but it did not suit his plans to go to that distant country. He
preferred to remain at Rome, where he thought that he might do
something that would establish his influence with the people, and give
him the advantage over his colleagues that they were each seeking to
get over him. In order to court popularity, he built the first stone
theatre that Rome had ever seen, capable of accommodating the enormous
number of forty thousand spectators, and opened it with a splendid
exhibition (B.C. 55). [Footnote: This theatre was built after the model
of one that Pompey had seen at Mitylene, and stood between the Campus
Martius and Circus Flaminius. Adjoining it was a hall affording shelter
for the spectators in bad weather, in which Julius Cæsar was
assassinated. The Roman theatres had no roofs, and, in early times, no
seats. At this period there were seats of stone divided by broad
passages for the convenience of the audience in going in and out. A
curtain, which was drawn down instead of up, served to screen the
actors from the spectators. Awnings were sometimes used to protect the
audience from rain and sun. A century before this time the Senate had
stopped the construction of a theatre, and prohibited dramatic
exhibitions as subversive of good morals. The actors usually wore
masks. See page 159.] Day after day the populace were admitted, and on
each occasion new games and plays were prepared for their
gratification. For the first time a rhinoceros was shown; eighteen
elephants were killed by fierce Libyan hunters, and five hundred
African lions lost their lives in the combats to which they were
forced; the vehement, tragic actor Æsopus, then quite aged, came out of
his retirement for the occasion, and uttered his last words on the
stage, the juncture being all the more remarkable from the fact that
his strength failed him in the midst of a very emphatic part; gymnasts
contended, gladiators fought to the death, and the crowd cheered, but,
alas for Pompey! the cheers expressed merely temporary enjoyment at the
scenes before them, and did not at all indicate that he had been
received to their hearts.
Crassus, in the meantime, was thinking that he too must accomplish
something great or he would be left behind by both of his associates.
He reflected that Cæsar had won distinction in Gaul, and Pompey by
overcoming the pirates and conquering the East, and determined to show
his skill as a warrior in his new province, Parthia. There was no cause
for war against the people of that distant land, but a cause might
easily be found, or a war begun without one, the great object aimed at
being the extension of the sovereignty of Rome, and marking the name of
Crassus high on the pillar of fame. This would surely, he thought, give
him the utmost popularity. Thus, in the year 54, he set out for Syria,
and the world saw each of the triumvirs busily engaged in pushing his
own cause in his own way. Ten years later not one of them was alive to
enjoy that which they had all so earnestly sought.
[Illustration: AN ELEPHANT IN ARMOR]
It is not necessary to follow Crassus minutely in his campaign. He
spent a winter in Syria, and in the spring of 53 set out for the still
distant East, crossing the Euphrates, and plunging into the desert
wastes of old Mesopotamia, where he was betrayed into the hands of the
enemy, and lost, not far from Carrhæ (Charran or Haran), the City of
Nahor, to which the patriarch Abraham migrated with his family from Ur
of the Chaldees. Thus there remained but two of the three ambitious
seekers of popular applause.
Pompey had been in some degree attached to Cæsar through his daughter
Julia, whom he had married; but she died in the same year that Crassus
went to the East, and from that time he gravitated toward the
aristocrats, with whom his former affiliations had been. The ten years
of Cæsar's government were to expire on the 1st of January, 48, and it
became important for him to obtain the office of consul for the
following year; but the senate and Pompey were equally interested to
have him deprived of the command of the army before receiving any new
appointment. The reason for this was that Cato [Footnote: This Cato was
great-grandson of Cato the Censor (see page 152), was a man who
endeavored to remind the world constantly of his illustrious descent by
imitating the severe independence of his great ancestor, and by
assuming marked peculiarity of dress and behavior. His life, blighted
by an early disappointment in love, was unfortunate to the last. He was
a consistent, but often ridiculous, leader of the minority opposed to
the triumvirs.] had declared that as soon as Cæsar should become a
private citizen he would bring him to trial for illegal acts of which
his enemies accused him; and it was plain to him, no less than to all
the world, that if Pompey were in authority at the time, conviction
would certainly follow such a trial. One of Cicero's correspondents
said on this subject: "Pompey has absolutely determined not to allow
Cæsar to be elected consul on any terms except a previous resignation
of his army and his government, while Cæsar is convinced that he must
inevitably fall if he has once let go his army."
In the year 50, Cæsar went into Cisalpine Gaul, that is, into the
region which is now known as Northern Italy, and was received as a
great conqueror. He then went over the mountains to Farther Gaul and
reviewed his army--the army that he had so often led to victory. He did
not lose sight of the fact that it was now, more than ever before,
necessary for him to have some one in Rome who would look out for his
interests in his absences, and he bethought himself of a man whom he
had known from his youth, Caius Scribonius Curio by name, a spendthrift
whom he had vainly tried to inspire with higher ambition than the mere
gratification of his appetites. He was married to Fulvia, a scheming
woman of light character, widow of Clodius (who afterwards become wife
of Marc Antony), and he was harassed by enormous debts. Though Curio
was allied to the party of Pompey, Cæsar won him over by paying his
debts, [Footnote: The debts of this young man have been estimated as
high as $2,500,000, and their vastness shows by contrast how wealthy
private citizens sometimes became at this epoch.] and he then began
cautiously to turn his back upon his former associates. At first, he
pretended to act against Cæsar as usual; then he cautiously assumed the
appearance of neutrality; and, when the proper opportunity arrived, he
threw all the weight of his influence in favor of the master to whom he
had sold himself. Curio was not the only person whom Cæsar bought, for
he distributed immense sums among other citizens of influence, as he
had not hesitated to do before, and they quietly interposed objections
to any movement against him, though outwardly holding to Pompey's
party.
The senate, assisted by the solemn jugglery of the pontiffs, who had
charge of the calendar and were accustomed to shorten or lengthen the
year according as their political inclinations impelled them, proposed
to weaken Cæsar's position by obliging him to resign his authority
November 13th, though his term did not expire, as we know, until the
following January.
Under these circumstances, Curio, then one of the tribunes of the
people, began his tactics by plausibly urging that it would be only
fair that Pompey, who was not far from the city at the head of an army,
should also give up his authority at the same time before entering the
city. Pompey had no intention of doing this, though everybody saw that
it was reasonable, and Curio took courage and went a step farther,
denouncing him as evidently designing to make himself tyrant.
[Footnote: A tyrant was simply a ruler with dictatorial powers, and it
was not until he abused his authority that he became the odious
character indicated by the modern meaning of the title; but any thing
that looked like a return to the government of a king was hateful to
the Romans.] However, in order to keep up his appearance of
impartiality, he approved a declaration that unless both generals
should lay down their authority, they ought to be denounced as public
enemies, and that war should be immediately declared against them.
Pompey became indignant at this. Finally it was decided that each
commander should be ordered to give up one legion, to be used against
the Parthians, in a war which it was pretended would soon open. Pompey
readily assented, but craftily managed to perform his part without any
loss; for he called upon Cæsar to return to him a legion that he had
borrowed three years before. The senate then sent both legions to Capua
instead of to Asia, intending, in due time, to use them against Cæsar.
Cæsar gave up the two legions willingly, because he thought that with
the help of the army that remained, and with the assistance of the
citizens whom he had bribed, he would be able to take care of himself
in any emergency, but nevertheless he endeavored to bind the soldiers
of these legions more firmly to him by giving a valuable present to
each one as he went away. [Footnote: One of Cicero's correspondents
writing in January, 50, says in a postscript: "I told you above that
Curio was freezing, but he finds it warm enough just at present,
everybody being hotly engaged in pulling him to pieces. Just because he
failed to get an intercalary month, without the slightest ado he has
stepped over to the popular side, and begun to harangue in favor of
Cæsar." In replying to this, Cicero wrote: "The paragraph you added was
indeed a stab from the point of your pen. What! Curio now become a
supporter of Cæsar. Who could ever have expected this but myself? for,
upon my life, I really did expect it. Good heavens! how I miss our
laughing together over it." ] Not long after this Curio went to Ravenna
to consult Cæsar.
We see on our maps a little stream laid down as the boundary between
Italy and Gaul. It is called the Rubicon; but when we go to Italy and
look for the stream itself we do not find it so easily, because there
are at least two rivers that may be taken for it. However, it is not of
much importance for the purposes of history which was actually the
boundary. North of the Rubicon we see the ancient city of Ravenna,
which stood in old times like Venice, on islands, and like it was
intersected in all directions by canals through which the tide poured
volumes of purifying salt water twice every day. Now the canals are all
filled up, and the city is four miles from the sea, so large have been
the deposits from the muddy waters that flow down the rivers into the
Adriatic at that place. Thirty-three miles south of Ravenna and nine
miles from the Rubicon, the map shows us another ancient town called
Ariminum. connected directly with Rome by the Flaminian road, which was
built some two hundred years before the time of which we are writing.
Ravenna was the last town in the territory of Cæsar on the way to Rome,
and there he took his position to watch proceedings, for it was not
allowed him to leave his province.
[Illustration: ITALIAN AND GERMAN ALLIES, COMSTUMES, AND ARMOR.]
On the first of January, 49, Curio arrived at Rome with a letter from
Cæsar offering to give up his command provided Pompey would do the
same. The consuls at that time were partisans of Pompey, and they at
first refused to allow the letter to be read; but the tribunes of the
people were in favor of Cæsar, and they forced the senators to listen
to it. A violent debate followed, and it was finally voted that unless
Cæsar should disband his army within a certain time he should be
considered an enemy of the state, and be treated accordingly. On the
sixth of the same month the power of dictators was given to the
consuls, and the two tribunes who favored Cæsar--one of whom was Marc
Antony--fled to him in disguise, for there was no safety for them in
Rome.
Now there was war. On the one side we have Pompey, proud and confident,
but unprepared because he was so confident; and on the other, Cæsar,
cool and unperturbed, relying not only on his army, but also upon the
friends that his money and tact had made among the soldiers with him,
no less than among those at Capua and elsewhere, upon which his
opponent also depended.
The moment is one that has been fixed in the memory of men for all time
by a proverbial expression based upon an apochryphal event that might
well have happened upon the banks of the little Rubicon. As soon as
Cæsar heard of the action of the senate he assembled his soldiers and
asked them if they would support him. They replied that they would
follow him wherever he commanded. The story runs that he then ordered
the army to advance upon Ariminum, but that when he arrived at the
little dividing river he ordered a halt, and meditated upon his course.
He knew that when he crossed that line blood would surely flow from
thousands of Romans, and he asked himself whether he was right in
bringing such woes upon his countrymen, and how his act would be
represented in history.
It is not improbable that the great conqueror entertained thoughts like
these, for he was a writer of history as well as one of the mightiest
makers of it; but he mentions nothing of the sort in his own story of
the advance, and we may well doubt whether it was not invented by
Suetonius, or some other historian, who wished to make his account as
picturesque as possible. It is said that after these thoughts Cæsar
exclaimed: "The die is cast; let us go where the gods and the injustice
of our enemies direct us!" He then urged his charger through the
stream.
There had been confusion in the capital many a time before, but
probably never was there such a commotion as arose when it was known
that the conqueror of Gaul, the man who had for years marched through
that great region as a mighty monarch, was on the way towards it. That
the consuls were endowed with dictatorial power for the emergency,
availed little. A few days before, some one had asked Pompey what he
should do for an army if Cæsar should leave his province with his
soldiers, and he replied haughtily that he should need but to stamp on
the ground and soldiers would spring up. Now he stamped, and stamped in
vain; no volunteers came at his call. The venerable senators,
successors of those who had remained in their seats when the barbarians
were coming, hastened away for dear life; they did not make the usual
sacrifices; they did not take their goods and chattels; they even
forgot the public treasure, which would have been of the utmost use to
them and to the cause of Pompey.
Cæsar's army supported him as a whole, but there was one self-important
man among the leaders of it who proved an exception. Titus Labienus,
who had been with Cæsar in Spain, who had performed some brilliant
feats when Vercingetorix revolted, and who was in all his master's
confidence, had allowed his little mind to become filled with pride and
ambition until he began to believe that he was at the bottom of Cæsar's
success, and probably as great a general as he! He was ready to allow
the Pompeians to beguile him from his allegiance, and at last went over
to them. Cæsar, to show how little he cared for the defection of
Labienus, hastened to send his baggage after him; but in Rome he was
welcomed with acclamations. Cicero, the trimmer, exclaimed: "Labienus
has behaved quite like a hero!" and believed that Cæsar had received a
tremendous blow by his defection. This deserter's act had, however, no
effect whatever on the progress of Cæsar, who, though it was the middle
of winter, marched onwards, receiving the surrender of city after city,
giving to all the conquered citizens the most liberal terms, and thus
binding them firmly to his cause. [Footnote: As Cæsar approached Rome,
Cato took flight, and, determined to mourn until death the unhappy lot
of his country, allowed his hair to grow, and resigned himself to
unavailing grief. Too weak and perplexed to stand against opposing
troubles, he fondly thought that resolutions and laws and a temporizing
policy might avail to bring happiness and order to a distraught
commonwealth.]
Pompey did not even attempt to interrupt the triumphant career of his
enemy, but determined to find safety out of Italy, and hastened to
Brundusium as fast as possible. After mastering the whole country,
Cæsar reached the same port before Pompey was able to get away, and
began a siege, in the progress of which Pompey escaped. Cæsar was not
able to follow, on account of a want of vessels. He therefore turned
back to Rome, where he encountered no opposition, except from Metellus,
a tribune of the people, who attempted to keep him from taking
possession of the gold in the temple of Saturn, traditionally supposed
to have been that which Camillus had recovered from Brennus. It was
intended for use in case the Gauls should make another invasion, but
Cæsar said that he had conquered the Gauls, and they need be feared no
more. "Stand aside, young man!" he exclaimed; "it is easier for me to
do than to say!" Metellus saw that it was not worth while to discuss
the question with such a man, and prudently stepped aside.
Cæsar did not remain at Rome at this time, but hastened to Spain, where
partisans of Pompey were in arms, leaving Marc Antony in charge of
Italy in general, and Marcus Lepidus responsible for order in the city.
Both of these men were destined to become more prominent in the future.
At the same time, legions were sent to Sicily and Sardinia, and their
success, which was easily gained, preserved the city from a scarcity of
grain. Cæsar himself overcame the Pompeians in Spain, and, in
accordance with his policy in Italy, dismissed them unharmed. Most of
their soldiers were taken into his own army. He then felt free to
continue his movements against Pompey himself, and returned to the
capital.
For eleven days Cæsar was dictator of Rome, receiving the office from
Lepidus, who had been authorized to give it by those senators who had
not fled with Pompey. In that short period he passed laws calling home
the exiles; giving back their rights as citizens to the children of
those who had suffered in the Sullan proscription; and affording relief
to debtors. Then, causing the senate to declare him consul, he started
for Brundusium to pursue his rival. It was the fourth of January, 48,
when he sailed for the coast of Epirus, and the following day he landed
on the soil of Greece. He met Pompey at Dyrrachium, but his force was
so small that he was defeated. He then retreated to the southeast, and
another battle was fought on the plain of Pharsalia, in Thessaly, June
6, 48. The forces were still very unequal, Pompey having more than two
soldiers to one of Cæsar's; but Cæsar's were the better warriors, and
Pompey was totally defeated. Feeling that every thing was now lost,
Pompey sought an asylum in Egypt; and there he was assassinated by
order of the reigning monarch, who hoped to win the favor of Cæsar in
his contest with his sister, Cleopatra, who claimed the throne.
Cæsar followed his adversary with his usual promptness, and when he had
reached Egypt was shown his rival's severed head, from which he turned
with real or feigned sadness and tears. This alarmed the king and his
partisans, and they still further lost heart when Cleopatra won Cæsar
to her support by the charms of her personal beauty.
After a brief struggle known as the Alexandrine War, which closed in
March, 47, Cæsar placed the queen and her brother on the throne. It was
at this time that the great Library and Museum at Alexandria were
destroyed by fire. Four hundred thousand volumes were said to have been
burned. The next month Cæsar was called from Egypt to Pontus, where a
son of Mithridates was in arms, and, after a campaign of five days, he
gained a decisive victory at a place called Zela, boastfully announcing
his success to the senate in three short words: "_Veni, vidi, vici_"
(I came, I saw, I overcame). In September, Cæsar was again in Rome,
where he remained only three months, arranging affairs. There were
fears lest he should make a proscription, but he proceeded to no such
extremity, exercising his characteristic clemency towards those who had
been opposed to him. A revolt occurred at this time among the soldiers
at Capua, and they marched to Rome, but Cæsar cowed them by a display
of haughty coolness.
The remnant of the adherents of Pompey gathered together and went to
Africa, whither Cæsar followed, and after a short campaign defeated
them on the field of Thapsus, April 6, 46. They were commanded by
Scipio, father-in-law of Pompey, and by Cato, who had accepted the
position after it had been declined by Cicero, his superior in rank.
After the defeat of Thapsus Cato retreated to Utica, where he
deliberately put an end to his life after occupying several hours in
reading Plato's _Phædo_, a dialogue on the immortality of the
soul. From the place of his death he is known in history as Cato of
Utica.
When the news of this final victory reached Rome Cæsar was appointed
dictator for ten years, and a thanksgiving lasting forty days was
decreed. He was also endowed with a newly created office-that of
Overseer of Public Morals (_Præfectus Morum_). Temples and statues
were dedicated to his honor; a golden chair was assigned for his use
when he sat in the senate; the month Quintilis was renamed after him
Julius (July); and other unheard of honors were thrust upon him by a
servile senate. He was also called the Father of his Country (a title
that had been before borne by Camillus and Cicero), and four triumphs
were celebrated for him. On his own part, Cæsar feasted the people at
twenty-two thousand tables, and caused combats of wild animals and
gladiators to be celebrated in the arenas beneath awnings of the
richest silks.
The great conqueror now prepared to carry out schemes of a beneficent
nature which would have been of great value to the world; but their
achievement was interfered with, first by war and then by his own
death. He intended to unify the regions controlled by the republic by
abolishing offensive political distinctions, and to develop them by
means of a geographical survey which would have occupied years to
complete under the most competent management; and he wished to codify
the Roman law, which had been growing up into a universal
jurisprudence, a work which Cicero looked upon as a hopeless though
brilliant vision, and one that Justinian actually accomplished, though
not until six hundred years later. He contemplated also the erection of
vast public works. His knowledge of astronomy led him to accomplish one
important change, for which we have reason to remember him to-day. He
reformed the calendar, substituting the one used until 1582 (known from
him as the Julian calendar) for that which was then current. [Footnote:
The Gregorian calendar was introduced in the Catholic states of Europe
in 1582, but owing to popular prejudice England did not begin to use it
until 1752, in which year September 3d became, by act of Parliament,
September 14th. Usage in America followed that of the mother country.]
Three hundred and fifty-five days had been called a year from the time
of Numa Pompilius, but as that number did not correspond with the
actual time of the revolution of the earth around the sun, it had been
customary to intercalate a month, every second year, of twenty-two and
twenty-three days alternately, and one day had also been added to make
a fortunate number. This made the adaptation of the nominal year to the
actual a matter of great intricacy, the duty being intrusted to the
chief pontiffs. These officers were often corrupted, and managed to
effect political ends from time to time by the addition or omission of
the intercalary days and months. At this time the civil calendar was
some weeks in advance of the actual time, so that the consuls, for
example, who should have entered office January 1, 46, really assumed
their power October 13, 47. The Julian calendar made the year to
consist of 365 days and six hours, which was correct within a few
minutes; but, by the time of Pope Gregory XIII, this had amounted to
ten days, and a new reform was instituted. Cæsar now added ninety days
to the year in order to make the year 45 begin at the proper time,
inserting a new month between the 23d and 24th of February, and adding
two new months after the end of November, so that the long year thus
manufactured (445 days) was very justly called the "year of confusion",
or "the last year of confusion."