[Footnote 33: Cicero, whose praise of Caesar as a writer has been
shared by many readers since his time, described Caesar's works as
"unadorned, straightforward, and elegant, their ornament being stript
off as it were a garment." Caesar did his work so well that "he has
deterred all men of sound taste from touching him."]
[Footnote 34: From Book IV of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War."
Translated by McDivett and W. S. Bohn. The site of this bridge is
believed to be in the neighborhood of Cologne.]
[Footnote 35: The Suevi were migratory Germans who, in Caesar's time,
occupied the eastern banks of the Rhine in and about the present
country of Baden.]
[Footnote 36: From Book V of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War."]
[Footnote 37: The Belgae comprised various tribes that lived between
the Seine and the Rhine and were the most warlike of the Gauls.]
[Footnote 38: Caesar's error here has often been commented on, Spain
lying to the south, rather than to the west, of Britain.]
[Footnote 39: Now known as the Isle of Man.]
[Footnote 40: Cassivelaunus was a chieftain of the Britons who had
been entrusted with the supreme command against Caesar. His own
territory lay north of the Thames.]
[Footnote 41: Bede, the learned Benedictine, who lived in the eighth
century, says that, in his time, remains of these stakes were still to
be seen.]
[Footnote 42: These people occupied what are now the counties of Essex
and Middlesex.]
[Footnote 43: The translator notes that Tacitus has remarked that
Britain was surveyed, rather than conquered, by Caesar. He gives the
honor of its real conquest to his own father-in-law, Agricola. While
the Roman armies "owe much to the military virtues of Agricola as
displayed in England, Caesar," adds the translator, "did what no one
had done before him; he levied tribute upon the Britons and
effectually paved the way for all that Rome subsequently accomplished
in this island."]
[Footnote 44: From Book II of the "Commentaries on the Gallic War."]
[Footnote 45: The Nervii were one of the Belgic tribes and are
understood to have been the most warlike of them all.]
[Footnote 46: From Book III of the "Commentaries on the Civil War."
Pharsalia is a district of Thessaly in Greece. Caesar's army numbered
22,000 legionaries and 1,000 cavalry; Pompey's, 45,000 legionaries and
7,000 cavalry.]
[Footnote 47: Pompey's army having been recruited from aristocratic
families and their dependents, was not so much accustomed to the
severities of war as were the soldiers of Caesar, recruited largely
from the populace.]
[Footnote 48: The modern Durazzo, a seaport on the Adriatic in
Albania. It was founded by colonies from Corfu about 625 B.C. and
became important afterward as a terminus of one of the great Roman
roads. Pompey here defeated Caesar a short time before he was himself
defeated at Pharsalia.]
[Footnote 49: Caesar on this occasion is said to have advised his
soldiers to aim at the faces of Pompey's cavalry, who, being composed
principally of the young noblemen of Rome, dreaded a scar in the face
more than death itself.]
[Footnote 50: Amphipolis, a city of Macedonia, originally Thracian,
but colonized from Athens. It was situated three miles inland from the
AEgean Sea.]
[Footnote 51: Mitylene was the capital of the island of Lesbos, and an
important maritime power in ancient times.]
[Footnote 52: Arrowsmith describes Antioch as, not only the capital of
Syria, but at one time of Western Asia. It was for years the third
city of the world in beauty, size, and population. It was here that
the followers of Christ first received the name of Christians (in A.D.
39), having before been called Nazarenes and Galileans. In a
neighboring grove stood a famous temple to Apollo and Diana.]
[Footnote 53: Rhodes is the largest island in the AEgean Sea after
Crete and Euboea. Its capital, having the same name and situated
near the northern end of the island, was famous for a bronze statue of
the sun called the Colossus, which was one of the "seven wonders of
the world."]
[Footnote 54: Pelusium was an ancient city of Egypt, situated in the
delta of the Nile, strongly fortified and regarded as the gate to
Egypt, on its eastern frontier. It lay in the midst of marshes formed
by the overflow of the river, and continued its importance, in a
military sense, until the waters of the river found their way into the
Damietta branch.]
[Footnote 55: Ptolemy XII, who came to the throne of Egypt co-jointly
with his sister Cleopatra in 51 B.C. He expelled Cleopatra in 49, and
in 48 Caesar reinstated her. In the war which ensued, he was defeated
and drowned in the Nile.]
[Footnote 56: Gabinius was a Roman tribune who had proposed the
statute bearing his name which gave to Pompey command of the
Mediterranean coast for the suppression of pirates.]
[Footnote 57: Alexandria was founded in 331 B.C. by Alexander the
Great. Its principal street, 2,000 feet wide, was adorned with "some
of the most costly edifices and structures of marble which perhaps the
world ever saw." Many of these marbles were subsequently taken to Rome
and Constantinople. Alexandria for a long period was the center of
commerce for all merchandise passing between Europe and the East. As a
city of learning, it possest a famous library, which at one period
comprized 700,000 volumes.]