CONCLUSION.
Having concluded his ten short chapters descriptive of the ten books of
the Commentaries written by Cæsar himself, the author of this little
Volume has finished his intended task,--and as he is specially anxious
not to be thought to have made an attempt at writing history, he would
not add any concluding words, were it not that three other Commentaries
of Cæsar’s three other wars were added to Cæsar’s Commentaries by other
writers. There is the Commentary on the Alexandrine war,--written
probably by Hirtius, the author of the last book of the Gallic war; and
two Commentaries on the African war and the Spanish war,--written, as
the critics seem to think, by one Oppius, a friend whom Cæsar loved and
trusted. The Alexandrine war was a war of itself, in which Cæsar was
involved by his matchless audacity in following Pompey into Egypt, and
perhaps by the sweetness of Cleopatra’s charms. And this led also to a
war in Asia Minor, the account of which is included with that of his
Egyptian campaign. The African war, and that afterwards carried on in
Spain with the object of crushing out the sparks of Pompeian revolt
against his power, are simply the latter portions of the civil war, and
their records might have been written as chapters added to the
Commentary “De Bello Civili.”
Alexandria, when Cæsar landed there in pursuit of Pompey and had offered
to him as a graceful tribute on his first arrival the head of his
murdered rival, was a city almost as populous and quite as rich as Rome;
and in the city, and throughout the more fertile parts of Egypt, there
was a crowd of Roman soldiers left there to support and to overawe the
throne of the Ptolemies. Cæsar, with hardly more than half a full legion
to support him, enters Alexandria as though obedience were due to him by
all in Egypt as Roman consul. He at once demands an enormous sum of
money, which he claims as due to himself personally for services
rendered to a former Ptolemy; he takes possession of the person of
Ptolemy the young king,--and is taken possession of by Cleopatra, the
young king’s sister, who was joint-heir with her brother to the throne.
In all his career there was perhaps nothing more audacious than his
conduct in Egypt. The Alexandrians, or rather perhaps the Roman army in
Egypt under the leading of the young king’s satraps, rise against Cæsar,
and he is compelled to fortify himself in the town. He contrives,
however, to burn all the Egyptian fleet, and with it unfortunately the
royal library, as we were told by himself at the end of the last
Commentary. He at length allows Ptolemy to go, giving him back to the
Egyptians, and thinking that the young king’s presence may serve to
allay the enmity of the Alexandrians. The young king wept at leaving
Cæsar, and declared that even his own kingdom was not so dear to him as
the companionship of Cæsar. But the crafty false-faced boy turns against
Cæsar as soon as he is free to do so. Cæsar never was in greater danger;
and as one reads one feels one’s self to be deprived of the right to say
that no more insane thing was ever done than Cæsar did when he swaggered
into Alexandria without an army at his back,--only by the remembrance
that Cæsar was Cæsar. First, because he wanted some ready money, and
secondly, because Cleopatra was pretty, Cæsar nearly lost the world in
Egypt.
But there comes to his help a barbarian ally,--a certain Mithridates of
Pergamus, a putative son of the great Mithridates of Pontus. Mithridates
brings an army to Cæsar’s rescue, and does rescue him. A great battle is
fought on the Nile,--a battle which would have been impossible to Cæsar
had not Mithridates come to his aid,--and the Egyptians are utterly
dispersed. Young Ptolemy is drowned; Cleopatra is settled on her throne;
and Egypt becomes subject to Cæsar. Then Cæsar hurries into Asia,
finding it necessary to quell the arrogance of a barbarian who had dared
to defeat a Roman general. The unfortunate conqueror is Pharnaces, the
undoubted son of Mithridates of Pontus. But Cæsar comes, and sees, and
conquers. He engages Pharnaces at Zela, and destroys his army; and then,
we are told, inscribed upon his banners those insolent words--“Veni,
vidi, vici.” He had already been made Dictator of the Roman Empire for
an entire year, and had revelled with Cleopatra at Alexandria, and was
becoming a monarch.
These were the campaigns of the year 47 B.C., and the record of them is
made in the Commentary “De Bello Alexandrino.”
In the mean time things have not been going altogether smoothly for
Cæsar in Italy, although his friends at Rome have made him Dictator. His
soldiers have mutinied against their officers, and against his
authority; and a great company of Pompeians is collected in that
province of Africa in which poor Curio was conquered by Juba,--when Juba
had Roman senators walking in his train, and Cæsar’s army was destroyed.
The province called by the name of Africa lay just opposite to Sicily,
and was blessed with that Roman civilisation which belonged to the
possessions of the Republic which were nearest to Rome, the great centre
of all things. It is now the stronghold of the Republican faction,--as
being the one spot of Roman ground in which Cæsar had failed of success.
Pompey, indeed, is no more, but Pompey’s two sons are here,--and Scipio,
Pompey’s father-in-law, whom Pompey had joined with himself in the
command at Pharsalus. Labienus is here, who, since he turned from Cæsar,
has been more Pompeian than Pompey himself; and Afranius, to whom Cæsar
was so kind in Spain; and Petreius and King Juba,--of whom a joint story
has yet to be told; and Varus, who held the province against Curio;--and
last of all there is that tower of strength, the great Cato, the most
virtuous and impracticable of men, who, in spite of his virtue, is
always in the wrong, and of whom the world at large only remembers that
he was fond of wine, and that he destroyed himself at Utica.
They are all at Utica,--and to them for the present Utica is Rome. They
establish a Senate; and Scipio, who is unworthy of the great name he
bears, and is incompetent as a general, is made commander-in-chief,
because Cato decides that law and routine so require. Scipio had been
consul,--had been joint commander with Pompey,--and his rank is the
highest. The same argument had been used when he was joined in that
command,--that it was fitting that such power should be given to him
because he was of consular rank. The command of the Republican fleet had
been intrusted to Bibulus on the same ground. We never hear of Cæsar so
bestowing promotion. He indeed is now and again led away by another
fault, trusting men simply because he loves them,--by what we may call
favouritism,--as he did when he allowed Curio to lose his army in
Africa, and thus occasioned all this subsequent trouble. As we read of
Scipio’s rank we remember that we have heard of similar cause for
ill-judged promotion in later times. The Pompeians, however, collect an
enormous army. They have ten Roman legions, and are supported, moreover,
by the whole force of King Juba. This army, we are told, is as numerous
as that which Pompey commanded at Pharsalus. There is quarrelling among
them for authority; quarrelling as to strategy; jealousy as to the
barbarian, with acknowledged inability to act without him;--and the
reader feels that it is all in vain. Cæsar comes, having quelled the
mutiny of his own old veterans in Italy by a few words. He has gone
among them fearing nothing; they demand their discharge--he grants it.
They require the rewards which they think to be their due, and he tells
them that they shall have their money,--when he has won it with other
legions. Then he addresses them not as soldiers, but as
“citizens”--“Quirites;” and that they cannot stand; it implies that they
are no longer the invincible soldiers of Cæsar. They rally round him;
the legions are re-formed, and he lands in Africa with a small army
indeed,--at first with little more than three thousand men,--and is
again nearly destroyed in the very first battle. But after a few months
campaigning the old story has to be told again. A great battle is fought
at Thapsus, a year and five months after that of Pharsalia, and the
Republic is routed again and for ever. The commentator tells us that on
this occasion the ferocity of Cæsar’s veterans was so great, that by no
entreaties, by no commands, could they be induced to cease from the
spilling of blood.
But of the destruction of the leaders separate stories are told us. Of
Cato is the first story, and that best known to history. He finds
himself obliged to surrender the town of Utica to Cæsar; and then, “he
himself having carefully settled his own affairs, and having commended
his children to Lucius Cæsar, who was then acting with him as his
quæstor, with his usual gait and countenance, so as to cause no
suspicion, he took his sword with him into his bedroom when it was his
time to retire to rest,--and so killed himself.” Scipio also killed
himself. Afranius was killed by Cæsar’s soldiers. Labienus, and the two
sons of Pompey, and Varus, escaped into Spain. Then comes the story of
King Juba and Petreius. Juba had collected his wives and children, and
all his wealth of gold and jewels and rich apparel, into a town of his
called Zama; and there he had built a vast funeral-pile, on which, in
the event of his being conquered by Cæsar, he intended to
perish,--meaning that his wives and children and dependants and rich
treasures should all be burned with him. So, when he was defeated, he
returned to Zama; but his wives and children and dependants, being less
magnificently minded than their king, and knowing his royal purpose, and
being unwilling to become ornaments to his euthanasia, would not let him
enter the place. Then he went to his old Roman friend Petreius, and they
two sat down together to supper. Petreius was he who would not allow
Afranius to surrender to Cæsar at Lerida. When they have supped, Juba
proposes that they shall fight each other, so that one at least may die
gloriously. They do fight, and Petreius is quickly killed. “Juba being
the stronger, easily destroyed the weaker Petreius with his sword.” Then
the barbarian tried to kill himself; but, failing, got a slave to finish
the work. The battle of Thapsus was fought, B.C. 47. Numidia is made a
province by Cæsar, and so Africa is won. We may say that the Roman
Republic died with Cato at Utica.
The Spanish war, which afforded matter for the last Commentary, is a
mere stamping out of the embers. Cæsar, after the affair in Africa, goes
to Rome; and the historian begins his chronicle by telling us that he is
detained there “muneribus dandis,”--by the distribution of
rewards,--keeping his promise, no doubt, to those veterans whom he won
back to their military obedience by calling them “Quirites,” or Roman
citizens.[13] The sons of Pompey, Cnæus and Sextus, have collected
together a great number of men to support their worn-out cause, and we
are told that in the battle of Munda more than 30,000 men perished. But
that was the end of it. Labienus and Varus are killed; and the historian
tells us that a funeral was made for them. One Scapula, of whom it is
said that he was the promoter of all this Spanish rebellion, eats his
supper, has himself anointed, and is killed on his funeral-pile. Cnæus,
the elder son of Pompey, escapes wounded, but at last is caught in a
cave, and is killed. Sextus, the younger, escapes, and becomes a leading
rebel for some years longer, till at last he also is killed by one of
Antony’s officers.
This Commentary is ended, or rather is brought to an untimely close, in
the middle of a speech which Cæsar makes to the inhabitants of
Hipsala,--Seville,--in which he tells them in strong language how well
he behaves to them, and how very badly they have behaved to him. But we
reach an abrupt termination in the middle of a sentence.
After the battle of Munda Cæsar returned to Rome, and enjoyed one year
of magnificent splendour and regal power in Rome. He is made Consul for
ten years, and Dictator for life. He is still high priest, and at last
is called King. He makes many laws, and perhaps adds the crowning jewel
to his imperishable diadem of glory by reforming the calendar, and
establishing a proper rotation of months and days, so as to comprise a
properly-divided year. But as there is no Commentary of this year of
Cæsar’s life, our readers will not expect that we should treat of it
here. How he was struck to death by Brutus, Cassius, and the other
conspirators, and fell at the foot of Pompey’s statue, gathering his
garments around him gracefully, with a policy that was glorious and
persistent to the last, is known to all men and women.
“Then burst his mighty heart;
And in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey’s statua,
Which all the while ran blood, Great Cæsar fell.”
That he had done his work, and that he died in time to save his name and
fame from the evil deeds of which unlimited power in the State would too
probably have caused the tyrant to be guilty, was perhaps not the least
fortunate circumstance in a career which for good fortune has been
unequalled in history.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] There is an eighth book, referring to an eighth and ninth
campaign, but it is not the work of Cæsar.
[2]
Cœlo tonantem credidimus Jovem
Regnare; præsens Divus habebitur Augustus.
[3] The words are taken from Dean Merivale’s history.
[4] She was that wife who was false with Clodius, and whom Cæsar
divorced, declaring that Cæsar’s wife must not even be suspected. He
would not keep the false wife; neither would he at that moment take
part in the accusation against Clodius, who was of his party, and
against whom such accusation backed by Cæsar would have been fatal.
The intrusion of the demagogue into Cæsar’s house in the pursuit of
Cæsar’s wife during the mysteries of the Bona Dea became the subject
of a trial in Rome. The offence was terrible and was notorious.
Clodius, who was hated and feared by the patricians, was a favourite
with the popular party. The offender was at last brought to trial, and
was acquitted by venal judges. A word spoken by the injured husband
would have insured his condemnation, but that word Cæsar would not
speak. His wife he could divorce, but he would not jeopardise his
power with his own party by demanding the punishment of him who had
debauched her.
[5] Nipperdeius.
[6] These people were the descendants of those Cimbri who, half a
century before, had caused such woe to Rome! The Cimbri, we are
told, had gone forth from their lands, and had been six times
victorious over Roman armies, taking possession of “our Province,” and
threatening Italy and Rome. The whole empire of the Republic had been
in danger, but was at last saved by the courage, skill, and rapidity
of Marius. In going forth from their country they had left a remnant
behind with such of their possessions as they could not carry with
them; and these Aduatici were the children and grandchildren of that
remnant. Cæsar doubtless remembered it all.
[7] And Cæsar was no doubt indignant as well as earnest, though,
perhaps, irrational in his indignation. We know how sacred was held to
be the person of the Roman citizen, and remember Cicero’s patriotic
declaration, “Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum,--scelus verberari;”
and again, the words which Horace puts into the mouth of Regulus when
he asserts that the Roman soldier must be lost for ever in his shame,
and useless, “Qui lora restrictis lacertis Sensit iners timuitque
mortem.”
[8] Cæsar speaks of the confluence of the Rhine and the “Mosa” as the
spot at which he drove the Germans into the river,--and in various
passages, speaking of the Mosa, clearly means the Meuse. It appears,
however, to be the opinion of English scholars who have studied the
topography of Cæsar’s campaigns with much labour, that the confluence
of the Moselle and Rhine, from which Coblentz derives its name, is the
spot intended. Napoleon, who has hardly made himself an authority on
the affairs of Cæsar generally, but who is thought to be an authority
in regard to topography, holds to the opinion that the site in Holland
is intended to be described. Readers who are anxious on the subject
can choose between the two; but readers who are not anxious will
probably be more numerous.
[9] “Hostium numerus capitum CDXXX millium fuisset,” from which words
we are led to suppose that there were 180,000 fighting men, besides
the women and children.
[10] All well-instructed modern Britons have learned from the old
authorities that the Briton war-chariots were furnished with scythes
attached to the axles,--from Pomponius Mela, the Roman geographer,
and from Mrs Markham, among others. And Eugene Sue, in his novel
translated into English under the name of the ‘Rival Races,’ explains
how the Bretons on the other side of the water, in the Morbihan, used
these scythes; and how, before a battle with Cæsar’s legions, the
wives of the warriors arranged the straps so that the scythes might be
worked from the chariot like oars from a boat. But Cæsar says nothing
of such scythes, and surely he would have done so had he seen them.
The reader must choose between Cæsar’s silence and the authority of
Pomponius Mela, Mrs Markham, and Eugene Sue.
[11] The Tribunes of the people were officers elected annually to act
on behalf of the people as checks on the magistracy of the Republic,
and were endowed with vast powers, which they were presumed to use
for the protection of liberty. But the office of Tribune had become
degraded to party purposes, as had every other office of the state.
[12] Dean Merivale in his account of this affair reduces the number
of holes in Scæva’s shield to one hundred and twenty,--on the joint
authority, no doubt, of Florus and Valerius Maximus; but Florus lived
200 and Val. Max. 300 years after Cæsar. Suetonius allows the full
number of holes, but implies that 120 were received while the warrior
was fighting in one place, and 110 while fighting in another. Lucan
sings the story of Scæva at great length, but does not give the number
of wounds in the shield. He seems to say that Scæva was killed on this
occasion, but is not quite clear on the point. That Scæva had one eye
knocked out is certain. Lucan does indeed tell us, in the very last
lines of his poem, that in Egypt Cæsar once again saw his beloved
centurion;--but at the moment described even Cæsar was dismayed, and
the commentators doubt whether it was not Scæva’s ghost that Cæsar
then saw. Valerius Maximus is sure that Scæva was killed when he got
the wounds;--but, if so, how could he have been rewarded and promoted?
The matter has been very much disputed; but here it has been thought
best to adhere to Cæsar.
[13] Not in the Commentary, but elsewhere, we learn that he now
triumphed four times, for four different victories, taking care to
claim none for any victory won over Roman soldiers. On four different
days he was carried through the city with his legions and his spoils
and his captives. His first triumph was for the Gallic wars; and on
that day Vercingetorix, the gallant Gaul whom we remember, and who
had now been six years in prison, was strangled to do Cæsar honour.
I think we hate Cæsar the more for his cruelty to those who were not
Romans, because policy induced him to spare his countrymen.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Commentaries of Caesar, by Anthony Trollope