distance and thought that his own assistance (for he had no large body of troops) would prove of small value to him. It was Juba whom he watched start out on his expedition, and then he invaded Numidia, which along with Gaetulia (likewise a part of Juba’s dominion) he harried so completely that the king gave up the project before him and turned back in the midst of his journey with most of his army; some of it he had sent off to Scipio. This fact made it as evident as one could wish that if Juba had also come up, Caesar would never have withstood the two. He did not so much as venture to join issue with Scipio alone at once, because he stood in terrible dread of the elephants (among other things), partly on account of their fighting abilities, but still more because they were forever throwing his cavalry into confusion. [-4-] Therefore, while keeping as strict a watch over the camp as he could, Caesar sent to Italy for soldiers and elephants. He did not count on the latter for any considerable military achievement (since there were not many of them) but intended that the horses, by becoming accustomed to the sight and sound of them, should learn for the future not to fear at all those belonging to the enemy.
Meanwhile, also, the Gaetulians came over to his side, with some others of the neighboring tribes. The latter’s reasons for this step were, first,–the persuasion of the Gaetuli, who, they heard, had been greatly honored, and second, the fact that they remembered Marius, who was a relative of Caesar. When this had occurred, and his auxiliaries from Italy in spite of delay and danger caused by bad weather and hostile agents had nevertheless accomplished the passage, he did not rest a moment. On the contrary he was eager for the conflict, looking to annihilate Scipio in advance of Juba’s arrival, and moved forward against him in the direction of a city called Uzitta, where he took up his quarters on a certain crest overlooking both the city and the enemy’s camp, having first dislodged those who were holding it. Soon after this he chased Scipio, who had attacked him, away from this higher ground, and by charging down behind him with his cavalry did some damage.
This position accordingly he held and fortified; and he took another on the other side of the city by dislodging Labienus from it; after which he walled off the entire town. For Scipio, fearing lest his own power be spent too soon, would no longer risk a battle with Caesar, but sent for Juba. And when the latter repeatedly failed to obey his summons he (Scipio) promised to relinquish to him all the rights that the Romans had in Africa. At that, Juba appointed others to have charge of the operations against Sittius, and once more started out himself against Caesar.
[-5-] While this was going on Caesar tried in every way to draw Scipio into close quarters. Baffled in this, he made friendly overtures to the latter’s soldiers, and distributed among them brief pamphlets, in which he promised to the native that he would preserve his possessions unharmed, and to the Roman that he would grant immunity and the honors which he owed to his own followers. Scipio in like manner undertook to circulate both offers and pamphlets among the opposite party, with a view to making some of them his own: however, he was unable to induce any of them to change sides. Not that some of them would not have chosen his cause by preference, if any announcement similar to Caesar’s had been made: their failure to do so was due to the fact that he promised them nothing in the way of a prize, but merely urged them to liberate the Roman people and the senate. And so, inasmuch as he chose a respectable proposition instead of something which would advantage them in the needs of the moment, he failed to gain the allegiance of a single one.
[-6-] While Scipio alone was in the camp, matters progressed as just described, but when Juba also came up, the scene was changed. For these two both tried to provoke their opponents to battle and harassed them when they showed unwillingness to contend; moreover by their cavalry they kept inflicting serious damage upon any who were scattered at a distance. But Caesar was not for getting into close quarters with them if he could help it. He stuck to his circumvallation, kept seizing provender as was convenient, and sent after other forces from home. When at last these reached him with much difficulty–(for they were not all together, but kept gathering gradually, since they lacked boats in which to cross in a body)–still, when in the course of time they did reach him and he had added them to his army, he took courage again; so much so, that he led out against the foe, and drew up his men in front of the trenches. Seeing this his opponents marshaled themselves in turn, but did not join issue with Caesar’s troops. This continued for several days. For aside from cavalry skirmishes of limited extent after which they would invariably retire, neither side risked any important movement.
[-7-] Accordingly Caesar, who bethought himself that because of the nature of the land he could not force them to come into close quarters unless they chose, started toward Thapsus, in order that either they might come to the help of the city and so engage his forces, or, if they neglected it, he might capture the place. Now Thapsus is situated on a kind of peninsula, with the sea on one side and a marsh stretching along on the other: between them lies a narrow, swampy isthmus so that one has access to the town from two directions by an extremely narrow road running along both sides of the marsh close to the surf. On his way toward this city Caesar, when he had come within these narrow approaches, proceeded to dig ditches and to erect palisades. And the others made no trouble for him (for they were not his match), but Scipio and Juba undertook to wall off in turn the neck of the isthmus, where it comes to an end near the mainland, dividing it into two portions by means of palisades and ditches.
[-8-] They were still at work, and accomplishing a great deal every day (for in order that they might build the wall across more quickly they had assigned the elephants to that portion along which a ditch had not yet been dug and on that account was somewhat accessible to the enemy, while on the remaining defences all were working), when Caesar suddenly attacked the others, the followers of Scipio, and with slings and arrows from a distance threw the elephants into thorough confusion. As they retreated he not only followed them up, but unexpectedly reaching the workers he routed them, too. When they fled into the redoubt, he dashed in with them and captured it without a blow.
Juba, seeing this, was so startled and terrified, that he ventured neither to come into close quarters with any one, nor even to keep the camp properly guarded, but fled incontinently homeward. So then, when no one would receive him, chiefly because Sittius had conquered all antagonists beforehand, he renounced all chances of safety, and with Petreius, who likewise had no hope of amnesty, in single conflict fought and died.
[-9-]Caesar, immediately after Juba’s flight, captured the palisade and wrought a vast slaughter among all those that met his troops: he spared not even those who would change to his side. Next, meeting with no opposition, he brought the rest of the cities to terms; the Nomads whom he acquired he reduced to a state of submission, and delivered to Sallust nominally to rule, but really to harry and plunder. This officer certainly did receive many bribes and make many confiscations, so that accusations were even preferred and he bore the stigma of the deepest disgrace, inasmuch as after writing such treatises as he had, and making many bitter remarks about those who enjoyed the fruits of others’ labor, he did not practice what he preached. Wherefore, no matter how full permission was given him by Caesar, yet in his History the man himself had chiseled his own code of principles deep, as upon a tablet.
Such was the course which events took. Now as for These tribes in Libya, the Region surrounding Carthage (which we call also Africa) received the title of Old, because it had been long ago subjugated, whereas the region of the Nomads was called New, because it had been newly captured. Scipio, who had fled from the battle, chancing upon a boat set sail for Spain and Pompey. He was cast ashore, however, upon Mauritania, and through fear of Sittius made way with himself.
[-10-] Cato, since many had sought refuge with him, was at first preparing to take a hand in affairs and to offer a certain amount of resistance to Caesar. But the men of Utica were not in the beginning hostile to Caesar, and now, seeing him victorious, would not listen to Cato. This made the members of the senate and the knights who were present afraid of arrest at their hands, and they took counsel for flight. Cato himself decide neither to war against Caesar–indeed, he lacked the power,–nor to give himself up. This was not through any fear: he understood well enough that Caesar would have been very ready to spare him for the sake of that reputation for humaneness: but it was because he was passionately in love with freedom, and would not brook defeat in aught at the hands of any man, and regarded pity emanating from Caesar as more hateful than death.
He called together those of the citizens who were Present, enquired whither each one of them had determined to proceed, sent them forth with supplies for the journey, and bade his son betake himself to Caesar.
To the youth’s interrogation, “Why then do you also not do so?” he replied:–“I, brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, can not in my old age change and learn slavery instead; but you, who were both born and brought up under such a regime, you ought to serve the deity that presides over your fortunes.”
[-11-] When he had done this, after sending to the people of Utica an account of his administration and returning to them the surplus funds, as well as whatever else of theirs he had, he was filled with a desire to depart previous to Caesar’s arrival. He did not undertake any such project by day (for his son and others surrounding him kept him under surveillance), but when evening was come he slipped a tiny dagger secretly under his pillow, and asked for Plato’s book on the Soul, [84] which he had written out. This he did either endeavoring to divert the company from the suspicion that he had any sinister plan in mind, in order to render himself as free from scrutiny as possible, or else in the wish to obtain some little consolation in respect to death from the reading of it. When he had read the work through, as it drew on toward midnight, he stealthily drew out the dagger, and smote himself upon the belly. He would have immediately died from loss of blood, had he not by falling from the low couch made a noise and aroused those sleeping in the antechamber. Thereupon his son and some others who rushed in duly put back his bowels into his belly again, and brought medical attendance for him. Then they took away the dagger and locked the doors, that he might obtain sleep,–for they had no idea of his perishing in any other way. But he, having thrust his hands into the wound and broken the stitches of it expired.
Thus Cato, who had proved himself both the most democratic and the strongest willed of his contemporaries acquired a great glory even from his very death, so that he obtained the commemorative title “of Utica,” both because he had died, as described, in that city, and because he was publicly buried by the people.[-12-] Caesar declared that with him he was angry, because Cato had grudged him the distinction attaching to the preservation of such a man, but released his son and most of the rest, as was his custom: for some came over to him immediately of their own volition, and others later, so as to approach him after time should have somewhat blurred his memory. So these escaped, but Afranius and Faustus would not come to him of their own free will, for they felt sure of destruction. They fled to Mauritania, where they were captured by Sittius. Caesar put them to death without a trial, on the ground that they were captives for a second time.[85] And in the case of Lucius Caesar, though the man was related to him and came a voluntary suppliant, nevertheless, since he had fought against him straight through, he at first bade him stand trial so that the conqueror might seem to have some legal right on his side in condemning him: later Caesar shrank from killing him by his own vote, and put it off for the time, but afterward did slay him secretly. [-13-] Even among his own followers those that did not suit him he sacrificed without compunction to the opposing side in some cases, and in others by prearrangement caused them to perish in the actual conflicts, through the agency of their own comrades, for, as I have said, he did not take measures openly against all those that had troubled him, but any that he could not prosecute on some substantial charge he quietly put out of the way in some obscure fashion. And yet at that time he burned without reading all the papers that were found in the private chests of Scipio, and of the men who had fought against him he preserved many for their own sakes, and many also on account of their friends. For, as has been said, he allowed each of his fellow-soldiers and companions to ask the life of one man. He would have preserved Cato, too. For he had conceived such an admiration for him that when Cicero subsequently wrote an encomium of Cato he was no whit vexed,–although Cicero had likewise warred against him,–but merely wrote a short treatise which he entitled Anticato.
[-14-]Caesar after these events at once and before crossing into Italy disencumbered himself of the more elderly among his soldiers for fear they might revolt again. He arranged the other matters in Africa just as rapidly as was feasible and sailed as far as Sardinia with all his fleet. From that point he sent the discarded troops in the company of Graius Didius into Spain against Pompey, and himself returned to Rome, priding himself chiefly upon the brilliance of his achievements but also to some extent upon the decrees of the senate. For they had decreed that offerings should be made for his victory during forty days, and they had granted him leave to celebrate the previously accorded triumph upon white horses and with such lictors as were then in his company, with as many others as he had employed in his first dictatorship, and all the rest, besides, that he had in his second. Further, they elected him superintendent of every man’s conduct (for some such name was given him, as if the title of censor were not worthy of him), for three years, and dictator for ten in succession. They moreover voted that he should sit in the senate upon the sella curulis with the acting consuls, and should always state his opinion first, that he should give the signal in all the horse-races, and that he should have the appointment of the officers and whatever else formerly the people were accustomed to assign. And they resolved that a representation of his chariot be set on the Capitol opposite Jupiter, that upon an image of the inhabited world a bronze figure of Caesar be mounted, holding a written statement to the effect that he was a demi-god, and that his name be inscribed upon the Capitol, in place of that of Catulus, on the ground that he had finished the temple, in the course of the construction of which he had undertaken to call Catulus to account. These are the only measures I have recorded, not because they were also the only ones voted,–for a vast number of things was proposed and of course ratified,–but because he disregarded the rest, whereas these he accepted.
[-15-] Now that they had been settled, he entered Rome, where he saw that the inhabitants were afraid of his power and suspicious of his designs as a result of which they expected to suffer many terrible evils such as had taken place before. Seeing also that on this account excessive honors had been accorded him, through flattery but not through good-will, he began to encourage the Romans and to inspire them with hope by the following speech delivered in the senate:
“Let none of you, Conscript Fathers, expect that I shall make any harsh proclamation or perform any cruel act merely because I have conquered and am able to say whatever I may please without being called to account, and to do with authority whatever I may choose. It is true that Marius and Cinna and Sulla and all the rest, so to speak, who ever subdued their adversaries, in their initial undertakings said and did much that was humane, principally as a result of which they converted to their side some whose alliance, or at least whose refraining from hostilities, they enjoyed; and then after conquering and becoming masters of the ends they sought, they adopted a course of behavior diametrically opposed to their former stand both in word and in deed. Let no one, however, for any such reason assume that this same policy will be mine. I have not associated with you in former time under a disguise, possessing in reality some different nature, only to become emboldened in security now because that is possible: nor have I been so excited or beclouded by my great good fortune as to desire also to play the tyrant over you. Both of these afflictions, or rather the second, seems to have befallen those men whom I mentioned. No, I am in nature the same sort of a man as you have always found me:–why should I go into details and become burdensome by a praise of self?–I should not think of treating Fortune so shabbily, but the more I have enjoyed her favors, the better will I use her in every respect. I have been anxious to secure so great power and to rise to such a height as to chastise all active foes and admonish all those disaffected for no other reason than that I might be able to play a brave part without danger, and to obtain prosperity with fame. [-16-] It is not, besides, in general either noble or just for a man to be convicted of adopting that course for which he had rebuked those who differed from him in opinion: nor should I ever be satisfied to be compared with them through my imitation of their deeds, and to differ merely by the reputation of my complete victory. For who ought to benefit people more and more abundantly than he who has the greatest power. Who ought to err less than he who is the strongest? Who should use the gifts of Heaven more sensibly than he who has received the greatest from that source? Who ought to handle present blessings more uprightly than he who has the most of them and is most afraid of their being lost? Good fortune, joined with temperance, continues: and authority, if it maintains moderation, preserves all that has been gained. Above all, as is seldom the case with those persons that succeed without virtue, they make it possible for rulers while alive to be loved unfeignedly, and when, dead to receive genuine praise. But the man who without restraint absolutely applies his power to everything finds for himself neither real good-will nor certain safety, but though accorded a false flattery in public [is secretly cursed][86]. For the whole world, besides those who associate with him most, both suspect and fear a ruler who is not master of his own authority.
[-17-] “Again, these words that I have spoken are no mere quibbles, and I have tried to make you understand that they have not fallen into my head for ostentation or by mere chance on the present occasion: on the contrary, from the outset I realized that this course was both suitable and advantageous for me; that is why I both think and speak thus. Consequently you may be not only of good courage with reference to the present, but hopeful as regards the future, reflecting (if you think I used any pretence), that I would not be deferring my projects, but would have made them known this very day.
“However, I was never otherwise minded in times past, as my works themselves, indeed, doubtless prove and now I shall feel far more eagerness with all order and decency not,–forbid it, Jupiter!–not to be your master, but your head man, not your tyrant, but your leader. In the matter of accomplishing for you everything else that must be done, I will be both consul and dictator, but in the matter of injuring any one, a private citizen. That possibility I do not think should be even mentioned. Why should I put any one of you to death, who have done me no harm, when I destroyed none of my adversaries, even if with the utmost zeal they had taken[87] part with various enemies against me, but I took pity on all those that had withstood me but once, saving many alive of those that fought on the opposing side a second time? How should I bear malice toward any, seeing that without reading or making excerpts I immediately burned all the documents that were found among the private papers both in Pompey’s and in Scipio’s tents? So then, let us, Conscript Fathers, boldly unite our interests, forgetting all past events as brought to pass simply by some supernatural Force, and beginning to love each the other without suspicion as though we were some new citizens. In this way you may behave yourselves toward me as toward a father, enjoying the fore-thought and solicitude which I shall give you and fearing no vexation, and I may have charge of you as of children, praying that all noblest deeds may be ever! accomplished by your exertions, and enduring perforce human limitations, exalting the excellent by fitting honors and correcting the rest so far as is feasible.
[-18-] “Another point–do not fear the soldiers nor regard them in any other light than as guardians of my dominion, which is at the same time yours: that they should be maintained is inevitable, for many reasons, but they will be maintained for your benefit, not against you; they will be content with what is given them and think well of the givers. For this reason larger taxes than is customary have been levied, in order that the opposition might be made submissive and the victorious element, receiving sufficient support, might not become an opposition. Of course I have received no private gain from these funds, seeing that I have expended for you all that I possessed, including much that I had borrowed. No, you can see that a part has been expended on the wars, and the rest has been kept safe for you: it will serve to adorn the city and administer the other governmental departments. I have, then, taken upon my own shoulders the odium of the levy, whereas you will all enjoy its advantages in common, in the campaigns as well as elsewhere. We are in need of arms, at every moment, since without them it is impossible for us, who inhabit so great a city and hold so extensive an empire, to live safely: now the surplus of money will be a mighty assistance in this matter. However, let none of you suspect that I shall harass any man who is rich or establish any new taxes: I shall be satisfied with the present collections and be anxious to help make some contribution to you than to wrong any one for his money.”
By such, statements in the senate and afterward before the people Caesar relieved them to some extent of their fears, but was not able to persuade them entirely to be of good courage until he corroborated his declarations by his deeds.
[-19-] After this he conducted subsequent proceedings in a brilliant manner, as was fitting in honor of so many and such decisive victories. He celebrated triumphs over the Gauls, for Egypt, for Pharnaces and for Juba, in four sections, on four separate days. Most of it doubtless delighted the spectators, but the sight of Arsinoe of Egypt–he had brought her along among the captives–and the horde of lictors and the symbols of triumph taken from citizens who had fallen in Africa displeased them exceedingly. The lictors, on account of their numbers, appeared to them a most outrageous multitude, since never before had they beheld so many at one time: and the sight of Arsinoe, a woman and once called queen, in chains (a spectacle which had never yet been offered, in Rome at least), aroused very great pity, and in consequence on this excuse they incidentally lamented their personal misfortunes. She, to be sure, was released out of consideration for her brothers, but others including Vercingetorix were put to death.
[-20-] The people, accordingly, were disagreeably affected by these sights that I have mentioned, and yet they deemed them very few considering the multitude of the captives and the magnitude of Caesar’s accomplishments. This, as well as the fact that he endured very goodnaturedly the army’s outspoken comments,[88] led them to admire him extremely. For they made sport of those of their own number appointed to the senate by him and all the other failings of which he was accused:[89] most of all they jested about his love for Cleopatra and his sojourn at the court of Nicomedes, ruler of Bithynia, inasmuch as he had once been at his court when a lad; indeed, they even declared that Caesar had enslaved[90] the Gauls, but Nicomedes Caesar. Finally, on the top of all the rest they all together with a shout declared that if you do well, you will be punished, but if ill you shall rule.[91] This was meant by them to signify that if Caesar should restore self-government to the people–which they regarded as just–and stand trial for the acts he had committed outside the laws, he would even undergo punishment; whereas, if he should cleave to his power,–which they deemed the course of an unjust person,–he would continue sole ruler. As for him, however, he was not displeased at their saying this: on the contrary he was quite delighted that by such frankness toward him they showed a belief that he would never be angry at it,–except in so far as their abuse concerned his association with Nicomedes. At this he was decidedly irritated and evidently pained: he attempted to defend himself, denying with an oath that the case was such, and after that he incurred the further penalty of laughter.
[-21-] Now on the first day of the festival of victory a portent far from good fell to his lot. The axle of the triumphal chariot was crushed just opposite the very temple of Fortune built by Lucullus, so that he had to complete the rest of the course in another. On this occasion, too, he climbed up the stairs of the Capitol on his knees, without noticing at all either the chariot which he had dedicated to Jupiter, or the image of the inhabited world lying beneath his feet, or the inscription upon it: later on, however, he erased from that inscription the name demi-god.
After this triumphal celebration he entertained the populace splendidly, giving them grain beyond the regular measure and olive oil. Also, to the multitude which received the present of grain he assigned the seventy-five denarii which he had promised in advance, and twenty-five more, but to the soldiers five hundred in one sum. Yet he was not merely ostentatious: in most respects he was very exact; for instance, since the throng receiving doles of grain had for a very long period been growing not by lawful methods of increase but in such ways as are common in popular tumults, he investigated the matter and erased half of their names at one time.
[-22-] The first days of the fete he passed as was customary: on the last day, after they had finished dinner, he entered his own forum wearing fancy sandals and garlanded with all sorts of flowers; thence he proceeded homeward with the entire populace, so to speak, alongside escorting him, while many elephants carried torches. He had himself adorned the forum called after him, and it is distinctly more beautiful than the Roman (Forum); yet it had increased the reputation of the other so that that was called the Great Forum. This forum which he had constructed and the temple of Venus, looked upon as the founder of his race, he dedicated at this very time. In honor of them he instituted many contests of all kinds. He furnished with benches a kind of hunting-theatre, which from the fact that it had seats all around without a canopy was called an amphitheatre. Here in honor of his daughter he had animals killed and contests between men in armor; but whoever should care to write down their number would doubtless render his narrative tedious besides falling into errors; for all such things are regularly exaggerated by boasting. [-23-] I shall accordingly pass over this, and be silent on the other like events that subsequently took place–unless, of course, it should seem to me thoroughly necessary to mention some particular point,–but I will give an account of the so-called camelopard, because it was then for the first time introduced into Rome by Caesar and exhibited to all. This animal is in general a camel, except that it has sets of legs not of equal length. That is, its hind legs are shorter. Beginning from the rump its back grows gradually higher, appearing as if it would ascend indefinitely, until the most of its body reaching its loftiest point is supported on the front legs, while the neck stretches up to an unusual height. It has skin spotted like a leopard, and for this reason bears the name common to both animals. Such is the appearance of this beast.
As for the men, he not only pitted one against another in the Forum, as had been customary, but he also in the hippodrome brought them together in companies, horsemen against horsemen, fighters on foot against similar contestants, and others that were a match for one another indiscriminately. Some even, forty in number, fought from elephants. Finally he produced a naval battle, not on the sea nor on the lake but on land. He hollowed out a certain tract on the Campus Martius and by letting water into it introduced ships. In all the contests the captives and those condemned to death took part. Some even of the knights, and,–not to mention others,–a son of a man who had been praetor fought in single combat. Indeed, a senator named Fulvius Sepinus[92] desired to contend in full armor, but was prevented; for Caesar had expressed a fervent wish that that should never take place, though he did permit the knights to contend. The patrician children went through the so-called Troy equestrian exercise according to ancient custom, and the young men who were their peers vied with one another in chariots.
[-24-] Still, it must be said he was blamed for the great number of those who were slain, on the ground that he had not himself become satiated with slaughter and was further exhibiting to the populace symbols of their own miseries; and much more so because he had expended on all that array countless sums. A clamor in consequence was raised against him for two reasons,–that he had collected most of the funds unjustly, and that he had used them up for such purposes.
And by mentioning one feature of his extravagance of that time I shall thereby give an inkling of all the rest. In order that the sun might not annoy any of the spectators he had curtains stretched over them made of silk, according to some accounts. Now this product of the loom is a device of barbarian luxury and from them has come down even to us to satisfy the excessive daintiness of veritable women. The civilians perforce held their peace at such acts, but the soldiers raised an outcry, not because they cared about the money recklessly squandered but because they did not themselves get what was appropriated to those displays. In fact they did not cease from confusion till Caesar suddenly coming upon them with his own hand seized one man and delivered him up to punishment. This person was executed for the reasons stated, and two other men were slaughtered as a kind of piece of ritual. The true cause I am unable to state, inasmuch as the Sibyl made no utterance and there was no other similar oracle, but at any rate they were sacrificed in the Campus Martius by the pontifices and the priest of Mars, and their heads were set up near the palace.
[-25-] While Caesar was thus engaged he was also enacting many laws, passing over most of which I shall mention only those most deserving attention. The courts he entrusted to the senators and the knights alone so that the purest element of the population, so far as was possible, might always preside: formerly some of the common people had also joined with them in rendering decisions. The expenditures, moreover, of men of means which had been rendered enormous by their licentiousness he not only controlled by law but put a strong check upon them by practical measures. There was, on account of the numbers of warriors that had perished, a dangerous scarcity of population, as was proved both from the censuses (which he attended to, among other things, as if he were censor) and from actual observation, consequently he offered prizes for large families of children. Again, because he himself as a result of ruling the Gauls many years in succession had been attracted into a desire for dominion and had by it increased the equipment of his force, he limited by law the term of ex-praetors to one year, and that of ex-consuls to two consecutive years, and enacted in general that no one should be allowed to hold any office for a longer time.
[-26-] After the passage of these laws he also established in their present fashion the days of the year (which were not definitely settled among the people, since even at that time they regulated their months according to the movements of the moon) by adding sixty-seven days, all that were necessary to bring the year out even. In the past some have declared that even more were interpolated, but the truth is as I have stated it. He got this improvement from his stay in Alexandria, save in so far as those people calculate their months as of thirty days each, afterward annexing the five days to the entire year as a whole, whereas Caesar distributed among seven months these five along with two other days that he took away from one month.[93] The one day, however, which is made up of four parts Caesar introduced every fourth year, so as to have the annual seasons no longer differ at all except in the slightest degree. In fourteen hundred and sixty-one years there is need of only one (additional) intercalary day.[94]
[-27-] All these and other undertakings which he was planning for the common weal he accomplished not by independent declaration nor by independent cogitation, but he communicated everything in every instance to the heads of the senate, sometimes even to the entire body And to this practice most of all was due the fact that even when he passed some rather harsh measures, he still succeeded in pleasing them. For these actions he received praise; but inasmuch as he had some of the tribunes bring back many of those that stayed away from court, and allowed those who were convicted of bribery in office on actual proof to live in Italy, and furthermore numbered once more among the senate some who were not worthy of it, many murmurings of all sorts arose against him. Yet the greatest censure he incurred from all through his passion for Cleopatra,–not the passion he had displayed in Egypt (that was mere hearsay), but in Rome itself. For she had come to the city with her husband and settled in Caesar’s own house, so that he too derived an ill repute from both of them. It caused him no anxiety, however; on the contrary he enrolled them among the friends and allies of the Roman people.
[-28-] Meanwhile he was learning in detail all that Pompey was doing in Spain. Thinking him not hard to vanquish, he at first despatched his fleet from Sardinia against him, but later sent on also the army that was available by list, evidently intending to conduct the entire war through his representatives. But when be ascertained that Pompey was progressing mightily and that those sent were not sufficient to fight against him, he finally himself went out to join the expedition, entrusting the city to Lepidus and certain aediles,–eight as some think, or six as is more commonly believed.
[-29-] The legions in Spain had rebelled during the period of command of Longinus and Marcellus and some of the cities had revolted; upon the removal of Longinus (Trebonius becoming his successor) they kept quiet for a few days: after that through fear of vengeance from Caesar they secretly sent ambassadors to Scipio expressing a wish to transfer their allegiance. He despatched to them among others Gnaeus Pompey. The latter being close to the Gymnasian[95] islands took possession of them without a battle, save Ebusus: this one he brought over with difficulty, and then falling sick delayed there together with his soldiers. As he was late in returning, the soldiers in Spain, who had learned that Scipio was dead and Didius had set sail against them, in their fear of being annihilated before Pompey came failed to wait for him; but putting at their head Titus Quintius Scapula and Quintus Aponius, Roman knights, they drove out Trebonius and led the whole Baetic nation to revolt at the same time. They had gone [-30-] thus far when Pompey, recovering from his illness, arrived by sea at the mainland opposite. He immediately won over several cities without resistance, for they were vexed at the commands of their rulers and besides had no little hope in him because of the memory of his father: Carthage,[96] which was unwilling to come to terms, he besieged. The followers of Scapula on hearing this went there and chose him general with full powers, after which they adhered most closely to him and showed the most violent zeal, regarding his successes as the successes of each individual and his disasters as their own. Consequently they were strong for both reasons, striving to obtain the successes and to avoid the disasters.
For Pompey, too, did what all are accustomed to do in the midst of such tumults and revolutions and especially after some of the Allobroges had deserted, whom Juba had taken alive in a war against Curio and had given him, there was nothing that he did not grant the rest both by word and deed.
They accordingly became more zealous in his behalf, and a number of the opposing side, particularly all who had served under Afranius, came over to him. Then there were those who came to him from Africa, among others his brother Sextus, and Varus, and Labienus with his fleet. Therefore, elated by the multitude of his army and their zeal he proceeded fearlessly through the country, gaining some cities of their own accord, some against their will, and seemed to surpass even his father in power. [-31-] For though Caesar had generals in Spain,–Quintus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Pedius, they did not think themselves a match for him, but remained quiet themselves, while they sent in haste for their chief.
For a time matters went on so: but when a few of the men sent in advance from Rome had reached there, and Caesar’s arrival was looked for, Pompey became frightened; and thinking that he was not strong enough to gain the mastery of all Spain, he did not wait for a reverse before changing his mind, but immediately, before testing the temper of his adversaries, retired into Baetica. The sea, moreover, straightway became hostile to him, and Varus was beaten in a naval battle near Carteia by Didius: indeed, had he not escaped to the land and sunk anchors side by side at the mouth of the harbor, upon which the foremost pursuers struck as on a reef, the whole fleet would have perished. All the country at that point except the city Ulia was an ally of Pompey’s: this town, which had refused to submit to him, he proceeded to besiege.
[-32-] Meanwhile Caesar, too, with a few men suddenly came up unexpectedly not only to Pompey’s followers, but even to his own soldiers. He had employed such speed in the passage that he was seen both by his adherents and by his opponents before news was brought that he was actually in Spain. Now Caesar hoped from this very fact and his mere presence to alarm Pompey in general, and to draw him from the siege; that was why most of the army had been left behind on the road.
But Pompey, thinking that one man was not much superior to another and quite confident in his own strength, was not seriously startled at the other’s arrival, but continued to besiege the city and kept making assaults just as before. Hence Caesar stationed there a few soldiers from among the first-comers and himself started for Corduba, partly because he hoped to take it by treachery, but chiefly because he expected to attract Pompey through fear for it away from Ulia. And so it turned out. For at first Pompey left a portion of his army in position, went to Corduba and strengthened it, and as Caesar did not withstand his troops, put his brother Sextus in charge of it. However, he failed to accomplish anything at Ulia: on the contrary, when a certain tower had fallen, and that not shaken down by his own men but broken down by the crowd that was making a defence from it, some few who rushed in did not come off well; and Caesar approaching lent assistance secretly by night to the citizens, and himself again made an expedition against Corduba, putting it under siege in turn: then at last did Pompey withdraw entirely from Ulia and hastened to the other town with his entire army,–a movement not destitute of results. For Caesar, learning of this in advance, had retired, as he happened to be sick. Afterward when he had recovered and had taken charge of the additional troops who accompanied him he was compelled to carry on warfare even in the winter. [-33-] Housed in miserable little tents they were suffering distress and running short of food. Caesar was at that time serving as dictator, and some time late, near the close of the war, he was appointed consul, when Lepidus, who was master of the horse, convoked the people for this purpose. He, Lepidus, had become master of the horse at that time, having given himself, while still in the consulship, that additional title contrary to ancestral traditions.
Caesar, accordingly, compelled as I have said to carry on warfare even in winter did not try to attack Corduba–it was strongly guarded–but turned his attention to Ategua, a city in which he had learned that there was an abundance of grain. Although it was strong, he hoped by the size of his army and the sudden terror of his appearance to alarm the inhabitants and capture it. In a short time he had palisaded it off and dug a ditch round about. Pompey, encouraged by the nature of the country and thinking that Caesar because of the winter would not besiege the place to any great extent, paid no heed and did not try at first to repel the assailants, since he was unwilling to injure his own soldiers in the cold. Later on, when the town had been walled off and Caesar was in position before it, he grew afraid and came with assistance. He fell in with the pickets suddenly one misty night and killed a number of them. The ungeneraled condition of the inhabitants he ameliorated by sending to them Munatius Flaccus. The latter [-34-] had contrived the following scheme to get inside. He went alone by night to some of the guards as if appointed by Caesar to visit the sentries, asked and learned the pass-word:–he was not known, of course, and would never have been suspected by the separate contingents of being anything but a friend when he acted in this manner:–then he left these men and went around to the other side of the circumvallation where he met some other guards and gave them the pass-word: after that he pretended that his mission was to betray the city, and so went inside through the midst of the soldiers with their consent and actually under their escort. He could not, however, save the place. In addition to other setbacks there was one occasion when the citizens hurled fire upon the engines and palisades of the Romans, yet did no damage to them worth mentioning; but they themselves by reason of a violent wind which just then began to blow toward them from the opposite side fared ill: for their buildings were set afire and many persons perished from the stones and missiles, not being able to see any distance ahead of them for the smoke. After this disaster, as their land was continually ravaged, and every now and then a portion of their wall would fall, undermined, they began to riot. Flaccus first conferred with Caesar by herald on the basis of pardon for himself and followers: later he failed of this owing to his resolution not to surrender his arms, but the rest of the natives subsequently sent ambassadors and submitted to the terms imposed upon each.
[-35-] The capture of that city did not fail of its influence upon the other peoples, but many themselves after sending envoys espoused Caesar’s cause, and many received him on his approach or his lieutenants. Pompey, in consequence, at a loss which way to turn, at first made frequent changes of base, wandering about now in one and now in another part of the country: later on he became afraid that as a result of this very behavior the rest of his adherents would also leave him in the lurch, and chose to hazard all, although Heaven beforehand indicated his defeat very clearly. To be sure, the drops of sweat that fell from sacred statues and the confused noises of the legions, and the many animals born which proved to be perversions of the proper type, and the torches darting from sunrise to the sunset region–(all these signs then met together in Spain at one time)–gave no clear manifestation to which of the two combatants they were revealing the future. But the eagles of his legions shook their wings and cast forth the golden thunderbolts which some of them held in their talons: thus they would hurl disaster directly at Pompey before flying off to Caesar…. For a different force … Heaven, and he held it in slight esteem, and so into war … settled down to battle.[97]
[-36-] Both had in addition to their citizen and mercenary troops many of the natives and many Moors. For Bocchus[98] had sent his sons to Pompey and Bogud in person accompanied Caesar’s force. Still, the contest turned out to be like a struggle of the Romans themselves, not of any other nations. Caesar’s soldiers derived courage from their numbers and experience and above all from their leader’s presence and so were anxious to be done with the war and its attendant miseries. Pompey’s men were inferior in these respects, but, strong through their despair of safety, should they fail to conquer, continued zealous.[99] Inasmuch as the majority of them had been captured with Afranius and Varro, had been spared, and delivered afterward to Longinus, from whom they had revolted, they had no hope of safety if they were beaten, and as a result of this were drawn toward desperation, feeling that they needed to be of good cheer at that particular time or else perish utterly. So the armies came together and began the battle. They had no longer any dread of each other, since they had been so many times opposed in arms, and for that reason required no urging. [-37-] In the course of the engagement the allied forces on both sides quickly were routed and fled; but the main bodies struggled in close combat to the utmost in their resistance of each other. Not a man of them would yield. They remained in position, wreaking slaughter and being slain, as if each separate man was to be responsible to all the rest as well for the outcome of victory or defeat. Consequently they were not concerned to see how their allies were battling but set to work as if they alone were engaged. Neither sound of paean nor groan was to be heard from any one of them: both sides limited their shouts to “Strike! Kill!”, while their acts easily outran their speech. Caesar and Pompey, who saw this from horseback on certain elevated positions, felt little inclination to either hope or despair, but torn with doubts were equally distressed by confidence and fear. The battle was so nearly balanced that they suffered tortures at the sight, straining to spy out some advantage, and quivering lest they descry some setback. Their souls were filled with prayers for success and against misfortune, and with alternating strength and fear. In fact, not being able to endure it long, they leaped from their horses and joined the combat. Apparently they preferred a participation involving personal exertion and danger rather than tension of spirit, and each hoped by associating in the fight to turn the scale somehow in favor of his own soldiers. Or, if they failed of that, they were content to meet death, side by side with them.
[-38-] The generals, then, took part in the battle themselves. This movement, however, resulted in no advantage to either army. On the contrary,–when the men saw their chiefs sharing their danger, a far greater disregard for their own death and eagerness for the destruction of their opponents seized both alike. Accordingly neither side for the moment turned to flight: matched in determination, they found their persons matched in power. All would have perished, or else at nightfall they would have parted with honors even, had not Bogud, who was somewhere outside the press, made an advance upon Pompey’s camp, whereupon Labienus, seeing it, left his station to proceed against him. Pompey’s men, interpreting this as flight, lost heart. Later they doubtless learned the truth but could no longer retrieve their position. Some escaped to the city, some to the fortification. The latter body vigorously fought off attacks and fell only when surrounded, while the former for a long time kept the wall safe, so that it was not captured till all of them had perished in sallies. So great was the total loss of Romans on both sides that the victors, at a loss how to wall in the city to prevent any running away in the night, actually heaped up the bodies of the dead around it.
[-39-] Caesar, having thus conquered, took Corduba at once. Sextus had retired from his path, and the natives, although their slaves, who had purposely been made free, offered resistance, came over to his side. He slew those under arms and obtained money by the sale of the rest. The same course he adopted with those that held Hispalis, who at first, pretending to be willing, had accepted a garrison from him, but later massacred the soldiers that had come there, and entered upon a course of warfare. In his expedition against them his rather careless conduct of the siege caused them some hope of being able to escape. So then he allowed them to come outside the wall, where he ambushed and destroyed them, and in this way captured the town, which was soon destitute of male defenders. Next he acquired and levied money upon Munda and the other places, some that were unwilling with great slaughter and others of their own accord. He did not even spare the offerings to Hercules, consecrated in Gades, and he detached special precincts from some towns and laid an added tribute upon others. This was his course toward those who had opposed him; but to those who displayed any good-will toward him he granted lands and freedom from taxation, to some, moreover, citizenship, and to others the right to be considered Roman colonies; he did not, however, grant these favors for nothing.
[-40-] While Caesar was thus occupied, Pompey, who had escaped in the rout, reached the sea, intending to use the fleet that lay at anchor in Carteia, but found that it had espoused the victor’s cause. He endeavored to embark in a boat, expecting to obtain safety thereby. In the course of the attempt, however, he was roughly handled and in dejection came to land again, where, taking some men that had assembled, he set out for the interior. Pompey himself met defeat at the hands, of Caesennius[100] Lento, with whom he fell in: he took refuge in a wood, and was there killed. Didius, ignorant of the event, while wandering about to join him met some other enemies and perished.
[-41-] Caesar, too, would doubtless have chosen to fall there, at the hands of those who were still resisting and in the glory of war, in preference to the fate he met not long after, to be cut down in his own land and in the senate, at the hands of his best friends. For this was the last war he carried through successfully, and this the last victory that he won in spite of the fact that there was no project so great that he did not hope to accomplish it. In this belief he was strengthened not only by other reasons but most of all because from a palm that stood on the site of the battle a shoot grew out immediately after the victory.
And I will not assert that this had no bearing in some direction; it was, however, no longer for him, but for his sister’s grandson, Octavius: the latter made the expedition with him, and was destined to shine forth brightly from his toils and dangers. As Caesar did not know this, hoping that many great additional successes would fall to his own lot he acted in no moderate fashion, but was filled with loftiness as if immortal. [-42-] Though it was no foreign nation he had conquered, but a great mass of citizens that he had destroyed, he not only personally directed the triumph, incidentally regaling the entire populace again, as if in honor of some common blessing, but also allowed Quintus Fabius and Quintus Pedius to hold a festival. [101] Yet they had merely been his lieutenants and had achieved no individual success. Naturally some laughter was caused by this, as well as by the fact that he used wooden instead of ivory instruments, and representations of certain actions, and other such triumphal apparatus. Nevertheless, most brilliant triple fetes and triple processions of the Romans were held in connection with those very things, and furthermore a hallowed period of fifty days was observed. The Parilia[102] was honored by a perpetual horse-race, yet not at all because the city had been founded on that day, but because the news of Caesar’s victory had arrived the day before, toward evening.
[-43-] Such was his gift to Rome. For himself he wore the triumphal garb, by decree, in all assemblages and was adorned with the laurel crown always and every-where alike. The excuse that he gave for it was that his forehead was bald; and this had some show of reason from the very fact that at the time, though well past youth, he still bestowed attention on his appearance. He showed among all men his pride in rather foppish clothing, and the footwear which he used later on was sometimes high and of a reddish color, after the style of the kings who had once lived in Alba, for he assumed that he was related to them on account of Iulus. To Venus he was, in general, devoted body and soul and he was anxious to persuade everybody that he had received from her a kind of bloom of youth. Accordingly he used also to carry about a carven image of her in full armor and he made her name his watchword in almost all the greatest dangers. The looseness of his girdle[103] Sulla had looked askance at, insomuch that he wished to kill him, and declared to those who begged him off: “Well, I will grant him to you, but do you be on your guard, without fail, against this ill-girt fellow.” Cicero could not comprehend it, but even in the moment of defeat said: “I should never have expected one so ill-girt to conquer Pompey.”
[-44-] This I have written by way of digression from story, so that no one might be ignorant of the stories about Caesar.–In honor of the victory the senate passed all of those decrees that I have mentioned, and further called him “liberator”, inscribed it in the records, and publicly voted for a temple of Liberty. To him first and for the first time, they then, applied, as a term of special significance, the title “imperator,”–not merely according to ancient custom any longer, as others besides Caesar had often been saluted as a result of wars, nor even as those who have received some independent command or other authority were called, but, in short, it was this title which is now granted to those who hold successively the supreme power. And so great an excess of flattery did they employ as even to vote that his children and grandchildren should be so called, though he had no child and was already an old man. From him this title has come down to all subsequent imperatores, as something peculiar to their office, even as in Caesar’s case. The ancient custom has not, however, been thereby overthrown. Each of the two titles exists. Consequently they are invested with it a second time, when they gain some such victory as has been mentioned. Those who are imperatores in the limited sense use the appellation once, as they do others, and indeed before others: whatever rulers in addition accomplish in war any deed worthy of it acquire also the name handed down by ancient custom, so that a man is termed imperator a second and a third time, and oftener, as frequently as he can bestow it upon himself.
These privileges they granted then to Caesar, as well as a house, so that he might live in state-property, and a special period of festival whenever any victory took place and whenever there were sacrifices for it, even if he had not been with the expedition nor in general had any hand in the achievement.[104] [-45-] Still, those measures, even if they seemed to them immoderate and out of the usual order, were not, so far, undemocratic. But they passed the following decrees besides, by which they declared him sovereign out and out. They offered him the magistracies, even those belonging to the people, and elected him consul for ten years, as they previously had dictator. They ordered that he alone should have soldiers, and alone administer the public funds, so that no one else was allowed to employ either of them, save whom he might permit. And they commanded at that time that an ivory statue of him, but later that a whole chariot should be escorted at the horse-races along with the likenesses of the gods. Another image they set up in the temple of Quirinus with the inscription: “to the invincible god”, and another on the Capitol beside the former kings of Rome. It occurs to me really to marvel at the coincidence: there were eight such images–seven to the kings, and an eighth to the Brutus that overthrew the Tarquins–besides this one, when they set up the statue of Caesar; and it was from this cause chiefly that Marcus Brutus was stirred to conspire against him.
[-46-] These were the measures that were ratified because of victory,–I am not mentioning all, but as many as I have seemed to me notable,–not on one day, but just as it happened, one at one time, another at another. Some of them Caesar began to render operative, and of others he intended to make use in the future, no matter how much he put aside some of them. Now the office of consul he took up immediately, even before entering the city, but did not hold it continuously.
[B.C. 45 (_a.u._ 709)]
When he got to Rome he renounced it, delivering it to Quintus Fabius and Graius Trebonius. When Fabius on the last day of his consulship died, he straightway chose instead of him another, Gaius Caninius Rebilus for the remaining hours. Then for the first time, contrary to precedent, it became possible for the same man to hold that office neither annually, nor for all the time left in the same year, but while living to withdraw from it without compulsion from either ancestral custom or any accusation, and for another one to take his place. In the second place the circumstances were unique, because Caninius at once was appointed consul, and ceased to serve. On this, Cicero jestingly said that the consul had displayed so great bravery and prudence in office, as never to fall asleep in it for the briefest moment. So from that period on the same persons no longer (save a few in olden times), served as consul through the entire year, but just as it happened,–some for more time, some for less, some for months, others for days–since now no one serves with any one else, as a rule, for a whole year or for a longer period than two months. In general we do not differ from our ancestors, but the naming of the years for purposes of enumeration falls to those who are consuls at the start. Accordingly I shall in most cases name those officials closely connected with events, but to secure perfect clearness with regard to what is done from time to time I shall mention also those first to serve, even if they make no contribution to the undertakings in question.
[-47-] Whereas the consuls were thus disposed of, the remaining magistrates were nominally elected by the plebs and by the populace, in accord with ancient customs (for Caesar would not accept the appointment of them), but really by him, and without the casting of lots they were sent out among the provinces. As for number, all were the same as before, except that thirteen praetors and forty quaestors were appointed. For, since he had made many promises to many people, he had no other way to redeem them, and that accounts for his actions. Furthermore he enrolled a vast number in the senate, making no distinction, whether a man were a soldier, or a child of one enslaved, so that the sum of them grew to nine hundred: and he enrolled many among the patricians and among the ex-consuls or such as had held some office. When some were tried for bribery and convicted he released them, so that he was charged with bribe-taking himself. This report was strengthened by the fact that he also exposed[105] in the market all the public lands, not only the profane, but also the consecrated lots, and auctioned off the majority of them. Nevertheless to some persons he granted ample gifts in the form of money or the sale of lands; and to a certain Lucius Basilus[106] he allowed no rulership of a province, though the latter was praetor, but bestowed a large amount of money in place of it, so that Basilus became notorious both in this matter and because when insulted in the course of his praetorship by Caesar he stood his ground.[107]
All this suited those citizens who were making or expecting to make corrupt gain, since they reverenced no element of the public weal in comparison with bettering themselves by such acts. But all the rest took it greatly to heart, and had much to say about it to intimates and also (as many as felt safe in so doing) in outspoken public conversation and the publication of anonymous pamphlets.
[-48-] Not only were those measures carried out that year, but two of the aediles took charge of the municipal government, since no quaestor had been elected. For just as once formerly, so now in the absence of Caesar, the aediles managed all the city affairs, in conjunction with Lepidus as master of the horse. Although they were censured for employing lictors and magisterial garb and chair precisely like the master of the horse, they got off by citing a certain law, which allowed all those receiving any office from a dictator to make use of such things. The business of administration, changed from that time for the reasons I have mentioned, was no longer invariably laid upon the quaestors, but was finally assigned to ex-praetors. Two of the aediles managed at that time the public treasures, and one of them, by provision of Caesar, superintended the Ludi Apollinares. The aediles of the populace directed the Megalesia, by decree. A certain prefect, appointed during the Feriae, himself chose a successor on the last day, and the latter another: this had never happened before, nor did it happen again.
[B.C. 44 (_a.u._ 710)]
[-49-] The next year after these events during which Caesar was at once dictator for the fifth time, taking Lepidus as master of the horse, and consul for the fifth time, choosing Antony as colleague, sixteen praetors were in power–this custom indeed has remained[108] for many years–and the rostra, which was formerly in the center of the Forum, was moved back to its present position: also the images of Sulla and of Pompey were restored to it. For this Caesar received praise, and again because he put upon Antony both the glory of the deed and credit for the inscription on the image. Being anxious to build a theatre, as Pompey had done, he laid the first foundations, but did not finish it. Augustus later completed it and named it for his nephew, Marcus Marcellus. But Caesar was blamed for tearing down the dwellings and temples on the site, and likewise because he burned up the statues,–all of wood, save a few,–and because on finding considerable treasures of money he appropriated them all.
[-50-] In addition, he introduced laws and extended the pomerium, his behavior in these and other matters resembling that of Sulla. Caesar, however, removed the ban from the survivors of those that had warred against him, granting them immunity with fair and equal terms; he promoted them to office; to the wives of the slain he restored their dowries, and to their children granted a share in the property, thus putting mightily to shame Sulla’s blood-guiltiness; so that he himself enjoyed a great repute not alone for bravery, but also for uprightness, though it is generally difficult for the same man to be eminent in peace as well as in war. This was a source of pride to him, as was the fact that he had raised again Carthage and Corinth. To be sure, there were many other cities in and outside of Italy, some of which he had built afresh, and some which he had newly founded. Others, however, had done that: it remained for him to restore, in memory of their former inhabitants, Corinth and Carthage, ancient, brilliant, conspicuous, ruined cities: one of them he declared a Roman colony, and colonized, and the other he honored with its ancient titles, bearing no grudge for the enmity of their peoples toward places that had never harmed them.
[-51-] And they, even as they had once been demolished together, now revived together and bade fair to flourish once again. But while Caesar was so engaged, a longing came over all the Romans alike to avenge Crassus and those that perished with him: there was some hope then, if ever, of subjugating the Parthians. The command of the war they unanimously voted to Caesar, and made ample provision for it. They arranged, among other details, that he should have a larger number of assistants, and that the city should neither be without officials in his absence, nor by attempting to choose some on its own responsibility fall into factions: also that such magistrates should be appointed in advance for three years (this was the length of time they thought necessary for the campaign). However, they did not designate them all beforehand. Nominally Caesar was to choose half of them, having a certain legal right to do this, but really he chose the whole number. For the first year, as previously, forty quaestors were elected, and then for the first time two patrician aediles and four from the people. Of the latter two have their title from Ceres,–a custom which, then introduced, has remained to the present day. Praetors were nominated to the number of eleven. It is not on this, however, that I desire to lay emphasis (for they had formerly been as many), but on the fact that among them was chosen Publius Ventidius. He was originally from Picenum, as has been remarked, and fought against Rome when her allies were alienated. He was captured by Pompeius Strabo,[109] and in the latter’s triumph marched in chains. Later he was released; some time after he was enrolled in the senate, and was now appointed praetor by Caesar; by degrees he advanced to such prominence as to conquer the Parthians and hold a triumph over them.
All those who were to hold office the first year after that were appointed in advance, but for the second year the consuls and tribunes only: and no one got any closer than this to being nominated for the third year. Caesar himself intended to be dictator both years, and designated Octavius in advance as master of the horse for the second, though he was at that time a mere lad. For the time being, while this was going on, Caesar appointed Dolabella consul in his own stead, leaving Antony to finish the year out in office. To Lepidus he assigned Gallia Narbonensis with the adjoining portions of Spain, and made two men masters of horse in their place, each separately. Owing, as he did, favors to many persons he repaid them by such appointments as these and by priesthoods, adding one to the “Quindecimviri”, and three others to the “Septemviri,” as they were called.
DIO’S ROMAN HISTORY
44
The following is contained in the Forty-fourth of Dio’s Rome.
About the decrees passed in honor of Caesar (chapters 1-11).
About the conspiracy formed against him (chapters 12-18).
How Caesar was murdered (chapters 19-22).
How a decree was passed that the people should not bear malice against one another (chapters 23-34).
About the burial of Caesar and the oration delivered over him (chapters 35-53).
Duration of time, to the end of the 5th dictatorship of Julius Caesar, held in company with Aemilius Lepidus as Master of the Horse, and to the end of his 5th consulship, shared with Marcus Antonius. (B.C. 44 = a.u. 710).
(_BOOK 44, BOISSEVAIN_.)
[B.C. 44 (_a.u._ 710)]
[-1-] This Caesar did as a preliminary step to making a campaign against the Parthians, but a baleful frenzy which fell upon certain men through jealousy of his onward progress and hatred of his being esteemed above others caused the death of the leader by unlawful means, while it added a new name to the annals of infamy; it scattered decrees to the winds and brought upon the Romans seditions again and civil wars after a state of harmony. They declared that they had proved themselves both destroyers of Caesar and liberators of the people, but in fact their plot against him was one of fiendish malice, and they threw the city into disorder when at last it possessed a stable government. [-2-] Democracy has a fair appearing name which conveys the impression of bringing equal rights to all from equal laws, but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, strikes the ear unpleasantly, but is a very excellent government to live under. It is easier to find one single excellent man than many, and if even this seems to some a difficult feat, it is quite inevitable that the other proposition be acknowledged to be impossible; for the acquirement of virtue is not a characteristic of the majority of men. And again, even though one reprobate should obtain supreme power, yet he is preferable to a multitude of such persons, as the history of the Greeks and barbarians and of the Romans themselves proves. For successes have always been greater and more in number in the case both of cities and of individuals under kings than under popular rule, and disasters do not happen so easily in monarchies as in ochlocracies. In cases where a democracy has flourished anywhere, it has nevertheless reached its prime during a short period when the people had neither size nor strength that abuses should spring up among them from good fortune or jealousies from ambition. For a city so large as this, ruling the finest and the greatest part of the known world, containing men of many and diverse natures, holding many huge fortunes, occupied with every imaginable pursuit, enjoying every imaginable fortune, both individually and collectively,–for such a city to practice moderation under a democracy is impossible, and still more is it impossible for the people, unless moderation prevails, to be harmonious. If Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius had stopped to think this over they would never have killed the city’s head and protector nor have made themselves the cause of countless ills both to their own persons and to all the rest of mankind then existing.
[-3-] It happened as follows, and his death was due to the cause I shall presently describe. He had not aroused dislike without any definite justification, except in so far as it was the senators themselves who had by the novelty and excess of their honors sent his mind soaring; and then, after filling him with conceit, they found fault with his prerogatives and spread injurious reports to the effect that he was glad to accept them and behaved more haughtily as a result of them. It is true that sometimes Caesar erred by accepting some of the honors voted him and believing that he really deserved them, yet most blameworthy are those who, after beginning to reward him as he deserved, led him on and made him liable to censure by the measures that they voted. He neither dared to thrust them all aside, for fear of being thought contemptuous, nor could he be safe when he accepted them. Excess in honors and praises renders conceited even the most modest, especially if such rewards appear to have been given with sincerity. [-4-] The privileges that were granted him (in addition to all those mentioned) were of the following number and kinds. They will be stated all together, even if they were not all moved or ratified at one time. First, then, they voted that he should always appear even in the city itself wearing the triumphal garb and should sit in his chair of state everywhere except at festivals. At that time he got the right to be seen on the tribune’s benches and in company with those who were successively tribunes. And they gave him the right to offer the so-called _spolia opima_ at the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, as if he had slain some hostile general with his own hand, and to have lictors that always carried laurel, and after the Feriae Latinae to ride from Albanum to the city mounted on a charger. In addition to these remarkable privileges they named him father of his country, stamped his image on the coinage, voted to celebrate his birthday by public sacrifice, ordered that there be some statue of him in the cities and all the temples of Rome, and they set on the rostra two, one representing him as the savior of the citizens and the other as the rescuer of the city from siege, along with the crowns customary for such achievements. They also passed a resolution to build a temple of Concordia Nova, on the ground that through his efforts they enjoyed peace, and to celebrate an annual festival in her honor. [-5-] When he had accepted these, they assigned to him the charge of filling the Pontine marshes, cutting a canal through the Peloponnesian isthmus, and constructing a new senate-house, since that of Hostilius although repaired had been demolished. The reason given for that action was that a temple of Good Fortune might be built there, which Lepidus, indeed, while master of the horse had completed: but the real intention was that the name of Sulla should not be preserved in it and that another senate-house, newly constructed, might be named the Julian, just as they had called the month in which he was born July, and one of the tribes (selected by lot) the Julian. And Caesar himself, they voted, should be sole censor for life and enjoy the immunities bestowed upon the tribunes, so that if any one should outrage him by deed or word, that man should be an outlaw and involved in the curse, and further that his son, should he beget or adopt one, was to be appointed high priest. [-6-] As he seemed to like this, a gilded chair was granted him, and a garb that once the kings had used and a body-guard of knights and senators: furthermore they decided that prayers should be made for him publicly every year, that they would swear by his Fortune and that all the deeds he was yet to do should receive confirmation. Next they bestowed upon him a quinquennial festival, as to a hero, and managers of sacred rites for the festival of naked boys in Pan’s honor,[110] constituting a third priestly college which they called the Julian, and on the occasion of all combats in armor one special day of his own each time both in Rome and the rest of Italy. When he showed himself pleased at this, too, then they voted that his gilded chair and crown set with precious gems and overlaid with gold should be carried into the theatre on an equal footing with those of the gods, and that on the occasion of the horse-races his chariot should be brought in. And finally they addressed him outright as Julian Jupiter and ordered a temple to be consecrated to him and to his Clemency, electing Antony as their priest like some Dialis.
[-7-] At the same time with these measures they passed another which well indicated their disposition. It gave him the right to place his tomb within the pomerium; and the decrees regarding this matter they inscribed with gold letters on silver tablets and deposited beneath the feet of the Capitoline Jupiter, thus pointing out to him very clearly that he was a man. When they began to honor him it was with the idea that he would be reasonably modest; but as they went on and saw that he was delighted at what they voted,–he accepted all but a very few of their gifts,–various men kept at different times proposing various greater marks of esteem, all in excess, some as an act of extreme flattery toward him, and others as one of sarcastic ridicule. Actually some dared to suggest permitting him to have intercourse with, as many women[111] as he liked, because even at this time, though fifty years old, he still had numerous mistresses. Others, and the majority, followed the course mentioned because they wished to make him envied and disliked as quickly as possible, that he might the sooner perish. Of course precisely that happened, though Caesar took courage on account of these very measures to believe that he would never be plotted against by the men who had voted him such honors, nor by any one else, because they would prevent it; and in consequence from this time he dispensed with a bodyguard. Nominally he accepted the privilege of being watched over by the senators and knights and thus did away with his previous guardians. [-8-] Once on a single day they had passed in his honor an unusually large number of decrees of especially important character, that had been voted unanimously by all the rest except Cassius and a few others, who became notorious for this action: yet they suffered no harm, a fact which conspicuously displayed their ruler’s clemency. So, then, they approached him as he was sitting in the fore-part of the temple of Venus with the intention of announcing to him in a body their decisions;–such business they transacted in his absence, in order to have the appearance of doing it not under compulsion but voluntarily. And either by some Heaven-sent fatuity or through excess of joy he received them sitting, an act which aroused so great indignation among them all, not only senators but all the rest, that it afforded his slayers one of their chief excuses for their plot against him. Some who subsequently tried to defend him said that owing to diarrhoea he could not control the movement of his bowels and had remained where he was in order to avoid a flux.
They were not able, however, to persuade the majority, since not long after this he arose and walked home without assistance; hence most men suspected him of being inflated with pride and hated him for his supercilious behavior, when it was they themselves who had made him disdainful by the extreme nature of their honors. After this occurrence suspicion was increased by the fact that somewhat later he submitted to being made dictator for life.
[-9-] When he had reached this point, the conduct of the men plotting against him became no longer doubtful, and in order to embitter even his best friends against him they did their best to traduce the man and finally called him “king,”–a name which was often heard in their consultations. When he refused the title and rebuked in a way those that so saluted him, yet did nothing by which he could be thought to be really displeased at it, they secretly adorned his statue, which stood on the rostra, with a diadem. And when Gaius Epidius Marullus and Lucius Caesetius Flavus, tribunes, took it down, he became thoroughly angry, although they uttered no insulting word and furthermore spoke well of him before the people as not desiring anything of the sort.[-10-] At this time, though vexed, he remained quiet; subsequently, however, when