A Smaller History of Rome Part 18

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ruins on the Esquiline.]

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

INTERNAL HISTORY, FROM THE RETURN OF CICERO FROM BANISHMENT TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.--EXPEDITION AND DEATH OF CRa.s.sUS. B.C.

57-50.

Cicero returned from banishment an altered man. Though his return had been glorious, he saw that his position was entirely changed, and he was forced to yield to a power which he no longer dared to resist. He even lent his support to the Triumvirs, and praised in public those proceedings which he had once openly and loudly condemned. Meantime the power of Pompey had been shaken at Rome. A misunderstanding had sprung up between him and Cra.s.sus, and Cato and the other leaders of the aristocracy attacked him with the utmost vehemence. The Senate began to entertain hopes of recovering their power. They determined to support L.

Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, who, in B.C. 56, had become a candidate for the Consulship for the following year, and who threatened to deprive Caesar of his provinces and armies. Under these circ.u.mstances Caesar invited Pompey and Cra.s.sus to meet him at Luca (_Lucca_) in the spring of B.C.

56. He reconciled them to each other, and arranged that they were to be Consuls for the next year, and obtain provinces and armies, while he himself was to have his government prolonged for another five years, and to receive pay for his troops. On their return to Rome, Pompey and Cra.s.sus became candidates for the Consulship; but Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, supported by Cato and the aristocracy, offered a most determined opposition. The Consul Lentulus Marcellinus likewise was resolved to use every means to prevent their election; and, finding it impossible to carry their election while Marcellinus was in office, they availed themselves of the veto of two of the Tribunes to prevent the Consular Comitia from being held this year. The elections, therefore, did not take place till the beginning of B.C. 55, under the presidency of an interrex. Even then Ahen.o.barbus and Cato did not relax in their opposition; and it was not till the armed bands of Pompey and Cra.s.sus had cleared the Campus Martius of their adversaries that they were declared Consuls for the second time (B.C. 55).

They forthwith proceeded to carry into effect the compact that had been made at Luca. They induced the Tribune C. Trebonius to bring forward two bills, one of which gave the province of the two Spains to Pompey, and that of Syria to Cra.s.sus; the other prolonged Caesar's government for five years more, namely, from the 1st of January, B.C. 53, to the end of the year 49. Pompey was now at the head of the state; and at the expiration of his year of office would no longer be a private man, but with the command of an army and in possession of the imperium. With an army he felt sure of regaining his former influence. He had now completed the theatre which he had been some time building, and, as a means of regaining the popular favor, he resolved to open it with an exhibition of games of unparalleled splendor and magnificence. The building itself was worthy of the conqueror of the East. It was the first stone theatre that had been erected at Rome, and was sufficiently large to accommodate 40,000 spectators. The games exhibited lasted many days. Five hundred African lions and eighteen elephants were killed. A rhinoceros was likewise exhibited on this occasion for the first time.

Pompey sent an army into Spain under the command of his lieutenants, L.

Afranius and M. Petreius, while he himself remained in the neighborhood of Rome as Proconsul.

Before the end of the year Cra.s.sus set out for Syria, with the intention of attacking the Parthians. He was anxious to distinguish himself in war, like Pompey and Caesar, and, though upward of sixty years of age, he chose rather to enter upon an undertaking for which he had no genius than to continue the pursuit of wealth and influence at home. He crossed the Euphrates in B.C. 54, but, hesitating to proceed at once against Parthia, he gave the enemy time to a.s.semble his forces, and returned to Syria without accomplishing any thing of importance. He spent the winter in Syria, where, instead of exercising his troops and preparing for the ensuing campaign, he plundered the temples, and employed his time in collecting money from every quarter. In the following spring (B.C. 53) he again crossed the Euphrates, and plunged into the sandy deserts of Mesopotamia. He trusted to the guidance of an Arabian chieftain, who promised to lead him by the shortest way to the enemy. But this man was in the pay of Surenas, the Parthian general; and when he had brought the Romans into the open plains of Mesopotamia, he seized a frivolous pretext, and rode off to inform Surenas that the Roman army was delivered into his hands. The Parthians soon appeared. They worried the densely-marshaled Romans with showers of arrows; and by feigned retreats, during which they continued to discharge their arrows, they led the Romans into disadvantageous positions. The son of Cra.s.sus, who had distinguished himself as one of Caesar's lieutenants in Gaul, was slain, and the Romans, after suffering great loss, retreated to Carrhae, the Haran of Scripture. On the following day they continued their retreat; and Surenas, fearing that Cra.s.sus might after all make his escape, invited him to an interview. He was treacherously seized, and, in the scuffle which ensued, was slain by some unknown hand. His head was carried to the Parthian king Orodes, who caused melted gold to be poured into the mouth, saying, "Sate thyself now with that metal of which in life thou wert so greedy." Twenty thousand Roman troops were slain, and ten thousand taken prisoners, in this expedition, one of the most disastrous in which the Romans were ever engaged. Only a small portion of the Roman army escaped to Syria under the command of L.

Ca.s.sius Longinus, afterward one of Caesar's a.s.sa.s.sins, who had displayed considerable ability during the war, but whose advice Cra.s.sus had constantly refused to follow.

The death of Cra.s.sus left Pompey and Caesar alone at the head of the state, and it became evident that sooner or later a struggle would take place between them for the supremacy. The death of Julia, in B.C. 54, to whom both her father and husband were strongly attached, broke a link which might have united them much longer. Pompey considered that he had been the chief means of raising Caesar to power, and he appeared long to have deemed it impossible that the conqueror of Mithridates could be thrown into the shade by any popular leader. Such a result, however, was now imminent. Caesar's brilliant victories in Gaul were in every body's mouth, and Pompey saw with ill-disguised mortification that he was becoming the second person in the state. Though this did not lead him to break with Caesar at once, it made him anxious to increase his power and influence, and he therefore now resolved, if possible, to obtain the Dictatorship. He accordingly used no effort to put an end to the disturbances at Rome between Milo and Clodius in this year, in hopes that all parties would be willing to accede to his wishes in order to restore peace to the city. Milo was a candidate for the Consulship and Clodius for the Praetorship. Each was attended by a band of hired ruffians; battles took place between them daily in the Forum and the streets; all order and government were at an end. In such a state of things no elections could be held, and the confusion at length became downright anarchy, when Milo murdered Clodius on the 20th of January in the following year (B.C. 52). The two rivals had met near Bovillae, accompanied, as usual, by their armed followers. A fray ensued. The party of Milo proved the stronger, and Clodius took refuge in a house.

But Milo attacked the house, dragged out Clodius, and having dispatched him, left him dead upon the road. His body was found by a Senator, carried to Rome, and exposed naked to the people. They were violently excited at the sight, and their feelings were still farther inflamed by the harangues of the Tribunes. The benches and tables of the Senate-house were seized to make a funeral pile for their favorite; and not only the Senate-house, but several other public buildings, were reduced to ashes. As the riots still continued, the Senate had no longer any choice but to call in the a.s.sistance of Pompey. They therefore commissioned him to collect troops and put an end to the disturbances.

Pompey, who had obtained the great object of his desires, obeyed with alacrity; he was invested with the supreme power of the state by being elected sole Consul on the 25th of February; and, in order to deliver the city from Milo and his myrmidons, he brought forward laws against violence and bribery at elections. Milo was put upon his trial; the court was surrounded with soldiers; Cicero, who defended him, was intimidated, and Milo was condemned, and went into exile at Ma.s.silia.[67] Others shared the same fate, and peace was once more restored to the state.

Pompey's jealousy of Caesar brought him into connection with the aristocratical party. After Julia's death he had married Cornelia, the daughter of Metellus Scipio, whom he made his colleague on the first of August. His next step was to strike a blow at Caesar. He brought forward an old law that no one should become a candidate for a public office while absent, in order that Caesar might be obliged to resign his command, and to place himself in the power of his enemies at Rome, if he wished to obtain the Consulship a second time.[68] But the renewal of this enactment was so manifestly aimed at Caesar that his friends insisted he should be specially exempted from it; and as Pompey was not yet prepared to break openly with him, he thought it more expedient to yield. At the same time, Pompey provided that he himself should remain in command of an army after his rival had ceased to have one, by obtaining a senatus consultum, by which his government of the Spains was prolonged for another five years. And, in case Caesar should obtain the Consulship, he caused a law to be enacted, in virtue of which no one could have a province till five years had elapsed from the time of his holding a public office. Such were the precautions adopted against Caesar, the uselessness of which time soon showed.

In the following year (B.C. 51) Pompey declared himself still more openly on the side of the Senate; but still he shrank from supporting all the violent measures of the Consul M. Claudius Marcellus, who proposed to send a successor to Caesar, on the plea that the war in Gaul was finished, and to deprive him of the privilege of becoming a candidate for the Consulship in his absence. The Consuls for the next year (B.C. 50), L. aemilius Paullus and C. Claudius Marcellus, and the powerful Tribune C. Curio, were all reckoned devoted partisans of Pompey and the Senate. Caesar, however, gained over Paullus and Curio by large bribes, and with a lavish hand distributed immense sums of money among the leading men of Rome. It was proposed in the Senate by the Consul C.

Marcellus that Caesar should lay down his command by the 13th of November. But this was an unreasonable demand; Caesar's government had upward of another year to run; and if he had come to Rome as a private man to sue for the Consulship, there can be no doubt that his life would have been sacrificed. Cato had declared that he would bring Caesar to trial as soon as he laid down his command; but the trial would have been only a mockery, for Pompey was in the neighborhood of the city at the head of an army, and would have overawed the judges by his soldiery as at Milo's trial. The Tribune Curio consequently interposed his veto upon the proposition of Marcellus. The Senate, anxious to diminish the number of his troops, had, under pretext of a war with the Parthians, ordered that Pompey and Caesar should each furnish a legion to be sent into the East. The legion which Pompey intended to devote to this service was one he had lent to Caesar in B.C. 53, and which he now accordingly demanded back; and, although Caesar saw that he should thus be deprived of two legions, which would probably be employed against himself, he complied with the request. Upon their arrival in Italy, they were not sent to the East, but were ordered to pa.s.s the winter at Capua.

Caesar took up his quarters at Ravenna, the last town in his province bordering upon Italy.

Though war seemed inevitable, Caesar still showed himself willing to enter into negotiations with the aristocracy, and accordingly sent Curio with a letter addressed to the Senate, in which he expressed his readiness to resign his command if Pompey would do the same. Curio arrived at Rome on the 1st of January, B.C. 49, the day on which the new Consuls, L. Cornelius Lentulus and C. Claudius Marcellus, entered upon their office. It was with great difficulty that the Tribunes, M.

Antonius, afterward the well-known Triumvir, and Q. Ca.s.sius Longinus, forced the Senate to allow the letter to be read. After a violent debate, the motion of Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, was carried, "that Caesar should disband his army by a certain day, and that if he did not do so he should be regarded as an enemy of the state." On the 6th of January the Senate pa.s.sed the decree investing the Consuls with dictatorial power. Antonius and Ca.s.sius, considering their lives no longer safe, fled from the city in disguise to Caesar's army, and called upon him to protect the inviolable persons of the Tribunes. This was the crisis. The Senate intrusted the management of the war to Pompey, determined that fresh levies of troops should be held, and voted a sum of money from the public treasury to Pompey. Pompey all along had no apprehensions as to the war; he thought it impossible that Caesar should ever march against him; he was convinced that his great fame would cause a mult.i.tude of troops to flock around him whenever he wished. In addition to this, he had been deceived as to the disposition of Caesar's troops: he had been led to believe that they were ready to desert their general at the first opportunity. Consequently, when the war broke out, Pompey had scarcely any troops except the two legions which he had obtained from Caesar, and on the fidelity of which he could by no means rely.

[Footnote 67: Cicero sent to Milo at Ma.s.silia the oration which he meant to have delivered, the one which we still have. Milo, after reading it, remarked, "I am glad it was not delivered, for I should then have been acquitted, and never have known the delicate flavor of these Ma.s.silian mullets."]

[Footnote 68: Caesar's government would expire at the end of B.C. 49, and he had therefore determined to obtain the Consulship for B.C. 48, since otherwise he would become a private person.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marcus Brutus.]

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR TO CaeSAR'S DEATH. B.C. 49-44.

As soon as Caesar learned at Ravenna the last resolution of the Senate, he a.s.sembled his soldiers, informed them of the wrongs he had sustained, and called upon them to support him. Finding them quite willing to support him, he crossed the Rubicon,[69] which separated his province from Italy, and occupied Ariminum, where he met with the Tribunes. He commenced his enterprise with only one legion, consisting of 5000 foot-soldiers and 300 horse; but others had orders to follow him from Transalpine Gaul, and he was well aware of the importance of expedition, that the enemy might have no time to complete their preparations. Though it was the middle of winter, he pushed on with the utmost rapidity, and such was the popularity of his cause in Italy, that city after city opened its gates to him, and his march was like a triumphal progress.

Arretium, Pisaurum, Fanum, Ancona, Iguvium, and Auximum fell into his hands. These successes caused the utmost consternation at Rome; it was reported that Caesar's cavalry were already at the gates; a general panic seized the Senate, and they fled from the city without even taking with them the money from the public treasury. Caesar continued his victorious march through Picenum till he came to Corfinium, which M. Domitius Ahen.o.barbus held with a strong force; but, as Pompey did not march to his a.s.sistance, Domitius was unable to maintain the place, and fell himself into Caesar's hands, together with several other Senators and distinguished men. Caesar, with the same clemency which he displayed throughout the whole of the Civil War, dismissed them all uninjured. He then hastened southward in pursuit of Pompey, who had now resolved to abandon Italy. He reached Brundusium before Caesar, but had not sailed when the latter arrived before the town. Caesar straightway laid siege to the place, but Pompey abandoned it on the 17th of March, and embarked for Greece. Caesar was unable to follow him for want of ships. He accordingly marched back from Brundusium, and repaired to Rome, having thus in three months become the master of the whole of Italy.

The only opposition which Caesar met with in Rome was from L. Metellus the Tribune, who attempted to prevent him from entering the public treasury, though the people had given him permission to take from it as much money as he pleased. "Stand aside, young man," said Caesar; "it is easier for me to do than to say." After remaining in the neighborhood of Rome for a short time, he set out for Spain, leaving M. Lepidus in charge of the city, and M. Antonius in command of the troops in Italy.

He sent Curio to drive Cato out of Sicily, Q. Valerius to take possession of Sardinia, and C. Antonius to occupy Illyric.u.m. Curio and Valerius obtained possession of Sicily and Sardinia without opposition; and the former then pa.s.sed over into Africa, which was in possession of the Pompeian party. Here, however, he encountered strong opposition, and at length was defeated, and lost his life in a battle with Juba, king of Mauretania, who supported P. Atius Varus, the Pompeian commander. C.

Antonius also met with ill success in Illyric.u.m, for his army was defeated, and he himself taken prisoner. These disasters were more than counterbalanced by Caesar's victories in the mean time in Spain. Leaving Rome about the middle of April, he found, on his arrival in Gaul, that Ma.s.silia refused to submit to him. He besieged the place forthwith, but, unable to take it immediately, he left C. Trebonius and D. Brutus, with part of his troops, to prosecute the siege, and continued his march to Spain. On the approach of Caesar, L. Afranius and M. Petreius, the lieutenants of Pompey in Spain, united their forces, and took up a strong position near the town of Ilerda (_Lerida_, in Catalonia), on the right bank of the Sicoris (_Segre_). After experiencing great difficulties at first and some reverses, Caesar at length reduced Afranius and Petreius to such straits that they were obliged to surrender. They themselves were dismissed uninjured, part of their troops disbanded, and the remainder incorporated among Caesar's troops.

The conqueror then proceeded to march against Varro, who commanded two legions in the Farther Province; but, after the victory over Afranius and Petreius, there was no army in Spain capable of offering resistance, and Varro accordingly surrendered to Caesar on his arrival at Corduba (_Cordova_). Having thus subdued all Spain in forty days, he returned to Gaul. Ma.s.silia had not yet yielded; but the siege had been prosecuted with so much vigor, that the inhabitants were compelled to surrender the town soon after he appeared before the walls.

During his absence in Spain Caesar was appointed Dictator by the Praetor M. Lepidus, who had been empowered to do so by a law pa.s.sed for the purpose. On his return to Rome Caesar a.s.sumed the new dignity, but laid it down again at the end of eleven days, after holding the Consular Comitia, in which he himself and P. Servilius Vatia were elected Consuls for the next year. But during these eleven days he caused some very important laws to be pa.s.sed. The first was intended to relieve debtors, but at the same time to protect, to a great extent, the rights of creditors. He next restored all exiles; and, finally, he conferred the full citizenship upon the Transpadani, who had hitherto held only the Latin franchise.

After laying down the Dictatorship, Caesar went in December to Brundusium, where he had previously ordered his troops to a.s.semble. He had lost many men in the long march from Spain, and also from sickness arising from their pa.s.sing the autumn in the south of Italy. Pompey during the summer had raised a large force in Greece, Egypt, and the East, the scene of his former glory. He had collected an army consisting of nine legions of Roman citizens, and an auxiliary force of cavalry and infantry; and his forces far surpa.s.sed in number those which Caesar had a.s.sembled at Brundusium. Moreover, Pompey's fleet, under the command of Bibulus, Caesar's colleague in his first Consulship, completely commanded the sea. Still Caesar ventured to set sail from Brundusium on the 4th of January, and he arrived the next day in safety on the coast of Epirus.

In consequence, however, of the small number of his ships, he was able to carry over only seven legions, which, from the causes previously mentioned, had been so thinned as to amount only to 15,000 foot and 500 horse. After landing this force he sent back his ships to bring over the remainder; but part of the fleet was intercepted in its return by M.

Bibulus, who kept up such a strict watch along the coast that the rest of Caesar's army was obliged for the present to remain at Brundusium.

Caesar was thus in a critical position, in the midst of the enemy's country, and cut off from the rest of his army; but he knew that he could thoroughly rely on his men, and therefore immediately commenced acting on the offensive. After gaining possession of Oric.u.m and Apollonia, he hastened northward, in hopes of surprising Dyrrhachium, where all Pompey's stores were deposited; but Pompey, by rapid marches, reached this town before him, and both armies then encamped opposite to each other, Pompey on the right, and Caesar on the left bank of the River Apsus. Caesar was now greatly in want of re-enforcements, and such was his impatience that he attempted to sail across the Adriatic in a small boat. The waves ran so high that the sailors wanted to turn back, till Caesar discovered himself, telling them that they earned Caesar and his fortunes. They then toiled on, but the storm at length compelled them to return, and with difficulty they reached again the coast of Greece.

Shortly afterward M. Antonius succeeded in bringing over the remainder of the army. Pompey meantime had retired to some high ground near Dyrrhachium, and, as he would not venture a battle with Caesar's veterans, Caesar began to blockade him in his position, and to draw lines of circ.u.mvallation of an extraordinary extent. They were nearly completed when Pompey forced a pa.s.sage through them, and drove back Caesar's legions with considerable loss. Caesar thus found himself compelled to retreat from his present position, and accordingly commenced his march for Thessaly. Pompey's policy of avoiding a general engagement with Caesar's veterans till he could place more reliance upon his own troops was undoubtedly a wise one, and had been hitherto crowned with success; but he was prevented from carrying out the prudent plan which he had formed for conducting the campaign. His camp was filled with a mult.i.tude of Roman n.o.bles, unacquainted with war, and anxious to return to their estates in Italy and to the luxuries of the capital. His unwillingness to fight was set down to love of power and anxiety to keep the Senate in subjection. Stung with the reproaches with which he was a.s.sailed, and elated in some degree by his victory at Dyrrhachium, he resolved to bring the contest to an issue. Accordingly, he offered battle to Caesar in the plain of Pharsalus, or Pharsalia, in Thessaly.

The numbers on either side were very unequal: Pompey had 45,000 foot-soldiers and 7000 horse, Caesar 22,000 foot-soldiers and 1000 horse.

The battle, which was fought on the 9th of August, B.C. 48, according to the old calendar,[70] ended in the total defeat of Pompey's army.

The battle of Pharsalia decided the fate of Pompey and the Republic.

Pompey was at once driven to despair. He made no attempt to rally his forces, though he might still have collected a considerable army; but, regarding every thing as lost, he hurried to the sea-coast with a few friends. He embarked on board a merchant-ship at the mouth of the River Peneus, and first sailed to Lesbos, where he took on board his wife Cornelia, and from thence made for Cyprus. He now determined to seek refuge in Egypt, as he had been the means of restoring to his kingdom Ptolemy Auletes, the father of the young Egyptian monarch. On his death in B.C. 51 Ptolemy Auletes had left directions that his son should reign jointly with his elder sister Cleopatra. But their joint reign did not last long, for Ptolemy, or, rather, Pothinus and Achillas, his chief advisers, expelled his sister from the throne. Cleopatra collected a force in Syria, with which she invaded Egypt. The generals of Ptolemy were encamped opposite her, near Alexandria, when Pompey arrived off the coast and craved the protection of the young king. This request threw Pothinus and Achillas into great difficulty, for there were many of Pompey's old soldiers in the Egyptian army, and they feared he would become master of Egypt. They therefore determined to put him to death.

Accordingly, they sent out a small boat, took Pompey on board with three or four attendants, and rowed for the sh.o.r.e. His wife and friends watched him from the ship, anxious to see in what manner he would be received by the king, who was standing on the edge of the sea with his troops. Just as the boat reached the sh.o.r.e, and Pompey was in the act of rising from his seat in order to step on land, he was stabbed in the back by Septimius, who had formerly been one of his centurions. Achillas and the rest then drew their swords; whereupon Pompey, without uttering a word, covered his face with his toga, and calmly submitted to his fate. He had just completed his 58th year. His head was cut off, and his body, which was cast naked upon the sh.o.r.e, was buried by his freedman Philippus, who had accompanied him from the ship. The head was brought to Caesar when he arrived in Egypt soon afterward, but he turned away from the sight, shed tears at the untimely end of his rival, and put his murderers to death.

When news of the battle of Pharsalia reached Rome, various laws were pa.s.sed which conferred supreme power upon Caesar. Though absent, he was nominated Dictator a second time, and for a whole year. He appointed M.

Antonius his master of the Horse; and entered upon the office in September of this year (B.C. 48). He was also nominated to the Consulship for the next five years, though he did not avail himself of this privilege; and he was invested with the tribunicial power for life.

Caesar went to Egypt in pursuit of Pompey, and upon his arrival there he became involved in a war, which detained him several months, and gave the remains of the Pompeian party time to rally and to make fresh preparations for continuing the struggle. The war in Egypt, usually called the Alexandrine War, arose from Caesar's resolving to settle the disputes respecting the succession to the kingdom. He determined that Cleopatra, whose fascinations completely won his heart, and her brother Ptolemy, should reign in common, according to the provisions of their father's will; but as this decision was opposed by the guardians of the young king, a war broke out between them and Caesar, in which he was for some time exposed to great danger on account of the small number of his troops. But, having received re-enforcements, he finally prevailed, and placed Cleopatra and her younger brother on the throne, the elder having perished in the course of the contest. Cleopatra afterward joined Caesar at Rome, and bore him a son named Caesarion.

After bringing the Alexandrine War to a close, toward the end of March, B.C. 47, Caesar marched through Syria into Pontus in order to attack Pharnaces, the son of the celebrated Mithridates, who had defeated Cn.

Domitius Calvinus, one of Caesar's lieutenants. This war, however, did not detain him long; for Pharnaces, venturing to come to an open battle with the Dictator, was utterly defeated on the 2d of August near Zela.

It was in reference to this victory that Caesar sent the celebrated laconic dispatch to the Senate, _Veni, vidi, vici_, "I came, I saw, I conquered." He then proceeded to Rome, caused himself to be appointed Dictator for another year, and nominated M. aemilius Lepidus his Master of the Horse. At the same time he quelled a formidable mutiny of his troops which had broken out in Campania.

Caesar did not remain in Rome more than two or three months. With his usual activity and energy he set out to Africa before the end of the year (B.C. 47), in order to carry on the war against Scipio and Cato, who had collected a large army in that country. Their forces were far greater than those which Caesar could bring against them; but he had too much reliance on his own genius to be alarmed by mere disparity of numbers. At first he was in considerable difficulties; but, having been joined by some of his other legions, he was able to prosecute the campaign with more vigor, and finally brought it to a close by the battle of Thapsus, on the 6th of April, B.C. 46, in which the Pompeian army was completely defeated. All Africa now submitted to Caesar with the exception of Utica, which Cato commanded. The inhabitants saw that resistance was hopeless; and Cato, who was a sincere Republican, resolved to die rather than submit to Caesar's despotism. After spending the greater part of the night in perusing Plato's _Phaedo_, a dialogue on the immortality of the soul, he stabbed himself. His friends, hearing him fall, ran up, found him bathed in blood, and, while he was fainting, dressed his wounds. When, however, he recovered feeling, he tore off the bandages, and so died.

Caesar returned to Rome by the end of July. He was now undisputed master of the Roman world. Great apprehensions were entertained by his enemies lest, notwithstanding his former clemency, he should imitate Marius and Sulla, and proscribe all his opponents. But these fears were perfectly groundless. A love of cruelty was no part of Caesar's nature; and, with a magnanimity which victors rarely show, and least of all those in civil wars, he freely forgave all who had borne arms against him, and declared that he should make no difference between Pompeians and Caesarians. His object was now to allay animosities, and to secure the lives and property of all the citizens of his empire. As soon as the news of his African victory reached Rome a public thanksgiving of forty days was decreed in his honor; the Dictatorship was bestowed upon him for ten years; and the Censorship, under the new t.i.tle of "Praefectus Morum," for three years. Caesar had never yet enjoyed a triumph; and, as he had now no farther enemies to meet, he availed himself of the opportunity of celebrating his victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa, by four magnificent triumphs. None of these, however, were in honor of his successes in the civil war; and consequently his African triumph was to commemorate his victory over Juba, and not over Scipio and Cato. These triumphs were followed by largesses of corn and money to the people and the soldiers, by public banquets, and all sorts of entertainments.

Caesar now proceeded to correct the various evils which had crept into the state, and to obtain the enactment of several laws suitable to the altered condition of the commonwealth. He attempted, by severe sumptuary laws, to restrain the extravagance which pervaded all cla.s.ses of society. But the most important of his changes this year (B.C. 40) was the reformation of the Calendar, which was a real benefit to his country and the civilized world, and which he accomplished in his character as Pontifex Maximus. The regulation of the Roman calendar had always been intrusted to the College of Pontiffs, who had been accustomed to lengthen or shorten the year at their pleasure for political purposes; and the confusion had at length become so great that the Roman year was three months behind the real time. To remedy this serious evil, Caesar added 90 days to the current year, and thus made it consist of 445 days; and he guarded against a repet.i.tion of similar errors for the future by adapting the year to the sun's course.

In the midst of these labors Caesar was interrupted by intelligence of a formidable insurrection which had broken out in Spain, where the remains of the Pompeian party had again collected a large army under the command of Pompey's sons, Cneius and s.e.xtus. Caesar set out for Spain at the end of B.C. 46. With his usual activity he arrived at Obulco, near Corduba, in 27 days from the time of his leaving Rome. He found the enemy able to offer stronger opposition than he had antic.i.p.ated; but he brought the war to a close by the battle of Munda, on the 17th of March, B.C. 46, in which he entirely defeated the enemy. It was, however, a hard-fought battle: Caesar's troops were at first driven back, and were only rallied by their general's exposing his own person, like a common soldier, in the front line of the battle. Cn. Pompeius was killed shortly afterward, but s.e.xtus made good his escape. The settlement of the affairs in Spain detained Caesar in the province some months longer, and he consequently did not reach Rome till September. At the beginning of October he entered the city in triumph on account of his victories in Spain, although the victory had been gained over Roman citizens. The Senate received him with the most servile flattery. They had in his absence voted a public thanksgiving of fifty days, and they now vied with each other in paying him every kind of adulation and homage. He was to wear, on all public occasions, the triumphal robe; he was to receive the t.i.tle of "Father of his Country;" statues of him were to be placed in all the temples; his portrait was to be struck on coins; the month of Quintilis was to receive the name of Julius in his honor, and he was to be raised to a rank among the G.o.ds. But there were still more important decrees than these, which were intended to legalize his power, and confer upon him the whole government of the Roman world. He received the t.i.tle of Imperator for life; he was nominated Consul for the next ten years, and both Dictator and Praefectus Morum for life; his person was declared sacred; a guard of Senators and Knights was appointed to protect him, and the whole Senate took an oath to watch over his safety.

If we now look at the way in which Caesar exerted his sovereign power, it can not be denied that he used it in the main for the good of his country. He still pursued his former merciful course: no proscriptions or executions took place; and he began to revolve vast schemes for the benefit of the Roman world. At the same time he was obliged to reward his followers, and for that reason he greatly increased the number of senators and magistrates, so that there were 16 Praetors, 40 Quaestors, and 6 aediles, and new members were added to the priestly colleges. Among other plans of internal improvement, he proposed to frame a digest of all the Roman laws, to establish public libraries, to drain the Pomptine marshes, to enlarge the harbor of Ostia and to dig a ca.n.a.l through the isthmus of Corinth. To protect the boundaries of the Roman Empire, he meditated expeditions against the Parthians and the barbarous tribes on the Danube, and had already begun to make preparations for his departure to the East. In the midst of these vast projects he entered upon the last year of his life, B.C. 44, and his fifth Consulship and Dictatorship. He had made M. Antonius his colleague in the Consulship, and M. Lepidus the Master of the Horse. He had for some time past resolved to preserve the supreme power in his family; and, as he had no legitimate children, he had fixed upon his great-nephew Octavius (afterward the Emperor Augustus) as his successor. Possessing royal power, he now wished to obtain the t.i.tle of king, and accordingly prevailed upon his colleague Antonius to offer him the diadem in public on the festival of the Lupercalia (the 15th of February). But the very name of king had long been hateful at Rome; and the people displayed such an evident dislike to the proposal that it was dropped for the present.

The conspiracy against Caesar's life had been formed as early as the beginning of the year. It had been set on foot by C. Ca.s.sius Longinus, a personal enemy of Caesar's, and more than sixty persons were privy to it.

Private hatred alone seems to have been the motive of Ca.s.sius, and probably of several others. Many of them had taken an active part in the war against Caesar, and had not only been forgiven by him, but raised to offices of rank and honor. Among others was M. Junius Brutus, who had been pardoned by Caesar after the battle of Pharsalia, and had since been treated almost as his son. In this very year Caesar had made him Praetor, and held out to him the prospect of the Consulship. Brutus, like Cato, seems to have been a sincere Republican, and Ca.s.sius persuaded him to join the conspiracy, and imitate his great ancestor who freed them from the Tarquins. It was now arranged to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Dictator in the Senate-house on the Ides or 15th of March. Rumors of the plot got abroad, and Caesar was strongly urged not to attend the Senate. But he disregarded the warnings which were given him. As he entered, the Senate rose to do him honor; and when he had taken his seat, the conspirators pressed around him as if to support the prayer of Tillius Cimber, who entreated the Dictator to recall his brother from banishment. When Caesar began to show displeasure at their importunity, Tillius seized him by his toga, which was the signal for attack. Casca struck the first blow, and the other conspirators bared their weapons. Caesar defended himself till he saw Brutus had drawn his sword, and then exclaiming, "And thou, too, Brutus!" he drew his toga over his head, and fell pierced with three-and-twenty wounds at the foot of Pompey's statue.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin of Julius Caesar.]

Caesar's death was undoubtedly a loss not only to the Roman people, but the whole civilized world. The Republic was utterly lost. The Roman world was now called to go through many years of disorder and bloodshed, till it rested again under the supremacy of Augustus. The last days of the Republic had come, and its only hope of peace and security was under the strong hand of military power.

Caesar was in his 56th year at the time of his death. His personal appearance was n.o.ble and commanding; he was tall in stature, of a fair complexion, and with black eyes full of expression. He never wore a beard, and in the latter part of his life his head was bald. His const.i.tution was originally delicate, and he was twice attacked by epilepsy while transacting public business; but, by constant exercise and abstemious living, he had acquired strong and vigorous health, and could endure almost any amount of exertion. He took pains with his person, and was considered to be effeminate in his dress.

Caesar was probably the greatest man of antiquity. He was at one and the same time a general, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, a historian, a philologer, a mathematician, and an architect. He was equally fitted to excel in every thing, and has given proofs that he would have surpa.s.sed almost all other men in any subject to which he devoted the energies of his extraordinary mind. One fact places his genius for war in a most striking light. Till his 40th year, when he went as Propraetor into Spain, he had been almost entirely engaged in civil life and his military experience must have been of the most limited kind. Most of the greatest generals in the history of the world have been distinguished at an early age: Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Frederick of Prussia, and Napoleon Bonaparte, gained some of their most brilliant victories under the age of 30; but Caesar, from the age of 23 to 40, had seen nothing of war, and, notwithstanding, appears all at once as one of the greatest generals that the world has ever seen.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Statue of a Roman, representing the Toga.]