thrown open, to let in war upon every land alike and sea, and
with the limits of the province, the boundaries of the laws were
transgressed. Nor would one have thought that, as at other
times, the mere men and women fled from one town of Italy to
another in their consternation, but that the very towns
themselves left their sites, and fled for succor to each other.
The city of Rome was overrun as it were with a deluge, by the
conflux of people flying in from all the neighboring places.
Magistrates could no longer govern, nor the eloquence of any
orator quiet it; it was all but suffering shipwreck by the
violence of its own tempestuous agitation. The most vehement
contrary passions and impulses were at work everywhere. Nor
did those who rejoiced at the prospect of the change altogether
conceal their feelings, but when they met, as in so great a city
they frequently must, with the alarmed and dejected of the other
party, they provoked quarrels by their bold expressions of
confidence in the event. Pompey, sufficiently disturbed of
himself; was yet more perplexed by the clamors of others; some
telling him that he justly suffered for having armed Caesar
against himself and the government; others blaming him for
permitting Caesar to be insolently used by Lentulus, when he
made such ample concessions, and offered such reasonable
proposals towards an accommodation. Favonius bade him now stamp
upon the ground; for once talking big in the senate, he desired
them not to trouble themselves about making any preparations for
the war, for that he himself, with one stamp of his foot, would
fill all Italy with soldiers. Yet still Pompey at that time had
more forces than Caesar; but he was not permitted to pursue his
own thoughts, but being continually disturbed with false reports
and alarms, as if the enemy was close upon him and carrying all
before him, he gave way, and let himself be borne down by the
general cry. He put forth an edict declaring the city to be in
a state of anarchy, and left it with orders that the senate
should follow him, and that no one should stay behind who did
not prefer tyranny to their country and liberty.
The consuls at once fled, without making even the usual
sacrifices; so did most of the senators, carrying off their own
goods in as much haste as if they had been robbing their
neighbors. Some, who had formerly much favored Caesar's cause,
in the prevailing alarm, quitted their own sentiments, and
without any prospect of good to themselves, were carried along
by the common stream. It was a melancholy thing to see the city
tossed in these tumults, like a ship given up by her pilots, and
left to run, as chance guides her, upon any rock in her way.
Yet, in spite of their sad condition, people still esteemed the
place of their exile to be their country for Pompey's sake, and
fled from Rome, as if it had been Caesar's camp. Labienus even,
who had been one of Caesar's nearest friends, and his
lieutenant, and who had fought by him zealously in the Gallic
wars, now deserted him, and went over to Pompey. Caesar sent
all his money and equipage after him, and then sat down before
Corfinium, which was garrisoned with thirty cohorts under the
command of Domitius. He, in despair of maintaining the defense,
requested a physician, whom he had among his attendants, to give
him poison; and taking the dose, drank it, in hopes of being
dispatched by it. But soon after, when he was told that Caesar
showed the utmost clemency towards those he took prisoners, he
lamented his misfortune, and blamed the hastiness of his
resolution. His physician consoled him, by informing him that
he had taken a sleeping draught, not a poison; upon which, much
rejoiced, and rising from his bed, he went presently to Caesar,
and gave him the pledge of his hand, yet afterwards again
went over to Pompey. The report of these actions at Rome,
quieted those who were there, and some who had fled thence
returned.
Caesar took into his army Domitius's soldiers, as he did all
those whom he found in any town enlisted for Pompey's service.
Being now strong and formidable enough, he advanced against
Pompey himself, who did not stay to receive him, but fled to
Brundisium, having sent the consuls before with a body of troops
to Dyrrhachium. Soon after, upon Caesar's approach, he set to
sea, as shall be more particularly related in his Life. Caesar
would have immediately pursued him, but wanted shipping, and
therefore went back to Rome, having made himself master of all
Italy without bloodshed in the space of sixty days. When he
came thither, he found the city more quiet than he expected, and
many senators present, to whom he addressed himself with
courtesy and deference, desiring them to send to Pompey about
any reasonable accommodations towards a peace. But nobody
complied with this proposal; whether out of fear of Pompey, whom
they had deserted, or that they thought Caesar did not mean what
he said, but thought it his interest to talk plausibly.
Afterwards, when Metellus, the tribune, would have hindered him
from taking money out of the public treasure, and adduced some
laws against it, Caesar replied, that arms and laws had each
their own time; "If what I do displeases you, leave the place;
war allows no free talking. When I have laid down my arms, and
made peace, come back and make what speeches you please. And
this," he added, "I tell you in diminution of my own just right,
as indeed you and all others who have appeared against me and
are now in my power, may be treated as I please." Having said
this to Metellus, he went to the doors of the treasury, and the
keys being not to be found, sent for smiths to force them open.
Metellus again making resistance, and some encouraging him in
it, Caesar, in a louder tone, told him he would put him to
death, if he gave him any further disturbance. "And this," said
he, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say,
than to do." These words made Metellus withdraw for fear, and
obtained speedy execution henceforth for all orders that Caesar
gave for procuring necessaries for the war.
He was now proceeding to Spain, with the determination of first
crushing Afranius and Varro, Pompey's lieutenants, and making
himself master of the armies and provinces under them, that he
might then more securely advance against Pompey, when he had no
enemy left behind him. In this expedition his person was often
in danger from ambuscades, and his army by want of provisions,
yet he did not desist from pursuing the enemy, provoking them to
fight, and hemming them with his fortifications, till by main
force he made himself master of their camps and their forces.
Only the generals got off, and fled to Pompey.
When Caesar came back to Rome, Piso, his father-in-law, advised
him to send men to Pompey, to treat of a peace; but Isauricus,
to ingratiate himself with Caesar, spoke against it. After
this, being created dictator by the senate, he called home the
exiles, and gave back then rights as citizens to the children of
those who had suffered under Sylla; he relieved the debtors by
an act remitting some part of the interest on their debts, and
passed some other measures of the same sort, but not many. For
within eleven days he resigned his dictatorship, and having
declared himself consul, with Servilius Isauricus, hastened
again to the war. He marched so fast, that he left all his army
behind him, except six hundred chosen horse, and five legions,
with which he put to sea in the very middle of winter, about
the beginning of the month January, (which corresponds pretty
nearly with the Athenian month Posideon,) and having past the
Ionian Sea, took Oricum and Apollonia, and then sent back the
ships to Brundisium, to bring over the soldiers who were left
behind in the march. They, while yet on the march, their bodies
now no longer in the full vigor of youth, and they themselves
weary with such a multitude of wars, could not but exclaim
against Caesar, "When at last, and where, will this Caesar let
us be quiet? He carries us from place to place, and uses us as
if we were not to be worn out, and had no sense of labor. Even
our iron itself is spent by blows, and we ought to have some
pity on our bucklers and breastplates, which have been used so
long. Our wounds, if nothing else, should make him see that we
are mortal men, whom he commands, subject to the same pains and
sufferings as other human beings. The very gods themselves
cannot force the winter season, or hinder the storms in their
time; yet he pushes forward, as if he were not pursuing, but
flying from an enemy." So they talked as they marched leisurely
towards Brundisium. But when they came thither, and found
Caesar gone off before them, their feelings changed, and they
blamed themselves as traitors to their general. They now railed
at their officers for marching so slowly, and placing themselves
on the heights overlooking the sea towards Epirus, they kept
watch to see if they could espy the vessels which were to
transport them to Caesar.
He in the meantime was posted in Apollonia, but had not an army
with him able to fight the enemy, the forces from Brundisium
being so long in coming, which put him to great suspense and
embarrassment what to do. At last he resolved upon a most
hazardous experiment, and embarked, without anyone's knowledge,
in a boat of twelve oars, to cross over to Brundisium, though
the sea was at that time covered with a vast fleet of the
enemies. He got on board in the night time, in the dress of a
slave, and throwing himself down like a person of no
consequence, lay along at the bottom of the vessel. The river
Anius was to carry them down to sea, and there used to blow a
gentle gale every morning from the land, which made it calm at
the mouth of the river, by driving the waves forward; but this
night there had blown a strong wind from the sea, which
overpowered that from the land, so that where the river met the
influx of the sea-water and the opposition of the waves, it was
extremely rough and angry; and the current was beaten back with
such a violent swell, that the master of the boat could not make
good his passage, but ordered his sailors to tack about and
return. Caesar, upon this, discovers himself, and taking the
man by the hand, who was surprised to see him there, said, "Go
on, my friend, and fear nothing; you carry Caesar and his
fortune in your boat." The mariners, when they heard that,
forgot the storm, and laying all their strength to their oars,
did what they could to force their way down the river. But when
it was to no purpose, and the vessel now took in much water,
Caesar finding himself in such danger in the very mouth of the
river, much against his will permitted the master to turn back.
When he was come to land, his soldiers ran to him in a
multitude, reproaching him for what he had done, and indignant
that he should think himself not strong enough to get a victory
by their sole assistance, but must disturb himself, and expose
his life for those who were absent, as if he could not trust
those who were with him.
After this, Antony came over with the forces from Brundisium,
which encouraged Caesar to give Pompey battle, though he was
encamped very advantageously, and furnished with plenty of
provisions both by sea and land, whilst he himself was at the
beginning but ill-supplied, and before the end was extremely
pinched for want of necessaries, so that his soldiers were
forced to dig up a kind of root which grew there, and tempering
it with milk, to feed on it. Sometimes they made a kind of
bread of it, and advancing up to the enemy's outposts, would
throw in these loaves, telling them, that as long as the earth
produced such roots they would not give up blockading Pompey.
But Pompey took what care he could, that neither the loaves nor
the words should reach his men, who were out of heart and
despondent, through terror at the fierceness and hardiness of
their enemies, whom they looked upon as a sort of wild beasts.
There were continual skirmishes about Pompey's outworks, in all
which Caesar had the better, except one, when his men were
forced to fly in such a manner that he had like to have lost his
camp. For Pompey made such a vigorous sally on them that not a
man stood his ground; the trenches were filled with the
slaughter, many fell upon their own ramparts and bulwarks,
whither they were driven in flight by the enemy. Caesar met
them, and would have turned them back, but could not. When he
went to lay hold of the ensigns, those who carried them threw
them down, so that the enemies took thirty-two of them. He
himself narrowly escaped; for taking hold of one of his
soldiers, a big and strong man, that was flying by him, he bade
him stand and face about; but the fellow, full of apprehensions
from the danger he was in, laid hold of his sword, as if he
would strike Caesar, but Caesar's armor-bearer cut off his arm.
Caesar's affairs were so desperate at that time, that when
Pompey, either through over-cautiousness, or his ill fortune,
did not give the finishing stroke to that great success, but
retreated after he had driven the routed enemy within their
camp, Caesar, upon seeing his withdrawal, said to his friends,
"The victory to-day had been on the enemies' side, if they had
had a general who knew how to gain it." When he was retired
into his tent, he laid himself down to sleep, but spent that
night as miserably as ever he did any, in perplexity and
consideration with himself, coming to the conclusion that he had
conducted the war amiss. For when he had a fertile country
before him, and all the wealthy cities of Macedonia and
Thessaly, he had neglected to carry the war thither, and had sat
down by the seaside, where his enemies had such a powerful
fleet, so that he was in fact rather besieged by the want of
necessaries, than besieging others with his arms. Being thus
distracted in his thoughts with the view of the difficulty and
distress he was in, he raised his camp, with the intention of
advancing towards Scipio, who lay in Macedonia; hoping either to
entice Pompey into a country where he should fight without the
advantage he now had of supplies from the sea, or to overpower
Scipio, if not assisted.
This set all Pompey's army and officers on fire to hasten and
pursue Caesar, whom they concluded to be beaten and flying. But
Pompey was afraid to hazard a battle on which so much depended,
and being himself provided with all necessaries for any length
of time, thought to tire out and waste the vigor of Caesar's
army, which could not last long. For the best part of his men,
though they had great experience and showed an irresistible
courage in all engagements, yet by their frequent marches,
changing their camps, attacking fortifications, and keeping
long night-watches, were getting worn-out and broken; they being
now old, their bodies less fit for labor, and their courage,
also, beginning to give way with the failure of their strength.
Besides, it was said that an infectious disease, occasioned by
their irregular diet, was prevailing in Caesar's army, and what
was of greatest moment, he was neither furnished with money nor
provisions, so that in a little time he must needs fall of
himself.
For these reasons Pompey had no mind to fight him, but was
thanked for it by none but Cato, who rejoiced at the prospect of
sparing his fellow-citizens. For he when he saw the dead bodies
of those who had fallen in the last battle on Caesar's side, to
the number of a thousand, turned away, covered his face, and
shed tears. But everyone else upbraided Pompey for being
reluctant to fight, and tried to goad him on by such nicknames
as Agamemnon, and king of kings, as if he were in no hurry to
lay down his sovereign authority, but was pleased to see so many
commanders attending on him, and paying their attendance at his
tent. Favonius, who affected Cato's free way of speaking his
mind, complained bitterly that they should eat no figs even this
year at Tusculum, because of Pompey's love of command.
Afranius, who was lately returned out of Spain, and on account
of his ill success there, labored under the suspicion of having
been bribed to betray the army, asked why they did not fight
this purchaser of provinces. Pompey was driven, against his own
will, by this kind of language, into offering battle, and
proceeded to follow Caesar. Caesar had found great difficulties
in his march, for no country would supply him with provisions,
his reputation being very much fallen since his late defeat.
But after he took Gomphi, a town of Thessaly, he not only found
provisions for his army, but physic too. For there they met
with plenty of wine, which they took very freely, and heated
with this, sporting and reveling on their march in bacchanalian
fashion, they shook off the disease, and their whole
constitution was relieved and changed into another habit.
When the two armies were come into Pharsalia, and both encamped
there, Pompey's thoughts ran the same way as they had done
before, against fighting, and the more because of some unlucky
presages, and a vision he had in a dream. But those who were
about him were so confident of success, that Domitius, and
Spinther, and Scipio, as if they had already conquered,
quarreled which should succeed Caesar in the pontificate. And
many sent to Rome to take houses fit to accommodate consuls and
praetors, as being sure of entering upon those offices, as soon
as the battle was over. The cavalry especially were obstinate
for fighting, being splendidly armed and bravely mounted, and
valuing themselves upon the fine horses they kept, and upon
their own handsome persons; as also upon the advantage of their
numbers, for they were five thousand against one thousand of
Caesar's. Nor were the numbers of the infantry less
disproportionate, there being forty-five thousand of Pompey's,
against twenty-two thousand of the enemy.
Caesar, collecting his soldiers together, told them that
Corfinius was coming up to them with two legions, and that
fifteen cohorts more under Calenus were posted at Megara and
Athens; he then asked them whether they would stay till these
joined them, or would hazard the battle by themselves. They all
cried out to him not to wait, but on the contrary to do whatever
he could to bring about an engagement as soon as possible. When
he sacrificed to the gods for the lustration of his army, upon
the death of the first victim, the augur told him, within three
days he should come to a decisive action. Caesar asked him
whether he saw anything in the entrails, which promised a
happy event. "That," said the priest, "you can best answer
yourself; for the gods signify a great alteration from the
present posture of affairs. If, therefore, you think yourself
well off now, expect worse fortune; if unhappy, hope for
better." The night before the battle, as he walked the rounds
about midnight, there was a light seen in the heaven, very
bright and flaming, which seemed to pass over Caesar's camp, and
fall into Pompey's. And when Caesar's soldiers came to relieve
the watch in the morning, they perceived a panic disorder among
the enemies. However, he did not expect to fight that day, but
set about raising his camp with the intention of marching
towards Scotussa.
But when the tents were now taken down, his scouts rode up to
him, and told him the enemy would give him battle. With this
news he was extremely pleased, and having performed his
devotions to the gods, set his army in battle array, dividing
them into three bodies. Over the middlemost he placed Domitius
Calvinus; Antony commanded the left wing, and he himself the
right, being resolved to fight at the head of the tenth legion.
But when he saw the enemies' cavalry taking position against
him, being struck with their fine appearance and their number,
he gave private orders that six cohorts from the rear of the
army should come round and join him, whom he posted behind the
right wing, and instructed them what they should do, when the
enemy's horse came to charge. On the other side, Pompey
commanded the right wing, Domitius the left, and Scipio,
Pompey's father-in-law, the center. The whole weight of the
cavalry was collected on the left wing, with the intent that
they should outflank the right wing of the enemy, and rout that
part where the general himself commanded. For they thought no
phalanx of infantry could be solid enough to sustain such a
shock, but that they must necessarily be broken and shattered
all to pieces upon the onset of so immense a force of cavalry.
When they were ready on both sides to give the signal for
battle, Pompey commended his foot who were in the front to stand
their ground, and without breaking their order, receive quietly
the enemy's first attack, till they came within javelin's cast.
Caesar, in this respect, also, blames Pompey's generalship, as
if he had not been aware how the first encounter, when made with
an impetus and upon the run, gives weight and force to the
strokes, and fires the men's spirits into a flame, which the
general concurrence fans to full heat. He himself was just
putting the troops into motion and advancing to the action, when
he found one of his captains, a trusty and experienced soldier,
encouraging his men to exert their utmost. Caesar called him by
his name, and said, "What hopes, Caius Crassinius, and what
grounds for encouragement?" Crassinius stretched out his hand,
and cried in a loud voice, "We shall conquer nobly, Caesar; and
I this day will deserve your praises, either alive or dead." So
he said, and was the first man to run in upon the enemy,
followed by the hundred and twenty soldiers about him, and
breaking through the first rank, still pressed on forwards with
much slaughter of the enemy, till at last he was struck back by
the wound of a sword, which went in at his mouth with such force
that it came out at his neck behind.
Whilst the foot was thus sharply engaged in the main battle, on
the flank Pompey's horse rode up confidently, and opened their
ranks very wide, that they might surround the Fight wing of
Caesar. But before they engaged, Caesar's cohorts rushed out
and attacked them, and did not dart their javelins at a
distance, nor strike at the thighs and legs, as they usually did
in close battle, but aimed at their faces. For thus Caesar had
instructed them, in hopes that young gentlemen, who had not
known much of battles and wounds, but came wearing their hair
long, in the flower of their age and height of their beauty,
would be more apprehensive of such blows, and not care for
hazarding both a danger at present and a blemish for the future.
And so it proved, for they were so far from bearing the stroke
of the javelins, that they could not stand the sight of them,
but turned about, and covered their faces to secure them. Once
in disorder, presently they turned about to fly; and so most
shamefully ruined all. For those who had beat them back, at
once outflanked the infantry, and falling on their rear, cut
them to pieces. Pompey, who commanded the other wing of the
army, when he saw his cavalry thus broken and flying, was no
longer himself, nor did he now remember that he was Pompey the
Great, but like one whom some god had deprived of his senses,
retired to his tent without speaking; a word, and there sat to
expect the event, till the whole army was routed, and the enemy
appeared upon the works which were thrown up before the camp,
where they closely engaged with his men, who were posted there
to defend it. Then first he seemed to have recovered his
senses, and uttering, it is said, only these words, "What, into
the camp too?" he laid aside his general's habit, and putting on
such clothes as might best favor his flight, stole off. What
fortune he met with afterwards, how he took shelter in Egypt,
and was murdered there, we tell you in his Life.
Caesar, when he came to view Pompey's camp, and saw some of his
opponents dead upon the ground, others dying, said, with a
groan, "This they would have; they brought me to this necessity.
I, Caius Caesar, after succeeding in so many wars, had been
condemned, had I dismissed my army." These words, Pollio says,
Caesar spoke in Latin at that time, and that he himself wrote
them in Greek; adding, that those who were killed at the taking
of the camp, were most of them servants; and that not above six
thousand soldiers fell. Caesar incorporated most of the foot
whom he took prisoners, with his own legions, and gave a free
pardon to many of the distinguished persons, and amongst the
rest, to Brutus, who afterwards killed him. He did not
immediately appear after the battle was over, which put Caesar,
it is said, into great anxiety for him; nor was his pleasure
less when he saw him present himself alive.
There were many prodigies that foreshowed this victory, but the
most remarkable that we are told of, was that at Tralles. In
the temple of Victory stood Caesar's statue. The ground on
which it stood was naturally hard and solid, and the stone with
which it was paved still harder; yet it is said that a palm-tree
shot itself up near the pedestal of this statue. In the city of
Padua, one Caius Cornelius, who had the character of a good
augur, the fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livy, the
historian, happened to be making some augural observations that
very day when the battle was fought. And first, as Livy tells
us, he pointed out the time of the fight, and said to those who
were by him, that just then the battle was begun, and the men
engaged. When he looked a second time, and observed the omens,
he leaped up as if he had been inspired, and cried out, "Caesar,
you are victorious." This much surprised the standers by, but
he took the garland which he had on from his head, and swore he
would never wear it again till the event should give authority
to his art. This Livy positively states for a truth.
Caesar, as a memorial of his victory, gave the Thessalians
their freedom, and then went in pursuit of Pompey. When he was
come into Asia, to gratify Theopompus, the author of the
collection of fables, he enfranchised the Cnidians, and remitted
one third of their tribute to all the people of the province of
Asia. When he came to Alexandria, where Pompey was already
murdered, he would not look upon Theodotus, who presented him
with his head, but taking only his signet, shed tears. Those of
Pompey's friends who had been arrested by the king of Egypt, as
they were wandering in those parts, he relieved, and offered
them his own friendship. In his letter to his friends at Rome,
he told them that the greatest and most signal pleasure his
victory had given him, was to be able continually to save the
lives of fellow-citizens who had fought against him. As to the
war in Egypt, some say it was at once dangerous and
dishonorable, and noways necessary, but occasioned only by his
passion for Cleopatra. Others blame the ministers of the king,
and especially the eunuch Pothinus, who was the chief favorite,
and had lately killed Pompey, who had banished Cleopatra, and
was now secretly plotting Caesar's destruction, (to prevent
which, Caesar from that time began to sit up whole nights, under
pretense of drinking, for the security of his person,) while
openly he was intolerable in his affronts to Caesar, both by his
words and actions. For when Caesar's soldiers had musty and
unwholesome corn measured out to them, Pothinus told them they
must be content with it, since they were fed at another's cost.
He ordered that his table should be served with wooden and
earthen dishes, and said Caesar had carried off all the gold and
silver plate, under pretense of arrears of debt. For the
present king's father owed Caesar one thousand seven hundred and
fifty myriads of money; Caesar had formerly remitted to his
children the rest, but thought fit to demand the thousand
myriads at that time, to maintain his army. Pothinus told him
that he had better go now and attend to his other affairs of
greater consequence, and that he should receive his money at
another time with thanks. Caesar replied that he did not want
Egyptians to be his counselors, and soon after, privately sent
for Cleopatra from her retirement.
She took a small boat, and one only of her confidents,
Apollodorus, the Sicilian, along with her, and in the dusk of
the evening landed near the palace. She was at a loss how to
get in undiscovered, till she thought of putting herself into
the coverlet of a bed and lying at length, whilst Apollodorus
tied up the bedding and carried it on his back through the gates
to Caesar's apartment. Caesar was first captivated by this
proof of Cleopatra's bold wit, and was afterwards so overcome by
the charm of her society, that he made a reconciliation between
her and her brother, on condition that she should rule as his
colleague in the kingdom. A festival was kept to celebrate this
reconciliation, where Caesar's barber, a busy, listening fellow,
whose excessive timidity made him inquisitive into everything,
discovered that there was a plot carrying on against Caesar by
Achillas, general of the king's forces, and Pothinus, the
eunuch. Caesar, upon the first intelligence of it, set a guard
upon the hall where the feast was kept, and killed Pothinus.
Achillas escaped to the army, and raised a troublesome and
embarrassing war against Caesar, which it was not easy for him
to manage with his few soldiers against so powerful a city and
so large an army. The first difficulty he met with was want of
water, for the enemies had turned the canals. Another was, when
the enemy endeavored to cut off his communication by sea, he was
forced to divert that danger by setting fire to his own ships,
which, after burning the docks, thence spread on and destroyed
the great library. A third was, when in an engagement near
Pharos, he leaped from the mole into a small boat, to assist his
soldiers who were in danger, and when the Egyptians pressed him
on every side, he threw himself into the sea, and with much
difficulty swam off. This was the time when, according to the
story, he had a number of manuscripts in his hand, which, though
he was continually darted at, and forced to keep his head often
under water, yet he did not let go, but held them up safe from
wetting in one hand, whilst he swam with the other. His boat,
in the meantime, was quickly sunk. At last, the king having
gone off to Achillas and his party, Caesar engaged and conquered
them. Many fell in that battle, and the king himself was never
seen after. Upon this, he left Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who
soon after had a son by him, whom the Alexandrians called
Caesarion, and then departed for Syria.
Thence he passed to Asia, where he heard that Domitius was
beaten by Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and had fled out of
Pontus with a handful of men; and that Pharnaces pursued the
victory so eagerly, that though he was already master of
Bithynia and Cappadocia, he had a further design of attempting
the Lesser Armenia, and was inviting all the kings and tetrarchs
there to rise. Caesar immediately marched against him with
three legions, fought him near Zela, drove him out of Pontus,
and totally defeated his army. When he gave Amantius, a friend
of his at Rome, an account of this action, to express the
promptness and rapidity of it, he used three words, I came, saw,
and conquered, which in Latin having all the same cadence,
carry with them a very suitable air of brevity.
Hence he crossed into Italy, and came to Rome at the end of that
year, for which he had been a second time chosen dictator,
though that office had never before lasted a whole year, and was
elected consul for the next. He was ill spoken of, because upon
a mutiny of some soldiers, who killed Cosconius and Galba, who
had been praetors, he gave them only the slight reprimand of
calling them Citizens, instead of Fellow-Soldiers, and
afterwards assigned to each man a thousand drachmas, besides a
share of lands in Italy. He was also reflected on for
Dolabella's extravagance, Amantius's covetousness, Antony's
debauchery, and Corfinius's profuseness, who pulled down
Pompey's house, and rebuilt it, as not magnificent enough; for
the Romans were much displeased with all these. But Caesar, for
the prosecution of his own scheme of government, though he knew
their characters and disapproved them, was forced to make use of
those who would serve him.
After the battle of Pharsalia, Cato and Scipio fled into Africa,
and there, with the assistance of king Juba, got together a
considerable force, which Caesar resolved to engage. He,
accordingly, passed into Sicily about the winter-solstice, and
to remove from his officers' minds all hopes of delay there,
encamped by the sea-shore, and as soon as ever he had a fair
wind, put to sea with three thousand foot and a few horse. When
he had landed them, he went back secretly, under some
apprehensions for the larger part of his army, but met them upon
the sea, and brought them all to the same camp. There he was
informed that the enemies relied much upon an ancient oracle,
that the family of the Scipios should be always victorious in
Africa. There was in his army a man, otherwise mean and
contemptible, but of the house of the Africani, and his name
Scipio Sallutio. This man Caesar, (whether in raillery, to
ridicule Scipio, who commended the enemy, or seriously to bring
over the omen to his side, it were hard to say,) put at the head
of his troops, as if he were general, in all the frequent
battles which he was compelled to fight. For he was in such
want both of victualing for his men, and forage for his horses,
that he was forced to feed the horses with sea-weed, which he
washed thoroughly to take off its saltiness, and mixed with a
little grass, to give it a more agreeable taste. The Numidians,
in great numbers, and well horsed, whenever he went, came up and
commanded the country. Caesar's cavalry being one day
unemployed, diverted themselves with seeing an African, who
entertained them with dancing and at the same time playing upon
the pipe to admiration. They were so taken with this, that they
alighted, and gave their horses to some boys, when on a sudden
the enemy surrounded them, killed some, pursued the rest, and
fell in with them into their camp; and had not Caesar himself
and Asinius Pollio come to their assistance, and put a stop to
their flight, the war had been then at an end. In another
engagement, also, the enemy had again the better, when Caesar,
it is said, seized a standard-bearer, who was running away, by
the neck, and forcing him to face about, said, "Look, that is
the way to the enemy."
Scipio, flushed with this success at first, had a mind to come to
one decisive action. He therefore left Afranius and Juba in two
distinct bodies not far distant, and marched himself towards
Thapsus, where he proceeded to build a fortified camp above a
lake, to serve as a center-point for their operations, and also
as a place of refuge. Whilst Scipio was thus employed, Caesar
with incredible dispatch made his way through thick woods, and a
country supposed to be impassable, cut off one party of the
enemy, and attacked another in the front. Having routed these,
he followed up his opportunity and the current of his good
fortune, and on the first onset carried Afranius's camp, and
ravaged that of the Numidians, Juba, their king, being glad to
save himself by flight; so that in a small part of a single day
he made himself master of three camps, and killed fifty thousand
of the enemy, with the loss only of fifty of his own men. This
is the account some give of that fight. Others say, he was not
in the action, but that he was taken with his usual distemper
just as he was setting his army in order. He perceived the
approaches of it, and before it had too far disordered his
senses, when he was already beginning to shake under its
influence, withdrew into a neighboring fort, where he reposed
himself. Of the men of consular and praetorian dignity that
were taken after the fight, several Caesar put to death, others
anticipated him by killing themselves.
Cato had undertaken to defend Utica, and for that reason was not
in the battle. The desire which Caesar had to take him alive,
made him hasten thither; and upon the intelligence that he had
dispatched himself, he was much discomposed, for what reason is
not so well agreed. He certainly said, "Cato, I must grudge you
your death, as you grudged me the honor of saving your life."
Yet the discourse he wrote against Cato after his death, is no
great sign of his kindness, or that he was inclined to be
reconciled to him. For how is it probable that he would have
been tender of his life, when he was so bitter against his
memory? But from his clemency to Cicero, Brutus, and many
others who fought against him, it may be divined that Caesar's
book was not written so much out of animosity to Cato, as in his
own vindication. Cicero had written an encomium upon Cato, and
called it by his name. A composition by so great a master upon
so excellent a subject, was sure to be in everyone's hands.
This touched Caesar, who looked upon a panegyric on his enemy,
as no better than an invective against himself; and therefore he
made in his Anti-Cato, a collection of whatever could be said in
his derogation. The two compositions, like Cato and Caesar
themselves, have each of them their several admirers.
Caesar, upon his return to Rome, did not omit to pronounce
before the people a magnificent account of his victory, telling
them that he had subdued a country which would supply the public
every year with two hundred thousand attic bushels of corn, and
three million pounds weight of oil. He then led three triumphs
for Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, the last for the victory over,
not Scipio, but king Juba, as it was professed, whose little son
was then carried in the triumph, the happiest captive that ever
was, who of a barbarian Numidian, came by this means to obtain a
place among the most learned historians of Greece. After the
triumphs, he distributed rewards to his soldiers, and treated
the people with feasting and shows. He entertained the whole
people together at one feast, where twenty-two thousand dining
couches were laid out; and he made a display of gladiators, and
of battles by sea, in honor, as he said, of his daughter Julia,
though she had been long since dead. When these shows were
over, an account was taken of the people, who from three hundred
and twenty thousand, were now reduced to one hundred and fifty
thousand. So great a waste had the civil war made in Rome
alone, not to mention what the other parts of Italy and the
provinces suffered.
He was now chosen a fourth time consul, and went into Spain
against Pompey's sons. They were but young, yet had gathered
together a very numerous army, and showed they had courage and
conduct to command it, so that Caesar was in extreme danger.
The great battle was near the town of Munda, in which Caesar
seeing his men hard pressed, and making but a weak resistance,
ran through the ranks among the soldiers, and crying out, asked
them whether they were not ashamed to deliver him into the hands
of boys? At last, with great difficulty, and the best efforts
he could make, he forced back the enemy, killing thirty thousand
of them, though with the loss of one thousand of his best men.
When he came back from the fight, he told his friends that he
had often fought for victory, but this was the first time that
he had ever fought for life. This battle was won on the feast
of Bacchus, the very day in which Pompey, four years before.
had set out for the war. The younger of Pompey's sons escaped;
but Didius, some days after the fight, brought the head of the
elder to Caesar. This was the last war he was engaged in. The
triumph which he celebrated for this victory, displeased the
Romans beyond any thing. For he had not defeated foreign
generals, or barbarian kings, but had destroyed the children and
family of one of the greatest men of Rome, though unfortunate;
and it did not look well to lead a procession in celebration of
the calamities of his country, and to rejoice in those things
for which no other apology could be made either to gods or men,
than their being absolutely necessary. Besides that, hitherto
he had never sent letters or messengers to announce any victory
over his fellow-citizens, but had seemed rather to be ashamed of
the action, than to expect honor from it.
Nevertheless his countrymen, conceding all to his fortune, and
accepting the bit, in the hope that the government of a single
person would give them time to breathe after so many civil wars
and calamities, made him dictator for life. This was indeed a
tyranny avowed, since his power now was not only absolute, but
perpetual too. Cicero made the first proposals to the senate
for conferring honors upon him, which might in some sort be said
not to exceed the limits of ordinary human moderation. But
others, striving which should deserve most, carried them so
excessively high, that they made Caesar odious to the most
indifferent and moderate sort of men, by the pretension and the
extravagance of the titles which they decreed him. His enemies,
too, are thought to have had some share in this, as well as his
flatterers. It gave them advantage against him, and would be
their justification for any attempt they should make upon him;
for since the civil wars were ended, he had nothing else that he
could be charged with. And they had good reason to decree a
temple to Clemency, in token of their thanks for the mild use he
made of his victory. For he not only pardoned many of those who
fought against him, but, further, to some gave honors and
offices; as particularly to Brutus and Cassius, who both of them
were praetors. Pompey's images that were thrown down, he set up
again, upon which Cicero also said that by raising Pompey's
statues he had fixed his own. When his friends advised him to
have a guard, and several offered their service, he would not
hear of it; but said it was better to suffer death once, than
always to live in fear of it. He looked upon the affections of
the people to be the best and surest guard, and entertained them
again with public feasting, and general distributions of corn;
and to gratify his army, he sent out colonies to several places,
of which the most remarkable were Carthage and Corinth; which as
before they had been ruined at the same time, so now were
restored and repeopled together.
As for the men of high rank, he promised to some of them future
consulships and praetorships, some he consoled with other
offices and honors, and to all held out hopes of favor by the
solicitude he showed to rule with the general good-will;
insomuch that upon the death of Maximus one day before his
consulship was ended, he made Caninius Revilius consul for that
day. And when many went to pay the usual compliments and
attentions to the new consul, "Let us make haste," said Cicero,
"lest the man be gone out of his office before we come."
Caesar was born to do great things, and had a passion after
honor, and the many noble exploits he had done did not now serve
as an inducement to him to sit still and reap the fruit of his
past labors, but were incentives and encouragments to go on, and
raised in him ideas of still greater actions, and a desire of
new glory, as if the present were all spent. It was in fact a
sort of emulous struggle with himself, as it had been with
another, how he might outdo his past actions by his future. In
pursuit of these thoughts, he resolved to make war upon the
Parthians, and when he had subdued them, to pass through
Hyrcania; thence to march along by the Caspian Sea to Mount
Caucasus, and so on about Pontus, till he came into Scythia;
then to overrun all the countries bordering upon Germany, and
Germany itself; and so to return through Gaul into Italy, after
completing the whole circle of his intended empire, and bounding
it on every side by the ocean. While preparations were making
for this expedition, he proposed to dig through the isthmus on
which Corinth stands; and appointed Anienus to superintend the
work. He had also a design of diverting the Tiber, and carrying
it by a deep channel directly from Rome to Circeii, and so into
the sea near Tarracina, that there might be a safe and easy
passage for all merchants who traded to Rome. Besides this, he
intended to drain all the marshes by Pomentium and Setia, and
gain ground enough from the water to employ many thousands of
men in tillage. He proposed further to make great mounds on the
shore nearest Rome, to hinder the sea from breaking in upon the
land, to clear the coast at Ostia of all the hidden rocks and
shoals that made it unsafe for shipping, and to form ports and
harbors fit to receive the large number of vessels that would
frequent them.
These things were designed without being carried into effect;
but his reformation of the calendar, in order to rectify the
irregularity of time, was not only projected with great
scientific ingenuity, but was brought to its completion, and
proved of very great use. For it was not only in ancient times
that the Romans had wanted a certain rule to make the
revolutions of their months fall in with the course of the year,
so that their festivals and solemn days for sacrifice were
removed by little and little, till at last they came to be kept
at seasons quite the contrary to what was at first intended, but
even at this time the people had no way of computing the solar
year; only the priests could say the time, and they, at their
pleasure, without giving any notice, slipped in the intercalary
month, which they called Mercedonius. Numa was the first who
put in this month, but his expedient was but a poor one and
quite inadequate to correct all the errors that arose in the
returns of the annual cycles, as we have shown in his life.
Caesar called in the best philosophers and mathematicians of his
time to settle the point, and out of the systems he had before
him, formed a new and more exact method of correcting the
calendar, which the Romans use to this day, and seem to succeed
better than any nation in avoiding the errors occasioned by the
inequality of the cycles. Yet even this gave offense to those
who looked with an evil eye on his position, and felt oppressed
by his power. Cicero, the orator, when someone in his company
chanced to say, the next morning Lyra would rise, replied, "Yes,
in accordance with the edict," as if even this were a matter of
compulsion.
But that which brought upon him the most apparent and mortal
hatred, was his desire of being king; which gave the common
people the first occasion to quarrel with him, and proved the
most specious pretense to those who had been his secret enemies
all along. Those, who would have procured him that title, gave
it out, that it was foretold in the Sybils' books that the
Romans should conquer the Parthians when they fought against
them under the conduct of a king, but not before. And one day,
as Caesar was coming down from Alba to Rome, some were so bold
as to salute him by the name of king; but he finding the people
disrelish it, seemed to resent it himself, and said his name was
Caesar, not king. Upon this, there was a general silence, and
he passed on looking not very well pleased or contented.
Another time, when the senate had conferred on him some
extravagant honors, he chanced to receive the message as he was
sitting on the rostra, where, though the consuls and praetors
themselves waited on him, attended by the whole body of the
senate, he did not rise, but behaved himself to them as if they
had been private men, and told them his honors wanted rather to
be retrenched than increased. This treatment offended not only
the senate, but the commonalty too, as if they thought the
affront upon the senate equally reflected upon the whole
republic; so that all who could decently leave him went off,
looking much discomposed. Caesar, perceiving the false step he
had made, immediately retired home; and laying his throat bare,
told his friends that he was ready to offer this to anyone who
would give the stroke. But afterwards he made the malady from
which he suffered, the excuse for his sitting, saying that those
who are attacked by it, lose their presence of mind, if they
talk much standing; that they presently grow giddy, fall into
convulsions, and quite lose their reason. But this was not the
reality, for he would willingly have stood up to the senate, had
not Cornelius Balbus, one of his friends, or rather flatterers,
hindered him. "Will you not remember," said he, "you are
Caesar, and claim the honor which is due to your merit?"
He gave a fresh occasion of resentment by his affront to the
tribunes. The Lupercalia were then celebrated, a feast at the
first institution belonging, as some writers say, to the
shepherds, and having some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea.
Many young noblemen and magistrates run up and down the city
with their upper garments off, striking all they meet with
thongs of hide, by way of sport; and many women, even of the
highest rank, place themselves in the way, and hold out their
hands to the lash, as boys in a school do to the master, out of
a belief that it procures an easy labor to those who are with
child, and makes those conceive who are barren. Caesar, dressed
in a triumphal robe, seated himself in a golden chair at the
rostra, to view this ceremony. Antony, as consul, was one of
those who ran this course, and when he came into the forum, and
the people made way for him, he went up and reached to Caesar a
diadem wreathed with laurel. Upon this, there was a shout, but
only a slight one, made by the few who were planted there for
that purpose; but when Caesar refused it, there was universal
applause. Upon the second offer, very few, and upon the second
refusal, all again applauded. Caesar finding it would not take,
rose up, and ordered the crown to be carried into the capitol.
Caesar's statues were afterwards found with royal diadems on
their heads. Flavius and Marullus, two tribunes of the people,
went presently and pulled them off, and having apprehended those
who first saluted Caesar as king, committed them to prison. The
people followed them with acclamations, and called them by the
name of Brutus, because Brutus was the first who ended the
succession of kings, and transferred the power which before was
lodged in one man into the hands of the senate and people.
Caesar so far resented this, that he displaced Marullus and
Flavius; and in urging his charges against them, at the same
time ridiculed the people, by himself giving the men more than
once the names of Bruti, and Cumaei.
This made the multitude turn their thoughts to Marcus Brutus,
who, by his father's side, was thought to be descended from that
first Brutus, and by his mother's side from the Servilii,
another noble family, being besides nephew and son-in-law to
Cato. But the honors and favors he had received from Caesar,
took off the edge from the desires he might himself have felt
for overthrowing the new monarchy. For he had not only been
pardoned himself after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalia, and had
procured the same grace for many of his friends, but was one in
whom Caesar had a particular confidence. He had at that time
the most honorable praetorship of the year, and was named for
the consulship four years after, being preferred before Cassius,
his competitor. Upon the question as to the choice, Caesar, it
is related, said that Cassius had the fairer pretensions, but
that he could not pass by Brutus. Nor would he afterwards
listen to some who spoke against Brutus, when the conspiracy
against him was already afoot, but laying his hand on his body,
said to the informers, "Brutus will wait for this skin of mine,"
intimating that he was worthy to bear rule on account of his
virtue, but would not be base and ungrateful to gain it. Those
who desired a change, and looked on him as the only, or at least
the most proper, person to effect it, did not venture to speak
with him; but in the night time laid papers about his chair of
state, where he used to sit and determine causes, with such
sentences in them as, "You are asleep, Brutus," "You are no
longer Brutus." Cassius, when he perceived his ambition a
little raised upon this, was more instant than before to work
him yet further, having himself a private grudge against Caesar,
for some reasons that we have mentioned in the Life of Brutus.
Nor was Caesar without suspicions of him, and said once to his
friends, "What do you think Cassius is aiming at? I don't like
him, he looks so pale." And when it was told him that Antony
and Dolabella were in a plot against him, he said he did not
fear such fat, luxurious men, but rather the pale, lean fellows,
meaning Cassius and Brutus.
Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than
unexpected. For many strange prodigies and apparitions are said
to have been observed shortly before the event. As to the
lights in the heavens, the noises heard in the night, and the
wild birds which perched in the forum, these are not perhaps
worth taking notice of in so great a case as this. Strabo, the
philosopher, tells us that a number of men were seen, looking as
if they were heated through with fire, contending with each
other; that a quantity of flame issued from the hand of a
soldier's servant, so that they who saw it thought he must be
burnt, but that after all he had no hurt. As Caesar was
sacrificing, the victim's heart was missing, a very bad omen,
because no living creature can subsist without a heart. One
finds it also related by many, that a soothsayer bade him
prepare for some great danger on the ides of March. When the
day was come, Caesar, as he went to the senate, met this
soothsayer, and said to him by way of raillery, "The ides of
March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come,
but they are not past." The day before this assassination, he
supped with Marcus Lepidus; and as he was signing some letters,
according to his custom, as he reclined at table, there arose a
question what sort of death was the best. At which he
immediately, before anyone could speak, said, "A sudden one."
After this, as he was in bed with his wife, all the doors and
windows of the house flew open together; he was startled at the
noise, and the light which broke into the room, and sat up in
his bed, where by the moonshine he perceived Calpurnia fast
asleep, but heard her utter in her dream some indistinct words
and inarticulate groans. She fancied at that time she was
weeping over Caesar, and holding him butchered in her arms.
Others say this was not her dream, but that she dreamed that a
pinnacle which the senate, as Livy relates, had ordered to be
raised on Caesar's house by way of ornament and grandeur, was
tumbling down, which was the occasion of her tears and
ejaculations. When it was day, she begged of Caesar, if it were
possible, not to stir out, but to adjourn the senate to another
time; and if he slighted her dreams, that he would be pleased to
consult his fate by sacrifices, and other kinds of divination.
Nor was he himself without some suspicion and fears; for he
never before discovered any womanish superstition in Calpurnia,
whom he now saw in such great alarm. Upon the report which the
priests made to him, that they had killed several sacrifices,
and still found them inauspicious, he resolved to send Antony to
dismiss the senate.
In this juncture, Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, one whom
Caesar had such confidence in that he made him his second heir,
who nevertheless was engaged in the conspiracy with the other
Brutus and Cassius, fearing lest if Caesar should put off the
senate to another day, the business might get wind, spoke
scoffingly and in mockery of the diviners, and blamed Caesar for
giving the senate so fair an occasion of saying he had put a
slight upon them, for that they were met upon his summons, and
were ready to vote unanimously, that he should be declared king
of all the provinces out of Italy, and might wear a diadem in
any other place but Italy, by sea or land. If anyone should be
sent to tell them they might break up for the present, and meet
again when Calpurnia should chance to have better dreams, what
would his enemies say? Or who would with any patience hear his
friends, if they should presume to defend his government as not
arbitrary and tyrannical? But if he was possessed so far as to
think this day unfortunate, yet it were more decent to go
himself to the senate, and to adjourn it in his own person.
Brutus, as he spoke these words, took Caesar by the hand, and
conducted him forth. He was not gone far from the door, when a
servant of some other person's made towards him, but not being
able to come up to him, on account of the crowd of those who
pressed about him, he made his way into the house, and committed
himself to Calpurnia, begging of her to secure him till Caesar
returned, because he had matters of great importance to
communicate to him.
Artemidorus, a Cnidian, a teacher of Greek logic, and by that
means so far acquainted with Brutus and his friends as to have
got into the secret, brought Caesar in a small written memorial,
the heads of what he had to depose. He had observed that
Caesar, as he received any papers, presently gave them to the
servants who attended on him; and therefore came as near to him
as he could, and said, "Read this, Caesar, alone, and quickly,
for it contains matter of great importance which nearly concerns
you." Caesar received it, and tried several times to read it,
but was still hindered by the crowd of those who came to speak
to him. However, he kept it in his hand by itself till he came
into the senate. Some say it was another who gave Caesar this
note, and that Artemidorus could not get to him, being all along
kept off by the crowd.
All these things might happen by chance. But the place which
was destined for the scene of this murder, in which the senate
met that day, was the same in which Pompey's statue stood, and
was one of the edifices which Pompey had raised and dedicated
with his theater to the use of the public, plainly showing that
there was something of a supernatural influence which guided the
action, and ordered it to that particular place. Cassius, just
before the act, is said to have looked towards Pompey's statue,
and silently implored his assistance, though he had been
inclined to the doctrines of Epicurus. But this occasion, and
the instant danger, carried him away out of all his reasonings,
and filled him for the time with a sort of inspiration. As for
Antony, who was firm to Caesar, and a strong man, Brutus Albinus
kept him outside the house, and delayed him with a long
conversation contrived on purpose. When Caesar entered, the
senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutus's
confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it,
others met him, pretending to add their petitions to those of
Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his brother, who was in exile; and
they followed him with their joint supplications till he came to
his seat. When he was sat down, he refused to comply with their
requests, and upon their urging him further, began to reproach
them severally for their importunities, when Tillius, laying
hold of his robe with both his hands, pulled it down from his
neck, which was the signal for the assault. Casca gave him the
first cut, in the neck, which was not mortal nor dangerous, as
coming from one who at the beginning of such a bold action was
probably very much disturbed. Caesar immediately turned about,
and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both
of them at the same time cried out, he that received the blow,
in Latin, "Vile Casca, what does this mean?" and he that gave
it, in Greek, to his brother, "Brother, help!" Upon this first
onset, those who were not privy to the design were astonished
and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great,
that they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak
a word. But those who came prepared for the business enclosed
him on every side, with their naked daggers in their hands.
Which way soever he turned, he met with blows, and saw their
swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was encompassed, like a
wild beast in the toils, on every side. For it had been agreed
they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh
themselves with his blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him
one stab in the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted all
the rest, shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out
for help, but that when he saw Brutus's sword drawn, he covered
his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall,
whether it were by chance, or that he was pushed in that
direction by his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which
Pompey's statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood.
So that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, over
the revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet,
and breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for
they say he received three and twenty. And the conspirators
themselves were many of them wounded by each other, whilst they
all leveled their blows at the same person.
When Caesar was dispatched, Brutus stood forth to give a reason
for what they had done, but the senate would not hear him, but
flew out of doors in all haste, and filled the people with so
much alarm and distraction, that some shut up their houses,
others left their counters and shops. All ran one way or the
other, some to the place to see the sad spectacle, others back
again after they had seen it. Antony and Lepidus, Caesar's
most faithful friends, got off privately, and hid themselves in
some friends' houses. Brutus and his followers, being yet hot
from the deed, marched in a body from the senate-house to the
capitol with their drawn swords, not like persons who thought of
escaping, but with an air of confidence and assurance, and as
they went along, called to the people to resume their liberty,
and invited the company of any more distinguished people whom
they met. And some of these joined the procession and went up
along with them, as if they also had been of the conspiracy, and
could claim a share in the honor of what had been done. As, for
example, Caius Octavius and Lentulus Spinther, who suffered
afterwards for their vanity, being taken off by Antony and the
young Caesar, and lost the honor they desired, as well as their
lives, which it cost them, since no one believed they had any
share in the action. For neither did those who punished them
profess to revenge the fact, but the ill-will. The day after,
Brutus with the rest came down from the capitol, and made a
speech to the people, who listened without expressing either any
pleasure or resentment, but showed by their silence that they
pitied Caesar, and respected Brutus. The senate passed acts of
oblivion for what was past, and took measures to reconcile all
parties. They ordered that Caesar should be worshipped as a
divinity, and nothing, even of the slightest consequence, should
be revoked, which he had enacted during his government. At the
same time they gave Brutus and his followers the command of
provinces, and other considerable posts. So that all people now
thought things were well settled, and brought to the happiest
adjustment.
But when Caesar's will was opened, and it was found that he had
left a considerable legacy to each one of the Roman citizens,
and when his body was seen carried through the market-place all
mangled with wounds, the multitude could no longer contain
themselves within the bounds of tranquillity and order, but
heaped together a pile of benches, bars, and tables, which they
placed the corpse on, and setting fire to it, burnt it on them.
Then they took brands from the pile, and ran some to fire the
houses of the conspirators, others up and down the city, to find
out the men and tear them to pieces, but met, however, with none
of them, they having taken effectual care to secure themselves.
One Cinna, a friend of Caesar's, chanced the night before to
have an odd dream. He fancied that Caesar invited him to
supper, and that upon his refusal to go with him, Caesar took
him by the hand and forced him, though he hung back. Upon
hearing the report that Caesar's body was burning in the
market-place, he got up and went thither, out of respect to his
memory, though his dream gave him some ill apprehensions, and
though he was suffering from a fever. One of the crowd who saw
him there, asked another who that was, and having learned his
name, told it to his next neighbor. It presently passed for a
certainty that he was one of Caesar's murderers, as, indeed,
there was another Cinna, a conspirator, and they, taking this to
be the man, immediately seized him, and tore him limb from limb
upon the spot.
Brutus and Cassius, frightened at this, within a few days
retired out of the city. What they afterwards did and suffered,
and how they died, is written in the Life of Brutus. Caesar
died in his fifty-sixth year, not having survived Pompey above
four years. That empire and power which he had pursued through
the whole course of his life with so much hazard, he did at last
with much difficulty compass, but reaped no other fruits from it
than the empty name and invidious glory. But the great genius
which attended him through his lifetime, even after his death
remained as the avenger of his murder, pursuing through every
sea and land all those who were concerned in it, and suffering
none to escape, but reaching all who in any sort or kind were
either actually engaged in the fact, or by their counsels any
way promoted it.
The most remarkable of mere human coincidences was that which
befell Cassius, who, when he was defeated at Philippi, killed
himself with the same dagger which he had made use of against
Caesar. The most signal preternatural appearances were the
great comet, which shone very bright for seven nights after
Caesar's death, and then disappeared, and the dimness of the
sun, whose orb continued pale and dull for the whole of that
year, never showing its ordinary radiance at its rising, and
giving but a weak and feeble heat. The air consequently was
damp and gross, for want of stronger rays to open and rarify it.
The fruits, for that reason, never properly ripened, and began
to wither and fall off for want of heat, before they were fully
formed. But above all, the phantom which appeared to Brutus
showed the murder was not pleasing to the gods. The story of it
is this.
Brutus being to pass his army from Abydos to the continent on
the other side, laid himself down one night, as he used to do,
in his tent, and was not asleep, but thinking of his affairs,
and what events he might expect. For he is related to have been
the least inclined to sleep of all men who have commanded
armies, and to have had the greatest natural capacity for
continuing awake, and employing himself without need of rest.
He thought he heard a noise at the door of his tent, and looking
that way, by the light of his lamp, which was almost out, saw a
terrible figure, like that of a man, but of unusual stature and
severe countenance. He was somewhat frightened at first, but
seeing it neither did nor spoke anything to him, only stood
silently by his bed-side, he asked who it was. The specter
answered him, "Thy evil genius, Brutus, thou shalt see me at
Philippi." Brutus answered courageously, "Well, I shall see
you," and immediately the appearance vanished. When the time
was come, he drew up his army near Philippi against Antony and
Caesar, and in the first battle won the day, routed the enemy,
and plundered Caesar's camp. The night before the second
battle, the same phantom appeared to him again, but spoke not a
word. He presently understood his destiny was at hand, and
exposed himself to all the danger of the battle. Yet he did not
die in the fight, but seeing his men defeated, got up to the top
of a rock, and there presenting his sword to his naked breast,
and assisted, as they say, by a friend, who helped him to give
the thrust, met his death.