CAESAR

After Sylla became master of Rome, he wished to make Caesar put

away his wife Cornelia, daughter of Cinna, the late sole ruler

of the commonwealth, but was unable to effect it either by

promises or intimidation, and so contented himself with

confiscating her dowry. The ground of Sylla's hostility to

Caesar, was the relationship between him and Marius; for Marius,

the elder, married Julia, the sister of Caesar's father, and had

by her the younger Marius, who consequently was Caesar's first

cousin. And though at the beginning, while so many were to be

put to death and there was so much to do, Caesar was overlooked

by Sylla, yet he would not keep quiet, but presented himself to

the people as a candidate for the priesthood, though he was yet

a mere boy. Sylla, without any open opposition, took measures

to have him rejected, and in consultation whether he should be

put to death, when it was urged by some that it was not worth

his while to contrive the death of a boy, he answered, that they

knew little who did not see more than one Marius in that boy.

Caesar, on being informed of this saying, concealed himself, and

for a considerable time kept out of the way in the country of

the Sabines, often changing his quarters, till one night, as he

was removing from one house to another on account of his health,

he fell into the hands of Sylla's soldiers, who were searching

those parts in order to apprehend any who had absconded.

Caesar, by a bribe of two talents, prevailed with Cornelius,

their captain, to let him go, and was no sooner dismissed but he

put to sea, and made for Bithynia. After a short stay there

with Nicomedes, the king, in his passage back he was taken near

the island Pharmacusa by some of the pirates, who, at that time,

with large fleets of ships and innumerable smaller vessels

infested the seas everywhere.

When these men at first demanded of him twenty talents for his

ransom, he laughed at them for not understanding the value of

their prisoner, and voluntarily engaged to give them fifty. He

presently dispatched those about him to several places to raise

the money, till at last he was left among a set of the most

bloodthirsty people in the world, the Cilicians, only with one

friend and two attendants. Yet he made so little of them, that

when he had a mind to sleep, he would send to them, and order

them to make no noise. For thirty-eight days, with all the

freedom in the world, he amused himself with joining in their

exercises and games, as if they had not been his keepers, but

his guards. He wrote verses and speeches, and made them his

auditors, and those who did not admire them, he called to their

faces illiterate and barbarous, and would often, in raillery,

threaten to hang them. They were greatly taken with this, and

attributed his free talking to a kind of simplicity and boyish

playfulness. As soon as his ransom was come from Miletus, he

paid it, and was discharged, and proceeded at once to man some

ships at the port of Miletus, and went in pursuit of the

pirates, whom he surprised with their ships still stationed at

the island, and took most of them. Their money he made his

prize, and the men he secured in prison at Pergamus, and made

application to Junius, who was then governor of Asia, to whose

office it belonged, as praetor, to determine their punishment.

Junius, having his eye upon the money, for the sum was

considerable, said he would think at his leisure what to do with

the prisoners, upon which Caesar took his leave of him, and went

off to Pergamus, where he ordered the pirates to be brought

forth and crucified; the punishment he had often threatened them

with whilst he was in their hands, and they little dreamed he

was in earnest.

In the meantime Sylla's power being now on the decline, Caesar's

friends advised him to return to Rome, but he went to Rhodes,

and entered himself in the school of Apollonius, Molon's son, a

famous rhetorician, one who had the reputation of a worthy man,

and had Cicero for one of his scholars. Caesar is said to have

been admirably fitted by nature to make a great statesman and

orator, and to have taken such pains to improve his genius this

way, that without dispute he might challenge the second place.

More he did not aim at, as choosing to be first rather amongst

men of arms and power, and, therefore, never rose to that height

of eloquence to which nature would have carried him, his

attention being diverted to those expeditions and designs, which

at length gained him the empire. And he himself, in his answer

to Cicero's panegyric on Cato, desires his reader not to compare

the plain discourse of a soldier with the harangues of an orator

who had not only fine parts, but had employed his life in this

study.

When he was returned to Rome, he accused Dolabella of

maladministration, and many cities of Greece came in to attest

it. Dolabella was acquitted, and Caesar, in return for the

support he had received from the Greeks, assisted them in their

prosecution of Publius Antonius for corrupt practices, before

Marcus Lucullus, praetor of Macedonia. In this cause he so far

succeeded, that Antonius was forced to appeal to the tribunes

at Rome, alleging that in Greece he could not have fair play

against Grecians. In his pleadings at Rome, his eloquence soon

obtained him great credit and favor, and he won no less upon the

affections of the people by the affability of his manners and

address, in which he slowed a tact and consideration beyond what

could have been expected at his age; and the open house he kept,

the entertainments he gave, and the general splendor of his

manner of life contributed little by little to create and

increase his political influence. His enemies slighted the

growth of it at first, presuming it would soon fail when his

money was gone; whilst in the meantime it was growing up and

flourishing among the common people. When his power at last was

established and not to be overthrown, and now openly tended to

the altering of the whole constitution, they were aware too

late, that there is no beginning so mean, which continued

application will not make considerable, and that despising a

danger at first, will make it at last irresistible. Cicero was

the first who had any suspicions of his designs upon the

government, and, as a good pilot is apprehensive of a storm when

the sea is most smiling, saw the designing temper of the man

through this disguise of good-humor and affability, and said,

that in general, in all he did and undertook, he detected the

ambition for absolute power, "but when I see his hair so

carefully arranged, and observe him adjusting it with one

finger, I cannot imagine it should enter into such a man's

thoughts to subvert the Roman state." But of this more

hereafter.

The first proof he had of the people's good-will to him, was

when he received by their suffrages a tribuneship in the army,

and came out on the list with a higher place than Caius

Popilius. A second and clearer instance of their favor appeared

upon his making a magnificent oration in praise of his aunt

Julia, wife to Marius, publicly in the forum, at whose funeral

he was so bold as to bring forth the images of Marius, which

nobody had dared to produce since the government came into

Sylla's hands, Marius's party having from that time been

declared enemies of the State. When some who were present had

begun to raise a cry against Caesar, the people answered with

loud shouts and clapping in his favor, expressing their joyful

surprise and satisfaction at his having, as it were, brought up

again from the grave those honors of Marius, which for so long a

time had been lost to the city. It had always been the custom

at Rome to make funeral orations in praise of elderly matrons,

but there was no precedent of any upon young women till Caesar

first made one upon the death of his own wife. This also

procured him favor, and by this show of affection he won upon

the feelings of the people, who looked upon him as a man of

great tenderness and kindness of heart. After he had buried his

wife, he went as quaestor into Spain under one of the praetors,

named Vetus, whom he honored ever after, and made his son his

own quaestor, when he himself came to be praetor. After this

employment was ended, he married Pompeia, his third wife, having

then a daughter by Cornelia, his first wife, whom he afterwards

married to Pompey the Great. He was so profuse in his expenses,

that before he had any public employment, he was in debt

thirteen hundred talents, and many thought that by incurring

such expense to be popular, he changed a solid good for what

would prove but short and uncertain return; but in truth he was

purchasing what was of the greatest value at an inconsiderable

rate. When he was made surveyor of the Appian Way, he

disbursed, besides the public money, a great sum out of his

private purse; and when he was aedile, be provided such a number

of gladiators, that he entertained the people with three hundred

and twenty single combats, and by his great liberality and

magnificence in theatrical shows, in processions, and public

feastings, he threw into the shade all the attempts that had

been made before him, and gained so much upon the people, that

everyone was eager to find out new offices and new honors for

him in return for his munificence.

There being two factions in the city, one that of Sylla, which

was very powerful, the other that of Marius, which was then

broken and in a very low condition, he undertook to revive this

and to make it his own. And to this end, whilst he was in the

height of his repute with the people for the magnificent shows

he gave as aedile, he ordered images of Marius, and figures of

Victory, with trophies in their hands, to be carried privately

in the night and placed in the capitol. Next morning, when some

saw them bright with gold and beautifully made, with

inscriptions upon them, referring them to Marius's exploits over

the Cimbrians, they were surprised at the boldness of him who

had set them up, nor was it difficult to guess who it was. The

fame of this soon spread and brought together a great concourse

of people. Some cried out that it was an open attempt against

the established government thus to revive those honors which had

been buried by the laws and decrees of the senate; that Caesar

had done it to sound the temper of the people whom he had

prepared before, and to try whether they were tame enough to

bear his humor, and would quietly give way to his innovations.

On the other hand, Marius's party took courage, and it was

incredible how numerous they were suddenly seen to be, and what

a multitude of them appeared and came shouting into the capitol.

Many, when they saw Marius's likeness, cried for joy, and Caesar

was highly extolled as the one man, in the place of all others,

who was a relation worthy of Marius. Upon this the senate met,

and Catulus Lutatius, one of the most eminent Romans of that

time, stood up and inveighed against Caesar, closing his speech

with the remarkable saying, that Caesar was now not working

mines, but planting batteries to overthrow the state. But when

Caesar had made an apology for himself, and satisfied the

senate, his admirers were very much animated, and advised him

not to depart from his own thoughts for anyone, since with the

people's good favor he would erelong get the better of them all,

and be the first man in the commonwealth.

At this time, Metellus, the High-Priest, died, and Catulus and

Isauricus, persons of the highest reputation, and who had great

influence in the senate, were competitors for the office; yet

Caesar would not give way to them, but presented himself to the

people as a candidate against them. The several parties seeming

very equal, Catulus, who, because he had the most honor to lose,

was the most apprehensive of the event, sent to Caesar to buy

him off, with offers of a great sum of money. But his answer

was, that he was ready to borrow a larger sum than that, to

carry on the contest. Upon the day of election, as his mother

conducted him out of doors with tears, after embracing her, "My

mother," he said, "today you will see me either High-Priest, or

an exile." When the votes were taken, after a great struggle,

he carried it, and excited among the senate and nobility great

alarm lest he might now urge on the people to every kind of

insolence. And Piso and Catulus found fault with Cicero for

having let Caesar escape, when in the conspiracy of Catiline he

had given the government such advantage against him. For

Catiline, who had designed not only to change the present state

of affairs, but to subvert the whole empire and confound all,

had himself taken to flight, while the evidence was yet

incomplete against him, before his ultimate purposes had been

properly discovered. But he had left Lentulus and Cethegus in

the city to supply his place in the conspiracy, and whether they

received any secret encouragement and assistance from Caesar is

uncertain; all that is certain, is, that they were fully

convicted in the senate, and when Cicero, the consul, asked the

several opinions of the senators, how they would have them

punished, all who spoke before Caesar sentenced them to death;

but Caesar stood up and made a set speech, in which he told

them, that he thought it without precedent and not just to take

away the lives of persons of their birth and distinction before

they were fairly tried, unless there was an absolute necessity

for it; but that if they were kept confined in any towns of

Italy Cicero himself should choose, till Catiline was defeated,

then the senate might in peace and at their leisure determine

what was best to be done.

This sentence of his carried so much appearance of humanity, and

he gave it such advantage by the eloquence with which he urged

it, that not only those who spoke after him closed with it, but

even they who had before given a contrary opinion, now came over

to his, till it came about to Catulus's and Cato's turn to

speak. They warmly opposed it, and Cato intimated in his speech

the suspicion of Caesar himself, and pressed the matter so

strongly, that the criminals were given up to suffer execution.

As Caesar was going out of the senate, many of the young men who

at that time acted as guards to Cicero, ran in with their naked

swords to assault him. But Curio, it is said, threw his gown

over him, and conveyed him away, and Cicero himself, when the

young men looked up to see his wishes, gave a sign not to kill

him, either for fear of the people, or because he thought the

murder unjust and illegal. If this be true, I wonder how Cicero

came to omit all mention of it in his book about his consulship.

He was blamed, however, afterwards, for not having made use of

so fortunate an opportunity against Caesar, as if he had let it

escape him out of fear of the populace, who, indeed, showed

remarkable solicitude about Caesar, and some time after, when he

went into the senate to clear himself of the suspicions he lay

under, and found great clamors raised against him, upon the

senate in consequence sitting longer than ordinary, they went up

to the house in a tumult, and beset it, demanding Caesar, and

requiring them to dismiss him. Upon this, Cato, much fearing

some movement among the poor citizens, who were always the first

to kindle the flame among the people, and placed all their hopes

in Caesar, persuaded the senate to give them a monthly allowance

of corn, an expedient which put the commonwealth to the

extraordinary charge of seven million five hundred thousand

drachmas in the year, but quite succeeded in removing the great

cause of terror for the present, and very much weakened Caesar's

power, who at that time was just going to be made praetor, and

consequently would have been more formidable by his office.

But there was no disturbance during his praetorship, only what

misfortune he met with in his own domestic affairs. Publius

Clodius was a patrician by descent, eminent both for his riches

and eloquence, but in licentiousness of life and audacity

exceeded the most noted profligates of the day. He was in love

with Pompeia, Caesar's wife, and she had no aversion to him.

But there was strict watch kept on her apartment, and Caesar's

mother, Aurelia, who was a discreet woman, being continually

about her, made any interview very dangerous and difficult. The

Romans have a goddess whom they call Bona, the same whom the

Greeks call Gynaecea. The Phrygians, who claim a peculiar title

to her, say she was mother to Midas. The Romans profess she was

one of the Dryads, and married to Faunus. The Grecians affirm

that she is that mother of Bacchus whose name is not to be

uttered, and, for this reason, the women who celebrate her

festival, cover the tents with vine-branches, and, in accordance

with the fable, a consecrated serpent is placed by the goddess.

It is not lawful for a man to be by, nor so much as in the

house, whilst the rites are celebrated, but the women by

themselves perform the sacred offices, which are said to be

much the same with those used in the solemnities of Orpheus.

When the festival comes, the husband, who is either consul or

praetor; and with him every male creature, quits the house. The

wife then taking it under her care, sets it in order, and the

principal ceremonies are performed during the night, the women

playing together amongst themselves as they keep watch, and

music of various kinds going on.

As Pompeia was at that time celebrating this feast, Clodius, who

as yet had no beard, and so thought to pass undiscovered, took

upon him the dress and ornaments of a singing woman, and so came

thither, having the air of a young girl. Finding the doors

open, he was without any stop introduced by the maid, who was in

the intrigue. She presently ran to tell Pompeia, but as she was

away a long time, he grew uneasy in waiting for her, and left

his post and traversed the house from one room to another, still

taking care to avoid the lights, till at last Aurelia's woman

met him, and invited him to play with her, as the women did

among themselves. He refused to comply, and she presently

pulled him forward, and asked him who he was, and whence he

came. Clodius told her he was waiting for Pompeia's own maid,

Abra, being in fact her own name also, and as he said so,

betrayed himself by his voice. Upon which the woman shrieking,

ran into the company where there were lights, and cried out, she

had discovered a man. The women were all in a fright. Aurelia

covered up the sacred things and stopped the proceedings, and

having ordered the doors to be shut, went about with lights to

find Clodius, who was got into the maid's room that he had come

in with, and was seized there. The women knew him, and drove

him out of doors, and at once, that same night, went home and

told their husbands the story. In the morning, it was all about

the town, what an impious attempt Clodius had made, and how he

ought to be punished as an offender, not only against those whom

he had affronted, but also against the public and the gods.

Upon which one of the tribunes impeached him for profaning the

holy rites, and some of the principal senators combined together

and gave evidence against him, that besides many other horrible

crimes, he had been guilty of incest with his own sister, who

was married to Lucullus. But the people set themselves against

this combination of the nobility, and defended Clodius, which

was of great service to him with the judges, who took alarm and

were afraid to provoke the multitude. Caesar at once dismissed

Pompeia, but being summoned as a witness against Clodius, said

he had nothing to charge him with. This looking like a paradox,

the accuser asked him why he parted with his wife. Caesar

replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected."

Some say that Caesar spoke this as his real thought; others,

that he did it to gratify the people, who were very earnest to

save Clodius. Clodius, at any rate, escaped; most of the judges

giving their opinions so written as to be illegible, that they

might not be in danger from the people by condemning him, nor in

disgrace with the nobility by acquitting him.

Caesar, in the meantime, being out of his praetorship, had got

the province of Spain, but was in great embarrassment with his

creditors, who, as he was going off, came upon him, and were

very pressing and importunate. This led him to apply himself to

Crassus, who was the richest man in Rome, but wanted Caesar's

youthful vigor and heat to sustain the opposition against

Pompey. Crassus took upon him to satisfy those creditors who

were most uneasy to him, and would not be put off any longer,

and engaged himself to the amount of eight hundred and thirty

talents, upon which Caesar was now at liberty to go to his

province. In his journey, as he was crossing the Alps, and

passing by a small village of the barbarians with but few

inhabitants and those wretchedly poor, his companions asked the

question among themselves by way of mockery, if there were any

canvassing for offices there; any contention which should be

uppermost, or feuds of great men one against another. To which

Caesar made answer seriously, "For my part, I had rather be the

first man among these fellows, than the second man in Rome." It

is said that another time, when free from business in Spain,

after reading some part of the history of Alexander, he sat a

great while very thoughtful, and at last burst out into tears.

His friends were surprised, and asked him the reason of it. "Do

you think," said he, "I have not just cause to weep, when I

consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations,

and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable?" As

soon as he came into Spain he was very active, and in a few

days had got together ten new cohorts of foot in addition to the

twenty which were there before. With these he marched against

the Calaici and Lusitani and conquered them, and advancing as

far as the ocean, subdued the tribes which never before had been

subject to the Romans. Having managed his military affairs with

good success, he was equally happy in the course of his civil

government. He took pains to establish a good understanding

amongst the several states, and no less care to heal the

differences between debtors and creditors. He ordered that the

creditor should receive two parts of the debtor's yearly

income, and that the other part should be managed by the debtor

himself, till by this method the whole debt was at last

discharged. This conduct made him leave his province with a

fair reputation; being rich himself, and having enriched his

soldiers, and having received from them the honorable name of

Imperator.

There is a law among the Romans, that whoever desires the honor

of a triumph must stay without the city and expect his answer.

And another, that those who stand for the consulship shall

appear personally upon the place. Caesar was come home at the

very time of choosing consuls, and being in a difficulty between

these two opposite laws, sent to the senate to desire that since

he was obliged to be absent, he might sue for the consulship by

his friends. Cato, being backed by the law, at first opposed

his request; afterwards perceiving that Caesar had prevailed

with a great part of the senate to comply with it, he made it

his business to gain time, and went on wasting the whole day in

speaking. Upon which Caesar thought fit to let the triumph

fall, and pursued the consulship. Entering the town and coming

forward immediately, he had recourse to a piece of state-policy

by which everybody was deceived but Cato. This was the

reconciling of Crassus and Pompey, the two men who then were

most powerful in Rome. There had been a quarrel between them,

which he now succeeded in making up, and by this means

strengthened himself by the united power of both, and so under

the cover of an action which carried all the appearance of a

piece of kindness and good-nature, caused what was in effect a

revolution in the government. For it was not the quarrel

between Pompey and Caesar, as most men imagine, which was the

origin of the civil wars, but their union, their conspiring

together at first to subvert the aristocracy, and so quarreling

afterwards between themselves. Cato, who often foretold what

the consequence of this alliance would be, had then the

character of a sullen, interfering man, but in the end the

reputation of a wise but unsuccessful counselor.

Thus Caesar being doubly supported by the interests of Crassus

and Pompey, was promoted to the consulship, and triumphantly

proclaimed with Calpurnius Bibulus. When he entered on his

office, he brought in bills which would have been preferred with

better grace by the most audacious of the tribunes than by a

consul, in which he proposed the plantation of colonies and

division of lands, simply to please the commonalty. The best

and most honorable of the senators opposed it, upon which, as he

had long wished for nothing more than for such a colorable

pretext, he loudly protested how much against his will it was to

be driven to seek support from the people, and how the senate's

insulting and harsh conduct left no other course possible for

him, than to devote himself henceforth to the popular cause and

interest. And so he hurried out of the senate, and presenting

himself to the people, and there placing Crassus and Pompey, one

on each side of him, he asked them whether they consented to the

bills he had proposed. They owned their assent, upon which he

desired them to assist him against those who had threatened to

oppose him with their swords. They engaged they would, and

Pompey added further, that he would meet their swords with a

sword and buckler too. These words the nobles much resented, as

neither suitable to his own dignity, nor becoming the reverence

due to the senate, but resembling rather the vehemence of a boy,

or the fury of a madman. But the people were pleased with it.

In order to get a yet firmer hold upon Pompey, Caesar having a

daughter, Julia, who had been before contracted to Servilius

Caepio, now betrothed her to Pompey, and told Servilius he

should have Pompey's daughter, who was not unengaged either, but

promised to Sylla's son, Faustus. A little time after, Caesar

married Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, and got Piso made

consul for the year following. Cato exclaimed loudly against

this, and protested with a great deal of warmth, that it was

intolerable the government should be prostituted by marriages,

and that they should advance one another to the commands of

armies, provinces, and other great posts, by means of women.

Bibulus, Caesar's colleague, finding it was to no purpose to

oppose his bills, but that he was in danger of being murdered in

the forum, as also was Cato, confined himself to his house, and

there let the remaining part of his consulship expire. Pompey,

when he was married, at once filled the forum with soldiers, and

gave the people his help in passing the new laws, and secured

Caesar the government of all Gaul, both on this and the other

side of the Alps, together with Illyricum, and the command of

four legions for five years. Cato made some attempts against

these proceedings, but was seized and led off on the way to

prison by Caesar, who expected he would appeal to the tribunes.

But when he saw that Cato went along without speaking a word,

and not only the nobility were indignant, but that the people,

also, out of respect for Cato's virtue, were following in

silence, and with dejected looks, he himself privately desired

one of the tribunes to rescue Cato. As for the other senators,

some few of them attended the house, the rest being disgusted,

absented themselves. Hence Considius, a very old man, took

occasion one day to tell Caesar, that the senators did not meet

because they were afraid of his soldiers. Caesar asked, "Why

don't you then, out of the same fear, keep at home?" To which

Considius replied, that age was his guard against fear, and that

the small remains of his life were not worth much caution. But

the most disgraceful thing that was done in Caesar's consulship,

was his assisting to gain the tribuneship for the same Clodius

who had made the attempt upon his wife's chastity, and intruded

upon the secret vigils. He was elected on purpose to effect

Cicero's downfall; nor did Caesar leave the city to join his

army, till they two had overpowered Cicero, and driven him out

of Italy.

Thus far have we followed Caesar's actions before the wars of

Gaul. After this, he seems to begin his course afresh, and to

enter upon a new life and scene of action. And the period of

those wars which he now fought, and those many expeditions in

which he subdued Gaul, showed him to be a soldier and general

not in the least inferior to any of the greatest and most

admired commanders who had ever appeared at the head of armies.

For if we compare him with the Fabii, the Metelli, the Scipios,

and with those who were his contemporaries, or not long before

him, Sylla, Marius, the two Luculli, or even Pompey himself,

whose glory, it may be said, went up at that time to heaven for

every excellence in war, we shall find Caesar's actions to have

surpassed them all. One he may be held to have outdone in

consideration of the difficulty of the country in which he

fought, another in the extent of territory which he conquered;

some, in the number and strength of the enemies whom he

defeated; one man, because of the wildness and perfidiousness of

the tribes whose good-will he conciliated, another in his

humanity and clemency to those he overpowered; others, again in

his gifts and kindnesses to his soldiers; all alike in the

number of the battles which he fought and the enemies whom he

killed. For he had not pursued the wars in Gaul full ten years,

when he had taken by storm above eight hundred towns, subdued

three hundred states, and of the three millions of men, who made

up the gross sum of those with whom at several times he engaged,

he had killed one million, and taken captive a second.

He was so much master of the good-will and hearty service of his

soldiers, that those who in other expeditions were but ordinary

men, displayed a courage past defeating or withstanding when

they went upon any danger where Caesar's glory was concerned.

Such a one was Acilius, who, in the sea-fight before Marseilles,

had his right hand struck off with a sword, yet did not quit his

buckler out of his left, but struck the enemies in the face with

it, till he drove them off, and made himself master of the

vessel. Such another was Cassius Scaeva, who, in a battle near

Dyrrhachium, had one of his eyes shot out with an arrow, his

shoulder pierced with one javelin, and his thigh with another;

and having received one hundred and thirty darts upon his

target, called to the enemy, as though he would surrender

himself. But when two of them came up to him, he cut off the

shoulder of one with a sword, and by a blow over the face forced

the other to retire, and so with the assistance of his friends,

who now came up, made his escape. Again, in Britain, when some

of the foremost officers had accidentally got into a morass full

of water, and there were assaulted by the enemy, a common

soldier, whilst Caesar stood and looked on, threw himself into

the midst of them, and after many signal demonstrations of his

valor, rescued the officers, and beat off the barbarians. He

himself, in the end, took to the water, and with much

difficulty, partly by swimming, partly by wading, passed it, but

in the passage lost his shield. Caesar and his officers saw it

and admired, and went to meet him with joy and acclamation. But

the soldier, much dejected and in tears, threw himself down at

Caesar's feet, and begged his pardon for having let go his

buckler. Another time in Africa, Scipio having taken a ship of

Caesar's in which Granius Petro, lately appointed quaestor, was

sailing, gave the other passengers as free prize to his

soldiers, but thought fit to offer the quaestor his life. But

he said it was not usual for Caesar's soldiers to take, but give

mercy, and having said so, fell upon his sword and killed

himself.

This love of honor and passion for distinction were inspired

into them and cherished in them by Caesar himself, who, by his

unsparing distribution of money and honors, showed them that he

did not heap up wealth from the wars for his own luxury, or the

gratifying his private pleasures, but that all he received was

but a public fund laid by for the reward and encouragement of

valor, and that he looked upon all he gave to deserving soldiers

as so much increase to his own riches. Added to this, also,

there was no danger to which he did not willingly expose

himself, no labor from which he pleaded all exemption. His

contempt of danger was not so much wondered at by his soldiers,

because they knew how much he coveted honor. But his enduring

so much hardship, which he did to all appearance beyond his

natural strength, very much astonished them. For he was a spare

man, had a soft and white skin, was distempered in the head, and

subject to an epilepsy, which, it is said, first seized him at

Corduba. But he did not make the weakness of his constitution a

pretext for his ease, but rather used war as the best physic

against his indispositions; whilst by indefatigable journeys,

coarse diet, frequent lodging in the field, and continual

laborious exercise, he struggled with his diseases, and

fortified his body against all attacks. He slept generally in

his chariots or litters, employing even his rest in pursuit of

action. In the day he was thus carried to the forts, garrisons,

and camps, one servant sitting with him, who used to write down

what he dictated as he went, and a soldier attending behind with

his sword drawn. He drove so rapidly, that when he first left

Rome, he arrived at the river Rhone within eight days. He had

been an expert rider from his childhood; for it was usual with

him to sit with his hands joined together behind his back, and

so to put his horse to its full speed. And in this war he

disciplined himself so far as to be able to dictate letters from

on horseback, and to give directions to two who took notes at

the same time, or, as Oppius says, to more. And it is thought

that he was the first who contrived means for communicating with

friends by cipher, when either press of business, or the large

extent of the city, left him no time for a personal conference

about matters that required dispatch. How little nice he was in

his diet, may be seen in the following instance. When at the

table of Valerius Leo, who entertained him at supper at Milan, a

dish of asparagus was put before him, on which his host instead

of oil had poured sweet ointment. Caesar partook of it without

any disgust, and reprimanded his friends for finding fault with

it. "For it was enough," said he, "not to eat what you did not

like; but he who reflects on another man's want of breeding,

shows he wants it as much himself." Another time upon the road

he was driven by a storm into a poor man's cottage, where he

found but one room, and that such as would afford but a mean

reception to a single person, and therefore told his companions,

places of honor should be given up to the greater men, and

necessary accommodations to the weaker, and accordingly ordered

that Oppius, who was in bad health, should lodge within, whilst

he and the rest slept under a shed at the door.

His first war in Gaul was against the Helvetians and Tigurini,

who having burnt their own towns, twelve in number, and four

hundred villages, would have marched forward through that part

of Gaul which was included in the Roman province, as the

Cimbrians and Teutons formerly had done. Nor were they inferior

to these in courage; and in numbers they were equal, being in

all three hundred thousand, of which one hundred and ninety

thousand were fighting men. Caesar did not engage the Tigurini

in person, but Labienus, under his directions, routed them near

the river Arar. The Helvetians surprised Caesar, and

unexpectedly set upon him as he was conducting his army to a

confederate town. He succeeded, however, in making his retreat

into a strong position, where, when he had mustered and

marshalled his men, his horse was brought to him; upon which he

said, "When I have won the battle, I will use my horse for the

chase, but at present let us go against the enemy," and

accordingly charged them on foot. After a long and severe

combat, he drove the main army out of the field, but found the

hardest work at their carriages and ramparts, where not only the

men stood and fought, but the women also and children defended

themselves, till they were cut to pieces; insomuch that the

fight was scarcely ended till midnight. This action, glorious

in itself, Caesar crowned with another yet more noble, by

gathering in a body all the barbarians that had escaped out of

the battle, above one hundred thousand in number, and obliging

them to reoccupy the country which they had deserted, and the

cities which they had burnt. This he did for fear the Germans

should pass in and possess themselves of the land whilst it lay

uninhabited.

His second war was in defense of the Gauls against the Germans,

though some time before he had made Ariovistus, their king,

recognized at Rome as an ally. But they were very insufferable

neighbors to those under his government; and it was probable,

when occasion offered, they would renounce the present

arrangements, and march on to occupy Gaul. But finding his

officers timorous, and especially those of the young nobility

who came along with him in hopes of turning their campaigns with

him into a means for their own pleasure or profit, he called

them together, and advised them to march off, and not run the

hazard of a battle against their inclinations, since they had

such weak and unmanly feelings; telling them that he would take

only the tenth legion, and march against the barbarians, whom he

did not expect to find an enemy more formidable than the Cimbri,

nor, he added, should they find him a general inferior to

Marius. Upon this, the tenth legion deputed some of their body

to pay him their acknowledgments and thanks, and the other

legions blamed their officers, and all, with great vigor and

zeal, followed him many days' journey, till they encamped within

two hundred furlongs of the enemy. Ariovistus's courage to some

extent was cooled upon their very approach; for never expecting

the Romans would attack the Germans, whom he had thought it more

likely they would not venture to withstand even in defense of

their own subjects, he was the more surprised at Caesar's

conduct, and saw his army to be in consternation. They were

still more discouraged by the prophecies of their holy women,

who foretell the future by observing the eddies of rivers, and

taking signs from the windings and noise of streams, and who now

warned them not to engage before the next new moon appeared.

Caesar having had intimation of this, and seeing the Germans lie

still, thought it expedient to attack them whilst they were

under these apprehensions, rather than sit still and wait their

time. Accordingly he made his approaches to the strong-holds

and hills on which they lay encamped, and so galled and fretted

them, that at last they came down with great fury to engage.

But he gained a signal victory, and pursued them for four

hundred furlongs, as far as the Rhine; all which space was

covered with spoils and bodies of the slain. Ariovistus made

shift to pass the Rhine with the small remains of an army, for

it is said the number of the slain amounted to eighty thousand.

After this action, Caesar left his army at their winter-quarters

in the country of the Sequani, and in order to attend to affairs

at Rome, went into that part of Gaul which lies on the Po, and

was part of his province; for the river Rubicon divides Gaul,

which is on this side the Alps, from the rest of Italy. There

he sat down and employed himself in courting people's favor;

great numbers coming to him continually, and always finding

their requests answered; for he never failed to dismiss all with

present pledges of his kindness in hand, and further hopes for

the future. And during all this time of the war in Gaul, Pompey

never observed how Caesar was on the one hand using the arms of

Rome to effect his conquests, and on the other was gaining over

and securing to himself the favor of the Romans, with the wealth

which those conquests obtained him. But when he heard that the

Belgae, who were the most powerful of all the Gauls, and

inhabited a third part of the country, were revolted, and had

got together a great many thousand men in arms, he immediately

set out and took his way thither with great expedition, and

falling upon the enemy as they were ravaging the Gauls, his

allies, he soon defeated and put to flight the largest and least

scattered division of them. For though their numbers were

great, yet they made but a slender defense, and the marshes and

deep rivers were made passable to the Roman foot by the vast

quantity of dead bodies. Of those who revolted, all the tribes

that lived near the ocean came over without fighting, and he,

therefore, led his army against the Nervii, the fiercest and

most warlike people of all in those parts. These live in a

country covered with continuous woods, and having lodged their

children and property out of the way in the depth of the forest,

fell upon Caesar with a body of sixty thousand men, before he

was prepared for them, while he was making his encampment. They

soon routed his cavalry, and having surrounded the twelfth and

seventh legions, killed all the officers, and had not Caesar

himself snatched up a buckler, and forced his way through his

own men to come up to the barbarians, or had not the tenth

legion, when they saw him in danger, run in from the tops of the

hills, where they lay, and broken through the enemy's ranks to

rescue him, in all probability not a Roman would have been

saved. But now, under the influence of Caesar's bold example,

they fought a battle, as the phrase is, of more than human

courage, and yet with their utmost efforts they were not able to

drive the enemy out of the field, but cut them down fighting in

their defense. For out of sixty thousand men, it is stated that

not above five hundred survived the battle, and of four hundred

of their senators not above three.

When the Roman senate had received news of this, they voted

sacrifices and festivals to the gods, to be strictly observed

for the space of fifteen days, a longer space than ever was

observed for any victory before. The danger to which they had

been exposed by the joint outbreak of such a number of nations

was felt to have been great; and the people's fondness for

Caesar gave additional luster to successes achieved by him. He

now, after settling everything in Gaul, came back again, and

spent the winter by the Po, in order to carry on the designs he

had in hand at Rome. All who were candidates for offices used

his assistance, and were supplied with money from him to corrupt

the people and buy their votes, in return of which, when they

were chosen, they did all things to advance his power. But what

was more considerable, the most eminent and powerful men in Rome

in great numbers came to visit him at Lucca, Pompey, and

Crassus, and Appius, the governor of Sardinia, and Nepos, the

proconsul of Spain, so that there were in the place at one time

one hundred and twenty lictors, and more than two hundred

senators. In deliberation here held, it was determined that

Pompey and Crassus should be consuls again for the following

year; that Caesar should have a fresh supply of money, and that

his command should be renewed to him for five years more. It

seemed very extravagant to all thinking men, that those very

persons who had received so much money from Caesar should

persuade the senate to grant him more, as if he were in want.

Though in truth it was not so much upon persuasion as

compulsion, that, with sorrow and groans for their own acts,

they passed the measure. Cato was not present, for they had

sent him seasonably out of the way into Cyprus; but Favonius,

who was a zealous imitator of Cato, when he found he could do no

good by opposing it, broke out of the house, and loudly

declaimed against these proceedings to the people, but none gave

him any hearing; some slighting him out of respect to Crassus

and Pompey, and the greater part to gratify Caesar, on whom

depended their hopes.

After this, Caesar returned again to his forces in Gaul, where

he found that country involved in a dangerous war, two strong

nations of the Germans having lately passed the Rhine, to

conquer it; one of them called the Usipes, the other the

Tenteritae. Of the war with this people, Caesar himself has

given this account in his commentaries, that the barbarians,

having sent ambassadors to treat with him, did, during the

treaty, set upon him in his march, by which means with eight

hundred men they routed five thousand of his horse, who did not

suspect their coming; that afterwards they sent other

ambassadors to renew the same fraudulent practices, whom he kept

in custody, and led on his army against the barbarians, as

judging it mere simplicity to keep faith with those who had so

faithlessly broken the terms they had agreed to. But Tanusius

states, that when the senate decreed festivals and sacrifices

for this victory, Cato declared it to be his opinion that Caesar

ought to be given into the hands of the barbarians, that so the

guilt which this breach of faith might otherwise bring upon the

state, might be expiated by transferring the curse on him, who

was the occasion of it. Of those who passed the Rhine, there were

four hundred thousand cut off; those few who escaped were

sheltered by the Sugambri, a people of Germany. Caesar took

hold of this pretense to invade the Germans, being at the same

time ambitious of the honor of being the first man that should

pass the Rhine with an army. He carried a bridge across it,

though it was very wide, and the current at that particular

point very full, strong, and violent, bringing down with its

waters trunks of trees, and other lumber, which much shook and

weakened the foundations of his bridge. But he drove great

piles of wood into the bottom of the river above the passage,

to catch and stop these as they floated down, and thus fixing

his bridle upon the stream, successfully finished this bridge,

which no one who saw could believe to be the work but of ten

days.

In the passage of his army over it, he met with no opposition;

the Suevi themselves, who are the most warlike people of all

Germany, flying with their effects into the deepest and most

densely wooded valleys. When he had burnt all the enemy's

country, and encouraged those who embraced the Roman interest,

he went back into Gaul, after eighteen days' stay in Germany.

But his expedition into Britain was the most famous testimony of

his courage. For he was the first who brought a navy into the

western ocean, or who sailed into the Atlantic with an army to

make war; and by invading an island, the reported extent of

which had made its existence a matter of controversy among

historians, many of whom questioned whether it were not a mere

name and fiction, not a real place, he might be said to have

carried the Roman empire beyond the limits of the known world.

He passed thither twice from that part of Gaul which lies over

against it, and in several battles which he fought, did more

hurt to the enemy than service to himself, for the islanders

were so miserably poor, that they had nothing worth being

plundered of. When he found himself unable to put such an end

to the war as he wished, he was content to take hostages from

the king, and to impose a tribute, and then quitted the island.

At his arrival in Gaul, he found letters which lay ready to be

conveyed over the water to him from his friends at Rome,

announcing his daughter's death, who died in labor of a child by

Pompey. Caesar and Pompey both were much afflicted with her

death, nor were their friends less disturbed, believing that the

alliance was now broken, which had hitherto kept the sickly

commonwealth in peace, for the child also died within a few days

after the mother. The people took the body of Julia, in spite

of the opposition of the tribunes, and carried it into the field

of Mars, and there her funeral rites were performed, and her

remains are laid.

Caesar's army was now grown very numerous, so that he was forced

to disperse them into various camps for their winter-quarters,

and he having gone himself to Italy as he used to do, in his

absence a general outbreak throughout the whole of Gaul

commenced, and large armies marched about the country, and

attacked the Roman quarters, and attempted to make themselves

masters of the forts where they lay. The greatest and strongest

party of the rebels, under the command of Abriorix, cut off

Costa and Titurius with all their men, while a force sixty

thousand strong besieged the legion under the command of

Cicero, and had almost taken it by storm, the Roman soldiers

being all wounded, and having quite spent themselves by a

defense beyond their natural strength. But Caesar, who was at a

great distance, having received the news, quickly got together

seven thousand men, and hastened to relieve Cicero. The

besiegers were aware of it, and went to meet him, with great

confidence that they should easily overpower such an handful of

men. Caesar, to increase their presumption, seemed to avoid

fighting, and still marched off, till he found a place

conveniently situated for a few to engage against many, where he

encamped. He kept his soldiers from making any attack upon the

enemy, and commanded them to raise the ramparts higher, and

barricade the gates, that by show of fear, they might heighten

the enemy's contempt of them. Till at last they came without

any order in great security to make an assault, when he issued

forth, and put them to flight with the loss of many men.

This quieted the greater part of the commotions in these parts

of Gaul, and Caesar, in the course of the winter, visited every

part of the country, and with great vigilance took precautions

against all innovations. For there were three legions now come

to him to supply the place of the men he had lost, of which

Pompey furnished him with two, out of those under his command;

the other was newly raised in the part of Gaul by the Po. But

in a while the seeds of war, which had long since been secretly

sown and scattered by the most powerful men in those warlike

nations, broke forth into the greatest and most dangerous war

that ever was in those parts, both as regards the number of men

in the vigor of their youth who were gathered and armed from all

quarters, the vast funds of money collected to maintain it, the

strength of the towns, and the difficulty of the country where

it was carried on. It being winter, the rivers were frozen, the

woods covered with snow, and the level country flooded, so that

in some places the ways were lost through the depth of the snow;

in others, the overflowing of marshes and streams made every

kind of passage uncertain. All which difficulties made it seem

impracticable for Caesar to make any attempt upon the

insurgents. Many tribes had revolted together, the chief of

them being the Arverni and Carnutini ; the general who had the

supreme command in war was Vergentorix, whose father the Gauls

had put to death on suspicion of his aiming at absolute

government.

He having disposed his army in several bodies, and set officers

over them, drew over to him all the country round about as far

as those that lie upon the Arar, and having intelligence of the

opposition which Caesar now experienced at Rome, thought to

engage all Gaul in the war. Which if he had done a little

later, when Caesar was taken up with the civil wars, Italy had

been put into as great a terror as before it was by the Cimbri.

But Caesar, who above all men was gifted with the faculty of

making the right use of everything in war, and most especially

of seizing the right moment, as soon as he heard of the revolt,

returned immediately the same way he went, and showed the

barbarians, by the quickness of his march in such a severe

season, that an army was advancing against them which was

invincible. For in the time that one would have thought it

scarce credible that a courier or express should have come with

a message from him, he himself appeared with all his army,

ravaging the country, reducing their posts, subduing their

towns, receiving into his protection those who declared for him.

Till at last the Edui, who hitherto had styled themselves

brethren to the Romans, and had been much honored by them,

declared against him, and joined the rebels, to the great

discouragement of his army. Accordingly he removed thence, and

passed the country of the Lingones, desiring to reach the

territories of the Sequani, who were his friends, and who lay

like a bulwark in front of Italy against the other tribes of

Gaul. There the enemy came upon him, and surrounded him with

many myriads, whom he also was eager to engage; and at last,

after some time and with much slaughter, gained on the whole a

complete victory; though at first he appears to have met with

some reverse, and the Aruveni show you a small sword hanging up

in a temple, which they say was taken from Caesar. Caesar saw

this afterwards himself, and smiled, and when his friends

advised it should be taken down, would not permit it, because he

looked upon it as consecrated.

After the defeat a great part of those who had escaped, fled

with their king into a town called Alesia, which Caesar

besieged, though the height of the walls, and number of those

who defended them, made it appear impregnable; and meantime,

from without the walls, he was assailed by a greater danger than

can be expressed. For the choice men of Gaul, picked out of

each nation, and well armed, came to relieve Alesia, to the

number of three hundred thousand; nor were there in the town

less than one hundred and seventy thousand. So that Caesar

being shut up betwixt two such forces, was compelled to protect

himself by two walls, one towards the town, the other against

the relieving army, as knowing it these forces should join, his

affairs would be entirely ruined. The danger that he underwent

before Alesia, justly gained him great honor on many accounts,

and gave him an opportunity of showing greater instances of his

valor and conduct than any other contest had done. One wonders

much how he should be able to engage and defeat so many

thousands of men without the town, and not be perceived by those

within, but yet more, that the Romans themselves, who guarded

their wall which was next the town, should be strangers to it.

For even they knew nothing of the victory, till they heard the

cries of the men and lamentations of the women who were in the

town, and had from thence seen the Romans at a distance carrying

into their camp a great quantity of bucklers, adorned with gold

and silver, many breastplates stained with blood, besides cups

and tents made in the Gallic fashion. So soon did so vast an

army dissolve and vanish like a ghost or dream, the greatest

part of them being killed upon the spot. Those who were in

Alesia, having given themselves and Caesar much trouble,

surrendered at last; and Vergentorix, who was the chief spring

of all the war, putting his best armor on, and adorning his

horse, rode out of the gates, and made a turn about Caesar as he

was sitting, then quitted his horse, threw off his armor, and

remained seated quietly at Caesar's feet until he was led away

to be reserved for the triumph.

Caesar had long ago resolved upon the overthrow of Pompey, as

had Pompey, for that matter, upon his. For Crassus, the fear of

whom had hitherto kept them in peace, having now been killed in

Parthia, if the one of them wished to make himself the greatest

man in Rome, he had only to overthrow the other; and if he again

wished to prevent his own fall, he had nothing for it but to be

beforehand with him whom he feared. Pompey had not been long

under any such apprehensions, having till lately despised

Caesar, as thinking it no difficult matter to put down him whom

he himself had advanced. But Caesar had entertained this design

from the beginning against his rivals, and had retired, like an

expert wrestler, to prepare himself apart for the combat.

Making the Gallic wars his exercise-ground, he had at once

improved the strength of his soldiery, and had heightened his

own glory by his great actions, so that he was looked on as one

who might challenge comparison with Pompey. Nor did he let go

any of those advantages which were now given him both by Pompey

himself and the times, and the ill government of Rome, where all

who were candidates for offices publicly gave money, and without

any shame bribed the people, who having received their pay, did

not contend for their benefactors with their bare suffrages, but

with bows, swords, and slings. So that after having many times

stained the place of election with the blood of men killed upon

the spot, they left the city at last without a government at

all, to be carried about like a ship without a pilot to steer

her; while all who had any wisdom could only be thankful if a

course of such wild and stormy disorder and madness might end no

worse than in a monarchy. Some were so bold as to declare

openly, that the government was incurable but by a monarchy, and

that they ought to take that remedy from the hands of the

gentlest physician, meaning Pompey, who, though in words he

pretended to decline it, yet in reality made his utmost efforts

to be declared dictator. Cato perceiving his design, prevailed

with the senate to make him sole consul, that with the offer of

a more legal sort of monarchy he might be withheld from

demanding the dictatorship. They over and above voted him the

continuance of his provinces, for he had two, Spain and all

Africa, which he governed by his lieutenants, and maintained

armies under him, at the yearly charge of a thousand talents out

of the public treasury.

Upon this Caesar also sent and petitioned for the consulship,

and the continuance of his provinces. Pompey at first did not

stir in it, but Marcellus and Lentulus opposed it, who had

always hated Caesar, and now did every thing, whether fit or

unfit, which might disgrace and affront him. For they took away

the privilege of Roman citizens from the people of New Comum,

who were a colony that Caesar had lately planted in Gaul; and

Marcellus, who was then consul, ordered one of the senators of

that town, then at Rome, to be whipped, and told him he laid

that mark upon him to signify he was no citizen of Rome, bidding

him, when he went back again, to show it to Caesar. After

Marcellus's consulship, Caesar began to lavish gifts upon all

the public men out of the riches he had taken from the Gauls;

discharged Curio, the tribune, from his great debts; gave

Paulus, then consul, fifteen hundred talents, with which he

built the noble court of justice adjoining the forum, to supply

the place of that called the Fulvian. Pompey, alarmed at these

preparations, now openly took steps, both by himself and his

friends, to have a successor appointed in Caesar's room, and

sent to demand back the soldiers whom he had lent him to carry

on the wars in Gaul. Caesar returned them, and made each

soldier a present of two hundred and fifty drachmas. The

officer who brought them home to Pompey, spread amongst the

people no very fair or favorable report of Caesar, and flattered

Pompey himself with false suggestions that he was wished for by

Caesar's army; and though his affairs here were in some

embarrassment through the envy of some, and the ill state of the

government, yet there the army was at his command, and if they

once crossed into Italy, would presently declare for him; so

weary were they of Caesar's endless expeditions, and so

suspicious of his designs for a monarchy. Upon this Pompey grew

presumptuous, and neglected all warlike preparations, as

fearing no danger, and used no other means against him than mere

speeches and votes, for which Caesar cared nothing. And one of

his captains, it is said, who was sent by him to Rome, standing

before the senate-house one day, and being told that the senate

would not give Caesar a longer time in his government, clapped

his hand on the hilt of his sword, and said, "But this shall."

Yet the demands which Caesar made had the fairest colors of

equity imaginable. For he proposed to lay down his arms, and

that Pompey should do the same, and both together should become

private men, and each expect a reward of his services from the

public. For that those who proposed to disarm him, and at the

same time to confirm Pompey in all the power he held, were

simply establishing the one in the tyranny which they accused

the other of aiming at. When Curio made these proposals to the

people in Caesar's name, he was loudly applauded, and some threw

garlands towards him, and dismissed him as they do successful

wrestlers, crowned with flowers. Antony, being tribune,

produced a letter sent from Caesar on this occasion, and read

it, though the consuls did what they could to oppose it. But

Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, proposed in the senate, that if

Caesar did not lay down his arms within such a time, he should

be voted an enemy; and the consuls putting it to the question,

whether Pompey should dismiss his soldiers, and again, whether

Caesar should disband his, very few assented to the first, but

almost all to the latter. But Antony proposing again, that both

should lay down their commissions, all but a very few agreed to

it. Scipio was upon this very violent, and Lentulus the consul

cried aloud, that they had need of arms, and not of suffrages,

against a robber; so that the senators for the present

adjourned, and appeared in mourning as a mark of their grief for

the dissension.

Afterwards there came other letters from Caesar, which seemed

yet more moderate, for he proposed to quit everything else, and

only to retain Gaul within the Alps, Illyricum, and two

legions, till he should stand a second time for consul. Cicero,

the orator, who was lately returned from Cilicia, endeavored to

reconcile differences, and softened Pompey, who was willing to

comply in other things, but not to allow him the soldiers. At

last Cicero used his persuasions with Caesar's friends to accept

of the provinces, and six thousand soldiers only, and so to make

up the quarrel. And Pompey was inclined to give way to this,

but Lentulus, the consul, would not hearken to it, but drove

Antony and Curio out of the senate-house with insults, by which

he afforded Caesar the most plausible pretense that could be,

and one which he could readily use to inflame the soldiers, by

showing them two persons of such repute and authority, who were

forced to escape in a hired carriage in the dress of slaves.

For so they were glad to disguise themselves, when they fled out

of Rome.

There were not about him at that time above three hundred horse,

and five thousand foot; for the rest of his army, which was left

behind the Alps, was to be brought after him by officers who had

received orders for that purpose. But he thought the first

motion towards the design which he had on foot did not require

large forces at present, and that what was wanted was to make

this first step suddenly, and so as to astound his enemies with

the boldness of it; as it would be easier, he thought, to throw

them into consternation by doing what they never anticipated,

than fairly to conquer them, if he had alarmed them by his

preparations. And therefore, he commanded his captains and

other officers to go only with their swords in their hands,

without any other arms, and make themselves masters of Ariminum,

a large city of Gaul, with as little disturbance and bloodshed

as possible. He committed the care of these forces to

Hortensius, and himself spent the day in public as a stander-by

and spectator of the gladiators, who exercised before him. A

little before night he attended to his person, and then went

into the hall, and conversed for some time with those he had

invited to supper, till it began to grow dusk, when he rose from

table, and made his excuses to the company, begging them to stay

till he came back, having already given private directions to a

few immediate friends, that they should follow him, not all the

same way, but some one way, some another. He himself got into

one of the hired carriages, and drove at first another way, but

presently turned towards Ariminum. When he came to the river

Rubicon, which parts Gaul within the Alps from the rest of

Italy, his thoughts began to work, now he was just entering upon

the danger, and he wavered much in his mind, when he considered

the greatness of the enterprise into which he was throwing

himself. He checked his course, and ordered a halt, while he

revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion one way and

the other, without speaking a word. This was when his purposes

fluctuated most; presently he also discussed the matter with his

friends who were about him, (of which number Asinius Pollio was

one,) computing how many calamities his passing that river would

bring upon mankind, and what a relation of it would be

transmitted to posterity. At last, in a sort of passion,

casting aside calculation, and abandoning himself to what might

come, and using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter

upon dangerous and bold attempts, "The die is cast," with these

words he took the river. Once over, he used all expedition

possible, and before it was day reached Ariminum, and took it.

It is said that the night before he passed the river, he had an

impious dream, that he was unnaturally familiar with his own

mother.